RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



monastery would have had a better report from 

 John ap Rice, who with others visited it for the 

 king in October.'' He merely states that ' they 

 found little at St. Albans, altho' there were 

 much to be found.' '* This grudging admission 

 that no scandals had been discovered is good 

 evidence that the convent as to morals was 

 impeccable. Probably little fault could have 

 been found too with the standard of culture 

 there. Six of the community were at Oxford 

 in 1529-30,'* and Leland mentions that when 

 he visited the abbey (about 1535) the treasures 

 of the hbrary were displayed to him by a monk 

 of polished learning, much given to the study 

 of all past ages.*" The monastery deserves 

 some credit, moreover, for the printing done at 

 St. Albans between 1534 and 1538, for John 

 Hertford had his press in the precincts of the 

 abbey, and published certainly one book at the 

 abbot's request.*' Where the house was un- 

 satisfactory was on its financial side, and after 

 the visitation and the rules then imposed, as 

 regards the relations of the abbot and monks. 

 Catton told Cromwell on 22 January 1536'^ 

 that his position was ' so intricate with extreme 

 penury, daily calling of the old debts of the 

 house, daily reparations as well within the 

 monastery as without, and most of all encum- 

 bered with an uncourteous flock of brethren,' 

 that it was impossible for him to continue in 

 such a case, and he asked for relaxations of 

 some injunctions. Shortly before or after this 

 letter the prior and seventeen monks wrote to 

 Sir Francis Brian,^ saying that they had begged 

 the abbot to devise a remedy for the decay and 

 misery of the abbey, but he had taken it ill, and 

 they had therefore appHed to Brian to bring 

 about the desired reforms through Cromwell, 

 the visitor-general. They asked that the abbot 

 should not be permitted to make Robert 

 Blakeney receiver-general, as he was most unfit 

 for the office; that he might not waste or sell 

 the convent's woods without their consent, and 

 that sales lately made might be stopped ; that 

 he should show how much more or less the 

 monastery was in debt than when he became 

 abbot ; that the convent might not be forced to 

 use its seal to the detriment of the house, espe- 

 cially for borrowing ' any two thousand pounds 

 or other large sums ' until the old debts were 

 cleared off ; and finally that those who had 



" It was probably during the visitation that the 

 abbot on 1 5 Oct. absolved from obedience to the 

 rule and dismissed William Green or Amphibal and 

 John Campyon at their own request (Wills, Archd. 

 of St. Albans, Wallingford Reg. I, fol. 234 d.). 



'8 L. and P. Hen. VUl, ix, 661. 



'9 Aug. OfF. Misc. Bk. cclxxiv. 



*" De Scriptoribus Britannkis (ed. 1709), 316-17. 



'1 Dugdale, Mon. ii, 207 ; V.C.H. Herts, ii, 56. 



82 L. and P. Hen. ml, x, 152. 



*' Ibid, ix, 1155. 



petitioned the abbot might not be punished for 

 it and expelled. On 9 April 1536 Richard 

 Stevenage, the chamberlain, appealed to Brian 

 again for help,^* saying that if he did not inter- 

 fere the abbot would punish them severely ; 

 that he himself was to lose his office, for the 

 abbot had forbidden the tenants to pay any 

 more rents to him, and ' though this were 

 grievous to him and contrary to the king's 

 injunctions, he would be ready to suffer if the 

 monastery prospered and were well ordered, 

 which can never be so long as the abbot can do 

 as he will ' ; finally he suggested that ' a discreet 

 and circumspect brother ' should be appointed 

 coadjutor. 



Catton may not inspire admiration, he was not 

 a hero,*^ but he is more deserving of respect 

 than his detractors, some of whom a few months 

 later were informing against the third prior, 

 WilHam Ashwell,^^ to curry favour with Crom- 

 well. 



They reported that Ashwell, talking of Queen 

 Anne when she was in the Tower, said that he 

 trusted ' ere Michaelmas Master Secretary would 

 be in the same case, and that he would jeopard 

 all he was worth to see that day, for he and she 

 were maintainers of all heresies and new- 

 fangledness ' ; secondly, that while Ashwell and 

 others were in the oriel at dinner Stevenage 

 complained of their fare, which was neither good 

 nor wholesome, contrary to the king's statutes, 

 and Ashwell had said, ' What should we pass 

 upon these statutes which be made by a sort of 

 light-brained merchants and heretics, Crom- 

 well being one of the chief of them,' and when 

 ordered by Stevenage and others to be silent 

 he added, ' Why should we pass upon them 

 that purpose to destroy our reHgion, let us pass 

 upon the old customs and usages of our house ' ; 

 thirdly, that at the shaving-house door he had 

 questioned a young man named Newman who 

 wanted to leave the monastery, asking him by 

 what authority he would depart ; Newman 

 said, by the king's authority, since all under 

 twenty-two years of age were to remain no 

 longer in religion, and he was kept there against 

 the king's commandment and his own will ; to 

 this Ashwell rejoined, ' I marvel that you pass 

 upon that commandment which was not heard 

 of this thousand year before the king hath done 

 it of his high power, contrary to the law of God 

 and man both, for there is no man can say 

 against him ' ; fourthly, that at supper in the 

 prior's chamber one night the conversation 

 turning on the suppression of the religious 

 houses, Ashwell had said that if the king reigned 



8* L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 642. 



85 On an outbreak of the plague at St. Albans in 

 Oct. 1534 he had retired to Tyttenhanger (ibid, 

 vii, 1324). 



86 Exch. T. R. Misc. Bk. cxx, fol. 78. 



411 



