A HISTORY OF SURREY 



Of the rule of the abbots who followed John 

 Attilburgh there is little to tell. The admin- 

 istration of the abbey by Henry Tompston 

 was commended by the prior of Lewes in a 

 letter addressed to the prior of St. Martin des 

 Champs.' In 1475, in return for their re- 

 lease of a rent of 1 8s. in the Stileyard, Lon- 

 don, which was to be given up to the mer- 

 chants of the Hanse the abbot and convent 

 were relieved from the future charge of any 

 corrody or sustentation granted by the king 

 or any of his successors.* John Marlow, 

 abbot of Bermondsey, died in 15 16, it was 

 said of the plague.' When elaborate pre- 

 parations were made to do honour to the 

 Emperor Charles V. on his visit to England 

 in 1522, the abbot of Bermondsey was one 

 of the six English abbots nominated to attend 

 upon ' my Lord Legate at Dover.' * On the 

 resignation of Robert Shuldham in 1525 the 

 convent as a mark of favour allowed him to 

 make choice of his successor, Robert Wharton, 

 to whom the temporalities were restored on 

 I October 1525.° To William Vaughan, 

 D.C.L., king's chaplain, was assigned the 

 pension which a new abbot was bound to 

 give to a clerk of the king's nomination." 



The Valor of 1535 returned the clear an- 

 nual value of the abbey at £4.J4 i^-s. ^\d. 



In June 1536 Robert Wharton was pro- 

 moted to the vacant see of St. Asaph, the 

 king sanctioning his holding the abbey in 

 commendam!' The bishop apparently lent 

 himself to the surrender of the abbey, which 

 was accomplished on i January 1537—8. 

 His compliance did not go unrewarded and 

 he received the large pension of ;^333 6j.* 

 Richard Gale the prior was granted £,10, 

 Thomas Gaynesborow, prior of Derby, £"], 

 the sub-prior and three other monks £b each, 

 four other monks £^ 6f. id. each, and two 

 others much smaller sums.® 



The work of despoliation had already be- 



» Duckett, Chart, and Rec. of Abbey of Cluny 

 ii. 237. Sir John Falstaff, writing to John Paston 

 in 145s, informs him of important letters sent to 

 ' my lord Privy Seal and the abbot of Bermondsey ' 

 {Paston Letters, i. 356). 



» R. of Pari. 14 Edw. IV. vi. 123. 



3 L. and P. Hen. Fill. ii. pt. I, 1832. 



♦ Ibid. iii. 2288 (3). 



5 Ibid. iv. 1 62 1. 



« Ibid. 1736 (24). 



' Ibid. 1256 (47). 



^ In 1554 Wharton was translated to Hereford. 

 Taking into consideration the date of the surrender 

 and the preferment to which the abbot was ad- 

 vanced, it has been thought probable that the 

 abbot was put in by the court with a view to its 

 surrender. 



» L. and P. Hen. Fill. xiii. pt. i. 821. 



gun. A special object of veneration since 

 1 1 1 7 had been an ancient crucifix found close 

 to the Thames in that year*" and placed in 

 an honourable position in the conventual 

 church to which it drew many pilgrims." 

 The sixteenth century diary of a citizen of 

 London, under an entry of 24 February 1538, 

 describing the Bishop of Rochester's sermon 

 on that day at Paul's Cross, and the 

 destruction there of the Kent ' Roode of 

 Grace,' adds : ' There was the pictor of 

 Saynte Saviour that had stood in Barmsey 

 abbey many yeres in Southwarke takyn 

 down.' '* 



John Husee wrote to Lord Lisle 2 1 March, 

 ' pilgrimage saints goeth down apace,' and 

 instanced Our Lady at Southwick, the Blood 

 of Hales, St. Saviour's and others. On the 

 following day he wrote to Lady Lisle and 

 stated that the image of St. Saviour's as well 

 as others had been taken away.*' 



That life and colour which is inseparably 

 connected with Bermondsey must be sought 

 elsewhere than in the somewhat sordid re- 

 cital of debt and mismanagement. As a con- 

 dition of the grant of the manor this founda- 

 tion of the king's progenitors was supposed to 

 incorporate within its buildings a residence 

 for the use of the sovereign if he should call 

 for it. From this condition may have sprung 

 the custom of bestowing here distressed 

 queens and individuals important enough to 

 call for some measure of supervision. As 

 early as 1 140 William, Earl of Mortain, after 

 a stormy career, retired to the monastery and 

 took the habit of the monk." 



1° Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 432. 



>' Towards the end of the thirteenth century 

 forty days of indulgence were granted to those who 

 contributed to the fabric of a church of St. 

 Saviour, Bermondsey, or who visited it for the 

 purpose of adoring the holy cross. Excerpts 

 from Register of John Romane, Archbishop, of York ; 

 Harl. MS. 6970, f. 97. 



" Cott. MS. Vesp. A. xxv. f. 41. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill. xiii. (1)564, 580. In 

 the Wriothesley Chronicle (1485-1549), i. 77, it 

 is stated that the rood was taken down on 2 March 

 by the king's command. 



•* Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 436. This was 

 the son of Robert, Earl of Mortain and Cornwall, 

 brother of Ivo, Earl of Kent and half-brother of 

 the Conqueror, who possessed a hide of land in the 

 manor of Bermondsey at the time of the General 

 Survey (Dugdale, Baronage, tom. i. p. 24). Per- 

 haps his choice was actuated by a feeling of grati- 

 tude, for under the year 11 18 the Annals (p. 432) 

 contain the following entry : ' In this year by the 

 miraculous virtue of the Holy Cross was William 

 earl of Mortain delivered from the tower of 

 London.' 



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