RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



grossly extravagant and ostentatious, and left 

 the abbey burdened with all kinds of pensions 

 and corrodies. As an example of his free- 

 handed 'generosity' with the community's pos- 

 sessions, it is recorded that on one occasion when 

 visiting the priory of Wymondham the abbot 

 was pleased with the courtesy and hospitality of 

 Sir Simon de Hethersete, a magnate of the district. 

 Noticing Edmund, his infant heir, in the cradle, 

 he conferred on the child the pension of 40;. 

 due yearly from the priory to the abbey. 

 Edmund de Hethersete lived to enjoy the pension 

 for fifty years.^ When Richard de Wallingford 

 was chosen abbot in 1326, prior John de Hurlee 

 was one of the electors. It was customary on 

 the election of a new abbot for the priors of 

 the various cells to make handsome offerings ; 

 but owing to the extravagance of the last abbot 

 all the cells were embarrassed. The handsomest 

 gift received from the cells by Abbot Richard was 

 ten marks from the prior of Wymondham.^ 



In 1334 Richard de Hethersete, almoner of 

 St. Albans, was appointed prior, and soon after 

 his appointment was made collector of fleeces 

 and corn for the king. Partly through his own 

 negligence, but more through the fault of his 

 colleague. Prior Hethersete by undertaking this 

 work involved his house in considerable loss. 

 The prior, who had done long and faithful 

 service as almoner of the abbey, was so over- 

 come with grief that it hastened his end. One 

 good result was that the prior and other obedienti- 

 aries of the abbey were henceforth forbidden to 

 act as proctors or executors, or to be collectors 

 even in obedience to royal mandates.' In 1380 

 there was a grant made by the clergy of the 

 province of Canterbury, of a subsidy to Richard 

 II, and the bishop of Norwich was enjoined to 

 find collectors for his diocese. The bishop or- 

 dered the prior of Wymondham to collect, 

 whereupon Abbot Thomas removed the prior 

 from his office and declared that he was exempt 

 from the bishop's jurisdiction. Thereupon there 

 was a brisk interchange of legal hostilities 

 between the bishop and the abbot, involving 

 several appearances of both litigants before the 

 king's council. Eventually victory rested with 

 the abbot, and on i August privilege was granted 

 that neither the abbot nor the priors of his cells 

 should be collectors or assessors of any grant or 

 subsidy.* 



Michael, twenty-ninth abbot of St, Albans, 

 died of the pestilence in 1349, which at the 

 same time carried off both prior and sub-prior. 

 The choice of the convent at first fell on Henry 

 de Stukeley, the prior of Wymondham, but on 

 his definitely refusing to take upon himself the 

 office of abbot, they elected Thomas, prior of 

 Tynemouth. The new abbot set out for the 



' Gesfa Abbatum, ii, 172. 



' Ibid, ii, 187. ' Ibid, ii, 313. 



* Ibid, iii, 122-34, 281-5. 



papal court, and chose Prior Stukeley and William 

 de Dersingham, as the most religious and learned 

 of the monks, as his companions. At Canterbury 

 Dersingham was suddenly seized with plague, 

 died, and was there buried.' 



On the withdrawal of Nicholas Radcliffe 

 from the priory in 1380, the abbot sent in his 

 place to be prior William Killingworth, arch- 

 deacon of St. Albans. Nicholas, in his turn, 

 became archdeacon ; he lived to a great age, 

 took an active part in the election of John, the 

 thirty-first abbot, was an active controversialist 

 {expugnator forthslmus) in the Wycliffe strife, was 

 buried at St. Albans, under a costly marble 

 tomb, and obtained an honourable place in their 

 book of benefactors.^ Killingworth was at St, 

 Albans at the time of the Peasants' Rising in 

 1381, and when it had collapsed and the terrified 

 townsmen were endeavouring to appease the 

 abbot and purchase his favour he was sent as 

 the abbot's deputy to receive an ancient chartu- 

 lary back from them which had been stolen 

 during the rising.' Whilst Killingworth was 

 prior of Wymondham, seven of the monks of 

 St. Albans and its cells joined the crusade in 

 Flanders in 1383, under Henry le Spencer, 

 bishop of Norwich. Among them was William 

 York of Wymondham Priory. The prior of 

 Hatfield Peverel, in Essex, who was one of the 

 number, died in Flanders ; the rest returned, but 

 none of them regained their former health, 

 having suffered much from the heat and from 

 foul water.* 



Thomas Walsingham, the historian, was 

 appointed prior in 1394. He was one of the 

 electors who chose John de la Moote as abbot 

 in 1396, and that abbot recalled him to the 

 abbey very shortly after his installation. 



About this time a return was made of the 

 annual contributions of the different cells to the 

 mother abbey. From Wymondham there were 

 three yearly payments, namely, 10/. for scholars 

 at Oxford, 20J. as the subjection fee, and 

 265. ?id. towards the expenses of the provincial 

 chapter.^ The cellarer's accounts for 1382 

 show that at this time there were sixteen monks 

 in the priory^" and the same number appears in 

 1423.^^ This had fallen to fourteen besides the 

 prior in 1447,'^ and to eleven in 1500.^' The 

 income of the monastery during this period 

 seems to have averaged about ^350, and the 

 expenditure was usually slightly in excess of 

 that amount. 



Mbid. ii, 381-3. 



* Ibid, iii, passim ; Amundesham, jinnaks (Rolls 

 Ser.), i, 436. 



' Walsingham, Historia Anglkana (Rolls Ser.), ii, 28. 



' Ibid. Gesta Abbatum (Rolls Sen), ii, 416. 



' Cott. MS. Claud. E, iv, 346. 



'° Mins. Accts. 945, No. i;. " Ibid. No. 17. 



" Registrum, Whethamstede (Rolls Ser.), i, 147. 



" Mins. Accts. Hen. VII, 420. 



339 



