RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



which he seems to have shone. It was his easy 

 munificence as much as his goodness that made 

 St. Albans attractive in his time as a training 

 school for young nobles.^ He spent no doubt 

 on his house * what so many of his predecessors 

 had lavished on their kinsfolk.* 



At John de Hertford's death in April 1263 

 the king again sold the vacancy to the convent, 

 but doubled the price.^ The papal confirmation 

 of the election of Roger de Norton cost at least 

 ^8oo.« The dominant note of Roger's adminis- 

 tration seems to have been diplomatic prudence. 

 He could bow to circumstances and yield a 

 point, if by so doing he gained on the whole. 

 Thus his agreement in September 1264 with the 

 Countess of Arundel as to the advowson of 

 Wymondham Priory ' and his arrangement with 

 John Fitz John about Horwood Chase (co. 

 Bucks.)* were both in the nature of a com- 

 promise. His complaisance to Robert de 

 Pynkeney in 1279 over the presentation to 

 Datchet Church,* and the purchase from the 

 Earl of Hereford in 1285 of a dubious claim to 

 the advowson of Hatfield Peverel Priory,^" were 

 prompted by the like discretion. 



Relations between the abbot and convent 

 and Archbishop ICilwardby were very much 

 strained on one occasion through the refusal of 

 the St. Albans proctors on the archbishop's 

 demand to show evidence of appropriations of 

 churches."- The abbot, however, invited the 

 archbishop to St. Albans at a convenient oppor- 

 tunity, received him with great ceremony, and 

 explaining how the abbey stood, completely 

 molHfied him.^ While in the North on a 

 visitation of Tynemouth in 1278 he was as 

 successful with the Bishop of Durham.^' 



In company with the other exempt clergy, 

 Roger ignored Archbishop Peckham's summons 

 to a council at Lambeth in October 1281. 

 When sequestration followed he appealed, but 



2 Gesta Abbat. i, 397. 



' Besides being hospitable he was generous to the 

 convent. He gave about 1,000 seams of corn to 

 improve their ale (ibid. 323), and for their benefit 

 separated their buttery from his and from that of the 

 seculars at a cost of 463 marks (ibid. 395-6). 



* He is noted (ibid. 323) as quite an exception in 

 this respect, and complaints had certainly been made 

 of Paul, Richard de Albini, GeoiFrey de Gorham, 

 Ralph de Gorham, Simon, Warin and John de Cella 

 (ibid. 64, 71-2, 95, 181, 194, 216, 252). 



' They paid 600 marks \Cal. Pat. 1 258-66, p. 256). 



* The amount that the pope gave the St. Albans 

 proctors leave to borrow {pal. Papal Letters, i, 386). 

 Probably the business cost more {Gesta Abbat. i, 399). 



' Gesta Abbat. i, 407-9. 



' Ibid. 423-5. This ended a long dispute. 



^ Ibid. 440-4. 



10 Ibid. 471. 



11 Ibid. 43 1-3 . 

 " Ibid. 434. 



13 Ibid. 436. 



eventually, like the majority, compromised to 

 save expenses.!* It is in Roger's time that the 

 abbey first had difficulties with its subjects, the 

 townsmen in 1 274 challenging the abbot's right 

 to multure by setting up mills of their own.^* 

 The law was against them, and in 1275-6 they 

 made submission to the abbot, who received 

 their peace-offering graciously and made some 

 concessions.!' While the quarrel was at its 

 height the queen came to St. Albans, and the 

 abbot tried to get her into the monastery by a 

 little used way so as to avoid the people who 

 were waiting to lay their grievances before her. 

 The move, however, was discovered by the 

 townspeople in time, and the abbot had to 

 excuse himself as best he could to Eleanor, who 

 much resented the attempted trickery .i' 



Less is now heard of royal and papal extor- 

 tion. But the abbot and convent were treated 

 with flagrant injustice by King Henry in 1265, 

 when they performed their knight service, and 

 were made to pay a heavy commutation fine as 

 well." 



A painful sensation must have been caused 

 by the discovery of the frauds perpetrated by 

 the abbot's two chaplains.^' To all appearance 

 irreproachable, they took advantage of the trust 

 reposed in them to seal charters and contract 

 loans without the convent's knowledge, and 

 finally absconded with ornaments and treasure. 

 Greater carefulness on the abbot's part might 

 perhaps have prevented this and other losses : 

 for instance, the unnecessary expense and 

 trouble caused by mislaying the deeds of Stan- 

 more Manor which had been recovered by John 

 de Hertford.^" The large corrody given in 

 return for Pinchfield Manor ^^ may have been 

 justifiable, but it would be difficult to defend 

 the grants of corrodies to his kinsfolk in his last 

 illness.^ Yet the convent might consider itself 

 on the whole fortunate in Roger, for he was a 

 man of good life, religious and literary, and 

 left the house scarcely 100 marks in debt.^^ 

 Under him the abbot's apartments and the 

 infirmary were rebuilt "* and three bells made, 

 St. Amphibalus, St. Alban and St. Katharine. 



1^ Reg. Epist. Johannis Peckham (Rolls Ser.), 276-80; 

 306-7 ; Rishanger, Chron. et Annaies (Rolls Ser.), 96. 



!' Gesta Abbat. i, 410. 



1' Ibid. 413-23. 



!' Ibid. 41 1-12. 



!^ Rishanger, Chron. et Annaies, 4 1 . 



" Gesta Abbat. i, 447-8. 



2° Ibid. 466-7. 



21 Ibid. 484. 



^^ He took care that these should be under the 

 convent's seal, so that they could not be revoked 

 (ibid.). 



^' Ibid. 484. Yet taxation was sometimes heavy. 

 The abbey's contribution as tenth in aid of the 

 Holy Land imposed by the Council of Lyons in 1 274 

 amounted to 200 marks (ibid. 468). 



ii* Ibid. 482. 



l'^2, 



