THE HISTORIA MINOR AND THE HISTORIA MAJOR, FROM THE WELLS LIBER ALBUS II.

THREE ancient narratives recount the history of the bishops of Wells, of Bath, and of Bath and Wells. The earliest is found in a Bath chartulary, now preserved in the library of Lincoln's Inn the other two are in the great Wells register called the Liber Albus II (ff. 297-302). These last were known to Wharton, who in 1691 printed the greater part of them in his Anglia Sacra (I 553 ff). But Wharton, observing that one of them partly depended on the other, unfortunately chose to combine them into a single narrative, thus making it impossible to tell how far the tradition had been modified during the forty years which lay between them. The former he had called Historia Minor, the latter Historia Major. Accordingly when Joseph Hunter found the yet earlier narrative in the Bath chartulary, and printed it for the Camden Society in 1840 (Ecclesiastical Documents, No. I), he gave it to the world under the name of Historiola.

As the Historiola has been used by the writer of the Historia Minor, and this in its turn by the writer of the Historia Major, it is necessary for critical purposes that the two latter narratives should be printed in full. The Historiola ends with the consecration of Bishop Reginald in 1174, and was probably written soon after that date. The Historia Minor ends with the accession of Bishop Harewell in 1367; and the Historia Major with Bishop Bubwith's translation to

Wells in 1408. A brief account of each of the three narratives is added here.

I. The Historiola opens with a fanciful legend of King Ina, which is absurdly at variance with the facts of history. The bishop who celebrates his marriage at Cideston (or Wells),1 and obtains permission to remove his see from Congresbury to Wells, is also a pure figment of the imagination. His name of Daniel may have been suggested by the historical Daniel, bishop of Winchester, 705-744, the wise and sympathetic correspondent of the missionary St Boniface. After the mythical Daniel we go on at once to Sigar, whose true date is 975-997.2 The list of bishops after this is very confused it has been copied by the writer of the Historia Minor. It is strange that neither of the writers had recourse either to the early episcopal lists or to the Gesta Pontificum of William of Malmesbury, where more accurate information could have been found. With Dudoc, who was appointed by King Cnut in 1033, our author reaches firm ground. He draws his information from a document written by Bishop Giso, Dudoc's

1 Cideston is the reading of the Lincoln's Inn manuscript: "ubi venit ad villam tunc temporis quæ Cideston, nunc autem Wella vocatur." But no doubt we must correct this to Tideston, on the authority of the compiler of the Historia Minor who made use of the Historiola : he speaks as though the“ manerium de Tydeston " were adjacent to or a part of Wells. And it is worth while to record the following instances of a similar name, Tidesput, in Wells charters:

(1) Bp. Savary's charter to the town of Wells, preserved in the Town Hall, and printed by Church, Early History, pp. 386 ff.: the eastern boundary of the town is said to be via quæ prætenditur a lapidicina usque ad montem versus Tidesput per pomerium nostrum."

(2) Four charters of Bp. Roger, granting in 1245 lands in Tythesputfurlang (or Tithesputes Furlang) on the east of his garden in Wells: Bath Chartulary ii, nos. 234-237.

(3) Bp. John Clerk's grant to George Sely of Haveryng in bowre, co. Essex, of "unum clausum prati vocatum Tydyspytte," containing ten acres in the manor of Wells, 6 Oct. 1539: Wells Ledger D, f. 44b.

2 See The Saxon Bishops of Wells (British Academy publications), p. 48, for the position of Sigar at the head of a list (as early as 1030) of Wells bishops-as though the writer knew no earlier name.

immediate successor (1061-1088), which fortunately he transcribes at length. This valuable document is a kind of charter, similar to that which Bishop Robert afterwards drew up to record his work at Wells and to serve as a confirmation of the gifts which he had made to the dean and chapter.1 The removal of the see to Bath on the accession of Bishop John of Tours (1088-1122) next occupies our author, who has much to say of the melancholy plight of Wells and its canons. Things were not mended under Bishop Godfrey (1123–1135); but when Robert, a Cluniac monk of Lewes, succeeded through the influence of Bishop Henry of Winchester, the brother of King Stephen, a new day dawned for Wells. Following the model of Bishop Osmund's foundation at Old Sarum, Bishop Robert refounded the chapter and placed a dean at its head (c. 1140). He recovered alienated properties and added new endowments; and the rest of the Historiola is taken up with an account, derived in part from known charters, of the labours of the bishop in this behalf. Bishop Robert died in 1166, and then, owing to the struggle between King Henry II and Archbishop Thomas, the see was left vacant for several years the Historiola ends with the consecration of Bishop Reginald, which took place abroad in 1174.

