A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



more ample site outside the town. Though 

 vouched by Bigod as advising the establishment 

 of the priory, Bishop Herbert seems not to have 

 wholly relished the establishment of this par- 

 ticular order in it, alien priory as it was, subject 

 to a foreign house, and exempt from episcopal 

 jurisdiction. He successfully contested with 

 the priory the possession of the body of its 

 founder, and buried it in Norwich Cathedral. 

 In like manner, on the transfer of the priory 

 outside the town, he rescued the school from the 

 clutches of the monks and restored it to a repre- 

 sentative of the secular clergy, the dean, who, 

 even if he was only dean of Christianity, at all 

 events in that capacity retained some of the 

 attributes of the dean of the cathedral chapter 

 and his archidiaconal powers, including the 

 probate of wills. Apparently the government 

 of this school had been taken away and trans- 

 ferred to the monks when they were established 

 in the ex-cathedral, but now, circa 1114, the 

 dean recovered it. 



Herbert ' the bishop to his brethren * and his sons * of 

 Thetford know ye that I have given back to Dean Bund 

 his school at Thetford as he ever better and more fully* 

 held it, and I order that no such school shall be held 

 there, except his own or any which he shall allow. 



This is extremely interesting, as it is the earliest 

 specimen yet known to the present writer of that 

 assertion of the monopoly of the authorized gram- 

 mar schoolmaster which we find at London and 

 Winchester under Bishop Henry of Blois in the 

 reign of Stephen, and as will be seen below at 

 Bury St. Edmunds in the thirteenth, and at many 

 places in other succeeding centuries. 



The school of Thetford thus restored to secu- 

 lar management appears at intervals afterwards in 

 the bishop's registers, in successive appointments 

 of head masters. Thus on 2 September, 1328, 

 Edmund of Mendham, priest, was appointed by 

 the bishop to the custody of the grammar 

 school. 5 



Again, 5 August, 1329, we find that 'the lord 

 bishop conferred the keeping and teaching of the 

 grammar school at Thetford belonging to his 

 collation on Master John of Morden, acolyte, 

 with all its rights and appurtenances, to hold so 

 long as the lord bishop pleased, and he instituted 



1 ' Herbertus episcopus fratribus et filiis apud Ted- 

 ford. Sciatis me reddidisse Bundo Decano scolas suas 

 apudTedford sicut unquam melius et integrius habuit ; 

 et precipio ut alie scole non habeantur ibi, nisi sue vel 

 quas ipse permiserit.' Anstruther's Episto/at Herberti 

 Lozingc xxxij. The last word is corrected from pre- 

 miserit, which would be meaningless. 



* i.e. the monks, for Herbert had himself been an 

 abbot, though not a Cluniac. 



* i.e. the secular clergy of Thetford. 

 4 i e. independently. 



* Scolarum gramaticaRum, not as misread in Francis 

 Blomefield'i Norfolk, ii, 128, grammar scholars. 



the same Master John as master and keeper of 

 the same.' 6 



On 20 April, 1342,' an appointment in 

 similar terms was made by the bishop at Thorney 

 of Master Robert of Hulme, when letters issued 

 to all abbots, priors, rectors, parish priests, vicars, 

 and all persons cleric and lay throughout the 

 diocese to accept the said Robert as master in 

 form aforesaid. This very exceptional solemnity 

 of notice is a testimony to the importance of 

 the office of grammar schoolmaster of the ex- 

 cathedral town, and shows that there must have 

 been some challenge of the bishop's right of 

 appointment, probably on the part of the prior of 

 Thetford, or the prior and chapter of Norwich, 

 or both. The appointment of Robert of Hulme 

 (sic) clerk, was repeated on 10 May following, 

 I 343> 8 ty Bishop Anthony Bekat London, with 

 a clause added : 



And although the masters and keepers of the said 

 school for the time being used to be removed at the 

 good pleasure of the diocesans of the place, and others 

 substituted in the said keepership in their room, we, 

 having regard to your personal merits, will and grant 

 so far as in us lies, that such keepership may remain 

 in you for the term of your life, saving in all things 

 the episcopal customs and the right and dignity of our 

 church of Norwich. 



On 24 October, I374, 9 Peter Rolf of Eveden, 

 priest, was made perpetual master. On 22 August, 

 1402, 10 'the lord committed the teaching and 

 governance of the grammar-school of the town 

 of Thetford to one Edward Eyr, and preferred 

 him as master in the same after the form of past 

 time.' The special mention of the school of the 

 town at once negatives any idea of the school 

 being in the priory, or having anything to do with 

 it. On 23 September, 1424," Master Hugh 

 Anderton was appointed in the same form, but 

 this time only at pleasure, while in the appoint- 

 ment of James Wale, clerk, 12 March, 1434-5, 

 nothing is said about the term of appointment. 

 In the appointment in 1496 of William Rudston, 

 M.A., there was a reversion to the longer term, 

 he being appointed for life. He was no doubt 

 the William Rudston who became 12 a ' question- 

 ist,' the first stage in becoming B.A., at Cambridge 

 in 1486-7, paying a shilling fee and depositing a 

 silver gilt cover as security (cautio). 



What happened to the school after this does 

 not appear. The deanery of Thetford was 



* Epis. Reg. Norw. ii, fol. 30. ' Dominus episcopus 

 contulit custodiam et regimen scolarum gramaticalium 

 Thetford vacancium et ad collacionem suam spec- 

 tancium . . . et eundem Magistrum Johannem in 

 magistrum earundem prefecit et custodcm.' 



7 Norw. Epis. Reg. iii, fol. 54. e Ibid. fol. 70. 



9 Blomefield, Norf. ii, 128. 



10 Norw. Epis. Reg. vi, fol. 284. 



11 Ibid, viii, fol. 89. 



" Camb. Grace Bk. A, ed. Stanley M. Leathes, 204, 

 207. 



34 



