HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS
1. THE ABBEY OF BURY ST. EDMUNDS (fn. 1)
In the year 903, or somewhat later, the relics
of the martyred king, St. Edmund, were translated from the comparatively obscure wooden chapel of Hoxne to Beodricsworth, afterwards known as Bury St. Edmunds. (fn. 2)
The first church in which the body of
St. Edmund was placed when it was removed
from the decent tomb (competenti mausoleo) at
Hoxne was a large church made of wood with
much skill by the people of the district of all
ranks. (fn. 3) Edmund son of Edward the Elder
granted in 945 the lands round Beodricsworth to
the family (fn. 4) of the monastery. At that time the
household or college of clerks, to whom the duty
of guarding the shrine was assigned, consisted of
six persons, four priests and two deacons. Herman supplies their names. (fn. 5)
In the year 1010 Ailwin, the chief guardian
of the shrine, hearing that the Danes had landed,
took up the body of the saint, and passing through
Essex in search of a place of greater security
eventually reached London, where the relics
remained for three years. On the return of
tranquillity, notwithstanding the opposition of
the Bishop of London and his flock (who are
said to have been miraculously baffled), Ailwin
returned with the relics to their former restingplace. (fn. 6)
In 1020 Ælfwine, bishop of Elmham, formerly
a monk of Ely, removed the seculars in charge
of the shrine, and twenty monks, headed by
Uvius, prior of Holme, were installed at Beodricsworth. Uvius was consecrated the first abbot
of Bury St. Edmunds by the Bishop of London,
and a new stone church was begun by the order
of Cnut. (fn. 7) In 1020 Cnut granted an ample
charter of endowment and liberties. The
fundus or farm of St. Edmunds was to be for
ever in the hands of the Benedictine monks
of the abbey, and they were to be exempt
from episcopal jurisdiction. At any time when
the English might be called upon to pay
danegeld for the support of the Danish fleet
and army of occupation, the tenants of the
abbey were to be taxed at a like rate for the
benefit of the monastery. Regal rights in
their fisheries were made over to the monks,
and by the same charter there were assigned,
as a gift from Queen Emma, four thousand
eels yearly from Lakenheath. Finally, full jurisdiction in all their townships was granted to
the abbot. (fn. 8)
The first stone church was consecrated by
Æthelnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, on 18 October, 1032, and dedicated to the honour of
Christ, St. Mary and St. Edmund. (fn. 9)
In 1035 Hardicanute confirmed and extended
the privileges of the monks of St. Edmunds,
imposing the impossible fine of thirty talents of
gold on anyone found guilty of infringing the
franchises of the abbey. (fn. 10) Edward the Confessor
first visited St. Edmunds in 1044, and of his great
devotion granted to the abbey the manor of
Mildenhall, full freedom to elect their own abbot,
and jurisdiction over eight and a half hundreds;
that is to say, over about a third of the widespread county of Suffolk. (fn. 11)
In the same year Uvius died, and was succeeded
as abbot by Leofstan, one of the monks who had
accompanied Uvius from Holme.
The rule of Leofstan (1044-65) nearly coincided with the reign of the Confessor. It is said
by Herman to have been a period of sloth and
torpor at the abbey, from which the monks were
roused by the entreaties and reproaches of
Ælfgeth, a Winchester woman, who had been
cured of a congenital dumbness at the shrine.
At her instigation, the resting-place of the saint
was restored. On the death of Leofstan in
1065, the influence of the Confessor caused the
choice of the monks to fall on the king's French
physician, Baldwin, a monk of St. Denis, a native
of Chartres. The Confessor in that year granted
a mint to the abbey. (fn. 12) This seems to be the first
time that Beodricsworth was styled St. Edmundsbury or Bury St. Edmunds (Seynet Edmunds Biri). (fn. 13)
In 1071 Abbot Baldwin visited Rome, where
Pope Alexander II received him with peculiar
honour, and gave him a crozier, a ring, and a
precious altar of porphyry. His chief object in
undertaking the journey was to oppose the claim
of Herfast, bishop of Thetford, to remove the
seat of the East Anglian bishopric to Bury St.
Edmunds. In this he was successful, the pope
taking the monks of St. Edmund under the
special protection of the holy see, and forbidding
that a bishop's see should ever be there established. William the Conqueror also granted a
charter to the like effect, and confirmed their
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. (fn. 14)
Towards the end of his abbacy Baldwin found
the wealth of the house, through fresh bene
factions and the growth of the town, increasing
so rapidly that he felt justified in rebuilding the
church on a nobler scale. (fn. 15) The stone was procured from the fine quarries of Barnack, Northamptonshire, which belonged to the abbot of
Peterborough, through the direct mandate of the
Conqueror, who also ordered that the usual tolls
should be remitted for its conveyance. (fn. 16) At length
the noble church built by Abbot Baldwin and his
sacrists, Thurstan and Tolineus, was finished,
and on 29 April, 1095, the body of St. Edmund
was translated with much pomp to its shrine,
Walkelin, bishop of Winchester, being the presiding prelate.
Baldwin died in 1097, and Rufus, following
his usual policy of ecclesiastical pillage, prolonged
the vacancy for a considerable time. When
Henry I came to the throne, he gave the abbacy
in 1100 to Robert, one of the illegitimate sons
of Hugh Lupus, earl of Chester. Two years
later this Robert was deposed, because he had
accepted the office without the consent or the
election of the monks.
Robert II, a monk of Westminster, was elected
fifth abbot in 1102; but there was a delay of
five years—namely, till 15 August, 1107—ere
he was consecrated by St. Anselm. He only
lived a few weeks after his benediction, for his
death occurred on 16 September of the same
year. (fn. 17)
After an interregnum of seven years—namely,
in 1114—Albold, prior of St. Nicasius at Meaux,
was elected sixth abbot; he died in 1119, when
there was again a vacancy of nearly two years,
till in 1121 Anselm, abbot of St. Saba at Rome,
and nephew of Archbishop Anselm, accepted the
abbacy. In his days—namely, in 1132—Henry I
made a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Edmund,
in accordance with a vow made during a storm
at sea. About the year 1135, Abbot Anselm,
in lieu of making a pilgrimage to St. James of
Compostella, built the fine church of St. James
within the abbey precincts; it was consecrated
by the Archbishop of Canterbury. At the same
time Henry I granted him the privilege of a
prolonged fair at St. Edmunds—namely, on the
festival of St. James, and on three days before
and two days after. (fn. 18)
Abbot Anselm died in 1146, when Ording, the
prior of the house, was elected eighth abbot.
Four years later a fire occurred which destroyed
almost the whole of the conventual buildings,
including the chapter-house. The rebuilding
was accomplished by Helyas, the sacrist, Ording's
nephew. This Ording, who was abbot until
1156, was a homo illiteratus, according to Jocelyn's
chronicle, but ruled wisely and obtained an
extension of privileges from Stephen. On his
death, Hugh, prior of Westminster, was chosen
ninth abbot in January, 1156-7, receiving benediction at Colchester from Theobald, archbishop
of Canterbury. It is said that on that occasion
the primate strove to exact future submission to
the see of Canterbury. In 1161 a bull of Pope
Alexander II sanctioned an appeal to the holy see
in certain important matters, (fn. 19) and eleven years
later the same pope issued a further bull exempting the abbey from the visitation of the archbishop
of the province, even though coming as legatus
natus. (fn. 20)
Hugh's somewhat lax rule, on which Jocelyn
descants at the beginning of his chronicle, came
to an end in 1180 in the twenty-third year of
his abbacy. He was making a pilgrimage to
St. Thomas of Canterbury, when he fell from
his horse at Rochester on 9 September and
severely injured his knee. He was brought back
to St. Edmunds in a horse-litter, but died on
15 November.
A year and three months elapsed before royal
assent could be obtained to proceed with a new
election, and when the king's letters at last
arrived it was laid down that the prior and twelve
of the convent were to appear before him to make
choice of an abbot. When the chapter met they
charged the prior, at the peril of his soul, conscientiously to choose twelve to accompany him,
from whose life and conversation it might be
depended that they would not swerve from the
right. The prior thereupon nominated six from
one side of the choir and six from the other,
his choice 'by the dictation of the Holy Ghost'
being commended by all. The chapter, however, were not disposed to leave the matter
entirely in the hands of the thirteen; they chose
six other of their number of the best reputation,
who went apart, and, with their hands on the
Gospels, selected three men of the convent most
fit to be abbot. The names of the three were
committed to writing, sealed up and given to
those who were to go before the king. If they
found they were to have free election of one of
their own house, then they were to break the
seal and present the three names to the king for
his election. They were further instructed, in
case of necessity, to accept anyone of their own
convent nominated by the king, but to return to
consult the chapter if the king named an out
sider. The deputation came before the king at
Waltham, one of the Hampshire manors of the
Bishop of Winchester, on 21 February, 1182,
when they were told to nominate three members
of their convent. Retiring, they broke the seal
of the writing and found, to their surprise, the
names of Samson the sub-sacrist, Roger the
cellarer, and Hugh the third prior, entered in
that order, those of higher standing being ignored.
