RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



HOUSES OF BENEDICTINE MONKS 



I. THE ABBEY OF ST. PETER AT 

 GLOUCESTER 



In or about 68 1, with the consent of Ethelred, 

 king of Mercia, Osric, under-kingof the Hwiccas, 

 founded a monastery at Gloucester in honour of 

 St. Peter and St. Paul. 1 It is possible that a 

 monastery for men was attached to it as to many 

 other monasteries for women which were 

 founded before the eighth century. 8 Osric's 

 sister, Cyneburh, was consecrated as the first 

 abbess by Bosel, bishop of Worcester.* She 

 died in 710, and was succeeded by her sister, 

 Eadburh. 4 On her death in 735, Eva was 

 consecrated abbess by Wilfrid, bishop of Wor- 

 cester.* During the rule of the three abbesses 

 monastic life flourished,* and the possessions of 

 the house increased. 7 But on the death of Eva 

 in 767 no successor was appointed, 8 and it 

 seems probable that the nuns dispersed during 

 the confusion of civil strife in England. Accord- 

 ing to the writer of the Memoriale the monastery 

 was deserted for the space of fifty years. 9 It 

 has been suggested that King Offa took the lands 

 of the monastery into his own hands as he did 

 those of the abbey of Bath. 10 Bernulph, king 

 of the Mercians (ob. 823), is said to have rebuilt 

 the church, and to have endowed a body of 

 secular priests with the former possessions of the 

 nuns, and in addition five hides in Standish. 11 



Gloucester was untouched by the monastic 

 revival in the reign of King Edgar. However, 

 in IO22 Wulfstan II, who held the sees of both 

 Worcester and York, changed the community 

 of secular priests into a convent of Benedictine 

 monks and put them under the rule of Abbot 

 Edric. 11 According to one tradition, the men of 

 Gloucester resented the reform, and killed seven 

 of the monks, 1 * and in atonement for that deed, 

 Wulfin le Rue gave Churcham and Highnam to 

 the convent. There is no evidence of a violent 

 expulsion of the secular priests, 14 and Abbot Edric 



1 Hitt. et Cart. M<m. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 3, 4. 



"Hunt, Hut. of the Engl. Ct. i, 182 ; R. Hut. 

 Soc. Trans, xiii, 168-83. 



' Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 4. 



4 Ibid. 6. She is here described as the widow of 

 Wulphere, king of the Mercians, but this is impos- 

 sible ; cf. Briit. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xv, 130. 



* Hist, et Cart. Glouc. i, 7. She was however 

 neither the sister of Cyneburh, nor the widow of 

 Wulphere ; cf. Briit. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xv, 1 30. 



' Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 6, 7. ' Ibid. 4. 



b Leland, I tin. (ed. 1711), iv, fol. 171*. 



9 Dugdale, Mm. i, 563. 



10 Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Tram, xvi, 215. 



11 Dugdale, op. cit. i, 563. 



" Ibid. ; Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 8. 

 " Dugdale, op. cit. i, 563. 

 14 Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 8. 



is said to have been one of them. 11 The house 

 did not flourish, lands at Badgeworth and 

 Hatherley were sold, 1 * and the monastic buildings 

 were destroyed by fire. 17 In 1058 Edric was 

 succeeded by Wilstan, a monk of Worcester." 

 Aldred, then bishop of Worcester, rebuilt the 

 church from the foundations; to recoup the 

 expense he took possession of the lands of the 

 monks at Leach, Oddington, Standish, and 

 Barton, and annexed them to the see of York, 

 to which he succeeded in 1061." At the time 

 of the Norman Conquest monastic life languished 

 at Gloucester, as in many other houses. In 

 1072 the convent consisted only of two monks 

 and eight novices, and Abbot Wilstan had gone 

 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. 10 After his death 

 in that year, Serlo, a Norman monk of Mont St. 

 Michel, was appointed by William the Con- 

 queror. The monastery prospered exceedingly 

 under his vigorous rule, and before 1087 he 

 recovered the manors of Frocester and Coin 

 St. Aldwyn, which had been alienated by his 

 predecessor. 11 In the Domesday Survey the pos- 

 sessions of the convent in Gloucestershire ts also 

 included the manors of Boxwell, Buckland, 

 Aldsworth, Hinton, Highnam, and Preston, of 

 the old endowment, Ledene of the gift of 

 Walter de Lacy," Duntisbourne, of the gift of 

 his wife ; M in Hampshire, 16 Linkenholt, the gift 

 of Ernulf de Hesding in 1082 ; M in Worcester- 

 shire 17 half a hide in Wick ; in Herefordshire 18 

 the manors of Westwood, Brompton, and Lea, 

 making in all 89^ hides. In 1093 Abbot Serlo 

 regained the manor of Nympsfield. 19 In 1095, 

 with the aid of the king, he compelled Thomas, 

 archbishop of York, to restore all the lands at 

 Leach, Oddington, Standish, and Barton,* which 

 had remained in the possession of the see of 

 York since 1058, when Aldred seized them. 

 William the Conqueror gave the convent the 

 manor of Barnwood 31 and the church of St. 

 Peter Mancroft at Norwich.* 1 When William II 

 lay sick at Gloucester in 1093, he gave the 

 church of St. Gundelay at Newport and fifteen 



" Dugdale, op. cit. i, 563. 



" Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 8. 



l! Dugdale, op. cit. i, 564. 



" Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 9. 



" Ibid. " Ibid. IO. 



" Ibid. 



" Dom. Bk. (Rec. Com.), 165*. 



" Hitt. et Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 92. 



" Ibid. 73. 



" Dom. Bit. (Rec. Com.), 43. 



" Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 93. 



" Dom. Bit. (Rec. Com.), 1 74. 



"Ibid. 1 8 1. 



" Hiit. et Cart. Glouc. i, 101. 



"Ibid. n. "Ibid. 65. 



"Ibid. 102. 



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