TROUBLES WITHIN
The cellarers quickly succeeded each other, and every one of them at
the year's end became involved in a great debt. There were given to
the cellarer, in aid, twenty pounds out of Mildenhall, but this did
not suffice. After that, fifty pounds were assigned to the cellarer
each year from the same manor; and yet the cellarer used to say that
this was not enough. The abbot, therefore, being anxious to provide
for his security from loss and comfort, as well as for our own,
knowing that in all our wants we must have recourse to him as to the
father of the monastery, associated with the cellarer a certain clerk
of his own table, by name Ranulf, so that he might assist him both as
a witness and companion in the expenses and receipts. And lo! many of
us speak many things, murmurings thicken, falsehoods are invented,
scandals are interwoven with scandals, nor is there a corner in the
house which does not resound with venomous hissing.
One says to another, "What is this that is done? Who ever saw the
like? There never was such an insult offered to the convent before.
Behold! the abbot has set a clerk over a monk; see, he has made a
clerk a master and keeper over the cellarer, as if he could do no good
without him. The abbot thinks but lightly of his monks; he suspects
his monks; he consults clerks; he loves clerks. 'How is the gold
become dim! How is the fine gold changed!'" Also one friend says to
another, "We are become a reproach to our neighbours. All of us monks
are either reckoned faithless or improvident; the clerk is believed,
the monk is not. The abbot had rather trust the clerk than the monk.
Now is this clerk a whit more faithful or wise than a monk would be?"
And again, one friend would say to another, "Are not the cellarer and
sub-cellarer, or can they not be, as faithful as the sacrist or the
chamberlain? The consequence is, that this abbot or his successor will
put a clerk along with the sacrist, a clerk with the chamberlain, a
clerk with the sub-sacrists to collect the offerings at the shrine,
and so on with all the officials, wherefore we shall be a
laughing-stock and derision to the whole people."
I, hearing these things, was accustomed to answer, "If I, for my part,
were cellarer, I had rather that a clerk were a witness for me in all
my transactions; for if I did well he would bear witness of the good.
If, again, I had, at the end of the year, become laden with debt, I
should be able to gain credence and to be excused by the testimony of
that clerk."
I heard, indeed, one of our brethren, a man truly discreet and
learned, say something upon this subject which struck myself and
others very much. "It is not," he said, "to be wondered at, should the
lord abbot interpose his exertions in the safe conduct of our affairs,
especially as he wisely manages that portion of the abbey which
belongs to him, and is discreet in the disposing of his own house, it
being his part to supply our wants in case of our carelessness or
inability to do so. But there is one thing," he added, "which will
prove dangerous after the death of the abbot Samson, such as has never
come to pass in our days or in our lives. Of a surety the King's
bailiffs will come, and will possess themselves of the abbey, I mean
the barony which belongs to the abbot, as was done in the past after
the deaths of other Abbots. As after the death of Abbot Hugh, the
King's bailiffs likewise desired to appoint new bailiffs in the town
of St. Edmund, alleging as their warrant that Abbot Hugh had done
this, in the same way the King's bailiffs will, in process of time,
appoint their clerk to keep the cellary, in order that everything
shall be done therein by him, and under his discretion. And then we
shall be told that they are entitled to act in this manner because
Abbot Samson did so. Thus they will have the power of intermixing and
confusing all the concerns and rents of the abbot and of the convent;
all which, indeed, Abbot Robert, of good memory, had, with due
consideration, distinguished in account, and had separated one from
the other."
When I heard these and such like expressions from a man of great
thought and foresight, I was astonished, and held my peace, not
wishing either to condemn the lord abbot, or to excuse him.
Hubert Walter, the Archbishop of Canterbury and legate of the
apostolic see, and Justiciary of England, after he had visited many
churches, and had by right of his legation made many changes and
alterations, was on his way home from his natural mother, who lived at
Dereham and was then dying. He sent two of his clerks over to us,
bearing the sealed letters of their lord, wherein it was contained
that we should give credit to what they should say and do. These men
inquired of the abbot and convent whether we were willing to receive
their lord, the legate, who was on his way to us, in such wise as a
legate ought to be received, and, in fact, is received by other
churches. If we were agreed to this, he would shortly come to us, for
the purpose of making order concerning the matters and affairs of our
church according to God's will; but if we were not agreed, those two
clerks could more fully communicate to us their lord's behest.
Thereupon the abbot called together most of the convent, and we came
to the decision that we would give a gracious answer to the clerks
thus sent to us, saying that we were willing to receive their lord as
legate with all honour and reverence, and to send together with them
our own messengers, who, on our part, should communicate the same to
the lord legate.
