RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



ruler with the Norman instinct for organization 

 and love of order. He rebuilt the monastery 

 and church with the bricks of the ruined Roman 

 city collected by the former abbot,'^ and, what 

 was more important from the Norman point of 

 view, converted a careless and ill-regulated 

 convent into a model community.'^ The Bene- 

 dictine rule was more strictly enforced with 

 the emendations made by Lanfranc for Bee. 

 Thus the eating of meat was discountenanced ; 

 in the infirmary it was seldom allowed, and in 

 the case of monks who were bled a kind of 

 fish pie was substituted for the accustomed 

 meat diet ; dress was reformed ; silence had to 

 be kept in the church, cloister, frater and dormi- 

 tory ; discipline was enforced in the infirmary ; 

 and measures were taken to ensure due attention 

 at the nocturnal services.™ 



The changes were introduced gradually, so as 

 not to excite rebellion, probably until Paul, by 

 making a dark and strong dungeon,'* had the 

 means to coerce the refractory. The nuns — for, 

 as already stated, St. Albans was a double 

 monastery — were confined by him to the 

 almonry and its neighbourhood, and regulations 

 were made for them as to clothing, food, 

 exercise, observance of silence and attendance 

 at divine worship.'^ 



A lover of learning, Paul founded a scrip- 

 torium at the abbey, in which books could be 

 made for the convent.'^ This was a beginning, 

 perhaps, of that great school of history on whose 

 works we largely depend for our knowledge of 

 the I2th and 13th centuries. It was endowed 

 with tithes in Hatfield, given by a Norman 

 noble for this purpose, and others in Redbourn ; 

 while for greater convenience the abbot ar- 

 ranged that the almoner and cellarer should pro- 

 vide daily food for the copyists whom he 

 brought from abroad. Not the least of his 

 benefactions to the church were the twenty- 

 eight volumes, besides service books of all kinds, 

 which he presented." 



At the back of Paul almost throughout his 

 abbacy was Lanfranc, the value of whose sup- 

 port can perhaps hardly be overestimated. To 

 the archbishop the abbey undoubtedly owed 

 the Conqueror's two charters,'* one granting to 

 St. Albans sac and soc, tol and team, and all cus- 

 toms that Stigand" had in Edward the Con- 

 fessor's time, the other ordering that the abbot 

 and convent should have all the lands, churches 

 and tithes of which they could prove seisin at 



" Gesla Abbat. i, 52. " Ibid. S9-6i. 



" A lantern was carried round the quire to rouse 

 the lazy and sleepy. 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 60. " Ibid. 59. 



" Ibid. 57-8. " Ibid. 58. 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. MaJ. vi, 3 3-4. The first 

 was granted at the prayer of Lanfranc, to the other 

 Lanfranc was a witness. 



" See above. 



the time that William became king. The second 

 must have facihtated the recovery by Paul of 

 the abbey's lost possessions. The restoration 

 of Redbourn by Lanfranc was almost a matter 

 of course, 8" but Childwick, ' Cnicumba,' " the 

 land at Napsbury, Eywood and 'Tiwa' were 

 also regained.** 



The respect which the abbey at this time 

 inspired is seen in the many donations made to 

 it,** and in the foundation and endowment of 

 cells of St. Albans at Hertford by Robert de 

 Limesi, Wallingford (co. Berks.) by Robert 

 Doyley,** Belvoir (co. Lincoln) by Robert de 

 Todeni, Tynemouth (co. Northumb.) by Robert 

 Mowbray, and Binham (co. Norfolk) *° by Peter 

 de Valognes. It had become famed far and wide 

 for its strict observance of the rule.*" If the result 

 excites admiration, some pity cannot but be 

 felt for the English monks during the process. 

 The path of reform must have been doubly 

 hard for men under the rule of an alien with 

 little sympathy for the conquered race. Abbot 

 Paul destroyed the tombs of his predecessors, 

 whom he habitually spoke of as fools and block- 

 heads, and although his scorn was probably for 

 their lack of rule, he conveyed the impression 

 that it was largely for their nationality.*' His 

 neglect in one instance to show a little friendly 

 courtesy to a landholder because he was English 

 is said to have cost St. Albans an estate which 

 was secured by Ramsey.** 



After Paul's death in November 1093 St. 

 Albans remained without an abbot for more 

 than three years, that its property might be 

 wasted by the king.*^ Within the abbey itself 

 there seems to have been a struggle for 

 mastery between the English and Norman 

 sections of the convent ; but all hopes of the 

 former for predominance were crushed by the 

 appointment of a second Norman Superior.'" 

 Richard de Albini, the new abbot, was ap- 

 parently well chosen. Of noble birth, he made 



™ Lanfranc was very generous to St. Albans. He 

 gave 1,000 marks to the rebuilding of the church, 

 vestments and plate, and bequeathed to the abbey 

 j(Jloo, of which, however, it only received £^0 

 (Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, fol. 86). 



" By Robert Bishop of Lincoln, who left the abbey 

 at his death £^6 (ibid.), 



" Odo remitted payment of the £20 promised 

 him for the land (ibid. 86^). 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 56-7. 



" The foundation of the cell is attributed in the 

 Gesta (i, 56) to Abbot Paul, but it was made possible 

 by Doyley's gifts {V.C.H. Berks, ii, 77). 



'* Gesta Abbat. i, 57. It is doubtful, however, 

 whether this priory was founded in Paul's time 

 {V.C.H. Norfolk, ii, 343). 



*' Gesta Abbat. i, 52. 



«' Ibid. 62. 



^ Ibid. Yet it was an Englishman, Lyulph, who 

 presented two great bells for the tower (ibid. 61). 



" Ibid. 65. " Ibid. 66. 



373 



