A.D. 664. The monastery of Medes- | the abbatical chair, was promoted to the see of Litchfield. hamstead was finished by Wolfere, with the assistance of his brother Ethelred, and his sisters Kyneburga and Kyneswitha. Wolfere dedicated it to St. Peter, and endowed it with many privileges, immunities, and fair possessions; and he established the bounds of its jurisdiction from Croyland on the east, to Wansford bridge on the west, northward to Easton and Stamford, and along by the Welland to Croyland again.* A.D. 675. Ethelred succeeded his brother Wolfere, and continued to support and enrich the monastery. I am induced to transcribe the opening of Pope Agatho's grant to king Ethelred, who had petitioned his holiness for certain privileges to be bestowed on the monastery of Medeshamstead. Among the rest of the privileges granted by Agatho, were these; that the abbot of Medeshamstead should be chief of all the abbots on that side of the Thames; and that if any one desirous of visiting Rome was prevented by the great distance, it should suffice if he visited St. Peter in this monastery. A.D. 680. "To my most glorious son Ethelred, king of the Mercii, to my brothers also, and coadjutor bishops, Theodore of Canterbury, Saxulph of the midland English, and to the bishop of the Mercii, and to the rest of the clergy, Agatho, the servant of the servants of God, in our Lord, health. May the Lord reign, may the earth exult, may many nations rejoice, may the kings of the earth, and all nations thereof, and all other things therein, praise the name of our Lord, because his name alone is exalted." A.D. 704. Ethelred having reigned thirty years laid down his sceptre, and became first a monk, and afterwards the abbot of Bardney. THE ABBOTS. A.D. 660. Saxulph was the first abbot of the monastery of Medeshamstead. He rendered very great assistance to Peada while it was building, and when it was finished he laid down his temporal dignity of earl, and became abbot. He gathered a convent of monks of the Benedictine order, and after being thirteen years in that St. Chad and Wolfere having prayed together, the former took off his vestment, and hanged it on a sun-beam; and that Wolfere, vainly endeavour. ing to hang his belt and gloves in like manner, and not being able, was thereat more deeply confirmed in the Christian faith. * Wolfere fetched stone from Bernoke, near Stamford, for the building of the monastery. In the reign of Edward the Confessor, 1041, A.D. a charter was granted to the abbot of Ramsey; that on condition of his furnishing 4000 eels in the time of Lent for the abbot and convent of Pe A.D. 673. Cuthbald. The abbot Cuthbald was so devout a person, and so prudent in the management of ecclesiastical matters, that he brought the monastery into great repute. It was in this abbot's time that Pope Agatho confirmed Ethelred's grant to the monastery. The death of Cuthbald took place somewhere between the years A.D. 709 and A.D. 716. The uncertainty of this date, and of several others, is denoted in the table by a short line drawn underneath them. These dates are only an approximation to the true time, and it is gained from an observation of certain charters to which the signatures of these abbots are affixed. In the second year of Whiglafe, king of Mercia, the kingdom fell under the power of Egbert, king of Wessex; and the other kingdoms of the Heptarchy having now-about submitted to him, he united the whole into one realm, and became the first king of England, A.D. 827. A.D. 870. Hedda. In the reign of Ethelred Ist. and in the time of the abbot Hedda, the Danes made continual irruptions into this kingdom, and devastated every place to which they came, with fire and sword. Coming to the monastery of Medeshamstead, they assaulted it with great fury, while the monks as vigorously defended it. But the Danes having got possession of the building, put the abbot Hedda and all the monks to the sword; they then demolished the library, altars, &c. and, to complete the work of destruction, finally set the monastery on fire, the flames whereof raged for fifteen days.t A.D. 966. The monastery lay in its ruins ninety-six years, till Athelwold, bishop of Winchester, with the assistance of Edgar and his queen, set about its restoration. When it was finished, Edgar, attended by his nobles, visited the monastery, and endowed it with rich possessions. The name of the village was changed from Medeshamstead to Burgh, and from the wealthiness of the monastery, and high privileges which it enjoyed, the town afterwards acquired the name of Gilden terborough, the latter should give the abbot of Ramsay as much stone as he might want from his pits at Bernoke, and rag-stone from his pits in Peterborough. Two stones exist to this day in Castor field, which were set up as tokens, that earriages laden with stone passing from Bernoke to Gunwade Ferry, should pay no toll. The monument of abbot Hedda and his monks is preserved in the new building, at the east end of the cathedral, which is called the library Edgar granted a charter for a weekly market in Burgh. 