It is said that he was much
hated by the monks and died of poison.
4. #Wulnoth.# He began well, but after a few years gave himself up to
sport habited as a layman. He is said to have ruled eleven years, and to
have repented when affected by paralysis, and to have made a happy end.
The chronicler adds with sly humour that his change to holiness was
brought about "_faciendo de necessitate virtutem._" In his time the
Danes plundered the Abbey of its treasures, vestments and sacred
vessels, and carried off the bones of St. Alban to Owense (probably
Odense in Funen). The sacrist Egwin was much distressed at the loss of
this his greatest treasure, and prayed that he might see the body
brought back. St. Alban appeared to him in a vision, and bade him go to
Owense and there await instructions. After a year's stay at the
monastery he was admitted into the brotherhood and became sacrist, never
revealing the fact that he had come from St. Albans. Long did he wait
for an opportunity of carrying away the sacred bones, until one winter's
night he found means of removing them from the shrine wherein they were
kept, and packing them in a chest, which he gave to an English merchant
whom he knew, bidding him take it to St.
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