RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



tion of obtaining in January 1345-6 an ex- 

 emplification of a certificate of their liberties 

 as confirmed by the charter of John.* In 

 1312 Edward II. granted the monastery a 

 patent for receiving annually a pipe of red 

 wine in the port of Southampton for the 

 celebration of the blessed Sacrament, a dona- 

 tion subsequently confirmed by Edward III.* 

 Richard II. granted a pardon to the abbot of 

 Waverley in February 1385-6, on payment 

 of a fine of five marks, for his refusal to send 

 a horse as promised to the Chancery for carry- 

 ing the rolls of Chancery, and delivering 

 them to John dc Waltham, the keeper.^ 



A trial which took place in the reign of 

 Edward III. involving the king's right to im- 

 pose boarders on the abbey of Waverley as a 

 house ' almost of the foundation of his pro- 

 genitors ' is of interest, as it established the 

 protest of the abbot and convent against the 

 royal pretension, and secured the recognition 

 of the feet of which they made their boast, 

 that they were of the foundation of the Bishops 

 of Winchester. Early in the fourteenth cen- 

 tury a practice seems to have grown up of 

 sending men to the abbey to receive a life 

 maintenance, and the abbot and convent, 

 while denying any obligation, had admitted 

 the boarder 'as by request.' Thus in 131 5 

 Walter Mantel, who had long served the then 

 late and present kings, was sent to receive a 

 like allowance that had been received by 

 William le Poleter.* In February 1327-8 

 Henry de Ditton was sent to receive a simi- 

 lar allowance to Walter Mantel,^ and in 

 1329 John de Alvidele to receive mainten- 

 ance as William de Greyby had received at 

 the late king's request.^ In 1334, when 

 Richard Charrer was sent in place of Michael 

 Charrer, deceased,' Abbot Robert addressed 

 letters of protest to the king ^ and to Michael 

 de Wath, keeper of the rolls of Chancery,* 

 on the subject of these impositions, in which 

 he pointed out that the abbey of Waverley 

 was of the foundation of the Bishop of 

 Winchester, and 'what we hold from you 

 seigneur we hold of the gift of your progeni- 

 tors in free and perpetual alms and by no 

 other service,' and begged that it would not 

 be required of the convent to give mainten- 

 ance to Richard le Charrer as Michael le 



1 Pat. 20 Edw. III. pt. iii, m. 6. 



2 Chart. R. 5 Edw. III. m. i, No. 4. 



3 Pat. 9 Ric. II. pt. ii, m. 29. 

 * Close, 9 Edw. II. m. 22d. 



6 Ibid. 2 Edw. III. m. 34d. 

 8 Ibid. 3 Edw. III. m. 4d. 

 ' Ibid. 8 Edw. III. m 26d. 

 ^ Anct. Corresp. xxxix. 132a. 

 » Ibid. 132. 



Charrer had received not of right, but by the 

 special request of the king's father and ' la 

 reine Marguerite,' the house being ' grievously 

 encumbed by debt,' " The matter did not 

 come to an issue till the year 1340, when 

 the abbot was summoned for contempt of the 

 king's writs, calling on him to admit Walter 

 de Denham, the king's yeoman, in place of 

 Walter Mantel, deceased." The whole mat- 

 ter being brought before the court, the king 

 alleged that William de Basyngstoke or 

 Poleter had been admitted by Abbot Philip 

 by the order of Edward I., that Walter 

 Mantel had succeeded him at the mandate of 

 Edward II., and that he could by his prero- 

 gative demand admittance to this house, al- 

 most of royal foundation, for Walter de 

 Denham. The abbot recited the foundation 

 of the house by one William Giffard, Bishop 

 of Winchester, and its liberties granted by 

 King Stephen at the request of Henry de 

 Blois, his brother, who had succeeded as 

 father, founder and bishop, and confirmed by 

 subsequent charters, and pleaded that boarders 

 had been admitted in the abbey contrary to 

 the charter of the brethren, and at the king's 

 request and not as of right. The king's ad- 

 vocates were unable to further sustain his 

 right, and judgment was given for the abbot, 

 who in the following year obtained an exem- 

 plification of the tenor of the plea.** 



The friendship which existed between the 

 abbey and the Bishops of Winchester furnishes 

 a very pleasant side to the history of Waver- 

 ley. Like all Cistercian houses the convent 

 was exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and 

 no licence from the Crown was required for 

 the election of superiors. The abbot received 

 benediction at the hands of the diocesan, 

 to whom he made profession of obedience, 

 ' saving the rights of his Order,' but 

 he was not instituted by the bishop. The 

 confidence and affection which characterized 

 their connection seem to have continued 

 throughout the history of the monastery un- 

 clouded by anything resembling the stormy 

 passages which occasionally strained the 

 bishop's relations with his own fraternity. 

 The size and importance of the monastery 

 probably made it a convenient centre, and 

 here in December 1204 representatives of 

 the priory of Winchester were directed by 

 King John to meet the Archbishop of 

 Canterbury to hear his wishes respecting 

 the choice of a bishop to the vacant see," a 



10 Ibid. 132a. 



".Close, 13 Edw. III. pt. ii, m. fd. 



»2 Pat. 15 Edw. III. m. 6. 



13 Pat. 6 John, m. 5. 



85 



