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[Illustration: frontispiece]
THE CHRONICLE OF JOCELIN
OF BRAKELOND: A PICTURE
OF MONASTIC LIFE IN THE
DAYS OF ABBOT SAMSON.
Newly Edited by
SIR ERNEST CLARKE M.A. F.S.A.
[Illustration:
_Seal of Abbot Samson.
(Slightly enlarged. The length of the
original is 3-1/2 inches._)]
THE CHRONICLE OF
JOCELIN OF BRAKELOND:
A PICTURE OF
MONASTIC LIFE IN
THE DAYS OF ABBOT
SAMSON
Newly Edited by
SIR ERNEST CLARKE
Alexander Moring
The De La More Press
298 Regent Street London W 1903
"A VERITABLE MONK OF BURY ST. EDMUND'S: WORTH LISTENING TO, IF BY
CHANCE MADE VISIBLE AND AUDIBLE. HERE HE IS; AND IN HIS HAND A
MAGICAL SPECULUM, MUCH GONE TO RUST, INDEED, YET IN FRAGMENTS STILL
CLEAR; WHEREIN THE MARVELLOUS IMAGE OF HIS EXISTENCE DOES STILL
SHADOW ITSELF, THOUGH FITFULLY, AND AS WITH AN INTERMITTENT LIGHT."
_Carlyle: Past and Present._ Chapter 1.
LIST OF CONTENTS
SEAL OF ABBOT SAMSON. _Frontispiece_
_EDITOR'S PREFACE._
Page
Samson and his arch-eulogist--The Chronicle--Previous
Editions of the Chronicle--The Chronicler--The Central
Figure of the Chronicle--Samson in Subordinate
Offices--Samson as Abbot--Relations with Church and
State--Samson as an Author--Samson's
Masterfulness--Samson as an Administrator--Epilogue xv.-xliii.
CHAPTER I.
_BURY ABBEY UNDER ABBOT HUGH._
The last years of Abbot Hugh--The monastery under a load of
debt, and in the hands of Jew money-lenders--Inquiry by
the Royal almoner--Caustic comment by Samson, master of
the novices--Exemption obtained by Hugh from visitation
by the Legate--Jocelin's reflection thereon--The Convent
debt--Entertainment of strangers--Samson in various
offices, but disliked by the Abbot--Accident to Hugh at
Canterbury--His death--His house despoiled by his
servants 1-11
CHAPTER II.
_THE MONKS DISCUSS THE VACANCY._
Wardens of the Abbey appointed by the King--Culpable
Weakness of the Prior--William the sacrist--Activity of
Samson as subsacrist--Jealousy of him--The Wardens stop
further building operations--Much discussion by the
monks as to the qualifications needed in the new
Abbot--Samson silently notes all that is said--Jocelin's
indiscretion in blurting out his private opinion 12-23
CHAPTER III.
_THE CHOICE OF A NEW ABBOT._
Henry II. orders the Prior and twelve delegates from the
Abbey to attend him to make choice of a new
Abbot--Selection of the twelve--Six electors appointed
to choose three names to be given under seal to the
delegates--The journey to the Court--Gossip and telling
of dreams amongst the monks left behind--The delegates
before the King at Bishop's Waltham--The sealed paper
opened--Samson eventually selected--Approval of the
King, and his comment on Samson's demeanour 24-35
CHAPTER IV.
_SAMSON'S INSTALLATION._
Reception of the news at the Monastery--Samson blessed by
the Bishop of Winchester--He journeys to Bury, and is
welcomed by the Convent on Palm Sunday--His address in
the chapter-house--Answer of Wimer the Sheriff--Jocelin
made Abbot's Chaplain--New Seal struck with mitre graven
thereon--Samson sets his household in order--General
Court summoned--Demand of aid from his knights 36-42
CHAPTER V.
_THE NEW ABBOT'S REFORMS._
Prepares an estate book--Buildings and repairs--Enclosure
of parks--Hunting and dogs--Land
improvements--Management of manors--General
survey--Makes a kalendar--New regulations made in
Chapter--Amount of the convent debts and their
discharge--Dismissal of William the sacrist--Samson
visits all the Abbey manors--His anxieties about the
debts--His skill and energy in managing the
estates--Appointed judge in ecclesiastical
courts--Jocelin's excuse for Samson's fondness for
betaking himself to his manors--The Abbot's complaint at
the burden of his charge--His dream as a child--His
control of temper--Order for production of convent
seals--Thirty-three given up, all retained by the Abbot,
except the prior's--Entertainment of guests 43-59
CHAPTER VI.
_SAMSON'S PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS._
His personal appearance--His temperance and
diligence--Abhors liars, drunkards and talkative
folk--His eloquence--Preaches to the people in the
Norfolk dialect--Management of his household--Strict
regulation of expenses--Appoints none but fit persons to
office--His treatment of his relatives--Gratitude for
past kindnesses--Provides free lodgings for poor
scholars--Expulsion of Jews from Bury--Purchase of the
Manor of Mildenhall--Giving up of King Henry II.'s cup
and its restoration--Samson's generosity--The Woolpit
living--Samson recounts his visit to Rome in his early
days, and his adventures 60-75
CHAPTER VII.
_THE ABBOT AS PEER OF PARLIAMENT._
Dispute with Archbishop of Canterbury as to jurisdiction
over manor of Eleigh--Quarrel with the Bishop of Ely,
the Chancellor--Samson wishes to take the cross: the
King refuses permission--Goes to siege of Windsor in
martial array--Visits Richard I. in
Germany--Excommunication by him of a company of
roystering young knights--Embassies to Rome--The claim
of the Earl of Clare to carry the Standard of St. Edmund
in battle--Adam of Cockfield's inheritance--Herbert the
dean and his windmill--Jocelin's New Year's gift--The
Abbot's struggle with his rebellious knights 76-100
CHAPTER VIII.
_THE CASE OF HENRY OF ESSEX._
Excesses of Henry of Essex--His cowardice in Wales--The
wager of battle on the island near Reading--Henry's
vision--His recovery and repentance 101-105
CHAPTER IX.
_TROUBLES WITHOUT._
The Bishop of Ely outwitted as to timber asked for by
him--Dispute as to town bailiffs--Murmurings of the
monks--Toll-right dispute with London merchants--Dues of
the burgesses--Samson grants a charter to the town 106-117
CHAPTER X.
