19. #Symeon# (1167-1183). Symeon had been Prior, and therefore had been acting head of the monastery since Robert's death. He was a literary man and an encourager of learning. Being an intimate friend of Thomas Becket, he went to Prince Henry, the King's son, to intercede for the Archbishop and bring about a reconciliation, if possible, with the King; but he was driven from the court with contumely. Symeon finished the shrine. The feretory made by Abbot Geoffrey still contained the bones of the martyr; this was now covered by the work of Abbot Symeon, which was made of large size so as to contain the other. The relics of Amphibalus were discovered about this time at Redbourn, where he had been put to death. The Bishop of Durham dedicated the Chapel of St. Cuthbert which had been built by Richard (fifteenth Abbot). Like several of the other Abbots, Symeon enriched his relations and left the Abbey in debt.
20. #Warren#, or #Warin, of Cambridge# (1183-1195). This Abbot was of low birth, but had risen to the position of Prior. The sacrist alone opposed his election on account of his birth and also because he squinted, and predicted all manner of evils to the monastery if he were elected Abbot. Henry II., soon after the new Abbot had been appointed, and the Bishop of Lincoln happening to be at St. Albans at the same time, the Bishop brought up the old grievance about the Abbey having been made independent of him, but the King silenced him with angry words. Warren founded a leper hospital for women as Geoffrey had founded one for men. This hospital was dissolved by Wolsey in 1526, its revenues going towards the endowment of Christ Church, Oxford. The bones of Amphibalus were removed from the locker in which they were kept, and placed in a new shrine adorned with gold and silver. This Abbot made numerous regulations concerning the domestic affairs of the monastery; one dealt with the dress, another made better provision for sick monks, another shortened the services, another allowed meat in the infirmary, yet another ordered that all dead monks should be buried in stone coffins, not merely laid in earth graves. This Abbot, in lieu of delivering up the chalice which Richard I. had demanded from all English abbeys wherewith to pay his ransom, sent 200 marks of silver. Shortly before his death he set aside 100 marks to be given to his successor for renewing the west front of the church. Among his faults it is noted that he was self-willed, that he banished to distant cells any of the brethren that offended him, and that he felled timber belonging to the Abbey and sent the proceeds as presents to the King and Queen.