Page:St. Oswald and the Church of Worcester.djvu/54

 The story of the restoration of Christ Church, Canterbury, is improved by the statement that rain fell outside the city: but the period of three years is not given.

The bleeding of the Host is recorded, but no controversial use is made of the miracle.

These are the only incidents related. Nothing is said of the objections raised by Oda on his appointment to the see of Canterbury.

At a later point, when Oda is sending Oswald to Fleury, the original statement that this was the monastery whence the archbishop had himself received the monastic habit is worked up thus: 'Monachus loci illius sum. Habitum enim religionis,ad onus regiminis sub quo gemo vocatus, inde suscepi.' It is noteworthy that the words here italicized are absent from one of the early MSS.: it is possible that they are a later addition by Eadmer himself.

As Eadmer gives no hint that he has written a Life of Oda, it is probable that his Life of Oswald is the earlier work.

William of Malmesbury's account of Oda in the Gesta Pontificum (pp. 20-4) is almost entirely drawn from the Life of Oda by Eadmer. He does not fall into the mistake of making him bishop of Sherborne, but says expressly that he was bishop of Wilts with his seat at Ramsbury, 'permanente episcopo in Scireburna'; which looks like a conscious correction of the narrative before him. He plays on the 'rosa e spinis', saying: 'sicut ortu suo dumorum asperitatem eluctatur rosa, ita depressa feritate Danica, cuius gentis oriundus erat, in magnum specimen bonitatis evasit.' He states that Oda served for a time in warfare under King Edward the Elder: 'Eduardo aliquamdiu militans, nee multo post comam tonsus clericatum professus fuerat,' though nothing in the earlier accounts seems to suggest this. The story of King Athelstan's sword at the battle of Brunanburh is complicated by the fact that William had already told it (as he here says) in the Gesta Regum (i. 143 f.), but in a different form. There Anlaf, having made a night attack, surprises and slays a bishop, and then comes suddenly upon the king, who discovers that his sword has fallen out of its scabbard. After invoking God and Saint Aldhelm, he puts his hand to the scabbard again and finds the sword there: the sword, says William, is still preserved in the royal treasury in memory of the miracle. In the Gesta Pontificum this story is blended with the story of Oda's restoration of the sword as given by Eadmer.

Oda is made to cross the sea and fetch his habit from Fleury, when about to be made archbishop. His removal of Wilfrid's bones