ing the money, as a sufficient atonement for their offence, he returned into his kingdom. And not only the people of Kent, but the East Angles[1] also felt the effects of his hereditary anger; all their nobility being first expelled, and afterwards routed in battle. But let the relation of his military successes here find a termination. Moreover how sedulous he was in religious matters, the laws he enacted to reform the manners of the people, are proof sufficient;[2] in which the image of his purity is reflected even upon the present times. Another proof are the monasteries nobly founded at the king's expense. But[3] more especially Glastonbury, whither he ordered the bodies of the blessed martyr, Indract, and of his associates, to be taken from the place of their martyrdom and to be conveyed into the church. The body of St. Indract he deposited in the stone pyramid on the left side of the altar, where the zeal of posterity afterwards also placed St. Hilda: the others were distributed beneath the pavement as chance directed or regard might suggest. Here, too, he erected a church, dedicated to the holy apostles, as an appendage to the ancient church, of which we are speaking, enriched it with vast possessions, and granted it a privilege to the following effect:
"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: I, Ina, supported in my royal dignity by God, with the advice of my queen, Sexburga, and the permission of Berthwald, archbishop of Canterbury, and of all his suffragans; and also at the instance of the princes Baltred and Athelard, to the ancient church, situate in the place called Glastonbury (which church the great high-priest and chiefest minister formerly through his own ministry, and that of angels, sanctified by many and unheard-of miracles to himself and the eternal Virgin Mary, as was formerly revealed to St. David,) do grant out of those
- ↑ The Saxon Chronicle and Florence of Worcester mention his attacks on the South Saxons, but do not notice the East Angles.
- ↑ See Wilkins's Leges Anglo-Saxonicæ.
- ↑ Some manuscripts omit all that follows to "Berthwald, archbishop of Canterbury," p. 35, and insert in place of it "More especially that at Glastonbury most celebrated in our days, which he erected in a low retired situation, in order that the monks might more eagerly thirst after heavenly, in proportion as they were less affected by earthly things." Sharpe inserts the shorter passage in his text, and gives the longer in a note.