Their oath forbade them to alter the names, but
they changed the order, according to convent
precedency, and placed Samson last. Jocelyn
enters into full detail as to what subsequently
happened before the king, and the nomination of
others, but eventually the deputation agreed upon
Samson as their first choice, the king concurred,
and the Bishop of Winchester gave Samson the
episcopal benediction at Merewell on 28 February. (fn. 21)
On Palm Sunday, 21 March, Samson was
solemnly received by the convent, and homage
was done to him on the fourth day of Easter by
barons, knights, and freemen. For the thirty
years of his rule, Abbot Samson proved himself
to be a superior of unflinching integrity and of
exceptional business capacities. Jocelyn's narrative comes to an end nine years before Samson's
death; up to that date the information as to his
rule is exceptionally full. The following is a
very brief abstract of the more important events
of his reign. Samson was appointed a judge in
the ecclesiastical courts by Pope Lucius III in
1182, and obtained the privilege of giving
the episcopal benediction, in 1187, from Pope
Urban III; in 1184 he was appointed by the
holy see one of three arbitrators in a dispute
between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the
monks of Christ Church, in 1200 between the
archbishop and the canons of Lambeth, and in
1201 one of the three commissioners sent by
the pope to Worcester to inquire into the miracles of St. Wulfstan; in 1203 he was appointed by the pope on a commission concerning
the dispensation of Crusaders from their vows,
and was summoned over sea to advise the king
on this question. He restored the church of
Woolpit to the monastery (1183), founded
St. Saviour's Hospital (1184-5), effected the
entire discharge of the abbey's debts (1194),
took the cellarer's department into his own
hands (1196), and transferred the shrine of
St. Edmund to the high altar, viewing the body
(1190). In 1181 Henry II was at Bury, and
Samson was refused permission to accompany
him to the Crusades. He took active part in
the collection of money for the ransom of
Richard I, in 1193, when a gold chalice given
to the abbey by Henry II was ceded for that
purpose, and visited the king in his German
prison, taking with him many gifts. The king,
on his return to England in March, 1194,
after an absence of four and a quarter years,
proceeded at once to make a thanksgiving visit
to St. Edmunds. The death of Richard was a
great loss to Samson and the abbey. John,
immediately after his coronation in May, 1199,
visited Bury, but caused great disappointment by
his excessive meanness.
We indeed, says Jocelyn, believed that he was
come to make offering of some great matter; but all
he offered was one silken cloth, which his servants
had borrowed from our sacrist, and to this day have
not paid for. He availed himself of the hospitality
of St. Edmund, which was attended with enormous
expense, and upon his departure bestowed nothing at
all, either of honour or profit upon the saint, save
13d. sterling, which he offered at his mass, on the
day of his departure.
King John again visited Bury on 21 December,
1203, when he made no personal offering, but
granted the abbey 10 marks annually from the
exchequer, persuading the convent to return him
for life certain valuable jewels which his mother,
Queen Eleanor, had given to St. Edmund. (fn. 22)
Abbot Samson died, at the ripe age of seventyseven, at twilight ('inter lupum et canem') on
30 December, 1211. It was the fourth year of
the Interdict, and even an abbot could only be
buried in silence and in unconsecrated ground,
and the sorrowing monks had to cover over his
remains in a little meadow hard by. The
Interdict was removed in July, 1214, and the
remains of Samson were exhumed and reinterred
in the chapter-house on 12 August of that year. (fn. 23)
The tyrannical John gave a deaf ear to the
requests of the monks for a free election, and
finding it to his advantage to keep the office
vacant, strenuously insisted on royal prerogative.
In July, 1213, he gave a half consent to an
election, and the monks chose Hugh Northwold;
but the king refused confirmation. In November, 1214, the king even lectured the monks in
their own chapter-house as to his rights in the
matter. The convent appealed to Rome, and
the papal commissioners finally gave judgement
in Hugh's favour in March, 1215; the king's
reluctant approval to this appointment was
wrung from him in Staines meadow on 9 June
of the same year. (fn. 24)
Meanwhile the abbey had played a most
important part in the national resistance to the
despotism of John. The earls and barons met
at Bury on 20 November, 1214, assembling in
the great conventual church; Archbishop
Langton read to them Henry I's charter, and
each swore on the high altar to make war on
John unless he granted them the liberties therein
contained. (fn. 25) As a result of this Magna Charta
was sealed on 15 June following.
In 1224 Abbot Hugh II appeared in state at
the royal camp before Bedford Castle, attended by
the knights holding manors under St. Edmund.
Abbot Hugh, whom Matthew Paris describes as
'flos magistrorum monachorum, abbas abbatum,
et episcopus episcoporum,' was unanimously
chosen bishop by the monks of Ely in 1229;
he died in 1254. (fn. 26)
On 20 November, 1229, Richard, abbot of
Burton, formerly a monk of St. Edmunds, was
installed twelfth abbot, it being St. Edmund's
Day. (fn. 27) Abbot Richard only ruled for some
five years; for on his return from the court of
Pope Gregory in 1234, whither he had gone in
a matter of appeal, he was attacked in September with mortal illness and died at Pontigny.
His body was embalmed and brought back to
St. Edmunds for interment in the chapter-house.
It was not until 27 September, 1235, that
another election was held, when the choice of
the monks fell on their prior, Henry of Rushbrook, as their thirteenth abbot. In the year of
his election, Henry III granted to Abbot Henry
two fairs at Bury and a market at his manor of
Melford. Among those excused from attendance
at the council of Lyons in 1245 was Abbot
Henry, owing to an attack of the gout (morbo
podagrico laborantem). (fn. 28) In the same year, at the
request of the convent, Henry III gave the name
of Edmund to his newly born son, who became
the founder of the house of Lancaster. (fn. 29) A bull
was issued by Innocent III in July, 1248, prescribing the solemn celebration of the feast of
the translation of St. Edmund to be observed on
29 April. (fn. 30)
Abbot Henry died in 1248, and was succeeded
in the same year by Edmund Walpole, LL.D.,
who had only worn the monk's habit for two
years. Abbot Edmund and his two predecessors
all received episcopal benediction at the hands of
good Bishop Hugh of Ely, their former abbot.
In March, 1249-50, Henry III took the
cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury; whereupon Abbot Walpole did the same,
exposing himself, as Matthew Paris says, to
general derision and setting a pernicious example
to monks, for such a vow was inconsistent with
the vow of the monastic order. (fn. 31) Revised statutes
for the governance of this abbey were approved
in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV; they provided,
inter alia, for four church watchers, night and
day, two for the shrine of St. Edmund, and two
for the church treasure and clock. On the last
day of this year Abbot Edmund died.
His successor, Simon of Luton, the prior, was
elected fifteenth abbot on 15 January, 1256-7.
He was exempted from going in person to Rome
to procure papal confirmation; but the securing
of the confirmation by Alexander IV cost the
vast sum of 2,000 marks, and was not obtained
until October. The story of the expulsion of
the Grey Friars from Bury during this abbacy is
told in the account of the friary, which they
were permitted to establish at Babwell. At
Easter, 1264, a serious conflict arose between
the monastery and the town burgesses, which
resulted in the infliction of a fine on the latter.