Our intention was that, in the same way as we had done to the Bishop
of Ely and other legates, we would show him all possible honour, with
a procession and ringing of bells, and would receive him with the
usual solemnities, until it should come to the point, perhaps, of his
holding a visitation in chapter. If he were to proceed in doing this,
then all of us were to oppose him might and main to his face,
appealing to Rome, and standing upon our charters. And the lord abbot
said, "If at this present time the legate will come to us, we will do
as is aforesaid, but if indeed he shall defer his arrival to us for a
time, we will consult the lord Pope, and inquire what force the
privileges of our church ought to have, as being those which have been
obtained from him and his predecessors, against the archbishop who has
now obtained power from the apostolic see over all the privileged
churches of England." Such was our determination.
When the archbishop had heard that we were willing to receive him as
legate, he received our messengers graciously and with giving of
thanks. And he became favourable and kindly disposed towards the lord
abbot in all his concerns, and for certain pressing causes deferred
his visit to us for a time. Therefore, without the least delay, the
abbot sent to the Pope the same letters which the legate had sent to
him and the convent, wherein it was contained that he was about to
come to us by authority of his legation, and by the authority of the
Pope, and, moreover, that to him was given power over all the exempt
churches of England, notwithstanding the letters of exemption obtained
by the church of York or any other.
The abbot's messenger expediting the matter, our lord the Pope wrote
to the lord of Canterbury, asserting that our church, as his spiritual
daughter, ought not to be accountable to any legate, unless he were a
legate of our lord the Pope sent _a latere_, and enjoined him that he
should not stretch forth his hand against us; and our lord the Pope
added as from himself a prohibition against his exercising
jurisdiction over any other exempt church. Our messenger returned to
us, and this was kept a secret for many days. Nevertheless, the same
was intimated to the lord of Canterbury by some of his adherents at
the court of our lord the Pope.
When, at the end of the year, the legate made his visitation through
Norfolk and Suffolk, and had first arrived at Colchester, the legate
sent his messenger to the abbot, privately letting him thereby know
that he (the legate) had heard say that the abbot had obtained letters
contravening his legation, and requesting that he, in a friendly way,
would send him those letters. And it was done accordingly, for the
abbot had two counterparts of these letters. The abbot, indeed, did
not pay a visit to the legate, either by himself or by proxy, so long
as he was in the diocese of Norwich, lest it should be thought that he
wished to make fine with the legate for his entertainment, as other
monks and canons had done. The legate, disconcerted and angry and
fearing to be shut out if he came to us, passed by Norwich, by Acre
and by Dereham to Ely, on his way to London.
The abbot meeting the legate within the month, between Waltham and
London, on the King's highway, the legate censured him for having
refused to meet him, as being justiciary of our lord the King whilst
he was in that country. The abbot answered that he had not travelled
as justiciary, but as legate, making visitation in every church; and
alleged the reason of the time of year, and that the passion of our
Lord was nigh at hand, and that it behoved him to be concerned with
Divine services and cloister duties.
When the abbot had opposed words to words, and objections to
objections, and could neither be bent nor intimidated by threatening
language, the legate replied with scorn that he well knew him to be a
keen wrangler, and that he was a better clerk than he, the legate,
was. The abbot, therefore, not timidly passing by matters inexpedient
to allude to, nor yet arrogantly speaking upon matters that were to be
discussed, in the hearing of many persons made answer that he was a
man who would never suffer the privileges of his church to be shaken
either for want of learning or money, even if it should come to pass
that he lost his life, or was condemned to perpetual banishment.
However, these and other altercations being brought to a close, the
legate began to flush in the face, upon the abbot lowering his tone
and beseeching him that he would deal more gently with the church of
St. Edmund, by reason of his native soil, for he was native born of
St. Edmund, and had been his fosterling. And, indeed, he had reason to
blush, because he had so unadvisedly outpoured the venom which he had
bred within him.
On the morrow it was communicated to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
that the lord Archbishop of York was about to come as legate into
England, and that he had suggested many evil things to the Pope
concerning him, stating that he had oppressed the churches of England
by reason of his visitation to the extent of thirty thousand marks,
which he had received from them. The legate, therefore, sent his
clerks to the abbot, begging him that he would, with the other abbots,
write to our lord the Pope and justify him.
This the abbot willingly did, and thereby offered his testimony that
the lord of Canterbury had not been to our church, nor had he
oppressed any other church, speaking according to his conscience. And
when the abbot had delivered those letters to the messengers of the
archbishop, he said before us all that he did not fear, even if it
were the archbishop's wish to deal deceitfully with those letters. The
clerks answered on the peril of their souls, that their lord did not
contemplate any subtle dealings, but only wished to be justified. And
so the archbishop and the abbot were made friends.