RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



decree on 4 February. The archbishop there- 

 in strongly condemns the late Prior Andrew, 

 stating that the temporal difficulties of the 

 priory were chiefly his fault. The ex-prior 

 is ordered to sleep in the dorter and eat in the 

 frater the same as the rest of the canons. If 

 he presumed to eat elsewhere, so often as he 

 thus offended he was to be excluded from the 

 church and given a diet of bread and water. 

 A door communicating from the garden, at- 

 tached to the chamber where the ex-prior had 

 been quartered, within the outer court, was 

 ordered to be built up with stones and mortar. 

 Andrew was also to be strictly confined to the 

 cloister and its surrounding offices, until he 

 could produce in chapter to the satisfaction of 

 the archbishop or diocesan a proper balance 

 sheet of his accounts. The lack of observance 

 of silence by the canons both in quire and 

 cloister was severely admonished. Any future 

 offender was to be proclaimed in chapter and 

 for the first offence to be deprived of the first 

 pittance in the frater, for the second offence to 

 have no other drink but water, and for the 

 third to suffer both of these penalties. 1 



In 1289 licence was obtained for an aliena- 

 tion in mortmain by Richard de Burhunt to 

 the priory of Southwick of 50 acres of land 

 and the site of a mill in Southwick, in ex- 

 change for a mill and 1 5 acres of land there. 2 



In 1291 Pope Nicholas IV. granted a 

 faculty to the prior and convent of Southwick 

 to wear caps or amices on their heads in 

 church, which were to be removed at the 

 gospel and the elevation. 3 The taxation of 

 this date gave the annual value of the tempor- 

 alities of the priory in the archdeaconry of 

 Winchester at 27 ijs. 8d. 



In the days of Bishop Woodlock there were 

 various troubles at Southwick. In 1307 the 

 papal nuncio in England interfered in the case 

 of one Richard Spede, a canon of the house, 

 relative to effusion of blood, and also granted 

 him dispensation with regard to certain 

 simoniacal irregularities. 4 On 28 October, 

 1308, the bishop sent a mandate to the prior 

 of Southwick against Canon Philip de Winton 

 on account of scandals, enjoining that he 

 should not depart from the cloister until the 

 bishop's visit, that he was to write no letters 

 nor cause any to be written, that all writing 

 materials were to be taken from him, and that 



1 Cant. Archiep. Reg., Peckham, f. 2320. 

 Besides the entiy of this decree another copy of it, 

 on a separate piece of parchment, is stitched into 

 the register. 



3 Pat. 1 8 Edw. I. m. 45. 



3 Cat. of Papal Letters, \. 533. 



* Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, ff. 75b, 76. 



nc secular servant nor outsider was to have 

 any communication with him, save in the 

 presence of one of the brethren of the house. 6 

 On the following Christmas Day, the bishop 

 gave notice of his approaching visitation 

 through the archdeacon. 6 On 1 9 February, 

 1308, the bishop communicated with the prior 

 as to the liberating from prison of Richard 

 Spede ; he was not to depart out of the cloister 

 or the buildings round the cloister. After the 

 bishop's visitation various injunctions were 

 forwarded relative to the hours of mass, the 

 religious habit, talking with women, dietary, 

 and quarrelling. 7 



On the Saturday after the feast of St. 

 Matthew, 1310, Bishop Woodlock again 

 visited the priory ; 8 as no decree is entered in 

 his registers it may be assumed that all was 

 then satisfactory. 



Edward II. maintained his right to send 

 pensioners to the house of Southwick. On 

 21 December, 1316, John de Sheford, who 

 had long served the king, was sent under privy 

 seal to the prior and convent of Southwick to 

 receive maintenance in food and clothing. 9 

 Just a week later William de Spyny, another 

 old servant of the Crown, was sent to South- 

 wick priory in like manner. 10 



On 14 November, 1334, Bishop Orlton 

 visited the priory and preached to the canons 

 in their chapter house from ' Est puer nunc hie 

 qui habet qulnque panes hordaceos et duos puces' 

 In 1336, Prior John de Gloucester petitioned 

 the king to the effect that although his house 

 was bound to supply sustenance for one only 

 of the king's servants, he had lately, at the 

 king's request, admitted Simon Bacoun into 

 the house in the lifetime of John le Vyneour, 

 another of the king's servants, and prayed for 

 an indemnity. The Crown thereupon ordered 

 an inquisition to be held whether the house 

 had in the past been charged with one or two 

 of the king's servants. The jurors found that 

 the house was liable for one only, and on 2 

 October letters patent were sent to the prior, 

 recording the verdict, and granting that the 

 admission of Simon should not prejudice the 

 house as a precedent. 11 



The priory was excused payment to the 

 king of tenths or tallages in 1342 for three 

 years, in consequence of their lands and rents 

 in Portsmouth and Southampton, wherein 



5 Ibid. f. 97b. 

 8 Ibid. f. 99b. 



7 Ibid. fF. 119, 123, I49b. 



8 Ibid. f. lS9b. 



8 Close, 10 Edw. II. m. zzd. 



10 Ibid. m. I7d. 



11 Pat. 10 Edw. III. pt. 2, m. ao. 



165 



