DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6886#0129
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 97
In the year 1075, which was in the time of this abbot, Queen Editha was
buried in this church, on the north side of her royal husband, the Confessor, when
the Conqueror commanded a costly tomb to be erected in honour of her*.
VITALIS.
On the dismission of Galfridus, the Conqueror recommended Vitalis to succeed
him as Abbot of Westminster. There appears to be sufficient authority to
determine the time of his accession to have been in the year 1076; and when
William sent for him, he gravely represented him as peculiarly fitted for the situa-
tion by his learning, wisdom, and useful qualifications-f-. He had been Abbot of
Bernay, in Normandy, and had attended so much to the improvement of that abbey,
as to have raised it from an inferior place to a very considerable establishment.
The letter of the king to the Abbot of Fiscamp, to which Bernay was subject,
has been published by Mabillon. It is a curious document, and as it is imme-
diately connected with the subject, and gives some idea of this monarch's manner
of proceeding in ecclesiastical matters, at least where he had no particular bias to
influence, or no very predominant views to govern, him, it may not be considered
as a superfluous insertion.
" Willelmi Anglorum Regis epistola ad Johannem Abbatem Fiscamneyisem.
" W. Rex Anglorum Johanni Abbati salutem.—Diu mecum cogitavi,
" mi dilecte, in cujus manu et custodia possem mittere et comrnendare abbatiam
" Sancti Petri de Westmonasterio : quia in maxima veneratione et habeo et ex
" debito habere debeo. Ibi enim jacet vir beatse memoriae dominus meus Rex
* Studio ejus prope conjugem locata babet tumbam, argenti aurique expensis operosam.—
William of Malmsbury.
+ Annales de TVaverlee, p. 132.
Vol. I. O
In the year 1075, which was in the time of this abbot, Queen Editha was
buried in this church, on the north side of her royal husband, the Confessor, when
the Conqueror commanded a costly tomb to be erected in honour of her*.
VITALIS.
On the dismission of Galfridus, the Conqueror recommended Vitalis to succeed
him as Abbot of Westminster. There appears to be sufficient authority to
determine the time of his accession to have been in the year 1076; and when
William sent for him, he gravely represented him as peculiarly fitted for the situa-
tion by his learning, wisdom, and useful qualifications-f-. He had been Abbot of
Bernay, in Normandy, and had attended so much to the improvement of that abbey,
as to have raised it from an inferior place to a very considerable establishment.
The letter of the king to the Abbot of Fiscamp, to which Bernay was subject,
has been published by Mabillon. It is a curious document, and as it is imme-
diately connected with the subject, and gives some idea of this monarch's manner
of proceeding in ecclesiastical matters, at least where he had no particular bias to
influence, or no very predominant views to govern, him, it may not be considered
as a superfluous insertion.
" Willelmi Anglorum Regis epistola ad Johannem Abbatem Fiscamneyisem.
" W. Rex Anglorum Johanni Abbati salutem.—Diu mecum cogitavi,
" mi dilecte, in cujus manu et custodia possem mittere et comrnendare abbatiam
" Sancti Petri de Westmonasterio : quia in maxima veneratione et habeo et ex
" debito habere debeo. Ibi enim jacet vir beatse memoriae dominus meus Rex
* Studio ejus prope conjugem locata babet tumbam, argenti aurique expensis operosam.—
William of Malmsbury.
+ Annales de TVaverlee, p. 132.
Vol. I. O