Dinumerata deniq. pro distractione pratorum pecunia a loco rex progreditur, et Romam tandem perveniens, optata Apostolorum limina contingit, et diversorum loca Sanctorum percurrit: demum Adriano summo Pontifici, sub causam adventus explicans, et de loco, simul et beato Albano canonizando, et magnificando, Cænobioq. constituendo, devotè preces porrigens petitioni suæ Romanam de facili curiam inclinavit: Præsertim cùm Martyris inventio cælitus mortalibus sit declarata. Adaugebat quoq. omnium devotionem, qùod non cuilibet de populo, sed tanto taliq. Regi, tam magni Martyris sui pignora Dominus revelavit. De monasterio igitur conventuali, videlicet cænobiali, dignè ac celeriter constituendo, et ab omni Episcoporum subjectione emancipando, Papam et totam curiam consulit cum effectu.
Cumq. inclytus rex Offa eleganter perorasset, Romanus Pontifex humiliter ac favorabiliter inclinato capite, sic respondit. “O regum christianissimè, fili Offa, devotionem tuam circa regni tui protomartyrem, non mediocriter commendamus.” Nec nos quamvis, remotos, latet vestra strenuitas vel sincera sanctitas. Verè Cælibem vitam agentibus, meritò mittendus fuit angelus, cum castitati cognita sit puritas angelica, et cum favorabilis sit persona tua, favorabilior est causa quam proponis in medio, et labor tuæ peregrinationis acceptus est altissimo. De monasterio verò construendo et priviligiando petitioni tuæ assensum præbemus gratissimum; Injungentes tibi in tuorum remissionem peccatorum, ut prosperè ac feliciter rediens, cum Dei et mea benedictione in terram ac regnum tuum, consilio Episcoporum et optimatum tuorum, quas volueris possessiones sive libertates beati Albani Anglorum protomartyris cænobio conferas. Et tuo privilegio inde facto, Nos originale tuum privilegio nostro inviolabili gratanter roborabimus et confirmabimus consequenter; et monasterium illud in specialem Romanæ Ecclesiæ filiam adoptabimus, et nostro tantum illud Apostolatui subjicientes, ab omni nocivo cujuslibet mortalium impetu, specialiter mediante Episcopo sive Archiepiscopo, protegemus.
His igitur auditis rex, quid dignê tantæ benignitati compenset secū studiosè pertractat. Tandem divina inspirante gratia consiliū invenit salubre, et in die crastina, Scholam Anglorum qui tunc Romæ floruit, ingressus, dedit ibi ex regali munificentia ad sustentationem gentis regni sui illuc venientis, singulos argenteos, de familiis singulis, omnibus in posterum diebus, singulis annis. Quibus videlicet, sors tantum contulit extra domos in pascuis, ut triginta argenteorum pretium excederet. Hoc autem per totum suam ditionem teneri in perpetuum constituit. Excepta tota terra Sancti Albani, suo monasterio conferenda, prout postea collata privilegia protestantur. Ut illo denario, à generali cōtributione sic excepto, et dicto monasterio sic collato, memoria donatoris indelibiliter perpetuetur. Et hoc tali largitate obtinuit, et conditione, ut de regno Angliæ nullus publicè pænitens, pro executione sibi injunctæ pænitentiæ, subiret exilium.
Celebrata igitur donatione prædicta, et de peccatis omnibus (præcipuê tamen de præliorum multorum commissione) facta confessione, et pro prædicta Cænobii fundatione accepta pænitentia; Cum benedictione devota summi Pontificis, rex ad propria prosperê remeavit.
Matt. Westmonast. relates this in almost the same words, and adds, p. 288.
“Tunc congregato apud Verolamium episcoporum et optimatum suorum concilio, unanimi omnium consensu, et voluntate beato Albano amplas contulit terras, et possessiones innumeras, quas multiplici libertatum privilegio insignivit. Monachorum verò conventum, ex domibus benê religiosis ad tumbā martyris congregavit, et abbatum eis nomine VVillegodum præfecit cui cum ipso monasterio, omnia jura regalia concessit.”
It is scarcely less disgusting than instructive to trace throughout the middle ages the growing foliage of superstition, that cast its dim and lengthening shadow over the lovely temple of religion. And when it was the received creed of the time, that donations to the church, of which the bishop of Rome was falsely regarded as the head, were sufficient to compensate for the most heinous crimes, it cannot be surprising that the regal homicide should pay his court to the prevailing idol, or that the wide domains of the wealthy and noble sensualist should in his dying hour (no longer, then, of service to pander to his appetites,) be transferred to the service of that all-powerful agency which professed itself alike enabled to quench the fires of purgatory and unbar the portals of the mansions of eternal bliss! Offa, the proud and conquering king, stripped of its vested rights the ancient province of Canterbury to aggrandize with spiritual supremacy his own domains[23]—Offa, the daring and ambitious prince, yielded to the evil suggestions of tempting opportunity, and with a bold and bloody hand seized the broad lands of the sainted martyr Ethelbert. But Offa the pilgrim, the penitent, the failing and remorseful monarch, over whom the feeble halo of an earthly fame had passed and left no bright and pleasing memory behind—Offa, who felt his time at hand and looked through the hazy superstition of a corrupted church upon a vision of purchasable happiness in heaven “in testimony of repentance for the blood that he had spilled, bestowed a tenth of all his goods on the churchmen and on the poor,”[24] built churches, founded abbeys, and endowed monasteries,[25] to bribe the God whose laws he had infringed, and bargain at a price for the salvation which had been freely offered!
[23] In addition to this (viz., the transference of the primacy from Canterbury to Lichfield) he committed other arbitrary depredations on the church. “He seizeth on churches and other religious houses,” says Holinshed. “A downright pilferer,” says William of Malmsbury, “he converted to his own use the lands of many churches, of which Malmsbury was one.” Everth (Egfrid), however, on his coming to the throne, restored to the monasteries the possessions which had been misapplied in former reigns: and gave Malmsbury into the hands of Cuthbert, then abbot of that place.
[24] Speed’s Chronicle, p. 345.
[25] There is considerable difficulty as to the dates of some of Offa’s endowments and foundations. His endowment of the English college at Rome (Matth. West. A. D. 794), his making Mercia tributary to the See of Rome (Holinshed, ch. 4, b. 6, vol. 2.), and his erection and endowment of St. Albans over the body of the English protomartyr, were all subsequent to the murder of Ethelbert. Some of his other donations to the church were as follows: viz.—