CHAPTER XXI.
OF THE PRIORY OF MONKS, COMMONLY CALLED THE ABBEY.
This monastery was first founded on the Suffolk side of the river, by
Roger Bygod, in the cathedral church, and afterwards translated
hither by the founder, as may be seen in the foregoing chapters; (fn. 1)
and though there are many printed authors that have given us an
account of the foundation, I shall rather choose to follow that wrote
by Jeffry, prior of this house, than any other, it being likely that he
was most capable of coming at the truth, not only upon the account
of his living so much nearer the time, but because he had all the
evidences of the priory at his command, an abstract of whose History,
as far as he completed it, I shall here subjoin.
In the year of our Lord 1104, (fn. 2) from the passion of St. Edmund the
King and Martyr 234, and from the Normans entering this land 37, in
the reign of King Henry I. there was a nobleman called Roger Bigot,
who governed the realm under the King, and had done so from the
Conquest. This wise man, being truly sensible that such great power
could not be executed without many errours, and being desirous to
atone for them in this life, imagined that nothing would do it better
than quitting the pomp of the world and turning pilgrim, and thereupon he resolved to go to Jerusalem, that be might the more fervently worship bis Saviour, at the place where his feet stood when he
ascended from earth; and in order to prepare for his journey, he
called together the chief of his friends and acquaintance, to confer
with them about it, who were all much grieved at his design, but had
not courage enough to attempt the dissuading him from it, till Etbran,
his steward, a man of much skill in the law, undertook to do it, by
shewing him, that it was by bis means only that he and all his friends
enjoyed the honours and estates they possessed, and that consequently
his leaving them might be the ruin of them and their families, and
that therefore, for their sakes, he hoped he would not undertake such
a journey, but as he designed it for an atonement for his errours, and
the good of his soul, they would be far from desiring him to recede
from such a good intention, assuring him, they all thought it would
as much redound to the present and future prosperity of himself and
family, if he would expend the money he designed for this pilgrimage,
in building and endowing a monastery upon his own demeans, and
placing religious persons, under a spiritual pastor, of some particular
order, who should continually pray for him, his predecessors and successonrs, to the world's end, putting him in mind that Christ hath
said, "Give alms of such things as you have, and behold all things are
clean unto you." (fn. 3) inferring from thence, that such a foundation
would be giving alms to future generations, and consequently would
render a man more clean than all he could do in his pilgrimage;
which arguments had such an effect, that he laid aside that design,
and immediately resolved to begin such a foundation; upon which,
by the advice of a monk named William de Walsam, he applied to
the holy man, Hugh Abbot of Cluni, by Lanzo Abbot of Lewes,
desiring him to send some monks of Cluni, for whom he designed to
build and endow a monastery in his own land, to which request the
Abbot answered, that all his monks being brought up in Burgundy,
they were entire strangers both to the customs and language of such
a distant nation as England, for which reason he was afraid to send
them, and therefore he committed the care of the whole affair to
Lanzo, strictly enjoining him to send some of his monks of Lewes
who knew the language and customs of the place, to live in the
monastery, ordering him to see to the building of it, and to be
prior or custos there as long as he lived, paying every year to him and
his abbey of Cluni a mark of silver, which the said Roger settled on
that abbey, as a token of their dependancy upon it, and that for the
future they could not be subject to any other monastery, nor follow
any other but the Cluniac order; and as soon as this was settled, the
aforesaid Roger, by the license, consent, and advice, of King Henry I.
and Maud his queen, of Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury, Herbert
late Bishop of Thetford, and Alice, wife of the said Roger, with many
other nobles of the King's court, began to build a monastery at Thetford, for the reception of the monks, close by the church of the Blessed
Virgin, from which Herbert translated the see, which church, with all
that belonged to it, the said Roger had bought of Richard, son of
Bishop Arfast, whose inheritance it was; giving him other lands in exchange; and as soon as the offices were built (which did not take long
time, they being only of wood) Lanzo sent twelve monks, with one Malgod, whom he had made their prior, to London, where they were met by
Ralf Fitz-Walter, and Ralf de Valle Redonij, two of the chief of Roger's
barons, and were conducted by them, with great honour and worship, to
Thetford, where they entered on Monday the 4th of July, about nine
of the clock, it being the day of the Feast of the Translation of St.
Martin, Bishop of Tours, Roger Bigot, his wife, and all his barons,
chief tenants, and soldiers, with a great concourse of other people,
both clergy and laity, being assembled in order to receive them with
the utmost honour; and thus accompanied, the monks took possession
of that ancient church of the Blessed Virgin, and All-the-Saints,
which had been the mother church, and episcopal see of the EastAngles: and as this place had lately been involved with grief, on account of the bishoprick being translated from them, so now they
much rejoiced at the coming of such good men, presuming they
should have God's favour, by their prayers and laudable conversation
among them; and from this time the monks began to live according
to their order, and Roger, and Prior Malgod, were very intent for
three years, in building a new monastery within the burgh.
