The monks, however, objected to this
conversion of the property of the Abbey to uses for which it was not
originally intended.
[10] The "Gesta Abbatum" reverses the order of the two Abbots,
AElfric and Leofric, but this is probably wrong. It is recorded
that Leofric had the offer of the archbishopric, but declined,
saying that his brother AElfric was far more fit for the post
than he, and it is supposed that when AElfric became Archbishop
in 995, Leofric succeeded him as Abbot.
12. #Leofstan.# This Abbot was confessor to King Edward (the Confessor)
and his Queen Edith. He acquired much land for the Abbey, and cleared
away the woods between London and St. Albans, to make the roads safer
for travellers. To secure the good services of a knight as protector of
the Abbey he assigned him a certain manor; the service was faithfully
performed. The Normans, when they came, dispossessed the holder, and
conferred the manor upon Roger, a Norman knight, who, strange to say,
fulfilled the conditions on which his predecessor had held the land. At
Leofstan's death the Abbey was in a state of the greatest prosperity.
13.
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