Leofstan, the twelfth Abbot, who was Confessor to Edward, and Edith, his Queen, procured various rich grants for the Monastery, through his interest with the great; and also presented some ornaments to his Church. Much of his attention was employed in rendering the high roads to the town, safe and commodious for merchants and travellers. The Watling Street, as well as many parts of the Chiltern Hills, being covered with thick woods and groves, had become the haunts of wolves, wild boars, stags, and wild bulls; and also furnished hiding-places for robbers and outlaws, to the great danger and annoyance of all passengers. To remedy these evils, Leofstan granted the manor of Flamstead to a brave Knight, named Thurnoth, and his two fellow-soldiers, named Waldeof and Thurman, on condition that they should guard the said road, and all the western parts of the Chiltern; that they should be answerable for any losses that might happen through their neglect; and that they should strenuously protect the Church of St. Alban, on the occurrence of any general war within the kingdom,

should be demanded in more peaceable times. On obtaining the permission which he sought, he inclosed the remains of a common Monk in a very rich chest, and dispatched it to Ely, with many of the Church ornaments, and an old shagged garment, which he insinuated was the very cloak that had been worn by Amphibalus, the instructor of Albanus. When the alarm had subsided, Ælfric demanded the relics; but they were considered as of such immense value by the Monks of Ely, that they scrupled not to express their determination to keep them for their own Church. On its being threatened, however, to inform both the King (Edward the Confessor) and the Pope of this impious breach of a religious engagement, a great schism arose among the brethren, but the majority determined that the relics should be kept; yet, to save appearances, they agreed that the chest should be returned, having first contrived to open the bottom of it, and to substitute other remains for those of the supposed St. Alban. The cheat was, however, discovered; the real relics of the martyr were removed from the hidden recess of the wall, and again placed with the shrine in the midst of the Church; while the Monks of Ely, the dupes of their own artifice, incurred all the odium of knavery, without benefiting by its wiles,

The successor of Leofstan, was Fretheric, or Frederic, a man of the Royal blood of the Saxons, and also related to King Canute. He was installed in 1066; but had performed all the busi- ^ ness of the Abbacy during the two preceding years. This was the man whose spirit and bravery impeded the march of William the Conqueror near Berkhampstead, by causing the trees that grew on the road-side to be cut down, and laid across the way; and when, at a subsequent meeting, William enquired the reason, he boldly answered, that He had done no more than his duty;' and that, if all the ecclesiastics in the kingdom had performed theirs' in like manner, it would not have been in the power of the Normans to have advanced so far. This was not the only occasion on which the Abbot displayed the generous love of independence that animated his soul; for the tyrannical sway of the Conqueror having excited a strong hatred against his government in the breasts of all the English, Fretheric placed himself at the head of a confederacy of the malecontents, whose object was to compel the King to reign according to the ancient laws and customs of the country, or, in his despite, to raise the exiled Edgar Atheling to the throne; who was, indeed, the rightful heir, and was held in so much estimation, that he was called Engelondes Dereling. In this dilemma, the wily Sovereign found it necessary to temporize; and, by the advice of Lanfranc, whom he had promoted to the See of Canterbury, he submitted to the terms proposed; and in a grand assembly of the Nobles and Prelates at Berkhampstead, swore, upon all the relics of the Church of St. Alban, that he would keep, and inviolably observe all the ancient laws of the realm, which his pious predecessors, and especially the holy Edward, had established. The oath was administered by Fretheric; but neither the superstition of the age, nor the more genuine feelings of religion and honor, had influence over the cupidity of the King; and no sooner were the effects of his dissimulation sufficiently matured by the gradual dissolution of the confederacy, than his despotism, gather ing strength from the storm which had rolled it back upon itself, overwhelmed the liberties of the nation with a deeper flood, and a more extensive ruin. St. Alban's particularly suffered for the conduct

2

conduct of its Abbot, who was himself obliged to seek refuge from the vengeance of the King, in the Monastery of Ely, where he' died of grief and mortification. William seized all the Abbey lands between Barnet and London-Stone, together with the manor of Redburn; and but for the solicitations of Lanfranc, would have effectually ruined the Monastery: his interposition stayed the impending blow; and his influence procured the vacant Abbacy for Paul, a Norman, and his kinsman, or, as some have conjectured, his son.

