A HISTORY OF SURREY 



I April 1245, Eleanor, the sister of Henry 

 III. and wife of Simon de Montfort, Earl of 

 Leicester, described as 'a sincere lover of our 

 house,' was permitted by papal indulgence ' 

 to enter the abbey accompanied by her hus- 

 band, two sons — Henry and Simon — and 

 three handmaidens.^ The countess entered 

 the church at the very moment of the eleva- 

 tion of the host at the high altar during the 

 celebration of the mass of the Blessed Virgin, 

 a coincidence which the bystanders ascribed 

 ' not to chance but to divine appointment.' 

 She offered a very precious cloth, which was 

 to be placed on the altar on the days on 

 which the relics there were to be exposed. 

 Having been present at the sermon in the 

 chapter-house, at the procession and at high 

 mass, and having kissed the wood of the 

 Lord (a reh'c of the true cross), she retired 

 from the abbey greatly edified. Afterwards 

 the convent received of her gift 25 marks 

 and a further sum of 1 8 marks for the fabric 

 of the church, and also by her aid the house 

 accomplished the purchase of 125 acres of 

 land at Neatham.' In the autumn of 1252 

 another lady obtained papal sanction to enter 

 the abbey precincts. Isabel, Countess of 

 Arundel, the widow of Hugh de Albini, 

 visited the abbot to consult him in reference 

 to founding a Cistercian abbey at Marham. 

 She entered the chapter-house and was ad- 

 mitted an associate, and bestowed 4 marks 

 and a cask of wine on the convent as a pit- 

 tance.* 



Waverley at this time seems to have 

 attained to a very influential position. An 

 incident which occurred in 1240 affords a 

 striking illustration of the social life of the 

 period and of the power wielded by the 

 church; it would also tend to confer consider- 

 able prestige on the abbot of Waverley as one 

 of the chief actors. At Eastertide of that 

 year a young man arrived at the abbey, a 

 shoemaker by trade, who was appointed to 



» Cistercian houses were strictly closed against 

 women. An inddent which is recorded under the 

 year 1246 {Ann. Man. [Rolls Ser.], ii. 337) illus- 

 trates the importance attached to this rule. In 

 that year the king and queen with their children 

 were present at the dedication of the abbey church 

 of Beaulieu or Bewley, during the celebrations 

 of which Prince Edward fell ill and remained in 

 the monastery three weeks attended by the queen, 

 his mother. At the next visitation of the abbey 

 the abbot and cellarer were suspended on account 

 of this breach of the rule and because they had 

 supplied meat to the seculars. 



» Ann. Mm. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 336. 



» Ibid. 



' Ibid. pp. 344-5. 



82 



exercise his craft as shoemaker to the house. 

 He followed his trade peaceably for some 

 months, but on 8 August a certain knight 

 arrived with his comrades for the purpose of 

 arresting the young man on a charge of homi- 

 cide. Notwithstanding the protests of the 

 abbot and elder monks, who pleaded their 

 privileges, and stated that the whole of their 

 precincts were as much sanctuary as the very 

 altars of the church,' they seized the young 

 shoemaker and carried him off forcibly in 

 bonds and committed him to prison. Dis- 

 mayed at this bold defiance of their undoubted 

 rights, and foreseeing that acquiescence in this 

 violation of their precincts might result in the 

 loss of all distinction between places sacred 

 and places secular, the brethren agreed to 

 suspend all celebrations until redress had been 

 obtained, and the case was laid by the abbot 

 before the legate Otho, who was then in 

 England. As he proved remiss in the matter 

 the abbot proceeded to the king with a com- 

 plaint of grievous irreverence on the part of 

 his officers, and a demand for the immediate 

 restitution of the alleged offender. The king 

 was inclined to grant the request, but the 

 abbot's suit was opposed by the council, and 

 he had to be content with a promise that his 

 petition should be duly heard, on condition of 

 his withdrawal of the interdict that he had 

 laid upon his house. At last, after much 

 trouble and labour. Abbot Walter Giffard's 

 persistance won the day, and it was acknow- 

 ledged that the enclosures of Cistercian abbeys 

 and granges were exempt by episcopal authority 

 from civil action, and all persons violating the 

 same were ipso facto excommunicated. There- 

 upon the prisoner was restored and brought 

 back to the abbey, and the violators of Holy 

 Church, having been cited by the legate to 

 appear at the gate of the monastery, there to 

 make satisfaction to God and the abbot, were 

 absolved, having previously been publicly 

 scourged by the dean of the house and the 

 vicar of Farnham.« The miraculous virtue 

 supposed to attach to sacred places and build- 

 mgs IS illustrated in the following incident 

 which IS stated to have occurred in 1248! 

 A youth fell headlong by accident from the 

 summit of the church tower to the ground 

 without receiving the slightest injury. For 

 soine time he lay breathless, and was supposed 

 to be dead, but in a little while he recovered 

 breath, began to speak, and in a short time 

 completely recovered.'' 



The abbey of Waverley suffered many 



\ I'^'^lT ^*'''"'''' ^^- ^y J- T- Fowler, p. 36. 

 • Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 72^-7 

 ' Ibid. p. 340. 



