THE HEPTARCHY. 5 z

rich donations on the cathedral of Hereford; and c neven made a pilgrimage to Rome , where hisgreat power and riches could not fail of procuringhim the papal absolution. The better to ingratiatehimself with the sovereign pontiff, he engaged topay him a yearly donation for the support of anEnglish college ac Rome and in order toraise the sum; he imposed a tax of a penny oneach house possessed of thirty pence a year.This imposition, being afterwards levied on allEngland , was commonly denominated Peter’spence ; and though conferred at first as a gift,was afterwards claimed as a tribute by the Romanpontiff. Carrying his hypocrisy still farther ,Ossa, feigning to be directed by a vision fromheaven , discovered at Verulam the reliques ofSt. Alban, the martyr, and endowed a magnifi-cent monastery in that place Moved by all

these acts of piety, Malmesbury, one of the bestof the old English historians , declares himself ata loss to determine whether the merits orcrimes of this prince preponderated. Off a died,after a reign of thirty-nine years , in 7Q4

This prince was become so considerable in theHeptarchy, that the emperor Charlemagne enteredinto an alliance and friendship with him; a

- Spell. Cone. p. 230. 310. 312.

siigden , lib. 5.

Ingulph. p. 5. W. Malmes lib. I. cap. 4.

106 T .»

Lib. I. cap* 4.

107 Chron. Sax. p. 65.

Vol. I,

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