ALDRED, abbot of Tavistock, was promoted to the bishopric of Worcester in the year 1046. He was so much in favour with King Edward the Confessor, and had so much power over his mind, that he obliged him to be reconciled with the worst of his enemies, particularly with Sweyn, son of Earl Godwin, who had revolted against him, and came with an army to invade the kingdom. Aldred also restored the union and friendship between King Edward and Griffith, king of Wales. He took afterwards a journey to Rome, and being returned into England, in the year 1054 he was sent ambassador to the emperor Henry II. He staid a whole year in Germany, and was very honourably entertained by Herman, archbishop of Cologne, from whom he learned many things relating to ecclesiastical discipline, which on his return he established in his own diocese. In the year 1058 he went to Jerusalem, which no archbishop or bishop of England had ever done before him. Two years after, he returned to England; and Kinsius, archbishop of York, dying the 22d of December 1060, Aldred was elected in his stead on [7:2:394]Christmas-day following, and was permitted to retain the see of Worcester with the archbishopric of York, as some of his predecessors had done. Aldred went soon after to Rome, in order to receive the pall from the pope: he was attended by Toston, earl of Northumberland, Giso, bishop of Wells, and Walter, bishop of Hereford. The pope received Toston very honourably, and made him sit by him in the synod which he held against the simonists. •He granted to Giso and Walter their request, because they were tolerably well learned, and not accused of simony. But Aldred being by his answers found ignorant, and guilty of simony, the pope deprived him very severely of all his honours and dignities, so that he was obliged to return without the pall. On the way home he and .his three fellow-travellers were attacked by some robbers, who took from them all that they had, though they did not offer to kill them. This obliged them to return to Rome; •and the pope, either out of compassion, or by the threat- enings of the earl of Northumberland, gave Aldred the pallium; but he was obliged to resign his bishopric of Worcester. However, as the archbishopric of York had been almost entirely ruined by the many invasions of foreigners, King Edward gave the new archbishop leave to keep 12 villages or manors which belonged to the bishopric of Worcester. Edward the Confessor dying in 1066, Aldred crowned Harold, his successor. He also crowned William the Conqueror, after he had made him take the following oath, viz. that he would protect the holy churches of God and their leaders; that he would establish and observe righteous laws; that he would entirely prohibit and suppress all rapines and unjust judgments. He was so much in favour with the Conqueror, that this prince looked upon him as a father; and though imperious in regard to every body else, he yet submitted to obey this archbishop. John Brompton gives us an instance of the king’s submission, which at the same time shows the prelate’s haughtiness. It happened one day as the archbishop was at York, that the deputy-governor or lord-lieutenant, going out of the city with a great number of people, met the archbishop’s servants, who came to town with several horses and carts loaded with provisions. The governor asked them to whom they belonged; and they having answered they were Aldred’s servants, the governor ordered that all these provisions should be carried to the king’s storehouse. The archbishop sent immediately some of his clergy to the governor, commanding him to deliver the provisions, and to make satisfaction to St Peter, and to him the saint’s vicar, for the injury he had done them; adding, that if he refused to comply, the archbishop would make use of his apostolic authority against him (intimating thereby that he would excommunicate him). The governor, offended at this proud message, used the persons whom the archbishop had sent him very ill, and returned an answer as haughty as the message was. Aldred thereupon went to London to make his complaint to the king; but in this very complaint he acted with his wonted insolence; for meeting the king in the church of St Peter at Westminster, he spoke to him in these words: “Hearken, 0 William: when thou wast but a foreigner, and God, to punish the sins of this nation, permitted thee to become master of it, after having shed a great deal of blood, I consecrated thee, and put the crown upon thy head with blessings; but now, because thou hast deserved it, I pronounce a curse over thee, instead of a blessing, since thou art become the persecutor of God’s church, and of his ministers, and hast broken the promises and the oaths which thou roadest to me before St Peter’s altar.” The king, terrified at this discourse, fell upon his knees, and humbly begged the prelate to tell him by what crime he had deserved so severe a sentence. The noblemen who were present were enraged against the archbishop, and loudly cried out he deserved death, or at least banishment, for having offered such an injury to his sovereign; and they pressed him with threatenings to raise the king from the ground. But the prelate, unmoved at all this, answered calmly, “Good men, let him lie there, for he is not at Aldred’s but at St Peter’s feet; he must feel St Peter’s power, since he dared to injure his vicegerent.” Having thus reproved the nobles by his episcopal authority, he vouchsafed to take the king by the hand, and to tell him the ground of his complaint. The king humbly excused himself, by saying he had been ignorant of the whole matter; and begged of the noblemen to entreat the prelate that he might take off the curse he had pronounced, and to change it into a blessing. Aldred was at last prevailed upon to favour the king thus far; but not without the promise of several presents and favours, and only after the king had granted him to take such a revenge on the governor as he thought fit. Since that time (adds the historian) none of the noblemen ever dared to offer the least injury. It may be questioned which was more surprising here, whether the archbishop’s haughtiness, who dared to treat his sovereign after so unbecoming a manner, or the king’s stupidity, who suffered such insolence and audaciousness from a priest. The Danes having made an invasion in the north of England in the year 1068, under the conduct of Harold and Canute, the sons of King Sweyn, Aldred was so much afflicted at it, that he died of grief the 11th of September in that same year, having besought God that he might not see the desolation of his church and country.