[368] We have seen that, in describing the rebellion of 1088, the words of the Chronicler are, “þa riceste Frencisce men þe weron innan þisan lande wolden swican heora hlaforde þam cynge.” In 1101 we read simply, “þa sona þæeræfter wurdon þa heafod men her on lande wiðerræden togeanes þam cynge.”
[369] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 308.
[370] I refer to the passage which I have already quoted in N. C. vol. v. p. 830, where William Rufus, just before his death (Ord. Vit. 782 B), mocks at the English regard for omens; “Num prosequi me ritum autumat Anglorum, qui pro sternutatione et somnio vetularum dimittunt iter suum seu negotium?”
[371] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 393.
[372] Stigand appears in the list of deaths which accompanied that of William in the Chronicle, where one would think that the persons spoken of died after him; but in the less rhetorical account of the same year in Florence they seem to have died before him. The Life of Lanfranc at the end of the Chronicles records the consecrations and benediction of all the three prelates with whom we are concerned, Geoffrey, Guy, and John, in 1088; “Cantuariæ, in sede metropoli, examinavit atque sacravit.” Cf. Gervase, X Scriptt. 1654.
[373] See Stephens’ Memorials of Chichester, p. 47.
[374] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 459.
[375] Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 195 draws a curious picture of him; “Erat medicus probatissimus, non scientia sed usu, ut fama, nescio an vera, dispersit. Litteratorum contubernio gaudens, ut eorum societate aliquid sibi laudis ascisceret; salsioris tamen in obloquentes dicacitatis quam gradus ejus interesse deberet.” He had just before described him as “natione Turonicus, professione medicus, qui non minimum quæstum illo conflaverat artificio.” The local writer in the Historiola (21) calls him “vir prudens et providus.”
[376] See N. C. vol. iv. p. 417.
[377] See N. C. vol. ii. p. 411.