A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



against the abbot in 1249.! There was a long 

 vacancy again in 1270 at the death of a prior, 

 and the bishop was again obliged to nominate 

 a monk to fill the office. 2 About 1278 there 

 were troubles of a different kind, which led to 

 a final settlement of the whole question of 

 jurisdiction. Simon de Reda, who was prior 

 from about 1275 to 1291, seems to have been 

 a most unfit person to rule a monastery ; but 

 when disorders broke out in the house he con- 

 trived for a while to represent himself as the 

 injured party. In June 1278 Reginald de 

 Grey was ordered to take the priory into the 

 king's hands and imprison all those monks who 

 had lately, under the leadership of one who 

 had been excommunicated for his excesses, 

 attacked the priory, imprisoned the prior and 

 wasted the goods of the monastery. The 

 ringleader of the malcontents was to be 

 brought to Windsor Castle, and the sheriff 

 was ordered to see this mandate carried out. 3 

 Nothing however was done until September, 

 when a commission of ' oyer and terminer ' 

 was issued, to do swift justice on all those, 

 both men and women, who continued to 

 trouble the prior, and to bring to an end 

 divers appeals and pleas that were pending 

 with reference to the same matter. 1 It seems 

 that Simon de Reda was reinstated, but the 

 disturbances continued, and in 1290 Bishop 

 Sutton came to visit the priory and to find out 

 what was really amiss. 6 His visitation was 

 however resisted by some of the monks, whom 

 he excommunicated in consequence. The 

 Abbot of Marmoutier again complained to 

 the pope, who appointed fresh delegates 6 ; 

 but in the meanwhile it became obvious that 

 the prior of Tickford was himself the cause of 

 the recent scandals, and he was deposed on the 

 gravest of charges waste of goods, evil living, 

 and homicide. 7 Before a new prior could be 

 installed it was desirable that the Abbot of 

 Marmoutier and the Bishop of Lincoln should 

 come to a clear understanding of their respec- 

 tive rights ; and they agreed to meet at the 

 Old Temple in London. There was a long 

 but not unfriendly discussion : the abbot 

 appealed to the privileges of his order, and ex- 

 horted the bishop to ' show his respect for the 

 Apostolic See ' by recognizing them. Oliver 

 Sutton, whose very real respect for the Apos- 

 tolic See was shown a few years later by his 

 obedience to the Bull ' Clericis laicis,' had 



1 Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 257. 



* Line. Epis. Reg. Rolls of Gravesend. 

 3 Pat. 6 Edw. I. m. 19 and 9. 



* Ibid. m. 6d. 



* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Sutton, 2. 



6 Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 521. 



7 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst, Sutton, io8d-ii4- 



however the decision of 1249 in his favour. 

 Finally it was agreed that the visitation and 

 correction of the priory belonged properly to 

 the abbot alone ; the bishop would in future 

 accept the priors presented to him for conse- 

 cration ' without examination, difficulty or 

 delay,' and they should swear canonical 

 obedience to him salvis privileges praefati 

 monasterii praesentibus et futuris ; and the 

 only procuration which the bishop could 

 claim was that which was due at the installa- 

 tion none must be asked at any other time. 

 In return for this the church of Sherrington, 

 hitherto appropriate to the priory of Tickford, 

 was to be granted to the bishop. 8 



In accordance with this agreement Bishop 

 Sutton came to the priory in the same year 

 and was received by the new prior, Geoffrey 

 called Villicus, at the door of the cloister in 

 solemn procession, and was reverently censed : 

 he afterwards sang mass and preached in the 

 conventual church. 



This was the end of one difficulty, and for 

 a while we may hope there was some measure 

 of quiet within the monastery. But there 

 were other troubles to face in the century 

 which followed. Some time before 1311 the 

 charters and muniments of the priory were 

 destroyed by fire, and had to be confirmed 

 afresh by letters patent. 9 A few other entries 

 in the Close and Patent Rolls of this period 

 give an idea of the great difficulty there must 

 have been in maintaining the regular life in 

 an alien priory during the wars with France. 

 As early as 1324 this monastery was in the 

 king's hand, and its prior under subjection to 

 the official keeper of the lands of aliens, 10 who 

 was ordered in this year ' to cause the prior 

 of Tickford, who was in his custody by the 

 king's order, to be brought before the King's 

 Bench on 1 1 November to prosecute an assize 

 concerning the advowson of one tenth of the 

 chapel of Yardley, and to deliver the necessary 

 expenses from the priory.' u In the same 

 year a survey of the monastery was taken by 

 the king's orders, 12 and showed that the num- 

 ber of monks was seriously diminished ; there 

 were only eight besides the prior. It seems 

 too that an effort had been made to free the 

 house from debt by selling corrodies ; there 

 were at this time two chaplains, eight men 



8 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, iood-n6. 

 8 Pat. 5 Edw. II. pt. I, m. 14. 



10 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, H7d. 



11 Close, 18 Edw. II. m. 27. This chapel and 

 the church of Aston were now claimed by the 

 prioress of Catesby : the prior recovered one 

 third of the advowson of the church in 1331. 

 Pat. 5 Edw. III. pt. i, m. 4. 



12 Dugdale, Man. v. 204-5. 



