[1] In view of the fact that the Abbey contained sixty monks, St.
Albans was relatively slenderly endowed. _Cf._ below, p. 23.
[2] The shrines of St. Osyth and St. Amphibalus, also at St. Albans,
were scarcely less famous.
[3] About twelve cells were founded; the most important being Tynemouth
and Wymondham, in Northumberland and Norfolk respectively.
[4] _Gesta Abbatum I_, p. 489.
[5] _Gesta Abbatum I_, p. 307; _II_, p. 3. Still more oppressive was
the enactment of a General Lateran Council under Innocent IV, by
which the Abbot had to visit Rome, either in person or by proxy, once
every three years. The cost of such journeys and the extortion of the
Holy See were regarded as a heavy grievance. ‘Iste quoque Abbas,’
says the chronicler (_Gesta Abbatum I_, p. 312), referring to Abbot
John of Hertford (elected 1235), ‘in novitate sua multis exactionibus
fatigabatur et expensis, sed prae omnibus Romanorum oppressionibus
novis et inauditis coepit molestari.’
[6] See for example, _Gesta Abbatum I_, p. 397.
[7] The economic history of the Abbey cannot fairly be so divided, and
will therefore be treated in Section II from 1300–1539.
[8] _Mems. of St. Edmundsbury._ Arnold. Vol. III, passim.
[9] _Gesta Abbatum II_, p. 95.
[10] _Gesta Abbatum II_, appendix, p. 469.
[11] _Gesta Abbatum II_, p. 130.
[12] _Gesta Abbatum III_, pp. 396–423.
[13] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. x.
[14] St. Albans probably kept a ‘studium’ at Gloucester Hall from
1337. De la Mare, John Moote, Hethworth and Whethamstede were all
considerable benefactors of the College, among their gifts being a
chapel, library, and the rebuilding of the old wooden house in stone.
For the relations of the Abbey and Gloucester Hall, see Daniel and
Barker’s _History of Worcester College_, chapter III.
[15] _Gesta Abbatum II_, 406.
[16] Living in England in captivity. He was a close friend of the
Abbot, and spent much of his time at St. Albans.
[17] The need of it had long been felt: the privilege had, in fact,
been bought in two particular cases, _viz._, in 1235 for 300 marks,
and in 1260 for 600 marks. The figures (as well as the new arrangement
to pay 1000 marks in the future) indicate the growth of governmental
extortion.
[18] The almost chronic dearth at St. Albans in the early fourteenth
century was a further misfortune. In 1314 the price of provisions in
the town was excessive, and Edward endeavoured to fix it by Ordinance
(_Trokelowe_, p. 89).
[19] _Cal. Papal Registers: Papal Letters II_, 1305–1342, p. 75.
[20] _Cal. Papal Registers: Papal Letters II_, 1305–1342, p. 75.
[21] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1327–1330, p. 84.
[22] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1327–1330, p. 362.
[23] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 147, ‘per epidemias hominum et
mortalitatem bestiarum facultates monasterii redditae sunt exiles.’
Also Walsingham, _Hist. Ang. I_, 273. ‘At that time,’ says Walsingham,
‘villages formerly very populous were bereft of inhabitants, and so
thickly did the plague lay them low that there scarcely survived enough
to bury the dead.... Many were of opinion that scarce a tenth of the
population survived.’
[24] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1348–1350, p. 476.
[25] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 146. A minor demand was liberty for the
abbot-elect to receive benediction at the hand of whatever bishop he
chose.
[26] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 148. Summa taxae omnium bonorum.
[27] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 171.
[28] _Cal. Papal Letters IV_, p. 293. Sep., 1396.
[29] The grant of the same privilege to the Abbey of Evesham in 1363
was used as a strong argument by de la Mare during negotiations.
[30] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 143. In 1396, Bury St. Edmunds made a
similar arrangement, the annual payment being fixed at £40 (_Cal. Pat.
Rolls_, 1396–99, p. 21). About a year later, following the example of
St. Albans, Abbot Cratfield, of Bury St. Edmunds, made an agreement
with Boniface IX identical with that of de la Mare (_Cal. Pat. Rolls_,
1396–99, p. 406).
[31] He tells, for instance, how in 1384, in the midst of an argument
with the Duke of Lancaster, he threw his shoes and cap through the
window. In 1387 a judge made difficulties about signing a document
presented to him. His son said, according to Walsingham, that his
father was knocked down and kicked as he lay.
[32] _Trokelowe_, p. 167.
[33] _Gesta Abbatum III_, lxxii.
[34] The chronicle has survived in two forms, _viz._, Cotton MSS., Otho
Cii (British Museum), and Bodleian MSS. 316 ff, 150–1, plus Harleian
MSS. 6434. It has been printed in _Chronicon Angliae_ (Rolls Series).
