234 



Recent Milteljm ^ooh, 'f amyljets, aiii ^ttick^. 



The Canonization of Saint Osmund from the Manu- 

 script Records in the Muniment Room of 

 Salisbury Cathedral, Edited with an Intro- 

 duction, Notes, and Appendices by A. R. Maiden, 



M.A., Chapter Clerk. Salisbury: Bennett Brothers, 1901. 

 Cloth. Royal 8vo. Published by the Wilts Record Society. Pp. xxxiv., 

 267. 



Osmund succeeded Hermann in 1078 as the second Bishop of Old Sarum, 

 where he built the greater part of the Cathedral, formed a Cathedral 

 Chapter of Secular Canons, and according to tradition arranged the 

 services known as the " Use of Sarum." His memory was highly 

 venerated from a very early period. Bishop Richard Poore in 1228 

 presented to Pope Gregory IX. a petition for his canonization, which led 

 to no result. Bishop Ralph Erghum, a century and a half later repeated 

 the petition, again without result. But in 1417 Bishop Hallam pi-esented 

 a third petition, and Dean Chandler summoned a chapter for the express 

 purpose of pressing forward the claim. The sermon preached on this 

 occasion in the Chapter House by Richard Ullerston, S.T.P., is printed 

 in full in the Appendix, from the original MS. in his own hand preserved 

 in the Muniment Room. Eventually the canons agreed to pay one- 

 tenth of their income, as well as the entrance fees of new canons, towards 

 the expenses of the canonization, which amounted by the time the 

 business was finally completed, after endless delays and negociations in 

 1457, to .£731 13*. — equivalent to about .£10,000 of our money. In 

 1424 three cardinals, under a commission from the Pope, began the 

 examination of the evidence, which included a record of evidence taken 

 before a former commission as to miracles wrought through the merits 

 of St. Osmund, preserved in the archives of the Cathedral. The whole 

 of the Latin records of these proceedings, together with the further 

 evidence given by witnesses of miracles at the tomb of Bishop Osmund, 

 are printed in full in the body of tlie book, together with a series of letters 

 partly in Latin and partly in English, dealing with the progress or non- 

 progress of the negociations through a long series of years, with the continual 

 demand for money to carry the business forward. Of all this Mr. Maiden 

 gives an admirable abstract in his introduction — the most generally 

 interesting part of which is that dealing with the evidence given by a 

 large number of witnesses of miracles of healing, &o., wrought either at 

 the tomb of Bishop Osmund in the Cathedral, or in answer to prayers to 

 him. The evidence of these witnesses is most curious. Amongst the 

 cures are mentioned cases of rupture and paralysis, more than a hundred 



