A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



a letter shortly before the abbot's death (17 Sep- 

 tember 1446), urged him to be present at the 

 laying of the foundation-stone of King's College, 

 Cambridge, on the ensuing Michaelmas Day, as 

 he (Henry) was unable to be present. 1 



Amongst these entries is the record of a great 

 storm on the evening of 27 January, 1439. It 

 did much damage, particularly to the bell tower, 

 especially in the windows and glazing. A 

 memorable incident was the extinguishing of 

 every light and lamp throughout the conventual 

 buildings and church save that only which burnt 

 perpetually before the Blessed Sacrament ; from 

 that light all the others were subsequently re- 

 kindled. This storm was followed, on 29 May 

 of the same year, by a great flood ; the waters 

 rose so high that they were deep enough for 

 a boat in St. James's Church, in the nave of the 

 great conventual church, and in the Lady chapel 

 of the crypt (fol. 341). 



The abbacy of William Babington (1446-53) 

 was signalized by the holding of a Parliament at 

 Bury. It assembled in the great refectory hall 

 of the abbey on 10 February, 14467. Hum- 

 phrey duke of Gloucester attended, and found 

 lodgings at St. Saviour's Hospital. There he 

 was arrested on a charge of high treason and 

 kept under guard ; a few days later the duke 

 was found dead in his bed without any exterior 

 mark of violence ; the death was attributed to 

 apoplexy, but popular opinion considered that he 

 had been privately murdered. In the following 

 November the king granted to the abbey an 

 ample charter of all their privileges. 2 This was 

 followed, two years later, by a royal charter 

 which freed the abbey of all aids to the king, in 

 consideration of paying a fixed sum of forty 

 marks a year. 



The chief event during the rule of Abbot John 

 Bohun (1453-69) was the complete gutting of 

 the conventual church by fire on 2O January, 

 1464-5, involving the fall of the central tower. 

 The shrine of St. Edmund, though begirt with 

 flames, remained uninjured. The catastrophe 

 was caused by the carelessness of plumbers en- 

 gaged in repairing the roof. 3 



John Reeve of Melford (sometimes called John 

 Melford), the thirty-second and last abbot of 

 St. Edmunds, was elected in April, 1513. He 

 was admitted to the king's privy council in 1 520, 

 and in 1531 he was placed on the commission of 

 the peace for Suffolk. The unscrupulous Crom- 

 well first appears on the scene in connexion 

 with this abbey in November, 1532, when he 

 wrote to the abbot desiring to obtain the lease 

 for sixty years of the farm of Harlowbury in 

 Essex, the previous lease of which had nearly 



1 Add. MS. 7096, passim ; Arnold, Mem. iii, 

 241-79. 



* Arnold, Mem. iii, 357. 



'Cott. MS. Claud. A. xii, iB<)6-gi6 ; Arnold, 

 Mem. iii, 283-7. 



66 



expired. He asked for an answer by the bearer, 

 and assuming it would be favourable, had already 

 agreed with the then holder for the remainder of 

 his lease. If the request was granted he would 

 do whatever he could for the monastery. 4 



Legh and Ap Rice were the two deputy 

 visitors appointed by Cromwell to visit the abbey 

 of St. Edmunds in November, 1535. With 

 regard to this, Ap Rice wrote at once to his 

 ' mastership ' * stating that they had failed to 

 establish anything against the abbot save that he 

 was much at his country houses or granges, and 

 was said to be fond of dice and cards, and did 

 not preach. ' Also he seemeth to be addict to 

 the maintaining of such superstitious ceremonies 

 as hath been used here tofore ' . . . ' Touching 

 the convent, we could get little or no report 

 among them, although we did use much diligence 

 in our examinations, with some other arguments 

 gathered their examinations.' This being the 

 case, the commissioners chose to conclude ' that 

 they had confederated and compacted before our 

 coming that they should disclose nothing.' When 

 with all their ingenuity and promptings to scandal, 

 nothing evil could be discovered, it was coolly 

 assumed that there was a lying conspiracy. The 

 commissioners made exactly similar statements 

 with regard to the seventeen monks of Thetford 

 and the eighteen canons of Ixworth in this dis- 

 trict, when they could find nothing against them. 6 

 The visitors reported that the convent numbered 

 sixty-two monks, three of whom were at Oxford. 

 Their injunctions here, as elsewhere, ordered 

 that all religious under twenty-four years of age 

 as well as those who had taken vows under 

 twenty were to be dismissed. This reduced the 

 number by eight. Another injunction insisted 

 upon the actual confinement to the precincts of 

 all the religious from the superior downwards. 



This letter was dispatched to Cromwell on 

 5 November, and on the following day the abbot 

 wrote to him as visitor in chief, begging a licence, 

 notwithstanding the injunctions left by the late 

 visitors, to go abroad (that is outside the precincts) 

 with a chaplain or two on the business of the 

 monastery. 7 



Knowing well the style of argument that 

 would appeal to Cromwell in the obtaining 

 of any favour, the abbot and convent granted 

 to him, and his son Gregory, on 26 Novem- 

 ber, in the chapter-house, an annual pension of 

 10 from the manor of Harlow. 8 But this 

 amount did not satisfy his avarice, and in 

 December one of his agents, Sir Thomas Russhe, 



4 L. and P. Hen. VIII, v, 1573. 



' Cott. MS. Cleop. E, iv, 1 20. 



8 The actual Comperta show that Ringstead the 

 prior and eight others were said to be ' defaulted ' for 

 incontinency, and it was alleged that one had confessed 

 to adultery. L. and P. Hen. fill, x, 364. 



7 L. and P. Hen. Vlll, ix, 781. 



' Harl. MS. 308, fol. 89. 



