Alban's Abbey Church far surpassed in its
dimensions the cathedral church which the new archbishop built at
Canterbury. As we have already seen (Chap. I.), he used the Roman bricks
from the ruined city of Verulamium as building material. Important as
this work was, the account of it occupies but a few lines in the
Chronicles. In these it is mentioned that Lanfranc contributed 1,000
marks towards the cost. Paul was an energetic man, as may be seen by the
short time occupied in building this large church; but it was not only
in providing a new church that he was active, for it is recorded that he
reformed the lives and manners of the monks, secured the restoration of
land that had been alienated, founded cells as occasion demanded, and
persuaded lay donors to give largely to the Abbey--tithes, bells, plate,
and books. Robert Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, gave the Priory of
Tynemouth, which he had founded, to the Abbey of St. Albans. Abbot Paul
died on his way home from a visit to this new priory, and was buried
magnificently in his own Abbey.
The "Gesta Abbatum" begins at this point to sum up the good and evil
deeds of the abbots. Among Paul's shortcomings the following are
mentioned: he lost property through negligence; he destroyed the tombs
of his English predecessors in the Abbey; he did not secure as he should
have done the bones of Offa for his new church; he alienated the woods
of Northame; he bestowed some of the property of the Abbey upon his
illiterate kinsfolk.
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