A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



Yet as abbot he was not satisfactory. In 

 striking contrast to Thomas de la Mare, whose 

 mistakes even arose from his generous nature,^' 

 he readily gave ear to whisperers and informers 

 and bore grudge silently against those he sus- 

 pected.** But the principal cause of his failure 

 lay in his one-sidedness, that had before mani- 

 fested itself in an attempt to aggrandize each 

 office held by him at the expense of the others." 

 His love of building, beneficial to the house as 

 long as it was kept within limits, with the 

 removal of control became a mania to which 

 everything was sacrificed. While cellarer and 

 prior he had done much good work ** in keeping 

 the abbey's property in order, ^' and after he 

 became abbot he continued his improvements 

 to the monastery and began to rebuild the 

 students' rooms at Oxford. In the construction, 

 however, of a princely residence for himself at 

 Tyttenhanger, a scheme of doubtful value to 

 the abbey," he passed all bounds in extrava- 

 gance and forgetfulness of duty. Estates were 

 neglected so that rents decrc.ised; hospitaUty 

 and alms were cut down, numbers of hirelings 

 were fed by the abbot, while obedientiaries and 

 tenants were burdened with carriage to the 

 detriment of their business ; the cells were 

 unvisited and, owing to his mistaken or careless 

 choice of priors, were badly managed ; and 

 now, in order to urge on the operations 

 at Tyttenhanger, the abbot was continually 

 absent from the monastery, so that ' religion 

 perished.' ^ At one time Moote had ingratiated 

 himself with the convent, distributing among 

 them the pigeons of his dovecot, doubling their 

 supply of spices '' and relaxing the rule as to 

 recreation in Lent and Advent"*; latterly he 

 had been mean and ungracious, and the monks 

 were beginning to murmur loudly, when he was 

 seized with pleurisy at Tyttenhanger, and died 

 after a short illness at St. Albans on ll Novem- 

 ber 1401, leaving many debts and stores and 

 furniture much reduced.'* 



The election was notable for the outside 

 influence exerted on behalf of the kitchener, 

 Robert Botheby.*^ Fortunately the king's per- 



^* He was too impulsive and trusting, and thus put 

 people into offices for which they were unfit (fiesta 

 Abbat. iii, 416). 



^ Ibid. 4^8. 



" Ibid. 460. 



'5 Ibid. 441-- ; Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, 



fol. 2 + . 



-'' He rebuilt many manor-houses, granges, &c. 



^ GesUi Abbat. iii, 448. See also Abbot Michael. 



-* Gesta Abbat. iii, 448—50. 



^ Possibly whOe he was prior (ibid. 444, 447). 



^ Ibid. 470-2. These ordinances, which deal 

 also with certain sen-ices, were made at the urgent 

 request of the convent. 



31 Ibid. 450-3. 



" Ibid. 476-8. 



suasions and the interference of his treasurer 

 were alike unavaihng ; the convent elected the 

 cellarer, William Heyworth, by a large 

 majority.^ The new abbot, still only a pro- 

 bationer in religion, was very young,** but he 

 was obviously skilful in deaUng with men and 

 affairs. He reconciled the king at once to the 

 convent's choice, got through the necessary 

 formahties with unusual speed and economy, 

 and secured more credit.** 



The promotion of Botheby to be Prior of 

 Wallingford,*' while calculated to please the 

 king, was also prudent in view of Heyworth's 

 absence for two years from St. Albans to keep 

 down expenses.*' When finances had been 

 reduced to order, the buildings at Oxford and 

 Tyttenhanger were finished*' and the cloisters 

 completed.*' 



The abbot saw that the newly-acquired papal 

 indults did not fall into desuetude,*" and care- 

 fully guarded the other privileges of his house. 

 In 1405 he obtained from Henry confirmation 

 of their charters, with the addition of a clause 

 restoring to the Abbots of St. Albans fines of 

 their men and tenants amerced in the courts of 

 the king's steward and marshal, and clerk of the 

 market of his hospice.'" He asserted in 1408 

 his right to the chattels of a felon taken within 

 his liberty,*^ and checked the attempts of the 

 clergy of his exempt jurisdiction to deprive 

 the abbey of Peter's Pence and other 

 dues.** Payment of pensions owed by the 

 parsons of Girton ** and Lubenham '^ was en- 

 forced, and compensation received for the 

 abbey's claim to the rent at Paul's Wharf.*' 

 Possibly Heyworth after a time found his task 

 irksome : he showed certainly a strange apathy 

 in allowing the Abbot of Westminster in 1417 to 

 erect gallows on debatable territory, still called 

 No Man's Land, between the abbey of West- 

 minster's manor of Wheathampstead and the 



** Through Sotheby's party the election was by 

 scrutiny, which offered greater opportunity than com- 

 promise of influencing the electors (fiesta Abbat. iii, 



477)- 



^ Ibid. 493. 



" Ibid. 491-3. He obtained credit probably by 

 dissimulating his need of money, for he gave the 

 entertainments customary at an installation. 



*« Ibid. 493. " Ibid. 494. 



»8 Ibid. 495. 



" Extract from Cott. MS. Nero, D vii, printed 

 in the Reg. of St. Albans (Rolls Ser.), i, 451, App. D. 

 He repaired, moreover, his hospice in London. 



*" Gesta Abbat. iii, 495. 



*i Ibid. 497-9. These fines were withdrawn in 

 the time of Thomas de la M.ire. 



*^ Gesta Abbat. 509-12. 



*' Ibid. 505-9. 



** Lansd. MS. 375, fol. 160-2 d. ; Gesta Abbat. iii, 

 518-22. 



*' Gesta Abbat. iii, 523-5. 



*' Ibid. 513-17. 



398 



