A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



had granted."^ Nicholas's bull appropriating 

 Whalley church to Stanlaw on the death or 

 demission of the rector could therefore be held 

 to be annulled. ^'' As soon as this new difficulty 

 was grasped the good offices of the king and the 

 Earl of Lincoln were secured, Richard of Rudyard, 

 one of the monks, was sent to Rome, and after 

 some negotiation and considerable disbursements 

 obtained a renewal of the grant fi-om Boniface 

 on 20 June, 1297."° Meanwhile the king's 

 court had upheld their contention that Altham 

 was a chapel of Whalley, not a parish church.-^' 

 This involved further expense ; altogether the 

 abbey spent ;^300 in England and at Rome in 

 making its title to Whalley and Altham secure."" 

 Even now they were not at the end of their 

 troubles. The older Cistercian abbey at Sawley, 

 six miles to the north-east, complained to the 

 general chapter of the order that the new house 

 was nearer to their own than their rules per- 

 mitted, that its monks consumed the tithe corn 

 of Whalley parish which the late rector used to 

 sell to Sawley, and that the increased demand 

 for corn and other commodities had so raised 

 prices that their monastery was permanently 

 poorer to the extent of nearly ^^30 a year. 

 Arbitrators appointed by the chapter arranged a 

 compromise in 1305 ; each house agreed to pro- 

 mote the other's interests as if they were its own ; 

 monks or convent of either doing injury to the 

 other were to be sent there for punishment ; 

 Whalley was to give the monks of Sawley the 

 preference in the purchase of their corn provided 

 they were willing to pay the market price. ^^' 



Some years before this settlement the abbey 

 entered on a long dispute, or series of disputes, 

 with Roger Longespee's successor as bishop of 

 Coventry and Lichfield, Edward I's well-known 

 minister Walter de Langton. The details of the 

 quarrel are obscure, but it perhaps originated in 

 an attempt of the monks to recoup themselves 

 for the heavy expenses which their acquisition of 

 Whalley had entailed. From May, 130 1, to 

 June, 1303, Bishop Langton was suspended from 

 his office by Pope Boniface, pending the hearing 

 of serious charges against his character.'"" About 

 this time the vicarage of Whalley fell vacant, 



'^ Coucher, 207. 



"' Ibid. 208. It was taken for granted that Boni- 

 face's constitution preceded the death of Peter of 

 Chester. He accepted assurances that the monks 

 were unaware of it when they removed to Whalley. 



^ Whitaker, op. cit. i, 162-5 ; Coucher, 209. 



"' 13 October, 1296 ; ibid. 303. Nevertheless 

 the abbey thought it prudent in i 301 to buy off the 

 claim from Simon of Altham at a cost of j^20 ; ibid. 

 305 ; Towneley MS. fol. 486. 



"' Whitaker, op. cit. i, 1 76. The editor of the 

 Ccuiber (305), who mis-read the sum as 300/., took it 

 to be the cost of the Altham litigation only, but this 

 was not carried to Rome. 



"* Dugdale, Mon. v, 641 ; Whitaker, op. cit. i, 84. 



"* Diet. Nat. Biog. xxxii, 130. 



and the monks, seizing their opportunity, ob- 

 tained the pope's permission to appropriate the 

 vicarage to their own uses."" On 26 May 

 1302, the abbot of Rewley, in virtue of a papal 

 commission, put them in possession, but the 

 bishop or his representatives apparently appealed 

 to the Court of Arches, which launched sen- 

 tences of excommunication, suspension, and 

 interdict against the intruders. Early in De- 

 cember the abbot of Rewley instructed the 

 abbots of Furness and Vale Royal to pronounce 

 these sentences null and void.*"^ The order 

 was carried out, but Langton 's reinstatement and 

 the death of Boniface proved fatal to the abbey's 

 ambition. Not only did it lose the appropriation, 

 but Langton obtained judgement against the 

 abbot and convent for 1,000 marks, which seems 

 to have included the estimated value of the 

 revenue of the vicarage, which ought to have 

 gone to the bishop during the vacancy, and the 

 bishop's costs.^"' A letter of Abbot Gregory is 

 preserved in which he complains bitterly that 

 though they have paid 100 marks on account 

 their goods are to be sold to meet the rest of the 

 debt.^'^ In the absence abroad of their patron 

 he writes to his son-in-law Earl Thomas of 

 Lancaster that, owing to the bishop's long ill- 

 will they are unable to carry out the provisions 

 of their founders and benefactors, and begs him 

 to use his influence with the king to secure them 

 a grant of some ' convenable cure.' ^"^ Langton 

 was imprisoned by Edward II from 1 307 to 

 1 3 12, but it was not until Abbot Gregory had 

 been dead nearly three months that he at last 

 consented (11 April, 1310) to withdraw his 

 claims against the abbey."'^ 



At one moment in the course of this quarrel 

 the abbot and convent had seriously contem- 

 plated leaving Whalley, but Pope Clement V 

 ordered them (January, 1306) to remain, or the 

 church would revert to the presentation of the 

 Earl of Lincoln.'"" They were still dissatisfied, 

 however, with their new home, and ten years 

 later made another attempt to remove elsewhere. 

 Thomas of Lancaster, in consideration of the 

 lack of timber at Whalley to rebuild their mon- 

 astery and of fuel for their use, together with 

 the difficulties of transporting corn and other 



"' Towneley MS. fol. 268. The wording of the 

 document points to an attempt to get rid of the en- 

 dowed vicarage and to serve the church by monks or 

 chaplains. ' Appropriation ' would hardly be applied 

 to a temporary sequestration of the vicarage in their 

 favour during the vacancy. A passage in the Ponte- 

 fract chartulary may perhaps refer to this transaction ; 

 Dugdale, Mon. v, 642. 



™ Towneley MS. fol. 268-9. 



»' Ibid. 262 ; Whitaker, op. cit. i, 150. 



'^'Ibid. >»Ubid. I 50- 1. 



'"^ Towneley MS. fol. 262-3. He received the 

 new abbot's profession of obedience next day ; See 

 below p. 139. 



'<" Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 7. 



34 



