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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42341	The history of the Church of Peterburgh wherein the most remarkable things concerning that place, from the first foundation thereof, with other passages of history not unworthy publick view, are represented / by Symon Gunton ... ; illustrated with sculptures ; and set forth by Symon Patrick ...	Gunton, Simon, 1609-1676.; Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing G2246; ESTC R5107	270,254	362

Imprimatur Jo. Battely RR mo P. D no. Wil. Archiep. Cantuar. à Sacris Domesticis Ex Aedibus Lamb. Aug. 20. 1685. THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF PETERBURGH WHEREIN The most remarkable Things concerning that Place from the First FOUNDATION thereof With other Passages of HISTORY not unworthy Publick View are represented BY SYMON GUNTON late Prebendary of that CHURCH Illustrated with Sculptures And set forth By Symon Patricl D. D. now Dean of the same LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVI THE PREFACE THe Author of this History was the better fitted for the Work he undertook because he was born at Peterburgh and there lived all his days a few years excepted whereby he had the advantage of being perfectly acquainted with many things about which he writes Particularly the Monuments in the Church broken down in the late Sacrilegious times whose Inscriptions when he was but a Boy as he himself writes in a Letter to Dr. Henshaw late Bishop of Peterburgh he both often read and also transcribed These he hath preserved and transmitted to Posterity as that learned Antiquary Sir William Dugdale hath also done Who in the Year 1641. fearing what shortly followed was at the pains and charge to take the Draughts as well as the Inscriptions of the Monuments in sundry Cathedral Churches of this Realm which soon after were demolished and of this Church among the rest By whose kindness they would have been communicated to the World if the Undertaker had come to the knowledge of them before he had received Subscriptions to his Proposals which were not high enough to bear the charge of them But the best Monuments the Records of the Church out of which a more compleat History might have been gathered are never to be recovered being torn in pieces or burnt by the more than Gothish Barbarity of those ignorant people who took upon them the glorious name of Reformers An account of which is given by a faithful hand in the conclusion of the Supplement to this Work One Book indeed and but one still remains which was happily redeemed from the fire by the then Chaunter of the Church Mr. Humfry Austin Who knowing the great value of it first hid it in February 1642. under a Seat in the Quire and when it was found by a Souldier on the 22 April 1643. when all the seats there were pulled down rescued it again by the offer of ten Shillings for that old Latine Bible as he called it after which he pretended to enquire The name of the Bible by the help of the ten Shillings preserved this pretious Treasure from the Flames whither it was going as Mr. Austin hath left upon Record in the beginning of the Book with a Copy of the Souldiers acknowledgment that he had given him satisfaction for it in these words I pray let this Scripture Book alone for he hath paid me for it and therefore I would desire you to let it alone By me Henry Topclyffe Souldier under Captain Cromwell Colonel Cromwell 's Son therefore I pray let it alone Vnto which goodly Warrant for its security the Fellow subscribed his name The Book I speak of is commonly called by the Name of SWAPHAM it being vulgarly believed to have been composed by Robert Swapham a Monk of this Church of Peterburgh But in truth is for the greatest and most antient part of its History the work of HUGO surnamed CANDIDUS or White an eminent Monk also of the same Church who himself in the very body of the Book gives an account both when he lived and that he was the Author of the History which now all passes under the Name of Swapham For speaking of the Reliques of the Church the principal of which was St. Oswald's right Arm super omne aurum pretiosum as his words are he saith that he himself saw it and kissed and handled it with his own hands when it was shown intire both in the flesh and skin to Alexander Bishop of Lincoln and to the whole Convent with many others 487 Years after the death of St. Oswald Now he was slain in the year 643 and therefore this was in the year 1130. From whence it appears that Mr. Selden is out in his account when he saith in his Preface to the Decem Scriptores fol. XLVI that this History of our Church vulgarly thought to be Robert Swapham's was written in the Reign of Henry the Third or thereabouts He should have said that then Robert Swapham lived as I shall show by and by he did but he who wrote the greatest and best part of the History lived in the Reign of Henry the First King Stephen and his Successor And therefore it might more truly have been said to have been written in the Reign of Henry