RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



caused by boys chattering on the south side of 

 the farmery was to be stopped ; the access of 

 men and women into the church and cloister 

 at inordinate hours and times was to cease ; 

 no brother was to frequent the nunneries of 

 Winchester, Wherwell, or Romsey under 

 pain of a year's confinement at Hyde ; parti- 

 cular injunctions were laid down as to eating 

 and drinking ; playing at chess or dice was 

 forbidden ; frocks or cowls of fustian or 

 worsted were not to be allowed, but were to 

 be of black serge according to their rule ; 

 cinctures or burses of silk were forbidden ; 

 nor were they to have lockers save in the 

 cloister carols. 1 To this visitation and its 

 consequent decrees the abbot raised formal 

 objections, but he was overruled. 



Bishop Orlton visited the abbey on 7 No- 

 vember, 1334, preaching in the chapter-house 

 from ' Ut ambuleth digni Deo per omnia pla- 

 centes.' The same bishop also visited on 

 29 May, 1337.* 



By the aid of 1346 for making Edward 

 the Black Prince a knight we find that the 

 Abbot of Hyde held with Robert Payne an 

 eighth part of a knight's fee in Abbots Worthy 

 (Hidebourne Wordy), three knights' fees in 

 Mitcheldever, a hide in Northington with 

 Henry de Nonhampton, and half a fee in 

 Bicton with Roger Gervays. 3 



In 1344 there was an outbreak of the 

 villeins of Chisledon, Wilts, against the abbey 

 rule, for which they received chastisement at 

 the abbot's hands. The fearful Black Death of 

 1349-50 reduced the abbey to penury, so 

 that in order to avoid utter wreck it surren- 

 dered itself absolutely into the hands of Wil- 

 liam Edingdon, Bishop of Winchester and 

 Chancellor of the kingdom. The annalist 

 does not proceed to state what measures the 

 bishop took for the relief of the abbey or how 

 he administered their funds. It would, how- 

 ever, appear that after the election of Thomas 

 de Pechy, the new abbot, in 1362, by good 

 management the monastery had partly re- 

 gained its prosperous condition, for in 1377 

 it was able to lend Richard II. the sum of 

 50. Nicholas Strode who became abbot in 

 1417 took a considerable share in the political 

 affairs of the day, and is described as ' a 

 man of conspicuous parts and secular activity.' 

 He died in 1440, and was followed by 

 Thomas Bramley, to whose election the 

 royal assent was given early in May. In 

 March, 1446, this abbot's name appears 

 among the distinguished signatories to the 



1 Winchester Epis. Reg. Stratford, f. 

 1 Ibid., Orlton, i. ff. lob, 54. 

 3 Feudal A 'ids, ii. 326, 329, 334. 



final foundation charter of Eton College. 

 In the same year the great bell-tower of 

 Hyde Abbey, with its eight bells, was de- 

 stroyed by fire. In 1447 Cardinal Beaufort 

 died, and left 200 for the repairs of the 

 church, doubtless in consequence of this mis- 

 adventure. 



Abbot Bramley died in February, 1465, 

 and was succeeded by Henry Bonville, the 

 prior. This election caused much dissension 

 in the abbey. Bishop Waynflete, on appeal, 

 sent the new abbot to govern the priory of 

 Boxgrove, Sussex, whilst the new prior of 

 Hyde, Thomas Worcester, virtually governed 

 the abbey. In 1471 an arrangement was 

 made by which Abbot Bonville was to re- 

 ceive 50 a year from the abbey revenues, 

 and to attend convocation, council, or par- 

 liament as abbot ; but he was not to come 

 near Hyde Abbey for three years. 4 Mean- 

 while however in 1472 Bonville died, and 

 Thomas Worcester was at once elected in 

 his place. 5 



On the election of Richard Hall in April 

 1488 Henry VII. granted a pension, which 

 a newly elected Abbot of Hyde was bound 

 to grant to a clerk of the king's nomination 

 from the abbey funds, to Peter Carmelian. 

 Peter was a native of Brescia, who had been 

 naturalized that very month ; he was a court 

 poet, and chaplain and Latin secretary to 

 Henry VII. 8 



Bishop Wykeham was a firm maintainer 

 of all the episcopal privileges of the see. 

 There was an ancient custom that, on the 

 confirmation of a new bishop, the abbot of 

 Hyde should present him with a choral cope, 

 comely and suitable for a bishop's estate, for 

 use in the cathedral church. On Wykeham's 

 appointment Thomas Pechy, then abbot of 

 Hyde, neglected to supply the customary cope, 

 and ignored frequent reminders. At last, in 

 October, 1368, the abbot was cited to appear 

 in the church of St. Mary Overy to show 

 cause why a cope should not be rendered. 7 

 The issue is not stated, but doubtless it was 

 in favour of the bishop. In 1390, Bishop 

 Wykeham entered in his register the grant 

 made by Pope Boniface IX. to Abbot Eyne- 

 sham, authorizing his use of mitre, ring and 

 pastoral staff; 8 on 8 February, 1387, the 



4 Winchester Epis. Reg., Waynflete, ii. ff. 106- 

 8b. 



5 Pat. 4 Edw. IV. pt. ii. m. 2. 



8 He also received corrodies or pensions from 

 other ecclesiastical foundations ; see Diet, of Nat. 

 Bug. 



7 Ibid. Wykeham, iii. f. 15. 



8 Ibid. f. 2493. 