335 Gunstone's Monastery of Peterborough. burgh. Since then, in reference to its dedication, it has been called Peterborough. The monastery now became of so much account, that the highest personages coming thither to their devotions, left their shoes at the gate. A.D. 972. Adulphus, chancellor of king Edgar, retired from the world, and became abbot of this monastery. A.D. 992. Kenulphus was a man of great wisdom and piety, and many came to him as to a second Solomon, to hear him. He built a wall round the monastery, some remains of which are still existing eastward of the edifice. A.D. 1005. Elsinus. Of the abbot Elsinus little more is known than his being a collector of relics. The disturbances which at this time arose on account of the Danish invasions, obliged Ethelred to vacate the throne; and Elsinus attended queen Emma into Normandy, from whence he afterwards returned, having made great additions to his stock of holy rubbish. But while he was thus uselessly employed abroad, the monastery was losing some of its most valuable endowments. A.D. 1055. Arwinus. This abbot was a man of great piety. He resigned his office. A.D. 1057. Leofricus. In the ninth year of this abbot died Edward the Confessor, and William of Normandy opposed himself to his successor, Harold. The issue of the battle of Hastings is known to every one. It was in the time of Leofricus that Peterborough obtained the name of Gildenburgh, or the Golden city. A.D. 1069. Brando. The nephew of this abbot, Herewardus le Wake, was created lord of Brunne (Bourn), and distinguished himself by his stout opposition to the Norman power. A.D, 1069. Thorold. It is well known that William the Conqueror bestowed all the best offices in the kingdom on his Norman followers. The monastery of Gildenburgh was placed under Thorald a Norman, and he found it necessary to disperse good part of the church lands among a body of knights, which he had collected to defend him from Herewardus le Wake. The Danes again invaded the country under the command of Sweyn, son of Canute, and being joined by Herewardus, they made an attack on the monastery. The assault was made at the gate called Bolehithe gate, which it is probable was situated at the extremity of a ditch now called Bell-dyke. After much resistance they effected an entrance, by firing the adjoining buildings, and despoiled the church of its treasures 336 | and ornaments. Many of the offices were burnt to the ground, and shortly after this, another fire broke out through the carelessness of the monks, which burnt many houses, and did considerable damage to the church. Thorold had withdrawn himself to Stam. ford; but when Herewardus and the Danes had departed, he returned to the monastery, bringing with him a hundred and forty Norman knights as a protection. The abbot next threw up a fort on the north side of the monastery, which from him was called Mount Thorold. Lately it had been called Touthill,* but there is now, I believe, only a part of it remaining. Notwithstanding these warlike preparations, Thorold was taken prisoner by Herewardus, and gave the latter thirty marks of silver for his ransom. A.D. 1100. Godricus. The monks obtained leave of William Rufus, for three hundred marks in silver, to chuse an abbot for themselves. They elected Godricus, who was however shortly after deposed by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. The reason of this is thought to have been, that Godricus received his investiture from the king, instead of Anselm. During the year he was in office, some thieves from France stole part of the treasure of the church. He restored many of the buildings of the monastery, and now it was that an agreement was made between the convent and those who held the lands of the abbey by knights' service, that every knight should pay to the sacristan yearly two parts of his tithes, and at his death a third part of his whole estate, and that all his military property, as well in cavalry as in arms, should be brought along with the corpse, and offered to St. Peter. The mention of this compact will account for the subsequent opulence of the monastery. Godricus being deposed, the monastery remained without an abbot till Henry the First sent A.D. 1103. Matthias. This abbot was in office little more than a year. At his death Henry again kept the monastery in his hands for three years, and then appointed A.D. 1108. Ernulfus. This abbot was translated to the see of Rochester. A.D. 1114. John of Salisbury. In this abbot's time the monastery and town were almost wholly consumed by fire. It is related by a monkish writer, that one in the bakehouse being to kindle a fire, which he could not readily do, the abbot John, hill, a deep well, and a subterraneous passage trending towards the minster." "In 1817 were discovered, at the