_TROUBLES WITHIN._
Inefficient cellarers--New arrangements criticised--The
Archbishop of Canterbury claims authority to visit the
Abbey as legate--Samson's successful appeal to the Pope 118-127
CHAPTER XI.
_SAMSON'S CONTESTS WITH KNIGHTS,
MONKS AND TOWNSMEN._
King Richard's levies--The abbot's difficulties in making
his knights comply--Goes to Normandy and arranges
matters with the King--Samson's generosity to the
abbey--He takes the cellarer's department into his own
hands--Consequent discontent--Hamo Blund's will, and
Samson's comments thereon--Riots in the
churchyard--Rioters reduced to submission 128-141
CHAPTER XII.
_THE CARES OF OFFICE._
Restoration of the Coventry monks--Samson's hospitality at
Oxford--His endowment of the Bury schools--Abbey
improvements--The Abbot withstands King Richard over the
wardship of Nesta of Cockfield--The King appeased by a
present of horses and dogs 142-149
CHAPTER XIII.
_THE CUSTOMS OF THE TOWNSHIP._
Old oppressive customs changed or abrogated by Samson--The
Cellarer's difficulties in collecting _rep silver_--The
hard case of Ketel--The Cellarer's dues--Lakenheath
eels--Samson's reforms and his critics 150-161
CHAPTER XIV.
_THE SHRINE OF ST. EDMUND._
Fire around the shrine--The shrine unhurt--Vain attempts to
hush up the scandal--Samson dreams of St. Edmund
despoiled--The saint's body uncovered--Samson and
certain of the monks view the sacred relic 162-177
CHAPTER XV.
_THE MONASTERY IN REVOLT._
Death of King Richard--King John visits the Abbey--Samson
supports Ralph the porter against the monks--He
withdraws from the convent--Disturbances in his
absence--The monks submit--Reconciliation--Marshalling
of the Knights--Further troubles about the manors and
cellary 178-189
CHAPTER XVI.
_ELECTION OF A NEW PRIOR._
Death of Robert the Prior--Herbert the chaplain and Hermer
the sub-prior candidates for the post--Through the
Abbot's influence Herbert is elected--Jocelin
moralizes--The gibes of the unlearned 190-199
CHAPTER XVII.
_THE ABBOT'S FOIBLES._
Samson's faults--The dam at Babwell--Trouble with the Ely
monks--The Abbot summoned over sea to the King--Sets his
house in order--His unfulfilled promises--The story
breaks off 200-211
APPENDICES.
I. SAMSON AS AN AUTHOR 215-221
II. NOTES TO TEXT OF CHRONICLE 222-256
III. TABLE OF CHIEF DATES IN THE HISTORY OF
THE ABBEY OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY, A.D.
870 TO 1903 257-278
_GENERAL INDEX_ 279-285
PREFACE
=Samson and his Arch-Eulogist.=--Abbot Samson of St. Edmundsbury and
his biographer, Jocelin of Brakelond, undoubtedly owe such immortality
as they possess to their introduction to the world at large by Thomas
Carlyle. Learned historians and commentators of the past had made use
of the dry facts of the Chronicle for their disquisitions and
treatises; but none had recognized the human interest of Jocelin's
narrative until the Sage of Chelsea seized upon it as evidence of that
theory of Hero Worship on which he loved to insist.
The whole of the seventeen chapters of Book II. of "Past and Present,"
published in 1843, are devoted to a study of Abbot Samson, and the
lessons which Carlyle thought "our own poor century" could learn from
him.
From that day to this, Samson has been more or less a household word;
and, as John Richard Green says in his "Stray Studies" (1876), "In the
wandering gossipy pages of Jocelin of Brakelond the life of the
twelfth century, so far as it could penetrate abbey walls, still glows
distinct for us round the figure of the shrewd, practical, kindly,
imperious abbot who looks out, a little travestied perhaps, from the
pages of Mr. Carlyle."
=The Chronicle.=--Mr. Green further says:--"By a rare accident the
figure of the silent, industrious Norfolk monk, who at the close of
Henry the Second's reign suddenly found himself ruler of the
wealthiest, if not the greatest, of English abbeys, starts out
distinct from the dim canvas of the annals of his house. Annals indeed
in any strict sense St. Edmund's has none; no national chronicle was
ever penned in its scriptorium such as that which flings lustre round
its rival, St. Albans; nor is even a record of its purely monastic
life preserved such as that which gives a local and ecclesiastical
interest to its rival of Glastonbury. One book alone the abbey has
given us, but that one book is worth a thousand chronicles."
The original manuscript of the Chronicle occupies 43 folios (121-163)
of a thick quarto volume on vellum once in the library of Bury Abbey,
afterwards in the hands of the family of Bacon of Redgrave, then
belonging to Bishop Stillingfleet of Worcester, and now preserved in
the British Museum amongst the Harleian Manuscripts. The contents of
this _Liber Albus_ (Harl. MS. 1005) are very varied; and a complete
list of the 144 items in it which relate to the Abbey will be found on
pp. 122-4 of the 1821 Edition of the _Monasticon_. (Another copy of
the Chronicle was in the Cottonian MS. Vitellius DXV., burnt in the
fire of 1731.) Three facsimiles of portions of the MS. are given in
the Camden Society's Edition of the Latin text (to be presently
referred to), and the writing is there ascribed to the end of the 13th
or beginning of the 14th century.
=Previous Editions of the Chronicle.=--In the year 1840, John Gage
Rokewode, F.R.S. (1786-1842), Director of the Society of Antiquaries,
brought out for the Camden Society a thin quarto book in the familiar
green cover, which he entitled "Chronica Jocelini de Brakelonda de
rebus gestis Samsonis Abbatis Monasterii Sancti Edmundi." It was this
book that attracted the attention of Carlyle, with the results already
stated. Rokewode was a scion of the distinguished family of Gage of
Hengrave, near Bury, and took the additional name of Rokewode on
inheriting in 1838 the estates of the Rookwood family. He was a very
learned genealogist, and the author of a History of Hengrave and of
the Hundred of Thingoe. His observations on Suffolk families and
topography are therefore to be relied upon, though subsequent
investigation has corrected some of his notes on historical matters.
