TheGesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani: litigation and history at St. Albans*

Abstract

This article reconsiders the domestic history of St. Albans abbey, known as the Gesta Abbatum Monasterii Sancti Albani, and concludes that the monks resorted to the fabrication of history in compiling a chronicle that rebutted the hostile claims of the monks of Ely and the bishop of Lincoln. The Gesta is used in conjunction with other documents produced at St. Albans, Domesday Book and the narratives produced at monasteries including Battle and Le Bec. The argument also reveals that the relevant parts of the Gesta were almost certainly written by Adam the cellarer or his clerk, Bartholomew, in the eleven-seventies or eleven-eighties, with the material incorporated into the Gesta by Matthew Paris decades later.