=Source.=--_The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_, ed. Thorpe, vol. i., p. 364.
(Rolls Series.)
He was very strong and stern over his land and his men and towards all
his neighbours, and much to be feared; and through evil men’s counsels,
that were ever comfortable to him, and through his own covetousness, he
was ever tormenting this people with an army and unjust taxes, whereby
in his days all right fell, and all unright in the sight of God and of
the world uprose. God’s churches he brought down; and the bishoprics
and the abbeys whereof the heads passed away in his days either he
sold them all for money, or held them in his own hand and let them to
farm, because he would be the heir of every man, ordained and lay; and
so on the day that he died, he had in his own hand the archbishopric
of Canterbury and the bishopric of Winchester and the bishopric of
Salisbury, and eleven abbacies, all let to farm. And though I take
long to tell it, all that was hateful to God and oppressive to men,
it was all customary in this land in his times, and therefore he was
hateful to well-nigh all his people and loathed of God, as his end bore
witness, for he perished in the midst of his unrighteousness, without
repentance and any atonement.