one
only difference, that Brideton, (now called Burton) in Dorsetshire, was
substituted for Coker. It was Henry, according to the Abbe De la
Rue,[37] who raised the superb monument over his father's remains; but
Ordericus Vitalis expressly attributes the work to William Rufus.[38]
Respecting its splendor, all writers are unanimous: the shrine placed
upon the mausoleum, was a "mirificum memoriale, quod ex auro et argento
et gemmis competenter splenduit." The care of building the tomb was
committed to a goldsmith at Caen, of the name of Otto, who had received
from the Conqueror a grant of land in Essex; and whose descendants,
under the name of Fitz-Othon, had the principal direction of the English
mint, till the death of Thomas Fitz-Othon, the last of the family, in
1282.

Henry II. in a very long charter, confirmed the various endowments and
privileges previously bestowed upon the convent, and added others of his
own. From this time forward, it continued to increase in wealth and
power. In the year 1250, its revenues, in Normandy, amounted to four
thousand livres, a sum equivalent to eighty-two thousand and sixteen
livres of the present day. In 1668, when money in France was of about
half its present value, the abbot and monks divided an income of
sixty-four thousand and four livres: and in 1774, this income had
swelled to one hundred and ninety-two thousand livres, notwithstanding
the immense losses suffered by the suppression of the alien priories in
England. Thus an increase had taken place of nearly one hundred and ten
thousand livres, in about five hundred and twenty years. The
ecclesiastical patronage of the abbey, at the time of the revolution,
extended over twelve churches. Its monks, who were of the order of St.
Benedict, continued till the year 1663 to belong to the class of
Benedictines, called _unreformed_; but the Duchess of Longueville, wife
of the then abbot, introduced at that period the brethren of the
congregation of St. Maur.

The privileges and immunities granted to the convent of St. Stephen, are
detailed at considerable length by Du Moustier,[39] who has also
carefully collected the particulars of the life of Lanfranc, and has
given a catalogue, accompanied with short biographical notices, of the
rest of the abbots. By far the greater number of these were men eminent
for their rank or talents; and some of them were subsequently promoted
to higher dignities. William de Bonne Ame, the second abbot,