Source: CharterS1428

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Description

Writ of the monk Edwin, child-master at New Minster, Winchester, concerning an agreement between Old and New Minster.

Charter information
Sawyer 1428
Birch ---
Kemble 922
British Academy ---
Source Used  
Source Information

Notes

Harmer, Writs, pp. 387-95, 527, spurious; Ker, Catalogue, no. 274 (art. f); Hart 1970/1, p. 38 (no. 210), spurious; Keynes 1980, p. 143 n. 209, dubious; Lapidge and Winterbottom 1991, pp. xiii-xiv; Keynes 1996, pp. 56, 90, 91, 101, cannot be authentic in received form, but incorporates some convincing circumstantial evidence.

Event/Transaction List

Factoid Type Source Reference Short Description
1 Event S1428    'Three years ago, I [Edwin 49] was lying in my cell about noon-tide, and there the holy Cuthbert 1 appeared to me plainly. I felt great joy at this. I went to my abbot Ælfwine 54, and prayed him that I might go north to the saint and visit him. But my abbot Ælfwine 54 refused me this, and also forbade it. Then I took my own course and made my way north. And there Bishop Æthelwine 40 received me with honour; and God and the saint granted me that I washed him with my hands, and combed his head with a comb, and cut his hair with scissors, and clothed him all in new apparel, and took from him his old clothes. Some I left there, and some I have here. Now, lord, bethought myself that I had not my abbot’s leave, and therefore I turned home, and came into Old Minster and sought Christ and St Peter and St Swithhun 5, and would have thee, but thou wert not at home. But I found Leofwine 89 the dean and all the brethren; and they received me with honour and gladness, and interceded for me to my abbot; and he gladly received me, God be praised!'
2 Event S1428    This agreement was established between Old Minster and New Minster, as I [Edwin 49] myself heard it (i.e. the agreement) when I was young. Our lord St Æthelwold 1 was lying sick, and the holy Dunstan 1 came to him from Canterbury to visit him. And our superior, Abbot Æthelgar 8, went there, and monks with him, namely Boia 4 the old, and Ælfric 150 the prior, and Ælfnoth 46 the painter, and Ælfwine 54 who is now abbot. And there came monks from Old Minster, namely Ealdwig 3, and Wulfstan 61 the precentor, and Godwine 69 the prior, and many others with him. Then Boia 4 the old monk arose, knelt before St Æthelwold 1, and prayed him that he would establish good regulations between the two minsters in the monks’ days, just as Bishop Frithestan 1 had established in the priests’ days: namely, that the two communities should be one in every divine service; and that was to say, if any priest died in either foundation, they should come all together and bury the body and perform all the services that belong to God; and on the day of the consecration of the church, in Old Minster, the priest from New Minster should come to Old Minster, and be present there at vespers and at nocturns and at mass and at refection; and the priests from Old Minster should come to New Minster on St Judoc’s day just in the same way. And if there were misconduct on the part of any priest in either monastery, he should not go anywhere but he should seek his neighbours and they would intercede for him. When St Æthelwold 1 heard this, lo, he decreed that it should so be now in his time and in that of the monks; and he pronounced the curse of God on all those who should ever undo this. And he gave as a token that the agreement should stand firm, two brown copes, one to Old Minster, and a second to New Minster.
3 Event S1428    Bishop Frithestan 1 established good relations between the monks of Old Minster and the monks of New Minster, Winchester.