RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



appears to have visited it and laid his charter 

 upon the high altar in the presence of the 

 convent and a great gathering of magnates.^* 

 Offa died shortly afterwards, in July 796, and 

 Willigod within two months later died of 

 remorse for not having secured the burial of 

 the founder of their house at St. Albans.*^ 



Willigod was succeeded as abbot in 796 by 

 Eadric, a kinsman of King Offa, who seems to 

 have met with some opposition to his rule, but 

 governed the monastery with a firm hand.*" 

 Wulsig, called the third abbot, is said to have 

 succeeded in the time of St. Edmund (856-70), 

 and ruled till the time of Athelstan (925-40). 

 He was one of the royal house, and is described 

 as a proud man, dressing in silks and living 

 rather as a prince than a monk. He excited 

 scandal by inviting noble women to his table, 

 and wasted the substance of the abbey on his 

 female relations, probably his daughters, whom 

 he married to nobles and gave them portions 

 from the possessions of the abbey. The convent 

 rose against him, and he is said to have died 

 from poison. His kinsmen, who had fattened 

 on the goods of the abbey, were dismissed and 

 the property of the house rescued.^' 



Wulnoth, called the fourth abbot, was elected 

 apparently in the time of King Athelstan 

 (925-40). He spent two or three years in 

 correcting the evil doings of his predecessor, 

 and changed the colour and form of the habit 

 of the monks. He ordained that the nuns 

 (sanctimoniales semisaeculares), whom his pre- 

 decessor had placed in a house too near the 

 church, should live together in one house in 

 the almonry to avoid suspicion, and should 

 hear matins and the daily hours in the greater 

 church {in majori ecclesia), and should be 

 restricted in their eating of meat.*^ Wulnoth 

 later rehnquished his zeal for reform and 

 indulged in hunting and sport, neglecting the 

 care of the monastery to the scandal of rehgion. 

 Matthew Paris refers to the plundering of the 

 abbey by Danes in the time of this abbot and 

 the carrying ofi of the relics of St. Alban to 

 Denmark,*' but the account is an interpolation 

 and with little doubt refers to a later episode, 

 which will be dealt with hereafter. Abbot 

 Wulnoth afterwards repented of his evil ways, 

 and after ruling the monastery for eleven years 

 died from a stroke of paralysis. He was suc- 

 ceeded by Eadfrith, the fifth abbot,*" a member 

 of the Saxon aristocracy who had been prior. 

 He is described as good-looking in appearance, 

 but vain and despicable in conduct, constantly 



2^ Gesta Abbat. i, 6. 

 25 Ibid. 7. 

 2« Ibid. 9. 



27 Ibid. 10. 



28 Ibid. II. 



29 Ibid. I 2. 

 '"'Ibid. 2 1, 



in his chamber, rarely in the cloister and never 

 in the quire. He presented a precious chalice 

 to the monastery, and with his permission Ulf, 

 the prior, built the chapel of St. German on the 

 site of the house where St. German was sup- 

 posed to have dwelt and where the body of 

 St. Alban was found. Here he lived the life of 

 a hermit, and after his death Abbot Eadfrith, 

 repenting from his evil living, resigned his 

 office of abbot and retired to this hermitage.*^ 



This brings us to the middle of the loth 

 century, to the time of the revival of the Bene- 

 dictine rule and the introduction of reform 

 into the English monasteries. In consequence 

 probably of these changes the abbey remained 

 vacant for a year owing to discord among the 

 monks as to the election of a successor, the 

 greater number favouring the prior and the 

 minority, probably the party of reform, opposing 

 him. At length the discord was compromised by 

 the intervention of the bishop, and Wulsin was 

 elected abbot. His appointment, however, 

 was but a compromise, and on that account he 

 is unlikely to have effected any great changes 

 in the monastery. Besides which he was 

 evidently an old man when he undertook the 

 office, as his rule was not a long one, and we 

 are told that he died full of days. He is 

 described as a pious man, and it is said that he 

 established the market-place at St. Albans and 

 encouraged people to settle there, assisting 

 them with money and material. It is also 

 recorded that he built the churches of St. Peter 

 in the north, St. Stephen in the south, and 

 St. Michael in the west of the town.'* 



Great confusion follows from this date in 

 the account of the abbots given in the Gesta 

 Ahhatum. It is here stated that Wulsin, the 

 sixth abbot, was succeeded by ^If ric, the seventh 

 abbot, Ealdred, the eighth abbot, Eadmer, the 

 ninth abbot, Leofric, the tenth abbot, ^Ifric II, 

 brother of Leofric, the eleventh abbot, after- 

 wards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Leofstan, 

 the twelfth abbot .** From other evidence, 

 however, a more probable succession seems to 

 be that here suggested. 



When St. Oswald, then Bishop of Worcester, 

 desired a place in which to estabhsh the regular 

 monks, for whom there was not room at Wor- 

 cester and Westbury, he was ofiered by King 

 Edgar the choice of the monasteries of St. 

 Albans, Ely, or Benfleet, in Essex. Instead, 



'1 Gesta Abbat. i, 6. 



'2 Ibid. 22. St. Michael's Church is situated 

 within the city of Verulamium, a grant of the site of 

 which the abbey did not receive till some fifty years 

 later. It is improbable that the abbot would build 

 a church on land which was not his, and therefore that 

 this church was built till early in the 1 1 th century. 

 This date would correspond better with its archi- 

 tecture. 



^^ Op. cit. i, 23-40. 



369 



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