regularis'.[1] Other gifts are enumerated, apparently in connexion with Æthelwulf's famous 'Donation'.[2]
Abbot Hereferth, we are next informed, received from K. Æthelbald, son of Æthelwulf, x hides at Brannucmunster, in the year 867. There is some error here, as K. Æthelbald died in 860. Herefyrb' appears in the tenth-century list of abbots; but there he succeeds Stiðheard whom William of Malmesbury puts after him, as we shall presently see.
But at this point William of Malmesbury's story gets into confusion. He has no gift of K. Alfred to record, except 'lignum Domini' which Pope Martin gave him. Then he suddenly goes on to speak of K. Athelstan, mentioning incidentally Abbot Ælfric as ruling at that time for fourteen years. He speaks of Athelstan's gifts of relics, and then as suddenly he returns to his list of abbots (p. 71).
Abbot Stithherd, he tells, succeeded in 991 (cod. M has 981: probably for 891). He can say no more about him than that the severity of his character corresponded to his name (for stith is equivalent to 'stiff'), and that it is illustrated by his pictures which invariably represent him with a scourge or a broom.
After him Abbot Aldhun appears in 922 (992 M) as receiving back Cumtone from K. Edward.[3] After this we are told about St Dunstan.
The figures have got wrong: we may correct Abbot Stithheard's date to 891, and put Abbot Aldhun in 922: then Abbot Ælfric will get his fourteen years under K. Athelstan from 926 to 940. But we can have no confidence in these dates, especially as we shall presently see that the tenth-century list of abbots places Ælfric next after Dunstan, and at this point we can hardly set aside its authority which is almost contemporary.
William of Malmesbury proceeds to say (p. 71) that now we shall know what to think of the writer who said that St Dunstan was the first abbot of Glastonbury. He is referring to the Life of St Dunstan by Osbern, the precentor of Canterbury, whom he severely criticises in the preface to his own Life of the saint.[4]
Dunstan is said to have been abbot in 940, when several estates were granted to him by K. Edmund (p. 72). In 956, when Dunstan has been driven into exile, K. Edwy makes grants to Elsius, who is stigmatised as 'pseudo-abbas'.
