History of the Abbey of Evesham [PDF]

OXFORD

MEDIEVAIZ

TEXTS

General Editors

J. W. BINNS MP

THOMAS Mis

DOWY"OP

DAPIDGE

OF DHE

J. BLAIR a

REDDE ER

MARLBOROUGH ABBEY

EVES

HAM

THOMAS

OF MARLBOROUGH

HISTORY OF THE ABBEY OF EVESHAM

JANE

EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY SAYERS and LESLIE WATKISS

CLARENDON

PRESS

» OXFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY

PRESS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6DP

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13579108642

Typeset in Ehrhardt by Joshua Associates Ltd., Oxford Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., Guildford and King’s Lynn

PREBAGE

THE present edition was commenced in 1993. JES has provided the historical annotation and the Introduction. LW has been responsible for all things pertaining to the Latin text and translation. Both editors have been involved in the general revision. Dr Teresa Webber has

provided a Section on the Rawlinson manuscript. Since 1993 we have become indebted to several institutions for financial support and for access to manuscripts and archives, and to many individuals who have willingly answered queries and read sections of the text and translation. First we both wish to thank the Twenty Seven Foundation for a grant which made it possible for us to have a microfilm and printouts of Bodleian MS Rawlinson A 287. Then JES wishes to express her gratitude to the Leverhulme Trustees for an emeritus professorship during the year 1999 to 2000 that enabled her to complete her part of the work and to track down and examine various Evesham sources. We would also wish to thank the staff of Duke Humfrey's Library in the Bodleian at Oxford, the Almonry Museum at Evesham, and the British. Library Manuscripts department; and the following individual scholars who have been generous with their time in answering various queries, Julia Barrow, David Cox, Barrie Dobson, Othmar Hageneder, Katharine Keats-Rohan, Simon Keynes, Sister Maura O'Carroll, Kenneth Pennington, Olivia Robinson, Patrick Sims-Williams, Linda Voigts, Herwig Weigl, Ann Williams, and Reinhard Willvonseder. We are indebted to the present general editors, James Binns, John Blair, Michael Lapidge, who lent us his unpublished transcript of Dominic’s Book II, and especially to the late Timothy Reuter who read the whole of the text and of the translation. T'wo former general editors—Diana Greenway and Barbara Harvey—read significantly large portions of the text and translations, giving expert advice in their own specialist areas and we are very grateful to them also. We have been particularly fortunate in our critics, but we, of course, are responsible for all conclusions and statements im errore and otherwise. The process of production has been helped by the expertise, wisdom, and common sense of John Cordy, the copy editor, by the

PREFACE

admirable professionalism of Joshua Associates, the typesetters, and by the kind efficiency of Kay Rogers, the O.U.P. editor. We should like to record our gratitude to them. LES L.W. April and December 2002 London Ferndown

CO NEIDINSIAS

ABBREVIATIONS SIGLA

INTRODUCTION I. THOMAS'S LIFE AND WORK II. THE A. B. C.

ABBEY OF EVESHAM Status and Exemption Cult and Buildings Customs and Revenues: the Definition of Rights

xxviil xxviii xlviii lii

III. THOMAS'S HISTORY A. The Manuscript: Outline; Quiring

lxiv lxiv

B. The Making of the Manuscript (by Teresa Webber) C. The Evesham Cartularies and other Surviving Records D. Previous Edition E. This Edition

Ixvi

Ixxii Ixxix Ixxx

IV. CHRONOLOGY Ixxxiil A. Fiction and Fact: Significant Dates in Evesham’s Ixxxiii History before 1190 B. Chronological Summary of Thomas's Life and the Major Events of the Years 1202-36

Ixxxvi

TEXT AND TRANSLATION THE FIRST BOOK on the Life and Miracles of St Ecgwine by Dominic, prior of Evesham, abbreviated by Prior ‘Thomas Twelve readings The Charter of St Ecgwine End of First book

The composition of the reading on the translation St Ecgwine Twelve readings for the feast of the translation

Vill

CONTENTS

THE SECOND BOOK of the Miracles by Dominic THE THIRD BOOK by Thomas of Marlborough Baril Part II Part III Part IV Part V

APPENDICES I. A bond of the proctors of Evesham II. The customs of the abbey and the disposition of the revenues A. As confirmed by the papal legate in 1206 B. As in the charter drawn up under Abbot Randulf C. Comparative table of the texts III. Letter of Abbot Reginald to Gilbert, abbot of Gloucester IV. Charter of Abbot Thomas and the convent concerning visitation, 1233 V. The number of monks

570

INDEX

573

OF QUOTATIONS

GENERAL

INDEX

AND

ALLUSIONS

517

ABBREVIATIONS

AB acc. ANC

Analecta Bollandiana acceded, accession S. Kuttner and E. Rathbone, ‘Anglo-Norman canonists of the twelfth century’, 7raditio vii (1949-51),

Ann. Mon.

Annales Monastici, ed. H. R. Luard (s vols., RS xxxvi, London, 1864-9) ‘Annales prioratus de Wigornia’ in Ann. Mon. iv The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, trans. D. Whitelock with D. C. Douglas and S. I. Tucker (London, 1961) Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. B. Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (OMT, corrected repr. 1991) Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research British Library A Biographical Register of the University of Cambridge to A.D. 1500, compiled by A. B. Emden (Cambridge,

279-358 Ann. Wig. ASC Bede, HE

1963) A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols., compiled by A. B. Emden (Oxford,

1957-9)

Cheney, Letters

Chron. Maj.

Code

comp. I Comp.

Councils and Synods with other Documents relating to the English Church, i, pts. 1 (871-1066) and 2 (1066— 1204), ed. D. Whitelock, M. Brett, and C. N. L. Brooke (Oxford, 1981); and ii, pts. 1 (1205-65) and 2 (1265-1313), ed. F. M. Powicke and C. R. Cheney (Oxford, 1964) C. R. and M. G. Cheney, calendared and ed., The Letters of Pope Innocent III (1198—1216) concerning England and Wales (Oxford, 1967) Matthaei Parisiensis, monachi Sancti Albani, Chronica

Majora, ed. H. R. Luard (7 vols., RS lvii, 1872-83) Codex lustinianus, Corpus Turis Civilis, ii, ed. P. Krueger (Berlin, 1895; repr. Berlin, 1954) compiled by Compilatio Prima in Quinque Compilationes, ed. E. Friedberg (Leipzig, 1882)

ABBREVIATIONS

m 3 Comp. 4 Comp. cons. Cottineau

CPL

Compilatio Tertia in Quinque Compilationes, ed. E. Friedberg Compilatio Quarta in Quinque Compilationes, ed. E. Friedberg consecrated, consecration L. H. Cottineau, Répertoire Topo-Bibhographique des Abbayes et Prieurés, 3 vols. (Macon, 1935-70), 1. A-L, ii. M-Z, ui. References Calendar of the Entries in the Papal Registers illustrating the History of Great Britain and Ireland,

ed. W. H.

Bliss, A. P. Fuller, and M. Haren (19 vols., HMSO, London, 1893-1960, and Irish MSS Commission

1978- ) d. DB

Worcs.

Decretum

Digest

EEA edeeans EHR el. Ep. Cant.

Foliot Letters

GEC

Gerald of Wales Gervase

Greatrex, Biog. Reg.

died Domesday Book. 16 Worcestershire, ed. F. and C. Thorn (Chichester, 1982) Decretum, Corpus Iuris Canonici, 1, ed. E. Friedberg (Leipzig, 1879). [The Decretum is divided into two parts Cause (C) and Distinctiones (D). The Cause consist of questiones (q): p. c. means a dictum of Gratian placed after the chapter] The Digest of Justinian. Latin text ed. T. Mommsen with the assistance of P. Krueger, trans. Alan Watson (4 vols., University of Pennsylvania Press: Philadelphia, 1985) English Episcopal Acta (Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 1980- ) edited by, edition English Historical Reviem elected, election Chronicles and Memorials of the Reign of Richard I, ii. Epistolae. Cantuarienses, ed. W. Stubbs (RS xxxviii, 1865) Letters and Charters of Gilbert Foliot, ed. A. Morey and C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge, 1967) G. E. C., The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, ed. V. Gibbs ert a/., (13 vols. in 14, London, 1910-59) Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, ed. J. S. Brewer (8 vols., RS xxi, 1861—91) The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. W. Stubbs (2 vols., RS Ixxiii, 1879-80) J. Greatrex, Biographical Register of the English Cath-

ABBREVIATIONS

Greenway, Fasti

HBC

Hemming

HRH

Institutes

JB JL

Jo. Wo.

edral Priories of the Province of Canterbury c. 1066—1540 (Oxford, 1997) Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066—1300, comp. D. E. Greenway, 7 vols.: i. St Paul's London; ii. Monastic Cathedrals; iii. Lincoln; iv. Salisbury; v. Chichester; vi. York; vii. Bath and Wells (London, 1968-2001) Handbook of British Chronology, 3rd edn., ed. E. B. Fryde, D. E. Greenway, S. Porter, and I. Roy (Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, ii: London, 1986) Hemingi chartularium — ecclesiae Wigorniensis, ed. Thomas Hearne (2 vols., Oxford, 1723). Vol. ii begins at p. 319 The Heads of Religious Houses, England and Wales, 1. 940-1216, ed. D. Knowles, C. N. L. Brooke, and V. C. M. London, 2nd edn. with new material by C. N. L. Brooke (Cambridge, 2001) J. A. C. Thomas, The Institutes of Justinian. Text, translation, and commentary (Amsterdam—Oxford,

1975) Jocelin of Brakelond: Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds, trans. D. Greenway and J. Sayers (Oxford World’s Classics, 1998) Regesta. Pontificum Romanorum . . . ad annum 1198, comp. P. Jaffe, rev. S. Loewenfeld, 2nd edn. (2 vols., Leipzig, 1885-8; repr. Graz, 1956) The Chronicle of John of Worcester, ii. 450—1066, ed. R. R. Darlington and P. McGurk, trans. J. Bray and P. McGurk; iii: 1067-1141, ed. P. McGurk (2 vols., OMT 1995-8) D. Knowles and R. Neville Hadco*ck, Medieval Religious Houses England and Wales, 2nd edn. (London,

1971) Macray Maleczek

MGH M. O.

Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham, ed. W. D. Macray (RS xxix, 1863) W. Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216 (Osterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Historisches Institut beim Osterreichischen Kulturinstitut in Rom: Vienna, 1984) Monumenta Germaniae Historica, ed. G. H. Pertz et al. (Hanover, Berlin, etc., 1826— ) D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, 2nd edn. (Cambridge, 1963)

xii Mon. Angl.

NMT Novels n.S. OMT D

/PIL PN

PRS PUE

Regesta

Reg. Inn. III

Reg. Malmesbury

RSB

Sawyer Sayers, P7D

ABBREVIATIONS

Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. J. Caley, H. Ellis, and B. Bandinel (6 vols. in 8, London, 1846) Nelson’s Medieval Texts Novellae, Corpus Iuris Civilis, iii, ed. R. Schoell and G. Kroll (Berlin, 1954) new series Oxford Medieval Texts A. Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum ab 1198 ad 1304 (2 vols., Leipzig, 1885— ). (All references are to numbers) Patrologia Latina, ed. J.-P. Migne (221 vols., Paris, 1841—64) English Place Name Society volumes

Pipe Roll Society Papsturkunden in England, ed. W. Holtzmann (3 vols. in 4, Abhandlungen der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Goóttingen, phil hist. Klasse, new series xxv, 3rd series xiv-xv, xxxii: Berlin, 1930, 1935-6; Gottingen, 1952) Regesta Regum Anglo-Normannorum 1066—1154, ed. H. W. C. Davis, C. Johnson, H. A. Cronne, and R. H. C. Davis (4 vols., Oxford, 1913-69) Die Register Innocenz’ III., ed. O. Hageneder, A. Haidacher, W. Maleczek, Alfred A. Strnad, Andrea Sommerlechner, John C. Moore, and Herwig Weigl (5 vols. (continuing), Publikationen der Abteilung für historische Studien des Osterreichischen Kulturinstituts in Rom: Graz—Cologne, Rome- Vienna, 1964- ) Registrum. Malmesburiense, ed. J. S. Brewer (2 vols., RS Ixxii, 1879-80) The Chronicles and Memorials of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls (*Rolls Series") (99 vols., London, 1858—96) References to the Rule of St Benedict are given with their chapter numbers. Justin Mc Cann's edition, The Rule of St Benedict (London, 1951), provides a translation. P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London, 1968) J. E. Sayers, Papal Judges Delegate in the Province of Canterbury (1198—1254) (Oxford, 1971)

ABBREVIATIONS

xiil

SyDII

Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III concerning England (1198-1216), ed. C. R. Cheney and W. H. Semple

trans. VCH Wendover

translated by, translation Victoria History of the Counties of England Rogeri de Wendover Chronica sive Flores Historiarum, ed. H. O. Coxe (4 vols., English Historical Soc., 1841) Decretales, Corpus Iuris Canonici, ii, ed. E. Friedberg (Leipzig, 1881)

(NMT 1953)

EXT

Abbreviations of English Counties Berks. Berkshire Bucks. Buckinghamshire Cambs. Cambridgeshire Ches. Cheshire Derbs. Derbyshire Glos. Gloucestershire Hants. Hampshire Herefs. Herefordshire Herts. Hertfordshire Hunts. Huntingdonshire Lancs. Lancashire Leics. Leicestershire Lincs. Lincolnshire Middx. Middlesex Norf. Norfolk Northants. Northamptonshire Oxon. Oxfordshire Salop Shropshire Staffs. Staffordshire Warws. Warwickshire Wilts. Wiltshire Worcs. Worcestershire Yorks. Yorkshire N.B. Numbers given in bold type are references to the paragraph numbers of the text and translation.

SIGLA

Byrhtferth

em an

*Vita S. Ecgwini', London, BL, Cotton MS Nero E i, pt r, fos. 24'—34; ed. J. A. Giles in Vita Quorundum [sic] Anglo-Saxonum (Caxton Soc., 1854), pp. 349-96 London, BL, Cotton MS Augustus II 11 Dominic of Evesham, ‘Vita S. Ecgwinr Book I, ed. M. Lapidge in Analecta Bollandiana, xcvi (1978), 77-104, from two manuscripts: (H), Hereford Cathedral Library MS P 7 vi, fos. 234-49, and (D) Dublin, Trinity College MS 172, pp. 317-34 Book II, not edited by M. Lapidge as above. Thomas follows it closely. The few variations that have been noted refer to M. Lapidge's unpublished transcript which he most generously lent us. London, BL, Harley MS 3763 Mon. Angl. à, nums. xxvii, xxviii, pp. 23—5. Original lost Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson A 287 London, BL, Cotton MS Vespasian B XXIV

INTRODUCTION

ISSLHOMASZSTIBIBESANDSWO

We should probably have little record of Thomas of Marlborough, who 1n all likelihood would have lived a reasonably uneventful life, had it not been for three events: the provision of an evil abbot, Roger Norreis, to the abbacy of Evesham by Archbishop Baldwin and King Richard I, in 1190; the arrival of a reforming bishop, Mauger of Worcester, to visit the community in 1202; and, as a result of this attempt, a sensational lawsuit which was pursued at Rome before Pope Innocent III. These events provide the core of Thomas's History.! The History consists of three books. It is preceded by the Life of St Odulf, the Acts of Worthy Men, and the Life of St Wigstan.^ These Lives and Acts of Evesham saints and worthies formed a prelude to Book I, the Life of St Ecgmine, and Book II, the Miracles of St Ecgwine. Ecgwine was Evesham's premier saint, the third bishop of Worcester, and the house's first abbot. Book III is divided into five parts. Part I is the history of the community and the Lives and Deeds of its abbots from the eighth century to Thomas’s own lifetime. Part II opens with the proposed visitation by Mauger, bishop of Worcester, the diocesan. Part III records the proceedings before the papal curia, leading up to the high excitement of the declaration of the abbey's exemption from the bishop. Part IV is concerned with three matters: (1) the papal decision on Evesham's jurisdiction over the surrounding churches of the Vale, (2) the visit of the papal legate, John of Ferentino, cardinal deacon of S. Maria in via Lata, to investigate the state of internal affairs under Abbot Norreis, and (3) the consequent drawing up of an agreement between the abbot and the convent over the customs and disposition of the revenues of the monastery in 1206. Part V recounts ! Macray called the work a *Chronicle'. It is in fact, however, not a chronicle in the sense of a chronological account of events, but rather a distinct ‘History’, with material arranged to argue and explain a particular theme. ? These works were printed by Macray as an Appendix, see below, p. Ixiv. They are not an integral part of the History, which is concerned with the status of the abbey and its founding saint, Ecgwine, and so are not edited here. The first two are attributed to Prior Dominic, the third is Thomas's work, but he wrote it before embarking on the History.

Xvi

INTRODUCTION

the continuing tyranny of Abbot Norreis, his deposition by the legate Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum, in r213, and the election of a successor, Randulf, prior of Worcester, as abbot. It is followed by a return (still within Part V) to the Lives and Deeds of the abbots of the house, first Randulf and then Thomas himself. The whole purpose of the History as conceived by Thomas was to support and boost the status of the abbey of Evesham. The plan was

very carefully constructed. It needed first of all the firm foundation— the bedrock—of early saints. Before the opening of Book I, Thomas accordingly arranged the Life of St Odulf, the Acts of Worthy Men, and the Life of St Wigstan. In such an ambitious undertaking as his, the work of previous writers was necessarily included. The Life of St Odulf and the Acts of Worthy Men were the work of an Evesham prior of the twelfth century, Prior Dominic; the Life of St Wigstan he had composed himself. These Lives and Acts, indeed, point the way towards the shining and essential figure of Ecgwine, the saintly founder of Evesham, whose Life and Miracles form the subject of the first two books. These two books were based on a Life of St Ecgwine by the same Prior Dominic, who in turn had built his account on earlier sources.” Thomas, for his part, abbreviated and altered Dominic’s Book I to suit his own purposes. Between Books I and II he included twelve readings for the feast of the translation of St Ecgwine.^ Then he proceeded to Dominic's second book, which, apart from some minor re-arrangement at the commencement, he preserved almost intact and word for word. Book III, with its five parts, is almost all Thomas’s work down to the account of the election of a new abbot to succeed the deposed Roger Norreis and Thomas’s final warning comments. 'The first part of Book III, however, was based on earlier accounts, mainly of the Lives and Deeds of the abbots before "'homas's time, some of which were probably written by Dominic in the early twelfth century. From the end of Part I to the first few folios of Part V, it is all Thomas recording contemporary history that he had witnessed ? See below, p. Ixv. * Thomas specifically states that such an account had not been written before (44), but P. A. Hayward has argued from the manuscript tradition that there was an earlier source

on which he based his work, possibly a Vita written by Dominic, cited in William of Malmesbury: Gesta. Regum Anglorum, ii, ed. R. M. Thomson in collaboration with M. Winterbottom (OMT, 1999), p. 2or.

* See below, pp. xxx and lxiv. * See below, p. lxiv.

THOMAS'S

LIFE

AND

WORK

xvii

between the 1190s and 1213. Over this period Thomas had played a major role in the history of the Evesham community, its aims, aspirations, and achievements. The end of Thomas’s work reiterates the personal nature of much of the account. By 1213 the community had acquired very considerable privileges: these Thomas was determined to maintain and protect. Hence his advice for the future when, as he sees it, the abbey might be vacant and threatened again by the diocesan. A new abbot, he says, was to be elected, confirmed—by the pope alone—and blessed, in accordance with the privileges that the monastery of Evesham had acquired. Thomas emphasized the importance of these newly won privileges. ‘See that you do not lose the benefit of them. If you do so, God forbid, you will be reduced to slavery and be for ever wretched’ (509). These are probably the last words he wrote. The History is thus very much a history of the importance of status, of an abbey that answered to the pope without an intermediary, whose privileges, so hardly won, had to be watched over and maintained. How had Thomas come to be the author of such a book? What is known about him comes almost entirely from his own comments in the History itself, and from the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, which follows the History and recounts his progress through the monastic offices of dean, sacrist, prior, and finally abbot. He studied first at Paris, most likely Arts, under the theologian, Stephen Langton, later archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1228). At that time, Richard Poore, who was to become a notable dean and bishop of Salisbury (d. 1235), was his fellow student: this was probably in the 1180s (450). He went next to Oxford. He describes John of Tynemouth, Simon of Sywell, and Master Honorius as his ‘masters in the schools’ (230). The common bond between these three is that they were all lawyers and canonists, active at Oxford, so presumably it was canon law that he studied there. This could have been as early as 1188x 1193. We also know that he taught at Oxford, before he was professed at Evesham (522). His teaching must have been in the growing university because there were no grammar schools of importance at Oxford, such as those attached to cathedrals. The statement that he taught also at 7 The present edition includes the Lives down to the death of Thomas, house in 1236. 8 J. Baldwin, Masters, Princes and Merchants: the Social Views of Peter the Circle, 2 vols. (Princeton, 1970), i. 26, 30, gives the dates 1180s to 1206 period in Paris, with the earliest secure date for his lectures being between

as abbot of the Chanter and his for Langton’s 1187 and 1193.

xviii

INTRODUCTION

Exeter (which is in the section of the History which was re-copied in the fifteenth century) is likely to be the result of a miscopying or mishearing of the text.^ He was thus no ordinary young novice when . : 10 he arrived at Evesham to be professed in 1199 or 1200 (516). There is evidence that he had some connection with the monastery at Evesham before this date, because Thomas informs us, before he writes of the ‘intrusion’ of Abbot Norreis in 1190, that the previous section, terminating with the abbacy of the Cluniac, Abbot Adam, who died on 12 November 1189, was ‘a faithful account of these deeds as I either learned them or saw them myself, or as I heard and ascertained them from the trustworthy accounts of others’ (184). Furthermore, in Thomas's Life of St Wigstan, there is a reference to his submitting the account to Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury for his approval. Baldwin thought that Thomas had not put enough emphasis on the miracle of St Wigstan's growing hair. Accordingly, he sent two delegates, Paul, abbot of Leicester, and Baldwin, prior of Monks Kirby, to Wistow to verify the miracle of the growing hair." As Archbishop Baldwin died in 1190, this has to mean that Thomas had a definite connection before that date with the convent at Evesham, whose brethren had asked him to write the account and to abridge the already existing life of St Ecgwine (44). Bv 1202, given his previous training and career, T'homas must have been at least in his thirties, so is likely to have been born between 1160 and 1170.” It may be asked what Evesham had to offer to a well-trained clerk such as Thomas. Had he hoped to stay in the schools, for which he would have needed a patron and a benefice, or to enter the household ? The confusion is commonplace. It occurs also with William of Drogheda who appears in one of eight manuscripts (V) as regenti in legibus Exonie; in all the other texts the scribes have it correctly Owonie; see J. E. Sayers, ‘William of Drogheda and the English Canonists’, in Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Medieval Canon Law 1984, ed. P. Linehan (Monumenta Iuris Canonici, ser. C, subsidia viii, Citta del Vaticano,

1988), 205-22, at p. 205 n. 2, on the manuscripts. The mistake also occurs because of bad writing in BL Royal MS 9 E VII fo. 198". H. Kantorowicz (Bractonian problems (Glasgow, 1941), p. 17 n. 2) was the first to question the accuracy of the Oxford and Exeter comment. But H. G. Richardson (*Azo, Drogheda, and Bracton', EHR, lix (1944), 22—47, at p. 41

n. 3) did not accept the suggestion of inaccuracy in the text. While Exeter had had some importance in the study of law in its cathedral school, there is no evidence from any other source that Thomas

was ever at Exeter, even as a schoolmaster.

F. Barlow, however, in

EEA 11, Exeter, p. lvii, and R. Bartlett, amongst others, have maintained a belief in the text as it stands. » In 1202, he was said to be in his third year as a monk; see below, 516. B Life and Miracles of St Wigstan, printed in Macray, pp. 3324.

- His contemporary, Richard Poore, may well have been born in or before 1167; see EEA 18, Salisbury, ro78—1217, ed. B. R. Kemp, p. lv.

THOMAS'S

LIFE

AND

WORK

xix

of a high ecclesiastic, perhaps the archbishop? We do not know. As it developed, his career was much like that of Samson of Bury St Edmunds, who later regretted not staying in the schools and who had perhaps craved a career as a beneficed secular before he turned finally

to the monastic life."? If, like Samson, Thomas had hoped for a more exalted position as a secular, there is no hint of it. Thomas's family There is remarkably little in the History about Thomas’s origins. All we know is that he had a uterine brother—i.e. they shared the same mother, but had different fathers—whom he does not name, and who was not a monk. There is reference also to a cousin, Muriel (of Chepstow), who had a house in Evesham. The appellation ‘of Marlborough’ is found at least by the time he became prior (1218), presumably being used to distinguish him from other Thomases in the house. The first occurrences are in contemporary thirteenthcentury rubrics in Book III Parts II and IV, fos. 150°, 170” (213, 395), where he occurs as ‘de Merlebergia’: the other occurrences are all in the replacement leaves in Part V, fos. 183°, 184^, and 185° (516, 522, 531), written in the fifteenth century, in rubrics describing Thomas’s work as dean and sacrist, then prior, and finally abbot. Clearly by this time he had become Thomas ‘of Marlborough’ or ‘de Marlebarwe’ in the house’s historical memory. Marlborough in Wiltshire appears as ‘Merleberge’ in 1086 and ‘Merleberga’ in 1130 and is the most likely identification.'* If Thomas did, in fact, come from Marlborough in Wiltshire, a royal borough, the nearest Benedictine abbey would have been Malmesbury. But the reasons for the choice of a particular community could be influenced by so many factors unknown to us that it is idle to speculate. 5 Cf. R. W. Southern, Robert Grosseteste: The Growth of an English Mind in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1986), ch. 3, esp. pp. 50-3; and for Samson, see JB, pp. 33, 40. ^ Marlborough derives from Merla’s barrow, or mound, or perhaps, less likely, from meargealla, meaning gentian; PN Wilts., pp. 297-8. Malborough, near Kingsbridge in Devon, is found as ‘Merleberg’ in 1275: it has the same possible derivation as Marlborough, PN Devon, Exeter, p. lvii. Neither it nor Mappleborough Green in Studley (Warws.), which occurs in an Evesham source of c.1200 as Mapellesborghe, and as Mabbelberwe in 1272, seem likely candidates for Thomas’s toponym, though the later rendering may explain the 15th-cent. scribe's Marlebarwe. Maugersbury (Glos.), which belonged to the monks' chamber, and is close to Stow-on-the-Wold, occurs as *Malgaresburi' and ‘Malgarisbury’ (416, and Macray, p. 298): the gar element rules that out. There are no other place-names or local names that are possible contenders for Thomas’s

place of origin.

INTRODUCTION

Proctor

Circ*mstances were to thrust Thomas into prominence. In 1202 the newly appointed Bishop Mauger of Worcester attempted to visit Evesham (Part II). From this point until the settlement of the case, Marlborough's activities were taken up with the convent's determined struggle to prove its exemption from the bishop. For its defiance in refusing entry to the bishop, the convent was excommunicated. The monks sought to bring the abbey’s case before the archbishop of Canterbury. But the case was too complex for settlement by any other court than the final one and appeal was made to the pope. The main case over the exemption from the diocesan and the complementary case of the monastery's jurisdiction over the local area known as the Vale were fought out at Rome before the masterly Pope Innocent III and his advisers (Part III). Thomas went to Rome to present the abbey's case and during this time he attended the schools at Bologna. In the struggle against the bishop, the abbot and convent attempted to present a united front, although the infamous Abbot Roger Norreis had never been accepted by the monks. He had mercilessly tyrannized over them, keeping them short of food and clothing, calling them 'dogs', acting more like a layman than a priest, and wasting the convent's lands. He was a drunkard and a lecher, and reputed to be a murderer. But he was adept at making friends in influential places, which allowed him to be promoted and to survive for so long without censure. It was agreed that any charges against the abbot would not be raised at Rome, though the abbot's treatment of the convent's proctors at Rome was infamous. After the triumph in 1205, when the abbey's exemption was declared, and the judgment on jurisdiction over the Vale in 1207, the main struggle was to control Abbot Roger Norreis and to restore the monastery (Parts IV, V). Dean of the Vale (1206)

In both the spiritual and the temporal improvement of the monastery, Thomas was closely involved, and from 1206 he acted as dean of the Vale (516, 520). The dean had jurisdiction over certain parishes within the vicinity of Evesham, acting as an archdeacon in the exempt area. This office was greatly enhanced by Thomas’s efforts. Matters were made more difficult by the Interdict on the English Church from 1208 to 1214, and, indeed, by the newly won exemption from

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any kind of correction by the diocesan. The convent was not finally relieved of Abbot Norreis until his deposition in 1213. As dean of the Vale, Marlborough attended the Fourth Lateran Council in Rome with the new abbot, Randulf, and while they were there the pope approved on 16 February 1216 the customs and disposition of the revenues of the abbey (521). In this remarkable document, Thomas doubtless had a hand. Sacrist (1217) In 1217 he was made sacrist. The biographer of the abbots is fond of detailing building works—the responsibility of the sacrist. According to him, Thomas, as sacrist, repaired much of the damage that had been caused to the windows and tombs in the presbytery by the collapse of the tower (519). He renewed the shrine of St Wigstan, had a reading-desk made for the choir, put a stove in the church underneath the clock, and had twelve albs made (521). All this he did in the year before he was appointed prior and much of it was paid for by his careful financial management as sacrist. Prior (1218-29)

During his time as prior (522-30), Marlborough completed what has misleadingly been called his chronicle of the Abbey. It is in fact a History — a unique account of the lawsuit fought out at Rome, which he prefaced with an abbreviated edition of Prior Dominic’s Life of St Ecgmine and the Lives and Deeds of the abbots up to the time of Abbot Norreis (1191). The whole of the description of the lawsuit is written with a frankness and a verve which makes the work remarkable on those counts alone. His vivid description of the journey to Rome, of the way in which the curia operated, of the pope and the cardinals, of the trials and tribulations of the petitioner, are without parallel at this date. He was observant and perceptive, and could tell a good story. There are small and important details: the advice of the pope to go to study at Bologna (which he did for six months) (274), Marlborough's collapsing with joy when the exemption was declared (316), and many other memorable vignettes of persons and places. The great speech made by Thomas nearly ten years later before the legate, Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum," prefacing the final fall of Roger Norreis, 5 Mistakenly identified as Pandulf by M. Bateson in DNB xiv (1909), p. 585, and G. G. Coulton in Five Centuries of Religion, 4 vols. (Cambridge, 1929—50), ii. 366.

xxii

INTRODUCTION

evokes the drama of the occasion (461-84). Marlborough’s subsequent career was taken up with paying off the debts consequent upon the lawsuit and maintaining every aspect of the abbey's rights, in the maintenance and possible extension of which he may perhaps have condoned forgeries. He did, however, submit the convent to archiepiscopal visitation.'^ The continuation of the History includes the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, and from here we learn that it was due to him that the customs and revenues were finally written down and

approved at the time of the Lateran Council (518; cf. 239). On entering office as prior, Thomas is recorded as possessing a considerable number of books, including law books, unfortunately not specified. There were also works on natural science, classical texts, sermons, commentaries, and books on grammar and music. He had several books produced, including what is now Rawlinson MS A 287

to fo. 181" (his History), and he purchased others (522-3). He continued to embellish the church, particularly concentrating on the story of St Ecgwine in the stained glass of the presbytery and on Ecgwine's shrine, for which he built a throne." Abbot (1229-36) On the death of Abbot Randulf, Thomas was elected abbot on 20 December 1229, confirmed by Pope Gregory IX in 1230, blessed by

the bishop of Coventry, and finally, after the king had granted possession of the abbey, installed by the bishop at Michaelmas. He was to rule the abbey for almost seven years (531—46). The period during which the king had had possession was costly, as was the election process, so Thomas began his abbacy in debt. However, judicious management enabled him to enhance the dignity and appearance of the church, to construct comfortable quarters for the

abbot, and to build his own marble tomb, which had superimposed on it an effigy of himself in pontificals. He died at Evesham on 12 September 1236, after suffering latterly some physical incapacity.”° '© See App. IV. See below, p. liv fol. See below, pp. Ixvi-Ixxii. See below, p. lii. 20 On 29July 1236, Pope Gregory IX had ordered the bishop of Coventry, following the petition of "Thomas to resign, owing to infirmity, to assign him a portion and to order the convent to proceed to the election of a new abbot, but Thomas died before any arrangement for the election of a successor had been made; CPL i. 156.

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When was the History written? The main evidence for the date of Thomas’s writing is his own statement: ‘I was made dean [in 1206] and have held that office continually until the present time of writing, even during my time as prior’ (380). We also have the firm evidence of the author of the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, in speaking of Thomas as dean and sacrist, that Thomas composed (composuit) *the book above', which contained the history of the great lawsuit, when he was prior (517). This author also states that Thomas as prior had the Haimo on the Apocalypse and the lives and acts of the patrons and abbots of Evesham bound up (fecit) in one volume (523), that is, the present Rawlinson volume as far as fo. 181° (the election, confirmation and benediction of Abbot Randulf). Two replacement leaves which were written in the

fifteenth century (one folio, 182"", two-thirds down the second column) complete Thomas’s own composition, reporting the payment of the Roman creditors for the privileges, and giving his advice on the importance of the preservation and use of these privileges (505, 509). The History then reverts to ‘the works or actions of the abbots’, first Abbot Randulf, and then Thomas himself, all copied in the fifteenth century. The putting together of the volume undoubtedly took place under Thomas as prior. We should consider here the notes in the various

parts of the text relating to Thomas’s association with it. We have the following descriptions—editus (‘edited by’), abbreviatus (‘abbreviated by’), collectus et compositus (‘collected and compiled by’), and fecit . . in uolumine (‘had produced’). ‘Edited’ is found on fo. 121°. Thomas ‘edited’ the life and miracles of St Wigstan (see 44-5). Editing appears to have the meaning of authored. The First Book, the Life of St Ecgwine, is described as ‘abbreviated’ by Thomas the prior (fo. 124"; 5).? Abbreviated means quite extensive revision. Then follow readings for the feast of St Ecgwine’s translation: virtually the work of Thomas (fo. 130'; 44). The Second Book, the Miracles of St Ecgwine, is said to have been ‘edited’, i.e. authored by Dominic, prior of Evesham: it was only very lightly edited in the modern sense of the word by Thomas (fo. 132%; 65).* Book III, Thomas’s own book, is ?! See B. Guenée, ‘L’historien par les mots’, in Guenee, Politique et histoire au moyen-

áge (Publications de la Sorbonne, Série Réimpressions 2: Paris, 1981), pp. 221-37, esp.

229-32.

See below, p. lxiv.

?5 bid.

^* Below, ibid. See M. Lapidge, ‘Dominic of Evesham “Vita S. Ecgwini Episcopi et Confessoris" ', AB, xcvi (1978), 65—104, at p. 104.

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INTRODUCTION

‘collected and compiled’ by Thomas the prior of Evesham ‘from various charters, documents and manifest deeds’ (fo. 140°; 113); and ‘compiled’ is used by the author of the life of Thomas in the Lives and Deeds of the abbots in describing what was undoubtedly this manuscript (fo. 183"; 517). An examination of the manuscript shows immediately that it went through several stages of revision. Thomas may have written an account, at least in the form of notes, at the time of the case at Rome, or soon after the settlement of the main case and his return to England, that is, between 1206 and 1208.” The second stage in the work's construction must come after 1214, Abbot Randulf's election, confirmation, and blessing. And the last datable note of Thomas’s activities as an author must come after 13 April 1214, the payment of the Roman merchants and the bringing of the privileges to Evesham on the second Sunday after Easter ‘Misericordia Domini’ (13 April 1214), for which Thomas as dean was so grateful that he made provision from the income of the deanery for a caritas of wine to be given to the convent on that day in future (505). The inclusion of the customs and disposition of the revenues of the house, in the name of Abbot Randulf, which is curiously placed in the middle of material for 1206, is clearly an addition by Thomas. But the legate did not confirm this text. The text he confirmed (in 1206) is of the less detailed arrangement made between the abbot (unnamed) and the convent, which is printed below in Appendix II A. Nor is Randulf’s

document as included in the History the exact text of what the pope confirmed after the Lateran Council in February 1216, for Thomas is recorded as prior, which he did not become until 1218, and mention is made of the Benedictine General Chapter not held until the same year, that is two years later. This, therefore, has to have been composed, as it stands in the book, after 1218.7° We might argue that the final part on Abbot Norreis was perhaps not written until after Norreis's death in 1224," in which case we are looking at a final ^^ The statement of A. Boureau (‘How law came to the monks; the use of law in English society at the beginning of the thirteenth century’, Past and Present, clxvii (2000), 29—74, at p. 29) that Thomas wrote the section dealing with the case at Rome ‘about 1225” is not based on any precise evidence. The date of c.1225 presumably refers loosely to the statement that the book was ‘composed’ when Thomas was prior. ^' See below, pp. lv-lvi, and lix.

7 The details of the date of his reinstitution to Penwortham, and of his death are extremely vague: ‘about five years after his deposition . . .’, and ‘he lived there for almost six years’ (see 498—9).

