RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Joan Archcombe, 'of good life and honest con- 

 versation ; ' in like manner/^ Richard III in his 

 first year issued letters of recommendation for 

 Elizabeth Bryther to be the king's ' mynchyne ' 

 at Shaftesbury." 



One of the causes contributing to the troubles 

 of the monastery was the excessive number of 

 its inmates. The pope, whose attention in 1217 

 was directed to the abbey by an appeal made to 

 him in connexion with a disputed election,'* in 

 1218 forbad the community to admit nuns be- 

 yond the number of a hundred, on the ground 

 that they were unable to support more or to give 

 alms to the poor.'' Evidently the decree was not 

 observed, for in 1322 the bishop of Salisbury, after 

 a recent visitation of the house, wrote to the abbess 

 and convent pointing out that they had neg- 

 lected the order of the Holy Father, that the in- 

 mates of the house were far too many for its goods 

 to support, and forbidding them to admit more 

 until the state of the abbey had been relieved.*" 

 Four years later, in response to a petition from the 

 abbess asking him to fix a statutory number, 

 the bishop issued an order stating that the house 

 was capable of maintaining 120 nuns and no 

 more, and until the community had been re- 

 duced to that number the abbess and convent 

 should not receive any more inmates.'^ It is 

 evident that this number became considerably 

 reduced a century later. The voting body at 

 the election of Edith Bonham in 1 44 1 consisted 

 of forty-one professed sisters and fourteen await- 

 ing profession [tacite professae) ; *' the total num- 

 ber at the election of Margaret St. John in 1460 

 was fifty-one ; *' at the election of Margaret 

 Twyneo in 1496 twenty-five professed sisters 

 and eleven not yet professed are mentioned ;** 

 at the election of Elizabeth Shelford, 1504, 

 twenty-eight professed and twenty-two tacitly 

 professed voted.*' The surrender deed of the 

 abbey on its dissolution gives the names of fifty- 

 five sisters besides the abbess and prioress.*^ 



The usual expedients were adopted in order to 

 relieve the financial difficulties of the abbey. 

 The sisters, after a petition setting forth the charges 



" Rymer, Foed. x, 4 38. 



" Harl. MS. 433, fol. zzJ. 



" Three judges were appointed by the pope to 

 examine the case of A., nun of St. Edward's, who, as 

 she declared, having been elected abbess was forced 

 by her electors to renounce the right of her election. 

 The case having been tried, however, the pope, on 

 the petition of J., abbess of Shaftesbury, ordered the 

 bishop of Salisbury, the prior of Amcsbury, and the 

 chancellor of Salisbury to impose silence on the said 

 A., sacristan of the place, whose claim was found to 

 be void. Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 49, 61. 



"Ibid. SI. 



*" Sarum Epis. Reg. Mortival, fol. 140. 



" Ibid. pt. 2, fol. 231. «' Ibid. Aiscough, fol. 10. 



** Ibid. Beauchamp, i, fol. 34. 



" Ibid. Blyth, fol. 95. '" Ibid. Audley, 126-7. 



" L. and P. Hen. VIII, xiv (i), 586. 



incumbent on them for the maintenance of the 

 statutory number of 120 nuns and the exercise 

 of hospitality, as well as the losses they had in- 

 curred through the inundation of their lands, 

 obtained a bull from the pope in 1343 appro- 

 priating to their use the church of Bradford of 

 their advowson." Edward III in 1365, by a 

 charter reciting the reduction of the house by 

 tempestuous winds, pestilences, and other ad- 

 versities, so that its means barely sufficed to 

 support the community or to meet the charges 

 incumbent on them, granted to the prioress and 

 nuns the custody of the temporalities of the 

 abbey on the occasion of its next voidance by 

 the death of Abbess Joan Formage.** In 1380 

 the sisters were allowed, in consideration of the 

 damage to their lands by encroachments of the 

 sea and losses of sheep and cattle, to appropriate 

 to themselves the church of Tisbury, the advow- 

 son of which already belonged to them.*' About 

 the same time Bishop Erghum made an ordina- 

 tion assigning a weekly allowance of 2d. to each 

 nun from the issues of the house with the object 

 of reducing as far as possible the expenditure ot 

 the community.'" The convent in 1382 pe- 

 titioned Richard II that, whereas they could 

 not hold out another year against their in- 

 debtedness unless some remedy were provided, 

 the king would on all future occasions of a 

 voidance in the abbey allow the community to 

 retain the temporalities in their own hands 

 (saving to the king knights' fees and advowsons), 

 rendering an account of the same to the Ex- 

 chequer for a year or any part of a year.'' Bishop 

 Aiscough in the fifteenth century sanctioned 

 the appropriation of the church of Gillingham to 

 the abbey, which, through pestilence, failure of 

 crops, want of labourers ' and their excessive de- 

 mands,' was said to be much reduced.'^ 



To focuss the various references to Shaftes- 

 bury in the episcopal registers so as to gain 

 some idea of the state of the monastery, apart 

 from its financial condition and worldly standing, 

 is a task of extreme difficulty. Incidents that 

 illustrate the inevitable defects and shortcomings 

 of a house are calculated to mislead in many 

 instances, and doubly so if accepted as repre- 

 senting the normal state of affairs in connexion 

 with a community of the size and importance 



" Cal. Pap. Letters, iii, 137. This grant was con- 

 firmed by the bishop, and received the royal sanction ; 

 Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, i, fol. 1 3 2 <«'. ; Pat. 2 3 

 Edw. Ill, pt. 1, m. 17. 



"* Harl. MS. 61, fol. 116. A grant of the custody 

 during voidance was first obtained by the nuns from 

 Edward I in 1285, on payment of a fine of X'°° 

 (Close, 13 Edw. I, m. 3 ; 14 Edw. I, m. 8). It 

 became the usual custom, but a confirmation of the 

 grant was generally obtained on every separate occasion. 



*' Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. 3, m. 14 ; Sarum Epis. Reg. 

 Erghum, fol. 41. " Ibid. fol. 44. 



" Par!. R. (Rec. Com.), iii, I 29. 



" Sarum Epis. Reg. Aiscough, fol. 60. 



77 



