[334] Agatha and Adeliza were their names, according to Ordericus Vitalis, (lib. iv. 512.)
[335] Some MSS. omit from “money,” to “I have,” and substitute, This he sought all opportunities of collecting, provided he could allege that they were honourable, and not unbecoming the royal dignity. But he will readily be excused, because a new government cannot be administered without large revenues. I have, &c.
[336] The Romish ritual directs the woman to kneel, with a lighted taper in her hand, at the church door, where she is sprinkled with holy water, and afterwards conducted into the church. The practice seems connected with the festival of the Purification. Vide Durand, lib. vii. c. 7.
[337] Sixty shillings down, and as much more afterwards. Orderic. Vital.
[338] ... lanistarum vel pellificum. It seems a sneer at the sanguinary disposition of the Roman people, and at the bulls of the pope. In a dispute on the credibility of evidence adduced, it is observed, that the oral testimony of three bishops was certainly to be preferred “to sheep-skins blackened with ink and loaded with a leaden seal.” Edmer. Hist. Nov. p. 65.
[339] Marianus was born in Ireland A.D. 1028, and was compiler of a celebrated chronicle, which is the basis of Florence of Worcester. His imagined correction of Dionysius is founded in error.
[340] See the letters which passed on this subject between Lanfranc and Thomas archbishop of York in Lanfranci Opera, ed. J. A. Giles, 2 vols. 8vo. forming vols. 21 and 22 of Patres Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ.
[341] Two of the MSS., used by Mr. Hardy, place here the dedicatory epistle of the author to Robert Earl of Gloucester, which we have placed at the commencement of the work.
[342] “At this period the custom of receiving knighthood from the hands of bishops or abbats yet obtained. There is a law of Henry I., prohibiting abbats from making knights.”—Hardy.
[343] The 27th of September.