VOL. xvni. (3) EXCURSION-CIRENCESTER 213 



to the bold and artistic ideas of those entrusted with the work A plan of 

 he foundations of the Abbey Chureh that existed until the dissolntion of the 

 Monastery in 1535 was shown, disclosing the interesting fact that side by side 

 with the Parish Church once stood a Norman Abbey Church like Tewkesbury, 

 1^ length equal to Bristol Cathedral, with a lofty central Tower At the cap- 

 ture of the Town by Prince Rupert in 1642 he put his prisoners into the Church 

 and then it was that the valuable glass windows were broken by friends of the 

 prisoners in order to convey food and water to them. 



Next the party walked to the adjacent Abbey grounds, where a fine capital 

 of a Roman pillar was seen. Mr Bowly was invited ^ say somethmg about 

 ?his example of Roman sculpture, but had to confess that nothmg was known 

 and as M? St. Clair Baddeley did not essay to recreate the column in its 

 ■ pristine grandeur and give it a local habitation and a name. Members had to 

 be content with what they saw. — [W.T.] 



Mr Sewell had prepared a paper upon the Abbey which he read as 

 follows : — T, ■ • u 



In 577, at the battle of Dyrham, the Saxons defeated the three British 

 Kings and their three cities of Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath were taken. 

 S the defeated British were driven into Wales. Almost simultaneously 

 Sh this (A.D. 597) Augustine with a band of monks arrived from Rome, and 

 Commenced, with the p?otection of King Ethelbert, King of Kent to propa^ 

 aate the Christian faith. About 680. Ethelred is said to have founded at 

 Worcester a CoUege of secular canons, and to have constituted it as a Cathedral 

 Ta otcese comprising the district within the modern ^--f^f-.TZf^e 

 Warwick and Gloucester. These secular canons generally lived, for the sake 

 of protection under the same roof as the Bishop or head of their college; 

 unlike the Monks, they were frequently married men, and were not subject to 

 the monasticTife Bedsides the Cathedral Church at Worcester the following 

 impotent religious houses were founded in Saxon times withm the diocese of 

 Worcester- The College of Secular Canons, afterwards a Benedictme 

 Monastery, at Gloucester; the Benedictine Monastery at Tewksbury. 

 the like at Winchcombe ; and lastly, in the reign of Kmg Egbert (828-836), 

 the Collegiate College of Secular Canons at Cirencester by Alwyn Jt would 

 be most iSy in the Chapter House of the Collegiate Church that Kmg 

 Ethelred held the Synodal Council (A.D. 991-92) which dispossessed Alnc, 

 the son of the Duke of Mercia, of his estates, and banished him his realm 

 and in the same building that Canute, at Easter, 1020, held the Witenagemote 

 which outlawed Ethelward and Edwy. The importance ^^ Cirencester College 

 is indicated bv the appointment by Edward the Confessor of Reimbold as 

 s Dean abouf 1050, Ld by his continuance in the office until after the com- 

 pYlatfon of the Domesday Book 36 years later. Henry I- ascended the Throne 

 in the last year (iioo) of the century that had witnessed the Conquest of Eng- 

 and by hil father, and reigned during more than one third of the century 

 succeeding. By him and his successors or under their auspices severa 

 AuKUstinian Monasteries were founded, and in some cases as in that of 

 arfncester upon the foundation of a Collegiate Church of Secular Canons, 

 whose churches, lands and charters were presented to the new mstitution, 

 respect of course, being paid to the then existmg hfe mterests of the pre- 

 bends In 1 1 17 Henry I commenced to restore and enlarge on an extensive 

 scale the church and conventual buildings of the Secular Canons and upon 

 completion of the work fourteen years later, dissolved the ancient collegiate 

 institution and conferred its charters and possessions with many other addi- 

 tional lands and privileges upon the regular Canons of St^ Augustine^ The 

 new Monastery was opened by the King in person, and Serio, the fourth Dean 

 of Sarum. was appointed the first Abbot. The Abbey was dedicated m 

 Novembe;, 1176, in the presence of Henry II., the grandson of the founder, 