[35] The Royal MSS. E. ix (B.M.)--the basis of Walsingham’s _Historia
Anglicana_.
[36] See Maunde Thompson. Intro. to _Chronicon Angliae_ (Rolls Series).
[37] _Historia Anglicana I_, p. 339.
[38] The peasant armies in 1381 are said to have taken as their cry:
‘We will have no King named John.’
[39] See Armitage Smith, John of Gaunt, pp. 169–171.
[40] This is sufficient proof--if proof were needed--of the
‘independence’ of English chroniclers, _i.e._, they did not merely
write what they were told.
[41] _Tout. Polit. Hist. of England_, 1216–1377, p. 452: ‘The monks
were jealously proud of their library to which almost every abbot
found it expedient to contribute largely.’ In 1326 there was great
indignation when Abbot Richard gave or sold nearly forty volumes to
Richard de Bury, a famous lover of books, to promote the interests of
the abbot at Court. The incident was not forgotten, and after de Bury’s
death the books were bought back by the new abbot.
[42] _E.g._ Higden’s _Polychronicon_, viii. 278.
[43] The Scriptorium had been founded by Abbot Paul, circa 1077.
Owing to the ignorance of his own monks he was compelled to fill
it with hired scribes. Towards the end of the twelfth century a
‘historiographer’ was appointed, and from that time the systematic
compilation of annals may be taken to date. From the peculiar character
of the St. Albans script Sir T. Duffus Hardy concluded that Matthew
Paris learnt the art of writing from a foreign schoolmaster. See
Catalogue: _Materials for History of Great Britain and Ireland III_,
xxv, xxxiv, cxxiii.
[44] The same epoch left its impress upon the Abbey fabric. Much of it
was rebuilt by Abbot Thomas, though unfortunately lapse of time and the
restoration by Lord Grimthorpe’s munificence have left little except
the great Abbey gateway. Some stained glass, wall-paintings and a rood
screen of this date still remain, and in Abbot Whethamstede’s chapel
there is a beautiful brass of De la Mare.
[45] Chaucer: Prologue, &c. (Morris), lines 165–206.
[46] _Cf._ p. 12 ante.
[47] _Viz._ Essex, Hertford, Bedford, Bucks, Cambridge, Kent,
Middlesex, Yorkshire, Norfolk, Northampton, Berks, Lincoln, and in
London.
[48] _Gesta Abbatum II_, pp. 157–8.
[49] Another small outbreak in 1356 has escaped the notice of writers
on St. Albans municipal history. See _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1354–1358, p.
493. It was perhaps as a consequence of this that the Convent secured
a licence (1357) to crenellate the dwelling-place of the Abbey. _Cal.
Pat. Rolls_, 1354–1358, p. 574.
[50] _Whethamstede II_, p. 324–5; for such services the villein
commonly received besides his food a small wage.
[51] _Gesta Abbatum I_, p. 453–455.
[52] An unusually severe regulation.
[53] It was highly desirable for the Abbot to maintain this
distinction. In the King’s courts the villein had no case against his
lord save for bodily injury. In practice it appears that the Abbot
of St. Albans could inflict even bodily injury with impunity. See,
for instance, the case of Nicholas Tybson, who, having been stripped,
thrashed and wounded by the Abbot’s servants, brought an action for
redress. The case was at once dismissed as a false appeal on the ground
that Tybson was the born villein of the Abbot (_Gesta Abbatum III_, p.
39).
[54] T. W. Page: ‘End of Villeinage in England’ passim. See, too,
Petit-Dutaillis’ introduction to Réville, where the views of Stubbs
and Thorold Rogers on this subject are exploded. The period 1349–1381,
it is proved, was not marked (as they believed) by the reduction to
serfdom of men emancipated before the Black Death, or the re-assertion
on the part of landlords of labour services already commuted for money
payments. On the contrary, the process of commutation (which had not
advanced nearly so far by 1349 as Stubbs thought) proceeded at an
increasing rate after 1349.
[55] No manumissions occur in the records until more than a generation
after the revolt: evidently the old system remained unprosperous but
intact at St. Albans in 1381.
[56] Réville: _Le Soulèvement des Travailleurs d’Angleterre en 1381_,
p. xxv. See also _Gesta Abbatum II_, p. 123 and _III_, pp. 39–41,
_Whethamstede II_, pp. 324 and 333. At the cell of Tynemouth in 1378
there is no trace of commutation in the manor rolls; the old system
still exists in its entirety; see Gibson: _History of Tynemouth_, Vol.
II, Appendix, p. cxxi.
[57] _Amundesham I_, 163.
[58] _Whethamstede II_, Intro., p. xxxv.
