RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



furnishing a full statement of accounts. The 

 number of the brethren was twenty-two.* The 

 Cluniac visitors of 1275-6 were at Thetford on 

 the third Wednesday in Lent. They found 

 twenty-four brethren all living with sufficient 

 regularity save Ralph the cellarer, whom they 

 found guilty of incontinency. The visitors 

 expelled him and sent him to do penance at 

 a distant convent. They also removed another 

 brother for injuring a college servant. The 

 liabilities of the house were 804 marks, and 

 there was also a debt under the chapter's seal 

 of 400 marks to the convent's patron, the Earl 

 Marshal.2 



In September, 1279, the priory was visited 

 by the French prior of Mont-Didier and the 

 English prior of Lenton. They reported that 

 Prior Vincent, who found thirteen monks there 

 on his appointment, had increased the number to 

 twenty-two. They all led commendable lives, 

 and the divine offices were regularly and devoutly 

 conducted. The buildings were in good repair, 

 and the church and cloister exceptional for 

 beauty and workmanship. There was a 

 sufficiency of goods until the next harvest. The 

 debt of the house was 500 marks when the 

 prior took it over, although his predecessor, Prior 

 Thomas, affirmed that the liabilities did not 

 ■exceed 400 marks. The prior had taken in 

 hand the repair of the conventual buildings and 

 the erection of new granges, on which ^Tioo had 

 been already spent. The visitors expressed 

 themselves in warm terms of the worthy 

 character of the prior, whose praise was in 

 everyone's mouth. The house was, however, 

 much embarrassed and crippled by the residence 

 there of the advocate (a^vocatus), brother of the 

 Earl Marshal, who cost the house more than 

 the whole convent and prior.' This advocate, 

 or avou(§, was John the brother of Roger Bigod, 

 fifth earl of Norfolk, the patron of the house, 

 who succeeded to his honours in 1270. 



In May, 1281, Vincent, prior of Thetford, 

 and the sub-prior of Lewes, were appointed to 

 act as vicegerents for John, prior of Lewes, 

 during his absence beyond the seas.* On 

 6 September of the same year the prior of 

 Thetford obtained protection for his own absence 

 across the seas until a fortnight after Easter.' 



Vincent, prior of Thetford, on 16 March, 

 1287, nominated Henry de Henham his fellow- 

 monk, and Guy de Holbeach to act as his 

 attorneys until Michaelmas, as he was going be- 

 yond the seas.' The same prior on 22 January, 



' Duckett, dart, and Rec. of Cluni, ii, 122-3. 



' Ibid. 127. 



^ Ibid. 142-3. 'Advocate' is sometimes used 

 in monastic records as an interchangeable term for 

 •* patron.' 



* Cal. of Pat. 9 Edvv. I, m. 1 9. 



' Pat. 9 Edw. I, m. 7. 



' Ibid. 15 Edw. I,m. 12. 



1291, obtained protection during a year's absence 

 across the seas,^ and on 4 March of the following 

 year the prior again obtained leave of absence 

 until Michaelmas, appointing attorneys.* 



On the death of Prior Vincent about the 

 beginning of the fourteenth century, considerable 

 dispute arose as to his successor, which resulted 

 in an appeal to Rome. In April, 1301, the 

 pope directed the prior of Holy Trinity, York, 

 in conjunction with two continental ecclesiastics, 

 to hold an inquiry into the cause relative to the 

 priory of Thetford, subject to the abbot and 

 convent of Cluni, by whom their prior had 

 hitherto been appointed. The convent of Thet- 

 ford, wishing to withdraw themselves from the 

 jurisdiction of Cluni, elected by the procurement 

 of the Earl of Norfolk one of their own monks, 

 Reginald de Montargi, or de Eye, as prior, and 

 his election was confirmed by the bishop of 

 Norwich. Reginald resisted the abbot of Cluni, 

 and went so far as to imprison and ill-treat certain 

 monks sent by the abbot to publish the process 

 against the prior and convent of Thetford, 

 relying on the power of the bishop, John Bigod, 

 clerk, and Roger his brother. Earl Marshal, 

 patron of Thetford, to defend his position. The 

 abbot's proctor on this occasion was Thomas 

 de Mountargys, a monk of Lewes, who came 

 to Norwich to lay his case before the bishop, 

 apparently before he confirmed the election of 

 Reginald. While Thomas was sitting in the 

 cemetery of Norwich Priory reading over his 

 instruments, Roger Bigod, earl of Norfolk, and 

 a number of his friends came and seized him, 

 carried him out of the cemetery against his 

 will, and set some thirty men to guard the 

 gate and prevent his re-entering. The monk 

 then tried to seek refuge in the cemetery of 

 St. George's church, but two of the earl's men 

 came up and beat him and cut off part of his 

 hood and assaulted a bystander who remonstrated 

 with them, so that the monk fled in fear to 

 the church of the Friars of the Sack, and his 

 pursuers came in after him and shut him up 

 in a room within the friars' house and kept him 

 there till late the next afternoon, after the time 

 fixed by the bishop for hearing his case had 

 passed.' Cluni then petitioned Boniface VIII 

 in the matter, and the pope ordered his com- 

 missioners, if the above allegations were true, 

 to upset the bishop's action, to deprive the 

 intended prior, to release the imprisoned monks, 

 and to warn John Bigod and the Earl Marshal 

 to desist from interference. If this order was 

 disobeyed all parties were to be cited before 

 the pope.'" The result of this appeal could not 

 have been favourable to Prior Reginald, for in 

 1302 Ralf de Frezenfeld was appointed prior 

 by the abbot of Cluni.** 



» Ibid. 20 Edw. I, m. 18. 

 " Cal.PapalReg:\,-s'^\-l. 

 " Martin, Hut. of ThetforJ, 158. 



' Ibid. 19 Edw. I, m. 20 

 ' Assize R. 1234, m. 39. 



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