present church was built chiefly in the thirteenth century, during the reign of king Henry III. Many of the sovereigns of England were great benefactors to it. Early in the sixteenth century, king Henry VII. added the chapel which bears his name. It is now used as the chapel of the knights of the Bath.

The abbey was surrendered in 1540, to K. Henry VIII., who erected it into a cathedral for the diocess of Middlesex. Thomas Thirlby held the see till the king's death. On the accession of K. Edward, the new bishopric was abolished, and more than half of the property of the abbey was seized by the Lord Protector. In 1550 "the king sent a letter," says Collier, "for the purging his library at Westminster. The persons are not named, but the business was to cull out all superstitious books, as missals, legends, and such like, and to deliver the garniture of the books, being either gold or silver, to Sir Anthony Archer. These books were many of them plated with gold and silver, and curiously embossed: this, as far as we can collect, was the superstition that destroyed them. Here avarice had a very thin disguise, and the courtiers discovered of what spirit they were, to a remarkable degree." Three years afterwards, the sacred vessels and the vestments of the church were delivered up to the king's commissioners'. In 1556, Queen Mary restored the monks to their house, and appointed Feckenham to be their abbat. He repaired the shrine of S. Edward, as we now see it. Queen Elizabeth drove the brethren of S. Benedict once more from the abbey, and it became a collegiate church for a dean and prebendaries. 1 See Collier, Eccl. Hist. p. ii. b. iv. pp. 307, 336.

"Though stripped of much of its internal splendour by K. Henry VIII.," says Dugdale, "and greatly damaged in the civil wars of Charles I.'s time, it still remains among the finest monuments of ancient art which this country can furnish; and preserves at least the outline of its former grandeur." It is terminated towards the East by a magnificent apse which encloses the chapel of S. Edward, surrounded by ten other chauntries.

Ever since the time of S. Edward, Westminster abbey has been the usual place of the coronation of the kings of England. The chair in which the monarch sits still bears the name of the saint, as do also the crown and sceptre, and the staff, which are solemnly delivered during the ceremony. Those now used were made in imitation of the ancient, at the restoration of K. Charles II.; for the parliament in 1642 had sold these. Heraldic antiquarians are not agreed regarding the history of the coat of arms which is commonly assigned to S. Edward; azure, a cross patonce between five martenets or. K. Richard II., out of devotion to his memory, impaled this coat with the arms of England.

Within the enclosure of Westminster abbey, many royal and saintly dead await the trumpet of doom. Their marble effigies are said to preserve their likeness in life. K. Edward I. and his faithful queen Eleanor of Castile are there; Edward III. and Philippa of Hainault; Richard II. and Anne of Bohemia; the victor of Agincourt with his queen Katharine; and Edward V. and his brother Richard of York. Henry VII. lies in the gorgeous chapel which he reared, within a rich monument of brass. There too, we may see the tombs of queen Elizabeth,

and of queen Mary of Scotland, of James I. of England, and of Charles II. The abbats and religious of the old monastery of S. Peter were sleeping there when the changes of later ages brought desolation upon their abode of peace. And many of the flower of British chivalry have sought a grave there with the hooded monks.

Alas! that it should so often be our lot to mourn the decay of ancient piety and reverence, in the sublimest monuments of the devotion of other ages. But if we are doomed to wander in the desolate cathedral or abbey church, solitary and with sad hearts, amidst the gay throng of visitors who sport themselves where once the holy dead were wont to kneel, we cannot feel alone while their remains are so near. In each reclining figure, so humble, so melancholy, with palms so meekly joined, or hands crossed upon the breast, in silent, unceasing supplication, we seem to behold a brother in the mystical communion of the Catholic fold. If visions of the old solemnities still haunt our imagination, the stately procession, or the jubilant choir, on a Christmas or an Easter morn, we may find comfort in the thought, that those were but shadows of what is even at this hour passing around the eternal throne in the Church above. Earthly temples may decay, and their glory may pass away in evil times, but of the city of God it is written by the disciple of love, "I saw no temple there, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it."

He lived in good lyfe many a yere,
Emporoure of grete powere,

And wisely gan he wake.

When he dyed, for soth to say,
He was beryed in that abbay
That he first gan make ;
There he lyeth in a shryne of gold,
And doth maracles as it is tolde;
He maketh blynd men for to see,
Wode men to have their wit, parde,
Croked their cruches forsake.

Now God, that is of mythes most,
Fader, and Sone, and Holy Gost,
Of owre soules be fayne!

All that have herde this talkyng,
Lytill, moche, old and yyng,

Yblyssed mote they be:

God give them grace whan they shal ende
To hevyn blyss their soules wende
With angelys bryght of ble.
Amen, pour charite.

Legend of Sir Gowghter.

OCTOBER 17.

S. Etheldreda, Virgin.

679.

S. ETHELDREDA was the third daughter of Anna, king of the East Angles, and Ereswitha, sister of S. Hilda, abbess of Whitby. She was born at Exnynge, or Ixning, a town in Suffolk, and was educated by her parents in the fear of God. She was married to Tonbert, prince of the Girvii, a tribe dependent on the kingdom of Mercia, who inhabited the marshes which lay to the north of Cambridge, between the Cam and the sea. In the midst of those fens, there were many islands which were highly cultivated. The Isle of Ely was one of the largest among them, and

Tonbert bestowed it on the saint as her bridal dower. While they lived together in the bonds of holy matrimony, she prevailed on him to follow the more excellent way of virgin souls. Their angelic union was dissolved by the death of Tonbert, at the end of a few years. S. Etheldreda then retired to Ely, where she passed a long time in holy solitude. Poverty and humility she made her glory, and her nights and days were occupied in the divine praises. The fame of her sanctity could not be long concealed. It attracted the notice and love of Egfrid, the son of Oswi, king of the Northumbrians. In 660, she consented to be married to him, and left her happy retreat for the home of her husband. Oswinus, the steward of her house accompanied her; of whom we have heard, as the humble attendant of S. Chad, in later years. She lived for twelve years in the society of Egfrid, and during that time she obtained from him the same favour as her former husband had granted to her. Hence she is called in the ancient chronicles, "Twice a widow, and always a virgin." "It cannot be doubted," says Ven. Bede, "that even in our age it may have so happened as faithful historians relate to have been often done in former ages; one and the same Lord granting it, Who promises that He will be with us to the end of the world 1."

In 670 Egfrid succeeded to the throne of the Northumbrians on the death of his father. His holy queen seems to have become more and more devoted to the contemplation of heavenly things, and in 672 with her husband's consent she withdrew into the monastery of Coludi, or Cawode, near

1 Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. 19.