RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



kept Christmas here with his Court. 1 In 

 130x3 the founder died at Ashridge, 2 and his 

 heart, embalmed in a casket, was placed 

 beside that of St. Thomas de Cantilupe in 

 the Conventual Church ; other parts of his 

 body were buried separately here and at 

 Hailes. 3 



In 1307 the rector and brethren of Ashridge 

 received the custody of the hospital of St. 

 Thomas of Aeon in London 4 ; but in 1315 

 it was alleged that they had obtained this by 

 falsehood and suppression of the truth, during 

 the absence of the master, and it was taken 

 away from them. 5 They were cited at the 

 same time to appear before the pope in person 

 or by proxy to clear themselves of this charge, 

 and to bring all papers relating to the suit 

 between them and the master of the hos- 

 pital. 8 It does not appear that they re- 

 covered possession of it. 



In 1323 there was a suit with the Prior of 

 St. Bartholomew's, London, who finally sur- 

 rendered to the brethren all his rights in the 

 church of Hemel Hempstead. 7 In 1346 a 

 chantry was founded in the conventual church 

 for the soul of Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, 

 at the appropriation of the church of Am- 

 brosden. 8 After the Great Pestilence the 

 endowment of the house was found to be so 

 diminished in value as to be quite insuffi- 

 cient ; and in 1376 the Black Prince increased 

 it so considerably that he was reckoned as the 

 second founder. At the same time the stat- 

 utes were revised, and the house set on quite 

 a new footing. From this time forward the 

 ordinary number of the brethren was twenty, 9 

 and even at the dissolution there were still 

 seventeen. 



In 1380, just after the re-modelling of the 

 house, the rector, Ralf of Aston, claimed on 

 behalf of his convent to hold one half of the 

 roads or paths that led from Redbourne to 

 Hemel Hempstead, and the Abbot of St. 

 Albans ceded this without making any diffi- 

 culty. Afterwards, on examination of the 

 evidences, it was found that those rights had 

 belonged from time immemorial to the abbey, 

 but it was too late to take back what had been 

 formally granted, and the monks of St. Albans 

 had to endure their loss with as good a grace 

 as they might, while ' the brethren ' of Ash- 



1 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 363. 



2 Walsingham, Hist. Angliae, i. 80. 



3 Todd, History of Ashridge, 9-10. 

 Pat. i Edw. II. pt. i., m. 8. 



Ibid. 8 Edw. II. pt. ii., m. 9. 



Cal. of Pap. Letters, i. 573. 



7 Close, 17 Edw. II. m. 28d. 



8 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Bek, I37d. 

 8 Todd, History of Ashridge, 15. 



ridge, says the chronicler, ' gloried in the 

 success of their fraud.' It is of course pos- 

 sible that the whole transaction might have 

 been very differently described by a chronicler 

 of Ashridge : it is given by Walsingham from 

 the point of view of his own house. 10 



In the year 1381 the brethren of Ashridge 

 suffered considerable losses on their manors at 

 Berkhampstead and Hemel Hempstead, from 

 the violence of the revolted peasantry, who 

 extorted from them new charters of liberty, 

 and treated them and their property in much 

 the same way as they had the monks of 

 St. Albans and the canons of Dunstable. 11 It 

 may have been partly in consequence of this 

 as well as other causes that they found them- 

 selves ' overwhelmed with great necessity ' in 

 1413, when the Bishop of Winchester granted 

 them the church of Ivinghoe, and a clerk of 

 his household gave them 100 towards the 

 rebuilding of the choir. 12 



During the last years of its existence, the 

 conventual church was a notable place of pil- 

 grimage in the county ; and those convicted 

 of heresy were sometimes ordered to do their 

 penance there, or even to pass some time 

 in the monastery itself. 13 The last rector, 

 Thomas Waterhouse, assisted at the trial of 

 the relapsed heretic, Thomas Harding of 

 Chesham, who was condemned to death in 

 1532. 14 He signed the Acknowledgment of 

 Supremacy in IS3S> 16 and surrendered his 

 house 6 November, IS39, 18 receiving byway 

 of pension the rectory of Quainton. 17 The 

 rest of the brethren, sixteen in number, re- 

 ceived benefices or pensions of 6 or 7 a 

 year ; two of them were living in 1552 as in- 

 cumbents of Ayot St. Peter and Dachworth, 

 and both of these were married. 18 The old 

 rector himself lived till 1554, and seems to 

 have held steadily to the religion in which he 

 had been bred,bequea thing to several churches 

 at his death the vestments which he had con- 

 trived to keep as personal property all through 

 the reign of Edward VI. There was until 



10 Gesta Abbatum Man. S. Albani (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii. 262. 



11 Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 417. 



12 Todd, History of Ashridge, 21. 



is Foxe, Acts and Monuments, iv. 244, 580. 



i* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Longland, 169. 



is P.R.O. Acknowledgment of Supremacy, No. 3. 



i Todd, History of Ashridge, 25 ; from the 

 register, which states that it was in the same year 

 as the execution of Cromwell ; and on St. Leon- 

 ard's Day. 



17 Ibid. 



is Exch. Mins. Accts., Bdle. 76, No. 26. It is 

 assumed that other pensions were similar to these 

 two, which are 6 and fj. 



387 



