SAMSON'S INSTALLATION
Now when the news of the election arrived at the monastery, it
gladdened all the cloister monks and some of the officers also, but
only a few. "It is well," many said, "because it is well." Others
said, "Not so; verily we are all deceived." The elect, before he
returned to us, received his benediction from my lord of Winchester,
who, at the same time, placing the mitre on the head of the abbot, and
the ring on his finger, said, "This is the dignity of the abbots of
St. Edmund; my experience long since taught me this." The abbot,
therefore, keeping three monks with him, despatched the others
homewards, sending word by them of his intended arrival on Palm
Sunday, and giving charge to certain of them to provide the things
necessary for his day of festival.
As he returned homewards, a multitude of new relations came about him
offering to serve him, but he answered all of them that he was content
with the servants of the prior, nor could he retain others until he
had obtained the assent of the convent. Nevertheless, he retained one
knight who was well spoken and learned in the law, not so much upon
the score of relationship, but on account of his usefulness, he being
well practised in secular suits.
This knight he took, while he was fresh to the work, as an assessor in
secular controversies; for he was a new abbot, and inexperienced in
such concerns, as he himself was free to declare: indeed, before he
received the abbacy, he had never been present where gage and safe
pledge had been given.
With the accustomed honours, and with a procession, was he received by
his convent on Palm Sunday. The abbot's reception was in this wise:
overnight he lay at Kentford, and we, at the proper moment, went forth
from the chapter-house to meet him with great solemnity, up to the
gate of the cemetery, with ringing of bells inside the choir and
without. He himself was surrounded by a multitude of men, and when he
espied the fraternity, he dismounted from his horse outside the
threshold of the gate. Causing his shoes to be taken off, he was
received barefooted within the door, and conducted on each side by the
prior and sacrist.
We chanted the responses "Benedictus Dominus," in the office of the
Trinity, and then "Martyri adhuc," in the office of St. Edmund,
leading the abbot up to the high altar. This being finished, the
organs and bells were silenced, and the prayer, "Omnipotens sempiterne
Deus miserere huic," was said by the prior over the abbot, who was
prostrate. An offering was then made by the abbot, and kissing the
shrine, he returned into the choir. There Samson the precentor took
him by the hand and led him to the abbot's throne at the west end;
where, the abbot still standing, the precentor straight-way began, "Te
Deum laudamus," and whilst this was being sung, the abbot was kissed
by the prior and the whole convent in order. This done, the abbot
proceeded to the chapter-house, the whole convent following him, with
many others.
"Benedicite" having been said, in the first place he gave thanks to
the convent that they had chosen him--who was, he said, the least of
them all--to be their lord and shepherd, not on account of his own
merits, but solely by the will of God. And beseeching them briefly
that they would pray for him, he addressed his discourse to the clerks
and knights, requiring them that they should assist him with their
advice according to the burden of the charge entrusted to him. And
Wimer the sheriff, answering for them all, said, "We are ready to
stand by you in counsel and assistance on every occasion, as we did by
our dear lord whom God has called to his glory, and to the glory of
the holy martyr St. Edmund." And then were the charters of the King
concerning the gift of the abbacy produced and read in full audience.
Lastly, after a prayer by the abbot himself, that God might guide him
according to his Divine grace, and "Amen" being responded by all, he
retired to his chamber, spending his day of festival with more than a
thousand dinner guests with great rejoicing.
While these things were taking place I was the prior's chaplain, and
within four months was made the abbot's chaplain, noting many things,
and committing them to memory. On the morrow of his feast the abbot
called to him the prior and some few besides, as if seeking advice
from others, though he himself knew what he would do. He said that a
new seal should be made with a mitred effigy of him, although his
predecessors had not the like; but for a time he used the seal of our
prior, subscribing at the end of all letters, that he had no seal of
his own and therefore he used for the time that of the prior.
Afterwards, setting his household in order, he appointed divers
servants to various duties, saying that he had decided to have
twenty-six horses in his courtyard, and that a child must first creep
and then stand upright and walk. He enjoined this to his servants
beyond all things, that they should take heed that in his new state he
be not dishonoured by a lack of meat and drink, but rather that they
in all things should anxiously provide for the hospitality of the
house. In ordering and appointing these and all other things, he fully
relied upon God's providence and his own understanding, and judged it
beneath him to require counsel at another's hand as if he were not
able to look after his own affairs.
The monks marvelled, the knights were discontented, accusing him of
arrogance, and, in some measure censuring him at the King's court,
saying that he refused to govern according to the advice of his own
freemen. As for him, he removed from his own private counsel the heads
of the abbey, lay as well as clerical; indeed, all those without whose
advice and assistance the abbey, as it seemed, could not be governed.
By reason of this circumstance, Ranulf de Glanville, Justiciary of
England, at first held him in distrust, and was less gracious to him
than was fitting, until it was made clear, by good evidence, that the
abbot had been acting with due caution and prudence in respect of
indoor as well as external matters.
A general court having been summoned, all the barons, knights and
freemen appeared to do homage on the fourth day of Easter; when,
behold, Thomas of Hastings, with a great multitude of knights, came
introducing Henry his nephew, not yet a knight, claiming the
stewardship with its perquisites, according to the tenor of his
charter. To whom the abbot replied, "I do not refuse Henry his right,
nor do I wish so to do. If he were competent to serve me in his own
person, I would assign him necessaries for ten men and eight horses in
my own court-lodge, according to the tenor of his charter. If you
present to me a steward, his deputy, who is competent and able to
perform the duty, I will receive him in the same manner as my
predecessor retained him at the time of his decease, namely, with four
horses and their appurtenances. And if this does not content you, I
shall carry the plaint before the King or his chief justice." Hereupon
the business was deferred.
Ultimately there was presented to him a simple and foolish steward,
Gilbert by name, of whom, before he received him into his household,
he spoke to his friends as follows: "If there be a default in the
administration of the King's justice through the unskilfulness of the
steward, he will be in mercy of the King, and not I, for this, that he
claims the office by hereditary right; and therefore I had much rather
receive him for the present than a sharper witted man to deceive me.
By God's assistance I trust I shall be my own steward."
* * * * *
After receipt of the homages, the abbot sued for an aid from the
knights, who promised each twenty shillings; but immediately they took
counsel together and withheld twelve pounds in respect of twelve
knights, alleging that those twelve ought to assist the other forty in
keeping their castle-guards, and for their escuages, as well as in
respect of the abbot's aid. The abbot, hearing this, waxed wroth, and
said to his intimate friends that if he lived long enough he would
give them turn for turn and wrong for wrong.