At this time there was a man in Lewes monastery, named Stephen,
who was very remarkable, both for his learning and morals; he was
born of noble parentage in Provence, and became a monk under
Abbot Hugh, in the monastery of Cluni in Burgundy, by whom he
was sent to the monastery at Lewes, to be sub-prior, and assistant to
the venerable Lanzo, where he behaved himself in such an agreeable
manner, that, in case of Lanzo's death, they had determined unanimously to choose him their abbot; but it happened far better for this
house, for Abbot Hugh, considering there wanted such a person to
perfect the foundation, as would be agreeable to the monks and their
founder, (Malgod, though a very honest good man, not having the
spirit nor learning of Stephen,) ordered Lanzo to recall Malgod, and
send Stephen thither, who, upon Malgod's resignation, was made
prior here, though much against the inclination of the monks of
Lewes, who lamented his leaving them: but upon finding it was not
occasioned by Lanzo their prior, as they suspected, but was really the
command of their holy father Hugh, they submitted, and Stephen
came to Thetford, to the joy of the founder, the monks, and all the
burgh: but no sooner had he entered his office, and viewed the place
where the monastery had been three years in building, but he perceived it was too small, and so much enclosed with the burgesses
houses on all sides, that there was not room enough to build a convenient reception for them, and therefore, like a wise man, foreseeing the
monks inconveniences, he applied to William de Albini, one of the
King's privy-council, and son-in-law to the founder, who by him was
often entreated to remove the monastery into some more convenient
place without the burgh, where they might have room to receive
guests of all degrees, according to their stations.
This, though it was disagreeable to the burghers, and several of the
monks, was approved of by the founder, who consulted the King
about it, who then kept his court at Thetford, and he, like a wise
prince, forseeing the monks conveniency, advised him to remove it
to a large pleasant, open place, just without the west part of the
burgh, on the other side of the river, (fn. 4) and there, by the approbation
of Herbert Bishop of Norwich, he began to found a monastery in
honour of the blessed and glorious Virgin, and to encourage the work,
the Bishop himself, with his own hands, began to dig the foundation,
in the very place the King had pitched upon; (fn. 5) and after the workmen
had dug very deep, because the earth was sandy, the prior and
founder, with many other noblemen, laid the first stones of the foundation, and then the founder declared before all the people, that he
would finish the work at his own expense, at the same time assigning
15l. per annum towards perfecting the foundation, ordering the prior
to send two monks to him after the Feast of the Blessed Virgin, because
he designed against that time to provide a manor to settle for the
monks maintenance, declaring also, that this his monastery should be
subject to no person living but the Abbot of Cluni: all this was done
on the eighth day before the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, and thus
the success and future prosperity of the foundation seemed quite
settled. But alas! the eighth day after the foundation was laid,
Roger Bigot the founder died, and the Bishop of Norwich (who was
not far off) hearing of it, came by night, and seizing his body against
the will of his wife, and those that were about him, carried it to be
buried at Norwich, which was certainly unjustly done by the Bishop,
because he himself was witness to his foundation charter, in which
he gave his own body, with that of Alice his wife, and all his children,
to be buried in this priory; (fn. 6) as soon, therefore, as the Prior (who was
very intent in carrying on the building) heard of his death, he took
four of his monks, and hastened to Norwich, where he found the body
laid on a bier, upon which the Prior, the wife of the deceased, and all
his friends, entreated the Bishop, that he would restore the body to
be buried in his monastery, according to his resolution in his lifetime,
which he himself was witness to, but the Bishop absolutely denied it,
and endeavoured by entreaty, flattery, and large promises, to prevail
upon the Prior and monks to consent to have the body peaceably
buried at Norwich, and lay aside all future claim; but they would by
no means come in to it, but instead thereof, they all fell down at the
Bishop's feet, beseeching him to give them their founder's body, to
bury it as he desired, which the Bishop in great wrath refused to do;
upon which the Prior, in the name of God and the Blessed Virgin, (fn. 7)
adjured the Bishop to return it, who would not, but buried it in his
cathedral at Norwich; (fn. 8) and soon after, the Prior and Monks brought
an action against him, setting forth, that though Roger Bigot, their
founder, in his lifetime had given himself, wife, children, and all his
barons, to be buried in his monastery at Thetford, yet the Bishop had
seized him, and buried him at Norwich, to their great injury: to this
the Bishop answered, by the oaths of divers witnesses, that before the
monks came to Thetford, he had given himself, wife, children, and
barons to be buried at Norwich: (fn. 9) upon which, before they proceeded
to judgment, the monks were forced to own their errour and beg
pardon, and renounce all future claim to his body, and to those of
his wife, children, and barons, in the presence of King Henry himself
and his barons, who were then at Nottingham. But notwithstanding
this disappointment, the Prior went on with the building, and had
such interest, that he increased the revenues, and though he laid one
of the first stones, yet he lived to see the church, cloisters, and the
whole work entirely finished, so that he was deservedly reckoned one
of its founders.
