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Westminster Abbey
by
[Footnote a:
Couldst thou no better keep, O Abbey old, The boon thy dedication-sign foretold.
“Ailred of Rievaulx, and several other writers, assert that Sebert, king of the East Saxons and nephew of Ethelbert, founded the Abbey of Westminster very early in the seventh century.
“Sulcardus, who lived in the time of William the Conqueror, gives a minute account of the miracle supposed to have been worked at the consecration of the Abbey.
“The church had been prepared against the next day for dedication. On the night preceding, St. Peter appeared on the opposite side of the water to a fisherman, desiring to be conveyed to the farther shore. Having left the boat, St. Peter ordered the fisherman to wait, promising him a reward on his return. An innumerable host from heaven accompanied the apostle, singing choral hymns, while everything was illuminated with a supernatural light. The dedication having been completed, St. Peter returned to the fisherman, quieted his alarm at what had passed, and announced himself as the apostle. He directed the fisherman to go as soon as it was day to the authorities, to state what he had seen and heard, and to inform them that, in corroboration of his testimony, they would find the marks of consecration on the walls of the church. In obedience to the apostle’s direction, the fisherman waited on Mellitus, Bishop of London, who, going to the church, found not only marks of the chrism, but of the tapers with which the church had been illuminated. Mellitus, therefore, desisted from proceeding to a new consecration, and contented himself with the celebration of the mass.”–DUGDALE, Monasticon Anglicanum (edition of 1817), vol. i. pp. 265, 266. See also MONTALEMBERT, Les ‘Moines d’Occident, vol. iii. pp. 428-432.]
[Footnote 1:
The charm’d babe of the Eleusinian king.
Demophooen, son of Celeus, king of Eleusis. See, in the Homeric Hymns, the Hymn to Demeter, 184-298.]
[Footnote 2:
That Pair, whose head did plan, whom hands did forge
The Temple in the pure Parnassian gorge.
Agamedes and Trophonius, the builders of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. See Plutarch, Consolatio ad Apollonium, c. 14.]