Ti MEGS SEP SE 5 2g 2) See oe Oe ean Ee ea ° — ie re The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books are reasons for disciplinary action and may result in dismissal from the University. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN L161— O-1096 MONASTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY, AS EXEMPLIFIED IN THE CHRONICLES OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND, MONK OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY, FROM A.D. MCLXXIII. TO MCCII. Cranslated, WITH NOTES, INTRODUCTION, &c. BY T. E. TOMLINS, ESQ. EDITOR OF “ LYTTLETON’S TENURES,” &c. FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, AS PRINTED BY THE CAMDEN SOCIETY, UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF JOHN GAGE ROKEWODE, ESQ. F.R.S. Ge. SECOND EDITION. LONDON: WHITTAKER AND CO., AVE MARIA LANE. 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These chronicles contain a biographical account of Sampson of Tottington, abbot of Bury St. Edmunds, together with an historical relation or account of the affairs of the convent from the year 1173 to the year 1202, interspersed with numerous allusions to events of a public character. But our chronicler, though he takes up his story at the year 1173, nine years before Sampson became abbot, can hardly be said to enter fully into the subject of his history till the death of his predecessor in the abbacy in 1180, indeed the compressed form of his narra- tive between 1173 and 1180 clearly indicates it to be mere prefatory matter, and introduced for the purpose of putting the vigilant management of Sampson more strongly in contrast with that of his pre- decessor. The chronicle terminates abruptly nine years previous to the death of abbot Sampson, a circumstance that cannot be accounted for by the death of the chronicler, for he survived the subject of his memoir. ' This chronicler or biographer was Jocelin of Brakelond or Brookland, a native, as his surname imports, of the town of St. Edmund’s Bury, a fact that imparts additional credit and interest to his narrative *, All else that is known of him is gathered from the incidental mention he makes of himself in these his “ Chronicles,” whereby it appears that he was a chaplain to the abbot Sampson, almoner +, and hospitaler or guest-master. It is difficult to ascertain the order of all these promotions, as his chro- ni¢les were evidently composed at different periods; however, he himself tells us, that upon abbot Sampson’s election he was appointed the prior’s chaplain, and four months after, the abbot’s chaplain, and in this capacity he accompanied the abbot in his journeys to London, and visits to his manors, being constantly with him for six years$. The history, also, as is before noticed, terminates abruptly §, and it is perceptible, that in the latter part of his narration our chronicler is not so great an encomiast of the abbot as he is at the commencement of his history. However, there is not the least appearance of partiality in our chronicler throughout his entertaining volume. The MS. Chronicle, which is in Latin ||, has been recently edited by the Camden Society, under the superintendence of the late lamented Mr. John Gage Rokewode, who added a preface, notes, proofs, and dates; the dates have been, by permission of the Camden Society (so far as they were qualified to grant such permission), transferred to the present translation ; but as the notes and proofs of Mr. Rokewode are of too archzeological a character to be interesting to the general reader, the translator has substi- * The Long Braklond, leading from the north gate to the market-place, and the Little Braklond, are ancient streets of St. Edmund’s Bury, mentioned in deeds 33 Ed. I. (1305); Regist. Croftis, MS. Harl. 27, fol. 5. 10, b.14, 15. Our chronicler appears to have been called Brookland by Spelman in his Glossary, voce Gaveloc; and also Buckland in the old editions of the Monasticon, doubtless the error of a transcriber. + He is mentioned as being almoner at the time of abbot Sampson’s decease, in a MS. concerning the election of a new abbot; but it appears from the present Chronicle that the offices were by no means of a permanent character, and were changed and resumed very frequently. See page 2. col. 2. line 6 from the bottom. I Page 8. col. 1; page 11. col. 1; page 19. col. 1; page 28. col. 1. § Mr. Rokewode remarks, that part of this Chronidle is subsequent to the year 1200 is apparent from the fact that our chronicler, commenting upon an occurrence during that year, cites words which he finds apt to his purpose, used by the dean of London in his Chronicle. (See page 38. col. 1.) It is also apparent in another part of our chronicler’s narrative, that he subjected his Chronicle to the perusal of another. (Page 30. col. 2.) As Jocelin remarks upon the reader’s criticism, which accused him of partiality, the Chronicle could not have included the subsequent matter. || MS. Harl. No. 1005, fol. 121. There was a copy of this Chronicle in the Cottonian MS. Vitellius D. xv., which is conjectured to-have suffered in the fire that destroyed part of that collection. r INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. Nie rg a tuted such notes and remarks as he conceives will best suit those readers to whom a translation would be a more desirable acquisition than the Latin edition. With regard to the original, it may be said to be written in the style usually adopted by the monkish writers; the latinity and idiom are both extremely corrupt, and our chronicler has interlarded the narrative with scriptural phrases and citations, either as being most in accordance with the very words uttered by persons who deemed such language most expressive, or as adopting the style of the Scriptures as most appropriate to the subject of his observa- tions. There are also numerous citations from the profane writers, which have been introduced according to the custom of writers of that and a much later age. The references to these citations have also been transferred to the present pages from Mr. Rokewode’s edition, as they do not occur in the original. The story is told with liveliness and, occasionally, quiet humour, qualities which the: present translator has endeavoured, without affectation, to transfer to the present pages. The late Mr. Rokewode, in the preface to his Latin edition, remarks, that “the public events recorded in this Chronicle are chiefly those in which the abbot of St. Edmunds had a share during the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. They are not without historical interest ; but the merit of the Chronicle lies more in the variety of ordinary incidents detailed, from which tien something is to be learnt mouching our language, manners, and customs, or our system, civil and religious, particularly the monastic polity.” The object of the translator has been to present these qualities of the Chronicle in a more extended view to the ordinary reader, as the work forms a valuable illustration of social life in the twelfth century in respect of the feudal system in England, at that time in full vigour; the formularies of the jurispru- dence of that age; the effect of local and exclusive jurisdiction (an inseparable incident to feudality); the contests in respect of ecclesiastical exemptions and immunities from visitation by the heads of the church ; the litigation upon disputed tenures and services; the overweening power of the crown; the almost siitereal bondage of the rural population ; the endeavours made by the burgesses to free them- selves from the oppressive power of their lords; and the dense ignorance that prevailed in connexion with the enormous influence of the church, aided by the superstitious fears of all ranks of people. It is hardly possible to allude to these subjects without. entering somewhat into the early history of the monastery, and offerimg some observations, in a summary form, upon the events detailed in the Chronicle. The work of our chronicler was evidently written for the use of those who were well acquainted with the history of St. Edmund’s Bury, and the legend of the patron saint of the convent, and who perfectly understood the allusions to monastic policy with which its pages abound; in fact, the Chronicle was intended for monastic readers, and in this consists its chief value, for the chronicler evidently felt convinced that true religion and devotion consisted in the monkish observances he is so accurate in detailing. The town of St. Edmund’s s Bury, in Suffolk, takes its name from a church and monastery of great celebrity and impor/ance, founded in that place by some religious persons (as they were then termed), who said they had preserved the body of Edmund, a king of the East Angles, who, at his death,gwas dignified with the titles of “royal saint” and “holy martyr.” From all that can be learnt of king Edmund, he was a person of good birth, who was nominated by Offa, king of the East Angles, as his successor to the petty kingdom of East Anglia, which was not incorporated with the kingdom of Egbert, but permitted to remain as a distant yet tributary state under its own sovereigns, the last of whom was this Edmund the king and martyr. History informs us that the Danes visited East Anglia in 865, and wintered at Thetford under Inguar and Ubba, their chiefs. In 870 they made an incursion further inwards, and Edmund gave them battle near Thetford: the result of this battle seems to have been, that the Danes were desirous of peace, and offered peace to Edmund upon condition of his dividing his kingdom with them. As the Danes were most cruel and perfidious pagans, Edmund refused their offer, which seems to have been made by means of an “embassy;” but he did not, indeed in all probability he was unable, to take steps to repel the invaders, who having next obtained possession of his person, bound him to a tree, beat him with “bats” or clubs, and exercised their skill in archéry by shooting at him ; finally Inguar ordered his head to be cut off, and it is said his head and body were thrown into the thickest part of the woods of Eglesdene. Now (according to the story told by the monks and superstitious chroniclers) the subjects and followers of Edmund endeavoured to find the body, but losing themselves in the wood, cried out to their companions “ Where are you?” when a voice answered, “ Here, here, here.” They hasten to the place, and find the head in a thicket of thorns guarded by a Wolf, who shows no fierceness on this occasion, but followed the head when taken away, and returned as if ina drooping and melancholy state to the wood. The head, it is then said, united with the body, the mark of separation appearing like a purple (some say a red) thread. However, the body was buried in the earth in a little wooden chapel at a place called Hoxne. At the end of thirty-three years a report was circulated that miracles were performed at this chapel; in consequence of this, the body was exhumed for the purpose of its being placed in a large wooden church at a small town called Beodrichesworth (the | | ———— viii saNTRODUCTORY REMARKS. ~ present Bury St. Edmunds); on this occasion the body of king Edmund was found, not putrid or decayed, but whole and uncorrupted with the head united to it, the mark of a red thread appearing round the neck. The only testimony of this incorruptibility of a body which had laid thirty-three years in the earth (for the body was said to be as fresh as if that day interred) was a female devotee, by name Oswyn, who, as the story goes, said that she had long secluded herself and lived near the town, and for several preceding years annually cut the hair and pared the nails of the saint, and had preserved these relics with unceasing care. The next thing we hear is, that some persons devoted themselves to a monastic life and took charge of the body, which, of course, worked more miracles, and in particular caused the capture of some thieves who broke into the church, as well as death to a nobleman of the name of Leofstan, who, doubting the incorruptibility of the body and other particulars connected with the story, was seized by a demon at the very instant of opening the coffin to satisfy himself of the truth. The body, or rather what was said to be the body, was translated from Hoxne to Beodrichesworth, as already noticed, about a.p. 903. During Turchill’s invasion of East Anglia, a.p. 1010, the body was conveyed to London in a chest or coffin, under the care of Egelwin or Ailwin, afterwards bishop of Elmham, from whence, after remaining three years, it was again translated to St. Edmund’s Bury, or Beodrichesworth, as it was then called (see page 29. col. 2). The ancient little church of Greenstreet, or Greenstead, near Chipping Ongar, in Essex, the nave of which is composed of the trunks of large chesnut trees, split and roughly hewn, is supposed to be the place where the body rested on its return. The ancient road from London at that period lay through Greenstreet. The Danish kings themselves seem, at last, to have been fairly terrified by the saint, for Sweyn died, saying, he was stricken by St. Edmund; whereat king Canute his son was so alarmed, that he took the convent under his special protection. St. Edmund had obtained the reputation of inflicting summary vengeance upon those who disbelieved the incorruptibility of his body, or disturbed his convent, a notion that is alluded to more than once in the following pages by our chronicler, who seems to have implicitly believed all he had heard of his patron saint. In the time of king Canute I., a.p. 1020, the persons who had the conservation of the saint’s body were discovered not to be so devout as they ought to be, and therefore some Benedictine monks were transferred from the church or monastery of Hulme ; since which time to the date of the Reformation, the convent increased in wealth and importance. In king Edward the Confessor’s charter, Beodriches- worth is first called St. Edmund’s Bury, and in Domesday book, which also describes it as “ the town where the glorious king and martyr St. Edmund lies buried,” the enumeration of the lands of St. Edmund is most voluminous, as compared with the brevity of the other entries in that record. There is constant allusion made to the “ liberties of St. Edmund ;” this was the limit of the jurisdiction of the abbot in respect of the town, and in the Latin is written bannaleuca. This bannaleuca, or liberties, extended a mile, originally designated by four milliaria, or mile-stones, subsequently by four crosses, This was acquired in the year 945, when king Edmund, son of Edward the Elder and father of king — Edgar, granted by his charter to “the monastery called Beodrichesworth, where rests the body of St. Edmund, the king and martyr,” the land around the same place, the bounds whereof were distinguished therein, extending one mile. . The alleged incorruptibility of the king and martyr’s body has always enabled the promoters of this imposture to consider the object of their superstitious reverence as personally present, a species of fiction which rendered the jurisdiction of the abbot over the town inviolate, and considered everything that belonged to the monastery as belonging to St. Edmund, consequently under his special protection. Throughout the whole of Jocelin’s Chronicle, the name of our Saviour is never once mentioned ; God and St. Edmund, and the abbot and St. Edmund, are phrases of common occurrence: indeed, nothing short of a narrative of this description could fully develope the depravation of the Christian religion by the means of saint-worship. The king and martyr’s influence upon his votaries is supported by the fear of vengeance; witness the conduct of the justices of the exchequer (p. 28. col. 1), and the abbot Samp- son’s coolly making the interests of his church a personal matter between the saint (who was then said to be personally present) and Longchamp (p. 15. col. 2). The first abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury was Uvius, a humble modest man, who died in 1044. Leofstan was abbot during the reign of king Edward the Confessor ; he died 1065. Baldwin, a monk of St. Denis at Paris, then prior of Deerhurst, in Gloucestershire, a cell to St. Denis, was the next abbot: he is said to have possessed some knowledge of medicine; he was in favour with king Edward the Confessor and William the Conqueror: the former granted his monastery the privilege of a mint, the latter granted many valuable possessions to the monastery. In his time, the church or monastery, which, when consecrated in 1032 was of wood, was begun to be built of stone ; and from this time, the papal bulls, confirming the exemption from episcopal visitation, and granting various ee a ee ee ees INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. ix | Padiadindtticn’ privileges, may be said to commence. This abbot received from the pope in person the pastoral staff and ring ; he died in 1097 or 1098. In 1100 Henry I. appointed Robert, the son of Hugh earl of Chester, to the abbacy: the monks resisted this appointment as being void, there having been no canonical election, and in a council held | at London in 1102 he was deposed by Anselm, the archbishop of Canterbury. The next abbot was Robert II., who was elected August 1107. He was a great builder, for the sacrist in his time (it belonging to his office to oversee and construct the edifices of the convent) built the infirmary, the chapter-house, and the abbot’s hall; in his time also, the separation, alluded to at p- 26. col. 1, of the revenues of the abbot from those of the convent took place, which was confirmed by charter of king Henry I.; he died 1112. | Albold, a native of Jerusalem, and monk of Bec, in Normandy, was the next abbot, a.p. 1114; he is , said to have died in 1120. | Anselm, abbot of St. Saba, at Rome, and nephew of the archbishop Anselm, accepted the abbacy; he was confirmed in 1121. In his time, 1135, king Henry I. granted to the monastery the right of holding a fair at St. Edmund’s Bury for six days, viz. three days before the feast of St. James, on the feast-day itself, and two days after: allusion is made to this fair at p. 21. col. 2. Anselm was nominated to the see of London in 1136, and was succeeded by— Ording, the prior of the convent, who was elected in 1138; but Anselm’s nomination to the bishopric of London not being confirmed, he returned to his abbacy at Bury, when, after some difficulty, he was enabled to resume his functions as abbot, which Ording yielded to him, and on his death, in 1148, Ording was re-elected abbot. He died in 1156, and, by a passage in the present Chronicle (p. 29. col. 1), appears to have been buried in the chapter-house. Hugh, prior of Westminster, was the next abbot, being elected in 1157, receiving his confirmation from the pope’s legate; he died, as the present Chronicle relates, in 1180. In his time occurred the defeat of Robert le Bossu, earl of Leicester, with his Flemings, in 1173. He died, as the present Chro- nicle informs us, of a fall from his horse, in 1180. He was succeeded by Sampson of Tottington, a native of Norfolk, who was consecrated, as the pre- sent Chronicle informs us, in March 1182. His death took place, as a chronicle or narration in the same MS. informs us, on the night after the feast of St. Thomas the Martyr, at twilight, 1211-12. The narrative of Jocelin commences with a detail of the mismanagement of the affairs of the convent, chiefly arising from the great age and infirmity of the abbot Hugh; but Jocelin impresses on the reader, that religious observances, which, in the eyes of the monks, always superseded the prac- tice of moral duties, were kept up, and monastic order maintained: notwithstanding this appearance of regularity in matters of form, every one did what was right in his own eyes. The dignitaries of the convent, who seem to have been, in a certain degree, independent of the abbot, as being elected by the whole convent, followed the example of their abbot, and supplied their necessities by taking up usurious Joans from money-lenders. When it is considered that the interest of money was at that time, and for long after, sixty per centum per annum, the increase of debt may well be accounted for ; but the Jews, who, as being the only capitalists, were the chief money-lenders, obtained new securities upon every fresh loan, so that the multiplication of compound interest caused the debt to mount up to most enormous sums, and, as Jocelin on another occasion states (p. 9. col. 2), the usury to be incalculable. The Jews made complaint to the king, and, by paying a fine, procured his interference, which was the cause of the king’s almoner paying the convent a visit: the almoner is quieted, doubtless by some pecuniary bribe, and the whole matter is hushed up. This sort of inquiry took place more than once, when the archbishop, as pope’s legate, followed the king’s example; and he was quieted doubtless in the same manner, for the corruption of these dark ages was almost universal, and the enormous sums wrung from the people by noblemen and ecclesiastics almost surpass belief. Jocelin innocently asks Sampson, his tutor, how he can stand by, and hear matters of such notoriety denied and explained away by mere assertion? but Sampson chides this precocious zeal, and quietly observes, that the burnt child dreads the fire, that flatterers rule and are believed, and that the time or opportunity for reform has not yet arrived. Indeed, Sampson does no more than tell us what Walter Mapes states, that monks were parasites and flatterers of the abbot, soothing his ears with honied words, and deceiving those above them with cunning; and that, though this character might not apply to all, yet that those who were prudent, modest, and moral, found no favour, when they ceased or were unable to flatter their superior. These visitations, from which the abbey was not exempt, were deemed a great diminution from the honour of a monastery whose patron saint was in so much renown, whose possessions were so great, and who had enjoyed the favour and special regard of Edward the Confessor, and even of the | Conqueror; therefore a privilege must be obtained from Rome, cost what it will, and a grave discus- | ——$——————————————— | =< ——. __-— nny Xx INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. sion takes place, as to how the money shall be raised to pay the pope and cardinals what had been pro- mised, for ready money was then out of the question. Sampson’s merits at last become apparent even to the indolent superannuated abbot, who, perhaps, wished Sampson to forget that he had in former times sent him with two or three other speakers for the common good, to confinement in a remote cell, and Sampson’s unflinching behaviour excites the astonishment of the old man, (who must have had a long experience in a conventual Jife,) when he finds that Sampson is no parasitical eavesdropper. Poor old abbot Hugh next goes on a pilgrimage to St. Thomas 4 Becket’s shrine, falls from his horse and is brought back to die, and have the very cover- lets stolen from his bed in his last moments. The abbey was vacant a year and three months, according to Jocelin’s account, but another authority says two years and three months; and the king’s clerks in custody, or wardens of the abbey, conducted themselves, as Matthew Paris tells us they generaly did, in a harsh and depredatory manner, com- pelling repayment from the farmer of Palgrave, whose entrance-money on taking his farm had been distributed for the good of the departed abbot’s soul; these wardens also thwart Sampson in his building and repairing purposes upon evil-minded suggestions. The king has a large share of the revenues of the abbey during the vacancy, which accounts for the delay in choosing a new abbot. At last Sampson is chosen; and, as our chronicler seems to infer from the dreams and visions that the brethren dream, his election was predicted. This circumstance, as well as the vision of the person of qua- lity at p. 32. col. 1, shows what attention was paid to dreams, as the means of obtaining a knowledge of future events ; a superstition, Mr. Fosbrooke remarks, in all probability assisted by a book on that sub- ject, falsely attributed to the prophet Daniel. The influence of omens was not inferior: the falling of a bell, in a belfry at Norwich, in 1282, has been noticed as a presage of great disaster ; the falling of the | clock, at the time the shrine of the saint was burning, is related by Jocelin (p. 31. col. 1) under a similar impression of feeling. Sampson is now in power; he sets to work, and looks after out-door affairs himself; ’tis no part of his religion to be idle; the honour and dignity of his convent, and of himself as a mitred abbot, stands not with borrowing of