the cruciform nimbus, and set in a vesica, elevated at some distance in the air, with four of the blessed-perhaps the four Evangelists-two on each side, worshipping him with outstretched hands. The Patron Saint, having opened the circular-headed door, ornamented with three hinges of scroll-work and strengthened with a bolt, by means of the keys held in the left hand, is beckoning with the right hand extended towards two angels on the opposite page, the first of whom with jewelled nimbus and expanded wings is conducting a small group of saints and martyrs, each wearing the nimbus, to the abode of eternal bliss. This guiding angel carries a sceptre or staff with fleury tip. The second angel, with plain nimbus, is leading another group of the blessed, in this case without the nimbus. The two foremost figures of this group are of interest: one is tonsured and wears vestments and a stole, in his right hand is a plume of long feathers or palm branch tipped with three small pellets; the other is a prince, the head bare, wearing a short dress with ornamented bordure, and long hose of the usual Anglo-Saxon style, and carrying a palm branch or feather, jewelled along the quill or stem, and tipped with a trefoil or fleury ornament not unlike that of the first angel's staff. The second rank or division of this picture shows the Last Judgment by books of good and evil deeds, a curious contest-partly judicial, partly physical-between St. Peter and Satan for possession of the soul, depicted in the ordinary mediæval form of a child. Satan, with open book in the right hand reciting the sins of the defunct, clutches with his right (his hands and feet are provided with claws) the left arm of the child, St. Peter grasping the right arm of the figure is striking the accuser on the nose with the keys held in his right hand. The child looks up imploringly at his advocate and deliverer. Behind St. Peter stands Michael, the Archangel, with jewelled nimbus and expanded wings, holding open the Book of Life, in reference no doubt to this manuscript which we are about to investigate. As a balance to the Archangel, on the extreme right of the picture is an evil spirit, winged, hurrying two of the condemned spirits, a man and a woman, away, and gripping their shoulders with his claws. The opposite leaf shows two personages intently gazing on this scene of the Last Judgment. The one to the right is tonsured, and has the nimbus, and wears chasuble, alb, and stole enriched with embroidery: in the right hand he carries a book; in the left a cross upon a long staff. The figure may be intended for a sainted archbishop, or perhaps for St. Benedict. The other figure has the nimbus, plain vestments, ornamented stole, and in his right hand a book. It has been conjectured that one of these figures appears to represent Æthelgar or Ælgar, first abbot of New Minster (A.D. 965), whose nameÆLGARVS, is written to the left of them in red ink. Ælgar was afterwards successively Bishop of Selsey and Archbishop of Canterbury. In the third or lowest division the Archangel Michael, with wings and nimbus, is locking the gate of hell again. Hell's mouth gapes widely open on the right, and Satan is thrusting two wicked souls in, having grasped them by the hair. In the centre, in the foreground, lies another of the lost ones, supine, upon the ground, with the claw of the infernal king's foot fixed in his leg. On the extreme right two draped figures are falling into the abysmal jaws of perdition. Passing over, for the present, articles 1 and 2, which will be taken into account in their proper chronological order, the third article, which treats of the construction of New › Catal. of a Selection from the Stowe MSS. in the Brit. Mus., 1883, p. 15. Minster, demands our first consideration. It is very explicit, and from its origin and surroundings claims the fullest and clearest acceptance. From it we gather that the monastery was founded in honour of the Holy Trinity and Indivisible Unity, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The dedication of this abbey appears to be very contradictorily recorded in various documents, as is shown by the following table: DEDICATION OF NEW MINSTER. Holy Trinity, the Unity, and St. Mary ... ... A.D. 903 ... between A.D. 925 and 941 A.D. 940 A.D. 959 Holy Trinity A.D. 982 see Cartul. Saxon., No. 1000. see Cartul. Saxon., No. 1045see Cartul. Saxon., No. 1190. (Illumination.) ibid. (text). Liber de Hyda, p. 217. before A.D. 1010 Kemble, Cod. Dipl., No. DCCXXII. St. Saviour," Salvator cosmi," c. A.D. 1020 ... ... DEDICATION OF HYDE ABBEY. Holy Trinity, St. Peter, and St. Grimbald Henry I see p. 31. see p. 196. time of Henry I C. A.D. 1220 St. Peter see p. 291. Rp. V, p. 322. see p. 292. But the Cathedral or Old Minster is clearly indicated as being dedicated to the Holy Trinity in A.D. 934, Cartul. Saxon., No. 705; and at the renewal of the Cathedral by King Æthelstan he says "in nomine Sancte Trinitatis renovo," A.D. 937, Cartul. Saxon., No. 713. The beginning of the foundation was in this wise. King Eaduuard,1 son of King Alfred, having overcome the 1 A.D. 901-925. 