RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



called on the abbot to beg him to grant Crom- 

 well and his son a larger sum, which he promised 

 to do. 1 



One of the last favours received by Abbot 

 John was a crown licence in August, 1536, per- 

 mitting any of his servants, during his life, to 

 shoot with a cross bow at all manner of deer and 

 wild fowl in his parks and grounds, notwith- 

 standing the Act 25 Henry VIII. 2 



Early in 1538, the agents for spoiling the 

 greater monasteries (in this case Williams, 

 Pollard, Parys, and Smyth) visited St. Edmunds. 

 Writing to Cromwell, from Bury, they tell the 

 Lord Privy Seal that they found a rich shrine 

 which was very cumbrous to deface ; that they had 

 stripped the monastery of over 5,000 marks in 

 gold and silver, besides a rich cross bestudded 

 with emeralds and other stones of great value ; but 

 that they had left the church and convent well 

 furnished with silver plate. 3 



On 4 November, 1539, this famous abbey 

 was surrendered. The surrender is signed by 

 Abbot John Reeve, Prior Thomas Ringstede 

 [alias Dennis), and by forty-two other monks. 4 



Pensions were assigned, on the same day, of 

 ^30 to the prior, of £20 to the sacrist, and of 

 sums varying from ^13 bs. Sd., to £6 1 31. 4^., 

 to thirty-eight other monks. 5 



Sir Richard Rich and other commissioners 

 who had received the surrender wrote to the 

 king on 7 November, saying they had not yet 

 assigned the ex-abbot any pension, but suggested 

 as he had been ' very conformable and is aged,' 

 and as the yearly revenues of his house would be 

 4,000 marks, that he should have 500 marks a 

 year and a house. They had taken into custody 

 for the king the plate and best ornaments, and 

 sold the rest. The lead and bells were worth 

 4,500 marks. They desired to know whether 

 they were to deface the church and other edifices 

 of the house. 6 On 1 1 November, the abnor- 

 mally large pension of ^333 6s. 8d. was allotted 

 to the abbot. 7 He lived, however, only a few 



1 L. and P. Hen. Fill, ix, 978. 

 ' Pat. 28 Hen. VIII, pt. ii, m. 3. 



3 Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 229. The actual amount 

 of which the abbey was robbed on this occasion was 

 1,553 oz. of gold plate, 6,853 oz. of gilt plate, 

 933 oz. of parcel gilt, and 190 oz. of white or silver 

 plate. On 2 December, 1539, after the surrender, 

 150 oz. of gilt plate, 145 oz. of parcel gilt, and 

 2,162 oz. of white plate were added to the previous 

 spoils, besides a pair of birrall candlesticks, handed to 

 the king, and a jewelled mitre. (Clarke, Jocelyn's 

 Chron. notes, 275). 



* Rymer, Foedcra, xiv, 687. 



4 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv (2), 462. 



6 Ibid. 475. The answer as to the 'defacing' 

 must have been in the affirmative, for within a few 

 weeks of the surrender the whole of the lead had 

 been stripped from the church and monastery, and 

 valued at £3,302. Aug. Off. Mins. Accts. 30-1 

 Hen. VIII, 226, m. 1 1 a'. 



7 Misc. Bks. (Aug. Off.), ccxxxiv, fol. 3 U. 



months after the dissolution of his house. 

 Weighed down, as it is said, with sorrow and 

 disappointment at the complete degradation of 

 his order, he died on 31 March, 1540, in a 

 small private house at the top of Crown Street, 

 Bury St. Edmunds, never having drawn a penny 

 of his pension. He was buried in the chancel of 

 St. Mary's Church, with a pathetic Latin epitaph 

 on the brass over his remains. The brasses 

 were torn from his grave in 1643, and in 171 7 

 the slab was broken up and the remains removed 

 to make way for the burial of a ship's purser 

 named Sutton. 8 



Having thus followed in outline the general 

 history of the abbey through its succession of 

 rulers, it may be well to give some fuller 

 particulars as to the amount of property that it 

 had to administer, which was chiefly in the 

 nature of temporalities within the hundreds over 

 which it exercised such full powers of local 

 government. 



In Abbot Samson's days (1182-1211) a large 

 number of churches, chiefly in the eight and a 

 half hundreds of the liberty of St. Edmunds, 

 were in the gift of the whole convent, as set forth 

 in detail in Jocelyn's Chronicle. 9 Thirty-four 

 are named as pertaining to the abbot, and thirty- 

 two to the chapter. But there were at that time 

 very few appropriations, and only a small number 

 of pensions or portions from the rectories. In- 

 deed Jocelyn expressly states that 'after all these 

 churches scarcely brought any gain or profit to 

 the convent.' Nevertheless the holding of these 

 numerous advowsons tended to augment con- 

 siderably the abbey's dignity and influence. 



The various officials or obedientiaries of St. 

 Edmunds, in common with every large Bene- 

 dictine house, had certain tithes, lands, or rents 

 allotted to them which they had to administer 

 for the good of their particular office, and for 

 which they had to return annual accounts. At 

 St. Edmunds there was such an unusual amount 

 of definite application of early grants to specific 

 purposes that it led to much confusion, and it 

 was considered expedient to apply for legal sanc- 

 tion to a re-allotment of the monastic property 

 in the time of Abbot John of Northwold. Ac- 

 cordingly in 1 28 1, a general redistribution 

 scheme between the abbot and the different 

 obedientiaries was sanctioned by Edward I, and 

 a single long charter covering the whole ground 

 was granted in return for the handsome fee of 

 /l,000. To the abbot was assigned the hidage 

 or tax on every hide of land, the foddercorn or 

 ancient feudal right of providing the lord with 

 horse-fodder, and every kind of court fee and 

 manorial due throughout the whole of the great 

 liberty of St. Edmunds. The award then pro- 

 ceeded to set out the specific manors, lands, 

 tithes, rents, &c, that were allotted to (i)the 



s Weever, Funeral Monuments, 751 ; Parker, Long 

 Melford, 314. ' Cap. vii. 



67 



