According to the ancient roll of Bartholomew the clerk who was for a long time with Dom. Adam the cellarer, serving the same, who kept this roll. From his writing this is solely drawn.

Here written are the names of the abbots of the church of St Alban; who most of them by their own eff orts conferred many favours, possessions, privileges, sacred vessels and ornaments and put up many buildings.

And so, using such reliable information as I have been able to gather from the accounts of trustworthy, truthful witnesses or from my reading of the histories of their achievements, I shall do my utmost to give a careful and accurate account of not only their names but also both the benefi ts which they brought to this church and the harm which they wrought upon it. My aim is to prevent their good works, or even their bad, from being forgotten and blotted out in times to come; so that, by means of this vaccount of mine, present or future generations may be stirred to make their benefactions, and also so that wicked men, by their fear of being exposed to scandal, may be prevented from infl icting losses on the abbey.

And if any other person, churchman or secular, has made pious benefactions to this abbey, I must put on record without the faintest trace of falsehood not only his name but also his actual benefaction and the abbot in whose time the benefaction was made.

Concerning the foundation and the endowment of the monastery of St Alban by the famous Offa, king of the Mercians, and the grants of privilege to it; also concerning the appointment of Willegod as first abbot there and a sketch of his character and praiseworthy life.

Willegod first abbot of the church of St Alban

Willegod, the first abbot of the church of St Alban, supported by help from the king, ruled with vigour the church which had been entrusted to his care. It was when the body of the Blessed Alban, our patron saint, had been unearthed from the ground that the glorious king Offa, who held the reins of government over the Mercians, handed the government of this church to Willegod, endowing it with the privilege of many lands and liberties.