GLASTONBURY ABBEY. 103 
abbots of British race after St. Benignus, have come 
down to us,— Wongret, to whom the king of Devon- 
shire is said to have granted lands in Inis-witrym, 
Salemund, and Bregoret. But no sooner were the 
Saxon pagans converted to christianity, than their 
piety and repentance shewed itself in liberal gifts 
to thechurch. St. Paulinus, the first Saxon Arch- 
bishop of York, about A. n. 630, besides other 
benefactions, rebuilt the whole church with timber, 
and covered it with lead; Kenwalch, Kentwine, 
and Baldred, granted lands to the abbey, among 
which the manor of Pennard was given to the abbot 
by the last mentioned monarch. But of all the 
West Saxon kings, Ina appears to have been the 
most munificent benefactor to the church of Glas- 
tonbury. In the year 708, he pulled down the old 
buildings of the monastery, and re-built them in the 
most sumptuous manner; the church he caused to be 
re-consecrated, and dedicated to God, in honour of 
Christ and the apostlesSt. Peter andSt. Paul; and be- 
sides plate, jewels, and vestments of enormous value, 
he bestowed upon the abbey the manors of Brent, 
Doulting, Pilton, and Sowy, and exempted from 
episcopal authority, the churches of Glastonbury, 
Sowy, Brent, Moorlinch, Shapwick, Street, Butleigh, 
and Pilton. But this well intentioned, though really 
unjustifiable usurpation of the episcopal rights, was, 
like all other exertions of zeal not according to 
knowledge, the source of great mischief; the inde- 
pendence of these churches being the subject of 
