Durham Cathedral, by Rev. William Greenwell. G5 



■within it. He liad no estates or means of subsistence apart from 

 the whole community. His interests and those of the rest of the 

 congregation were one. This state of things was altered, as I 

 have said, after the Conquest by Bishop William of St. Oarilef , 

 who was the second Bishop appointed by William the First. 

 Walcher, the first Norman Bishop, having reigned only a short 

 time when he was killed by his own people at Gateshead, during 

 a rebellion caused by the oppression of his officials. In 1081, 

 William of St. Carilef was made Bishop. He was a Benedictine 

 brought up in one of the great monastic houses in his own 

 country, Normandy. Naturally enough, such an establishment 

 of married clergy as that he found at Durham, must have been 

 most distasteful to him. He had been a Benedictine monk him- 

 self, and he therefore preferred being surrounded by those of 

 his own order and not by those of whose system he disapproved. 

 In the time of Bishop Walcher, the ancient monasteries at 

 Jarrow and Wearmouth were deserted. Both of these churches 

 still contain parts which are probably as old as any in this 

 country, and I would strongly urge any of you who have not 

 already been to Jarrow and Wearmouth, to visit these two places, 

 which possess the highest interest whether they are regarded 

 ecclesiastically or with reference to their architectural features. 

 They had been deserted by the monks in consequence of the 

 Danish invasions. It is difficult to say how long they remained 

 without inhabitants, but they were probably more or less occupied 

 during the interval. However this may have been. Bishop 

 Walcher placed there Benedictine monks from Winchcombe and 

 Evesham ; and Bishop Carilef, thinking there were not sufficient 

 means for the maintenance of more than one monastery, brought 

 the monks from Jarrow and Wearmouth to Durham, and founded 

 a Benedictine house here, but before that he had dispossessed 

 the secular clergy. At that time the Church of Ealdhun was 

 still standing, and it is uncertain whether Carilef determined 

 from the first to build a new church for the new order. He be- 

 came a party to the rebellion against William Eufus, in 1088, 

 and was driven an exile for three years into Normandy, and 

 there, it may be, he conceived the design of replacing the old 

 church by a new and more magnificent building, and it is 

 possible that he may have brought with him, from that country, 

 the plan of the very church in which we are now met. 



I 



