RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



obtained a grant of protection and safe conduct 

 on 26th January, 1342-3, to last until Whitsun- 

 tide, on his departure to visit the bishops of Pales- 

 trina and Frascati, cardinal-envoys from Rome to 

 France, on business affecting himself.^ On the 

 resignation of Prior Francis in 1345 the prior of 

 Wenlock, as commissary of the prior of LaCharit^, 

 collated Thomas de Synarcleus to the vacant post, 

 praying the king by letters patent to admit him. 

 The presentee had to produce sureties that he 

 would pay the ;^ioo ferm for the custody, that 

 he would act well and faithfully by the king and 

 his subjects, and would not convey apport beyond 

 seas.2 



On the conclusion of a peace with France 

 restitution was made 16 February, 1360— I, of 

 the alien priories taken into the king's hand, the 

 priory of St. Andrew's, Northampton, being in- 

 cluded in the list.^ In February, 1385-6, when 

 it had again devolved into the hands of the crown 

 owing to the war, the abbot of St. James, North- 

 ampton, with the sheriff and others was appointed 

 by Richard II. to visit and examine the condition 

 of the house, to correct any defects that might 

 be found, and to report thereon.* The king in 

 December, 1396, granted the custody of the 

 priory to Thomas More and John Everdon, 

 clerks, for as long as the war should last.s 



In the first year of his reign Henry IV. re- 

 stored the alien priories, stipulating only that they 

 should pay to the crown as long as the war 

 lasted the ancient apport due in time of peace to 

 their superiors across the seas, that they should 

 maintain monks and others to the number of the 

 first foundation, and should join with the other 

 clergy of the realm in all charges and subsidies 

 due from the spirituality to the king.* The 

 priory of St. Andrew's, Northampton, was com- 

 mitted to Richard Napton, and the king con- 

 firmed to him and his convent the grant that he 

 and his successors would only demand the apport 

 in time of war ; the amount is stated here to be 

 losj Prior Napton in 1407 successfully main- 

 tained his right to present to the hospital of 

 Kingsthorpe against the crown, and the king 

 formally revoked his former presentation.* 



That the priory had suffered greatly from the 

 heavy war indemnity and from a constant suc- 

 cession of custodians appears in the charter of 

 denization granted by Henry IV. in May, 1405. 

 The deed recites that the house was in such ruins, 

 and the estates of the monks had been alienated 



1 Pat. 17 Edw. III. pt. 1, m. 41. 

 - Fine R. 19 Edw. III. m. 22. 



* Rymer Foedera (Rec. Com.), iii. pt. 2, 602. 



* Pat. 9 Ric. II. pt. 2, m. 30. 



5 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. f. 267. The list given in 

 the chartul.iry of the priory of the different custodians 

 of the house during the war varies somewhat in the 

 dates of their appointment from entries in the Patent 

 Rolls. * Pat. I. Hen. IV. pt. 2, m. 18. 



7 Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. ff. 268, 269. 



8 Ihid. fF. 23, 25. 



for such long periods, that there was neither 

 enough to maintain the convent and keep up the 

 divine offices nor to pay the ferm which had been 

 imposed on them. The king therefore, for the 

 glory of God and for the souls of his progenitors, 

 in augmentation of the divine offices and for the 

 relief of the priory, granted, in return for the sum 

 of ;^I00 paid by the prior and convent, that the 

 said house should in future be indigenous, and 

 that the temporalities should not be seized into 

 the king's hand in the occasion of any future 

 war, or any tax or subsidy imposed on them as 

 on an alien house. The community should have 

 the right of free election, and no one should be 

 prior unless he were English and of English 

 birth ; both prior and convent should be of English 

 nationality, and have as much freedom as the 

 prior and monks of Thetford or any other priory 

 in England.' Henry VI. confirmed this charter 

 of denization, and signified that for the payment 

 of ;^20 the prior and convent were henceforth 

 free and quit of anything that might pertain to 

 the king and his successors by reason of a vacancy 

 in the house. ^^ 



A roll of receipts of the priory for 1455-6 by 

 Simon Dunstall, receiver of the priory, gives 

 details as to the property of the monks. The 

 total amounted to £p.\o ijs. gld., but after the 

 payment of all dues, allocations, tithes, and other 

 necessary expenses had been made, there was 

 only a clear balance left of £S() 31. 2id}'^ In 

 November, 1469, during the rule of William 

 Hammond, a commission was issued to the mayor 

 of Northampton and others to arrest and bring 

 before the king John Hamerton and Thomas 

 Grove, monks of St. Andrew's, who had put off 

 their religious habits, and with other evildoers 

 had so threatened William Hammond and his 

 fellow monks that they were unable to fulfil 

 their monastic duties. The arrest of the offenders 

 was not at that time effected, and in 1472 a 

 further mandate was issued to all sheriffs, mayors, 

 etc., to arrest these refractory monks who had 

 spurned religion and to deliver them to the 

 superiors of the Cluniac order for chastisement. i- 

 A fifteenth-century compilation of various visi- 

 tation reports of English Cluniac foundations 

 describes the priory of St. Andrew as a cell 

 directly subject to La Charite. The number of 

 monks, it states, varied from twenty-five to 

 thirty ; there were five daily masses, of which 

 three were with music. The ordinary monks' 

 loaves ought to weigh 52 pounds, and a tenth 

 part of what was baked for conventual purposes 

 was given to the poor.'* 



8 Pat. 6 Hen. IV. pt. 2, m. 25. Cited in the 

 chartulary, Cott. MS. Vesp. E. xvii. f. 25. 

 10 Pat. 16 Hen. VI. pt. 2, ra. 12. 

 " Harl. Rolls, K. 7. See also Har!. Rolls, K. 8. 



12 Pat. 12 Edw. IV. pt. 2, m. 32. 



13 Duckett, yisitiUioiis of English Cluniac FounJiiticm, 

 p. 41. 



107 



