270 Cathedral Life and Work at Sarum in Olden Times. 



ecclesiastical districts under the name of c parishes/ These parishes 

 were thus the ' colonies 3 which the cathedral, as their mother 

 Church, founded. The parallel between them and the c colonia 3 and 

 ' metropolis 3 of still more ancient times was complete ; and hence the 

 same terms have been rhetorically, if not technically, applied to them."' 



A grand conception this assuredly ! It carries us back, of course, 

 to a period earlier than even Bishop Osmund's first cathedral at Old 

 Sarum, but its leading principle was carried out in his foundation 

 of secular canons nevertheless. Men often talk of the life of de- 

 votion as the highest type of earthly perfection, and yet surely earnest 

 life and work in the world in behalf of others, though it may have 

 less sentiment, has as much reality about it. Surely that, after 

 all, is the highest type of life, which, living for others, is as a "light 

 shining in a dark place 33 ; which dares to be holy amid unholiness ; 

 which is ever witnessing for its Master before the froward and un- 

 believing. And this is the grand ideal that Osmund had before him 

 in his cathedral and his band of secular canons — the former, a " city 

 set on a hill," which could not be hid, the spiritual home of all 

 committed to his charge, the latter, the under-shepherds, whose 

 task it was to gather them within the church's fold ; — now inter- 

 ceding for them in the prayers and praises that rose up as incense 

 night and day — now teaching them, in their several parishes, the 

 principles of the christian faith and the practice of a holy life. 



But we must go a little more into detail, and describe the work 

 of the cathedral, and the duties of its canons. This we shall do 

 the more conveniently, by speaking of what was carried on, first of 

 all, in the cathedral itself ; and then, secondly, in the diocese generally. 



I. As regards the cathedral itself, we may say that at the be- 

 ginning of the thirteenth century there were no less than fifty -three 

 canons 1 — including the Bishop, who was also a canon and held a 

 distinct prebend as appurtenant to his dignity, in order that he 

 might never be excluded from the meetings of chapter — and the 

 like number of vicars. Of course the number of prebends was also 

 fifty-three, for it was a fundamental rule from the beginning that, 



1 The number was fifty-three only for a short time. It was soon reduced to 

 fifty-two, and remained so for some centuries. 



