RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



year the king paid a visit to the abbey. 21 

 Henry III was again at Robertsbridge in 1264, 

 when at the head of his troops marching 

 to the disastrous battle of Lewes, he extorted 

 large sums of money from the unfortunate 

 monks. 22 A later royal visitor was Edward II, 

 who was there on 27 August, 1394- 23 By this 

 time, however, the fame of the house seems to 

 have dwindled, as when John, bishop of Exeter, 

 purchased a book (now in the Bodleian 

 Library), whose flyleaf contained an anathema 

 upon anyone alienating it from the house of 

 St. Mary of Robertsbridge, he relieved his con- 

 science by noting that he did not know where 

 that house was. 24 



Of the inner history of this house little is 

 known. It appears to have had a good reputa- 

 tion, as it was frequently selected by pious monks 

 of Canterbury who wished to leave the Bene- 

 dictine for the stricter Cistercian order. 25 On 

 the other hand Giraldus Cambrensis in his article 

 ' on the secret luxury of the Cistercians ' tells 

 the following story 26 : John who succeeded Odo 

 as abbot of Battle (in 1 200) happening to pass 

 an abbey of that order in Sussex called in to see 

 the abbot, whom he knew. While passing 

 through the cloisters he insisted upon going into 

 the refectory, although the abbot tried to dis- 

 suade him, saying that they would disturb the 

 servers who were having their meal after having 

 waited upon the other members of the convent. 

 Going in the visitor saw the tables laden with 

 fine fat joints, and turning to the abbot completed 

 his confusion by asking of what saint those bones 

 were the relics, further pointing his humorous 

 rebuke by at once leaving the abbey. A case of 

 apostasy is mentioned in 1344, when the pope 

 gave orders for the reconciling of Robert Coum- 

 ber, who had left the monastery but now desired 

 to return; 27 and in 1351 another monk, John 

 Crompe, was permitted to return to the abbey, 

 which he had left without leave in order to go 

 to Rome for the general indulgence which had 

 been in operation the previous October ; 28 and in 

 1363 another apostate monk was reconciled. 29 

 That these instances do not point to any laxity 

 of discipline is suggested by a record of 1403 

 which tells that John Holmborn, a monk of 

 Robertsbridge, having been found in a wood 

 with an unmarried woman was beaten to the 

 effusion of blood and then sent by his abbot to 

 Coggeshall Abbey, in Essex, where he long lived 

 a miserable life ; now he was old and longed to 

 return to Robertsbridge, he had therefore gone 



11 Pat. 9 Hen. Ill, m. 7. 

 " Blaauw, Baron f War, 222. 



* Pat. 1 8 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 6. 

 14 Suss. Arch. Coll. viii, 1 60. 



16 Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. pt. i, 88. 



* Speculum Ecclesie (Rolls Ser.), 216. 

 " Cal. Papal Let. iii, 1 70. 



" Ibid. 396. Ibid, iv, 42. 



to Rome, where he had obtained absolution from 

 the pope, who further ordered that he should be 

 restored to his former stall and place in chapter 

 and to have the room, books, clothes and other 

 things formerly his. 



The income of the abbey being 248 ioj. 6rf. 30 

 it escaped the first suppression and survived until 

 1 6 April, 1538, when it was surrendered by the 

 abbot, Thomas Taylor, and his brethren, who 

 were then eight in number, the same number of 

 monks as were resident in I4i8. 31 



ABBOTS OF ROBERTSBRIDGE 



Denis M 



William, occurs i I<)J 33 -12IC) 34 



William de St. Noet, occurs 1222 * 6 



John, occurs 1 223-30 36 



William, occurs 1236," 1252 : ' 



Roger, occurs I258, 39 1278 40 



Mainard, occurs I28o 41 



Walter, occurs I288 42 



Thomas, occurs I2g3 43 



Robert, c . 1 300 44 



Lawrence, occurs I3O2, 45 resigned 1311 46 



John de Wallyngfelde, elected 1311 47 



Alan, occurs 131 5 48 - 17" 



Nicholas, occurs 1320 60 



John, occurs 1324 s1 



John de Lamberhurst, died 1333 52 



John de Wormedale, elected I333 63 



John Wysdon, occurs 1340" 



John, occurs 1345 55 



Simon, occurs I349 66 



Adam, occurs 1357 " 



Giles 68 



William Lewes, elected I397, 59 occurs 1399' 



*> Valor Eccl. (Rec. Com.), i, 351. 



31 Suss. Arch. Coll. viii, 1 64. 



3> Cal. Chart. No. 7. 



83 Suss. Arch. Coll. viii, 170. 



* Feet off. (Suss. Rec. Soc.), Nos. 93, 162. 



35 Cal. Chart. 285*. 



36 Feet of F. (Suss. Rec. Soc.), Nos. 183, 218. 



37 Ibid. No. 299. 



38 Cal. Chart. No. 206. M Ibid. No. 21 1. 



40 Feet of F. Suss, file 29, No. 23. 



41 Ibid, file 30, No. 20. 



41 Assize R. 929, m. 44</. 



" Cal. Chart. No. 368 ; Pat. 21 Edw. I, m. 13. 



44 Dugdale, Mon. v, 666. 



45 Feet of F. Suss, file 37, No. 29. 

 " Archaeologia, xlv, 432. 



47 Ibid. 48 Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. i, m. 28. 



49 Cal. Chart. No. 3 1 3. M Ibid. 3 1 8. 



41 Ibid. 320. 



" Anhaeologia, xlv, 438. * Ibid. 440. 



64 Assize R. 941, m. 6. 



" Cal. Papal Let. iii, 192. " Ibid. 326. 



67 Cal. Chart. No. 363. " Ibid. 371. 



" Chich. Epis. Reg. Reade, fol. 65. 



80 Cal. Papal Let. ir, 304. 



73 I0 



