RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



independent, and the influence of the new no- 

 bility was exerted everywhere, the monasteries 

 had resort to favour. Annuities were paid to 

 the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, to the Earl 

 of Wiltshire, to Cromwell both as Master of 

 the Rolls and Master Secretary, to the chan- 

 cellor of the Duchy, to Sir Thomas Wharton, 

 and by royal mandate to Mr. Thomas Holcroft."" 

 In several pleadings it was asserted that the abbot 

 or his monks had connived to defeat or thwart 

 justice. There are ugly stories how a murderer 

 had been pardoned at the instance of his kinsman 

 the abbot ; ^^^ how valuable deeds were kept from 

 the owners in a locked casket;"' how a monk, 

 Hugh Brown, broke open a chest which con- 

 tained the common seal of the abbey and sealed 

 blank parchments upon which leases were after- 

 wards made of its Yorkshire manors to the Earl 

 of Cumberland."* This last episode, which was 

 afterwards admitted by Hugh Brown in 1542, 

 occurred just after the death of Alexander. 

 After robbing the dead abbot's bedroom of gold 

 and silver, he and others got a smith to break 

 open the chest where the seal was. Afterwards 

 the Earl of Cumberland sent to procure the con- 

 firmation of the lease from Roger Pele and the 

 convent. The earl affirmed that he had got it 

 from Alexander on his death-bed ; but the plea was 

 unavailing. The forgers were imprisoned, and 

 the lease disallowed. The case throws light 

 upon the inner and outer relations of the abbey 

 just before the Dissolution, and it is not surpris- 

 ing that it shared in the contempt with which 

 the new gentry and officials regarded spiritual 

 dignities."' Roger Pele, the last abbot, adopted 



"'The sums ranged from £10 to 40/., and are 

 given in Roger's Rental ; ptfo. 9, No. 73. They 

 do not appear in the Valor Eccl., which is otherwise 

 practically identical. The Survey also shows that 

 such men as the Marquis of Dorset and the Earl of 

 Derby were now titular tenants of the abbey and paid 

 quitrents; Rentals and Surv. R. 376. Although Roger 

 puts down the Master of the Rolls and the Secretary 

 separately, the amounts agree with the different sums 

 given to Cromwell in 1533 ; L. and P. Hen. FIII,y\, 

 (I'liZ, 841. Cf. xi, p. 597. The previous annuity had 

 been ^4, now raised to £6 ly. \d., with ^^lo as a 

 gift in ready money. 



"° Beck, op. cit. 314, 315. 



™ Lanes. Plead. 11 6-1 18. 



"' Beck, App. Izxxvii-xciii. The invalid lease ap- 

 parently granted the stewardship of Winterburn, and 

 in the Valor and Rental he receives £6 ' pro exer- 

 cendo officium senescalli ' ; but the title was also a 

 matter of dispute between the Earls of Derby and 

 Northumberland ; Corres, of Edward, Third Earl of 

 Derby (Chet. Soc), 115, 127. The Earl of Cumber- 

 land claimed the premises after the Dissolution, and 

 got a promise of confirmation. According to a letter 

 of Southwell he wanted Winterburn for less than it 

 was worth ; L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (2), 206, 279. 

 The suit of 1542 went against him. 



"' The abbot was one of the executors of Lord 

 Monteagle, and visited Hornby Castle during the 



the futile policy of keeping up a constant corre- 

 spondence with Thomas Cromwell. In 1528 

 his predecessor had incurred the blame of Wolsey 

 for negligence in attending to the minister's 

 commands,^^" and there is evidence that Alex- 

 ander's tenure of office was by no means smooth 

 or even unbroken.^'^ Roger secured himself by 

 paying ;^200 for his admission and granting Crom- 

 well a yearly pension. His good relations with the 

 powerful secretary were needed to protect him from 

 recalcitrant neighbours and importunate nobles.^^^ 

 One Seton, farmer of Aldingham church, 

 entered information against the abbot for restor- 

 ing certain wines brought to Furness by an 

 Ipswich merchant.^^' * I give him yearly £6 by 

 patent that he should be gentle to me and our 

 monastery ; yet he goes daily about to do us 

 displeasure.' '^* The Earl of Cumberland clam- 

 oured for the lordship of Winterburn.^^^ The 

 deputy of Ireland forbad the Irish tenantry to 

 pay their rents to the monastic officers,^^" the 

 king was induced to desire letters of presentation 

 to the parsonage of Hawkshead. This last 

 demand caused much uneasiness. Hawkshead, 

 the abbot wrote, had never been a separate bene- 

 fice, and was the peculiar property of the abbey ; 

 presentation would mean the undoing of the 

 abbey, which would be compelled to give up 

 hospitality. Roger sent a special present to 

 Cromwell in order to be excused to the king.^^' 



break up of the establishment. ' My lord of Furness 

 was here with all his pontifical staff. Only thirty 

 priests were needed, but above eighty came — /^d. and 

 his dinner to each' ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (i), 



235- 



"" Wolsey desired the stewardship of the abbey for 

 the young Earl of Derby, who was in his retinue ; 

 Beck, op. cit. 311 ; L. and P. Hen. VIII, iv (2), 

 4522. 



'"In 1516 the auditor of the apostolic chamber 

 issued a decree on behalf of John Dalton, abbot of 

 Furness, and certain monks named who had been 

 thrown into prison by Alexander during the progress 

 of a suit touching his rights to the monastery ; L. and 

 P. Hen. VIII (2), ii, p. 1529. In the Bardsey case, 

 on the other hand, reference is made to the time 

 ' when plaintiff was most cruelly and unjustly expelled ' 

 from the abbey ; Lanes. Plead, i, 95. The dispute 

 seems to have been carried on by Roger Pele also ; 

 Beck, op. cit. 315 note. 



'** Others made use of them also ; L. and P. Hen. 

 VIII, V, 740. 



'" L. and P. Hen. VIII, v, 849 ; viii, 1 1 32 ; x, 5 1. 



^'* Ibid, viii, 1132 ; the pension does not appear in 

 the rental. 



"Mbid. vi, 632. 



"° Ibid, viii, 1 132. In 1420 the abbey petitioned 

 Martin V to allow exchange for Irish and Manx lands, 

 which ' sterilia et inutilia existunt' (Beck, op. cit. 290), 

 but no exchange was ever made. 



"'i. and P. Hen. VIII, vii, 520, 531. Is this 

 another example of a chapel served by the regular 

 clergy ? As for the plea of poverty Roger says that his 

 predecessor had left the abbey in great debt to the 

 executors of Sir William Compton ; ibid, x, 51. 



123 



