By the Rev. J. E. Jackson. 



another church dedicated to St. Mary ; but that of the 

 " Holy Saviour, Peter and Paul," continued to be the 

 " Caput loci." Aldhelm also built, contiguous to St. 

 Mary's a smaller church or chapel in honour of St. 

 Michael. Of this chapel of St. Michael, William of 

 Malmesbury who died about A.D. 1143 says that 

 some traces only were visible in his time : but that 

 the spacious structure of the larger church (St. Mary's) 

 lasted down to his own time, " in all its glory and 

 uncontaminated by alteration : " [" Celebris et illibata, 

 nostro quoque perstitit a?vo "] : and that in size and 

 beauty it exceeded any of the ancient religious edifices 

 of England. (Gale, II,, 349.) The Historian tells a 

 wonderful story of a certain beam which at the build- 

 ing of St. Mary's by Aldhelm had been miraculously 

 lengthened, and afterwards was alone preserved 

 through two fires that destroyed the whole Monastery 

 in the reigns of Alfred and Edward. (Gale, II., 350.) 

 According to this, the roof at any rate of the Church 

 of St. Mary's must have been twice destroyed between 

 the time of Aldhelm and that of the Historian : but 

 the body of the church must have escaped injury, 

 unless the Historian is very inconsistent with himself, 

 for he had stated (above) that Aldhelm's Church of 

 St. Mary was standing " unaltered " in his time. 



709. Aldhelm dies and is buried in St. Michael's Chapel. 



The Monks, in order to be closer to the place of his 

 interment, remove their services from the Church of 

 the Holy Saviour, Peter and Paul, to St. Mary's 

 Church : but nevertheless the Church of the Holy 

 Saviour, continued even long after this time, to be re- 

 garded as the " Caput loci : " as is proved in a grant 

 from King Alfred A.D. 892. (Gale, II., 358.) 



823-858. Ethelwulf, King of Wessex (who resigned his crown 

 and became a monk) made a silver shrine to contain 