Henry III during the troublous years at the close
of his reign was at the abbey of St. Edmund's
on several occasions. Tarrying here on his way
back from Norwich in the autumn of 1272 he
was taken seriously ill, and according to some
accounts breathed his last in the abbey on
16 November. On 17 April, Edward I and
his queen came to St. Edmund's on a pilgrimage
to the shrine, to fulfil a vow they had made
when in the Holy Land. Abbot Simon died in
April, 1279, and was buried in the Lady chapel
of his own recent building.
John of Northwold, the hosteller, was elected
sixteenth abbot by his brethren on 6 May, 1279.
His journey to Rome and fees to procure confirmation cost 1175 marks. On his return he
was solemnly received on 28 December in the
abbey church, which he ruled for twenty-two
years.
The crown, in June, 1285, granted to the
abbey the fines for trespasses against the assize
of weights and measures whenever the king's
ministers made a view thereof; the said fines to
be collected by the abbey and applied to the
decoration of the tomb of St. Edmund. (fn. 32) This
grant was extended in January, 1296, when
Edward I was visiting the abbey. He then
granted that, whenever the king's ministers of
the markets passed through the town to view
measures and to do other things pertaining to
their office, the abbot and convent and their
successors were to have all amercements and
profits of bread and ale, &c. The ministers
were to furnish the sacristan of the abbey with
schedules of all such fines, &c., which were to
be collected by the abbey's officials and applied
to the decoration of the saint's tomb and shrine. (fn. 33)
One of the recurring disputes between the
monastery and the town at its gates came to a
head in 1292, when a royal commission of
inquiry was appointed, by which it was arranged
that the burgesses were to present annually at
Michaelmas an allowance for confirmation by
the abbot; and the alderman was to present
four persons to the sacrist as keepers of the four
gates of the town. The fifth or last gate was
to remain in the custody of the abbey. The
commissioners stated that this had been the
custom since the days of the Confessor. (fn. 34)
In consideration of a fine made by Abbot
John, in June, 1300, the crown sanctioned the
assignment by the abbot and convent, to two
chaplains celebrating in the chapel recently
built in the abbey churchyard and called 'La
Charnere,' of the yearly produce of twentyseven acres of land sown with wheat, being
the produce of one acre in as many vills
of their demesne lands, which produce had
hitherto been assigned to the abbot's crozierbearers for performing that office. (fn. 35) The charnel in the abbey churchyard had been founded
in order to avoid the scandal of the bones of
the departed lying about in the over-used burial-ground.
In May, 1304, the king pardoned the abbey
of all their debts to the crown, in consideration
of their remission to the king of a thousand
marks, borrowed of them from the tenths of the
Holy Land on the clergy, which had been deposited in the abbey's custody in the pope's
name. During the same month, Edward I,
'out of devotion to St. Edmund,' granted that
the prior and convent should, during future
voidances, have the custody of all temporalities,
saving knights' fees and advowsons. But for
this privilege the abbey had to pay the stiff
fine of 1,200 marks if the voidance lasted a year
or less, and if longer at the proportionate rate
of 100 marks a month. (fn. 36)
In May Edward I granted the murage and
pavage dues of the town on goods coming into
the town of Bury St. Edmunds to the abbot
and convent for three years. (fn. 37) In August of the
same year a commission of three justices was
appointed in the matter of the rebellion of the
town against the general administration of the
abbot as lord of the town. The charge against
sixty-two of the townsmen, who are named,
and others was of a comprehensive character,
accusing them of conspiring together by oaths of
confederacy and resisting every detail of the
abbey's rule, usurping the administration of
justice and collecting tolls and other dues granted
by charter to the convent. (fn. 38)
Abbot Thomas died on 7 January, 1311-12,
and the election of Richard, the third prior, was
confirmed in April, 1312, by Pope Clement V.
This confirmation states that Richard had been
elected by the sacrist, cellarer, infirmarian, and
chamberlain, and by four other monks whose
names are cited. (fn. 39) In June of the following year
the pope sanctioned the appropriation of the
church of Harlow, value 20 marks, to take effect
on the death or resignation of the rector, a perpetual vicar being assigned. (fn. 40)
In 1327, the long simmering disputes between
the town and the abbey came to a head with
grievous results, involving the plunder of the
abbey and its estates, and the seizing of the abbot
and his deportation to Diest in Brabant. These
disturbances were long known as the Great
Riot. Long statements on both sides appear in
Arnold's Memorials, as already set forth. In
this summary it seems best to take the statements from the official entries on the patent
rolls. On 14 May, 1327, mandates were delivered by the king and council to the authorities
of both abbey and town, under forfeiture of all
they could forfeit, prohibiting the assembling of
armed men. (fn. 41) Nevertheless the riots continued,
and on 20 May, 1327, Edward III appointed
John de Tendering and Ralph de Bocking,
during pleasure, to the custody of the abbey and
town of St. Edmunds, which the king had
taken under his immediate protection in consequence of the grave dissensions. Power was
given to the two wardens to arrest inferior
offenders, but not to remove officers and ministers
of either abbey or town as long as they were
obedient. (fn. 42) In July the king associated two
other warders, Robert Walkefare and John
Claver, with John and Ralph. (fn. 43) A further
step was taken in the interest of the monks, on
16 October of the same year, when the crown
appointed John Howard, during pleasure, to the
custody of the abbey, with power to protect it
and defend its possessions, to arrest those who
had injured it, and to apply its revenues, saving
the necessary provision for its governance, towards the payment of its debts and its relief; (fn. 44)
but this appointment was revoked on 10 November. (fn. 45) This revocation was doubtless brought
about by the very serious and extensive character
of the revolt against the abbey's authority becoming better known to the authorities. By
the end of October commission was granted to
the Earl of Norfolk, Thomas Bardolf and others
to take, if necessary, the posse comitatus of both
Norfolk and Suffolk, to arrest those besieging
the abbey, and to imprison others guilty of
criminal acts in these affrays. (fn. 46) At the same
time four justices were appointed to hold a special
assize (fn. 47) at St. Edmunds, on the complaint of the
abbot, who gave in the names of about 300
alleged offenders out of a great multitude, including three rectors, nineteen chaplains or
assistant parochial clergy, a merchant, six drapers,
four mercers, two butchers, a tailor, and two
taverners. Among the particular offences specified are beating and wounding the abbey's servants and imprisoning them till they paid fines;
mowing the abbey's meadows, felling the trees,
and fishing the fish-ponds; preventing the
holding of courts and collecting rents and tolls
and other customs; cutting off the abbey's
water-conduit; breaking down the fish-ponds at
Babwell; throwing down the houses of the
abbey in the town; carrying away the timber,
and burning the abbot's manor houses at Barton,
Pakenham, Rougham, 'Eldhawe,' Horningsheath,
Newton, Whepstead, Westley, Risby, Ingham,
Fornham, 'Redewell,' and 'Haberdon,' with
their granges and corn; carrying away 100 horses,
120 oxen, 200 cows, 300 bullocks, 10,000
sheep and 300 swine, worth £6,000; and
besieging the abbey with an armed force and
great multitude; breaking the gates and doors
and windows of the abbey; entering the conventual buildings and assaulting the servants;
breaking open chests, coffers and closets and
carrying off gold and silver chalices and other
plate, books, vestments, and utensils, and
money to the value of £1,000, as well as
divers writings; imprisoning Peter de Clapton,
the prior, and twelve monks in a house in the
town; taking the said prior and monks to
the chapter-house and forcing them to seal a
document setting forth that the abbot and convent were indebted to Oliver Kemp and five
other townsmen in the sum of £10,000; and
imprisoning the abbot and using his seal as well
as the corporate seal to documents obtained by
duress, the contents of which neither he nor the
monks saw or heard. On 5 November, 1328, a
commission was issued to the Bishop of Ely and
two others to compose the differences between
the abbey and the townsmen. An agreement as
to the matters in dispute between the abbey and
the town was finally drawn up at Bury, in the
presence of the king, at Trinity, 1331, to the
effect that in consideration of the remission of
the huge fine of £140,000 imposed on the
defendants, they should pay the abbey the sum
of 2,000 marks during the next twenty years, in
sums of 50 marks at a time. (fn. 48) The great seal
was affixed to this covenant, and the defendants
were conditionally discharged. (fn. 49)
Licence was granted in August, 1330, for the
abbey to appropriate the churches of Rougham and
Thurstan of their advowson, in consideration of
the grievous losses they had sustained at the hands
of the men of St. Edmunds, and because, at the
king's request, they had pardoned a great part
of the sum recovered by them as damages. (fn. 50) As
a further compensation from the crown for their
losses, the king in the following month granted
free warren in all demesnes of the abbey, a
weekly market at Melford, and an annual fair
of nine days at the same place.
