Part 3

I have not succeeded in ascertaining what became of Ælfleda, but her husband “Ethelred, king of the Northumbrians, was slain by his own people on the thirteenth day before the calends of May,” in the same year that Offa died.--_V. Ingr. Sax. Chr. p. 80._]

The mind of the philosopher, the historian, and the poet, must alike reflect with pain, that there was one gigantic genius who might lay claim to the laurels of all, and could yet allow his opinions to be so biassed by prejudice as to declare the records of the times to which we have been alluding to be worthless as a history of the contests of kites and crows![19] The intellect that controlled the infancy of a mighty nation was spurned, because it did not chance to be in existence when that nation had advanced to maturity--but it surely needs no new observation to pronounce that the germs of originality will develop themselves at all times and under all circumstances. Events may doubtless occur to evolve them with a peculiar force, and education and early habit may deck them with characteristic colouring; but where the spirit of originality--the essence of causation--exists, it _will_ find a vent for its exhibition, whether it rise in the breast of an Offa amid an age of comparative barbarism, or burst from the mind of a Napoléon, to stalk with the grandeur of a son of Anak superior to a host of petty minds, narrowed by the extreme polish of that very civilization upon which they chiefly pride themselves.

[Footnote 19: Milton.]

Had not the genius of Offa led the way by subjecting so large a portion of England to his control, it is scarcely probable that Egbert would have succeeded so early as within a few years from his decease in uniting the divided kingdoms under his government. Nor should it be forgotten that the future monarch of all England took his early lessons in the rude chivalry of the times at the court of Offa, by whom he was protected from the persecution of Brithric:[20] thence passing in safety by the connivance of his friend to the dominions of Charlemagne, he was entertained by that illustrious emperor till the death of Brithric left the kingdom of Wessex open to his claims. And on his return to his native land, he showed plainly that the ambitious designs of his early protector yet lived in his bosom, and but a transient period intervened ere the divided House of the Octarchy owned him as their common Lord.

[Footnote 20: V. Holinshed, b. 6.]

To Offa then, as the preserver, and to a certain extent the instructor, of the first sole monarch of England, the present age must look back with gratitude as the founder of the limited monarchy of the land; but as he is said by one of his historians[21] to have been a man in whom virtue and vice were so mingled, as to render it difficult to say whether of the twain were predominant--so in the legacy of spiritual slavery which he bequeathed to his kingdom, it is a question whether the advantages arising from unity in political government were not more than counterbalanced.

[Footnote 21: “Offa was a man of great mind, and who would endeavour to bring to effect what he had preconceived. He reigned thirty-nine years. When I consider the deeds of this man I am doubtful whether I should commend or censure. At one time, in the same character, vices were so palliated by virtues, and at another virtues came in such quick succession upon vices, that it is difficult to determine how to characterize the changing Proteus.”--_William of Malmsbury._

It must be remembered, however, that William of Malmsbury was an interested party; and therefore his testimony as to Offa’s character must be regarded as coming from a source somewhat prejudiced against him.--_V. note 23._]

Not only did Offa, by his application to the Pope for permission to transfer the province of Canterbury to Lichfield, recognize the principle of interference in the ecclesiastical government of this country on the part of the bishop of Rome, but he is expressly stated to have made his whole realm tributary to that See. And it is certain that in paying Romescot[22] he followed the example of Ina, who in the year 697 “was the first that caused the monie called Peter Pence to be paid unto the bishop of Rome, which was for everie houshold within his dominion a penie.”

[Footnote 22: The alms of “Romescot,” “Heord (hearth) penny,” or “Peter-pence,” “arose by degrees and parcels: for first Ina, the Saxon king, granted a penny out of every house in his kingdom. After, Offa granted it out of every dwelling house that had ground thereto, occupied to the yearly value of thirty pence, _excepting the lands which he had purposed for the monastery of St. Albans_. This Offa had a much larger dominion than Ina, and was king over three and twenty shires. After whom Æthelwolf passed a new grant thereof out of his whole kingdom, which was well nigh all that part which was called Saxony, with this proviso, nevertheless, that where a man had divers dwelling houses he was only to pay for that house wherein he dwelt at the time of payment. Afterwards Edward the Confessor confirmed that donation out of such tenements as had thirty pence, ‘_vivæ pecuniæ_.’”--_Bacon, chap. 11th. V. also Holinshed, b. 6. ch. 1._

