A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



bread and ale, and of sufficient meat and fish, 

 also for the care of the sick in the farmery. The 

 secular clerks, who sang in the Lady chapel, 

 were to have their maintenance, ' as was accus- 

 tomed of old time.' Order was thus restored, 

 and the monastery prospered under the rule of 

 Abbots Cernayand Daubeney (1388-1428). In 

 1398 Boniface IX granted the right of wearing 

 a mitre to Abbot Daubeney and his successors. 1 

 In 1399 the revenues did not exceed 800 marks, 2 

 and the abbot and convent obtained papal bulls 

 enabling them to appropriate the perpetual 

 vicarages of St. Nicholas, 3 Bristol, and of the 

 parish church of Berkeley, 4 valued together at 

 45 marks, with leave to serve the churches by a 

 canon or a fit priest of their appointment. Much 

 rebuilding on the manors of the convent went 

 on during the abbacy of Walter Newbery, 6 but 

 dissensions again broke out, 6 and in 1451 he was 

 deposed and one of the canons named Thomas 

 Sutton usurped his office. For five years Sutton 

 wasted the goods of the house and sold quit rents 

 for money to defend his position. He was 

 expelled, and Walter Newbery restored to office 

 by Thomas Bourchier, archbishop of Canterbury, 

 in 1456 ; Sutton appealed to the pope in vain. 7 

 During the next eighty years the history of the 

 convent was untroubled and the abbot and 

 canons concentrated their attention on the care 

 of the fabric of their church, on new monastic 

 offices and the rebuilding of houses and granges 

 on their manors. 8 In 1491 the convent con- 

 sisted of seventeen canons, of whom eight were 

 novices. 9 The vicar of St. Augustine the Less 

 was paid to teach the younger canons and other 

 boys in the grammar school within the abbey. 10 

 The clear income of the monastery amounted to 

 ^667 51. 5^., the expenditure to 488 IDJ. i,\d. 

 In 1498 the number of canons had increased to 

 twenty-four. 11 Abbot Newland was keenly 

 interested in the history of the monastery. In 

 or about 1489 he compiled and translated into 

 English a chronicle of the abbots of Bristol and 

 of the lords of Berkeley, which is known as 

 Abbot Newland's Roll.' 12 



' Full much convenient it thinketh me,' he wrote, 

 ' that all religious men know by name their foundators 

 and special benefactors for whom they ought most 

 devoutly to pray for, which for the love of God and 

 in perpetual alms have given and procured to be given 



I Cal. Papal L. vi, 161. * Ibid. 191. 

 'Ibid. 'Ibid. 



* Britton, Bristol Abbey and Cathedral, 48-5 1 ; 

 Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xiv, 130; Wore. Epis. 

 Reg. Alcock, fol. 77 d. 



6 Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xiv, 1 29 ; Britton, 

 Bristol Abbey and Cathedral, 1 6. 



' Britton, op. cit. and loc. cit. 



8 Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xiv, 130 ; xv, 



' Britton, op. cit. 1 7-20. 10 Ibid. 



II Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Morton, fol. 1 70 d. 



" Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Soc. Trans, xiv, 117-30. 



unto them great possessions and liberties. And for 

 this cause moved I the foresaid John Newland Abbot 

 for my more larger knowledge and information of my 

 brethren canons present.' " 



Dissensions, which lasted for some years, broke 

 out between the monastery and town in 1515. 

 The cause of the first dispute is obscure. Fox, 

 bishop of Winchester, who intervened, suggested to 

 Wolsey that as it was a perilous matter he should 

 send for some of the canons and order them ' after 

 his wisdom,' or appoint a commission ; ' and 

 that three young fools which sue for voices in the 

 choir, though they be not in sacris, shall be 

 expelled.' u During the rule of Abbot Somerset 

 (152633), two choristers refused to pay the 

 ' King's silver,' and their goods were distrained 

 by the collectors. 15 The abbot arrested the 

 officers, the mayor and commonalty imprisoned 

 the servants of the convent. The abbot, ' with 

 a riotous company,' attempted to force the prison 

 but failed. The matter was finally referred 

 to arbitration, and the award was that the 

 choristers should pay their taxes ; that the pris- 

 oners of both parties should be released ; that 

 the mayor and council should attend service in 

 the college as usual ; and that the abbot and his 

 successors, ' in token of submission for their con- 

 tempt,' should thenceforth, upon Easter Day, in 

 the afternoon, and on the Monday in the fore- 

 noon, meet or wait for them at the door of the 

 grammar school at Froom Gate, and bear them 

 company to the college. 



In 1534 the abbot and eighteen canons sub- 

 scribed to the royal supremacy. 18 In the follow- 

 ing year the house was visited, under the royal 

 commission to Cromwell, by Richard Layton, 

 who gave the abbot the irritating injunctions 

 framed by his master. 17 Shortly afterwards the 

 abbot wrote to Cromwell, pleading for some 

 relaxation. 18 He desired licence for himself, for 

 his health's sake, to walk to his manor places 

 near Bristol, and also within the green and 

 canons' marsh adjacent to the precincts. He 

 prayed for himself and his brethren that, if they 

 kept away from the town, they might walk 

 three or four together, juniors with seniors, about 

 the hills and fields, to refresh their minds and to 

 ' laxe their veynes,' whereby they might be more 

 apt for the service of God night and day. 

 'Further,' he added, 'we desire to have some 

 poor honest woman to keep us if any pestyfer 

 plague or distress of sickness do fall amongst us.' 

 In 1536 the Irish possessions of the monastery 

 were confiscated under a statute of 3 Ric. II 

 concerning the lands of absentees, although the 

 abbot and convent had hitherto been licensed to 

 hold them. 19 On 9 December, 1539, the royal 



u Ibid. 119. " L. and P. Hen. nil, ii, 194. 



15 Britton, op. cit. 21, 22. 



16 Def. Keeper's Rep. vii, App. ii, 1 7. 

 " L. and P. Hen. Fill, viii, No. 215. 



18 Ibid. " Ibid, xii, No. 1310 (26, 39). 



