A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



same bishop issued an elaborate series of in- 

 junctions for the better government of the 

 abbey ; * and by his will left to the abbot 

 a silver-gilt flagon worth 10 ; to each monk 

 in priest's order, 2 ; and to each in lower 

 orders, 1. 



Dr. Hede, as commissary for the Prior of 

 Canterbury during the vacancy of the see, 

 visited this abbey on 3 March, 1501. Richard 

 Hall, the abbot, gave written and viva voce 

 answers to the visitation articles. He stated 

 that the abbey was in debt fifty marks when 

 he entered on his office. The common seal 

 was kept under four keys held respectively by 

 the abbot, prior, sub-prior and precentor. 

 Richard Romsey, the prior, said that the 

 abbot had also placed in his hands the 

 office of sacrist. John Lavender, sub-prior ; 

 William Salisbury, almoner ; Thomas Wrigh- 

 ton, steward ; Thomas Gloucester, guest- 

 master ; Henry Curtes, precentor ; John 

 Forest, cellarer (vinetarius) ; William Chusyl- 

 den, the third prior and infirmarer ; John 

 Alta, master of the works ; William Win- 

 chester, sub-chanter ; and various others, who 

 did not hold office, summed up their testi- 

 mony in the effective phrase of omnia bene. 

 Edward London, one of the monks, stated 

 that the novices and two other young brothers 

 did not attend the grammar school, and that 

 it was the fault of the abbot. Anthony 

 Stavely complained that the prior heavily 

 punished the young monks and others with- 

 out cause. There were also certain complaints 

 on the part of two or three of insufficient 

 food in the farmery. 



Abbot Hall's government was lax. At a 

 visitation held by Dr. Dowman, the bishop's 

 vicar-general, in January, 1507, the prior and 

 six senior monks were summoned to the 

 chapter-house and faced with various serious 

 charges as to the access of women to the pre- 

 cincts, the frequenting of taverns in the city, 

 and insufficient instruction of the younger 

 monks. This was followed by the sum- 

 moning of twenty-five junior monks who 

 were duly admonished. Then the vicar- 

 general conferred with the abbot and seniors 

 as to reformatory measures. The seniors admit- 

 ted laxity as to egress, alleged their ignorance 

 of all foundation for the graver charges, spoke 

 of the difficulty of a strict observance of the 

 Benedictine rule, but promised vigilance and 

 increased exertion for the future.* 



Two years later the abbot died, and was 



1 These are printed in full, from a MS. in the 

 custody of the Warden of New College, Oxford, 

 in Dr. Birch's Liber fittr, pp. Ixrvii. xcvi. 



1 Winchester Epis. Reg., Fox, ii. f. 42. 



succeeded on 19 February by Richard Romsey, 

 the prior, who was the last of the honestly 

 elected abbots of Hyde. He governed the 

 community for nearly twenty-one years under 

 the episcopates of Fox and Wolsey. During 

 the latter part of his life the aged Bishop 

 Fox visited Hyde every fifteen days. In 1522 

 certain episcopal injunctions were issued 

 which reveal some irregularities, the gravest 

 whereof referred to some of the younger 

 monks practising long-bow archery in the 

 Hyde meadows. In August, 1526, Abbot 

 Romsey received a communication from 

 Wolsey, and wrote asking for a month's 

 time to deliberate over his proposals. He 

 pleaded that he was ' somewhat diseased,' 

 and not well able to travel to see Wolsey, 

 especially as he was expecting the king in the 

 following week. The tenor of Wolsey's 

 letter can be gathered from the reply. He 

 had acknowledged that Romsey had ordered 

 his house ' discreetly as yet," but now that he 

 was suffering from age and weakness he urged 

 him to resign. The old abbot replied, with 

 some spirit, that he was not so aged or impo- 

 tent of body or wit, but that he was able to 

 exercise his office to the pleasure of God, the 

 increase of good religion and the wealth of his 

 house. 3 



At the close of 1529 Abbot Romsey died, 

 and on 28 January, 1529-30, the monks of 

 Hyde gathered for the last time in their 

 chapter house for the election of an abbot. 

 A portion of the community struggled hard 

 to appoint one of their own number, but 

 others had been won over to support the 

 election of John Salcot, alias Capon, who 

 was already Abbot of Hulme, Norfolk. 

 After several adjournments, the election of 

 the nominee of Wolsey and the Crown was 

 secured. Salcot was a strenuous and ostenta- 

 tious supporter of the king's divorce. In 

 1534 he was consecrated by Cranmer, Bishop 

 of Bangor, and in 1539 translated to Salis- 

 bury. Among all the absolutely unscrupulous 

 turncoats and time-servers of those strange 

 times the last Abbot of Hyde certainly bears 

 the palm. 4 Salcot on his appointment set to 

 work to prepare for the end, and in 1534 or 

 a little later Cromwell designed a strange and 

 most lax regulation for the fraternity 5 ; but if 

 ever this came into operation, it was of short 

 duration. In April, 1538, the surrender was 

 signed, and in September of the same year 



3 Letters and Papers Hen. V11I. iv. 2394. 



* See the strong but just account of his career 

 in Edwards's introduction to the Liber de HyJa, 

 bciv.-lxx. 



8 Cott. MS. Cleop. E. iv. 29. 



1 2O 



