RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Abbots of Abbotsbury 



William tempo Henry ii ^* 



Geoffrey occurs about 1 166 *' 



Roger occurs 1201 ™ 



Hugh occurs 1204-5" 



Hugh occurs 1238'" 



Roger de Brideton elected 1246'' 



John de Hilton elected 1257 "■• died 1284 



Philip de Sherborne elected 1284 " died 



1296 

 William de Kingston elected 1297 '^ but his 



election quashed by the bishop 

 Benedict de Loders appointed 1297'' died 



1320 

 Ralph de Sherborne elected 1320'^ died 132 1 

 Peter de Sherborne elected 1321 '^ died 1324 

 William de Faukener or Fauconer elected 



1324^ died 1343 

 Walter de Saunford or Samford elected 1343*' 



died 1348 probably of the plague 

 Walter de Stokes elected 1348*'- died 1354 

 Henry Tolre elected 1354"' 

 Henry de Thorpe died 1376** 

 William Cerne elected 1376*^ died 1401 

 Robert Bylsay elected 1401 ^^ died 1426 

 Richard Percy elected 1426^' resigned 1442 

 Edward Watton elected 1442 ** died 1452 

 William Wuller elected 1452'' died 1468 

 Hugh Dorchester elected 1468^" died 1496 

 John Abbotsbury elected 1496 ^' 

 John Portesham elected 1505'" 

 Roger Roddon elected 1534 surrendered 



1539" 



'' Geoffrey who succeeded him speaks of William, his 

 predecessor, in a charter. Red Bk. of the Exch. (Rolls 

 Sen), i, 211. 



" Ibid. " Pedes Fin. (Hunter), ii, 78-81. 



" Inapatent roll of Edward II, Hugh is given as abbot 

 in the sixth year of King John. Pat. 8 Edw. II, pt. 2, 

 m. 6 d. The abbey was vacant in 1212 and 1213. 

 Ibid. 13 John, m. 3 ; 14 John, m. 3. 



" As witness to an agreement between the bishop of 

 Salisbury and abbot of Sherborne. Reg. Rubrum, fol. 

 158. " Pat. 30 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 



'* Ibid. 42 Hen. Ill, m. I. 



" Ibid. 12 Edw. I, m. 11. 



'' Ibid. 25 Edw. I, m. 20. 



" Close 25 Edw. I, m. 12. 



'' Pat. 1 3 Edw. II, m. 7 ; Sarum Epis. Reg. 

 :Simon of Ghent, pt. 2, fol. 182. 



"Pat. 14 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 21. 



'"Ibid. 17 Edw. II, pt. I, m. 2. 



«' Ibid. 17 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6. 



*' Ibid. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 14. 



«' Ibid. 28 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 13. 



^* Ibid. 50 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 5. 



*' Sarum Epis. Reg. Erghum, fol. 8. 



^ Pat. 3 Hen. IV, pt. I, m. 23. 



«' Ibid. 5 Hen. VI, pt. 1, m. 19. 



** Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. 12. 



'^ Ibid. Beauchamp. pt. 2, fol. 22. 



*'Ibid. pt. 2 (Inst.), fol. 116. 



'' Ibid. Blyth, fol. 91. ■'■' Ibid. fol. Hi d. 



^ L. and P. Hen. Vlll, vii, 1607 (21) ; xiv, 506. 



A round eleventh-century seal attached to the 

 surrender deed of the abbey, the impression of 

 which is fragmentary, represents one of the 

 fronts of the abbey church with porch and side 

 towers. At base is an arcade of round-headed 

 arches. The legend is destroyed. ^^ 



The seal of Abbot Walter [1353] represents 

 in a quatrefoiled panel St. Catherine with a 

 wheel, the abbot kneeling before her.'* The 

 legend is very defective. 



2. THE ABBEY OF CERNE 



The Benedictine abbey of Cerne was, tradi- 

 tionally, founded by the first apostle of the 

 English, St. Augustine, who, according to 

 William of Malmesbury, having converted Kent 

 to the faith of Christ proceeded to penetrate into 

 the rest of the English provinces over which the 

 rule of King Ethelbert extended, that is to say 

 over the whole of England with the exception of 

 Northumbria, and coming to these parts met 

 with great rudeness from the inhabitants of the 

 country who fastening derisively the tails of cows' 

 to the garments of the evangelist and his 

 companions drove them away. Whereupon the 

 holy man perceiving the change that should 

 rapidly take place in the minds of the people and 

 ' patiently and modestly rejoicing to bear reproach 

 for the name of Christ' cried to his companions 

 ' Cerno Deum qui et nobis retribuet gratiam et 

 furentibus illis emendationem infundet animam ' 

 (I see God who shall give us grace and impart 

 to these deluded people a change of heart). The 

 prophecy was not long of fulfilment, the people 

 repenting of what they had done approached St. 

 Augustine desiring to be reconciled, and he, attri- 

 buting this change to God, gave to the place 

 the name of Cernel, compounded from the 

 Hebrew word Hel or El God and the Latin 

 Cerno. Soon after the inhabitants became con- 

 verted to the new faith and water being required 

 to baptize them a fountain sprang out of the 

 ground at the word of Augustine.- 



In succeeding times, continues the chronicler, 

 Edwold, brother to Edmund, king of the East 



" Deeds of Surrender, No. I. 



'^ B.M. Seals, Ixii, 22. 



' This is the translation of caudas racharum given 

 by Hutchins {Hist, of Dorset, iv, 18), Fuller, who 

 repeats the story, calls them fishes' tails, Church Hist, i, 

 166. 



' This obviously mythical account of the origin of 

 Cerne by William of Malmesbury [Gesta Pontif (Rolls 

 Ser.), 184-5) '^ subsequently repeated by Capgravein 

 his life of St. Augustine, by Reyner, and again 

 by Camden. See Coker, Particular Survey of Dorset 

 (1732) 65, 66. From the account given by the 

 thirteenth-century chronicler, Walter of Coventry, it 

 would seem that Helith was the name of the primi- 

 tive deity of these parts whose worship was destroyed 

 by St. Augustine. Op. (Rolls Ser.) i, 60 ; Leland, 

 Collect, i, 285 ; ii, 252. 



sz 



