A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



arrival of Henry IV." Their representations 

 procured on 4 November, 1399, a grant of 

 restitution of the profits for the year just ended, 

 but a fortnight later it was revoked.'* 



Fear of violence from parties with whom they 

 were in litigation induced them to obtain letters 

 of protection from Henry in 1402.'' 



The three quarters of a century following is 

 a blank in the history of the house. Fresh light 

 comes with the election of a successor to Abbot 

 Lucas in 1477 ; this was not accomplished with- 

 out dissension, one of the canons being charged 

 with inviting lay intervention.*" The state of 

 the abbey during the last quarter of the fifteenth 

 century is recorded with some fulness in the 

 extant visitations of Richard Redman, bishop 

 successively of St. Asaph, Exeter, and Ely, and 

 visitor of the English province of the Premon- 

 stratensian order. These inquisitions were as a 

 rule triennial and the records of eight such 

 visitations of Cockersand between 1478 and 

 1500 are preserved.'*' Until 1488 Redman 

 •detected nothing more reprehensible than some 

 laying aside of the claustral mantle {capa) at 

 meals, and garments girded high like those of 

 travellers and labourers." The house was £ioo 

 in debt in 1478, but this had been paid off by 

 1484. 



Some relaxation of discipline was disclosed at 

 the next visitation in April, 1488. Redman 

 excommunicated two apostate canons, forbade the 

 brethren to reveal the secrets of the order and 

 the plans of the house to great lords, or to use 

 their influence to obtain promotion, and enjoined 

 them to be satisfied with the food provided, 

 attend all the hours, and refrain from wandering 



I 399-1401, p. 49. 



" Ca/. of Pat. 



"Ibid. 150. 



" Add. MS. 32107, fol. 261. The general chapter 

 inter\'ened on behalf of a canon who was apparently 

 at odds with the abbot (Sloane MS. 4934, fol. 65^, 

 Feb. 1402-3). Abbot Burgh had absented himself 

 from two chapters and ' quaedam gravia ' had been 

 found against him in the last visitation of the abbey 

 (ibid. 4935, fol. 131^). 



'° Ccliectanea Angk-Prmmstratensia (Camd. Soc.), 

 i, 95-6. 



*' Bodl. Lib. MS. Ashmole, 15 19. They are to 

 be printed in the second part of the work mentioned 

 in the previous note. 



"MS. Ashmole, 1519, fol. \ob, 24, 65. The 

 record of the visitation of 1484, is, however, lost. 

 The number of canons at this period was twenty to 

 twenty-two, of whom nearly all were priests. Of 

 these six had offices which compelled them to live 

 aw.iy from the monastery, the vicars and procurators 

 of Mitton and Garstang and the cantarists of Middle- 

 ton and TunstaU (or Thurland). The other officers 

 included a ' drcator,' a ' servitor comventus,' a ' custos 

 infirmorum,' and a ' provisor exteriorum.' The abbey 

 consumed weekly 16 bushels of wheat, 4 of oats, and 

 24 of malt. They used 50 oxen and 120 sheep 

 yearly ; ibid. fol. 65^. 



about the country.*' In December he was re- 

 called to deal with two of the canons, VVilliam 

 Bentham the cellarer and James Skipton the 

 cantor and grain master {granatorius), who were 

 accused of breaking their vow of chastity. Ben- 

 tham admitted his guilt, and Skipton, who denied 

 the truth of the charge, could get none of his 

 brethren to support him. The visitor imposed 

 forty days' penance on both, and ordered Ben- 

 tham to be removed for three years to Croxton 

 Abbey, and Skipton for seven to Sulby Abbey in 

 Northamptonshire.*'' The term of banishment 

 must have been relaxed in Skipton's case, for at 

 the next visitation in 1491 he was cellarer, 

 Bentham being sub-prior.*' Skipton afterwards 

 became abbot. 



To prevent similar scandals in future Redman 

 forbade drinking after compline, and the employ- 

 ment of women to carry food to the infirmary or 

 refectory. The evil of evening drinking was 

 not, however, rooted out, for in 1500 the 

 bishop attributed various diseases from which a 

 number of the brethren were suffering, to inordi- 

 nate potations and sitting up after compline.'" 

 In 1494 Thomas Poulton, who had been can- 

 tarist at Tunstall, was found guilty of two cases 

 of incontinence,*' and in 1500 Robert Burton 

 and Thomas Calet were removed from their 

 stalls for some offence not stated.** Burton was 

 afterwards restored.*' The visitations reveal a 

 number of minor disorders — disobedience to the 

 abbot, lingering in bed during mattins, neglect of 

 services on pretext of illness, frequenting of wed- 

 dings, fairs, and other secular assemblies, and the 

 wearing over the white habit of a black garment 

 with black or various-coloured 'liripipes' or 

 streamers, and (in 1 491) the use of ' istos volu- 

 biles sotularesnuper inter curiales usitatos, Anglice 

 vocatos slyppars sive patans.'"" In 1497 the 

 canons were forbidden to exchange opprobrious 

 or scandalous charges or to draw knives upon 

 one another." There are no means of deciding 

 how general such derelictions were, but compari- 

 son with the visitations of 1478 and 1481 leaves 

 a decided impression that the tone of the com- 

 munity had altered for the worse in the interval. 

 In the reign of Henry VII Edward Stanley] 

 >rd Monteagle, held its stewardship with 

 those of Furness and Cartmel, and the office 

 passed to his son and successor.'^ The pressure 

 brought to bear upon the monasteries by the 

 crown and its agents for some time before the 

 Dissolution is illustrated by a letter 



Lord 



le 

 which 



" Ibid. fol. 

 « Ibid. fol. 

 *' Ibid. fol. 

 ton ; ibid, fol, 

 *" Ibid. fol. 



142^. 

 121. 



144. 



" Ibid. fol. 84. 

 " Ibid. fol. 144. 

 He was afterwards vicar of Mit- 



156 



" Collect. Anglo-Premonstr. 263. 



" MS. Ashmole, 15 19, fol. 8g^ 121. 



" Ibid. fol. \z%b. 



" L. and P. Hen. Fill, ni, 3234. 



28^, 144. 