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date between 1224 and 1230, when Thomas ceased to be prior, for

when the Rawlinson text fos. 1'-181' were put together and used in the monastery at Evesham. There is nothing so far known to define that date more closely. After the final folios of Thomas's ‘authored’ book comes a return to the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, starting with Abbot Randulf. We know from the biography of Thomas as dean that the book was all of one piece during the time he was prior (517, and see 523). In other words the ‘works’ of Abbot Randulf were securely there. But the present pages are replacements of the fifteenth century that would have allowed for adjustments to be made. Of the persons likely to have written the record of Abbot Randulf, Thomas, the prior, might seem the most likely candidate. The author, whoever he was, wrote it when Thomas was still prior, for so Thomas is referred to in connection with a maple-wood cup that Abbot Randulf bequeathed to the convent and Prior Thomas had coated with silver-gilt (515). Did Thomas even write his own biography as dean and sacrist, then prior, and finally abbot? The possibility is there. What is obvious is the unusual detail of the accounts. Whoever did write the account of Thomas as prior stated that ‘we have combined the less important deeds of T. the monk with our description of his major deeds, so that you may by his example remedy at least minor faults’. The author clearly had been totally subjected to Thomas’s aims and aspirations, providing a history that made the acts of later abbots look somewhat tame. Thomas

and the Law

Thomas’s career took place at a time when the study of law began to develop in the Oxford schools. Throughout his work there are citations from the written laws: the canon law, the canones, and the Roman law, the /eges, or iura civilia. He also displays a knowledge of the ius commune (the Roman law as applied in and adapted to most of

medieval Europe) and of English feudal laws and customs. He is 28 For a brief description of the ius commune, see R. H. Helmholz, The Ius Commune in

England (Oxford, 2001), pp. 10-15; P. Stein, Roman Lam in Medieval History (Cambridge, 1999), pp. 42, 52, 61, 65; and for a survey of later views on the relationship between the English common law and the ius commune (the ‘common law of Europe’), D. Ibbetson, Common Law and the ‘Tus Commune’ (Selden Society, 2001), pp. 3-6. The term ius commune has been retained in the translation below to save any confusion with the English common law. For Thomas’s citations of the ius commune, see below, 245, 302-3, 357, 381-2, and for his citations of English feudal laws and customs, 229 at n. 2

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INTRODUCTION

thus one of a small and crucial number of witnesses to the development of the early English law schools. He is also an observer of the importance of procedural practice, especially at the curia. Finally, as we shall argue below, he was a primary influence in the reform and committing to writing of the customs of his house and the apportionment and control of the revenues, in accordance with the Benedictine Rule. To begin with the canon law. A chance reference reveals that Thomas had received some instruction from the English canonists, John of Tynemouth, Simon of Sywell, and Master Honorius, which must have taken place in Oxford. Despite the efforts of major scholars, the early Oxford schools are still shrouded in mist." In all likelihood the instruction was practical and procedural. However, by the 1i150s, Englishmen were known at Bologna, the only university where the study of the two laws, Roman and canon, was advanced, and probably at the time of Thomas’s arrival in 1205, at least two Englishmen, Alan and Gilbert, were at work there collecting recent decretals. Gilbert's collection had already appeared in 1203-4, and Alan's was circulating from 1206. It is possible, too,

that John of Wales, who made a compilation out of Alan and Gilbert's work between 1210 and 1215, was teaching in Bologna at this time. How much Roman law Thomas was able to absorb in his six months at Bologna is difficult to assess. Although he makes reference to the teaching of Azo, it is noticeable that frequently his citations of Roman law are of texts that were commented on by his master, John and 474. Boureau’s article, ‘How law came to the monks’, gives a general picture of the infiltration of legal knowledge into the monasteries, and includes a section on Evesham,

but it needs to be treated with some caution, especially in the translation—for example Sancte. pater (Holy father) is rendered as Saint Peter—and in some of the general assumptions. On feudal law, see W. Ullmann, Lam and Politics in the Middle Ages (London, 1975), pp. 216-17.

* See esp. the sections by R. W. Southern, ‘From schools to university’, and L. E. Boyle, ‘Canon law before 1380’, in History of the University of Oxford, ed. J. I. Catto, i

(Oxford, 1984), pp. 1-36, and 531—64; P. Stein, ‘Vacarius and the civil law’, in Church and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to C. R. Cheney, ed. C. N. L. Brooke, D. E. Luscombe, G. H. Martin, and D. M. Owen (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 119-37; and F. de Zulueta and P. Stein, The Teaching of Roman Law in England around 1200 (Selden Soc. supplementary series, 8: London, 1990), pp. xxii-xxvii, and xxxv—xxxvii. ~ Compilatio Secunda of Quinque Compilationes, ed. E. Friedberg (Leipzig, 1882). The suggestion of J. C. Russell, Dictionary of Writers of Thirteenth Century England (BIHR special suppl. iii (1936), p. 78) that this is the same man as a monk proctor of Malmesbury,

who appears in certain judge-delegate cases, is without any foundation.

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of Tynemouth. However, his stay clearly enabled him to engage the very best legal advice for his case. Nor did he overlook the importance of those skilled in the rapidly developing court procedure in cases that were brought to the curia. He is one of only two known eyewitnesses whose recorded observations have survived, giving some detail of the procedure before the courts of audientia and of audientia litterarum contradictarum?! Throughout the convent’s struggle with Abbot Norreis over his depredation of the common property, Thomas also exhibits some knowledge of English feudal laws and customs as they affected assarts and encroachment. Over the part he played in the drawing up of the written constitutions he is quite boastful, realizing that this was as important to Evesham as its exemption. The ‘law’ of the legates, that is the declared decisions of the legates a /atere, who represented the pope at the highest level, is as carefully recorded as the proceedings before the pope himself. It was the legate John of Ferentino who presided over the first written customs, and the legate Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum, who finally deposed Abbot Norreis after careful judicial proceedings. It may be thought from Thomas’s account of the proceedings before the pope that Master Robert de Clipstone, his adversary as the proctor of the bishop of Worcester, was not as good a lawyer as Thomas himself, and that Thomas exaggerated Clipstone's weaknesses. The main difference between the two men, however, was that Thomas had the passion and imagination necessary in the winning of cases, while Clipstone, acting on behalf of the bishop, was much less engaged. As far as can be judged at a distance of nearly eight centuries, ‘Thomas’s reporting of the proceedings in his History seems fair and just. It has to be borne in mind, however, that the slant of his writing was always and not unnaturally towards Evesham.

?! The other eyewitness account is Chronicon. Montis Sereni, ed. E. Ehrenfeuchter, MGH Scriptores, xxiii (Hanover, 1874), pp. 130-226 at 200, but this is from considerably later, 1222—3, probably Feb. 1223, during the pontificate of Pope Honorius III.

INTRODUCTION

xxvii

II. THE A.

ABBEY

STATUS

AND

EVESHAM

EXEMPTION

The Evesham historians and the historic past Legend has it from at least the early eleventh century? that on the banks of the River Avon, at the place where a shepherd had had a vision of the blessed Virgin Mary, Ecgwine, the third bishop of

Worcester (the Hwicce),** established a religious community on the

site given by King /Ethelred, son of Penda of Mercia. According to the tradition held in the Benedictine abbey of Evesham in the twelfth century, in which presumably the young monks were instructed, these events took place early in the eighth century, as recorded in Ecgwine's foundation charter of 714 (27-33). To seal the house's promise and fortunes, the founder, accompanied by King Cenred of Mercia and King Offa of the East Saxons, who had contributed further to the endowment, set off for Rome to secure the approval of Pope Constantine and to place the abbey ‘under his control and disposition’ (29—30). Two papal privileges were supposedly issued by Constantine in 709 and 713 (318-23, 324-8), and addressed to Berhtwald, archbishop of Canterbury (693—731).* The foundations of the house were thus ‘set’ in these three documents. Thereafter, the history of the abbey, like that of all institutions, religious and secular, was a history of triumphs and setbacks, of high points and low, which were produced by external conditions—social, political, and dynastic—as well as by internal factors. As the monks were taught to see it, the high points were the early days of the founder, which was the springtime of the endowments and privileges, and the period when Evesham's profile was high in the eleventh " According to Byrhtferth of Ramsey (c.970—c. 1020), see below, pp. xxix-xxx. " The kingdom of the Hwicce was situated in the West Midlands with its episcopal see at Worcester. From the time of King Penda of Mercia in the early 7th cent., the Hwicce were subject to Mercian lordship, becoming subkings. On the Hwicce, see in general, D. Hooke, The Anglo-Saxon Landscape: The Kingdom of the Hwicce (Manchester, 1985), and P. Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature in Western England 600-800 (Cambridge Studies in Anglo-Saxon England, 3: Cambridge, 1990). M. Lapidge (in AB, xcvi (1978),

p. 102 at note 10.30) suggested that Alcester was possibly the Hwicce, but their chief centre is likely to have been “ The texts of the two Constantinian privileges (JL. Thomas’s account of the foundation of Evesham, but are the hearing in the papal curia.

a royal residence of the kings of Worcester. 2147, 2149) are not included in given later by him at the time of

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century under remarkable abbots (/Elfweard, Mannig, /Ethelwig, and Walter), the days when pilgrims flocked to the tombs of the saints and a party of three set out from Evesham to re-kindle the religious life in the north of England, at Jarrow, Tynemouth, Wearmouth, and Whitby.? The low points were when seculars replaced monks between 941 and the end of the tenth century—except for a brief monastic restoration in the years 970-5—when King /Ethelred gave the monastery to Bishop Ealdwulf of Worcester (0.996) and when Evesham properties were under attack from the neighbouring bishops of Worcester or from powerful lords such as Odo of Bayeux in the eleventh century. The monks knew about their past from the life of their patron saint, Ecgwine, and the account of his miracles, which were read on the appropriate feast days. They also knew about previous abbots from the Lives and Deeds of the abbots that existed in the house possibly from the eleventh century (included in Thomas’s Book III Part I) and was continued up to the time Thomas was writing, and, indeed, beyond into the fifteenth century. The roll of abbots from /Ethelwig's time included monks from Caen, Jumieéges, Gloucester, Christ Church Canterbury, St Augustine’s, and La Charité. Abbot Reginald Foliot, in particular, and Abbot Adam were abbots who were remembered for extending the abbey's rights. How much of this account is due to Thomas?

"Thomas owed much to earlier Evesham historians and hagiographers. It is impossible to separate the two roles among the Evesham authors. The first historian of whom we have some evidence is Byrhtferth of Ramsey, the author of a Life of Ecgwine, written c.1020, for which we are told he had used ‘ancient documents". Byrhtferth’s work consisted of a prologue followed by four parts in which he outlined the story of Ecgwine, the third ‘presul in regione Merciorum": how he had founded the monastery at Evesham, and had gone to ‘the city of Romulus’ bound in chains, where he had been miraculously released when the key that he had thrown into the Avon turned up in a fish in 35 On the thrilling story of the Benedictine colonization of the North by the prior of Winchcombe and two monks of Evesham, see Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius hoc est Dunhelmensis ecclesie, ed. and trans. D. Rollason (OMT, 2000),

pp. 201-11. 99 Byrhtferth's Vita S. Ecgwini is in BL Cotton MS Nero E I pt. 1, fos. 24'—34". It is to be edited by Michael Lapidge for OMT. The sole printed edition is in Vita Quorundum [sic] Anglo-Saxonum, ed. J. A. Giles (Caxton Soc. London, 1854), pp. 349-96 (cited below as Byrhtferth; see above, Sigla).

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INTRODUCTION

the Tiber. The third part described the verbal ‘charter’ (gift) in Ecgwine’s name. It described how King /Ethelred had given Fladbury, the subking /Ethelheard had given Stratford, /Ethelheard's brother, Osweard, had given twenty hides at Twyford, and King Cenred, /Ethelred's successor, eighty hides around Evesham, and how he, Ecgwine, had visited Rome a second time in the company of Kings Cenred and Offa. There ‘liberty’ had been acquired for the monastery in a document that bore the impression of the seal of the pope. At a council of great men held at Alcester, Berhtwald, archbishop of Canterbury, had composed, at the command of King Cenred, a privilege recording the endowment of 124 hides for the site of the abbey of Evesham: this privilege was then put on the altar. Byrhtferth's final section, IV, concludes with the death of Ecgwine, that is, his ‘heavenly birth’, and four miracles: that of the nine chains, of the seal that appeared swimming in the Avon on St Ecgwine's day, of the countryman who spilled his own brains, and how—when the church of Evesham was destroyed at the time of Abbot Osweard—the relics of St Ecgwine were miraculously unscathed. The life of Ecgwine by Byrhtferth formed the basis of Book I of the work of the next historian-hagiographer, Dominic, prior of Evesham, writing about a century later.** Dominic's Life of Ecgwine, although based on Byrhtferth's, added significantly to Evesham's history. Dominic followed quite closely Byrhtferth's account of Ecgwine's preaching, rejection, the vision of the Blessed Virgin, and his two visits to Rome, first bound in chains, and then in the company of the kings, when the pope ‘made that place (Evesham) free’. But Dominic was able to build on the basis of the information that Byrhtferth had

provided. He was the first author to give details of the papal letter, which he dated to 709, and probably used the Liber Pontificalis to identify the pope concerned as Pope Constantine, and not Pope Boniface as Byrhtferth had it. Next, on the basis of the information of the gifts recorded as made to the monastery in Byrhtferth's text, Dominic put these details into the framework of a foundation charter of Ecgwine. He added material that he found in Bede or the Anglo” This was a widespread and popular story that changed with the telling. Byrhtferth, Dominic, and William of Malmesbury, all have different versions; see M. Lapidge in 4B xcvi, p. 100 n. to 6, 22. ?' Dominic also wrote the Acts of Worthy Men and a Life of St Odulf, see above, and a small book on the Miracles of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

?' Byrhtferth, p. 360. (Boniface V was pope from 619 to 625, and Boniface VI briefly in

896.)

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XXXI

Saxon Chronicle on Archbishop Theodore and King Wihtred of Kent (not found in Thomas). It was Dominic, too, who provided the date of 714 for the dedication of the church at Evesham and what he described as the ‘description of the gifts’. In the final part of his Book I, leading up to the death of Ecgwine, which follows Byrhtferth closely (including a digression), mention is made of a ‘monachilis ordo' at Evesham, following the Rule of St Benedict—a detail that is lacking in Byrhtferth. Dominic concluded his Book I with the same four miracles that terminated Byrhtferth's Life of St Ecgmine. How does Thomas’s account of the early years differ from that of Dominic? The text of Dominic that Thomas had in front of him must have posed certain problems. First of all, Thomas was anxious to show that Ecgwine had resigned as bishop of the Hwicce on becoming abbot of his newly founded community at Evesham (18)— otherwise exemption for the thirteenth-century abbey would be almost impossible to prove. He also made it clear that the pope had confirmed the monastery under the rule of its own abbot, and threatened anathema on anyone introducing clerks in their place. While both Dominic and Thomas apparently speak of freedom from episcopal exactions, Thomas also speaks of the liberties, immunities and episcopal ‘dignities’ of the monastery, by which he presumably means the abbey's jurisdictional and spiritual rights as they had come to be by his time (19). Thomas attempted to sort out the problems of the chronology of the early documentation to assuage any fears that discrepancies might cause the documents to be suspect. Before introducing the text of Ecgwine's charter of 714, which he turns into a diploma with subscriptions and clauses of blessing and sanction, he writes of the charter completed in Rome and of the charter composed by Berhtwald. T'his was to demonstrate that any possessions mentioned that were not in the first two charters had been legitimately obtained and confirmed. Thomas also faced the problem of providing dates for the sequence of events. It was he who provided the dates for /Ethelred's donation, 701, for the visit of the kings to Rome, 709, and for Ecgwine's resignation as bishop, 714. Thomas also depended to some degree on the author of the Lives of the Abbots, now only existing in the version found in his History. In the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, the account of the Life of Abbot "Ethelwig, who died in 1077, is much more detailed than the accounts

xxxii

INTRODUCTION

of the other abbots that surround it.*° In all probability /Ethelwig's Life is the work of the Evesham historian of the twelfth century, Prior Dominic, which was completed between 1104 and 1110. Dominic may have had a hand also in the next section on Abbot Walter (d. 1104), which was added before 1 129." Dominic died in or before 1145—there is evidence for his attesting as prior after 1130—but he is unlikely to have been the person who continued the lives of the abbots after the death of Abbot Walter in 1104." From then until 1189 they are scrappy and not very informative and they omit entirely the abbacy of Robert II (c.1121—4). Thomas was clearly not able to find much on the lives and acts of previous abbots when he came to scour the muniment room for his History. It is the historian's task to find evidence and to interpret it. The evidence that has been discovered must be verified, if possible, and reconciled if it conflicts in any way. A chronology has to be imposed in order to explain how things came to be as they are. It is in this light that we should consider many monastic historians who worked on forged evidence. In some cases Thomas knew that the evidence was shaky—and in at least one case that it was forged. But certain distinctions need to be made between fictitious content and forged charter. In much of his writing he is trying to make sense of the historic past. How had the community at Evesham come into being and when exactly did it happen? Earlier historians at Evesham had already supplied the charter of St Ecgwine—and like other monastic foundation charters it had undoubtedly been added to and elaborated over the course of time. It was not the medieval historian's task to cast out but to explain. It has been remarked that our knowledge of eighth-century Evesham is limited to ‘a thirteenth-century list of abbots and a mass of late forged charters'. Some five centuries had passed before "Thomas began to write. Undoubtedly there was considerable activity at Evesham in the early eleventh century, u er R. R. Darlington, */Ethelwig, abbot of Evesham’, EHR, xlviii (1933), pp. 1-22, I

-09.

E On Dominic, see the important work of J. C. Jennings, ‘Prior Dominic of Evesham and the survival of English tradition after the Norman Conquest’ (Oxford B.Litt. Thesis, 1958), and “The writings of Prior Dominic of Evesham’, EHR, Ixxvii (1962), pp. 298-304. For a list of Dominic's works, and their editions, see R. Sharpe, Handlist of Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 (Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin, 1: Brepols, 1997), but Sharpe is wrong in saying that Dominic died in 1 125. Jennings, ‘Writings’, p. 298, for the date of Dominic’s death. rich one tive i j Sims-Williams, Religion and. Literature, p. 144.

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when Byrhtferth, in his Life of St Ecgwine, provided an account of the gifts and endowments. Then in another burst of writing in the twelfth century, Dominic in his Vita drew up (or, just possibly, found) a charter for Ecgwine, the text of which was known to William of Malmesbury, and included certain details about the death of Aldhelm, bishop of Sherborne, whose death was miraculously revealed to Ecgwine. Thomas then put this charter of foundation, including the gift of the castle of Chadbury (in Lenchwick), into an improved documentary framework. His redaction ends with the subscriptions of Kings Cenred and Offa and Archbishop Berhtwald and the note that many other chief men, bishops, abbots, and priests had subscribed ‘as found in the authentic charter’. He then thought fit to add ‘We have followed this almost word for word, just as the holy man set it forth in his charters which he wrote for the most part himself. And although the hand of the scribes is not the same [sc. as the original], we have transcribed faithfully and in summary fashion the narrative of that same hand and pen’ (34). Thomas also pointed out that ‘more possessions are indicated in this [Ecgwine’s charter] than in the charter which had been completed in Rome, or in that charter which Berhtwald composed: I refer to those possessions which the holy man later acquired . . .' (26). Both accounts, Dominic’s and Thomas’s, draw attention to the part played by Archbishop Berhtwald in committing to writing details of the possessions and rights, as commanded by the pope, and undertaken at a royal assembly at Alcester (supposedly in 709). This particular relationship between the archbishops of Canterbury and the community at Evesham was to be part of Evesham’s argument as to its special status and will be examined later. It should also be noted that the claim to freedom from the demands of bishops, alluded to in both redactions of the charter, preceded Thomas’s attentions to Dominic's ext

At what point in time the two privileges of Pope Constantine made their appearance it is difficult to say. Dominic had the first privilege of 709. Thomas omitted it—and the later privilege of Pope Constantine of 713, of which Dominic appears to know nothing— in his revision, but included both privileges later in his Book III. He ** See William of Malmesbury, De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton

(RS lii, 1870), p. 384. 5^ See HBC, p. 587. ^6 Edited by M. Lapidge in AB xcvi, pp. 88-90 no. 11.

INTRODUCTION

XXXIV

noted, however, in discussing the expulsion of the monks and the assaults of Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey, in the late tenth and early eleventh centuries, that ‘it is marvellous in our eyes that despite the many great tribulations and various sudden changes of persons who engaged in unjust rule here, the privileges of Pope Constantine, which our father Ecgwine acquired, were not completely destroyed by either the bishops of Worcester when they ruled over this church, or by the clerks when they were in charge here: this is especially marvellous since the privileges were formulated and written against the assaults of such people’ (145). The survival was attributed naturally to the mercy of God and the mediation of the blessed Virgin. Whether the sentiments were Thomas's or an earlier writer's is not certain, but there was clearly a tradition of the existence of early documents within the abbey of Evesham. The existence of such a tradition can be confirmed by the survival of copies of the texts of the two papal letters of Pope Constantine that come from the 1120s, to be copied again in the same form in the 1150s." These texts exhibit no differences from those given by Thomas in his History as the documents shown to Pope Innocent III in the lawsuit at Rome. Furthermore, the first privilege shows no important differences between Dominic’s text as given in his Life of St Ecgmine and Thomas’s as included later on in the History. If we examine the two privileges, however, we have to ask why there was a need for a second privilege in 713, so soon after the first in 709, to accord with the story of the two visits and the dedication of the church in 714 (Dominic). Both privileges accord significant powers or duties of care and protection (tuitio) to the archbishop of Canterbury, thereby bypassing the diocesan, the bishop of Worcester.The significant differences between the first privilege and the second are that the second adds a section on the power and position of the abbot and condemns anyone introducing clerks in place of monks. While both inveigh generally against tyrants, the second privilege declares that the community shall be ‘under the sole rule of its own abbot’ (325). "When the abbot dies, his successor is to be chosen by the brethren of that place, in accordance with canonical authority, either from the " See J. Sayers, Evesham’,

' "Original",

cartulary

Fülschungen im Mittelalter (MGH

and

of the abbey

Schriften xxxiii, 4, 1998), pp. 371-95,

chronicle:

the case

375-7. For the copies of the 1120s, see BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E I, fos. 34-5. For those

of the 1150s, possibly intended

to pass as originals, see Evesham

Almonry

Museum

Accession no. 127 and BL Cotton MS Cleopatra E I, fos. 64—5; the latter is reproduced as pl. I in the above article.

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

XXXV

monastery itself or from the diocese of the Hwicce. He is then to be consecrated in that church freely and canonically without any charge (i.e. financial exaction), and, out of reverence for the venerable Ecgwine, is to use the ring only in the celebration of mass, and on our authority always to hold the first place after the bishop of the Hwicce’ (326). The bishop is being even more firmly removed from supervision of the monastery—sentiments that accord with the aspirations of ancient Benedictine monasteries in the twelfth century. Furthermore, the inveighing against tyrants and assailants of any rank who undermine the privileges instituted by God (324) leads up to the final sanction clause condemning anyone violating this privilege or attempting to introduce clerks in the place of monks—a concern that certainly goes back to the tenth century at Evesham, but not so far as we know earlier, and was to continue until the time of Thomas of Marlborough. That Thomas recognized certain incompatibilities or had his suspicions about these documents is clear, because when the bishop's proctor at Rome declared them rank forgeries (299), he stated ‘about the privileges of Constantine, I was entirely ignorant’ (300). Although we are told that one of the privileges of Constantine did not arrive until after the sentence was passed (281), Thomas argued from both. His role as a lawyer was to examine the general statements in the Constantinian privileges that could be related to the concessions contained in the privileges and indults of later popes: Innocent II, Alexander III, Clement III, and Celestine III. His adversary, Master Robert de Clipstone, had also objected to the letters of the latter two popes, Clement and Celestine, which he said were associated with an official messenger of the curia who was known to be a forger of papal letters—an allegation of which Thomas says he was not ignorant ‘although I personally had nothing to be guilty about’ (300). No mention is made of suspicions raised about the authenticity of the privilege of Innocent II nor of the privilege of Alexander III. Thomas cites from both documents in his argument. Of the seven English Benedictine houses claiming exemption from the diocesan, three, St Augustine's Canterbury, Malmesbury, and Evesham, based their claims on very early papal privileges.** (Of the ‘8 In general on early papal privileges, see P. Wormald, ‘Bede and Benedict Biscop’, in Famulus Christi: Essays in commemoration of the thirteenth centenary of the birth of the Venerable Bede, ed. G. Bonner (London, 1976), pp. 141-69; on Malmesbury, see H. Edwards, ‘Two documents from Aldhelm’s Malmesbury’, B/HR, lix (1986), 1-19.

Xxxvi

INTRODUCTION

remaining four, three—Bury St Edmunds, St Albans, and Westminster—owed their status to the actions of both kings and popes, while the fourth, Battle, was made exempt almost entirely through the exertions of the king.) St Augustine's, Canterbury, purported to have a papal letter of Pope Boniface IV of 610, Malmesbury possessed a letter of Sergius I of 701, and Evesham displayed the two letters of Pope Constantine of 709 and 713. Malmesbury and Evesham were the last two to receive the status of houses that answered nullo mediante to the pope, Malmesbury in 1191, and Evesham in 1205. Both these communities had sent to Rome in the time of Pope Innocent II to acquire privileges and on that occasion both produced their seventhand eighth-century bulls, the new privileges making reference to them.?! Whether the documents produced by Evesham prior to Innocent II's privilege of 1139 were the texts as we have them in the copies of the 1120s (i.e. as shown in 1205) we shall never know. However, John of Worcester, writing before 1140 (the grant of Innocent II to Evesham was of 1139), describes Evesham's document as acquired by Ecgwine as ‘a letter of privileges, to protect the monastery which he had built in Worcestershire against the attack of evil men'.? It is therefore just possible to believe that some earlier papal document preceded the twelfth-century texts, because privileges of protection—some of which have been accepted as genuine— were issued by popes from the sixth century." If the first privilege as we have it in the 1120s might be argued to rest upon some truth, the second relates clearly to events experienced in the late tenth century. * Bury St Edmunds, St Albans, Westminster, Battle, and St Augustine's, Canterbury, had all achieved this status by the late 1170s. Bury St Edmunds was the only house to establish clear exemption

in the eleventh

century;

the others

followed

in the decades

between the 1150s and 1170s, St Augustine's being the last. 9 H. Edwards, ‘Two documents’, pp. 1-19, especially 9-19, has argued that Sergius's letter, in spite of a dubious proem, is basically genuine. She edits the text, and also comments (at p. 13) on the ‘privileges . . . secured by personal application at Rome’. *! For the text of Malmesbury's ‘Vestigiis inherentes! of 1142, see Registrum. Malmesburiense, 2 vols., ed. J. S. Brewer (RS Ixxii, 1879-80), i. 346-8. 32 go. Wo., ii. 166—7.

* P, Wormald, in Famulus Christi, ed. Bonner, pp. 141—69, at 148, points out that the privileges of Gregory the Great were not so much of exemption as of protection against abuse of episcopal power. Privileges of Pope Constantine for Bermondsey and Woking (with which Evesham's documents may be compared) were to protect the status quo. There were new departures in the seventh century, however, in monastic exemption, limiting the episcopal power over monks, and allowing the monks to refuse episcopal masses unless by invitation, and to choose the officiating bishop. See also L. Falkenstein, La Papauté et les abbayes frangaises aux xt° et xii! siécles: Exemption et protection apostolique (Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sciences historiques et philologiques, cccxxxvi: Paris, 1997), p. 44.

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There is no indication, however, that Evesham's first historian, Byrhtferth, knew much about papal privileges. On the other hand, we know that the two privileges were in existence in the time of Dominic, who chose in his Life of St Ecgwine to give the text of the first but not the second. It must remain a matter of conjecture as to whether it was Dominic or another who formed these privileges, but there can be little doubt that in an abbey such as Evesham there would have been enough knowledge to draw up something that might deceive a bishop and might even be used to effect at the papal curia in order to extract further privileges. The texts of the privileges of Pope Constantine produced in Rome by Abbot Reginald Foliot apparently satisfied Pope Innocent II when he issued a privilege for the abbey in

1139 (330). Evesham's advances towards exemption in the twelfth century followed a pattern similar to that of Malmesbury. Both communities acquired privileges from Innocent II and Alexander III. Innocent II's grant to Evesham in 1139 allowed that no bishop was to celebrate in the abbey or the chapels a synod, chapters, ordinations or public masses, unless invited to do so.?* Chrism was to be received from the bishop of Worcester, but the abbot might be blessed by any Catholic bishop of his choice. The privilege acquired by Malmesbury from Pope Innocent II in 1142 was similar, but it denied the abbot blessing from a bishop of his choice, and it demanded that payment should be made of an ounce of gold yearly as a sign of the abbey's liberty—a condition not required of Evesham. Pope Alexander III in 1163 allowed Evesham to receive the chrism, and the consecration of altars and the ordination of clerks from any bishop, granting burial rights and rights to celebrate during a general interdict.? For Malmesbury in the same year, he reiterated that chrism, the consecration of altars, ordinations of monks and clerks, and the blessing of the abbot was to be received from the diocesan bishop, provided that he did not charge for these things and that he was in communion with the apostolic see. The significant differences were thus two: the payment of the ounce of gold yearly, putting Malmesbury theoretically in a very special position, and Evesham's greater freedom from the diocesan. All the documents that we have been discussing survive only in cartulary texts. We therefore cannot put too much weight on them as ** Tt is possible to see this as a development of Constantine's grants. For the text of Innocent II's privilege (JL 7999), see below, 329-31. 55 For the text of Alexander III's privilege (JL 10877), see below, 332-6.

INTRODUCTION

XXXVIil

being the actual texts of the originals. However, there are no glaring anachronisms and, while they are not the genuine articles, they do not make claims that are inconsistent with privileges of this date. The key issue for both communities was ‘libertas’, which meant exemption from the diocesan’s attentions. The monks of Malmesbury feared in 1117 that Bishop Roger of Salisbury would degrade their house to a priory, and seventy years later, in 1190, they were apprehensive that it would be reduced to a monastery belonging to the bishop. This cannot have been far from Thomas’s mind in 1202. The charters of the kings are only vaguely referred to by all the three Evesham historians. They play a shadowy, but nonetheless important, part in Thomas’s account. At the beginning of Book III, after the two books on Ecgwine, Thomas was careful to note first of all the grants of King /Ethelred of the site of Evesham itself in 701 and then of Chadbury, Fladbury, and Stratford in 703. These he follows with the grants of Offa in 703 of what was ostensibly the Vale and of Cenred in 709 who gave lands on either side of the Avon.” This was virtually the complete endowment. Neither Byrhtferth nor Dominic had ventured into these details. But nowhere does Thomas give the texts either of these royal charters concerning the land endowment or of any charters granting ‘royal liberty’. The privileges of Pope Constantine had emphasized the granting of royal liberty, and in the course of the suit at Rome much was made of the liberty given by the kings, as recorded in their charters. Thomas had interpreted the liberty granted as like an ‘imperial gift’, shot through, perhaps, with a Roman law connotation, and a notion of the pope as true emperor. He argued that this liberty could not apply only to the small town of Evesham, but must extend also to the surrounding region— ‘our monastery is . . . like a heart in the middle of the body’ (362). The pope's decision to separate the hearing of the case of the exemption of the monastery from that of the jurisdiction over the Vale meant that detailed examination of the royal charters was not necessary until the hearing of the Vale case. At that point the pope delegated the scrutiny of the royal documents to judges in England. We do not know what they made of them. But Thomas at this juncture wrote: ‘I am not setting down in writing here the privileges of the kings because, as you can judge from my preceding narrative, it is still doubtful whether those privileges are going to be of any benefit 56

" See below, 115, 117, and Sawyer no. 8o.

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XXXIX

to us or not’ (377). We can only surmise what these documents may or may not have included, but the tradition of charters of the kings goes back to the early eleventh century where Byrhtferth records that King Cenred at the council at Alcester ordered Archbishop Berhtwald to draw up a privilege, and what may have been landbooks for the endowment of the 124 hides, probably on the basis of verbal grants and promises made by the kings before the pope. Such stuff is undoubtedly myth, but the tradition of documents is early, and parchments purporting to be royal privileges are likely to have been drawn up, certainly by the 1120s, when the privileges of Pope Constantine were fabricated. Thomas inherited a rich tradition of documents: whether he suspected what had perhaps survived from eighty years earlier can only be an opinion. His statement, however, suggests that in his view the privileges were not precise enough for his purposes. The archbishops of Canterbury The course of events in the abbey of Evesham at the turn of the thirteenth century was much influenced by the relationship between the monastery and the archbishop of Canterbury—a relationship that the Evesham historians traced back to the historic mission of Archbishop Berhtwald as the pope's representative. At the time of Bishop Mauger of Worcester's projected visitation in 1202 some of the Evesham monks asserted that the care of their souls and the powers of correction in the church of Evesham had been specially entrusted by the pope to the archbishop of Canterbury. Their church, they said, was 'betrothed already to the lord of Canterbury, the protector of our church and our permanent legate’ (255). It was therefore to the archbishop that they went for help in times of trouble. What grounds are there for this claim? There are two points of fact. First in 1197, and again in 1198, the monks of Evesham had approached the archbishop of Canterbury, the metropolitan, rather than the bishop of Worcester, the diocesan, about the behaviour of Abbot Roger Norreis. Archbishop Hubert Walter was at the time papal legate. Second, in 1201, the archbishop (no longer legate at this date) had visited the convent at Evesham to amend what needed amending, because, as the papal privilege stated, and the monks ?/ See below, p. liv.

INTRODUCTION

reminded him, ‘the care for the souls of our church has been entrusted by the pope to you’ (215). Among the letters of Peter of Blois, when archdeacon of London, and therefore probably of 1202 (possibly as early as June 1200),?? is one which has every appearance of being genuine, and which was written in answer to an approach made to him by P. the prior and the convent of Evesham. In it Peter expresses surprise that they have not received some remedy in their troubles from the archbishop, a ‘man of great prudence and counsel? Archbishop Hubert Walter, as legate, claimed to have the power to visit exempt houses, but Evesham, unlike Bury St Edmunds, never claimed an exemption, simply a special relationship with the archbishop as their guardian and protector. According to the chronicler Jocelin of Brakelond, the abbey of Bury St Edmunds resisted Archbishop Hubert's attempt to inspect them and procured from the pope in 1196 a letter stating that, as subject to the pope alone, they could be visited only by a legate who was the pope's direct personal representative, a legate a /atere, which Hubert Walter was not.? Whether at this time the monks of Evesham were mindful of what was contained in their privileges and aware of their limitations, we cannot now say, but some of the monks held quite firmly that correction could come only from the archbishop, not the bishop, for ‘our monastery is the only church in England which has been entrusted to the archbishop, and so it has a special claim on him after Canterbury’ (256). The hearing at Rome of the case for exemption from the bishop was the occasion of the discussion of all the privileges. The two letters of Pope Constantine, both addressed to Berhtwald, primate of the Britons, charged the archbishop with the protection of churches throughout Britain, particularly that founded by the venerable Ecgwine. From this Thomas assumed that ‘our church was established by the authority of the pope, and was entrusted to the primate of the Britons as the pope’s legate’ (288). The next two major privileges for Evesham of 1139 (obtained by Abbot Reginald Foliot: 329-31) and 1163 (obtained by Abbot Adam: 332-6) were concerned more with the practicalities of exemption from the diocesan than with E For the complex dating, see Greenway, Fasti, i. St Paul's London, p. 10. * Afllictioni uestre totis, printed Mon. Angi. ii, num. xl, pp. 40-1, from Cotton MS

425-8.

D III. 1, which did not survive the Cotton fire of 1731, and PL 207, no. cxlii, cols.

°° JB, pp. 72-5.

THE

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xli

the powers of the archbishop, both taking the community under the pope's and St Peter's protection, but neither mentioning that Evesham was subject to the pope with no intermediary. They granted that no bishop was to celebrate chapters etc. without permission, that the blessing of the abbot was not to be restricted to the diocesan bishop, and that ‘the special customs in the parishes’ were to be observed. The third batch of papal letters produced consists of two indults of 1189 (obtained by Abbot Adam: 337-8) and 1192 (obtained by Abbot Roger Norreis: 339-41). Both declare the abbot and community ‘to belong especially to the jurisdiction of the blessed Peter and ourself without any intermediary’, a notion that would not have seemed strange to Abbot Adam, a Cluniac, and both conferring the use of the abbot's pontificals, the outward sign of exemption. Innocent III's decision about the exemption of Evesham, enshrined in ‘Ex ore sedentis! (342-55), lent credence to Pope Constantine's ‘commission’ to the archbishop of Canterbury as primate (with echoes of the Petrine commission), to act as protector of the church of Evesham, which was now declared to be free, wholly exempt from episcopal jurisdiction, and subject only to the Roman pontiff and the Roman church. What part had the contemporary archbishops played in this? Hubert Walter, at least in the eyes of the monks of Bury St Edmunds, was anxious to extend his legatine powers. He was anxious, too, to build up the power of the see of Canterbury to protect appeals, that is, the tuitorial appeal, whereby the archbishop’s court protected an appeal to the papal court until the case was heard. The protection of the archbishop of Canterbury, however, while necessary for the confirmation of the fact that an election to the abbacy had been properly carried out, was to go no further. Thomas warned the community that confirmation of an abbot of an exempt house must come from the pope alone and not from the archbishop of Canterbury. This he stated clearly in his final section, where the copyist added in the margin, ‘Note concerning the archbishop’ (507). The story was not quite over, for in 1233, after he became abbot, Thomas submitted to annual visitation by the archbishop or his delegates in a charter recorded in Canterbury archiepiscopal sources but not in Evesham sources.°’ What lay behind this we do not know. 'The document of submission was copied into the archiepiscopal 9! Printed below as Appendix IV.

xlii

INTRODUCTION

cartulary, but a marginal note added that this letter was revoked by a letter of Pope Innocent IV dated 18 December 1249, declaring that Evesham should not be visited, as it was subject nullo mediante to the pope alone. Had the archbishop of Canterbury been seeking to extend his rights at Evesham’s expense?

