RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



their patron at the high altar of the new presby- 

 tery ; and on 8 June, 1275, he died at a good old 

 age. It would seem that during his illness the abbot 

 either passed into a state which was mistaken 

 for death, or else appeared certain to die within 

 a few hours, but subsequently rallied, as on 

 15 May, 1275, custody of their abbey during 

 voidance through the death or cession of Abbot 

 Richard was granted to the prior and convent 

 of Holm for a fine of 120 marks. This grant, 

 however, was vacated, and the letters patent 

 securing it were surrendered as not made use of.^ 

 The abbot, however, died next month, and on 

 13 June news of his death reached the king at 

 Westminster, and leave to elect was granted. 

 The convent were very prompt in their new 

 election, for two days later the king signified to 

 the bishop of Norwich his assent to the election 

 of Nicholas de Walsham, the prior, and the 

 temporalities were restored on 4 July." 



Archbishop Peckham held a visitation of the 

 monastery on 6 and 8 December, 1280,' but no 

 record of the proceedings has been preserved. 



In the winter of 12S7-8 there was a terrible 

 irruption of the sea. The abbey of St. Bene- 

 dict suffered severely. The sea invaded all the 

 outbuildings to such a depth that they could 

 only be approached by boats, and it was found 

 necessary in a time of such danger to give 

 shelter to the horses in the (nave of the) church.^ 



Abbot Nicholas, after a rule of twenty-seven 

 years, died on 15 November, 1302. On 

 1 5 December royal assent was given to the 

 election of Henry de Broke;* the temporalities 

 were restored on 8 January, 1303, but at the 

 same time the king's escheator distrained the 

 abbot for a palfrey and cup alleged to be due to 

 the crown from each newly appointed abbot. 

 At an inquest held on 27 February the jury 

 found that no such service had ever been made 

 or claimed from the abbots of Holm.^ Never- 

 theless, on some plea not now apparently 

 discoverable, the abbey evidently reverted to the 

 king's hands, as in November, 1303, and in July, 

 1304, the crown presented to the respective 

 livings of Antingham and Stalham, which were 

 in the abbey's gift.' On 29 May, 1305, how- 

 ever, Edward I granted to the abbot and 

 convent of St. Benet that the prior and convent 

 in time of voidance might have the temporal- 

 ities, saving knights' fees and advowsons, when 

 they fall in ; and that no escheator, sheriff, or 

 other official was to intermeddle with the custody 

 of the abbey, its manors, cells, or goods, save 

 that the escheator or his minister might at the 



' Pat. 2 Edw. I, m. 18. 



' Ibid. 3 Edw. I, m. 20, 19, 16. 



' Oxenedes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 257. 



* Ibid. (Rolls Ser.), 270-1. 



' P.it. 31 Edw. I, m. 45. 



' Prynne, op. cit. iii, 996. 



' Pat. 32 Edw. I, m. 29, II. 



beginning of every voidance take simple service 

 within the gates of the abbey, and immediately 

 retire without carrying away anything, or stay- 

 ing beyond a day, or leaving any substitute in his 

 place.* The result of this concession was to 

 much simplify the process and much reduce the 

 expense consequent on a new election ; but 

 royal assent and formal seizing and restitution of 

 the temporalities continued. 



The ancient connexion of the abbeys of 

 St. Benet and St. Edmund naturally tended to 

 promote good feeling between them, and the 

 relations of the two houses appear to have been 

 particularly friendly during the first half of the 

 fourteenth century, the abbots alternately invit- 

 ing one another to various functions.' Conse- 

 quently, when the townsfolk of St. Edmund's 

 attacked the abbey in 1326-7 and drove its 

 inmates to seek shelter, it was to Holm that 

 William Stowe, the sacrist, fled for safety, and 

 there he was joined by many of his brethren 

 who had been absent from the monastery at the 

 time of the riots.'^ The abbot of St. Benet's 

 was further consulted on this occasion by the 

 abbot of St. Edmund's, and was afterwards 

 appointed by the pope to enforce restitution of 

 the property stolen at Bury, by virtue of which 

 authority he excommunicated the offenders in 

 spite of a humble petition for leniency from the 

 burgesses.'^ 



The abbey's sympathy with their sister house 

 may have been partly due to their having them- 

 selves suffered occasionally from the lawlessness 

 of the age, as the abbot of Holm in 13 16 

 complained that when he sent his fellow-monk, 

 Roger de Neatishead, to the hundred of North Er- 

 pingham on business, Roger de Antyngham, with 

 his brother Nicholas and others, assaulted the 

 monk at Southfield on his return, took him from 

 place to place through the town-fields, cut off 

 the tail of his horse, and surrounded the manor 

 of the abbot at Antingham so that the men 

 therein could not go forth to carry victuals to 

 the abbey for the sustenance of the abbot and 

 convent or to do any other work ; seized and 

 imprisoned a groom riding the abbot's palfrey 

 through the town ; impounded the palfrey with 

 its saddle and kept it without food ; seized 

 another horse of his on the king's highway at 

 North Walsham ; harassed hirn at Antingham 

 by taking his plough-cattle, and in other ways, 

 so that he has been unable to cultivate and sow 

 his lands, and have so threatened his men and 

 servants of the town of Antingham that they 

 have fled away.'^ 



Besides losses incurred through the animosity 

 of their neighbours the monks were occasionally 

 put to further expense in supporting pensioners 



* Ibid. 33 Edw. I, m. 23. 



' Mem. of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), iii, 36-8. 



Ibid. 38-9. 



Ibid. 40-8. 



Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 20 d. 



333 



