84 THE ABBOTS OF DALE. 
2nd Dan William, a man of all prudence, ruled two years and a 
half, and afterwards was made Abbot of Prémontre, and 
chaplain of the Roman Pontiff. 
Of this Abbot’s life, after his translation to the mother Abbey, 
we are able to glean some particulars. 
According to Le Paige,* be was the second Abbot of Prémontre 
of the name, and by birth an Englishman. He was elected 
Father-Abbot, 6 Idus October, 1233.t Immediately upon his 
election he obtained from Pope Gregory IX. the office of Visitor 
of the Order, which was then held by certain Cistercian Abbots, 
and entered upon his new duties at once by visiting all the 
monasteries of the Order in the Italian Circary. 
On his return to Prémontre he issued an injunction, which was 
confirmed by the Apostolic See and the General Chapter of the 
Order, that the Fratres Converst, or lay-brethren, should in future 
wear grey, instead of white, copes. The lay-brethren, however, 
contumaciously resisting this order, sent letters of appeal to the 
Roman Court, following them up by a deputation, but being 
obliged to submit, returned in confusion. 
Other troubles followed, and at length the Abbot resigned. 
Failing to obtain satisfaction at the hands of the Pope for the 
loss of his Abbacy, after sundry vicissitudes he returned to his 
native land and became an inmate of the Abbey of Bayham, in 
Sussex, where he died. 
37a Dan John Grauncorth, lovely to God and men, who in 
his days shone in our Order as Lucifer and Hesperus 
in the height of heaven, and ruled 19 years and 39 
weeks. 
The character of this Abbot is taken from the Chronicle of 
Thomas de Muskham, who states that he himself took the regular 
habit ‘“‘ab abbate Johanne Grauncort patre venerabili, Deo et 
hominibus amabili, qui socius erat specialissimus beati Augustini 
* Bibliotheca Preemonstratensis Ordinis (Paris, 1633 fol.) p. 927. 
+ (A.D. 1233). Eodem anno, deposito abbate Przemonstratensi substitutus 
est abbas Anglicus de Parco juxta Dereleyam; et in eodem capitulo ardua 
plurima sunt statuta. 
Annales de Dunstaplia (Ed, Luard, Longmans, 1866), p. 135. 