The bishops of Worcester From the first, relations between the two Benedictine communities of Evesham and of Worcester, which lay within twenty miles of each other, were close. In liturgical practice they had much in common, and they shared St Ecgwine, who was both bishop of Worcester and founder of the community at Evesham, in later terms its abbot. The History is keen to show, however, that Evesham was in no way dependent on the bishopric of Worcester, making it clear that Ecgwine had founded the abbey on an estate given him by King /Ethelred in 701—the date supplied by Thomas. It is stressed, too, that Ecgwine had become the first abbot of this community and had at that time resigned as bishop of Worcester. The house therefore did not belong to the see of Worcester. Evesham is, of course, unlikely to have had the sort of freedom it later claimed—in any case freedom (and its opposite, subjection) were not real concepts in the very loose diocesan arrangements of the early eighth century, in which monasteries were highly regarded. Nor did the bishops of Worcester have the kind of diocesan rights feared by exempt communities in the twelfth century. At the end of the tenth century (9956) Ealdwulf, bishop of Worcester, had obtained the abbey of Evesham from King /Ethelred and subjected it to his jurisdiction, and from this nadir in the fortunes of the community it is possible to discern the beginnings of the contest over the possession of certain lands and endowments between the abbey of Evesham and the bishops of Worcester. Until this point Evesham posed no threat to episcopal authority.” The revival in the abbey’s fortunes under Abbot /Elfweard, the kinsman of King cnu*t, consisted in the building up of the central estates, claiming properties that had been lost and also others to which they had no clear previous claim. Evesham, perhaps, sailed past the Norman Conquest in calmer waters than any other Benedictine house, as Abbot /Ethelwig was left as the Conqueror's agent in the West Midlands. Particularly at issue 62 Sims-Williams, a: a » Religion and Literature, p. 176.

THE

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OF EVESHAM

xlii

between the bishopric of Worcester and the abbey of Evesham were the properties at Hampton and at Bengeworth, which were on Evesham's doorstep. It is less easy to determine the origins of the jurisdictional dispute, in so far as it was distinct from the territorial issue. By the early twelfth century, however, the quarrel over Evesham's status and position within the diocese of Worcester had found its expression in more prolific documentary form. It had been sharpened by the central reform movement in the Church that sought to give diocesans greater powers over their dioceses. But such centralizing tendencies were at odds with the powerful and ancient institutions that claimed exemption, the pope presenting himself as the protector of monks, a position much furthered by the rise of the great abbey of Cluny. The papacy was shifting its position from protecting the monks, especially from lay aggressors, to exempting them from outside interference from clerics.? The bishops of Worcester in the twelfth century seized every opportunity to enforce what they saw as their rights, visitation being the key. The documents suggest that they were determined in their quest—from the Evesham point of view nothing short of aggressive. Opportunities for asserting their position were during vacancies in the abbey and just after a new election when the convent’s resistance would have been at its weakest. The monks’ only real ally was the pope, but he was far away, and molestation and persecution might well take place even after appeal. A letter of Gilbert Foliot to Godfrey, archdeacon of Worcester, asking him to restrain his bishop from persecuting the monks of Evesham, dates probably from the very early days of William de Andeville as abbot in 1149-50." Some years earlier a remarkable letter written by Abbot Reginald to his nephew, Gilbert Foliot, abbot of Gloucester, had referred sadly (and despairingly) to the hostility from the bishop of Worcester in the light of his recently acquired papal privilege of 1139. In the past, Abbot Reginald says, ‘Worcester considered us as free citizens, never as slaves.' It is no coincidence that this letter —undoubtedly genuine—was copied into Thomas’s manuscript at the point where the monks were discussing Mauger's visitation and a case was being made for resistance.” 95 For an excellent summary of the development of exemption, see Falkenstein, La Papauté et les abbayes frangaises, pp. 217-24.

5* Printed in Foliot Letters, no. 9o. $5 The letter is printed below as App. III.

INTRODUCTION

xliv

'The prologue

It was the declared intention of Prior Thomas, stated in his prologue, to record the distinguished deeds of good men and the evil actions of wicked men, the high points and the low points of human actions. Learning from example was a common sentiment expressed in prologues. Orderic Vitalis says in the prologue to his Historia ecclesiastica, "Our predecessors . . . have recorded the good and evil fortunes of mortal men as a warning to others . . .. ^ John of Salisbury writes in the prologue to his Historia pontificalis, *men may by examples of reward or punishment be made more zealous . . . nothing, after the grace and law of God, teaches the living more surely and soundly than knowledge of the deeds of the departed’; citing Cato, he says, ‘the lives of others are our teachers’.°’ Thomas traced the writing of history in this manner back to the Greeks. ‘In order that evil men should not enjoy the same standing in society as good men', the Greeks had introduced a literary remedy. The Romans copied the Greeks in the perpetuation of virtue by making written record, but they also erected statues to the virtuous. In this way, he says, they reminded men of their ancestors and challenged their descendants to great deeds and glorious acts. The message of imitating the good and shunning evil acts had been incorporated in the lives of the holy fathers for all to read and hear, and *had not the Lord made it clear both through the writings of the New Testament and the Old what men should shun and what imitate?’ (112). This

then is Thomas’s task. Both benefactors and despoilers are to be recorded. There is a strong emphasis on material possession and on the duty to recover alienated lands that imperilled the souls of the alienators. Contemporary history

The major part of Thomas’s work is contemporary history, but contemporary history that has to be linked closely to the past. Part I therefore opens with the outline history of the abbey and abbots of Evesham up to what he calls ‘the intrusion’ of Abbot Roger Norreis. Thomas’s observations of Abbot Norreis are first-hand and continue

right through the description of the lawsuit at Rome until Norreis's ** The Ecclesiastical History of Orderic Vitalis, ed. M. Chibnall (6 vols., OMT, 1969-80), 1. 130-1. 67

ane

Cato, Distichs, : iii. 13; ificalis ofof John of' Salisbury, SACO) 3 The Historia i pontificalis revised ed. Salt ü M. Chibnall (OMT, 1986), p. 3. :

THE

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OF EVESHAM

xlv

deposition in 1213. Norreis is therefore woven into the account. Abbot Randulf is also treated as part of the main story. Again Thomas was an observer, writing over a period of sixteen years up to Randulf's death. While Norreis has his history in the attempted ‘destruction’ of the abbey of Evesham, Randulf belongs to the history of the rebuilding of the religious life and a fresh start for the beleaguered community. Before we look at other aspects of the community's life, essential to the History, we need to consider briefly these two abbots. Abbot Roger Norreis The abbot imposed on the convent by King Richard I on the advice of Archbishop Baldwin had been deposed as prior of Canterbury, to which office Baldwin had appointed him, just eighteen days after the death of Abbot Adam of Evesham on 12 November 1189. Virtually all the parts of Thomas’s Book III are concerned with Abbot Norreis, from his ‘intrusion’ in Part I (185) to his death which is mentioned in Part V (499). Norreis first comes to notice as treasurer at Christ Church, Canterbury, in 1187, when he was sent by the convent to the king to complain about the archbishop’s plans to establish a college of secular clerks—an action that the monks found threatening. The king and Archbishop Baldwin were abroad at the time, at Alencon, and there it appears that Baldwin made Roger Norreis cellarer of the convent—an action that was seen by the Canterbury monks as ‘buying off’ Roger. Worse was to follow, and in September 1189, Archbishop Baldwin made him their new prior, giving him certain conventual manors. His reputation among the monks of Christ Church, Canterbury, as a supporter of Baldwin, was as a traitor, and one who had impinged on the convent's rights and properties. This reputation would have hummed through Benedictine parlours and, allowing for the natural passion of the two monastic writers who have painted lurid pictures of his character, Baldwin’s action in persuading the new king, Richard I, to give Roger Norreis the abbey of Evesham seems irresponsible. It is possible that the first few years at Evesham were uneventful and that Baldwin perhaps had hoped that Norreis would sort out the finances of the house, but it was all too apparent before very long that there were flaws in his character and that he had vices not suitable to an abbot of one of England’s foremost Benedictine houses. The dramatic story has been told by G. G.

INTRODUCTION

xlvi

Coulton® and by Dom David Knowles,” using Thomas as the source. As argued above, it seems likely that Thomas of Marlborough had some connection with the community at Evesham before 1199 (his first year as a monk), perhaps dating back to the last days of Abbot Adam who died in 1189. After 1200 it is certain that he writes as a first-hand

witness,

and

as such

he was

vital in the

process of the deposition of Abbot Norreis by the legate, Nicholas, bishop of Tusculum, in 1213. For Thomas, Norreis was the very epitome of the bad abbot. He had appropriated and squandered the property of the abbey and he had abandoned the Rule both in his personal conduct and in his failure to provide for the convent's observance of it. Abbot Randulf The abbot chosen to succeed Roger Norreis was Randulf, a monk and prior of Worcester. In 1202, together with Walter de Broadwas, he had headed a party of Worcester monks who went to Rome to promote the canonization of Wulfstan.”” The following year, 1203, he was elected prior on Christmas Eve.’’ As prior his time seems to have been successful, for on 2 December 1213, following the death of Bishop Mauger of Worcester, he was unanimously elected bishop^— a choice satisfactory no doubt to the monks, but not to the king, who wished to give the bishopric to his chancellor, Walter de Grey, recently rejected at Coventry. The legate, Nicholas, bishop of "Tusculum, was prevailed upon to seek Randulf's withdrawal. Accordingly, he quashed the election and advised the monks of Evesham to elect Randulf as their new abbot, which they duly did on 20 January 1214 (502). Misunderstanding of the text of Thomas’s History has led several writers to assume that Randulf had been a monk at Evesham.” In fact the statement that he was a monk of the house refers to the confraternity between the two Benedictine houses of Worcester and of Evesham, whereby a monk of either community had a place in Five Centuries of Religion, ii. 347—78 (chs. xxiv and xxv). WSOP GhESDEUDDISSS TOM Ann. Wig., p. 391.

?' Tbid. 392.

Rotuli litterarum. clausarum, ed. 'T. D. Hardy, 2 vols. (1833-4), i. 148; Ann. Wig., -

402.

i i C. R. Cheney, Pope Innocent III and England (Papste und Papsttum, ix: Stuttgart, 1976), p. 162; HRH, pp. 48, 84; Greatrex, Biog. Reg., p. 8; and Greenway, Fasti ii. Monastic Cathedrals, 103—all state that he was a monk of Evesham.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

xlvii

chapter and a stall in choir in both houses, arrangements that were common from the mid twelfth century. However, the phrase ‘natione Eveshamensis’ obviously means that Randulf was born in the Evesham area (502). Although it is clear that the legate would have imposed Randulf on the convent if they had not agreed to elect him, Randulf in many ways seemed the ideal successor to Abbot Roger Norreis. 'The author of the Lives and Deeds of the abbots suggests, with the word mitissimus, that he was a mild man, a placator (510). He was perhaps the perfect foil for the more quixotic and passionate Thomas, who went with the abbot to the Lateran Council the year after the abbot's election (521). The task facing Abbot Randulf, if complex, was at least clear. He had to restore the house both spiritually and economically. According to the biographer, his first good work was to pay off the debt incurred in the lawsuit in Rome to the abbey's Roman creditors (510). His second good deed was that he reclaimed, by an exchange, the pension of sixty shillings from the church of Ombersley that had been paid to the legate Nicholas’s clerk, Humfrey. This money was now diverted for the use of the poor for the Maundy, which formerly had to be provided by the abbot (511). His third good work was to transfer the revenues of one obedientiary to another when necessary, if one was over-provided and the other had insufficient funds. He abolished the custom of the abbot’s coming to the sacrist’s manor of Bretforton for one day’s lodging, thereby causing considerable expense to the sacristy, assigning instead from the sacristy three marks to be paid to the infirmary and two to the pittancery (512). These reforms were included in the customs and disposition. He restored buildings, bought mills, made fishponds, constructed dovecots, and made assarts, giving some lands, rather than licence to assart. (His biographer was critical of his granting of the assarts rather than of licence to assart.) Within the precinct at Evesham he constructed a watch chamber next to the hall in the great court. He left the high table a silver cup and a maple-wood cup, and the convent other bowls, spoons, and two gold rings. He gave vestments, including a mitre, two albs, and a cope, and a fine ring for Mass, and vestments for the altar of the Lady chapel. The mitre was presumably for his own use and he also had three abbatial seats made (513-15). Protective of his status as a mitred abbot, he insisted on his place beside the bishop at the synod of Worcester in 1219.”* In the sixteen ™ Ann. Wig., p. 411. For the statutes see C. & S., ii. 1, pp. 52-7. A mitred abbot had quasi-episcopal jurisdiction over the territory of his abbey.

INTRODUCTION

xlviii

the years of his abbacy he appears to have restored the observance of

religious life at Evesham, eleven of them with Thomas as his prior. B.

CULT

AND

BUILDINGS

Both Benedictine communities at Evesham and Worcester were active in the cult of saints. Their calendars show such close connections in the observance of saints’ days that assignment of their origin is often difficult. Two of the calendars pre-dating 1100 have been attributed

by some scholars to Worcester and by others to Evesham.” Both communities had contact with the continent that was reflected in the saints in their calendars. Evesham's own saints

For a monastery claiming high status, it was essential to have its own saints. Both saints’ lives and their corporal remains became important to reformers. How early Ecgwine was accorded the rank of a saint at Evesham and at Worcester, we do not know. Bede does not mention Ecgwine. In all likelihood he made his reappearance on the Evesham scene when Evesham's fortunes began to rise, and Michael Lapidge's

suggestion that the Vita of Ecgwine by Byrhtferth of Ramsey was perhaps written at the invitation of Abbot /Elfweard, himself a monk of Ramsey before he came to Evesham, is an attractive one."^ It was certainly Abbot /Elfweard who presided over the revival at Evesham. As a relative of cnu*t (perhaps through a relationship with /Elfgifu of Northampton), it was at his instigation that the remains of St Wigstan—a ninth-century royal Mercian martyr—were translated from Repton to Evesham.’’ Wigstan was important to Evesham as a descendant of their royal patron, King Cenred. It was also Abbot /E|fweard who purchased for Evesham, from merchants in London, all the relics of the ninth-century Brabantine saint, Odulf (146). Along with Credan, said to be the eighth abbot of Evesham (after Ecgwine), who was at some point accorded the position of a saint, 7^ English Kalendars before A.D. rroo, ed. F. Wormald (Henry Bradshaw Soc. lxxii, 1934), calendars 16 and 18; and see V. Ortenberg, The English Church and the Continent in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (Oxford, 1992), pp. 248 n. 157 and r9 n. 66. ^ M. Lapidge, ‘Byrhtferth and the Vita S. Ecgwini’, Mediaeval Studies, xli (1979), 33153, at 342, repr. in Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature 900—1066 (London and Rio Grande,

1993), PP. 293-315, at 304.

On Wigstan, see D. Rollason, Saints and Relics in Anglo-Saxon

England (Oxford,

1989), pp. 59, 117, 157-8, and 175; and see below, 146 and nn. 5 (p. 150), 1 (p. 152).

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

xlix

/Elfweard had thus assembled at Evesham a number of saints and shrines. His successor, Abbot Mannig, a goldsmith of repute, whose fame had spread as far away as France, made shrines for Saints Ecgwine, Odulf, and Credan (149). The stage was set for the coming of the pilgrims ‘from Aquitaine, Ireland and many lands’, referred to under his successor Abbot /Ethelwig (160). There were also three hermits at Evesham under Abbot Mannig, of whom one, Wulfsige, a layman from Crowland, was regarded as a saint probably soon after his death. Wulfsige is described by Dominic in his Acts of Worthy Men as a hermit for seventy-five years. He acted as the spiritual adviser of Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife Godgifu, and it was he who prevailed upon Wulfstan to accept the bishopric of Worcester in 1062. His tomb is referred to by Thomas when he was sacrist. Wulfsige had another particular claim to fame in the eyes of Thomas—he had returned Badby and Newnham to the abbey's possessions. Thomas and the development of the cults "Thomas chose to preface his History with the Lives and Miracles of the Evesham saints, Odulf, Wigstan, and, of course, Ecgwine. The Life of St Odulf was that written after 918 by Cappidus Stavrensis to which Dominic apparently added the Miracles: neither Thomas nor Dominic had seen fit to alter it much." Thomas personally had authored the Life and Miracles of Wigstan, attributing his sources mistakenly to Bede: clearly he was using a copy of Bede with additions based probably in part on John of Worcester." He added certain pieces of information to what was the original account of Wigstan's life and miracles. He recorded that the fall of the tower at Evesham (in 1207, see 436) broke not only the feretory, or shrine, of the saint, but also the crown of the head, which had been placed in a cloth along with the other bones 'as is the custom'. Hearing of this event, the canons of Repton asked the abbot and monks of Evesham for some relic of the saint who was also their patron. Their request was granted by Abbot Randulf and a small portion of the head and an arm bone were transferred to Repton. Thomas also reported, from personal knowledge, the account of Archbishop Baldwin's investigation into the miracle of St Wigstan's hair that was said to occur 78 Dominic in his Acts of Worthy Men (Macray, p. 322) mentions the other two hermits also, and see below, 146 and n. 6. For Wulfsige's influence on Wulfstan, see Jo. Wo., ii.

590—1. ” Printed by Macray, in Appendix, pp. 313-20. See Jennings, ‘Writings’, p. 301.

39 See Macray, pp. 333, 337; Jo. Wo., ii. 262-3 and n. 6.

INTRODUCTION

annually on the day of his death. This enquiry must have taken place between 1188 and 1190. Baldwin had appointed Paul, abbot of St Mary de Pré, Leicester, and Baldwin, prior of Monks Kirby (Warws.) to go to Wistow (Leics.) to observe this phenomenon and to certify its veracity or otherwise. At the appointed hour the grass round the chapel turned into a man's hair, which they touched, kissed, and marvelled at, and then after a short time only grass was to be seen there. They hastened to Canterbury to inform the archbishop.*! Ecgwine is central to Thomas's History, never far from Thomas’s thoughts. Thomas’s abbreviation of the first book of the Life and Miracles of St Ecgmine enabled him to undertake some revision of the stories. For the most part, Thomas was content to leave Dominic's arrangement of Book II of the Life and Miracles of St Ecgmine in its original order. But he did see fit to follow Dominic's prologue with two of the four miracles that were originally in Byrthferth and thence in Dominic Book I. These were the miracles of the unharmed shrine during the time of the collapse of the church under Abbot Osweard, and the miraculous death of the man who claimed land belonging to the abbey (68, 7o0—1). Sandwiched between these two was the tale of the countryman who in swearing a false oath lost his beard (69). This slight alteration in the order may have been made by Thomas in order to impose a stricter chronology. As rearranged, the two stories coming from the time of Abbot Osweard are now put together. Henceforth the sequence of miracles exactly follows Dominic's Book II. The other two of the original four miracles recorded in Byrhtferth and Dominic—the miracle of the seal in the Avon and the miracle of the nine chains— l'homas thought appropriate to include in the twelve readings, 7-8 (55-6) and 9—11 (57-60), for the night vigils of the feast of the translation which he had been asked to provide in a shortened form." Cults needed to be associated not only with the written word but also with the growth and embellishment of buildings and the provision of suitable shrines and reliquaries. The church of Evesham *! "The Life and Miracles of St Wigstan are printed in Macray, Appendix pp. 325-37. On

the points made here, see esp. pp. 334, 336. For the date of the enquiry see HRH, p. 170, the accession of Paul in 1188, and HBC, p. 232, the death of Archbishop Baldwin in 1190. On the manuscripts and textual tradition of the Life of St Wigstan, see P. A. Hayward, ‘The idea of innocent martyrdom in late tenth- and eleventh-century English hagiology’, Studies in Church History, xxx (Oxford, and Cambridge, Mass., 1993), 81-92, at pp. 81-2

nn. 3-4. 82 rmm . X ; x , j a Those readings for St Wigstan’s feast, which Thomas had been asked to provide, if ever completed, do not survive.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

as Thomas first knew it was a Norman fabric, largely constructed under Abbots Walter and Reginald." Doubtless the crypts and the upper part of the church as far as the nave that Walter built called to mind the great Romanesque churches of Normandy, with which he would have been familiar as Lanfranc's chaplain. In this church presumably there were shrines from which Abbot Walter took the relics of the Evesham saints that he had submitted to the ordeal by fire, from which they had emerged unscathed—indeed, the head of St Wigstan had miraculously shed beads of sweat—for Walter, convinced of the sanctity of both Credan and Wigstan, is said to have

placed the relics in raised feretories.** Abbot Reginald Foliot continued the construction of the nave walls ‘as they can be seen today’, commissioned arm-reliquaries for St Ecgwine and St Oswald, and made good St Ecgwine's shrine which the goldsmith, Abbot Mannig, had made, and which had been stripped of its gold, silver and precious stones by the monks during the Anarchy (178). This shrine 1s described as of gold, silver, and precious stones, three of which illuminated the church at night (149). Whether Mannig's shrines built for Saints Odulf and Credan had survived to this time, we do not know. Abbot Adam undertook much building work. As a former Cluniac he valued grand and spacious buildings, gorgeous vestments, and works of beauty, of which the lectern for the chapter house may be the one surviving at Norton; and it is said that in his time the shrine of St Ecgwine was completed. Also under Abbot Adam, the cloister— which Abbots Maurice and Reginald had begun—was completed, as was the nave of the church with the assistance of Dean Richard of Wells (182). This assistance was possibly assistance in the design as well as financial help. With the collapse of the church tower in 1207 Thomas (? as dean) was instructed by Abbot Norreis to undertake the task of restoration. The History says that within two years he had renewed the walls of the presbytery and built them to provide an 55 For a summary of the building works and excavations at Evesham, see D. C. Cox, ‘The building, destruction, and excavation of Evesham abbey: a documentary history’, Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 3rd ser. x11 (Worcester, 1990), E

pu Dominic's Acts of Worthy Men, printed in Macray,

Appendix,

pp. 320-5, at

323-4; and Life and Miracles of St Wigstan, Macray, pp. 335—7. See also P. A. Hayward, "Translation narratives in post-Conquest hagiography and English resistance to the Norman Conquest’, in Anglo-Norman Studies, xxi (1999), ed. C. Harper-Bill, pp. 67—93, who makes the point at 91-3 that only those relics about which there was doubt were put to the test. Notably St Ecgwine's relics are not mentioned as being included in the trial.

lii

INTRODUCTION

ambulatory around the presbytery, no doubt to provide for festive occasions and the movement of pilgrims (519, 524). After 1217, when he became sacrist, and hence the obedientiary who was usually in charge of building works, he replaced the stained-glass windows broken by the collapse of the tower, repaired all the damaged shrines, renewing the shrine of St Wigstan that had suffered considerably (521). Later he had a throne and a ‘royal image’ made for it (529). Further work on the fabric continued under him as prior (from 1218). The History refers now to the second collapse of the tower (524). It is not clear whether these two accounts can be compressed into one or not, for they seem to repeat one another, but it is clear that Thomas cared deeply about the Evesham saints and their shrines. He repaired St Ecgwine's shrine, renewing 'the flowers and precious stones' on it, and built a throne for it. In homage to St Ecgwine, and doubtless to instruct the pilgrims, he put a glass window in the presbytery to illustrate the saint's story. He made provision also for the reliquaries of Saints Wigstan and Credan to be brought before the high altar at the time of their feasts and for candles to burn before them during this time, presumably the octave (524—7). Some of the building works seem to have been in the area of the crypt, possibly to strengthen the choir and the presbytery (519). The Virgin had shown herself to Ecgwine, as well as to the swineherd, and her cult at Evesham was not neglected. The altar of St Mary in the crypt and its maintenance, especially the provision for its lighting, were the responsibility of the sacrist. Here, too, from the accounts in Thomas’s acts, he took a particular interest (521, 525—7). C.

CUSTOMS

AND

REVENUES:

THE

DEFINITION

RIGHTS

Part of 'homas's History is concerned with the extended and bitter quarrel between Abbot Norreis, on the one hand, and the community headed by the prior, on the other. Such disagreements about the

administration of the revenues and the relative rights of abbot and convent were not new, nor confined to Evesham, but took place in

many Benedictine abbeys at this time. What is remarkable about

Evesham, however, is the high degree of independence that the prior *9 (Om the development of the separation of the lands and revenues between the abbot

and the prior and convent in general, see E. U. Crosby, Bishop and Chapter in Twelfth

Century England: A Study of the ‘Mensa Episcopalis! (Cambridge, 1994), ch. 3.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

lii

and convent attained in a settlement made with the abbot on the authority of the legate, John of Ferentino, in 1206. This written settlement recognized that the prior and convent had a portion of lands and revenues virtually separate from those of the abbot. The document

(cited as M) dealt not only with the disposition of the

revenues but also with the customs of the house.?* It was confirmed by the legate, as consisting of statutes made by common consent for the good estate of the monastery and accepted by both the abbot and the monks, before he left in November 1206 (430). It gave the prior and convent an independence in running their own estates and affairs that was on the same scale as the jurisdictional and spiritual powers granted to both the abbot and the convent in ‘Ex ore sedentis'

(342-55). A second document, dealing with the customs and apportionment, dates from the abbacy of Randulf, who succeeded Roger Norreis in 1213 (399—429). Pope Innocent III confirmed a forerunner (now lost) of the text of the Randulf document, as we now have it, after the Lateran Council, at which both Abbot Randulf and Thomas were present (431). That document may have been closer in some ways to the written agreement confirmed by the legate, but in other ways it may have been more favourable to the abbot. There is no doubt that it was ‘renegotiated’. The seal of direct papal approval and protection put the arrangements at Evesham on an even more secure footing. It is not the purpose of an introduction to the texts to do more than outline their significance. But before we go on to an examination of their development and date, some short explanation is needed. It is clear that these two documents—and another redaction of Abbot Randulf's charter surviving as Cotton MS Augustus 11 11 (cited as C)*’—incorporate arrangements made over a considerable period of time and they reflect changes and further definition. All the documents are divided into two parts: a section that deals with the customs of the house and a section dealing with the disposition of the revenues. As we have already seen, in his history of the development of the Evesham endowment, Thomas was anxious to point out that it was not static, that more had been acquired as time wore on. It is clear that by the time Thomas was writing, the text of the 1206 arrangement had been reworked and was now seen by him as superseded, and that after the departure of Abbot Norreis, against whom there was 86 See below, App. II A.

87 See below, App. II B.

liv

INTRODUCTION

undoubtedly personal animus, demands may have been toned down; for instance the reproving of monastic officials by the brethren has been altered to *by the abbot and the brethren' by the time of Abbot Randulf. For this reason the text of the document of 1206 did not find a place in Thomas’s History, but it survives in a transcript made for Dugdale’s Monasticon (edition of Caley, Ellis, and Bandinell).** The original, from which the text was taken, probably by John Caley, who was keeper of the Records in the Augmentation Office, is described as an ‘autographum sub sigillis in curia Augmentationis’. It presumably survived among the records of the court of Augmentations until at least 1819, the date of publication of vol. ii of Monasticon, but is now lost. It is printed below in Appendix II A; the text is based on that in Monasticon. This document, which we shall call M (Monasticon), had its origins no doubt in the desire of the convent to protect the assignment of revenues to particular obedientiaries, to curtail the abbot's authority over all the monastery's income and endowments, and what 1s more to restrict the abbot's activities by a written agreement. According to Thomas’s testimony, it was Archbishop Hubert Walter who first ordered the customs of Evesham to be put into writing. This instruction from Archbishop Hubert did not follow the convent's first two complaints about the abbot's appropriation of the convent's rents for himself, his squandering of their properties, and his giving away of assarts, which were made to the archbishop in 1197 and probably the following year, 1198 (191-3). Nor did it take place when the archbishop came to Evesham again, most likely in 1201. On that occasion details concerning the archiepiscopal rights over the monastery had been put into writing, but the question of defining the customs and revenues had not been broached. That followed Thomas’s return from the papal curia after his first visit in 1202-3 when the archbishop came to Evesham in 1203. Thomas informs us later on in the History that he had first learned at the papal curia about the possibility of putting the customs and details of the revenues in

writing, and on his return gave advice on this, emphasizing the sealing of the document by the abbot, the convent, the legate, and

even

the pope." This

does

not exactly square

with Thomas’s

aS) De : * E E r Printed in vol. ii, nums. xxvii-xxviii, pp. 23-5. The account of Thomas’s life later in the History says that ‘when Thomas returned

from the Roman curia he gave advice about something which he had learned was practised

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

statement that Hubert Walter was involved (239). It is possible that the initiative came from "Thomas, though Hubert Walter's importance in the making and keeping of written records is well known. However that may be, the drawing up of the document was not effected under Archbishop Hubert, who died on 13 July 1205. The beginnings of the actual process of codification rested until the legate John of Ferentino came to Evesham in 1206 to investigate the state of affairs there. With the previous allegations no doubt in mind, he conducted a careful scrutiny into the behaviour and conduct of the abbot and of the monks. He also commenced an enquiry into the revenues of the obedientiaries and the customs of the house with a view to providing a written record. But he departed without completing either the scrutiny or the ‘dispositio’ of the revenues. He reserved to himself the completion of the ‘scrutiny’ or enquiry into the behaviour and conduct of the abbot and of the monks, and he

delegated the settlement of the ‘dispositio’ to the abbots of Lilleshall and Haughmond. As a result of the activities of the two abbots, as Thomas records, ‘All the revenues assigned to our offices and all the customs relating to the cellary were put in writing. This document we sent to the legate and he confirmed it’ (393). It can thus be dated before the legate’s departure in November 1206. The order of the offices in M is prior, precentor, sacrist, chamberlain, kitchener, pittancer (there is no refectorer), infirmarer, almoner, and master of

the fabric; finally come the customs of the cellarer. The only anniversaries of abbots mentioned are those of two twelfth-century abbots, Reginald (d. 1149) and Adam (d. 1189). It will also be noted that when compared with our other two texts, there is no entry for the dean's office. Following the deposition of Abbot Roger Norreis in 1213, it is almost certain that there would have been reference to the customs and disposition, and the new abbot, Abbot Randulf, when elected on 22 January 1214, would doubtless have been required to promise observance of the arrangements. The redaction of the customs and disposition of the revenues as copied into Thomas’s History, which we shall call R (Rawlinson), is, indeed, in Randulf's name (399—429). This text, ‘Thomas states, was confirmed by Pope Innocent III at the time of the Fourth Lateran elsewhere in other churches, and this was that the customs and revenues belonging to the convent should be put in writing and confirmed with the seals of the abbot, the convent,

and the papal legate, and even of the pope himself’ (518).

INTRODUCTION

lvi

Council (1215). This cannot be strictly correct because it was confirmed by Innocent on 16 February 1216, by which time the Council had ended, but there is no doubt that the confirmation took place while Abbot Randulf and Thomas were in Rome or very soon after they had left. The History also states that when Abbot Randulf ‘sladly’ confirmed the disposition, he ‘enhanced it with many additional revenues, as inspection of the documents reveals’ (398). Furthermore, Randulf’s document, which Thomas purports to copy, includes the statement that what follows is the record ‘not only of those revenues which we had at the time of the confirmation (i.e. by the pope), but also of those we acquired afterwards’, adding that Pope Innocent II and Pope Alexander III had conceded and confirmed not only the revenues that the abbey of Evesham held in their time, but also those acquired later by just means (400). Reference is made in R to Abbot Randulf's action in accordance with a statute of the Benedictine general chapter (418). The first Benedictine chapter for the Southern Province cannot predate September 1218, so the main text (R) must be later than that date. R also refers to the anniversary of Abbot Randulf (409, 419), but this does not necessarily mean that it must date after his death on 17 December 1229, as it was not unusual practice to provide for an anniversary during a lifetime. Our third text is a text of the disposition of Abbot Randulf, closely comparable with the copy in Rawlinson, but not identical. It survives in a copie figurée (an elaborate but unsealed copy)" in the British Library, Cotton MS Aug. IL. 11 (C). C is printed as Appendix II B, below (the sections that are not in R are printed in italics). It opens in the name of Abbot Randulf and with the same preamble as R. There are some grounds for arguing that it predates R. Firstly, certain ‘wearisome customs’ at Bourton-on-the Water, which are described in C, are not present in R, and a pension from Ombersley, mentioned in C, is called an ‘old’ pension in R. Secondly, certain marginal

additions in R are found in the text of C, notably in the entries concerning the almonry and the kitchen. The order of the entries in C is exterior cellarer, prior, dean, precentor, sacrist, altar of St Mary in the Crypt (part of the sacristy), almoner, refectorer, infirmarer, pittancer, kitchener, chamberlain, master of the fabric, guest-house i:

. c . Phere were three sessions of the Lateran Council on II, 20, and 30 November.

See Vocabulaire International de la Diplomatique, ed. M. M. Cárcel Ortí, Commission Internationale de Diplomatique (Valencia, 1994), p. 33 no. 56.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

lvii

master, and finally, customs of the cellarer. C includes a separate entry for the pittancer, as does the earliest text M. C also has under the pittancery a comment about the church of Ombersley and the legate's clerk, Humfrey, which is not found in R, namely that Abbot Randulf assigned 205. for the celebration of the feast of St John before the Latin gate from the pension of 60s. from the church of Ombersley, which, because the abbot had given this to his own clerk, the papal legate, Nicholas, in 1213, gave to his clerk, Humfrey. The author of the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, under the deeds of Abbot Randulf, comments that the abbot later reclaimed this pension, diverting it to the use of the poor, with the consent of the legate (511). However, C (the charter) cannnot be earlier than R, for there is the startling revelation in the text of C that Abbot Randulf had conferred two marks from a pension of 60s. from the church of Ombersley on the almonry, ‘as written in the chapter on the good works of Abbot Randulf’. This is a reference to the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, as found in Part V of the History, and must put C’s compilation close to the death of Abbot Randulf. In R it occurs as a marginal addition (419 and n. 3). Its incorporation into the text of the charter (C) has, of course, to mean that C must post-date the writing of the Life of Abbot Randulf. It seems unlikely, if not impossible, that the Life would have been written before the death of the abbot in question, and, if this assumption is correct, then the text, which is not dated or sealed, but simply ends with the triple Amen, must date from after

17 December 1229, the day of Abbot Randulf’s death." But the charter, as already pointed out, is in the name of Abbot Randulf. Can its compilation be squared with a date after his death, and why would it have been compiled? In the aftermath of Abbot Randulf's death, there would have been considerable concern in the monastery about his successor. In view of the recent history of the house and its struggles, a successor who ?? The date of the death of Abbof Randulf is not given in the Lives and Deeds of the abbots, but is recorded in H and in other later sources—Harley MS 229, fo. 17‘, printed in Mon. Angl. ii, num. xxxii, p. 27; Cotton MS Vespasian B XV (from H), and Lambeth MS 589 (from Cotton MSS Vitellius E XII and XVII)—as 16 kal. Jan. (17 Dec.) 1229. The Patent Rolls (Patent Rolls of the Reign of Henry III A.D. 1225-1232 (HMSO London, 1903), p. 320) record in the royal licence granted to elect a successor that Adam, the subprior, and Walter, the cellarer, notified the king on ‘the Wednesday before St Thomas's day’ (19 December) of Abbot Randulf's death. The licence is not dated but obviously postdates 19 December.

INTRODUCTION

lviii

would advance its position and observe its customs was essential. The inevitable vacancy made it imperative that the division of funds between abbot and convent should be clearly set out and observed, particularly so if the new abbot was not to be Thomas. It was by no means certain that the successful candidate would be Thomas, and indeed, although he was elected abbot three days later on 20 December and was admitted by the king on or before 7 January 1230 (532), the election did not run smoothly. The pope ordered a new election in a letter to the convent of 2 May (533). Thus the most likely explanation for the making of C is that it was drawn up on or very close to 17 December 1229, the death of Abbot Randulf, perhaps before 6 January, and probably well before 2 May, the date of the pope’s letter. Thomas was not blessed until 12 July 1230 (534), and did not receive possession of the abbey until some twelve weeks later, on 29 September 1230 (536), but it is unlikely that a further redaction took place at that date, for why would the name of Randulf have been retained? The obvious answer to this question is that the text in Randulf’s name had had papal confirmation, which it was essential to preserve. If our suggestion about the date of the compilation of C is correct, it gave Thomas or someone in his circle the chance to update the customs and disposition, just as they had been updated from time to time after the pope’s confirmation in 1216. The evidence from the charter, C, is that it has to be later than R. It is, of course, clear that both C and R were not compiled (as opposed to copied) at any one specific date. They were subject to numerous changes and additions. It is clear, too, that neither text has a direct dependence on the other. The variations between the texts indicate either an intermediary or different sources. While C and R share many sections, there are differences within the sections. R, for example, provides for twenty-five paupers on Prior Thomas’s anniversary from land at Bengeworth (this is a late thirteenth-century over-writing of the text), while in C the subprior is to feed thirty poor people in the parlour on that day, the writer stating that Thomas had

increased the rent by an exchange. In one instance in R eight principal feasts are provided for, as opposed to seven in C. There is little doubt that under Thomas as prior there was much rewriting of R. R also omits the whole section in C on the income of the altar of 93

cee

On another occasion (fo. 174"), R refers to seven principal feasts, suggesting a possible slip, but an increased number of feasts might not necessarily indicate a later development.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

lix

St Mary in the Crypt with which Thomas was closely associated as sacrist and as prior. As sacrist *he had it decreed in chapter that lamps should be kept perpetually burning before the high altar and in the crypt before the altar of St Mary’ (521); and as prior he bought two sites for shops in Evesham and some land, and used this income for the altar lights (525). When was R copied into Thomas’s History? For the date of when this particular version of the disposition of the revenues and customs of the house was completed and copied into Part IV (fos. 171'—4") of the book now known as MS Rawlinson A 287, we have to return to the question of the date of the compilation of T'homas's History. This particular redaction cannot have been put together before 1218 because of the reference to the General Chapter and to Thomas as prior, an office he did not hold until that year. Its inclusion in the middle of the events of 1206 is apparently because of its connection with the earlier arrangement that the legate had confirmed. Thomas no longer wished to include the text of 1206, as it was now outdated, but he did need to provide a text of the customs and disposition of the revenues as they were at the time of writing, most likely in the early years of his priorate which began in 1218. He also needed the pope’s letter of confirmation though in fact that took place in 1216 and did not confirm the text that Thomas included. Dating this particular redaction of the customs and disposition of the revenues unfortunately does not narrow the possible dates for the completion of Thomas’s book. The date has to be after 1218 and before 1230: it could be at any point in the interim period of the 1220s.