the Jews ; he orders all the seals to be given up, only allowing the prior and sacrist to possess one. ‘The seal that hung so conveniently at the shrine of the saint, and could not be said to belong to any one particular official, was, we may presume, broken, if it had not been broken, as the cus- tom was in monasteries, at the death of the abbot Hugh ;—three-and-thirty seals to be found in the convent at that period of time, when a seal belonged only to great men, and was required but for purposes of importance, is sadly against old abbot Hugh’s character for good governance. These and some other reforms, particularly the inhibition of a favourite official of the convent, William the sacrist, from meddling with the revenues of the abbey, caused an outcry against Sampson, who justi- fies himself tothe convent by producing evidence of William the sacrist’s pawning the most sacred vest- ments and articles in a most improvident manner. The character and the acts of Sampson appear strongly marked with resolution and prudence; and although his secular tenures introduced him into a variety of incongruous offices, such as going to war, his attendance upon king Richard with his substi- tuted knights, and upon other occasions, and his being appointed a justice itinerant or justice in eyre, he acquitted himself creditably; but for all this, he is frequently slandered by his monks, who seem to have been a fair specimen of their kind, and justify the proofs the learned Mr. Fosbrooke has collected against their general bad character from other sources. The anecdotes related by his biographer, detailing the occurrences in his previous life, demon- strate that he was much in advance of the age in which he lived; his. troubles and adventures in his fruitless journey to Rome, and the reward he met with for his pains from his abbot, together with his remembrance of those who had assisted or comforted him under distress or trouble, are given with apparent truth and fidelity. In some matters, certainly, Jocelin has to remark, that he was not “ omni — parte beatum ;” and his expulsion of the Jews from St. Edmund’s Bury, and his address to his convent upon the vision the “ great man” had seen, in some measure place his mind more on a level with the superstitious errors and prejudices of his time than other parts of his deportment would lead us to be- lieve. His assertion on every occasion, and that in the most fearless manner, of the rights of his convent, show that the church was liable, at the very time it apparently had most influence, to encroachment and injury: an impoverished church establishment Sampson well perceived would be dependent, and, consequently, contemptible, as being unable to perform the duties of hospitality and religious service. We next come to the case of the contest between the archbishop of Canterbury, in respect of the monks of Illeigh in Suffolk being amenable to the justice of that hundred over which the abbot had jurisdiction. The case is brought to the judgment of the king, who, because the charters were not dated (as, indeed, they were not for long afterwards), declines giving an opinion further than that which is embodied in the proverb—‘“catch those that catch can.” Sampson has another bone to pick with the INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. xi Monk’s-Lileigh folks, and requests the interference of Longchamp, bishop of Ely; but, because he does | not interfere so promptly as desired, Sampson revenges himself, in a mode characteristic of the times and the superstitious feeling of the multitude: he appeals to St. Edmund in the presence of the bishop, who had come upon an unpleasant office, viz. to make a visitation, and Jocelin gravely adds, that the temporary disgrace which this statesman fell into about a year afterwards was entirely owing to divine (i. e. St. Edmund’s) vengeance. The abbot Sampson, having by his good management replenished his coffers, sends his emissaries to Rome; and as they did not arrive with empty pockets, the pope granted, not mere personal privileges, which only endured for an abbot’s life, but perpetual exemptions from visitation by the present or future archbishops of Canterbury, who, in the character of “ visitors,” had proved unpleasant as well as expensive judges. But Sampson, although he quieted his ecclesiastical superiors by making his convent the pope’s “spiritual daughter ” (p. 24. col. 1), had other contests to go through. First,in the hundred court of Ris- bridge, held at Witham, the Earl of Clare demanded a matter of five shillings rent from the profits of the hundred ; but my Lord Clare, like most greedy claimants, proves too much for his case, and Sampson goes away clear of the earl, who had attended the administration of justice with a large retinue for the purpose of intimidating the abbot. The abbot next has to encounter a similar contest in respect of Adam Cokefieid’s claim to hold the half hundred of Cosford in fee-farm for 100 shillings rent (p. 16); but the abbot was not to be intimidated, although Roger Bigot, and many other great men, came about him, and Adam went away without his fee-farm. There is a discreet silence upon some other matters which are noticed at p. 36, wherein the abbot was not so successful. The next was a writ of right of advowson, in which five of the sixteen knights who formed the | recognitors or jury in this process, desired to tempt Sampson, #.¢. hinted that a bribe would be received ; but Sampson refused this offer, and told them to give a verdict according to their conscience, or, more properly speaking, proper knowledge; for the jury in those times were supposed to be personally acquainted with the facts and merits of the case, being chosen from the visne or neighbour- hood of the parties, which is still in law supposed to be the case. This will explain the proceedings in the next case, in which Sampson is litigant (p. 18), where there was an inquest or recognition of twelve knights, who swore, or gave their verdict in terms which justified their own knowledge of the facts. The same conclusion may be drawn from a similar process mentioned at p. 36. The next and most important litigation was a purely secular affair (p. 19), but upon which our chronicler lays great stress, and alludes to it on one occasion as a very grievous litigation (p. 6. col. 2). Roger Bigot, who seems to have inherited his father’s pertinacity, was one of the defendants: the case, as related by Jocelin, is no more than this :—Certain noblemen and gentlemen held of the barony of the abbot so much land in separate parcels, by the service of what is termed in our feudal language a whole knight’s fee *, the most universal, and esteemed the most honourable species of tenure; it was as the effect of the feudal establishment in England, little else than a pure feud or fief, a term corrupted into “fee :” to make this tenure, a certain quantity of land was necessary, which was greater in earlier times than afterwards, for the reason mentioned in the note for p. 19. col. 1. line 29 from the bottom ; in measure it was twelve ploughlands in the time of Edward I., and in that reign was of the annual value of 207. He who held by this service was bound to attend his lord to the wars for forty days in every year if called upon; if the tenant held by the service of half a knight’s fee, twenty days. There were several incidents to this tenure, termed aid, marriage, and relief; aids and marriage, or wardship, are alluded to in this Chronicle, and the effect of the latter shown on two occasions (pp. 17. 36). This personal service was compounded for by means of escuage, a pecuniary satisfaction levied by assessments upon every knight’s fee; it was taken in the 5th of Henry II., when that king went on his expedition to Thoulouse, and very soon after became universal. Hence the kings, whenever they went to war, levied escuages upon their tenants in chief, who reimbursed themselves by an assessment upon their inferior tenants. This became a great abuse, and in king John’s great charter, he consented that no escuage should be levied but by consent of parliament; by Henry III.’s great charter the quantum of escuage is referred to what was taken in the reign of Henry II. Now the abbot required, that his tenants who held fifty-two knights’ fees and one half and one quarter of another knight’s fee, should pay their escuage individually, and not as a consolidated amount, in which latter form it was paid as for forty tenures instead of fifty-two}. This, with a question of castle-guard service, another species of knights’ service, was, after much trouble and expense, found against these knights; a victory,Sampson uses with moderation, as he does upon a subsequent occasion (pp. 24, 25). * The names of these tenants in knights’ service are specified at p. 35. + These fifty-two knights’ fees seem afterwards to have amounted to eighty-two and a half; and these, with the liberties of St. Edmund, and the eight hundreds and the half hundred of Cosford, formed the temporal jurisdiction of the abbot. i , xii INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. The episodical history of Henry of Essex (p. 20) is introduced for no other purpose than to proclaim what is in other places plainly mentioned, that St. Edmund was accustomed to take summary vengeance | upon those who disputed the rights of his convent. The disputes with the townsfolk show the commencement of more serious disagreements, and illustrate the early condition of the burgesses in walled towns. Sampson grants concessions to them in spite of his convent, who seem bent upon carrying matters with a high hand against the town *. The abbot is again harassed in respect of his secular tenures, and is obliged, as being the tenant of a baronial fief, to go beyond seas to king Richard, who was then in Normandy, and furnish him with stipendiary knights in lieu of those in England, who alleged that they were not bound to go out of the realm to perform military service. However, the knights did not evade paying their escuage, for Sampson brought back the king’s writ, empowering him to assess and levy, in the shape of escuage, all that he had paid in respect of his barony, which was settled between him and his knights upon amicable terms. (pp. 24, 25.) j We now return to the interior of the convent, where the abbot occupies himself in domestic reforms by taking charge of the cellary, a measure which exposes the convent to the derision of the town and the arrogance of the clerk he had substituted, a fault Jocelin has probably overrated, as the cloister monks and the clerks were never on good terms with each other. The reparation of old buildings, and the construction of new ; above all, the beautifying the shrine of the patron saint, is Sampson’s purpose; that was a desirable object. This shrine had been intact even upon the occasion of king Richard’s redemp- tion, when, as ancient chronicles inform us, every alternate chalice throughout the realm had been melted down for payment of the ransom. The convent had given up, as we are told at p. 13, its treasure ; even the great golden chalice that queen Eleanor had given them was offered and redeemed ; but for all this the barons of the exchequer hinted that part of the shrine might be spared. The abbot’s answer is in accordance with his reply to king Richard upon the subject of granting a wardship, “ Do it ' if you dare.” This shrine is to be decorated anew, and the body of St. Edmund transferred to a new | loculus, or coffin, and to rest upon a marble pediment +. The damage done to the old shrine by fire, the ceremony of translating the body of the saint to its new resting-place, the ceremony of opening the shrine, and viewing the sacred body }, are next detailed as subjects of the highest concern and interest. The rebellion of the monks, and their reconcilement to the abbot (who is, throughout the whole course of events, described as being in constant trouble, anxiety, strife, vexation and labour, into which his desire to effect the reformation of the affairs and manners of his convent, and his secular tenures had plunged him), some subsecival litigations respecting the market of Lakenheath, and a death-bed acknowledgment of Adam Cokefield, and his departure beyond seas to attend the king at Argenton, in January 1202, close the most prominent of the events described in this Chronicle, which has but few equals in faithfully depicturing to the antiquarian and general reader the state of monastic government and social existence in the twelfth century. * The disputes between the townsmen and the abbey became at last so violent, that in 1327 the townsmen actually broke open and pillaged the convent, in which outrage they were assisted by several clerks and priests. The termination of this affair was, that the townsmen were amerced at an enormous sum; but the abbey confined its claim to the actual damage it had sustained, and remitted the surplus. The alderman of the town, or town-bailiff, and thirty-two priests, were outlawed; of whom some conspired against the then abbot, who at that time lay at Chevington, one of his manors. These conspirators bound the abbot, shaved him, and carried him away to London; where they removed him from street to street, till they could convey him over the Thames into Kent, and over sea to Dist in Brabant, where he was kept a long time in much misery; at length he obtained his liberation. The voluminous legal proceedings to which these outrages gave rise are fully set forth in the Monasticon, iii. 98 e¢ seg., ed. 1821. The reader is also referred to Yates’s Illustration, cited post, p. 42. col: 1. + The MS. Life of St. Edmund, by Lydgate, a monk of St. Edmund’s Bury, (now in the British Museum, MS. Harl. 2278,) amongst its numerous illustrations, preserves one of king Henry the Sixth’s performing his devotions before St. Edmund’s shrine, during the occasion of a long visit he made to the convent in 1433. The shrine is represented as of gold, upon a pedestal of gothic stone-work. The illustration or illumination is copied in Dugdale’s Monasticon, ed. 1821, iii. 114, and will explain to the curious reader what is not sufficiently intelligible in the present chronicler’s description. t In Mr. Rokewode’s note at the corresponding paragraph in the Latin, it is stated that the body of St. Edmund had remained undisturbed from the time of abbot Baldwin’s translation, in 1095; and on that occasion the abbot would not allow the shrine to be opened. Leofstan, the immediate predecessor of Baldwin, moved, as is related, by reproaches from the martyr, that his body was irreverently kept, opened the wooden chest in which it lay, for the sake of honouring the saint. The proceeding is detailed by Hermannus, fol. 43. 6, which Mr. Rokewode cites; and by this account it appears, that the grand miracle of the head being united to the body is again vouched. Mr. Rokewode further states, that ; according to Abbo, Theodred bishop of the East Angles visited the shrine of St. Edmund at Bedricsworth; and after wash- ing and clothing the body, replaced it in the chest, which at a later time was opened by Leofstan, and at length by abbot Sampson. Mr. Rokewode refers to Surius, vi. 471, and remarks, that some of the legends of St. Edmund have a singular conformity with those of St. Cuthbert. Istineron, 11 Jan. 1844. T. E. TOMLINS. Forasmucn as I have taken in hand to record those things which in our days have A.D. 1173. come to pass in the church of St. Ed- mund, even from that year when the Flemings were taken without the town, at which time I took upon me the religious habit, being the same year wherein Hugh the prior was deposed, and Robert made prior in his stead,—I have min- gled in my narration some evil things to serve as a warning, and some good things for the sake of experience. Now it came to pass that Hugh the abbot was old, “ and his eyes were dim * ;” a pious and kind man was he, a good and religious monk, yet not wise or heedful in worldly affairs ; one who too much trusted to his own creatures, and put faith in them, rather taking counsel of a stranger than abiding by his own judgment. To be sure, good governance and religion waxed warm in the cloister, but out doors’ affairs were badly managed, in fact, every one serving under a simple and already aged lord, did that which was right in his own eyes, not that which ought to have been done. The town- ships of the abbot and all the hundreds were set to farm, the forests were destroyed, the manor houses threatened to fall, every thing daily got worse and worse. There was but one resource and relief to the abbot, and that was to take up monies on inter- est, so that thereby he might be able in some measure to keep up the dignity of his house. There befel not a term of Easter or St. Michael, for eight years before his decease, but that one or two hun- dred pounds at least increased in principal debt ; the securities were always renewed, and the interest which accrued was converted into principal. This laxity descended from the head to the members, from the superior to the subjects. Hence it came to pass, that every official of the house had a seal of his own, and bound himself in debt at his own pleasure, to Jews as well as to Christians. Often- times silken caps, and golden phials, and other ornaments of the church, were pledged without the knowledge of the convent. J myself sawa security passed to William Fitz Isabel for one thousand and * Gen. xxvii. 1, THE CHRONICLES OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. forty pounds, but I never could learn the consider- | ation or the cause. I also saw another security passed to Isaac the son of Rabbi Jocee, for three hundred pounds, but I know not wherefore. I also saw a third security passed to Benedict the Jew of Norwich, for eight hundred and fourscore pounds ; and this was the origin of that debt. Our parlour was destroyed, and it was given in charge to William the sacrist, will he nill he, that he should restore it ; and he privily borrowed from Benedict the Jew forty marks at interest, and gave him a security sealed with a certain seal, which used to hang at the shrine of St. Edmund, where- with the guilds and fraternities were wont to be sealed ; this seal at last, but in no great haste, was broken by order of the convent. Now when that debt had increased to one hundred pounds, the Jew came bearing the precept of our lord the king touching this debt of the sacrist ; and then it was that all that had been secret from the abbot and convent was laid open. The abbot waxed exceed- ing wroth, alleging that he possessed the privilege of our lord the pope, giving him power of deposing William his sacrist whensoever it pleased him. Howbeit, some one went to the abbot, and excusing the sacrist, he so wheedled the abbot that he per- mitted a security to be passed to Benedict the Jew for four hundred pounds, payable at the end of four years, to wit, for one hundred pounds which had then already accrued for interest, and also for another one hundred pounds, which the same Jew had advanced to the sacrist for the use of the abbot. And the sacrist, in full chapter, under- took for the entire of that debt to be paid, the abbot quietly putting up with the whole matter, and not even affixing his own seal, just as if that debt was no concern of his. But so it was, that at the end of the four years, there was not from whence that debt could be discharged ; and then there was made a new security for eight hundred and four- score pounds, payable at set terms, at each term fourscore pounds. Moreover, the same Jew had many other securities of smaller account, and one which was for fourteen years ; so this debt alone came to one thousand and two hundred pounds, besides the interest that had acerued. Now R B ut | +,” for it is an act worthy to be had in remembrance. After this the abbot Sampson and Robert de Seales came to an agree- ment concerning the moiety of the ad- vowson of the church of Wetherden, and the same Robert acknowledged it to be the right of St. Edmund and the abbot. Thereupon the abbot, without any previous understanding taking place, and without any promise previously made, gave that moiety which belonged to him to master Roger de Scales, brother of the same knight, upon this condition, that he should pay by the hand of our sacrist an annual pension of three marks to that master of the schools who should teach in the town of St. Edmund. This the abbot did, being induced thereto by motives of remarkable generosity ; and as he had formerly ¢ purchased stone houses for the use of the schools, that poor clerks should be free from house rent, so now from thenceforth they became freed from all demand of monies which the master of the school of custom demanded for his teaching. However, by God’s will, and during the abbot’s life, the entire moiety of the aforesaid church, which was worth, as ’tis said, one hundred shillings, was appropriated to such purposes. Now the abbot, after that he had built in his towns throughout the abbacy many and various edifices, and had taken up his quarters at his manor houses oftener and more frequent than with us at home, at length, as if coming to himself, and as if making good better, said that he would stay more at home than he had been used to do; and would now erect some buildings within the court lodge for necessary purposes, having regard to in- ternals and externals, and as if he was aware that “the presence of the master is the profit of the A.D. 1198. * In lieu of a more formal induction to their monastery. + Matt. xi. 15. { Ante, p. 13, col. 1. ; 28 Sampson rebuilds and repairs the convent buildings and -chapels. &c. field *.”> Therefore he gave directions that the sta- bles and offices in the court-lodge and round about the same, formerly covered with reeds, but now newly roofed, should be covered in at the sides, by the assistance of Hugh the sacrist, so all peril and danger of fire was prevented. And now the long-hoped-for time, the long- wished-for day has arrived, whereof I write not but with great joy, myself having the care of the guests. Lo! at the command of the abbot the court-lodge resounds with spades and masons’ tools, for pulling down the guest-house; and now it is almost all prostrated. Of the rebuilding, let the Most High take thought! The abbot built for himself a new larder in the court-lodge, and gave the old larder to the convent for the accommoda- tion of the chamberlain, which, very inconveniently, was under the dormitory. The chapels of St. Andrew, and St. Katherine, and St. Faith are new covered with lead; many repairs also are made, both inside the church and without. If you will not believe, open your eyes and see. Also in his time was built our stone almonry, which previously was of wood and out of repair; whereto a certain brother of ours, Walter the physician, contributed much of what he had acquired by his practice of physic. The abbot also observing that the silver table of the high altar, and many other precious ornaments, had been alienated on account of the recovery of Mildenhall and the redemption of king Richard, was not desirous of replacing that table or such like matters, which upon a similar occasion might have to be torn away and misappropriated ; he therefore turned his attention to the making a most valuable crest} to place over the shrine of the glorious martyr Edmund, that there his ornament should be placed from whence it could by no possi- billty be abstracted, and where no human being would dare to put his hand. For example, king Richard being captive in Germany, there was no treasure in England but was either to be given up or redeemed f{, but yet the shrine of St. Edmund remained untouched. Now it became a question before the justices of the exchequer, whether the shrine of St. Edmund should not, at least in part, be stripped for the redemption of the king Richard ; but the abbot standing up, answered, “ Know ye of a surety, that this never shall be done by me, nor is there a man who can so compel me that I should consent. But I will open the doors of the church, let him enter who will, let him approach who dare.” Each of the justices replied with oaths, “I will not venture to approach it. Nor will I. St. Ed- mund grievously punishes those who are far off as well as those who are near at hand; how much the more so will he inflict vengeance upon those who will take away his vesture.” Upon this neither was the shrine despoiled or redemption paid. Therefore passing by other things, the abbot care- fully and advisedly turned his mind towards the making of a crest for the shrine. And now the plates of gold and silver resound between the ham- mer and the anvil, and “ tractant fabrilia fabri §.” * Preesentia domini provectus est agri. Pallad. lib. i. tit. 6. The eye of the master maketh the ox fat. The eye of the master does more work than his hands. + Crista, ‘‘ crest,” any carved work or imagery to adorn the head or top of any wainscot, &c.