RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the rector had neglected to pay for two years.^^ 

 The parishioners of the church of Compton 

 ' Hawy,' who had hitherto been obliged to carry 

 their dead for burial at Sherborne, in 1437 ob- 

 tained a bull from the pope conferring the right 

 of sepulture on their church.^'' It is probable 

 that during the latter part of the abbey's exis- 

 tence, owing to financial strain, the community 

 sank far below the original number of its inmates; 

 the voting body of professed monks at the elec- 

 tion of John Saunders in 1459 numbered only 

 fifteen,*' and about that number assembled for 

 the election of John Merc in 1504." At the 

 Dissolution the surrender deed of the abbey was 

 signed by fifteen brethren besides the abbot and 

 prior, and including the priors of the subordinate 

 cells of Horton (Dorset) and Kidwelly (Caermar- 

 thenshire).*' 



That oft-quoted incident, the destruction or 

 partial destruction of the abbey by fire in a riot 

 in 1436, was the sequel of a violent and bitter 

 dispute between the monks and townsmen as to 

 their respective rights within the minster or con- 

 ventual church of Sherborne, the mother church 

 of the district, a portion of which, at the extremity 

 of the nave, served the inhabitants as their parish 

 church.*' The register of Bishop Neville sets 

 forth the dispute in full, reciting the appeal of the 

 abbot and convent to the diocesan against the 

 parishioners, who, to the detriment and injury of 

 the monastery, had set up a new font in their 

 parish church, and had caused the monks much 

 annoyance by ringing the parish bells for mattins 

 at unreasonable hours. The bishop visited Sher- 

 borne before taking steps, with the object of 

 hearing both sides, and sitting in the hall of the 

 abbot there appeared before him, 12 November, 

 1436, John Bazet, John Kayleway, Richard 

 Rochett, and John Sprotert on the part of and 

 in the name of all the parishioners, who set before 

 him their grievances, namely, that the monks 

 had removed the font from its old position in the 

 nave, and had narrowed the doorway in the in- 

 termediate wall between the parishioners' portion 

 and the body of the church by which the bap- 

 tismal processions were wont to pass, and they 

 prayed him to restore the font to its original 

 place and all things to their ancient use. The 

 bishop having heard all that could be said on the 

 part of either disputants announced his decision, 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 178. 



" Ibid. Neville, fol. 88 a'. 



^'^ Ibid. Beauchamp, i (2), fol. 53. 



" Ibid. Audley, fol. 125. 



^ L. and P. Hen. nil, xiv (i), 336. 



*' Professor Willis in a paper on the minster or 

 church of Sherborne says : — ' At the west end of the 

 minster are fragments which clearly show that the nave 

 was prolonged in the 1 4th century by a building closely 

 resembling a parish church with 3 aisles, the plan of 

 which can be pretty accurately traced. This is known 

 as the church or chapel of Alhalowes.' j^rch. Journ. 

 xxii, 180. 



67 



decreeing in the first instance on behalf of the 

 religious men, that the new font, ' which had been 

 then newly and with daring rashness erected,' 

 should be altogether destroyed, removed, and 

 carried out of the church by those who had 

 caused its erection, and that the bells of ' Alha- 

 lowes ' should not be rung for mattins, except on 

 the solemn feasts of All Saints, Christmas, Epi- 

 phany, and Easter, until after the striking of the 

 sixth hour by the clock of the monastery and not 

 before ; on behalf of the inhabitants he ordered 

 the font to be replaced in its old and accustomed 

 place, and the door for the entrance of the pro- 

 cession of the parishioners to the font to be enlarged 

 and arched so as to give more space and restored 

 to its previous form, the manner and form of the 

 procession round the font to be still retained, and 

 a partition to be made in the nave between the 

 section of the monks and that of the parishioners 

 at the expense of the monastery, the font to be 

 replaced and the door enlarged by Christmas Day 

 following, and all things to be inviolably ob- 

 served by both parties under pain of the greater 

 excommunication.™ Practical and wise as the 

 bishop's decision sounds, it failed at the moment 

 to soothe the bitter feelings which had been roused 

 during the controversy, and a riot ensued, which is 

 described by Leland in his account of Sherborne — 



The body of the abbay chirch dedicate to our 

 Lady servid ontille a hundrith yeres syns for the 

 chife paroche chirch of the town. This was the cause 

 of the abolition of the paroche chirch there. The 

 monkes and the townes men felle at variance by cause 

 the townes men took privilege to use the sacrament of 

 baptism in the chapelle of Alhalowes. Wherapon 

 one Walter Gallor, a stoute bucher, dwelling yn Shir- 

 burn, defacid clene the font-stone and after the 

 variance growing to a playne sedition and the townes- 

 menne by the meanesof an erle of Huntendune, lying 

 yn those quarters and taking the tovvnes-mennes part, 

 and the bishop of Saresbyri the monkes part, a prest 

 of Alhalowes shot a shaft with fier into the toppe of 

 that part of St. Marys chirch that divided the Est 

 part that the monkes usid, from that the townes-men 

 usid ; and this partition chauncing at that tyrae to be 

 thakkid yn the rofe was sette afire and consequently al 

 the hole chirch, the lede, and belles meltid, was 

 defacid." 



The abbot at that time, William Bradford, 

 ' persecuted ' this injury, we are told, and the 

 inhabitants of the town were forced to contribute 

 to the ' re-edifying ' of their church.'^ 



For the remainder of the fifteenth century the 

 community were fully occupied in the task of 

 restoration. Henry VI at their petition granted 

 a licence for them to acquire more lands to the 

 yearly value of jTio in aid of rebuilding.'^ The 

 east end of the church was rebuilt in the time 

 of Abbot Bradford or of John Saunders his 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Neville, fol. 10% d. 

 " Leland, Itln. ii, 48. " Ibid. 



" Pat. 24 Hen. VI, pt. I, m. 6. 



