blows. The work of restoring the south aisle progressed, and was finished by Abbot Mentmore (1335-1349), who also repaired the north walk of the cloister, damaged by the fall of the adjoining aisle. Abbot Thomas de la Mare (1349-1396) was the son of a noble house, and a favourite of Edward III. After Poictiers the French King John was brought here, and kept as an honourable prisoner, and afterwards expressed his gratitude to the courtly abbot for his care. Edward III. granted leave to the abbot to fortify his monastery, and walls and gates were much needed a few years later when Wat Tyler and his rebels besieged it and frightened the abbot and caused much damage. The rebels suffered here later when the king came, and some he hanged. Then was the Great Gate, with its prisons and vaults, constructed, which still stands, mightily convincing of the power of the abbot. Nor did he forget his church. He paved all the west part at great cost, and spent large sums on the services. The abbot, John de la Moote (1396-1401), took some part in dethroning Richard II., and it is said that the conspiracy was hatched at the abbot's dinner-table. Here they brought as a prisoner the Bishop of Carlisle, who stoutly defended Richard at Westminster. The rivalry of the Houses of York and Lancaster brought trouble to St. Albans. Here was fought the first battle, and here, in the house of a tanner, Henry VI. was found and conveyed to London. The second battle of St. Albans was fought here in 1461, when the king's party were victorious, and the Abbey was the scene of a great thanksgiving service. Great privileges were granted to the Abbey by Edward IV. Several alterations were made in Perpendicular times. The walls of the nave aisles were lowered and their roofs flattened, so that the backs of the Norman triforia were exposed, and their openings made into windows. Several Perpendicular windows were also inserted. St. Albans played a great part in the introduction of printing, and a press was set up in the Abbey. The earliest book printed here was in 1480, and many other incunabula came from this renowned press. The era of the Reformation is at hand. Cardinal Wolsey was abbot here in 1521. The fate of the monastery was doomed. In 1539 it was surrendered to the king by his creature Abbot Boreman, and the manors, goods and possessions were soon seized by the courtiers. Much damage was done in the church; of course, the beautiful shrines were destroyed. The Abbey church and buildings were granted to Sir Richard Lee, who soon began to uproot and destroy. The cloisters were levelled to the ground. Abbot Boreman did good service in buying the site of the monastery from Sir R. Lee. Then the townsfolk did nobly. They bought the church from the Crown, and made it the Parish Church of St. Andrew, and moreover established a Grammar School in the Lady Chapel. The eastern ante-chapel was walled up, and a public passage made across the church west of the Lady Chapel. The