RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



junctions applied to a few ritual details. On 

 the occasion of the last visitation the debts of 

 the house were twenty-one marks ; they then 

 stood at ;^I3 gs. 



When Redman was at Sulby in June, 1488, 

 he found John Middleton abbot and Robert 

 Bredon sub-prior, and there were also four priests, 

 one deacon, and two novices. The injunctions 

 issued after this visitation prohibited all games for 

 money under pain of the greater excommunica- 

 tion ; there was to be no eating or drinking in 

 the dormitory under pain of ten days' silence ; 

 and going outside the precincts, even to the cow- 

 house, was prohibited. The keeping or feeding of 

 birds or little dogs was forbidden, as such things 

 pertained more to curiosity than utility. The 

 visitor then entered that he had no further fault 

 to find, that the debt had all been paid off, and 

 that there were then excellent supplies of stores 

 and cattle. Sulby was again visited on 15 Sep- 

 tember, 1 49 1, when sad laxity came to light. 

 Some of the canons had been drinking at Wel- 

 ford ; this, and the permitting of women to enter 

 the precincts, were prohibited under pain of forty 

 days' penance and greater excommunication. 

 Robert Bredon was convicted in a case of incon- 

 tinence, and was condemned to forty days' severe 

 penance and seven years' banishment to Alnwick 

 Abbey. Bredon, the former sub-prior, seems to 

 have abandoned religion, for he was at the same 

 time condemned to an additional three years at 

 Shap Abbey for apostasy. Thomas VVylers was 

 also convicted of incontinence and sentenced to 

 forty days' severe penance, and to ten years' 

 banishment to the abbey of St. Agatha, York- 

 shire. The abbot was severely reprimanded, 

 and complaint made of the paucity of the number 

 of canons. Drinking after compline was to be 

 punished by ten days' penance, and eating or 

 drinking in any secular house by twenty days' 

 penance. There was no debt, and the supplies 

 were good. The numbers, in addition to Abbot 

 Middleton, were six priests, and three deacons 

 who were novices. 



When the bishop was next at Sulby, in 1494, 

 there were nine other canons in addition to Abbot 

 Middleton. Edward Melling, for a defect at 

 mass, was ordered to say a nocturn in cloister. 

 William Bromen, for talking to women rela- 

 tives, and for receiving a black instead of a 

 white habit, had to say a psalter. Robert 

 Bredon's case came up again as an apostate, so 

 that he apparently had not been arrested or had 

 again departed ; he was condemned to forty 

 days' penance, and ten years' banishment at 

 St. Agatha's Abbey. 



In 1497 the numbers had grown, for there 

 were twelve canons in addition to Abbot 

 Middleton. On this occasion the visitor had 

 no lapses to enter. 



The last recorded visitation paid to Sulby by 

 Bishop Redman took place on 28 October, 1500. 

 In addition to Abbot Middleton and Sub-prior 



Robert Haddon, eight other canons were present 

 and two novices. Thomas Wright had been 

 detected in the study of certain illicit books of 

 experiments, apparently of the ' Philosopher's 

 Stone ' type. He owned to the study of them, 

 but denied that he had attempted to put them in 

 practice. At the intercession of the superior and 

 brethren, the visitor allowed him to continue at 

 the monastery up to the next provincial chapter, 

 but enjoined on him meanwhile the saying of a 

 psalter. The bishop made further orders en- 

 joining the wearing of amices when silk copes 

 were used, and the providing a house suitable for 

 the infirm. The use of ample and wide burses 

 by the religious was to be abolished, whilst those 

 who wore loose slippers ' were threatened with 

 excommunication.2 



The last abbot, Ralphe Armonte, succeeded 

 in 1534. Robert Bryer, in his confession as to 

 the northern rebellion made before Sir Edmund 

 Walsingham in October, 1 536, stated that he had 

 visited Sulby and that the abbot gave him 3;. 4^'., 

 and asked him whether any more abbeys would 

 be suppressed, to which he replied ' Nay.' ^ The 

 monastery with all its possessions was surrendered 

 to Thomas Legh, 20 September, 1538. The 

 surrender deed was witnessed by Ralphe 

 Armonte abbot, Robert Buckley prior, Thomas 

 Hyle sub-prior, and nine other canons.* Five 

 days later Cromwell received a letter from Sulby 

 Abbey, addressed by John Hales, clerk of the first- 

 fruits, and one of the commissioner's most accom- 

 modating agents, stating that he was in possession 

 according to order, and that ' the papistical den of 

 idle and utterly unlearned beasts at Soulbie ' was 

 broken up. Sir Francis Bryan, steward of the 

 dissolved abbey, wrote to Cromwell on 27 Septem- 

 ber, begging his favour in the matter of a pen- 

 sion for the abbot. ^ The superior was granted, 

 on 26 November, the large pension of ;^50, the 

 rest of the canons ^^6 each.* The Valor of 

 1535 testifies to various distributions made regu- 

 larly to the poor by these so-called ' idle beasts.' 

 On Maundy Thursday the abbot was wont to 

 wash the feet of twenty-six poor men and give 

 to each a penny, a farthing loaf, and a red 

 herring. On the same day five hundred other 

 poor folk received a loaf and a herring from the 

 convent.'^ The church or chapel of Old Sulby, 

 dedicated to St. Botolph, was given, as has been 

 already stated, to the abbey with the manor. In 

 the Valor Old Sulby is described as a free 

 chapel, and the abbey paid the incumbent a 

 pension of ;^2 16s. Sd.^ 



' ' Illos volubiles sotulares Slj-ppers vocatos ! ' 



^ BoJl. Lib. Ashml. MS. 1519 ff. 5,21, 32, 71, 

 100, 1 19, 124, 136, 152. 



s L. and P. Hen. nil. xi. 841. 



* Ibid. xiii. pt. 2, 395, and P.R.O. Di-/: Keeper's 

 Rep. viii. App. ii. 43. 



6 L. and P. Hen. Fill. xiii. pt. 2, 436. 



6 Ibid. xiv. pt. I, p. 600. 



7 nior EccL (Rec. Com.), iv. 301. 8 ibid. 



141 



