A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



It was possibly, indeed, a foreboding of danger 

 in this quarter that induced the abbot in 1357 

 to crenellate the monastery.**' There can, how- 

 ever, have been no apprehension or reason for it 

 just before the rising. In fact, it seems certain 

 that but for the outbreak elsewhere there would 

 have been no movement here : there was no 

 premeditated plan, no sudden explosion of anger, 

 and very httle violence and destruction. The 

 villeins departed for London with the abbot's 

 sanction,*' and it was not until they reached the 

 city that there was a sign of the feeHng that 

 made the abbey's retainers hurry back to warn 

 the prior and other unpopular members of the 

 convent to escape. The deputation of townsmen 

 in their negotiations vdxh. the abbot owned that 

 he had been a just and kind lord and said they 

 would have made no disturbance in his days if 

 the opportunity had not been too good to let 

 slip. The abbot's behaviour throughout was 

 characteristic. He had first determined not to 

 yield, and it was only the entreaties of the 

 frightened monks that made him give way. 

 Afterwards, if he was careful to recover the 

 rights wrested from him,*^ he did not forget it 

 was his duty to protect his subjects, but inter- 

 ceded on behalf of the St. Albans villeins 

 implicated in the London riots, interfered when 

 Lee tried to frighten a jury into indicting the 

 ringleaders, and seems to have done his utmost 

 to avert the king's visit. The villeins, embittered 

 by failure, accused him of hypocrisy and 

 vindictiveness,*^ but apparently without foun- 

 dation." They did not cease to harass him 

 where they could,*^ though the mahcious 

 burning of conventual property at Sandridge 

 and elsewhere** a few years later is probably not 

 to be attributed to them. 



Just before the peasants' rising Abbot Thomas 

 had undertaken measures of the greatest 

 financial benefit to the abbey. The fine of 1,000 

 marks at every vacancy was in September 

 1380 exchanged by the king at the abbot's 

 entreaty for a yearly rent of 50 marks.*' To 

 avoid the heavy expenses incurred by abbots- 



^'>Cal.Pat. 135478, p. 574- 



*^ The abbot, it is true, did not want them to go 

 in a body as they did, but they left St. Albans appa- 

 rently on good terms with him. 



■•^ Hearing that copies had been made of the 

 charters before they were surrendered he petitioned 

 the king and Parliament that record might be made 

 of their annulment {Pari. R. iii, i 2<)a). 



*' They said that far from endeavouring to stop 

 the king the abbot had offered him j^i,ooo to come. 



" The author of the Gesta, who was bitterly hostile 

 to the villeins, and therefore could not have approved 

 of the abbot's attitude to them, clearly did not doubt 

 his sincerity. 



" Gesta Abhat. iii, 360-1. 



" Ibid. 361-2 ; Cat. Pat. 1385-9, p. 549. 



^' CaLPat. 1377-81, p. 545. 



elect at the papal court ** Thomas negotiated 

 with the pope in 1381 ** for a bull declaring 

 election sufficient without confirmation and 

 permitting benediction by any Catholic bishop. 

 The indult was granted at last in October 1395, 

 and first-fruits with all other payments on 

 vacancies were commuted for 20 marks a year.** 

 Another bull of the same date empowered the 

 abbot and his successors to bless ecclesiastical 

 vessels and ornaments of the monastery and its 

 subject priories, churches and chapels.*^ 



There is an occasional side-light on the 

 internal affairs of the house. To remedy the 

 lack of priests in the convent caused by the 

 plague the pope in 1351 hcensed the abbot to 

 choose for ordination thirty monks of St. Albans 

 and its cells between twenty and twenty-five 

 years old,*^ and in 1363 he granted similar 

 dispensation for twenty monks aged twenty.^ 



Visitations by deputies of the Abbot of Peter- 

 borough in 1378 ** and of the Prior of Ely in 

 1 38 1 ^* redounded to the praise of the convent. 

 This satisfactory state of things was not the 

 result of mere repression and severity. Abbot 

 Thomas was a kind and just ruler.*' Extremely 

 ascetic himself,*' he did not expect similar 

 austerity in his monks. The increase in the 

 income of the kitchener's office at his expense in 

 1363 *' had for its object the improvement of 

 the convent's food supply,*' and the reform 

 he effected at Redbourn was to the same end.'" 

 But he insisted on the obedience due to him. 

 Though he could not forbid, he undoubtedly 

 resented the departure of the monks *i for the 

 crusade in Flanders in 1383, and he promptly 

 expelled those ^^ who in 1387 secured exemption 

 from discipline by obtaining papal chaplaincies.*' 



The work of members of the convent is 

 perhaps the best testimony to his rule. 



** Abbot Thomas spent 1,000 marks exclusive of 

 the cost of the journey and his illness {Gesta Abbat. 

 ii, 387). 



*' The abbot was much cheated by his agents, 

 who, professing to be on the point of concluding the 

 affair, received large sums for which they did nothing 

 (ibid. 146-82, 397-8). 



^ Cal. Papal Letters, iv, 5 1 7. 



" Ibid. 501. *2 Ibid, iii, 383. 



*' Cal. Papal Petitions, 425. 



** Chron. Angliae, 1328-88 (Rolls Ser.), 203. 



*5 Ibid. 284. 



** He visited and tended his monb in illness. He 

 gave pittances too in compensation for the eitra 

 religious exercises he required from his convent and 

 the nuns of Pri and Sopwell {Gesta Abbat. iii, 408). 



*' If obliged to relax his abstinence, he made up 

 for it by severer fasts afterwards or by alms. 



** See below, p. 413. 



*5 Gesta Abbat. ii, 397. « ibi^_ 397-8. 



" Ibid. 416. He received them back with 

 'unhoped for grace.' '^ Except one who was old. 



^^ Gesta Abbat. ii, 418. These honorary chap- 

 laincies were sold to raise money for Pope Urban. 



394 



