20 WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND ITS MONUMENTS. 
companions. Bede, however, makes no mention of Westminster 
in his “ Ecclesiastical History.” 
A wonderful story is told that the church was miraculously 
“ dedicated” by the Apostle St. Peter himself. It is to be 
noticed that the writer of the ‘“‘ Monasticon” evidently knew 
nothing of the subtle distinction between the terms “ consecra- 
tion” and “ dedication,” which lately exercised the minds of the 
members of the Burton Town Council. This story of the miracu- 
lous dedication was implicitly believed in the Middle Ages, and 
the belief had great practical effect. In the time of Richard II. 
there was a controversy and lawsuit about the right of sanctuary 
at Westminster, and in the arguments on both sides the fact of 
the consecration by St. Peter is taken for granted. 
Whatever may have been the real origin of the Abbey, there is 
little reason to doubt that it existed in the time of King Offa, 
who died a.p. 794, and that it suffered a great deal at the hands 
of the Danes. Under Archbishop Dunstan it was restored, but 
only on a small scale. Edward the Confessor may be regarded 
as the true founder of the Abbey as a really important ecclesias- 
tical and national institution. It is said that during the usurpa- 
tion of the Danes he made a vow that if it should please God to 
restore him to the throne of his fathers he would go in pilgrimage 
to Rome, but that Pope Leo. IX. subsequently absolved him from 
the vow, on condition that he should expend the money intended 
for the journey in the foundation or repair of some religious 
house dedicated to St. Peter. The benefaction was accordingly 
bestowed upon Westminster Abbey. The church was finished in 
a few years, in the style of architecture which we now know as 
“Norman.” It is also stated that it was the first cruciform 
church built in England. In the Bayeux tapestry is a rude and, 
no doubt, somewhat conventional representation of this church. 
There is still one fragment of it remaining, viz., the base of one 
single three-quarter column which lies under the sanctuary floor. 
In the surrounding buildings which were part of the monastery, 
though not of the church, there remain many chambers and 
fragments of chambers of Norman work, most of them, however, 