The particulars of Offa’s visit to Rome, at which city the arrangements alluded to in the text took place, are recorded by the monk of St. Albans as follows, viz.:--_Matth. Paris, Vita Offæ Secundi, 18._

Offa igitur rex piissimus, suorum magnatum sano adquiescens consilio, divino ductus spiritu, transalpinum valdè laboriosum et sumptuosum iter arripit, sine moræ dispendio. Nec eum cura rei familiaris, vel regni custodiendi necessitas, vel comminantis senii gravitas, nec laboris immanitas, vel pecuniæ inæstimabiliter effusio ipsum poterant retardare, stabilem retinens in proposito cordis intentionem, ut sicut beatus Albanus protomartyr refulsit Angligenis, ita et monasterium ejus omnibus regni Cænobiis, possessionibus similiter et libertatibus, necnon et privilegiis, præfulgeat et præponatur.

Præparatis igitur edicto regio navibus, cum navium armamentis, rex puppes ascendit, et sinuatis velis, prospero cursu in quodam portu maris in Flandria applicuit, desiderato. Veniensq. ad quoddam oppidum, ubi quoddam erat monasteriolum, hospitandi gratia illuc divertit. Ubi jumentis suis pabula non inveniens, miratur valdè, quum locus ille pratorum copia conspicitur abundare. Quærit ergo rex, cujus sint prata illa? Responsum accipit, quod Dominos plures haberent qui jubentur omnes, ante regem comparere. Convenit igitur eos, de venditione pratorum illorum. At ipsi responderunt, dicentes, se nolle prata sua vendere, cum auro et argento satis abundassent, nec habebant propter egestatem necesse, alicui, præcipuè transeunti, sua vel prata vel rura vendere. Quos cum audisset rex divitiis omnimodis abundare, ait rex magnificus et munificus: “Credo quòd non sic abundetis, quin non possitis ampliùs abundare. Nos prata vestra comparabimus, non secundum eorum æstimationem, sed juxta vestram. Nec erit ulla difficultas de pretio, licèt nulla sit propriatio in contrahendo.” Ipsi verò considerantes regis licèt piissimi potentiam, et quòd si vellet, parvo nutu posset eos obruisse, responderunt, se velle voluntati suæ obsecundare, si tot nùllia ipsis vellet numerare. Et nominaverunt tot millia, quot credebant regem nùllo modo, licèt prodigalissimus esset et inæstimabiliter abundaret, illis velle numerare, quia prata sua vendere non curabant.

Dinumerata deniq. pro distractione pratorum pecunia a loco rex progreditur, et Romam tandem perveniens, optata Apostolorum limina contingit, et diversorum loca Sanctorum percurrit: demum Adriano summo Pontifici, sub causam adventus explicans, et de loco, simul et beato Albano canonizando, et magnificando, Cænobioq. constituendo, devotè preces porrigens petitioni suæ Romanam de facili curiam inclinavit: Præsertim cùm Martyris inventio cælitus mortalibus sit declarata. Adaugebat quoq. omnium devotionem, qùod non cuilibet de populo, sed tanto taliq. Regi, tam magni Martyris sui pignora Dominus revelavit. De monasterio igitur conventuali, videlicet cænobiali, dignè ac celeriter constituendo, et ab omni Episcoporum subjectione emancipando, Papam et totam curiam consulit cum effectu.

Cumq. inclytus rex Offa eleganter perorasset, Romanus Pontifex humiliter ac favorabiliter inclinato capite, sic respondit. “O regum christianissimè, fili Offa, devotionem tuam circa regni tui protomartyrem, non mediocriter commendamus.” Nec nos quamvis, remotos, latet vestra strenuitas vel sincera sanctitas. Verè Cælibem vitam agentibus, meritò mittendus fuit angelus, cum castitati cognita sit puritas angelica, et cum favorabilis sit persona tua, favorabilior est causa quam proponis in medio, et labor tuæ peregrinationis acceptus est altissimo. De monasterio verò construendo et priviligiando petitioni tuæ assensum præbemus gratissimum; _Injungentes tibi in tuorum remissionem peccatorum_, ut prosperè ac feliciter rediens, cum Dei et mea benedictione in terram ac regnum tuum, consilio Episcoporum et optimatum tuorum, quas volueris possessiones sive libertates beati Albani Anglorum protomartyris cænobio conferas. Et tuo privilegio inde facto, Nos originale tuum privilegio nostro inviolabili gratanter roborabimus et confirmabimus consequenter; et monasterium illud in specialem Romanæ Ecclesiæ filiam adoptabimus, et nostro tantum illud Apostolatui subjicientes, ab omni nocivo cujuslibet mortalium impetu, specialiter mediante Episcopo sive Archiepiscopo, protegemus.

