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Malmud was King Paramount of Britain, father of Berinus, 
who succeeded him, and Brennus, who founded the Celtic 
Empire of Italy. Malmud was a great law-giver, and partly 
constructed the system of roads which was completed by the 
Romans. Ingel-bourne became an important military post, 
and in course of time a flourishing town, and in the 7th Century. 
Maldulph, an Irish or Scottish missionary, founded a school 
there, which soon became a religious house. Leland quotes 
an old chronicle which he found in the monastery, about 1540, 
to the effect that the monastery was founded in “ A.D. 637, 
the year in which the pretended prophet Mahomed died.”’ 
Aldhelm, one of Maldulph’s pupils developed this monastery 
into a regularly constituted religious house, and became its 
Abbot in 670. He established smaller monasteries at Brad- 
ford-on-Avon and at Frome, and probably a third at Wareham, 
the church at which place strongly resembles that at Bradford 
When the diocese of Wessex was divided at the death of Hadda, 
in 705, into the sees of Winchester and Sherborne, Aldhelm 
was made first Bishop of Sherborne, but died four years later, 
and was buried in the chapel of St. Michael, at Malmesbury. 
It is generally believed that the present church was begun 
by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, about 1135. The nave is 
probably twenty or thirty years later. All here is Norman 
except the clerestory and some windows. The arches are 
pointed, but so obtusely as hardly to detract from the purity 
of the Romanesque effect. The triforium is somewhat un- 
common, having four small arches within a containing arch. 
The Norman clerestory can be traced externally. On the 
south side an arcade runs under the windows; there is no 
arcade on the north side, and the windows are placed higher 
in the wall, the cloister being on that side. The West Front 
was ‘‘ simply a sham”’ like that at Wells, the fagade at Salis- 
bury was probably copied from Malmesbury. 
The magnificent Norman porch is the chief feature of the 
church ; it resembles that at Glastonbury. The sculptures 
represent scenes from Caedmon’s great epic—the Creation, 
the Fall, the Deluge, etc., followed by scenes from the life 
of our Lord. As Caedmon was a contemporary of Aldhelm, 
it is possible that this doorway may be part of the Church of 
St. Mary, built by him, and long used by the monks. The 
church was originally cruciform, with a central tower and a 
lofty spire. The tower fell in some time before the Dissolution. 
The rood screen across the western arch still remains, the 
