ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY heroic struggle with the Danes, and the bishop, with others, was appointed in 992 to command the fleet which was ordered to gather at London." When the Danes ravaged East AngUa in 10 10 the body of St. Edmund was brought to London for safety and lodged in the church of St. Gregory for three years, and it was only by a miracle that it was taken back to Bury.*^ In 10 12 the body of the murdered Archbishop Alphege was brought to the City and received by Bishop JEliwm and the townsfolk with great veneration and buried in St. Paul's.*^ Next year London at last submitted to Swegen the Dane, and the bishop was sent over sea by King Ethelred as tutor of the Athelings Edward and Alfred.^" Possibly he died abroad, for early in 1 014 Elfwig was ordained Bishop of London at York," his episcopate covering the reign of Canute, a time of peace and prosperity. In 1035 Elfweard, a kins- man of Canute, was consecrated as his successor. He retained at the same time the abbey of Evesham, but appears to have been an active and holy bishop ; in 1040 the ship in which he and the other ambassadors to Flanders travelled to invite Hardicanute to be king is said to have been saved from destruction in a storm by his prayers to St. Egwin, In 1044, being stricken with leprosy, he gave up the rule of his church and died at Ramsey a few months later. ^^ His successor, Robert of Jumieges, the first Norman bishop in England and the leader of the continental party against Godwin, only retained the see until 105 I, when he was promoted to Canterbury." Spearhafoc, Abbot of Abing- don, an adherent of Godwin, was then nominated to the bishopric by the king, but the archbishop refused to consecrate him on the ground that the pope had forbidden it, and persisted in his refusal on a second application. Spearhafoc, supported by the king, took possession of the temporalities of the see and enjoyed them until the autumn. In that year the continental party at court gained for the time the upper hand, Godwin and his family were outlawed, and ' Abbot Spearhafoc was driven out of the bishopric of London and William the king's priest was ordained thereto.'" In 1052, when the national party recovered their ascendancy over the king. Bishop William and many other foreigners had to flee for their lives, but ' William on account of his goodness of heart was recalled in a short time and received back into his bishopric' " When William the Conqueror became King of England one of his earliest acts was the grant of a charter to the City, addressed to ' William Bishop and Godfregth Portreeve.' According to the immemorial tradition of the Londoners it was granted mainly in consequence of the good offices of the bishop, and in gratitude for this it was customary for many centuries for the mayor, the day after his election, to go in procession to St. Paul's and pray for WilHam's soul. After the Reformation the tomb was still visited by the mayor and aldermen, and in 1622 Mayor Barkham's 'thankful mind'
- ' Two Sax. Chron. i, 127.
- ' Richard of Cirencester, Spec. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, 357-62 ; Mem. of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), i,
40-6, I 20-5. " Two Sax. Chron. i, 142, 143 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. i, 165. " Two Sax. Chron. i, 144 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. i, 167. " Ibid. " Two Sax. Chron. i, 165 ; ii, 224 ; Chron. Abbat. Evesham (Rolls Ser.), 36, '81, 83, 85 ; Chron. Abbat. Rames. (Rolls Ser.), 148 et seq., 157, 340. Two Sax. Chron. i, 171. "Ibid. 172, 176, 177. See also Wharton, //;■//. de Ep'ts. Lond. 39; Hunt, Hist, of Engl. Ch. 597- 1066, p. 405. " Ttuo Sax. Chron. -i, 182 ; Flor. Wigorn. Chron. i, 204.
