BENEDICTUS ABBAS (d. 1194), abbot of Peterborough, whose name is accidentally connected with the Gesta Henrici Regis Secundi, one of the most valuable of English 12th century chronicles. He first makes his appearance in 1174, as the chan cellor of Archbishop Richard, the successor of Becket in the primacy. In 1175 Benedictus became prior of Holy Trinity, Can terbury; in 1177 he received from Henry II. the abbacy of Peter borough which he held until his death. Benedictus wrote two works dealing with the martyrdom and the miracles of Becket. Fragments of the former work have come down to us in the compilation known as the Quadrilogus, which is printed in the fourth volume of J. C. Robertson's Materials for the History of Thomas Becket (Rolls series) ; the miracles are extant in their entirety, and are printed in the second volume of the same collec tion. Benedictus has been credited with the authorship of the Gesta Henrici on the ground that his name appears in the title of the oldest manuscript. We have, however, conclusive evidence that Benedictos merely caused this work to be transcribed for the Peterborough library. It is only through the force of custom that the work is still occasionally cited under the name of Bene dictus. The question of authorship has been discussed by Sir T. D. Hardy, Bishop Stubbs and Prof. Liebermann ; but the results of the discussion are negative. Stubbs conjecturally identified the first part of the Gesta (1170-77) with the Liber Tricolumnis, a register of contemporary events kept by Richard Fitz Neal (q.v.), the treasurer of Henry II. and author of the Dialogus de Scac cario ; the latter part (1177-92) was by the same authority as cribed to Roger of Hoveden, who makes large use of the Gesta in his own chronicle, copying them with few alterations beyond the addition of some documents. This theory, so far as concerns the Liber Tricolumnis, is rejected by Liebermann, and the most recent editors of the Dialogus (A. Hughes, C. G. Crump and C. Johnson, Oxford 1902). The work begins at Christmas i 169, and concludes in 1192 ; it is thus in form a fragment, covering portions of the reign of Henry II. and Richard I.