The significance of the written customs and disposition of the revenues Evesham was probably among the first Benedictine houses in England to establish a regular system of accounting and audit. The circ*mstances of the legate’s intervention in the domestic arrangements, both at St Mary’s, York, and at Evesham (failing houses), possibly

put them at the forefront of reform. On the other hand, it may well be that the fortuitous survival of the texts has accorded these two houses an innovative position, which in fact reflected a new devolved system of accounting that was becoming popular among Benedictines in the early thirteenth century. According to the provisions, each obedientiary was to appear before the abbot or his delegate and render an account four times a year in the presence of the prior and six monks,

INTRODUCTION

three of whom were chosen by the abbot and three by the convent. The kitchener, or cook, was to account weekly. Whether these accounts were written or verbal, supported by tallies, cannot be stated with certainty. What we can say with certainty, however, is that the customs were committed to writing and that these clauses were included. They were supported by further decrees stating that no monk was to have two offices, although a fellow helper, acting also in the capacity of an overseer, could be appointed. Furthermore, the abbot was to appoint the obedientiaries only in chapter and on the advice and with the consent of the chapter. The obedientiaries were listed. They were to be appointed from amongst the convent. The bestowing of churches and revenues, the alienating of lands, the initiation and termination of lawsuits, the freeing of villeins, and the appointment of the abbey's servants, were to take place only in chapter and with the convent's consent. Provisions for transferring funds from an obedience in surplus to an obedience in debt were to be transacted by the abbot in consultation with the chapter. Nor was the abbot to accept or expel monks without the consent of the convent and again this had to be done openly in chapter. While the abbot's authority was undoubtedly safeguarded in the customs, he was now obliged to seek approval in chapter, even if he might act without it. While the consent to all major transactions may have been somewhat theoretical, Evesham's written customs are the spearhead of a movement away from vague precedent to written law. Anyone reading these stipulations cannot but see them as the antidote to the wayward practices of Abbot Norreis, who had alienated the monks’ property and taken their obediences into his hands ‘to do as he pleased with them’ (189). But they also echo practices and problems in other houses, where abbots and convents were not in agreement about management, and where, in some cases, as at Bury St Edmunds, secular clerks had been appointed by the abbot and brought in to manage estates and money more efficiently and to supervise the monks." The importance of the chapter as a place of council as well as of edification and correction is paramount. Here in future all appointments were to be made of the officers of the convent, in the case of

Evesham the obedientiaries, the prior, the subprior, the third prior,

the masters of order, and the prior of the dependency of Penwortham. ^ JB. pp. 70-2, 79.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

lxi

The late Dom David Knowles saw these customs as reflecting extremely democratic views." This might be seen as the judgement of a brilliant historian revealing attitudes of his own day, but it is also clear that to Thomas the definition of rights represented a notable advance in Evesham's quest for status. Evesham's relations with other Benedictine houses

As pointed out above, relationships between the Benedictine priory at Worcester and the Benedictine abbey of Evesham were close and we should not see the struggle between Evesham and the bishop of Worcester as initiating a period of hostility between the two communities. It is likely that there would have been interchange of books and that Thomas and others at Evesham knew of the works of the Worcester chroniclers. In 1077 Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester had established a confraternity agreement between Worcester, Evesham,

Gloucester, Winchcombe, Pershore, Chertsey, and Bath."* At some point in the twelfth century the two communities had entered into a confraternity arrangement. Confraternity arrangements were at first for reciprocal prayers for the dead. Later they allowed monks of the other house equal rights in both communities, with a place in chapter. The election of Randulf, monk and prior of Worcester, as the successor to Abbot Norreis, no doubt furthered contacts. Evesham also had confraternity arrangements with Whitby, St Mary's, York, Malmesbury, and Odense, its daughter-house in Denmark. Evesham and Whitby were historically and sentimentally connected by the mission of 1073-4, and the arrangement between the two houses, declaring that ‘the two congregations were to be as one’, took place before 1125." The mission of Evesham monks to Whitby indirectly formed the link with St Mary's, York, to which house some Whitby

monks migrated. Pacts of confraternity between the two houses date from the decade of the 1150s, that of 1159-60 stating that ‘monks of Evesham shall be for all things as monks of York’. 5 The connection with St Mary's, York, may be closer than the documents now allow us to demonstrate, and there may be some direct relationship between the constitutions the legate suggested for St Mary's, York, in 1205, aM.

Ol pp. A14—15.

°© See B. Thorpe, Diplomatarium Anglicum aevi Saxonici (London,

1865), pp. 615-17.

? HRH, p. 78. H fo. 86; V fo. 16". ?* H fo. 85" (incorrectly rubricated ‘Witebi’); V fo. 15°. On St Mary's, York, see also J. Burton, ‘A confraternity list from St Mary's abbey, York’, Revue Bénédictine, lxxxix

(1979), 325-33, esp. 326-30.

INTRODUCTION

Ixu

and those for Evesham. It was at St Mary's, York, that Abbot Randulf was blessed as abbot by the legate in 1214. There was probably considerable solidarity with the Benedictine community at Malmesbury, Evesham's nearest neighbour after Worcester, with whom they shared much in common in the struggle against the diocesan. The confraternity agreement between Malmesbury and Evesham was made comparatively late by Abbot Robert II with Abbot Roger Norreis between 1190 and 1205, and declared that the abbot or any brother of the other house had the right to enter the chapter, to seek refuge in the house, and generally to share in all the benefits, bodily and spiritual, as if he were a monk of that house.” Delinquent monks were to be received not as prisoners, but as monks of the cloister, and in some cases rights of voting in an abbatial election (as well as the right to receive votes) were conceded, though this is not stated in any of the Evesham arrangements and some of these privileges may never have been used." The convent of Evesham also had a confraternity agreement with its daughterhouse, Odense, in Denmark, whereby any monk of Evesham, who went to Odense with permission, was to be treated as a monk of the house, and the same was the case for any Odense monk coming to

Evesham.'"! The legacy of Thomas of Marlborough

As we have seen, Thomas’s purpose in writing was not to provide a record of a legal action brought before the papal curia in the pontificate of a reforming pope, but to establish a written account of the history of the community at Evesham so that its rights should never again be lost. This was the driving force. Under the challenge ofa threat, and with disagreement as to how the threat should be met, opinions come to be defined more exactly and rights become firmer. There is no doubt that Evesham’s rights were advanced by Thomas. They could not have stayed static but they might well have declined. Thomas improved the house’s status in three ways. The opportunity came to him in virtually three roles, first as proctor at Rome, secondly ? H fo. 84"; V fo. 14°. Printed Mon. Vitellius E XVII.

d Knowles confraternities.

in M.

O., pp. 474-5:

Angl. ii, p. 19, num.

he commented

xvi, from Cotton MS

specifically on the Evesham

' H fos. 88'—9'; Mon. Angl. ii, p. 25, num. xxix, printed from V fo. 16*. On Odense,

see P. King, "English influence on the church of Odense in the early middle ages’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, xiii (1962), 145-55.

THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

]xii

as monastic official (most importantly as dean and sacrist), then finally as prior and as abbot. As the abbey's proctor he was directly involved in the legal process which had become so important for the maintenance of ancient rights. As dean of the Vale he was immediately concerned with the abbey's jurisdiction over the parishes in the Vale and as sacrist he had administrative responsibilities including the care for the abbey's buildings. To restore the community to its former status the cults of the Evesham saints and their shrines were important—matters that had concerned Thomas from his earliest associations with Evesham in the writing of the lives of Wigstan and Ecgwine. As prior, and later as abbot—both offices of great power and authority within the convent and the wider community—he was concerned in the business of the estates and in the government of the house. The restoration of good relations between the abbot and the convent and the building up of the community in numbers and resources were the tasks of his priorate and abbacy. At the time of Abbot Norreis's attempt to expel Thomas of Marlborough and Thomas de Northwich in 1206, thirty monks left with them on 25 November in that year. As old and infirm monks were left in charge of the sacred relics and the treasure of the church, we may presume the full number of the community to have been in the region of forty to fifty monks (see App. V, and 395). We do not know, however, how many left during the Interdict: certainly recruitment is likely to have been at a low ebb prior to Norreis's deposition in 1213. The abbey had to be made vital again. It might be that the institution Thomas was so vigorously defending would face further challenges to its position in future. For this reason it was essential that there should be a written record so that the community should know its status and so that there should be no backsliding for lack of evidence. Thomas had witnessed the vulnerabilty of a house without adequate written records. His History, however, was for the purposes of the community alone. There was no idea of circulation and there is no evidence that there were other copies of the manuscript or that it circulated in thirteenth-century Benedictine houses or indeed anywhere else. ‘That it has survived is a miracle of history.

INTRODUCTION

Ixiv

III.

THOMAS'S

A. THE MANUSCRIPT:

HISTORY

RAWLINSON

MS A 287 (R)

Outline of the manuscript 1. Haimo of Auxerre Expositio in Apocalypsim beati Ioannis

fos. 1'—116 2. Vita S. Odulfi a. fos. 116'—118' (not edited by Macray) b. fos. 118-19" Translation and Miracles of St Odulf (Macray,

pp. 313-20) 3. Acta Proborum Virorum fos. 119'—120' (Macray, pp. 320-5) 4. Vita S. Wistani fos. 121—123" ‘editus a Thoma priore Eveshamie

(Macray, pp. 325-37) 5. Vita beati Ecgwini et Miraculi Prologue ‘editus a Dominico

priore

Eveshamie’

(Macray,

pp. 1-2) fos. 123—124" Liber Primus *abbreviatus a Thoma priore Eveshamie’: form of 12 ‘lectiones’ (Macray, pp. 3-27); Explicit (Macray, pp. 27-9)

in the

fos. 124—130 Translation of St Ecgwine: in the form of 12 "lectiones! (Macray,

pp. 30-8) fos. 130-2" Prologue of ‘Liber Secundus! on the miracles, ‘editus a Dominico' (Macray, p. 39)

fos. 132'—3' Liber Secundus fos. 133—9 (Macray, pp. 40-67) Liber Tercius fos. 140-82" (Macray, pp. 69-260) fos. 182-94" Continuation of the Lives and Deeds of the Abbots (Macray, pp. 260—310)

THOMAS'S

HISTORY

Ixv

[fo. 187°: the present edition ends here with the death of Abbot Thomas of Marlborough]

The first four sections have The Latin text of 2b, 3, Appendices (pp. 313-37), Deeds of the abbots after pp. 278-310.

not been included in the present edition. and 4, however, is printed by Macray as and the Continuation of the Lives and Thomas (from fos. 187'—94') is on his

Quiring of Thomas's History Four quires of ro fos., + 2 additional fos. (180—181), of a large volume measuring 430x321 mm Written space 296 mmx 202-210 mm Ruled for 41 lines; but fos. 141'°, 146", 179%, and 181" are of 42 lines

(1) fos. 140—149" fo. 148°

Pars Prima Pars Secunda begins

fomes?

Pars Secunda Pars Secunda ends

Pars Tercia begins

(2) fos. 150'—159" iw

(3) fos. 160—169"

fo. 166° fo. 166°

Pars Tercia ends Pars Quarta begins

(4) fos. 170'—179" fo. 176° Pars Quarta ends fo. 176° Pars Quinta begins [fo. 179'—catchword Penedictum| Two folios, 180, 181

fo. 181"

Pars Quinta ends End of 13th cent. hand

Fos. 182'—194' replacement leaves of the fifteenth century fo. 182° end of Thomas’s History later part of the Lives of the abbots begins (with Abbot Randulf) tomo 7 death of Thomas fo. 194° MS ends

INTRODUCTION

Ixvi

THE

MAKING OF THE MANUSCRIPT (TERESA WEBBER)

The account of Thomas of Marlborough's deeds, which comprises one of the continuations of his History, states that among the books Thomas had caused to be made (fecit) whilst prior of Evesham (1218-29) was ‘Haymonem super Apocalypsim et uitas et gesta patronum et abbatum Eueshamie in uno uolumine! (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS A 287, fo. 184; below, 523). This statement almost certainly refers to Rawlinson A 287 itself, a large, handsome manuscript (430x321 mm) which contains Haimo of Auxerre’s commentary on the Apocalypse (fos. 1'—116'), Dominic of Evesham’s Vita S. Ecgwini (fos. 123-139 ;below, 1-111), and Thomas’s History

(fos. 140—194"; below, 112-509, 510-46).^ The entire manuscript (with the exception of fos. 182-94 which are fifteenth-century replacement leaves) was produced at Evesham during the early decades of the thirteenth century. The physical characteristics of the manuscript suggest that it was not originally planned as a single unit but was probably compiled in two stages, the Vite and the History being added to an existing copy of Haimo's commentary which now occupies the first twelve quires. These twelve quires are the only ones that have quire signatures, and the quality of their parchment and the standard and consistency of ruling are much higher than that of the remainder of the manuscript. Although the Vita S. Odulfi begins on the final verso of quire 12, it is written in a different hand, and, given the difference in the quality of the parchment and the ruling of both the following quire in which the text is completed and those of the remainder of the manuscript, it seems likely that the Vita S. Odulfi and the other texts were added subsequently, and that Haimo's commentary was originally intended to be the only item in the manuscript. Nevertheless, the similarity of layout, script, and decoration throughout the manuscript not only points to a common origin for both the Haimo and the additions (as does the preference in both the Haimo and the History for quires of ten leaves rather than the more usual eight) but also suggests that the additional texts were intended to be viewed as having some form of

textual relationship with the Haimo and that they were added not piecemeal, but as a group. All the texts are written in two columns 102

Paragraphs 510-46 are a continuation incorporated earlier in Thomas’s History.

of the Lives and Deeds

of the abbots,

THOMAS’S

HISTORY

Ixvii

with the same or very similar size of written-space (c.296x202— 210 mm), and the same or almost the same number of lines per column (41 lines for Haimo and the History, 42 for the Vite, with the first line of text written above the first ruled line). The major decoration throughout comprises very similar, well-executed pendrawn initials in red and blue, with pen-flourishing. The visual presentation of the History differs from the rest of the manuscript in just one respect. Whereas rubrication for the Haimo and the Vite had been planned from the outset, the scribe of the History left no space other than for the opening brief rubrics introducing the prologue and the text proper. Running titles in the upper margin, dividing the text into five ‘Particule’, may have been included as part of the original scheme, since they may be in the same hand as that of the elaborate initials to the prologue and the text proper on fo. 140° (the pen-flourishing added to the numeral ‘HD on fo. 165" is similar to that of the initials), but the text scribe left no space for rubrics within the text to indicate the beginning of each new particula, nor for any other text divisions. Instead, a different scribe subsequently added appropriate rubrics in the margins. This, coupled with the fact that the History begins at the start of a new quire, and is perhaps in a different hand from that of the Vita SS. Ecgmini, might suggest that the History had originally existed as a separate unit. Other evidence, however, indicates that it was copied with the intention of following on directly from the Vita S. Ecgmini, since what is probably the original hand has rubricated both the prologue to the History and the beginning of the text proper as ‘Liber tercius’ and ‘Liber secundus’. The refinements made subsequently to the apparatus of rubrics provided for the History may, therefore, be attributed to the likelihood that its exemplar had been in a less finished state than those of the other items of Rawlinson A 287. Text scribes

The statement in the account of Thomas’s deeds that he ‘fecit . . . Haymonem super Apocalypsim et uitas et gesta patronum et abbatum Eueshamie in uno uolumine’ led some scholars to assume that he produced the manuscript himself, or was at least its main scribe. It is now thought, however, that the term 'fecit usually denotes responsibility for production rather than necessarily the actual process of copying.'’? Given the different stages in which the manuscript was [See p. levi for n. 103]

Ixviii

INTRODUCTION

put together, this statement may rather be interpreted as indicating 'Thomas's responsibility for bringing all the items of the manuscript together into a single volume. 'The manuscript is written throughout in the same style of handwriting: a formal book hand which displays to varying degrees some of the characteristics of Textualis (the general name given to the stylized formal book hands that evolved during the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries), such as a tendency towards lateral compression, the shortening of ascenders, the breaking of curved strokes at the apex of letters such as m and n, the addition of lozengeshaped serifs at the tops of minims, the fusion of facing curved strokes (such as b and o), and a preference for the 7-shaped tironian nota, d with an angled shaft, and an almost vertical 2-shaped r after o in place of respectively the ampersand, d with a vertical shaft, and either a rounder form of 2-shaped r or the upright minuscule form. Despite the general similarity of the script throughout the manuscript, it is not all the work of a single scribe. Nevertheless, identifying the number of text scribes and distinguishing their stints is not easy. The manuscript was produced during a period in which handwriting, both for formal and informal purposes, was undergoing various developments, with the consequence that the handwriting of individual scribes can exhibit a wide degree of variation both in general appearance and in matters of detail. Thus, as in the first ten or so leaves of the History, portions of handwriting several leaves apart may exhibit a number of differences, yet it is impossible to detect a change of hand between those two points. The hand at the beginning of the History displays more of the characteristics of ‘Textualis than any other part of the manuscript, yet, very gradually and with no obvious change of hand, the letter forms become less laterally compressed and the incidence of other Textualis characteristics becomes less frequent. Likewise, for the first 71 folios of Haimo’s commentary, ‘et’ is represented by the ampersand; on fos. 71° and 72" both the ampersand and the tironian nota are employed, then from fo. 72‘ onwards, the ampersand is rarely used. But there are no other indications that the change in scribal practice was the result of a change of hand. I would, therefore, tentatively conclude that the Haimo and the History are each the work ofa single scribe. It is more difficult to establish whether both texts are the work of the is H. Hoffmann, Buchkunst und Künigtum im ottonischen und frühsalischen Reich, MGH

Schriften xxx (1986), i. 42—6.

THOMAS'S

HISTORY

]xix

same scribe. The opening leaves of the History are written in a hand the proportions of which are much closer to that of fully developed Textualis than is the case with the hand of the Haimo, although well before the end of the text the proportions are the same as those of the Haimo. Furthermore, throughout the History, the scribe makes a greater use of the fusion of facing curves than does the scribe of the Haimo. Such differences, however, might be attributed to the fact that the History was produced some time after the Haimo, and that the scribe may have come to adopt (albeit not consistently) new scribal practices. It is possible, therefore, that the same scribe wrote the Haimo and the History. The Vita S. Odulfi can more confidently be identified as the work of a different scribe. Although he wrote in the same style, his hand is much less fluent and appears to be a somewhat studied (and not always successful) attempt to write the kind of script employed by the scribe or scribes of the Haimo and the History. His activity in the manuscript is confined to this one text. Another scribe copied both the Vita S. Wistani and the Vita S. Ecgmini; his hand bears a close resemblance to that of the Haimo and the more 'conservative' style of the scribe of the History, but there are some differences, such as the position of the tie-marks used at the end of lines to indicate worddivision, which prevent a more positive identification. Corrections and additions

The Vita S. Odulfi, Vita S. Ecgwini, and the History all were subsequently corrected and revised to differing extents. A contemporary scribe whose hand I have not identified with certainty elsewhere in the manuscript rewrote over erasure a large portion

of text at the end of the Vita S. Odulfi (fos. 119^, line 3-120", with the exception of fo. 119^, lines 34-7 which were not erased). Another contemporary scribe made three additions to the rubrics of the Vita S. Ecgmini, noting that the prologues to Books I and II had been ‘editus a Dominico priore Eueshamie’ and that Book I had been ‘abbreuiatus a Thoma priore Eueshamie'. The History was much more extensively revised at various times and by different scribes. Apart from corrections probably made by the text scribe himself (usually over erasure), the earliest stage of revision may well have comprised the addition of a more detailed apparatus of rubrication and subject headings. This was, for the most part, added by a contemporary scribe who wrote a distinctive, somewhat

Ixx

INTRODUCTION

uncalligraphic hand, characterized by a backwards slope (most evident in letters formed with ascenders or descenders, such as b and p) and the forking of ascenders. This scribe also made at least five substantial corrections over erasure (fos. 146", lines 15 ‘modo est et kingleyam’—20 ‘molendino remisit! and 24 ‘molendinum de Samburna’—32 ‘eius tamen tempore’; 169^, lines 7 ‘Quam rationem’— 17 ‘cogeremur eosdem’; 169°”, lines 21 ‘Audistis etiam’—41 ‘extremo tempore’; 179", line 38 ‘Quare dixi’—179", line 4 ‘a lite cessauimus’). He may also have added the letter from Abbot Reginald to Gilbert Foliot found in the lower margin of fo. 148°. Another scribe, who wrote a more formal and practised book hand, added rubrication on fos. 160'—164' and 168". He may also have added the correction in the left-hand margin of fo. 158" and the addition in the lower margin of fo. 1695. following on directly from the correction over erasure made by the other rubricator-corrector. A later thirteenth-century corrector made one correction over erasure on fo. r72"^ (lines 21 *pascere uiginti quinque'—26 *feretris eorum"), and several thirteenthcentury hands supplied numerous corrections and additions on fos. 172'—173' concerning the revenues due to Evesham obedientiaries. The original text of the History now ends abruptly in mid-sentence at the end of fo. 181". The remainder of the work of the original scribe and any subsequent piecemeal continuations have been removed and were replaced en bloc during the fifteenth century, the narrative being continued until the death of Abbot Roger Zatton. These replacement leaves (fos. 182—194) conceal the number of stages in which the History was added to between the original production of the manuscript and the supplying of the final thirteen leaves sometime after 1418. However, there is no evidence in the form of annotation to suggest that the manuscript received detailed attention during the fourteenth century. Other than the several thirteenthcentury corrections and additions made on fos. 172'—173" to the account of revenues in Abbot Randulf's Disposition of the Revenues and Customs, the annotations found in the manuscript are in fifteenth-century hands, and, for the most part, are the work of Richard Pembroke (BRUO 1456), a monk of Evesham by 1428, who

was elected abbot in 1461 and died in 1467. He made numerous short marginal annotations, chiefly drawing attention to subject matter in the adjacent text, not only in the History but throughout the entire manuscript.

THOMAS'S

HISTORY

Ixxi

Rawlinson A 287 is an important localizable and datable example of early-thirteenth century monastic manuscript production, and, like the manuscripts associated with Matthew Paris that were produced a little later at St Albans, testifies to the high standards of book production that could still be found within a monastic milieu during the first part of the thirteenth century. It gives physical substance to the documentary evidence concerning manuscript production at Evesham and the provisions made for it during the early thirteenth century. Abbot Randulf's Disposition of the Revenues (see below, 409, 411) assigned revenues to the prior for the purchase of parchment and for the provision of scribes to copy books and to the precentor for the purchase of ink and pigments. The account of Thomas’s deeds in the History records his acquisitions of books for the abbey and distinguishes betweeen those he brought with him and those made by scribes at Evesham whilst he was prior and whilst he was abbot. The account also distinguishes between the liturgical books made by monastic scribes and the rest, presumably made by the paid scribes for whom revenues had been assigned to the prior in Randulf's Disposition. Unfortunately, Rawlinson A 287 is the only one of these books which can be identified with certainty. Very few other early thirteenth-century books with an Evesham provenance are known to survive, and I have not identified in them any of the hands found in Rawlinson A 287. But closely similar book hands to those in Rawlinson can be found in two contemporary (or perhaps slightly earlier) cartularies : BL Cotton MS Vespasian B XXIV and BL Harley MS 3763, fos. 58-94. These manuscripts are the work of a number of scribes employing different types and grades of script, and also contain numerous additions made at various times during the thirteenth century and later. Both contain the texts of a number of Anglo-Saxon diplomas (for the most part forged), written in formal book hands of the same type as found in Rawlinson A 287 (though not identifiable as the work of any of the Rawlinson scribes). The employment of formal book hands for the Anglo-Saxon diplomas by contrast with the more current hands used for most of the other documents in the two cartularies was almost certainly intended to convey the formality of the book hands employed in original Anglo-Saxon diplomas. The work of these scribes not only indicates a sense of decorum with regard to script but also reinforces the evidence of Rawlinson A 287 of the presence at Evesham of a number of scribes skilled in writing formal book

INTRODUCTION

Ixxii

hands in the decades when monasteries are generally thought to have been giving way to urban localities as the main centres of manuscript production. C.

THE

EVESHAM

CARTULARIES

SURVIVING

AND

OTHER

RECORDS

Little of the abbey of Evesham survived the Dissolution. Many of its buildings were put to other uses, allowed to decay, or rifled for their stone, its library and archives destroyed or dispersed. There is unfortunately now no magnificent medieval archive, as there once was, and such as is still to be found at Canterbury, Durham, and Westminster. There are, however, two surviving cartularies of quality. 1. British Library Cotton MS Vespasian B XXIV (cited as V) isa fine, general cartulary, compiled in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which was in the possession of Dr Samuel Fell (1584— 1649), dean of Christ Church, Oxford, from 1638. Where Fell got the manuscript from is unknown, but it is possible that it had arrived at Christ Church when the deanery of the Vale passed to the dean and chapter in 1546.'° On the other hand, Fell may have acquired the manuscript from a Worcester source. From 1626, when he was appointed Lady Margaret professor of divinity, he held a canonry of Worcester and he had married into a Worcester family, the Wylds.'^5 The manuscript has no formal arrangement. It consists of 79 folios,"^ mainly concerning Evesham's rights and properties. The properties were mainly in the vicinity, in Worcestershire (including Ombersley, Hampton, Childswickham, and Bengeworth), Gloucestershire, and Oxfordshire, but also further afield in Northamptonshire (Badby), Middlesex (Hillingdon), and Lancashire (Penwortham). There are some details of rents and tenants. Charters of the donors, royal charters, and episcopal charters are found throughout the book under the relevant properties. The manuscript also includes the Domesday text, Evesham A (fos. 6—7'), edited by Peter 3 See Sayers, “The proprietary church in England: a note on Ex ore sedentis (X. 5. 33.

17)’, in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kan. abt., \xxiv (1988), 231—45,

at p. 243.

: "* On Samuel Fell and the family, see DNB vi. 1162-3; and 1157-9, for his son also

dean of Christ Church. ! First (paper) page numbered 1.

THOMAS'S

HISTORY

]xxiii

Sawyer." The text begins on fo. 3 with a list of the feasts. On fo. 4 there is an incomplete document, followed by the grant of a corrody by Abbot Randulf and the convent. Fos. 4—5 is an excerpt from ‘the good works of Prior Thomas’ (to be found in the Lives and Deeds of the abbots), as described in Rawlinson, and on fo. 6 the Lives is continued, some of it a repeat, perhaps copied from R. The manuscript is contemporary with Thomas, and some sections are especially connected with him: his advice on privileges, the oaths of the officials and deans, and of the chaplains (fo. 74), and the report of a bond encashed by him and another proctor at Rome in 1205 (fo. 52"). The latter is printed below as Appendix I. Interspersed among the general charters concerning Evesham's properties are agreements with other religious houses (Malmesbury, Winchcombe, Kenilworth, St Mary's, York, and Whitby) (fos. 14-15), charters concerning the Danish

dependency of Odense (fos. 19, 22, 48),? and details of the number of monks and servants at Evesham in the early twelfth century (printed below as App. V). On fos. 76—80 there are full texts of some of the house's important papal letters which are found in R.

I. fo. 76" First privilege of Pope Constantine, 709 (JL 2147) - R fo. 162" (318-23) 2. fo. 76" Second privilege of Pope Constantine, 713 (JL 2149) =

R fo. 162°” (324-8) 3. fo. 77 Alexander III ‘Pie postulatio uoluntatis’, 1163 (JL 10877) — R fo. 163" (332-6) 4. fos. 78'-9 Innocent II 'Sicut iniusta poscentibus’, 1139 (JL

7999) = R fo. 163" (329-31) 5. fo. 79 Clement III ‘Largitione nostri muneris, 1189 (JL 16426)= R fo. 164'" (337-8) 6. fo. 80 Innocent III ‘Ex ore sedentis, 1205 (P 2660) = R fo. 146?

(342-55) A rough description of ‘the principal instruments’, as Dugdale calls them, is given in Mon. Angl. ii, pp. 11-12 note a, with asterisks by those he prints im extenso. 107 “Evesham

A, a Domesday

Text’, Miscellany,

i (Worcs.

Hist. Soc.,

1960). Both

cartularies have been extensively used by Dr H. B. Clarke, “The Early Surveys of Evesham Abbey: an investigation into the problem of continuity in Anglo-Norman England’ (Birmingham Ph.D. Thesis, 1977). 108 Printed Diplomatarium Danicum, ist ser. ii, 1053-1169, ed. L. Weibull (1963), nos. 24, 66, 67; and iii, no. 48.

lxxiv

INTRODUCTION

2. The present Harley MS 3763 in the British Library (cited as H)

was in the possession of Henry Fleetwood of Penwortham before he

disposed of it to Lord Harley, retaining the right to borrow it (fos. 1 and 2). Penwortham in Lancashire was a cell of Evesham, but, although this particular cartulary contains documents relating to Penwortham,!” it is in the main a composite general cartulary of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, which may not have been bound up till after the Dissolution, and is unlikely to have been at Penwortham throughout the medieval period. The manuscript consists now of 201 folios. Much of the material is also to be found in V.'!° The first section contains material relating to Ombersley church (to fo. 21"), and various tracts, forms of libels, and procedural treatises (to fo. 44”).''' There are then charters concerning the general business of the convent, including ordinations of vicarages, presentations, appropriations (to fo. 54°), Evesham's property (to fo. 59), Anglo-Saxon royal charters (fos. 62—7), knights and free tenants (fo. 68), properties, especially Penwortham, and agreements (fos. 70'—94). Transcripts of the papal privileges occupy fos. 95-115'. Here are recorded 68 letters, the earliest Pope Constantine's grants of 709 and 713, the latest a letter of Urban V of 1362. In between are all the major letters and privileges acquired by the abbot and the community in the intervening centuries. The compiler, or possibly a later annotator, noted whether the documents survived in the abbey's treasury or not. Royal charters from Henry III to Richard II are copied on fos. 119—149", and charters of the abbots and of the abbot and convent occupy fos. 153'—163'. Some sections of the History and the Lives and Deeds of the abbots (fos. 169—79) are also to be found in this manuscript. They have been copied from R. Thomas’s strictures on the conservation of privileges are copied (also from R) on fo. 116". Part of the confirmation of the legate, John of Ferentino, of the first disposition of the revenues of

the abbey (printed below in App. II A, from a charter which is now lost) is on folios 69—70, and extracts from Abbot Randulf's disposition of the revenues and customs of the house are on fos. 150-3", !9 Some printed as Documents relating to the Priory and other Possessions in Lancashire of the Abbey of Evesham, ed. W. A. Hulton (Chetham Soc., xxx (1853)).

a The contents are roughly described in Mon. Angl., ii, pp. 10-11 notef.

For an analysis of the first section of the manuscript, containing the legal material,

see J. Sayers, ‘An Evesham manuscript containing the treatise known as “Actor et Reus”

(British Library Harley MS 3763)’, Bulletin ofMedieval Canon Lam, n.s. vi (1976), 77-9, repr. in J. E. Sayers, Law and Records in Medieval England (Variorum, 1988).

THOMAS’S

HISTORY

Ixxv

perhaps taken from the Rawlinson manuscript or from the Cotton charter (see App. II B for the collated text). Amongst the miscellaneous material at the end of the manuscript, characteristic of a general cartulary, are ‘Reasons to support the argument that the dean of Evesham's office is a dignity! (fo. 186), followed by fourteenthcentury material connected with the dean, mortuaries, notes concerning the obedientiaries, and pensions. Papal letters in V and H As noted above, both the major Evesham cartularies include the important papal privileges of the house. The conspectus below shows their relationship with R. In general where one can check, H follows V. H, as mentioned above, comments on the originals surviving.

R Innocent III ‘Constitutis in presentia

(Ferentino 22 May 1203) (Not in P)

fo. 153^"^ (245-7) Constantine I [709] (JL 2147)

fo. 1627*^* (318-23)

Lfosdss no original

Constantine I (713) (JL 2149)

fos. 162°°-163™ (324-8)

foros no original

Innocent II ‘Sicut iniusta poscentibus? (Lateran, 16 April 1139) (JL 7999) fo. 163^“* (329-31)

fo. 78°

fo. 95° no original

Alexander III ‘Pie postulatio uoluntatis? (Tours 5 June 1163) (JL 10877) fos. 163—164" (332-6)

fo. 77-

fo. 96 original

Clement III ‘Largitione nostri muneris' (Lateran ro July 1189) (JL 16426)

fo. 164'^ (337-8)

fo. 79°

fo. 98" no original

Celestine III *Largitione nostri muneris' (St Peter's 13 Jan. 1192 (JL 16801) fo. 164"* (339-41)

fo. 70

f0399* original

Ixxvi

INTRODUCTION

Innocent III ‘Ex ore sedentis’ (St Peter's 18 Jan. 1206) (P 2660)

fos. 164—166'* (342-55)

fo. 80°

fo. 99 original

Innocent III ‘Auditis et intellectis! (St Peter's 3 Feb. 1206) (P 2681)

fos. 168^* (372—4) Innocent III ‘Presentium uobis auctoritate" (St Peter's 7/8 Feb. 1206) (Not in P)

fos. 168^ (376)

——

fo. 101 original

rÍ

Innocent III ‘Cum a nobis’ (Lateran 16 Feb.

1216) (Not in P) fos. 174^? (431)

— — — fo; 1xàxX no original

Gregory IX ‘Cum dilecti fili! (Lateran 2 May 1230) (Not in P)

fo. 185°" (533)

(Gregory IX issued H fos. 97'—8' ‘Licet singuli archiepiscopi! on the same day as the above letter) Variations between the texts

Alexander III H and V use ‘subscripsi’, while R uses ‘subscribo’. V has only a single Amen, but V gives more details of cardinals' titles. H also gives the details of the cardinals’ subscriptions, but omits two. The subscriptions are positioned differently in R and V. Innocent II "Sicut iniusta poscentibus! 16 Apr. 1139. H has (incorrectly) as "Sicut iniusta petentibus" Clement IIT V gives Roger as the addressee, the other two state Adam. H omits the triple Amen

Celestine III Both V and H omit the triple Amen

H and V probably used the originals of Alexander III and Celestine III, and H, perhaps, of Clement III

THOMAS'S Other Evesham

HISTORY

Ixxvii

sources

British Library

Cotton MS Augustus II 11 (printed Appendix II B). Cotton MS Cleopatra E I fos. 34'—5': copies of first and second privileges of Pope Constantine Cotton MS Cleopatra E I fos. 64'—5": copy of second privilege of Pope Constantine (713) Cotton MS Nero D III (fos. 1'-218', cartulary of St Leonard's hospital, York). Evesham material, listed in the contents as no. 2, I4th-rsth cent, with added notes. Eight folios, fos. 219'—226" (formerly fos. 242'—9'), much of it printed Mon. Angl. ii, pp. 21, 22, 31—3, num. xvi, xxi, and xxxiv. William de Cheriton, agreement concerning Ombersley and Badby (fo. 219); judicial material (fos. 219'—20', heriots and mortuaries, perhaps from Harley 3763 fos. 186 —7' ); sacrist’s rents (fos. 220'—1'); charter of Henry duke of Lancaster, concerning Penwortham; verses on the bells, 1354 (fo. 223^); charter of Abbot John and the convent of Evesham, 1450 (fo. 226"); additional note concerning Prior Thomas of Marlborough and heriots in the Vale (fo. 222"). Cotton MS Titus C IX fos. 1'-38' Register of Abbot Richard Bromsgrove (1418-35). Includes letters concerning his election (fos. 1'—3'); the Benedictine general chapter and visitation (fos. 16’, 25"); ordinations (fos. 17, 33'—4); royal letters, including the king to the pope and the Council of Basle (fo. 24°); indulgences for Syon abbey (fos. 30'—1'); the charter of Abbot Thomas of Marlborough concerning visitation, 1233 (fo. 22°: see App. IV— which, however, is printed from Lambeth MS 1212). Cotton MS Vespasian B XV 16th-cent. fos. 19-22 (formerly fos. 17'— 20'), ‘Ex chronico monasterii Eueshamensis', Lives and Deeds of the Abbots to Abbot Clement Lichfield, 1539, from Harley MS 3763, fos. 169—79', printed Mon. Angl. ii, pp. 36-9 num xxxvi, fo. 21" (beginning with Abbot Richard Bromsgrove, 1418) to fo. 22" (the end) printed Macray App. II B, with incorrect foliation. Cotton MS Vitellius D III 1 fo. 131°: letter of Peter of Blois, archdeacon of London, to the prior (P.) and the convent of Evesham; as recorded by Dugdale and printed Mon. Angl. n, pp. 40-1 num. xl. This was destroyed in the Cotton fire of 1731. It is printed also in PL 207, no. cxlii, cols. 425-8. Cotton MS Vitellius E XVII fos. 224'—50'. Fragment of a late

Ixxviil

INTRODUCTION

14th-cent. register, damaged in the Cotton fire of 1731, containing miscellaneous material: agreements between Malmesbury and Evesham, and Evesham and Whitby (fo. 224"), rents and payments from obedientiaries (sacrist, especially, also almoner and chamberlain), leaves from a calendar (fos. 241'—6'), anniversaries (fos. 227 -8', 239), obits (fos. 248—9', extremely damaged). Some material printed Mon. Angl. ii, p. 19, num. xvi; pp. 34-6, num. XXXV; pp. 39-40, num. xxxviii-ix; and ‘Summa decimarum spiritualium et temporalium Eveshamie' (fo. 238") printed p. 39, and the office of the precentor (fo. 250°) printed p. 39, num. xxxvii (much damaged). Harley MS 229. Chronicles belonging to Evesham, including Eusebius of Caesarea. 3 folios (fos. 17'—19): abbots of Evesham, from the Conquest to Abbot Zatton (1379-1418) printed Mon. Angi. ii, pp. 26—7, num. xxxii. Harley MS 744. Noted by Macray, but of minor interest. 17th-cent. transcripts from records in the Tower of London. Under letter E, fos. 137, 154', 164°. A rgth-cent. hand has noted ‘This book would be much more useful if the names of the counties were always put in the margin’. Lambeth Palace Library, London SE1 MS 1212 fo. 48': charter of Abbot Thomas and the convent concerning visitation by the archbishop of Canterbury (see below, App. IV). MS 589 pp. 40, 41: Wharton's notes of the succession and deaths of the abbots to the Dissolution, from the two Evesham obituaries, Cotton MSS Vitellius E XII and XVII (the former burned and the latter much damaged in the 1731 fire). MS 585 pp. 230, 665: further notes by and of Wharton.

