Edmund Rich-- Archbishop of Canterbury and saint in later days--came about the time we have reached to Oxford, a boy of twelve years old, from a little lane at Abingdon that still bears his name.

He found his school in an inn that belonged to the abbey of Eynsham where his father had taken refuge from the world.

His mother was a pious woman of the day, too poor to give her boy much outfit besides the hair shirt that he promised to wear every Wednesday; but Edmund was no poorer than his neighbours.

He plunged at once into the nobler life of the place, its ardour for knowledge, its mystical piety.

"Secretly," perhaps at eventide when the shadows were gathering in the church of St.Mary and the crowd of teachers and students had left its aisles, the boy stood before an image of the Virgin, and placing a ring of gold upon its finger took Mary for his bride.