RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



England in November, and received from the 

 king 30 marks for himself, 30 marks for fees 

 and vails, and 40*. to buy himself a palfrey. 



When the trouble of the interdict was over 

 the building at Beaulieu was immediately 

 resumed. In 1213 orders were made by the 

 king for 400 marks towards the building at 

 Michaelmas, and 500 marks at Michaelmas 

 of the next year, and in 1214 an additional 

 200.* In 1214 a prior was elected, Anas- 

 tasius by name ; to him the second donation 

 of 100 of that year was addressed, when 

 the abbot was probably absent. 2 On 9 April, 

 1215, John made his last donation, 50 marks, 

 to the monks of Beaulieu. 3 



The abbot of Beaulieu was the fourth of 

 the envoys sent by John to Pope Innocent in 

 September, 1215 ; and in that capacity, as 

 one of the king's proctors, he exhibited articles 

 against the Archbishop of Canterbury at the 

 fourth Lateran Council. 4 



On 24 February, 1219, Abbot Hugh was 

 consecrated Bishop of Carlisle in York 

 Minster. 5 He died in 1223. His successor, 

 Azo of Gisors, was a good deal engaged in 

 diplomacy, and was dispatched by the king to 

 France in the year of his appointment. 



Henry III. carried on his father's work at 

 Beaulieu with vigour. On 15 March, 1217, 

 he instructed the keeper of his herd of horses 

 in the New Forest to hand over all the profits 

 to the monks of Beaulieu until November, 

 1220." In 1 220 the king gave 50 marks, in 

 1221, iy marks, and in 1222, 100 to the 

 building. 7 



The annals of Waverley, which can scarcely 

 in such a matter be wrong, describe the monks 

 of Beaulieu as entering with great joy into 

 their new church on the vigil of the Assump- 

 tion, 1227." This entry has been supposed 

 to clash with the definite statement of the 

 same annals and of Matthew Paris twenty 

 years later. The term ecclesia however is 



1 Close Roll, John (Rec. Com.), 144, i/5b, 

 z nb. 



1 It is stated in Woodward's History of Hants 

 that Anastasius was termed abbot in the grant of 

 100 on 4 November, 1214; unfortunately there 

 are no references in that history, but the Close 

 Roll entry of 4 November calls him prior. 



3 Close Roll, John (Rec. Com.), 194. 



4 Matth. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Series), ii. 168. 



5 Woodward calls him Henry, a mistake made 

 also by others. There seems a little uncertainty 

 whether this Hugh was the first abbot or a second 

 of that name. 



8 Close Roll, John (Rec. Com.), 299. 



7 Ibid. Hen. III. (Rec. Com.), 44 ib, 457^ 

 486, 521. 



8 Annales Monastic! (Rolls Series), ii. 304. 



sometimes used to apply to the whole of a 

 religious house, and the explanation seems to 

 be that the great conventual church was 

 opened in 1227, but that the cloister and con- 

 ventual buildings as a whole were not ready 

 for occupation until 1246. 



The king's generosity to the Cistercians of 

 Beaulieu continued year by year ; it would be 

 tedious to reiterate the specific benefactions. 

 At last the whole of the great fabric was 

 finished, the monks quitted their temporary 

 building (doubtless of wood), and on 1 7 June, 

 1246, the conventual buildings were dedicated 

 by the Bishop of Winchester in the presence 

 of the king and queen, the Earl of Cornwall, 

 and a great concourse of prelates and magnates 

 of the realm. At the feast of the dedication 

 the abbot made an offering of 500 marks. 

 The young Prince Edward was also present at 

 the dedication, but was seized with illness, 

 and the queen stayed at the abbey three weeks 

 to nurse him, in contradiction, as the annalist 

 says, of the Cistercian rule. As a proof of 

 the strict observance of their rule, it is recorded 

 that at the next visitation both prior and 

 cellarer were deposed from their offices, 

 because they had supplied seculars with meat 

 on the occasion of the dedication festival. 9 



Pope Gregory IX., in 1231, granted a 

 licence, at the request of Henry III., to the 

 abbey of Beaulieu to appropriate the churches 

 of Shilton and Inglesham, with the chapel of 

 Coxwell, in the dioceses of Salisbury and 

 Lincoln. 10 The same pope, in 1235, licensed, 

 at the request of the king and his brother, 

 the Earl of Cornwall, the appropriation by the 

 abbey of the church of St. Keverne, Cornwall, 

 the patronage of which, together with ten 

 marks rent in Helston, the earl had already 

 granted for the health of his soul and that of 

 his father King John, due provision being 

 made for a vicar. 11 This appropriation led in 

 1236 to a dispute between the rector and the 

 convent as to the right of presentation. The 

 convent sent a proctor to Rome, asserting 

 that the Earl of Cornwall had given them 

 the patronage, and alleging that they needed 

 money for hospitality ; but they concealed the 

 fact that they had a ^1,000 of yearly rents, 

 and being in a desert place had little or no 

 hospitality to exercise. It was stated on 

 behalf of the rector that the convent of Beau- 

 lieu revelled in their goods, which could 

 support many more monks, and that they 

 had turned the church of St. Keverne into 



9 Ibid. ii. 90, 337 ; Matth. Paris, Chron. Maj. 

 (Rolls Series), iv. 562. 



10 Cal. of Papal Letters, i. 129. 



11 Ibid. p. 145. 



