Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/200

 indeed women also, and selling them as slaves to the Irish. The Conqueror having tried in vain to put down this practice, Wulfstan often visited the town, staying there two or three months at a time, and preached against the slave trade, with such good effect that the people entirely abandoned it.

During the rebellion of 1075 he joined Urse, the sheriff, in calling out the force of his diocese, and posting it so as to prevent the rebel Earl of Hereford from crossing the Severn [see ]. In 1085 he assisted the commissioners for Worcestershire in taking the survey for Domesday, and at that time gained a suit against the abbot of Evesham as to the right of his church to the hundred of Oswaldslaw. When the rebels and their Welsh allies marched against Worcester in 1088, the bishop, who was faithful to William Rufus, armed his followers, and at the request of the garrison took up his abode in the castle. With his blessing, the loyal troops marched to battle, and the defeat of the rebels was attributed to his anathema. He strongly disapproved of the custom of wearing long hair, adopted by the vicious youths of the court, and when he had the chance would cut their locks with his pocket-knife. Nevertheless, the king held him in honour, as did also the nobles generally. Irish kings sought his favour; Malcolm III [q. v.] of Scotland and his queen, Margaret (d. 1093) [q. v.], desired his prayers; and among his correspondents were the pope, the archbishop of Bari, and the patriarch of Jerusalem. He was disabled by infirmity from attending the consecration of Anselm [q. v.] in December 1093. Early in 1094 his decision was requested with reference to a dispute between Archbishop Anselm and Maurice (d. 1107) [q. v.], bishop of London, as he was the only one left of the old English episcopate and was skilled in the English customs: he decided in favour of the archbishop. He fell sick at Easter, and at Whitsuntide sent for his friend, Robert Losinga (d. 1095) [q. v.], bishop of Hereford, confessed to him, and received the discipline. At the beginning of 1095 Robert again visited him, and he again confessed. He died on 18 Jan., and was believed at the moment of his death to have appeared to Bishop Robert, who was then with the king at Cricklade in Wiltshire. He was buried amid general lamentation in his church at Worcester. He was, so far as is known, a faultless character, and, save that he knew no more than was absolutely necessary for the discharge of his duties, a pattern of all monastic and of all episcopal virtues as they were then understood. Some miracles and prophecies are attributed to him. Immediately on his death he was reckoned as a saint, though less than fifty years later William of Malmesbury complains that the incredulity of the age slighted his miraculous power. He was canonised by Innocent III in 1203; his day in the calendar is 19 Jan. King John, when dying, commended his soul and body to God and St. Wulfstan, and was buried between Wulfstan and St. Oswald. Wulfstan's tomb escaped destruction in the fire of 1113; his shrine was melted down in 1216 to provide money for a payment demanded of the convent, and his body was translated to a new shrine on the dedication of the restored cathedral on 7 June 1218. Some of his relics were then divided and probably sold; a rib was obtained by William, abbot of St. Albans, who encased it in gold and silver, and dedicated an altar to St. Wulfstan (Gesta Abbatum S. Albani, i. 283; Chronica Majora, iii. 42).

[A Life of Wulfstan, written by Hemming, his sub-prior and the compiler of the Worcester Chartulary, is in Anglia Sacra, i. 541; another Life in English, by Coleman, a monk of Worcester and prior of Westbury, is not now known to exist. Florence of Worcester gives several biographical notices. William of Malmesbury's Life, founded on Coleman's work and written about 1140, is in Anglia Sacra, ii. 241; he also gives notices in Gesta Pontiff. and Gesta Regum; Eadmer's Hist. Nov., ed. Migne, supplies one or two facts. Many later writers give notices of him, and a Life was written by Capgrave, see AA. SS., Bolland, Jan. ii.; Freeman's Norman Conquest vols. ii–v. passim, Will. Rufus i. and ii. 475–81.]  WULFWIG or WULFWY (d. 1067), bishop of Dorchester, appears in a doubtful charter of 1045 as royal chancellor (Cod. Dipl. iv. 102). In 1053 he succeeded Ulf in the great bishopric of Dorchester (A.-S. Chron. ii. 155, Rolls Ser.) His predecessor was living and had been irregularly deprived, and Freeman suggests that the record of this fact in the chronicle (ib.) may indicate some feeling against Wulfwig's appointment (Norm. Conq. ii. 342), but there seems to have been no opposition. Wulfwig apparently shared the scruple about the canonical position of Archbishop Stigand [q. v.], for he went abroad to be consecrated (A.-S. Chron. l. c.). His appointment is thought to mark a momentary decline in Norman influence, and he was the last of the old line of Dorchester bishops, for his death occurred when the great English ecclesiastical preferments were passing into Norman hands. Wulfwig died at Winchester ( ii. 1, Engl. Hist. Soc.) in 1067, and was buried in his