5. THE ABBEY OF WOBURN
The Cistercian abbey of Woburn was
founded in the year 1145, (fn. 1) under the patronage of Hugh de Bolebec. It was a colony
sent from the abbey of Fountains in Yorkshire, and its first abbot, Alan, was a monk of
that house. (fn. 2) To the manor of Woburn
other gifts were soon added: Ralf Pirot of
Harlington, William of Flitton, Henry and
Stephen of Pulloxhill were amongst the earliest benefactors, whose charters were confirmed by Henry II. before 1162; (fn. 3) and
Ralf Pirot (who was a considerable feudal
tenant of Robert d'Albini) himself became a
monk in the abbey before his death. (fn. 4) On the
manor of Medmenham in Bucks, granted by
the daughter of Hugh de Bolebec, another
abbey was built in the reign of King John. (fn. 5)
The early history of the abbey is obscure.
A few stray facts relating to the twelfth century and the early part of the thirteenth may
be gathered from the annals of Waverley
and Dunstable: as, for instance, that a prior
of Woburn was made abbot of Combe in
1183 (fn. 6) ; and that a long suit went on from
about the same date until 1225, concerning
the advowson of the church of Chesham, between the abbots of Woburn and St. Alban's,
and the prior of Dunstable. (fn. 7) The final agreement gave the church to Woburn, the other
houses receiving pensions. The abbots of
this period, like all other heads of large and
well known religious houses, took a considerable part in public affairs, and were made arbiters in local disputes as well as matters of
wider interest. In 1202 an abbot of Woburn
went to Worcester to inquire into the miracles which were alleged to have taken place
at the shrine of St. Wulfstan, and in the next
year he was made one of the papal commissioners for the process of canonisation. (fn. 8) In
1215 another abbot is mentioned in one of
the Letters Patent of King John, as having
been an intercessor with him for Simon de
Pateshull. (fn. 9)
In 1234 the house was reduced to great
poverty; Abbot Richard, who had evidently
been a bad manager, was removed, and Roger,
a monk from Fountains, took his place, while
nearly all the monks and lay brethren were
dispersed amongst other houses until their own
abbey should be able to support them again. (fn. 10)
The canons of Dunstable did what they
could to help their neighbours in distress, and
presented them with a mill; they may also
have offered a home for the time to some of
the monks. But the abbey was not long in
recovering its prosperity; for in 1240 a canon
of Dunstable fled there, to escape from taking
the oath imposed by Bishop Grossetête. (fn. 11)
Fifty years later it was one of the wealthiest
houses in the county. (fn. 12) There is no indication of the number of monks at this time;
but as Warden Abbey, with very nearly the
same income, held probably forty or fifty, we
may conclude that Woburn had accommodation for about as many. At the time of the
dissolution there were it would seem less than
twenty.
Nothing can be gathered from the Lincoln
Registers as to the internal history of the
abbey during the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries, as it was exempt, like all Cistercian
houses, from visitation. One of the unfortunate Templars was placed there in 1311, (fn. 13)
from which we may perhaps infer that the
house was in good order at that time; otherwise its history is almost a blank sheet, except for a few notices of loans to the king,
impropriations of churches, etc., such as are
common to all religious houses. But the circumstances which led to the suppression of
the house furnish us happily with a very full
and clear account of its last days. From the
depositions taken in May 1538 (fn. 14) it may be
gathered that there were at least thirteen
monks besides the abbot, all of whom were
clerks; there were perhaps others also who
were not mentioned by name, and most probably, on the analogy of other houses, a few
lay brothers. There seems to have been no
prior at the time; the most prominent person
after the abbot was the sub-prior; a 'bowser'
or bursar had succeeded the old cellarer;
among minor officials the sexton and the
'chaunter' or precentor are named, and one
monk was secretary to the abbot. Three
'young gentlemen' and their schoolmaster
had been recently boarders in the house; and
a former abbot of Warden, for reasons unknown, preferred to spend his last days at
Woburn. The abbot, Robert Hobbes, (fn. 15) had
