An English-made episcopal ring in gold, with green malachite, decorated with eagles and floral patterns. It dates from the thirteenth century, two hundred years after the time of Wulfstan.
THINKING all Saxon bishops rustic and unworthy of their sees, Archbishop Lanfranc summoned Wulfstan, bishop of Worcester, to a synod in the Abbey at Westmister, and ordered him to give up his pastoral staff and ring to a better man.
Nearby stood the tomb of King Edward the Confessor, who had given Wulfstan his office.* The bishop went to the tomb and gently laid staff and ring upon it.
‘There is a new king’ he said aloud ‘who accuses you of poor judgment in pressing these upon me, and me of presumption in accepting them. Where you now dwell, you cannot err: take them back, and bestow them as you will.’
Wulfstan resumed his seat. By turns, Norman clerics stepped up at Lanfranc’s bidding, but not one of them could prise staff or ring from that tomb.
Presently, Wulfstan alone remained, and to his hand they yielded at once. Seeing it, Lanfranc fell at his feet, and humbly begged him to resume his duties.
William traced his ‘right’ to the English throne to King Edward, so neither he nor Lanfranc could really complain at Wulfstan’s appeal to him.
Précis
William the Conqueror, as part of a policy of replacing English-born bishops with Continental ones, told Wulfstan of Worcester to hand over his episcopal staff and ring. Wulfstan set them on the nearby tomb of Edward the Confessor, the English king who appointed him, and no one could take them off again except Wulfstan himself. (55 / 60 words)