The riotous attacks on the abbey and its
possessions in 1327 took place at the time when
it was known that the king and his forces were
in Scotland. When Edward III was at York,
on 23 October, 1334, preparatory to another
expedition into Scotland, protection was granted
by the king and council to the abbey owing to
the increasing hostility of the townsmen, and for
fear another attempt should be made at the
abbey's overthrow when the forces were across
the border. (fn. 51)
Abbot Richard died on 5 May, 1335. The
king's licence for a new election was speedily
obtained, and the new abbot, William of
Bernham, the sub-prior, was hastily chosen on
25 May, in order to forestall the expected interference of the pope. Abbot William proceeded
to Rome for confirmation, and on 29 October,
1335, received the mandate of Benedict XII to
betake himself to the abbey to which he had
been appointed, having received benediction
from Anibald, bishop of Tusculum. (fn. 52) He ruled
for nearly twenty-six years.
A peculiar privilege was granted by Edward III,
for life, to Abbot William in 1338, namely that
the chancellor was to issue the writ De excommunicato capiendo in the case of persons excommunicated by the abbot at his signification and
request, as he did in like cases at the request of
archbishops and bishops. (fn. 53)
Five of the king's justices being directed to
hold a session at Bury St. Edmunds in 1341,
for hearing and determining complaints as to
oppressions by ministers in the county of Suffolk,
the abbey protested that this was an infringement
of their chartered rights against the holding of
any secular courts in the town. Edward III
thereupon (out of the affection which the king
bore for the glorious martyr, St. Edmund the
King) granted a charter to the effect that this
session was not to prejudice as a precedent the
liberties of the abbot and convent. (fn. 54)
A dispute arose in 1345 between the abbey
and William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, the
latter making strenuous efforts to obtain a
reversion of the abbey's exemption from diocesan
control; but the effort completely failed. (fn. 55) A
mandate was issued in 1349 by Pope Clement III
to the Bishops of London and Chichester touching
the complaint of the Bishop of Norwich, whose
citation the abbey of St. Edmund's refused to
obey, sending Sir Richard Freysel, knight, to the
king's chancellor, pleading that by royal letters
they were exempt from episcopal jurisdiction,
and asking for letters prohibiting their diocesan
from making any such attempts. Thereupon
the bishop excommunicated Richard, who returned to the chancellor pleading that this had
been done in contempt of the king's majesty,
and that the bishop, the prior of Kersey, and
other beneficed clergy in the dioceses of Norwich
and York had published the excommunication.
Thereupon he obtained letters citing the bishop
and his commissaries before the king's justices,
before whom exception was taken that the justices could not and ought not to take cognisance
of excommunication, and that appeal lay with
the archbishop. Nevertheless the justices
ordered the imprisonment of the commissaries,
and James, rector of Wrabness, Essex, one of those
who had published the excommunication, was
put in the abbot's prison at St. Edmunds. The
prior of Kersey and Hamo, rector of Bunny, lay
in hiding, and Simon, rector of Wickhambrook,
Suffolk, got away privily to the apostolic see.
The justices, the king being abroad, ordered all
the goods of the bishop to be seized and to
remain in the king's hands until the excommunication vows were revoked and satisfaction
made to Richard, who made the huge claim of
£10,000 damages. Letters were sent to the
sheriffs of four counties where the episcopal estates
lay ordering the seizing of all temporalities of
the see, and the bishop, fearing he would be
taken, betook himself, with his household, to his
cathedral church and shut himself up therein.
The pope ordered that, if these things were so,
the abbot and Richard were to be cited to appear
before the pope within three months to receive
what justice requires for their excesses and sins. (fn. 56)
In April, 1350, the pope sent a mandate to
the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishops of
Exeter and Chichester, enjoining the public
excommunication of all who hindered the Bishop
of Norwich from prosecuting his cause, which
had been going on for five years at the Roman
court, against the abbot and convent of St.
Edmunds, who claim exemption from episcopal
jurisdiction, certain persons having obtained
letters from King Edward ordering the bishop
to prosecute the cause before him and his council,
and not in the Roman court. (fn. 57) In the following
July a further mandate was sent to the same
papal commissioners ordering the public excommunication of all the abettors of Richard
Freysel. (fn. 58)
Abbot William died on the last day of
February, 1361-2, and Henry de Hunstanton
was elected his successor in the following month;
but proceeding to Avignon in the summer, to
obtain papal confirmation, Henry fell a victim
to the plague which was raging in that province,
dying on 24 July, in a village two miles distant
from that city. Pope Innocent VI seized this
opportunity of appointing a successor, and made
John of Brinkley, a monk of Bury, abbot on
4 August. Edward III gave his consent on
12 November, and on the 16th of that month
the new abbot was duly installed at St. Edmunds.
His was a comparatively uneventful abbacy, but
he was a learned man, and for ten years was
president of the provincial chapter of English.
Benedictines. The last recorded miracle of St.
Edmund occurred in 1375, when Symon Brown,
nearly lost at sea, vowed to St. Edmund and was
saved. (fn. 59)
On 6 January, 1379, the prior and convent
obtained licence to elect a successor to Abbot
John, deceased, and on 28 January notification
was dispatched to Pope Urban of the royal assent
to the election of John de Timworth, sub-prior
of that house, to be abbot. In August of the
same year there is a further entry relative to the
election on the Patent Rolls, namely, orders for
the arrest of Edmund Bromefeld, a monk, who
was scheming to annul the election of Tymworth as abbot, although it had received the
royal assent, and who had procured a papal
provision thereof for himself besides divers
bulls, (fn. 60) and on 14 October, 1379, the Earls of
March and Suffolk, with the sheriff of Suffolk,
were appointed to arrest Edmund Bromefeld,
who, notwithstanding the Statute of Provisors
of 25 Edward III, had procured provision
of the abbey from the Roman court, and
had taken possession of the abbey by the aid of
John Medenham and fourteen other monks of
the abbey, and by the aid of various clerks and
laymen. All the abettors of the monk Edmund
were also to be arrested for this contempt of the
crown. (fn. 61)
This controversy, caused by the appointment
of Edmund Bromefeld to the abbacy by Urban VI,
dragged on for five years; but the pope's nominee never obtained more than a partial and
very short-lived recognition at St. Edmunds.
Nevertheless, without the papal confirmation
John Tymworth was not technically abbot
until 4 June, 1384, when the pope at last
gave way. (fn. 62)
Whilst this dispute was in progress, namely in
1381, Jack Straw's rebellion broke out in East
Anglia, when John of Cambridge, the prior, and
Sir John Cavendish, chief justice, were among
those murdered at Bury by the mob, who plundered the abbey to the extent of £1,000. For
this outrage the town was outlawed and fined
2,000 marks. (fn. 63)
An indult was granted by Boniface IV, in
1398, in order to relieve the abbey of the perils
and expenses of the journey to Rome, that the
convent might upon voidance freely elect their
abbots, who thus elected should be eo ipso true
abbots, and be so regarded and administer the
monastery without any confirmation of the said
see. Further, the abbots might receive benediction at the hands of any Catholic bishop of
their choice. In compensation for first-fruits,
common and minute services, &c., heretofore
paid to the pope and various papal officials, the
abbey was to pay to the collector in England
twenty marks yearly at Michaelmas. If in any
year such payment be not made within two
months of the lapse of the year, then this indult
was to be void. (fn. 64)
In 1383 Richard II and Anne of Bohemia
paid a ten days' visit to Bury, putting the abbey
to an expense of 800 marks. Archbishop
Arundel paid a visit to the monastery in the
year 1400, arriving from Norwich at the conclusion of a visitation of that diocese and Ely.
