 Nobles made donations to reformed foundations for religious reasons, and many believed that they could save their souls by patronising holy men who would pray for them, and thus help to expiate their sins. In some cases gifts were a payment for the right to be buried at a monastery. Some aristocrats founded new monasteries; for example, Æthelwine, Ealdorman of East Anglia, founded Ramsey Abbey in 969, gave it many gifts, and translated the relics of two martyred princes to it. Gifts were designed to increase the prestige of both the donor and recipient, as when Ealdorman Byrhtnoth of Essex, later to be the hero of the Battle of Maldon, gave Ely Abbey "thirty mancuses of gold, twenty pounds of silver, two gold crosses, two lace palls containing precious works of gold and gems, and two finely made gloves". Upon his death his widow added a large hanging worked with images of his victories, apparently previously hanging at their house, and a gold torc. The 12th-century local chronicle, the Liber Eliensis, records 14 churches which also received gifts from him.
