This Short, Yet Clear Declaration, Of The Actual Voyage, Has Been Extended
By Succeeding Writers, Who Attribute The Whole Merit To Sighelm, Omitting
All Mention Of Athelstan, His Co-Adjutor In The Holy Mission.
The first
member of the subsequent paraphrase of the Saxon Chronicle, by Harris,
though unauthorized, is yet necessarily true, as Alfred could not have sent
messengers to a shrine, of which he did not know the existence.
For the
success of the voyage, the safe return, the promotion of Sighelm, and his
bequest, the original record gives no authority, although that is the
obvious foundation of the story, to which Aserus has no allusion in his
life of Alfred.
"In the year 883, Alfred, King of England, hearing that there existed a
Christian church in the Indies, dedicated to the memory of St Thomas and St
Bartholomew, dispatched one Sighelm, or Sithelm, a favourite ecclesiastic
of his court, to carry his royal alms to that distant shrine. Sighelm
successfully executed the honourable commission with which he had been
entrusted, and returned in safety into England. After his return, he was
promoted to the bishoprick of Sherburn, or Shireburn, in Dorsetshire; and
it is recorded, that he left at his decease, in the treasury of that
church, sundry spices and jewels, which he had brought with him from the
Indies."
Of this voyage, William of Malmsbury makes twice mention; once in the
fourth chapter of his second book, De Gestis Regum Anglorum; and secondly,
in the second book of his work; entitled, De Gestis Pontificum Anglorum;
and in the chapter devoted to the Bishops of Shireburn, Salisbury, and
Winchester, both of which are here added, although the only authority for
the story is contained in what has been already given from the Saxon
Chronicle[3].
"King Alfred being addicted to giving of alms, confirmed the privileges
which his father had granted to the churches, and sent many gifts beyond
seas, to Rome, and to St Thomas in India. His messenger in this business
was Sighelm, bishop of Sherburn, who, with great prosperity, which is much
to be wondered at in this age, penetrated into India; whence he brought on
his return, splendid exotic gems, and aromatic liquors, of which the soil
of that region is prolific."
"Sighelm having gone beyond seas, charged with alms from the king, even
penetrated, with wonderful prosperity, to Saint Thomas in India, a thing
much to be admired in this age; and brought thence, on his return, certain
foreign kinds of precious stones which abound in that region; some of which
are yet to be seen in the monuments of his church."
In the foregoing accounts of the voyage of Sighelm, from the first notice
in the Saxon Chronicle, through the additions of Malmsbury, and the
amplified paraphrase by Harris, we have an instance of the manner in which
ingenious men permit themselves to blend their own imaginations with
original record, superadding utterly groundless circumstances, and fancied
conceptions, to the plain historical facts.
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