A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



There is no sign, as Raine would have it, of a Greek r at the beginning, nor 

 of a Kol, nor is there any ' et. 



> 1 



Bishop Frithstan's Stole and Maniple 



The history of these rare and beautiful specimens of early needlework, 

 now about a thousand years old, and still almost as bright as they were when 

 they passed out of the artists' hands, is happily preserved for us on the work 

 itself For both the Stole and the Maniple bear the inscription ' Pio 

 Episcopo FriSestano,' as well as the name of the giver, '^Elffled fieri precepit.' 

 Frithstan was Bishop of Winchester from 909^ to 931, when he resigned ; 

 he died in 933. He was a man of much piety, and became a local saint. 

 iElfled was the second wife of Edward the Elder,' and died not later 

 than 916. 



This, then, gives a proximate date for this beautiful piece, and the place 

 also where it was worked. It was probably the work of the ladies of the 

 new Nunminster of Winchester, under guidance of Queen JElHed, as a tribute 

 of their affection for the saintly bishop. 



Soon after Frithstan's death. King Athelstan, son of Edward (though not 

 by Queen i'Elfled),'* was called up to the north, and as he passed through 

 Chester-le-Street ^ he worshipped at the shrine of St. Cuthbert,^ and presented 

 to the saint ' a stole and maniple ^ which St. Etheldreda gave to St. Wilfrid 

 in a small chest,' as we are told in the enumeration of relics.^ Reginald of 

 Durham also, speaking of the year 1 104, says that ' he was decorated with a 



stole and fanon their inner portions are hidden under the tunic 



and dalmatic, but the extremities (which are in sight) appear to be of most 

 costly workmanship.' ' 



The stole, which is now in five pieces, has kept much of tlie brilliancy 

 of the gold thread, and shows very skilful handling throughout. The 

 groundwork is of thread of gold — 'real gold thread' (Mr. Raine says), not 

 silver-gilt ; the figures and ornaments, inscriptions, etc., have been worked in 

 with the needle on spaces left for them ; the border on either side is woven. 



Of the stole the middle point is occupied by a e]uatrefoil enclosing the 

 Lamb of God with a nimbus. It bears also the inscription ' Agnus Dei.' 

 From this the figures descend to right and left, each with its own inscription, 

 in letters scattered on the ground so as to avoid a stifT scroll ; the whole stole 

 is decorated with full-length figures of the prophets of the Old Testament : 

 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Amos, Obadiah, Hosea, Joel, Habakkuk, Jonah, 

 Zechariah, one whose name is lost, and, lastly, Nahum. On the front of one 

 of the ends is a half-length St. John the Evangelist, and at the back ' /Elffl;cd 

 Hcri precepit,' and on the other end a half-length figure of St. Thomas with, 

 on the reverse, ' Pio episcopo Fri'Sestano.' 



The maniple is in similar work, though the details differ. In the 

 middle, here also, there is a quatrefoil in which is worked by the needle a 



• Sec R.Tinc, St. Cuthbert, 2oi, 202, particularly the plates at the end of the voliiinc. 



' Anpjo-^ax. Chron. gives date 932 as the date of his death, hut sec Sym. Dur. (Rolls Scries), ii. I 24. 



« Flora Hill. (Rolls Scries), i. 478. ♦ Ibid. 



' The shrine was there from 833 to 995. * Sfm. Dur. (Rolls Series), i. 75. 



^ Iliid., i. 211. 8 Durham /laount Rolls (Surtees Soc), ii. 433. 



• Rfg. of Dur. (Surtccs See. i.), rap. ili. 



256 



