344. Within three miles of St Alban's. "At this place," says Norden, "were founde the reliques of Amphiball, who is saide to be the instructour and convertour of Alban from Paganisme, of whose reliques such was the regard that the abbottes of the monasterie of Alban had, that they should be devoutly preserved, that a decree was made by Thomas then abbott, that a pryor and three munckes should be appointed to this holie function, whose allowance in those dayes amounted yearely to 20 pound, or upwardes, as much as three hundred pound in this age" ("Description of Hartfordshire." p. 22). See also Weever's "Funeral Monuments," p. 585. Dr Middleton, in his "Letter from Home," says: "Bishop Usher has proved that this saint never existed, and that we owe the honour of his saintship to a mistaken passage in the Legend of St Alban, where the _Amphibolus_ there mentioned is nothing more than a _cloak_." 345. The abbey of Hales, in Gloucestershire, was founded by Richard, King of the Romans, brother to Henry the Third. This precious relic, which was commonly called _the blood of Hailes_, was brought out of Germany by Richard's son Edmund, who bestowed a third part of it upon his father's abbey of Hales, and some time after gave the other two parts to an abbey of his own foundation at Ashridge, near Berkamstead. It was given out, and believed to have this property, that, if a man was in mortal sin, and not absolved, he could not see it; otherwise, he might see it very well: therefore, every man that came to see this miracle, this most precious blood, confessed himself first to one of the priests there; and then, offering something at the altar, was directed to a chapel, where the miracle was shown; the priest who confessed him, in the meantime, retiring to the back part of the said chapel, and putting forth a little cabinet or vessel of crystal, which being thick on the one side, that nothing could be seen through it, but on the other side thin and transparent, they used diversely, as their interests required. On the dissolution of the abbey, it was discovered to be nothing more than honey clarified and coloured with saffron, "an unctowse gumme coloured, which in the glasse apperyd to be a glisterynge red resemblyng partlie the color of blood, and owte of the glasse apparaunte glystering yelow colour like amber or basse gold" (Certificate of visitors, printed at end of Hearne's Benedictus Abbas, II. 751). 346. i.e., Saint David. Drayton, in his "Poly-Olbion," Song xxiv., says-- "Whose Cambro Britons so their saints as duly brought, T' advance the Christian faith, effectually that wrought; Their _David_ (one deriv'd of th' royal British blood), Who 'against Pelagius' false and damn'd opinions stood; And turn'd Menenia's name to _David's_ sacred see. The patron of the Welsh deserving well to be."