the Second or thereabout unless his words be restrained to that particular part of the History which he hath occasion to mention which followed immediately upon the death of HUGO This is declared more plainly and fully in another place of the History viz. in the life of Abbot ERNULPHUS Where mention is made of two famous Sacrists of this Church Victricus and Remaldus The latter of which is said to have made a Brother of his a Monk when as yet he was but a child whose name was Hugo who always attended upon Remaldus and served him qui etiam hunc libellum collegit collectumque scripsit who also collected this little Book and having collected it put it in writing And then follows a description of him that in his childhood he fell into a disease which made him very weak For every Year and that often he vomited abundance of blood and once was brought so low by vomiting fifteen Basons full in one week that they utterly despaired of his life gave him extream Vnction and were called out of the Chapterhouse by Nicolaus then Keeper of the Infirmary to come and commend his Soul to God he being upon the point of departure But Egelbrithus a most holy man perswading them to go into the Church and beg his life of God who would not deny them one man as his words were they did so and he was miraculously restored as there is at large related And he lived a long time beloved by all the succeeding Abbots John Henry Martin William under whom he served the Church having all the business of the Monastery both withindoors and without committed to him till he came at last to the degree of Supprior first under Martin then under William de Watervile in whose time he dyed Remaldus his brother being then Prior. I have given the larger account of this man because he is mentioned in many Authors as an excellent person being known as our History adds in the neighbouring Monasteries nay famed far and near and no less loved than praised by all that were acquainted with him And had the name of Candidus or Albus in all likelyhood from his pale Complexion caused

of that Bishop's Memorandums I have thought good to communicate to the Reader but that I might not too much interrupt the course of this History have placed them in the end of this Supplement together with some few other Records I shall only note here that there had been long an inclination in the people to this superstition appears by the Constitutions made in the Council held at St. Pauls London MCII. by Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury Where among other things it was ordained that none should dare to give holy reverence to the bodies of dead Men to Fountains and other things which some had done without Episcopal authority The words are these both in Malmsbury L. 1. de Gestis Pont. Angl. and Eadmerus L. 3. Hist Ne quis temeraria novitate corporibus mortuorum aut fontibus aut aliis rebus quod contigisse cognovimus sine Episcopali autoritate reverentiam sanctitatis exhibeat But within a few days almost all the Constitutions of that Council were broken and the principal transgressors were the Law-makers as William of Malmsbury's words are in MS. Copy of that Book in Sir John Cotton's Library Which are wholly omitted in the Printed Book among the Anglicarum rerum Scriptores MDCI. Eadmerus saith the same without mentioning particularly the prevarication of the Law-makers in the conclusion of those Constitutions Et hic quidem Lundoniensis Concilii textus est qui non post multos institutionis suae dies multos sui transgressores in omni hominum genere fecit And therefore no wonder Oliver Sutton found the people still poisoned with this error almost 200 years after that Council Which he honestly indeavoured to remedy by his Episcopal Authority But it is time to return to our History And to give a short account of the Founder of this Monastery and the time of its founding The first Founder all agree was Peada Son of Penda King of the Mercians Whose story is thus distinctly told by Hedda Abbot in a MS. Relation still remaining in the Book called Swapham There was a great Friendship between Peada Son of Penda and Alhfrid Son of Oswin King of Northumberland Brother to the great King and Martyr Oswald in so much that they made an interchangeable Marriage Alhfrid taking Kynesburga Sister to Peada and Peada taking Alfeda as he calls her Sister to Alhfrid unto Wife Whereupon Peada by the perswasions of his faithful Brother-in-Law and of his own pious Sister was made a Christian and baptized in Northumberland by that famous Bishop Finanus From whom he received also four Religious Preachers of the Gospel to carry with him to his own Country whither he returned plus jam gaudens de aeterna salute quam de petita Virgine rejoycing more in the eternal Salvation than in the Virgin he had gotten in Northumberland Symeon Dunelmensis speaks of this conversion in the very beginning of his History Cap. 4. and John Brampton names the place where he was baptized viz. Admurium twelve miles from the Eastern Sea together with the four Presbyters which Finanus gave