HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS
1. THE ABBEY OF EYNSHAM
The Benedictine abbey of Eynsham, under
the patronage of St. Mary, was first founded in
1005 by Æthelmar, the Ealderman, and endowed with the manors of Eynsham, Shifford,
Shipton-on-Cherwell and Yarnton in Oxfordshire;
Esher and Ditton in Surrey; Mickleton in
Gloucestershire; and the church of St. Ebbe in
Oxford with land adjoining. (fn. 1) The first abbot
was Ælfric, the grammarian. (fn. 2) At the Norman
Conquest the monks fled and the place was
deserted; but Bishop Remigius, (fn. 3) who seems to
have received the lands which the abbey once
held in his diocese, restored and re-endowed it, and
by 1086 it was in possession of Eynsham, Shifford,
Yarnton, Mickleton, and Little Rollright with the
church of St. Ebbe, (fn. 4) Columbanus being the abbot.
In 1091 the bishop, who was building a cathedral
for himself at Lincoln, determined to transfer his
monastery to Stow in Lincolnshire. Eadnoth I,
bishop of Dorchester (1005-16), had founded a
monastery there, retaining for himself and his
successors in the see of Dorchester a certain
share of the offerings made at the monastery;
between 1055 and 1057 Earl Leofric and Godiva
had enriched it with the manors of Fledborough,
Newark, and Brampton; (fn. 5) but with the advent
of the Normans the foundation came to an end.
The Conqueror, however, assented to the refoundation of the house and to the union of Eynsham
with it, and gave Sleaford to the bishop in compensation for the offerings he had hitherto
received at Stow. (fn. 6) William II not only renewed
his father's grant, but renounced all claim to the
patronage of the new monastery; (fn. 7) and in 1091
the bishop nominated Columbanus, abbot of
Eynsham, to be abbot of Stow. (fn. 8) But two or
three years later the next bishop, Robert Bloett,
who had no affection for monks, determined to
keep Stow and its endowments for his own use,
and to send the monks back to Eynsham; but
the king insisted that he should grant in compensation the churches and manors of Histon in
Cambridgeshire, and Charlbury and South Stoke,
Oxon, with tithes from Banbury and Thame. (fn. 9)
Eynsham therefore was finally established in
1094 or 1095. Of the original possessions it
retained the manors and churches of Mickleton
and Eynsham; it held Little Rollright (probably in exchange for Shipton-on-Cherwell), the
manor of Shifford and the church of Yarnton,
but in the manor of Yarnton nothing beyond the
feudal lordship. It had also the three large and
rich manors given by Bishop Robert. Other
possessions, which followed in the course of the
twelfth century, were the churches of Merton
(given by David king of Scotland), of South
Newington (given by Hugh de Chesney about
1160), Combe (by the Empress in 1141),
Cassington (by its builder Geoffrey de Clinton
about 1120), Tetbury in Worcestershire (by
Reginald of St. Walery), Brize Norton (by
Walkelin Hareng), Cornwell, Westcot Barton,
Whitfield in Northants, Souldern (fn. 10) (by Jordan de
Sai), and others. Histon and Brize Norton
churches were appropriated in 1268, Whitfield
in 1240, Charlbury in 1293, Merton in 1354, (fn. 11)
Eynsham, Yarnton, and Cassington before 1200.
One donation of Bishop Alexander, received in
1138, deserves special mention; the ancient
offerings called processionals, smoke-farthings or
Pentecostals, a farthing from every house, which
were made to the cathedral at Pentecost, were
as regards the county of Oxford assigned to
Eynsham. (fn. 12)
In 1291 the income of the abbey was about
£325, of which three-quarters came from
properties received before 1100.
A peculiar feature of Eynsham, easily explicable from its history, was that the patron
was not the king, as with other Saxon monasteries, but the bishop. In 1196 King Richard
claimed to be patron, but St. Hugh resisted him
and won the day. (fn. 13)
Of the inmates of Eynsham none have secured
any prominence except Adam, abbot 1213-28.
He is well known now as the author of the
Vita Sancti Hugonis (published in the Rolls
Series), having been taken by St. Hugh from
Eynsham in 1197 to become his chaplain. He
was also author of another work more highly
valued in the Middle Ages, the account of the
vision of Edmund the monk of Eynsham, which
is extant in no less than twelve manuscripts.
