Its first
charter is dated 900 (for 901) and the second in 903. In the latter
document the abbey is spoken of as dedicated to the Holy Trinity, the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and to St. Peter, and is amply endowed under the
Augustinian Rule. In 965, not without trouble and resistance, it was
converted into a Benedictine abbey. In 968 Ethelgar, who had been
trained at Glastonbury and Abingdon, became abbat, and from this time
the New Minster became famous for both discipline and the production of
MSS. As we walk along the High Street of Winchester now we find the
story in moss-grown stones or other memorials how, among other methods,
William the Norman punished the monks for their English warlike
proclivities by walling them up nearly close to their church with the
walls of his royal palace. In the old time, when the two monasteries
stood side by side--St. Swithun's is close behind the New Minster--"so
closely packed together," says the old chronicler,[37] "were the two
communities of St. Swithun and St. Peter that between the foundation of
their respective buildings there was barely room for a man to pass
along. The choral service of one monastery conflicted with that of the
other, so that both were spoiled, and the ringing of their bells
together produced a horrid discord.
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