Rokewode's text was in the original Latin; but to meet the popular
demand for the Chronicle caused by Carlyle's published appreciation of
it in "Past and Present" (1843), a translation into English was made
by Thomas Edlyne Tomlins (1804-1872), and was published in 1844 by
Whitaker & Co. in the "Popular Library of Modern Authors," under the
title of "Monastic and Social Life in the Twelfth Century."
Mr. T. E. Tomlins was a nephew of the better known Sir Thomas Edlyne
Tomlins (1762-1841), assistant counsel to the Treasury, who wrote "The
Law of Wills" and other well-known text-books. The younger Thomas was
an attorney, and also wrote on legal subjects. Tomlins' translation of
Jocelin was issued in the somewhat forbidding form of a tall
paper-covered book of 64 pages of double columns of small type,
without any break from start to finish: the few notes at the end being
mostly on legal points, and none of them of great merit.
It does not appear that Mr. Tomlins had any special knowledge of his
subject; and, as a consequence, his translation contained a quantity
of errors, both of omission and commission. His book has been used as
the ground-work for the present edition, but the alterations made in
the text have been so numerous and important as to be practically
equivalent to a new translation altogether. The three Appendices
(pages 215-278) are wholly new.
The task of rendering the Latin text into satisfactory and accurate
English has been made easier by the publication in 1890-6 of Mr.
Thomas Arnold's three volumes of "Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey"
(No. 96 of the Rolls Series). "Tom" Arnold (1823-1900) was the second
son of Arnold of Rugby and the younger brother of Matthew Arnold; and
he undertook a quantity of work for the Rolls Series, not all of which
he was able to carry through with the completeness that he desired.
Especially with regard to the Annals of St. Edmundsbury there was a
quantity of material that he could not deal with in the leisure at his
command. But so far as concerns the Chronicle of Jocelin (which
occupies 228 pages of his Volume I.), his edition of the original
Latin text was carefully revised and annotated.
=The Chronicler.=--Of Jocelin of Brakelond very little is certainly
known beyond what he himself tells us in the Chronicle. There are two
streets in Bury St. Edmunds known as the Long and Short Brackland or
Braklond, and probably Jocelin took his name from his place of birth.
In the text of the Chronicle, however, and in other 13th century
documents in which his name is recorded, he appears simply as Jocelin.
He tells us he took the habit in 1173, "the year when the Flemings
were taken captive without the town" (page 1); and that he then came
under the care of Samson, at that time master of the novices, who told
him some of his own experiences by way of warning against interference
with the constituted authorities (6).
At the time of Samson's election as Abbot, in 1182, Jocelin was
prior's chaplain, but within four months he was made abbot's chaplain,
"noting many things and committing them to memory" (39): for which all
students of English history are eternally grateful to him. In his
capacity as Samson's chaplain, Jocelin was "constantly with him by day
and night for six years, and had the opportunity of becoming fully
conversant with the worthiness of his life and the wisdom of his rule"
(56).
Jocelin evidently starts at first with an admiration for Samson's
vigorous and independent regime (see especially pages 52-3); but later
on his faith in his master seems to have been a little shaken, and
Samson's action in practically "jockeying" his favourite Herbert into
the office of prior takes Jocelin's breath away. The eventful meeting
of the chapter over, he sits down stupefied in the porch of the guest
chamber (he being then hospitarius), and reflects on the situation
(198). He cannot approve, moreover, Samson's action with regard to
John Ruffus and Adam the Infirmarer, where he more than hints at the
Abbot's acceptance of a bribe (200). The banking up by Samson of the
fishpond at Babwell, thus flooding the pastures and gardens of others,
he describes as "another stain of evil doing" (201): the Abbot's
passionate retort that "his fish pond was not to be spoilt on account
of our meadows," obviously offending Jocelin's sense of the
proprieties. He demurs, moreover, to the willingness of certain of the
monks to strip even the shrine of St. Edmund himself to obtain an
exemption of the Abbey from episcopal visitation, pointing out that
there might come a time when the convent might need the control of a
bishop, archbishop, or legate, over a tyrannous or spendthrift abbot
(7).
It is perhaps for these reasons that we find Jocelin, at a date after
Samson's death, on the side of the party of caution and moderation in
the disputes over the election of a new abbot. The author, whoever he
was, of the interpolated narrative in the Chronicle relating to Henry
of Essex (101 _et seq._) refers to "Master Jocelin our almoner, a man
of exalted piety, powerful in word and in deed"; and there can hardly
be any doubt that this was our Jocelin. In the highly complicated
story (printed in Mr. Arnold's second volume) of the preliminaries to
the final approval by King John of Samson's successor, Abbot Hugh II.,
Jocelin the almoner took the side of Robert of Gravelee, the sacrist,
who advocated the adoption of the plan followed when the previous
vacancy occurred, of submitting to the king names from whom he could
make a selection (as indeed John had asked might be done by letter
dated 25 July, 1213), instead of asking him, as they did, to confirm
an election already made. Jocelin, in a speech delivered in the
chapter-house, seems indeed to have been the first to start the view
that the convent had made a mistake, and that it ought to put itself
right with the king. He again insisted on this at a second debate in
December, 1213, and took a prominent part in the subsequent
discussions, his name being recorded in the division list of June,
1214, when 30 voted on his side, and 32 for adherence to the claims of
the Abbey.
The three delegates, the Abbot of Wardon, the Prior of Dunstable, and
the Dean of Salisbury, who had been appointed by the Pope on May 18,
1214, to inquire into the Bury election, held the last but one of
their numerous sittings on February 12, 1215, at which Jocelin was
present. At last the delegates announced on March 10 their judgment
confirming the election, which, with considerable trouble, they
persuaded the sacrist and his party to accept, and to exchange with
the new abbot the kiss of peace.
When, on April 24, 1215, the abbot elect, unsuccessful in obtaining
John's favour, and refusing to bribe the king, though advised to do so
by the courtiers, appointed certain officials to the custody of Abbey
manors, he took the advice, amongst other high officers, of Jocelin
the almoner; and this is the last we hear of our Chronicler.
Jocelin himself mentions (23) that he had written a book on the many
signs and wonders in connection with the martyrdom by the Jews of the
boy Robert, who was buried in the Abbey Church; but this work is not
known to be extant. The inaccurate Bale also ascribes to him the
authorship of the tract _Super Electione Hugonis_ (also in the Liber
Albus), from which the above facts as to Jocelin's later life have
been gleaned. But there is no authority for this; and, as Mr. Arnold
points out (i. lix.), the style of that work is different from the
Chronicle.
