RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Between 1493 and 1500 John Harpesfield 

 accused the abbot of detaining from him docu- 

 ments relating to the entail of Harpesfield 

 Manor *^ ; Robert Newbury said that he had 

 been deprived without cause of the post of 

 keeper of the gaol of the liberty and porter of 

 the abbey conferred on him for life in 1484 *^ ; 

 and Ralph Ferrers, master of St. Julian's, com- 

 plained that Ramryge, in order to put him out 

 of the hospital, had asked to see his letters of 

 collation and refused to give them back, and 

 now detained from him the revenues of his 

 house ** ; in 1500 or 1501 the Prioress and nuns 

 of Sopwell declared that the warden of their 

 house had for a bribe altered a lease to their 

 disadvantage.** 



Yet in two out of the three cases brought 

 against Ramryge personally, right may not 

 have been on the plaintiff's side. According 

 to the abbot, Newbury had been guilty of 

 misdemeanours in his office, and if so his re- 

 moval was necessary for the sake of the abbey .*^ 

 For the attempted deprivation of Ferrers, 

 dilapidation was the alleged ** and probably 

 the real cause.*' But if Ramryge's aim was 

 justifiable, neither his methods nor his judge- 

 ment can be commended. He seems to have 

 acted under the advice of a Dr. William 

 Robinson, to whom he had promised the post 

 if Ferrers could be ousted. The result, as far 

 as he himself was concerned, was the suit in 

 Chancery brought by Ferrers, who remained in 

 possession until his death, and proceedings 

 against him later in the Star Chamber for riot 

 on Robinson's accusation.** 



Henry VH arranged in 1504 for the per- 

 petual observance of his anniversary at the 

 abbey ** ; but as he founded obits of the kind 



*^ Early Chan. Proc. bdle. 208, no. 50. Harpes- 

 field is in St. Peter's. 



^ It had been given to his father and to him 

 (ibid. bdle. 216, no. 10). 



■•' Ibid. bdle. 201, no. 30. 



" Ibid. bdle. 245, no. 28. 



" In 1505 the abbot paid_£8o of the i^ioo which 

 he had been fined for the escape of a felon (Lansd. 

 MS. 160, quoted in Page and Nicholson, St. Albans 

 Cathedral). 



^«Star Chamb. Proc. Hen. VIII, bdle. 34, 

 no. 26. 



^' It seems unlikely that Ramryge would have 

 risked incurring further censures from Morton, who 

 was then chancellor. 



** See below, St. Julian's Hospital. 



^' Harl. MS. 28. The abbot and convent were 

 to celebrate services on 1 1 Feb. during the king's 

 life, and after his death on the day of his burial, for his 

 soul and the souls of his late consort, his parents and 

 children. On these occasions they were to provide 

 1 hearse, cloth for covering, and four waxen tapers 

 each weighing 8 lb., and they were to toll the bells. 

 tn return they were to receive \oos. a year from the 

 Abbot and convent of Westminster. 



409 



in seventeen other religious houses,'" he showed 

 in this matter no special favour to St. Albans. 



Of Ramryge's activities and administration 

 there is not much definite information. He 

 undoubtedly bestowed some attention on the 

 church and the services: he built a beautiful 

 chapel which still exists, and was responsible 

 also perhaps for paintings in the church '^ ; and 

 during the early part of his abbacy the celebrated 

 musician Robert Fairfax is said to have been 

 organist at the monastery.^' 



The abbot was apparently straitened for 

 money in 1511, since he was among those then 

 put in suit for non-payment of debts to the 

 late king.'* Financial difficulties ''* were con- 

 ceivably one reason why Cardinal Wolsey, 

 who on 2 June 15 19 had been made legatine 

 visitor by the pope,'' used his powers in October 

 to appoint William Fresell, Prior of Rochester, 

 coadjutor to Ramryge, then very old and infirm." 

 That this measure might be for the abbey's 

 benefit is evident, but it is not easy to see what 

 good Wolsey did by exempting Tynemouth 

 during the life of its prior, John Stonywell, from 

 the jurisdiction of St. Albans." 



Ramryge died early in November 1521, and 

 Wolsey at once set about securing the abbey 

 for himself. The king on hearing his wish '* 

 said he would rather give the abbey to him 

 than to any monk, and immediately wrote to 

 ask the pope that Wolsey might hold the 

 monastery in commeniam}^ The appoint- 



'<• As well as in the two universities (Har'. MS. 

 1498, fol. 90 d., &c.). 



*' Page and Nicholson, S/. Albans Cathedral, 12, 

 n. I. 



'^ Diet. Nat. Biog. Fairfax was here apparently in 

 1502, but afterwards entered the king's service. He 

 was buried in the abbey, where his grave slab still 

 exists. 



w L. and P. Hen. VUl, i, 1639. 



'* In the convocation of the province of Canter- 

 bury held in 1523 Wolsey, who had then had 

 St. Albans for about eighteen months, was left to 

 decide what proportion of its usual amount of subsidy 

 the monastery should give, as it had previously fallen 

 into debt and could not pay its contribution (ibid, 

 iii, 3239). A list of the abbey's creditors and the 

 sums due to them in S. P. Hen. VIII, xxvi, fol. 

 68-74 d., shows that the house was indebted at 

 Ramryge's death, but unfortunately leaves the extent 

 uncertain. The accounts are not at all clear : they 

 profess to give the sums owed at Michaelmas 1522, 

 but money borrowed on 20 Oct. 1522 is included ; 

 and among the old debts, which should mean those 

 contracted under Ramryge, there is one of ^50 for 

 the election of the new abbot. 



" L. and P. Hen. I'll I, iii, 5 lo- 



'6 Ibid. 487. 



'Mbid. 510. 



'8 Communicated to him by Pace (ibid. 1759) the 

 day after the monks had asked for the conge d'elire. 



69 Ibid. 1896. 



52 



