MONASTERII DE ABINGDON. EDITED BY THE REV. JOSEPH STEVENSON, M.A., OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, DURHAM, AND VICAR OF LEIGHTON BUZZARD. PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF HER MAJESTY'S VOL. II. FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST UNTIL THE ACCESSION LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS, AND ROBERTS. 1858. PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE CHRONICLE OF ABINGDON. sumed; § 1. IN the Preface to the former volume of this The subChronicle, nothing more was afforded me than the ject reopportunity of touching-and that very passingly,— upon such matters as seemed, from their importance, to demand an immediate explanation. It was necessary that upon the very threshold of the work, the reader should be furnished with some general outline of its contents, and be made acquainted, however briefly, with the leading aim and object of the Chronicle of Abingdon, its sources of information, its credibility, and the claims which it possesses upon the notice of the student of our early national history. To this scanty outline I was unwillingly constrained to limit my remarks. To have advanced further than this before the publication of the entire work would have been premature. But I then reserved to myself the privilege of discussing, in fuller detail, a few of the various questions which and mark ed out. Abingdon not a Bri tish foun dation. are suggested by the narrative, as it gradually unfolds itself before our view; and to the consideration of some of the more important of these, I now beg leave to invite the attention of the reader. § 2. The history of the great Benedictine monastery of Abingdon, as recorded in this work, commencing with its foundation in the seventh century, and ending with the accession of King Richard the First, embraces a period of about five hundred years. It must be obvious, that in the following remarks I cannot follow the chronicler over the whole of this ground, nor attempt to sketch, even in outline, the history of these centuries. I do not profess to do this; nor will the following observations supersede the necessity of a careful study of the original narrative upon the part of the inquirer. Adopting, as the groundwork of my remarks, the information which has been collected and transmitted by the successive monks of Abingdon, I shall venture, when occasion requires, to subject their authorities and statements to the test of independent criticism. § 3. "The Chronicle of the Monastery of Abingdon," as we now possess it, (for it commences abruptly in the middle of the fourth chapter,) opens with an account of the introduction of Christianity into England. In common with some other authorities, it ascribes this event to the mission of Faganus and Duvianus, sent hither from Rome by Pope Eleutherius at the request of King Lucius. Plausible as this theory once appeared in the eyes of archbishops Parker and Usher, and bishops Godwin, Lloyd, and Stillingfleet, it has long been exploded by the critical investigations of later and abler inquirers. Of no greater credibility is the history of the arrival of the Irish monk Abbennus, and his settlement at Abingdon, |