The Cathedral Church of Peterborough eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about The Cathedral Church of Peterborough.

The Cathedral Church of Peterborough eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 137 pages of information about The Cathedral Church of Peterborough.

He was succeeded at Burgh by =Kenulf= (992-1005).  He is described as famous for his wisdom and learning, and as having governed his abbey “most admirably and sweetly.”  In 1005 he was made Bishop of Winchester, not without suspicion of a corrupt purchase (episcopatum nummis nundinatus fuerat), and died the following year.

The next Abbot, =Elsinus= (1006-1055), was remarkable chiefly for the number of relics he collected, designing thereby to increase the fame and wealth of the monastery.  Dean Patrick thinks that before Elsinus there was an abbot named KINSINUS, whose name he found in one record; but he adds that if he were really abbot it could at most have been for a few days or months.  The list of relics gathered together by Elsinus is extensive.  At least eighty are enumerated.  It speaks volumes for the credulity of the age when we find in this list such things as the following:—­A portion of Aaron’s rod that budded; a portion of one of the five loaves that fed the five thousand; a shoulder-blade of one of the Holy Innocents; two pieces of the Virgin Mary’s veil; part of the stone paten of the Evangelist S. John.  The great relic of the house was the arm of S. Oswald.  The date when this was acquired is not certainly known, some thinking that this period is too early a date to assign to its acquisition.  Bede relates[30] “that this Oswald, King of Northumberland, was very free and liberal in giving of alms to the poor; and one day whilst he sate at meat, one of his servants told him of a great number of poor people come to his gate for relief; whereupon King Oswald sent them meat from his own table, and there not being enough to serve them all, he caused one of his silver dishes to be cut in pieces, and to be distributed amongst the rest; which Aydanus, a Bishop (who came out of Scotland to convert, and instruct those Northern parts of England), beholding, took the King by the right hand, saying, nunquam inveterascat haec manus, let this hand never wax old, or be corrupted; which came to pass.  This arm was first deposited at Bamburgh, a religious place in Yorkshire.[31] Walter of Whittlesey writing the story thereof, tells that it was brought to the monastery of Burgh by Winegotus of Bebeberch, but saith not when, therefore I cannot conjecture better than that it was by the procurement of this Abbot Elsinus.  It is said that this arm wrought many cures upon several diseased folk; and that it was of such fame in the days of King Stephen, as that he himself came to Peterburgh purposely to see it; and offered his ring to S. Oswald, and also remitted to the monastery the sum of forty marks wherein it was indebted unto him.”  It is specially recorded in the Chronicle that this abbot took advantage of the poverty of an abbey in Normandy, the district having been afflicted with a grievous famine, and purchased from it the body of S. Florentinus, with the exception of the head, for one hundred pounds of silver.

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The Cathedral Church of Peterborough from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.