A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



Sir James de Audeley, councillor of the Prince 

 of Aquitaine and Wales, petitioned Urban V in 

 1366, for an indulgence to those who visited on 

 Trinity Sunday and during the Octave the 

 chapel of the Holy Trinity in the Premonstra- 

 tensian monastery of Langley, wherein his 

 ancestors are buried, and where three priests 

 celebrate the divine offices. In response to this 

 petition the pope granted an indulgence of a year 

 and forty days.' 



Bishop Redman's first visit was paid on i July, 

 1475 ; he left on 3 July, dining at Beccles at 

 the expense of Langley Abbey." The abbey was 

 again visited by this bishop as commissary- 

 general, on the same day of the month in 1478. 

 In answer to the visitation questions the precise 

 date of the foundation was returned as 1 9 Febru- 

 ary, 1 195, and the dedication as the Assumption 

 of the Virgin. The abbot of Alnwick was named 

 as their father abbot, and Wendling as their 

 daughter house. They had fourteen churches 

 of moderate value ; in some of them the canons 

 served the cure, but not as perpetual curates. 

 Nicholas was the name of their abbot, and 

 Richard Fynes (who died in i486) their patron.' 



The visitor found the abbot bowed down by 

 age and sickness, and hence the discipline was 

 bad. Prior John Bristow was remiss in cor- 

 rection. Two of the canons were appointed to 

 look after the spiritualities and temporalities of the 

 house. Thomas Russell, for evil living, was 

 sentenced to forty days bread and water, and to 

 be banished to another house for three years. 

 Two others were apostate, going out without 

 leave, and were also sentenced to forty days of 

 penance. The fastening of any room so as to 

 prevent the entrance of the superior was for- 

 bidden. All recreation outside the precincts 

 was stopped until the next general chapter. 

 The prior was to attend that chapter and report 

 as to observance of injunctions.* 



Redman's next visit to Langley was on 

 20 August, 1482 ; John Myntynge the abbot, 

 John Bristow the prior, and fifteen others (in- 

 cluding a novice and an apostate) were in 

 attendance. There was again much scandal. 

 The abbot was accused of some incontinence 

 and waste ; and his powers were temporarily 

 transferred to two of the canons under the abbot 

 of Wendling. Common taverns near the monas- 

 tery were not to be visited. No one was to 

 leave the precincts save those responsible for ser- 

 vices in churches. The injunctions also included 

 a variety of minor and usual orders.* 



During his tour in the early summer of i486, 

 Bishop Redman reached Langley at supper time 

 on 27 June.^ Two years later, when Walter 



' Ca/. Papal Pet. i, 519. 



' Redman, Visit. (Bodleian), fol. 5. 



' Add. MS. 4935, fol. 41. 



' Redman, Visit. (Bodl.), fols. 13, 21. 



* Ibid. fols. 34 and 44^. 



* Ibid. fol. 71. 



Alpe the abbot, John Shelton the prior, and 

 thirteen other canons were present, he found 

 matters going on excellently, and the debt re- 

 duced from ^([200 to j^ioo. 



There must, however, have been some irregu- 

 larities, for he left behind him injunctions against 

 hunting or fishing by night, against illicit deser- 

 tion under pain of the greater excommunication. 



At the visitation of 1 49 1 the grave case of 

 Canon Thomas Ludham came before the visitor. 

 In a quarrel he had cut off a man's right hand ; 

 he was sentenced to forty days penance and to 

 perpetual imprisonment.' The visitation of 1494 

 was attended by the same abbot and prior as in 

 1482, but there were only eight other canons.' 

 The discipline of the house was bad, and the 

 abbot was threatened with punishment and de- 

 privation.' During his tour in 1497 ^^^ bishop 

 reached Langley at supper time on 20 June ; he 

 held his visitation the next day, but did not leave 

 until the 23rd, when he slept at Norwich at the 

 expense of Langley. This unusually long stay 

 of the bishop and his retinue was probably in- 

 tended as a kind of punishment for the laxity 

 he had found at this abbey.'" At the visitation 

 made in October, I 500, attended by Abbot Alpe, 

 Prior Shelton, and eleven other canons, a scandal 

 about the prior was repeated, but the visitor does 

 not seem to have considered it serious." 



In the year 1500 William Curlew was elected 

 abbot; but in 1502, for some delinquencies 

 which arc not named, he was obliged to resign, 

 and on 10 December, 1502, Robert abbot of 

 Alnwick, as father-abbot of Langley, being too 

 aged and infirm to ride or in any way visit liis 

 daughter church personal!)', wrote to Richard the 

 bishop of Ely, giving him full authority to act in 

 his name, and to conduct an election of a new 

 abbot. He told the bishop in his letter that the 

 house of Langley was in sore financial straits, 

 being much in debt, and not having sufficient for 

 its domestic needs, or for the spiritual benefices 

 that it held. He also anticipated certain difficul- 

 ties or discord as to the election, and authorized 

 the bishop as his representative to excommunicate 

 any who might be rebellious.'^ Richard Redman, 

 abbot of Shap, was consecrated bishop of St. Asaph 

 in 147 1 ; in 1495 he was translated to Exeter, 

 and in I 501 to Ely. 



On 9 April,'' Thomas abbot of Welbeck, as 

 commissary general of the abbot of Pr^montr^, 

 instructed John Maxe, abbot of Langley, and 



' Redman, Visit (Bodl.), fol. 99. Thomas Ludham 

 seems to have escaped. He was summoned to appear 

 before the General Chapter at Grantham in I492 ; 

 not appearing he was excommunicated. About ten 

 years later he was again cited to appear before Redman, 

 when he was bishop of Ely. Gasquet, Colkcianea 

 Anglo Premmstratensia, i, 172, 249. 



* Redman, Visit. (Bodl.), fol. 118. 



' Ibid. fol. 124. '0 Ibid. fol. 141. 



" Ibid. fol. 151. "Ibid. fol. 42. 



" No year is given, but it is probably I 503. 

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