RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Suffolk, and was held to be of the annual value 

 of ;^68 IS. ()y. 



Licence was granted in May, 1305, for the 

 alienation in free alms by William de Ros of 

 Hamelak and Maud his wife to the prior and 

 convent of Pentney, of an acre of land in Shote- 

 sham and the advowson of the church of 

 St. Mary in that town.^ In 1 316 the priory 

 paid a fine of ten marks to secure the alienation 

 in mortmain by Petronel de Nerford of the 

 church of Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, and 

 a moiety of an acre adjoining the church.^ In 

 the same year the bishop of Ely sanctioned the 

 appropriation of this church to the priory.' 



The church of Bilney was irregularly appro- 

 priated by Pentney Priory without royal sanc- 

 tion. When the benefice was vacant in 1344, 

 Edward III presented to the rectory, claiming 

 that it was in the crown's gift by reason of the 

 appropriation being made, after the publication 

 of the mortmain statute, without the the licence 

 of any of the king's progenitors.* Another 

 irregularity, this time on the part of the crown, 

 came to light in the following year, when 

 pardon was granted by Edward III to Pentney 

 priory — at the request of Peter de Brewes, 

 king's yeoman — for entering upon and appro- 

 priating the church of Little Abington, of their 

 patronage, which the king remembers he granted 

 them licence to appropriate, after the death of 

 the late rector, before obtaining formal letters of 

 licence/ 



Pentney during the years 1 166-7 played 

 a part of some importance in the struggle 

 between the ecclesiastical and royal authorities — 

 Becket and Henry II. Hugh, earl of Norfolk, 

 had cast covetous eyes upon the priory's lands, 

 and had seized them on the pretext of a recovery 

 made, apparently by collusion, against William 

 de Vaux, the patron and son of the founder ; 

 against this seizure the prior and canons appealed 

 to Rome, and the pope ordered the sentence of 

 excommunication to be pronounced by the 

 bishop of London against the earl. The bishop, 

 however, finding himself in the dilemma of 

 either disobeying his ecclesiastical superior or 

 offending the king, endeavoured to persuade Earl 

 Hugh to restore the lands ; he seems to have 

 offered other lands to the canons in exchange, 

 but they refused his offers, declining to give up 

 a site which had been dedicated to God's service. 

 The earl continuing obdurate, the pope sent an 

 order for his excommunication and that of 

 William de Vaux to Becket, who ordered the 

 bishops of Norwich and Ely to publish it, while 

 he at the same time wrote to the canons com- 

 forting them and urging them to have courage 



' Ca/. of Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 24. 



' Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 32. 



' Cat. of Camb. JJn'iv. MSS. v, 291, 457. 



* Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 44. 



' Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20. 



and to make no rash compromise with the earl.^ 

 The exact course of subsequent events is difficult 

 to trace, but victory eventually must have rested 

 with the canons, as they continued in possession 

 of their lands at Pentney. 



Vincent de Caldecote, one of the canons ot 

 St. Mary Magdalen, Pentney, obtained an indult 

 in 1349 to choose a confessor for plenary 

 remission at the hour of death.' In the follow- 

 ing year Henry de Yakesle, another of the 

 canons, obtained a like indult.* 



In 1468, Walter bishop of Norwich, with 

 the consent of the priors and convents of both 

 houses and of John earl of Northumberland, 

 patron of the priory of Wormegay, united 

 Wormegay, on account of its poverty, with the 

 priory of Pentney, of which it was hencefortli 

 considered a cell. 



To secure the union and consolidation of the 

 two priories, the prior and convent of Pentney 

 covenanted to pay 40^. per annum to the prior 

 of Norwich for a moiety of the church of 

 Fordham, which had been appropriated to 

 Wormegay in 1346 ; and 20a'. per annum for the 

 church of Westbrigg, which had been appro- 

 priated to them in 1416. The rectories of 

 East Tuddenham and Wormegay were also 

 appropriated to the same priory. 



Pentney Priory was visited on 7 November, 

 1492, by Archdeacon Nicholas Goldwell, as 

 commissary for his brother the bishop. Ralph 

 Midylton the prior, John Lyncoln the sub-prior, 

 and sixteen canons were present. Nothing was 

 discovered that required reformation. 



On 6 July, 1 5 14, Dr. Thomas Hare visited 

 the priory as commissary of Bishop Nicke. The 

 prior and twelve canons were severally examined. 

 John Woodbridge, the prior, said that he had 

 not made any return of his accounts to his 

 brethren for the last two years. Thomas 

 Wormegay and William Maltershale complained 

 that they had no schoolmaster for two years. 



The other ten canons contented themselves 

 with omnia bene. No injunctions followed this 

 visitation. 



The suffragan bishop of Chalcedon and other 

 commissaries visited Pentney on 5 July, 1520. 

 After a sermon in the chapter-house by Master 

 Dry from the text Fraternltatem diligate, the 

 prior and ten other members of the convent 

 were separately examined, when each testified 

 that all was going on well. 



At another visitation held in August, 1526, 

 when Robert Codde was prior, the five canons 

 and four novices who were examined gave an 

 equally satisfactory report. 



The final visitation of Pentney before its 

 dissolution was on i August, 1532. Prior 

 Codde, Sub-Prior Richard Stafford, and eleven 

 canons testified omnia bene. Canon Richard 



389 



Hist, of Abp. Becket (Rolls Sen), vi, 543-59. 

 Cal. Papal Reg. iii, 359. ' Ibid. 404. 