bottom of this who stood by, and who was very choleric, impatiently exclaimed, "The devil kindle it!" when presently the flames spread and communicated to all the offices, and to the town. The fire burnt for nine days, and the wind carrying the flames over the abbot's house, it was wholly destroyed. John began to build a new church in 1118, and this seems to have been the origin of the present cathedral. By the new church, we are to understand so much of the present cathedral as is contained in the choir, and about the altar. A.D. 1128. Henry of Anjou. After the monastery had lain in the king's hands for two years, abbot Henry was appointed to succeed abbot John. We are very gravely told, that in the first year of this abbot there were heard and seen in the nighttime, throughout Lent, in the woods be twixt Stamford and Peterborough, companies of hunters. They were black and ugly; some rode on black horses, and some on goats. They were seen by twenty and thirty at a time. Abbot Henry was displaced by the king, on account of his holding another abbey at Anjou. A.D. 1133. Martin of the Isle of Wight. This abbot laboured for the perfecting the buildings of the monastery, and caused the church to be dedicated afresh. He built a gate of the monastery, (which does not appear,) and changed the situation of the town from the eastern to the western side of the monastery.* He removed St. John's church to the place where it now stands, and pulled down the fortress of Mount Thorold, near to which, probably, it had stood. He also planted the vineyard. King Stephen visited the monastery and was entertained by Martin, and made an offering of his ring to St. Oswald.+ A.D. 1155. William of Waterville. This abbot built the monks' cloister, and covered it with lead. He founded the chapel of Thomas à Becket, and the present school-house is thought to have been the chancel of this chapel. He added the two cross aisles or transepts to the church, and settled a yearly maintenance on the church of St. John Baptist. He also founded the hospital of St. Leonard, which place is now called the Spittal. This abbot being accused to the king, was deposed. After the deposition of abbot William, That part of Peterborough eastward of the cathedral is called Boongate, and "might probably derive its name from Benna the fifth abbot." This Oswald was a Christian king of Northumberland, distinguished for his piety and charity. Aydan, a Scottish bishop, having witnessed one of his charitable deeds, took the king by the right the monastery lay in the king's hands two years. A.D. 1177. Benedict. This abbot built the nave of the church from the lantern to the porch; and the painted ceiling, at the top, which still remains, was probably done by him. The west front of the monastery was not yet erected. Benedict's building terminated at the two most westerly pillars, where the side aisles of the nave end. Abbot Benedict built also the great gate leading to the west entrance of the monastery, and erected the chapel of St. Nicholas over it. Benedict was greatly in favour with Richard I. and when this king was detained on his return from the Holy Land by the Duke of Austria, this abbot caused the chalices of the church to be sold, to pay a part of the king's ransom. In return for this, the king confirmed unto the monastery Peakirk Marsh, now called North Fen. He renewed the charter granted by Edgar for the holding a weekly market, and granted another charter for the holding a fair in Peterborough, on the feast of St. Peter, for eight days, but it is now confined to two. John, the king's brother, gave the abbot, by charter, three stags and six bucks annually, from his forest of Sherwood. Benedict freed the abbey from many pecuniary encumbrances with which it was loaded. A.D. 1194. Andreas. This abbot died in the same year as king Richard, and was interred at the back of the choir, in a grave where two of his predecessors had been buried. An inscription in Saxon characters, but which is now to be seen in Roman letters, was placed over his monument. Three recumbent figures in black marble, lie on the south side of the choir, over the first of these is the inscription "Hos tres Abbates quibus est prior Abba Johan nes, Alter Martinus, Andreas ultimus, unus The reader will find little to admire in these verses, but he will be able to gather from them, that the statues before him are those of the abbots John, Andreas, and Martin, and that the bodies are enclosed in one grave at the foot of the inscription. A.D. 1200. Acharius. Acharius was a great benefactor to the abbey, and left it in very flourishing circumstances. After his hand, and exclaimed, "May this hand never become old." Oswald was put to death by Penda, king of the Mercians, A.D 643; but his arm, we are told, existed entire and uncorrupted for many ages. This gate has obtained the name of the Minster gateway, and the room over it is now called the music-room. 339 Knowledge and Intellectual Habits considered. death it lay in the king's hands upwards of three years. A.