RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



security from him that he would consult the best 

 interests of the convent ; but in 1 294, although 

 the house was thus deeply involved, the prior 

 was only paying off 50 marks yearly, and the 

 abbot had to write threatening to proceed against 

 him if he were not more industrious in clearing 

 off the debt, 27 and a similar injunction was ad- 

 dressed in 1299 to the newly appointed prior. 28 

 By 1301 the monastery was reported toowe about 

 22,000 marks in money and wool. 29 Earl Warenne, 

 in 1312, apparently endeavoured to assist the 

 priory's recovery by taking a bond from the 

 prior, John de Monte Martini, that he should not 

 injure or alienate the goods of the house. 30 This 

 action, however, may have been taken in con- 

 nexion with some personal quarrel between the 

 earl and prior, as in 1314 the king had to issue 

 a special prohibition to the earl's bailiff of Reigate 

 from doing any violence to the priory, whither 

 he had gone with armed force. 31 This same 

 year, 1314, some improvement was at last visible, 

 and the visitors reported to the abbot that the 

 debt had been reduced from 4,000 marks to 

 ^2,000, the buildings had been restored and 

 fresh built, and certain lands and money payments 

 recovered from Earl Warenne. 33 But misfortune 

 still attended the prior's best efforts, and in 1317 

 Lewes was burdened with debt on account of 

 ' the unjust arrest ' of the prior and the lack of 

 corn and provisions which it was the prior's duty 

 to provide ; it was also charged with many 

 pensions or corrodies. 33 The Close Rolls of this 

 and the following year confirm this latter state- 

 ment 34 by their mention of various persons sent 

 by the king to be quartered upon the convent, 

 and a good example of a burdensome corrody is 

 that for the surrender of which William de Ech- 

 ingham received from themonks^ioo in I3O7- 35 

 Upon the death of Prior John de Monte 

 Martini in September, 1324, the king wrote to 

 the abbot of Cluny setting forth that the priory 

 was one of the most noble in the realm, and that 

 it was essential that its head should be one whose 

 loyalty could be relied upon, and requesting that 

 he would nominate to the earl's representatives 

 James de Cusancia, prior of Prittlewell, or John 

 his brother, 36 formerly a monk of Lewes and now 

 prior of Bermondsey. 37 Owing, however, to the 

 war between France and England, and the con- 

 sequent closing of all ports, the earl was not able 

 to send proctors to Cluny, and the pope, taking 

 advantage of this, and possibly also of Earl John 

 de Warenne's ill-fame with the church, appointed 

 Adam of Winchester to the priory. He secured 



" Rec. ofCluni, ii, 249. * Ibid. 259. 



" Ibid. 267. 



30 Anct. D., A 10262. 



31 Close R. 7 Edw. II, m. 5 d. 



32 Rec. ofC/uni, ii, 302. " * Ibid. 316. 



34 Close R. 10 Edw. II, m. 1 1 d. ; 12 Edw. II, 



m. \<)d. " Printed in Suss. Arch. Coll. ii, 15. 



36 Close R. 1 8 Edw. II, m. 34 d. 37 Ibid. m. 26. 



6 7 



the king's support by granting the advowsons of 

 Dewsbury and Wakefield to the younger De- 

 spenser, 38 and received the temporalities from Earl 

 Warenne, to whom they had been granted during 

 the vacancy. Towards the end of 1325 the 

 abbot, apparently considering the pope's nomina- 

 tion irregular, summoned Adam to Cluny. The 

 king at once forbade his going, 39 and he was 

 accordingly arrested by the warden of the Cinque 

 Ports at Dover while trying to cross. 40 King 

 Edward further sent a letter to the abbot ex- 

 plaining that Adam had been labouring carefully 

 for the improvement of the state of the priory, 

 which was much wasted by the carelessness and 

 bad government of past priors, and that it would 

 be most prejudicial to the priory if he were 

 called away to deal with the question of the 

 patronage of the monastery. 41 In April, 1327, 

 the earl sent his representatives to Cluny, as a 

 result of which Peter de Joceaux was elected. 

 His position was disputed by Adam, the late 

 prior, who was silenced by his former patron 

 the pope in 1329. The pope, however, en- 

 deavoured to introduce John de Courtenay, a 

 monk of Tavistock, and brother of the earl of 

 Devon, as prior, to which the king opposed a 

 firm resistance. 42 The prior of Christ Church, 

 Canterbury, was suspected of supporting John de 

 Courtenay, but replied that he had never so much 

 as heard of him. 43 



Peter de Joceaux held the office of prior for 

 some sixteen years, and appears to have governed 

 well and faithfully. In 1334 he found it neces- 

 sary to address a stern rebuke to the various 

 Cluniac houses under his authority in England ; 44 

 from this letter we learn that many of the mem- 

 bers of the subordinate houses, no doubt taking 

 advantage of the confusion at the superior house 

 of Lewes, had been guilty of great irregularity 

 and excesses for which some had been condemned 

 by the council at Cluny to suffer perpetual 

 imprisonment. It also appears that when Peter 

 became prior he found that all the plate and other 

 articles provided for the service of the refectory 

 had been stolen or alienated during the late 

 troubles, so that in order to raise funds to 

 replenish the refectory he passed an ordinance 

 that every subordinate prior should pay within 

 one year of appointment 2O*. if conventual, and 

 135. ifd. if non-conventual, to the refectorarian. 



Upon the death of Peter de Joceaux Edward III 

 wrote to Earl Warenne pointing out that in the 

 past the priory had been much reduced by the 

 action of its priors in squeezing money therefrom 

 to send to Cluny, and now the abbot was 

 reported to intend to present certain aliens suspect 

 to the king and defamed for dilapidations in other 



38 Close R. 19 Edw. II, m. 32^. 



39 Ibid. m. 19 d. * Ibid. m. 1 8 d. 41 Ibid. m. 17 d. 

 41 Rymer, Feed. (Rec. Com.). 



43 Lit. Cantuar. (Rolls Ser.), i, 317. 



44 Cott. MSS. Vesp. F. xv, fol. 162. 



