RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



award, his rival was not. The case therefore 

 came into a court of law, but was not finished, 

 Wheathampstead suspending proceedings on 

 account of the famine."' 



A plea of the Crown against the abbey for 

 deodands'* awakened the abbot to the dis- 

 advantageous obscurities of the charter of 

 Henry II and the hmitations of the confirma- 

 tion in 1405. With the help of the Duke of 

 Gloucester and at a cost of j£82,*^he obtained in 

 April 1440 a patent defining these privileges and 

 confirming to the abbot and convent the return 

 of all writs, the goods and chattels of their men 

 and tenants and of residents on their lands for- 

 feited for outlawry or felony, fines for trespasses, 

 conspiracies, &c., year day, and waste, deodands, 

 treasure-trove, wreck, and anything that usually 

 pertained to the king from murders or other 

 felonies committed by their men or on their 

 lands.'* By securing a general pardon from the 

 king in 1437 he astutely safeguarded himself 

 from the consequences of infringement of the 

 Statute of Mortmain ; for he feared that his 

 recent acquisitions were in excess of the hcences 

 granted to him.'' These new possessions in- 

 cluded the cell of BeauUeu, which, being likely 

 to become burdensome to the abbey, was sup- 

 pressed in 1428 by arrangement with the patron. 

 Lord Grey de Ruthin.'* 



The ordinances drawn up by the abbot after 

 a visitation of the monastery previous to his 

 departure for Pavia in 1423," although partly 

 in common form, suggest some carelessness of 

 observance and indiscretion. The monks were 

 admonished to be punctual at vespers, not to 

 leave the quire during service in order to walk 

 about the church and talk, nor to loiter and 

 chatter at the vestry door ; frequent requests 

 to visit relations were discountenanced ; journeys 

 to friends were not to be made on foot ; the 

 brothers were forbidden to talk with women, or 

 without the superior's leave to go to the 

 nunneries near St. Albans or Redbourn ; they 

 were exhorted not to swear nor address each 

 other discourteously in the second person 

 singular, nor to loiter and drink, especially when 

 they should be present in the quire ; at Red- 

 bourn they were not to sit up late, and in their 

 walks were to have an adult companion ; 

 oflicials were to amend their ways as regards 



'^^ Amundesham, Annahs, ii, 128-57. 



'^ Reg. of St. Albans, i, 461, App. D. 



" Ibid. 



'^ Cat. Pat. 1436-41, p. 422. 



'' Amundesham, Annales, ii, 168-73. 



'' Lord Grey released his right of patronage to 

 Wheathampstead and the Prior of Beaulieu on 12 

 May 6 Hen. VI (Arundel MS. 34, fol. 32-3), not 

 13 Hen. VI as is said in Amundesham, Annales, ii, 

 106. The brothers were withdrawn in 1428. 

 (Amundesham, Annales, i, 29-30.) 



" Amundesham, Annales, i, 101-15. 



4 401 



attire ^'"' ; there were besides regulations con- 

 cerned with the training of the younger monks. 

 One rule clearly expresses the abbot's distrust 

 of secular greed — to give no room for extortion 

 the treasure of the house was not to be shown 

 to strangers except with the prior's leave. 



Asceticism was certainly not required of the 

 convent by Wheathampstead. He granted the 

 manor of Borham at this time to increase their 

 wine and pittances,"- and obtained a papal bull 

 substituting a fast on the vigil of St. Alban 

 for that between Septuagesima and Quinqua- 

 gesima ^ ; in 1428 he made a beneficial change in 

 the diet of the novices,* and provided for the 

 monks pittances on Sundays during the winter,* 

 in 143 1 adding others on Mondays and Thurs- 

 days in summer.^ 



important changes in administration were 

 introduced about this time.* Wheathampstead 

 established a common chest ' from which loans 

 could be made to the abbey or cells in emer- 

 gencies 8 : it was to be kept by three monks 

 nominated by the abbot with the convent's 

 consent, and for its funds the rent of Gorham 

 and a tenth of all gifts to the convent were set 

 aside. At the same time a ' master of the 

 works ' was appointed ' to superintend and 

 account for all repairs to the fabric ; he was 

 also to pay the money allotted for the brothers' 

 clothing and pittances, provide torches and 

 candles on certain festivals, and distribute the 

 doles to be given on Wheathampstead's anni- 

 versary. To his office was assigned the property 

 acquired between 1425 and 143 1," the issues of 



100 "pjiey were not to wear tunics with fastenings 

 forbidden by the canons, nor costly cowls and rare furs. 

 From Wheathampstead's ordinance when president 

 of the provincial chapter in 1429 (Amundesham, 

 Annales, i, 39-40), expensive dress was a common 

 monastic failing then. 



1 Amundesham, Annales, i, 116. 



^ Ibid. 159-60. The relaxadon was asked on 

 account of the difficulty in getting fish (ibid. 153). 

 To the fast on the vigil of St. Alban, the convent 

 added fasts on two other vigils (ibid. 183-4). 



' Amundesham, Annales, \, 28-9. 



* Ibid. 29. 



» Ibid. 285. 



' The ordinances were made on 1 March 1429-30 

 and ratified June 1432, after an inquiry by the pope's 

 order (Arundel MS. 34, fol. 56-8 d.). 



' Ibid. fol. 52 ; Amundesham, Annales, i, 275-9. 



' Possibly the effect of the disclosure! at visitations 

 of Wymondham and Binham in 1426 (Amundesham, 

 Annales, i, 205- 11) may be seen here. 



' Ibid. 279-85 ; Arundel MS. 34, fol. 52. There 

 had already been masters of the works in the 14th 

 century, but they were seculars entrusted with certain 

 definite building operations, while the master of the 

 new ordinance was a monk who relieved the sacrist 

 permanently of all responsibility for the fabric and 

 some other cares. 



"> For this see Arundel MS. 34, fol. 4-10, or 

 Amundesham, Annales, ii, 162-8, 175-7- 



51 