Ď. 1214. Robert of Lindsey. This abbot glazed many of the windows, all of which, till his time, had been stuffed with reeds and straw, to keep out the weather. He found seventy-two monks in the abbey when he entered, and he added eight more, to whom he gave the manor of Belasize* for their support, and he erected the manorhouse there. In Robert's time the kingdom was laid under a papal interdict, in consequence of disagreements between John and the Pope. A.D. 1226. Martin of Ramsey. In 1228 a charter was granted to this abbot by Pope Gregory IX. that whenever there was a general interdiction, the monks might shut the church doors, ring no bell, and read the service in a low voice, that the people might not be able to join in it. A. D. 1233. Walter of St. Edmund's. It is probable, that the two short transepts at the west end of the nave, were erected by this abbot. In 1238 the church was consecrated by the bishop of Lincoln, and at that period it must have been enclosed with walls, the words of the constitution ordering the consecration of this and other churches being, "ecclesiæ, quæ perfectis parietibus sunt constructæ, infra biennium consecrentur." Walter was one of the witnesses to the confirmation of the Great Charter by Henry III. This king, with Eleanor his queen, and prince Edward his son, visited the monastery, and was courteously entertained by the abbot. A.D. 1248. John of Caleto. This abbot built at the west end of the chapel of saint Lawrence, an Infirmary, where afterwards resided the monks who had passed their fiftieth year. Some beautiful gothic arches remain to this day in the vicinity of St. Lawrence's chapel; the place of the latter is now occupied by a prebendal house belonging to the third stall. mission was at this time granted to the monks by Pope Innocent IV. to perform divine service with their hoods on their heads, because of the coldness of the air in these parts. Per A.D. 1274. Richard of London. Whilst this abbot was sacrist, he erected the steeple where the bells hang, and gave two bells, which were called "les Londres." It is the general opinion, that the south steeple was "Certain hills near Ely, now called Belsar's hills, went anciently under the denomination of Belasis' hills. Belasis was the name of the general whom William the Conqueror sent with an army against the Isle of Ely. Belasize manor is near to Milton, the seat of the Earl Fitzwilliam, who is lineally descended from the Conqueror." 340 never completed; but the following item, from the king's inventory, taken in 1539, would seem to prove the contrary: "In the two steeples of the monastery, at the front, bells 10." The west front of the present building must have been finished before this time, for the direct road to the steeples, after ascending one of the towers, lies across the roof of the piazza of the west front. Now this road must have been made before the steeples were built, and as one was erected by abbot Richard, we may infer, that the west front* was finished before his time, that is, before the year 1274. Our Lady's chapel was built by prior William at this time. It abutted upon the east side of the north transept of the church. (To be concluded in our next.) KNOWLEDGE AND INTELLECTUAL HABITS LIFE. 1. THOSE ancients deserved praise who claimed for the human soul the honours of immortality and moral dignity, which had nearly faded from their view. It was their lot to sound with some little success the deep of speculation, that they might find solid ground for their anchor; and they sought a sheltering haven, where, protected by the shores of truth, the vessel of their forebodings and anticipations might remain in security. We therefore contemplate Socrates, Plato, and their followers, with respect; because their philosophy directed the soul, steeped in the bitterness which distils from decayed bodily strength and beauty, to the fountains whence flow streams of mental excellence,- -even knowledge, wisdom, temperance. The enlightened Christian knows well how vast were the deficiences in their knowledge. It has been said, that the Christian faith is the perfection of human intelligence. This is certain, that Revelation alone could divulge the truths whose influence sanctifies and elevates the mind; and that the comparative perfection to which human intellect can attain in the present stage of existence, was not discovered until He stood upon the earth, who is the way, the truth, and the life. It might, therefore, seem useless in the present age + " By the west front, the reader must under stand, here, the two square towers, with lofty pinnacles at the north-west and south-west corners of the church, the three noble gothic arches which stand between those towers, and the piazza or portico between those arches and the west-front wall of the cathedral." to discourse on mental cultivation, since the means, duty, and effects of improving our understandings are so manifest; but observation shews, that however manifest, they are not always compulsory; and it is often important to bring to our minds known truths, that their impress may be deeper. For this reason, the following observations on some of the motives and influences of intellectual culture and habits may be acceptable. The effects of knowledge and intellectual habits are not separated in these remarks, because the habits referred to are acquired in the pursuit of knowledge. 