Whatever criticisms one might be tempted to pass on Carlyle's
appreciation of Samson, there need be no dissentient voice to his
summing up of Jocelin's character:--
An ingenious and ingenuous, a cheery-hearted, innocent, yet withal
shrewd, noticing, quick-witted man; and from under his monk's cowl
has looked out on the narrow section of the world in a really human
manner.... The man is of patient, peaceable, loving, clear-smiling
nature; open for this or that.... Also he has a pleasant wit, and
loves a timely joke, though in mild, subdued manner. A learned, grown
man, yet with the heart as of a good child.
=The Central Figure of the Chronicle.=--Whatever his other merits,
Jocelin's strong point was certainly not chronological sequence. With
the assistance of the Table of Dates printed on pages 261-267, the
reader will, it is hoped, get some useful sort of idea of the busy
life of Abbot Samson, both within and without the walls of the
monastery, whilst it was under his vigorous rule; and as to his
personal characteristics, virtues and foibles, they are writ large in
almost every chapter of the Chronicle.
He was obviously of humble origin, and his dialect was that of his
native county of Norfolk (62). He seems to have lost his father early,
for we read of his conferring, soon after he became Abbot, a benefice
upon the son of a man of lowly station who had been kind to him in his
youth and looked after his interests (66). As a child of nine, he had
been taken by his mother to a pilgrimage to St. Edmund, after a dream
which presaged his future service under that saint (56). When he was a
poor clerk, William, the schoolmaster of Diss, had given him free
admission to his school: a favour which he requited by giving Walter,
son of William, the living of Chevington (67). Similarly, he helped
those of his kinsmen who had recognized him when he was a poor clerk,
provided they were worthy; but with those who had then held aloof from
him he wished to have no dealings (66).
At some early date Samson went to Paris to study, a friend who then
supported him there by the proceeds of the sale of holy water
receiving afterwards a benefice from him (66). Just as he did not
forget the friends who had helped him in his early struggles so he
remembered past kindnesses shown to him when he was a poor monk and
out of favour with the authorities. When Hugh, his predecessor,
clapped him into irons, Hugh's cupbearer Elias brought him some wine
to quench his prison thirst (67); and when he needed a night's lodging
on his return from Durham on the business of the Abbey, a resident at
Risby gave him the shelter which a neighbour refused (68). Neither
favour was forgotten when Elias and William of Risby came before him
as landlord.
By 1160 Samson was back from abroad as master of the schools at Bury,
though he did not become a professed monk till 1166. Meanwhile he had
been sent on an errand to Rome, with reference to the church at
Woolpit, in which his native wit showed itself (73, 74). He seems to
have been successful in his mission, getting from Pope Alexander III.
a reversion for the monastery of the Woolpit living; but, perhaps
because he returned too late to prevent Geoffrey Ridel being appointed
by the king (74), Abbot Hugh banished him, on his return, to Castle
Acre. Here he remained in exile a long time (74), and he was sent
there again after he had become a cloister monk, and had spoken up
"for the good of our Church" in opposition to the Abbot (6).
=Samson in Subordinate Offices.=--Much as Hugh disliked Samson, he
seems to have been a little afraid of him; and, to reconcile matters,
he made Samson subsacrist. "Often accused," says Jocelin, "he was
transferred from one office to another, being successively guest
master, pittance master, third prior, and again subsacrist" (9). But
he could not be induced to fawn on and flatter the Abbot, as other
officials did; and Hugh declared that "he had never seen a man whom he
could not bend to his will, except Samson the subsacrist" (10).
When at length Hugh's trying dispensation came to an end, through his
horse accident at Canterbury in 1180, Samson was, as subsacrist, busy
with new building operations for the Church (14). His superior
officer, the bibulous William Wiardel, the sacrist, was jealous of
him, and persuaded the wardens of the Abbey to stop any further
expense for works during the vacancy (15). But Samson knew some things
to William's financial and moral discredit, on which he was later able
to base the sacrist's dismissal from office (46-7).
The gossip amongst the monks as to which of the brethren should fill
Hugh's place is admirably told by Jocelin (Chap. ii.). Whilst the rest
were babbling at blood-letting season, Samson the subsacrist sat
smiling but saying nothing (21). The receipt of Henry II.'s order or
permission to make choice of a new Abbot put the monastery in a
flutter; and the selection of the deputation to wait upon the King,
and their interview with their liege lord, is most naively described
in chapter iii. The secret ballot at Bury for three names was a
surprise to the higher officials (31), and they did what they could to
diminish Samson's chances. But after some fencing the Bishop of
Winchester asked the deputation point blank whom they wanted, and the
answer was--Samson: "no one gainsaying this" (34).
=Samson as Abbot.=--And so the once oppressed and obscure monk
returned to Bury the absolute ruler of the foundation, with the king's
remark in his ears when he noted, with apparent admiration at Bishop's
Waltham, how Samson comported himself in the royal presence: "By the
eyes of God, this Abbot elect thinks himself worthy to govern an
abbey!" (35). So indeed he did, setting to work at once after his
ceremonial installation (37) to institute reforms of all sorts. As
Carlyle says, and his words must suffice in this place:--
How Abbot Samson, giving his new subjects seriatim the kiss of
fatherhood in the St. Edmundsbury chapter-house, proceeded with
cautious energy to set about reforming their disjointed, distracted
way of life; how he managed with his Fifty rough Milites (Feudal
Knights), with his lazy farmers, remiss refractory monks, with Pope's
Legates, Viscounts, Bishops, Kings; how on all sides he laid about
him like a man, and putting consequence on premiss, and everywhere
the saddle on the right horse, struggled incessantly to educe organic
method out of lazily fermenting wreck,--the careful reader will
discern, not without true interest, in these pages of Jocelin
Boswell.
To tell the story of all this would be to paraphrase the Chronicle;
and the reader is therefore referred to the List of Contents for
instances of the Abbot's capacity and resourcefulness in dealing with
the complicated interests under his control.
But there is one aspect of his busy life to which allusion may perhaps
here be made, as showing the influence and importance of the Abbot of
St. Edmundsbury outside the monastery walls.
