[A.D. 961-992.] Oswald, the successor of Dunstan, the founder of the monastery, and one of the patron saints of Worcester, is best known from his unceasing patronage of the monks, in opposition to the secular clergy. Oswald, the son of Danish parents of high rank, was the nephew of Odo, the predecessor of Dunstan in the see of Canterbury; and was appointed by King Edgar to the see of Worcester at the request of Dunstan himself, with whose zeal for the monastic cause Oswald (who had passed some of the earlier years of his life in the famous monastery of Fleury) more than sympathized. In 972 Oswald became Archbishop of York, which see he held, together with Worcester, until his death in 992—in the same manner as Dunstan had held the sees of London and Worcester together, before his elevation to the primacy. Little is recorded “of what he did at York, although he presided over that see for twenty years. There was no Northern writer to speak of what he effected in Northumbria[101].” The condition of the province, “seamed and scarred” by the struggles of the native princes, and by Danish incursions, may have prevented him from working there. But at Worcester, and throughout the south, Oswald was active as a great ecclesiastical reformer. He was powerful enough to remodel the monasteries of Ely and St. Albans. The Church of Worcester had hitherto been served by secular canons. These Oswald determined to replace by Benedictine monks; “and succeeded by the following artifice. Having erected in its vicinity a new church to the honour of the Virgin Mary, he intrusted it to the care of a community of monks, and frequented it himself for the solemn celebration of mass. The presence of the Bishop attracted that of the people; the ancient clergy saw their church gradually abandoned; and after some delay, Wensine, their dean, a man advanced in years and of unblemished character, took the monastic habit, and was advanced three years later to the office of prior. The influence of his example, and the honour of his promotion, held out a strong temptation to his brethren, till at last the number of canons was so diminished by repeated desertions, that the most wealthy of the churches of Mercia became without dispute or violence, by the very act of its old possessors, a monastery of Benedictine monks[102].” Oswald is said to have introduced monks in the room of secular clergy, in six other churches of his diocese; and charges of extreme tyranny and arrogance have been brought against him in consequence. But there is every reason to believe that a severe ecclesiastical reform was necessary; and there is proof that the eviction of the canons from Worcester was very gradual, and was not completed in Oswald’s lifetime. It is also certain that, although he held the archbishopric of York during twenty years, “we we do not read that he introduced a single colony of monks, or changed the constitution of a single clerical establishment, within that diocese[103].”
The church and monastery of St. Mary, built by Oswald, were on the site of the existing cathedral, and were pulled down by Wulfstan to make way for his new minster. (See post, Wulfstan.) During the construction of St. Oswald’s monastery, says Eadmer, one large squared block of stone became all at once immoveable, and in spite of the exertions of the workmen, could not be brought to the place prepared for it. St. Oswald, after praying earnestly, beheld “Ethiopem quendam” sitting upon the stone, and mocking the builders. The sign of the cross removed him effectually.
A life of St. Oswald, by Eadmer of Canterbury, will be found in Wharton’s Anglia Sacra, vol. ii. This, however, is a compilation from a far more important life by an unknown monk of Ramsey, written within twenty or thirty years after Oswald’s death, and hitherto unprinted. This life (of which there is a MS. in the British Museum, MSS. Cotton, Nero, E. 1) is quoted among Mr. Raine’s numerous authorities for the very interesting life of St. Oswald contained in his “Lives of the Archbishops of York.” (London, 1863.) Oswald died at Worcester, and was interred in his own church there. His relics were translated, and placed in a rich shrine, by Aldulf, his successor in both sees. The portiphor of St. Oswald is still preserved in the library of C.C.C., Cambridge.
The two immediate successors of Oswald, Aldulf and Wulfstan I., held the see of York together with that of Worcester, probably because, Northumbria being ravaged by the Danes, the possession of the southern bishopric was found to be necessary for the maintenance of the northern primate. Wulfstan succeeded in 1003, and died in 1023. In 1016, seven years before his death, Leofsin was appointed to the bishopric of Worcester; Wulfstan retaining York.
[A.D. 992-1062.] Between the death of Oswald and the accession of Wulfstan II., the only remarkable bishops of Worcester were Living, the friend and minister of Canute, who held the see of Worcester together with that of Crediton; and Aldred, his successor, who was translated to York in 1061, and as archbishop of that see crowned successively both Harold and the Conqueror. In 1062 Edward the Confessor made a grant to Aldred of the church of Worcester, on account of the desolate condition of the see of York. The grant was, however, personal, and not in perpetuity; and Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester only remained a suffragan of York until the death of Aldred. The deed is to be found in Thomas’s “Worcester,” Appendix I.