—Cowell’s Interpreter. ft Ante, p. 13, col. 2. § Horat. lib. ii. Ep, v. 116. THE CHRONICLES His resolution in respect to the shrine of St. Edmund, and in respect of the grant of a wardship. Adam de Cokefield dying, left for his heir a daugh- ter of three months old ; and the abbot gave the wardship, as belonging to his fee,towhom About he would. Now King Richard, being solicited 1198. by some of his courtiers, anxiously sought for the ward and the child for the use of some one of his servants; at one time by letters, at another time by messengers. But the abbot answered, that he had given the ward away, and had confirmed his gift by his charter; and sending his own mes- senger to the king, he did all he could, prece e precio, to mitigate his wrath. And the king made answer that he would avenge himself upon that proud abbot who had thwarted him, was it not for reverence of St. Edmund, whom he feared. There- fore the messenger returning, the abbot very wisely passed over the king’s threats without notice, and said, “ Let the king send, if he will, and seize the ward ; he has the strength and power of doing his will, indeed of taking away the whole abbey. I shall never be bent to his will in this matter, nor by me shall this ever be done. For the thing that is most to be apprehended is, lest such things by conse- quence be drawn to the prejudice of my successors. On this business, depend upon’t, I will give the king no money. Let the Most High look to it. Whatever may befall, I will patiently bear with.” Now, therefore, many were saying and believing that the king was exasperated against the abbot, but lo! the king wrote quite in a friendly way to the abbot, and requested that he would give him some of his dogs. The abbot, not unmindful of that saying of the wise man *, ‘‘Munera (crede mihi) capiunt hominesque deosque: Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis, sent the dogs as the king requested, and moreover, sent some horses and other valuable gifts. Which, when the king had graciously accepted, he in public most highly commended the honesty and fidelity of the abbot, and also sent to the abbot by his mes- sengers a ring of great price, which our lord; the pope Innocent the third, of his A.D. 1198. great grace had given him, to wit, being the very first gift that had been offered after his consecration. Also by his writ he rendered him many thanks for the presents he had sent him. Many persons marvelled at the changes in the customs that took place by the order or permission of the lord abbot Sampson. From the time when the town of St. Edmund took the name and liberty of a borough, the men of every house used to give to the cellarer one penny in the beginning of August, to mow our corn, which annual payment was called rep-silver ; and before the town became free all of them used to reap as servants; the dwellings of knights and chaplains, and of the ser- vants of the court-lodge, being alone exempt from this payment. In process of time the cellarer spared certain of the most wealthy of the town, demanding nothing from them; the other bur- gesses, seeing this, used openly to say, that no one who had a dwelling house of his own was liable to pay this penny, but only those who rented houses from others. Afterwards they all in common sought this exemption, conferring thereon with the lord abbot, and offering an annual rent as a composition of this demand. The abbot, indeed, considering * Ovid Art. Am. v. 653. Sampson discountenances the op- privileges between the tenants.— pressive levying of ancient cus- OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND, Discourse upon the ancient dues 29 toms.— Desires an equalization of how disgracefully the cellarer was going through the town to collect rep-silver, and the manner in which he used to take distresses in the houses of the poor, sometimes taking the stools, sometimes the doors, and sometimes other utensils, and how the old women came out with their distaffs, threat- ening and abusing the cellarer and his men, ordered that twenty shillings should be given every year to the cellarer at the next portmane-mot *, at the hand of the bailiff before August, by the burgesses who were to pay the rent to discharge this. And it was done accordingly, and confirmed by our charter, there being given to them another quittance from a certain customary payment, which is called sor- pent, for four shillings, payable at the same term. The cellarer was also used to receive one penny by the year from every cow belonging to the men of the town for going to the common for pasture (un- less perchance they happened to be the cows of the chaplains or of the servants at the court-lodge); and these cows he was used to impound, and occu- pied himself much in such matters. Afterwards, indeed, when the abbot made mention of this in chapter, the convent were very angry, and took it in ill part, so much so that Benedict the sub- prior in the chapter, answering for all, said, “ That man, the abbot Ording, who lies there, would not have done such a thing for five hundred marks of silver.” The abbot, although he himself felt angry, put off the matter for a time. Also there arose a great contention between Roger the cellarer and Hugh the sacrist concerning the appurtenances of their offices, so that the sacrist would not lend to the cellarer the prison of the town for the purpose of detaining therein the robbers who were taken in the cellarer’s fee*. Whereby the cellarer was oftentimes harassed, and because the rob- bers escaped he was reprimanded for default of justice. Now it came to pass that one holding as a free tenant of the cellarer, dwelling without the gate, by name Ketel, was charged with theft, and being vanquished in camp-fight, was hanged. On this occasion the convent was grieved by reason of the scandalous words of the burgesses, who said, that if that man had only dwelt within the borough, it would not have come to camp-fight, but that he would have acquitted himself by the oaths of his neighbours, as is the liberty of those who dwell within the borough. Therefore the abbot and the more reasonable part of the convent seeing this, and bearing in mind that the men within the borough as well as those without are ours, and ought all of them in like manner to enjoy the same privilege within the liberties, except the villans of Hardwick and their peers, deliberately advised with themselves how this could be done. There- upon the abbot being desirous of limiting the offices of the sacristy and the cellary by certain arti- cles, and of quieting all contentions, but as if taking the part of the sacrist, commanded that the ser- vants of the town bailiff and the servants of the cellarer should together enter upon the fee of the cellarer for the purpose of seizing robbers and malefactors, and that the bailiff should have half the profit of their imprisonment and safe keeping ; * Portman-moot, or port-moot, + Within the limits of his jurisdiction. or customs payable to the cellarer. and for his pains therein, and that the court of the cellarer should go to the portmane-mot, and there by their joint act, those that were to be tried should be adjudicated upon. It was also ordered that the men of the cellarer should come to the toll-house with the others, and there renew their pledges, and should be inscribed upon the bailiff’s roll, and should there give the bailiff that penny which is called borth-selver, whereof the cellarer was to have one half part; but at this time the cellarer receives nothing at all from this. The in- tent of all this was, that every one should enjoy equal privilege. Nevertheless, the burgesses at this time say, that the dwellers in the suburbs ought not to be quit of toll in market, unless they belong to the merchants’ guild. Moreover, the bailiff (the abbot winking at the matter) now claims for himself the fines and forfeitures accruing from the fee of the cellarer. The ancient customs of the cellarer, which we have seen, were these. The cellarer was to have his messuage and barns near Scurun’s well, at which place he was accustomed to exercise his jurisdiction upon robbers, and hold his court for all pleas and plaints, also at that place he was accus- tomed to put his men in pledge, and to inroll them and to renew their pledges every year, and to take such profit therefore as the bailiff of the town was to take at the Portman-moot, which messuage with the adjacent garden, now in the occupation of the infirmarer, was the mansion of Beodric, who was of old time the lord of that town, hence the town also came to be called Beodrichesworth, whose demesne lands now are in the demesne of the cellarer. And that which is now called averland, was the land of his rustics. And the total amount of that tene- ment of his and his churls was three hundred and thirty acres of land, which are still the fields of this town, the service whereof, when the town was made free, was divided into two parts, so that the sacrist, or the town bailiff, was to receive a free an- nual payment, to wit, of each acre twopence; the cellarer was to have the ploughings and the other services, to wit, the ploughing of one rood for each acre, without meals (which custom is still observed), and was to have the folds where all the men of the town, except the steward who has his own fold, are bound to put their sheep (which custom, also, is still observed) ; and was to have aver- peni, to wit, for each thirty acres two pence; which custom was done away with before the decease of the abbot Hugh, when Gilbert of Alveden was cellarer. Further- more, the men of the town were wontupon the order of the cellarer to go to Lakenheath, and bring back a day’s-work of eels from Southrey, and often, indeed, used to return empty, and thus to be ha- rassed without any profit to the cellarer ; therefore, it was settled between them, that each thirty acres, from thenceforth, should pay one penny by the year, and the men were to remain at home. But in fact, at this time, those lands are subdivided into so many parts, that it can hardly be ascertained by whom that annnal payment is to be made ; so that I have seen the cellarer, in one year, take twenty- seven pence, but now he can hardly get ten pence and a halfpenny. Also the cellarer was wont to exercise authority over the ways without the town, so that it was not lawful for any one to dig for chalk or clay without his licence. He also was ———_— | The mode of purveyance 30 for the abbot and con- vent. THE CHRONICLES The convent complain of the abbot’s assuming jurisdiction in exclusion of the convent. accustomed to summon the fullers of the town, that they should furnish cloth for carrying his salt. Otherwise he would prohibit them the use of the waters, and would take the webs he found there ; which customs are still observed. Also whosoever bought corn, or indeed anything from the cellarer, was accustomed to be quit from toll at the gate of the town when he went homewards, wherefore the cellarer sold his produce dearer; which usage is still observed. Also, the cellarer is accustomed to take toll of flax at the time of its carrying, to wit, one truss from each load. Also, the cellarer alone ought, or at least used to have, a free bull in the fields of this town ; now many persons have bulls. Also, when any one surrendered his burgage land in alms to the convent, and this was assigned to the cellarer, or other official, that land ought, thence- forth, to be quit of haggovele, and most especially so to the cellarer, on account of the dignity of his office, for he is the second father in the monastery, or even asa matter of reverence to the convent, for the estate of those who procure our provi- sions ought to be favorable; but the abbot says that usage is unjust, because the sacrist loses his service. Also, the cellarer was accustomed to warrant to the servants of the court-lodge, that they should be quit of scot and tallage ; but now it is not so, for the burgesses say, that the servants of the court- lodge ought to be quit only so far as they are ser- vants, but not when they hold burgage in the town, and when they, or their wives, publicly buy and sell in the market. Also, the cellarer was used freely to take all the dunghills in every street, for his own use, unless it were before the doors of those who were holding averland; for to them only was it allowable to collect dung and to keep it. This custom was not enforced in the time of the abbot Hugh up to the period when Dennis and Roger of Hingham became cellarers, who being desirous of reviving the ancient custom, took the cars of the burgesses laden with dung, and made them un- load ; but a multitude of the burgesses resisting, and being too strong for them, every one in his own tenement now collects his dung in a heap, and the poor sell theirs when and to whom they choose. Also, the cellarer was wont to have this privilege in the market of this town, that he and his pur- veyors should have pre-emption of all the pro- visions for the use of the convent, if the abbot were not at home. Also, that the purveyors of the abbot, or cellarer, whichever of them first came into the market, should buy first, either the latter without the former, or the former without the latter. Bunt if both were present, then preference was to be given to the abbot. Also, in the season when herrings were sold, the purveyors of the abbot should always buy a hundred of herrings for less than the others by a halfpenny ; and so of the cellarer and his purveyors. Also, if the bulk of the fish or other provisions should first come into the court-lodge, or into the market, and that bulk should not have been discharged from the horse, or from the cart, the cellarer, or his purveyors, might buy the whole and take it home with them without paying toll. But the abbot Sampson commanded his purveyors that they should give preference to the cellarer and his men, because, as he himself said, he had much rather himself should go without, than his convent. Therefore the purveyors, “ in honour preferring one another*,” if they find that there is any one thing to be bought which is not enough for both parties, buy it between them, and divide it, share and share alike, and so between the head and the members, and the father and the son, there remains a jarring concord +. The poet saith, “Summa petit livor t,” and ’tis with reason I repeat these words, for that when somebody was perusing this narrative, and while he was reading of so many good acts, he called me a flatterer and a seeker of favour and grace, saying that I had silently suppressed some things which ought not to have been passed by. And when I in- quired which and what sort of acts might they be, he answered, “ Do you not see how the abbot grants away the escheats of land belonging to the demesnes of the convent, and the female heirs of lands, and the widows §, as well within the town of St, Ed- mund as without? Also do you not see how the abbot draws to himself the plaints and pleas of those who demand by the king’s writ lands which are of the fee of the convent, and especially those plaints from which profit arises; and those from which no gain ensues, he turns over to the cellarer or sacrist, or other officials ?”” Whereto I answered, as I believe the fact to be, perhaps rightly, perhaps erroneously, and said, that every lord of a fee whereto there is homage, ought by right to have an escheat whenever it shall have fallen within that fee in respect whereof he has received homage ; and by parity of reason, there is due to him general aid of the burgesses, and also the wardships of boys, and the gifts of widows and girls, in those fees in respect whereof he has received homage ; for all these things seem to belong to the abbot alone, unless by chance the abbey shall be vacant. Moreover, in the town of St. Edmund a special custom has place, by reason of its being a borough, that the next cousin shall have the wardship of a boy with an inheritance, until the years of discre- tion. Furthermore, I thus answered him concern- ing the plaints and pleas, that I had never seen the abbot usurp pleas (7. e. jurisdiction) that belonged to us, unless in default of our administering justice; but nevertheless, he had on some occasions taken money, in order that by the intervention of his authority, plaints and pleas should attain their final determination. Also, I have observed, that some- times pleas which belonged to us are decided in the court of the abbot, because there was not any in the commencement of the suit who would, on the part of the convent, assert the jurisdiction. In the year of grace one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight, the glorious A.D. 1198. martyr Edmund was pleased to strike terror into our convent, and to instruct us that his body should be kept more reverently and obsery- antly than it had hitherto been. Now there was a certain flooring between the shrine and the altar whereupon two tapers, which the keepers of the | shrine used to join together, by placing one upon the other in a slovenly manner, stood ; and under that flooring there were many things irreverently huddled together, such as flax, and thread, and wax, and various utensils, so that whatever was * Rom. xii. 10. + Lucan i. v. 98. t Ovid; Remed. Am. 369. § Ante, p. 10, col. 2. || The fine on their subsequent marriage. A fire takes place, which is speedily extinguished, and endeavoured, but vainly, to be kept secret. used by the keepers of the shrine was there put altogether, there being a door with iron gratings. Now, as we are given to believe, when these keepers of the shrine, on the night of St. Etheldreda *, were fast asleep, that part of the taper which had been clapt upon the other, and was still burning, fell upon the aforesaid flooring covered with rags, and consequently all that was above or beneath began to burn rapidly, so much so, that the iron gratings were at a white heat. And lo! the wrath of the Lord +, but not without mercy, was kindled, accord- ing to that saying, “ In wrath remember mercy {;” for in the same hour the clock fell before matins; now the master of the vestiary getting up, observing and noticing the fire, ran as hard as he could, and having struck the bells as if tolling for a dead per- son, cried out lustily the shrine was consumed by fire. We, on the other hand, all running thither, found the fire raging wonderfully, and encircling the whole shrine, and not far from mounting up to the wood work of the church. Our young men, some running for water, some to the well,some to the clock, some with their hoods, not without great labour, ex- tinguished the force of the fire, and also snatched from destruction some holy relics upon the first alarm. And when cold water was poured upon the front of the shrine, the stones fell and were reduced, as it were, to powder. Moreover, the nails whereby the plates of silver were affixed to the shrine, started from the wood, which had been burnt underneath to the thickness of my finger, and the plates of silver were left hanging without nails on one side or the other. However, the golden holy of holies § in front of the shrine, together with some of the stonework, remained firm and untouched, and, if any thing, brighter after the fire than it was before, for it all was of gold. It so happened, by the will of the Highest, that at that time a great beam which used to be beyond the altar, had been re- moved, in order that it should be repaired with new carving. It also happened that the cross, and the St. Mary, and the St. John, and the chest with the camise of St. Edmund, and the amulet, with relics, which used to hang from the same beam, and other holy things which also stood upon the same beam, had every of them been previously taken away, else these all would have been burnt, as we believe, even as a tapestry was burnt which hung in the place of this beam. But what would it have been had the church been curtained? When, there- fore, we had assured ourselves that the fire had in no place injured the shrine, we most carefully began to inspect the chinks and crannies, if there were any; and now perceiving that all was cold, our grief was in a great measure abated. And be- hold! some of our brethren cried out with a great wailing, that the cup of St. Edmund had been burnt; and when many of us here and there had searched amongst the stones and plates, and among the coals and cinders, they drew forth the cup entirely unin- jured, lying in the middle of the great charred timbers, which were then put out, and found the same wrapped up in linen cloth, half burnt. But the oaken box in which the cup was usually placed had been burnt to ashes, and was only to be recognized by the iron band and iron lock. This miracle being observed, we all wept for joy. * 17 October. + Num. xi. 33. } Habak. iii. 2. § Majestas. OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. The abbot reproves the convent, and suggests a retrenchment 31 for repair of the shrine. Now as we observed that the greater part of the front of the shrine was stripped off, and abhorring the disgraceful circumstance of this fire, after a consultation with all of us, we called a goldsmith to our assistance, and caused to be joined together the metal plates, and fixed them to the shrine, without the least delay, to avoid the scandal of the thing; we also caused to be concealed all traces of the fire, whether visible by wax or in any other manner. But the Evangelist testifies, that “there is nothing covered which shall not be revealed*;” for some pilgrims coming very early in the morn- ing to make their offerings, they could have per- ceived nothing of the sort ; nevertheless, certain of them peering about, inquired where was the fire that they had just heard had been about the shrine. And since it could not be entirely con- ceaied, it was answered to these prying folks, that a candle had fallen down, and that three napkins had been burnt, and that by the heat of the fire some of the stone work in front of the shrine had been destroyed. Yet for all this there went forth a lying rumour, that the head of the saint had been burnt ; some indeed contented themselves with saying that the hair only was burnt: but after- wards the truth being known, “ the mouth of them that spake lies was stopped +.” All these things came to pass by God’s provi- dence, in order that the places round about the shrine of his saint should be more decently kept, and that the purpose of the lord abbot should be sooner and without delay carried into execution ; to wit, that the shrine itself, together with the body of the holy martyr, should be placed with greater security, and with more pomp, in a more dignified position ; for before this aforesaid mishap occurred, the crest of the shrine was half finished, and the marble blocks whereon the shrine was to be ele- vated and was to rest, were for the most part ready and polished. The abbot, who at this time was absent, was exceedingly grieved at these reports; and he on his return home, and going into the chapter-house, declared that these and the like, nay, much greater perils, would certainly befal us for our sins, more especially for our grumbling with our meat and drink; in a certain measure turning the blame upon the whole body of the convent, rather than upon the avarice and carelessness of the keepers of the shrine, to the intent that he should discreetly carry this question, viz., that we should abstain from our pittances for at least one year, and should lay aside, for at least one year, the rents of the pittancery, for the purpose of repairing the front of the shrine with pure gold; himself, indeed, first showed us an example of liberality, by giving all the treasure of gold he possessed, to wit, fifteen golden rings, worth, as ’twas believed, sixty marks, in our presence, towards the reparation of the shrine. We, on the other hand, all of us, freely gave our pittancery for such purpose ; but our reso- lution was afterwards altered, by the sacrist saying that St. Edmund could very well repair his shrine without such assistance. At this time there came a certain man of great account, but who he was I know not, who related to the abbot a vision he had seen, whereat he him- * Luke xii. 2. + Psalm Ixii. 12. an ee | A person of quality sees a vision con- 32 cerning St. Edmund.