that verse of St. Matthew which declares that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.  These words entered into the hearts of Hean and his sister Cilla, who was with him.  They determined to go and sell all that they had and embrace a life of poverty.  From their uncle, Cissa, they obtained grants of land, whereon they founded monastic homes.  Cilla dedicated the convent she reared to St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, traditions of whose life in the neighbourhood had survived the Saxon Conquest.

Hean obtained the land of which Abingdon formed the central point, then generally known by the name Cloveshoo.  He was tardy in his work as contrasted with his sister, and Cissa died without seeing the work for which he had given the land accomplished.  Ceadwalla succeeded him (A.D. 685), and further augmented the territory.  He rebelled against Centwin, and became king of Wessex; spending most of his life in warfare; it was through his conquest of the island that the “Wight” became Christian.  He made a pilgrimage to Rome, where he died, after his baptism by Pope Sergius.

Ina, his successor (A.D. 688), was so angry at the long delay in building the monastery, that at first he revoked the grant of his predecessors to Hean, but becoming reconciled, gave all his energy to the work, and Cloveshoo {x}, or Abingdon, became a monastic town, and its history commences as a house of God from Ina, about A.D. 690-700.

Important benefits were thus conferred on the whole neighbourhood; agriculture flourished, learning increased, a sanctuary for the oppressed was provided, and last, though not least in Ina’s eyes, a bulwark against Mercia was provided for the neighbourhood; while the poor and the afflicted found their happiness in every way promoted by the neighbourhood of the monastery.

Several times the monastery was in peril by reason of the wars between Wessex and Mercia.  In A. D. 752, Cuthred of Wessex defeated Ethelbald of Mercia at Burford, hard by, and protected Abingdon from further aggressions.  Twenty-five years later the decision of war was reversed.  Offa, the great and fierce king of Mercia, defeated Cynewulf of Wessex, at Bensington, and spoiled the land, destroying the convent of St. Helena, founded by Cilla, and grievously robbing and oppressing Abingdon.

But the most awful calamity it ever underwent was its destruction in the first great Danish invasion, in the early days of King Alfred, when it was literally levelled with the ground, only, however, to arise in greater magnificence when the storm had passed away.

However the period of anarchy had introduced evils which required a stern reformer, and one was found in the person of the abbot Ethelwold, the friend of St. Dunstan, who, in conjunction with him and Oswald, introduced the rule of St. Benedict into Abingdon, Glastonbury, Ely, and other great houses, which, by its absolute prohibition of monastic idleness, and its wise regulations, caused the religious houses of that period to become the central points of civilisation and learning in the land.