=Relations with Church and State.=--Samson's abbacy extended over
the pontificates of five Popes and the reigns of three Kings, by all
of whom his strength of character and wisdom of counsel seem to have
been appreciated. Pope Lucius III., who had succeeded, in 1181,
Alexander III., to whom Samson had twenty years before paid a visit on
behalf of the Abbey (72), appointed the new abbot a judge in the
ecclesiastical courts within seven months of his election (51). Urban
III. granted Samson in 1187-8, the privilege of giving the episcopal
benediction (84) and other concessions. Celestine III. placed him in
1197 on the commission for restoring the expelled monks at Coventry
(142); and Innocent III. granted on December 1, 1198, without
hesitation, on Samson's application, an exemption of Bury Abbey from
episcopal visitation even by a legate unless he were a legate _a
latere_ (124).
King Henry II., who had apparently formed a favourable opinion of
Samson from his demeanour on his election (35), practically decided in
his favour on February 11, 1187, in his dispute with Archbishop Hubert
concerning his abbatial jurisdiction over Monk's Eleigh, where a case
of homicide had occurred (78). In the same year, the king at Clarendon
favourably considered Samson's petition with reference to the immunity
of Bury Abbey from certain taxes (96). Having taken the Cross on
January 21, 1188, Henry II. came to Bury within a month to pay a
pilgrimage to St. Edmund, when Samson endeavoured, without success, to
obtain the king's permission to do likewise (81).
In the next year Henry died at Chinon (July 6, 1189), and Samson had
to deal with a new sovereign: at whose coronation on September 3,
1189, he was present. One of Richard's earliest acts was the sale of
offices, crown rights, crown property, and royal favours to fill his
military chest; saying indeed that he would sell London if he could
find a purchaser. Amongst the bargains of this sort was the sale to
Samson of the manor of Mildenhall for 1,000 marks, after the astute
abbot had offered him half that amount (70). The queen-mother was
entitled by custom of the realm to 100 marks as a perquisite in
connection with this transaction, and took in lieu thereof a gold cup
which had been given to the abbey by Henry II. This same cup came back
to Bury in exchange for 100 marks (71), when the 70,000 marks required
to ransom King Richard was being raised in England (147).
When the news of Richard's capture reached England, Samson rose in his
place in the King's Council to express his readiness to seek the king
in Germany, either in disguise or any other way: "by reason whereof,"
says Jocelin, "he obtained great approbation" (81). Later on he did go
to Germany, "and visited the king with many gifts" (82).
Towards the end of Richard's reign, in 1198, Samson tried to avoid
sending four of his knights to Normandy, in obedience to the King's
orders, and went to see him, with the result that Richard accepted
four mercenaries, and afterwards a hundred pounds to discharge the
obligation (128-30). He brought back with him on this occasion for the
adornment of the abbey church a golden cross and a valuable copy of
the Gospels (130); and Jocelin records that so often as he returned
from beyond sea on his numerous visits abroad, he brought back with
him some offering for the church (131), besides making gifts to it on
other occasions.
In 1198 a serious quarrel took place between Richard and Samson over
the wardship of Nesta of Cockfield, the daughter of a family whose
tenure of lands from the Abbey is recorded with wearisome iteration in
the Chronicle. Samson would not give way, despite the threats of the
King, which he "very wisely passed over without notice," and in the
end Richard yielded with a good grace, asking the abbot if he would
send him some of his dogs. The abbot of course complied, and added
some horses and other valuable gifts, in exchange for which Richard
sent him a ring given to him by the new Pope, Innocent III. (147-9).
Just as Samson 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 in all his undertakings, the King died, and the abbot lost all
his labour and outlay" (178). It became therefore necessary to
propitiate Richard's successor. King John made an early pilgrimage to
St. Edmund, but left in bad odour with the monastery, which had spent
much money on his entertainment, but had only received in return
thirteenpence offered by the king at the shrine of the Saint on the
day of his departure, besides a silken cloth borrowed for the occasion
from the sacrist and never paid for (178). John must, however, have
thought highly of the abbot to summon him over sea in 1203 to confer
with him as to the Pope's letter concerning the dispensation of
Crusaders from their vows (207).
=Samson as an Author.=--Once when Jocelin asked why he had been
sighing so heavily and was so wakeful at nights, Samson confided to
him how greatly he felt the burden of his charge; and on another
occasion said that if he had known what it involved, he would, rather
than be abbot and lord, have preferred to be keeper of the books, "for
this office he had ever desired above all others" (55).
Jocelin hints a polite incredulity; but there are evidences that
Samson was fond of books, and was indeed an author. There is a small
volume, Titus A viii. in the Cottonian collection, which includes in
its contents a work in two books, entitled _De Miraculis Sancti
Aedmundi_. From a number of marginal notes, of even date with the
fourteenth century text, and which ascribe to Samson, amongst other
writers, the authorship of various passages in the great legendary
life of St. Edmund in the Bodleian Library (MS. 240), Mr. Arnold
arrived at the conclusion that "the writer of the work was
unquestionably Abbot Samson." For the evidence the reader is referred
to Appendix I. (pages 215-21); but it would appear that the work was
written before the date when he became abbot, and perhaps before he
had been appointed to any one of the numerous offices in the monastery
to which he was from time to time transferred by the capricious Hugh
(9).
Whenever any new event was recorded in his patron saint's honour,
Samson caused it to be recorded: hence at his desire the episode of
Henry of Essex, whom St. Edmund had "confounded in the very hour of
battle" (102), was reduced to writing at Reading, and interpolated by
some other monk in Jocelin's chronicle.
=Samson's Masterfulness.=--Samson, like his prototype of Scripture,
was a "strong man," and as such he came into constant conflict with
those who sought to try conclusions with him, usually to their own
regret. From instances innumerable, the following may be selected as
typical. At his very first general court of his knights, Thomas of
Hastings tried to press the claim of his nephew Henry--a minor--to the
hereditary stewardship of the Abbey; but Samson said he would consider
the matter when Henry could perform the duties (41). Richard, Earl of
Clare, demanded his guerdon of five shillings for the office of
Standard-bearer of St. Edmund. Samson retorted that the payment of the
money would not inconvenience the Abbey; but there were two other
claimants for the post, and Richard must settle first with them. The
Earl said he would confer with Roger Bigot his kinsman, "and so the
matter was put off even to this day" (86).