The manner of his reception and entertainment
are set forth with some detail by one of the
monastic scribes, to serve, as he states, for the
use of posterity if the house should again be
visited by an archbishop. He was received with
the greatest respect and sumptuously entertained,
but every care was taken to show that his reception was one of courtesy and due to his high
office, and that he was nowise to construe
their hospitality as the least recognition of him
as a 'visitor.' There was no solemn procession
to meet him at the abbey gates, but the abbot,
cellarer, sacrist, and other officials met the archbishop on the road between Thetford and
Ingham, and conducted him to Bury. On
reaching the abbey he was taken into the church
through the cemetery and not through the great
west gates, nor were the bells rung. The prior
and convent met him in the nave. On the
morrow, the abbot and his retinue escorted the
archbishop on his road southward as far as
Frisby. (fn. 65)
During the rule of William of Exeter, the
twenty-third abbot (1415-29), the building of
the present church of St. Mary, on the site of
an older church, was undertaken in the southwest corner of the abbey cemetery; and under
William Curteys (1429-46) the western tower
of the abbey church fell, but immediate steps
were taken to erect it afresh. (fn. 66) In 1427, Thomas
Beaufort, second son of John of Gaunt, was
buried in the great conventual church. (fn. 67)
Henry VI paid a long visit to the abbey, his
sojourn extending from Christmas, 1433, to St.
George's Day (23 April), 1434. The monastery,
during this visit, presented him with a grandly
illuminated 'Life of St. Edmund' by John
Lydgate, which now forms one of the treasures
of the British Museum. (fn. 68) It is supposed that
this visit was chiefly due to the pleasure taken
by Henry and his court in the loyal ballads of
the abbey's famous poet-monk, presented to the
king in 1429, and again when he passed through
London on his return from France in 1433.
Of this visit Lydgate has much to say in his
metrical life of St. Edmund, of which this is the
opening stanza:—
When sixte Henry in his estat roial
With his sceptre of Yngland and of France
Heeld at Bury the feste pryncipal
Of Cristemasse with fulest habundance,
And after that list to have plesance,
As his consail gan for him provide,
There in his place til hesterne for to abide.
When the news of the royal visit reached the
abbot he at once set eighty masons and artificers
at work to enlarge and beautify the abbot's
lodgings. He invited and obtained the cordial
co-operation of the town in the royal reception.
Five hundred townsmen turned out to meet the
young king, headed by their aldermen and chief
burgesses in scarlet, whilst the Bishop of Norwich
and the abbot (so often rivals if not actively
hostile) united in giving him holy water as
he dismounted from his palfrey. Of this
visit Abbot Curteys has left many particulars in
his register. (fn. 69) There, too, are the various letters
from the king to the abbot, whom he evidently
regarded as a tried and trusted friend. He consulted him freely in his anxiety about the
progress of the French arms, asked his help in
making due preparation for the reception of the
French princess he was about to marry, and in
a letter shortly before the abbot's death (17 September 1446), urged him to be present at the
laying of the foundation-stone of King's College,
Cambridge, on the ensuing Michaelmas Day, as
he (Henry) was unable to be present. (fn. 70)
Amongst these entries is the record of a great
storm on the evening of 27 January, 1439. It
did much damage, particularly to the bell tower,
especially in the windows and glazing. A
memorable incident was the extinguishing of
every light and lamp throughout the conventual
buildings and church save that only which burnt
perpetually before the Blessed Sacrament; from
that light all the others were subsequently rekindled. This storm was followed, on 29 May
of the same year, by a great flood; the waters
rose so high that they were deep enough for
a boat in St. James's Church, in the nave of the
great conventual church, and in the Lady chapel
of the crypt (fol. 341).
The abbacy of William Babington (1446-53)
was signalized by the holding of a Parliament at
Bury. It assembled in the great refectory hall
of the abbey on 10 February, 1446-7. Humphrey duke of Gloucester attended, and found
lodgings at St. Saviour's Hospital. There he
was arrested on a charge of high treason and
kept under guard; a few days later the duke
was found dead in his bed without any exterior
mark of violence; the death was attributed to
apoplexy, but popular opinion considered that he
had been privately murdered. In the following
November the king granted to the abbey an
ample charter of all their privileges. (fn. 71) This was
followed, two years later, by a royal charter
which freed the abbey of all aids to the king, in
consideration of paying a fixed sum of forty
marks a year.
The chief event during the rule of Abbot John
Bohun (1453-69) was the complete gutting of
the conventual church by fire on 20 January,
1464-5, involving the fall of the central tower.
The shrine of St. Edmund, though begirt with
flames, remained uninjured. The catastrophe
was caused by the carelessness of plumbers engaged in repairing the roof. (fn. 72)
John Reeve of Melford (sometimes called John
Melford), the thirty-second and last abbot of
St. Edmunds, was elected in April, 1513. He
was admitted to the king's privy council in 1520,
and in 1531 he was placed on the commission of
the peace for Suffolk. The unscrupulous Cromwell first appears on the scene in connexion
with this abbey in November, 1532, when he
wrote to the abbot desiring to obtain the lease
for sixty years of the farm of Harlowbury in
Essex, the previous lease of which had nearly
expired. He asked for an answer by the bearer,
and assuming it would be favourable, had already
agreed with the then holder for the remainder of
his lease. If the request was granted he would
do whatever he could for the monastery. (fn. 73)
Legh and Ap Rice were the two deputy
visitors appointed by Cromwell to visit the abbey
of St. Edmunds in November, 1535. With
regard to this, Ap Rice wrote at once to his
'mastership' (fn. 74) stating that they had failed to
establish anything against the abbot save that he
was much at his country houses or granges, and
was said to be fond of dice and cards, and did
not preach. 'Also he seemeth to be addict to
the maintaining of such superstitious ceremonies
as hath been used here tofore' . . . 'Touching
the convent, we could get little or no report
among them, although we did use much diligence
in our examinations, with some other arguments
gathered their examinations.' This being the
case, the commissioners chose to conclude 'that
they had confederated and compacted before our
coming that they should disclose nothing.' When
with all their ingenuity and promptings to scandal,
nothing evil could be discovered, it was coolly
assumed that there was a lying conspiracy. The
commissioners made exactly similar statements
with regard to the seventeen monks of Thetford
and the eighteen canons of Ixworth in this district, when they could find nothing against them. (fn. 75)
The visitors reported that the convent numbered
sixty-two monks, three of whom were at Oxford.
Their injunctions here, as elsewhere, ordered
that all religious under twenty-four years of age
as well as those who had taken vows under
twenty were to be dismissed. This reduced the
number by eight. Another injunction insisted
upon the actual confinement to the precincts of
all the religious from the superior downwards.
This letter was dispatched to Cromwell on
5 November, and on the following day the abbot
wrote to him as visitor in chief, begging a licence,
notwithstanding the injunctions left by the late
visitors, to go abroad (that is outside the precincts)
with a chaplain or two on the business of the
monastery. (fn. 76)
Knowing well the style of argument that
would appeal to Cromwell in the obtaining
of any favour, the abbot and convent granted
to him, and his son Gregory, on 26 November, in the chapter-house, an annual pension of
£10 from the manor of Harlow. (fn. 77) But this
amount did not satisfy his avarice, and in
December one of his agents, Sir Thomas Russhe,
called on the abbot to beg him to grant Cromwell and his son a larger sum, which he promised
to do. (fn. 78)
One of the last favours received by Abbot
John was a crown licence in August, 1536, permitting any of his servants, during his life, to
shoot with a cross bow at all manner of deer and
wild fowl in his parks and grounds, notwithstanding the Act 25 Henry VIII. (fn. 79)
Early in 1538, the agents for spoiling the
greater monasteries (in this case Williams,
Pollard, Parys, and Smyth) visited St. Edmunds.
