A HISTORY OF SURREY 



crated Elias of Radnor Bishop of Llandaff in 

 the conventual church of Merton ; this raised 

 a protest from the monks of Canterbury at 

 the ceremony not taking place in the 

 cathedral church.' Prior Giles de Bourne 

 resigned in 1 231 in order to become a Cis- 

 tercian monk at Beaulieu, and was succeeded 

 in his office by Henry de Basinges, sub- 

 cellarer of that house.' 



During the rule of this prior several 

 striking scenes in connection with national 

 history took place at the monastery. Hither 

 in 1232 fled for sanctuary Hubert de Burgh, 

 the great justiciar of England, whereupon 

 the king ordered him to come forth and 

 abide the issue of the law, but Hubert, dis- 

 trusting the king, declined to leave his 

 asylum. Henry III. being enraged ordered 

 the lord mayor of London to summon all 

 citizens that could bear arms and to take 

 Hubert alive or dead. An armed mob of 

 20,000 speedily assembled and marched on 

 Merton. As they neared the priory the 

 hunted man took up his station before the high 

 altar to await what might befall, but to the 

 great relief of the prior and canons wiser 

 counsels prevailed with the king, and at the 

 eleventh hour the array was dismissed. 

 Eventually Hubert de Burgh left the priory 

 under what he believed to be a royal safe-con- 

 duct.' The large buildings of the monastery 

 were used in 1236 for the holding of the 

 Parliament which passed the famous Statutes 

 of Merton, thus named from the place of 

 assembly.* It was here also that in 121 7 

 Cardinal Gualo, the pope's legate, concluded 

 the peace between Henry III. and the 

 French prince.^ Prior Henry died at the 

 close of 1238, and was succeeded in January 

 1238-9 by Robert de Hexham, in whose 

 time the seal of the priory was renewed in 

 silver ; it was received on 1 1 December 

 1 24 1.* The prior of Merton, together with 

 the abbot of Malmesbury, was suspended for 

 opposing the demands of the papal emissary 

 sent to England in 1244 to extort money 



1 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), 1-77. 



' Ibid. iii. 128. He was the second prior to 

 leave his order for one of more rigid discipline. 

 The communities of the order of St. Augustine, 

 virhile leading a quiet, regular, religious life, do not 

 seem to have made any aim at the severity and 

 self -mortification which distinguished some of the 

 other orders. 



' Matt, of Paris, Chron. Major. (Rolls Ser.), 

 iii. 224-5-6. 



♦ Ibid. Hist. Minor. (Rolls Sen), ii. 386-7, and 

 Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 249-53. 



= Lambarde's Diet. 212. 



- Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), ii. 329. 



from the clergy by every means, especially 

 from the religious orders, and armed with 

 plenary powers to excommunicate, suspend 

 and punish.^ A charter of Eustace, who 

 became prior in 1249, granted to Sir John 

 de Haunsard and Lady Gundreda his wife 

 the right of participating in all the spiritual 

 blessings in the house and of choosing their 

 place of sepulture within the church, before 

 the altar of which two canons should be 

 assigned successively to celebrate for their 

 souls. On the news of the death of one or 

 the other the convent engaged to receive the 

 body with tolling of bells and obsequies to be 

 made as for a prior. Their names should be 

 entered in the martyrology of the house, their 

 anniversary kept, and a pittance made for both 

 to the value of one mark.' 



A sum of 600 marks was bequeathed by 

 Peter Chaseporc, who died on the eve of 

 Christmas 1255,10 buy land in England to 

 build a house of canons from Merton.* 



During the rule of Gilbert de Asshe in 

 1258 convocation of Canterbury was sum- 

 moned to meet at Merton Priory under the 

 presidency of Archbishop Boniface, when arti- 

 cles of much importance were promulgated.'" 

 In the same year the archbishop granted a 

 licence to the prior and convent permitting 

 them to appropriate the church of Patrix- 

 bourne to their own use, and ordained that in 

 future the prior of Merton should present a 

 canon whom the archbishop and his successors 

 should admit to the church." The convent 

 at the request of Walter de Merton, founder 

 of Merton College, consented to remit to the 

 use of its scholars the advowson of the church 

 of Maiden." The canons obtained a licence 

 from the Crown in 1299 to appropriate the 

 church of Effingham in their own patronage 

 and of the annual value of twenty marks." 



The taxation roll of 1291 affords abundant 

 evidence of the wealth of this house. In 

 addition to a very large number of advowsons, 

 appropriations and ecclesiastical pensions the 

 priory then held temporalities in thirty-two 

 London parishes of the annual value of 

 £29^^- 6^-" ; their temporalities in the diocese 

 of Winchester amounted to ;^43 9^.," and 



' Matt, of Paris, Chron. Major (Rolls Ser.), iv. 

 284-5. 



8 Cott. MS. Cleop. C. vii. ii5d. 



" Matt, of Paris, Chron. Major (Rolls Ser) v 

 484. 



i» Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), i. 411-22. 



" Cott. MS. Cleop. C. vii. f. 117. 



'2 Ibid. f. 142. 



" Pat. 27 Edw. I. m. 30. 



'* Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 10. 



" Ibid. p. 206. 



96 



