and
again the King kept the abbey in his own hands for more than two years.

=Henry of Anjou= (1128-1133), where he was Abbot, was a kinsman of the
King. He had numerous preferments abroad; and after five years here was
forced to resign and to betake himself to Anjou.

=Martin de Vecti= (1133-1155), had been Prior of S. Neots. Gunton
considers he came originally from the Isle of Wight, Vectis; Dean
Patrick thinks he derived his name from Bec, in Normandy. He was a great
builder, and was very industrious in repairing the abbey, and especially
the church.

=William of Waterville= (1155-1175), was chaplain to King Henry II. He
devoted himself to the building of the church, and the portion
attributed to him has been indicated in a previous chapter. He was also
very attentive to the management of the estates of the monastery, and to
acquiring new ones; but his business capacity seems to have brought him
into some disrepute and to have raised some enemies, who accused him to
the King; and by the King's order he was deposed in the Chapter-house,
as Dean Patrick relates[32] "before a multitude of abbots and monks;
being neither convicted of any crime, nor confessing any, but privily
accused to the Archbishop by some monks." It is recorded that he
appealed to the Pope against the sentence of deprivation, but without
success.

=Benedict= (1177-1193), was Prior of Canterbury; and, towards the end of
his life, Keeper of the Great Seal. He had a heavy task at the beginning
of his rule in restoring discipline, which had become lax, and in
reforming many evil customs that had crept into the house. He was an
author, and produced a work on the career of S. Thomas of Canterbury,
whose murder had taken place only seven years before Benedict came to
Peterborough. He gave many ornaments and vestments to the church, and
brought several relics; and in particular some of Thomas a Becket (and
those we can certainly believe were more authentic than most relics),
among which are mentioned his shirt and surplice, a great quantity of
his blood in two crystal vessels, and two altars of the stone on which
he fell when he was murdered. He was, as might be expected, very zealous
in completing the chapel at the monastery gate which his predecessor had
begun to raise in honour of the martyred Archbishop. Dean Stanley[33]
speaks of Benedict's acquisition of the relics as "one of two memorable
acts of plunder ... curiously illustrative of the prevalen