A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



which were to be deposited in the common 

 chest. 



The convent does not seem to have been 

 very tractable. They manifested decided dis- 

 approval of a sale of land by the abbot to Sir 

 John Cornwall in October 1429, two monks abso- 

 lutely refusing their consent ^ ; and possibly in 

 connexion with this incident there were shortly 

 afterwards mutinous grumbhngs against the 

 abbot, for which they had to ask his pardon." 

 Some, again, murmured rebeUiously at \^"heat- 

 hampstead's ordinances for Redbourn in 

 1439.^ These regulations provided for a 

 proper rendering of the services, and required 

 the monks to avoid visiting doubtful places on 

 their way to the priory, to abstain from late 

 hours, and drinking or other excesses which 

 unfitted them for their religious duties, and to 

 employ their leisure in reading or study. 

 Several of the rules should not even have been 

 necessary and the successful opposition to 

 them, for UTieathampstead, in view of his pro- 

 jected retirement, forbore to press them, gives 

 an unfavourable idea of the standard of con- 

 duct at the monastery. It certainly makes 

 incredible the annalist's statement that the 

 house then enjoyed high repute 'for the brothers' 

 sober and religious way of life.' ** 



Of individual efforts of the convent there is 

 not much sign. The abbot's zeal against 

 LoUardy 1' did not apparently inspire his monks 

 to combat heresy in treatises or sermons. 

 Wheathampstead wrote 1° and caused to be 

 written more books for the brothers, it is said, 

 than any other Abbot of St. Albans,"^' but with 

 disappointing result as regards original work by 

 the convent. The Annales known as John 

 Amundesham's in the inflated, tiresome manner 

 of Wheathampstead whose deeds they eulogize, 

 are a poor exchange for the straightforward 

 narrative of the Gesta Abbatum ; while the one 

 historical producrion is the 'Chronicon Rerum 

 Gestarum,''* from its style probably a mere 

 diary. It is interesdng to see that some atten- 



" Amundesham, Annales, i, 43. 



12 Ibid. 45. 



" Ibid, ii, Z03-12. 



" Ibid. 233. 



^' He took proceedings against the Lollards at a 

 synod held at St. Peter's in 1427, attended the Bishop 

 of Lincoln's inquisition in 1429 and was associated 

 with the Bishop of Ely in another in 1 43 1 

 (Amundesham, Annales, \, I 3, 34—5, 64). 



^^ Of his many works, none of which is published, 

 the chief were the ' Granarium de Viris Illustribus,' 

 in four volumes, and the ' Palearium Poetarum.' 



1' Reg. of St. Albans, i, 462, App. D. A good 

 deal of copying was probably done in the scriptorium, 

 for the abbot borrowed (ibid, ii, 445-7, 456-7, 

 458, App. E) and made presents of books (Amunde- 

 sham, Annales, ii, App. A). 



i« Harl. MS. 3775. 



tion was now bestowed on music, hitherto 

 apparently neglected, for a monk in 1421 had 

 deserted to Christchurch, Canterbury, simph' to 

 enjoy opportunities of studying that art." The 

 appointment of two salaried singing-men here 

 in 1423,*° the suspicion of the Bishop of Durham 

 that a singing-boy had been enticed from his 

 chapel to St. Albans," and the purchase of new 

 organs for the conventual church in 1428,^ 

 all point to Wheathampstead's endeavours to 

 improve the services on the musical side. 



Wheathampstead resigned on 26 November 

 1440.^ The reasons for the step can only be 

 hazarded, but they were probably not so much 

 declining health, shyness and anxieties endured in 

 the past ** as difficulties anticipated in the future 

 through the waning of the Duke of Gloucester's 

 power. His expenditure for the benefit of the 

 house had been from ^^5,000 to £6,000 ^* : over 

 ^^1,400 had been spent in buying and securing 

 property in mortmain ^' ; about the same sum 

 in repairs and improvements to the manors, the 

 town of St. Albans and the college at Oxford " ; 

 j^Sgi at the abbey ^* ; ;fi42 on building a small 

 chapel in the church and on ornaments for it 

 and the Lady chapel ^' ; £6i\.i on vestments and 

 plate for the church*"; over ^£100 on plate for 

 domestic use ; £^26 in presents, principally for 

 friends of the monastery.'^ 



John Stoke, Prior of Wallingford, was 

 chosen in Wheathampstead's place.'* He very 



^' Amundeiham, Annales, \, 89. 



'" Ibid. 106-7. The abbot tried in 1439 to intro- 

 duce paid singers at Redbourn also. 



" Wheathampstead's letter of excuse to the bishop 

 c. 1422-4 [Reg. of St. Albans, ii, 406-8). 



^^ Amundesham, Annales, \, 25. 



>» Ibid, ii, 233-45. 



"Ibid. 233. 



^' He himself estimated it at over 10,000 marki 

 (ibid. 236). 



'* Arundel MS. 34, printed in Amundesham, 

 Annales, ii, 264-7, ^PP- A. 



^' [fiio on the manors, £665 on the Great Gate 

 and repair of tenements at St. Albans, £,\o% in 

 making a library and little chapel at Oxford (ibid. 

 261-4). 



^8 Ibid. 257-8. Inrebuildingtheinfirmary and its 

 chapel and constructing a large room for the abbot. 



»» Ibid. 258. 



'" Ibid. 258-9. A chasuble, six tunics and twelve 

 copes made of material given by Eleanor Hulie 

 cost X2°°» twelve copes of another suit £103, twelve 

 copes of a third suit ;^50. 



'1 Two gilt basins given to Queen Katharine, X55 ; 

 others to the Duch^s of Bedford, £25 ; silver cups 

 to Sir William Babington and Thomas Bekyngton for 

 favours shown to the monastery, £1 and [fi 13/. 4//.; 

 one to the Sheriff of Hertfordshire for favours shown 

 in the plea against the Abbot of Westminster, 

 ^4 6/. \d. ; three books given to the Duke of 

 Gloucester, j^io ; a book of astronomy for the Duke 

 of Bedford, ^3 6/. "id., &c., &c. (ibid. 255-7). 

 ^^ Cal. Pat. 1436-41, p. 527. 



402 



