RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



spent 1 60 marks in litigation, and anticipated 

 further legal trouble and expense. The prior, 

 when first entering on his duties, found an in- 

 sufficiency of all necessary provisions, and he had 

 also had to pay an annuity of 40 marks to his 

 predecessor, which could ill be spared. There was 

 another debt of ^^40 on certain property, which 

 originated with Roger, a former prior.^' 



In 1263 the priory became involved in a most 

 serious affray connected with the patronage of the 

 church of St. George's Burton-on-Trent, which 

 doubtless arose through the preferment of absentee 

 foreigners. According to the deposition of Bartho- 

 lomew son of Adinulf, knight, of Anagni, papal 

 chaplain and rector of St. George's, the Prior and 

 Convent of Lenton, pretending that he was dead, 

 presented to it one Thomas de Raley ; where- 

 upon Bartholomew obtained papal letters ad- 

 dressed to Master John de Anagni, papal chap- 

 lain, resident in England, who, on the prior's 

 promise to expedite the business at his own ex- 

 pense, committed the matter to him. After- 

 wards the prior went to the church of St. George 

 with Bonushomo de Portia, the rector's proctor ; 

 but certain servants of Thomas de Raley stripped 

 the proctor in the prior's presence, robbed him of 

 the papal letters, and eventually killed him in 

 the churchyard. The prior and Thomas were 

 cited to appear before the pope within a given 

 time, which they did not do, and were therefore 

 declared contumacious and excommunicated by 

 the Cardinal, to whom the pope had committed 

 the matter. This excommunication was pro- 

 nounced in November 1263, but it was not until 

 August of the following year that the Bishop of 

 London received the papal mandate to publish 

 the excommunication of the prior and Thomas 

 de Raley throughout the archdeaconry of Not- 

 tingham and in other prescribed places, until 

 they made condign satisfaction in the cathedral 

 church of London.** 



In 1267 the vicar of Lenton complained to 

 the diocesan that the Prior and Convent of Len- 

 ton were detaining certain mortuaries and obla- 

 tions that pertained to the vicarage. Giffard 

 directed the Archdeacon of Nottingham to hold 

 an inquiry, and if the allegation were true, to 

 order the priory to restore the payments in dis- 

 pute.*' 



The Prior of Lenton in 1285 appointed 

 brother Thomas de Amundesham, a monk of 

 that house, to serve as general and special proctor, 

 for presenting in his name to vacant benefices, 

 &c. The cause for this was doubtless the visit 

 of the prior to a general chapter at Cluni.'" 



The finding of a Nottingham jury, in 1284, 

 that William son of Nicholas de Cauntlow was 

 born in the abbey of Lenton {in abbatia de Lenton), 



^ Duckett, Visit, of Engl. Clun. Houses, 31. 

 ^ Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 406-7. 

 "' York Epis. Reg. Giffard, fol. 34 d. 

 '" Ibid. Wickwane, fol. 70. 



and was baptized in the church of the abbey on 

 Palm Sunday twenty-one years before, is at first 

 sight a little startling.'^ But within the precincts 

 of so important a priory as this there would be 

 sure to be special guest-chambers for visitors of 

 distinction, and occasionally, though somewhat 

 irregularly, they would be of the fair sex. 



In fact Lenton Priory possessed in all prob- 

 ability a finer set of guest-chambers than any 

 that could be found in the town of Nottingham. 

 Henry III lodged at the priory in 1230. It was 

 at Lenton Priory that Edward I sojourned in 

 April 1302, and again in April of the following 

 year ; whilst Edward II visited the house for some 

 days in the year of his accession, and again in 

 1323. Edward III was a royal visitor in 1336, 

 as well as on other occasions.'* 



In 1289 Pope Nicholas IV wrote to Edward I 

 requesting him to restore to Peter de Siriniaco 

 the full possession of Lenton Priory, of which he 

 had been wrongfully deprived, as other priors 

 had been, by the abbot and general chapter of 

 Cluni, in consequence of appeals to the Roman 

 court in regard to the non-observance of statutes 

 made by Gregory IX for the reformation of the 

 order, and to which Ranaudus or Renaud, a 

 Cluniac monk, on presentation of the abbot, had 

 been inducted by the king as patron. The pope 

 urged Edward to assign to the proctor of Peter 

 de Siriniaco possession of this priory, as the Abbot 

 of Cluni had died at Rome whilst the cause of 

 Peter and the priory was pending, and Peter's 

 presence was required at Cluni for the election 

 of an abbot.'' 



There were various disputes between the 

 priory and the mayor and burgesses of Notting- 

 ham as to the duration of the great Lenton fair 

 and its ordinances. An interesting agreement 

 was arranged between the parties in the reign of 

 Edward I, c. 1 300. The priory pledged itself 

 to be content with eight days, beginning on the 

 eve of St. Martin, remitting four days, and pro- 

 mising never to ask for any extension beyond 

 the octave. The priory also covenanted for 

 themselves and their successors that cloth mer- 

 chants, apothecaries, pilchers (makers of fur gar- 

 ments), and mercers of the community of the 

 town, wishing to hire booths in the fair, were to 

 pay \ld. for as long as the fair lasted, excepting 

 those selling blacks {Blakkes) and ordinary cloths, 

 whose fee was to be 8^. All others desiring to 

 hire booths were to pay 81^., save that those sell- 

 ing iron and desiring ground as well as a booth 

 paid 4^., or without extra ground 2d. Tanners and 

 shoemakers not occupying ground were to be 

 quit of covered and uncovered stalls. Each 

 booth was to be 8 ft. long and 8 ft. broad. None 



" Cal. Gen. i, 139. 



" Rymer, Foedera, ii, 900, 922 ; iii, 13, 14 ; Pat. 

 and Close R. 



" Cal. of Papal Letters, i, 505-7 ; see also Rymer, 

 Foedera, ii, 453. 



95 



