RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



tions to his clerks not to meddle further with 

 the custody of the issues of the house, which 

 had been delivered to them at the request of 

 the prior and convent on account of debt/ in 

 the hope that the prior would so rule that 

 religion and alms might be properly main- 

 tained.' Such hope was short-lived however, 

 for in the following month, November 1320, 

 the king wrote to the prior of La Charit6 

 begging him to recall the prior of Bermond- 

 sey, and to abstain from sending another prior 

 until the king had informed him of some cir- 

 cumspect and industrious man, at the same 

 time acknowledging that he had been mis- 

 taken in his judgment of Peter, but that at 

 the time he was not so cognisant of the con- 

 vent's af&irs. The defaulter should be 

 wholly excused in disobeying the voidance of 

 him made by the prior of La Charit6 at his 

 chapter general as the king was responsible 

 for that action.^ Meantime the custody of 

 the priory was granted to the provost of 

 Wells and John de Lodelowe, sub-prior of 

 Bermondsey, with the usual instructions as to 

 applying the revenues towards the discharge 

 of its debts.* The prior of La Charit6 having 

 replied in a pleasant manner the king wrote 

 again the following spring to thank him for 

 his agreeable answer, and to nominate John 

 de Cusancia, monk of Lewis, a wise and cir- 

 cimispect man supported by the protection of 

 powerful friends, to the vacant position, ex- 

 pressing a hope that the spiritualities and 

 temporalities of the house might be reduced 

 to a better state by John's regular and whole- 

 some example, wise solicitude and circumspect 

 diligence.^ Peter however was not so easily 

 disposed of, probably calculating on the vacil- 

 lating nature of the monarch he applied to 

 influential neighbours with such success that 

 not long after, the king was persuaded to re- 

 tain him ' by the request of the mayor and 

 certain citizens of London,' and to restore 

 the custody of the house into his hands.* 



1 Pat. 13 Edw. II. m. 2. 



2 Close. 14 Edw. II. m. 17. During this custody 

 tvfo petitions were presented by John de Bresvile 

 of London and William le Tonelour for the pay- 

 ment of 7 marks and loos. respectively due to 

 them for a corrody. {R. of Pari. 14 Edw. 11. I, 



372-5)- 



3 Close, 14 Edw. II. m. 13d. The superior was 

 informed at the same time that the value of lands, 

 churches, and rents demised during the time of 

 this prior for term of life and for term of years 

 amounted to £,2^2, and that the money thence 

 arising was wholly exhausted. 



* Pat. 14 Edw. II. pt. i. m. 4. 

 5 Close, 14 Edw. II. m. gd. 

 8 Ibid. 15 Edw. II. m. 25. 



71 



According to the Annah in 132 1 death closed 

 his further career.' 



In January 1323-4 an order was issued 

 for the arrest of Walter de Suto, then prior of 

 Bermondsey, and two of the monks on the 

 grounds that they had knowingly harboured 

 in the priory certain rebels against the king, 

 James de Barytone, Percival his brother, and 

 Peter de Monte Martini and others from 6 

 December 1322 unril 23 January 1322-3, 

 and permitted them to depart.^ The accused 

 were committed to the Tower, and the priory 

 again was committed to custodians.' 



The following April 1324 Johnde Cusan- 

 cia, the king's former nominee, received the 

 temporalities." The sheriff of Surrey was 

 directed to set at liberty the prior of Ber- 

 mondsey and his monks recently arrested as 

 aliens and to restore all goods and possessions, 

 the prior engaging to send none out of the 

 realm nor leave the kingdom without the 

 king's special licence." When the priory of 

 Lewes became void in the same year John de 

 Cusancia and James his brother, prior of 

 Prittlewell, were suggested by the king to the 

 abbot of Cluny as suitable presentees to the 

 Earl of Surrey, patron of the priory of Lewes, 

 for him to make choice of either according to 

 ancient custom.''' 



In the year 1327 a dispute arose between 

 the prior of Bermondsey and Walter de 

 Duluyd who claimed to be prior. The king 

 was again moved to interfere, and having de- 

 clared the waste and impoverishment of the 

 house by the indiscreet rule of former heads, 

 he committed the custody of it to two of his 

 clerks, by whose advice and counsel Prior 

 John was to appropriate the profits to the 

 benefit of the house, the payments of its debts 

 and the maintenance of the brethren. All 

 persons were at the same time prohibited from 

 lodging therein or carrying away anything 



' Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 470. 



s This was probably in connection with the re- 

 bellion of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster. The priory 

 of Pontefract of the Cluniac order was suspected 

 of sympathy with this unfortunate nobleman 

 (Duckett, Rec. Evid. of Cluny, p. 26; Rymer's 

 Foedera, ii. pt. li, 726), which may have tended to 

 darken suspicion of other houses of the same order. 



9 Pat. 17 Edw. II. pt. i. m. 7. The Annals 

 (iii. 471) state that Prior Walter died in the year 

 1323 and was succeeded by John de Cusancia, and 

 this date is quoted by Manning. If the story of 

 the claimant in 1327 were correct, it would 

 appear that the date of his death was recorded 

 prematurely. 



10 Pat. 17 Edw. II. pt. ii. m. 19. 



11 Close, 18 Edw. II. m. 37. 



12 Ibid. 18 Edw. II. m. 34. 