Wellcome Library for the History and Understanding of Medicine, London NW: MS 209, four endpapers (two at the front and two at the back), incomplete and much cut down: 13th-cent. text of certain legal cases, decisions, arguments, and procedural points; glossed 13th— 14th cent. Reference is made to the case over the Vale which identifies the leaves as certainly from an Evesham manuscript. The last pope to be mentioned is Pope Gregory IX (1227-41).

THOMAS'S

HISTORY

Ixxix

Bodleian Library, Oxford

MS Tanner 223 fo. 53°, see Lambeth MS 1212 (above). Gough MS Worcestershire (notes and extracts made by Tindal from V, H, and Harley MS 744) MS Chs. Worcs. A 2 no. 2: chirograph between Abbot Thomas and the convent of Evesham and Prior Nicholas and the convent of Daventry concerning Badby.

Worcestershire Record Office 899: 49 BA 8746: forged papal letter of Pope Gregory IX Evesham Almonry Museum Accession no. 127. (Purchased at Sotheby's sale of Monday 6 July 1964) Copy of first privilege of Pope Constantine (709)

Dew

EDIT LON

Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawlinson A 287, fos. 118—194, was

edited as Chronicon abbatiae de Evesham, ad annum 1418, by the Reverend William Dunn Macray for the Rolls Series and published in 1863.''* He included the Translation of St Odulf, the Life of St Wigstan, and Dominic’s Acta Proborum Virorum in Appendices. Macray, a special assistant in the Bodleian Library, was responsible for many catalogues of various collections in the Manuscripts Department, and for the two-volume Calendar of Charters and Documents relating to Selborne and its Priory (Hants Rec. Soc. 4 and 8, 1891—4), to be found in the muniment room at Magdalen College, of which he became a Fellow. He contributed extensively to the Reports of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (see Reports 11, 13, 14, 15). He was also the editor of two other volumes in the Rolls Series: Chronicon abbatiae Rameseiensis (RS 83, 1886), and Charters and Documents illustrating the History of . . . Salisbury, selected by W. H. Rich Jones (RS 97, 1891). Macray was a careful scholar and a good classical Latinist, who naturally preferred classical Latin spellings and endings. We have not found significant errors of transcription in his text. There is one "2 Macray matriculated at New College, Oxford, in 1844. At the time of the publication of his Evesham volume, he was chaplain of Magdalen College and curate of St Mary Magdalen. He became rector of Ducklington (near Witney) in 1870 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1873. In 1890 his Annals of the Bodleian Library was published. For his career, see J. Foster, Alumni Oxonienses: 1715-1886 (4 vols., Oxford, 1888), iii. 899.

INTRODUCTION

Ixxx

example of annotation leading to a misunderstanding: ^ otherwise Macray did not err. He did not, however, note marginalia. As a manuscript cataloguer and archivist, he took care to examine other Evesham sources both within the Bodleian and outside in the British Library, including V and H.''* Since Macray's edition, no further manuscripts of Thomas’s History have come to light, but modern research has been able to use resources that were non-existent or difficult to use nearly 140 years ago and has provided new opportunities for the re-examination of the text. ^ We hope that we have added to the enlightenment of the meaning and to the greater understanding of this unique text. .

CTHIS

113

EDIPEON

Every attempt has been made to collate the key and only manuscript of Thomas’s History (R) with related sources, such as V and H.

The manuscript went through some re-formation during the time that Thomas was supervising it, as Dr Webber has shown above. This is clear from the contemporary deletions and overwriting of important single words, phrases, and, in some cases, whole sections. The longer corrections belong to the author. They are either made to fit the erased area or extended into the margins, that on fo. 147^ extending down into the bottom left-hand margin by seven lines and continuing at the top of fo. r47'", where it adds two lines. Another instance on fo. 169"° shows eleven lines added below the text, which had been ruled for only 41 lines, making a total of fifty-

two. In the bottom margin of fo. 148” is a letter of Gilbert Foliot in a neat thirteenth-century charter-hand, the content of which it was clearly thought relevant to insert at that particular point. The text of the letter has been printed below as Appendix III. !5 When

he came to editing the text of ‘Ex ore sedentis! in R, Macray (pp. 179-83),

rightly gave variant readings in H and V, but on p. 183 he did not explain that the consensu for consilio (and the nulli omnino for the plain nulli) in the ‘Ex ore’ in H came from the fact that he was reading a much later confirmation of Innocent VI of 12 Nov. 1360.

5 On one occasion Macray confused V fo. 13° with H fo. 113" (old foliation, now fo. 116°), ' Unfortunately digitization was not able to bring up readable underlying texts in two

instances, but we are most grateful to Dr Cambridge, for trying to do this for us.

Natalie

Tchernetska

of Trinity

College,

THIS

EDITION

]xxxi

In the seventeenth century, expressions such as papa, sedes apostolica, summus pontifex, apostolica auctoritate, and the like, were expunged or struck through. Having no useful significance, these erasures and strikings out have not been noted.

Marginalia and Notes Marginalia and notes show the use of the manuscript throughout its history. Those of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries have been recorded, but not those of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the main these notes were made alongside the account of

the legal proceedings at Rome and in the margins surrounding Abbot Randulf's disposition and constitutions, both of which clearly engendered much interest. Editorial conventions

Headings The contemporary red headings that are provided in the margins (sometimes with crosses against the text to show where they belong) have in all cases been brought into the text as headings without comment. Spelling As the manuscript is very close to the author and, indeed, has some of his corrections, the original spelling has been retained throughout, with only the following exceptions. R consistently uses excercere etc. for exercere etc., cecessi for secessi, and sanccimus for sancimus. Because these renderings may cause confusion to the modern reader, they have been silently emended. Word separation Words that have been separated, e. g. quam diu, quam aduixit, pro culdubio etc. have been silently emended.

uis, quo

Capitalization The capitalization of the manuscript has not been followed. Capitals have been used only for names of persons, places, the Deity. Punctuation The punctuation has been modernized.

Ixxxii

INTRODUCTION

Personal names In the translation Old English personal names have been rendered in standard West-Saxon spelling. The name Ecgwine has always been given in the form Ecgwinus in the Latin, though there are many variations, viz. Eguuinus, Egwinus, and Ecgwinus. Latin personal names have not been translated where there is no obvious synonym. Place names Latin place names have not been extended unless the extension is certain. Suspension marks have been used where there is doubt. The Vale (of Evesham) is always given a capital to distinguish it from any other vale. In the translation, places that are not identified by county are within Worcestershire. All other places, with the exception of county towns and significant cities, are identified by their counties within square brackets. In the Index, a// places (including those in Worcestershire) have been identified with their counties. The counties are those as before the redefinition of 1 April 1974. Dates Dates have also been supplied in square brackets in the translation

where necessary. All dates have been given in New Style. Brackets Pointed brackets indicate editorial additions in the Latin text, in accordance with OMT style.

Paragraphs In order to facilitate use of both the Latin text and the translation, the

paragraphs have been numbered in bold type throughout. Translation note

Indulgentia. The chronicler uses this word in two slightly different but significant senses. Firstly he employs it for the indulgentie, the concessions, granted by Popes Clement III and Celestine III, allowing the abbot of Evesham the use of the pontificals. Where the word occurs in this type of document it has been translated as indult. Its use in this sense is found in paragraphs 281, 290, 299, 337, 339, 344, 349, 350, 387, 395, 397. (The translation, indulgence, has been avoided because it has come to be associated with the remission of

THIS

EDITION

Ixxxiii

punishment due to sin which is not what is intended here.) Secondly, Thomas uses this word to signify the papal grant or concession to the bishop of Worcester of the power to visit the abbey. This is more difficult to translate with exactitude, and where indulgentia occurs in this sense we have chosen to call it an empowerment; see paragraphs 195, 196, 204, 245, 268, 271, 278, 500. Ius commune. so as to avoid commune was developed in

This phrase has not been translated but left in the Latin any confusion with the English Common Law. The ius an amalgamation of Roman law and of canon law as medieval Europe. For Thomas’s citations, see below,

245, 302, 303, 357, 381, 382. 'The word dominus, an indeterminate term of respect before names, has been ignored in the translation except where it means the Deity, on one occasion where it is used for St Ecgwine (viz. my lord and saint), and where it is used in an address, e.g. my lord bishop, my lord abbot, etc. The lord of Canterbury, Worcester, etc. has been translated as archbishop or bishop as appropriate to the see.

DUECCIHRONOIOQCY A.

701

703

704

FICTION AND FACT: SIGNIFICANT DATES EVESHAM’S HISTORY BEFORE IIQO (dates in italics are uncertain)

King /Ethelred of the Mercians gives the site of Evesham (*/Ethomme) to Ecgwine, bishop of the Hwicce (source Thomas, following Byrhtferth and Dominic: Thomas supplies the date (13, 27, 115). He also gives Stratford, Chadbury castle (Thomas only), and the monastery of Fladbury (28, 115) Foundation of the monastery at Evesham by Ecgwine

(18) 709

King Cenred of the Mercians and King Offa of the East Saxons give 84 hides round Evesham (28) Kings Cenred and Offa go to Rome (source ‘Thomas, from Bede probably, HE v. 18-19 (pp. 516-17) and v. 24 (pp. 566—7, for date)).Ecgwine accompanies them (JW ii. 166-7) (15, 29)

INTRODUCTION

Ixxxiv

? 709

2709 1 Nov. 713

714 Viu cos 2940

OE 975

995 x6 ¢. 1014

Pope Constantine's first. privilege (source Dominic) (text 318-23) Council of ‘the whole of England’ at Alcester, at which Archbishop Berhtwald reads out the charter completed in Rome by the kings, and the papal letter of Pope Constantine, and then composes one himself which all confirm (17, 32) Church consecrated by Bishop Wilfrid and Ecgwine (source Thomas: Dominic 774) (17, 26, 32) Pope Constantine's second privilege (source "T'homas) (text 324-8) Ecgwine's Foundation Charter (source Dominic and Thomas) (26—33) Ecgwine resigns as bishop (source Thomas) (18, 113) Death of Ecgwine (21) First dispersal of the monks under King Edmund I: canons substituted by Ealhhelm, who had gained possession of the abbey from the king (132) 'The monks are re-established (133) Second dispersal of the monks: canons reintroduced by /Elfhere and Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey (134) The monks return. King /Ethelred (the Unready), who had acquired the abbey, puts it under Ealdwulf, bishop of Worcester (139) /Elfweard, kinsman of King cnu*t, and monk of Ramsey, becomes abbot; expels Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey, who had seized lands belonging to the abbey

(144) 1018

1019? (.1020 1035

1044 1058

King cnu*t gives Badby and Newnham (Northants) to the abbey of Evesham (126) cnu*t gives the relics of St Wigstan to Evesham (146) Byrhtferth writes the Vita S. Ecgmini (see Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature, pp. 304—6) Abbot /Elfweard made bishop of London: purchases relics of St Odulf for Evesham (146); builds shrines for Saints Ecgwine and Odulf (62, 63) Death of King cnu*t (62) Death of Abbot /Elfweard (148) Abbot Mannig, the goldsmith, succeeds (149) Abbot Mannig resigns (he dies in 1066) (150—r, 154)

CHRONOLOGY

1066, post

1073-4

1077

IIOO

Ixxxv

/Ethelwig becomes abbot of Evesham (151) King William I entrusts him with control of most of the Midlands (Worcs., Glos., Oxon, Warws., Herefs., Staffs., and Salop) (156) Three monks (two of Evesham and one of Winchcombe) set out to revive monasticism in the north of England at Jarrow, Melrose, Wearmouth, and Whitby (Symeon of Durham, Libellus de exordio atque procursu istius, hoc est Dunelmensis ecclesie, ed. and trans. D. Rollason (OMT, 2000), pp. 200-11) Death of Abbot /Ethelwig. He is succeeded by the first Norman abbot of Evesham, Abbot Walter (171, 173) Odo of Bayeux obtains lands belonging to the abbey of Evesham (173-4) Writ of King William II: no bishop is to hold ordinations or synods or confer orders at Evesham, unless requested by the abbot (V fo. 29°; Regesta Regum AngloNormannorum, ed. H. W. C. Davis, 1 (Oxford, 1913), no.

429) II04

1130 1139

Death of Abbot Walter (see H RH, p. 47) Dominic, historian and hagiographer, is -a monk of Evesham by this date, and prior by 1125. He writes the Life of St Ecgwine (1, 40, 65), the Life of St Odulf (text Macray, pp. 313-20), the Acts of Worthy Men (text Macray, pp. 320-5), and the Miracles of the Virgin. He dies in the 1130s or 1140s and before 1145 (see Jennings, EHR lxxvii (1962), pp. 298, 301, 323-4) Reginald Foliot becomes abbot (178) Privilege ‘Sicut inusta’ obtained from Pope Innocent II

(178, text 329-31; JL 7999) ?II4Q—50 1161

1163 1189

William Beauchamp and Roger, earl of Hereford, plunder Evesham lands (180) Abbot Adam becomes abbot (182) Privilege of Pope Alexander III (183, text 332-6; JL 10877) Death of Abbot Adam (see H RH, p. 47)

INTRODUCTION

Ixxxvi B.

AND

THE

SUMMARY

CHRONOLOGICAL MAJOR

EVENTS

THOMAS'S THE

LIFE

YEARS

1202-1236 1160x 70? 1180s

1188 X93

Thomas born. His parents are unknown (see above, pp. XVili—x1x) Thomas studies at Paris, probably Arts, under Stephen Langton, later archbishop of Canterbury. His fellow students include Richard Poore, later bishop of Salisbury (450) Thomas studies law at Oxford, under Masters

John of Tynemouth,

Simon

of Sywell,

and

Honorius of Richmond, and later teaches there

(230, 522) 1189 12 Nov.

Death of Abbot Adam of Evesham (see H RH,

Pp. 47)

II90 19 or 20 Nov.

Thomas has some contact with the abbey of Evesham: begins to write the Life of St Wigstan and to abridge Prior Dominic’s Life of St Ecgwine (44) Roger Norreis, prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, is made abbot of Evesham (185) Death of Archbishop Baldwin of Canterbury

1197 probably

(see HBC, p. 232) First complaint of the convent about the behav-

before 1190

1190 Jan.

iour of Abbot Norreis made to the legate, Archbishop Hubert Walter (191) Second complaint to the archbishop who was no longer legate (as Pope Celestine III had died in

1198

1199 Or 1200 ?1200 or 1201 1202 15 Aug.

Jan.) (193) Thomas is professed as a monk of the abbey of Evesham (516) Archbishop Hubert Walter comes to Evesham

(see 193)

17 Aug.

Mauger, bishop of Worcester, makes first attempt to visit Evesham (195) The convent refuses to accept his visitation

23 Aug.

Bishop Mauger

(204)

(210)

excommunicates

the convent

CHRONOLOGY

Ixxxvii

1203 ?Spring

1203

1204

1205

1206

Archbishop Hubert Walter comes again to Evesham (238) First written record of the customs and revenues made (239) 22 May Enquiry into the bishop's rights over the abbey committed to judges delegate, the pope reserving judgment for himself (245—7) Sept-Nov. Abbot Norreis and Thomas of Marlborough, as proctor, set out for Rome to appeal against the bishop. (Thomas left on 29 Sept.) (261-3) Nov.-mid March 1206 Thomas is at the Roman curia (263, 390), except for the half year spent at Bologna (see below) 18 Apr. "Thomas goes to Bologna for six months to brush up his law (274) 24 Apr. Report of the papal commission in England, granting immediate jurisdiction over the abbey to the bishop, but referring the long-term decision to the pope, as requested by the terms of their mandate (244-50, 254, and see 243 for date) after 29 Sept. Thomas returns to the Roman curia (280) Pope Innocent III declares the abbey's exemp24 Dec. tion. Thomas all but faints for joy (314-17) The papal sentence (‘Ex ore sedentis) is put 18 Jan. into writing (text 342—55) The case concerning jurisdiction over the Vale Jan. commences in Rome (356 fol.) 3 and 7/8 Feb. Papal mandate to the bishops of Ely and Rochester, and to Master Benedict of Sawston, canon of St Pauls’s, who are required to establish the facts in the case over the Vale

(372-4) May-Autumn/Winter Legation of Cardinal John of Ferentino to England (G. & Si. 1, p. 4) (perhaps Aug.) He visits Evesham (392). He also visits St Mary’s abbey, York, with which Evesham has a confraternity arrangement, and advises written customs there (see Cheney, EHR, xlvi (1931))

Ixxxvili

1206 (perhaps Aug.)

INTRODUCTION

The legate confirms the agreement between the abbot and convent (393, 430) Thomas is made dean of the Vale (the officer who had archidiaconal powers over the area)

(576) 25 Nov.

1208 23 Mar.

I213 20 Sept.

Nov.

22 Nov. 1214 20-22 Jan.

2 July I215 1216 16 Feb. 1217 1218

1229 17 Dec.

20 Dec. 1230 2 May

Many of the monks, including Thomas, unable to put up with Abbot Norreis’s persecution any longer, leave the convent (395) The papal Interdict on England is pronounced

(437; see G6 1 uo m fe Ix) 'The papal legate, Nicholas bishop of Tusculum, arrives in England (447) He was to confirm King John's surrender of the kingdoms and to secure the right conditions to lift the Interdict. He was also to fill vacant abbeys and to punish those who had damaged the Church (see C. & S., mn. 1, pp. 20-1) He comes to Evesham and begins an enquiry into the conduct of Abbot Norreis (459). Thomas gives evidence (461-84) The legate deposes Roger Norreis as abbot of Evesham (493, 510 for the date) Election

of Randulf,

prior

of Worcester,

abbot (502-3) The papal Interdict is finally relaxed (447; see CXS Sees ee Thomas attends the Fourth Lateran Council with Abbot Randulf (521) Papal confirmation of the disposition of the revenues and the customs of the house (431) Thomas becomes sacrist, in charge of building works (516, 521) ‘Thomas is appointed prior (521-2). As prior, he composes his History of the abbey (see above, pp. xxi, xxili-xxv) Death of Abbot Randulf (531) Election of Thomas as abbot (532) Pope Gregory IX orders a new election. Thomasis re-elected (533)

CHRONOLOGY

12 July 29 Sept. 1236 12 Sept.

Ixxxix

Thomas is blessed as abbot by the bishop of Coventry at Chester (534) Thomas gains possession of the abbey (536) He dies and is buried in the abbey of Evesham in the tomb that he had prepared for himself

(539, 546)

TEXT AND TRANSLATION

(LIBER I) 1. Incipit prologus in uitam. beati Ecgmini episcopi et confessoris et de miraculis que Deus per eum dum hac mutabili luce adhuc? frueretur operari dignatus est, "editus a Dominico priore Eueshamie*! series et altitudo misteriorum, quanto sepius recitatur, Diuinorum fo. 123" diligentius consideratur, tanto audientis animus auditur, attentius admiratione obstupescit, magnitudinis consideraexpauescit, auditu tione euanescit; unde Psalmista, ‘Accedet hom*o ad cor altum, et exaltabitur Deus'? Quanto enim hom*o accedere et accedendo ascendere ad Deum nititur, tanto Deus exaltari et exaltando elongari conspicitur. Nam cum seuus furor Caldaici regis tres illos ex Iudea gente pueros in fornacem misisset, ipsamque fornacem pice ac ceteris ignium fomentis succendi omnimodis elaborasset, quanta diuine fuit eminentia glorie quod illi per flammas illesi deambulabant, ymnum Deo canebant, tamque morosa et ordinata? supputatione uniuersa Dei opera ad ipsius laudem prouocabant! Ipsa tyranni rabies id contuendo fowls

exterrita pertimuit.* 2. Denique alius eiusdem imperii tyrannus, cum Danielem in lacum leonum misisset et ipsos leones longa dierum inedia seuientes in ipsam pene rabiem conuertisset, quanta uirtus diuina emicuit, quod leones fame prorsus addicti coram se uirum expositum uidebant et nullo eum morsu attingere audebant! Ipse tyrannus id condigna extollens admiratione, in uocem laudis atque confessionis potentie superne erupit.? Quemadmodum uero sub temporibus legis que, sicut ait apostolus, ‘iram operabatur? terroris et comminationis Deus a

written over an erasure, and adhuc has been corrected and squeezed in ^* opritten in a different hand?, over an erasure, and an additonal line has been taken for priore Eueshamie

' Dominic’s Vita S. Ecgwini Book I (before it was edited and abbreviated by Thomas) is edited by M. Lapidge in Analecta Bollandiana, xcvi (1978), 65-104, at pp. 77-104. It is

cited here as DE i. DE ii refers to Lapidge’s transcript of Book II. For details, see above, p. xiv, Sigla. For Byrhtferth’s Life of St Ecgwine, written in the early 11th cent., see M. Lapidge, ‘Byrhtferth and the Vita S. Ecgwini’, Mediaeval Studies, xli (1979), 331-53, repr. in Anglo-

Latin Literature goo-1066 (Hambledon: London, 1993), pp. 293-315. Byrhtferth’s Life of

St Ecgwine was known to Thomas. ? Ps. 63: 7-8.

[BOOK I] 1. Here begins the Prologue to the Life of Ecgmine, bishop and confessor, and the account of the miracles mhich God deigned to perform through him, while he was still enjoying this transitory life, written by Dominic, prior of Evesham' The more often one recites the frequency and greatness of divine mysteries, the more attentively men listen to such stories, and the more diligently they contemplate them, all the more do their minds experience fear and, becoming struck with wonder, feel their puniness as they consider the greatness of such mysteries. Hence, the Psalmist writes: ‘A man will search even the depths of his heart, and God will be exalted’. Indeed, the more a man strives to approach God and to reach him, as he attempts this, the more God is seen to be exalted, and in being thus exalted is observed to be high above mankind. As when the Chaldean king, in his fierce anger, cast those three young men of the Jewish race into the furnace, and did all he could to stoke that furnace with pitch and other kinds of fuel for the fire, how great and excellent was God’s glory, when they walked about unharmed amidst the flames, singing a hymn to God, and despite so deliberate a calculation which had been ordered, they stirred all God’s creation to his praise. The very madness of the tyrant changed to terror as he gazed at this, and became a great fear.* 2. Then again, when another tyrant of that same empire cast Daniel into the den of lions, and had made those lions almost mad, ravenous as they were from lack of food for days, how greatly did divine power show itself, when the lions, which had suffered such hunger, saw a defenceless man in their midst, but did not dare to savage him with their teeth. That very tyrant in his great amazement, applauded what had happened, and broke out into words of praise and confession of the power of the Lord above.? As in the times of the law, which, as the apostle says, ‘brought retribution'," God exercised the judgements of 3 Nebuchadnezzar had ordered that the furnace be made seven times as hot as usual; Dan. 3: 19. The reference and the comparison come straight out of Byrhtferth. * For the story of the Chaldean king (Nebuchadnezzar) and the three men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego), see Dan. 3: 8-30. 5 This tyrant is King Darius. For the story, see Dan. 6.

* Rom. 4: I5.

HISTORY

fo. 124^

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

exercebat iudicia, ita sub temporibus gratie tanquam filiis suis sue benignitatis euidentiora demonstrat indicia. Quanta enim gratia quod supra pectus tante maiestatis, ipsius scilicet omnipotentie, discipulus tanquam in sinu matris recumbebat! Merito humana debilitas ad tante magnitudinem uirtutis exclamat, *Domine, audiui auditum tuum | et timui’,’ consideraui opera tua et expaul. 3. Nec solum in anterioribus, uerum et modernis temporibus multa et multum preclara dignationis sue circa nos Deus aliquando prebet insignia. Diuerso quippe temporum successu tanquam diuersis noctium horis per orbem sydera producit, uiros equidem religione approbatos, scientia preclaros, sermonis facundia et dignitate adornatos, signorumque magnificentia ubique admirandos, quibus nulla hereticorum uersutia, nulla Stoichorum, nulla Achademicorum, nulla denique philosophorum contraire potest astutia. Sicut enim sol aureus suo exortu uniuersa noctis nubila exturbat, ita ueritas per eos ubique falsitatis machinamenta subuertit et dissipat. 4. Inter quos, memoria nostra, uelut sydus conspicuum exortum est in Brittannie partibus, sub regibus Merciorum Aedelredo et Kenredo, beatus uir Ecgwinus, cuius actibus digne scribendis ipse uix sufficeret, si adesset, Homerus. Quantus proinde ego, qui eius uitam scribere presumo, longe prorsus infra pedes aliorum positus, et digne illius excellentiam stilo commendare omnino impotens atque nescius? Verum si per me uita illius aliis utcumque innotescit, optinenda est uenia, quoniam in templo Dei sunt phiale, sunt et sciathi.^ Eorum itaque auctoritate coactus et oratione adiutus, quorum preceptioni me parere et morem gerere expedit, Deo opitulante, conabor pro uiribus meis describere,

"quis ille uir fuerit tantus, quo stemate sanguinis ortus, quos habuit mores, demum quos edidit actus.’ Explicit prologus.

“ [f fuerit is om. this can be read as tmo hexameters "e

! Hab. 3: 2.

BOOK I

terror and threats, so now in these times of grace he shows clear signs of his mercy, as it were to his own children. What grace it is that allows a disciple to recline upon the breast of such majesty, I mean that of the almighty, as upon the breast of his mother! With good reason human weakness proclaims the greatness of such goodness: ‘O Lord, I have heard of your fame, and have been fearful';' I have considered your works, and stand in awe. 3. Not only in times past, but also in modern times God sometimes shows many great and wonderful signs of his grace towards us. As He brings forth stars at different times, as season succeeds season, so he brings forth men highly regarded for their religion, distinguished in knowledge, endowed with eloquence and dignity, admired everywhere for the greatness of their miracles, men who can be contradicted by none of the ravings of heretics, by none of the cleverness of the Stoics, Academicians, or indeed of any philosophers. For just as the golden sun at its rising chases away all the clouds of darkness, so truth, through such men, destroys and scatters in all places the devices of false teaching. 4. One such man, like a bright star, has risen within our memory in the region of Britain, governed by /Ethelred and Cenred, the kings of the Mercians: this was the blessed Ecgwine, to whose-deeds even Homer, if he lived now, could scarcely do justice in words. Who am I, then, who presume to tell the story of his life? I am far inferior to others, and utterly lack the ability or knowledge to extol sufficiently well with my pen the sublime qualities of that man. Yet, if in some way his life can be made known to others by me, I shall obtain pardon, for in God's house there are ignoble vessels as well as noble.” Hence, impelled by the authority and helped by the words of those men whose teaching it is right that I should obey and whose way of life to live, I will try, with God's aid, to describe as best I can how great a man he was, to relate his family origins, his character, and the deeds he wrought. Here ends the Prologue

? Cf. 2 Tim. 2: 20.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

s. Incipit liber primus de uita sancti Ecgmini, episcopi et confessoris, et miraculis que Deus per eum dum hac mutabili luce frueretur operari dignatus est, abbreuiatus a Thoma priore Eueshamie. fo. 124'^

| LECTIO

PRIMA

Temporibus Ethelredi atque Kenredi, qui Merciorum regimen optinuerunt, in territorio Wigornensi extitit religiosus uir cui nomen erat Ecgwinus, regali ex prosapia ortus. Qui postquam adolescentie tempus transegit, gratiam Dei multam optinuit, illustratione ueri luminis et sancti spiritus aspiratione irradiatus, sicut bonorum actuum subsequens comprobauit effectus.^ Quantum enim in eo crescebat successus temporis, tantum excrescebat totius intentio et studium probitatis. Assiduus erat in lectione, cordis sui agrum peruigili excolebat sollicitudine, auellando que nociua noscebat et inserendo que salubria esse dinoscebat. lustus, fortis, constans et prudens, cuique quod suum est exibere satagebat; ratione considerata labores et pericula non segniter suscipiebat, perseuerantemque in eis animi tolerantiam ferebat, ac rerum singularum fines diligentissime attendebat. Vnde omnia opera sua uerendo, iuxta illud beati Iob, *Verebar omnia opera mea, sciens quia non parceres delinquenti',^' ad exequenda Dei mandata pium ac mite cor gerebat; in exterioribus quidem causis sciens ac discretus, fortis et ad omnia consideratus, in diuinis autem intelligentia preditus, sapientia plurimum excellebat. Igitur^ postposita secularis fastus ambitione et bonorum temporalium iocunditate, paupertatem uoluntariam propter Deum appetiuit, et ecclesiastico cultui diuinisque officiis se omnino mancipauit. Per singulos itaque ordinis ecclesiastici gradus ad sacerdotium usque prouectus, mox totam uitam suam ita in contemplationem diuinam conuertit, quatinus in actiua conuersatione Deum pre oculis semper haberet, illius recordatus^ quod scriptura dicit, ‘Timenti Deum bene erit in extremis".

a DE i.1 ll. 5-7 om. R ^ DE i.1-2 Il. 10-16 om. R * DE i.2 Il. 5-8 om. R ^ timidus add. DE i.2 |. 14 * subdebat DE i.2 1. 15 / beatus Ecgwinus add. DE i.3 hh * recordans DE i.3 |. 7

! Job 9: 28 (Vulgate quod for quia).

BOOK I

5. Here begins the first book of the Life of St Ecgwine, bishop and confessor, and the account of the miracles which God deigned to perform through him, while he enjoyed this transitory life. This is abridged by Thomas, prior of Evesham. FIRST

READING

In the times of the kings /Ethelred and Cenred, who occupied the throne of the Mercians, there lived a holy man in the district of Worcester whose name was Ecgwine, sprung from royal lineage. After he had passed the years of youth he received an abundance of God's grace, and was enlightened by the light of truth and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as the following story of his good deeds proves. As he matured with the passing of time, all the more did his concentration and study of all that was honest grow. He was zealous in his reading, and cultivated the field of his heart with watchful concern, plucking out whatever he knew to be harmful, and sowing what he knew to be wholesome. He was just, brave, steadfast, and learned, and endeavoured to render to each his own and, giving due consideration to everything, he undertook dangerous tasks with vigour; his mental perseverance in these things was long-lasting, as he waited with great patience for the outcome of every single affair. Accordingly, he had a deep respect for everything he did—as the blessed Job said, ‘I had a deep respect for all my works, knowing that Thou dost not spare the wicked''—and he behaved with a good and gentle heart when obeying the commands of God. In worldly matters he was knowledgeable and discreet, brave and considerate in everything; in divine matters he was endowed with perception, and greatly excelled in wisdom. Therefore, putting aside the striving of worldly pride, and the delights of temporal possessions, he sought a willing poverty in the service of God, and committed himself utterly to the life of the church and to divine services. So, advancing through each of the grades of the church orders to the priesthood, he soon turned his whole life into the contemplation of divine things, to the extent that in his active life he always had God before his eyes, recalling what scripture says: ‘All will be well in the end for the man who fears God.”

? Cf. Eccles. 8: 12.

HISTORY

THE

LECTIO

fo. 124^

ABBEY

EVESHAM

SECUNDA

Vbi uero Wictiorum^ sedes pontifice orbata est,’ clamat clerus, petit populus, beatum uirum pro sanctitatis merito ad epis | copalem dignitatem sullimandum. "Igitur, licet multum reluctans diuque renitens, eligitur ab omni clero in episcopum. Rogantibus primoribus et principibus Ethelredi regis Merciorum, quo concedente, immo etiam plurimum cogente, primate etiam Brittannie? consentiente et confirmante, ad episcopatum prefate urbis cum canticis et ymnis^ assumptus est." Positus igitur in pontificio, statim diuini uerbi factus est incl*tus predicator, bonisque exinde actibus omni conamine operam dedit, tanto humilior quanto altiori sullimatus erat officio. *Pater orphanorum, sustentator uiduarum,! iustus iudex* oppressorum et consolator erat desolatorum; unde carus Deo et hominibus effectus est." 7. Beatus itaque Ecgwinus, ‘supra firmam petram fundatus',;? armis diuinis accinctus, doctrinis celestibus imbutus, potenter eos redarguebat qui sane fidei resistebant, leniter uero eos demulcebat qui suaui iugo? Christi obediendo colla subdebant. Prauis erat sermo eius quasi stimulus,’ mansuetis uero quasi oleum. /Fortibus erat durus, humilibus erat mitis et mansuetus/ Fortissimus itaque ueritatis assertor *uir Dei,’ populos nouiter conuersos et gentilitatis plurimum adhuc^ sapientes et errore antiquo in multis deceptos illicitisque connubiis

contra Christianam

sectam

inuolutos, a faucibus diaboli

abstrahere cupiens atque ab errore paterni delicti et ab squalore uetuste gentilitatis conuertere desiderans, sepe' luculenter quidem de talibus uiciis ad eos locutus est. /Cumque esset mitissimus ut Moyses, zelatus est legem Domini ut Finees," tremendi iudicii et sempiternorum tormentorum crebris tonitruis retundens lapidea corda, arguens, obsecrans, increpans in omni patientia et doctrina, instans oportunitate^ oportuna." " Wigornensis DE i.3 1. 9

^" DEi.3 ll. 11-16 recast R

^ triumpho glorie DE i.3 /l. 15—16 for canticis et ymnis R ** / sentence ofR om. 2 scriptural quotations of DE i. 4 Il. 6-9 i.4 1. 10 ^^ ad huc plurimum DE i.4 L. 11 ' sepenumero here a long quotation from Bede's ‘De die iudicii! which DE included following Byrhtferth * importunitate DE i. 4 |. 56

* primatibus DE i.3 1 13 DE 1.3 ll. 19-22 recast R ** sanctus Ecgwinus DE DE i.4 1. 15 ! Rom. at this point (1.4 Il. 16-52)

' On the diocese of the Hwicce (i.e. Worcester), which presumably corresponded with the territory of the kings of the Hwicce, see D. Hooke, The Anglo-Saxon Landscape: The Kingdom of the Hmicce (Manchester, 1985), p. 12. - This is Thomas’s phrase: it is never used by Dominic. The primate of Britain is

BOOK I 6.

SECOND

READING

When the see of the bishop of the Hwicce became vacant,! the clergy pleaded and the people requested that this blessed man, who merited it because of his holiness, should be elevated to episcopal dignity. Although he put up considerable resistance to this, and objected to it for a long time, he was elected by all the clergy as bishop. When all the leading men and athelings of /Ethelred king of the Mercians requested this, the king agreed, nay insisted, with the primate of Britain’ consenting and confirming. With canticles and hymns, he [Ecgwine] was admitted to the bishopric of that city. After his appointment to the bishopric he at once became a renowned preacher of the divine Word, and henceforth strove with all his might to achieve good deeds, all the more humbly because of his more elevated office. He was father to the fatherless, sustainer of widows,’ a just judge* of the oppressed, and consoler of the desolate; and so he became beloved of both God and men. 7. Thus the blessed Ecgwine, ‘founded upon a firm rock"? girt about with the armour of God, imbued with heavenly wisdom, strongly rebuked those who opposed sound faith, but gently consoled those who bowed their necks in subjection to the easy yoke? of Christ. To the wicked his speech was, as it were, a goad,’ to the gentle it was as oil. To the strong he was harsh, to the humble he was mild and gentle. He was a strong advocate of the truth, a man of God, who desired to snatch from the jaws of the devil persons newly converted, but still very wise in the ways of the heathen, and deceived by ancient heresies of many kinds, or involved in unlawful marriages contrary to the way of Christ. He longed to turn them away from the error of the sin they had inherited, and from the wretchedness of their long-time paganism, often speaking with clarity to them of such evils. Though he was as gentle as Moses, he was as zealous for the law of the Lord as Phinehas,* striking their stony hearts with his frequent tirades of fearful judgement and eternal torments, reproving, exhorting, rebuking, with great patience and good teaching, acting with urgency when

the time was right." Berhtwald, archbishop of Canterbury, elected 1 July 692, cons. 29 June 693, d. or trans. 13 Jan. 731; HBC, p. 213. “Cf Ps) 67: 6 (682 5), * From the Dies Irae, sequence of the mass for the dead. > Cf. Matt. 7: 25 and see also Matt. 16: 18.

