[236] This appears merely intended to express that he received the pall from the pope. The two transactions are inverted; he went to Rome A.D. 1021, and translated Elphege’s body A.D. 1023.
[237] Augustine, bishop of Hippo.
[238] He was bishop of Selsey, which see was afterwards removed to Chichester.
[239] The whole country round Glastonbury is flat and marshy, bearing evident marks of having formerly been covered by water.
[240] “See the letter of Fulbert to king Canute (an. 1020 aut 1021.) No. xliv., p. 466. tom. x. Rec. des Hist. de la France. Fulberti Carnot. Episc. Op. Var. 8vo. par. 1608. Epist. xcvii. p. 92.”—Hardy.
[241] Though several French chronicles give nearly the same account of Odo being the elder brother, the learned editors of the Recueil des Historiens de France insist that the assertion is false.
[242] “After the death of Canute, the kingdom was at first divided: the northern part fell to the share of Harold, and Hardecanute obtained the southern division. In the year 1037, Harold was chosen to reign over all England, (Flor. Wigorn.)”—Hardy.
[243] This he notices, because there was a suspicion that she had imposed the children of a priest and of a cobbler on Canute as her own. V. Flor. Wigorn.
[244] The Saxon Chronicle says March 17: it also makes Hardecanute arrive on the 18th of June.
[245] The printed Saxon Chronicle has no mention of this transaction, but there are two manuscripts which relate it. The story appears true in the main, but it is told with so much variety of time, place, &c., that it is difficult to ascertain its real circumstances. See MSS. Cott. Tib. b. i. and iv.