RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The connexion of Bindon with the abbey of 

 Ford was at this pass most unfavourable for the 

 restoration of peace, and in November, 1332, 

 Edward III wrote to the abbot of Citeaux re- 

 citing the injuries that had been inflicted on the 

 monastery of Bindon ' by the indiscreet govern- 

 ment and detestable presumption ' of the late 

 abbot who, although he had been removed and 

 brother Roger substituted in his place, yet found 

 adherents in the neighbourhood and even among 

 the monks, and was a source of constant annoy- 

 ance and loss, so that the dispersal of the monks 

 was feared unless a remedy could be provided, 

 and requesting that John and his accomplices, 

 * who go armed to the scandal of the order,' 

 should be removed to places far distant to do per- 

 petual penance and stay there until the state of 

 the house could be reformed, and that as the 

 abbot of Ford, ' to whom the house of Bindon is 

 subject by affiliation,' encouraged John in his 

 wrong-doing the abbot-general would reserve 

 the visitation of the house to himself and commit 

 it to some discreet abbot in whom he had full 

 confidence.^" 



The following January, 1333, Roger, the 

 newly appointed abbot, with the intention of 

 attending the general chapter of his order, 

 nominated his attorney in England for a year,** 

 and on 3 February the abbot of Beaulieu and 

 Roger de Guldene were appointed to the custody 

 of the house, ' burdened with debt by neglect 

 and bad rule of abbots.' *^ A commission of oyer 

 and terminer was issued on I May of that year 

 touching the trespasses of William le Rede of 

 Wool and others in imprisoning Roger the 

 abbot of Bindon and nine of his monks while 

 the abbey was under the king's protection and in 

 the custody of those appointed by him." 



The sordid story continues to run on with its 

 tale of debt, which the appointment of custodians 

 failed to relieve," and of ill-feeling that refused 

 to be placated.'*' On 11 April, 1348, the mayor 

 of Dover was directed to allow the abbot of 

 Bindon to cross to the Roman court, whither he 

 was bound in the interests of his abbey,*^ and in 



" Close, 6 Edw. Ill, m. 3 J. 



" Pat. 7 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 29. 



" Ibid. m. 21. The abbot and convent in that 

 year made a lease of the manor of Crich. Ibid. 7 

 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 10. " Ibid. pt. I, m. 7 J. 



"The Close Rolls of 1334., 1335, 1338, 1339, 

 1344, I347> •348. and 1352 enroll acknowledge- 

 ments of debt, loans, &c., on the p.irt of the abbot. 

 On the reappointment of custodians in I334andi335 

 the patent rolls reiterate that owing to its condition 

 the works of piety with which the house was charged 

 could not be maintained, and the monks were likely 

 to be dispersed unless a remedy could be found. Pat. 



8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 20 ; 9 Edw. Ill, pt. i, m. 34. 

 " A complaint of trespass was again lodged by the 



abbot in 1335. Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. 2, m. 6 J. ; 



9 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 25 J. 



*' Close, 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 30,^. 



the same year protection was granted to the abbey 

 with the appointment of Hugh de Courtenay, earl 

 of Devon, and Hugh his son as custodians ; we 

 may note that at this time the reason hitherto 

 alleged for its poverty-stricken condition — the bad 

 rule of abbots — had given place to another — ' the 

 frequent visits of the king's enemies coming upon 

 us unawares.' *'' Richard II on 8 July, 1392, 

 on payment of a fine licensed John Dygon and 

 Gilbert Martyn to alienate ten messuages, with 

 lands and rents in East Burton, to the abbot and 

 convent in aid of their maintenance.*' The 

 only entries in the course of the fourteenth 

 century that do not relate to the material 

 condition of the abbey occur in 1317, when the 

 abbot and convent obtained leave to acquire 

 lands and rents to the yearly value of ;^io for 

 the provision of a chaplain to celebrate daily in 

 the abbey for the soul of Edward I and of all 

 good Christians, and for the good estate of the 

 king and of Roger Damory;" and again in 

 1325, when Thomas Crubbe of Dorchester was 

 licensed to alienate two messuages and loj. rent 

 in Dorchester in augmentation of the mainten- 

 ance of a chaplain to celebrate daily in the abbey 

 for the soul of the said Thomas, his ancestors, 

 and all the faithful departed.^" 



The history of the abbey during the fifteenth 

 century is practically a blank, and, as a house of 

 the Cistercian order and ' exempt,' there are no 

 references to Bindon in the episcopal registers 

 which throw light on its later condition. '* 

 Henry IV, in the first year of his reign, made 

 over to his servant, John Crosby, the ;^20 which 

 the convent had paid yearly to the late earl of 

 Salisbury from the issues of the manor of Lul- 

 worth," and in 1401 he made a life-grant to 

 the abbot of a butt of wine yearly from the port 

 of Melcombe." In 1485 John, then abbot of 

 Bindon, was licensed to accept an ecclesiastical 

 benefice with or without cure." 



There are various references to Bindon in the 

 reign of Henry VIII. In 15 12 a grant of a 

 corrody in the monastery was made in survivor- 

 ship to William Wycombe on its surrender by 

 Robert Thorney." In 1522 the abbot con- 

 tributed j^66 13J. 4d. towards the grant by the 

 spirituality for the expenses of the king in re- 

 covering the crown of France.'^ He was sum- 

 moned to convocation in 1529." On the abbey 



" Pat. 22 Edw. Ill, pt. I, m. 9. 



" Ibid. 16 Ric. II, pt. I,m. 19. 



" Ibid. II Edw. II, pt. I, m. 19. 



»» Ibid. 18 Edw. II, pt. 2, m. 29. 



" In the middle of the fifteenth century the poor 

 religious of the monastery of Bindon were declared 

 ' exempt ' by ancient custom from the payment of 

 tithe. Sarum Epis. Reg. Beauchamp, fol. lij J. 



" Pat. I Hen. IV, pt. 5, m. 9. 



" Ibid. 3 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 23. 



'* Sarum Epis. Reg. Langton, fol. 231/. 



" L. and P. Ht-n. nil, i, 3567. 



'^ Ibid, iii, 2483. " Ibid, iv, 6047. 



85 



