firmary. He founded and endowed the leper hospital of St. Julian on
the London Road, and established the nunnery of Sopwell (see Appendix)
for thirteen sisters. He built the guest hall, the infirmary, and its
chapel. He also began to construct a new shrine for the relics of the
saint, but after spending L60 on it discontinued the work to give
himself breathing time, and never went on with it again. He felt himself
constrained to sell some of the materials he had collected for this
purpose, to obtain money for the relief of the poor during a famine. A
long description is preserved of the decoration of the shrine. Among
other precious things worked into it was an eagle with outstretched
wings, the gift of King Ethelred. Although it was not quite finished, it
was sufficiently so as to be ready to receive the bones of the martyr.
The remains were examined in the presence of Alexander, Bishop of
Lincoln, and sundry Abbots in 1129. The genuineness of the relics, so it
is said, was established by appearances of the saint to divers persons
as well as by miracles. One shoulder blade was missing; but this, as it
afterwards appeared, had been given by a former Abbot, at the request of
King Canute, to the reigning duke of some foreign land, who had founded
a cathedral church on purpose to receive so precious a relic. A long
list is given of the valuable gifts this Abbot made to the monastery and
church. During his time lived the hermits Roger and Sigur, and the
recluse Christina, whose story has been told in Chapter III.

At this time also Henry I. granted to the Abbots the Liberty of St.
Albans, which gave them the power of trying minor offences, which had
hitherto been tried in the civil courts of the hundred and the shire.

There are only two faults that are recorded of this Abbot: first, he
gave some of the Abbey tithe to the support of the church that he had
rebuilt; and, secondly, he was too easy in business dealings and allowed
himself to be imposed upon.

17. #Randulf of Gobion# (1146-1151). This Abbot had previously been
chaplain and treasurer to the Bishop of Lincoln. He erected the Abbot's
chamber and other useful buildings, and freed the Abbey from debt. He
deposed the Prior because he suspected that a seal he found not yet
engraved had been prepared for a new Abbot, and that this indicated a
desire on the part of the Prior and monks to depose him. He is said to
have burnt a rich chasuble in order to obtain the gold wi