A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



of the parish of St. Gregory in the churchyard, to dwell together ; and they 

 begged the bishop to admit him ' to abide your bedesman. 1 



The mediaeval hermit differed from the anchorite or absolute recluse in 

 having certain practical work, assigned to him, hence the interest that the 

 town authorities took in such appointments. The bridge hermit not only 

 received alms for the sustenance of the structure, but usually kept the causey 

 in repair. Possibly the Sudbury hermit or hermits kept the churchyard and 

 its walks in order. 



Bishop Alnwick, during his ten years' episcopate over Norwich diocese 

 (1426-36), was frequently in residence at Hoxne. Among ordinations that 

 were held in Suffolk churches were those at Lavenham on 18 May, 1428, 

 at the conventual church of the Franciscans of Babwell, near Bury St. Edmunds, 

 on 19 December, 1433, and at the parish church of Hoxne on 18 Sep- 

 tember, 1434. 2 



On Alnwick's translation to Lincoln in 1436, Thomas Brown, bishop 

 of Rochester, was translated to Norwich. It is obvious from his register 

 that he passed most of his time within the diocese, 3 and more in Suffolk than 

 in Norfolk, for his favourite residence was at the episcopal manor-house of 

 Hoxne ; there he died on 6 December, 1445. 



It seems to matter but little what English county is under survey, the 

 record of its ecclesiastical history is almost uniformly dull during the last half 

 of the fifteenth century. It was the lull before the gusts and storms of 

 theological passion that blew so fiercely in the century that followed. Of 

 Bishop Goldwell's (1472—99) faithfulness in his monastic visitations there 

 is much evidence, which is sufficiently cited under the different religious 

 houses. Something, too, may be gleaned of the character and learning of 

 the East Anglian clergy from their wills, wherein frequent mention is made 

 of their books, whilst the continuous occurrence of their names as trustees 

 in the settlement of landed estates shows that they were generally trusted by 

 men of position. 



It was certainly no time of deadness in the outward manifestation of the 

 Church's faith. The wealthier burgesses and successful wool merchants 

 rejoiced to spend their riches in the reconstruction of their parish churches 

 on a grand scale, and to overcome the niggardliness of nature, that had denied 

 to Suffolk a single stone quarry, by the exercise of a masterly ingenuity in 

 the production of splendid effects by a combination of flints and pebbles, 

 gathered from their own shores and fields, with the smooth textured freestone 

 carried at no small expense from lands beyond the seas. As Dr. Raven 

 happily expresses it, ' while the din of arms was resounding in other counties, 

 the click of the trowel was rather the prevalent note in Suffolk.'* In no 

 other county of broad England could so grand a quartet of noble fifteenth- 



1 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 1 1 2. The episcopal registers of both Ely and Salisbury give a variety of 

 interesting particulars as to the form used by a bishop or his commissary on admitting a hermit to his dwelling 

 and blessing his habit ; also as to the solemn declaration made by a hermit of leading a life of chastity 

 ' according to the rule of St. Paul, the first hermit,' and of reciting certain prayers, etc. The case of two 

 hermits living together is exceptional, but there is an instance in 1493, of two being admitted at Cambridge 

 on the same day. See a paper by Rev. C. Kerry on ' Hermits' Fords and Bridge Chapels,' Dcrb. Arch. "Jour. 



xiv, 34-71- 



8 Norw. Epis. Reg. ix, 123, 139, 141. 



3 Ibid. x. The ordination lists of this episcopate are complete ; the deacons numbered 495, and the 

 priests 476. ' Raven, Pop. Hist. ofSuff. 133. 



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