or the public in the form in which we possess it. It
is simply a notebook in which William entered anything that interested him
during his journey; and it contains not only his own observations, but all
sorts of extracts, copies, notices, thrown together without any connecting
thread. He hardly tells us that he has arrived at St. Michael's Mount
before he begins to copy a notice which he found posted up in the church.
This notice informed all comers that Pope Gregory had remitted a third of
their penances to all who should visit this church and give to it
benefactions and alms. It can be fully proved that this notice, which was
intended to attract pilgrims and visitors, repeats _ipsissimis verbis_ the
charter of Leofric, Bishop of Exeter, who exempted the church and convent
from all episcopal jurisdiction. This was in the year 1088, when St.
Michael's Mount was handed over by Robert, Earl of Mortain, half-brother
of William the Conqueror, to the Abbey of St. Michel in Normandy. This
charter may be seen in Dr. Oliver's "Monasticon Diocesis Exoniensis,"
1846. The passage copied by William of Worcester from a notice in the
church of St. Michael's Mount occurs at the end of the original charter:
"_Et omnibus illis qui illam ecclesiam suis cum beneficiis elemosinis
expetierint et visitaverint, tertiam partem penitentiarum condonamus._"

Though it is not quite correct to say that this condonation was granted by
Pope Gregory, yet it is perfectly true that it was granted by the Bishop
of Exeter at the command and exhortation of the Pope, "_Jussione et
exhortatione domini reverentissimi Gregorii_." The date also given by
William, 1070, cannot be correct, for Gregory occupied the papal throne
from 1073-86. It was Gregory VII., not Gregory VI., as printed by Dr.
Oliver.

Immediately after this memorandum in William's diary we meet with certain
notes on the apparitions of St. Michael. He does not say from what source
he takes his information on the subject, but we may suppose that he either
repeated what he heard from the monks in conversation, or that he copied
from some MS. in their library. In either case it is startling to read
that there was an apparition of the Archangel St. Michael in Mount
_Tumba_, formerly called _the Horerock in the wodd_. St. Michael seems
indeed to have paid frequent visits to his worshippers, if we may trust
the "Chronicon apparitionum et gestorum S. Michaelis Archangeli,"
published by Mich. Naveus, in