A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



however, of selecting any of them he founded 

 in 968 the monastery of Ramsey.** At the same 

 time he did not lose the opportunity of fur- 

 thering the interests of reform, and used his 

 influence with the king to procure the appoint- 

 ment of men of his own views to fill the vacan- 

 cies at these abbeys. The monasteries of 

 St. Albans, Ely and Benfleet, we are expressly 

 told, were emptied of secular clerks, who were 

 replaced by professed monks, and .^Ifric, son 

 of an ealdorman of Kent, was made Abbot of 

 St. Albans.*^ iElfric had been a monk at 

 Abingdon, where we may be sure he had 

 imbibed the views of .^thelwold with regard to 

 monastic vows, and was evidently a friend of 

 Dunstan, for the SanctiDunstani Vita Auctore B 

 is dedicated to him.^ Matthew Paris states 

 that he was chancellor to iEthelred while he 

 was a layman {saecularis) ; so that he was 

 apparently middle-aged when he became a 

 monk. It is probable that he brought in some 

 monks from Abingdon or elsewhere to teach 

 and enforce the Benedictine rule, and those in 

 the monastery who would not accept it were 

 expelled. We have unfortunately no authentic 

 information as to his life at St. Albans. We are 

 told that he purchased Kingsbury from the king, 

 destroyed the castle and drained the fishpool,*' 

 but there is some doubt even as to this small 

 item of information. Having regard to the 

 confusion existing between JSAizic and his 

 brother Leofric, it seems probable that much 

 attributed by Matthew Paris to the latter refers 

 to the former. The famine mentioned as in 

 the time of Leofric^* is probably that of 976," 

 when .iElfric was, so far as we know, suU 

 abbot, for he was not made Bishop of Rams- 

 bury till 990. The abbot at the time of this 

 famine is said to have spent the treasure and 



5' //<•//. 0/ Ike Ch. ef York (Rolls Ser.), i, 427. 

 There does not seem to be sufficient evidence for Sir 

 James Ramsay's assertion (Foundations of England, i, 

 326) that Edgar rcfounded St. Albans Abbey, which 

 was, he sa)s, at that time in -a dilapidated condition. 



'' Hist, of the Ch. of York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 71, 495, 

 50; ; Gesta Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), i, 23. Much con- 

 fusion has arisen as to the identity of this abbot, 

 partly originating in a mistake of Matthew Paris 

 followed by Walsingham in the succession of the 

 abbots, who has confused .lElfric, afterwards Arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, with Leofric his brother. He 

 has also been confused with ./Elfric the grammarian, 

 author of the celebrated homilies and lives of the 

 saints, .(Elfric Pnttoc, Archbishop of York, and ^Elfric, 

 Abbot of Malmesbury. 



'^ Memorials of St. Dimstan (Rolls Ser.) ; Gesta 

 Abbat. i, 32. Matthew Paris must here mean Edgar. 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 23, 32, 33. It is here supposed 

 that the two ^Elfrics given by Matthew Paris are the 

 same person. 



'8 Ibid. 29. 



^^ Anglo-Sa:*. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 230 ; Matt. 

 Paris, Chron. Maj. i, 469. 



goods of the monastery in the relief of the 

 starving poor, which caused much dissent among 

 the monks." After being at Ramsbury for a 

 few years yElfric was made Archbishop of 

 Canterbury in 995," and at his death in 1005 

 he left considerable property to St. Albans 

 Abbey, and appointed his brother Leofric, then 

 Abbot of St. Albans, his executor.*^ 



It is clear from Matthew Paris that one 

 brother succeeded the other, and such dates as 

 we have also point to this. Leofric, we are 

 told, was a handsome and stately man, but 

 despised all worldly vanities and refused to be 

 Archbishop of Canterbury, asserting that his 

 brother ^Elfric was more worthy of the honour.''* 

 At the same time he was a respecter of persons, 

 and would not admit as a monk of St. Albans 

 anyone who was not well born. 



Leofric was undoubtedly Abbot of St. Albans 

 in 997, when he is so described as a witness to a 

 charter." He is again mentioned in 1005," 

 1006 " and 1007,*' which is the last date 

 when reference to him has been found. During 

 his abbacy St. Albans seems to have been 

 wealthy and many gifts and purchases of land 

 were obtained. At one of the threatened 

 invasions by the Danes at the end of the loth 

 century, when .lEthelred was compelled to buy 

 off the invaders, the abbot lent the king a large 

 sum of money on security of lands. In redemp- 

 tion of this loan the king granted to the abbey 

 in 1006 a ' cassata ' of land at Flamstead and 

 5 ' cassatae ' at Verulamium.*' The two brothers 

 besides this grant acquired from the Crown 

 lands at Kingsbury, Burston and Childwick, all 

 near to St. Albans, Oxhey, Weston, Norton, 

 Upton, Rodenhanger and elsewhere in Hertford- 

 shire." 



Abbot Leofric was probably succeeded about 

 1007 by Ealdred and he by Eadmar. Both 

 these abbots, of whose dates there exists no 

 independent evidence, are placed by Matthew 



*" Gesta Abbat. i, 29-30. 



^' It was stated that he also expelled the clerks at 

 Canterbury and put monks in their place {Anglo- 

 Sax. Chron. [Rolls Ser.], i, 244-5), but see Diet. Nat. 

 Biog. under .^Ifric. 



<2 Thorpe, Cod. Dipl. Wills, 547. The charter of 

 1007 of ^thelred to St. Albans refers to Leofric, 

 Abbot of St. Albans, as brother of ^Elfric, then late 

 Archbishop of Canterbury (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. 

 vi, 25). 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 28. 



" Kemble, Cod. Dipl. no. 698. It may be his 

 name which occurs in 993 (ibid. no. 684). 



*' Ibid. no. 716 ; Thorpe, Dipl. Angl. 549. 



^« Matt. Paris, op. cit. vi, 22 ; Dugdale, Mon. vi, 

 219. 



*' Kemble, Cod. Dipl. no. i 304. 



« Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. vi, 2 I ; Dngdale, Mon. ii, 

 225, no. X. 



" Cott. MS. Nero, D vii ; Matt. Paris, Chron. 

 Maj. vi, 24. 



370 