9 Cf. Matt. 11: 30. S Cf Num, 25: rr.

Gf. Eccles: 22: 11. aa Gheoy imd: 2:

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

LE CLIOULERIGIA

Verum quia insanabilibus morbis plerumque officit medicina et ratione obuia augetur insania, ab inuidis et persecutoribus" Christiane seua tempestas ‘contra sanctum Domini’ excita |tur, ‘et religionis fo. 124" ueritatis inimici in ueritatis assertorem seditiosa peste’ grassantur et in eius angelicam uitam falsis figmentis armantur; unde ei dominica uoce beatitudo potius cumuletur: ‘Beati’, inquit, ‘qui persecutionem patiuntur propter iusticiam’.' Vulgus enim et populus, cuius uita et intentio erat procliua ad malum omni tempore, ^ "uidens sibi illicita non licere, et assueta uicia relinquere oportere, unde proficere debuit. Inde contra athletam sanctum Dei in iram et odium et scandalum exarsit, eumque paulatim coniecturis et adinuentionibus et rumoribus malis diffamans, inueterata^ simultate prodita, ab episcopatu eum expulit. Permisit "potestas primatis," et admisit hoc excitatus contra eum liuor regius. De eo nempe non solum apud regem ‘delatio, set etiam apud Romanum antistitem ab inimicis et insidiatoribus perlata fuerat accusatio Tum uero athleta Domini ewangelicis exemplis imbutus, cum se uidisset ad certamen uocari, pro salute’ errantis populi et pro adnichilandis inimicorum figmentis ad apostolicam sedem intrepidus ire disponit, exemplum Domini et magistri sui sequens qui, ‘sciens omnia que uentura erant super eum’,’ retrorsum non abiit nec faciem suam ab increpantibus auertit, set processit, et querentibus hostibus ultro se tradidit.

LECTIO

QVARTA

Beatus itaque Ecgwinus, quia iamdudum causa uisitandi apostolos* decreuerat Romam ire, nunc Raphaele archangelo fretus comite, proficiscitur, et felix exul ac penitens beatus suppremam iuris ecclesiastici sedem adiit. Et quamuis coram hominibus se immunem “ inimicis DE i.4 1. 58

^^ persecutionis DE i.4 lL. 59

sanctum domini DE i. 4 Il. 59-60 Il. 63-7 * Rom. DE 1.5 ll. 2-4

DENIM

^* atque seditiosa in

^ R om. 3 scriptural quotations at the end of DE i. 4 'T R corr. DE i.5 1. 4; see note in AB * adulta

^^ magistratus DE is 1. 8

'* R transposes delatio and accusatio

/ sanctus Ecgwinus, fide munitus, diuina consolatione roboratus, angelico consilio fretus, gladio spiritus sancti accinctus DE i.5 Il, 12-13, om. R * uisitandis apostolis DE i.5 Il. 20-1

! Matt. 5: ro. 2 Cf. Prov. 29: 22. * John 18: 4.

BOOK

THIRD

READING

But as medicine generally makes incurable diseases worse, and madness is increased by reason used against it, so a fierce storm was stirred up against the holy one of the Lord by the enemies and persecutors of the Christian religion, and those hostile to the truth raged like a pernicious plague against the champion of truth, and were incited against the angelic life of this man by untrue fabrications. So, may happiness be heaped upon him, as in the words of the Lord, who said: ‘Blessed are they who endure persecution for the sake of righteousness.’ For the common mob and the people, whose lives and thoughts were at all times inclined towards evildoing,^ saw that they were not allowed to do what was wrong, and that they must abandon the vices they practised, necessary for their own advantage. Accordingly, they burned with anger and hatred against the holy champion of God and stirred up slander against him. Little by little they maligned him with false suggestions, lying stories, and malicious rumours, and by propagating an ancient dispute, they had him expelled from the bishopric. This was allowed on the primate's authority, and royal envy stirred up against Ecgwine permitted this to happen. Further, an accusation was brought against him by hostile and treacherous men not only before the king but also before the bishop of Rome. Then the champion of the Lord, well-versed in the persecutions related in the Gospels, seeing that he was being challenged to a contest, bravely decided to travel to the apostolic see, for the salvation of his wayward people, and to confute the fabrications of his enemies. Thus he followed the example of his Lord and Master, who, ‘knowing everything which was to happen to him’,* did not withdraw from the fray, or shrink from those who accused him, but went forth, and voluntarily surrendered himself to his enemies who were looking for him. 9.

FOURTH

READING

Therefore, the blessed Ecgwine, who for some long time had intended to go to Rome to visit the apostles, put his trust now in the companionship of the archangel Raphael, set out on his journey, and as a happy exile and a blessed penitent he arrived at the supreme judgment-seat of ecclesiastical law. Although he knew that he was innocent before men of the things brought against him, and said so,

HISTORY

fOI

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

ab illatis sciret et confiteretur, tamen quia coram Deo peccatis se obnoxium esse non diffitebatur, necnon et pro peccatis plebis sue errantis profecturus in superni arbitrii et diuini examinis iudicio, pedes suos uinculis ferreis astrinxit que claue poterant firmari^ ac reserari, ipsamque clauem in fluuium Auene proiecit. Vinctus igitur seruus lesu Christi Domini nostri Ecgwinus, emulatus Petrum fluctus |tate caleantem et Paulum in uinculis gloriantem,’ tanta difficul uinculis de urbem apostolicam tantisque laboribus peruenit ad apostolicis gloriantem.^ *O fortissimum uictorem laborum, O contemptorem humanarum exprobrationum, O hominem angelis et hominibus admirandum, et tot populis et gentibus spectaculum factum! O uirum cunctis imitabilem, nec terroribus concussum, nec

blandimentis seductum, nec laboribus uictum, qui inter corporis sui pressuras et abiectiones nec mundanas laudes captauit, nec aspectus hominum recusauit! IO.

LECTIO

QVINTA

Denique^ ferro uinctis pedibus Romam ingreditur, et, quod maxime quesierat, in ecclesia beati Petri apostolorum principis, ad orationem prosternitur./ Quod dum uir sanctus uigilanti cura peragit, omnipotens Deus pro seruo suo uigilare nec desistit. Interim namque famuli eius pro cibis emendis ad flumen pergunt, quibus uenditores piscem offerunt, quo empto et asportato et ex more condiendi exenterato, omnipotentis Dei ma(g)nificentia’ compedum clauiculam quibus uir sanctus pedes suos astrinxerat in uisceribus piscis inueniunt, ferrumque quod Anglicus fluuius absorbuerat, Romanus Tiberis exalat Pro antiquo igitur statere piscantis Petri, coram multis redditur clauicula famulo Christi, qua se sciret soluendum gratia ipsius celestis clauigeri. Intelligens igitur uir Dei peregrinationis assumpte inesse fructum et optate exauditionis effectum, per omnia uoluntati Dei se subiciens, coram cunctis clauem accepit et uincula " ligari DE 1.6 1. 28

^ triumphantem DE i.6 1. 4

* top margin: sanctus quoque

Ecgwinus Romam profectus est uinculatus compedibus. Campane urbis ut fertur in eius aduentu per se sonuerunt secundum cronicon Cistress libro q(uinto) c. 23; see Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon, ed. C. Babington and J. R. Lumby, 9 vols. (RS xli, 1865-86) vi. 202, 203

“ DE i.6 ll. r1—13 om. R lore

^ mirificentia DE i.6 [. 21

: on the water; and Cf. 1 Cor. 7: 22, seruus Cristi; Matt. 14: 28-9, for St Peter walking

Acts 26: 29, for St Paul in chains.

- Cf. Matt.

17: 26. This ancient story, which is in Byrhtferth, can be traced as far back

as Herodotus. Versions of it were common in hagiography, and can be found, for example,

BOOK

yet in the presence of God he did not deny that he was guilty of sins. Indeed, as he was about to set out to plead for the sins of his erring people at the judgment-seat of the heavenly court and the divine judge, he bound his feet with iron fetters which could be shut and opened with a key, and this he threw into the river Avon. Bound therefore as the slave of Jesus Christ our Lord, Ecgwine, emulating Peter who walked on the water, and Paul who gloried in his chains," reached the city of the apostles only with great difficulty and great toil, but glorying in his apostolic chains. O bravest victor of toils, despiser of human reproach, admired by angels and men, who has become a wonder to so many peoples and races! O man to be imitated by us all, who, not troubled by terrors, or seduced by flattery, or overcome by toil, amidst the pains suffered in his body and in his banishment, did not grasp at worldly praise, or object to the gaze of men! 10.

FIFTH

READING

Eventually he reached Rome, his feet bound with fetters, and in the church of the blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, he prostrated himself in prayer, which he had particularly desired to do. When the holy man had spent the night in prayer, almighty God did not cease to be watchful for his servant. In the mean time his servants went to the river to buy provisions, and the sellers offered a fish to them. After buying this and bringing it back, they gutted it as was usual for seasoning a fish, and then by the power of almighty God, they found in the entrails of the fish the key of the chains with which the holy man had secured his feet, so the iron key which the English river had swallowed, the Roman Tiber disgorged.* Therefore, instead of that ancient coin of Peter when he was fishing, the key was returned to Christ’s servant in the presence of many people, and he knew that he was to be freed with it by the grace of the key-bearer in heaven. Hence, the man of God, realizing that there was benefit in this for the journey he had undertaken and advantage for the audience he desired, submitted himself in everything to the will of God, received the key in the presence of them all and released the bonds with which he was in the lives of St Benno of Meissen, St Ambrose of Cahors, St Maurilius of Angers, and St

Gerbold of Bayeux. The story was altered slightly in its telling: Dominic’s account differs from Byrhtferth’s, and William of Malmesbury’s in his account of St Ecgwine (De gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (RS lii, 1870), pp. 296-7) is different again; see Lapidge, Anglo-Latin Literature, pp. 307-8.

fo. 125"

THE

HISTORY

EVESHAM

ABBEY

quibus astringebatur reserauit.^ Tanta miraculi nouitas in omnes erupit, Romam implet. Qui miserabilis ac noxius putabatur, sanctus et uenerabilis comprobatur. Quis illum uidere non certabat? Quis ab eo benedici non festinabat? Ipse etiam uenerandus papa Constantinus,’! cognito sancti uiri aduentu et solutionis compedum miraculo prelibato, auditis etiam laboribus eius et angustiis in itinere perpessis, ^illum ad se uenire fecit, uolentem sibi prosterni digna reuerentia detinuit et quem auctoritate apostolica benedixit propter sanctitatis meritum | ab eo benedictionem suscepit. II.

LECTIO

SEXTA

Condigna^ itaque a pontifice Romano beatus Ecgwinus exceptus honorificentia, ‘ad celebrandum ante illum missarum solempnia,’ et ad eius singulare colloquium et consilium frequenter acciebatur et gratiose audiebatur. Non enim erat sermo eius fatuus uel inutilis, set ‘sale spirituali conditus';? sane fidei doctrinam et Christiane moralitatis formam sapiebat./ Paterno ille hunc affectu amplectebatur; hic per omnia illi debita reuerentia subditus obsequebatur. Tandem controuersie sue et itineris causa coram ipso Christianitatis summo iudice recitata^ et omnimoda uentilatione examinata! et ad uotum diffinita, cum apostolica benedictione et litteris apostolica consignatis auctoritate, in quibus magnorum dignitas priuilegiorum continebatur, ‘cum gloria triumphi/ ad propriam sedem remeauit in Angliam. 12. Vbi uero nuntii de illius reditu ad regis audientiam peruenerunt, auditis miraculis^ que Deus per seruum suum dignatus est operari, plurimum gratulatus iocunda illum suscepit exultatione, et’ auctoritate apostolica "a Brittaniarum primate"? restitutus est in propria sede. Quo in cathedra pontificali restituto, sicut *lux orta est iustis et rectis corde letitia’,* sic ‘obstructum est os loquentium iniqua"? et

‘omnis iniquitas opilauit os suum’.° Sic dicit scriptura: ‘Cum iustus S

resurgit, impius emoritur’,’

sic aduersarii eius aut confunduntur aut

“ DE 1.6 ll. 29-38 om. R ^ om. DE, who does not name the pope here, following Byrhtferth, but DE identifies later (i. 11) ** Recast by R from DE; auctoritate apostolica

add. R

“ debita DE i7 1. 13

** paraphrase of DE / DE i.7 ll. 18-20 om. R DE ^3 add. R * et uirtutibus

* dulcedinis add. DE ^ discussa DE ' om. add. DE ‘ cum add. DE "UU" add. R 1 2 3

Constantine I was pope from 25 March 708 to 9 Apr. 715. Col. 4: 6. Berhtwald; see above, 6 n. 2.

Ps. 96: 11 (97: 11).

* Ps. 62: 12 (63: 11).

BOOK I

bound. Such an unheard-of miracle amazed everybody, and was the talk of Rome. The man who was thought to be wretched and guilty, was applauded as holy and venerable. Who did not strive to see him? Who did not hasten to be blessed by him? Even the revered pope Constantine,! when he learned of the arrival of the holy man and of the miracle that set him free from the fetters, and heard also of his toils and difficulties suffered on the journey, had him come to him. When Ecgwine wished to prostrate himself before him, the pope prevented him with due respect, and from the man whom he blessed with apostolic authority he himself received a blessing through the true holiness of the man. iiite

SIXTH

READING

The blessed Ecgwine was therefore received by the Roman pontiff with well-deserved honour. He was frequently invited to celebrate solemn mass before him, to converse and consult with him alone, and he was listened to graciously. For his conversation was not silly or pointless, but ‘seasoned with spiritual salt';? he was knowledgeable in the teaching of sound doctrine and in the nature of Christian behaviour. The pope embraced him with fatherly affection, and Ecgwine, submitting to him with due reverence, was obedient to him in all matters. Finally the reason for the dispute and for his journey was related before the supreme judge of Christianity himself, and investigated with every kind of inquiry. A decision was made which accorded with his wishes, having the pope’s blessing and letters sealed with apostolic authority, in which was enshrined the dignity of great privileges. So he returned to England to his own see with glorious success. 12. When news of his return reached the ears of the king [/Ethelred], and he heard of the miracles which God deigned to perform through his servant, he congratulated him warmly, receiving him with very great joy. Ecgwine was therefore restored by apostolic authority to his own see by the primate of the British [Berhtwald].? Thus restored to his episcopal seat, as ‘the light rises on the just and the righteous with a joyful heart’,* so ‘the mouth of those who speak evil was stopped"? and ‘all their iniquity stopped them speaking'.^ As scripture says, ‘When the just man is restored, the wicked man dies’.’ So Ecgwine’s opponents were either confounded or converted. He was received $ Ps. 106: 42 (107: 42).

7 Cf. Prov. 24: 16.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

conuertuntur.^ In ampliorem igitur a rege susceptus amoris gratiam et ^familaritatem specialem ‘ex amico amicissimus ex familiari familiarissimus apud regem effectus, que uolebat apud illum facile optinebat. I3.

fONT2 5.0

LECTIO

SEPTIMA

Hiisdem sane temporibus locus erat in territorio Wigornensi dumis ac uepribus condensis incultus, qui a modernis Eueshamia appellatur, tunc uero temporis Hethomme nuncupabatur. ^Hunc uir Dei *concupierat quia ibi clauem in aquam proiecerat; et a rege Merciorum Aethelredo expetiit ac optinuit, in quo’ pastores gregum ad uictualia seruorum" | Dei nutrienda constituit. Ex quibus unus Eoues nomine plura portenta et signa *in eodem loco“ sepe cernens, ^quadam die uidit ibidem uirginem preclarissimam ipsius solis fulgorem sui splendore deuincentem, librum in manibus tenentem, et cum aliis duabus uirginibus celestia cantica psallentem. Quod cum idem pastor domino suo beato Ecgwino intimasset, uir Domini rem tacitus considerabat,” et secum in animo reuoluens Dominum lesum Christum de sacra uirgine natum prius pastoribus gregum per angelum annuntiatum et eisdem in presepi demonstratum, quod a paruo homine audierat non paruipendebat, set per se ipsum, inuocato Iesu Christi nomine cum ieiuniis et precibus, id inuestigare studuit. 14. Quadam igitur die, expletis nocturnis officiis et uigiliis, summo mane, adiunctis secum

tribus sociis, cum

psalmodiis et precibus ad

designatum locum nudus pedes pergit, eminusque relictis sociis ipse interius processit, diutiusque terre accubans, cum lacrimis et gemitu implorabat respectum misericordie redemptoris cum interuentu ipsius sancte genetricis.' Surgenti igitur illi ab oratione tres uirgines non minoris splendoris et glorie quam prius apparuere, quarum que media eminebat precelsior omnique nitore splendentior aliis prefulgebat, liliis candentior,

grantior, librum quoque " DE i.7 ll. 39-44 om. R

rosis uernantior,

manibus b-b

odore inestimabili

preferens et crucem

admirationis excellentiam DE

fra-

aurea luce

* DE i. 7 ll. 45-55

om. R “4 (fo. r25""] written over an erasure? ** add. R / Instead of in quo R, iure sibi concesso super predictam siluam, quattuor per eam DE i. 8 Il. 5-6 ** eadem silua DE ^^ DE i. 8 Il. 9—18 paraphrased R, with omissions ' DE i.8 Il. 32-6, biblical quotations, om. R ' The origin of the name is from hamm (the great bend in the river, from which ‘Homme’), to which the prefix ‘Et? (OE zer) was added, so ‘Hethomme’., It is also associated

BOOK I

into greater and more affectionate favour by the king, and became the friendliest of friends, the most intimate of subjects to the king, and with the king he easily obtained whatever he desired. I3.

SEVENTH

READING

At that same time there was a place in the district of Worcester, overgrown with thickets and dense bushes, which these days is called Evesham, but then was known as ‘Hethomme’.' The man of God had desired this place, because it was there that he had thrown the key into the water. He therefore asked /Ethelred, the king of the Mercians,” for it and obtained it. Here he put herdsmen to maintain

it for providing victuals for the servants of God. One of the herdsmen, called Eoves, who often saw many signs and wonders in that very place, one day saw there a brilliantly shining virgin who outshone the brightness of the sun by her own splendour. The virgin was holding a book in her hand, and with two other virgins was singing heavenly hymns. When the shepherd told his master, the

blessed Ecgwine, of this, the man of God considered the matter quietly, turning it over in his mind that a proclamation was once made by an angel to shepherds that the Lord Jesus Christ had been born of a holy Virgin, and was shown to them in the crib. He did not think light of what he had heard from a lowly man, but, invoking the name of Jesus Christ with fasting and prayer, made it his very own business to investigate the story. 14. One day, therefore, after the night offices and vigils were over, at the first light, he took three associates with him, and made his way bare-footed to the place indicated; then, leaving his associates some distance off, he himself went on further into the region, sat on the ground for some time, and with tears and groans prayed that by the intercession of His holy mother the Redeemer would show mercy. As he rose from prayer, three virgins appeared to him, no less splendid and glorious than previously. The virgin in the middle of these stood out taller, shining more brightly than the others, whiter than lilies, more verdant than roses, with a fragrance that could not be described: she carried in her hands a book and also a Cross which shone with a with the name Eof, who was said to be the shepherd, or herdsman, to whom the Virgin Mary miraculously appeared (hence ‘Eofeshamme’), and is sometimes found as *Cronuchhamme’, from the cranes or herons seen no doubt by the river; see PN Worcs., pp. 262-3. ? fKthelred, king of Mercia, the son of Penda, acceded 675, d. ?716, abdicating in 704, according to Bede (HE v. 24); HBC, p. 16.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

radiantem. Cumque cogitaret hanc Domini genitricem esse, uirgo precellentissima, quasi fauens tam pie estimationi, adorantem pretensa quam tenebat cruce benedixit, et cum tali ualefactione disparuit."

I5.

I/JECTIONOGTAYVA

Gauisus itaque uir sanctus super hiis," intellexit esse diuine uoluntatis ut locus ipse Dei cultibus conseruaretur et propitiationi seculorum ipsius beate genitrici consecraretur. Vouerat enim ab olim inter uarias temptationum angustias, si Dominus prosperum faceret desiderium fo. 125"? suum, edificaturum se Domino | templum; unde modo nactus locum tanto indicio a ^beata Maria‘ preelectum, Deo et ipsi Dei genetrici ad soluendum uotum eundem deputauit locum. Ipsum igitur protinus emundauit, opus a Deo presignatum inchoauit et decenter ad finem perduxit, possessionibus! etiam multis a regibus Anglie impetratis eundem locum ditauit. Modico post hoc tempore, Kenredus rex Merciorum, anno uidelicet quinto regni sui, et Offa rex Orientalium Saxonum, Romam ire pergentes,’ cenobii quod construere ceperant auctorem beatum Ecgwinum et magnam itineris sui causam, ueluti testem tam manifeste ostensionis beate uirginis Marie, socium eiusdem itineris sibi acciuerunt. Hunc uero laborem beatus Ecgwinus libens subiit, ut ecclesia^ quam extruxerat a Romano pontifice omnimodam libertatem ab episcoporum subiectione optineret. Quod et ipse Kenredus rex, ad quem ius patronatus eiusdem ecclesie pertinebat, omnimodis procurabat. r6. Igitur Romam amica itineris societate profecti, coram summo pontifice Constantino, qui tunc apostolice sedi presidebat,! causas itineris sul aperuerunt, et plurima de beneficiis suis regia libertate “ DE i.8 ll 44-6 om. R

** Deo DE i. 8. I. 53

^ et debitas Deo gratias ad soluens add. DE i.8. 1. 47

^ ecclesie R

' At this point (DE i. 8 1.56), R omits a long passage, including Ecgwine's foundation charter, which is put in later. The letter of Pope Constantine is also omitted, but, unlike

the charter, it does not appear elsewhere in Book I. R departs significantly from DE, recasting the story of the visit to Rome, until Lectio XI. Thomas notes that Cenred went to Rome in the fifth year of his reign, which is unknown to Dominic, and talks of the ‘primas Britanniarum', a term not used by Dominic. Dominic prefers ‘ad limina sanctorum apostolorum' to describe the journey to Rome, and he gives the place Alcester |Warws.] for the synod held on the return. Thomas does not name the place of the synod in Lectio IX. * The fifth year of Cenred's reign was 709: Thomas takes this date from Bede, HE v. 24

BOOK I

golden light. When Ecgwine realized that this was the Mother of the Lord, the virgin who surpassed all the others, as if showing favour to him for his pious thoughts, blessed him with the cross which she held out as he worshipped her, and then, after a gracious farewell, she disappeared. I5.

EIGHTH

READING

So it was that that holy man rejoiced over these things, understanding that it was the divine will that that very place should be preserved for the worship of God, and be consecrated to His blessed Mother for the redemption of the world. For he had once vowed amidst varied trials and temptations, that if the Lord would prosper his desire, he would build a temple to the Lord. Hence, having now obtained through this sign the place already chosen by the blessed Mary through such a sign, he set it aside as the place to discharge his vow to God and the very Mother of God. He at once cleansed the place therefore from defilement, began the work appointed by God, and brought it to an honourable end, endowing the place also with many possessions! obtained from the kings of England. A short time after this, Cenred, king of the Mercians, in the fifth year of his reign [709], and Offa, king of the East Saxons, set out on a journey to Rome.^ They summoned the blessed Ecgwine to accompany them on that journey, as the founder of the monastery which they had begun to build and the chief reason for their journey, and as the witness of so clear a vision of the blessed Virgin Mary. The blessed Ecgwine gladly submitted to this hardship, in order that the church which he had constructed should obtain from the pope complete freedom from subjection to bishops. King Cenred himself, to whom belonged the right of patronage over this church, procured this freedom in full. 16. So they travelled to Rome enjoying one another's company on the way; and came before Pope Constantine, who at that time occupied the apostolic see. They explained the reason for their journey, and bestowed many of their lands with royal freedom in the (pp.-516—17), according to whom he abdicated and went to Rome in 709, dying «c.709. Cenred's companion, Offa, king of the East Saxons, acceded between 694 and 709 and d. in or after 709, when he, too, abdicated and went to Rome. ? Bede, HE v. 19, gives the whole story of the journey of the two kings, Cenred and Offa, to Rome during the reign of Pope Constantine. Both kings received the tonsure at Rome and died there. Bede, however, does not mention anything about Ecgwine accompanying them.

HISTORY

fo. 126"

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

contulerunt in loco ostense uisionis, immo manifeste ostensionis beate Virginis, sicut ipse summus pontifex in priuilegio suo asserit,! et de ipsa ostensione eque ita certum esse tenendum precepit quemadmodum de beati Ecgwini bonitate non dubitauit. Ipsas uero donationes et beneficia prefati reges in ipsorum priuilegiis nominatim determinauerunt et apostolica auctoritate corroborari fecerunt; et eundem locum sub testimonio tante auctoritatis ita ampliatum, totum liberum quoad temporalia, Deo et sancte eius genetrici et beatis apostolis Petro et Paulo contulerunt. Summus^ uero pontifex locum illum ut sibi donatum, quem regia potestas regie libertati donauit, et ipse auctoritate | Dei et sanctorum apostolorum et sua quoad spiritualia donauit, sicut in ipsius priuilegio continetur. Omnibus igitur itineris sui causis rite peractis et ad uotum completis, cum benedictione apostolica, prospero gressu, in Angliam sunt regressi. Quo dum uenissent, secundum formam mandati apostolici a Britwaldo, Britanniarum primate, illis in partibus in quibus manifestatio habita fuisse refertur, concilium tocius Anglie, episcoporum uidelicet sacrique ordinis religiosarum personarum optimatumque regni cum proceribus suis, coactum est.

17.

LECTIO

NONA

Concilio itaque de grege dominico ex mandato apostolico in nomine Domini coadunato, et priuilegiis tam summi pontificis quam regum in communi

perlectis, cuncti laudem

et gloriam Deo dederunt, et

clamantes dixerunt, ‘Benedictus Deus qui per seruos suos talia operatur et preparat in terris unde anime saluentur in celis. Nos uero quicquid in hac constitutione papa uenerabilis exercet et imperat, suscipimus et laudamus; quidquid uero reges et principes nostri in loco *Ethomme'? contulerunt, concedimus et confirmamus'. Hiis uero ita expletis, et soluta in pace uniuersa que illuc conuenerat contione, sicut sancta synodus decreuerat beatus Ecgwinus et Wilfridus episcopus! ad locum prefatum perrexerunt, et ipsum “ written over an erasure 1

See below, 319-20. See C. Cubitt, Anglo-Saxon Church Councils c. 650—c.850 (London, 1995), App. I, p. 263, who, citing Lapidge, considers the council fictitious. See also below, 40. 7 2

? See above, 13 n. 1. * This is Wilfrid, bishop of Worcester, not Wilfrid, archbishop of York. Dominic (DE i. 10 |. 32) had included a passage stating that Archbishop Wilfrid of York was at the Council of Alcester with Archbishop Berhtwald, and this passage has confused some historians. Thomas

BOOK

place where the vision had been revealed: the manifest appearance of the blessed Virgin, as the pope himself asserted in his privilege, the nature of the manifestation itself, the fact that he considered it to be completely acceptable, and had no doubt about the reliability of the blessed Ecgwine. They then had the very endowments and beneficences, which these kings specified by name in their privileges, ratified by apostolic authority; and conveyed that place, thus enhanced by the testimony of such authority, wholly free with respect to its temporalities, to God, His holy Mother, and the blessed apostles Peter and Paul. The supreme pontiff thus took that place as donated to him—which royal power gave in royal freedom—and himself on the authority of God, the holy apostles, and his own, gave it its spiritualities, as set out in his privilege. Therefore all the reasons for that journey were duly fulfilled and completed according to their wishes, so they returned with papal blessing and a favourable journey to England. When they arrived back, a council of the whole of England, made up of the bishops, of the holy order of the religious, magnates and nobles of the realm, was summoned by Berhtwald, primate of Britain, in that region where the vision is said to have taken place. I7.

NINTH

READING

When the council of the Lord's congregation had been assembled in the name of the Lord in accordance with the apostolic command, and the privileges of both the pope and the kings were scrutinized in common, all gave praise and glory to God, and exclaimed aloud, ‘Blessed be God who performs and prepares such things on earth through His servants, by which their souls may be saved in Heaven. Whatever the venerable pope enacts and commands, we accept and approve; whatever endowments our kings and princes have bestowed upon the place called *Ethomme", we allow and ratify’. When this business had been completed, and the whole assembly which had met there had been dismissed in peace, the blessed Ecgwine and Bishop Wilfrid, as the holy synod had decreed, proceeded to the said place, makes no mention at all of Archbishop Wilfrid of York. Bishop Wilfrid means the bishop of Worcester whom John of Worcester (Jo. Wo. ii. 174—5) speaks of as being chosen to succeed

Ecgwine during the latter's lifetime, but it is impossible to say whether the dedication took place in 709, shortly after the Council of Alcester, as seems to be suggested by ‘Thomas, or in 714, as Dominic states in a passage which Thomas pointedly omits, see below, 33. The chronology is very confused and there may well have been more than one dedication.

HISTORY

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THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

in honore Dei et beate eius genetricis et apostolorum Petri et Pauli et omnium sanctorum in festiuitate eorundem dedicauerunt. 18. Et ex precepto apostolico constituta est ibidem congregatio monachorum que minus in illis partibus tunc habebatur, ouile uidelicet diuinitus preostensum, apostolica auctoritate fultum, regia libertate donatum, cleri et populi benedictione sancitum. Postquam uero beatus Ecgwinus optatum diem uidit quod locus quem extruxerat dedicaretur, et monachilis ordo ad seruiendum Deo inibi constitueretur, iam exinde omissis terrenorum negotiorum curis, se ad contemplatiuum ui|te contulit statum. Exemplum etiam Domini secutus se humiliando,' episcopale sede dimissa, inibi effectus est abbas. Et iccirco iustum uidebatur summo pontifici, sicut ipse testatur, ut eadem ecclesia ampliorem dignitatem a sede apostolica merito sui optineret. *Constituit ergo in nomine Domini ut isdem locus sub monarchia proprii abbatis liber existeret’,” et ut omnis qui hec que ipse statuit ‘destruxerit aut male contaminauerit? uel infringere uoluerit, seu in loco monachorum clericos inmittere temptauerit, sit maledictus et anathema coram Deo et angelis eius inperpetuum; ille uero qui hec ‘conseruauerit et adauxerit quod benedictionibus repleatur" et a Deo in eternum conseruetur exorauit. I9.

LECTIO

DECIMA

Multas etiam alias libertates et inmunitates et episcopales dignitates, quibus idem monasterium usque in hodiernum diem excellentissime pollet, contulerunt postmodum Romani pontifices eidem loco, tum ut sancto et sibi donato, tum ad honorem beate Dei genitricis Marie que eundem sibi elegit, tum ob reuerentiam beati Ecgwini episcopi. Que in priuilegiis eiusdem cenobii expresse continentur, et cum summa reuerentia et cautela diligentissima et cura exactissima ibidem obseruantur. Indutus igitur monachum uir Dei Ecgwinus cepit amplius uerbis et doctrinis pluere, uirtutibus et miraculis choruscare, curas mundi postponere, dampna rerum temporalium simplici animo tolerare: ut de eo ueraciter posset dici quod antea dictum fuerat in 1 2

Cf. Phil. 2: 8. Cf. the text of the second privilege of Pope Constantine, see below, 325.

3 Cf. the first privilege of Pope Constantine for certain similarities of a general kind, see below, 322. * Ibid.

BOOK I

and dedicated it in honour of God and of His blessed Mother, and of the apostles Peter and Paul and all the saints, in a festival honouring them all. 18. In accordance with the apostolic command a community of monks was established there, which did not at that time exist in that district, and the flock divinely foreshadowed was supported by apostolic authority, endowed with royal liberty, affirmed by the blessing of clergy and people. When the blessed Ecgwine saw that longed-for day when the place which he had built would be consecrated, and a monastic order established to serve God in that place, he then abandoned all concerns for worldly matters, and devoted himself to a contemplative way of life. Following the example of the Lord by humbling himself,' he resigned his bishop's see, and became abbot of the monastery. Indeed, because of Ecgwine's merit, it seemed right to the pope, as he himself bore witness, that that same church should obtain from the apostolic see greater dignity. ‘He decreed therefore in the name of the Lord that that place should be free under the rule of its own abbot';? that anyone who ‘refuted these rights which the pope himself established or wished wickedly to misuse or infringe them’, or attempted to introduce clerks in place of monks, should be accursed and an anathema before God and his angels for ever; but he prayed that the man who ‘preserved these rights and augmented them should be blessed to the uttermost” and saved by God eternally. I9.

TENTH

READING

After that, popes at Rome bestowed upon that place many other liberties, immunities, and episcopal dignities, with which the monastery to this day is most excellently empowered, not only because it had been given to the saint and to them, in honour of the blessed Mary, Mother of God, who chose the place for herself, but also to show reverence to blessed Ecgwine as bishop. These are contained in detail in the privileges of the monastery,

and are observed

in that

place with the greatest respect, with the most diligent circ*mspection, and with punctilious care. And so clothed in the monk’s habit, the man of God, Ecgwine, began to give greater expression to good doctrine, to stand out amongst men for his virtues and for miracles

performed, to put the cares of the world behind him, and to endure the loss of temporal things with a sincere heart; so that it could be

HISTORY

fo. 126""

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

prophetis, ‘Qui sunt isti qui ut nubes uolant et quasi columbe ad fenestras suas?”! Et sicut dicit apostolus, ‘Nostra autem conuersatio in celis est, ita iste sanctus conuersabatur in terris, ut animus et intentio eius semper esset in celis. Sacre insistebat lectioni; debitis castigabat corpus inedia et uigilis. Humilis erat in habitu, in sermone | iocundus, in predicatione deuotus, in moribus uenerabilis, in orationibus peruigil, in lectione assiduus, in uultu angelicus, in affectu pius, in uirtutibus admirabilis, in bonitate amabilis, in pietate laudabilis, multis etiam fulgens miraculis. Nam, ut cetera omittamus,

inter lacrimas et singultus que nocte ac die indesinenter omnipotenti Deo fundebat, sepe angelorum uisitationibus demulcebatur, et aliorum sanctorum qui de hoc seculo excesserant continuis consolationibus refouebatur. Beatam uero Dei genetricem Mariam ita toto affectu et spiritu, toto corde et amore amplectebatur, ut numquam a memoria eius excideret, numquam in uerbis ipsius deesset. Cuius uisitatione et consolatione seruus Dei recreatus, omnia que mundi erant omittebat, et que Dei erant indesinenter exercebat. Miseris condolebat, pauperes recreabat, esurientes pascebat, sitientes potabat, nudos uestiebat, infirmos uisitabat, mortuos sepeliebat, orphanis et uiduis, secundum apostolum, solamen exibebat, et ‘ab hoc seculo immaculatum se custodiebat’.* 20.

LECTIO

VNDECIMA*

Virtutum itaque uniuersarum auidus executor et uitiorum insectator beatus Ecgwinus, ubi ad cigneam etatis speciem peruenit, ^omnipotentis Dei nutu, qui sanctos suos salubriter uerberat, in monasterio

quod construxerat in diutinam decidit egritudinem. Quam cum patientissime amplecteretur,’ mortemque sibi iam instare persensisset, coram fecit adesse filios quos Deo genuerat, et eos hac extrema monuit adortatione.

‘‘‘Vixi, fratres, apud uos, nec pudet uixisse."*

Feci enim quod potui, quamuis omnino exiguum sit quod feci. Quid agere et a quibus uos oporteat declinare dixi, quibuscumque modis dicendum esse existimaui. Ostensa igitur rectitudinis uia precor ut gradiamini. Que enim in futuro retributio? Si gaudium, erit eternum; “ R returns to DE 1.17

:AeIsa. 60: s 8.

^* om. DE (at i.17 L. 3) ;

? Phil. 3: 20.

Paulinus, Life of Ambrose; see Vita di Cipriano, Vita di Ambrogio,

3 Jas. 1: 27. Vita di Agostino, ed.

and trans. into Italian A. A. R. Bastiaensen (Vite dei Santi, iii: Milan, 1975), poil

xosrr.

cap. 45,

BOOK I

truly said of him what was once said in the Prophets, ‘Who are these who fly like a cloud, and like doves to their roosts??’ And as the apostle says, ‘Our habitation is in the heavens"? and that saint so lived on earth that his mind and his gaze were always upon the heavens. He applied himself to reading sacred literature; he chastized the body by obliging himself to fast and spend nights in prayer. He was humble in nature, cheerful in his conversation, devout in preaching, reverential in behaviour, ever watchful in prayer, assiduous in his reading, angelic in countenance, pious in disposition, admired for his virtues, beloved for his goodness, praised for his holiness, and illustrious because of the many miracles he performed. To say nothing of his other qualities, amidst the tears and sighs which he poured forth ceaselessly night and day before almighty God, he was often consoled by visitations of angels, and refreshed by the continual comfort given by other saints who had departed this earthly scene. Further, he so cherished the blessed Mary, Mother of God, with the whole of his mind and spirit, with the whole love of his heart, that she was never out of his thoughts, never absent from his speech. So this servant of God was refreshed by her presence and comfort, he eschewed all that was worldly, and ceaselessly practised the things of God. He consoled the wretched, restored the poor, fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick, buried the dead, gave comfort to orphans and widows as the apostle enjoined, and ‘kept himself spotless from the world’.*

20.

