DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0122
90 HISTORY OF
Not the least probability, however, appears to attach to the opinion, that
Edward, as far as any act of his could determine it, intended to appropriate the
abbey as a place of sepulture for all succeeding kings; as, had that been his known
and accredited design, it is natural to suppose that it would have proved the
mausoleum of some or other of his successors : whereas, not one king, except
himself, was buried in the church which he had caused to be erected. Harold
was interred at Waltham Abbey; William I. in the abbey which he had himself
founded at Caen, in Normandy; William Rufus at Winchester ; Henry I. at
Reading; Stephen at Feversham; Henry II. and Richard I. at Font Everard;
and John at Worcester.
Indeed, the doctrine of purgatory, and the confidence which was placed, in
those ages of Popery, in the prayers of the church for the souls of departed
persons, occasioned princes to establish or rebuild religious houses for the purpose
of being entombed in them, and securing the perpetual, and as it wrere exclusive,
prayers of the monastic communities, to whose pious care their dust was respec-
tively consigned*. Thus it may be observed of the monarchs whose names have
been so lately recited, that those of them who enjoyed leisure, or were animated
by devotion, had either founded or been benefactors to the monasteries where
they were buried. Harold, William the Conqueror, Henry I. and Stephen,
were the royal founders of the several places where their remains were deposited;
and Henry II. had distingushed the abbey of Font Everard by his princely
munificence.
The privilege of sanctuary was most probably acquired by this church, from
* Prayers continued at certain periods to be offered up for the soul of William the Conqueror,
in the monastery which he founded, and where he was buried, called the Abbaye mix Homm.es,
at Caen, in Normandy; till" the French revolution drove not only Popery, but religion itself, out of
that unhappy and violated country.
Not the least probability, however, appears to attach to the opinion, that
Edward, as far as any act of his could determine it, intended to appropriate the
abbey as a place of sepulture for all succeeding kings; as, had that been his known
and accredited design, it is natural to suppose that it would have proved the
mausoleum of some or other of his successors : whereas, not one king, except
himself, was buried in the church which he had caused to be erected. Harold
was interred at Waltham Abbey; William I. in the abbey which he had himself
founded at Caen, in Normandy; William Rufus at Winchester ; Henry I. at
Reading; Stephen at Feversham; Henry II. and Richard I. at Font Everard;
and John at Worcester.
Indeed, the doctrine of purgatory, and the confidence which was placed, in
those ages of Popery, in the prayers of the church for the souls of departed
persons, occasioned princes to establish or rebuild religious houses for the purpose
of being entombed in them, and securing the perpetual, and as it wrere exclusive,
prayers of the monastic communities, to whose pious care their dust was respec-
tively consigned*. Thus it may be observed of the monarchs whose names have
been so lately recited, that those of them who enjoyed leisure, or were animated
by devotion, had either founded or been benefactors to the monasteries where
they were buried. Harold, William the Conqueror, Henry I. and Stephen,
were the royal founders of the several places where their remains were deposited;
and Henry II. had distingushed the abbey of Font Everard by his princely
munificence.
The privilege of sanctuary was most probably acquired by this church, from
* Prayers continued at certain periods to be offered up for the soul of William the Conqueror,
in the monastery which he founded, and where he was buried, called the Abbaye mix Homm.es,
at Caen, in Normandy; till" the French revolution drove not only Popery, but religion itself, out of
that unhappy and violated country.