A HISTORY OF DORSET 



According to Leland she was buried on the 

 north side of the presbytery, but afterwards 

 translated to the east end of the high altar of 

 the church,* which was subsequently re-dedicated 

 in her honour.' 



With St. Cuthburga is frequently associated 

 as co-foundress her sister St. Cuenburh or Quin- 

 burga, also said to have been buried in this 

 church,* and who, if we accept her identification 

 with abbess Cneuburga — the joint author of a 

 letter addressed to Atjbot Coengils of Glaston- 

 bury, Abbot Ingeld, and the priest Wiethberht 

 agreeing to a proposal for mutual intercessory 

 prayer and asking in particular ' that remem- 

 brance may be had of our dead sisters,' — prob- 

 ably succeeded to the rule of the monastery on 

 the death of the first abbess.' The Eta to 

 whom reference is made in the same letter may 

 possibly be identified with Tetta the venerable 

 abbess, said to be a sister of iEthelheard, the 

 kinsman and successor of King Ine, who soon 

 after became superior of the monastery and was 

 responsible for the religious training and educa- 

 tion of the sisters Lioba and Agatha, destined to 

 carry abroad the benefits of the instruction they 

 had received while under the care of ' that 

 devout mother.' 



A great proof of the perfection of monastical dis- 

 cipline observed after the death of the foundress in 

 her monastery is this : (again quoting Cressy) that 

 St. Boniface the glorious apostle of the Germans, 

 having founded a monastery of virgins at Biscofisheim 

 in Germany made choice of her disciples above all 

 others, and particularly of St. Lioba, to plant religious 

 observances there. This is testified bv Rodulphus, 

 disciple of Rabanus Maurus, in the life of Lioba 

 written by him.'" 



St. Lioba died in a monastery near Mainz, 

 28 September, 757. 



Besides the nunnery there appears to have 

 been a monastery or ' cloister of monks ' at 

 Wimborne, built either by St. Cuthburga or her 

 brother King Ine, strict regulations being laid 

 •down prohibiting any intercourse between the 

 two sections of religious men and religious 

 women. 



Excepting priests who were to serve at the altar, no 

 men should be permitted to enter the monastery of 

 those religious virgins, nor any woman that of reli- 

 gious men. And that among the other obligations of 

 the virgins at their profession this was one, never to 

 step out of their cloister except upon a necessary' 

 .cause to be approved by superiors." 



° Leland, Itin. iii, 72 ; Collect, ii, 409. 



' The church occurs under this dedication ; Clo^e, 

 14 Hen. IV', m. 28,2'. 



' John of Tinemouth, ' Hist. Aurea,' Hickes, 

 'Th'saur. iii, 120. 



° H.iddan and Stubbs, Councils and Eccl. Doc. iii, 

 342-3. She died three years after her sister, says 

 Cressy, and is commemorated on 22 September ; Ch. 

 Hist. o/Bnt. lih. xxi, cap. 18. 



"> Ibid. " Ibid. 



We are told in her life given by Mabillon that 

 St. Lioba '^ was fond of citing the example set 

 by her former superior. Abbess Tetta of Wim- 

 borne, who presided over the houses of both 

 men and women as over a double monastery, 

 and whose observance of this regulation was so 

 strict ' that she would not so much as permit 

 the bishop's entrance ' in the women's section." 



References to Wimborne in the ninth and 

 tenth centuries afford ample proof of the import- 

 ance of the town and the veneration paid to its 

 Minster during the Saxon period. It was select- 

 ed as the burial-place of King jEthelred, who 

 died in 87 I in consequence of wounds received in 

 the battle fought against the Danes at Merton.^* 

 The yinglo-Saxon Chronicle recording the death 

 of king Sigferth, who killed himself in 962, adds, 

 ' his body lies at Wimborne.' " 



Again, Wimborne was the centre of events 

 attending the accession to the throne of Edward 

 the Elder in 901, for .iEthelwold, son of 

 j^lthelbert, an elder brother of Alfred, disputing 

 tiie title of his cousin and relying on some 

 measure of popular support for his own claim, 

 seized the royal towns of Oxeley or Christchurch 

 (Hants) and Wimborne, and investing the latter 

 place with such troops as he could muster 

 resolved to stand a siege, declaring that there ' he 

 would either live or lie.' To the injury more- 

 over of whatever cause he might possess, he 

 forcibly abducted an inmate of the famous 

 monastery ' without leave of the king and con- 

 trary to the bishop's ordinance, for she was a pro- 

 fessed nun,' and made her his wife. King 

 Edward meanwhile raising a powerful army for 

 the defence of his kingdom and the vindication 

 of religion marched into Dorset, and encamped 

 at a place called Bad bury, where there was a 

 castle at no great distance from Wimborne. 

 The courage of .iEthelwold then apparently 

 deserted him and he fled away by night and 

 came to Northumbria, where he joined himself 

 to the Danes and besought them to receive him 

 into their company to fight against King 

 Edward, being soon after made king by them. 

 Edward the Elder in the meantime relinquishing 

 the pursuit of the enemy contented himself with 

 receiving the submission of the town, ordering 

 the religious woman who had been abandoned 

 by iEthelwold in his flight to be sent back to her 

 nunnery.'' 



A blank in the history of Wimborne succeeds, 

 and it is generally conjectured that the monastery 



" Acta Sanctorum Ord. S. Benedicti, Sacculum, iii 

 (2), 247- 



" Ibid. See Cressy, Ch. Hist, of Brit. lib. xxiv, cap. 4. 



" Anglo-Sax. Ckron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 62 ; Matt, of 

 Westm. Fiores Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 444. 



" Anglo-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 92. 



'' Ibid. 75 ; Matt, of Westm. Fiores Hist. (Rolls 

 Ser.), i, 478 ; Matt. Paris, Ckron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), 

 i, 435-6. 



108 



