Note 649 — Chapter VIII · THE EARLY YEARS OF WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.[497] A.D. 1028–1051.

Will. Gem. u. s. “Ipse non solum operi præsidebat, sed opus ipsum efficiebat, terram fodiens, fossam efferens, lapides, sabulum, calcemque humeris comportans, ac ea in parietem ipsemet componens.” The church of Burneville then, like Cnut’s church on Assandun (see vol. i. p. 472), was clearly a minster of stone and lime. For a like example of humility, take Saint Hugh of Lincoln, who worked at the building of his own cathedral church. (Metrical Life of St. Hugh, ed. Dimock, p. 32.) Compare the penance imposed on Duke Godfrey for his sacrilege at Verdun; see above, p. 98. In somewhat the same spirit Edward the First worked personally in making the ditch at Berwick in 1296. Rishanger, ed. Riley, p. 375.