A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



places where they had presided ; the earl is there- 

 fore desired not to present any suspected or un- 

 suitable person to the priory. 46 Accordingly, about 

 the end of 1 344 John de Jancourt was appointed. 

 He appears to have been a man of influence, as 

 he w;':: sent on a diplomatic mission to the kings 

 of Jerusalem, Sicily, and Hungary in I345- 48 At 

 the same time the king's fears at the time of his 

 election were justified, for in 1346 John de 

 Warenne, earl of Surrey, was ordered to place 

 such custody upon the priory of Lewes and its 

 possessions as might ensure its revenues being 

 devoted to the needs of the monks, as the king 

 had heard that the goods had been wasted by the 

 prior, who had sent all he could collect to 

 France. 47 The earl executed the royal mandate so 

 thoroughly that the king had to cancel his orders, 

 as when he sent for the prior to come to Calais 

 he could not obey because the earl would not let 

 his men and servants who should accompany him 

 leave the priory. 48 In 1347 he was one of the 

 two proctors to treat with the duke of Austria for 

 the proposed marriage of the duke's son and 

 King Edward's daughter. 49 During the Black 

 Death, in 134950, this prior disappears, and 

 therefore probably fell a victim to that pestilence, 

 from which this house, in common with prac- 

 tically all others, appears to have suffered 

 severely. 50 



From 1286 onwards the priory of Lewes had 

 been liable to have its possessions seized when 

 there was war with France, although the monks 

 pleaded that they sent no money to Cluny 

 beyond lOCw. yearly, settled upon the abbey by 

 the founders.' 1 In 1337 the prior had to pay as 

 much as 500 marks yearly for custody of the 

 priory and its lands. But at last, in 1351, 

 Edward III granted a charter of denization to 

 Lewes and its subordinate priories of Castle 

 Acre, Prittlewell, Stanesgate, Farley, and 

 Horton. The payment of loox. to the mother- 

 church continued to hold good during peace, and 

 the abbot appears to have claimed other dues as 

 well, till in 1480 the connexion was finally cut 

 by a bull of Sixtus IV, releasing the priory of 

 St. Pancras from all subjection to Cluny. 62 



Prior John de Caroloco showed that he at 

 least was no alien, but an Englishman in some- 

 thing more than name, by heading the resistance 

 to the force of French that landed at Rotting- 

 dean in 1377; and although he and the other 

 leaders of his levies were captured and carried 

 off, they inflicted such losses upon the invaders 

 that they withdrew disheartened. The heavy 



44 Close R. 1 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 17 d. 



" Rymer, fold. 



a Close R. 20 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 1 3. 



48 Ibid. m. 6. 



49 Pat. R. 21 Ed. Ill, pt. iv, m. 8. 



40 Gasquet, The Great Pestilence, 115. 



41 Close R. 1 1 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 30 d. 

 a Rcc. ofCluni, ii, 92. 



68 



ransom which the monks had to pay for their 

 prior, coupled with the burning of their crops, 

 the capture of their serfs, and losses by inun- 

 dation of the sea, induced the pope in 1391 to 

 consent to the appropriation of the churches of 

 West Hoathly, Patcham, and Ditchling with the 

 chapel of Wivelsfield, valued at 80 marks, the 

 priory itself being then worth 1,600 marks. 63 

 The parish church of Horsted Keynes, not 

 worth more than 26 marks, 64 was also appropriated 

 in 1402, and that of Feltwell in Norfolk, not 

 worth more than 55 marks, in 1398. w It would 

 seem that such appropriations were more to the 

 advantage of the monastery than of the parish- 

 ioners ; for in 1426 the people of West Hoathly, 

 Patcham, and Ditchling complained that since 

 the appropriation of their churches the buildings 

 had fallen into ruin, divine service and parochial 

 administrations had been neglected, and the 

 hospitality shown to the poor by the former 

 rectors had been withdrawn. 68 



The great inconvenience of the system by 

 which Cluniac monks could only make their pro- 

 fession to the abbot of Cluny was much felt in 

 England about the beginning of the fifteenth 

 century. The labour and expense of taking can- 

 didates to Cluny was great, and the visits of the 

 abbots to England were infrequent ; it is recorded 

 that when Abbot Ardruin came to Lewes in 1350 

 he received the profession of thirty-two monks. 

 During the wars with France neither of these alter- 

 natives was possible, and consequently the Cluniac 

 houses became full of men who had been monks 

 all their lives, but had never made their profession. 

 To remedy this it was proposed to convert Lewes 

 Priory into an abbey, giving the abbot power to 

 admit novices to the ranks of the professed. 

 This proposal was warmly supported by the 

 countess of Arundel, acting under the influence 

 of Prior John de Burghersh, 'a man of true 

 religion and earnest for the good of his monastery 

 and the Cluniac order,' but apparently ambitious, 

 as the abbot's agent in England writes caustically 

 that ' if all priors were as anxious to be bishops 

 as he of Lewes all priories would be raised to the 

 state of cathedral churches.' The abbot refused 

 'to raise Lewes to the rank of an abbey, but 

 granted the required privilege of professing monks, 

 in 1410." 



John Burghersh retired on a pension about 

 1414, but subsequently endeavoured to have his 

 resignation annulled as extorted by violence. 

 The reason for his forced resignation may prob- 

 ably be seen in the fact that the priory had be- 

 come indebted to the extent of over 3,200 marks ; 

 his successor, Thomas Nelond, cleared off this 

 debt and restored and added to the buildings 



63 Cal. Papal Let. iv, 396. 



44 Ibid, v, 548. Here called the church of Horste 

 de Keynes, alias Bryctesley." 



"Ibid. 155. "Ibid, vii, 145. 



47 Rec. ofClunl,\, 200-210. 



