Paul, 14th

The appointment of Paul, monk of Caen, and a near relation of the archbishop of Canterbury to the abbacy of St Alban and the learning and religion of the same.

Abbot Paul. He was of Norman race, a near relative of Archbishop Lanfranc (and, as some say, his son). He was a monk of the church of Caen. He took over the rule of the church of the Blessed Alban at the instigation of Archbishop Lanfranc, who loved this Paul as though he were his son. He was made abbot in the year of grace 1077, on 28 June, in the eleventh year of the reign of King William the Great, namely the Conqueror. He was the first abbot of this church, after England had been completely subjugated by the Normans.

It was he who rebuilt this church and the other buildings, apart from the bakehouse or bakery and the kneading room. He used the stones, tiles and timbers from the old city of Verulamium, which he found had been collected together and stored by his predecessors. For Archbishop Lanfranc had made him rich and on his election as abbot had given him an overflowing abundance of treasure. This Abbot Paul was also a man of God and deeply educated. He was strict and careful in his observance of the rule of the [monastic] order, and, cautiously and gradually, so that sudden change should not cause an uproar, he reformed the customs of monastic religion which for a long time now had been driven out over the threshold by the enticing pleasures of a slacker life, both for prelates as well as for their subjects; and the church of St Alban became as it were a school of religion and disciplined observance for the whole kingdom of England. For he had brought with him in writing the Constitutions of Lanfranc and [his] monastic statutes had been rightly approved by the Lord Pope; Consequently the scent of the good reputation of this church was wafted as far as the Roman Curia and distant kingdoms, to the enlightenment of all it reached; and Paul happily won the hearts of many, both prelates and nobles.