house, may preserve our memory when our bodies are but dust, and other
brethren fill our places in the choir. Perhaps each generation thinks
the events which happen in its own day more remarkable than any which
have preceded, and that its own period is the crisis of the fate of
Church or State. Yet surely no records of the past, extant, tell us of
such dark threatening clouds as hang over the realm of England at this
time; when the thousandth year since our blessed Lord's nativity
having passed, we seem to be entering on those awful plagues which the
Apocalypse tells us must precede the consummation of all things.

But we who trust in the Lord have a strong tower wherein to hide, and
we know of a land where there is no darkness or shadow of death;
therefore we will not fear though the earth be moved, and the hills be
carried into the midst of the sea.

This house of St. Wilfrid was founded by Offa, Thane of Aescendune, in
the year of the Lord 938, and completed by his son and successor Ella,
who was treacherously murdered by his nephew Ragnar, and lies buried
within these sacred walls. The first prior was Father Cuthbert, my
godfather, after whom I was named. He was appointed by Dunstan, just
then on the point of leaving England to escape the rage of the wicked
and unhappy Edwy, and continued to exercise the authority until the
year 975, the year in which our lamented king, Edgar the Magnanimous,
departed to his heavenly rest, with whose decease peace and prosperity
seemed likewise to depart.

Father Godric succeeded him, under whose paternal rule we enjoyed
peace for ten years. Truly the memory of the just is blessed. He died
in 985, and then was I chosen by the votes of the chapter to be their
prior, and my election was confirmed by the holy Dunstan, who himself