e in upon that wealth; and the charter
of Canute, still preserved, and no doubt authentic, ratifies the
donations of his Saxon predecessors.

William the Conqueror's Norman Bishop of London was a good, peace-loving
man, who interceded with the stern monarch, and recovered the forfeited
privileges of the refractory London citizens. For centuries--indeed,
even up to the end of Queen Mary's reign--the mayor, aldermen, and
crafts used to make an annual procession to St. Paul's, to visit the
tomb of good Bishop William in the nave. In 1622 the Lord Mayor, Edward
Barkham, caused these quaint lines to be carved on the bishop's tomb:--

"Walkers, whosoe'er ye bee,
If it prove you chance to see,
Upon a solemn scarlet day,
The City senate pass this way,
Their grateful memory for to show,
Which they the reverent ashes owe
Of Bishop Norman here inhumed,
By whom this city has assumed
Large privileges; those obtained
By him when Conqueror William reigned.
This being by Barkham's thankful mind renewed,
Call it the monument of gratitude."

The ruthless Conqueror granted valuable privileges to St. Paul's. He
freed the church from the payment of Danegeld, and all services to the
Crown. His words (if they are authentic) are--"Some lands I give to God
and the church of St. Paul's, in London, and special franchises, because
I wish that this church may be free in all things, as I wish my soul to
be on the day of judgment." In this same reign the Primate Lanfranc held
a great council at St. Paul's--a council which Milman calls "the first
full Ecclesiastical Parliament of England." Twelve years after (1087),
the year the Conqueror died, fire, that persistent enemy of St. Paul's,
almost entirely consumed the cathedral.

Bishop Maurice set to work to erect a more splendid building, with a
vast crypt, in which the valuable remains of St. Erkenwald were
enshrined. William of Malmesbury ranked it among the great buildings of
his time. One of the last acts of the Conqueror was to give the stone of
a Palatine tower (on the subsequent site of Blackfriars) for the
building. The next bishop, De Balmeis, is said to have devoted the whole
of his revenues for twenty years to this pious work. Fierce Rufus--no
friend of monks--did little; but the milder monarch, Henry I., granted
exemption of toll to all vessels, laden with stone for St. Paul's, that
entered the Fleet.

To enlarge the area of the chur