EUBVENTH

READING

The blessed Ecgwine, eager to accomplish all the virtues and to attack all the vices, reached the final stage of his life, and it was the will of God, who chastens His saints for their good, that he should suffer a long illness in the monastery which he had founded. He embraced this with great patience, and realizing that death was now imminent, summoned before him the sons whom he had begotten for God and counselled them with these last words of exhortation. ‘ *I have lived amongst you, my brothers, and have not been ashamed to have done so." I have done what was in my power, though it is very little indeed that I have done. I have told you, by whatever means I thought it best to speak to you, the things it behoves you to do, and the things to avoid. Therefore I beseech you to walk in the way of righteousness that I have shown you. What will be your reward in the future? If joy,

HISTORY

fo. 126°”

THE

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EVESHAM

si tormentum, erit perpetuum. Nil uero inter bomi medium. | Nec uos decipiat presentis umbra felicitatis. *Fugit enim uelut umbra, et numquam in eodem statu permanet. i's wee qui “‘uia est, ueritas et uita", *uiam iniquitatis a uobis amoueat”, **uiam iustificationum suarum uos instruat"";? illamque amouendo et hac instruendo felici perseuerantia uos ad uitam perducat eternam." 21. Et Patri eos immortali commendans, accepto uiatico, plenus dierum et plenus uirtutum uita excessit tercio kalendas lanuarii. Quantus uero exinde ^meror fuerit in fratribus monasterii, quantus in principibus et optimatibus patrie dolor,’ quanta tristitia in clero, quanta desolatio in populo, quanta in uiduis et orphanis et pauperibus acclamatio, supersedemus dicere quia non possemus edicere. Perdiderant enim principes regni optimum in secularibus consiliarium, clerus doctorem et magistrum precipuum, populus rectorem et iudicem? iustissimum, pupilli et orphani dispensatorem largissimum.

22.

LECTIO

DVODECIMA'

Concurrit igitur ordo monasticus, occurrit et clerus ad beati uiri exequias, ruunt cateruatim populi utriusque sexus ad tanti uiri exuulas. Vna ex parte funebria personabant; alia ex parte cantica letitie resonabant. Hinc luctus et lacrime quia defunctus erat, inde gaudium et exultatio quia celum optinebat. Triumphi quodammodo celebritas uidebatur, non funeris. Celebratis ergo missarum solempniis et aliis ex more peractis obsequiis, positum est corpus eius cum debito honore in loco quem prius elegerat sibi. Apposuit epithaphium scriptor, non leonina dictatum cantilena, set simplici commendatum stilo et descriptione non ficta. Rupe sub Clauditur Veri fama Et mores Ecclesiam

hac uili tegitur uir summus, et urna angusta, quem subuehit alta per orbem uolans. Genus hic spectabile duxit, habuit preclaros magnaque gessit. "fecit Eouesham quam modo dic*nt,

Ditauit terris, et multa nobilitauit oy, ndi

Libertate locum. Qui regni iura tenebat Omni |modam scripsit; subscripsit curia regni, qa meror and dolor reversed, and fuerit . . . monasterii om. DE ^ et iudicum om. DE DE udisBLUE ^" fecit quam nunc dic*nt Eouesham DE i. 17 l. 40 mn may be a quotation, but we have been unable to identify it. ? Job 14: 2. * Cf. John 14: 6; Ps. 118: 29 (Ps. 119: 29); and Ps. 118: 27 (Ps. 119: 27).

BOOK I

it will be eternal; if torment, it will be for ever. There is no way which leads between them. Let not this shadow over your present happiness deceive you. “For it will flee as a shadow does, never remaining in the same position." May He, who *is the Way, the Truth and the Life", *keep from you the way of iniquity”,23/66 *teach you his ways of judgement"? and by so instructing you, may lead you with happy perseverance to the life eternal.’ 21. Commending them thus to the immortal Father, he received the last communion, and full of days and full of virtues he departed this life on 30 December [717]. How great was the mourning among the brethren in the monastery, the sadness among the leading men and nobles of the land, the sorrow among the clergy, the distress among the people, and the weeping among widows, orphans, and the poor! But we will refrain from speaking further of what we cannot fully express. For the leaders of the realm had lost the best of counsellors in secular matters, the clergy had lost a preacher and an exceptional teacher, the people had lost a guide and a most just judge, dependants and orphans had lost a generous provider. 22.

TWELFTH

READING

All the monks assembled, and the clergy met for the funeral of the holy man. The people hurried together in throngs to the remains of this great man. On one side there was the sound of lamentation, on the other songs of joy rang out: the grief and tears amongst the former were for his death, the joy and delight on the other were that he had attained heaven. In a way it seemed the celebration of a triumph, not of a funeral. Therefore, when solemn mass and other customary obsequies had been carried out, his body was laid to rest with due honour in the place which he had previously chosen for himself. An epitaph was written and placed there, not a composition in Leonine verse, but the offering of a simple pen, faithfully recorded: ‘Beneath this base rock is buried a man of distinction, and enclosed in a narrow urn is he whose reputation for the truth was carried throughout the world on the high wings of fame. He was the head of an illustrious family, his manner of life was highly esteemed, and his deeds were great. He founded the church which is now called Evesham, endowed it with lands, ennobled the place with great liberty. He who possessed the rights of the kingdom put in writing every kind of liberty, confirmed by the king’s court, and the pope of

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Et qui Romanam sedem tunc papa regebat Confirmauit eam proprio testante sigillo. Vita migrauit cum solis per Capricornum Tercius ac decimus medians existeret ortus.'

23. Multis miraculorum signis ^in eodem loco^ Deus euidenter postea monstrauit quanta sanctus uir Ecgwinus apud eum gratia in celis eminebat. Orbatis lumine lumen ad eius nominis inuocationem restituebatur, auditu priuatis auditus reddebatur, debilibus uirtus amissa reformabatur, et omne ab eis infortunium amouebatur. Nec solum ab incommodis exterioribus per eius merita consilium optinebatur, uerum et ab interioribus animarum incommoditatibus auxilium diuinitus adipiscebatur. Super hiis ergo uiri sancti fama per patriam diuulgata, (ad impetranda tam corporis quam anime remedia frequentia populorum ad eundem locum ueniens, multa ipsum celebritate longe lateque in sullime attollebat, ad gloriam et laudem ipsius qui cum patre et spiritu sancto uiuit et regnat Deus per omnia secula

seculorum. Amen.^? 24. “Attollant igitur poete quanta uelint amplificatione Babilonem mirifice turritam, Niniuen trium dierum itinere? spatiosam; nos ista iure attollimus et attollendo preferimus edificiorum menia. De illis ad inanem seculi pompam extructis ait Ecclesiastes, ‘Vanitas uanitatum et omnia uanitas’:* de istis testatur scriptura, ‘Gloriosa dicta sunt de te, ciuitas Dei’.” Non solum enim ex insensibili materia ibi Deo edes constituuntur, uerum ex rationali atque immortali animarum substantia gloriose et perennes domus ibi edificantur. Illorum magistratus, quia in armis, in curribus et in equis confidit, obligatur et

cadit: horum ducatus, in nomine Domini spem sibi totam affigens, ad certamina expeditus assurgit erectusque persistit. Nulla hunc exercifo. 127°

tum uiolencia superare potest; ‘quis enim’, | secundum apostolum, 'separabit eum a caritate Christi?^ Nulla prorsus tribulatio, seu ferri,

seu inedie, seu algoris, seu cuiuslibet terreni furoris. Nulla denique hunc astutia subuertet, quoniam hec acies spiritualiter die ac nocte in excubiis suis perstat, sicut in Canticis Canticorum

dicitur, ‘Vnius-

cuiusque uiri ensis super femur suum propter timores nocturnos’.’ ana ad eius tumulum DE 7, 18 [. 1 reverts to DE i.14

^ ualitudo DE i. 18 1. 5

^* only R

i Ecgwine died on 30 December, i.e. the tenth day into Capricorn, not the thirteenth. A common end to a collect.

* The ‘poeta’ is in fact Byrhtferth (p. 382: beginning of his part IV). Dominic added the

BOOK I

that time who ruled the Roman see confirmed it, and ratified it with his own seal. Ecgwine passed from this life when the thirteenth rising of the sun was moving through Capricorn.”! 23. God afterwards showed clearly by the evidence of many miracles in the same place how much the holy man Ecgwine excelled in grace in His presence in the heavens. At the invocation of his name sight was restored to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength was restored to the weak, and every misfortune was removed from them. Through his merits not only was guidance obtained to deal with worldly troubles, but also aid was gained from heaven to face the spiritual difficulties of the soul. Because of these things, therefore, the fame of this holy man spread throughout the country, and to obtain these benefits for both the body and the soul a throng of people came to that place. Men far and wide extolled this man to the skies, because of his great renown, to the glory and praise of the Lord Himself, who, with the Father and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns as God for ever and ever. Amen.” 24. Poets may extol Babylon with its amazing walls as extravagantly as they wish, or Nineveh, a vast city three days’ journey? across, but we rightly praise those things we have mentioned and prefer that to praising the walls of buildings. Ecclesiastes says of these things built for the world's empty glory, ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’;* scripture testifies to these things, ‘Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God.” For not only are dwellings for God constructed there of inanimate material, but glorious, eternal houses are built there from the rational and immortal substance of souls. The ruler of the former, because his confidence is put in arms, chariots, and horses, is bound to them and falls; the leader of the latter, fixing all hope for himself in the name of the Lord, armed for battle rises up and continues upright. No violence can overcome such an army, for as the apostle says, ‘Who will separate us from the love of Christ?" Certainly no affliction, either of sword, or of starvation, or of cold, or of any earthly rage. Finally, no cunning will overthrow this army, for this column stands firm day and night on spiritual watch, such as is spoken of in the Cantica Canticorum, ‘Let a man’s sword be ready at his loins for the terrors of the night. What more can I say? It has as scriptural quotations; Jonah 3: 3 for Nineveh, and cf. Jer. 5: 58 for Babylon’s walls. See Lapidge, AB xcvi (1978), p. 103 note to r4. r. ^ Eccles. 12: 8.

:UPps1:86:131(87:73): $ Rom. 8: 35. dE CCOf S50:

HISTORY

foI27

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Quid plura? Eum habet tutelam et propugnatorem qui suos milites ad hec bella mittens et adortans, ait: *Confidite, ego uici mundum"?! Quem ambitum ciuitatis et murum? Qui nullo ariete labari, nullo aduersariorum impulsu potest impelli, quoniam ipse ‘saluator ponetur in ea murus et antemurale’.* Nulla suffodi potest fraudis machina, quia ‘non dormit neque dormitat qui custodit Israel? Horum ergo Christi pugionum castra sunt ista beati Ecgwini edificia et alia per orbem monachorum cenobia. "Hec autem scripsimus“ propter poeticas in secularibus gestis acclamationes et propter eos qui rei geste simplicem anullare solent stilum nisi uariis uerborum fucis ueritas depingatur; depingendo uarietur, uariisque immutata figuris ueritas non esse uideatur. 25. "Nunc autem redeamus^ ad ea que, ut uite historiam seriatim texeremus, in uita sancti Ecgwini interserere pretermisimus. Nulli enim umquam sacrorum dogmatum scriptori contigisse legimus, tum ob sui ipsius insufficientiam, tum ob rei scribende ineffabilitatem, tum ob lectorum fastidium, quin aliqua memoria digna in suis scriptis inserere obmiserit. Vnde beatus Iohannes ewangelista, ‘Multa alia signa fecit lesus in conspectu discipulorum suorum que non sunt scripta in libro hoc. Sic et nos cum caritati uestre uitam sancti Ecgwini scriberemus, ne fastidiosis lectoribus tedium generaret prolixitas, multa obmisimus, que hic stilo commendare dignum duximus, quorum quedam in eius sacra depositione, quedam uero tantum in eius sanctissima translatione sunt legenda. 26. Et primum cartam be|ati Ecgwini scribamus quam post dedicationem ecclesie Eueshamensis dictauit Vnde plures in ea denotantur possessiones quam in illa que Rome confecta erat uel in illa quam Brithwaldus dictauit, ille uidelicet quas beatus uir medio tempore inter cartarum confectionem adquisiuit. Multas enim postea beatus Ecgwinus ecclesie Eueshamensi adquisiuit possessiones, que omnes sub eadem libertatis forma a regibus eidem ecclesie sunt collate sub qua et ille quas Rome fecerat confirmare. Est autem forma carte huiusmodi: a a 1c " T1 Y icti hiis peroy digressionem dictis DE ee)i. r4 |. 29 i ^"oe redeamus unde digressi i eramus DE i. 14 end. R leaves DE here, reverting to DE i. 9 for Ecgwine’s charter two paragraphs below . l

John 16: 33.

2 Isa. 26: 1. 3

Ps. 120: 4 (121: 4). * John 20: 3o.

BOOK

its defender and protector the One who, sending his soldiers to such battles, addresses them with these words: ‘Have confidence, I have overcome the world.'! How great is the circumference of that city and its wall! No battering-ram can break through this wall, no enemy assault destroy it by any attack, since ‘the Saviour Himself will stand in that city as a wall and a bulwark’.? No treacherous engine can undermine it, because ‘He that guards Israel, neither slumbers nor sleeps’. Therefore the house of the blessed Ecgwine and other monasteries throughout the world are fortresses housing the weapons of Christ. We have written these things because of the praises given by poets to secular exploits, and because of those who are accustomed to despise a simple style of narrative, unless truth be portrayed in a variety of colourful expressions, be distorted by such depiction, and not even appear to be the truth when changed by distorting metaphors. 25. Let us now return to those matters which we have omitted to include in the life of St Ecgwine in order to construct the story of his life in due order. Indeed, we read that no writer of sacred teaching has ever avoided omitting to mention some matters in his writings that ought to have been included, on account of his own inability, the inexplicable nature of the matter he is writing, or the boredom of his readers. So it was that the blessed John the Evangelist wrote, “There are many other signs which Jesus performed before the eyes of his disciples which have not been written in this book.’ So even we, when writing our account of the life of St Ecgwine out of love for you, lest excessive long-windedness should create weariness in apathetic readers, have omitted many things which we thought merited being commended to writing now, some of which are to be read at his holy deposition, others only at his most holy translation. 26. First let us write down blessed Ecgwine’s charter, which he drew up after the dedication of the church of Evesham.” More possessions are indicated in this than in the charter which had been completed in Rome, or in that charter which Berhtwald composed: I refer to those possessions which the holy man acquired in the time between the

completion of those charters. For the blessed Ecgwine later acquired many possessions for the church of Evesham, all of which were bestowed by the kings upon the same church under the same provision of liberty as those possessions which he had had confirmed at Rome. The form of the charter is as follows: > See above 17 and n. 4, and below, 33 and n. 5.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

27. Charta beati Ecgwim episcopi ! “In nomine Domini nostri saluatoris Christi. Ego Ecgwinus Wictiorum humilis episcopus uolo manifestare ^in ista carta’ qualiter ego primum per sancti spiritus inspirationem istum locum elegi et monasterium edificaui in nomine (et) in honore omnipotentis Dei et sancte Marie“ uirginis. Contigit quodam tempore, ‘ut ego breuiter hic narro,’ quod ego sepe/ in laboribus multarum* uisionum ductus fui. Qua de re arsit michi in animo per sancti spiritus inspirationem, quod ego, “si Dominus prosperum faceret desiderium meum," unum locum edificare deberem ad laudem 'Domini mei' et sancte Marie uirginis et omnium Christi electorum, et etiam michi ad eternam retributionem antequam ab ista mutabili uita discederem. / Postquam igitur ab urbe Roma reuersus fui ubi clauem in uentre piscis inueni quam in fluuium iuxta Hethomme proieceram, cogitans locum illum sanctum, concupiui eum, et cum tunc maxime florerem in diebus Aelredi regis Merciorum, cepi eum benigne precari ut michi concedere dignaretur eundem locum qui Ethomme uocabatur.? Satis ille libenti animo quod poscebam concessit, quia et Dei amicus et salutis anime sue erat studiosus. 28. In quo loco cum beata uirgo Maria cuidam pastori gregum, Eoues nomine, comparuisset, ob cuius uiri sanctitatem eundem locum Eoueshamiam nuncupaui, et ipse eandem apparitionem michi intimasset; statim, subiunctis ieiuniis et orationibus, ad eundem locum nudus pedes, adiunctis michi peccatori tribus sociis, accessi, et eandem gloriosam uirginem clara luce ibidem manifeste uidere fo. 1279 merui, et cum cruce aurea | quam manu gestabat michi benedixisset, disparuit. Tanto itaque indicio nactus locum proposito meo congruentem, statim illum emundaui, et opus a Deo presignatum inchoaui. Ad quod complendum dedit michi Aelredus rex Stratfordam et castellum de Chadelburi,* et illud uetus monasterium quod Fladeburi nominatur, quod sibi euenit ex hereditate uxoris sue, "o not in DE

^^ omnibus fidelibus Dei DE i.9

* The scribe at first wrote in

Homme (the original name for Evesham), but then he or another contemporary has corrected this

to in nomine; tf the latter case is the correct meaning, et mould need to be added to make sense perpetue add. DE non sine omnipotentis Dei dispositione DE / om. DE

* et magnarum add. DE

"" a repeat from Lectio Octaua, above, where it is DE i. 8 l. 51 ke u ^" D

'' et gloriam omnipotentis Dei DE ^7 Postquam igitur... notata sunt (f. 34). At this point R begins to leave DE and does not return until the end ofthe next paragraph. It re-orders the sequence, and begins with the story of the donation ofAthelred, followed by Eoves’ (the shepherd's) vision of the Virgin Mary; the latter om. DE .

4 : Sawyer, no. 1251. The only complete copy of the charter is the present text, the

BOOK

27. The charter of the blessed bishop Ecgwine! In the name of Christ, our Lord and Saviour. I, Ecgwine, the humble bishop of Worcester, wish to show in this charter the way in which I first chose this place through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and built the monastery in honour of Almighty God and Mary the Holy Virgin. There was a time, as I shall describe briefly, when I was often led to experience the pains of many visions. For this reason the thought was stirred within me by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that, if the Lord prospered my desire, I should build a place to the praise of my Lord, to Mary the Holy Virgin, and to all Christ's elect, and also as an eternal recompense for myself before I departed this transient life. Therefore, after my return from Rome, when I found in the belly of the fish the key which I had thrown into the stream near Hethomme,? considering that place to be holy, I set my heart on it. Then, when I prospered greatly in the days of /Ethelred, king of the Mercians, I began to beseech him kindly to deign to grant me that very place called *Hethomme'? He very willingly granted what I requested, because he was both a friend of God and eager to achieve the salvation of his own soul. 28. When the blessed Virgin Mary appeared in this place to a certain herdsman called ‘Eoves’—I called this place Evesham because of the holiness of this man—he himself had informed me of that appearance. After praying and fasting, I went immediately to that place barefooted with three companions who had joined me sinner as I was, and I was honoured to see in a brilliant light the same glorious Virgin in that very place. When she had blessed me with the golden cross which she was carrying in her hand, she disappeared. Therefore, having obtained through such a sign the place that accorded with my purpose, I immediately cleansed it of any defilement, and began the task preordained by God. To enable its completion, King /Ethelred gave me Stratford-upon-Avon [Warws.], the walled town of Chadbury,’ and that ancient monastery which is called Fladbury: this last original of which is now lost. See Lapidge's comments on Byrhtferth's spurious version of the Ecgwine charter in Anglo-Latin Literature, pp. 305-6. ? This story is not in DE's charter, but cf. Lectio VII, above 13. 3 DE and Byrhtferth (p. 363) mention the gift of ‘Aethomme’ itself from King /Ethelred, but not in the context of the charter. * The gift of the castellum (walled town) of Chadbury does not appear in either Byrhtferth or DE. For the meaning of castellum, see Dictionary of Medieval Latin, fasc. 11.

294. ^ For

the minsters of Fladbury Literature, esp. pp. 140-2.

and

Stratford,

see

Sims-Williams,

Religion

and

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Ostrid uocate, et ego illud uetus monasterium dedi Aethilhardo Wictiorum PURTEENIG pro terra que erat in Stratforda quam iniuste occupauerat. ' Postquam uero Aethelredus rex factus est monachus,” Kenredus, qui successit ei in regnum Merciorum, et Offa, rex Orientalium Anglorum,! de hereditate que illum contingebat in regno Merciorum, dederunt eidem ecclesie octoginta quatuor mansas in circuitu loci illius qui dicitur ‘Homme’,* in utraque parte fluuii illius qui uocatur Auena, in possessionem ecclesie, pro remedio anime sue et successorum suorum. Post paruum denique tempus a predicti reguli fratre, Oswardo nomine, aliam terram optinui, id est, uiginti mansas in loco qui Twiford appellatur.? Et post hec Aelthilricus, Osheri regis filius, et Balterius,° religiosus sacerdos, uterque eorum .viii. mansas pro diuina religione; et ita complete sunt ecclesiastice possessiones .cxx. manse, sicut infra scriptum est, et in libro’ manifestatur terra et termini eius quem scripsit Brythwaldus archiepiscopus et dictauit consensu principum quorum nomina infra notata sunt. 29. "Post duos annos Aldelmus religiosus episcopus migrauit ad Dominum." Quod ego per reuelationem agnoscens, conuocatis fratribus et obsecundariis meis, excessum uenerandi patris eis aperui, concitoque gradu ad locum ubi sacrum corpus eius iacebat, quinquaginta ferme milibus ultra Meldunense monasterium positum deueni, et ad sepulturam adduxi et honorifice sepeliui, mandans ut in

fo. 128™

quocumque loco sacrum corpus in asportatione pausauerat sacre crucis erigerentur signacula." Post non multum tempus famosus rex et michi plurimum | amicus, Kenredus, et Offa rex Orientalium Anglorum, Romam ire disponentes, rogauerunt me ut comes et socius itineris eorum existerem. Quod negotium, tum quia omnino eramus obnoxii ad inuicem, libens concessi, tum quia ceptum opus ad optatum finem iam expleueram, ipsumque opus apostolica confirmari * R returns to DE i. 9 at L 43 ' On the kings and kingdom of the Hwicce, see Hooke, Anglo-Saxon Landscape, pp. 3— 23, and HBC, pp. r1—12. " He became a monk at Bardney in 704; Bede, HE v. 24 (pp. 566-7). . For dates, see above, nn. to 13, 15 t wyford is i in Norton-and-Lenchwick.

* See above, 130

Thomas notably follows Byrhtferth here, while DE has Walter. Oshere, king of the Hwicce, had acceded by 693: his son /Ethelric was ruling in 736 and in 723x 737; see HBC, DD 7 7p 5 7 z E Je hat the charter was in the form of a landbook is stated by both Dominic and Thomas.

BOOK I

he had inherited from his wife, Osthryth, and I gave that ancient monastery to /Ethelheard, subking of the Hwicce, for the land which was in Stratford which he had wrongfully seized.’ After King JEthelred became a monk,’ Cenred, who succeeded him in the kingdom of the Mercians, and Offa, king of the East Angles,* gave to that same church from the inheritance which fell to them in the kingdom of the Mercians eighty-four hides situated around the place which is called ‘Homme’,* on both sides of the river called the Avon, and this was to be a possession of the church for the salvation of their souls and for the souls of those who succeeded them. Finally, after a short time, I obtained from a brother of the above-mentioned subking, named Osweard, other land, namely, twenty hides in a place called T'wyford.? After this /Ethelric, son of King Oshere, and Balterius,? a priest and monk, each gave eight hides as a token of their religious devotion. Thus the total ecclesiastical possessions were one hundred and twenty hides, as recorded below, and the land and its bounds is described in a landbook’ which archbishop Berhtwald [693731] wrote, dictating it with the assent of the leading men whose names were noted at the end. 29. After two years Aldhelm, bishop and monk, went to be with the Lord.* I gained knowledge of this through a revelation, so summoning my brethren and assistant priests I revealed to them that the reverend father had died. We made haste to the place where his holy body lay, which I discovered was lying almost fifty miles beyond the monastery of Malmesbury [Wilts.]. I carried the body to a place to be buried, and gave it an honourable burial, ordering that in whatever

place the holy body stopped during the time it was being carried a holy crucifix should be erected.’ Not long after this [709] the famous king and very great friend of mine, Cenred, also King Offa, king of the East Angles, decided to go to Rome, and asked me to be their companion and associate on the journey. I gladly agreed to this proposal, both because we were absolutely bound to each other in friendship, and because I had now brought the task I had begun to its desired end, but I particularly wished that deed to receive apostolic 5 Aldhelm, abbot of Malmesbury and bishop of Sherborne, died in 709 or 710. From the roth cent. onwards his cult was celebrated at Malmesbury. There is no evidence that he and Ecgwine were known to one another. On Aldhelm, see M. Lapidge in Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England, pp. 25-7. ? This passage, from the beginning of the paragraph, is quoted in William of Malmesbury’s De gestis pontificum Anglorum, p. 384. William had direct knowledge of Ecgwine’s charter.

fo. 128"

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

auctoritate optabam, et ab ipso in posterum eidem ecclesie omnimodam libertatem ab episcoporum exactionibus optinere satagebam. Volebat, monebat etiam ut id procurarem rex Kenredus, ad cuius hoc patrocinium attinebat. 30. Igitur Romam amica itineris societate profecti, ad limina sanctorum apostolorum conscendimus ac debitas Deo gratias exsoluimus, quia tam nos quam omnia nostra incolumes et iocundi ieramus. Dein Romane et apostolice apicem dignitatis debita cum reuerentia adeuntes, coram eo ingressi, benigne satis et ad uotum ab eo fuimus excepti. Postulata et accepta coram eo dicendi licentia, itineris et laboris nostri causam sibi aperuimus, eiusque consilium et auxilium exquisiuimus. Audiuimus optata dignationis eius responsa, et ex condicto que disposueramus uota et dona Deo sub testimonio tante auctoritatis offerentes, donauimus Deo et sanctis apostolis eius *et ecclesie Romane^ sub manu et dispositione Romani pape cenobium Eoueshamense quod extruxeramus ^multis possessionibus ampliatum; totumque liberum! coram Deo et sanctis apostolis eius et coram summo Christianitatis pontifice ipsum locum esse concessimus, fecimusque apostolica et regia corroborari auctoritate donationes et priuilegia que illi loco concesseramus. 31. Presidebat tunc Romane sedi reuerendus papa Constantinus; cuius litteras et auctoritatem et confirmationem super hac donatione et libertate cum impressione ipsius sigilli suscipientes, admodum letati sumus. His ita omnino ad libitum nostrum expletis, expetita ab apostolico benedictione, summo cum tripudio reditum aggressi, arridente nobis | felici fortuna, prosperrimo rerum omnium nostrarum statu, in Angliam sumus reuersi. 32. 'Deinde post paruum tempus reuersionis nostre, ex mandato apostolico fuit sapientium conuentus in loco qui Alneceastre uocatur.? Et Kenredus rex omnibus quod Rome feceramus notificauit nobis ad eternam retributionem et successoribus nostris, et omnes bene salutauimus et apostolicam benedictionem sub pape sigillo dedimus,

et ipsi leti illud idem confirmauerunt uerbi et fidei iussione; et Bryhtwaldus archiepiscopus ex ore omnium et terram loci et ana

et ecclesie Romane om. DE i. 9 |. 72 ^" multis possessionibus ampliatum om. DE i. 9 |. 74 * End of DE 1.9. For this paragraph, R uses some of DE i. ro and 13, but very loosely

! It was, of course, important that Ecgwine, as bishop of Worcester, should be shown to have conceded in his charter that Evesham should be wholly free. * P309. See above, 15 n. 1, 16 n. 2.

BOOK

confirmation, and was endeavouring to obtain from the pope himself. complete freedom for the church of Evesham from the demands of bishops for posterity. King Cenred wished this, and advised also that I should procure this, as it belonged to his protection. 30. Therefore, having made our way to Rome on a journey of friendly companionship, we came to the threshold of the Holy Apostles and expressed our thanks to God that not only we ourselves had arrived safely and in good heart but also that our possessions were intact. Then approaching with due reverence the high place of Roman and apostolic authority, and entering the presence of the pope, we were very kindly received by him as we wished. Having requested and received permission to speak before him, we explained to him the reason for our arduous journey, and asked for his advice and help. We received the desired reply of his highness, and, in accordance with the agreement which we had drawn up, we offered vows and gifts to God under the testimony of this high authority, and gave to God, to His holy apostles, and to the Church of Rome, the monastery of Evesham which we had built, and was now enlarged with many possessions, to be under the control and disposition of the Roman pope. In the presence of God and His holy apostles, and before the High Priest of Christianity we conceded that this place should be wholly free,! and we had the endowments and privileges which we had conceded to that place confirmed by apostolic and royal authority. 31. At that time the reverend pope Constantine presided over the Roman see; we were overjoyed to receive his letters, and authority and confirmation of this endowment and liberty, which were given the impression of his very own seal. So, since matters had been fulfilled entirely to our wishes, we asked for the apostolic blessing, prepared for our return with great jubilation with good fortune smiling upon us, and then returned to England with our affairs in a very prosperous state. 32. Shortly after our return, in accordance with the apostolic command, an assembly of councillors was called in a place called Alcester. King Cenred informed everyone of what we had achieved at Rome for the eternal salvation of ourselves and our successors, and greeting them all gladly we gave them the apostolic benediction contained in the letter under the pope's seal. They confirmed this joyfully with a command expressed in words of trust. From the oral testimony of them all, Archbishop Berhtwald recorded in detail in a

fo. 128%"

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

libertatem in carta descripsit.' Tunc elegerunt sapientes ut domnus Wilfridus episcopus et ego priuilegium idem ad locum eundem afferremus. Eadem autem die qua illuc peruenimus omnium sanctorum erat festiuitas,? et eadem die Wilfridus episcopus et ego" ecclesiam quam construxeram Deo et sancte Marie et Christi electis omnibus consecrauimus,’ et cartam .cxx. mansarum et loci libertatem que hic continetur super altare posuimus,! et sic coram omnibus locuti fuimus: ‘Domine Deus, qui in celis habitas et omnia creasti, conserua illum qui locum istum pacificabit et conseruabit, et hanc Dei hereditatem et hanc libertatem confirmabit quam Deo optulimus. Nos etiam precipimus in Dei omnipotentis et omnium uirtutum celestium nomine, ut neque rex, neque princeps, neque minister, nec ullius ordinis hom*o, id presumat ut locum istum sanctum diminuat, aut sibi in priuatam potestatem aliquid uendicet, set sit locus hic, ut nos optamus, gregibus et Dei pastoribus eiusdem loci in usum, et bene dispositus in potestate proprii abbatis secundum regulam Dei et beati Benedicti. Si autem aliquis—quod absit—auaritie spiritu. arreptus uertere uelit, iudicetur ante tribunal Dei, et numquam in Christi ueniat memoriam, set nomen eius deleatur in euum de libro uiuentium, et ligetur eternarum penarum nodis in inferno, nisi in hac uita penitens emendet. Si quis autem has res bene conseruare uoluerit, Dominus Deus et omnes sancti eius conseruent eum, et letificent animam eius in terra uiuentium, et dent eternam | mercedem in hac uita et in futura.’’ 33. Huius ‘priuilegii descriptio scripta‘ fuit ab incarnatione dominica anno .dccxiii. Horum testimonio quorum nomina infra scripta uidentur, post paruum tempus migrationis beati Guthlaci de hoc seculo. ^Ego Kenredus, rex Dei dono Merciorum, uenerando a

marginated and episcopus et corrected ? donationum descriptio patrata DE i. 13 4. 48

' If the Byrhtferth story no. 8o, which is found in V amounting to c.120 hides. * The feast of All Saints Boniface IV. Its observance

^ futuro R ^* ecclesie dedicatio et 44! (5. 40) om. DE

is to be accepted, this is presumably the basis for Sawyer, fos. 68-9—a conglomerate of Evesham's properties probably became established in the West after 609 or 610 under Pope on 1 November dates from the time of Pope Gregory III, d.

741; see Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 3rd edn., ed. E. A. Livingstone (Oxford, 1997), p. 36.

* 'This suggests a date of 709 again. ' The grant of the 120 hides was said earlier to be the product of a number

BOOK

charter, both the territory of the place and its liberty. All the councillors then decided that Wilfrid, the bishop, and I should bring the privilege to that place. The day we arrived there was the feast of All Saints and on that same day Bishop Wilfrid and I consecrated the church which I had built to God, the Blessed Mary, and to all Christ's elect,’ and we placed on the altar the charter for the one hundred and twenty hides* and for the liberty of the place which was contained in it. These were the words we spoke in the presence of them all: *Lord God, who livest in the heavens and hast created all things, preserve the man who will protect and keep this place safe, and who will confirm this inheritance of God and this liberty which we have offered to God. We further direct, in the name of almighty God and all heavenly virtues, that neither king, nor nobleman, nor official, nor man of any rank, should dare to take anything away from that holy place, or claim for himself any part of it for his personal property; but let this place be, as we desire it, for the use of God's flock and pastors in this place, and be properly maintained under the rule of its own abbot in accordance with the rule of God and of the blessed Benedict. But if anyone, God forbid, seized with a spirit of greed should wish to change this, let him be judged before God's judgment-seat, and never be remembered by Christ; rather let his name be deleted for ever from the Book of Life, and he be confined in Hell with the bonds of eternal punishments, unless he repent and reform in this life. But whoever is willing to preserve these things virtuously, may the Lord God and all His saints preserve that man, give his soul joy in the land of the living, and grant him an eternal reward in this life and in the life to come.’ 33. The account of this privilege was written down in the year 714 after our Lord's incarnation, a short time after the passing of the blessed Guthlac from this world.? The names of those men witnessing it are seen written below. ‘I, Cenred, by God's gift, king of the Mercians, bestowing this gift donations. On the placing of charters on the altar, a practice to secure God's (and frequently a particular saint's) protection, see M. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England 1066-1307, 2nd edn. (London, 1979), pp. 156, 256. Charters might also be offered at a shrine or copied in Gospel books which remained on the altar. ^ Dominic, followed by Thomas, got the date of Guthlac’s death, 714, presumably from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, see 4SC p. 26. Thomas omits Dominic's date for the dedication (see textual note c—c), but sticks to 714 for the charter, perhaps because he wanted the second privilege of Pope Constantine (713) to precede it.

HISTORY

fo. 128°?

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

episcopo Ecgwino hanc libertatis donationem concedens, dono et signo agye crucis Christi! munio. Ego Offa, rex Orientalium Anglorum, hanc prefatam donationem in nomine sancte et indiuidue trinitatis sub crucis sigillo concessi et subscripsi. Ego Brythwaldus archiepiscopus hanc donationem sub sigillo sancte crucis confirmans subscripsi. Et multi alii subreguli, episcopi, abbates et presbiteri subscripserunt, sicut in autentico habetur." 34. ^Hec nos pene uerbum ex uerbo subsecuti sumus, sicut ipsemet uir sanctus in cartis suis ex maxima parte scribendo est prosecutus. Et licet scriptorum non sit eadem manus, eiusdem manus et stili seriem fideli relatione summatim transcripsimus.* 35. Ecce audistis, fratres mei dilectissimi, in ista carta, ‘ne lucerna accensa sub modio absconderetur, set, ut luceret omnibus qui in domo Domini sunt, super candelabrum poneretur’,” et uidentes bona opera beati Ecgwini glorificemus patrem nostrum qui in celis est, quanta per eum Dominus clara opera et miraculosa, dum adhuc ista mutabili luce frueretur, operari dignatus est. Quorum quedam, quia in uita eiusdem ea uobis plenius scripsimus, dilucidare hic non oportet. Set ‘hoc est mirabile in oculis nostris, quod beatus Ecgwinus in hac peregrinatione positus tam per multa locorum interualla longe distantia quam prope posita in spiritu cognouit. Ecce enim audistis qualiter excessum religiosi antistitis Aldelmi per reuelationem cognouerit. Cum enim gloriosi presules, beatus uidelicet Ecgwinus et sanctus Aldelmus, ita mutuo karitatis uinculo se ad inuicem diligerent et sibi confederarentur, ut non solum eedem dignitates, cum uterque esset episcopus et abbas | et uterque binas regeret ecclesias,! set et morum grauitas et uite sanctitas uere faceret spirituales esse germanos; tanta circa eos karitas effulserat, quod sicut in uita sua dilexerunt se, ut quamuis corpore separarentur, tamen in morte spiritus eorum non sunt separati. Quis ergo non credat eorum spiritus coniungi in celis, quamuis eorum corpora separentur in terris, quorum in mortis articulo, ut frater fratri funeris obsequia exhiberet, ^* DE i. 10 ll. 1—4. R then summarizes in the following paragraph ' For the very unusual agie crucis, see Dictionary of Medieval Latin, iv (Oxford, 1989),

under ‘hagius’.

eG, Mattes) 3 Ps. 117: 23 (118: 23); Matt. 21: 42; and Mark 12: 11. * Ecgwine was bishop of Worcester (693 X?—30 Dec. 717) and abbot of Evesham, and Aldhelm was bishop of Sherborne (c.705—9) and abbot of Malmesbury; HBC, pp. 222-3.

