A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



and still besieged the monastery. 1 In June, 

 1351, John Thoresby, bishop of Worcester, sent 

 a mandate to the archdeacon of Worcester, to 

 visit the house and make an inquiry into 

 the alienation and dilapidation of its goods, and 

 other excesses. 2 In 1352 certain of the monks 

 came to the bishop in London and made 

 grave complaints against the abbot. 3 In July 

 the bishop commissioned the prior of Worcester 

 and Henry de Neubold to put an end to the 

 dissensions which had arisen.* On 26 August, 

 he summoned Abbot Sherborne to London, 5 and 

 on 1 8 September, arrived at Winchcombe to 

 conduct his own investigation. 6 Nineteen 

 monks besides the abbot appeared before him on 

 chapter. The abbot proffered his resignation, 

 and the bishop accepted it on the ground that 

 the late dissensions threatened the dispersion of 

 the monks, and the ruin of the monastery. The 

 profits of the manor of Twyning were assured 

 him for his life, and in his stead Richard of 

 Ipwell was elected and confirmed. 7 He was 

 confronted with a very difficult position, and in 

 1 353 Edward III intervened. With the assent 

 of Reginald Brian, bishop of Worcester, and at 

 the request of the abbot and convent, he en- 

 trusted the custody of the house to four commis- 

 sioners. 8 It was said that through lack of 

 governance in the past the monastery was so 

 heavily burdened with debt, and its fortunes 

 were for other reasons so miserably depressed, 

 that its possessions did not suffice for the main- 

 tenance of the convent nor the payment of 

 creditors. Almsgiving had ceased, and it was 

 feared that the monks would be constrained to 

 disperse. Accordingly the commissioners were to 

 administer the finances, provide for the sustenance 

 of the convent and the necessary staff of servants 

 for almsgiving and other good works, and with 

 the advice of some of the more discreet monks, 

 sell the residue to pay off the debts. The crisis 

 was indeed the Nemesis of undue expansion, 

 doubtless hastened by the loss of revenue after 

 the visitation of the Black Death in 1349. 

 After order had thus been restored, disputes again 

 arose betweeen the abbot and monks, and on the 

 resignation of Richard of Ipwell in 1359, the 

 experiment was tried of electing a monk from 

 another house. The choice fell on Walter of 

 Winferton, then cellarer of Worcester, 10 and 

 under his rule the monastery slowly regained its 

 former position. In 1362 Edward III granted 

 a licence to appropriate in mortmain the church 

 of Twyning, 11 which was worth forty marks, but 



1 Cal. of Pat. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. iii, m. 



I Wore. Epis. Reg. Thoresby, fol. 28 d. 



3 Ibid. fol. 52. 4 Ibid. fol. 5 1 d. 



5 Ibid. fol. 52. Ibid. fol. 52-4. 



'Ibid. fol. 53. 



8 Pat. 27 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 17. 



9 Royce, op. cit. ii, 97. 



10 Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 3 1 2. 



II Cal. of Pat. 3 Ric. II, pt. ii, m. 38. 



the consent of Wakefield, bishop of Worcester, 

 was not secured until I379- 12 The abbot and 

 convent urged on him that, owing to the loss of 

 their tenants and servants in the pestilence, their 

 rental had fallen by one half, and in fact their 

 whole income did not exceed 500 marks. The 

 buildings of the monastery and on the manors 

 were in a ruinous condition, and in 1373 a 

 licence to embattle and crenellate the abbey was 

 granted by Edward III. 13 Hospitality was a 

 heavy charge, and wrongful, costly, and vexatious 

 lawsuits had been brought against the convent ; 

 among these the convent probably reckoned the 

 suits with the vicars of Sherborne and Winch- 

 combe. 14 



In 1391, for a payment of 50 marks, Richard II 

 granted that, on the death of a knight, by name 

 John atte Wode, the abbot and convent 

 and their successors should have the jurisdiction 

 over the hundreds of Kiftesgate, Holford and 

 Greston, and the profits of the markets and 

 fairs of Winchcombe, at the fee farm rent of 

 38 a year to the Exchequer. 16 



At the election of William Bradley in 1395 

 there were nineteen monks, 16 so the numbers had 

 not increased since 1359. In 1398 he received 

 for himself and his successors from Boniface IX 

 the rights of a mitred abbot, which added to his 

 dignity and importance. 17 In the same year, 

 with the assent of the pope, Richard II, and 

 Tidman of Winchcombe, bishop of Worcester, 

 the vicarage of the parish church was appro- 

 priated to the monastery. 18 In 1402, when their 

 revenues had reached 1,000 marks, they obtained 

 a papal bull enabling them to appropriate the 

 church of Bledington, which was worth 25 marks 

 a year. 19 Boniface IX gave them leave to serve 

 the church either by a monk or secular priest 

 whom they could remove at will, but in 1406 

 they were obliged to acquiesce in the ordination 

 of a perpetual vicarage of the value of 10 marks 

 by Clifford, bishop of Worcester. 20 



When the monastery was visited by Bishop 

 Polton in 1428, he found that it was out of 

 debt and very prosperous and peaceful. 21 Under 



11 Royce, op. cit. ii, 95-101. " Ibid. 129. 



14 Ibid, ii, 45-66, 281, cf. V.C.H. Glow. 'Eccles. 

 Hist.' p. 21. 



15 Royce, op. cit. ii, 1 6. The grant had been made 

 to the convent by Hen. Ill in 1223 for a ferm of 

 ^50, but only ' usque ad setatem nostram,' Cal. of Pat. 

 8 Hen. Ill, m. 1 2. It was not afterwards renewed 

 to them ; cf. Royce, op. cit. ii, 19-22. 



16 Wore. Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 367. 



17 Cal. Papal L. v, 162. Royce, op. cit. ii, 41, but 

 there wrongly assigned by the editor to the year 1303. 

 Had he lived to revise his work finally, he would 

 doubtless have discovered the error. 



1S Ibid, ii, 139-45; cf. V. C. H. Glouc. 'Eccles. 

 Hist.' p. 20. 



19 Royce, op. cit. ii, 42 ; Cal. of Pat. 6 Hen. IV, 

 pt. I, m. 8. 



Wore. Epis. Reg. Clifford, fol. 76. 



" Royce, op. cit. ii, 499. 



7 



