Editing Edmund the Martyr (section)

===Cult at Bury St Edmunds===
  {{Infobox saint
  |name=Saint Edmund the Martyr
  | image            = John Lydgate praying at St Edmund's shrine.png
  | imagesize        = 220px
  | alt              = medieval illustration of Edmund's shrine 
  | caption          = [[John Lydgate]] prays at the shrine of St Edmund, from a folio of ''Lives of SS Edmund and Fremund'' ([[British Library]])
  |feast_day=20 November
  |venerated_in=[[Catholic Church]]<br />[[Anglican Communion]]<br />[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
  |major_shrine=[[Bury St Edmunds]], destroyed during the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]]
  |attributes=<!-- Crowned and robed, --> An arrow or a sword, a hand-held [[Globus cruciger|orb]] and [[Sceptre#Christian_era|sceptre]], wolf<!-- , severed head --> 
  |patronage= Kings, [[pandemic]]s, wolves, torture victims, protection from the [[Plague (disease)|plague]] 
}}
Edmund's [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] was promoted and flourished, but it declined, with the production of St Edmund coins ceasing after around 910. The saint did not reappear in [[Liturgical year|liturgical calendars]] from the 9th century until the appearance of Abbo of Fleury's ''Passio Sancti Eadmundi'' three centuries later.{{sfn|Gransden|1992|pp=82{{ndash}}83}} In 1010, Edmund's remains were translated to London to protect them from the Vikings, where they were kept for three years before being returned to Bury.{{sfn|Farmer|2011|pp=136{{ndash}}137}} 

The Danish king [[Cnut the Great|Canute]], who ruled England from 1016,{{sfn|Lawson|2013}} converted to Christianity and was instrumental in founding the abbey at Bury St Edmunds.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=89}} The new stone [[abbey]] church was completed in 1032, having possibly been commissioned by Canute in time to be consecrated on the 16th anniversary of the [[Battle of Assandun]], which took place on 18 October 1016.{{sfn|Young|2018|p=90}} Edmund's shrine became one of the most famous and wealthy [[pilgrimage]] locations in England. The abbey's power grew upon being given jurisdiction over the western half of the county of [[Suffolk]] by the creation in 1044 of the [[Liberty of Saint Edmund]], established by [[Edward the Confessor]], and a larger church was built in 1095, into which Edmund's [[relic]]s were translated.<ref name="High">{{cite web |title=High Stewards |url=https://www.highstewardship.org/high-stewards |publisher=The High Stewardship of the Liberty of St Edmund |access-date=9 January 2022}}</ref>{{refn|1=The [[Liberty (division)|Liberty]] remained a separate jurisdiction under the control of the abbot of [[Bury St Edmunds Abbey]] until the [[dissolution of the monasteries]] in the 1530s.{{sfn|Redstone|1914|p=202}}|group=note}} After the [[Norman Conquest]] of England in 1066, the [[abbot]] planned out over 300 new houses within a [[Grid plan|grid-iron pattern]] at a location that was close to the abbey precincts, a development which caused the town to more than double in size.{{sfn|Cantor|1982|p=176}}{{sfn|Waller|2000|p=98}} [[John, King of England|King John]] is said to have given a great [[sapphire]] and a precious stone set in gold to the shrine, which he was permitted to keep upon the condition that it was returned to the abbey when he died.{{sfn|Yates|1843|loc=part II p. 40}}

Edmund's shrine was destroyed in 1539, during the [[dissolution of the monasteries]]. According to a letter (now in the [[British Library]]'s [[Cotton Library|Cotton Collection]]), the shrine was defaced, and silver and gold to the value of over 5,000 [[Mark (money)|marks]] was taken away. The abbot and his monks were expelled and the abbey was dissolved.{{sfn|Pinner|2015|pp=1{{ndash}}2}}