Writing to Cromwell, from Bury, they tell the
Lord Privy Seal that they found a rich shrine
which was very cumbrous to deface; that they had
stripped the monastery of over 5,000 marks in
gold and silver, besides a rich cross bestudded
with emeralds and other stones of great value; but
that they had left the church and convent well
furnished with silver plate. (fn. 80)
On 4 November, 1539, this famous abbey
was surrendered. The surrender is signed by
Abbot John Reeve, Prior Thomas Ringstede
(alias Dennis), and by forty-two other monks. (fn. 81)
Pensions were assigned, on the same day, of
£30 to the prior, of £20 to the sacrist, and of
sums varying from £13 6s. 8d., to £6 13s. 4d.,
to thirty-eight other monks. (fn. 82)
Sir Richard Rich and other commissioners
who had received the surrender wrote to the
king on 7 November, saying they had not yet
assigned the ex-abbot any pension, but suggested
as he had been 'very conformable and is aged,'
and as the yearly revenues of his house would be
4,000 marks, that he should have 500 marks a
year and a house. They had taken into custody
for the king the plate and best ornaments, and
sold the rest. The lead and bells were worth
4,500 marks. They desired to know whether
they were to deface the church and other edifices
of the house. (fn. 83) On 11 November, the abnormally large pension of £333 6s. 8d. was allotted
to the abbot. (fn. 84) He lived, however, only a few
months after the dissolution of his house.
Weighed down, as it is said, with sorrow and
disappointment at the complete degradation of
his order, he died on 31 March, 1540, in a
small private house at the top of Crown Street,
Bury St. Edmunds, never having drawn a penny
of his pension. He was buried in the chancel of
St. Mary's Church, with a pathetic Latin epitaph
on the brass over his remains. The brasses
were torn from his grave in 1643, and in 1717
the slab was broken up and the remains removed
to make way for the burial of a ship's purser
named Sutton. (fn. 85)
Having thus followed in outline the general
history of the abbey through its succession of
rulers, it may be well to give some fuller
particulars as to the amount of property that it
had to administer, which was chiefly in the
nature of temporalities within the hundreds over
which it exercised such full powers of local
government.
In Abbot Samson's days (1182-1211) a large
number of churches, chiefly in the eight and a
half hundreds of the liberty of St. Edmunds,
were in the gift of the whole convent, as set forth
in detail in Jocelyn's Chronicle. (fn. 86) Thirty-four
are named as pertaining to the abbot, and thirtytwo to the chapter. But there were at that time
very few appropriations, and only a small number
of pensions or portions from the rectories. Indeed Jocelyn expressly states that 'after all these
churches scarcely brought any gain or profit to
the convent.' Nevertheless the holding of these
numerous advowsons tended to augment considerably the abbey's dignity and influence.
The various officials or obedientiaries of St.
Edmunds, in common with every large Benedictine house, had certain tithes, lands, or rents
allotted to them which they had to administer
for the good of their particular office, and for
which they had to return annual accounts. At
St. Edmunds there was such an unusual amount
of definite application of early grants to specific
purposes that it led to much confusion, and it
was considered expedient to apply for legal sanction to a re-allotment of the monastic property
in the time of Abbot John of Northwold. Accordingly in 1281, a general redistribution
scheme between the abbot and the different
obedientiaries was sanctioned by Edward I, and
a single long charter covering the whole ground
was granted in return for the handsome fee of
£1,000. To the abbot was assigned the hidage
or tax on every hide of land, the foddercorn or
ancient feudal right of providing the lord with
horse-fodder, and every kind of court fee and
manorial due throughout the whole of the great
liberty of St. Edmunds. The award then proceeded to set out the specific manors, lands,
tithes, rents, &c., that were allotted to (1) the
cellarer, (2) the sacrist, (3) the chamberlain,
(4) the almoner, (5) the pittancer, (6) the infirmarian, (7) the hosteller, and (8) the precentor. (fn. 87)
The remarkable wealth of St. Edmunds comes
out in a striking form in the very numerous
entries in the general taxation roll of 1291. An
exceptional feature of the income of this house
is the comparative smallness of its spiritualities;
this abbey had then far less appropriations than
any other considerable religious foundation.
Contrariwise the temporalities were much in
excess of any other foundation, apart from the
fees pertaining to the abbot as lord of the various
hundred courts which were not inconsiderable.
Thus the hundred of Lackford produced £4,
and that of Blackburne £14 per annum. (fn. 88)
As to spiritualities, the appropriated rectory of
Mildenhall supplied the abbey with an income
of £30, and there was a portion of 13s. 4d. from
the church of Horningsheath.
Other spiritualities were assigned to particular
obedientiaries. The important rectories of St.
Mary and St. James, Bury St. Edmunds, were
divided between the sacrist and the almoner;
the former receiving from these two churches
£44 13s. 4d., and the latter, £26 13s. 4d. The
church of Woolpit was divided (after an endowment of £6 13s. 4d. had been arranged for the
vicar) between the infirmarian and the pittancer,
who each received £6, whilst the hosteller had
also an annual portion of £1 6s. 8d. The
chamberlain received the annual income of
£33 6s. 8d. from the appropriated church of
Brook, and also a portion of £4 from Rougham
church. It will thus be seen that the spiritualities of the monastery at this date brought in
an income of £152 13s. 4d.
No two of the great Benedictine abbeys were
at all alike in the amounts assigned by grants to
the different obedientiaries, and consequently in
the relative financial importance of the particular
offices. Naturally in the early days, when
grants were made to the monks, it was always
common to give lands or rents that were earmarked for the actual sustenance of the religious
in the way of food. The cellarer's income was
therefore usually of considerable importance, but
in no other case had this official anything like so
assured an income to administer as was the
case at Bury. The following were the amounts
definitely assigned to different officials by grants
in 1291, exclusive of the spiritualities already
cited. Cellarer £390 16s. 6¼d., sacrist
£134 3s. 11¾d., chamberlain £69 12s. 5½d.,
almoner £11 19s. 0½d., pittancer £11 11s. 11½d.,
infirmarian £6 17s. 1d., hosteller £2 17s., subsacrist £1 15s. 8d., sub-cellarer 16s., and precentor 13s. 4d. A large portion of the remainder
of the income was assigned to the office of the
abbot, and the rest to the convent at large.
By far the greater part of the income was
derived from Suffolk parishes; the largest sum
(£99 14s. 10½d.) came from the temporalities
of Mildenhall; £103 7s. was contributed by
Norfolk parishes; £3 11s. 10d. came out of the
diocese of Ely, and £4 19s. 10d. from Lincoln
diocese.
The complete return of 1291 thus shows
that the temporalities of the abbey towards the
end of the thirteenth century were worth
£774 16s., yielding a total income, with the
spiritualities added, and an additional £40 per
annum for offerings at the shrine of St. Edmund,
of nearly £1,000 a year, or about £20,000 at
the present value of money.
There are many particulars extant with regard
to the various obedientiaries throughout the
fifteenth century, particularly as to the pittancer.
The special register or chartulary of the pittancer,
which contains all the evidences relative to the
property assigned to that office, shows that
it was endowed with the church of Woolpit
and much temporal property at Bury, Mendham,
Clopton, and Woolpit, bringing in an income of
£17 17s. 1d. (fn. 89) There is also in the same register
a taxation roll giving the value of the whole property of the abbey according to its special
appropriation. (fn. 90) To the abbot was assigned
£798 18s. 2d., whilst the amounts allotted to
the cellarer, sacristan, treasurer, chamberlain and
almoner, infirmarian, hosteller, feretrar, vestarian,
sub-sacrist, sub-cellarer, and precentor, brought
the total up to £2,030 7s. 11½d.
The full returns of the valor of 1535 are of
much interest, though space can only be found
here for the more salient points.
The abbot drew from the various hundred
courts £83 0s. 6½d.; from the temporalities of
Suffolk (the largest amount being £117 17s. 4d.
from Melford) £549 7s. 8¼d.; from the temporalities of Norfolk £102 1s. 4½d.; from the
temporalities of Essex £82 18s. 4d.; and from
spiritualities (the rectory of Thurston and a portion from Fressingfield) £14 6s. 8d., giving
him a total income of £843 11s. 3¼d. Out of
this, however, large returns had to be made to
bailiffs, &c., as well as distributions to the poor
of £36 3s. 4d. The cellarer drew the great
income of £821 13s. 8d. from the temporalities
of Suffolk (the largest contribution being £163
from Mildenhall), and when to this were added
temporalities from Norfolk, Northampton, and
Hertfordshire, and the rectory of Mildenhall,
his gross income came to £903 12s. 2d. From
this great deductions had to be made, including
£191 19s. 1d. for the poor, so that the cellarer's
clear income was brought down to £629 16s. 9d.