His igitur auditis rex, quid dignê tantæ benignitati compenset secū studiosè pertractat. Tandem divina inspirante gratia consiliū invenit salubre, et in die crastina, Scholam Anglorum qui tunc Romæ floruit, ingressus, dedit ibi ex regali munificentia ad sustentationem gentis regni sui illuc venientis, singulos argenteos, de familiis singulis, omnibus in posterum diebus, singulis annis. Quibus videlicet, sors tantum contulit extra domos in pascuis, ut triginta argenteorum pretium excederet. Hoc autem per totum suam ditionem teneri in perpetuum constituit. Excepta tota terra Sancti Albani, suo monasterio conferenda, prout postea collata privilegia protestantur. Ut illo denario, à generali cōtributione sic excepto, et dicto monasterio sic collato, memoria donatoris indelibiliter perpetuetur. Et hoc tali largitate obtinuit, et conditione, ut de regno Angliæ nullus publicè pænitens, pro executione sibi injunctæ pænitentiæ, subiret exilium.

Celebrata igitur donatione prædicta, et de peccatis omnibus (præcipuê tamen de præliorum multorum commissione) facta confessione, et pro prædicta Cænobii fundatione accepta pænitentia; Cum benedictione devota summi Pontificis, rex ad propria prosperê remeavit.

_Matt. Westmonast._ relates this in almost the same words, and adds, _p. 288._

“Tunc congregato apud Verolamium episcoporum et optimatum suorum concilio, unanimi omnium consensu, et voluntate beato Albano amplas contulit terras, et possessiones innumeras, quas multiplici libertatum privilegio insignivit. Monachorum verò conventum, ex domibus benê religiosis ad tumbā martyris congregavit, et abbatum eis nomine VVillegodum præfecit cui cum ipso monasterio, omnia jura regalia concessit.”]

It is scarcely less disgusting than instructive to trace throughout the middle ages the growing foliage of superstition, that cast its dim and lengthening shadow over the lovely temple of religion. And when it was the received creed of the time, that donations to the church, of which the bishop of Rome was falsely regarded as the head, were sufficient to compensate for the most heinous crimes, it cannot be surprising that the regal homicide should pay his court to the prevailing idol, or that the wide domains of the wealthy and noble sensualist should in his dying hour (no longer, then, of service to pander to his appetites,) be transferred to the service of that all-powerful agency which professed itself alike enabled to quench the fires of purgatory and unbar the portals of the mansions of eternal bliss! Offa, the proud and conquering king, stripped of its vested rights the ancient province of Canterbury to aggrandize with spiritual supremacy his own domains[23]--Offa, the daring and ambitious prince, yielded to the evil suggestions of tempting opportunity, and with a bold and bloody hand seized the broad lands of the sainted martyr Ethelbert. But Offa the pilgrim, the penitent, the failing and remorseful monarch, over whom the feeble halo of an earthly fame had passed and left no bright and pleasing memory behind--Offa, who felt his time at hand and looked through the hazy superstition of a corrupted church upon a vision of purchasable happiness in heaven “in testimony of repentance for the blood that he had spilled, bestowed a tenth of all his goods on the churchmen and on the poor,”[24] built churches, founded abbeys, and endowed monasteries,[25] to bribe the God whose laws he had infringed, and bargain at a price for the salvation which had been freely offered!

[Footnote 23: In addition to this (viz., the transference of the primacy from Canterbury to Lichfield) he committed other arbitrary depredations on the church. “He seizeth on churches and other religious houses,” says Holinshed. “A downright pilferer,” says William of Malmsbury, “he converted to his own use the lands of many churches, of which Malmsbury was one.” Everth (Egfrid), however, on his coming to the throne, restored to the monasteries the possessions which had been misapplied in former reigns: and gave Malmsbury into the hands of Cuthbert, then abbot of that place.]