[59] A few years earlier Abbot Heyworth had suppressed a similar rising
at Barnet (_Whethamstede I_, 451–2).
[60] _Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History_, Vol. I, p. 177.
[61] See _Utopia_ (Clarendon Press Edition), pp. 13–20.
[62] It is unfortunate that the surveys of the Commissioners in 1535
for Hertford have perished. At the same time the condition of monastic
estates was wonderfully similar, and St. Albans was probably no
exception.
[63] On the other hand classical learning became more esteemed. It is
impossible not to see in the florid verses of Whethamstede and in his
prose (loaded with classical allusion and metaphor) an early appearance
of the Renaissance spirit in England. Verse and prose are alike
worthless, but show a striving after something better than mediaeval
monastic writing. The tendency becomes more marked in his work after
his visit to Italy in 1423, where he was certainly influenced by the
early Humanist movement.
[64] The town of St. Albans was apparently something of a Lollard
centre. Sir John Oldcastle lay in hiding there, and when in 1414
William Murlee (one of his followers) was hanged and burnt, the convent
firmly believed that he had planned to put them every one to death
(Walsingham: _Hist. Angl. II_, 298–299). See, too, the account of the
proceedings at the Synod held by Whethamstede in 1429 (_Amundesham I_,
222–3): for commission to put down heresy (_Amundesham II_, 23). The
Abbot’s bitterness extended to any departure from orthodoxy, and Pecock
was an object of his special dislike.
[65] _E.g._ He instituted and endowed ‘a common chest,’ to which
resort was to be made only at times of great financial necessity. He
also created the office of ‘Master of the Works,’ to whom he assigned
regular funds with which the Master was to keep the Abbey buildings in
repair and put up new structures when required.
[66] Riley, for instance, thought it probable that Whethamstede was
the Duke of Gloucester’s political adviser, and that his resignation
of the abbacy in 1440 was due to the waning of ‘Good Duke Humphrey’s’
popularity before the rising star of Beaufort. ‘When ... the contending
rivals had been alike removed by the impartial hand of death, we find
him emerging from his comparatively obscure position as a pensioned
monk of the Abbey, and on the first opportunity attaining the Abbacy
once more’ (_Amundesham II_, liv).
[67] ‘His (Whethamstede’s) counsels,’ says Riley, ‘seem to have been
sought with equal eagerness by the two great heads of the antagonistic
parties of the politics of the times, the intriguing and ambitious
Henry Beaufort, Bishop of Winchester, and his ... nephew, the Duke of
Gloucester’ (_Amundesham I_, xv).
[68] _Cal. Pat. Rolls_, 1436–1441, p. 422.
[69] The King is found nevertheless in 1549 spending Easter at the
Abbey and lavishing gifts upon the Abbot.
[70] _Whethamstede I_, 396. The St. Albans chronicles make a valuable
contribution to political history for the years 1450–1461. For this
the coincidence of two decisive battles being fought at St. Albans is
responsible.
[71] _Newcome_, p. 374. Clutterbuck: _History and Antiquities of the
County of Hertford I_, Appendix I, pp. 527–46, for a copy of Edward
IV’s charter.
[72] For the growth of Episcopal hatred, see _Amundesham I_, p. 73–82,
142–195, and 300–408.
[73] _Gesta Abbatum III_, p. 472.
[74] _Amundesham I_, 29, 31.
[75] _Amundesham I_, 101.
[76] _Whethamstede I_, p. 25.
[77] _Whethamstede I_, p. 475.
[78] _Whethamstede I_, XV.
[79] It is a curious circumstance that the folio containing the account
of his election has been torn out of the register.
[80] MS. Cotton: _Nero D.VII_ (British Museum), folios 25A-48A.
_Whethamstede I_, 451. A different MS. from that of his Register
(_viz._ MS. Arundel III, College of Arms), which contains the charges
against him.
[81] There are a few instances, however, during Albon’s rule.
[82] _E.g._ Office of Seneschal of the Liberty bestowed upon several
prominent political figures between 1474 and 1482 (see _Whethamstede
II_, xxx).
[83] _Whethamstede II_, xxxii. Riley has examined such cases in detail.
It appears that even his right of presentation of a Prior to the Cell
of Tynemouth was alienated by Wallingford.
[84] E.H.R. xxiv. 319–321: the Bull was promulgated in March, 1490.
Mr. James Gairdner believes the curious omission in the Bull of any
mention of Benedictine Houses due to the fact that there were so few
exempt in England. More probably, I think, the omission was due to the
Pope’s unwillingness to reverse a brief he had issued less than two
months previously. In February, 1490, at the solicitation of Abbot
Wallingford, Innocent VIII had addressed a brief to the Archbishop
bidding him defend St. Albans against all attacks as an exempt House.
