RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Seal of Abbot John Sarum. 1 A pointed 

 oval seal attached to a charter dated 1 304, the 

 impression is very fine but imperfect. It 

 represents the abbot standing on a carved 

 corbel under a trefoiled canopy supported on 



either side by a slender shaft, in his right 

 hand a pastoral staff, in his left hand a book. 

 Legend : ... i ... BVTLESDENE. 



Only a fragment remains of the seal at- 

 tached to the Deed of Surrender.* 



HOUSES OF AUSTIN CANONS 



9. THE ABBEY OF MISSENDEN 



The abbey of Missenden was founded in or 

 about the year 1133 by a certain William of 

 Missenden, 2 for Austin Canons following the 

 customs of the abbey of St. Nicholas at Arrou- 

 aise in Artois. This date is well established 

 by a concurrence of charters of confirmation ; 

 from Pope Innocent II. in 1137 and Euge- 

 nius III. in 1145, and from Henry I. in 1133, 

 Stephen, and Henry II., 3 and the connection 

 with Arrouaise is equally well attested. 4 The 



Harl. Chart. 84 E, 36. 



Harl. MS. 3688, f. 18. Hugh, the heir of 

 William, is always styled Hugh de Nuiers (Noers) 

 in the Harleian Chartulary. His name occurs in 

 the Carta of Earl Walter Giffard (i 1 66), Red Book 

 of the Exch. (Rolls Ser.), p. 312. 



3 Harl. MS. 3688, ff. 178, I7od, 187-8. 



* Ibid. I78-l79d. These privileges are at the 

 end of the chartulary (which is dated 1330) and in 

 a different hand. They are of all the more value 

 if they were copied at a time when the Arrouasian 

 tradition was almost forgotten : especially as the 

 earliest, that of Pope Innocent II., dated 1137, has 

 the correct but unusual form ' Aridagamancia ' 

 (see Round, Cal. of Doc. France, i. 479, 480). The 

 privilege of 1181 speaks of the Rule of St. Augus- 

 tine ' et institutionem arroesi fratrum.' The 

 copyist was so ignorant as to write ' Ambrosius ' 

 for Alexander III. and ' Eusebius ' for Eugenius III. 

 (perhaps there was nothing but the initial letter in 

 his original) : but the privilege of Innocent III. 

 dated 1253, which alludes to those of Innocent II. 

 and Eugenius III., is found again in Cal. of Pap. 

 Letters, v. 433-5, confirmed by Boniface IX., in 

 1401, when it was ' beginning to be consumed with 

 age.' These details are given because the genuine- 

 ness of the chartulary or at any rate of the founda- 

 tion charter, has been questioned in a paper in 

 Records of Sucks, vi. 374, etc. It may be added 

 that the boundaries of land and names given in the 

 foundation charter are the same as those in Cal. 

 of Pap. Letters, v. 433-5, which also names William 

 of Missenden : and that it would require an almost 

 impossible combination of cunning and simplicity 

 for monks who could not find out the correct names 

 of popes of the twelfth century, and called Mal- 

 colm IV. of Scotland ' Manasser,' to invent a num- 

 ber of charters of comparatively obscure benefactors 

 who can (like Turstin Mantel) be proved from 

 other sources to have lived at the required time. 

 The charters of the twelfth century must stand or 



charters of Henry I. and Alexander of Lincoln 

 expressly state that there were at first but 

 seven canons in the house, and that they came 

 originally from the church of St. Mary ' de 

 Bosco (or de Nemore) de pago Terresino.' 6 



The Arrouasian reform of the Augustinian 

 order originated independently of that which 

 is connected with the name of St. Peter 

 Damian ; it was begun in 1090 by three her- 

 mits, but not ruled by an abbot until H24. 7 

 During the time of Gervase, the first abbot, 

 the order seems to have increased, and several 

 houses were founded in England and Ireland, 

 amongst which we find Missenden and Nutley 

 in this county, Harrold in Bedfordshire, 

 Bourne in Lincolnshire. It was the Arrou- 

 asian custom to place new houses under an 

 abbot at once, 8 and not to keep them in the 

 position of cells to the parent abbey : with 

 the natural result that the Arrouasian Canons 

 tended to approximate more and more to 

 others who kept the rule of St. Augustine, 

 and after a while ceased to be distinguished 

 from them in any way. They never seem to 

 have been really an independent order with 

 special privileges, like the Premonstratensians : 



fall together in a case where we have only a single 

 chartulary to deal with : we cannot condemn one 

 and approve others without more definite evidence 

 than mere probability. It is certainly strange that 

 an inquisition taken in 1332 should have dated the 

 foundation of the house as late as 1293 : but even 

 if Harl. MS. 3688 had not survived, the date could 

 have been proved from many sources to have been 

 of the twelfth century, and even fixed between 

 1130 and 1150, by the charter relating to the her- 

 mitage of Muswell in Dugdale, Man. vi. (i) 549. 



P.R.O. Deed of Surrender, No. 22. 



Harl. MS. 3688, ff. 187-189. S. Maria de 

 Nemore probably Ruisseauville, a daughter-house 

 of St. Nicholas of Arrouaise, situated in the modern 

 department of the Pas de Calais 55 kilometres from 

 Arras. Gallia Christiana (ed. 1751), p. 1607, and 

 map before p. 1,147. Joanne, Diet. Geog. de La 

 France, p. 1994. Note also a ratification by the 

 Abbot of St. Nicholas supported by his brethren 

 of St. Mary in the Wood and two Boulogne Houses. 

 Harl. MS. 3688, f. 163. 



7 Helyot and Bullot, Hist, des Ordres Mon.u. 

 107. 



s See foundation charter of Bourne Abbey. 



369 



47 