2. Amongst the various lessons which man is taught by the economy of the natural world, the necessity of employing his faculties upon the proper subjects of their operation, in order to promote his happiness and exalt his nature, is not the least important. Animals of the inferior kinds have internal mechanism, which ministers to their vital energy; but they must seek the perfection to which they are destined to arrive, from sources external to themselves. They have pastures in which to riot or repose, and their various instincts are met at every turn of their course; otherwise, the energy would cease to command, and the mechanism to obey. The eternal Creator has ordained, that they should thus be connected with his other works, and has introduced them into circumstances to which their very being has a necessary relation. "Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass? whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings. The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing." If we consider the planetary system, of which the earth is a part, we see the same principle of connexion exemplified in another and more extraordinary manner. Take, for instance, the circumstances which relate to our earth. Has she light, and heat, and seasons, in herself? The answer to this question points to a source whence those blessings flow upon us. Yonder golden orbs, whilst they perform their illustrious rounds, each with its proper motion, according to certain laws, in certain periods, and bean mildly in the eye of man, are connected by invisible links of friendly attraction, and go on their way rejoicing in mutual fellowship. Another example of the dependence of one part of nature on another, is presented in the vegetable world. Faith drops into the ground seeds which are expected to spring up, and to become the children of a fruitful season; and warmth, moisture, and the virtues of the ground, are all necessary to produce such a result. Man It is thus with man. He possesses natural intellectual powers; and these must be exercised upon those means of improvement, those objects of attention with which he is environed, that they may be confirmed and matured. These powers may, indeed, by reflection, be themselves subjects of meditation; but in this case fancy places them at a distance, and they are viewed as separate, independent, and almost external objects of contemplation. has natural sensibilities; and these must be brought into contact with all that is excellent, whether in material forms, or the productions of intellect, that the mind may imbibe nourishment. In fact, all objects in nature, with which we are acquainted, are encircled and penetrated by an energy which communicates, through the medium of contemplation, an increase of development to our faculties; and there can be no doubt, that mental strength is acquired by bringing each rational power to act upon worthy subjects, for which it is fitted. If we were to trace the progress through which a curious, attentive, and well-conducted mind rises from infancy to maturity, we should discover that a rich soil, into which that mind struck root, amassed from every fertile and available spot in the field of being, was continually being gathered around it; this fed its early growth, until it gradually attained a good degree of elevation, and spread its green and young branches; and this also continued to nourish and ripen its strength, until, standing at length in full luxuriance, it dropped its blossoms and fruits. 3. As we are taught by experience the necessity of seeking mental improvement in the exercise of our mental faculties, so that improvement is a sufficient reward for the toil required. For even if man's natural disposition had a tendency to sleep in careless apathy, and view every object with indifference, yet the prospect of some approximation towards the intellectual heights which he may ascend, ought surely to animate his wishes, and prompt his exertions, for so noble and happy a condition. The consciousness of possessing extensive knowledge is also an urgent motive to mental cultivation. He who sees a combination of wheels and axles, and who knows the manner in which they are arranged, and the principle from which the effect of a given power acting on the machine is calculated, has an internal satisfaction in the mastery which his mind holds over the |