—The abbot and THER CHRONICLES convent differ as to the interpretation. self was much moved; and indeed he related the same in full chapter, after a very bitter preface. “ It is indeed true,” he said, “ that a certain great man hath seen a vision, to wit, that he saw the holy martyr St. Edmund lie outside his shrine, and with groans to say that he was despoiled of his clothes, and was wasted away by hunger and thirst; and that his churchyard and the courts * of his church were negligently kept.” And this dream the abbot expounded to us all publicly, laying the blame upon our side, in this wise: “ St. Edmund alleges that he is naked, because ye defraud the naked poor of your old clothes, and likewise that you give with reluctance what ye are bound to give them of your meat and drink. Moreover, the idleness and also the negligence of the sacrist and his associates, is apparent from the recent misfortune by fire which has taken place between the shrine and the altar.” Hearing this the convent looked very grave, and after chapter many of the brethren met together, but they interpreted the dream after this fashion: “ We,” say they, “are the naked members of St. Edmund, and the convent is his naked body ; for we are de- spoiled of our ancient customs and privileges. The abbot has every thing, the chamberlainry, the sa- cristy, the cellary; while we perish of hunger and thirst, because we have not our victuals, save by the clerk of the abbot and by his ministration. If the keepers of the shrine have been negligent, let the abbot lay it to his own charge, for ’twas he who appointed such careless fellows.” In such wise spake many in the convent. But when this inter- pretation of the dream was communicated to the abbot, in the forest of Harlow, in his way from London, he was very wroth, and was much annoyed, and made answer, “ They will wrest that dream against me, will they? By the face of God! so so soon as I get home I shall restore to them the customs they say that are theirs; and I shall with- draw my clerk from the cellary, and shall leave them to themselves ; and I shall see how wise they will be at the end of the year. This year I have been residing at home, and I have caused their cellary to be managed without incurring of debt ; and this is the manner in which they render me thanks.” On the abbot’s return home, having it in purpose to translate the blessed martyr, he humbled him- self before God and man, meditating within him- self how he might reform himself, and make him- self at peace with all men, especially with his own convent. Therefore, sitting in chapter, he com- manded that a cellarer and sub-cellarer should be chosen by our common assent, and withdrew his own clerk, saying, that whatsoever he had done, he had done it for our advantage, as he called God and his saints to witness, and justified himself in various ways. “Hear, O heaven+!” the things that I speak ; “listen, O eartht!” to what abbot Sampson did. The feast of St. Edmund now approaching, the marble blocks were polished, and every thing made ready for the elevation of the shrine. The feast day having therefore been kept, on the sixth day of the week, Sunday being the next day, a three days’ fast was proclaimed to the people. The abbot also an- AD). 1198. 20 Nov. * Atria ecclesie suz. t Isaiah xxxiv. 1. + Isaiah i. 2. Sampson raises the shrine upon a new marble pedi- ment. nounced to the convent, that they should prepare themselves for transferring the shrine, and placing it upon the high altar, until the masons’ work was finished ; and he appointed the time and the man- ner for doing this work. Now when we had that night come to matins, there stood the shrine upon the altar, empty within, adorned with white doe- skins above, below, and round about, which were fixed to the wood by silver nails; but one panel stood below, by the column of the church, and the sacred body still laid there, as it was wont. Lauds having been sung, we all proceeded to receive our disciplines. This being performed, the lord abbot and those with him were clothed in albs; and ap- proaching reverently, as it was fit we should, they hastened to uncover the coffin. First there was an outer cloth of linen, overwrapping the coffin and all, this was found tied on the upper side with strings of its own; next there was a certain silken cloth, and then another linen cloth, and then a third; and so at last the coffin was uncovered, standing upon a little tray of wood, that the bottom of it might not be injured by the stone. Over the breast of the martyr there lay fixed from outside the coffin an angel of gold, about the length of a man’s foot, hol 4ing a golden sword in one hand, and a banner in the other; and underneath it there was a hole iu the lid of the coffin, where the ancient keepers of the martyr had been used to lay their hands, for the purpose of touching the sacred body. And this was the verse inscribed over the figure of the angel :— “ Martiris ecce zoma servat Michaélis agalma*.” At the two heads of the coffin were iron rings, as there used to be on the Danish coffin +; there- fore, raising up the coffin, together with the body, they carried it to the altar, and I lent thereto my sinful hand to help in carrying it, although the abbot had strictly commanded that no one should come nigh unless he were called; and the coffin was placed within the shrine, and the panel +t was put thereon and fastened down. Now we all be- gan to think, that the abbot would exhibit the coffin to the people on the octaves of the feast, and bring forth the sacred body before all of us ; but we were sadly deceived, as the following will show, for on the fourth day, the convent then sing- ing the completorium, the abbot spoke with the sacrist and Walter the physician, and it was re- solved, that twelve brethren should be appointed who were strong enough to carry the panels of the shrine, and cunning § in fixing and unfixing them. The abbot then said, that it had been the object of his prayers, to see his patron saint, and that he wished to join with him the sacrist and Walter the physician when he looked upon him ; and those that were appointed were the abbot’s two chaplains, the two keepers of the shrine, and the two keepers of the vestiary, and six others, Hugh the sacrist, Walter the physician, Augustine, William of Dissy, Robert and Richard. The con- vent being all asleep, those twelve were clothed in albs, and drawing the coffin from off the shrine, carried and placed it upon a table near * “ Behold the martyr’s body St. Michael’s image keeps.” t In cistaé Norensi. t Or outer lid. § 1 Chron. xxii. 15. The coffin containing the body of St. Edmund opened —The ap- pearance the body presented. where the shrine used to be, and commenced un- fastening the lid, which was joined and fixed. to the coffin with sixteen very long iron nails; this when with considerable difficulty they had per- formed, all were ordered to go further away, ex- cept the two forenamed associates. Now the coffin was so filled with the sacred body, both in length and width, that even a needle could hardly be put between the head and the wood, or between the feet and the wood, and the head lay united to the body, somewhat raised by a small pillow ; the abbot, looking attentively, next found a silk cloth veiling the whole body, and then a linen cloth of wondrous whiteness, and upon the head a small linen cloth, and after that another small and very fine silken cloth, as if it had been the veil of some nun; and, lastly, they discovered the body, wound round with a linen cloth, and then it was that the lineaments of the saint’s body were laid open to view. At this point the abbot stop- ped, saying he durst not proceed further, or view the holy body naked; but taking the head between _ his hands, he thus spoke in a subdued tone ; “ Glo- rious martyr, St. Edmund, blessed be the hour wherein thou wast born! Glorious martyr, turn it not to my destruction that I, miserable sinner, do touch thee, for thou knowest my devotion and my feelings.” And proceeding, he touched the eyes, and the nose, which was very massive and prominent, and then he touched the breast and arms, and raising the left arm he touched the fin- gers, and placed his own fingers between the fin- gers of the saint; and proceeding, he found the feet standing up stiff, like the feet of a man who had died to-day, and he touched the toes, and in touching, counted them. And it was proposed, that the other brethren should be called for- ward, in order that they might see the miracles; and those six, being thus called, approached, and also six other brethren with them, who had stolen in without the abbot’s assent, and did see the saint’s body, to wit, Walter of St. Alban’s, and Hugh the infirmarer, and Gilbert the brother of the prior, and Richard of Hingham, and Jocell the cellarer, and Thurstan the little, who alone put forth his hand, and touched the feet and knees of the saint ; and that, by the providence of the Most High, there should be abundance of witnesses, one of our brethren, John of Dissy, sitting upon the roof of the church with the servants of the ves- tiary, saw all these things plainly enough. All this being done, the lid was fastened down on the coffin with the same and with the same number of nails, and in like manner as before, the martyr being covered up with the same cloths and in the same order as he was when first discovered ; and, finally, the coffin was placed in the accustomed _ place, and there was put upon the coffin, near to the angel, a certain silken pocket, wherein was deposited a schedule written in English, containing certain salutations * of Ailwin the monk, as ’tis believed, which schedule was first found close by the golden angel when the coffin was uncovered. And by the abbot’s order, there was forthwith written another short memorial, also deposited in the same pocket, under the following form of words: Anno ab incarnatione domini M°.C. nonagesimo octavo, abbas * Devout praises or invocations to St. Edmund. OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. King John pays a visit to the con- vent from motives of devotion, but is not liberal in his gifts. 33 Samson, tractus devotione, corpus sancti Avdmundi vidit et tetigit, nocte proawima post festum sancte Katerine, his testibus*; and there- Nov. 26. to were subscribed the names of eighteen monks. The brethren also wound the whole coffin up with linen cloth compactly enough, and under the same placed a new and most valuable silken cloth, which Hubert, the archbishop of Canterbury, had offered at the shrine that very year, and they placed lengthwise a certain linen cloth doubled under it and next to the stone, to prevent the coffin or the tray whereon it stood being injured by the stone ; and afterwards the panels were brought forth, and with great care joined together on the shrine. Now when the convent came to chant matins, and perceived what had been done, all those who had not seen these things were very sorrowful, saying among themselves, “ we have been sadly deceived.” However, after matins had been sung, the abbot called the convent to the high altar, and shortly showing them what had been done, alleged that he ought not—nor was it fit— that he should call all of them to be present on such an occasion. Hearing this, with tears we sung “ Te Deum lau- damus,” and hastened to ring the bells in the choir. On the fourth day after, the abbot deposed the keepers of the shrine and the keeper of St. Botolph, appointing new ones, and establishing rules, so that the holy places should be more carefully and diligently kept, he also caused the great altar, which heretofore was hollow, and wherein many things were irreverently stowed away, and that space which was between the shrine and the altar, to be made solid with stone and cement, so that no danger from fire could arise by the negligence of the keepers, as had been already the case, according to the saying of the wise man, who saith :— Felix, quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum +. Now when the abbot had obtained the favour and grace of King Richard by gifts and money, so that he had good reason to believe that he could succeed according to his desire in all his undertakings, the King Richard died, and the abbot lost his labour and pains. However, King John, immediately after his coro- A. D. 1199. nation, setting aside all other affairs, eame down to St. Edmund, drawn thither by his vow and by devotion. We, indeed, 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 sa- erist, 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 thirteen easterling pence, which he offered at his mass on the day of his departure. About that time some of our officials made com- plaint, stating in our chapter, that Ralph the por- * In the year of the incarnation of our Lord 1198, the abbot Sampson, upon the impulse of devotion, saw and touched the body of St. Edmund on the night of the feast of St. Katherine, these being witnesses. + Erasm. Adag. 616. D En aa a re a eS a A res ar | | Ralph the porter contends against 34 the cellarer and convent, Samp- son taking his part. ter, our servant, maintained causes and actions against them, to the damage of the church and to the prejudice of the convent. And it was ordered by the prior, by assent of us all, that he should be punished according to our custom whereby our ser- vants are used to be punished, to wit, by the with- holding of their stipends; it was therefore ordered, that the cellarer should withhold from him, not the corody* which of right belonged to his office ac- cording to the tenor of his charter, but certain additions and perquisites which the cellarer and sub-cellarer allowed him without knowledge of the convent at large. Now the aforesaid Ralph, ac- companied by certain of the abbot’s table, com- plained to the abbot on his return from London, that the prior and convent had disseised him of his corody, whereof he was seised when the abbot had first come to the abbacy; they also stated to the abbot, that this act was done without his inter- ference, and to his dishonour, and unreasonably, without his advice, and for no assignable cause. The abbot indeed believed him, and, in other wise than became him, was excited, instantly justifying Ralph, and affirming that he was innocent ; and coming into chapter and thereof complaining, said that what had been done was to his prejudice, and without his consent. And it was answered by one of us, the others all joining him, that this was done by the prior, and with the assent of the whole convent. The abbot was confused at this, and saying, “I have nourished and brought up chil- dren, and they have rebelled against me*+,” by no means overlooking this (as he ought to have done), for the sake of peace to the many, but rather exhibit- ing his power with a resolution not to be over- mastered, openly gave command to the cellarer, that he should restore to Ralph fully and wholly all that had been taken from him, and that he should drink nothing but water till he had re- stored every thing. But Jocell the cellarer hearing this, chose for that day to drink water, rather than restore the corody to Ralph against the will of the convent. But when the abbot came to the knowledge of this, on the morrow he forbade both meat and drink to the cellarer until he re- stored all; with these words, the abbot imme- diately departed from the town, and stayed away for eight days. On that same day whereon the abbot had de- parted, the cellarer arose in chapter, and exhibiting the precept of the abbot, and holding his keys in his hand, said that he had rather be deposed from his office than do any thing in opposition to the convent. And then there commenced a great tumult in the convent, such as | had never before seen ; and they said that the precept of the abbot was not to be obeyed. But the seniors and more prudent men of the convent, discreetly holding their tongues, upon being urged, gave it as their opinion that the abbot was to be obeyed in every thing, except in things manifestly against God’s pleasure; and intimated that we must bear with this scandalous behaviour for a time, for the sake of peace, lest a worse thing happen. Now when the prior began to sing “ Verba mea },” for all deceased, as is the rule, the novi- | * An allowance of food from the convent. T a6. te 2. t The psalm that commences thus in the Vulgate, viz. | Pssy.: THE CHRONICLES A disturbance in the con- vent, which is at last quelled. ciates stopped, and with them nearly the 1aviety of the convent, and raising their voices they all cried out in answer, and opposed it. Nevertheless, the senior part of the convent prevailed, although they were few in respect of the rest of the multitude, The abbot, although absent, yet by his messengers terrified some by threats, some others he drew over to him by fair words, and the more influential men of the convent, as though they were afraid even of his garment, he caused to secede from the counsel of the generality, as if that Gospel should be fulfilled which saith, “ Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation *.” Moreover, the abbot said that he would by no means come amongst us, by reason of the conspiracies and oaths which, as he said, we directed against him, that we should kill him with our knives. However, returning home, and sitting in his inner chamber, he gave orders to one of our brethren whom he vehemently suspected, that he should come to him; and be- cause he would not come to him, he fearing to be taken and bound, he was excommunicated; and the whole day after, he lay bound hand and foot, remaining till morning in the infirmary. Three others he also included in a lesser condemnation, in order that the others might fear. On the mor- row it was resolved, that the abbot should be in- formed that we were willing to humble ourselves before him, both in word and demeanour, so that his anger might be appeased ; and it was done ac- cordingly. He, on the other hand, answering meekly enough, but always alleging his own recti- tude, laid the blame upon us; yet when he saw that we were willing to be vanquished, was himself fairly overcome ; and bursting into tears, he swore that he had never grieved for any one thing as he had upon the present occasion, as well on his own account as on our account also, and more especially for the scandal, the evil report which had already gone abroad concerning our dissension, saying, that the monks of St. Edmund were about to kill their abbot. And when the abbot had told us how he went away on purpose till his anger had cooled +, repeating this saying of the philosopher, “ I would have taken vengeance upon thee had I not been angry {,” he arose weeping, and embraced all and every of us with the kiss of peace. He wept in- deed, and so did we. Presently the brethren who had been excommunicated were absolved; and thus the tempest ceased, “and there was a great calm §.” Yet for all this the abbot gave private orders that the accustomed corody should be given without stint to Ralph the porter, as heretofore ; of which matter, however, we took no further notice, being at last made to understand that there is no lord who will not bear rule, and that battle is perilous which is undertaken against the stronger, and is begun against the more powerful party. In the year of grace one thousand two hundred, a marshalling took place of the A.D. 1200. knights of St. Edmund || and of their fees, whereof their ancestors had been infeoffed. Alberic de Vere holds five knights’ fees and a * Matt. xii. 25. + Cic. iv. Tusc. 36. ¢ Cic. iv. Tuse. 79. Seneca, |. i. de Ira, c. 15. § Mark iv. 39. Luke viii. 24. || Of those who held one or more knights’ fees of the ab- bot as their lord. Account of the tenants holding of the abbey by knight’s service, and their ancient fiefs. half : to wit, m Loddon and in Brom, one knight’s fee; in Mendham and Preston, one knight’s fee; in Rede, one knight’s fee ; and in Cokefield, half a knight’s fee; and in Livermere, two knights’ fees. William of Hastings holds five knights’ fees : to wit, in Lidgate, and in Blunham, and in Herlinghe, three knights’ fees ; and in Tibenham and in Gis- | sing, two. The earl Roger holds three knights’ fees, in Nor- ton and Brisingeham. Robert Fitz Roger holds one knight’s fee, in Marlesford. Alexander of Kirkby holds one knight’s fee, in Kirkby. Roger of Eu holds two knights’ fees, in Michfield and in Topscroft. Arnald of Charneles and his co-parceners, one knight’s fee, in Oakley, and in Quidenham, and in Thurston, and Stuston. Osbert of Wachesham, one knight’s fee, in Mar- lingford and in Wortham. William of Tostock, one knight’s fee, in Randes- tune. Gilbert Fitz Ralph, three knights’ fees: to wit, in Thulnetham and in Hepworth, one knight’s fee; _ in Reydon [in Blithing], and in Gissing, one knight’s fee ; and in Saxham, one knight’s fee. Ralph of Bukenham, half a knight’s fee in Bukenham. William of Berdwell, two knights’ fees, in Bern- ingham, and in Berdewell, and in Hunston, and in Stanton. Robert of Langetoft holds three knights’ fees, in Stow, and in Ashfield, and in Troston, and in Little Waltham in Essex. Adam of Cokefield, two knights’ fees : to wit, in Lavenham, and in Onehouse, one knight’s fee; and in Lelesey. Robert Fitz Walter, one knight’s fee, in Great Fakenham, and in Sapston. ‘William Blund, one knight’s fee in Thorp. Gilbert Peche, two knights’ fees: to wit, in Wande and in Geddinge, one knight’s fee ; in Falesham, and in Euston, and in Grotens, one knight’s fee. Gilbert of St. Clare, two knights’ fees, in Brad- field and in Watlesfield. Geoffrey of Whelnethan and Gilbert of Manston, one knight’s fee, in Whelnethan and in Manston. Hubert of Ansty, half a knight’s fee, in Brid- dinghoe. Gervase of Rothing, one knight’s fee, in Chipley and in Rothing. Robert of Halsted, one knight’s fee in Halsted, and half a knight’s fee in Brockley. Reynold of Brockley, one knight’s fee in Brockley. Simon of Pateshull, half a knight’s fee in Whate- field. Peter Fitz Alan, half a knight’s fee in Brockley. Ralph de Presseni, half a knight’s fee in Stan- ningfield. : Richard of Ickworth, two knights’ fees in Ick- worth and in Wangford. Robert of Horning, half a knight’s fee in Horning. Walter of Saxham, one knight’s fee in Ashfield and in Saxham. William of Wordewell, half a knight’s fee in Whelnethan. Norman of Riseby, half a knight’s fee in Riseby. OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND, The incontinence of Geoffrey Ruffus punished.