RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



cated. In 1426 John Paston or Wortes, who 

 seems to have had great influence at Rome, was 

 appointed, by papal provision, bishop of Cork ; 

 but a private letter of William Paston of that 

 year, writing of him as * this cursed bysshop for 

 Bromholm,' states that there were two other 

 persons ' provided to the same bysshopricke yet 

 lyvyng,' and that Prior John being still apostate 

 would be unable to hold it. When the bishop- 

 ric did become vacant, in 1430, Jordan chancel- 

 lor of Limerick obtained the see ; Prior John 

 and others in vain endeavoured to oust him.' 



In 1430 John Paston resigned Bromholm ; it 

 seems that he had not resided there for many 

 years. In that year Judge Paston wrote to the 

 English vicar-general of the abbot of Cluni, who 

 alone had power over the profession of Cluniac 

 monks in this country, stating that there were 

 divers virtuous young men in the garb of monks 

 but unprofessed at the priory of Bromholm, 

 some of whom had been there for nine or ten 

 years, and praying that the prior of Thetford 

 might be empowered to receive their profession.^ 



John Tyteshall succeeded as prior in 1460. 

 Among the Paston Letters are two from this prior, 

 one of the year I46i,and one circa 1480.^ The 

 great event during his rule was the burial at the 

 priory, of John Paston, the son of Judge Paston. 

 He died in London on 21 or 22 May, 1466, and 

 everything connected with his obsequies was 

 carried out on a sumptuous scale. The inter- 

 ment at Bromholm took place on 29 May. 

 jf5 13J. 4c/. was spent as a dole, and immense 

 quantities of food and drink were supplied. A 

 London chandler received £^ igx. ^d., and 

 another chandler 551. ii\d., in addition to many 

 torches of local supply ; it is not therefore won- 

 derful that a glazier had to be paid 2od. for 

 taking out, and afterwards resetting, two panes 

 of the windows of the conventual church ' to 

 late owte the reke of the torches.'* By his will 

 John Paston left to the prior 40J., and to each 

 of the nine monks 6j. 8<y. 



Sir John Paston, by will of 1477, left his 

 body to be buried in the conventual church of 

 Bromholm by the founder's arch on the north 

 side, near his father's tomb ; an altar and tomb 

 were to be erected at a cost of ;^20, and a like 

 sum to be spent on ' a closette made at my cost 

 over my father's body.' His desire for his father's 

 memorial was that there should be none like it in 

 Norfolk.' 



Prior John Tyteshall ruled for many years. 

 Shortly before his death he was engaged in re- 

 building the dorter of his house. At that time 



' Paston Letters iG3.\rdine:T),\,x\v, zi, 25-6 ; Cotton, 

 Fasti Eccl. Hibemie. ' Paston Letters, i, 29-30. 



'' Ibid, i, 541-3 ; iii, 275-6- 



* Ibid, ii, 266-71. 



' Ibid, iii, 207-8, 224. Sir John Paston, how- 

 ever, died suddenly in London in 1479, and was 

 buried at the White Friars. Ibid, iii, 202. 



2 361 



he wrote to John Paston, begging for his good 

 ofBces with the duchy of Lancaster to obtain him 

 a grant of timber ; his special desire was to have 

 ' viii princypall beemys everych on («V) in length 

 xj yerds.'* 



Prior Tyteshall was succeeded by John 

 Macham, who was followed in 1509 by John 

 Underwood, who became suffragan to the see of 

 Norwich under the title of bishop of Chalcedon. 

 William Lakenham, who was the last prior, 

 occurs in 1530. 



That which made this remote Norfolk priory 

 celebrated throughout England, and through 

 many parts of continental Christendom, for up- 

 wards of three centuries, was its possession of 

 a famous cross made from fragments of the true 

 cross. It was brought to England in 1223, and 

 its story is told with some detail by Matthew 

 Paris.' An English priest who served in the em- 

 peror's chapel at Constantinople, having in his 

 charge a cross made of the wood of our Saviour's 

 cross, absconded on the emperor's death and 

 brought it to England, and made it a condition 

 of bestowing it on any monastery that he and 

 his two sons should be admitted as monks. To 

 this condition the sceptical monks of St. Albans 

 and other great houses demurred, but at last the 

 monastery of Bromholm, poor in worldly goods 

 but rich in faith, believed the priest's story and 

 agreed to his terms, and the cross was set up in 

 their church. Its fame rapidly spread, and it soon 

 became a place of pilgrimage. In the 'Vision 

 of Piers Plowman ' occur the lines — 



And bidde the Roode of Bromholm, 

 Bryng me out of dette. 



In the ' Reeve's Tale ' of Chaucer is the pious 

 ejaculation : — 



Helpe, holy cross of Bromeholme. 



The miracles associated with this pilgrimage 

 were numerous. It is mentioned in the annals 

 of Dunstable and Tewkesbury, and by other 

 early chroniclers. 



About 131 3 Edward II visited this monastery, 

 on account of his special devotion to 'the glorious 

 cross ' of Bromholm, and granted them the 

 manor of Bacton, worth j^i2 91. ']\d. a year, for 

 an annual payment of 10s. ^ but it had a royal 

 pilgrim at a far earlier date in the daughter of 

 Margaret countess of Kent, sister of Alexander 

 of Scotland, who visited Bromholm in 1233, 

 when her mother and Henry III were at Bury 

 St. Edmunds. 



Boniface IX, in August, 140 1, granted an 

 indult to the prior of Bromholm and his suc- 

 cessors, and other fit priests, religious or secular, 

 deputed by them, to hear the confessions of and 

 grant absolution to (saving reserved cases) the 

 multitude who resort from afar to their church, 



" Ibid, iii, 277. 



' Matth. Paris, Chron. Majors (Rolls Ser.), iii, 80. 



« Chartul. fol. t,b. 



46 



