RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



the rule of John Cheltenham (elected 1423) it 

 had become an example to other monasteries, a 

 comfort and relief to the bishop. The important 

 register which bears John Cheltenham's name 

 was compiled by him. 1 There were still some 

 lay brothers in the monastery at the time of his 

 installation, 1 but the number of monks did not 

 increase by more than one or two. 



The prosperity of both town and abbey mani- 

 fested itself during the Wars of the Roses in the 

 building of the great parish church. The 

 chancel was erected by Abbot William Winch- 

 combe (1454-74), the parishioners found ,200 

 for the nave, and Ralph Boteler, lord of Sudeley, 

 helped them to finish the work. 1 In 1480, in 

 exchange for quarried stone to the value of^ioo 

 for the building of St. George's Chapel at 

 Windsor, Edward IV granted a licence to the 

 abbot and convent to appropriate lands in mort- 

 main to the yearly value of ^20.* 



Abbot Richard Kidderminster (1488-1525) 

 was a man of affairs, a trusted servant of 

 Henry VIII and Wolsey, as well as a truly 

 religious man, a scholar, and an able adminis- 

 trator. At the age of fifteen he was ad- 

 mitted as a novice, and four years later was 

 sent to the Benedictine College of Gloucester 

 Hall at Oxford.* Under his rule the number of 

 monks reached twenty-seven.* In the words of 

 Brown Willis: 'By his encouragement of virtue 

 and good letters he made the monastery flourish 

 so much that it was equal to a little university,' * 

 but without further evidence it would be diffi- 

 cult to say whether there was any such revival 

 of learning at Winchcombe as at Canterbury.* 

 Abbot Kidderminster was a keen student of 

 history, and in his searches among the charters 

 and records of the house, many of which he 

 found torn and almost illegible, he had cause to 

 deplore the carelessness of his predecessors.* He 

 conceived and carried out his scheme of com- 

 piling a great register, which was divided into 

 five sections. In the first part he treated of the 

 foundation of the monastery, and owing to the 

 destruction of the earlier records in the fire 

 of 1151, he had great difficulty in coming 

 to any definite conclusion. With scrupulous 

 regard for accuracy, he wrote : ' What truth 

 there may be in these things I know not, for as 

 I have never read them among our antiquities, I 

 should not dare to write them' 10 ; the second 

 part contained papal and episcopal privileges and 

 instruments relating to pensions and tithes ; the 



' Royce, op. cit. ii. ' Ibid, ii, 5. 



1 Dugdale, op. cit. 298-9. 



1 Cal. of Pat. 20 Edw. IV, pt. ii, m. 24. 



* Royce, op. cit. ii, xxziii. 



* Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Morton, fol. 1 71 d. 

 ' Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 299. 



' Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation, 22-6 

 (ed. 1905). 



' Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 301. 

 " Ibid. 302. 



third, royal charters and privileges ; the fourth, 

 a collection of documents connected with the 

 possession and acquisition of all the property of 

 the house ; and the last consisted of a series of 

 brief lives of the abbots. But the register met 

 the fate of the earlier charters, though not 

 before it had been seen and used by Dugdale. 

 In 1666 it was in the chambers of Sir William 

 Morton in Serjeants' Inn, and perished in the 

 Great Fire. 11 Among his other works was a book 

 on the sanctity of the persons of the clergy, and 

 a treatise against Luther." In 1 5 1 he preached 

 before the king at Greenwich, and in 1514 he 

 delivered a famous sermon at Paul's Cross in 

 defence of the privileges of the clergy. 11 In 

 1510 he obtained from Henry VIII a grant of 

 the manor of Sudeley, the advowson of the 

 chapel, and the lands formerly held by Sir Ralph 

 Boteler, at a rent of j6o a year. 14 In 1512 he 

 accompanied Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and the 

 prior of the Hospitallers on an embassy to Pope 

 Julius II. 1 * He favoured the divorce of Katherine 

 of Aragon, and sought Cromwell's friendship at 

 the beginning of the great minister's career. He 

 resigned his office in 1525, and in 1531, shortly 

 before his death, he attributed his neglect in 

 writing to Cromwell, to his advanced age and 

 sickness. 1 * 



The galling nature of the injunctions which 

 were sent to the monasteries by Cromwell in 

 1535 was very apparent at Winchcombe. Abbot 

 Mounslow and the convent petitioned Cromwell 

 that some of these might be modified. 17 They 

 were virtually prisoners within the precincts. 

 Accordingly they asked that the abbot might 

 have licence to take one or two of his brethren 

 with him as chaplains when he went out of the 

 monastery, and that he might send any of his 

 brethren to preach the Word of God abroad. 

 They desired that the abbot might receive 

 women of nobility and others of sad and good 

 conversation, being friends, mothers, or kins- 

 women to him or his brethren, to his hall at 

 dinner or supper, and that women might come 

 into the church for divine service. As the 

 monks were limited to the use of one gate, they 

 reminded Cromwell that of the two gates of the 

 monastery, one opened on to the town where 

 there was always a porter, and the other into 

 the fields. If this were shut, corn and hay 

 would have to be carried half a mile about. 

 They also prayed that the church doors might 

 stand open at mass and evensong. As the abbot 

 was bound daily to expound part of the rule of 

 St. Benedict in English, they asked that he might 

 have licence to appoint a deputy. The in- 

 junctions were subversive of discipline. Any 



" Ibid. 199. 



" Ibid. 299. Royce, op. cit. ii, xxxiv. 



11 Dugdale, op. cit. ii, 299. Royce, op. cit. ii, xxxiv. 



11 Royce, op. et loc. cit. " Ibid. 



w Ibid. " L. and P. Hen. nil, ix, No. 1 1 70. 



