Coenred appears to have been a very religious king. Bede tells a story of a companion of Coenred's whose sins led him to damnation despite Coenred's pleas that he should repent and reform. In 709 Coenred abdicated in favour of his cousin Ceolred, son of Æthelred, in order to become a monk in Rome; Bede's story is cited by the medieval chronicler William of Malmesbury as the reason for Coenred's decision, though this is probably guesswork. Coenred was accompanied by the East Saxon king Offa on his journey to Rome, and was made a monk there by Pope Constantine. The "Liber Pontificalis", an early record of the lives of Popes, records the arrival of their party: "in his time, two kings of the Saxons came with many others to pray to the apostles; just as they were hoping, their lives quickly came to an end." A later source, the 11th-century "Vita Ecgwini", claims that Ecgwine accompanied Coenred and Offa to Rome, but historians have treated this with scepticism.