Very little is known with respect to the ecclesiastical history of the Mount, previous to its endowment by Edward the Confessor. From what may be collected, however, from expiring tradition, it would appear that so early as the end of the fifth century, Saint Keyne, a holy virgin of the blood royal, daughter of Breganus Prince of Brecknockshire, with her cockle hat and staff, performed a pilgrimage to Saint Michael's Mount: now it is fair to conclude that it was before this time a place universally hallowed, or a person of Saint Keyne's rank would not have paid it such a visit; thus then was it renowned for its sanctity for at least five hundred years before the grant and settlement of it by the Confessor; before this period, however, it was probably little more than an hermitage, or oratory, with the necessary reception for pilgrims. The Confessor found monks here serving God, and gave them by charter the property of the Mount together with "all the land of _Vennefire_ (a district probably in Cornwall), with the towns, houses, fields, meadows, land cultivated, and uncultivated, with their rents; together with a port called _Ruminella_ (Romney in Kent), with all things that appertain, as mills and fisheries," first obliging them to conform the rule of the order of Saint Benedict. The peculiar respect in which this church was held may be estimated from an instrument recorded by William of Worcester, and asserted to have been found amongst its ancient registers. "To all members of Holy Mother Church, who shall read or hear these letters, Peace and Salvation. Be it known unto you all, that our Most Holy Lord Pope Gregory, in the year of Christ's Incarnation, 1070, out of his great zeal and devotion to the church of Mount Saint Michal, in Tumba, in the county of Cornwall, hath piously granted to the aforesaid church, which is entrusted to the Angelical Ministry, and with full approbation, consecrated and sanctified, to remit to all the _faithful_, who shall _enrich_, _endow_, or _visit_ the said church, a _third part_ of their _Penance_, and that this grant may remain for ever unshaken and inviolable, by the authority of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, he forbids all his Successors from attempting to make any alteration against this Decree." We learn from the same author, that in order to encrease, as much as possible, the influx of votaries to the shrine, the above decree was placed publicly on the gates of the church, and enjoined to be read in other churches.