much friendly intercourse with the gentry of
the neighbourhood, and had been the guest
of Sir Francis Bryan at Ampthill; the Bishop
of Lincoln was often a near neighbour when
he visited his manor at Woburn; so that, in
one way and another, the house was well
known, and its deficiencies would have been
easily observed. But there can be no doubt
whatever that it was in excellent order, and
the rule well kept. Though the abbot's
views as to the religious controversies of the
time were shared by few of his brethren,
they nevertheless yielded him due obedience
to the last. The bursar and the secretary
might marvel that he kept a dangerous and
reactionary book in the abbey (fn. 16) ; but the one
copied it and the other laid it by, according
to their obedience. And on the abbot's side
there was all the consideration on which the
rule of St. Benedict lays such stress; the penitential exercises from which he hoped so
much were dropped as soon as he saw that
they were offered by unwilling hearts and
lips, and his rebukes were always mild and
fatherly. Cross-examined by the king's commissioners, the monks reported the words of
their superior, and gave their own opinions;
but only two had really laid information
against him, and not even these had any personal complaint to make. (fn. 17) During the whole
trial, indeed, no word of accusation is raised
against the personal character of any of the
monks; and, so far as we can gather, the
divine offices were performed with care and
reverence to the last.
The house fell for purely political reasons.
The full account of its tragic ending is found
in the State Papers, and the story has been
told more than once. (fn. 18) But there has been a
good deal of confusion about the dates of the
various stages of proceeding (fn. 19) ; it seems therefore best to set down the events quite simply
in the order in which they occurred, and to
let them speak for themselves.
In 1534-5 (fn. 20) there was a preliminary visitation by Dr. Petre, who administered the
oath of supremacy to the whole convent, ordered the delivery of all papal bulls to himself, and the erasure of the pope's name from
all service books. These orders were carried
out; but the abbot, as he afterwards confessed, had the bulls copied before he delivered
them, and also expressed a wish to some of
his monks that the pope's name might be
struck out with a pen and not erased. He
did not however press the latter point. (fn. 21)
During the three years that followed, the
new laws and the great events of the time,
political and religious, were much discussed
in the monastery, and there was a tendency
amongst the monks to fall into two parties.
It seems however to have been no more than
a tendency; there were only two (fn. 22) who were
decidedly in favour of the new learning, all
for the king and the council, and two or three
also (fn. 23) (including the sub-prior) who were with
the abbot in holding to the old way. The
rest had no strong opinions at all, and the discussions in the shaving house and elsewhere,
though free, were apparently not violent. At
the death of More and Fisher, and again at
the dissolution of the smaller monasteries, the
abbot imposed certain penitential exercises (fn. 24)
upon the whole convent, which were performed, though not with good will; when
murmuring arose they ceased.
Meanwhile the abbot was growing more
and more troubled as he saw the course events
were taking; more and more consciencestricken at his own cowardice in accepting
the oath of supremacy, which better and
braver men had refused. He did not hide his
troubles from his brethren; but they were
for the most part irresponsive to his appeals.
He confided to the sub-prior that his conscience
grudged him daily for taking the oath; he
said to more than one of his neighbours and
friends that he felt it was their own shameful
lives that were bringing so many troubles upon
the religious. (fn. 25) In Lent he fell ill of the
'stranguilion,' and in his extreme bodily pain
he said that he wished he had died with More
and Fisher and the other good men who
would not take the oath. And when his
mind wandered a little in his illness the words
that came to his lips most naturally were
quotations from the fathers which seemed to
prove the pope's supremacy. (fn. 26) Yet, characteristically, at Easter he put the sub-prior on
his obedience 'to bid the beads' before the
sermon for the king as supreme head of the
Church.
