RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



stock, 8 in Toller Whelme, in ' Wegencesfunte ' 

 and Alton 30 hides, in ' Crutesdune ' 36 hides 

 and ' Wytecumbe ' and ' Wluene ' ; King Offa 

 Potterne with its appurtenances ; King Egbert 

 10 hides near Cerne, &c.; King Sigeberht 5 hides 

 in ' Boselington ' and 7 in EastCann ; King Ine 

 gave 7 hides near ' Predian ' and in ' Conbus- 

 burie ' 20 hides ; King Geroncius gave 5 hides 

 in ' Macnir by Thamar ' ; King JEthehed gave 

 * Atforde ' and ' Clethangre,' and gave and re- 

 stored Corscombe in ohlatum, which Canute 

 afterwards restored.* It is recorded in addition 

 to these grants ' that King ^thelstan by charter 

 gave to the famil'ia at Sherborne land at Brad- 

 ford Abbas on condition that they should say 

 psalms and masses for the redemption of his soul 

 on the feast of All Saints,^ and at Weston with 

 the stipulation that they should pray for his soul 

 and the soul of Beorhtwulf the earl ; ' about the 

 year 903 King Eadred granted to Bishop Wulf- 

 sige 8 carucates of land at Thornford, with the 

 reversion of the estate on his death to the 

 monastery.* 



In the ninth century the abbey seems to have 

 shared with VVimborne the honour of giving 

 burial to the kings and bishops of Wessex. The 

 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle states that King iEthel- 

 bald was buried here in 860, and jEthelbert, 

 who succeeded him, in 866." Leland, writing 

 in the sixteenth century, says the two kings were 

 buried ' yn a place behinde the highe altare of 

 S. Marie chirche, but ther now be no tumbes, 

 nor no writing of them sene.' " In 867, after 

 he had held the bishopric ' fifty winters,' died 

 Bishop Ealhstan, ' of great power in worldly 

 affairs and eminent in counsel,' who took a per- 

 sonal share in the wars of Egbert, and by his 

 example and generosity inspired king and people 

 to continue the struggle against the Danes ; " 

 •'his body lies in the town.'^^ 



* Cott. MS. Faust. A. ii, fol.23. 



' The charters of the monks include one by Cenwalch 

 of Wessex, 643-72, granting various privileges to the 

 pontifical see at Sherborne and the community there ; 

 it is witnessed, however by Laurentinus, archbishop of 

 Canterbury, who died in 619, and of more than 

 doubtful authenticity ; Birch, Cart. Sax. i, 46. 



' Ibid, ii, 392. 



' Ibid, ii, 394. 



° Ibid, iii, 52. Hutchins in addition cites (Hist, of 

 Dorset, iv, 228) two charters by King .(Ethelwulf, the 

 first dated in 841, reciting a grant in perpetual alms 

 of I 5 cassates of land in the place c.illed ' Halganstoc ' 

 (Halstock) ' for the honour of God and love of St. 

 Michael the archangel, whose church remains in the 

 said little monastery, to Eadberth the deacon for his 

 faithful service there; the other recording the grant in 

 844 of 2 cassates of land in a place called ' Osanstoc ' 

 for the redemption of the soul of King ^thelwulfand 

 the souls of his sons ./Ethelbald and ./Ethelbert. 

 ' Atigl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 129, 130. 



'° Itinerary, ii, 48. 



" Jngl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 1 20-1. 



" Ibid, i, 132. 



The reconstruction of the house and the sub- 

 stitution of monks for the secular canons, who 

 had occupied it for nearly two centuries, took 

 place in the reign of jEthelred by the agency of 

 Bishop Wulfsige, 992-1001." The king's 

 charter, dated 998, recites that by the persuasion 

 of Archbishop JEAfric and the advice of his 

 nobles he has licensed the bishop to ordain and 

 institute a rule of monks in the monastery of 

 Sherborne according to the constitution of St. 

 Benedict, and enacts that none of the bishop's 

 successors should in consequence usurp the tem- 

 poral possessions of the monks, but as shepherds, 

 and not tyrants nor with wolfish rapacity, should 

 govern according to pastoral authority and for 

 the benefit of the community, while any question 

 creating discord between the shepherd and the 

 flock should be referred to the archbishop, who 

 should advise the king as to any necessary amend- 

 ments ; and whereas it was not usual to consti- 

 tute an abbot in the episcopal see, the bishop in 

 virtue of his office should be abbot and father to 

 the brethren, who should be obedient to him as 

 sons and live as monks, in chastity, humility, 

 and subjection.^* The charter of Bishop Wulf- 

 sige declares that having expelled the clerks in 

 pursuance of the king's order, he has ordained and 

 constituted worthy (sapientes) monks in their 

 place in the church of St. Mary of Sherborne, 

 and restored to them the lands and possessions or 

 those who from the beginning served in this 

 holy place to the praise and glory of God, to- 

 gether with a carucate of land in the vill of 

 Sherborne, the tithe of the bishopric and every 

 tenth field in the whole of the said vill, and 

 24 cart-loads of wood yearly.^* 



On comparing the estates confirmed to the 

 reconstituted house by King jEthelred, at the 

 close of the tenth century, with the lands in the 

 possession of the monks in the return of io86, 

 it will be found that the monastery had passed 

 through the social and political changes follow- 

 ing the Norman Conquest without incurring any 

 serious territorial loss or deprivation.^^ The 

 possessions enumerated in the confirmation 

 charter of .^thelred in 998 consist of a hundred 

 fields in a place called Stockland in Sherborne 

 itself, with the estate {praedium) of the monastery 

 as Bishop Wulfsige had inclosed it with hedges 

 and ditches ; 9 cassates of land in a place called 

 ' Holancumb,' 15 in Halstock, 7 in Thornford, 

 10 in Bradford, 5 in Oborne, 8 in Weston, 20 

 in Stalbridge, 10 in ' Wulfheardingstoke,' 8 in 

 Compton, 2 in ' Osanstoke,' and a manor near 



" Leland, Coll. iii, 150. 



" Ibid. //;■«. ii, 51, 52. "Ibid. 



"^ The omission of Halstock in the Domesday 

 Survey is curious, as it was one of the earliest posses- 

 sions of the house, and is entered in the bull of Pope 

 Eugenius III in 1 14;, and remained in the possession 

 of the abbey down to the Reformation ; Hutchins, 

 Hist, of Dorset, iv, 403. 



63 



