RELIGIOUS HOUSES HOUSE OF SECULAR CANONS I. THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. PAUL The history of the church of St. Paul has tended from its foundation to make it rather the church of a city than a national or even a diocesan church. London was the metropolis of the East Saxons,^ and the hill on which the cathedral now stands was, in some sort, the central point of London. In Anglo-Saxon times it was the meeting-place of the folkmoot, and the bell which called the people together hung in the place of the churchyard.^ Such tradition affected later custom : in 1252 the citizens swore fealty to Edward, the king's son, in St. Paul's Churchyard.^ In 604, when Augustine had ordained Mellitus bishop of London, King Ethelbert made the church of St. Paul;* and his choice of a site shows that he meant it to be the metropolitan church of the kingdom." The course of history tended to confine its sphere of influence to London ; yet in Anglo-Saxon times it was at least twice the burial-place of royal persons: of Ethelred in 1016* and of Edward Atheling in 1057.' The position is illustrated by an incident which occurred in the eleventh century. When Archbishop JElfheah was mur- dered by the Danes, in 1012, his body was brought to London. The bishops and the townsfolk received it with all veneration and buried it in St. Paul's monastery ; and ' there God made manifest the holy martyr's miracle.' With the permission of Cnut the body was removed, however, to Canterbury, in 1023.' How completely Ethelbert 'made ' the church is not known. Earconwald, who was conse- crated bishop of London in 675,° is said to have bestowed great cost on the fabric,^" and in later times he almost occupied the place of tradi- tionary founder : the veneration paid to him is second only to that which was rendered to ' Bede, Eccl. Hist. lib. ii, cap. 3. 'Stow, Surv. ofLond. (Strype's ed.) iii, 148. ' Chron. of Edw. I and Edw. II (Rolls Ser.), lib. i, 46.
- Bede, Eal. Hist. (Rolls Ser.), lib. ii, cap. 3.
' Liber Albus (Rolls Ser.), bk. i, pt. i, cap. 8. The municipal position of St. Paul's is shown by the custom- ary attendance at the cathedral, in mediaeval times, of the mayor, his household, and all of his liberty, with the aldermen and the men of the mysteries, on All Saints' Day ; and of the mayor, aldermen, sheriffs and all of their liberties, on Christmas Day, the days of St. Stephen and St. John the Evangelist, and the Monday after Pentecost. « R. de Diceto, Opera Hist. (Rolls Ser.), i, i68. ' Jtigl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 159. MbiJ. 118. • Newcourt, Repert. , 7. '» Dugdale, Hist, 'of St. PauVs, 4. St. Paul." Much of the Anglo-Saxon history of the cathedral is involved in a like ambiguity ; for the early charters have for the most part been condemned as forgeries. Many Saxon kings are, however, traditionary benefactors to St. Paul's. ' I have renewed and restored,' said Athelstan, in one of the rejected charters, liberty to the monastery of St. Paul in London, where holy Earconwald held his bishopric for long ; and all privileges which my ancestors for their souls and for their desires of heavenly icingdom constituted, and which are contained in the writings of the monastery." The date and the terms of this charter lead further to the supposition that the church had suffered during the Danish occupation of London in the beginning of the tenth century, and the disorder consequent on war with the Danes. In 962 it was attacked by its most persistent enemy : ' in that year Paul's monastery was burnt and was again founded.' ^' But the life of the church appears to have been little inter- rupted : a grant of land was received from Queen Egelfleda " and a confirmation of lands and possessions from Ethelred.*" In 1012 and 1013, and from 1017 to 1040 the Danes were again in London ; and, unlike their ancestors, they worshipped in St. Paul's. A stone has been found in the churchyard which bears the Runic inscription ; ' Kina caused this stone to be laid over Tuki.' *' Cnut confirmed all the lands of the church, and intimated to his bishops, earls, peers and ministers that the priests of St. Paul's monastery were under his protection and their lands free from burdens. Nevertheless their liberties must have been violated during the confusion which followed on his death ; for Edward the Confessor not only granted a charter which confirmed them in their lands and possessions,*' but also ' restored ' certain property to them." " Registrum S. Pau/i (ed. W. St. Simpson), 11, 52, 8i> 393-5 ; Newcourt, Repert. ii, 7. It is said that on the death of Earconwald there was a struggle between the canons of St. Paul's and the monks of Chertsey as to who should bury him, during which the people of London brought his body to St. Paul's : it was transferred to a shrine in the cathedral in 1 140. " Printed in Dugdale, Hist, of St. Paul's, l8i. " Angl.-Sax. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 92. " Printed in Dugdale, Hist, of St. PauVs, 181. " Ibid. '^ The stone is preserved in the cathedral library. " Charter printed in Dugdale, Hist, of St. PauPs, 181. 409 " Printed in Dugdale, Hist, of St. PauFs, 181. " Ibid. 52
