A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



the college did not concern him, and he continued 

 the visitation regardless of the contents. The 

 letter, however, of the cardinal to the dean was 

 set forth at length by the bishop's scribe in his 

 register ; it stated that the religious life of the 

 college was said to have declined, and the dean 

 and canons were cited to appear on I August 

 before the cardinal's commissioners. This letter 

 had reached the college on 1 1 July. 



The notes of the interrupted but continued 

 visitation show that Dr. William Greene, the 

 dean, was not present, but thai six prebendaries 

 were in attendance, with eight vicars and five 

 ' conducts ' or lay stipendiaries. The result of 

 the several examination of the canons and the 

 vicars is set forth in detail. It was shown that 

 the janitor of the college, who ought to be in resid- 

 ence, was in attendance on the queen ; that the 

 dean, though bound to reside, was non-resident 

 and in other ways broke the statutes ; that George 

 Gelibrond, one of the vicars who had been forced 

 upon them by the present dean, though incap- 

 able of singing, was a most quarrelsome and dis- 

 creditable person ; and that the dean had presented 

 him to the vicarage of Stoke under his seal, 

 without the consent of the chapter, and had also 

 dismissed a vicar of the college without cause 

 and without the leave of the chapter. All the 

 vicars united in complaining of Gelibrond, most 

 of them also stating that he defamed Cardinal 

 Wolsey. Three slightly different versions in 

 English are entered of the actual words used by 

 Gelibrond when defaming the cardinal, the 

 most pungent is : 'It is a pitie that he berith 

 the rule that he doithe, and if otheremen wolde 

 doo as I wolde, he shoulde be plucked out of his 

 house by the eyres. I wolde to God there were 

 xl thousand of my mynde.' 



The bishop's injunctions were that if the dean 

 did not reside he was only to receive ^20 a year 

 out of the profits, according to the statutes; that 

 the chancel of Clare was to be repaired at the 

 dean's expense, before next All Saints' day ; that 

 the janitor was to reside and see to his duty, 

 otherwise to forfeit his salary ; that one of the 

 clerks was to sleep and remain all night in the 

 vestry ; that the verger was to be in attendance 

 and exercise his office in the same manner as at 

 the collegiate church of St. Stephen, West- 

 minster, or of Windsor ; and that George Geli- 

 brond, irregularly admitted, was to be expelled 

 from his stall. This last injunction was after- 

 wards withdrawn in favour of a monition. 

 Other injunctions related to inventories, custody 

 of seals, the recovery of the muniments, &c. x 



The bishop left Stoke on 1 5 July and visited 

 other Norfolk houses, arriving at Thompson 

 college on 21 July. When there, one John 

 Stacy, of Norwich, a messenger of the cardinal, 

 brought him a letter from Wolsey, dated 2 July, 

 concerning the visitation of Stoke, which had 



been for some unknown reason delayed. To 

 this letter the bishop wrote a wary reply, stating 

 the exact hour that the letter reached him, 

 adding that he had already visited Stoke, but 

 saying nothing as to his injunctions. Mean- 

 while the bishop took action against Dr. Greene, 

 the dean of the college, whom Dr. Jessopp> 

 describes as ' an unprincipled rogue, ready to 

 sell himself and the college for what he could 

 get.' 



Canon Kiel, supported by two of his col- 

 leagues, had testified that the dean had been 

 duly cited to the bishop's visitation, and produced 

 a letter in which Dr. Greene not only declared 

 his own intention of being absent, but urged his. 

 fellows to resist the visit. The dean was then 

 cited to appear before the bishop in the chapel 

 of his palace at Norwich on 20 August. At 

 the appointed time Canon Kiel appeared and 

 testified that the dean's answer to him was ' I 

 can not appear, nor will not appear, and ye were 

 to blame and folis any of you to tappere before 

 my lorde, for I send you letter to the contrary.' 

 Whereupon, Dr. Greene was formally pro- 

 nounced contumacious and suspended from cele- 

 brating divine service and cited to appear before 

 the bishop in the manor chapel of Hoxne on 

 Wednesday after next Mid-Lent Sunday to 

 show cause why graver action should not be 

 taken. Canon Gilbert Latham, the only one of 

 the college who supported the dean in sub- 

 serviency to the cardinal, was also at the same 

 time pronounced contumacious. 2 



It is not known precisely what next took 

 place, but the aged diocesan and the queen 

 evidently succeeded in checkmating Wolsey so 

 far as the immediate suppression of Stoke College 

 was concerned, for it lasted until the days of 

 Edward VI. 



The college was again visited by the diocesan 

 on 10 July, 1532, when Canon Whitehead, 

 who had sent the book of the statutes to London, 

 was ordered to restore it before Michaelmas 

 under pain of excommunication. There were 

 not many complaints, but it is clear from one of 

 the entries that Cardinal Wolsey did visit the 

 college either in 1526 or at some subsequent 

 date. The bishop, in consequence of ^13 

 having been paid to the king that year in dis- 

 charge of procuration fees due at the visitation 

 of the late cardinal, and of jewels to the value of 

 forty marks having been taken by thieves out of 

 the vestry, ordered that there was to be no 

 division that year of the residue of the profits of 

 the college among the residentiaries. He 

 further enjoined that women were not to fetch 

 linen for washing from the houses of the vicars, 

 nor were they to serve in the houses of the 

 canons; that the muniments were to be kept 

 under three locks of diverse workmanship ; that 

 one of the clerks was always to sleep at night 



1 Jessopp, Visit. 226-39. 



Ibid. 



2 54-59- 



148 



