As the Crown Jewels increased in number and value, the King ceased to carry them about with him on all occasions, and they were handed over to the safe keeping of the Abbot and monks of Westminster. In Westminster Abbey can still be pointed out the Chapel of the Pix, where the regal emblems were kept. It is not improbable that Edward the Confessor inaugurated this manner of safeguarding the Regalia when not in use, and his successors for two hundred years followed his example. But though Westminster Abbey proved a sure sanctuary against robbers and marauders from the outer world, unfortunately within the sacred walls were those inured to sanctity, and who were by no means indisposed to profit in so obvious and mundane a matter as disposing of the Crown Jewels. Probably the Treasure Chamber was rarely inspected or visited, and as the monks themselves were the guardians, inconvenient inquiries might easily be disposed of, unless and until certain portions of the Regalia were required for the King’s personal use. It was doubtless some such demand which led to the discovery that the Treasure Chamber had been broken into and some of the Regalia had disappeared. The chief regal emblems, such as the Crown and Sceptre, had been transferred to the Tower by Henry III, but the lesser yet very valuable pieces of plate were still at Westminster. The theft was brought home to a monk named Alexandre de Pershore, who had sold the plate to a travelling merchant named Richard de Podelicote. As a result the Abbot Wenlock and forty-eight monks were tried and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in the Tower. This was in the reign of Edward I, and as a result the King decided that Westminster Abbey was not altogether a safe place for any portion of so valuable a collection of plate and jewelry, and ordered it all to be transferred to the Tower of London. An official Keeper of the Regalia, whose duty it was to guard and have sole custody of the Jewels, had already been appointed by Henry III, and henceforth a divided control ceased.