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.
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