Baptist's Day (August 29) Oswald himself came and settled the monks there.[1]
A new chapter now begins by relating how during the next winter masons were secured and materials prepared for building a stone church in the spring. The church was cruciform, with a tower in the middle and another at the west end. Meanwhile other monasteries were being founded; for the king pressed the matter on, and ordered Dunstan to let Ethelwold of Winchester and Oswald of Worcester understand that all sites of monasteries should be furnished with monks or nuns. And this they quickly brought about, being eager so to do. Oswald made two monasteries, one in his cathedral city, the other at Winchelcombe. Of the latter he appointed Germanus, the dean of Ramsey, to be head. Ethelnoth was set to rule Ramsey; and in the cathedral city the headship was given to Wynsin, who had been trained at Ramsey (apud nostri coenobii gymnasium), and took with him certain brethren from the Ramsey choir.[2]
Our author makes no further reference to Worcester, save at the end, when he tells how the brethren at Worcester sent tidings to Ramsey of Oswald's death, and how the saint was buried in his own new church at Worcester.[3] In estimating the historical value of what he says about Worcester, we must bear in mind that he is a Ramsey monk, and his interests centre in his own house: Worcester and Winchelcombe concern him only because Ramsey monks ruled these foundations. But we learn from him that Oswald acted with prudence and patience. He began with a model monastery on a small scale at Westbury-on-Trym; then, thanks to Duke Ethelwin's unbounded generosity, Ramsey offered itself for a great foundation. The introduction of monks at Worcester came later. Wynsin, or Wynsige, who was put at their head, had received his training at Ramsey. There is no suggestion that he had been a member of the cathedral body at Worcester; nor is any hint given of a difficulty with clerks in the establishment of the monastery. It is important to note these silences, for Eadmer's Life of Oswald greatly improves on the barrenness of this early account.
We will now turn back to contemporary evidence, and see what may be learned from Oswald's own charters. Between the years 962 and 969 we have some thirty grants of leases, mostly for three lives, attested by members of the Worcester familia; and of these grants
- ↑ Historians of York, i. 431.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 435.
- ↑ Ibid., pp. 474f.
