74 
THE MONKS OF MARMOUTIER. 
times to destroy that Church. I hope, if ever they are re¬ 
peated, that this Society will lead the way in protesting 
against the vandalism. 
I have already referred to the fact that my parishioners 
regard me as omnivorous with reference to churches and other 
properties connected at any time with the Priory. Now I do 
not in the least plead guilty of the charge, and I trust I never 
claim anything for which I have not clear proof. There is one 
Church said to have belonged to the Priory that I will not 
have at any price—because it never existed ! That was the 
Church of S. Bridget, York. It was one of York’s so-called 
“ ancient churches” according to all published lists. It is 
mentioned by Drake, by Sir Thomas Widdrington, Lawton, 
and everybody who has written on the ecclesiastical antiquities 
of York ; but unfortunately all they say about it is that its site 
even is unknown, and nothing whatever is recorded of it except 
that it was in Micklegate. 
Now I was very anxious to know something of this 
mysterious Church, and determined to run it to earth if 
it were possible. I found out the papal bull in which it 
was mentioned, and on the authority of which Drake and 
others included it among York’s ancient Churches, and 
there in the “ bull ” it was—ecclesia S. Brig.” This docu¬ 
ment puzzled me in another way, for it did not refer to the 
Church of S. Gregory in Micklegate, which did undoubtedly 
belong to Holy Trinity at that time. “ How was it” I asked 
myself, “ that it mentioned S. Bridget’s, never before heard of, 
and did not refer to S. Gregory’s which was one of the Priory 
possessions ? Could they be two names for one and the same 
Church ? ” I had a correspondence with the Bodleian Library 
in Oxford, with the British Museum, and with the Records 
Office to see if I could learn anything of the original of the 
papal bull, or of the copy that Dodsworth made, and at last I 
discovered, not the original, and not Dodsworth’s copy, but 
the one that he made his copy from, and this was what I 
found: It was the Church of “ Sancti Brig.” that the bull 
mentioned, Sancti notice, genitive, masculine. Evidently 
“ Brig.” was the name of a masculine saint, and it could not 
therefore have been Bridget. The rest was plain. Everybody 
