According to Sir Frank Stenton, this timing is suggested by the presence of certain passages that are apparently contemporary with Abbot Faritius, who died that year, and is referred to several times in the first person by the author: “Moreover, we were without an Abbot for four years” and, again concerning Faritius, “we saw him buy more than sixty silk cloths”.
[2] Whilst the earliest surviving text of the History is the Cotton Claudius C IX in the British Library, it has been suggested by Stenton and John Hudson that the author drew upon previously extant works, notably the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Wulfstan's Life of St. Æthelwold and possibly a now-lost Book of Commemorations.
[6] However, up until the Norman Conquest, the History is primarily concerned with charters and land documents; indeed, Gransden has described it as “little more than an inflated cartulary”.
The history, in its recording of the various land disputes of concern to the Abbey, refers numerous times to Charters or “land-books” .
The wealth of the Church is inferred by various episodes of looting that went on immediately following the Conquest, one, notably by William's Queen, Matilda of Flanders,[10] and by the calculation of its holding of 624½ hides in 1066 by Hollister.
For instance, the Abbot was unable to recover lands seized by Henry de Ferrers in the wake of the Conquest.
[16] From the History one can discern evidence of a strong English monarchy prior to 1066, with a recognised legal system of charters for land.
The diversity of witnesses to the charters bears evidence to a royal court, where magnates from around the country gathered at certain times.
[18] Immediately following the Conquest in 1066, it is inferred that there was a period of disorder, during which the abbey was looted and “devastation was dispensed indiscriminately throughout the villages”.
One, titled Chronicon Monasterii de Abingdon and containing just the Latin text, was edited by Joseph Stevenson in two volumes and published by the Rolls Series, London in 1858.