[Footnote 24: Speed’s Chronicle, p. 345.]

[Footnote 25: There is considerable difficulty as to the dates of some of Offa’s endowments and foundations. His endowment of the English college at Rome (_Matth. West. A. D. 794_), his making Mercia tributary to the See of Rome (_Holinshed, ch. 4, b. 6, vol. 2._), and his erection and endowment of St. Albans over the body of the English protomartyr, were all subsequent to the murder of Ethelbert. Some of his other donations to the church were as follows: viz.--

He made large gifts of land near Sandwich “monachis ecclesiæ Christi Doroberniæ” at the request of archbishop Iambertus, A. D. 773, Canterbury (_Cant-wara-burh_) having been burned a few years before.--_Dugd. Mon. Angl._

He freed the abbey of Woking A. D. 775. “In the days of this same Offa was an alderman of the name of Brorda who requested the king for his sake to free his own monastery, called Woking, because he would give it to Medhamsted and St. Peter, and the abbot that then was, whose name was Pusa. Pusa succeeded Beonna; and the king loved him much. And the king freed the monastery of Woking against king, against bishop, against earl, and against all men: so that no man should have any claim there except St. Peter and the abbot. This was done at the king’s town called Free-Richburn.”--_Ingr. Sax. Chron. p. 75._

After _Bath_ had been devastated by the Danes Offa rebuilt the _church of St. Peter_ about A. D. 775.--_Tanner’s Notitia Monastica. V. Somersetshire I._

At _Bredon_ or _Breordun_ he founded or endowed a monastery A. D. 780.--_Tanner’s Not. Mon. III. Worcestershire 5._--_Dugd. Mon. Angl._

He also appears to have granted some endowment or privilege to the cathedral and benedictine priory of Worcester.--_Not. Mon. XXI. Worcestersh. I._

He was also a liberal donor to (some imagine the founder of) Westminster Abbey. A. D. 785 “Offa granted ten plough-lands at Aldenham in Herts to St. Peter’s church, ‘et plebi Domini degenti in Torneia’ (Thorney Isle, on which the Minster was built). He also ‘collected a parcel of monks here’ and ‘repaired and enlarged the church,’ and ‘having a great reverence for St. Peter,’ continues Sulcardus, ‘_he in a particular manner honoured it by depositing there the coronation robes and regalia_.’ He also exempted it from the payment of Romescot.”--_Neale’s Westminster Abbey, vol. 1. p. 13. Dugd. Mon. by Ellis, I. 266._

He resettled the see of Dorchester (Oxon), which had experienced some interruption in the succession of its bishops.--_Flor. Wig. 785. Kennett’s Paroch. Antiq. p. 33._

He built a nunnery at Winchelcombe (called Winchcumb by Dugdale), A. D. 787.--_Not. Mon. XXXIII. Gloucestershire I._

He gave “between the years 791 and 794 to Athelard, archbishop of Canterbury thirty tributaries of land on the north side of the Thames, at a place called Twittenham.”--_Lyson’s Twickenham._

But the most important of Offa’s foundations was that of St. Alban’s abbey. I have followed the date of Ingram’s Saxon Chronicle, Speed, and others, in assigning 794 as the period of his death, and therefore cannot suppose the foundation of St. Alban’s to have been later than that year, though it may have been the year previous. (V. _Storr’s Chron._) From _Tanner’s Not. Mon. (I. Hertfordshire, I.)_ we learn that A. D. 793 a noble abbey for one hundred Benedictine monks was founded by Offa. The Chronicler Speed says that in A. D. 795 “Offa in honour of St. Albane, and in repentance of his sins, built a magnificke monastery (over against Verolamium in the place then called Holmehurst, where that protomartyr of Britaine for the constant profession of the Faith lost his head), indowing it with lands and rich revenewes for the maintenance of an hundred monks. Upon the first gate of entrance in stone standeth cut a salteir argent in a field azure, and is assigned by the judicious in Heraldry to bee the armes that he bare.”--_Book 7. ch. 28._

Matthew of Westminster and others assign different dates varying from A. D. 793 to 797 to this foundation, and the Monk of St. Albans agrees with Matth. West. in recording the vision of an angel which occurred to Offa at Bath, wherein he was instructed by the heavenly visitant to exhume and place in a tomb worthy of him the body of St. Alban. This design he subsequently named to the Pope, for which the Holy Pontiff commended him, and promised to take the projected abbey of St. Alban under his especial protection “nullo episcopo sive archiepiscopo mediante.”