Geoffrey Ridel, the Bishop of Ely, sent a blundering messenger to the
abbot to ask for timber from woods at Elmswell, meaning Elmsett.
Samson assented to the request for Elmswell, and meanwhile sent his
foresters to Elmsett and cut down a great quantity of oaks, branding
them as the property of the Abbey. The bishop overwhelmed his stupid
servant with reproaches, and sent him back to explain. But it was too
late, "and the bishop, if he wanted timber, had to get it elsewhere"
(107).
Herbert the dean erected a windmill upon the Haberdon, and tried to
brazen it out with Samson. But the abbot bade him begone, and told him
that before he had come to his house, he should hear what had befallen
his mill. Whereupon the trembling dean had the mill pulled down
himself, so that when the servants of the sacrist came to the spot,
they found their work already done for them (90).
In the domestic quarrel with his monks over the case of Ralph, the
gate porter, who had been punished by Robert the prior with the assent
of all the monastery, Samson upset the proceedings on his return from
London, and, after a violent struggle, got his own way (179-83).
There is a pleasing affectation of impartiality in the case of another
Herbert, the junior candidate for the office of Prior, on the
much-worried Robert's death in 1200. The monks were conscious that
Samson "would seek the advice of each with great show of formality,"
but that the affair would end as he had all along intended (193). On
the day of election the Precentor was egged on by one of the elder
brethren in an audible aside to nominate Herbert. Samson behaved as if
this was a new light to him, but offered no objection to receive
Herbert if the convent willed. And so, after a protestation of his
unworthiness, Herbert was elected (196); and Jocelin tried, after
these bare-faced proceedings, to recover his equanimity in the porch
of the guest-chamber (197).
=Samson as an Administrator.=--Samson seems to have been something
of a financial genius; he certainly freed the monastery from debt, and
brought its internal affairs and its landed estates from chaos into
order. He was undoubtedly more of an administrator than an
ecclesiastic. He obviously enjoyed his ceremonial duties as
Commissioner for the King or for the Pope. He went to the siege of
Windsor in 1193 in martial array, though Jocelin is constrained to
admit that he was "more remarkable there for counsel than for piety"
(82). He appeared to be in his highest spirits when he went to
Coventry in January, 1198, to help to restore the monks there who had
been ejected by their somewhat truculent Bishop, Hugh de Nonant.
Samson gave magnificent entertainments at Oxford, where the Commission
sat, and "never in his life did he seem so joyful as at that time"
(143).
He was fond, too, of country life, spending much time at his manors of
Melford and elsewhere, "enclosing many parks, which he replenished
with beasts of chase, and keeping a huntsman with dogs," though
Jocelin is careful to add that he "never saw him take part in the
sport" (43). With some of these dogs Samson appeased Richard's wrath
when he flouted the king as to a disputed wardship (149). One of the
complaints against him by those who chafed under his rule was that he
was fond of betaking himself to his manors, and Jocelin's excuse for
him is that "the abbot is more in spirits and in good humour elsewhere
than at home" (53). Jocelin took him to task over this, but had a text
from Ecclesiasticus hurled at his head, which induced him to "hold his
peace henceforth" (54).
With broader outlook than his obedientiaries, Samson recognized the
necessity of granting greater freedom to the inhabitants of the town
of Bury, and, despite the grumbling of his monks, he gave the
burgesses a Charter in 1194 (116). The resentment against him in the
monastery ran so high in 1199 that he professed to be afraid of his
life (182). Though matters were then patched up, the old feeling of
indignation against his concessions to the townsfolk endured, and an
occasion for manifesting it arose when, early in 1203, Samson was
summoned by King John to advise him on a brief sent by the Pope as to
the dispensation of certain Crusaders from their vows. To the
undisguised astonishment of Jocelin, Samson sought the advice of the
monastery, "a thing he heretofore had seldom done" (207); but he was
boldly asked what he proposed to do to get back the lost privileges of
the Abbey (210). He was then "weakened by infirmity of body, humbled,
and (as was not his wont) timid" (207); and it must be remembered that
he was by this time not far short of seventy years of age. He spoke
the monks fair, promised redress, and "that upon his return he would
co-operate with us in everything, and make just order and disposition,
and render to each what was justly his" (211).
Jocelin hints by a quotation from Ovid that there was some
apprehension that this promise would remain unfulfilled: and then in
Carlyle's words--
Jocelin's Boswellian narrative, suddenly shorn through by the
scissors of Destiny, ends. Impenetrable Time-curtains rush down.
Monks, Abbot, Hero-Worship, Government, Obedience, Coeur de Lion,
and St. Edmund's Shrine, vanish like Mirza's vision; and there is
nothing left but a mutilated black ruin amid green botanic expanses.
=Epilogue.=--As to what happened to Samson after he returned from
the visit to his sovereign, we have no information whatever from any
known source. Perhaps when he had reached the allotted span of life,
he came to feel that the time had arrived to take things more easily,
and to be less inelastic in his governance of the Abbey. The last nine
years of his chequered life are an absolute blank so far as the
available records are concerned, if we except his execution of certain
formal documents included in the Suffolk Feet of Fines. But when at
last, at the ripe age of 77, he died on the 30th December, 1211, at
twilight (_inter lupum et canem_), on the night of the feast of St.
Thomas the Martyr, a tenderer feeling towards him obviously existed
amongst his monks.
The compiler of the _Annales Sancti Edmundi_ (who from the last phrase
but one would seem to have been a contemporary) thus records his
decease:--
On the sixth day of Christmas, at St. Edmund's, died Samson, of pious
memory, the venerable abbot of this place. Who, after he had for
thirty years prosperously ruled the Abbey committed to him, and had
freed it from a load of debt,--had enriched it with privileges,
liberties, possessions, and spacious buildings, and had restored the
worship of the church, both internally and externally, in the most
ample manner, bidding his last farewell to his sons, by whom the
blessed man deserved to be blessed for evermore, while they all were
standing by, and gazing with awe at a death which was a cause for
admiration, not for regret (_non miserabilem sed mirabilem_), in the
fourth year of the interdict rested in peace (Arnold, ii. 19, 20).
