r, in the
time of the Confessor, mention is made of the canons of Holy Trinity
possessing lands in Thuinam. It must be remembered that it had been
intended, according to the legend, to dedicate the church to the Holy
Trinity, and no doubt this was done, although it was afterwards
identified especially with the second Person.

In Domesday it is stated that the canons of the Church of the Holy
Trinity hold lands in the village, and also in the Isle of Wight
opposite. Certain it is that in the days of Eadward the Confessor there
was a church at Twynham dedicated to the Holy Trinity, held by a
collegiate society of secular canons. This church was swept away by
Ranulf Flambard, the notorious justiciar and chaplain of William II.,
whose evil deeds, contrary to the oft-quoted passage from Mark Antony's
speech in Julius Caesar, are now generally forgotten; while the good
deeds that he wrought,--the nave of this church, and the still grander
nave of Durham Cathedral Church, Durham Castle, "Norham's castled
steep," and Kepier Hospital, built while he held the most important
diocese in the North of England,--live after him, and have shed a glory
on his name. Evil he was in moral character without doubt, but a
glorious builder nevertheless. Though he oppressed the clergy, though it
was through his instrumentality and by his advice that sees were kept
vacant for years, and when filled, only given to those who were able and
willing to pay large sums to the king, yet it is rather as a great
architect than as an ecclesiastic that we, who gaze with delight and
admiration on his work that has come down to us, will regard him. It is
said that, as his end drew nigh, he realised the amount of evil he had
done, and strove to make his peace with heaven and restitution to some,
at least, of those whom he had wronged. He died in 1128, and his body
rests in the great Cathedral Church of St Cuthbert that he had done so
much to raise. But it was in the earlier part of his career, before
he received the bishopric of Durham in 1099, that he probably began
the work at Christchurch with which we are at present concerned.[4]
He was succeeded there by Godric, who is called Senior and Patron
and afterwards Dean; but Flambard seems still to have exercised some
authority over him, illegal probably, but none the less real. We find
him granting to Godric, for the work of building, all the offerings
made by strangers and pilgrims, and when a canon died his sh