Death of Wulfstan. January 18, 1095.
His appearance to Bishop Robert.
His burial. Jan. 22. death; he comforted his friends; he gave himself to religious exercises, causing his seat in his chamber to be so placed that he could see the altar in his chapel.[1] At last, not many days after Robert's visit, the one remaining bishop of the old stock passed away from his church and from the world. Men believed that he appeared in transitu to his friend Bishop Robert, who, as one who reconciled his episcopal virtues with skill in the affairs of the world, was now with the King at Cricklade.[2] The vision bade Robert come to his friend's burial; he came, and the ceremony took place four days after Wulfstan's death, among a mighty gathering of those who had honoured him in life. A generation later it was made a subject of complaint, a subject of rebuke to an age which, we are told, was loath to believe in signs and wonders, that so holy a man was not formally enrolled on the list of saints.[3] Aftertimes made up for this neglect. Wulfstan*
- ↑ Vit. Wlst. 267. "Magis sedens quam jacens, aures psalmis, oculos altari applicabat, sedili sic composito ut libere cerneret quicquid in capella fieret." That is, there was a squint between his bed-room and the chapel, a not uncommon arrangement, one of the best instances of which is to be seen in Beverstone Castle, in Wulfstan's diocese, though of a date long after Godwine's days and his. This use of the squint is only one of several ways for enabling the inmates, whether of houses, hospitals, or monastic infirmaries, to hear mass without going out of doors.
- ↑ The vision is recorded by William of Malmesbury in the life of Wulfstan (268), where he says that Bishop Robert was "in curia regis," and adds that he was "homo sæculi quidem fretus prudentia, sed nulla solutus illecebra." Florence says that Robert was "in oppido quod Criccelad vocatur." The inference is that the King was at Cricklade. Cricklade does not appear among the King's lordships in Wiltshire; but both he (Domesday, 65) and other lords had burgesses there, and there is an entry in 64 b about the third penny, which brought in five pounds yearly. In the Gesta Pontificum William of Malmesbury does not mention the vision; but he brings Bishop Robert to Worcester to bury Wulfstan without any such call. There is surely something a little heathenish in his description of the bishop's body lying in "Libitina ante altare."
- ↑ Gest. Pont. 289. "Profecto, si facilitas antiquorum hominum adjuvaret, jamdudum elatus in altum sanctus predicaretur, sed nostrorum incredulitas, quæ se cautelæ umbraculo exornat, non vult miraculis adhibere fidem etiamsi