Speed further states, that Offa built a church in Warwickshire after his return from Rome, “where the adjoining town from it and him beareth the name of _Off-Church_:” and that at Bath he built “_another_ monastery.” Perhaps it is to this last, and not to St. Peter’s church which was rebuilt by him (see _ante_), to which Dugdale refers in his _Mon. Angl._ when he says, “Monasterium Batoniense rex Offa construxit, quod post rex Edgarus, sicut alia monasteria reparavit.”

To the above Holinshed adds the church of Hereford, which he states that he “indowed with great revenues.” _Hist. Engl. b. 6. ch. 4._]

But with all his faults and failings, Offa was a great, an illustrious character! The stain, the indelible stain of the pure and high-minded Ethelbert’s blood must remain to deface his memory; yet cannot it annihilate the brilliant talents that the Mercian king displayed in war--the nobleness and independence of spirit that could not, for an instant, brook an alien interference--the humanity he showed in bestowing burial on the bodies of his enemies slain in battle[26]--his personal humility when in the height of prosperity[27]--his judgment and affection in associating with himself in the government of the kingdom his noble and pious son--his admirable policy in restoring to the conquered kings of Wessex and of Deira their respective realms, and of binding them to his interests by giving them his daughters in marriage--his systematic enforcement of the majesty of the law[28]--his knowledge of human nature in ordaining regular insignia of royalty[29]--or his early patriotism and unflinching valour that wrested from the tyrant rebel the empurpled crown, and wreathed for the diadem a garland of victory to grace his own commanding brow![30]

[Footnote 26: V. Vita Offæ Secundi.]

[Footnote 27: “As a conqueror over all his enemies triumphantly after ten years’ wars abroad returned he to his own kingdome, neither puffed with pride, nor suffering his title to be enlarged according to his conquests.”--_Speed’s Chronicle._]

[Footnote 28: Alcuin bears this testimony to Offa’s laws not long after his death: “Vos quoque omnem gentem Merciorum admoneatis ut _mores bonos et modestos et castros_ diligenter observent, quos beatæ memoriæ Offa illis instituit.”

_Ex Epist. Albini ad quendam Anglum patritii ord. virum. Leland’s Collect. vol. 1. p. 402._]

[Footnote 29: “He was not neglectiue of regall state,” by the report of the Ligger booke of St. Alban’s, which saith, “that in regard of his great prerogatiue, and not of any pride, _he first_ instituted and commanded, that even in times of peace also, himselfe and his successors in the crowne should, as he passed through any cities, have trumpetters going and sounding before them, to shew that the person of the king should breed both feare and honor in all which either see him or heare him.” _Speed’s Chronicle, p. 345._]

[Footnote 30: The death of Offa took place at Offa-leia, or Off-ley. _Speed says 29th July, 794. Ingr. Sax. Chron. A. D. 794. Mailros. 796. Matth. West. 797._]

In bold relief he stands amid a crowd of inferior souls--and if cruelty did occasionally embrue his sword in needless blood--if a weak yielding to an artful woman’s wiles does stain his memory--if a blind and superstitious following of blind and superstitious as well as artful guides lead posterity to doubt the healthy vigour of his intellect--let it be remembered, that for his faults he was mainly indebted to the unlettered days in which he lived--his virtues and his talents were such as could not fail to render him illustrious, had he lived in a far more advanced and highly civilized age than that which he adorned.

END.

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Transcriber’s note:

Variant spellings and original punctuation are retained.

Footnotes have been moved to the end of paragraphs.

Other changes that have been made are listed below.

In Footnote 16, “_Vita Offæ_ 2” superscript “di.” has been transcribed as “_Vita Offæ Secundi._”

Footnote 4, from “Nam _Offa_ infra suum primum annum eum anfugavit,” to “Nam _Offa_ infra suum primum annum eum aufugavit,”

Footnote 14, from “... solemniter coronari filum suum ...” to “... solemniter coronari filium suum ...”

Footnote 17, from “... Brithfrid prædiviti viso apparuit, jubeus,” to “... Brithfrid prædiviti viso apparuit, jubens,”

Footnote 22, from “... non secundum corum æstimationem,” to “... non secundum eorum æstimationem,”