RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



entered into agreements, but he did so as proctor 

 for the abbey, and usually this was made clear in 

 the deed,^* which he sealed with one of the 

 Evesham seals, for the priory had none of its 

 own. As often as not the deed was drawn and 

 signed at Evesham. The abbot and convent, 

 not the priory, exercised the patronage of the 

 Leyland and North Meols livings. Down to 

 1 33 1 they presented rectors to both, but in that 

 year they obtained the appropriation of the rec- 

 tory of Leyland to their own uses, subject to a 

 suitable provision for a perpetual vicar.'' Pen- 

 wortham church had been appropriated from the 

 first without obligation to endow a vicarage, being 

 served by monks of the priory or by paid chap- 

 lains." 



Owing to the humble status of the priory its 

 history is little more than a record of land con- 

 veyances. With but one or two exceptions its 

 priors are mere names to us. Nor do the others 

 stand out from these shadows by reason of their 

 virtues, unless we may credit Prior Wilcote with 

 a good heart on the strength of his bequest to- 

 wards the expense of feeding up the monks ot 

 the abbey after the periodical blood-letting.^' 

 They were certainly treated very diflFerently by 

 Penwortham's best-known prior. 



Residence in monastic cells was generally 

 regarded as banishment and often used as a 

 punishment for monks who had made the mother 

 house too hot to hold them. To this practice 

 Penwortham owed the dubious honour of the 

 headship of Roger Norris, of whom his contem- 

 porary and opponent Thomas of Marlborough has 

 left a graphic portrait.^* A glutton, wine-bibber, 

 and loose-liver, he was able, unscrupulous, courtly 

 in manner, and his eloquence gave him a show 

 of learning. Originally a monk of Christ Church, 

 Canterbury, he betrayed his brethren in their quar- 

 rel with Archbishop Baldwin, and was imprisoned 

 by them, but escaped through a sewer. Thrust 

 into Evesham as abbot by Richard I he dissipated 

 its revenues until the monks were reduced to a 

 diet of bread and water, varied occasionally by 

 bread and beer ' which differed little from water,' 

 and for lack of decent clothing many of them 

 could not appear in choir and chapter-house. 

 The learned Adam Sortes was so persecuted by 

 him that in 1207 he retired to be prior of Pen- 



" Priory of Penwortham, 21, 54, 56. 



'' Ibid. 41-6 ; licence of Edward III, 26 June, 

 1330, that of Pope John XXII, 13 Jan. 133 1, Bishop 

 Northburgh's ordination of the vicarage, 4 Feb. 



1332- 



" This privilege was admitted, after inquiry, by 

 Bishop Northburgh ; Priory of Penwortham, 97-105. 

 In 1394 the prior obtained episcopal licence to cele- 

 brate divine service in the parish church without 

 prejudice to the oratory in the priory for two years ; 

 Lich. Epis. Reg. Scrope, fol. \i\b. 



" Priory of Penwortham, 105. 



" Chron. Abhat. de Evesham (Rolls Ser.), 103 sqq. 

 See also Diet. Nat. Biog. xli, 139. 



wortham." For many years Norris defied or 

 evaded protests and visitations, but at last in 1 2 1 3 

 the papal legate. Cardinal Nicholas of Tusculum, 

 deposed him, ' whom,' adds Thomas of Marl- 

 borough, ' may God forever destroy.'^" Neverthe- 

 less the convent had no scruples in persuading 

 the legate to make him prior of Penwortham. 

 In five months his excesses obliged Nicholas to 

 deprive him of this post too.^' But about five 

 years later the legate Pandulf, out of pity and to 

 prevent his becoming one of the vagabond monks 

 condemned by St. Benedict, again invested him 

 with the priorship. He remained at Penwortham 

 until his death in July, 1223, refusing to the end 

 to be reconciled to the abbot and convent of 

 Evesham and withholding certain revenues which 

 belonged to them.^^ Between this date and the 

 Dissolution the only outstanding events in the 

 history of the priory are the inquiry of Bishop 

 Northburgh as to its status, already referred to, 

 a dispute with Queen Isabella's steward at Pen- 

 wortham, who from 1340 to 1343 exacted from 

 the priory ' puture ' or entertainment for himself 

 and his train during the holding of the three 

 weeks' court there, and the claim of the sheriiF 

 to similar hospitality. A local jury found that the 

 queen's steward had no such right, and on 9 June, 

 1343, the royal commissioners of inquiry into 

 the oppressions of officers awarded the abbot of 

 Evesham damages.^' Seven years later (25 Novem- 

 ber, 1350) Henry, earl of Lancaster, abandoned 

 his claim to puture for the sheriff and his ser- 

 vants.^* 



The visitors in the reign of Henry VIII in 

 1535 accused Prior Hawkesbury, who had been 

 appointed by Wolsey, of incontinence.^' The 

 number of monks in the priory is not stated. 

 Originally there had been three, but at the time 

 of Northburgh's inquiry there were only two, 

 including the prior.^' Between 1535 and 1539 

 the abbot and convent of Evesham must have 

 withdrawn the monks, for on 20 February in 

 the latter year they leased the priory or manor 

 and rectory of Penwortham and the rectory of 

 Leyland to John Fleetwood, gentleman, of 

 London, for ninety-nine years at a rent of 



" Sortes is described by Thomas of Marlborough 

 as ' in literatura apprime eruditus, qui antequam esset 

 monachus rexerat scholas artium liberalium per multos 

 annos ' ; Chron. Evesham, 147. He was twice sent to 

 Rome on convent business ; on the first of these 

 visits (1205) Abbot Roger compelled Adam to follow 

 him home on foot ; ibid. 148. 



^». Ibid. 250. "Ibid. 



" Marlborough asserts that he and Sortes with 

 others begged him in vain to lay aside his rancour 

 and ask the abbot to take him back as a monk of 

 Evesham. 



*' Cal. of Pat. 1 343-5, P- 213; Priory of Penwor- 

 tham, 36-9. 



" Ibid. 39. 



^'- L. and P. Hen. Fill, x, 364. 



*° Priory of Penwortham, 97. 



05 14 



