THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 

 OF SUFFOLK 



INTRODUCTION 



The Religious Houses of Suffolk were considerable in number, and in a 

 few cases of no small importance. 



So far as the Benedictine or Black monks are concerned, the great 

 abbey of St. Edmunds was one of the most important and wealthy houses of 

 the order either in the British Isles or in continental Christendom. The 

 amount of original information that is extant with regard to this foundation 

 is quite unusual, and the little use that has hitherto been made of a great 

 deal of this material is remarkable. 



The other houses of Black monks in the county were of comparatively 

 small size and importance, and were, one and all, originally cells of some 

 larger establishment outside Suffolk. The largest of these was the priory of 

 Eye (with its cell of Dunwich) ; it was in the first instance an alien cell of 

 the abbey of Bernay, but it became naturalized in 1385. Felixstowe was a 

 cell of the cathedral priory of Rochester, and Edwardstone of the abbey of 

 Abingdon, Hoxne of the cathedral priory of Norwich, and Sudbury of 

 Westminster Abbey. Snape Priory was subject to the abbey of Col- 

 chester ; its attempt in 1400 to secure its independence eventually failed. 

 Rumburgh was a cell of St. Mary's, York ; its priors, though removable at 

 the pleasure of the York abbot and changed with great frequency, were 

 always presented to the bishop before taking office ; there were no fewer 

 than forty priors between 1308 and the dissolution, their average rule 

 being only for five years. 



There were two houses of Benedictine nuns, namely those of Redling- 

 field and Bungay, the latter of which was continuously supplied by daughters 

 of the local gentry. 



The Cluniac monks had two small houses, Mendham Priory, which 

 was a subordinate cell of Castle Acre, and Wangford, a cell of Thetford 

 Priory, which was naturalized in 1393. 



The other great reformed branch of the Benedictines, the White monks, 

 or Cistercians, had a comparatively small abbey at Sibton, of some local 

 importance. 



The Austin canons had a large number of priories in this county, as well as 

 in Norfolk, which were mostly quite small. Such were the priories of Alnes- 

 bourn, Bricett, Chipley, Dodnash, Herringfleet, Kersey, and Woodbridge. 

 Butley was an Austin house of some wealth and importance, whose mem- 



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