The death he desired was indeed nearer
than he thought. It was during Lent
that one of the assistant priests of Woburn
chapel (which served as the parish church)
came upon some bulls which had not been
delivered up to Dr. Petre, and went straight
up to London with them. This man
had been engaged by the abbot in the previous summer (fn. 27) ; he was originally a friar, (fn. 28)
who had been dispensed from his obedience by the pope, and was now a violent partisan of the new learning; he had already
been rebuked by the abbot for his railing
against the pope, and against images. With
the bulls he took a letter from Dan Robert
Salford, one of the monks who shared his
views. On his return he told the abbot what
his errand had been, and was dismissed in
consequence; but the precaution came too
late. Early in May Dr. Legh and John
Williams arrived, bringing grave charges
against the abbot and convent; on the 8th
the house was surrendered. (fn. 29) John Williams,
who had taken the deed of surrender up to
London, (fn. 30) together with a letter from the
abbot (in which he and his brethren protested their innocence and cast themselves
on the king's mercy), (fn. 31) returned again at once
accompanied by Dr. Petre; and on 11 and
12 May depositions were taken, and with
articles of accusation appended were submitted to the council. (fn. 32)
Four monks were examined besides the
abbot and sub-prior; also Sir John Mylward,
warden of the hospital at Toddington, and
Sir William Sherborne, chaplain of Woburn,
to whom allusion has already been made.
The substance of the depositions has been
already given; they recounted the events of
the last few years. The abbot practically
confessed all that he was accused of; he had
failed to preach the king's supremacy on
divers occasions, and openly expressed his
opinions on the subject to a great many
people. The sub-prior had also failed to
preach the king's supremacy, and had prayed
publicly for the pope when he went up to
Oxford to take his degree of B.D. The
depositions of Dan Robert Salford, who had
sent the letter up to Cromwell, and of Sir
William Sherborne, who had carried it, implicated others within and outside of the
monastery.
Salford testified how the abbot had summoned them all to chapter and exhorted them
not to forsake their house or habit, and had
advised him personally, in confession, not to
complain to the royal visitors against those of
his brethren who had railed on the council
and spoken against their oath. He gave it as
his own opinion that six of these, besides the
sub-prior, were papists. But the name which
most frequently occurs in all the depositions
is that of Dan Laurence Blunham, the sexton,
who had evidently made open boast that he
had never taken the oath, and never would.
It was natural that when the final selection of
names was made he should appear beside the
abbot and sub-prior as one of the chief
offenders. These three were tried at Bedford
at the summer sessions, and condemned to
suffer the ordinary penalties of treason. (fn. 33)
They were probably executed at the end of
June (fn. 34) ; tradition says that an old oak tree
outside the abbey gates served them for a
gallows. (fn. 35) The whole course of proceeding,
from the accusation to the execution, only
occupied two or three months, instead of
being spread over two or three years, as has
been supposed. It was an ordinary case of
verbal treason under the law of 1535, and is
parallel to the case of Friar Forrest who was
hanged and burned about a month earlier;
but it is an even better illustration of the extreme rigour of that law. The Carthusians
and Forrest, who finally refused to take the
oath, after having it several times tendered to
them, might perhaps be looked upon as
dangerous men, and enemies to the commonwealth; but there was little enough to fear
from the monks of Woburn. The abbot in
his final deposition pleaded that he did all he
had done 'out of a scrupulous conscience that
he then had, considering the long continuance
of the Bishop of Rome in that trade being,
and the sudden mutation thereof'; he was
ready to renounce some of his opinions (fn. 36) at
once, and begged the king's mercy, and
Cromwell's intercession. (fn. 37) On 27 May (fn. 38)
Laurence Blunham sent in a similar plea for
mercy, on the ground of his 'foolish scrupulous mind' ; he had indeed escaped taking
the oath formally, for he did not kiss the
book, being passed over in the crowd; but
now he was put out of all doubt of the
truth ' by the instruction of my Lord Privy
Seal.' In June (fn. 39) the sub-prior sent in his
petition for mercy, also announcing himself
converted, by the reading of the Obedience of
a Christian Man and the Glass of Truth.
But verbal treason, once committed, could
not be undone.
It is a pitiful story from any point of view.
