RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



end of the thirteenth century.'* Wimund was 

 hardly a happy choice, and the popular feeling 

 which, we are told, caused his election was not 

 always in such accord with the desires of the 

 monastic patron. Early in the thirteenth cen- 

 tury Nicholas of Argyll was elected by the clergy 

 and people in spite of the loud protests of the 

 monks, and his successor Nicholas of Meaux, the 

 abbot of Furness himself, was never able to hold 

 ground against the rival bishop Reginald."' The 

 quarrels between Olaf II and his brother, king 

 Reginald, no doubt produced this discord ; the 

 bishopric was a pawn in the game played be- 

 tween the two, a game in which the forces 

 of north and south, of popes and kings, 

 were called into play.*' In 1244 came a fresh 

 papal confirmation of the right, but in 1247 

 Laurence was elected without reference to Fur- 

 ness, and although he was not accepted, his 

 successor was appointed by the archbishop of 

 Trondhjem.*' After the subjection of Man to 

 the king of Scotland, the abbot of Furness made 

 a vain attempt to recover his right of election. 

 The king received him with smooth words, but 

 secretly forbade the clergy and people of Man to 

 receive any of his elect, under pain of severe 

 punishment (1275).*' In the next century 

 William Russell and John Duncan were elected 

 by the islanders ; the former was abbot of 

 Rushen and the abbot of Furness only interfered 

 so far as to give his consent as father superior.*' 

 During all this time the abbey maintained less 

 contentious relations with the island. It was 

 appropriator of the ancient churches, Kirk 

 Michael and Kirk Maughold. In the isle the 

 monks found a market ; in the abbey the kings 

 and bishops could find a burying place.'" Once, 



'* Oliver, Monumenta, ii, i ; Beck, op. cit. 123 ; 

 Olaf asked Thurstan of York to consecrate the first 

 bishop (Oliver, op. cit. 4 ; Munch's edition of the 

 Chron. Manniae (ed. Goss for Manx See), ii, 269 ; 

 Raine, op. cit. iii, 58). Papal confirmation of elective 

 power by Celestine III {Coucher, 667) about 11 94; 

 Oliver, op. cit. ii, 21. 



'^ Munch, op. cit. ii, 272 ; Chron. Manniae, di. 1217 ; 

 Beck, op. cit. 169 ; see below, note 232. 



" Reginald seems to have favoured Furness, as the 

 friend of the pope and Henry III. He was to pay 

 annual tribute at the abbey, after his surrender to the 

 pope ; Oliver, op. cit. ii, 53 ; Cal. Pap. Letters, i, 69. 

 Olaf oppressed the abbey ; Close R. 1 1 Hen. Ill, m. 

 16. 



" Chron. Manniae, a. 1247; Munch, op. cit. ii, 315. 

 The letter of Innocent IV in 1 244 is in Raine (op. 

 cit. iii, 157). Archbp. Gray is to confirm election by 

 the abbot and convent, with the consent of the archbp. 

 of Trondhjem, and to consecrate the bishop elect, 

 the voyage to Trondhjem being long and dangerous. 

 '" Cont. mil. Nezvb. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 569. 

 " Munch, op. cit. ii, 336. 



'" King Harald took the vessels and goods of the 

 abbey under his protection, with use of mines, free 

 transit, and three acres afud Balkvaldevath ad Burgag. 

 faciendum. He also granted freedom from customs 



under Edward I, the abbot appears as warden 

 of Man." 



The external history of the abbey from the 

 accession of Henry II to the Dissolution is scanty. 

 There is reason to believe that the monks 

 availed themselves of the power of John during 

 King Richard's absence to drive out the upstart 

 family of Lancaster from the Furness fells ; '^'' 

 and John, when he became king, bestowed his 

 usual attentions of privilege and extortion upon 

 the abbey." In 1205 the abbot incurred the 

 large fine of 5 00 marks in a plea of the forest." 

 The thirteenth century saw a quiet accumulation 

 of privileges and estates. The Scottish wars 

 brought a change. The abbot of Furness placed 

 political before ecclesiastical questions in 1297, 

 and received special protection in return for his 

 help against the machinations and invasions of 

 the Scots.'^ A few years later the abbey felt 

 the effects of the general distress so much that it 

 fell into debt, and a royal bailiff was appointed 

 to apply the revenues of the house to the dis- 

 charge of its obligations.'^ In 13 16 the Scots 

 devastated Furness, and carried off much plunder 

 and many captives." Six years later Robert 

 Bruce made a more elaborate invasion. Cope- 



and tolls (a. 1246); Oliver, op. cit. ii, 77-80. 

 Furness was the port for the island, and the abbey a 

 stopping-place for the kings ; ibid, ii, 88. King 

 Reginald was buried at the abbey in 1228 ; also 

 bishops Richard (d. 1274) ^''^^ William Russell (d. 

 1374). S^^ Chron. Manniae, passim, and Cont. Will. 

 Neuib. (ii, 568). 



''Due. Lane. Anct. D., L.S. 112 (1299). Cf. 

 Oliver, op. cit. ii, 134 ; Goss in Munch, op. cit. i, 

 251. In Pope NicA. Tax. (fol. 309^, 329^) the 

 abbey of Man appears under the archdeaconry of 

 Richmond. 



" The story in Reginald of Durham's Life of 

 St. Cuthiert (Surtees Soc. 1 1 2) starts with the seizure 

 of a long strip of land (35 miles by 4) by the fundator 

 ecclesiae, against whom John the abbot appealed in 

 vain both at home and in Rome. This is too vague 

 to be worth much, but may have some reference to 

 the grant to William of Lancaster by Earl William of 

 Warenne. Anyhow, Earl John granted back Furness 

 Fells to the abbey and forced the inhabitants to 

 respect his arrangement; Cotuher, \\'i-\(). Gilbert 

 son of Roger Fitz Reinfred retaliated in 1 194 by taking 

 1,000 sheep ; and the abbot proffered 500 marks for 

 a settlement ; Lanes. Pipe R. 78, 86. The Lancaster 

 interest was restored by the final concord of 1 196, 

 two or three years later. (See below note 165.) 



'' Rot. Claus. (Rec. Com.), 64^ ; Rot. Pat. (Rec. 

 Com.), 159 ; cf. Cont. Will. Newb. ii, 513. 



" Lanes. Pipe R. 204. 



'* Pat. 25 Edw. I, m. 14. The share of Furness 

 in the grant of a fifth shows that in 1299 the house 

 was not very rich — 6zs.; see Vincent, Lanes. Lay 

 Subsidies, i, 217. 



'* Pat. 33 Edw. I, m. 14. Probably the subsidies 

 for which the abbot failed to account in 1295. 



" Chron. de Lanereost (ed. Stevenson), 233. Yet in 

 this year the abbot went to the general chapter at 

 Clteaux ; Close, 10 Edw. II, m. 28 a'. 



117 



