342 



-" The Toml) of the Suffragan Bishop Vivian, of CormoaU, Prior 

 of Bodmin, and the Heraldic Arms connected ivith St. Petroc's 

 Monastery.'''' — {By Eevd. William Iago, B.A., Westheath, 

 Bodmin, .Honorary Secretary for Cornwall of the Society of 



Antiquaries, London^ . 



Bead May 11, 1877. 



THOMAS* YIVIAN was the ''last but two" of the Bodmin 

 Priors. His contests with the townspeople form the subject 

 of certain curious documentsf now in the custody of the Bodmin 

 Corporation. They would be very amusing, did they not exhibit 

 a deplorable state of feeling, and contain expressions bordering 

 upon irreverence. 



Yivian ruled with a high hand. He had been sub-prior, was 

 elected prior April 13, 1508, and was confirmed by the Bishop of 

 Exeter,!' at Clyst. He held preferments, was made a Sufi^ragan 

 Bishop, died on Pentecost Sunday, June, 1, 1533, and, as Leland 

 writes, was buried before the high altar of his priory church, 

 " in a high tumbe of a very darkesche gray marble." 



On the Dissolution of monasteries, Bodmin Priory (under 

 Thomas Munday, alias Wandesworth) surrendered in 1538-9. 

 Subsequently its church was destroyed ; and only a few stones 

 in Col. Gilbert's garden now indicate the locality of the site. Its 

 bells were sold to Lanivet, and were there re-cast for the church 



*Bp.Vivian's signature to an award made at Bodmin in 1519, Dr. Oliver states, 

 is as follows, " p. me Thomam Megarensem Epm." The seal appendant (i-epre- 

 senting him supplicating the Virgin Mary and divine infant) , bears the legend 

 " Sigill™- Thome Megarensis." 



The tomb inscription gives his name as " Tomas Vivian." From some 

 records it seems that he had a brother also named Thomas, who was vicar of 

 Bodmin, and with whom the town had serious differences. The prior had a 

 brother named John. In Bodmin Church nave is a large floor slab containing 

 metal rivets, and incised in memory of John Vyvyan, who died in 1545. It gives 

 besides other devices, monograms of the initials I. V. and H V. also 2 shields of 

 arms — one identical with the prior's, the other " 3 birds (martlets ?) in fess." 



fSee late Rev. J. Wallis's " Bodmin Segister," pp. 298 — al4, and the appen- 

 dix to this paper. 



JBishop Oldham's Eegr. fo. 22, 