—Adam of Cokefield $5 dies, leaving an only daughter, Peter of Livermere and Alan de Ameton, one knight’s fee in Livermere and Ameton. Roger de Muriaus, one knight’s fee in Thorpe. Hugh of Illeigh, in Illeigh, and in Preston, and in Bradfield, twe knights’ fees. Stephen of Brockdish, one-fourth part of a knight’s fee in Brockdish. Adam of Benningeham, one-fourth part of a knight’s fee in Benningeham, William of Wordewell, in Little Livermere and in Wordewell, one-fourth part of a knight’s fee. The sum is fifty-two fees * and one-half and one quarter, Now Geoffrey Ruffus, one of our monks, although he deported himself in somewhat too secular a manner, yet was a useful person to us, in the keep- ing of the four manors of Barton, Pakeham, Roug- ham, and Bradfield, where there had been heretofore a deficiency in the farms. But the abbot, although hearing of the evil report of his continence, yet winked at it for a long time, most likely because Geoffrey seemed to be serviceable to the community. At length,when the fact could be no longer concealed, the abbot suddenly made a seizure of his chests, put them in the vestiary, and caused all the stock of the different manors to be kept most closely, and clap- ped Geoffrey in prison. There was found a mighty deal of gold and silver, to the value of two hundred marks, the whole of which the abbot said was to be laid by for the purpose of building the front of the shrine of St. Edmund. On the feast of St. Michael it was decreed in chapter, that two brethren, not one alone, should succeed to the keepership of the manors, whereof one was Roger of Hingham, who promised before us all that he was willing and able to undertake the charge of the manors and cellary together ; and the abbot gave his assent thereto, but yet with reluctance. And Jocell, who well and care- fully had managed his office, and for two years had been in charge of the ceilary, without incurring debt, as other cellarers had used to do, was deposed from the cellary, and was made sub-cellarer. But at the end of the year Roger, on rendering account of his receipts and outgoings, affirmed that he had received sixty marks from the stock of the manors to supply the deficiency of the cellarer. Therefore it was resolved, that Jocell should be restored to the cellary; and Mildenhall, and Chebenhall, and Sutwald, and the other manors were committed to Roger and Albin, and were divided from the cel- lary, lest that the manors should be ruined by the cellary, or the cellary be ruined by the manors. Adam of Cokefield being dead, the abbot could have had three hundred marks for the wardship of the only daughter of the same Adam; but because the grandfather of the damsel had taken her away privily, and insomuch as the abbot was not able to obtain seisin of the damsel unless by the aid of the archbishop, the abbot granted that. wardship to Hubert, the archbishop of Canterbury, for the consideration of one hundred pounds. The arch- bishop, for five hundred marks, granted to Thomas de Burgh, the brother of the king’s chamberlain, that same wardship, and the damsel was delivered to him, with his title thereto, by the hand of the abbot, Thomas, therefore, required the seisin + of * Fiefs holden by knights’ service. + Absolute possession. D2 i the wardship of whom the 36 abbot sells, and its conse- quences. these manors, which we had in our hands after the death of Adam,—Cokefield, Semere, and Groton : we believing that we had power to retain all of them in our demesne, or at least two of them, Semere and Groton; because Robert of Cokefield, being on his death bed, had publicly affirmed, that he could claim nothing by right of inheritance in these two manors; as also, that Adam, his son, had re-assigned to us those two manors in full court, and had made his charter thereof, wherein it was contained, that he holds those two manors by the permission of the convent only during his life. Thomas, therefore, suing a writ of recognition thereof, caused the knights to be summoned, that they should come to be sworn before the king at Tewkesbury. Our charter read in public had no force, for the whole court was against us. The oath being administered, the knights said, that they knew nothing about our charters, or of any private agreements; but this they said they did believe, that Adam and his father, and his grandfather, for a hundred years back, had holden the manors in fee-farm, one after the other, on the days of their respective deaths; and thus we were disseised* by the judgment of the court, after much trouble and many charges expended, saving nevertheless our ancient fee- farm rents payable annually. The lord abbot seemed to be misled by a certain appearance of right, be- cause, forsooth, the Scripture saith, “ I will not give my glory to another.” The abbot of Cluny coming to us, and received by us in such wise as he ought, our abbot would not give place, either in chapter or in the procession made on the Lord’s day, but he must needs sit and stand in the middle between the abbot of Cluny and the abbot of Chertsey; wherefore divers thought dif- ferent things, and many expressed their feelings in various ways. Robert the prior was at this time in a dying state, but while he was yet alive, many opinions were ut- tered as to the appointing a new prior. Some one, therefore, related to us, that the abbot sitting in the choir, and stedfastly beholding all the brethren from the first to the last, found no one, upon whom his spirit might rest§, save Herbert his chaplain. By these and similar acts the will of the abbot was made apparent to most of us. Some one of us hearing this, answered that it was not to be believed; asserting “that the abbot, a dili- gent and prudent man, to such a man, a youth and almost beardless novice of twelve years, who had only become a cloister monk four years, not approved in the cure of souls, nor in doctrinal learning—to such a one,” said he, “ he will never give the priority.” Now, when the prior died, the abbot was staying in London; and a certain per- son said, “ A month has scarcely elapsed, since the abbot made Herbert the chaplain, subsacrist, and when he committed that office to him, in the chapel of St. Nicasius, he did so by promising that if he could, by any means, make him prior, he would use his ut- most exertions on his behalf.” Some one hearing of this, who was desirous of making himself agreeable to A.D. 1200. * Put out of possession. + Orig. Decipi quadam specie Poet. 25. Decipimur specie recti. { Isaiah xlii. 8. xlviii. 11. recti.—Horat. in Art. § Numb. xi. 26. THE CHRONICLES The prior dying, the convent propose one man and the abbot another for prior. theabbot and the future prior, most urgently solicited many of us, the seniors with the juniors, that when the opportunity presented itself they would nomi- nate Herbert, at least with some others, for prior ; and he swore that, by this means, they would gra- tify the abbot, for such indeed was his desire. There certainly were many of us, as well of the seniors as the juniors, who asserted, that the same Herbert was an amiable and affable man, and worthy of much honour. Also there were some, few in number indeed, but whose advice was more respected, and who belonged to the more considerate part of the convent, who were desirous of promoting Master Hermer the supprior to the priority, as being an experienced, learned, and eloquent man, skilful and expert in the cure of souls, who at that time had governed the cloister for fourteen years in good discipline, an approved supprior and well known; this man, I say, they were desirous of preferring, according to that say- ing of the wise man, “experto crede magistro ;” the greater number of us secretly grumbled in op- position, saying, that he was a passionate, impa- tient, restless, turbulent, aud fretful man, a litigi- ous person, and a disturber of peace, deriding him, and saying, “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger ; and it is his glory to pass over a trans- gression *.”’ Also another one said, “ This one thing, as being a scandal, is to be much guarded against, if the supprior.be removed, that is to say, hence- forwards learned clerks will not deign to take on them the religious habit in our house, if it should happen that any dumb statue be set up, and a wooden log be preferred in such a convent as ours.” And the same brother added somewhat more, say- ing, that the person to be prior of our convent,should be such a one that if any question of great im- portance arose in the abbot’s absence concerning ecclesiastical or secular affairs, it might be referred to him as prior, and as being the higher and more discreet person. A certain one of our brethren hearing these and such like things, said, “ What good is it that ye multiply so many and such say- ings? When the abbot shall have come home, he will do in respect of this matter according to his own will. Perhaps he may seek the advice of every one of us, and even singly, with great show of formality ; but at the termination of his labour, by allegations and by parallel reasonings and cir- cumlocution of words, he will at last come down to the fulfilling of his own desire; and as he has pre- ordained it, such will be the issue of the affair.” The abbot, therefore, having returned, and sitting in chapter, set forth to us amply and eloquently enough what sort of man ought to be appointed prior; and John the third prior answered in the presence of us all, that the supprior was a worthy and fit person. But the greater number imme- diately opposed, saying, “A man of peace, let a man of peace be given us.” ‘Two of us, therefore, replied to them, saying, that such a person should be appointed who knew how to direct the souls of men, and to distinguish “between leprosy and leprosy +,” which saying gave great offence, for it seemed to favour the part of the supprior. But the abbot hearing this uproar, said that he would after chapter hear what each had to say, and so * Proverbs xix. 11. + Deut. xvii. 8. (Vulgate.) —————e Herbert chosen prior. — On this occasion Sampson ap- pears to undervalue learn- advisedly proceed in the business, and upon the morrow the business should be despatched accord- ingly. In the mean time some one said, that the abbot would go through this formality in order that the supprior should be cautiously removed from the priority, as if it had been done by the advice of the convent, and by the desire of the abbot, and so he the abbot would be held excused, and by this policy the mouth of them that speak lies should be stopped *. . On the morrow, the abbot, as he sat in chapter, wept sorely, saying, that he had passed the whole night without sleep, for sheer anxiety and appre- hension that he might chance to nominate one who was displeasing to God; and he swore upon peril of his soul, that he would nominate four of us who, according to his opinion, were most serviceable and fit, so that we should choose one from those four. Therefore the abbot, in the first place, named the sacrist, whom he well knew to be infirm and insufficient, as the sacrist himself testified with an oath. Forthwith, in the pre- sence of all, he next named John the third prior, his cousin, and Maurice his chaplain, and the be- fore-named Herbert, all indeed young men, as it were, forty years old or under, and all of them of moderate learning, and so far as respects the cure of souls, rather requiring to be taught than learned therein, nevertheless apt to learn. These three the abbot nominated and preferred, passing over the supprior, and passing by many others of the seniors and priors, experienced and learned men, and who had formerly been masters of the schools, as well as all others. The abbot dwelt long in speaking of and commending the person of John in many respects, but, nevertheless, on the other side alleged, that the great number of his relations in this province would lie heavy on his neck if he were prior. And now when the abbot was about to allege the same thing concerning Maurice (and he could with reason do it), so that im a roundabout way he should come to make mention of Her- bert, his discourse was interrupted by one of the priors of the convent saying, “ My lord precentor, you have the first voice; name lord Herbert.” But all he said was, “ He is a good man.” On hearing the name of Herbert the abbot stopped short, and turning to the precentor, said, “ I have no objection to receive Herbert if ye will.” On this saying, the whole convent cried out, “ He is a good man; he is a good and amiable man;” and this same thing also many of the priors testified. Immediately hereupon the precentor and his fellow with him, and two others on the other side, with all haste arose, and put Herbert in the midst. Herbert, indeed, at first humbly begged to be excused, saying, that he was insufficient to fill such a dignity, and particularly, as he said, he was not of such perfect knowledge that he should know how to make a sermon in chapter in such manner as would become a prior. Most of those who wit- nessed this were amazed, and for very confusion struck dumb. However, the abbot replied many things in his recommendation, and as it were in disparagement of learned men, saying, that he could well remember and con over the sermons of others, just as others did; and began to condemn * Psalm Ixiii. 11. OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. ing; the unlearned part of the more literate brethren. rhetorical fiourishes, and pompous words, and choice sentences, saying, that im many churches the sermon in convent is delivered in French, or rather in English, for the improvement of manners, not for literary ostentation. After this had been said, the new prior advanced to the feet of the abbot and kissed them. The abbot received him with tears, and with his own hand placed him in the prior’s seat, and commanded all of us that we should pay him the reverence and obedience due to him as prior. The chapter being over, I being hospitaler, sate in the porch of the guest-hall, stupified, and re- volving in my mind the things I had heard and seen ; and I began to consider closely for what cause and for what particular merits such a man ought to be advanced to so high a dignity. And I began to reflect, that the man is of comely stature and of personable appearance; aman of handsome face and amiable aspect ; always in good temper ; of a smiling countenance, be it early or late ; kind to all; a man calm in his bearing, and grave in his demeanour ; pleasant in speech, possessing a sweet voice in chanting, and expressive in reading; young, brave, of a healthy body, and always in readiness to undergo travail for the need of the church; skilful in conforming himself to every cir- cumstance of place or time, either with ecclesiastic or with secular men ; liberal and social, and of easy temper ; not spiteful in correction, not suspicious, not covetous, not drawling, not slothful ; expert and fluent of tongue in the French idiom, as being a Norman by birth; a man of moderate under- standing, whom if too much learning should make mad*, might be said to be a perfectly accom- plished man. When I regarded these things, I said in my mind, such a man would become very popular, but “there is nothing every way blessed +,” and I wept for joy, saying “ That God hath visited his people t; as the Lord pleased, so it hath been done.” But of a sudden another thought occurred to me: “ be cautious in your praise of a new man, for honours alter manners, or rather they shew them. Wait and see who and what sort of men will be his counsellors, and to whom he will give ear, for each thing natu- rally draws to it its like. The event will prove his doings, and therefore, be sparing in your praises.” On the same day, certain unlearned brethren, as well officials as cloister-folk, set their heads to- gether, and whetted their tongues, like a sword, that they might shoot in secret§ at the learned, repeating the words of the abbot, which he had that day spoken, as it were to the prejudice of the learned, and thus they said to one another, “ Now let our philosophers take to their philo- sophies. So often have our good clerks declined in the cloister, that they are now declined||. So much have they sermonized in chapter, that they are all driven away. So much have they spoken of separation between leprosy and leprosy, that as lepers they are all put out. So often have they * Acts xxvi. 24. + Horat. Carm. lib. ii. 16. beatum.” t Luke vii. 16. || Avoided. ‘“ Nihil est ab omni parte § Psalm Ixiv. 4. convent therefore ridicule their 37 eee ee ee Acts of Sampson that in the eyes 38 of his chronicler, tend to argue THE CHRONICLES | i — corruption in him. declined musa, muse, that all of them are reckoned musards *.” These and such like things certain uttered in ridicule and scandal of others, justi- fying their own ignorance: they utterly rejected the knowledge of polite learning, and disparaged learned men, being very merry, and expecting great things, which, in all probability, will never come to pass, for Fallitur augurio spes bona sepe suo +. The wise man hath said, “ No one is in every respect perfect ;” nor, therefore, was the abbot Sampson. For this reason I have said this, for according to my judgment, the abbot was not to be commended when he caused a deed to be made and ordered the same to be delivered to a certain one his servant, for him to have the sergeanty of John Ruffus, after the decease of the same John: Ten marks, as it was said, did blind the eyes of the wiset. Wherefore, upon Master Dennis, the monk, saying that such an act was unheard of, the abbot replied: “ I shall not cease from doing as I like a whit the more for thee than I would for that youngster.” The abbot also did the like thing in respect of the sergeanty of Adam the infirm- arer, upon payment of one hundred shillings. Of such an act it may be said, “a little leaven lea- veneth the whole lump §.” There is, also, another stain of evil doing, which I trust in the Lord he will wash away with tears, in order that a single excess may not dis- figure the sum total of so many good deeds. He dammed up the pool of the park at Babwell so high, for the service of anew mill, that by the keeping back of the water there was not a man, rich or poor, who had land near the water, from the gate of the town to the eastern gate, but lost his garden and his orchards. The pasture of the cellarer, upon the other side of the bank, was spoilt, the arable land, also, of the neighbouring folks was much deteriorated. The meadow of the cellarer withered, the orchard of the infirmarer was laid under water by the great flow of water, and all the neighbouring folks complained thereof. Once, in- deed, the cellarer argued with him in full chapter, upon this excessive damage; but he, quickly moved to anger, made answer, that his park was not to be spoilt on account of our meadows. The dean of London writes thus in his chro- nicles: “ King Henry the Second, having con- ferred with the archbisbop and bishops concerning the vacant abbacies, so far observed the rule of the canons in appointing abbots, that it was accus- tomed to appoint them upon votes solicited from other houses; thinking, perhaps, that if parties were created in every place from their own body, a certain previous familiarity would afford im- punity to vice, and old acquaintanceship would place crime upon the same footing with indul- gences; and thereby too great remissness would obtain in cloisters.”” Another has said: “ It does not seem fit that a pastor should be elected from his own house, but rather from some other house ; for if he be taken from some other place he will, if a good man, always believe according to the extent of the convent who has received him as their Drivellers. t Deut. xvi. 19. * “ Dreamers.”—Chaucer. t+ Ovid. Epist. xvii. 23. § 1 Cor. v. 6, Contest of the convent with the monks of Ely respecting the market of Lakenheath, which, governor, that those whose counsel he may re- quire are careful persons, yet he will distrust their honesty, if he isa bad man. But a servant of the house, being fully aware of the ignorance, inability, and insufficiency of every one, will the more securely serve therein, mutans quadrata rotundis*.” The monks of Ramsey followed this line of reasoning, for in those days, when they were able to choose one of their own body, on two occasions they chose an abbot from other houses. In the year of grace, one thousand , twelve hundred and one, there came to A.D. 1201- us the abbot of Flaix+, and through his preaching, caused the open buying and selling, which took place in the market on Sundays, to be done away with, and it was ordained that the market should be held on the second dayt. The like the abbot brought to pass in many cities and boroughs of England. In the same year the monks of Ely set up a market at Lakenheath, having the permission, as well as the charter, of the king. Verily, we in the first place, dealing peaceably with our friends and neighbours, sent our messengers to the chapter of Ely, and, first of all, to the lord bishop of Ely, letters of request that he should forbear his in- tentions ; adding, that we could, in a friendly way, for the sake of peace and preserving our mutual regards, pay the fifteen marks that were given as a fine for obtaining the king’s charter. What next? they would not give way, and then upon all sides arose threatening speeches, and “ pila minantia pilis§.” We therefore purchased a writ of inquest, to ascertain whether that market was established to our prejudice, and to the dam- age of the market of the town of St. Edmunds. And the oath was made ||, and it was testified, that this had been done to our damage. Of all which, when the king was informed, he caused it to be enquired, by his registrar, what sort of charter he had granted to the monks of Ely; and it was made to appear that he had given to them the aforesaid market under such conditions that it should not be to the injury of the neighbouring markets: the king, therefore, forty marks being offered, made to us his charter, that from thenceforward there should be no market within the liberty of St. Edmund, unless by the assent of the abbot. And he wrote to Geoffrey-fitz-Peter, his justiciar, that the market of Lakenheath should be abolished. The justiciar wrote the same to the sheriff of Suffolk, The sheriff, being well aware that he could not enter upon the liberties of St. Edmund, or exercise any authority there, gave it in charge to the abbot by his writ, that this very thing should be performed according to the form of the royal command. The steward of the hundred, therefore, coming thither upon the market day, with the witnessing of freemen, in the king’s name openly prohibited that market, shewing the letters of the king and the sheriff; but being treated with great abuse and violence, he departed, leaving matters as they were at first. The abbot, on the other hand, deferring this matter for awhile, being at London, and consulting the learned thereupon, * Horat. 1. i. Epist. i. 100. + St. Germer de Flaix. t Monday. §$ Lucan. Liv, 7. || That is, the verdict was given on oath. at last, by legal process, is abol- ished. — Another cause of dis- agreement between the Bishop of commanded his bailiffs, that taking with them the men of St. Edmund with horse and arms, they should abolish the market, and that they should bring along with them, in custody, those the buyers and sellers therein, if they should find any. Now, in the dead of the night, there went forth nearly six hundred men well armed, proceeding towards Lakenheath. But when the scouts gave intelligence of their arrival, all who were in the market ran here and there, and not one of them could be found. Now, the prior of Ely on that same night had come thither, with his_ bailiffs, expecting the arrival of our men, in order that to the best of his ability, he should defend the buyers and sellers; but he would not stir out of his inn: and when our bailiffs had required from him gage and pledge to stand trial in the court of St. Edmund, for the wrong committed by him, and he had refused, upon consultation they overturned the butchers’ shambles, and the tables of the stalls in the market, and carried them away with them ; moreover, they led away with them all the cattle, sheep, and oxen; yea, and the beasts of the field’, as they went towards Ikelingham. The bailiffs of the prior following them made suit for their cattle, by replevin within fifteen days. And their suit was allowed. Within the fifteen days there came a writ, whereby the abbot was summoned that he come before the court of exchequer to answer for such act, and that the cattle taken should, in the mean time, be delivered up without charge. For the bishop of Ely, who was an eloquent and well- spoken man, in his own person had made com- plaint thereat to the justiciar and the nobles of England, saying that a most unheard-of piece of arrogance had been committed in the land of St. Etheldreda in time of peace; wherefore many were highly indignant with the abbot. In the mean while, another cause of disagree- ment arose between the bishop and the abbot. Whereas a certain young man of Glemesford had been summoned to the court of St. Edmund, for a breach of the king’s peace, and it had been pend- ing a long while; now here, in the county court, the steward of the bishop brought forth that young man, claiming the jurisdiction of the court of St. Etheldreda, and exhibiting the charters and _ privi- leges of his lord: our bailiffs, however, claiming the jurisdiction of the plaint and the seisin of such liberty, could not hearken to them. The county court, indeed, put that plaint in respite until the justices in eyre should arrive, wherefore St. Edmund was ousted of his jurisdiction. The abbot, on hearing this, proposed to go over to the king; but because he was sick, he wished to defer the matter till the Purification. And, behold! on St. Agnes’ day there came the king’s messenger, bearing the writ of our lord the pope, wherein it was contained, that the lord of Ely and the abbot of St. Edmund should make inquisition concerning Geoffrey-Fitz-Peter and William de Stuteville, and certain other lords of England who had taken the eross, for whom the king required discharge, alleging their personal infirmity, and the necessity for their advice in the safe conduct of his kingdom. The same messenger also brought the letters of our lord the king, commanding that he, upon the * Psalm viii. 8. OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. Ely and the convent.