him Ceadda Abde Betta and Dunna who coming into Peada's Country converted a great many to the Christian Faith in two years time for Penda did neither hinder these men from Preaching nor his people from believing All which is taken out of Bede L. III. Eccles Hist C. 21. where he saith that not only Peada but all his Nobles and Knights and every one of his Servants and Attendants were Baptized in vico Regis illustri qui vocatur Admurum And that Penda when his Son returned was so far from prohibiting the entertainment of the Christian Religion in his Kingdom that he hated and despised those who having received the Christian Faith did not live accordingly Saying they were wretched creatures who did not take care to obey the God in whom they believed These things were done two years before Penda died and in his Epitome he saith Penda died An. 655 and the Mercians were made Christians And in this year the foundation of this Monastery is said to have been laid by Peada with the assistance of Oswin King of Northumberland and of devout people newly Baptized and especially of Saxulph as Hugo often sayes Though the Chron. Johannis Abbatis saith it was An. 654. They are the very first words of it Anno Domini DCLIIII fundatum est Monasterium de Burgo Sancti Petri à Peada Rege Merciorum Saxulfo Comite facto ejus Abbate primo But Hedda before mentioned carries it still higher for he saith this Monastery was begun five and fifty years after the coming of Austin the Monk into England ab incarnatione Salvatioris DCL exacti The great Stones which Mr. G. observes were laid in the foundation Hugo sayes he saw when the Monastery was burnt and demolished quales octo paria boum vix unum traherent But it was only begun for Peada died in the year 656. as the forenamed Chronicle of John Abbot tells us A. DCLVI Peada mortuo Wlferus regnabat super Mercios erat Bissexto c. and left the Building to be perfected by his Brother Wolferus Who as Hugo sayes was no less in love with this work than Peada had been but pursued it with great zeal till he had finished it by the help of Saxulfus and the assistance of his Brother Ethelred and his two holy Sisters Kyneburga and Kyneswitha And having indowed it with Lands and other Revenues dedicated it to St. Peter This is all that Hugo sayes save only what belongs to his Charter c. in whom I find not a word about his revolting from Christianity or his growing cold in it nor in Hedda's Relation neither quo modo incipiente Christianitate in regione Mediterraneorum Anglorum initiatum sit Medeshamstedense Monasterium subsequentibus privilegiis confirmatum as the title of it bears But quite contrary he sayes King Wolfere was so flagrant as his word is in the worship of Christ that he made it his business not only to kindle the like affection in his own people but to bring the Southern Kings and people that were subject to him ad veram Dei sectam to Gods true Religion by sending them Royal gifts and inlarging their Dominions Yet I cannot say that Walter of Wittlesea devised all that story which follows in Mr. G. about him his Steward his two Sons and St. Chad and the Hart but he had it no doubt out of antienter Writers For Leland begins his Second Vol. of Collections out of a Book of an Author without name but as he gathers of the Church of Peterburgh whose title is De Martyrio Wulfadi Rufini filiorum Wulferi Regis And there is an old MS. in Sir John Cotton's Library intituled Passio Sanctorum Wlfadi Rufini filiorum Wlferi Regis in which the whole story is told more amply with the Speeches made by all parties concerned in it as may be seen in the 2. Vol. of the Monasticon p. 119. Out

Girardus obtained of King William the second six Churches Five of which he gave to St. Peters Church of York i. e. de Dyrfeld de Kyllum de Pokelymon de Pykerynga de Burgh where perhaps Kynsinus dyed The same Thomas Stubbs Actus Pontif. Eborac saith the vulgar opinion of him was that he was not born but cut out of his Mothers Womb. He gave to this Church the Village of Linewelle as Hugo tells us with the textum Evangelii excellently wrought with Gold and so many Ornaments that they were apprised at three hundred pound which with his Body were all brought hither But Queen Edgit he adds took them all away The Character he gives of him is this that he always lived like a Monk most abstemiously and Holily So that when his Clergy and Family had a splendid Table he contented himself with coarse and Barly Bread and with the viler sort of meat and drink And walking on foot from Town to Town Preaching and giving Alms he often went bare-foot and commonly travelled in the nights that he might avoid vain-glory Which makes him call him Sanctus Kinsinus The last Wulstanus was also Archbishop of of York and Successor to Adulphus holding the Bishoprick of Worcester together with the See of York as he and St. Oswald before him had done Who if we may believe Hugo gave himself and all that he had to this place but going to visit the places where other Saints lay buried and coming to Eli there he fell sick and dyed