342
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. x. Nor. i, 1902.
it. During the night it had been stretched
by the hands of the all-powerful stranger,
in whom the superintending ecclesiastics
could not but recognize the Divine
carpenter of Nazareth, ,the Christ. There-
fore was the church dedicated to Him,
although its intended dedication had been
to the Holy Trinity. This story the guide
relates to the group of visitors standing in
view of the beam's end, seen in an aperture
over the ambulatory behind the famous
reredos, and surely "seeing is believing "or
has been. For in this age of prose it may be
asked, " How, then, is it that this timber used
in the earliest construction of the church is
now found in its latest adjunct? "
The legend, however, brings together the dedicatory names Holy Trinity and Christ Church, and the connexion is so often found in relation to English churches that the names have been considered interchangeable, although that it should be so is not very obvious. The fact had some attention in the East Anglian (September, 1888), but has not, I think, been discussed in 4 N. & Q.,' and it is with the hope of drawing forth remark that I allude to it and produce some instances of the connexion.
In regard to the Hampshire Christ Church it may be remarked that the legend related does not seem to apply to the early Saxon church, but to its successor, the existing Norman building of Kalph Flambard, Bishop of Durham 1099-1128. This prelate, whose reputation as a church-builder stands higher than his character as the minister of the bad king, William Rufus, is thought to have been dean of the canons of Christ Church, or, as it may be more correct to say, of the church of the Holy Trinity at Twynham. Domesday Book records in several instances as land- holders " Canonici Sancti Trinitatis de Thui- nam,"* and if such record was made c. 1086
- Mr. Henry Moody in his valuable ' Extension
and Translation of Domesday ' for Hampshire (1862) has been rather injudicious in rendering "Thuinam" as "Christ Church." Certainly the Saxon place Tweoxneham, or Twynam (thus named from its situation by two rivers, the Avon and the Stour), became Christ Church, the original name having been overwhelmed by that of the great Norman priory; but in Domesday, compiled per- haps a few years before the commencement of Flambard'a church, the old name in the best form the Norman scribe could give it appears only. Mr. Moody, in translating "Canonici Sancti Trinitatis de Thuinam " as " the Canons of the Holy Trinity of Christ Church,' 1 misleads the reader to conclude that Domesday contains both dedicatory names, but it is not so : there is no word for "Christ Church." The Rev. Thomas Perkins in his account of ' Christ Church' (Bell's series, 1899) has (p. 69) fallen into this error.
(the generally assigned date) it was probably
made before the advent of Flambard. Thus,
finding the Saxon church assigned to the
Holy Trinity, he on replacing it by his
Norman structure appears, on the strength
of the reputed miraculous intervention, to
have dedicated it more especially to Christ,
which name it has ever since carried. It is
this coupling or expansion of dedication in
honore Christi which seems in many instances
to have created the double name.
The principal example of the double name concerns Canterbury Cathedral. It is known to all the world as Christ Church, and yet it can be shown to have been sometimes called Holy Trinity. In ' Monasticon Anglicanuni,' ed. 1817, vol. i. p. 95, the long citation, "Donationes Maneriorum et Ecclesiarum Ecclesie Christi Cantuarien'," is generally abbreviated by omission of the name of the priory. In fifty-three cases, however, where the name is given it is in fifty of these either "Ecclesie Christi in Dorobernia" (the old Roman name of the city not occur- ring later than A.D. 1052) or " Ecclesie Christi Cantuar." But in one case, a grant temp. Henry II., is found "Ecclesie S. Trinitatis Cantuar." ; and in two grants, dated A.D. 790 and 791, we have another variation viz., "Ecclesie Sancti Saluatoris in Dorobernia," and " ad metropolim Saluatoris ecclesiam in Dorobernia." The transition from " Christi " to " Sancti Saluatoris " is so obvious that the terms may be considered identical. Bishop Tanner writes, "Augustine dedicated the church to the honour of our blessed Saviour Christ," and, "From this time [viz., the rebuilding of the church by Lanfranc in 1080] it was often styled the Church or Priory of the Holy Trinity as well as Christ Church." The Domesday entries are invariably " Terre Sancte Trinitatis de Canterberia ' r or " Man- erium Monachorum Sancte Trinitatis," and this may have been the warranty for the learned compilers of the late edition of the ' Monasticon Anglicanum ' to entitle their chapter "Christ Church or Holy Trinity Cathedral and Monastery of Benedictines in Canterbury." In regard to the dedication " St. Saviour's," I propose presently to revert to it.
At Norwich the case of Canterbury is reversed, for as the metropolitan church is now scarcely known as Holy Trinity, so has the name Christ Church not been applied in modern times to the great church of East Anglia. The seal made for the priory of Norwich in 1258, and still used by the dean and chapter, bears the inscription, " Sigillum Ecclesie Sancte Trinitatis Norwici," and in
