Note 243 — Introductory material

Stevenson says: ‘Possibly he intended to refer to the use of the precious metals in sacred edifices. We are told, on the doubtful authority of William of Malmesbury, that King Ine built a chapel of gold and silver at Glastonbury. A ninth-century writer records that Ansegis, abbot of Fontenelle, 806–833, partly decorated a spire of the abbey with gilt metal, and another writer of that period mentions the golden doors of the “basilica” of St. Alban in his description of the imperial palace at Ingelheim. Giraldus Cambrensis ascribes the use of golden roofs or roof-crests to the Romans at Caerleon-on-Usk. The idea that a king’s palace ought to be decorated with the precious metals is probably an outcome of the late Roman rhetoric and Byzantine magnificence.’