RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



There was an old religious saying to the effect 

 that a monastery without a library was as a castle 

 without an armoury. In this respect St. Edmunds 

 was exceptionally well armed, even in early 

 days. The library consisted of upwards of 

 2,000 volumes, and was widely famed. A large 

 number of them have been identified among the 

 manuscript treasures of the British Museum, and 

 of the University and College libraries of Cam- 

 bridge and Oxford. Abbot Curteys built a 

 special library for the accommodation of the books 

 in 1430, and drew up regulations for their use. 



It was for a long period, more particularly in 

 the fifteenth century, considered a high honour 

 to be made an associate of this celebrated monas- 

 tery. During the time of Abbot Curteys 

 (1429-46) admissions to the chapter fraternity 

 were granted to John Brodwell, doctor of laws ; 

 William Paston, justice of the King's Bench ; 

 Thomas Haseley, king's coroner ; William 

 Brewster, king's clerk ; Richard Beauchamp, 

 Earl Warwick, with Isabel his wife, Henry and 

 Anne his children ; Henry, Cardinal St. Euse- 

 bius ; Eleanor, duchess of Gloucester ; William 

 Clopton, esquire, of Melford ; Elizabeth Veer, 

 countess of Oxford ; and William Pole, earl of 

 Suffolk, and Alice his wife. 2 When Henry VI 

 and his court bade farewell to St. Edmunds on 

 St. George's Day, 1434, the Duke of Gloucester 

 and all the leading courtiers were admitted to all 

 the spiritual privileges of the monks as sharers in 

 their prayers and deeds. Last of all the king 

 himself passed into the chapter-house, where he 

 was enrolled as one of the holy community of 

 associates, the abbot greeting him with the 

 fraternal kiss. 3 



It must not be imagined that this powerful 

 house of Benedictine monks was free from all 

 outside visitation because of its being exempt 

 from diocesan or archiepiscopal jurisdiction. 

 The abbey was just as much subject to the 

 general provincial chapter of the Benedictines 

 as the humblest priory of the order. The 

 general chapter met every three years, and one 

 of its most important duties was the appointment 

 of visitors. There are several references to these 

 periodic inspections in the St. Edmund registers. 

 Thus in 1393, on the feast of St. Barnabas, this 

 abbey was visited by the abbot of St. Benet of 

 Holme, the appointed visitor (as it is stated) of 

 the general chapter. He did not visit in person, 

 but appointed the prior and another learned 

 monk of his house (quendam alium scolare) to act 

 on his behalf. 4 



1 See a scholarly and exhaustive paper on the Library 

 of St. Edmunds, by Dr. Montague James, president of 

 King's College, printed by the Camb. Antiq. Soc. in 

 1895. 



'Add. MS. 14848, fols. 21, 53, 103, 157, 312, 



5 Arnold, Mem. iii, p. xxxii. 

 ' Cott. MS. Tib. B. ix, fol. 35*. 



Moreover, the most distinguished of the four- 

 teenth-century superiors of St. Edmunds, Abbot 

 Curteys (1429-46), was himself appointed visitor 

 of all the Benedictine houses of East Anglia by 

 the general chapter of the order held at North- 

 ampton in 1 43 1. In the following year Abbot 

 Curteys gave formal notice of holding visitations 

 of such important houses as the abbeys of Holme, 

 Colchester, and Thorney, and even of the 

 cathedral priories of Norwich and Ely. These 

 visitations were not carried out by the abbot in 

 person, but he commissioned his fellow-monks 

 John Craneways and Thomas Derham to repre- 

 sent him. 5 It must have been singularly trying 

 to the Bishop of Norwich, between whom and 

 the abbot of St. Edmunds an almost permanently 

 jealous feud existed, to find his rival holding a 

 visitation of the cathedral priory at the very gates 

 of his palace ! 



The ' Chronica Buriensis,' of the Cambridge 

 Public Library, contains a sad account of the 

 charges made against the monks of Bury in the 

 fourteenth century. Many of them, it was said, 

 were living in the surrounding villages away 

 from the monastery, wearing the dress of lay- 

 men. It was alleged against them in 1345 that 

 they were engaged in abductions, fightings, riots, 

 and other unlawful practices, besides having 

 many illegitimate children. The abbot, William 

 de Bernham, was plainly accused of connivance at 

 these disorders, and cited to appear before the 

 bishop. There can be no manner of doubt that 

 these complaints, even if they had some real basis, 

 were greatly exaggerated. When the charges 

 were formulated on Bishop Bateman's behalf, it 

 was with the avowed intention of securing to 

 himself the visitation of Bury, and his agents 

 were naturally inclined to make out as black a 

 case as possible. Moreover, the only authority 

 for this grievous censure is the chronicle first cited, 

 whose writer proceeds to state that it was a gross 

 libel full of malignant falsehoods. True the 

 writer was a monk, but he was a monk of 

 Holme and not of St. Edmunds. At all events, 

 the bishop's attempt to upset the abbey's exempt 

 jurisdiction completely failed both in secular and 

 ecclesiastical courts. 



Mr. Arnold assumes that Abbot Bernham was 

 a careless administrator, and that discipline was 

 generally slack under his rule. 6 During the fif- 

 teenth and sixteenth centuries, however, he states 

 that ' nothing from any quarter turns up to their 

 (the monks') discredit.' 7 With this opinion our 

 own perfectly independent and unbiased investi- 

 gation coincides. Legh and Ap Rice's compertii, 

 which have been already discussed, are in reality 

 strong confirmation of this favourable judgement. 

 The monks of St. Edmunds, whatever may have 

 been their failings in the more remote past, 



5 Add. MS. 14848, fols. 84-;. 



6 Arnold, Mem. iii, pp. x, xiii, XV, 65-8. 



7 Ibid. p. xxxv. 



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