and was buried in the year MXXIII V. Kal. Junii 3. feria as Thomas Stubbs relates after he had been Archbishop twenty year He and Radulphus de Diceto differ from Hugo in the place of his sickning and dying for they make him to have been brought to Eli to be buried according to his own prediction as the latter of them affirms upon a time when he came thither for devotion sake The mention of him puts me in mind of another of that name who was bred in this Monastery and therefore ought not to be here omitted For though he dyed a good while after this time yet he was advanced to the See of Worcester in the days of Leofricus viz. MLXII So John Abbot Venerabilis vir Wlstanus Burgi Monachus Wigorn. fit Episcopus Roger Hoveden also who saith that literis Ecclesiasticis Officiis imbutus in Nobili Monasterio quod Burch nominatur The very same hath Symeon Dunelmensis John Brompton But the largest account I find of him is in his Life written in Three Books MS. in Sir J. C's Library by Bravonius a Monk of Worcester 1170. who relates at large all that he did both before and after the Conquest He was born at Jceritune in Warwickshire his Father Athelstanus his Mother Wifgena who put him to School at Evesham where he received the first Elements of learning and then sent him hither to be perfected in it so his words are perfectiori mox apud Burch which I shewed before was famous for learning scientia teneras informavit medullas Here he gave great indications of his future Vertue when he had scarce taken the first step out of his Childhood He had a Master called Eruentus who could Write admirably and Draw any thing in Colours Who made Wlstan when he was but a Boy Write two Books Sacramentarium Psalterium and Flourish the Principal Letters in Pictures with Gold The former of which his Master presented to King Cnute the Psalter to Queen Emma After this he went from Burch to his Parents who putting themselves into Religious Houses at Worcester he also became Monk And in a short time was made Master of the Boyes then Chanter and then Sacrist and afterward Praepositus ut tunc Prior ut nunc dicitur Monachorum constitutus and at last made Bishop of Worcester though against his will upon the preferment of Alredus to York Who presuming upon the simplicity of Wlstan committed great rapine at Worcester and kept from him a considerable part of the Possessions of that Church which he could not recover as long as Alred lived but though William the Conqueror seised them at his Death yet Wlstan never left till the cause had a fair hearing and his Church had all restored to it which its first Founders had left unto it The story is told at large by John Bromton Chron. Williel primi p. 976. c. who sayes Lanfranc would have deposed him for insufficiency but by a Miracle was moved to restore him his Staff and his Ring which he had resigned And indeed he was not so ignorant as many imagined but knew all that was necessary for him to be acquainted withal only was not learned in the Fables of the Poets and in the perplexities of Syllogisms which perhaps he did not vouchsafe to know as not worthy his notice So Henry de Knyghton in these remarkable words L. 2. de Eventibus Angliae C. 6. Sed ille magis virtute quam literis fretus res Ecclesiae defensabat Quanquam non it a hebes in literis fuerit ut put abatur quippe qui caetera necessaria sciret praeter fabulas poetarum tortiles syllogismos quae forsan nec nosse dignabatur He pulled down the old Church of Worcester built by St. Oswald and made the new one we now see Weeping as Malmsbury saith when they began the Work For which he gave this reason when he was told he ought rather to rejoyce at the erection of a more magnificent Structure Alas said he we miserable sinners destroy the Works of the Saints that we may get glory to our selves That age of happy men did not understand how to build pompous Temples but under any kind of Roof offered up themselves to God and attracted their Subjects by their examples We on the contrary neglecting the Cure of Souls heap up Stones and raise goodly Piles c. He lived till he was almost 90 years old dying in the year MXCV where John Abbot writes Sanctus Wlstanus obiit BRANDO While he was only a Monk in this Church he was not only a Coadjutor to Leofricus in all the good things that he did as Hugo his words are but also a great Benefactor to the Monastery out of his own Patrimony and that of his Brethren For he and his two Brethren Askatillus and Syricus purchased Walcote de proprio patrimonio and gave it to the Church in perpetual inheritance together with Scotere Scotune and other places mentioned by Mr. G. This was in the time of Edward the Confessor who confirmed this Grant by his Charter rogatus ab Abbate Lefrico Monacho ipsius nomine Brand Hugo or Swap pag. 5. f. 2. Another writing mentions a third Brother named Siworthus in these words Brand Abbas Burgensis Askilus Sericus Sivortus fratres dederunt has terras Deo Sancto Petro fratribus in Burgh sc Muscham ex alia parte Trentae Scotere c. Which is related something more distinctly