2 But this must be taken with the record In Harley MS. 261, fol. 1076., “Novum Monasterium Wyntonie: Anno domini DCCCmo XCVI Rex Alfredus Wyntonie novum monasterium fundavit in qua ipse postea traditus sepulture." It is remarkable that there is no reference to New Minster in King Alfred's will. 4 2 enemies of the kingdom, seeks to achieve the spiritual improvement of his country, and acquires from the Bishop of Winchester a private property in land sufficient to contain a monastery properly adapted for royal uses. The bishop sells to the king land amounting to three acres and three virgates at a good price, viz., at the rate of one mancus of refined gold for each pace. The boundaries given in Liber de Hyda are, however, not very intelligible.3 Later on he proceeds to invite, among other foreign personages of prominent sanctity, Grimbald, of St. Berhtin's monastery of Thérouanne near St. Omer, to preside over the secular clergy, after whose death numberless heavenly manifestations are wrought in proof of his virtues. The Anglo-Saxon chronicle, one copy of which was evidently prepared in New Minster Abbey, records that in A.D. 903, "þys ylcan geares pas gehalgod Nipemynster on Pincester and S. Judoces cyme."-" This same year was the consecration of the New Minster at Winchester and St. Judoc's coming." 5 Edwards points out that Alfred may have established Grimbald to be the head of some temporary religious house, as a preliminary step towards the foundation of the intended monastery, but this is not supported by the Liber de Hyda; and he points to the passage in some copies of William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum, where the phrase " in famosa civitate Wenta. . . facto interim monasteriolo," etc., occurs, which gives the clue to the error, so frequently 1 According to the Liber de Hyda, p. 51, Ælfred had bought land for a chapel and dormitory, and left instructions to Eaduuard to complete the projected monastery. 2 p. 4. 3 cf. the charter of which a fragment still remains in the Register, p. 155. 4 See the Letter of Fulco, Archbishop of Rheims, recommending Grimbald, sacerdos et monachus, to the king, about A. D. 885, in Cartul. Saxon., No. 555. 58 Id. Jul., A.D. 903, A.S. Chron., ad an. The Liber de Hyda gives many details of Grimbald's history, his exhortation to Eadward for the fulfilment of his father's purpose, etc. Claud. c. ix; Harl. MS. 261. repeated, that attributes to Alfred both the foundation and building of New Minster. Alfred's share was simply the purchase of the site immediately before his death; the imparting to Grimbald his intention of building the monastery, and (on death supervening and preventing his carrying out this object) his desire that his son and successor should carry it out. Eaduuard having completed and adorned his monastery, translated the remains of his father-which had lain, awaiting sepulture, in the Old Minster-in a shrine of his own erecting, wherein lie buried also the remains of his mother Ealhsuuyd, foundress of Nunnaminster.2 Thither, too, certain religious men, i.e. monks, of Ponthieu had conveyed the relics of St. Judoc the confessor, which were received with pious joy by the clergy and a large concourse of the faithful. Eaduuard's death took place on 16th of the kalends of August (17 July), A.D. 925, and he lies buried on the right side of the altar, where the tombs of his parents were situated. His sons, deluuard and Ælfuuerd, who never came to the throne, lie there also, cut off by a premature death; the former while Clito, or heir-apparent to the king, the latter "regalibus infulis redimitus": a phrase perhaps expressing that he had been associated with his father in the kingly dignity. The chronicler here passes over the reign of Athelstan (A.D. 925 to 940), natural son of the king, and perhaps the most shining light of Anglo-Saxon times, after Alfred. This is an unaccountable oversight, for the world-renowned 1 The monks declared that the king's ghost returned to his body at night and wandered about, and this determined Eadward to remove his father's body to New Minster," pro deliramento canonum dicentium regios manes, resumpto cadavere, noctibus per domos oberrare, filius ejus Edwardus genitoris ossa tulit et in Novo Monasterio posuit," Liber de Hyda, pp. 61, 62, 76. 2 See the Nunna-mynster Codex, pp. 5, 6. 3 See the list of Filii Regum, p. 14. |