We must however premise that a list printed by Hearne on p. 103, and taken from the Cambridge MS of the De Antiquitate, is quite untrustworthy. It frequently differs from the statements made earlier in the book, in spelling and order and dates. It is not found in the MS quoted as M by Hearne.[1]
| De Antiq., pp. 49-61. | Tib. B. 5. |
| 668 Berthwaldus | |
| 678 Hemgisel | Hemgils |
| 705 Berwaldus | Wealhstod |
| 712 Albert | Coengils |
| 719 Etfrith | Beorthwald |
| 729 Cengisle |
We need not go further at present. We have seen how William of Malmesbury constructed his list, and our examination of such charters as are still available gives ample proof of the care which lie devoted to his task.[2] The tenth-century compiler probably proceeded in a different way, and made the best list that he could from names which he read on sepulchral monuments and in the book of commemorations called the Martyrology. Accordingly it is not until we get near to his own time that we can feel confident that the order which he gives us will be the more accurate of the two.
If now we follow William of Malmesbury in putting Beorhwald next to Hemgisl, what are we to make of Wealhstod in the rival list? Bede mentions that in 731 Ualcfistod was bishop of Hereford: and William of Malmesbury in his Gesta Pontificum quotes some ancient verses which tell how he began the erection of a cross, but did not live to finish it. It was completed by his successor Cuthbert, who afterwards was archbishop of Canterbury.[3] Wealhstod may have been bishop of Hereford as early as 727, and have died as late as 736. No Glastonbury charter mentions him as abbot, and therefore William of Malmesbury has no knowledge of him.[4] If he were an abbot, he must come in somewhere before 731, when Bede speaks of him as bishop of Hereford: and, if William of Malmesbury is
- ↑ That is, Cox Macro's MS, now in the British Museum, Addit. MS 22934.
- ↑ He seems, however, in calculating the length of an abbot's rule, occasionally to have made the unwarrantable assumption that the year in which mention is first made of him in a charter was the year of his accession.
- ↑ Bede, H. E. v. 23; W. of M., G. P., p. 299.
- ↑ In the curious and much altered charter (B. C. S. 168: ' a. d. 744 ') by which Lulla grants Baltonsborough to the abbey we find 'Walestod the priest' among the witnesses: so the name at least seems to have been known at Glastonbury, and the compiler of the tenth-century list may have mistaken him for an early abbot.
