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Cathedral Priory of Odense in the Middle Ages 197
bishop Eskil and other bishops." Erik Lam visited the
cathedral of St Knud in II4I and made generous gifts
at the altar. 41 In II47, after his abdication, he returned
to the priory to take up the monastic habit. 42
It was natural that the priory should make enemies.
Its position in the diocese had no parallel in Denmark or
northern Germany. Moreover the frequent outbursts of
civil war after the death of King Niels in II34 provided
opportunity for the invasion of monastic properties. The
confirmation granted by Archbishop Eskil stated that the
brethren were being persecuted by evil rnen.:" One of
their enemies was the provost of St Alban's, whose church
was next to theirs. It was in St Alban's, then a modest
wooden chapel attached to his place, that St Knud had
been killed. When the new stone church was ready the
relics of the king were moved there, with those of St
Alban. 44 The old church was left without its treasures.
Nevertheless it remained a place of special devotion to St
Alban. 45
In II42 King Erik Lam wrote to Livo, provost of St
Alban's, ordering him to stop disturbing the monks. He
stated that the monks were right to claim the church as
their own, but ordered that in future it should be free of
St Knud's, which would receive compensation.r" It is
unlikely that the agreement stopped bad feeling. It is
possible that the extraordinary story of the theft of relics
from the priory was current among the clerks of St
Alban's.
According to Matthew Paris,47 the Danes, in one of
their raids on England, took the relics of St Alban from
his abbey and brought them to Odense. Egwin, a monk
40 ibid. No. 86.
41 ibid. No. 81.
42 Series Episcoporum Ot.ihoniensium, in S.R.D. VII, 219.
43 DD 1. 2, No. 77.
44 E. Jorgensen, Helgendyrlrelse i Danmarh (1909), 18.
4., ibid.
46 DD I, 2, No. 71. See also A. Kocher, 'Biskop Livo af Orlensr­
Dansl: Historisk Tidsskrijt IX, 2 (If)24), 338-342.
47 Gesta Abbatum Sancti Alboni (Rolls Serif", T867) I, 12 fl.