RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Hertfordshire, and the rectory of Mildenhall, 

 his gross income came to £903 12s. 2d. From 

 this great deductions had to be made, including 

 £191 1 9*. id. for the poor, so that the cellarer's 

 clear income was brought down to £629 1 6*. yd. 



The gross total of the abbey's income, 

 irrespective of its cells, was £2,336 i6j. lid. 

 The deductions, however, were so considerable 

 that the clear value was only returned at 

 £1,656 Js. 3 U. 1 



There was no other of our large English 

 abbeys that expended by grants or charters so 

 large a share of its income on distribution to the 

 poor. In the case of St. Edmunds it amounted 

 to £398 15*. n^d. a year; and this was alto- 

 gether apart from the daily distribution of broken 

 meat, the occasional doles of old clothes, 

 the long sustained alms on the death of a monk, 

 the Christmas gifts, &c, and, above all, the enter- 

 tainment of all comers in the guest-houses, from 

 royalty to the poorest tramp. The sum just 

 named is simply that which they were compelled 

 to distribute even under the laxest adminis- 

 tration. 



It has been stated with emphasis that Bury 

 St. Edmunds was by far the wealthiest Benedic- 

 tine abbey in England. This is, however, by 

 no means the case, the houses of Westminster, 

 Glastonbury, St. Albans, and Christ Church, 

 Canterbury, all possessing larger incomes. 



It remains to put on record some of the more 

 salient points relative to the inner life and work- 

 ing of the monastery. 



As to the numbers of this great household : 

 in the second half of the thirteenth century 

 there were 80 monks, 21 chaplains, and 

 III servants living in curia, apart from a con- 

 siderable number of officials and hinds of the 

 home-farms, who drew their rations from the 

 abbey. 2 The number of the monks had dropped 

 to about sixty at the time of the first visitation 

 of Henry VIIFs commissioners, and his policy 

 had driven out about a third of that number 

 before the surrender. 



Many of the entries in the custumary of the 

 abbey, temp. Edward I, are full of interest. 3 

 After reciting the very severe discipline de gravi 

 culpa, and the lighter punishment de levi culpa, 

 the custumary proceeds to deal with de trunculo, 

 which appears to have been a third grade of yet 

 lighter punishment. The delinquent was re- 

 quired to sit super trunculum, i.e. on a low trunk 

 or chest, which stood in the midst of the chap- 



1 Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), iii, 459-65. 



'Harl. MS. 6+5, fol. 196. 



5 Ibid. 3977. Much of it has common features 

 with the custumaries of other large Benedictine 

 houses, such as those of Westminster and Canter- 

 bury, which have been printed by the Henry Brad- 

 shaw Society. To such details, regulating the chap- 

 ter, dormitory, or refectory, blood-letting, &c, or to 

 the general duties of the obedientaries, we do not here 

 draw attention. 



ter-house, between the lectern and the foot of 

 the abbot's seat. There he had to remain 

 whenever the convent assembled in chapter. 

 Full details are also set forth as to the penitential 

 positions to be taken up by the de trunculo offen- 

 der when in choir and refectory. There was 

 also a fourth grade of discipline de minoribus 

 penitentiis. A delinquent of this class had 

 various minor but not degrading duties assigned 

 him, such as carrying the lamp before the con- 

 vent, collecting the scraps from the refectory, 

 &c. Nor was he severely restricted in diet ; it 

 was permitted to him if ailing to drink beer of 

 the second quality ' propter stomachi infirmita- 

 cionem et capitis debilitatem.' 4 



Entry is made of the weekly wages (9*. I \d.) 

 due to the servants of the church. The chap- 

 lain in charge of the vestments had two servants 

 receiving \2d. ; the sub-sacrist's boy (yd.; the 

 cressetarius, who looked after the cressets, 8d., 

 but the cerarius only \d.; two steyrarii (?) 1 2d.; 

 a carpenter, \7.\d.\ a plumber, \2d., and his 

 servant, 6d.; a janitor of the church, with his 

 dog, yd.; a janitor of the west door, 2d. ; a 

 warden of the green gate {custos viridi hostii), bd.; 

 and a carter {carractarius), 8 id. A memorandum 

 adds that the carter received from Easter to 

 Michaelmas l^d. ad nonchenches* the woodman 

 8d., and the two steyrarii 3^. each week during 

 the like period. 6 



A list of the monastic servants for the year 

 1284 shows that the cellarer's department had 

 forty-eight servants of different grades, such as 

 the porter of the great gate, and the hall 

 steward, whose names are set forth, and those of 

 humbler degree who only appear as messor, tres 

 pistons, or mundator curi. Twenty-four servants 

 were under the sacrist ; seven under the cham- 

 berlain, including a tailor and a shoemaker ; six 

 under the infirmarian ; nine under the almoner ; 

 and seven under the hosteller or guest-master. 

 This list takes no account of those of the abbot's 

 household. 7 



A list of the chaplains of the monastery, 

 drawn up early in the reign of Edward I, gives 

 the names of three chaplains of the church of 

 St. Mary, three of the church of St. James, one 

 general chaplain, and one each of the chapels of 

 St. Robert, St. Margaret, St. John of the 

 Mount {de Monte), the Round Chapel, St. Denis, 

 St. John at the Well {ad fontes), St. Katharine, 

 St. Faith, the Great Rood, St. John at the Gate, 

 St. Michael, the chapel of the Brazen Cross {ad 

 crucem aream), the hospital of St. Saviour, and the 

 Domus Dei. This gives a total of twenty-one 

 chaplains supported by the abbey. 8 



The distribution of bread of different kinds to 

 the household is set forth with much nicety in the 

 custumary. The total of the day's baking amounted 



69 



4 Ibid. fol. 5-7. 

 6 Ibid. fol. 93. 



' Ibid. fol. 2 + 2. 



5 Possibly a 3 o'clock lunch. 

 ' Ibid. fol. 2373. 



