town of Verulamium, save that after the Teutonic
conquest the town was known by the name of Werlamceaster,
Watlingceaster, or Waetlingaceaster, the two latter names being derived
from that of the Roman road, the Watling Street that runs through it.
The site of the martyrdom also received a new name--Holmehurst or
Derswold.

The next event recorded in connection with our subject is the founding
of a Benedictine monastery by Offa II., King of the Mercians, about the
year 793 A.D. He searched for and found the coffin that contained the
martyr's bones. This, as already stated, had been removed from the
original church dedicated to his memory, in order to save it from
destruction at the hands of the Teutonic invaders, and had remained
concealed, its very position forgotten, until it was miraculously
revealed. The coffin was then opened; the martyr's body and the relics
given by Germanus were found therein, and thus the identity of the
remains with those of Alban was established beyond doubt. Round the
martyr's head Offa placed a golden circlet whereon were written the
words: "Hoc est caput Sancti Albani." A reliquary richly decorated with
precious stones was made to receive the body, and this was then
deposited in the then existing church, which Offa repaired so that it
might serve as a temporary resting-place until a grander church could be
built. Offa had made a journey to Rome to get the Pope's consent to the
foundation and endowment of the monastery.[2] At this time also Alban
was canonized, so that henceforth he may be rightly spoken of as Saint
Alban.

[2] A payment known as Peter's Pence had first been levied by
the King of the West Saxons in 727, and was a tax of one penny
on each family that owned lands producing thirty pence per
annum; its object was the support of a Saxon College at Rome.
Offa now induced the Pope to allow the pence so collected from
his kingdom to be paid to the Abbey of St. Alban instead of the
Saxon College at Rome. The payment was called Peter's Pence
because it was paid on August 1st (the day dedicated to _St.
Peter ad Vincula_), the day on which the relics of St. Alban had
been discovered.

All that Offa seems to have been able to do besides repairing the church
was to erect domestic buildings for his monks, who in course of time
numbered a hundred. We have no record of any partial rebuilding, or
enlargement even