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Edington Church. 



of the Garter, an honour which has descended to the successive 

 Bishops of Winchester. He also became Treasurer to the King, 

 and in 1357 was promoted to be Lord Chancellor of England. In 

 1366 he was elected to the highest dignity to which an English 

 Churchman could aspire, viz,, to the Metropolitan See of Canter- 

 bury; this, however, he declined to accept. Authors are divided as 

 to his reasons for the refusal, one ascribing it to his humility, another 

 to his advanced age (he died afc the latter end of the year, 7th 

 October, 1366), whilst a third attributed it to motives of avarice, 

 stating that he used the following expression, which has become 

 known as a Winchester proverb : — " Though Canterbury is the 

 highest rack, yet Winchester is the deepest manger." His works of 

 charity and other benefactions during his lifetime prove, however, 

 that he was not an avaricious man. 



The chantry contains the tomb and figure of the bishop in full 

 pontificals, but without a pastoral staff. The mitre is half broken 

 off, and the precious stones have been torn from it. On the vest- 

 ment is a very curious and rare emblem called a Fylfot, or Suastika ; 

 this is of a peculiar cruciform shape, which has been found on 

 military and ecclesiastical decorations in England and on Eastern 

 coins. On a bishop's vestment it is stated by one of the best 

 authorities to signify perfect submission to the will of God, and as 

 a religious symbol it seems to represent, under all circumstances, 

 one yielding on the knee, and there is no reason why it should not 

 have been a symbol of submission in the religious faiths of the 

 ancient world as well as in Christianity. Much has been written 

 on it in Emile Burnon's Sanscrit Lexicon, and also by Dr. Schliemann, 

 Professor Max Miiller, and others. A paper was read at the Society 

 of Antiquaries showing that it was a religious symbol among the 

 earlier Aryan races, and was intended by them, in the first instances 

 to represent, in a cruciform, an ideograph or symbol suggested by 

 forked lightning. It is well shown by our letter z, two of which, 

 crossing one another in the middle, admirably represent the ordinary 

 device known by the names of the gammadion, croix-pattet, fylfot 

 and suastika. 



The bishop was born at Edington, in Wiltshire. The Church of 



