RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



about his disease had long since vanished. He 

 was now in an advanced state of leprosy,^ and 

 his removal was again suggested, though not by 

 the convent, whose admiration he had gained 

 by his success over the villeins. As the result of 

 outside intrigues the pope ordered an inquiry 

 into the alleged maladministration of St. Albans 

 through the abbot's ill-health,°* and before the 

 visit of the commissioners to the monastery took 

 place in January 1333^* provided to the abbey 

 Richard de Ildesle, a monk of Abingdon.^' On 

 hearing of the papal provision, Richard dis- 

 patched Nicholas de Flamstead, now prior, to 

 represent his case to the king in Parliament, 

 and secured the support of the Council.^' 

 Moreover, to afford no ground for future inter- 

 ference, he proposed to the convent that he 

 should have a coadjutor, and the prior was 

 selected for that office.*^ But his strongest 

 defence lay in the monks themselves, who let 

 Ildesle know that if he ever tried to effect an 

 entrance into the abbey they would kill him.^* 

 The abbot appears a rather lonely figure towards 

 the end, for his affection for the prior sensibly 

 diminished after Nicholas became coadjutor.*" 

 He thought him ungrateful for siding with the 

 convent in a dispute about pittances.*^ In the 

 winter of 1334 he became much worse, '^ but he 

 lived until 23 May 1336.^ 



Among his many benefits to the abbey must 

 be reckoned the register he made of its deeds 

 and the table of its privileges.** Through the 

 influence of Richard de Bury, keeper of the 

 king's privy seal, to whom he gave and sold 

 books,®^ he obtained licence in January 1 33 1 to 



" In June 1330 he was said to be very infirm and 

 weak {Cal. Close, 1330—3, p. 41), and by this time 

 his voice was affected {Geita Abbat. ii, 256). 



'^ Gesta Abbot, ii, 284-5 ! C'"'- Popal Letters, ii, 

 509. 



** Gesta Abbat. ii, 286. 



»8 Ibid. 287. 



" Ibid. 287-8. 



'* Ibid. 289. The prior and convent then wrote 

 to the pope stating that the abbey had derived great 

 benefits from Richard's rule and explaining the 

 measures he had taken for supplying his deficiencies. 



'^ Ibid. 292. The author of the Gesta Abbat. 

 adds they probably would have done so, for they 

 were tall, strong men who had little scruple on this 

 score. 



6" Ibid. 210. 



*i Richard had come into collision with the con- 

 vent before on this subject (ibid. 211-12). He 

 may have been especially hurt at Nicholas's attitude 

 because the monks who had wanted to depose him 

 tried to injure him in respect of his pittances 

 (ibid. 199). 



M Ibid. 293. 



*' Ibid. ; Cal. Pat. 1334-8, p. 270. 



** Gesta Abbat. ii, 207. 



*^ He gave him four and sold him thirty-two 

 (ibid. 200). Many of them were regained after- 

 wards. 



appropriate the church of Appleton in Ryedale 

 (co. York).*' He also secured a grant that on 

 the signification of the Abbot of St. Albans as of 

 a bishop the chancellor should issue writs for 

 the arrest of excommunicated persons.*' He 

 helped to erect the new almonry and school- 

 houses, began a new cloister, and built exten- 

 sively at Tyttenhanger.*^ 



Richard had a worthy successor in Michael 

 de Mentmore, a devout and learned man who 

 had made profession at St. Albans in Abbot 

 Hugh's time and had had charge of the studies 

 there.** Conditions from the beginning were 

 easier for him than for Richard. The pope con- 

 firmed his election without demur'" on 1 8 Novem- 

 ber I336,'"' and a few days later granted an 

 indulgence of 100 days to benefit the fabric.'^ 

 The king, too, gave very favourable terms for 

 the payment of the fine.'^ 



Of course Michael had difficulties, but com- 

 pared with Richard's they were unimportant. 

 Through his predecessor's omission to cancel a 

 bond of j^200 he had to grant a pension to 

 redeem the obligation.'* Claims to an annuity 

 and a debt settled long before were revived, '° 

 but here the abbot was sure of his ground. The 

 abbey's ownership of Caldecote Manor '* and of 

 a messuage in London" had to be defended from 

 the Prior of Bushmead and the Knights Hos- 

 pitallers. The affair that gave most trouble was 

 the endeavour of some of the abbey's tenants at 

 Barnet to prove by forged charters that their 

 land was not held in bondage.'* Both sides 

 bribed freely, and the abbot's victory was at 

 one time anything but certain." 



Michael's ordinances for the convent, for the 

 most part explanatory of the statutes of Pope 

 Benedict, published by him in 1338,'" show 

 throughout a sense of equity and order. One 

 half of the convent was to dine in the oriel one 

 day and the other half the next, that there might 

 be no favouritism in granting relief from the 

 monotony of meals in the frater.** The kitchener 



** Cal. Pat. 1330-4, p. 48. 



*' Ibid. 46. Possibly this was in preparation for 

 his struggle with the townsmen. 



*8 Gesta Abbat. ii, 282-3. 



*' Ibid. 299-300. 



'» Ibid. 301. 



'1 Cal. Papal Letters, ii, 531. 



'2 Ibid. 532. 



'' It was to be paid in annual instalments of 

 100 marks {Cal. Close, 1337-9, P- '3)- 



'^ Gesta Abbat. ii, 316-17. 



'6 Ibid. 336-8, 35 5-7. 



'* Ibid. 330-3. 



" Ibid. 342-3. 



'* Ibid. 317-26. The charters were smoked to 

 make them appear old. 



" At the critical juncture the abbot gained great 

 advantage from the miraculous recovery of a drowned 

 child through the merits of St. Alban (ibid. 326). 



80 Ibid. 305. " Ibid. 304. 



38q 