—The ab- bot ordered to attend the king. —On his departure the con- 39 sight thereof, should come to him to confer upon the message of our lord the pope. The abbot was troubled in his mind, and said, “ J am distressed on all sides; I must either offend God or the king: by the God of truth, whatsoever may be the conse- quence to me, I will not wittingly lie.” Therefore, returning home with all speed, somewhat weak- ened by infirmity of body and humbled, and more than ordinarily timid, by the intervention of the prior, he sought advice of us (a thing he hereto- fore had seldom done), as to what course he was to pursue in respect of the liberties of the church which were in jeopardy, and from whence the money was to come if he took this journey, and to whom the keeping of the abbey was to be committed, and what should be done for his poor servants who had a long time served him? And the answer was, that he might go, and that he was at liberty to take up at interest sufficient money, to be payable out of our sacristy and from our pittances, and from our other rents at his pleasure; and that he should give the abbey in charge to the prior, and some other clerk whom he had enriched, and who could therefore live upon his own means, that thereby a saving might take place in the expenses of the abbot, and that he might give to each of his servants money proportioned to his length of ser- vice. He, hearing such counsel, took it as very kind of us, and it was acted up to accordingly. The abbot, therefore, coming into chapter the day before he took his departure, caused to be brought with him all his books, and these he presented to the church and convent, and commended our counsel which we had signified to him through the prior. In the mean while we heard certain persons murmuring, saying, that the abbot is careful and solicitous for the liberties of his own barony, but he keeps silence respecting the liberties of the con- vent which we have lost in his time; to wit, con- cerning the court and liberties of the cellarer now lost to us, and concerning the liberties of the sa- cristy; nor as regards the appointment of the bai- liffs of the town by the convent doth he say any- thing. Therefore the Lord moved the spirit in three brethren of but indifferent knowledge, who having got many others to join them, conferred with the prior thereupon, in order that he should speak with the abbot respecting these matters, and who, on our parts, was to ask him, at his departure, to provide some protection to his church in respect of those liberties. On hearing this, the abbot an- swered, that no more was to be said upon the sub- ject, swearing that so long as he lived he would be the master: but towards evening he talked more mildly thereupon with the prior. On the morrow, indeed, sitting in chapter, as he was about to de- part and ask licence so to do, he said he had sa- tisfied all his servants, and had made his will just as if he was now to die; and beginning to speak concerning those liberties, he justified himself, say- ing, that he had changed the ancient customs in order that there should not be a default in the administra- tion of the king’s justice, and threw the blame upon the sacrist, and said, that if Durand the town bai- liff, who was now sick, should die, the sacrist would hold the bailiwick in his own hand, and would pre- sent the bailiff to the chapter for approval, as the custom had been of old, so nevertheless that this vent require him to make restitu- tion in respect of their customs and liberties. 40 THE CHRONICLES, &e. The abbot temporizes with the con- vent, who though made quiet are hardly satisfied. a be done with the assent of the abbot; but the gifts and offerings made yearly by the bailiff he would in no wise remit. Now when we asked him what was to be done in respect of the cellarer’s court, which was lost, and especially of the half- pence which the cellarer was accustomed to re- ceive for renewing pledges, he became angry, and asked us in his turn, by what authority we de- manded the exercise of regal jurisdiction, and those things which appertain to regalities; whereto it was replied, that we had possessed it from the foundation of the church, and even three years after he had come to the abbacy, and this liberty of “renewing pledges we possessed in every one of our manors *; and we stated, that merely because * That is, they had view of frankpledge in all their manors. i tc ire i csr nc ly Ste a ne he had received a hundred shillings from the town bailiff every year, we ought not to lose our right; and we boldly required of him to give us such sei- sin thereof as we had even in his time. The abbot, indeed, being as it were closely pressed for an an- swer, and willing enough to leave us all in peace and to depart quietly, ordered, that those half- pence and the other matters which the cellarer demanded should be sequestered until his return; and he promised that upon his return, he would co-operate with us in every thing, and make just order and disposition, and render to each what was justly his. On his saying this, all was quiet again; but the calm was not very great, for— Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest *. * Ovid, Art. Am. 1], i, v. 444, = cr Ee ination Ue mens any ath a ne met EY Rade a NOTES. Pace 1. Coly]. Line 5. When the Flemings were taken without the town.|— This event occurred in the autumn of 1173. During the contest between King Henry II. and his two sons, Richard and John, supported by their mother Eleanor ; the monastery of St. Edmund’s Bury re- mained firm to the royal cause, and here it was that Richard de Lucy, the king’s chief justiciar, Humphrey de Bolun, high constable, Reginald, Earl of Cornwall, and other noblemen assembled their army. Hugh Bigot, Earl of Norfolk, received Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, who landed at Walton in Suffolk with a large body of Flemings, at Framlingham Castle. They were met at Forn- ham, St. Genevieve, by the king’s army, and were defeated on the 27th (some say the 16th) October, 1173. On this occasion the banner of St. Edmund was carried in front of the king’s army, for the pur- pose of inspiring confidence in the soldiers (see page 16, col. 2). The Earl of Leicester and his countess Petronilla (or Parnell) with many others, were taken prisoners, and seven twmuli, or barrows, on the road from Bury to Thetford, with many others of a smaller size, yet remain as marking the burial place of the Flemings, of whom a vast num- ber were slain, with their commanders, The chroniclers describe the field of battle as being near St. Edmund, in the place called Forn- ham, in a certain marsh not far from the church of St. Genevieve, and near the river. This is said to be a faithful description of the place; and many relics of war, besides silver pennies of Henry II. have been discovered near this spot. In particular, in felling, in 1826, an ancient pollard ash that stood upon a low mound of earth about fifteen feet in diameter, near the church of Fornham, St. Gene- vieve (the ground being within the Duke of Nor- folk’s park, but apparently part of the church-yard at some former time), a heap of skeletons, not less than forty, was discovered in good preservation, piled in order, tier above tier, with their faces up- ward, and their feet pointing to the centre. Seve- ral of the skulls exhibited marks of violence, as if they had been pierced with arrows or cleft with the sword. In the bed of the river in the adjoin- ing parish of Fornham, St. Martin, was also found, some years since, a gold ring with a ruby, which is conjectured by some to be the ring that the countess of Leicester is related by Matthew Paris to have thrown away in her flight. PaGeE 1. Col. 1. Line 24. All the hundreds were set to farm.]|—The meaning of this is, that the services as well as the jurisdic- tion of eight hundreds and the half hundred of Cosford, of which the convent were possessed, were leased or let on farm to bailiffs, a very unprofitable mode of management, as well as oppressive on those who owed suit and service to the hundred courts. Pace 1. Col. 1. Line 7 from the bottom. Ewery official.|—The word obedientarius in the Latin has been rendered official, which to this day is used to designate an ecclesiastical officer. As these officials are often alluded to in Jocelin’s Chronicle, the following remarks are offered to the reader :— The number of monks and officers in the monas- tery of St. Edmund, like that of all similar bodies, was fluctuating and various. The full establish- ment appears to have been eighty monks, fifteen chaplains attendant on the abbot and chief officers, | about one hundred and eleven servants in the various offices, chiefly residing within the walls of the monastery, and forty priests officiating in the several chapels, chauntries, aud monastic append- ages in the town, with an indefinite number of pro- fessed brethren. The abbot was termed supreme, and all the others obediential or obedientarii. The abbot’s will was the law of the monastery. The prior was next in dignity to the abbot, and assisted him in the dlscharge of his duties. During the vacancies and in the absence of the abbot, the prior governed the convent, and was then called in courtesy in mitred abbeys, lord prior. The sub-prior in like manner assisted the prior ; his duties seem to have been somewhat of an in- quisitorial character: in St. Edmund’s monastery a third prior was appointed, as was the case in large monasteries, where even a fourth prior was sometimes appointed. The cellarer or bursar, who is styled the second father of the convent (p. 30), had the charge of everything relating to the food of the monks, and superintended the refectory, kitchen, cellar, bake- house, &c. His was an office of honour aid profit; his customs, i.e. perquisites and dues, are detailed at length by our chronicler at p. 29. The sacrist, or sacristan, or sexton. His office was to take charge of all the consecrated church | | | | — | 42 NOTES TO THE CHRONICLES plate and utensils, he received all the fees and ob- lations made at the high altar. His duty was also to see to the reparation and improvement of the monastery and most of the offices both within and without ; he also looked to the lighting of the church, and the performance of the divine offices. At this monastery he had the probate of wills. The sub-sacrist was an assistant to the sacrist. The chamberlain or treasurer kept the money and valuables of the convent; he had it in charge to look to the clothing of the convent. The sub-chamberlain assisted the chamberlain | in these duties, and also had to see the lights in the dormitory extinguished at twilight and day- break. The refectorarius, or comptroller of the refec- tory, had the care of the refectory or common dining hall, and he distributed the eatables and drinkables to the brethren. The almoner distributed the alms of the convent, which it was his business to collect. The pietancer, or pittanciar, distributed the pit- tances, which answer to what are called in colleges exceedings. He had a small allotment of revenues, but the income of his office was chiefly supported by oblations. The hospitaller provided for the reception of strangers, pilgrims, and visitors. His apartment | was the hostrey, the domus-hospitum, or guest- house, which it was his duty to keep well-furnished with beds, seats, tables, towels, and with sufficient cheer. In the monastery of St. Edmund there ap- pear to have have been two of these officials, one named the outer, the other the inner hospitaller; but in our chronicler’s time there was only one. The infirmarer was entrusted with the care of the sick monks. The precentor, or chantor, had the care of the choral service, and presided over the singers, cho- risters, and organist; in those monasteries where there was not a master of the novices he super- intended the education of the novices ; he also fur- nished writing materials, and colours for illumi- nating, and materials for binding the books. There were other obedientiarii or officials, of whom mention is made in this chronicle, and who seem peculiar to this convent, viz. the keepers of the shrine, whose business it was to collect the ob- lations from the pilgrims, and to preserve the sacred body and its appendages and decorations from damage or diminution. (How the persons alluded to in our chronicler’s account as filling this office executed their charge is detailed at p. 31.) The porter or gate-keeper, whose office was one of considerable trust, was filled by a layman, to whom the office was in this monastery granted in fee, and the reversion of the office sold. The vestiarius, or vestry-keeper, took care of the robes and sacred vestments. There was also a seneschal or steward, who was a layman of rank, and kept the abbot’s courts, and performed his law business. ; There were also a great number of inferior offi- cials, who either occupied petty departments, or assisted in various mean offices ; these were filled by laymen as well as monks, but mostly by the former; the curious reader will find them described in Yates’s Illustration of the Monastic History and Antiquities of the Town and Abbey of St. Edmund’s Bury. Ato, Lond. 1805. p. 202. Pace 1]. Col. 1. Line 3 from the bottom. By the great roll of the pipe for Norfolk and Suffolk, 17 Hen. LI., it appears, that Benedict the Jew, son of Deodate, was in 1171 fined 20/. for taking sacred vestments in pawn. By the same record for the 29 Hen. II. it is shown, that Sancto the Jew, of St. Edmund’s Bury, was fined five marks (i. e. he compounded for that sum), that he might not be punished for taking in pledge certain ves- sels that were appointed for service of the altar. The same pretence for extorting money from the Jews was urged against the Jews in France at the same time, under Philip II., with this addition, that they used those pledges for unworthy pvur- poses or base uses, as the French chronicles of that date will testify. Pace 1. Col. 2. Line 3. Isaac the son of Rabbi Jocee.|—This man was most probably the son of that Josceus presbyter, Joscee the high priest, whose name appears upon the great roll of the pipe for London and Middlesex, 14 Hen. III., as rendering a pair of gilt spurs for certain land that he held in the Jewry of London. The name of Jocee appears to be intimately connected with the pecuniary affairs of the convent; for Ma- dox, Hist. Exchequer, ii. 90., informs us, that Jocee the goldsmith was sworn in the exchequer for the office of moneyer for the abbot of St. Edmund’s, 4-5 Ed. 1. 1276 or 1277. The Jews do not appear to have been the only specialty creditors of the convent, for William Fitz Isabel, mentioned in the same breath with Isaac, son of Rabbi Jocee, was sheriff of London 1194, and the officials are stated by our chronicler, as ready to be bound in debt to Jews as well as to Christians. Pace 1. Col. 2. Line 14. Guilds and fraternities.|—A guild was a frater- nity or company, combined together with orders aud laws made among themselves by their lord’s licence. A fraternity was a brotherhood, or society of religious persons, who were mutually bound to pray for the good health and life, &c. of their living brethren. The latter of these associations, however, was not unfrequently entered into by burgesses in towns and cities, and were companies with by-laws, although incorporated by the charter of their supe- rior lord under a religious title or style. The mention made by Stow in his “Survey of London,” respecting the Skinners’ Company in London*, may serve as an example of these mixed societies, to which many, if not all of the older city companies, owe their origin. Chaucer alludes to these associations in the “Canterbury Tales +,” where, in describing some burgesses as pilgrims, he says— “ An haberdashér and a carpentér A webber, a dyer, and a tapisér, Were alle yclothéd in a liveré Of a solempne and grete fraternite, * He * * * Which semed eche of hem a fayre burgéis To sitten in a gild halle on the deis.” Many of these fraternities preserved their religi- ous character, and assembled in parish churches, or other places of worship, being incorporated for that purpose by letters patent, up to the time of the Re- formation. * Downegate Ward. + Lines 861—372. pu i a ae OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. so Pace 2. Col. 1. Line 32. The nature of this exemption from visitation will appear in page 24. Pace 2. Col. 1. Line 20 from the bottom. Sent to -Acre.] —Castle-Acre, West-Acre, and South-Acre in Norfolk, are all described in Domes- day-book under the title dera. There were two priories, one at Castle-Acre, the other at South- Acre; it was to one of these that Sampson alludes, as having been sent thither for correction; the cir- cumstances of his disgrace he himself is repre- sented as relating, page 14, col. 1. PaGE 2. Col. 1. Line 4 from the bottom. What he had promised to our lord the pope and the cardinals. |—The obtaining of these privileges from the pope was an extremely expensive affair; indeed the pope claimed, only for a confirmation of a new abbot on his election, 3000 florins—an enormous sum in those days. Pace 3. Col. 1. Line 12 from the bottom. The wardship of the abbey, §c.]—The accounts of the wardens of the abbey are preserved in the great roll of the pipe for Norfolk and Suffolk, 27 and 28 Hen. II. From these accounts it appears, that the rental of the abbot of St. Edmund’s from Michaelmas 1180 to Michaelmas 1181, according to the ancient assize, and exclusive of the suste- nance of the monks, who had their own portion of lands, was 326l. 12s. 4d., out of which was paid in corodies 561. 13s. 4d.; of these corodies 211. was al- lowed for the abbot’s expenses for six weeks before his death, and 35/. was paid to the archbishop of Norway, then lodged by the crown for the time in the monastery. Of other monies beside the rents of assize, were 27/. 2s. 4d. for corn sold, 13s. 4d. paid by Walter de Westley for his relief, and 91. 7s. 4d. the amount of the minute perquisites of the abbey, the minute issues therefrom being 2/. 9s. 4d. These accounts show the exact time the abbey was vacant. Paes 3. Col. 2. Line 32. The great tower of the church.|—This and the pas- sage at p. 6. col. 2.1. 26 from the bottom, respecting the towers of the church, refer to the great-bell tower, and the lateral towers of the west end of the mo- nastic church, begun by abbot Baldwin, or his suc- cessor Robert; ruins of some portion whereof are still to be seen. (Archzeol. xxiii. 327.) Sampson’s tower appears to have been blown down in 1210. The magnificent Norman gate-house, at the en- trance of the church-yard, still standing, is dis- tinguished by the monastic writers from the cam- panile, or belfry, under the name of the great gate of the church of St. Edmund, or the great gate of the church-yard, and was probably the work of Hervey the sacrist, in the time of Anselm the seventh abbot. It was at this gate that the monks re- ceived Sampson (p. 7. col. 2). This gate-house, now converted into a belfry, was certainly not used for that purpose until after the fall of the bell- tower in 1630, and probably not until after the destruction of the monastic church, as the bell- tower would seem to have been rebuilt.—WVote by the late Mr. Rokewode. Pace 4. Col. 2. Line 1. The barrators of Norfolk.|—This was an allusion to Sampson the future abbot, who was a native of Norfolk, and spoke the dialect of that county, as our chronicler elsewhere remarks, page 12, col. 1. lime 32. The word Barrator, is used on another occasion as a term of bitter reproach, where he is styled a proud fellow and Norfolk bar- rator (p. 12. col. 2). Pace 5. Col. 1. Line 7. At bloodletting season.|—At stated times in the year there was a general bleeding (minutio san- guinis ) among the monks. Pace 5. Col. 1. Line 10 from the bottom. ~ The archbishop of Norway.J—In 1180, Augustine archbishop of Drontheim, taking part with Mag- nus king of Norway, against Suer, a successful competitor for the throne, whose sovereignty the archbishop would not acknowledge, left his see and came to England. The length of his stay is stated in the accounts of the wardens of the abbey, viz., from 9 August, 1181, until about the election of abbot Sampson in February fol- lowing. Pace 5. Col. 1. Line 2 from the bottom. The holy child Robert suffered martyrdom.J—It was charged against the Jews at this, indeed at later periods, that they used to crucify a child on Good-Friday, in contempt and derision of the sufferings of our Saviour. An old French chro- nicle, in reciting the chief events in the reign of Philip Augustus, states this charge most circum- stantially, viz., that the Jews, of whom a vast number at that time (1180) existed in France, used to kidnap a Christian child, and having secreted it in some subterraneous place, to torture it and ultimately to crucify it on Good-Friday, and assigns this alleged tragedy as a reason for the young French king’s seizing and despoiling all the Jews in his kingdom, immediately after his coronation. In England a child was said to be “martyred” by the Jews at Norwich, in 1137, and was afterwards “sainted,” as Saint William. The next instance that occurs is that to which Jocelin alludes in the pre- | sent chronicle. At this time St. Edmund’s Bury had become famous for its monastic establishment, and the monks turned to good account the feelings which the belief of this crime had excited, per- petrated as it was alleged to be by the Jews dwell- ing in the town of St. Edmund. The monks caused the body of this child to be interred with great ceremony and ostentation, the shrine was declared capable of producing supernatural effects, and speedily became renowned for the miracles said to be effected. all parts, and the church might have been very much enriched by the offerings of the credulous and superstitious. Jocelin himself, as he tells us very gravely, wrote a book detailing these miracles. The book is not to be met with. A similar story prevailed in respect of the Jews at Winchester in 1192. In Henry III.’s time this accusation was repeated. In the reign of Philip II. of France, in addition to the spoliation the Jews suffered on his accession, another instance is cited from a contemporary chronicle, of the Jews having | Pilgrimages were made from | —— _ re ™~ 44 NOTES TO THE CHRONICLES practised this alleged cruelty and contumely, the words of the chronicler are very precise, viz. Cum in Franciam Philippus venisset, essetque apud Sanctum Germanum de Layo, exeorabile Tudccorum facinus ad eum delatum est. Apud Brayum castrum Jude Christianum quendam (quem furti atque homicidit insimulabant ) captum, serto spineo coronarerant : de- ductumgque per oppidum et multis rerberibus afectum tandem cruci affigentes interemerant, permittente loci domind quam ipsi muneribus evicissent. Eighty Jews were burnt on this account, cirea 1182. The prioress’s tale in Chaucer, and the Scotch ballad of the Jew’s Daughter, show how deeply rooted has been the tradition of these alleged cruelties charged against the Jews. Pace 7. Col. 2. Line 6 from the bottom. Was received barefooted.|—He was to put off his shoes before the doors of the church, and with de- votion and giving of thanks proceed to meet the convent, who were to advance in a procession pre- viously arranged by the chantor.—Fosbrooke’s Brit. Monachism. Pace 8. Col. 1. Line 14. Benedicite.|—When the abbot went into chapter, he said, “ The souls of all deceased brethren and believers rest in peace ;” to which the convent re- plied, “ Amen.” And he again said, “ Benedicite,” again “ Dominus,” and then “ Let us speak of the order ;” all immediately bowed, and the business commenced. He finished the chapter in the usual manner by going out with his chaplains and sing- ing “ Verba mea.” See also page 6. col. 1. line 2. Pace 8. Col. 1. Line 36. Spending his day.]J—At the feast of an abbot’s admission, the convent had every man a gallon of wine, a whole loaf, and three handsome dishes of fish.— Fosbrooke’s Brit. Monachism. Pace 9. Col. 1. Line 30. Of hidages and fodercorn of henrents.}—Hidage was a tax upon every hide of land. Fodereorn was an ancient feudal prerogative that the lord should be provided with provision for his horses. Henrents ; hens were a common reservation upon inferior tenures. Pace 10. Col. 2. Linea ultima. The school of Melun.]—The school of Abelard in the University of Melun, which excelled in the Dialectic art. Paces II. Col. 1. Line 29 from the bottom. Day and night for six years.|—The rule of St. Benedict was, that the abbot was always to have a chaplain with him. Page 11. Col. 1. Line 6 from the bottom. Had not St. Edmund thrown his arms about him.] —This is in allusion to the rule of St. Benedict which says, “ Parents to offer their children by wrapping their hands in the pall of the altar, pro- mising to leave nothing to them” [that they might have no temptation to leave the house]. Pace 11. Col. 2. Line 32 from the bottom. Ancient custom respecting the entertainment of quests. J—The rule concerning hospitality and the receipt of guests is to be found in the Liber albus of St. Edmund’s monastery, a MS. book in the Har- leian collection (No. 1005), which contains the pre- sent chronicle, as well as many other memoranda relating to the management of the convent. The most important after this chronicle is the “ Tradi- tiones patrum,” a compilation of rules for the go- vernment and administration of the funds of the monastery, gathered from tradition; one passage, which regulates the length of stay a guest or travel- ler was entitled to make, is to the following effect: —€No guest shall stay in the hall (i. e. the guest- house or hall) beyond two days, unless by the spe- cial leave of the prior or cellarer, or at least of the hospitaller, who is not to presume to do this very frequently without the leave of the prior, or at least of the cellarer.” Pace 13. Col. 1. Line 10 from the bottom. And assigned them for the use of the schools.J— Sampson’s school-house was erected for the teach- ing of forty poor boys; the building was near the present Shire House, the street still retaining the name of School Hall Street. The school was in existence in the time of Henry VI. Pace 13. Col. 2. Line 4. That the Jews should be driven away.]