ntended to erect a great new church, and, with
that end in view, destroyed the desecrated building and granted the law
for seven miles round to the monks whom he destined to take possession
of the new building. He died, however, within six years of his
conversion, and was buried before the altar of the partly-erected
church. His son Cenwalh therefore completed the building, which S.
Birinus dedicated to Christ in honour of the Holy and Indivisible
Trinity. Birinus was followed by Aegelberht, afterwards Bishop of Paris,
who resigned in 662; Wina, who died as Bishop of London, ejected in 666;
and Eleutherius, who died in 676.

So far the see was not at Winchester, but was temporarily placed at
Dorchester in Oxfordshire. Under Hedda, the fourth successor of S.
Birinus, the seat was at last moved to Winchester, in accordance with
the intention of the royal founder, and at the same time the body of the
saint, which had hitherto rested at Dorchester, was removed to the
cathedral city. King Cenwalh himself also on his death was buried in the
building which he had completed.

Practically nothing is known of the actual Saxon building, and the very
legends are scanty. We learn that the city was ravaged by the Danes two
years after the death of S. Swithun, but the cathedral itself appears
fortunately to have escaped damage.

The bishopric of Athelwold, commencing with his consecration by Dunstan
on November 29, A.D. 963, has more importance in the history of the
cathedral than that of his immediate predecessors. He was chosen by King
Edgar to undertake the work of a new monastery in which the king took
such pleasure that he is said to have measured the foundations himself.
This work carried out at Winchester by Athelwold is described at great
length in a Latin poem by Wolstan. No doubt the florid eulogy of the
poem is open to grave suspicion where it concerns the details of the
building, but, even when we make full allowance for poetic exaggeration,
the church appears certainly to have been a large and important one. The
poem in its first form is reproduced in Mabillon's version of Wolstan's
"Life of S. Athelwold," but in its entirety it consists of an epistle of
over 300 lines to Bishop Elphege Athelwold's successor. Some passages
deserve quotation. "He built," says Wolstan, "all these dwelling places
with strong walls. He covered them with roofs and clothed them with
beauty. He repaired the courts of the old temple with lofty