The gross total of the abbey's income,
irrespective of its cells, was £2,336 16s. 11d.
The deductions, however, were so considerable
that the clear value was only returned at
£1,656 7s. 3½d. (fn. 91)
There was no other of our large English
abbeys that expended by grants or charters so
large a share of its income on distribution to the
poor. In the case of St. Edmunds it amounted
to £398 15s. 11½d. a year; and this was altogether apart from the daily distribution of broken
meat, the occasional doles of old clothes,
the long sustained alms on the death of a monk,
the Christmas gifts, &c., and, above all, the entertainment of all comers in the guest-houses, from
royalty to the poorest tramp. The sum just
named is simply that which they were compelled
to distribute even under the laxest administration.
It has been stated with emphasis that Bury
St. Edmunds was by far the wealthiest Benedictine abbey in England. This is, however, by
no means the case, the houses of Westminster,
Glastonbury, St. Albans, and Christ Church,
Canterbury, all possessing larger incomes.
It remains to put on record some of the more
salient points relative to the inner life and working of the monastery.
As to the numbers of this great household:
in the second half of the thirteenth century
there were 80 monks, 21 chaplains, and
111 servants living in curia, apart from a considerable number of officials and hinds of the
home-farms, who drew their rations from the
abbey. (fn. 92) The number of the monks had dropped
to about sixty at the time of the first visitation
of Henry VIII's commissioners, and his policy
had driven out about a third of that number
before the surrender.
Many of the entries in the custumary of the
abbey, temp. Edward I, are full of interest. (fn. 93)
After reciting the very severe discipline de gravi
culpa, and the lighter punishment de levi culpa,
the custumary proceeds to deal with de trunculo,
which appears to have been a third grade of yet
lighter punishment. The delinquent was required to sit super trunculum, i.e. on a low trunk
or chest, which stood in the midst of the chapter-house, between the lectern and the foot of
the abbot's seat. There he had to remain
whenever the convent assembled in chapter.
Full details are also set forth as to the penitential
positions to be taken up by the de trunculo offender when in choir and refectory. There was
also a fourth grade of discipline de minoribus
penitentiis. A delinquent of this class had
various minor but not degrading duties assigned
him, such as carrying the lamp before the convent, collecting the scraps from the refectory,
&c. Nor was he severely restricted in diet; it
was permitted to him if ailing to drink beer of
the second quality 'propter stomachi infirmitacionem et capitis debilitatem.' (fn. 94)
Entry is made of the weekly wages (9s. 1¾d.)
due to the servants of the church. The chaplain in charge of the vestments had two servants
receiving 12d.; the sub-sacrist's boy 6d.; the
cressetarius, who looked after the cressets, 8d.,
but the cerarius only 4d.; two steyrarii (?) 12d.;
a carpenter, 12¼d.; a plumber, 12d., and his
servant, 6d.; a janitor of the church, with his
dog, 7d.; a janitor of the west door, 2d.; a
warden of the green gate (custos viridi hostii), 6d.;
and a carter (carractarius), 8½d. A memorandum
adds that the carter received from Easter to
Michaelmas 1½d. ad nonchenches, (fn. 95) the woodman
8d., and the two steyrarii 3d. each week during
the like period. (fn. 96)
A list of the monastic servants for the year
1284 shows that the cellarer's department had
forty-eight servants of different grades, such as
the porter of the great gate, and the hall
steward, whose names are set forth, and those of
humbler degree who only appear as messor, tres
pistores, or mundator curi. Twenty-four servants
were under the sacrist; seven under the chamberlain, including a tailor and a shoemaker; six
under the infirmarian; nine under the almoner;
and seven under the hosteller or guest-master.
This list takes no account of those of the abbot's
household. (fn. 97)
A list of the chaplains of the monastery,
drawn up early in the reign of Edward I, gives
the names of three chaplains of the church of
St. Mary, three of the church of St. James, one
general chaplain, and one each of the chapels of
St. Robert, St. Margaret, St. John of the
Mount (de Monte), the Round Chapel, St. Denis,
St. John at the Well (ad fontes), St. Katharine,
St. Faith, the Great Rood, St. John at the Gate,
St. Michael, the chapel of the Brazen Cross (ad
crucem aream), the hospital of St. Saviour, and the
Domus Dei. This gives a total of twenty-one
chaplains supported by the abbey. (fn. 98)
The distribution of bread of different kinds to
the household is set forth with much nicety in the
custumary. The total of the day's baking amounted
to 94 loaves, in addition to the bread for the abbot's
household, for the monks' refectory, for the
infirmary, and for the guest-houses. The daily
allowance of beer to the household servants
amounted to 82 gallons (lagenae), whilst 96 gallons
were dispatched once a week to the nuns of
Thetford.
That lordly fish, usually reserved for royalty,
the sturgeon, graced the monastic table on the
anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration, the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, the feast of All
Saints, the feast of St. Nicholas, and the anniversary of Abbot Samson. On the feast of
St. Denis, fine bread, butter, and cheese, were
provided. A pittance of wine was provided for
the convent at Easter, Ascension, Whitsuntide,
Christmas, the feasts of St. John Baptist,
SS. Peter and Paul, St. Botolph, Relics, St.
Edmund, and the Assumption. On the feast
of Relics a choice was given of 'must' (unfermented wine) or wine.
The pittances of this abbey for the convent
were numerous; a list given in the custumary
enumerates eighty-two. Thirty-one of these
were on anniversaries, (fn. 99) chiefly of their own
abbots or other distinguished men of the house;
the remainder were on church festivals. The
pittance in some cases was so small that it could
not have made any appreciable difference to the
diet except of a few; thus there was a pittance
of a mark on the anniversary of Isabel, mother
of Abbot Henry; and the like amount on the
anniversary of Abbot Edmund. In several cases
where the addition to the usual diet is stated, it
will be seen that the extra food was of a trifling
character. Pancakes and white bread were the
additions at the Epiphany, the Purification, the
feasts of St. John Baptist, SS. Peter and Paul, &c.
On Easter Monday, the octave of Easter,
Michaelmas, Martinmas, the Translation of
St. Benedict, &c., and on a few anniversaries,
onions were supplied. On Easter Day, Whitsunday, the feast of St. Edmund and Christmas
Day, apples and pears, as well as pancakes, were
placed on the tables. 'Ringes', which were
probably round cakes, were supplied on the
anniversary of Richard I, the Transfiguration,
the anniversary of Abbot Hugh, the feast of
Relics, and the feast of St. Thomas; and wafers
and biscuits on the feast of St. Nicholas. (fn. 100)
On forty days in the year, being the
chief feasts, such as Christmas, Circumcision,
Epiphany, &c., the servants of the church
had their meals in the refectory. Particular
details are given as to the Maundy gifts and
observances, including the payment of 2d. each
by certain of the upper servants, termed 'glovesilver.'
