106 PAPERS, ETC. 
tyrannized over them with such cruelty, that at 
length the sturdy spirit of the Saxon monks was 
roused to resistance ; and on their refusal to submit 
to his authority, the abbot expelled them from the 
chapter house, by the assistance of a body of Nor- 
man soldiers, who followed them into the church, 
where a desperate contest took place, in which two 
monks were killed, and fourteen wounded, in 
spite of the sanctity of the place. So great however 
was the scandal which arose from this unhappy 
affray, that William, though certainly not usually 
favourable to his Saxon subjects, removed Thurstin 
from the abbey and banished him to Caen, of 
which he had been a monk previously to his ap- 
pointment to the abbey of Glastonbury, and re- 
stored to the monks several manors, which he had 
alienated from them. William Rufus, however, 
bribed by a gift of 500lbs. of silver, replaced this 
rapacious dignitary; but such was the determi- 
nation of the monks, that they again resisted his 
introduction of some novelty in their church music; 
the church was again polluted with slaughter, nor 
was the mutiny quelled till three monks had been 
slain, and eighteen wounded, by the Norman sol- 
diery, whom the abbot had again called to his aid. 
Many left the monastery, nor did the whole number 
return till after his death, when, under the prudent 
and just rule of his successor, Herlewyn, the abbey 
began to recover from the ill effects of Thurstin’s 
rapacity and tyranny. 