Paul was the first Abbot who began to apply the immense stores of materials that had been collected from the ruins of Verulam, towards the re-construction of the Abbey Church; which, in the express words of Matthew Paris, he "re-edified," together with all the buildings of the Monastery, except the bake-house and the mill-house.* In this important undertaking, he was assisted by Archbishop Lanfranc, who gave 1000 marks in aid of the expenses. Anselm, Lanfranc's successor, assisted Paul in finishing the Church, quod imperfectum erat in ædificiis ecclesiæ Sancti Albani juvit-consummare; and Paul, who had already passed about twelve years in carrying on the works, completed, in the four remaining years of his life, all that he had began.'+ That this was an entire reconstruction of the Church, and not a mere reparation, or enlargement of the building, is evinced by the language of Paris; who affirms, that Paul constructed the whole Church, with many other edifices, of brick-work. Paulus-totam ecclesiam Sancti Albani, cum multis aliis ædificiis, opere construxit lateritio; thus applying the term brick-work, as many modern writers still do, to what is manifestly of Roman tile, The reputation which the Abbey obtained under Paul's government, occasioned many new benefactions to be made to it; and his own influence was sufficiently great, to enable him to procure restitution of several estates that had been alienated. Paul himself made many gifts to the Church, and adorned

C 4

Iste (Paulus,) hanc ecclesiam, cæteraque ædificia præter pistorium et pinsinochium, re-ædificavit ex-materie-quam invenit a prædecessoribus suis collectam et reservatam. M. Paris, 1001.

+ Omnia quæ incæpit laudabiliter consummavit. M. Paris, 1004.

adorned the space (concameratio) behind the high altar with "stately painting." He also made various new ordinances for the government of his Monastery, according to the principles adopted and promoted by Archbishop Lanfranc; and among them established several regulations respecting the diet of the Monks.*

After the death of Paul, in 1093, William Rufus, who was then King, retained the Abbacy in his own hands during four years, and applied its revenues to his own use. At length, Richard de Albany was appointed Abbot, and by him the new Church was consecrated, at the festival of Christmas, 1115: Henry the First, his Queen, Matilda, Geoffrey, Archbishop of Rouen, the Bishops of Durham, Lincoln, Sarum, and London, with many Abbots, and inferior Prelates, together with many Earls, Barons, and Nobles, were present at the ceremony, and were all lodged and entertained during eleven days, at the cost of the Abbey. Richard died in 1119; having previously built a small Chapel, within the Church, in honor of St. Cuthbert, by whose intercession he is fabled to have received a wonderful cure of a withered arm.'

Geoffrey de Gorham (so named from the place of his birth, near Caen, in Normandy) was the next Abbot. His attention was principally directed to the internal economy of the Monastery; to the providing of rich vessels, and costly and splendid garments, for the various services of the Church; and to the preparation of a

very

"To the young Monks," says Paris, "who, according to their custom, lived upon pasties of flesh-meat, he prevented all inordinate eating," by stinting the quantity; " and he heaped up a dish for them all in common, of which the mere appellation remains at present, made of herrings, and sheets of cakes," or, in other words, of herrings under covers of pasty," which he, therefore, in the sophistical pronunciation of the Normans, denominated Kar-pie, for Karen-pie: i. e. Haren-pie." Whitaker's St. German's, Vol. II. p. 305, from M. Paris, p. 1003. From this, and various other historical notices, Mr. W. p. 300–305, Ibid. has demonstrated, that the Herring Fishery must have been esta blished much earlier than is generally admitted; even as early as the Saxon times.

*

very sumptuous Shrine for the relics of St. Alban. Into this Shrine (anno 1129) the remains of the martyr were removed with great solemnity; the ancient to:nb being first opened in the presence of the Bishop of London, several Abbots, and the whole Convent. On this occasion, and to remove the doubts which had been excited by the assertions of a certain College in Denmark, and also by the pretensions of the Monks of Ely, "the bones were numbered, taken out, and shewn singly: the head was lifted up for the inspection of all present, by the hands of the venerable Ralph, Archdeacon of the Church: on the fore-part was a scroll of parchment, pendant from a thread of silk, with this inscription, Sanctus Albanus; and the circle of gold inclosed the skull, which was fixed there by the order of Offa, engraved with these words, Hoc est caput Sancti Albani, protomartyris Anglia. In reviewing the bones, the left scapula, or shoulder-bone, was missing: however, the translation was effected; and some years after, saith the historian, came two Monks, with letters credential, from the Church and Monastery of Naumburg, (Nuremburg,) in Germany, saying, that they were possessed of this valuable relic, (the scapula,) and that the same had been brought to them many years ago, by King Canute. Abbot Geoffrey made several additions to the Abbey

buildings,

The ornamental parts of this Shrine, which was of silver gilt, embellished with plates of gold and precious stones, were wrought by a goldsmith, named Anketill, who had been Mint-master to the King of Denmark, and also employed by him in the fabrication of curious works: he afterwards assumed the Monkish habit in this Abbey.

+ Newcome's St. Alban's, Vol. I. p. 58, from Matt. Paris. In the time of Ralph, Geoffrey's successor, the Shrine was stripped of its decorations, in order to provide a sufficient sum for the purchase of the vill of Brentfield. The succeeding Abbots, Robert de Gorham, and Symonds, embellished it anew; and the latter caused it to be somewhat more elevated, that its splendor might have the greater effect. As the workmanship of this Shrine throws some light on the state of the arts in the reign of Henry the Second, we shall here describe it from Matthew Paris, who declares it to have been more splendid and noble than any