Among the special privileges of the abbey of
St. Edmunds were the powers bestowed upon
the abbot of conferring minor orders on those of
his own house and the right to call in any bishop
of the Church Catholic to admit monks to the
higher orders within the abbey precincts. Orders
were celebrated in the chancel of the church of
St. Mary in the precincts on the vigil of the
Holy Trinity, 1401, by Bishop Thomas
Aladensis, (fn. 101) when three deacons and four priests
were ordained, all monks of the house. At the
September Embertide in the same year Bishop
Thomas again held an ordination in the like
place, ordaining four sub-deacons and three
priests. (fn. 102)
Moreover, the abbot's privilege went much
further than the giving authority to bishops to
hold special ordinations for his monks. He
could commission the ordaining, through his
own letters dimissory, of any fit candidates for
holy orders within the liberties of St. Edmunds,
whether religious or secular. Thus in 1410
and 1419, Abbot William of Exeter, writing
from his manor of Elmswell, commissioned John,
archbishop of Smyrna, (fn. 103) through letters dimissory
by papal indult, to ordain certain priests who
were not connected with the monastery. (fn. 104) The
register of Abbot Curteys (1429-46) has many
of these ordination entries. (fn. 105) On the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin (8 September) 1435, Abbot
Curteys personally ordained four of the monks
from exorcist to acolyte. Again, in the following year six monks were ordained deacons,
in the chapel of St. Stephen, by the bishop of
Emly. (fn. 106)
There was an old religious saying to the effect
that a monastery without a library was as a castle
without an armoury. In this respect St. Edmunds
was exceptionally well armed, even in early
days. The library consisted of upwards of
2,000 volumes, and was widely samed. A large
number of them have been identified among the
manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and
of the University and College libraries of Cambridge and Oxford. Abbot Curteys built a
special library for the accommodation of the books
in 1430, and drew up regulations for their use. (fn. 107)
It was for a long period, more particularly in
the fifteenth century, considered a high honour
to be made an associate of this celebrated monastery. During the time of Abbot Curteys
(1429-46) admissions to the chapter fraternity
were granted to John Brodwell, doctor of laws;
William Paston, justice of the King's Bench;
Thomas Haseley, king's coroner; William
Brewster, king's clerk; Richard Beauchamp,
Earl Warwick, with Isabel his wife, Henry and
Anne his children; Henry, Cardinal St. Eusebius; Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester; William
Clopton, esquire, of Melford; Elizabeth Veer,
countess of Oxford; and William Pole, earl of
Suffolk, and Alice his wife. (fn. 108) When Henry VI
and his court bade farewell to St. Edmunds on
St. George's Day, 1434, the Duke of Gloucester
and all the leading courtiers were admitted to all
the spiritual privileges of the monks as sharers in
their prayers and deeds. Last of all the king
himself passed into the chapter-house, where he
was enrolled as one of the holy community of
associates, the abbot greeting him with the
fraternal kiss. (fn. 109)
It must not be imagined that this powerful
house of Benedictine monks was free from all
outside visitation because of its being exempt
from diocesan or archiepiscopal jurisdiction.
The abbey was just as much subject to the
general provincial chapter of the Benedictines
as the humblest priory of the order. The
general chapter met every three years, and one
of its most important duties was the appointment
of visitors. There are several references to these
periodic inspections in the St. Edmund registers.
Thus in 1393, on the feast of St. Barnabas, this
abbey was visited by the abbot of St. Benet of
Holme, the appointed visitor (as it is stated) of
the general chapter. He did not visit in person,
but appointed the prior and another learned
monk of his house (quendam alium scolare) to act
on his behalf. (fn. 110)
Moreover, the most distinguished of the fourteenth-century superiors of St. Edmunds, Abbot
Curteys (1429-46), was himself appointed visitor
of all the Benedictine houses of East Anglia by
the general chapter of the order held at Northampton in 1431. In the following year Abbot
Curteys gave formal notice of holding visitations
of such important houses as the abbeys of Holme,
Colchester, and Thorney, and even of the
cathedral priories of Norwich and Ely. These
visitations were not carried out by the abbot in
person, but he commissioned his fellow-monks
John Craneways and Thomas Derham to represent him. (fn. 111) It must have been singularly trying
to the Bishop of Norwich, between whom and
the abbot of St. Edmunds an almost permanently
jealous feud existed, to find his rival holding a
visitation of the cathedral priory at the very gates
of his palace!
The 'Chronica Buriensis,' of the Cambridge
Public Library, contains a sad account of the
charges made against the monks of Bury in the
fourteenth century. Many of them, it was said,
were living in the surrounding villages away
from the monastery, wearing the dress of laymen. It was alleged against them in 1345 that
they were engaged in abductions, fightings, riots,
and other unlawful practices, besides having
many illegitimate children. The abbot, William
de Bernham, was plainly accused of connivance at
these discorders, and cited to appear before the
bishop. There can be no manner of doubt that
these complaints, even if they had some real basis,
were greatly exaggerated. When the charges
were formulated on Bishop Bateman's behalf, it
was with the avowed intention of securing to
himself the visitation of Bury, and his agents
were naturally inclined to make out as black a
case as possible. Moreover, the only authority
for this grievous censure is the chronicle first cited,
whose writer proceeds to state that it was a gross
libel full of malignant falsehoods. True the
writer was a monk, but he was a monk of
Holme and not of St. Edmunds. At all events,
the bishop's attempt to upset the abbey's exempt
jurisdiction completely failed both in secular and
ecclesiastical courts.
Mr. Arnold assumes that Abbot Bernham was
a careless administrator, and that discipline was
generally slack under his rule. (fn. 112) During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, however, he states
that 'nothing from any quarter turns up to their
(the monks') discredit.' (fn. 113) With this opinion our
own perfectly independent and unbiased investigation coincides. Legh and Ap Rice's comperta,
which have been already discussed, are in reality
strong confirmation of this favourable judgement.
The monks of St. Edmunds, whatever may have
been their failings in the more remote past,
appear to have been well discharging their religious and social duties at the very time of their
forcible dispersion.
Abbots of Bury St. Edmunds (fn. 114)
Uvius, 1020-44
Leofstan, 1044-65
Baldwin, 1065-97
Robert I, 1100-2
Robert II, 1102-7
Albold, 1114-19
Anselm, 1121-46
Ording, 1146-56
Hugh I, 1157-80
Samson, 1182-1211
Hugh II, 1215-29
Richard, 1229-34
Henry of Rushbrook, 1235-48
Edmund of Walpole, 1248-56
Simon of Luton, 1257-79
John of Northwold, 1279-1301
Thomas of Tottington, 1302-12
Richard of Draughton, 1312-35
William of Bernham, 1335-61
Henry of Hunstanton, 1361
John of Brinkley, 1361-79
John of Timworth, 1379-89
William of Cratfield, 1390-1415
William of Exeter, 1415-29
William Curteys, 1429-46
William Babington, 1446-53.
John Bohun, 1453-69
Robert Ixworth, 1469-74
Richard Hengham, 1474-79
Thomas Rattlesden, 1479-97
William Cadenham, 1497-1513
John Reeve, 1513-39
The first seal (twelfth century) of the abbey
is a pointed oval bearing St. Edmund seated on a
throne with a curved footboard crowned, with
sceptre in right hand and orb in left. Legend:—
SIGILLUM SANCTO EAD . . . GIS . . . IRIS. (fn. 115)
A large fourteenth-century seal shows the
abbey church of elaborate design, with two small
circular openings with busts in the upper part.
The lower part has three niches; in the impression (Cott. Ch. xxi, 7) the centre is wanting, but
there is a crowned king on each side. Legend:—
SIGILL . . . CONVENTUS. ECCLES . . . . MUNDI.
REGIS. ET MARTIR.
The reverse bears a cross of St. Andrew, in
base the Martyrdom of St. Edmund, a wolf
guarding the head; above, the Almighty holding
a crown between two angels; on the cross two
angels receiving the martyr's soul in a cloth.
Legend:—
TELIS: CONFODITUR: EADMUNDUS: ET: ENSE:
FERITUR
BESTIA: QUEM: MUNIT: DEUS: LUME:
CELESTIB' (fn. 116)
A beautiful privy seal of the thirteenth century bears the martyrdom of St. Edmund. The
king is represented tied to a tree and pierced with
many arrows; on the left are three archers, and
on the right two archers shooting at the king.
In the base, under an arch, is the decapitation of
the saint by a swordsman, and on the right a
wolf bearing away the head. Legend:—
SIGNUM: SECRETUM. CAPL'I: . . . . . AEDMUNDI:
REGIS: ET: MARTIRIS.
The reverse bears St. Edmund crowned and
seated on a throne between two bishops, each
holding a crozier. Legend:—
AGMINE: STIRPATUS: SEDET: ED: REX:
PONTIFICATUS (fn. 117)
Impressions of the seals of Abbots Samson,
Richard de Insula, Simon de Luton, and John
Reeve are also extant.