SAGA-BOOK - Viking Society Web Publications

I94
Saga-Book of the Viking Society
Odense's first bishop.!" There had been missionary
bishops active in the city before.?" but no permanent
episcopal institutions had been created. Hubald was
interested in the reform of the Danish church. IS As an
English Benedictine it was natural for him to consider
providing his cathedral with a monastic chapter. Such
chapters were well known in England, though extremely
rare elsewhere.!" The foundation of a Benedictine
cathedral chapter" is a strong indication of English
influence.
King Erik Ejegod was encouraging the veneration of
his murdered brother Knud as a martyr, and a number
of Englishmen, including Hubald, were trying to spread
the cult and obtain papal recognition. In I09S the dead
king's relics were translated into a stone church dedicated
to St Alban and St Knud. On the advice of Hubald.!"
King Erik applied to Evesham in England for a community
of monks who would serve the new church and tend
the shrine. Evesham had had an earlier connection with
Denmark, 19 and, with the permission of King William II,
twelve of its monks arrived at Odense'" around I09S-6.21
The inscription placed inside Knud's tomb'" may have
been composed by one of them. It gives the names of
the murdered king's companions; four of these are spelt
according to Anglo-Saxon sound laws.:" The reference
13 1\1S chronicle VI. See also the obscure VHSP "Hubaklus quorum
prirnus regimen populorum:", Series Ebisco-poru.nr Ot ilioniensiusn, in S.R.D.
VII, 218. The verses, however, contain little of historical value.
14 Ou the early bishops set' H. St. Holbcck, Odense Bys Historic (192(,),
31-4·
Iii Series Episcoporurn Oithoniensium, in S.R.D. VIf, 219.
11> Monrcalc in Sicily is one of the rare examples, probably also imitating
English practice. See :\1. D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in Englanri
(1950), 619.
17 That Hubald intended the monks to form the cathedral chapter from
the first is made clear by the papal confirmation of ITl7: "ut in loco sed is
uestre reliziosorum monachorum cetus adunarctur" DD T, 2, No. 42.
18 DD 1, 2, No. 42.
19 M. D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in En "land, 163.
20 Dugdale. Monasticon Anglicamnn (znd edition, I8T7-]o) II, 37,
210n the nate see Knowles, The Monastic Order in F:1I{;lalid. J/;.j n. I.
32 G"rt7, Vitae Srmctorum Dnnorutn, 60-2.
23 H. (; Leach, Angevin Britain and Scnn dinrn-iu (T92T), 78.