RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



despotism of John. The earls and barons met 

 at Bury on 20 November, 1214, assembling in 

 the great conventual church ; Archbishop 

 Langton read to them Henry I's charter, and 

 each swore on the high altar to make war on 

 John unless he granted them the liberties therein 

 contained. 1 As a result of this Magna Charta 

 was sealed on 1 5 June following. 



In 1224 Abbot Hugh II appeared instate at 

 the royal camp before Bedford Castle, attended by 

 the knights holding manors under St. Edmund. 

 Abbot Hugh, whom Matthew Paris describes as 

 ' flos magistrorum monachorum, abbas abbatum, 

 et episcopus episcoporum,' was unanimously 

 chosen bishop by the monks of Ely in 1229; 

 he died in 1254. 2 



On 20 November, 1229, Richard, abbot of 

 Burton, formerly a monk of St. Edmunds, was 

 installed twelfth abbot, it being St. Edmund's 

 Day. 3 Abbot Richard only ruled for some 

 five years ; for on his return from the court of 

 Pope Gregory in 1 234, whither he had gone in 

 a matter of appeal, he was attacked in Septem- 

 ber with mortal illness and died at Pontigny. 

 His body was embalmed and brought back to 

 St. Edmunds for interment in the chapter-house. 

 It was not until 27 September, 1235, that 

 another election was held, when the choice of 

 the monks fell on their prior, Henry of Rush- 

 brook, as their thirteenth abbot. In the year of 

 his election, Henry III granted to Abbot Henry 

 two fairs at Bury and a market at his manor of 

 Melford. Among those excused from attendance 

 at the council of Lyons in 1245 was Abbot 

 Henry, owing to an attack of the gout {morbo 

 podagrico laborantem).* In the same year, at the 

 request of the convent, Henry III gave the name 

 of Edmund to his newly born son, who became 

 the founder of the house of Lancaster. 6 A bull 

 was issued by Innocent III in July, 1248, pre- 

 scribing the solemn celebration of the feast of 

 the translation of St. Edmund to be observed on 

 29 April. 6 



Abbot Henry died in 1248, and was succeeded 

 in the same year by Edmund Walpole, LL.D., 

 who had only worn the monk's habit for two 

 years. Abbot Edmund and his two predecessors 

 all received episcopal benediction at the hands of 

 good Bishop Hugh of Ely, their former abbot. 



In March, 1249-50, Henry III took the 

 cross at the hands of the Archbishop of Canter- 

 bury ; whereupon Abbot Walpole did the same, 

 exposing himself, as Matthew Paris says, to 



1 Roger of Wendover, Floret (Rolls Ser.), iii, 293-4. 

 'Matt. Paris, Hist. Maj. (ed. 1640), 891-2. 



3 The memorandum as to his election (Bodleian 

 Chart. Suff. No. 37) is printed in Hearne, Chron. of 

 Dunstable, ii, 837. 



4 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 413. 

 '' The text of this letter is given in Arnold's Mem. 



iii, 28. 



1 Nov. Leg. Angl. ii, 574. 



general derision and setting a pernicious example 

 to monks, for such a vow was inconsistent with 

 the vow of the monastic order. 7 Revised statutes 

 for the governance of this abbey were approved 

 in 1256 by Pope Alexander IV ; they provided, 

 inter alia, for four church watchers, night and 

 day, two for the shrine of St. Edmund, and two 

 for the church treasure and clock. On the last 

 day of this year Abbot Edmund died. 



His successor, Simon of Luton, the prior, was 

 elected fifteenth abbot on 15 January, 1256-7. 

 He was exempted from going in person to Rome 

 to procure papal confirmation ; but the securing 

 of the confirmation by Alexander IV cost the 

 vast sum of 2,000 marks, and was not obtained 

 until October. The story of the expulsion of 

 the Grey Friars from Bury during this abbacy is 

 told in the account of the friary, which thev 

 were permitted to establish at Babwell. At 

 Easter, 1264, a serious conflict arose between 

 the monastery and the town burgesses, which 

 resulted in the infliction of a fine on the latter. 

 Henry III during the troublous years at the close 

 of his reign was at the abbey of St. Edmund's 

 on several occasions. Tarrying here on his way 

 back from Norwich in the autumn of 1272 he 

 was taken seriously ill, and according to some 

 accounts breathed his last in the abbey on 

 16 November. On 17 April, Edward I and 

 his queen came to St. Edmund's on a pilgrimage 

 to the shrine, to fulfil a vow they had made 

 when in the Holy Land. Abbot Simon died in 

 April, 1279, and was buried in the Lady chapel 

 of his own recent building. 



John of Northwold, the hosteller, was elected 

 sixteenth abbot by his brethren on 6 May, 1279. 

 His journey to Rome and fees to procure con- 

 firmation cost 1 175 marks. On his return he 

 was solemnly received on 28 December in the 

 abbey church, which he ruled for twenty-two 

 years. 



The crown, in June, 1285, granted to the 

 abbey the fines for trespasses against the assize 

 of weights and measures whenever the king's 

 ministers made a view thereof; the said fines to 

 be collected by the abbey and applied to the 

 decoration of the tomb of St. Edmund. 8 This 

 grant was extended in January, 1296, when 

 Edward I was visiting the abbey. He then 

 granted that, whenever the king's ministers of 

 the markets passed through the town to view 

 measures and to do other things pertaining to 

 their office, the abbot and convent and their 

 successors were to have all amercements and 

 profits of bread and ale, &c. The ministers 

 were to furnish the sacristan of the abbey with 

 schedules of all such fines, &c, which were to 

 be collected by the abbey's officials and applied 

 to the decoration of the saint's tomb and shrine. 9 



7 Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 101. 



8 Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 13. 



61 



9 Ibid. 24 Edw. I, m. 18. 