"In the fourth year of the Interdict": there is a significance in
these words not perhaps immediately apparent. During the last few
years of Samson's life, public worship in his beloved abbey was
stopped; the altars were stripped, and the church doors closed, in
view of the interdict hurled at the recalcitrant John by the Pope in
March, 1208. More trying than this to the feelings of the age was the
requirement that the dead should be buried in silence and in
unconsecrated ground. So Samson was laid by his sorrowing monks in the
bosom of mother earth "in pratello," where he remained until after the
Interdict was removed in July, 1214. The writer of the _Electio
Hugonis_ records, in barbarous Latin (Arnold, ii. 85), that on August
9 of that year the sacrist raised the question as to the proper
interment of Samson "of venerable memory." The prior (Herbert), the
cantor and Master Thomas of Walsingham, with other high officials,
thought Samson ought, for greater honour, to be buried in the Abbey
church. The sacrist--William of Gravelee, of whose uncompromising
character we have had a glimpse before--was alone in resisting this,
saying that so long as he had any power in the matter, neither Samson
nor any one else should be buried in the church. As the sacrist was
the responsible official this objection could apparently not be got
over, and so on August 12, 1214, the remains of Samson were exhumed,
and reburied in the chapter-house, which in the days of his life had
resounded to that eloquence of which Jocelin speaks (62).
What happened to the chapter house after the suppression of the Abbey
in 1539 is not known; but it seems probable that when the lead of its
roof was stripped off, it was left to crumble to decay by itself, for
some recent excavations in the winter of 1902-3 brought to light
quantities of beautifully worked stone, granite and marble columns,
and fragments of stained glass.
On New Year's Day of this year five stone coffins, each with a
skeleton within, and a sixth skeleton (uncoffined) were found under
the floor of the chapter-house in the exact positions in which a MS.
of circa 1425, now preserved at Douai, records the burial places of
Samson, two of his predecessors, and three of his successors as
Abbots; and there can be no reasonable doubt therefore that those who,
like myself, were privileged to be associated with these excavations,
have gazed upon the mortal remains of one of the grandest and most
picturesque figures of Angevin times.
* * * * *
I am indebted to many friends for hints and suggestions in the
preparation of the Notes in Appendix II., especially to Lord Francis
Hervey, Dr. Montague R. James, and Mr. Francis Ford, all three of whom
have intimate personal knowledge of Bury St. Edmunds and its history.
In addition, Dr. James has been good enough to critically compare the
English text of the Chronicle with the Latin original, and has made
many valuable improvements, for which my especial thanks are due to
him. Mr. R. W. Chambers, M.A., Librarian of University College, has
also given me much assistance in the revision of the text in the
compilation of the Index.
13A, HANOVER SQUARE, W.
_May_, 1903.
And to procede ferthere in this mater,
Yf ye list aduertise in your mynde,
An exaumplaire and a meror cler,
In this story ye shal now seen and fynde.
So as I kan, in soth I will nat spare
But heer in ordre reherse by wrytyng,
Folwyng myn auctours in euery maner thyng,
As in substance vpon the lettre in deede,
To do plesance to them that shal it reede.
JOHN LYDGATE.
(_Harleian MS._ 2278: _lines_ 417-20, 426-30.)
CHAPTER I
BURY ABBEY UNDER ABBOT HUGH
That which I have heard and seen have I taken in hand to write, which
in our days has come to pass in the Church of St. Edmund, from the
year when the Flemings were taken captive without the town, at which
time I took upon me the religious habit, being the same year wherein
prior Hugh was deposed, and Robert made prior in his stead: and I have
mingled in my narration some evil deeds by way of warning, and some
good by way of profit.
Now, at that time, Hugh the abbot was old, and his eyes were somewhat
dim. A pious and kind man was he, a good and religious monk, yet not
wise or far-sighted in worldly affairs; one who relied too much on his
officers, and put faith in them, rather taking counsel of others than
abiding by his own judgment.
To be sure, the Rule and the religious life, and all pertaining
thereto were healthy enough in the cloister, but outdoor affairs were
badly managed; inasmuch as every one serving under a simple and
already aged lord did what he would, not what he should.
The townships of the abbot and all the hundreds were set to farm, the
forests were destroyed, the manor houses threatened to fall,
everything daily got worse and worse. One resource only the abbot had,
and that was to take up moneys on interest, 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 hundred 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. Oftentimes silken copes
and golden cruetts, and other ornaments of the church, were pledged
without the knowledge of the convent. I myself saw a security passed
to William Fitz Isabel for one thousand and forty pounds, but I never
could learn the consideration or the cause. I also saw another
security passed to Isaac, the son of Rabbi Joce, for four hundred
pounds, but I know not wherefore. I also saw a third security passed
to Benedict, the Jew of Norwich, for eight hundred and eighty 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. 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, wherewith the gilds and letters of fraternity were wont
to be sealed: a seal which later on, but alas! too late, was broken by
order of the convent. Now, when this debt had increased to one hundred
pounds, the Jew came bearing a letter from our lord the King, touching
the debt of the sacrist; and then it was that all that had been secret
from the abbot and convent was laid bare.
The abbot waxed exceedingly wroth, and wished to depose the sacrist,
alleging that he possessed a 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, so
wheedled the abbot that he permitted a security to be passed to
Benedict the Jew for four hundred pounds, payable at the end of four
years, namely, for one hundred pounds, which had then already accrued
for interest, and also for another hundred pounds, which the same Jew
had advanced to the sacrist for the use of the abbot. And the sacrist
in full chapter undertook for the whole of that debt to be paid, and a
deed was drawn up and sealed with the conventual seal: the abbot
dissimulating, and not affixing his own seal, as if that debt was no
concern of his.
But at the end of the four years, there were no means of discharging
the debt; and then a fresh deed was executed for eight hundred and
eighty pounds, payable at set terms, at the rate of eighty pounds a
year. 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
accrued.
Now R., the almoner of our lord the King, coming to us, signified to
the abbot that such and such information had reached the King
concerning such and such debts. Thereupon, after consultation had
between the prior and a few others, the almoner was conducted into the
chapter house, where all of us being seated, and holding our peace,
the abbot said, "Look you, here is the King's almoner, our and your
lord and friend, who, moved by the love of God and of St. Edmund, has
intimated to us that the King has heard something wrong of us and you,
and particularly that the affairs of the church, both internally and
externally, are being badly managed; and therefore I desire and
command that, upon your vow of obedience, ye state and explain openly
how things really are." Hereupon the prior, standing up and speaking
as one for all, said that the church was in good order, that the Rule
was strictly and religiously observed indoors, and that matters out of
doors were carefully and discreetly conducted, save some slight debt,
in which ourselves, like our neighbours, were involved; but that, in
fact, there was no debt which could embarrass us. The almoner, hearing
this, said he was rejoiced that he had heard the testimony of the
convent concerning this matter: meaning, what the prior had said.
