Page:Sussex Archaeological Collections, volume 6.djvu/23

 maxime qui in ipso bello occubuerunt;" but as far as it goes it is perfectly intelligible.

It leaves no room to doubt that the whole of Duke William's army was to be remembered in the devout solemnities of the monastery; but then the question arises, whether the persons who composed this host were to be spoken of in those devotions nominatim, or only in general terms, and on the resolution of this question depends whether we have reason to believe that such a list as the Roll of Battle Abbey is by some understood to contain, was ever prepared.

This is a question, first, of general probability, and secondly, of fact and history.

It cannot be denied that the monks might so interpret the intention of their founder, that they might think it incumbent upon them, at least on the great anniversary of the battle, to make special mention of every person who had aided the Duke of Normandy in his enterprise, and in that case there must have been prepared a written catalogue of them, to be used in the services year by year. But then, to recite the name of every soldier who formed such a numerous host as that which the duke brought over with him, would seem to be so large a tax upon the patience of the monks, that it seems the more reasonable opinion that the monks gave a lax interpretation to this clause in the charter, and were content with naming the duke, his wife Matilda, and King Edward, and, then in the actual terms of the charter, all who had aided, and especially all who were slain, without descending to name every archer in the army or every captain of the several divisions of the host: and this probably was all that the founder actually intended.

So much for the general probability. We may wish that we could arrive at a different conclusion, for such a list prepared at the time of the foundation of the monastery would form a most authentic and valuable historical document, especially if, as would no doubt have been the case, there had been a distinction marked between those who were slain and those who survived the battle. It would be instructive as bearing on military antiquities; it would be of vast importance in its bearing on genealogical history. Had such a list been prepared, and had it descended to our time, we should then