therefore caused himself to be carried by his servants into the church of S. Andrew, and thence, after many prayers and tears for himself and his monastery, to the infirmary, that he might breathe his last among his spiritual children. He was induced, though much against his will, to appoint an abbess to the convent at Malling, a society which he had up to this time governed in his own person; but he obliged her at the same time to take an oath of perpetual obedience and canonical subjection to the bishop and church of Rochester. He then gave away his clothes, and every garment he had, however valueless; relieving himself, “ab ignominioso proprietatis pondere", of what he thought a disgraceful weight of ownership, and distributing them, as a free monk, among the brethren and poor. His epis

copal ring he felt a religious dread to wear, from a sense of the responsibility involved in its possession and use; and therefore entrusted it to the keeping of one of the brethren who was constantly in waiting upon him, not improbably the very writer of the Life which I am now quoting. He was asked by some to give it to the abbot of Battle, who was on a visit at the monastery, but he declined." A few days afterwards, however, his friend and compatriot, Radulf, abbot of Seez, who had resided with S. Anselm since national troubles had driven him from his own monastery, came to see him in his sickness. After some conversation, as Radulf was leaving him, the bishop asked for his ring of the monk in whose custody he had placed it, and to his extreme astonishment, placed it on the abbot's finger. He was only induced to accept it on the bishop's assurance that "it would be necessary for him; and that he was not to persist in refusing it, as it was requisite for the performance of his good wishes towards him." By all this he manifested what his biographer considers an act of prescience, inasmuch as the abbot was eventually his successor in the see."

A few days after this occurrence Gundulf commanded the society to assemble, that in the presence of the brethren he might undergo personal discipline for what he deemed his numerous offences; but the monks thought fit to over1 MS. Cott., Nero A. vIII, f. 76; Angl. Sacr. ii, 290. 2 MS. Cott., Nero A. vIII, ff. 76b, 77; Angl. Sacr., ii, 290. 5 Ibid.

3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
7 MS. Cott. Nero, A. vIII, ff. 77b, 78;

6 Ibid.

Angl. Sacr., ii, 290.

WEST

COUT H