The very same words the prior upon another occasion used, as did
Master Geoffry of Constantine, speaking on behalf of and excusing the
abbot, when Richard the archbishop, in virtue of his office as legate,
visited our chapter, before we had such exemption as we now enjoy.
I myself, who was at that time a novice, on a convenient occasion,
talked these things over with the master who instructed me in the
Rule, and to whose care I was committed,--namely, Master Samson, who
afterwards became abbot. "What is this," I said, "that I hear? How can
you hold your tongue while you see and hear such things, you who are a
cloistered monk, and desire not offices, and fear God more than man?"
But he answering, said, "My son, the newly burnt child dreads the
fire; so it is with me and many others. Hugh, the prior, has been
lately deprived of his office and sent into exile; Dennis and Hugh and
Roger of Hengham have but lately returned home from exile. Even I, in
like manner, was imprisoned, and afterwards sent to Acre, because we
spoke for the good of our church, in opposition to the abbot. This is
the hour of darkness; this is the time when flatterers rule and are
believed, and their might is strengthened, and we can do nothing
against it; these things must be borne with for a time. 'Let the Lord
look upon it and judge.'"
Now a rumour reached Abbot Hugh that Richard, Archbishop of
Canterbury, proposed coming to make a visitation of our church by
virtue of his authority as legate; and thereupon the abbot, after
consultation, sent to Rome and sought a privilege of exemption from
the power of the aforesaid legate. On the messenger's return from Rome
there was not wherewith to discharge what he had promised to our lord
the pope and the cardinals, except, indeed, under the special
circumstances of the case, the cross which was over the high altar,
the little image of the Virgin, and the St. John (which images
archbishop Stigand had adorned with a vast quantity of gold and
silver, and had given to St. Edmund).
There were certain of our convent who, being on terms of intimacy with
the abbot, said that the shrine of St. Edmund itself ought to be
stripped, as the means of obtaining such a privilege. But these
persons did not consider the great peril that the possession of such a
privilege might entail; for if there should hereafter be any abbot of
ours who chose to waste the possessions of the church, and to despoil
his convent, then there would be no one to whom the convent could
complain touching the wrongs done by an abbot, as he would have no
reason to fear a bishop, archbishop, or legate, and his impunity would
lend him the courage to transgress.
In these days the cellarer, as well as other officials, borrowed
moneys at interest from Jurnet the Jew (without apprising the
convent), upon a security sealed with the above-mentioned seal. Now,
when that debt had mounted up to sixty pounds, the convent was
summoned to pay the cellarer's debt. The cellarer was deposed,
although he said it was hard to deal thus with him, stating that for
three years he had entertained in the guest-house by the abbot's
orders, whether the abbot were in residence or not, all the guests
which the abbot ought himself to entertain, according to the rule of
the abbey.
Master Dennis was made cellarer in his stead, and by his
circumspection and good management he reduced the debt of sixty pounds
to thirty pounds; towards which debt we applied those thirty marks
which Benedict of Blakenham gave to the convent for holding the manors
of Nowton and Whepsted. But the securities of the Jew have remained
with the Jew even to this day, wherein are contained the twenty-six
pounds of principal and interest of the cellarer's debt.
Now, on the third day after Master Dennis became cellarer, three
knights with their esquires were received in the guest-house that they
might there be refreshed, the abbot then being at home, and abiding in
his inner chamber; all which, when this great-souled Achilles had
heard, not willing to pay toll in his own domain, as the others had
done, he rose up and took the key of the cellar, and taking with him
those knights to the abbot's hall, and approaching the abbot, said,
"My lord, you well know that the rule of the abbey is, that knights
and lay folk should be entertained in your hall, if the abbot be at
home. I neither will nor can receive those guests whom it belongs to
you to entertain; else take back the keys of your cellar, and appoint
some other cellarer at your good pleasure." The abbot hearing this,
nill he, will he, entertained those knights, and ever afterwards
entertained knights and lay folk according to the ancient rule, and so
they are still received when the abbot is at home.
Once upon a time, Abbot Hugh, wishing to conciliate Master Samson,
appointed him sub-sacrist; and he, often accused, was often
transferred from one office to another. At one time he was appointed
guest-master, at another time pittance-master, at another time third
prior, and again sub-sacrist; and many were then his enemies who
afterwards flattered him. But he, not acting as the other officials
did, never could be induced to turn flatterer; whereupon the abbot
said that he had never seen a man whom he could not bend to his will,
except Samson the sub-sacrist.
In the twenty-third year of his abbacy, Abbot Hugh bethought him that
he would go to St. Thomas for the purpose of performing his devotions.
He had nearly got to the end of his journey, on the morrow of the
nativity of the Blessed Mary, when, near Rochester, he most unhappily
fell from his horse, so that his knee-pan was put out and lodged in
the ham of his knee. The physicians came about him, and sorely
tormented him, but they healed him not. He was brought back to us in a
horse-litter, and received with great attention, as was most fitting.
What more? His leg mortified, and the disorder mounted to his heart.
The pain brought on a tertian fever, and on the fourth fit he expired,
and rendered his soul to God on the morrow of St. Brice.
Ere he was dead, everything was snatched away by his servants, so that
nothing at all remained in the abbot's house except the stools and the
tables, which could not be carried away. There was hardly left for the
abbot his coverlet and two quilts, old and torn, which some, who had
taken away the good ones, had placed in their stead. There was not
even a single article of a penny's worth that could be distributed
among the poor for the good of his soul.
The sacrist said it was not his business to have attended to this,
alleging that he had furnished the expenditure of the abbot and his
household for one whole month, because neither the firmars who held
the vills would pay anything before the appointed time, nor would
creditors advance anything, seeing that he was sick even unto death.
Luckily, the farmer of Palgrave furnished us with fifty shillings to
be distributed among the poor, by reason that he entered upon the farm
of Palgrave on that same day. But those very fifty shillings were
afterwards again refunded to the King's bailiffs, who demanded the
whole farm-rent for the King's use.