Evidently Wallingford had an inkling of the impending reform and strove
to anticipate Morton.
[85] _Wilkins Concilia III_, p. 632; the translation is from Froude.
[86] In 1484 Wallingford formally allowed Thomas Hethnes, keeper of the
George Inn, to have a chapel for the celebration of the Mass by the
Chaplains of ‘such great men and nobles and others as should be lodging
at this hostelry’ (_Whethamstede II_, xxxiii; also p. 269), a clear
indication of the decline of the one-time famous hospitality.
[87] The history of these transactions is taken from an article by Mr.
Gairdner (E.H.R. xxiv. 319–321) based upon Abbot Gasquet’s researches
in the Papal archives.
[88] Mr. Gairdner gives it as his opinion that the visitation was
not carried out (see _Lollardy and the Reformation_, Vol. I, pp.
269–272, Vol. III, p. xxxi). He bases his view on a passage in the St.
Albans obit book (_Whethamstede I_, p. 478), recording a victory of
Wallingford over the Archbishop. This passage, it appears from what
follows, was written not later than 1484 (see _Whethamstede I_, p.
479), the convent solemnly affixing its seal to the narrative under
the date ‘anno domini millesimo quadringentesimo octogesimo quarto,
die, videlicet, mensis Augusti octava.’ Probably therefore the account
refers to an earlier and unsuccessful attempt of the Archbishop to
carry out a visitation (see Appendix).
[89] _Letters and Papers I_, No. 71.
[90] _Letters and Papers_, 1519, No. 487.
[91] _Letters and Papers_, 1519, No. 510.
[92] _Letters and Papers_, 1521, No. 1843.
[93] _Letters and Papers_, 1523, No. 3239.
[94] Gasquet: _Henry VIII and the English Monasteries_, p. 27; the
appropriation of the revenues of Prez and Tenby to his colleges at
Oxford and Ipswich is natural; the revenues of the suppressed houses
were too small to have been of any real assistance to St. Albans.
[95] Savine: _English Monasteries on the Eve of the Dissolution_, p.
24 (Oxford Studies in Social and Legal History). The surveys of six
counties are missing from _Valor Ecclesiasticus_.
[96] _Ibid._, pp. 263–267. _Cf._ His conclusion that the monks
maintained a population not more than four times their own number.
Abbot Gasquet had stated it to be at least ten times as great. _Cf._,
too, Hibbert’s _The Dissolution of the Monasteries_, p. 210.
[97] _E.g._ _Whethamstede II_, xxxi.
[98] _Cf._ Morton’s letter to the Abbot, 1490. _Whethamstede II_,
xxxiii.
[99] _Cf._ Morton’s letter to the Abbot, 1485 (_Whethamstede II_,
xxxiii).
[100] _Cf._ Robert Aske’s remarks in 1536 with regard to the blessings
the abbeys conferred upon the ‘poor commons’ (Gasquet’s _Henry VIII and
the English Monasteries_, p. 225).
[101] The printing press generally said to have existed within the
Abbey was probably set up in the town by an anonymous master of the
Grammar School about 1480. See an elaborate article in the _Victoria
History of English Counties_ (Hertford), Vol. II, pp. 47–56.
[102] The school was refounded 1549; probably it never ceased actually
to exist.
[103] Already in 1528 Wolsey had suppressed a number of the smaller
monasteries, among them the nunnery of St. Mary de Prez (on the ground
that the inmates did not preserve good discipline) and the cell of
Pembroke.
[104] Adding ‘It were well to suppress the nunnery of Sopwell as you
may see by the comperts’ (_Letters and Papers_, 1535, No. 661). The
state of affairs would thus really seem to have been worse in the
smaller houses than at St. Albans; but of Binham, on the other hand,
there is direct evidence that, except that its numbers had grown
smaller, it was in good condition (_Letters and Papers_, 1534, No. 574).
[105] _Letters and Papers_, 1535, No. 1155.
[106] _Letters and Papers_, 1536, No. 642.
[107] _Letters and Papers_, 1536, No. 354.
[108] _Letters and Papers_, 1537, No. 1209.
[109] _Monasticon II_, p. 207.
[110] From one of his letters to Cromwell it would appear that as
early as January, 1536, Catton felt his position insecure owing to
the complaints of his own monks. ‘Trusts greatly to Cromwell his
position here being so intrikyd with extreme penury ... and most of
all encumbered with an uncourteous flock of brethren.’ (_Letters and
Papers_, 1536, No. 152).
[111] The average decline in numbers has been calculated by Savine as
one-fifth; so the proportion at St. Albans was high.
[112] The three greater were: Canterbury (£2,423); Westminster
(£2,409); and Glastonbury (£3,311) (Savine Appendix, p. 270–288).
[113] _Whethamstede I_, p. 475–479.