—From the annals of St. Edmund’s Bury, MS. Harl., No. 447, it appears, that the massacre of the Jews who came to the coronation of King Richard I. (A.D. 1189) was, in some degree, imitated at Bury in 1190 on Palm Sunday. ‘The persons who were then pre- paring to go on crusade were in want of money for their expenses, and the slaying of the Jews and despoiling them of their property must have been deemed one of those duties which people sometimes say, “ they owe to themselves.” Those Jews that saved themselves from the massacre at St. Edmund’s, were expelled by the abbot Sampson, who gave what seemed to our chronicler a very good reason for getting rid of such neighbours, who, having been plundered, could no longer be of any service to the convent. The Jews, indeed, had been on very good terms with the convent, as we read in page 3, col. 2.; indeed Jocee, mentioned in page 1, was in ail probability their moneyer, as his descen- dant was in 1276. At this time (1190) most horrible outrages were perpetrated upon the Jews at the instance of the crusaders. The fate of the Jews of York is much better authenticated than the charges made against the Jews in general of individual acts of cruelty, which they could have no possible motive to exe- cute; the French chronicles of this period tell much the same tale as the English historians. Pacer 13. Col. 2. Line 30 from the bottom. And whereas the Queen Eleanor.|—Prynne refers to this passage in his “ Aurum Regine, a tractate of Queen gold, &c.” ed. 1668, p. 104. Ibid. line 20 from the bottom. The same Queen redeemed that cup.]—All the church plate of the realm was delivered up for the ransom of the king, in pursuance of his letter to | { a top OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. 45 Queen Eleanor, dated from Hagenau, 17 April, 1193. (Hoveden, 413 v.) The queen’s release of this golden chalice is printed in “ Dugdale’s Mo- nasticon,” ed. 1821, iil. p. 154. The shrine of St. Edmund, which was covered with gold plating and adorned with precious stones, escaped being strip- ped by the firmness of Sampson and the supersti- tious apprehensions of the barons of the exchequer, page 28, col. 1. Pace 15. Col. 2. Line 8. The chancellor——was driven from England.J|— Longchamp fied the kingdom in 1191; he came to England in the following year, but was not suffered to proceed farther than Canterbury, and crossed the seas again. In 1193 he returned, bearing let- ters from the emperor, and met the regency at St. Alban’s. It was on this occasion that he passed through St. Edmundsbury, coming from his manor of Hitcham, after landing at Ipswich. The cause of his exile, and his proceedings with the arch- bishop of York, noticed in the text, are explained in Lingard’s “ Hist. of England,” ii. 185., ed. 1819. This statesman was not favourable to the monks, and they have not spared his memory.—Mr. Roke- wood’s note. Pace 16. Col. 1. Line 7. Whilst there was war throughout Ingland.]—The nation was in a state of general warfare; Windsor, with the other castles held by John, were besieged by the-regency. Pace 18. Col. 1. Line 19. Ranulf de Glanville.|—This was the famous law- yer of that name,-who wrote his “ Treatise of the Laws and Customs of England” in the time of Henry II. The most common edition of this book is that printed at London, in 1604; it has been translated by Mr. Beames, a barrister-at-law. The legal proceedings, so frequently alluded to in the present chronicle, can be fully explained by a re- ference to this book. PaGeE 19. Col. 1. Line 29 from the bottom. Then the earl Roger Bigot.|—This man was son of Hugh, the rebellious earl. This contest with the tenants by knights’ service, is alluded to in a MS. in the Harleian collection (No. 367, p. 14), which, evidently referring to this chronicle, gives the fol- lowing narration of this law-suit. Mr. Yates has incorrectly copied the MS., so no apology is neces- sary for its being introduced to the reader. In the same MS. another fact is related, evidently from this chronicle, which, as it concerns the same matter, viz. the secular tenure of the abbot and his tenants by knights’ service, may also be given.—See p. 24. col. 2. line 22 from the bottom. “The abbot of Bury, Sampson, went to the law with the knights that owed knights’ services to him; he demanded |. whole knights’ services, which they in part denied; but at length, afore the arche- bishop, the then justice, they all confessed. First, Earl Ro. Bigot recognised iij knights’ services for his parte. Albericus de Vere and William de Hastings were then beyond sea in the kyng’s ser- vice; Alberike de Veer was the last that would recognise it, but the abbot took and sold his cattle. At length he came in and confessed. The abbot had them all te London at his own cost, there to have them in open court to make theyre recogni- tions of their said services. “ Kynge Richard demanded of all bishops and abbots, yt every ix. knights of all theyre baronies they should make him the xth, to come and serve him in his wars in Normandie, with horse and armorie, against the French kynge; whereupon the abbot of Bury was to make him iiij; but when the knights alleged a privilege that they should not go forth of the realm, he went over to excuse the mat- ter, and hired iiij stipendiary knights, which the kynge received at the castle of How (Eu).” There was a great difference in quantity or extent between some baronies and others ; this difference arose from the respective charters of ffeoffment granted by the crown. If the king enfeoffed a man of twenty carnes of land, to hold by the service of one knight, or of forty carues of land to hold by the service of one knight, the feoffee had in each case one knight’s fee. The fees of the old feoff- ment were commonly larger in quantity or extent than those of the new. —AMadow, Hist. Exchequer, p. 220. Pace 21. Col. 1. Line 2 from the bottom. The horn which is called moot horn.]—The deli- very of this moot horn to the bailiffs, or aldermen of the town, was the mode of delivering seisin or possession to them of their office, and the profits annexed thereto. The summoning a moot or as- sembly by the blowing a horn, or, as the Scotch call it, “ horning,” is of great antiquity. Pace 21. Col. 2. Line 15 from the bottom, The merchants of London claimed to be quit of toll.|—The citizens of London are by charter of Henry I. and II. free from all toll, and the char- ter of Henry II. especially reserves to the citizens, that if any one took toll of them, the sheriffs of London might take goods of the wrong-doers at London as a recompense. There are two sorts of toll alluded to in this paragraph; first, the fair toli; second, the passage toll. The first is a duty payable on all things sold at the fair; the second is an ancient regality, being a duty payable from persons for their horses, carts, &c. for liberty to pass through the manors or demesnes of another; and this toll has been used from the earliest times; it is particularly mentioned as a regal due in Gun- ther’s Poetical Treatise on the Laws of the Lom- bards, book viii, and is associated with other rights of the same nature, which were granted by feudal lords to their tenants, viz.— ‘‘ Ac primum Ligures super hoc a rege rogati Vectigal, portus, cudendz jura monete, Cumque molendinis, telonia, flumina, pontes.” The dukes of Milan, also, are represented by an early feudal commentator, as claiming tolls (telonia) as regalities.— Radevic. lib. i. 5. 415 ii. 5. In the charters of Saxon kings, this right of foot-toll and carriage-toll, which implied a war- ranty of safe conduct for the passenger, is fre- quently mentioned. Allusion is also made in this paragraph to toll and theame, franchises or regalities, which are con- stantly mentioned in Cartularies, as having existed a | priest. 46 NOTES TO THE CHRONICLES long before the conquest; toll isa Saxon word, and has three significations, Ist, it is used for a liberty to buy and sell within the limits of a manor; 2ndly, a tribute or custom paid for pas- sage ; 3rdly, it is, also, the liberty to take as well as to be free of toll, for those who are enfeoffed with toll are custom free.—(Cowell’s Interpreter.) Theame, or teame, is also the name of a regality granted by the king to the lord of a manor, for the having, restraining, and judging bondmen, niefes, and villans, with their children, goods, and chattels, in his ecourt.—(Jd.) This theame was the founda- tion of the abbot’s jurisdiction over the place called the liberty of St. Edmund’s. The extreme antiquity of their city, as alleged by the good citizens upon this occasion, was in accordance with the prevailing usage of the time, to allege every thing that was to be insisted upon as a right or privilege, as derivable from the highest antiquity. The monkish writers have en- rolled the names of philosophers of antiquity, and persons of learning who had flourished ages before Britain was known, as Oxford scholars. Pace 24. Col. 2. Line 22 from the bottom. See note, p. 19. col. 1. line 19 from the bottom. Pace 25. Col. 1. Line 16 from the bottom. Chasuble.|—These and other priestly vestments are alluded to in the present chronicles or narra- tion. A chasuble, or casuble, was a garment almost totally covering the priest, which he used when at mass; hence probably we have the cassock. Dal- matica was a long white garment for the priest or deacon ; first used in Dalmatia, whence its name. This was in great esteem, and used at the corona- tion of kings. None but mitred abbots wore the dalmatica; at least it seems not to occur in the list of vestments given in the chartularies of other than mitred abbeys. Albs, or Aubis, were a sort of white garments and proper head-clothes for the They seem to have been similar to the surplice of our Church, but not so plain. They are called Camisia (which was also the name for a shirt of camel’s bristles, or hair shirt, worn for the pur- poses of mortification), podaris, as reaching to the feet ; talaris, for the same reason (the long gown alluded to in p. 6. col. 2, which abbot Sampson was supposed to have worn in brother Edmund’s | dream, appears by the expression of Jocelin, our chronicler, to have been somewhat of this descrip- tion —“ pallio cireumdatum longo et talari”’) and subercula; a cap, more frequently is taken for a hood, which was sometimes of silk ; but the word seems to mean any covering for the head. Pace 27. Col. 1. Line 1. These meetings, wrestlings, and matches (con- venticula, colluctationes et concertationes), Mr. Rokewood conceived to have been miracle plays ; but as these miracle plays were performed by the monks or secular clergy, his supposition or sug- gestion does not appear to be justified ; the words meetings and shows (conventicula et spectacula) which occur at the end of this paragraph, may afford some colour for this interpretation; but at this time, it might be remembered, these exhibi- tions were of a religious or moral character, and performed by clerks, whereas the actors in these Christmas games were the servants of the abbot, and the burgesses of the town. PaGE 28. Col. 1. Line 25. Walter the physician.] — Medicine was mostly professed by clerks, because they alone were capa- ble of reading the Latin works on the art of heal- ing, and were not until 1451 allowed to marry.— Fosbrooke’s British Monachism. Pace 28. Col. 2. Line 14 from the bottom. Repsilver.|] — This payment is sufficiently ex- plained by our chronicler, who notes its origin, and that it was a composition for harvest-labour per- formed “ before the town became free.” Manly, in his additions to Cowell’s Interpreter, ed. 1701, voce repsilver, cites this very passage : “ Ex car- tular. S. Edmundi MS. penes Joh. Epise. Norwic’.” fo. 316, which there is little doubt is the same MS. alluded to in the introduction as having in all probability been destroyed by fire. There is great reason to lament the loss of this cartulary, as from the number of paging, the matters contained there- in must have been numerous. However, in large monasteries where there were numerous cartula- ries, the same intelligence is constantly repeated in each. The tenure of the resiants withim the liberties of St. Edmund’s was originally servile , but it is very evident at the compilation of Domesday, that there were 118 men in the town who could alienate their land, and 54 freemen who are stated as very poor, those who lived without the town and yet within the liberties, which extended a mile round the town, as limited by four crosses, according to King Edmund and also St, Edward the Confessor’s charter, were not in our chronicler’s time upon the same footing with the burgesses, as is very evident by the fate of Ketel the thief, p. 29, col. 1, and the observations made by the burgesses upon his execution. The struggles of the burgesses for their freedom from the feudal thraldom which impoverished them, are alluded to in the introduc- tory remarks to the present work. Pace 29. Col. 1. Line 9. Portmane-mot.] The portman moot, or port- men’s court, a court that was held not in a haven or port town, but in any other city, or town, or borough. Port in Saxon signifying a close town. Pace 29. Col. 1. Line 15. Sor-peni.]—This word is the same as scharpenny or scharnpenny, i.e. dung-penny, from scearn, dung. By this it seems that the base tenanty were bound, as being originally bondmen, to pen up their cattle at night in the pound or yard of their Lord for the benefit of their dung, and if they did not do so, they paid this dung-penny as a compensation. Manly, in his additions to Cowell’s Interpreter, ed. 1701, cites the same cartulary of St. Edmund’s monastery, and also the words of Jocelin’s chro- nicle. The present translation at line 18 must be deemed an erratum, and the words for going to the common for pasture, should be read, “ for their dung” (pro exitu), which the reader will kindly correct. This payment was also spelt in another part of the same cartulary of St. Edmund’s, schorn- penny. See Cowell’s Interpreter, voce scharpenny. | PaGE 29. Col. 1. Line 12 from the bottom. Except the villans of Hardwick.]|—In the Latin these men are written lancetti. This tenure was called /ancettage, and was a servile and base tenure. Their service was at St. Edmund’s to clean the rooms and chambers of the convent. This tenure was “in villenage,” and therefore lancetti has been rendered “ villans.”? It seems there were the lan- cetti of Groton, a manor of St. Edmund’s. Pace 29. Col. 2. Line 9. Borth-selver.]}—This is the same as_bord-half- penny, a duty paid in fairs and markets for setting up tables, boards, and stalls ; it is sometimes called brod-halfpenny and borthal-penny. Pace 29. Col. 2. Line 16. The merchants’ guild.]—'The company of mer- chants who had associated themselves into a guild. See ante, note for p. 1. col. 2. line 14. PaGeE 29. Col. 2. Line 22. Scurun’s well.]|—This place is said by Yates to be near the place called Eastgate Bridge. In all OF JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND. probability it was a holy well, which may account for its being a place of assembly, such as Clerken- well, London. Pace 29. Col. 2. Line 35. Averland.j—This seems to have been ancient arable Jand so called, held by rustic drudges and villans. Averpenny was a sum paid as a composi- tion for certain rustic services, Pace 30. Col. 1. Line 18. Haggovele.|—This was an acknowledgment in the nature of hearth-money. Pace 32. Col. 2. Line 30 from the bottom. The Danish cofin.|—That is, the coffin or chest which contained the body when it was removed to London for safety by Ailwin, as mentioned in the introductory remarks, Page 33. Col. 1. Line 1]. Lay united to the body.J—This particularly al- | ludes to the miracle of the head after decapitation 47 being reunited to the body. There is not the slightest doubt but that this body was a suppositi- tious corpse, and perhaps not the first. Pace 33. Col. 2. Line 16 et seq. King John, according to the chronicles, first went to St. Thomas 4 Becket’s shrine, before he went to St. Edmund’s shrine ; the casterling pence, were pence of a pure coinage, first stamped by the Easterlings, or merchants of East-Germany, by command of king John, from whence we have the term sterling-money. Pace 85. Col. 2. Line 14. “Teh Adam of Cokefield being dead.|—This paragraph | gives some idea of the manner in which a ward | was disposed of. The evils of wardship, which | have not existed for the last two hundred years, were purely a consequence of feudal tenure, and introduced by the Norman system of feudality. | Guardianship in chivalry, as this consequence of | tenure by knights’ service was termed, is fully illus- | trated by Lyttleton’s Treatise of Tenures, Book II. | Chap. IV. The words of Rastall, a lawyer of the | time of Hen. 8. may not be inapposite : “ and here | you may see what misery followeth the tenure by knight’s service, if the tenant dieth, leaving his | heir within age, how the poor child may be tossed | and tumbled, chopped and changed, bought and | sold like a jade in Smithfield, and what is more, married to whom it pleaseth his guardian, whereof | ensue many evils.”—Old Termes de la Ley, ed. 1579, fol. 98. PaGE 37. Col. 2. Line 13. Cloister folk.|—This distinction between cloister monks and the other brethren is frequently noticed throughout this chronicle, and our chronicler in a very early part of his narration, lays an emphasis upon a cloister monk, “thou who arta cloister monk” (tw qui claustralis es). The members of the convent were composed of lay brothers and clerks as well as monks. The lay brothers were composed, not unfrequently, of persons who gave their property to the convent, and professed obedience, and also included others of inferior condition. Many of the obedientarit, or officials, were lay brothers; the lay brother was not shaved, whilst the monk was, and many distinctions existed between the cloister monks and those simply professed. ee EEE EESEEEEET INDEX. AxpoT ; his will was supreme in the convent, 41 (note). Sampson. See Sampson, abbot of St. Ed- mund’s Bury. Abbots; predecessors of Sampson, list of, viii. ix. Acre, Sampson when a monk sent for punishment to a cell at that place, 2. 14. 43 (note). LElmeswell and /Elmessethe. See Himswell and Elmset. AILWIN, or EGELWIN, brought the body of St. Edmund to London, viii. ; salutations of, 33. ALBERIC DE VERE, present at Risbridge as a friend of the earl of Clare, 16; contends with the abbot Sampson concerning his tenure by knight’s service, 19. 45 (note). ALBOLD; abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury, viii. ALFRIC, son of Withgar; his land in Domesday Book alluded to, 16. Almoner of the king; visits the convent, ix. x. 1, 2. of the abbot, Jocelin appointed, vi. 2bed. (note), 19; his duties, 42 (mote). ANSELM; abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury, viii. ; his charter to the burgesses alluded to, 22. AvUGUSTINE, abbot of Norway, lodges at the convent during the vacancy, 5. 43 (zote). Averland, 29, 30. 47 (note). Averpenny, 29. 47 (note). Babbwell, hospital at, founded by abbot Sampson, 13. Bailiffs of the town of St. Edmund’s Bury. Sampson, as abbot, appoints new bailiffs, 21. BALDWIN, abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury, vili. , archbishop of Canterbury ; not desirous to abide by verdict of Norfolk and Suffolk men, as pre- judiced, 15. Bannaleuca, the term in Latin for the liberties of St. Edmund’s Bury, viii. See Liberties of St. Edmund’s Bury. Banner or standard of St. Edmund. See Standard of St. Edmund. Barons of the Exchequer; decline to strip St. Edmund’s shrine, viii. 28. Benenpict, Jew of Norwich, lends forty marks to Wil- liam the sacrist, and its consequences, |. —, St., rule of. See Rule of St. Benedict. , (the Jew of Norwich); William the sacrist borrows forty marks of, which at last amounted to 8002., 1. , (the sub-prior of St. Edmund’s Bury) ; says, that abbot Ording would not have waived a certain due in respect of cow-dung for 500 marks, 29. BEopRIc; gave name to the place called Beodriches- worth, since called St. Edmund’s Bury, 29. Beodrichesworth ; ancient name of St. Edmund’s Bury, viii, 29. BERTRAND, abbot of Chertsey ; one of those who were nominated for abbot at the time of the election, he then being prior of St. Faith’s, 7. Bicot, Roger, earl of Norfolk; bore the banner of St. Edmund at the battle of Fornham, 16.—vide Norfolk. Buunp, Hamo; his quas¢ intestacy, 26. , William ; 2rd. Borth-silver ; 28, 29. 47 (note). BotToupu, St. See St. BoTOLPy. Braklond, Long. See Long Braklond. , Little. See Little Braklond. Boxford ; recognition concerning advowson of, 17. Burgesses of St. Edmund’s Bury ; offer sixty marks for a confirmation of their charter, 22. Bureu, Thomas de; is grantee of wardship of Adam of Cokefield’s heiress, and in that character litigates with abbot Sampson, 35, 36. Canterbury, Baldwin, archbishop of. See BALDWIN. ——., Hubert Walter, archbishop of. SeeW aLTER. ————,, Richard, archbishop of. See Ricnarp. CANUTE [., viii. Cellarer, office of; his duties, 41 (note); borrowed money from Jurnet the Jew, and was deposed by abbot Hugh notwithstanding his excuse, 2; cellarers in debt, 23. 25; a clerk associated with the cellarer, ibid. ; the office of, taken on hand by abbot Sampson, 25; customs or dues to the cellarer, 29. CEREVILLE, Richard de; alluded to in story of Henry of Essex, 20. Chamberlain ; his office and duties, 42 (zote). Chanter; same as precentor, élzd. Chasuble. See Vestments. Chertsey, Bertrand, abbot of. See BERTRAND. ees belonging to the abbot and convent specified, Clare, Richard, earl of; his suit with the abbot, and claim to bear the banner of St. Edmund, 16. , Roger, earl of ; came up with his men to the as- sistance of Henry II., at the pass of Coleshill, 20. Clock, fell when the shrine was damaged by fire, 31; deemed a presage of misfortune, x. Cluni, Hugh, abbot of, visits St. Edmund’s Bury, 36. Cokefield, Robert of; one of the wardens or clerks of custody of the abbey during the vacancy, 3; dies, 16. , Adam of, his son; claims the half hundred of Cosford in fee farm, 16; dies, and leaves his daugh- ter in ward to the abbot, 28; and refuses the ward- ship for a king’s favourite, ¢b¢d.; but grants the ward- ship over to Thomas de Burgh, who litigates with the abbot, 35, 36. Coleshill, pass of; alluded to in the story of Henry of Essex, 20. Coi.stantine, Geoffrey of. See GEOFFREY of Constantine. Cosford, the half hundred of; the abbot Sampson took it on hand after the death of Robert of Cokefield, 9; Adam Cokefield sues the abbot for it as a fee farm, but the abbot refuses it, 16. Coventry, commission for restoration of monks of, 27. Cucking-stool, the setting up of, an usurpation by the men of Monk’s-Illeigh, upon the jurisdiction of the abbot, 15. Custom, a special custom in the town of St. Edmund’s Bury, 30 ee ee ae INDEX. 49 Customs (customary payments or dues); changes in, by order of abbot Sampson, 28. ; of the cellarer, 29, Dalmatica. See Vestments. Danish coffin, 32; explanation of this term, 47 (note). DEnniIs, the cellarer ; alluded to as having just returned from correction at a remote cell, 2; is made cellarer, and his conduct in that office, zbid.; chosen to accom- pany the prior to court upon the election of an abbot, 5; his acts on that occasion, 7. Dissy, William, 13. , Walter, ibid. , John de, 33. Domesday-Book ; description of land of St. Edmund in, viii; alluded to as Great Roll of Winton or Winches- ter, 13; land of Alfric, son of Withgar, 16. Dreams, in early ages supposed to be of great import- ance, x; of the monks in reference to the election of an abbot, 6; abbot Sampson’s dream when a child, 11; dream of a person of quality in reference to St. Edmund’s shrine, 31, 32. DrocGo. See Firz Drogo. Eastgate-Bridge, place called Scurun’s Well, supposed to be near the place now so called, 29. 