A HISTORY OF HERTFORDSHIRE 



seven years longer he meant to leave only four 

 churches in England ; lastly, that he had dis- 

 closed secrets of the confessional. 



Of the nine witnesses examined 24-8 August 

 1536," one only, Thomas Newman, swore to 

 the whole truth of the first four articles, another 

 swore to two and one to the fourth ; two had 

 heard Ashwell say something like the first ; 

 Stevenage denied the first and third articles, 

 could not vouch for time and place as regards 

 the fourth, and gave the following account of 

 the incident mentioned in the second : some 

 of those dining in the frater came into the 

 oriel during refection, and said they would like 

 some of that meat because theirs was not good ; 

 Stevenage remarked that by one of the king's 

 injunctions, which he thought ought to be kept, 

 they should all dine together and have the 

 same food ; Ashwell then said, ' As for the 

 king's injunctions I pray you who made them 

 but a sort of light persons and heretics ? Let 

 us keep well our old statutes as others have 

 done before us ' ; to which Stevenage replied, 

 ' I think the statutes were made by the king's 

 council, therefore I pray let us talk of other 

 matters.' Ashwell, as to the second, affirmed 

 that all he had said was that ' neither the king 

 nor his council will break any laudable customs 

 of our monastery or do anything to the hindrance 

 of good religion ' ; he denied the first, third 

 and fourth, but had heard several say that only 

 four religious houses should be left ; and he 

 declared the allegation about the confession to 

 be false. 



The affair looks rather like a continuation 

 of the intrigue against the abbot, the move 

 this time being to discredit and cow his party. 

 Catton was undoubtedly well disposed to 

 Ashwell,^* whose adversaries were the same as 

 his. Eight out of the nine witnesses called 

 against Ashwell were the abbot's opponents, 

 and the one exception, Guynett, gave evidence 

 most damaging to the informers. 



The appointment by Cromwell of Stevenage 

 as prior in the autumn of 1537'° boded no good 

 to Catton. On lo December Lee and Petre made 

 a visitation of the monastery, and reported *" 

 that the abbot, from the examination of the 

 monks and his own confession, could be justly 

 deprived for breaking the king's injunctions and 

 for dilapidations and negligent administration, 

 but he refused to entertain the idea of sur- 



" Exch. T. R. Misc. Bk. cxx, fol. 79-82. 



*' In sending the accused man to Cromwell he 

 said that he had hitherto regarded him as an honest 

 man (L. and P. Hen. Fill, xi, 251). 



*' Chr. Hales to Cromwell 10 Oct. 1537 : 'The 

 prior of St. Alban's lately made by your lordship 

 desires that he may receive the money of the house 

 as other priors have done' (ibid, xii [2], 873). 



^0 Cott. MS. Cleop. E iv, fol. 43, printed in 

 Dugdale, Mon. ii, 249. 



rendering the house," declaring that he would 

 rather beg his bread all the days of his life. 

 They asked Cromwell whether they had better 

 remove him at once, when the house being in 

 such debt none would take it except for the 

 purpose of surrender, or whether they should 

 delay sentence and leave him in suspense until 

 he should give the abbey into the king's hands 

 in order to assure himself a Uving. The former 

 course was adopted. Catton was deposed, and 

 the convent compromitted the election to 

 Cromwell," who in April 1538 made Stevenage 

 abbot.w 



The ex-abbot is mentioned again in connexion 

 with his supplanter, for Stevenage in September 

 declined to seal an indenture providing for 

 Catton, on the ground that it differed from the 

 agreement made between them before Cromwell, 

 and insinuated that Catton was trying to get an 

 advantage over him.'* 



The visitors had not underrated the pecuniary 

 embarrassments of the house. The new abbot 

 was actually detained a prisoner by Gostwyke, 

 the collector of the king's tenths, and wrote 

 to Cromwell that he had offered to pay ^^300, 

 the utmost he could raise, but was utterly 

 unable to meet Gostwyke's demand for first- 

 fruits.'* The weight of debt was becoming 

 unbearable. 



An incident which occurred in October 1539 

 seems also significant, though in another way. 

 Stevenage, in obedience to Cromwell's letters, 

 then sent to him ' John Pryntare,' in company 

 with three stationers of London, ' to order him 

 at your pleasure,' and promised that he would 

 search for copies of the little book of detestable 

 heresies that the stationers had showed him.*' 

 The end was not far off when heretical books 

 were being printed at St. Albans, probably 

 within the monastic inclosure." The abbey 

 was, in fact, surrendered on 5 December.'* 

 Stevenage, or Boreman, as he is henceforth 

 called, was given a pension of {266 i^s. ^d. a 

 year, and all the monks also received annuities." 



'1 The surrender was expected at this time. See 

 John Husee to Lord Lisle (Z.. anj P. Hen. Fill, xii 

 [2], 1209). 



'2 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiii (l), 181. 



83 Ibid. 887. 



»* Ibid. (2), 385. 



'' Ibid, (i), 182. The farnjer of Hexton parson- 

 age applied to the abbot in vain ior £^ due for repairs 

 (Ct. of Requests, bdle. 2, no. 52). 



«6 L. and P. Hen. Fill, xiv, 315. 



'' John Printer certainly suggests the John Hertford 

 mentioned above as having a printing-press within 

 the abbey. 



98 Dugdale, Mon. ii, 249-50. 



^' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xv, 547. Sums varying 

 from £5 to j(^i3 6/. id. were still paid to twenty- 

 four monks in Queen Mary's reign (Clutterbuck, 

 Hist, and Antiq. of Herts, i, App. ii). 



412 