The occurrence is mentioned by Matthew Paris
and Roger of Wendover. On Thursday before
Easter 1196 a young monk fell into a trance,
and only returned to life on the Saturday evening; whereupon he related how he had visited
the other world in the company of St. Nicholas,
and what he had seen. His own brother Adam,
at that time sub-prior, put it into literary form
with no little skill, (fn. 14) evidently at the suggestion
of St. Hugh. These works show that Adam was
a man of scholarship and earnestness, though he
lived to be deposed for mismanagement and
perjury. (fn. 15)
In November, 1284, Archbishop Peckham
visited Eynsham and found that the late abbot,
John of Oxford, who had resigned some three years
previously, had been provided for by Oliver,
bishop of Lincoln, on an unwisely liberal scale,
which the archbishop ordered to be reduced.
His daily allowance of four loaves and four
gallons of beer was in future to suffice for the
monk assigned him as a companion as well as
for himself, and on Sundays and feast days he
was to dine with the convent—unless invited to
the abbot's table; no secular was to eat with
him and what was left over from his meals was
to be added to the convent's alms. His money
allowance was reduced from 10 marks to 100s.,
and although not forbidden to keep a secular
squire the desirability of his attendant being a
clerk was strongly urged. Peckham at the same
time ordered that the 'outside cellarer,' or monk
to whose care the abbey's manors were entrusted,
should not have a staff of servants or horses, and
when taking meals at any manors should charge
them to the bursars. (fn. 16)
In 1296 on the Tuesday after Pentecost
'certain clerks, scholars of Oxford, were attacked
at Eynsham; some were wounded, others
killed'; the unknown perpetrators were to be
excommunicated. (fn. 17) It was the day on which
the Pentecostals were brought to Eynsham, and
also the first day of the fair, which the abbey
was allowed to hold by the grant of Henry II.
In 1344 there were great disturbances at the
abbey. Abbot Nicholas de Upton was deposed
by the bishop, but returning with a band of
1,500 armed men, as his enemies said, drove out
the new abbot and many, if not all, of the
monks. Fourteen of them complained to the
pope that they had fled in fear of their lives; (fn. 18)
two others were 'vagabond in secular habit.' (fn. 19) It
seems that Nicholas remained master of the field,
and the monks returned; but in 1351 he
resigned, and lived for many years at Eynsham
in honoured retirement with a liberal allowance. (fn. 20)
In 1353 the abbey owed to Edmund de
Bereford the sum of £1,000. (fn. 21)
In 1380 the bishop conducted a visitation.
The allowance of each monk was to be £4 6s. 8d.
for clothes, meat, and wine; in addition to this
the abbot was bound to supply them with salt,
oatmeal, beans, butter, cheese and firewood;
and the number of monks was to be raised to
thirty as soon as suitable persons could be found. (fn. 22)
A roll (fn. 23) of about 1405, unfortunately incomplete,
gives the names of twenty-two inmates, and there
is reason to think there were about four more.