In the year of our Lord 1114, the monks left their old monastery,
and entered this, on St. Martin's day, bringing with them all the
valuable moveables out of their old church and cloister; and from
this time their interest increased, so that in 1248 they had a general
charter of free-warren in all their lands in Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Cambridgeshire. In 1299, the Prior paid four marks per annum to
the clerks that celebrated mass at the altar of the Blessed Virgin, in St.
Paul's cathedral. (fn. 10) The King had power to grant an annual pension
or corrody to one chaplain and one priest, payable by the Prior, and as
often as either of them died or were preferred, the Crown nominated
another. (fn. 11)
About 1300, there was a chantry of one chaplain founded, daily
to officiate in the abbey church, (for it is so called in the foundation,)
by Richard de Huphall, for his own soul, and the souls of William his
father, Catherine his mother, and Andrew his uncle, of the Bishop of
Norwich, his father, and mother, predecessors, and successours, and
all the faithful deceased; the chaplain was to be presented by the
Prior and Convent, who were to pay him his stipend, and was to be
admitted by the Bishop, who was to swear him to perform the rules of
the foundation, after which he was to enjoy it for life; William de
Brom, the first chaplain, resigned in 1300, and the 7th of the ides of
Sept. John de Herlingflet, priest, was admitted, after whose death
there were no more presented, but the names of the founder and
his friends being added to the daily office for the founders of the
priory, the chantry ceased.
This house being esteemed an alien, by reason of the mark a year
paid to the Abbot of Cluni, as a token of dependency, and being
subject to no bishop but only to that abbot, the Pope, or his Legate,
it was always seized with the rest of the alieu priories; as often as we
had war in France: but yet it did not suffer so much at those times,
as several did, besause the Earls of Norfolk, who were patrons of it,
and by reason of their protection, esteemed as so many founders,
had it granted to them during the seizures, and at last had interest
enough to get it made a denizen by Edward III. in the year 1375,
after which it had no more disturbance till its dissolution, which the
Duke of Norfolk did all he possibly could to prevent, it being the
burial place of all his ancestors, with whom he desired to be interred,
not liking to see their monuments demolished, and the church in
which they were buried laid waste; and though the King had promised him the monastery and all its revenues, yet he desired them
not for his own use, but would have settled them on their own church,
which he would have made collegiate instead of conventual; the same
good design had Archbishop Parker, as to his college of Stoke in Suffolk, of which he was dean, and for which he had compiled a good
body of statutes, as Strype in his Life of that Archbishop informs us:
The good statutes which this dean of Stoke college had framed for
it, added to the original ones, made this a very good and usefull
foundation, and the fame of it was so great, that about the year
1540, the old, most noble, and illustrious Duke of Norfolk, sent a
letter to the Dean, that he would send him the original foundation
of that his college of secular priests, being founded as he heard of
an honest sort, and that he would but detain it, till he had caused it
to be written out, or had taken some notes out of it. Because the
monastery of Thetford being now the King's, upon the Act for the
dissolution of religious houses, having been founded by a Duke of
Norfolk, the King had granted it back to this Duke, to turn it into
a college of secular priests; and so he should have occasion to
furnish it with good statutes. Here his father and other his ancestors lay, and here he intended himself also to be buried, as he
wrote to the Dean." (fn. 12) But this design was immediately stopped by
the King, who saw that so many desired the same thing, that instead
of a dissolution it would have been a translation only, and therefore
he would not permit even Stoke college to stand, but that, though a
useful foundation, had the same fate. And thus this monastery,
contrary to the Duke's inclination, was totally suppressed, being surrendered to the King, Feb. 16, 1450, by William Ixworth, then prior, Rich.
Methwold, Godfrey Thetford, John Thetford, William Colchester, William Brockford, Thomas Witherset, Peter Thetford. Robert Whetyng,
Nicholas Horkysley, (fn. 13) John Garbolsham, Christopher Garbolsham, Thomas Hynyngham, and Thomas Berney, monks there. The surrender lies
in the Augmentation Office, (fn. 14) and hath its seal still upon it. The cell
of Wangford in Suffolk, which belonged to this priory, was surrendered with it, and passed along with the monastery and all its revenues
to the Duke of Norfolk, in whose family the monastery hath continued to this time, the honourable Philip Howard being the present
[1738] owner. It was valued at the Suppression at 312l. 13s. 4d.
according to Mr. Dugdale, and at 418l. 6s. 3d. according to Mr.
Speed. The priors were always summoned to convocation.