RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



if Cromwell wished it. On 26 February he 

 wrote again to Cromwell, saying that he had 

 delivered the cross of Bromholm to the late prior 

 of Pentney, the bearer of both letter and relic' 



On 20 February Robert Southwell, solicitor 

 to the Court of Augmentation, had a grant made 

 to him by royal warrant of Bromholm Priory 

 with all its manors, lands, advowsons, and pen- 

 sions.' 



Prior Lakenham obtained a pension of twenty 

 marks.^ 



Priors of Bromholm 



Vincent, temp. Hen. I.* 



Philip, c. I 2 10 



Vincent,^ 1229 



Clement,* occurs 1258 



John/ occurs 1268, 1272 



Roger,* occurs 1285, 1293 



William de Tutington,^ died 1313 



William de Witton,'" elected 13 13 



John de Hardingham," elected 1334 



Clement Chandellier,'^ resigned 1418 



John Paston," elected 141 8 



Nicholas,'^ occurs 141 9 



John Paston,'* resigned 1430 



Robert York,'* elected 1430 



John Tyteshall," elected 1460 



John Macham,'* elected 1504 



John Underwood " (bishop of Chalcedon), I 509 



William Lakenham, occurs 1530, last prior 



The thirteenth-century fine circular seal 

 (3 in.) of this priory bears the priory church ; 

 in the centre, under a round-headed arch is 

 St. Andrew seated, with a patriarchal cross in 

 right hand (the holy cross of Bromholm), and 

 a book in the left. In the pediment overhead, 

 in a sunk trefoiled opening, is the half length 

 Virgin and Holy Child. Over the roof is a 

 pierced sixfoil. Legend : — 



. . . M tjl SANCTI ^ ANDREE ^ DE ® 

 BROMHOLM * 



19. THE PRIORY OF ST. MARY, 

 THETFORD^' 



The Cluniac priory of Thetford was first 

 founded on the Suffolk side of the river by 



' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 145, 239. 



' Aug. Off. Books, ccix, fol. 30 i. 



' Ibid, ccxxxii, fol. 36. 



* Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. xi, 26. 



' Cluni Chart, ii, 202. * Camb. Chart. 52. 



' Ibid. * Cluni Chart, ii, 154-6. 



' Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 20. '" Ibid. m. I 5, 14 

 " Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 71. " Cluni Chart, ii, 1 98. 

 " Ibid. " Paiton Letters, iii, 448, 484. 



'^ Ibid, i, 29. 



"■' Add. Charters, 141 -313 ; 14, 571. 

 '' Paston Letters, ii, 541-3 ; iii, 275-6. 

 '^ Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 23. " Ibid, xiii, 100. 



'° Top. Ch. 54 ; Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. xi, 23. 

 " Geoffrey Rocherio, prior of Thetford about 1350, 

 wrote a full and interesting account of the foundation 



Roger Bigod in the reign of Henry I. Roger 

 had made a vow of pilgrimage to the Holy 

 Land, but was allowed to commute this by 

 applying the money which it would have cost 

 to the establishing of a monastery. He com- 

 municated his intention to Hugh, abbot of 

 Cluni ; and although the abbot could not spare 

 monks from his house to form the new foun- 

 dation, he welcomed the proposed addition to 

 the order, and asked for a silver mark yearly 

 in token of its dependence. The abandoned 

 cathedral church of the East Anglian bishops, 

 dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, was at first 

 selected as the church of the new priory, and a 

 cloister or cells of woodwork were erected for 

 the accommodation of the monks. Lanzo, prior 

 of Lewes, in 1 1 04 sent twelve monks to serve at 

 Thetford, together with Malgod, a man of 

 simple life, to serve as their prior. Thetford, 

 desolate at the loss of its bishops, welcomed the 

 monks, and for three years they were busy 

 in building the new monastery within the 

 borough. At the end of this time Stephen, a 

 monk of noble parentage and of the highest 

 learning and morals, a great friend of the abbot 

 of Cluni and sub-prior of Lewes, was sent to 

 Thetford to complete the foundation, and to 

 take the place of Malgod, who was recalled, as 

 prior. Stephen at once saw that the monastic 

 site, surrounded by the houses of the burghers, 

 was inconveniently straitened, and that there 

 was no room for a guest-house. He soon 

 prevailed on the founder, with the sanction of 

 the king, who often held his court at Thetford, 

 to give them a pleasant and open site on the 

 other side of the river in the county of Norfolk. 

 Herbert, bishop of Norwich, turned the first 

 sod of the new foundation, and the prior, 

 founder, and many noblemen laid the foundation 

 stones. But the eighth day after the stone- 

 laying Roger Bigod died, and an unseemly 

 dispute ensued between the prior and bishop as 

 to the place of his burial. Eventually the latter 

 prevailed, and Roger was buried in the cathedral 

 church of Norwich. Meanwhile the building 

 went on, the revenues increased, and Prior 

 Stephen lived to see its completion, and the 

 removal of the convent to their new premises on 

 St. Martin's Day, 1 1 14. 



In 1240 Gregory IX granted leave to the 

 priory of Thetford to appropriate the church of 

 Notheli, in the diocese of London, which was 



in a MS. now at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. 

 It is transcribed in Martin's Hist, of Thetford (Ap- 

 pendix, 29-32), and an English abstract is given by 

 Blomefield {Hist, of Norf. W, 103-5). The foundation 

 charter of Roger Bigod, and of his son William, and the 

 confirmation charter of Hen. I, as well as a long list 

 of subsequent benefactors, are given by Martin, and 

 also by Dugdale, from a register of the priory which 

 was destroyed in the fire of the Cotton library In 

 1731. Cott. MS. Vitel, fol. iv. See also Duckett, 

 Chart, and Rec. of Cluni, i, 60, 6 1 . 



363 



