Infra, 15, &c. Infra, 17. monastic an office, his wise and virtuous conduct in the exercise of it, are probably mere embellishments of Giraldus's scholastic pen. The second chapter is eminently Giraldus's own. It has nothing in it about Remigius, except the mention, at the beginning, of his profuse charities. The instances of his charity, in the first part of the third chapter, may have had, when Giraldus wrote, some ground of history or tradition; but their only authority now is this page of his Life of Remigius. He seems Infra, 18, clearly wrong when, in the second part of this chapter, he attributes to Remigius the foundation of the leperhouse near Lincoln. and n. 1. Infra, 18. The small amount of this account of historical value. The fourth chapter, about the transfer from Dorchester to Lincoln, was no doubt derived from the early Lincoln records. The matter and wording so closely correspond Infra, 193. with the beginning of John de Schalby's account of Remigius, compiled certainly from the early records, that it seems certain that these also must have been the source of Giraldus's information. Of all that he tells us about Remigius, this chapter, with the part of the next chapter, about the proposed dedication of the church and the death of Remigius, are, perhaps, the only portions of Giraldus's account of him that have any real historical value. I do not say that all else he tells us about the virtue and sanctity of Remigius is only his own invention, but that it all rests, so far as we know, upon no better authority than his own very bad authority. It is perfectly possible, and not improbable, that he may have found traditions at Lincoln, and these, perhaps, committed to writing, upon which was based his account of Remigius's excellencies; but all record of such traditions, if any ever existed, has long since disappeared. The wretched state of the diocese, as described in the Infra, 20. fifth chapter, and the successful labours of Remigius in reformation, are all perhaps Giraldus's own; or, if not his and n. 2. own, based upon no better authority than his. What follows about his preparations for the dedication of the church, and its prevention by his death, is so far fully confirmed by good authorities; but they differ as to the Infra, 21, exact dates. Wonderful to say, the date of Remigius's death which Giraldus gives us is no doubt the right date: he was an impossible man to have invented that 6 May 1092 was Ascension day in that year, as well as the Feast of St. John ante Portam Latinam. This statement, no doubt whatever, he found in the early records. The after compiler from them, John de Schalby, says nothing as to Infra, 194. the day of Remigius's death. It was a particular which Giraldus would of course give from the records, when trying to exalt him as the great Lincoln saint; but which John de Schalby might naturally omit in his history, written long after the idea of Remigius being a saint was forgotten, in the possession of better and more recent saints. The fact is, it seems to me, that Giraldus, in writing this account of Remigius, had much to manufacture out of very meagre or unworthy materials. There was a want of a local saint at Lincoln; and Giraldus, during his stay at Lincoln in 1196-1199, undertook or was induced by his friends there to undertake, to apply his scholastic pen towards making a saint of Remigius,—the founder of their cathedral church, a noble-hearted and bountiful prelate, one to be ever held in reverence at Lincoln, but one who, from what is said or left unsaid, in all at all contemporary history, can have had small claim indeed to be made a saint. If we are to believe Eadmer1 and n. 2. and his followers, Malmsbury, &c., he made an actual bargain with William, to have an English bishopric in payment of his services, in case of the invasion proving successful. This simoniacal bargain, and his consecration by the excommunicated archbishop Stigand, were Infra, 152, brought against him before the pope in 1071, when he accompanied archbishop Lanfranc to Rome: he would have been degraded, but for Lanfranc's intercession. Now these are statements which rest upon good authority there is no reason to doubt their truth. They may have been, more or less, unknown to Giraldus, and probably were not dwelt upon in the early Lincoln authorities from which he was compiling; but that the Lincoln records did contain some notice of the bargain with William, seems to be clearly intimated by John de Infra, 193. Schalby's "ob certam causam" of Remigius's aid to him. But whatever Giraldus may have found in Lincoln or other history, he would record nothing, we may safely conclude, that could tell against the sanctity of Remigius, which he had undertaken with his scholastic pen to establish; and moreover, it is clear that he invented much after his own fancy, or followed traditions as worthless as his own inventions. Hence his silence about the "certa causa" of Remigius's aid to William, and the consequent bishopric; hence the canonical election to Dorchester, and the consecration by Lanfranc instead of Stigand; and hence, probably, all his details as to the charity and sanctity of Remigius. He had to make the most of a very poor case, and it is plain that he was not at all scrupulous in his endeavours to make it a very good one. Henry of Hun That I am not taking an untrue view of the character of Remigius, or of the value of Giraldus's account of him, is pretty conclusively proved by tingdon's silence the silence of Henry of Huntingdon as about the sanctity to his virtues and sanctity. Henry of Remigius. became archdeacon of Huntingdon about 1109 when no doubt still a young man. He had been, in large measure, brought up at Lincoln in the family of Bloet, the successor of Remigius. He never saw Remigius himself, he tells us, but had seen and known all the dignitaries of the church appointed by Remigius, one of whom, Albinus Andegavensis, was his own preceptor.1 Henry of Huntingdon, in his young days, must have heard much of the excellencies and sanctity of Remigius, if, in the church which Remigius had founded and nobly endowed, and amidst the friends whom he had promoted and most cherished, any such excellencies and sanctity were accepted and talked about; but he is altogether silent on the subject. He tells us, indeed, in his History, of the transfer of the see from Dorchester, and the foundation and establishment of the church at Lincoln, and adds some personal traits of Remigius, and a solitary anecdote; but he has not a word about his sanctity. So again, in his letter De Contemptu Mundi, Huntingdon just tells us that Remigius was present at the battle of Hastings, became bishop of Dorchester, and removed the see to Lincoln, where he founded and richly endowed the church; but gives not a hint as to his saintly character or holy deeds. In the latter case, indeed, he says that he was speaking only of what he had himself known and seen; but after telling us what he does about Remigius, and the foundation, &c. of the church,much of which could not have been told from his own personal knowledge,-it seems almost impossible to conceive that he would not have added somewhat or much more, if Remigius had been at all the saintly bishop Infra, 22 31. that Giraldus would persuade us. This letter of Huntingdon, it is worth remarking, was written in the latter years of his life, about the year 1147,1 and after miracles had been wrought, according to Giraldus,2 at the tomb of Remigius. Huntingdon's silence seems to me clearly to prove, that amongst those who had best known Remigius and were most indebted to him,-and moreover, for many years after his death, up to about the middle of the twelfth century,-Remigius was not looked upon as a saint; and therefore that Giraldus's account of his sanctity, whether his own invention, or whether resting upon what he found believed or recorded at Lincoln in 1198, is simply a worthless fabrication. The miracles of Chapters VI.-XX, which relate the miRemigius. racles of Remigius, are no doubt taken, more or less closely, from what Giraldus found recorded by the custodians of his tomb. For Giraldus was not the first person to think of making a saint of Remigius. Miracles, it was said, had been wrought at his tomb, as early as during the episcopate of bishop Alexander,3 1123 -1148; and at the time when Giraldus wrote, miracles had been latterly multiplying. In their great need of a saint of their own, the Lincoln people were no doubt eager, for want of a better one, in acceptance of Remigius. as a saint; and no doubt for some time there had been regular custodians of his tomb, one of whose duties. would be to keep a register of the miracles there wrought. And from this register these chapters of Giraldus would |