A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



need of a further source of revenue the abbot 

 and convent commented on the difficulty of 

 collecting their Cornish l rents. They petitioned 

 Wakefield, bishop of Worcester, to appropriate 

 the church of Toddington, with the chapel of 

 Stanley Pontlarge, to their uses, putting for- 

 ward the usual pleas of religious houses in the 

 years after the Black Death. Their lands were 

 sterile, their tenants and villeins had died in great 

 numbers, they had lost their cattle by murrains. 

 They even lacked necessary food and clothing ; 

 they were bound with a load of debt, while 

 taxation was ever increasing. It is probable 

 that as at Meaux and other Cistercian houses 

 the lay brothers died out before the end of the 

 fourteenth century. After inquiring into the 

 truth of these statements, Bishop Wakefield 

 granted the petition of the abbot and convent of 

 Hayles. In 1394, when Herman, abbot of 

 Stratford, came to Hayles as the visitor-general 

 of the Cistercian order, he found but little to 

 criticize.* In 1398 John, abbot of Beaulieu, 8 

 desired that better care should be taken of the 

 sick, and that one of the monks should be chosen 

 to provide the clothes of the brethren out of the 

 proceeds of the parish churches of Rodbourne 

 and Northley. Misfortune dogged the footsteps 

 of the convent. In 1397 Henry of Alcester 

 was elected abbot, 4 but six years later another 

 abbot, Robert of Alcester, appealed to Henry IV 

 to seize a vagrant monk, by name Henry of 

 Alcester. 6 In 1413 Pope John XXIII granted 

 for ten years a relaxation of ten years and ten 

 quarantines of penance to penitents who on 

 Whitsun Day and Corpus Christi and during 

 those octaves visited the church of Hayles and 

 gave alms for the maintenance of the fabric. 8 

 It was alleged that on account of the dilapi- 

 dations left by the late Abbot Henry the 

 monastery was in debt to the sum of 1,000 

 marks. The buildings were ruinous, the re- 

 venues scarcely amounted to jiOO a year, and 

 were insufficient for the sustenance of twenty- 

 two monks, for hospitality, and other burdens. 

 About 1431 Abbot William set out for the 

 papal curia with the object of obtaining further 

 aid. 7 He deputed Prior John of Alcester to 

 govern during his absence, with two monks as 

 his council, and power to summon others to 

 advise him. All jewels and other valuables 

 were to be kept in the treasury, and the convent 

 seal was put in safe custody. A revival in the 

 attraction of the relic of the Holy Blood was the 

 result of the abbot's journey. Eugenius IV 

 granted lavish indulgences to all who gave alms 

 to the worship of God and the Precious Blood of 



'Wore. Epis. Reg. Wakefield, fol. 116. 

 'MS. Reg. xii, E. xiv, fol. 84 p. (B.M.). 

 3 Ibid. fol. 89 v. 



'Wore. Epis. Reg. Winchcombe, fol. l6J. 

 6 Cat. of Pat. 5 Hen. IV, pt. i, m. 27 </. 



6 Cal. Papal L. (Rolls Ser.), vi, 376. 



7 MS. Reg. xii, E. xiv, fol. 75 v. (B.M.). 



Hayles. 8 Further indulgences were granted in 

 1458 by Calixtus III, who exhorted all the 

 faithful to help the monks of Hayles in repairing 

 their ruined abbey, 9 and again by Paul II in 

 I 4 68. w 



The administration of the house caused grave 

 dissatisfaction to the abbots of Waverley and 

 Beaulieu, when they visited it in 1442." The 

 strict provisions of the Cistercian rule about 

 finance were disregarded, so they bade the abbot 

 render his accounts by Michaelmas, and imme- 

 diately afterwards to appoint two bursars to 

 receive all the moneys and supervise the ex- 

 penditure of the house. They ordered that 

 repairs, internal and external, of the monastery, 

 should be carried out as quickly as possible, and 

 they censured the general relaxation of discipline. 

 It may be surmised that a period of prosperity 

 began about the middle of the fifteenth century ; 

 much rebuilding took place, and at the dissolu- 

 tion the commissioners were loud in their praises 

 of the administration of the property of the 

 monastery. 13 



In 1535 Cromwell appointed Anthony Saun- 

 ders, the curate of Winchcombe, to read to the 

 monks of Winchcombe and preach in the parish. 13 

 On 2 November he complained to Cromwell of 

 the abbot of Hayles 



I have small favour and assistance amongst Phara- 

 saical papists. The Abbot of Hayles has hired a 

 great Golyas, a subtle Dun's man, yea a great clerk, 

 as he sayeth, a bachelor of divinity of Oxford to 

 catch me in my sermons. 



He added that this preacher rather maintained 

 than spoke against the usurped power of the 

 bishop of Rome. However, Abbot Stephen was 

 not openly hostile to Cromwell. On 28 January, 

 1536, he wrote asking him to dispense with 

 some of the new injunctions which were most 

 galling to the religious. 14 Since Cromwell had 

 visited the house, he wrote 



The number of my brethren is sore decayed. I 

 have buried three, two are sore sick, one had licence 

 to depart, and I have three in Oxford at divinity. . I 

 beg that I may take in more to help the choir. 



On 1 8 June he told Cromwell that in accord- 

 ance with his wish he had granted the farm of 

 Longborough to Robert Hopper. 15 



In 1538 commissioners were appointed in 

 every county to destroy the shrines. Latimer, 

 bishop of Worcester, reported to Cromwell that 

 the relic of the Holy Blood of Hayles seemed, 

 after examination, to be ' an unctuous gum and 



8 Brist. and Glouc. Arch, Soc. Trans, xxiii, 279. 

 'Ibid. 279, xxii, 260. 10 Ibid. 280. 



II MS. Reg. xii, E. xiv, fol. 81 v. (B.M.). 

 "Wright, Suppression of the Man. (Camden Soc.), 



236-7. 



13 L. and P. Hen. 7III, ix, No. 747. 

 "Ibid. No. 192. 

 "Ibid, x, No. 1163. 