Robert Hobbes and his monks were no heroes:
they were clear enough in their convictions
and could admire the steadfastness of More
and Fisher; but when it came to the test
they found it easier to admire than to imitate.
Yet they were good religious; the character
of the abbot in particular is a very attractive
one, (fn. 40) and if he had fallen upon happier times
it would have secured to him the love of all
his brethren and an honourable memory.
The abbey was endowed by the founder
with the manor of Woburn, and other parcels
of land in the neighbourhood were added by
various benefactors before 1162. (fn. 41) The manor
of Medmenham (Bucks), for building another
abbey, was confirmed to the abbot in 1200-1 (fn. 42) ;
and in 1202 Hugh Malet granted the manors
of Swanbourne and Mursley (Bucks) in pure
and perpetual alms, with the church of Swanbourn, to be held of him and his heirs for
ever. (fn. 43) The church of Chesham was in the
gift of the abbey in the twelfth century, (fn. 44) and
the churches of Birchmore, Whitchurch and
Soulbury at a later date. In 1291 (fn. 45) the temporalities of Woburn amounted to £121 10s.
8¼d., and the spiritualities may have added
another £50. A taxation of the property of
the abbey taken in 1338 valued it at £132
19s. 9¼d. (fn. 46)
The abbots held in 132 (fn. 47) one knight's
fee in Eversholt, and smaller fractions in
Potsgrave, Hare, Holcutt and Harlington ;
in Buckinghamshire (fn. 48) one fee in Swanbourne
and another in Stewkley, and a part of Drayton. In 1316 (fn. 49) they held half of each of the
three vills of Milton Bryan, Eversholt and
Birchmore, with Woburn; in 1346 they
held half a fee in Woburn, Milton Bryan and
Pulloxhill (fn. 50) ; in 1428 one fee in Eversholt
and another in Holcutt, with one half in
Milton Bryant, Hare and Pulloxhill (fn. 51) ; the
Buckinghamshire fees remaining much the
same, except the one in Stewkley which had
passed to the abbess of Fontevraud. The
valuation in 1535 of the whole property of the
abbey was £391 18s. 2d. clear. (fn. 52) The movable goods of the monastery, including plate,
money, jewels, church ornaments, household
stuff, corn, cattle, and debts owing to the house
were valued in June 1538 at £509 17s. 4d.;
and at the survey of the lands taken at the
same time a total of £450 14s. 31/8d. in temporalities and £78 14s. 0d. in spiritualities
was obtained. (fn. 53) The report of the Crown
bailiff four years later gave a total of £427
8s. 3d., including the rectories of Birchmore
with Woburn chapel, Soulbury, Chesham and
Whitchurch in Buckinghamshire, and lands
in Beds, Bucks, Oxon, Herts, Northants and
London, and the manors of Eversholt, Pulloxhill, Grenfield, Westoning, Potsgrave and
Swanbourne. (fn. 54)
Abbots of Woburn
Alan, (fn. 55) first abbot, 1145
William, (fn. 56) occurs circa 1180
Peter (fn. 57) " 1202, died 1204
Nicholas (fn. 58) " 1208
Richard (fn. 59) " 1217, 1228, deposed
1234
Roger (fn. 60) of Fountains, elected 1234
Adam of Luton, (fn. 61) died 1247
Nicholas, (fn. 62) elected 1247
Roger, (fn. 63) died 1281
Hugh of Soulbury, (fn. 63) elected 1281
William, (fn. 64) occurs 1286
Robert de Stokes, (fn. 65) elected 1297
Henry, (fn. 66) elected 1312
Thomas de Thornton, (fn. 67) elected 1336
William Manepeny, (fn. 68) " 1396
William Hawburth, (fn. 69) " 1436
John of Ashby, (fn. 70) " 1458
Robert Charlet, (fn. 71) " 1463
Robert Hall, (fn. 72) " 1483
Thomas Hogeson, (fn. 73) occurs 1499
Robert Hobbes (fn. 74) " 1529
No seal of this abbey remains so far as is
known.