RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Joybert, an influential Norman of high birth, 

 was a monk of La Charit^, esteemed so much 

 for his prudence in secular matters that the 

 abbot of Cluny arranged for him to take con- 

 trol of the English priories of Bermondsey, 

 VVenlock, and Daventry.i The exact time 

 when he was appointed to Daventry cannot be 

 precisely stated ; but in 1 198, on the restoration 

 of the monks of Coventry after their expulsion 

 by Bishop Hugh de Nonant, Joybert was made 

 prior of Coventry by Hubert Walter, archbishop 

 of Canterbury. He appears to have held the 

 two priories of Coventry and Daventry together 

 for a time during a period of considerable eccle- 

 siastical strife. 



Reyner states that during his rule of Daventry 

 Joybert succeeded in separating the priory from 

 the body and discipline of the Cluny congrega- 

 tion, and that the house was subsequently 

 summoned to the general chapter of the black 

 monks of St. Benedict.- The question of the 

 subjection of Daventry to the original mother 

 house of La Charit6 or its severence therefrom 

 is an intricate one ; on the one hand Daventry 

 is not included in the visitations actually made 

 by visitors of the Cluniac order in 1262, 1275-6, 

 and 1279,3 and the omission of any account or 

 reference to it is significant ; on the other 

 hand a fifteenth-century document enumerating 

 the English and Scotch foundations of Cluny, and 

 apparently compiled from visitation-reports of 

 1298, 1390, and 1405, states that the priory of 

 St. Augustine of Daventry, near Northampton, 

 in which the religious community consisted of 

 1 8 brethren, ' is a cell directly subject to the 

 priory of La Charitd.' * 



This vexed question of jurisdiction arose early in 

 the thirteenth century, and in the days of William 

 de Bouay, who succeeded to the rule in 1217, 

 there was an appeal to Rome, in consequence 

 of which the papal commissioners in 1 22 1 put the 

 affairs of the priory into the hands of the bishop 

 of Lincoln,^ and it may be noted that from this 

 time the names of superiors are all English. 

 The diocesan registers record that Nicholas of 

 Ely was appointed in 1 23 1, on the death of Prior 

 Walter of Sawbridge, with the consent of 

 Walter, son of Simon the patron.^ In the same 

 year Pope Gregory IX. ordered the bishop of 

 Ely, the archdeacon of Sudbury, and the chan- 

 cellor of Cambridge, to hear and adjudge the 



1 Matth. Paris, Hist. Minor (Rolls Ser.), ii. 67. 

 From the wording of this passage it seems probable 

 that he may have had charge of the temporal affairs 

 of these three monasteries at the same time, without 

 being actually prior. His name, moreover, is not 

 given in the Annaks of Bermondsey, of which 

 Richard Norman was prior from 1 189 to I 201. 



* Reyner, Apostolatiu Benedictinorum in Anglia (1626), 

 p. 141. 



3 Duckett, Visitations of EngRsh Cluniac Foundations, 

 pp. II, 14, 20. * Ibid. p. 42. 



5 Line. Epis. Reg. Roll of Wells, 6 ibid. 



complaint of the prior and convent of La Charit^ 

 against the bishop of Lincoln and his action in 

 reference to the priory of Coventry which be- 

 longed to their house. Among other things it 

 was alleged that the bishop had compelled the 

 monks of Daventry to elect a prior, threatening to 

 expel them if they did not, and had instituted him 

 to Coventry, whereupon he was excommunicated 

 by the prior of La Charit^ ; that on his death, 

 when the prior of La Charitd instituted another, 

 the bishop would not let him enter the priory, 

 but did him grievous injury, although the 

 brethren of the order of Cluny had an indult 

 which exempted them from obedience to any 

 bishop. 7 



The diocesan registers prove that though there 

 was probably no formal separation on the part of 

 Daventry from the Cluniac rule and de jure they 

 remained subject as a cell to La Charit^, yet the 

 community from this time elected their own prior 

 and presented him to the bishop for confirmation 

 and institution after his appointment had been 

 approved by the patron, and thus de facto came 

 under the jurisdiction of the ordinary.' Bishop 

 Gray, 1431—6, is recorded to have made a visita- 

 tion of this house ; his subsequent injunctions were 

 merely formal. 



In 1284 an interesting agreement was made 

 between the prior and convent and their patron, 

 Robert FitzWalter, lord of Daventry, and Petro- 

 nilla his wife, to the effect that the said Robert 

 and Petronilla whenever resident in their mansion 

 house should have mass and other religious offices 

 celebrated in their chapel for themselves, their 

 family and guests during their lives. The chapel 

 should, however, have no bell, the chaplain should 

 be maintained at their expense, all offerings made 

 in the chapel should be transferred to the sacrist 

 of the priory, no espousals or purifications should 

 be performed there, and no confessions heard 

 except at the point of death. High mass should 

 not be sung there on Christmas Day, Candlemas 

 Day, or Easter Day, and no mass celebrated in 

 the chapel on Whit Sunday, St. John Baptist Day, 

 or on the dedication day of the church of Daven- 

 try, unless Robert or Petronilla should be ill. It 

 was also covenanted that the privilege of this 

 domestic chapel should not extend to the heirs 



7 Cal. of Papal L. i. 126. The letter in 1238 of 

 Thomas, prior of St. Andrew's, Northampton, to the 

 abbot of Cluny in reference to the financial condition 

 of his house, states that the bishop of Lincoln, Gros- 

 tete, had displayed considerable rancour against the 

 order, to so marked a degree, he adds, against the 

 house of Daventry that none of the monks dared to 

 appear before him. 



8 In l28l,onthe resignation of John ofStaverton, 

 licence for election having previously been obtained 

 from Robert FitzWalter, the monks elected Robert de 

 Wynevvike, but the bishop on the grounds of his ille- 

 gitimacy annulled the selection, and they subsequently 

 chose their sub-prior, William of Lemyngton. Line. 

 Epis. Reg, Roll of Sutton. 



Ill 