II. The writer of the Historia Minor recounts the bishops in the briefest possible summary, derived entirely from the Historiola, as far as the point to which that narrative extends. Of Bishop Reginald he has nothing to say, but that he ruled for twenty-seven years; and he is equally brief in regard to Bishop Savary. Of Bishop Joscelin he knows more: he dedicated the church of Bath; in his first year he established a daily service of the Blessed Virgin at Wells; the church there he built in large part, especially at the western end, and he endowed it with the manor and advowson of Winscombe; he built a chapel and a camera at Wells and also at Wookey. Of the next bishops, Roger, William Bitton I,

1 A summary of its contents will be found in Somerset Historical Essays, pp. 55 and 60.

Walter Giffard and William Bitton II, he can only tell the number of years during which they ruled the see. Robert Burnell, he says, built the hall at Wells, and secured the property of the see by royal charters. William de Marchia sat ten years; Walter Haselshaw seven; John Drockensford nineteen. The writer's real interest is in Ralph of Shrewsbury, to whom the remaining half of his narrative is devoted. Here he writes with a free hand. He calls him "pater mitissimus," using the epithet constantly employed for the patron of the church, St Andrew ("mitissimus apostolorum "). He first tells how he constructed houses for the vicars, endowing them with ten pounds a year and the manor of Wellesley: also a house for the choristers, who were to receive ten marks annually from the vicar of Chew Magna, who was further to provide five marks for the bishop's obit. He built a wall and a fosse round the palace. His gifts of vestments to the church of Wells are described at full length. He built a chapel at Winscombe, a court at Claverton and a camera at Evercreech: and he obtained the disafforestation of the manor of Cheddar. After thirty-four years of rule he died at Wivelscombe, on the vigil of the Assumption in 1363; and he lies buried in the presbytery at Wells before the high altar his monument of alabaster is surmounted by a figure which is very like him indulgences reward those who pray for him at his tomb. He has been succeeded first by Bishop Barnet, who however has quickly moved on to Ely, and now by Bishop Harewell ("reverendus pater dominus"), the chancellor of Prince Edward in Gascony.

We cannot mistake the personal touch of this description of the good Bishop Ralph of Shrewsbury. The writer may have been one of his canons, or more probably one of the vicars choral, who enjoyed his bounty and took an interest in the vestments and other treasures of the church.

III. The Historia Major does not attempt to carry back the story of the Somerset bishopric into the legendary times. of King Ina. It is based at the outset on William of Malmes

It

bury, whose writings at one point it definitely names. tells, as he does, the tale about Pope Formosus, and the pressure which that pontiff was fabled to have brought to bear on King Edward the Elder and Archbishop Plegmund to fill the vacant sees of Wessex.1 It records the division of dioceses, which led to the establishment of a bishop in the already existing church of Wells. The list of bishops, beginning with Athelm, follows that of William of Malmesbury, though with strange mis-spellings here and there.2 But the writer inserts, as the ninth bishop, one who is unknown to history, but whose name, Burwoldus, he has found in the Wells martyrology and on his tomb in the church.3

For Bishop Reginald and the succeeding bishops the writer makes some use of the slender information conveyed in the Historia Minor; and he is able to add much besides, especially as to properties given to the church of Wells, and as to the conflict with the monks of Bath in the matter of elections

to the see. But again and again his information proves to be not only very incomplete, but also seriously misleading. Much that he says is interesting and valuable, though his statements must be used with caution. It is quite untrue, for example, to say that Bishop Joscelin found the church at Wells in ruin and rebuilt it from the ground: the Historia Minor gives at this point a more trustworthy account. On the other hand his testimony is of value when he speaks of the "matin altar" in the nave, and of the "gradus chori "; and we could wish that the "martilogium," or book of commemorations, to which he refers, had come down to us. We may note also his statement that in his day miracles were still going on at William Bitton II's tomb in the south aisle of the choir, whereas those wrought at William de Marchia's tomb were a story of the past. He is evidently a canon of

1 W. of Malm., Gesta Regum (Rolls ser.), I, 140. I have discussed the document in The Saxon Bishops of Wells, pp. 18 ff.

2 Gesta Pontificum, p. 194.

For this I must refer to my paper on Effigies of Saxon Bishops at Wells in Archæologia, vol. lxv, pp. 95-112.