t it
appears that they were some times admitted even in those churches that
as a rule excluded them. For we find it recorded that a great number
both of men and women were in the nave of St. Albans for the purpose of
hearing Mass and praying at the time when the Norman piers on the south
side of the nave fell in 1323.

#South Choir Aisle.#--Passing through the door mentioned above, we enter
the aisle which, since it runs alongside of the ritual choir west of the
crossing, is known as the south choir aisle. In this part of the church
the Norman work of Abbot Paul remains. The aisle, however, was vaulted
in stone by Lord Grimthorpe. In the south wall is a recessed tomb, where
two celebrated hermits, Roger and Sigar, were buried, and which was at
one time a popular place of pilgrimage. In the recess now stands a stone
coffin, but who originally occupied it there is nothing to show. Many of
these would be found if the monks' cemetery were excavated, as after the
twentieth Abbot, Warin (1183-1195), had issued his new orders regulating
burial, all the monks were buried in coffins of stone. Roger the Hermit
was a monk of St. Albans, a deacon; but though as monk he rendered
obedience to the Abbot, he did not live within the precincts, for on one
occasion as he was returning from Jerusalem three holy angels met him,
and led him to a spot between St. Albans and Dunstable, called Markyate,
when it was intimated to him that he should live the life of a hermit.
Many were the trials and temptations he endured, many the combats he
fought with the arch enemy of mankind. Once the prince of darkness even
set the hermit's hood on fire, but the holy man was not disturbed, nor
did he cease his prayers. In course of time a holy virgin of Huntingdon,
Christina, came and occupied a cell in the immediate neighbourhood, and
received religious instruction from Roger; here she endured many
privations and mortified her body, bearing patiently the diseases
brought on by her austerities. In time Roger, at the summons of God,
quitted the world and went the way of all flesh, and his body was buried
in the arched recess made for its reception. Christina still lived on.
One day the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to her in the form of an infant,
and abode with her for the space of a whole day; from that time forward
no more temptations assailed her, and she was filled with the spirit of
prophecy and wrought many notable miracles. She took the Abbot Geoffrey
u