In 1435 the monks made proposals to the
bishop for the discharge of the debts of the abbey;
the abbot, his servants, and the monks were to
have £64 for their food and drink; the wages
of the servants were £40, the expenses of the
kitchen £60, repairs £40. In all, they estimated
that out of an income of £390, there would be
£132 available for the paying of debts. (fn. 24) But
shortly after this, the bishop writes that the abbot
has been openly guilty of adultery, fornication, &c.,
and asks whether he can show cause why he
should not incur the penalties of the crimes,
which indeed he had confessed at the last
visitation. (fn. 25) Whether he was deposed we do not
know. A few months later the bishop ordained
that the monks were to have no more than two
marks a year for clothing, until the debts of the
monastery were paid. (fn. 26)
At the visitation of 1445 there were fourteen
monks besides the abbot; all was well, except
that one of the monks, turning apostate, had fled
with a nun of Godstow; he had, however, repented and returned. (fn. 27)
At the visitations held in 1517 and 1520 the
members were sixteen; the income of the house
was £469; one of the monks was 'communis
mendax,' he liked to get drunk and stirred up
strife. There were the usual complaints that
the abbot's relatives were burdensome to the
monastery, but there was nothing seriously
wrong. (fn. 28) In 1526 the net income was £434;
in 1535 it was £421, at which date the house
contained nineteen inmates. (fn. 29) The condition of
the house at this date seems to have seriously
deteriorated, as Tregonwell, who spoke favourably
of all the other Oxford houses, reported to
Cromwell,
At Ensham I found 'a raw sort' of religious persons
and all sorts of offences among them, etiam crimen
pessimum, for which they have been punished by the
ordinary. The abbot is chaste in his living, looks
well to the reparation of the house, but is negligent
in overseeing his brethren, which he excuses by his
daily infirmity. (fn. 30)
An attempt to involve the abbot was shortly
afterwards made by one John Parkyns, whose
rambling accusations are endorsed with the
succinct and apparently accurate description,
'a fole of Oxford or thereabout.' (fn. 31)
In December, 1539, when the house was surrendered, it seems that there were only ten monks. (fn. 32)
The abbot was granted the unusually large pension of £133 6s. 8d., and was subsequently
made bishop of Llandaff, acquiring some notoriety
for being able to retain his see under Henry VIII,
Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth.
There are two seals of the monastery; the
earlier, a pointed oval, represents the Virgin
seated on the left, and the Lord on the
right beside her with the right hand raised as
though to crown her; below is a figure with a
pastoral staff in adoration facing to the right. (fn. 33)
Legend:—
SIGILLUM . ECCLESIE SANCTE . . . . . . S ET
SANCTE MARIE EGNESHAMIE
The seal (fn. 34) of Adam, abbot 1213-28, is a pointed
oval, showing, within a double inscribed border,
an abbot standing on a carved bracket with
pastoral staff in his left hand, under a cusped and
pinnacled niche, above which is the Virgin with
the Child on her right knee. Legend:—
Inner border : EDITUS . EX . ADAM . TUEATUR .
A . . . N . DEUS . ADAM
Outer border : . . . . LUM . ADE . GRA . . . . . .
HAM . . .
The fourteenth-century seal is a pointed oval:
the Virgin, seated on a throne in a carved and
canopied niche, the Child on the left knee. In
a niche over the canopy Our Lord, also seated
on a throne, with nimbus and orb, lifting up the
right hand in benediction. At each side a
smaller canopied and pinnacled niche, containing
on the left St. Peter, with keys, on the right
St. Paul, with sword. The bracket on which
each of these side niches is supported, is ornamented with a trefoiled panel. In base, under
an arch, the abbot, kneeling, with pastoral staff,
to the left. (fn. 35) Legend:—
SIGILLVM: ECC . . . CE : MARIE. ET : APLOR. :
PET' : ET : PAVLI : EGNESHAM . .
There is also in the British Museum the
seal of an abbot. Pointed oval: a left hand,
and vested arm, issuing from the left, and holding a pastoral staff. (fn. 36) Legend:—
SIGGILL' ABBATIS D'EINELSH'M
Abbots of Eynsham (fn. 37)
Columbanus, occurs 1086 and 1094
Walter I
Walter II
William, c. 1150-2
Godfrey, 1152-96
Robert, 1197-1208
Vacancy, 1208-13
Adam, 1213-28
Nicholas, 1228-39
John of Dover, 1239-41
Gilbert of Gloucester, 1241-64
Alexander of Brackley, 1264-68
John of Oxford, 1268-81
Thomas of Wells, 1281-1307
Adam of Lambourne, 1307-16
John of Cheltenham, 1317-30
John of Broughton, 1330-8
Nicholas of Upton, 1338-44 and 1344-51
William of Stamford, 1344
Geoffrey of Lambourne, 1351-88
Thomas Bradingstock, elected 1388, alive in
1409
James of Ramsden, elected 1414, alive in
1429
Thomas Oxinford, elected 1432, alive in 1436
John Quynyngton, in 1441 and 1449
Robert Faryndone, 1457-69
William Walwayn, 1469, alive in 1483
Miles Salley, occurs 1499, died 1516
Thomas Chaundler, (fn. 38) elected 1517
Henry Reading, occurs 1519, died 1530
Anthony Dunstone alias Kitchin, 1530-9