The Life which is here presented to the reader is for the most part
a translation of the French Vie de St. Hugues de Lincoln, which was
published by a monk of the Grande Chartreuse in 1890. From one
cause or another the production of the hook in its present form has
entailed almost as much labour as the composition of an original
work would have done, and the Editor has more than once been
tempted to regret, when it was too late, that he had not cut
himself entirely free from the trammels imposed by a rendering from
another language. The English version, however, had already been
made, and had become the property of the Manresa Press before the
duties of editorship devolved upon him. If the name of the
translator does not appear upon the title-page, the omission is not
due to any wish to ignore the service so rendered, but only to the
fact that in editing it for publication very many changes have been
made in the version throughout, and parts of it even rewritten. It
is possible that a number of these changes might not be regarded by
the translator, or others, as changes for the better, and it seems
fairer to leave the responsibility indeterminate than to assign any
definite name to what is really the work of more than one hand. If
any difference of style be detected between the earlier and later
portion of the book, it is chiefly to be referred to the process of
revision just spoken of. In the first few chapters the French as
originally translated has been more closely adhered to, in the
later the Editor has allowed himself considerably greater latitude.
Although the Preface, the Appendices, and occasionally portions of
the text, of the French Life have been omitted, the printed matter
contained in the book has been increased by more than one-third,
i.e., by the equivalent of more than two hundred pages of the
present volume. This is due to the large number of additional
topics which have been dealt with in the text or in the notes, a
list of which, under the heading Additions, will be found in the
Index. To the substantial facts of the history of St. Hugh's
career, the Editor can claim to have contributed little that is
new. Perhaps the most interesting of the points here touched upon
for the first time is the connection between the subject of this
biography and the revelations of the monk of Eynsham. The fact that
St. Hugh must have been personally acquainted with many of those
whose fate in the next world is there described, lends emphasis to
the share taken by him in the publication of the vision. Again, a
rather important chronological error, which has led Mr. Dimock, and
with him all subsequent English writers, to antedate by five years
the coming of St. Hugh to England, and hence to make the Saint five
years older than he really was, has at last, I think, been finally
disposed of.2 The author of the French Life had already rectified
this mistake, but his correction is now. further justified by an
extract from the Bruton Chartulary, and by the indisputable
evidence of an entry in the Norman Exchequer Rolls, to which
attention had not previously been directed. The Editor's principal
aim, however, has been to supplement the. information given by the
French biographer in those features of the Life which have a
special bearing upon English history or English institutions, or
which depend upon local knowledge not easily accessible to a monk
writing at a distance, and with the restrictions imposed by the
Rule of the Grande Chartreuse. That must be my excuse for dwelling,
perhaps somewhat unduly, upon such questions as perpetual
vicarages, St. Hugh's grants of churches, the right of sanctuary,
the character of Henry II, &c., and particularly on the
Cathedral, the Jewry, and the leper hospital of Lincoln, the site
of the house where St. Hugh died in London, and of the tomb where
his remains first reposed.
General
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