47 (note). EpmunpD, king of England, son of Edward the Elder, and father of Edgar; his grant of separate jurisdic- tion or liberties to St. Edmund’s Bury, viii. EDMUND, a monk, dreams that Sampson is elected ab- bot, 6. EGELWIN. See AILWIN. ELEANOR, queen of Henry II. See QuEEN ELEANOR. Evias, butler of abbot Hugh; generosity of Sampson to his son, 13. Elmeswell and Elmset : by a mistake made in the pro- nunciation of the final syllable, abbot Sampson evades a request by the bishop of Ely for timber, 20. Ely, bishop of, William Longchamp. See LonGcHAmpP. —— , Geoffrey Ridell. See RIpELL. See LAKENHEATH, ETHELDREDA. Entertainment of guests, ancient rule of. See Hospitality. Escuage; contention between Sampson and his tenants by aga service holding of his barony, xi. 19. 45 note ). Ee Henry of; his story by way of episode, 19, 20; the object of its introduction, xii. ETHELDREDA, St. (patron saint of Ely); jurisdiction of court of, i. e. of bishop and monks of Ely, 39. prea Sa 7 , land of, 39. See Lakenheath. Eu, castle of; abbot Sampson’s stipendiary knights sent to, 19. 45 (note). Fair of St. Edmund’s Bury first granted by Henry I., } ix; merchants of London dispute the toll payable at, and absent themselves from it, but afterwards return, 21, 22; the burgesses forbidden to erect booths unless they comply with certain terms, 22. FLAMVILLE or FLAMAVILLE, Robert de, appointed, with William of Cokefield, one of the wardens of the abbey during the vacancy of the abbey, 3. Fitz Droco, Richard ; paid five marks for committing a rape, which the abbot gave to the party as a mar- riage portion, 13. Firz IsaBEeL, William; security given to him for money he lent the convent, 1]. Flemings, taken and destroyed at the battle of Fornham, 1. 16. 40 (note). Fornham, St. Genevieve, battle of, ix. 1. 16. 40 (note). Fothercorn, 9. 44 (note). Fraternities. See Guilds and Fraternities. GEOFFREY the chancellor, afterwards archbishop of York, 6. 24. of Constantine, his excuse for the convent, 2. — of Fordham, 5. GILBERT, deputy-steward of the abbey ; allowed as such by abbot Sampson because he was a simpleton, 9. GLANVILLE, Ranulf de, mentioned, 2. 8. 15. 18. 45 (note). Gilemesford, the bishop of Ely requests timber for some great buildings at, which is evaded by abbot Sampson, 20; a young man of, being summoned to the court of St. Edmund’s Bury, a dispute arose as to the jurisdic- tion of the monks of Ely, 39. GODFREY, a burgess appointed with Nicholas, another burgess of St. Edmund’s Bury, bailiff of the town, 21. Grreenstead or G'reenstreet Church, a very ancient wooden church, near Chipping Ongar, described by tradition as the place where the body of St. Edmund was rested by Ailwin, viii. Guest-master, same as hospitaller, 42 (note). Guilds and Fraternities alluded to, 1 ; these associations described, 42 (note). Haberdon, windmill at. Haggovele, 30. 47 (note). Hamo Buunp. See BLunp. Harlow, pleasant adventure at, 10; recognition or ver- dict touching land of Herard in, 18. Hardwick, the villans or lancettors of, 29. 47 (note). Hastings, William of, a monk; his dream respecting the election of an abbot, 6. — , tenant by knight’s service; his pleading in respect of his knight’s fee delayed by rea- son of his being in the king’s service, 18. , Thomas of, uncle of Henry of Hastings, ——_——,, Henry of; his claim to hereditary stewartry of St. Edmund’s, 8. Henry II., king of England, sends his almoner to St. Edmund’s Bury, 1, 2; receives the monks upon the election of an abbot, 6; his remark upon Sampson, then chosen abbot, 7; goes to Canterbury, 15; takes the cross, on which occasion Sampson also wishes to go on a crusade, 15; receives the abbot at Clarendon, 18. HERBERT the dean, compelled to pull down a windmill he had lately erected on Haberdon, 17. HERBERT the pricr, made prior of St. Edmund’s Bury by means of abbot Sampson, after a struggle with the monks, 36, 37; his character, 37. Hidages, 9. 44 (note). Hingham, Hugh and Roger of, mentioned as lately re- turned from a remote cell whither they had been sent for punishment, 2. —., Roger, is made cellarer, but shortly after de- posed, 35, BEE sai moiety of church of; contention respecting, B18: Hospitality, rule of, 11, 44 (note). eoeaie or guest-master; his office and duties, 42 note ). HUBERT, justiciar, 19. , Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, 27; ob- tains the grant of wardship of Adam Cokefield’s heiress, which he sells again at a profit, 35. HueGu (abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury); when made abbot, ix.; his character, 1 ; his transactions with the Jews, zbid. ; sends to Rome for an exemption to free his abbey from visitation, 2; his pilgrimage to St. Thomas a Becket’s shrine at Canterbury, accident and death, 3; the anniversary of his ob¢ alluded to, 26; his charter to the burgesses of the town alluded to, 22. (prior of St. Edmund’s Bury); alluded to as having been deprived, 1; and sent to a remote cell for correction, 2. (third prior of St. Edmund’s Bury); one of the three nominated by the convent for abbot, 5, 6. (the sacrist of St. Edmund’s Bury); contention between him and Roger, the cellarer, and its conse- quences, 29. Hueu (the infirmarer); 33. See HERBERT the dean. Tkelingham ; a member of Mildenhall manor, 13. Illeigh (Monk's) ; 1 manor of the monks of Canterbury, 14,15 I 50 | Images of St. John and the Virgin Mary, richly orna- | mented, proposed to be pledged, 2. Interest of money; rate of, in the time of Henry IL, ix. Infirmarer ; his office and duties, 42 (nofe). Ineu4R, a Danish chief who accompanied Ubba in his invasion of East Anglia, vii. Isaac (the son of Rabbi Jocee); a specialty creditor of the convent, 1; some account of his family, 42 (note). Jews; their loans and the consequences, 1, 2; patron- ised by William the sacrist, 5; importune Sampson the abbot for payment, 9; expelled the town, 13; not the only creditors of the convent, 42 (note); charges against the Jews of cruelty towards children, whom they are said to have crucified, 43, 44 (note). of Winchester. See WINCHESTER, Jews at. JOcELIN of Brakelond, or Brookland (the writer of the present Chronicle); takes the habit, 1; is prior’s chaplain, and next abbot’s chaplain, 8; presents a schedule or list of churches to the abbot Sampson, 18; - alluded to as almoner, 19; and as guest-master, 28. 37. JocELL (cellarer of St. Edmund’s Bury); disobeys the abbot, and is punished, but he breeds a rebellion in the convent, 34; deposed and made sub-cellarer be- cause Roger of Hingham said he could manage better, but restored upon Roger failing in his promise, 35. JouHN (king of England) ; comes to St. Edmund’s Bury, 33; his mean oblation, zbid.; summons the abbot over to him in Normandy, 39. JorDAN de Ros; his claim to the church of Hopton, 7,18. JuRNET (the Jew); the officials of the convent pri- vately borrow money of him, 2. KeETEL, a free tenant of the abbey, is convicted of theft by trial by battle, and hanged, 29; observations of the burgesses upon this circumstance, zed. Knights of St. Edmund (i. e. those who held by knights’ service of the abbot’s barony); their names, 35. fee ; what this term means, and its incidents, xi. Lancettors of Hardwick; tenants by lancettage, or villans, alluded to as excepted from the privileges of the townsfolk, 29: this tenure was a base tenure, 47 (note). ————. of Groton, thid. Lakenheath ; day’s work of eels from Southrey, com- muted to a penny rent, 29. , market of ; contention with the monks of Ely concerning, 38. Leicester, Robert de Bossu, earl of; his defeat at Forn- ham St. Geneviéve, ix. 1. 16. 41 (zo¢2). , countess of, Petronilla; her ring said to be recently found, 41 (note). | LeorsTAn (abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury), viii. - (anobleman); disbelieving the story of St. Edmund and his head, and the incorruptibility of his body, said to have been struck dead, viii. Liberties of St. Edmund’s Bury; stated, viii. ; alluded to, 18. 17.19. London (city of) ; its great antiquity alleged, 22. (merchants of) ; por ees with them as to fair toll and passage toll, 21, 22. Long Braklond and Little Braklond ; names of ancient streets in St. Edmund’s Bury, vi. (no/e). LonecHAmpP, William, bishop of Ely, justiciar, chan- cellor, and pope’s legate; his disgrace reported as being the effect of his slighting the claims of the abbey, 15; his excommunication and treatment by the abbey, zb7d. ; opposed at the council of London by abbot Sampson, ibid. 16. See Lakenheath—Ethel- dreda. Malmesbury, abbot of, Nicholas; nominated for abbot before the king, 7 INDEX. Martyri adhue —; antiphone commencing with these words, sung, 7, 8. Melun ; doctrine of the school of, in dialectics, 10. Mendham, Thomas of ; claimed to be standard-bearer of St. Edmund, 16. Merchants’ Guild, 29. 47 (note). ————— of London. See London (merchants of } Mildenhall ; purchased of the crown by Sampson, 13; queen Eleanor remits her queen-gold, bid. ; how the irk of are apportioned between abbot and convent, ibid. Milding ; the men of this town, in their zeal for St. Edmund, grievously wound the retainers of the monks of Canterbury when the abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury’s cause comes on to be heard, 15. ‘ MonrTEFORT, Robert de; his trial by battle with Henry of Essex, 20. , Moneyer of the convent, 42 (note). Moot-horn, 21. 45 (note). New year gifts from inferiors to superiors; an ancient custom, 18. NICHOLAS (abbot of Malmesbury). See Malmesbury. ————- (burgess of St. Edmund’s Bury) ; appointed bailiff of St. Edmund’s Bury with Godfrey, another burgess, 21. Norfolk (county of); abbot Sampson a native of, and called a Norfolk Barrator, in allusion to the place of his birth, 4. 12. , Roger Bigot, earl of; bore the standard of St. Edmund at the battle of Fornham, 16 ; acknowledges the service due on the knight’s fees that he held of the abbot, 19. 45 (note). , Hugh Bigot, earl of; son of preceding, 45 (note). Norway (Augustine, archbishop of); lodged at St. Edmund’s Bury abbey during the vacancy, 5; the cause of his coming to England, 43 (note). Norwich, John, bishop of ; suggests that it would not be expedient that abbot Sampson should go on crusade, 15. , castle of; castle-guard at, 19. Officials or obedientiarii; their duties and offices in the convent, 41, 42 (notes). Omens, their influence not inferior to dreams, x. ORDING, abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury ; short account of him, ix; said by the monks to have been a good abbot although an illiterate man, 4; his charter to the bur- gesses of the town alluded to, 22; Benedict the sub- prior appeals to his memory, 29; buried in the chap- ter-house, 29; the anniversary of his obzt alluded to, 26. Oswyn, a devotee who washed St. Edmund’s body and pared his nails, viii. PALEGRAVE, Richard. The farmer of this manor paid 50s. on the day abbot Hugh was buried, so there was money to be distributed for his soul, 3; but this had to be refunded to the wardens of the abbey, 12. Portman-moot or Portmoot Court, 29. 46 (note). Pre-emption, right of; in behalf of the convent, 30. Prior, his office and duties, 41 (note). Pittanciar, Pietancer, or Pittance-master ; his office and duties, 42 (note). Precentor or chanter ; his office and duties, 42 (note). Purveyance ; how conducted between the purveyors of the abbot and the purveyors of the convent, 30. QuEEN ELEANOR, wife of Henry II.; remits her queen- gold on grant of Mildenhall, 13; redeemed the great golden chalice of the convent delivered up towards king Richard’s ransom, 13. Queen-gold, 13. 44 (note). RALPH; the porter of the convent, accused of maintain- ing suits against the brethren, 33, 34; Jocell the cel- larer punished for withholding his corody, 34; and Jocell causes a rebellion in the convent, ced. INDEX. 5] Ramsey, monks of ; choose an abbot from their own body, 30 Reading, abbey of; abbot Sampson received with his at- tendants at, and there hears the relation of Henry of Essex, a monk professed in that convent, 19. REINER, a careless monk who left a candle burning, 9. Recognitions, or verdicts upon writs of right ; taken upon the following subjects: as to land in Harlow, 18; ad- vowson of Boxford, 17; as to common amerciament, 18; respecting Semere and Groton, 36. These ver- dicts, recognitions, or inquests, alluded to generally, xi. Repsilver, 28, 29. 46 (note). RicHARD, farmer of Palegrave. See Palegrave. , archbishop of Canterbury; intended to visit the convent of St. Edmund’s Bury as pope’s legate, 2. Refectorarius, his office and duties, 42 (ote). RicHarp L., king of England; sells Mildenhall to the abbot, 13; in prison, 2béd., 15; the war in England, 16 ; is visited by’abbot Sampson in Germany, 27d. ; ou his return gives licence for tournaments, ded. ; in- cieases the knights’ fees held of him 2m capite, 24, 45 (note); solicits the wardship of Adam Cokefield’s heiress for a favourite, and is angry at being refused, 28 ; is reconciled by the manly conduct of ‘the abbot, and sends him a pope’s ring, bid. ; his death, and its consequences to the abbot, 33. RIDELL, Geoffrey, bishop of Ely; outwitted by abbot Sampson in respect of the timber he requested for buildings at Glemesford, 20, 21. Risbridge, hundred-court of, held at Witham, 16. RoBERtT, prior of St. Edmund’s Bury; on his decease, Sampson proposes Herbert, his friend, for prior in his stead, which is not agreeable to the convent at large, 36, of Ulm. See Ulm. I., abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury; appointed by Henry I., but deposed by Anselm the archbishop, be- cause his election was uncanonical, ix. ——__——— II., abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury; alluded to as having separated and distinguished the rents of the abbot from those of the convent, 23; his obit therefore kept on one occasion with marked ceremo- nies, 26. Rogsr, cellarer of St. Edmund’s Bury; one of those nominated by the convent for abbot, 8. of Hingham. See Hingham. RurFus or Rurus, Geoffrey ; punished by abbot Samp- son for misdemeanor, and his treasure seized and appropriated for the new shrine, 25. —, R., a monk who accompanied Sampson be- yond seas to the king Henry II. when the abbey was vacant, 3. Rule of St. Benedict; alluded to in preparing to nomi- nate an abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury, 5. Sacrist, his office and duties, 41 (mote). Str. BENEDICT (rule of). See Rule of St. Benedict. Sr. Borutr ; the keepers of his relics deposed, 33. St. Clare, Gilbert of. See Clare. Sr. EpMuUND, shrine of. See Shrine. , the king and martyr; account of him and his body, which was said to be incorruptible, vii. —_——____—_—, banner or standard of. See Standard of St. Edmund. Sr. ErHELDREDA. See ETHELDREDA, St. St. Faith (Bertrand, prior of). See BERTRAND. ——— (chapel of) ; covered with lead, 28. St. Germer de Flaix (the abbot of); visits St. Edmund’s Bury, 38. St. Neot’s (the prior of); one of those nominated before the king for abbot, 7. Sr. RoperT; the name of the child said to have been crucified by the Jews of St. Edmund’s Bury, 5. 43 (note). ; Sr. THomAS; pilgrimage to Thomas a Becket’s tomb at Canterbury by abbot Hugh, 3. Sr. WILLIAM; name of the child said to be crucified by the Jews of Norwich, 43 (xo/e). SAMPSON, ttn of St. Edmund’s Bury); consecrated abbot in 1182, ix; enumeration of the most remark- able incidents in his biography, x, xi, xii ; his imprison- ment under abbot Hugh, and banishment to a remote cell, 2. 14; the cause of it, and his journey to Rome, 14; is master of the novices, 2; fills various offices, and is made subsacrist, zbid.; in that capacity builds the choir of the convent, and finishes the tower of the church, is thwarted in his works, 4; appointed one of the twelve monks who are to attend the prior | before the king upon the election of an abbot, 5; attends king Henry II. at Bishop’s Waltham, in Hampshire, 6; is found to be one of the three named in the list for abbot, and is ultimately elected, id. ; the mode of his reception on his return to the convent, and his feast, 7, 8; orders a new seal, 8; summons his knights to perform homage, ibid. ; refuses to accept Henry of Hastings as hereditary steward of St. Ed- mund’s, by reason of nonage, dd. ; takes survey of his rents and services, 9; his first acts in chapter, ded. ; | deposes William the sacrist, ¢b¢d.; visits his manors, aid. ; escapes being burnt at Warkton, ibid. ; pleasant adventure at Harlow, 10; refuses an offer for Rungton, | ebid. ; lets Thorpe to a villan whom he trusts because he was a good agriculturist, and could not speak French, zbed. ; is appointed a judge by the pope, de causts cognoscendis, and made a justice 7 eyre by the king, ibid. ; traits of his character, vii, 12; builds and endows a school at Edmund’s Bury, and drives the Jews from the town, 13; purchases Mildenhall from the crown, zbid.; founds the hospital of St. Saviour, then called Babbwell, zid.; gives Woolpit church to the convent, 14; his contentions with the archbishop of Canterbury respecting Monk’s-IHeigh, zid., 15; the archbishop and abbot appear before the king at Can- terbury, 15 ; appeals personally to St. Edmund against William Longchamp, zid.; desires to go on crusade, but is prevented by the bishop of Norwich, zed. ; offers to go and seek king Richard, who was imprisoned in Germany, tb¢d.; opposes William Longchamp, bishop of Ely, at council of London, in defence of his privi- leges, 15, 16; opposes John, the king’s brother (after- wards king John), and goes to the siege of. Windsor with his tenants by knights’ service, 16; visits k. Rich- ard in Germany, ¢bzd. ; excommunicates some disorderly young noblemen, zbed.; contention between the earl of St. Clare and the abbot, zbzd.; resists the claim of Adam of Cokefield to the half hundred of Cosford, ibid. ; compels Herbert the dean to take down his newly-erected windmill, 17; his suit with Jordan de Ros, zbed. ; attends the king at Clarendon upon a re- cognition or inquest as to his liability to a common amerciament, 18; contest with his knights respecting escuage and castleguard, 19; outwits the bishop of Ely, 20; appoints the town-bailiffs, 21; his dispute with the merchants of London respecting toll, déid., 22; confirms the liberties of the townsmen, 22; asso- ciates his clerk with the cellarist against the desire of the convent, 23; forestalls Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, in his visitation as legate, 2bid., 24; takes on hand the office of cellarist, 25; his proceed- ings with the convent, who are dissatisfied, 26; his conduct upon Hamo Blund’s quasi intestacy, ibéd., 27 ; excommunicates some Christmas revellers who shed blood in the churchyard, but_absolves them directly and entertains the burgesses, 27; prohibits games, &c. in the churchyard, ibid. ; is appointed by the pope a commissioner, with the archbishop of Canterbury and others, for the reformation of and replacing the monks of Coventry, ébid.; appropriates the moiety of the church of Wetherden for the purpose of keeping the master of the school, zbzd. ; rebuilds many edifices, tbid., 28; his refusal to consent to the shrine of St. Edmund being despoiled even for k. Richard’s ran- som, 28; refuses to grant the wardship of Adam Coke- field’s heiress at k. Richard’s request, ibid. ; repairs the shrine of St. Edmund and opens it, and inspects g ILLSNUle yeRsitY % Dae BRARY the body of St. Edmund, 32, 33; entertains king John at the monastery, 33; his disagreements with his monks, 30. 34; punishes Geoffrey Ruffus, 35 ; grants wardship of Adam Cokefield’s heiress to the archbishop of Canterbury, who sells the ward to Tho- mas de Burgh for a greater price, zbid., 36; refuses precedency to the abbot of Cluni on his visit to St. Edmund’s Bury, 36; procures his friend Herbert to be elected prior in place of Robert who died, 37; rebellion of the monks, 34; certain acts and proceed- ings tending to show him corruptly inclined, 38; his contention and success in respect of abolishing the market of Lakenheath, 38, 39; is sent for by king John into Normandy, 39; he temporizes with the convent, who take this opportunity of insisting upon certain claims which he defers till his return, 39, 40; is figuratively alluded to when in contentions with his opponents, under the type of the Scriptural Samp- son, 4. 22. Sampson, the precentor of St. Edmund’s Bury ; officiates on the abbot’s inthronization, 8; appointed sacrist in place of William, who is deposed, 9. ScaLEs, Robert de; his concord with abbot Sampson in res si of the moiety of the advowson of Wether- den, 27. School of St. Edmund’s Bury; Sampson’s foundation of, 13. 44 (note). Scurun’s Well; cellarer’s court held at, 29. Shrine; burnt by the carelessness of the keepers, 30, 31 ; the translation of the body of St. Edmund toa new shrine, resting upon a marble pediment, 32; illustra- tion of, xii (note). Southrey, day’s work of eels from, commuted to a penny rent, 29. Standard of St. Edmund, carried before the king’s army at the battle of Fornham, 16. 41 (note). STIGAND, (archbishop of Canterbury); the images of St. John and the Virgin Mary, which he had orna- mented with a great quantity of gold and silver, pro- posed to be pledged, 2. Sub-chamberlain, his office and duties, 42 (note). Sub-prior, his office and duties, 41 (note). Sub-sacrist, his office and duties, 42 (ote). SweEyn (king of Denmark); died, saying he was stricken by St. Edmund, viii. Tallage (poll-money); scrvants of the court-lodge free from toll and tallage, 30. Theame, toll and, 21; these words explained, 42, 43 (note). Thorpe (manor of); granted by abbot Sampson on lease to an English agriculturist, 10. TILLENER, a member of Rungton manor, 10. Toll; citizens of London claim exemption from fair-toll and from passage-toll, 21; burgesses contend that dwellers in the suburbs of St. Edmund’s Bury ought not to be free from market-toll, unless they belong to the merchants’ guild, 29; custom as to payment of market-toll, when convent purchased the entire com- modity before bulk broken, 30; great antiquity of passage-toll as a regality, 45 (mote); and as to the meaning of this word, zbzd., 43 (mote); servants of the convent free of, 30. | Towers of the church, 3. 6. 43 (note). | Tottington, surname of abbot Sampson derived from this place, which is in Norfolk, ix. INDEX. Treasurer, the same as chamberlain, 42 (note). TURCHILL, or THURKILL (the Dane); his invasion, viii. Usa, a Danish chief, who invaded East Anglia in 865 and 870, accompanied by Inguar, vii. Ulm, Robert of; contention between him and abbot Sampson, moiety of church of Hopton, 17. Uvius (abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury); the first abbot, viii. Vestments ; described, 46 (note). VERE, Alberic de ; a tenant holding of the barony of the abbot of St. Edmund’s by knight’s service, 19. 45 (note). Vestiarius, or vestry-keeper; his office and duties, 42 (note). Villans of Hardwick; same as lancettors of Hardwick, 47 (note). See Lancettors of Hardwick. Visions and dreams; attention paid to them, x; Samp- son’s election said to be predicted by them, 6; the vision of a person of quality, and the impression it made, 31, 32. Waite fee, 19. W ALCHELIN, the archdeacon ; his charter alluded to, 17. Wallingford, Nicholas, prior of; nominated for abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury, 7. WALTER, Hubert (archbishop of Canterbury and le- gate) ; forestalled in his attempt to bring St. Edmund’s Bury under his jurisdiction, 23. WaLrTER, the physician; chosen one of the twelve who were to accompany the prior to court, to choose an abbot, 5; contributes his acquisitions to the building of the new almonry, 28. 46 (note). Waltham, or Bishop’s Waltham ; the election of Samp- son to be abbot of St. Edmund’s Bury at this place, and its attendant circumstances, 6. Wardens of the abbey, or king’s clerks, or commis- sioners in custody ; reputed to have been hard and overreaching men, v; appointed for the abbey of St. Edmund’s Bury on the death of abbot Hugh, 3. Warkton ; Sampson escapes danger from fire at, 9, Wetherden, moiety of advowson of; Robert de Scales, his concord concerning, 27. Widows ; fines on their marriage alluded to, 30. WILL1AM of Hastings. See Hastings, William of. (sacrist of St. Edmund’s Bury); his borrow- ings from Benedict the Jew, 1; his behaviour during the vacancy, 3; patronizes the Jews, ibid. ; chosen to accompany the prior upon the election, 5 ; deposed, 9 ; his buildings pulled down, bid. Winchester (Jews at); charged with crucifying a child, 43 (note). (great roll of). See Domesday-book. (bishop of ); gives Sampson the benediction, and his expression on that occasion, 7. Winer (sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk); his address to Sampson on his return as abbot, 8. Witham, hundred-court of Risbridge held at, 16. WiTuHGAR (Alfric, son of); his land in Domesday- book alluded to, 16. Woolpit (church of); relation of abbot Sampson’s former trouble concerning this church, and his journey to Rome thereupon, 14; he gives to the convent a pension payable thereont, ibid. York, Geoffrey, archbishop of, 24. THE END. GILBERT & Rivineton, Printers, St. Johns Square, London, lla ath atseR NTT er Nols. -URBANA nn 7061988 1 | |