The tower roof thrown down. April 10. no archbishop in southern England; the rite was done by Osmund himself with the help of his two nearest episcopal neighbours, Walkelin of Winchester and John of Bath.[1] The ceremony had thus a specially West-Saxon character. The three bishops who came together at Salisbury represented the three—once four—churches, among which the old West-Saxon diocese, the diocese of Winchester, had been parted asunder.[2] But at Salisbury too, the elements, if somewhat less hostile than at Winchcombe and London, were by no means friendly. Five days only after the hallowing, the lightning fell, as at Winchcombe; the peaked roof or low spire which sheltered the tower—doubtless of wood covered with lead—was thrown down, and its fall did much damage to the walls of the new minster.[3]
A day later by a month had been fixed for another ceremony of the same kind, the crowning of the work of a prelate who seems to have wished for a more stately ceremony and a greater gathering than the almost domestic rite which had satisfied Bishop Osmund. Remigius, Almoner of Fécamp, Bishop of Dorchester, Bishop of
- ↑ Flor. Wig. 1092. "Osmundus Searesbyriensis episcopus, ecclesiam quam Searesbyriæ in castello construxerat, cum adjutorio episcoporum Walcelini Wintoniensis et Johannis Bathoniensis, nonis Aprilis feria ii. dedicavit." Cf. Will. Malms. Gest. Pont. 183. The foundation charter (Mon. Ang. vi. 1299) was signed in 1091, "Willelmo rege monarchiam totius Angliæ strenue gubernante anno quarto regni ejus, apud Hastinges"—most likely on his return from Normandy in August. The signatures come in a strange order. Between the earls and the Archbishop of York come "Signum Wlnoti. Signum Croc venatoris." Wulfnoth here turns up in the same strange way in which he so often does. Croc the huntsman we have heard of already. See above, p. 102. We get also the signatures of Howel Bishop of Le Mans, and of Robert the dispenser, who invented the surname Flambard (see below, p. 331). On the signature of Herbert Losinga, see Appendix X.
- ↑ See N. C. vol. ii. p. 606.
- ↑ Will. Malms, iv. 325. "Eadem violentia fulminis apud Salesbiriam tectum turris ecclesiæ omnino disjecit, multamque maceriam labefactavit, quinta sane die postquam eam dedicaverat Osmundus, præclaræ memoriæ episcopus."
