A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



of the new quay. 1 Abbot Bradstone was com- 

 pelled to resign after a visitation of the convent 

 by Walter Cantilupe, bishop of Worcester, in 

 I242. 2 His successor was William Longe, the 

 chamberlain of Keynsham. During his rule 

 there were lawsuits and disputes with the hospital 

 of St. Mark's, Billeswick, about rights of pasture 

 and of burial on the land between the two 

 houses. The question was finally settled by 

 Bishop Cantilupe in I259- 3 



At his visitation in 1278 Bishop Giffard dis- 

 covered that the monastery was in a most un- 

 satisfactory state. 4 There was neglect in the 

 services ; the abbot had not enough learning to 

 preach ; the canons broke the rule of silence in 

 cloister, frater, and elsewhere, and indulged in 

 slanderous talk. They even feigned illness as an 

 excuse for drinking together in the farmery. 

 Discipline had broken down and the temporal 

 affairs were in great disorder. The abbot had too 

 large and extravagant a household, and by collu- 

 sion with him the bailiffs evaded rendering 

 accounts of their manors. The bishop made a 

 vigorous effort to reform the house. He insisted 

 that the canons should keep the rule of silence, 

 and devote their time in the cloister to study and 

 meditation. They were only to go beyond the 

 precincts when urged by necessity, and then two 

 together, with the leave of the abbot or prior. 

 Corrections in chapter should be made without 

 respect of persons. The abbot was ordered to 

 have only a moderate household, consisting of 

 one or two chaplains and two or three squires. 

 Superfluous and useless persons were to be 

 removed from the household of the convent, 

 and the grainger, vendor of corn, and the porter 

 who collected the rents were to be deprived of 

 their offices. To ensure better financial man- 

 agement the bishop enjoined that the abbot 

 should appoint two canons as treasurers with the 

 consent of the greater part of the convent. The 

 treasurers should receive all the money of the 

 house, keep account of the same, and deliver by 

 tally to the abbot and obedientiars as much as 

 was needed for the use of the community. 6 All 

 obedientiars and bailiffs were bound to present 



1 Britton, History and Antiquities of Abbey and Cathe- 

 dral of Bristol, 9. 



8 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 433. Barrett (History 

 of Bristol, p. 261) states that in 1237 Cantilupe 

 removed the prior and other officers, and that 

 William of Bradstone then resigned. It is clear that 

 the abbot did not resign until 1242. 



3 Red Book of St. Augustine's, Berkeley Castle 

 MSS. fol. 206 p~9 v. 



* Won. Epis. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 



IOO-2. 



6 The common treasury, out of which all expenses 

 were met, was an essential feature of observances of 

 Augustinian canons of St. Victor. Martene, De 

 Antiquis Ecclesie Ritibus, iii, 70 ; cf. Clark, Customs of 

 Augustinian Canons, p. 1 8 8, cap. xl. Giffard added 

 that, although many times ordered, this was not 

 observed. 



their accounts to be audited at the beginning of 

 the year. No corrodies might be sold without 

 the consent of the bishop. Two years later 

 as Abbot John de Marina was unable through 

 illness to attend to the government of his house, 

 Giffard sent his official, together with William le 

 Rous, a canon of Westbury, to do what they 

 deemed necessary for the honour of the convent. 6 

 The abbot resigned soon afterwards. 7 In 1284 

 Giffard visited the house again and found that 

 under Abbot Hugh all was in good order, except 

 that the late abbot was living on one of the 

 convent manors, and that the house was burdened 

 with a debt of ^300 because Bogo de Clare had 

 taken away a church worth jioo a year. 8 In 

 1285 the abbot complained to Edward I that, 

 being at Cardiff, he was seized and imprisoned 

 by Gilbert and Bogo de Clare, and the king 

 issued a commission for his release. 8 A compro- 

 mise was effected. The abbot and convent 

 agreed to pay Bogo de Clare a hundred marks a 

 year for his life, and they recovered possession of 

 the churches of Romeney and St. Melan which 

 had previously been appropriated to them. 10 In the 

 same year the king intervened to restore the 

 financial stability of the house. He sent a 

 mandate to the constable of Bristol Castle, 

 directing him with the advice of the abbot, prior, 

 chamberlain, and older canons, to remove all 

 unnecessary members of the household, to re- 

 trench the expenditure, to depute one or two 

 canons to collect the revenues, and after providing 

 for the reasonable maintenance of the house to 

 apply the remainder to the payment of its great 

 debts. 11 



The rule of Abbot Knowle (1306-32) was 

 eventful. In 1307 the abbot and convent were 

 involved in a struggle with the prior of Worcester 

 over the right of visitation, which he claimed to 

 exercise during a vacancy of the see. 12 On 

 2O December the prior wrote stating his inten- 

 tion of visiting the monastery on 16 January, 

 and the abbot acknowledged his letter. Through 

 pressure of business the prior could not come in 

 person, but sent commissioners, who were not 

 admitted, and as they could get no reply of any 

 kind they excommunicated the abbot and con- 

 vent. Appeals were made to the court of 

 Canterbury and to the papal curia. The abbot 

 successfully defended his conduct, for that occa- 

 sion only, on the plea that the prior had not 

 come in person. 13 



The new choir was built in great part during 

 Knowle's abbacy. 14 Other works were also under- 



6 Wore. Epis. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 123. 



7 Cal. of Pat. 8,Edw. I, m. 3 ; 9 Edw. I, m. 30. 



8 Wore. Epis. Reg. GiffarJ(Worc. Hist. Soc.), 233. 



9 Cal. of Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 2 d. 



10 Ryley, Pleadings in Parliament, 165. 



11 Cal. of Pat. 13 Edw. I, m. 2. 



12 Wore. Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 1 1 7-20. 



13 Ibid. 



14 Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xiv. 128. 



7 6 



