The famous Dunstan, one of the greatest of ecclesiastical statesmen, was born in Glastonbury, and after proving his many marvellous capabilities and aptitude for learning, was made abbot of the Benedictine house in his native town in the reign of Edmund the Magnificent. Many strange stories are told of him--the most fantastic perhaps being that of his interview with the natural enemy of man, the Devil himself, during which the reverend man became either so irritated or terrified that he was provoked to seize the nose of his ghostly visitor with a pair of red-hot pincers. Dunstan staunchly supported all the reforms introduced by Odo, Archbishop of Canterbury, and in particular the enforcing of more rigid rules upon the clergy or “seculars” in the matter of marriage. The monks or “regulars,” sworn to a life of celibacy, considered that the “seculars” should be subject to similar restrictions. In this matter, Odo’s motives were deeper and more pecuniary than were at first apparent. After the quarrel between the two parties had raged for many years, the “regulars” gained the victory, and much ecclesiastical property changed hands consequent on a large number of the clergy being compelled to enter the monasteries. William the Conqueror despoiled the abbey of much of its property at the beginning of his reign, but later he relented somewhat. Thurstan, a Norman, was appointed abbot, and the monks declining to conform to new musical rules which he enforced in tyrannical fashion, Thurstan summoned soldiers into the sacred building and ruthlessly killed many of the monks. Though the ruins of Glastonbury are somewhat scanty, they possess an attraction unrivalled for the antiquarian. Of the abbey church only the east piers of the central tower, a single east bay of both transepts with triforium and clerestory, the south wall of the choir, part of the south nave aisle, and the chapel of St Mary remain. The latter is situated in the north transept. The church was originally cruciform, consisting of nave with aisles; north and south transepts with north aisles (containing eastern chapels) and an apsidal east end. The abbot’s stone kitchen, octangular in shape with a pyramidical roof, and built in the 14th century by John de Chinnock, contains four huge fireplaces and is the most perfect portion left of the former magnificent monastery. The chapel of St Joseph of Arimathæa, beneath which is a large crypt, stands to the west of the church.