A HISTORY OF SURREY 



without the consent of the custodians.* 

 Brother Walter seems to have obtained an 

 opportunity to state his case, for shortly after 

 the king himself wrote to La Charit^ detailing 

 the circumstances of his story and requesting 

 the prior to put him in possession of the 

 priory, again representing the fallen condition 

 of the house owing to the want of good 

 government.^ The following year a more 

 happy state of things prevailed, and the cus- 

 todians were withdrawn, peace having been 

 established between Walter and the prior.^ 

 But the story of sordid struggle still runs on, 

 and in 1332 the house 'greviously burdened 

 by debt,' incurred through the neglect of late 

 priors, and ' other misfortunes,' was again 

 taken under the king's protection.* Discon- 

 tent with their government was at this time 

 very general in English Cluniac houses.* 



Bermondsey was sequestrated as an alien 

 priory in August 1337, and the prior ap- 

 pointed custodian. The king ratified the 

 lease made by John de Cusancia of the ap- 

 propriated church of Shorne within the dio- 

 cese of Rochester for five years so as to better 

 ensure payment of the farm of the custody," 

 which amounted to ;£ioo.'' In 1338 the 

 convent probably suffered from another in- 

 undation of their property, as it i^ recorded 

 that in March of that year the king granted 

 the prior respite until Michaelmas for the 

 payment of the ;^I00 due, in consequence 

 of the damage suffered by the priory suddenly 



' Pat. I Edw. III. pt. ii. m. 6. 



» Close, I Edw. III. pt. ii. m. I7d. 



' Ibid. 2 Edw. III. m. 29. 



* Pat. 6 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 18. 



» In 1 33 1 they presented a joint petition to 

 Parliament on the subject. Bermondsey was 

 instanced as a priory that ought to have had from 

 thirty to forty monks, whereas it had not a third of 

 that number. They complained that they had 

 no election ; that they were sometimes kept as 

 long as forty years without taking their vows, that 

 there were not twenty professed in the whole pro- 

 vince, and that the French monks, however few, 

 were always masters. They asked that the prior 

 of Lewes might be empowered to take professions 

 (Reyner's Apostolatus Beneiictinorum in Anglia, .A.pp. 

 iii. 147). One grievance at least remained unrecti- 

 fied. Among the Paston Letters occurs one to the 

 Vicar General of the abbot of Cluny, dated 1430 [?] 

 on behalf of the ' poor house of Bromholm,' where- 

 in, the writer states, are 'divers virtuous young men ' 

 that have been there nine or ten years, and by 

 delay of their profession many inconveniences are 

 like to fall {The Paston Letters [ed. J. Gairdner] 

 i. 29). 



« Pat. II Edw. III.pt. ii. m. n. 



' Close, II Edw. III. pt. ii. m. 27 ; and 12 Edw. 

 III. pt. i. m. 19. 



and without their fault.' In an undated petition 

 addressed to the king which may probably 

 be assigned to this time, the brethren state 

 that, in addition to the impoverishment of 

 the house, involving the alienation of pro- 

 perty so that what remained was barely suffi- 

 cient to sustain them, a tide of the 19 Feb- 

 ruary had destroyed their ditches and dykes, 

 and done much damage to their property, 

 consequently they begged for the payment 

 of the ;^ioo to be remitted." The prior 

 and convent received a discharge from the 

 exactions of the Earl of Surrey, who as 

 keeper of the maritime lands in Sussex called 

 on them to provide four men-at-arms and 

 archers by virtue of their lands in that county. 

 It was proved however that the farm paid to 

 the king for the custody of the priory in- 

 cluded such lands."* 



Alienation of the prioiy estates went on 

 apace and heavy debts accumulated during 

 the long adminstration of John de Cusancia.*' 

 In 1340 the prior and convent were bound 

 in a large sum of money to William de Cu- 

 sancia the king's clerk, which they were 

 unable to pay on account of the ' intolerable 

 charges ' daily incumbent upon them in keep- 

 ing in repair the breach of Bermondsey,*^ 

 Edward III. granted a licence for the convent 

 to appropriate the church of Beddington in 

 the year 1347 and to acquire lands and tene- 

 ments to the value of ^20." In 1373 began 

 the rule of the most successful administrator 

 of the priory of Bermondsey. Richard Dun- 

 ton, the first Englishman to hold the office of 

 superior, secured a charter of denization for 

 the monastery in 1 38 1 by the payment of a 

 fine of 200 marks," and from that date on- 



8 Ibid. 12 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 3id. 



" Anct. Pet. 1606. 



"> Close, 13 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 4. 



" Besides the ' large sum of money ' to William de 

 Cusancia during the years 1 341-2 the prior acknow- 

 ledged his indebtedness for the sums of 40/., 40 

 marks, and 500/. (Close 13 Edw. III. pt. i. m. I7d ; 

 pt. iii. m. 24 ; 16 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 28). John 

 de Cusancia was able however in 1328 to buy 

 back a grant of a corrody and lease of premises 

 made by Peter the late prior to Nicholas de Tun- 

 stalle, paying to the said Nicholas the sum of 

 ;^40 y. 4^. for his release of the charters. Close, 

 2 Edw. III. m. 29^;. 



" Ibid. 14 Edw. III. pt. ii. m. 10. 



" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 474. 



>• Pat. 4 Rich. II. pt. iii. m. 5. In a petition 

 addressed by Richard Dunton to John, King of 

 Castile (Duke of Lancaster) to enlist his support, 

 the prior points out the charges on an alien house 

 and the draining of its resources caused by the 

 alienation of property in order to meet such 

 charges. Anct. Pet. 4628. 

 72 



