Bis/tops of Old Sarum. 



Gervase, Bishop of S. David's, was one which established the pre- 

 centorsbip there, and ordained that the office of S. Mary the Virgin 

 and that for the dead should be according to the ordinal of the 

 Church of Sarum. 1 



But now these five years are drawing to a close, and the Bishop 

 saw the new Cathedral rising from the ground. The alms of the 

 faithful were given ungrudgingly, supplementing the offerings made 

 by the Bishop and his cathedral body. For, in obedience to 

 his directions, all Priests in the diocese put dying persons in 

 mind of a charitable contribution to the cathedral, and in many 

 churches throughout England offerings were given on behalf of the 

 same good object. Hence, in the year 1225, the Bishop seeing the 

 new building sufficiently advanced to admit of divine service being 

 celebrated in it, directed William de Wanda the Dean, to cite all 

 the Canons for the Festival of S. Michael and All Ang'els then next 

 ensuing. On the previous day, which, as it happened, fell on a 

 Sunday, accompanied by Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury, and Henry de Loundres Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop 

 went in early morning and solemnly consecrated three altars, in what 

 we now call the Lady Chapel and its two side aisles — all probably 

 that was then completed of the cathedral. Entering in solemn 

 procession through S. Peter's Porch, he went first to the eastern 

 part, and there dedicated what was then the high altar, in 

 honor of the Holy and Undivided Trinity and All Saints. There, 

 henceforth, the mass of the Blessed Virgin was appointed to be 

 sung day by day, the Bishop offering for the service of that altar 

 two silver candlesticks and two silver ewers, which had been be- 

 queathed to the church by Gundreda de Warren, and also out of 

 his own property ten marks yearly to maintain lamps round the 

 same altar, and thirty marks yearly to the clerks who might from 

 time to time officiate at the said mass — the latter arising from the 



1 " Servitium etiam de Sea Maria et servitium pro def unctis fiat secundum 

 ordinale ecclesise Sarum." Of course it does not necessarily follow from these 

 words that the " Sarum use " should be the rule in other besides these two services, 

 but they prove the recognition of that " use." See Councils and Documents 

 (Haddan and Stubbs), i., 459. Harl. MS., 1249, fol. 2. 