[A.D. 1062-1095.] Wulfstan II., the founder of the existing cathedral, and the great patron saint of Worcester. Wulfstan was born at Long Itchinton, in Warwickshire. Both his father and mother had embraced monasticism in mature life; and their son, after having been educated in the great monastery of Peterborough, became himself a monk at Worcester, and, eventually, the prior of his convent. “An anecdote must be referred to this period, which is valuable, because it is characteristic of the man and of his times. Wulfstan enjoyed the pleasures of the table, and had a particular liking for roast goose. Boiled meats were generally placed on an Anglo-Saxon table; therefore special directions were to be given when anything roast or fried was to be prepared. The order was given by Wulfstan that a roast goose was to be prepared for his dinner. He then went about his ordinary business. There were many clients of the Bishop to whom he had to pay attention, and he was involved in secular duties. He had not broken his fast when he was called upon to officiate at the Mass. In due time he enters the church extremely hungry; he passes into the chancel, near to which, unfortunately, the kitchen is placed. A whiff of goose soon affects his olfactory nerves; the savour interferes with his devotions; his thoughts wander to his dinner, (studio culinæ tenetur); his conscience reproaches him. His resolution is immediately formed. Then and there before the altar he vowed that from that time forth he would never taste meat; and he remained a vegetarian all the days of his life, except on festivals, when he regaled on fish. What was a fast to others was a luxury to him[104].” On the translation of Aldred to the see of York, Wulfstan became Bishop of Worcester. “In right of his authority over the diocese of Worcester, Aldred took away from it twelve vills, and appropriated them to York. As that Archbishop had only a life-interest in the see, it is clear that these estates ought to have been restored to it at his decease. When he died, however, (1069,) they passed with his other estates into the hands of the King. Wulfstan was not disposed to give them up. He desired that they should be restored at the Council of Winchester, at Easter, 1070; but as the archbishopric of York was then vacant, the consideration of the question was deferred. When Thomas (the new Archbishop of York) went to Rome for the pall, he claimed the Bishop of Worcester as a suffragan. This question was left by the Pope to the determination of Lanfranc. It was settled in a synod which was held in 1072. Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, was on the side of Thomas, but Lanfranc decided against him. The twelve vills were to be given up, and Worcester was for the future to be subordinated to Canterbury, and not to York. In this judgment Thomas seems to have quietly acquiesced[105].” Lanfranc, however, looked with extreme doubt and jealousy on the Saxon clergy; and at the synod of Pedrede (Petherton in Somersetshire) in 1070, he charged Wulfstan with “insufficiency and want of learning,” intending to remove him from his see, as Egelmar had been deposed from the East Anglian bishopric in the early part of the same year. But Wulfstan’s competency was fully proved[106], and it is possible that the whole charge against him may have arisen from his ignorance of Norman-French. A later legend (first mentioned by Ailred of Rievaulx, who did not live till the next century) asserted that when Wulfstan was called upon to deliver up his pastoral staff, he refused to do so, unless to the Confessor, from whom he had received it; that he laid the staff accordingly on the Confessor’s tomb, which opened to receive it; and that no one could withdraw the staff from the tomb but Wulfstan himself, who was of course permitted to retain his see.
The simplicity, earnestness, and incessant labour of Wulfstan’s pastoral life—“vir magnæ pietatis et columbinæ simplicitatis,” says Malmesbury—are borne witness to by all the chroniclers; and especially by William of Malmesbury, in his Gesta Pontificum, and in his Life of Wulfstan. On his episcopal manors he built no halls or “dining chambers,” giving his whole attention to more important matters, and even in the churches which he built, he disapproved of rich and elaborate ornamentation[107]. The church and monastery of St. Oswald proved too small for the increasing number of monks. Wulfstan pulled them down, and laid the foundations of the existing cathedral. He lived, apparently, to complete much of his work; but all that now remains of his cathedral is the crypt. (Pt. I. § XXII.) Whilst witnessing the destruction of Oswald’s church, Wulfstan burst into tears, declaring that he was pulling down the work of a far holier man than himself—a church in which so many saints had served God[108].
In the year 1088, the Norman barons who had risen to support the cause of Robert of Normandy against the Red King, attacked Worcester. “The venerable Bishop Wulfstan,” says the Saxon Chronicle, “was sorely troubled in his mind, because the castle had been committed to his keeping. Nevertheless, the men of his household went out with a few men from the castle, and through God’s mercy, and through the Bishop’s deserts, slew and captured five hundred men, and put all the others to flight[109].” Wulfstan died, at a great age, in 1095, and was interred in his new cathedral. He was unquestionably one of the best and worthiest of the later Saxon bishops. The fullest and most important life of Wulfstan is that by William of Malmesbury, printed in the second volume of Wharton’s Anglia Sacra. A very interesting notice of his “Life and Times,” by the Dean of Chichester, will be found in the twentieth volume of the Archæological Journal.
Early in 1201, miracles were reported at the tomb of Wulfstan[110]. They continued throughout the year, fifteen or sixteen persons being healed daily, as it was asserted. On St. Giles’s Day, (Sept. 1,) 1202, Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury came, with other bishops, to Worcester, to enquire into the truth of the reported miracles. Certain monks of Worcester went to Rome with their report; and in the following year (1203) St. Wulfstan was duly canonized by the Pope, Innocent III. King John more than once performed his devotions, and made his offerings, before the shrine of the new saint; and in the hour of his death at Newark (October, 1216,) he commended his body and soul to “God and to St. Wulfstan.” He was buried in the cathedral. In 1218 the restored church (see Pt. I. § I.) was dedicated in honour of St. Mary and St. Peter, and of the Confessors Oswald and Wulfstan; and the relics of St. Wulfstan were translated into a new shrine. Miracles are again frequently recorded. Edward I. entertained a “special affection” for St. Wulfstan; and, besides many other visits, came to worship before his shrine in December, 1273, after the conquest of Wales[111]. The shrine of St. Wulfstan was placed, together with that of St. Oswald, in front of the high altar, one on either side. (See Pt. I. § IX.)
[A.D. 1096-1112.] Samson, a canon of Bayeux, succeeded Wulfstan; “non parvæ literaturæ vir,” says Malmesbury, “nec contemnendæ facundiæ; antiquorum homo morum; ipse liberaliter vesci, et aliis dapsiliter largiri[112].” His elder brother, Thomas, was Archbishop of York; and a son of Bishop Samson (at what time born is not evident) became also Archbishop of York in 1109, during his father’s lifetime. Another son, Richard, was Bishop of Bayeux from 1108 to 1133.