A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



school, so that poor clerks might be quit of the 

 rent of a house, so now they might be hence- 

 forth quit of all payment of fees (detuniorum) 

 which the schoolmaster according to custom 

 exacted for his teaching. ' And, by the will of 

 God in the lifetime of the abbot the whole 

 moiety of the aforesaid church, worth, as it is 

 said, iooj. was converted to these uses.' 



A note, not forming part of Brakelond's 

 chronicle, 1 but a sort of appendix to it, informs 

 us that — 



at the time when Abbot Samson made the school- 

 house at his own expense and caused a rent of 3 marks 

 a year to be paid to the schoolmaster, he showed the 

 reason for doing so, and established it in full chapter ; 

 that all the scholars both rich and poor should be 

 quit for ever of hiring the house, and that 40 poor 

 clerks might be free of all fees (qu'ieti ab omni 

 exaccione) to the master for their instruction. Among 

 the 40 ought to be first reckoned the relations of the 

 monks so long as they wish to learn, and the remainder 

 ought to be supplied at the discretion of the school- 

 master. And for this reason the master was allowed 

 always to have 2 clerks boarded in the almonry (in 

 elemosinaria comedentes), who are bound to attend the 

 school at three terms of the year when the master 

 begins his lectures (incipiente legere), viz. Michaelmas, 

 after Christmas, and after Easter ; and when his lec- 

 tures stop they must retire, except before Easter when 

 they may stay to the Lord's Supper (i.e. till Maundy 

 Thursday). The same custom obtains for the Usher 

 (Ostiario Scolarum). And all the clerks who are 

 boarded in the almonry ought to attend school in the 

 same way ; but they ought to be reckoned in the 

 aforesaid number, that the master may not be over- 

 burdened. 



The mention of an usher and 40 free scholars 

 shows that the school was already well frequented 

 and highly organized. 



On 27 April, 2 1193, John, then bishop of 

 Norwich, at Ipswich, at the petition and pre- 

 sentation of Abbot Samson, patron of half the 

 church of Wetherden, granted and confirmed 

 in pure and perpetual alms to the master teach- 

 ing school at Bury St. Edmunds, whoever he 

 might be, three marks, i.e. 40*. from that half. 

 Yet on 9 June, 1 3 14, the payment had been 

 challenged by the then rector and had to be 

 solemnly confirmed by the bishop's commissioners 

 at a visitation. A hundred years later, 3 7 Janu- 

 ary, 1419-20, the then rector John Brigtyefe, 

 after legal proceedings not reported, entered into 

 a recognizance that the annual pension of 40/. 

 was due from him and paid a noble (6;. 8^.) 

 apparently by way cf costs. 



In that golden age of litigation, the second 

 half of the thirteenth century, we find the rights 

 of the grammar school the subject of several law- 

 suits. In the first of these — the exact date is not 

 given, but as the next succeeding document is 

 dated in April, 16 Edward I, it must be about 



1 Had. MS. 1005, fol. 130. A copy is in B.M. 

 Add. MSS. 14848, fol. 13*. 



'' Ibid. fol. 136. 3 Ibid. fol. 1 20. 



1287 — one J. of C. 4 had cited R. of C. before 

 Mr. S. of C., the schoolmaster, for defaming 

 his state (super status sui diffhmac'wne). What 

 exactly that may mean, whether it was an 

 allegation that the scholar was a villein, and 

 therefore not properly admissible to the school, 

 or whether it merely meant that the boy was 

 charged with misconduct, is not clear. At all 

 events, the defendant R. of C. appealed to the 

 sacrist of the monastery, and the sacrist, William 

 of Hoo, issued a prohibition to Mr. S. of C. 

 telling him that his claim to have cognizance of 

 all cases between clerks and laymen was bad, 

 since by ancient and hitherto approved custom 

 cases between clerks and laymen, except in the 

 single case of violent assault by laymen on his 

 own scholars or vice versa, belonged not to 

 the master but to the sacrist. Further, even if 

 the ordinary jurisdiction belonged to the school- 

 master, as he had refused to seal the article or 

 bill brought against R. of C. by J. of C. on 

 which he had made a decree, or to state a case 

 for appeal, and had refused to stay execution 

 pending an appeal, an appeal lay to the sacrist. 

 So the sacrist forbade the master to proceed 

 further, and called up the case to himself. He 

 then issued a mandate to certain officials, not 

 named, directing them to excommunicate ' all 

 those who to the damage of the school of 

 St. Edmund held adulterine schools in the same 

 borough, and those who treat the said schools as 

 deserted, till they have made satisfaction to the 

 master, and obtained absolution.' 



The schoolmaster did not sit quiet under this 

 interference of the sacrist, but appealed to the 

 abbot, John of Norwold. He promptly in his 

 turn issued a prohibition to the sacrist. The 

 abbot says he had — 



received the plaint of the schoolmaster reciting that 

 though by ancient and approved custom the master 

 had hitherto enjoyed full jurisdiction over all offenders 

 against his scholars and had duly summoned W. de C. 

 at the instance of his scholar J. de C, the sacrist, 

 pretending that he was the schoolmaster's superior in 

 this matter, had called up the case before himself, and 

 had given no assistance to the injured scholar. 



The abbot, therefore, finding that whatever 

 jurisdiction the schoolmaster claimed was derived 

 from himself, the abbot, and that if an appeal 

 lay, it lay to his immediate superior the abbot 

 and not to the sacrist, told the sacrist not to 

 interfere, but to let the schoolmaster freely exer- 

 cise 'his or rather our' jurisdiction. There the 

 record with its usual tantalizing fragmentariness 

 ends. But as the documents are found entered 



1 Harl. MS. 230, fol. 5 (fol. 12 pencil.) Only 

 the initials of the names are given in the original 

 MS. and it seems probable that C. is used as meaning 

 any place, as the M. or N. of the Church Catechism 

 for any name. In B.M. Add. MSS. 14848, fol. 

 136^, is a later copy of this in which E. and not C. is 

 the initial used. 



3ot 



