DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0043
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 11
The church is also in the possession of a Latin history, which Dugdale, in his
Monasticon*, attributes to Richard Sporley-f-; but, by Archbishop Usher, and on
better authority, is ascribed to Flete; in which a chapter is quoted from an anony-
mous Saxon author: but as the original is not known, no decisive opinion, or even
probable conjecture, can be formed of its authenticity, either from the age when,
or the language in which, it was written. This extract, however, mentions the
story of a church being built here by King Lucius, and afterwards converted into
an heathen temple dedicated to Apollo: but as this circumstance is not mentioned
by Sulcardus, it may be justly supposed, that whoever he was, he lived posterior
to that writer; it having been the practice of the monkish historians, to gratify
their own self-importance, or augment that of the institution to which they be-
longed, by adding new circumstances, in their pious zeal, to those which have
been related by the authors who preceded them.
It appears, therefore, that Sulcardus, who probably wrote his history about the
year 1080, is the oldest of those authors now remaining, who contend that this
abbey was founded in the reign of the Saxon king, Sebert. This historian, how-
ever, does not name the founder; but generally styles him, Quidam civium urbis
non infimus et prcedives christicola.
" antiquis temporibus Dei providentia ab ipso clavigero confirmatus," &c.—It is a singular coin-
cidence, that these words should be precisely the same with the clause foisted into King Edward's
charter; a circumstance which certainly strengthens the suspicion of its being a forgery. At all events,
it must be a very old one, as it gives a very good historical account of the possessions of the church.
* Vol I. p. 55.
t He was a monk of Westminster from about 1430 to 1490. The history which Dugdale attri-
butes to him, is the work of John Flete, with an omission of the Procemium, and a more enlarged
1
account of the abbots before Wulsinus.
C 2
The church is also in the possession of a Latin history, which Dugdale, in his
Monasticon*, attributes to Richard Sporley-f-; but, by Archbishop Usher, and on
better authority, is ascribed to Flete; in which a chapter is quoted from an anony-
mous Saxon author: but as the original is not known, no decisive opinion, or even
probable conjecture, can be formed of its authenticity, either from the age when,
or the language in which, it was written. This extract, however, mentions the
story of a church being built here by King Lucius, and afterwards converted into
an heathen temple dedicated to Apollo: but as this circumstance is not mentioned
by Sulcardus, it may be justly supposed, that whoever he was, he lived posterior
to that writer; it having been the practice of the monkish historians, to gratify
their own self-importance, or augment that of the institution to which they be-
longed, by adding new circumstances, in their pious zeal, to those which have
been related by the authors who preceded them.
It appears, therefore, that Sulcardus, who probably wrote his history about the
year 1080, is the oldest of those authors now remaining, who contend that this
abbey was founded in the reign of the Saxon king, Sebert. This historian, how-
ever, does not name the founder; but generally styles him, Quidam civium urbis
non infimus et prcedives christicola.
" antiquis temporibus Dei providentia ab ipso clavigero confirmatus," &c.—It is a singular coin-
cidence, that these words should be precisely the same with the clause foisted into King Edward's
charter; a circumstance which certainly strengthens the suspicion of its being a forgery. At all events,
it must be a very old one, as it gives a very good historical account of the possessions of the church.
* Vol I. p. 55.
t He was a monk of Westminster from about 1430 to 1490. The history which Dugdale attri-
butes to him, is the work of John Flete, with an omission of the Procemium, and a more enlarged
1
account of the abbots before Wulsinus.
C 2