Thomas

here is connecting the two Evesham

and Malmesbury

saints, Ecgwine and

BOOK I

of liberty upon the venerable bishop Ecgwine, give it, and ratify it

with the sign of the holy cross! of Christ. I, Offa, king of the East Angles, have conceded and subscribed this aforesaid gift in the name of the holy and indivisible Trinity under the seal of the cross. I Berhtwald, archbishop, have subscribed, confirming this gift under the seal of the holy cross.’ And many other subkings, bishops, abbots, and priests subscribed it, as found in the authentic document. 34. We have followed this almost word for word, just as the holy man set it forth in his charters which he wrote for the most part himself. And although the hand of the scribes is not the same, we have transcribed faithfully and in summary fashion the narrative of that same hand and pen. 35. Look, my most beloved brethren, you have heard in that charter of the great and marvellous deeds that the Lord deigned to perform through Ecgwine, while he was still enjoying the light of this transitory life, ‘lest that light which has been kindled should be hidden under a meal-tub rather than put upon the lamp-stand, so that it may shine upon all who are in the house of the Lord’,’ and they, seeing the good works of the blessed Ecgwine, may glorify our Father who is in heaven. Some of these deeds we do not need to elucidate here, as we have written about them more fully for you in our Life of Ecgwine. But ‘it is marvellous in our eyes? what understanding in spirit the blessed Ecgwine possessed when engaged in this pilgrimage, whether he was vast distances away or near at hand. Indeed you have heard how he knew by revelation of the death of Aldhelm, the bishop and monk. The renowned prelates, the blessed Ecgwine and St Aldhelm, loved each other and were bound to each other so much by a mutual bond of affection, that not only the same high offices— for each was a bishop, abbot, and ruler of two churches'—but also their sobriety of character and holiness of life truly made them spiritual brothers; in fact so bright a light of love shone around them that, loving each other so much in this life, though separated in body, their spirits were not separated in death. Who could doubt therefore that their spirits were united in the heavens, though their bodies were separated on earth since, at the very moment of death, when the one brother was conducting the funeral service of the other, Aldhelm, perhaps to highlight the exempt status of the two abbeys whose founders had been both bishop and abbot.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

tam subito et tam miraculose spiritus at corpora coniungebantur. Set in hiis, sicut in beatis Ambrosio et Martino,’ omnipotentis Dei sunt collaudanda magnalia, circa quos consimile miraculum contigisse non ambigitur, ad eius laudem et honorem qui in sanctis suis semper et ubique est gloriosus. Qui uiuit et regnat per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.” 36. Qualiter beatus Ecgwinus aquam de terra produxerit : Denique non pretereundum esse decreuimus memorabile miraculum quod per seruum suum beatum Ecgwinum hoc itinere Romano ^manifeste operari dignatus^ est Dominus. Quadam itaque die, cum sanctus uir et qui cum eo erant per abrupta montium iter agerent, uenerunt in terram in qua non erat aqua. Populo igitur pre angustia laboris et feruore caloris sitiente, nec unde sitim releuaret habente, quia beatus Ecgwinus in tanta ueneratione a compatriotis habebatur, quidam, sanctitatis uiri Dei increduli similes populo quondam Israelitico, quasi ab altero Moyse a beato Ecgwino petierunt aquam ad bibendum. Alii uero fideles, incredulos increpantes, de uiri sanctitate plenam fiduciam reportantes, ex fide plena, caritate non ficta et spe certissima ut sic pastorali cura eis subueniret, hoc idem a beato uiro postulabant. De quorum fide confisus beatus Ecgwinus simul cum ipsis in orationem se prostrauit, et facta oratione cum lacrimarum flumine, ecce subito in medio illorum ex arida terra fons

erupit aque limpidissime. Igitur prius increduli, uiso miraculo, ad ueritatem conuersi, credentes uero in fide roborati, uoces ad sidera fo. 129"

tollentes laudes altis| simo dederunt, et, tam diuino miraculo confortati quam aqua diuinitus data cum paucis cibariis que secum habebant refocillati, in fortitudine cibi et potus illius dietam alacriter peregerunt. Factumque est sic ut qui prius a multis iustus ignorabatur tunc ab eisdem sanctissimus haberetur, simul omnibus qui aderant Deum collaudantibus qui ‘in sanctis suis semper est et ubique ana

written

over

erasure

' Martin, like Ecgwine and Aldhelm, was both bishop and abbot. However Thomas’s connection of him with Ambrose is, perhaps, that both are said to have died in 397. The

comparison between Ecgwine and Aldhelm, on the one hand, and Ambrose and Martin, on the other, is nowhere in DE, who simply reports Aldhelm’s death. ^ A common ending to a collect. * This paragraph is modelled on DE i. ro, and records the same miracle, but it is elaborated by Thomas. The miracle probably orginates with Dominic: it is not in Byrhtferth; see Lapidge in AB xcvi, p. 102 note to to. 6.

BOOK I

their spirits and bodies were so suddenly and so miraculously joined? But in the case of these men, as in that of the blessed Ambrose and Martin, almighty God must be praised for these miracles, for around these latter saints it cannot be doubted that a similar miracle occurred, to his praise and honour, who is at all times and in all places glorified amongst his saints. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.” 36. The blessed Ecgwine produces water from the earth? Finally, we have decided not to neglect mentioning the memorable miracle which the Lord deigned to perform manifestly through his servant, the blessed Ecgwine, during his journey to Rome. One day when the holy man and his companions were making their way through precipitous mountains they came to a land in which there was no water. The people, being in great distress and suffering from thirst in the fierce heat, had no means of relieving their thirst. Some of them, therefore, because the blessed Ecgwine was so highly revered by his countrymen, though, like the people of Israel long ago, they had no trust in the holiness of this man of God, asked the blessed Ecgwine for water to drink as if he were another Moses.* Other faithful men, rebuking their unbelief, showed their complete trust in the holiness of Ecgwine, and out of their complete trust, with unfeigned love and sure hope, they made this same request of that blessed man, that with pastoral care he would bring them help. The blessed Ecgwine, trusting their good faith, at the same time prostrated himself in prayer with them, and suddenly, after he had offered his prayer with a stream of tears, a spring of the clearest water burst forth in their midst from the parched earth. Those who had previously disbelieved were converted to the truth when they saw the miracle and, believing what was true, were strengthened in their faith, and raising their voices to the heavens they gave praises to the almighty; indeed not only were they invigorated by the divine miracle, but were also refreshed by the water divinely provided and the few morsels of food which they had with them, so, strengthened by the food and that water, they proceeded eagerly with their daily work. The result was that he who previously was unknown by many as a just man was then considered by them to be a most holy man, and everybody there at the same time praised God, who at all times and in all places works wondrous things through his saints. And * For the story of Moses providing water for the Israelites, see Exodus 17: 1-6.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

mirabilis’.! Et condigne satis. Futurum enim erat ut, eo reuerso in patriam, ex ore eius fluerent aque uiue, 'salientes in uitam eternam? et per uerbi eius attractum ex montuosis et saxosis cordibus auditorum diuini gratia amoris et spiritualium dulcedo prosiliret uirtutum, ad eius gloriam. Qui uiuit et regnat per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.

37. De subuersione Alecestrie, et quare fabri ibi uigere non possunt? Quoddam miraculum per beatum Ecgwinum dum adhuc luce hac frueretur perpetratum, stilo perfectius commendandum nostris temporibus est reseruatum. Quod ideo in uita sua neminem predecessorum nostrorum scripsisse credimus, quia per ipsius facti euidentiam et publicam noticiam eiusdem miraculi dignam adhuc habeamus memoriam, nec ab hominum recedat memoria quod adhuc probatur fide occulata. Set quia fugacis eui longinquitas gestorum solempnium memoriam abolet, et que publice facta fuerunt profunda obliuione sepeliendo tamquam infecta reddere festinat, longeuo ueracis scripti testimonio illud posterorum memorie tradendum dignum duximus. Tale quid circa illum diuinorum secretarium, beatum uidelicet Iohannem, ewangelistam contigisse legitur. Cum enim tres ewangeliste prius eo scripsissent ewangelium, nullus illorum in serie sui ewangeli illa duo precipua, immo, quamuis mirabilia uniuersa Domini opera, pre ceteris tamen excellentiora mirabilia, de ceci nati illuminatione et de quatriduani Lazari scripsit resuscitatione. Quamuis tamen beato leronimo mirabilius uideatur fo. 129" quod Dominus noster Iudeos | ementes et uendentes in templo, ubi idem Iudei dominabantur, flagello ex funiculis facto de eodem templo eiecerit, quod immensus exercitus facere non poterat.* Set hoc, quod de ceco illuminato et Lazaro resuscitato scribenda beato Iohanni sunt reseruata, non solum ob beati Iohannis prerogatiuam factum esse credimus, immo etiam propter ipsorum miraculorum excellentiam et publicam noticiam. Hec enim duo Domini facta inter ea que gessit in corpore pre ceteris lucencia propter sui magnitudinem et facti solempnitatem in tantam admirationem et uenerationem, ut a seculis Ps. 67: 36 (68: 35).

> John 4: 14.

This miracle does not come from Dominic. Thomas introduced it, perhaps, to show

the importance of the events in the council at Alcester in Evesham's history. * Pseudo-Jerome, Expositio quattuor euangeliorum, PL xxx, 578-9 (John 2: 15): ‘flagellum de resticulis, id est, vindicta pro variis peccatis, inde ejiciuntur de Ecclesia’.

* John 9: 1-7, and 11: 17-44.

BOOK

rightly so. For it was to happen that, when Ecgwine returned to his country, living waters would flow from his mouth, ‘springing up into eternal life’,' and through the influence of his words, the grace of the divine love and sweet spiritual virtues would spring forth from the hard, rocky hearts of those who listened to him, to the glory of the One who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. 37. The destruction of Alcester and the reason mhy crafismen are unable to flourish there? A certain miracle was performed by the blessed Ecgwine while he was still enjoying the light of this world which was left to our times to be recorded more fully in writing. It is our belief therefore that none of our predecessors wrote about it in their lifetime, for we still remember the miracle well through the evidence of the deed itself and people's general knowledge of it, nor has it receded from men's memories, but is still acknowledged as eye-witness testimony. However, because length of time, fleeting as it is, effaces the memory of illustrious deeds, and, by burying them in its profound oblivion, soon causes things which were done publicly to appear not to have been done, we have thought it right to hand the story down for posterity's sake, by the lasting testimony of a truthful document. One reads that such happened in the case of that writer of the divine word, St John the Evangelist: for although the three evangelists had written their gospels before him, not one of them in the course of their Gospel wrote about those two particular stories, the giving of sight to the man born blind, and the raising of Lazarus from his four days of death, which, though all the Lord's works were marvellous, were miracles more wonderful than all the others. However, it seemed more wonderful to St Jerome that our Lord made a whip out of ropes, and drove out from the temple Jews who were buying and selling in that place, when those very Jews were the masters there, a thing which a huge army was unable to do.? But the fact that the stories of the restoration of sight to the blind man and of the raising of Lazarus were reserved for St John to tell,* we believe happened not only because of the special authority of St John, but also because of the very special nature and the general knowledge of those very miracles. For these two deeds of our Lord, which he performed amongst other deeds while he was alive in the body, are more conspicuous than his other miracles because of the greatness and solemnity of what was done. They caused such wonder and reverence, being unheard of

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

inaudita hominibus facta sunt, quod tribus ewangelistis necessarium non uidebatur ea per scripturam memorie hominum commendare, que se per sui prerogatiuam omnium mentibus inscribebant. 38. Set ille uere theologus, non solum memor preteritorum set etiam cognitor occultorum et presagus futurorum, lohannes uidelicet

ewangelista, (in) futurum certissimus quod 'superhabundaret iniqui-

fo. 129"

tas, et multorum refrigesceret caritas’,’ quamuis et ille multa scribere omisisset, sicut idem testatur, dicens, ‘Multa et alia signa fecit Iesus in conspectu discipulorum suorum que non sunt scripta in libro hoc"; tamen hec propter ipsorum et sui ipsius prerogatiuam et priuilegii dignitatem ewangelio suo interseruit, ne, refrigescente caritate, eorum ab hominum mentibus memoria recederet, quod et tunc pro parte apud quosdam accidisse conspexerat. Vnde et nos, uix preterita uel pauca ad memoriam reuocantes, presencia non intelligentes, futura penitus ignorantes, posteris super ignorancia precauentes, miraculum illum stilo commendamus quod nos futuros prius caritati uestre promiseramus. 39. Cum igitur beatus Ecgwinus operibus caritatis totus afflueret et indesinenter insisteret, maxime tamen totis uiribus predicationi operam dedit, sciens quia *qui conuerti fecerit peccatorem ab errore uie sue saluabit animam eius et operiet multitudinem peccatorum!? 40. Erat itaque iuxta Euesham castrum, Alnecestre nomine, tunc | temporis Anglie famosissimum, regale uidelicet mansum, et regie mansioni aptissimum, ueluti nemoribus consitum, fluminibus piscosis et riuulis iocundis circumdatum, necnon muris et turribus uallatum.

Set quia multotiens ‘ex adipe prodit iniquitas’,* quanto magis rerum terrenarum opulentia et temporalium bonorum habundantia eiusdem loci habitatores affluebant, tanto magis gule et luxurie dediti, uacantes uentri et lateri, studentes auaricie et cupiditati, misericordissima Dei

clementia se indignos efficiebant. Horum siquidem perpetue ruine et animarum iacture compatiens beatus Ecgwinus, eorum opinioni et errori succurrendum putauit. Feruebat namque beati uiri circa idem Matt. 24: 12. onl abs 20

? John 20: 30. * Ps. 72: 7 (73: 7).

BOOK I

before in living memory, that it did not seem necessary to the three evangelists to commit the stories to the memory of men by writing about them, when the very miracles impressed themselves on the minds of everybody because of their special importance. 38. However, that true theologian, John the evangelist, not only mindful of things past, but also having insight into hidden depths, and aware of future events, was certain that in future ‘iniquity would abound, and that the love of many would grow cold’,' so, although he would have to leave out many things from his narrative—as he himself testified, ‘there were many other signs that Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book"— he nevertheless included these stories in his Gospel because of the special authority and the great privilege they, and he himself, possessed, so that they might not slip from men's memories when their love grew cold, for he had seen this happen to some extent in the case of some men even in his own time. Hence, even we, who can scarcely recall to mind even a few past events, or understand present happenings, and are utterly ignorant of the future, want to prevent posterity from suffering ignorance, and must therefore commit to writing an account of that miracle, which we had died promised we would do out of love for you. 39. Although the blessed Ecgwine gave himself entirely to his works of charity and never ceased to pursue them, he nevertheless put every effort he could into his preaching, knowing that ‘he who makes a sinner turn from the error of his ways will save that man's soul and obliterate a multitude of sins"? 40. Near Evesham there was a fortress called Alcester, the most famous one in England at that time, a royal dwelling, and most suitable for a royal household, being planted about with woodlands, surrounded by rivers full of fish and pleasant streams, and fortified with walls and towers. However, because many times ‘iniquity comes forth from fatness’,* the richer the inhabitants of that place became in worldly things and the greater its abundance of material possessions, all the more addicted were its inhabitants to gluttony and extravagance, spending their time eating and lounging about, and wholly greedy and lustful, so that they made themselves unworthy of God's abundant mercy. However, the blessed Ecgwine, deeply concerned about the everlasting destruction of these men and the loss of their souls, decided that help should be given to them to change their minds and the error of their ways. The love of this holy man burned

HISTORY

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castrum ardentius caritas eo quod in eodem loco ex mandato apostolico, a Brithwaldo Brittaniarum primate, concilium tocius Anglie, episcoporum uidelicet sacrique ordinis religiosarum personarum optimatumque regni cum proceribus suis, fuit pro eo et per eum non multo prius coadunatum; et ibidem in nomine Domini, priuilegiis tam summi pontificis quam regum in communi perlectis, Eoueshamense cenobium sit liberum denuntiatum, et, ex precepto apostolico, ab inde progredientibus episcopis, in ecclesia Eoueshamensi sit congregatio monachorum constituta, que minus in illis partibus tunc habebatur; ouile uidelicet diuinitus preostensum, apostolica auctoritate fultum, regia libertate donatum, cleri et populi benedictione sancitum, sicut priuilegia eiusdem ecclesie

testantur. 41. Ad hunc ergo locum accedens beatus Ecgwinus, obsecrando, increpando, uerbum Dei annuntians *opportune, importune," in omni mansuetudine et pietate, in omni patientia et doctrina, illis gentibus predicauit regnum celorum, et non tacuit uicia eorum. Set gens illa absque consilio et sine prudentia, et ceruicis dure, immo indurate, nec fo. 129" assueta uicia relinquere nec saluberrimis monitis sancti uiri uole |bat adquiescere, set nec eius salutifere doctrine aliqua ratione obuiare, neque sapientie et spiritui qui in eo loquebatur poterat resistere. Vnde, et cum palam nec posset nec auderet dicere, ‘Recede a nobis quia uias tuas nolumus, ne uerbum Dei disseminaretur uarias discurrit ad artes. Cum enim castrum illud, ueluti nemoribus undique consitum, conflandi ferrum locus esset aptissimus, et fabris et ferri exclusoribus maxime repleretur, gens incredula detestabilior populo qui in predicatione beati Stephani ne audirent uerbum Dei aures suas opturabant,? incudes ferreis malleis quibus maxime habundabat per plateas et uicos castri circumquaque tanto strepitu continue percutiebat, ut beati uiri sermo

non

audiretur

et ut a castro

recedere

cogeretur. 42. Beato igitur Ecgwino castrum exeunte, immo iam longe a castro agente, pre concussione, immo confusione, malleorum et incudum a

“ of. DE i.4 |. 56, and the variant given

"oportune, importune’, ‘in omni . . . doctrina: 2 Tim. 4: 2. Job 21: 14. Acts 6 and 7.

BOOK I

all the more fervently for the men of this fortress, because in that very place, in obedience to the apostolic mandate, a council of the whole of England had only a short time before this been called by Berhtwald, the primate of Britain, of bishops, of ecclesiastical dignitaries, of magnates in the realm and its nobles on account of that mandate. It was there that the privileges of both the pope and of the kings were read out for all to hear: it was proclaimed that the community at Evesham was to be free, and that, in accordance with the apostolic command and with the bishops following on from that, a congregation of monks should henceforth be established in the church of Evesham, which had previously been rare in those regions; hence a flock was divinely appointed, supported by apostolic authority, granted royal liberty, and sanctioned with the blessing of the clergy and the people, just as the privileges of that church testify. 41. The blessed Ecgwine visited this place, therefore, imploring them and berating them, proclaiming the word of God in season and out of season, in all gentleness and goodness, patiently and with sound teaching,' and preached to those people about the kingdom of heaven, and he was not silent about their sins. But those people were without wisdom or good sense, stubborn and obdurate, having no wish to abandon the vices they were used to practising nor to listen quietly to the wholesome teaching of that holy man; yet they were not by any means able to oppose his teaching, which would bring them salvation, nor to resist his spiritual wisdom which he spoke among them. Hence, when they could not openly dare to say ‘Depart from us, for we do not want to know your ways',^ they nevertheless had recourse to various cunning devices, lest Ecgwine should sow the seed of God's word in their hearts. That fortress, situated in a place surrounded by woods, was eminently suitable for smelting iron, and was especially occupied by craftsmen and miners of iron ore. They were an unbelieving race of people, more loathsome than the people who shut their ears lest they should hear the word of God when the blessed Stephen preached. So these men began to beat their anvils continuously with their iron hammers, of which the place had a great abundance, wherever it was possible throughout the streets and highways of the fortress, making so great a din that the sermon of the blessed Ecgwine could not be heard, and he was compelled to withdraw from the fortress. 42. When the blessed Ecgwine left the fortress, in fact when he was some considerable distance away, both his ears were still ringing from

HISTORY

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adhuc tinniebant ambe aures eius ac si percutientes incudes eum sequerentur; et respiciens neminem uidit nisi solum discipulos suos, et leuatis in celum oculis, flexis in terra genibus, contra arcem fabrilem castri illius Dominum imprecatus est. Res mira et omni admiratione digna. Dominus, dicti sui non inmemor, *Qui uos spernit me spernit’,! se in seruo suo contemptum et repulsum reputans, non tantum castri illius arti fabrili maledixit, set et ipsum castrum subuertit. Nam castrum ipsum terra absorbuit, ita quod, nouo super ueteri qualitercumque reedificato usque in hodiernum diem in constructione nouarum domorum in fundamentis earum antiqua edificia reperiuntur. Iusto etiam Dei iudicio, qui ipsum locum et eius habitatores in eo in quo deliquerunt puniuit, per quingentos annos et amplius usque ad tempora nostra penam eis inflixit, duraturam quamdiu ei qui inflixit placuerit, uidelicet, quod numquam postea in eodem loco aliquis artem fabrilem recte exercuit, nec aliquis eam fo. 130^ excercere uolens ibi uigere potuit, quamuis multi | hoc temptauerint facere, nec usque in hodiernum diem profecerint, cum usque nunc castrum illud ab arte fabrili suspensum permanserit, ut uere de eo dici possit, *Culpa demi potest, perhennis erit." 43. Nam ad delendam culpam illius loci et placandam iram beati Ecgwini, uel in signum reconciliationis federis inter beatum uirum et eundem locum, uel nescimus quo alio Dei iudicio, locus in quo ylium quondam eiusdem castri fuerat datus est ecclesie. Eueshamensi, ut, quasi per principale domicilium quod sanctus Ecgwinus in eodem loco optinet, omnibus sit liquidum beatum uirum quondam per predicationem suam in bello illo spirituali in eodem loco contra aereas potestates optinuisse," quamuis tunc hoc liquidum constet non fuisse. Si uero alicui hec predicta que diximus incredibilia uidentur, ad locum prefatum accedat, et fide oculata per ipsam rei euidentiam et facti noticiam et famam publicam, hec ita pro certo inueniens,* beatum Ecgwinum, immo Deum, laudabit, qui in sanctis suis semper est gloriosus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen. ! Cf. Luke ro: 16. ? Cf. Ovid, Epist. ex Ponto, i. 1 (Pena potest demi, culpa perennis erit"). ' Cf. Eph. 2: 2 for the powers of the air. * John Blair comments on the folkloric character of this story and suggests that the redevelopment of the site and the discovery of Roman remains—in fact Alcester had been a Roman industrial centre—may explain its origin.

BOOK I

the beating and the clatter of the hammers and the anvils, as if the beating of the anvils was pursuing him. Looking back, he saw no one except his disciples, and raising his eyes to heaven, and kneeling upon the ground, he invoked the Lord to curse the craftsmen's art in that fortress. Then an amazing thing happened that deserves great admiration. The Lord, not unmindful of his words, ‘Whoever rejects you, rejects me’,' believing Himself to have been despised and rejected in His servant, not only cursed the art of the craftsmen in that fortress, but destroyed the fortress itself. For the earth swallowed up the very fortress, so that whenever any sort of new building work has been carried out upon the old building, even up to this present day, during the construction of new houses ancient buildings are found among their foundations. Also by God’s just judgment, who punished that place and its inhabitants in it, where they had done wrong, for five hundred years or more up to our present time, he has inflicted a punishment upon them, destined to last as long as it please the God who inflicted it, namely that since that time no one has ever plied his craftsman’s skill in that place, and no one wishing to do so has ever been able to prosper there, though many have tried to do so, nor have they been successful up to the present time, for up to now the fortress has remained devoid of the craftsmen’s skill, so that it could truly be said of that place: “The reproach can be removed, but the punishment will be for ever.” 43. To remove the offence of that place and to placate the anger of the blessed Ecgwine, the place in which the heart of the fortress had once been was given to the church of Evesham, either as a sign of a renewal of a bond between the holy man and that place, or because of some other judgment of God. The purpose of the gift was that it should be crystal clear to everybody throughout the main dwelling place which St Ecgwine holds in that place, that the blessed man had through his preaching gained a victory in that same place in the spiritual war against the powers of the air;* though it is accepted that at the time this was not clear. Should this story which we have told seem unbelievable to anyone, let him go to that place; and after he has examined at first hand the evidence for the event, the information about what happened, and the public knowledge of it, he will assuredly discover that the story is true,’ and will indeed give praise to the blessed Ecgwine, or rather to God, who dwells for ever among his saints, for ever and ever. Amen.

HISTORY

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Explicit liber primus de uita sancti Ecgwini et de miraculis que per eum Dominus operari dignatus est dum hac luce frueretur. 44. De compositione legende in translatione sancti Ecgmini ! Hec que sequuntur usque ad secundum librum non legantur nisi

in translatione tantum. Rogatus fui aliquando a fratribus ut uitam eximii martiris Wistani aduocati nostri sine soloecisimo et alio uicio, quod nondum factum fuit, stilo commendarem prolixiori; necnon et uitam sanctissimi patroni nostri beati Ecgwini episcopi, que prolixius tractabatur, saluo per omnia historie tenore, in tantum abbreuiarem ut fastidiosi auditores tedio non afficerentur, ita uidelicet stilum temperans, quod utraque pro temporum qualitate nataliciorum eorundem in eisdem festiuitatibus ad legendam in nocturnis uigiliis sufficeret." 45. Magis itaque de eorum sacra circa eosdem sanctos deuotione quam de mea confisus eloquentia, immo omnem spem ponens in eo fo. 130" qui "linguas infantium facit disertas,! fratrum uoluntati ue|lut precepto obtemperaui, et utrumque opus, non prout uolui sed prout potui, Deo adiuuante compleui. Que cum domino Cantuariensi? corrigenda legissem, et ipse ea approbando commendasset, et cum eadem fratribus placuissent, iterum crebro pulsauerunt me precibus suis ut in translatione eiusdem patroni nostri beati Ecgwini tante festiuitati congruentem et specialem legendam ad nocturnas uigilias, que minus apud nos adhuc habebatur, eis componerem. 46. Ego uero, quamuis peticionem illorum ueluti ratione nitentem intelligerem exaudiendam, cum etiam sepe puduisset me quod in tanta festiuitate de tanto patrono nichil speciale ad nocturnas uigilias legebatur,

tamen

uidens

tantum

opus

supra

esse,

diu

distuli

prebere eis assensum. Et hoc ideo maxime quia cum miracula sanctorum in eorum translationibus legi consueuerint, putabam in legenda infra octabas omnia que de eodem patrono nostro scripta erant, esse consummata et expensa. Fratribus tamen in uoluntate sua ! There were two feasts of the translation, * ie. the anniversary of the saint’s death. natalitia or natalis (his heavenly birthday) was his tomb. ‘The first incontrovertible evidence

rr Jan. of the 2nd cent., the saint's with liturgical celebrations at is the ‘Martyrium Polycarpi’ (¢.156), where St Polycarp’s followers express their intention of celebrating the birthday of his martyrdom in days to come; see Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, pp. 1046, 1131, 1445. The feast of St Ecgwine was celebrated on 30 December, that of St Wigstan on 1 June.

* Wisd. ro: 21.

ro Sept. and From the end kept as a feast of this practice

BOOK I

Here ends the First Book of the Life of Saint Ecgwine, and of the miracles which the Lord deigned to perform through him while he enjoyed life in the light of this world. 44. The composition of the reading on the translation of St Ecgmine! The following words preceding the Second Book are only to be read on the feast of the translation of St Ecgwine. I was once asked by the brethren to write a full account, to be without fault or error, of the life of that renowned martyr and protector of ours, Wigstan, because this had not yet been done. Also that I should abridge the Life of our most holy patron the blessed bishop Ecgwine, already treated at great length, providing the gist of all the events of the story. I was to abbreviate my account so that disdainful listeners should not become bored, and to modify my style so as to be sufficient for reading in the nightly vigils during the festivals celebrating the birthdays of these men.? 45. And so trusting more in the holy devotion of the brethren towards those saints than in my own eloquence, indeed putting all my trust in him who ‘makes the tongues of infants fluent’,’ I accepted the will of the brethren as a command, and with God's help I completed each work, not as I wished but as I was able.* And when I had read these out to the archbishop of Canterbury? for him to correct any errors, and he had put the seal of his approval on both works, the brethren were pleased about this, and again entreated me with persistent prayers that I should write for them a lection on the translation of that same patron of ours, the blessed Ecgwine, specially appropriate for such a festival, to be read out at nightly vigils, something which we did not have at all up to that time. 46. Although I realized that their request should be heeded, for it was clearly reasonable, and had often felt ashamed myself that nothing special was read at the night-time vigils on that feast-day in honour of so great a patron, yet I saw that so great a task was beyond me, and delayed for a long time before agreeing to their request. I delayed for this reason in particular that the miracles of saints were accustomed to be read at their translations, and I thought that in the things set to be read within the octave everything which had been written about that same patron of ours had been completed and used up. However, as the brethren persevered in their desire, wishing to satisfy their desire, ^ Cf. Terence, Andria 805: ‘ut quimus . . . quando ut uolumus non licet". ? Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury from 1184 to 1190; see above, p. xviii.

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perseuerantibus, sepe et multum mecum cogitare cepi, uolens eorum uoluntati satisfacere, unde sermonis sumerem materiam et exordium, postulans ab eo auxilium cuius ‘spiritus ubi uult spirat',! et qui dat omnibus affluenter et non improperat. 47. Interim autem librum qui de eiusdem beati uiri miraculis scriptus est legens et relegens, tandem duo tantum miracula inueni que in legenda infra octabas posita non erant. Quibus lectis et perspicaciter intellectis, inueni ea maxime proposito meo conuenientia et operi prelibato aptissima, uidelicet, de foca magno pisce contra solitum modum talium piscium in flumine Auene apud Eouesham in festiuitate predicti uiri beati ad esum seruorum Dei inuento, et de homine ferreis uinculis astricto a sanctis apostolis Petro et Paulo ab urbe Roma Eoueshamiam transmisso et a beato | concepissem et plenius fo. 130" Ecgwino soluendo) Que cum mente intellexissem, ultra quam credi possit admiratus sum, et quasi in extasi pre gaudio factus sum eo quod clauis Dauid* aperire dignata est, et introductus sum in cellam uinariam? in qua michi tam egregium demonstratum est exemplar. Quis unquam non credat hec diuina facta dispositione? Vel quis dubitet hec tam solempnia miracula in tam solempni solempnitate legenda, diuino reseruata esse iudicio? Credat qui uoluerit, quia ego credo, Dei prouidentia ita factum esse. Nam ‘omne datum optimum et omnem donum perfectum de sursum est, descendens a patre luminum." Igitur de casu tam admirabili obstupefactus, per rei tamen tante euentum confortatus, opus michi iniunctum aggrediens, ad finem qualemcumque usque perduxi, illo adiuuante sine quo nichil est sanctum, nichil ualidum. Qui cum patre et spiritu sancto uiuit et regnat Deus per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.’

! John 3: 8. > The book is almost certainly Byrhtferth’s Life of St Ecgwine; see note below. * The miracle of the seal is in Byrhtferth’s Vita S. Ecgmini, iv. 9, and the miracle of the

man bound in chains, who was sent from Rome to Evesham to be freed by St Ecgwine, is in both Byrhtferth (iv. 7-8) and Dominic (DE i. 18). Both miracles are described by

‘Thomas in more detail in Readings 7-11. For the chain miracle, cf St Kenelm:

Three

Anglo-Saxon Saints’ Lives, ed. and trans. R. C. Love (OMT, 1996), pp. 82-3. The other miracles included in Byrhtferth's Life of St Ecgwine, which are discussed by M. Lapidge,

Anglo-Latin Literature, pp. 307-9, are the miracle of the rustic, 70, below, the miraculous

BOOK

I began to think much and often about where I might get the introduction and the matter of my speech from. I begged help from him whose ‘spirit blows where it wills',! who gives abundantly to everyone and does not reproach us. 47. Meanwhile I read and re-read the book which was written about the miracles of that holy man, and at last found two miracles alone which had not been put in the stories to be read during the octave of the feast.” After reading them and understanding them thoroughly, I found those matters especially pertinent to what I had in mind and most suitable for the work I have mentioned. The first miracle concerned the seal, a large fish different from the sort of fish usually found, which was discovered in the River Avon at Evesham, and intended to be eaten by the servants of God on the feast-day of the holy man. The second miracle concerned the man who had been tied with iron chains and sent from the city of Rome to Evesham by the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and then freed by the blessed Ecgwine.? When I first began to think about these miracles and realized their full import, I was amazed beyond belief, and became, as it were, beside myself for joy, for the key of David* had deigned to open a door, and I was introduced into a wine cellar? in which that excellent model was revealed to me. Who could ever disbelieve that this occurred through divine intention? Or who could doubt that such celebrated miracles as these had been reserved by divine wisdom to be read at so solemn a service? Let him believe who wishes, as I believe, that this has occurred by the providence of God. For ‘every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down to us from the Father of lights.^ Therefore, stunned by so wonderful an occurrence, and strengthened by an event of such moment, I embarked upon the task enjoined upon me, and have now brought it to some sort of conclusion, with the help of the One without whom nothing is holy, nothing effective. Who reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit as God for ever and ever. Amen.’

preservation of the relics, 68, below, and Ecgwine and the key found in the fish's belly, 10, above. The miraculous appearance of the Virgin is also in Byrthferth.

306 1saq22:22. d SNO Sn2d 4: 9 [Es gg iuge 7 A common ending to a collect.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

48. In translatione sancti Ecgmini

LECTIO

PRIMA

Cum uirtus diuina, fides preclara, et uita immaculata sanctos efficiat Christi confessores, occulto quodam Dei iudicio quorundam coram hominibus clarescentibus miraculis ita lucent bona opera quod uidentes glorificent patrem suum qui est in celis,’ et illos per quorum merita talia fiunt miracula uenerantur in terris; quorundam uero ita in occulto fiunt opera bona, quod solus pater eorum celestis qui uidet in abscondito? sit eorum retributor et retributio. Dominus enim et saluator noster qui solus nouit quos elegerit pro locorum, temporum et personarum qualitate, quibusdam ad uitam predestinatis et fidelibus, ad morum edificationem et fidei ipsorum roborationem signa et prodigia ostendit, ut suorum uita et opera seruorum inperpetuum ecclesie sue sit in exemplum. Quibusdam uero ad mortem precitis et reprobatis ‘ut generationi male et peruerse nullum signum nisi lone dandum" pronuntiauit.

49. fo. 130"?

LECTIO

SECVNDA

Merito ergo in sanctorum natalitiis* eorum uita, | per quam Deo qui uidet in corde probantur accepti, legitur; in eorum uero translationibus eorum opera et miracula recitantur, per que eorum sanctitas hominibus qui uident in facie manifestatur. Gaudeamus igitur, fratres dilectissimi, qui talem ac tantum meruimus habere protectorem et patronum, beatum uidelicet Ecgwini episcopum et confessorem, qui pro innocentia pura, uita honesta, et recte fidei doctrina cum sanctis Dei meruit coronari in celis, et propter opera preclara et miracula manifesta que pro eo Deus operari dignatus est, inter sanctos confessores honoratur in terris. Quia ergo eiusdem patroni nostri uitam in eiusdem depositione legendam pro temporis qualitate caritati uestre prolixius transcripsimus, nunc aliqua de eius operibus et miraculis in eius translatione legenda pro temporis angustia breuiter perstringamus. ! Cf. Matt. s: 16. ? Cf. Matt. 6: 6. * Cf. Luke r1: 29; Matt. 12: 39 and 16: 4, and for 'generatio perversa' Luke 9: 41 and

Matt. 17: 16.

* See above, 44 n. 2.

BOOK I

48. On the translation of St Ecgwine FIRST

READING

While divine goodness, a pre-eminent faith, and an unblemished life may produce holy confessors of Christ, the good deeds of some men, through a certain hidden judgment of God, are manifested before men in miracles, and shine so brightly that men, seeing their good deeds, glorify their Father who is in heaven,' and venerate on earth those men through whose merits such miracles are performed. Some men’s good deeds are done in secret, so that their Father in heaven alone, who sees in secret,” may be their rewarder and reward. For our Lord and Saviour, who alone knows whom he has chosen to suit the nature of the places, the times, and the persons, has revealed, to some who are faithful and predestined for life, signs and wonders for the building up of their morals and the strengthening of their faith, in order that the lives and the deeds of these his servants should be an everlasting example to his Church. But he has proclaimed to those who have been condemned and predestined for death ‘that no sign be given to such an evil and perverse generation, except that given to

Jonah’. 49.

SECOND

READING

On the birthdays of saints" there is good reason for reading about their life, through which they have proved acceptable to God, who sees into the heart. At their translations their deeds and miracles are recited, through which their holiness is manifested to men, who see the outward appearance. Let us rejoice, therefore, my most beloved brethren, who have been privileged to have as good and great a protector and patron as the blessed bishop and confessor, Ecgwine. He is a man who earned his crown with the saints of God in the heavens because of his undefiled innocence and goodness of life, and for his teaching of sound doctrine; and he is honoured amongst holy confessors on earth for his excellent deeds and the manifest miracles which God deigned to perform for him. It is for these reasons that we copied out more fully, out of our love for you, the life of our patron to be read at the commemoration of his burial, to suit the essential nature of that occasion; but now let us restrict other stories of his deeds and miracles to a shorter account, to be read at the time of his translation to suit the restraint of that time.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

50. Beatus itaque Ecgwinus episcopalis officii cura suscepta, non tam honorem quam onus se suscepisse intelligens, magis prodesse quam preesse concupiuit. Immo magis operarium in orto dominico se constitutum cognouit ut operaretur et custodiret illud.

5I.

LECTIO

TERCLA

Excoluit igitur beatus Ecgwinus ortum dominicum remouendo nociua et apponendo utilia, sicut Dominus dicit: ‘Ecce’, inquid, ‘posui te ut dissipes et euellas et edifices et plantes. Dissipes et euellas uicia, edifices et plantes uirtutes." Dissipes arbores infructuosas, euellas herbas inutiles. Edifices arbores fructuosas, plantes herbas utiles. Sic et beatus Ecgwinus assumpsit arma dissipandi, securim uidelicet aspere increpationis, et posuit eam ad radicem arboris infructuose, et falcem acutam ut herbas nociuas eradicaret; ut ‘pro saliunca ascenderet abies et pro urtica cresceret mirtus'. Accepit etiam instrumenta edificandi, putatorium uidelicet uere instructionis

et fossorium

saluberrime

admonitionis,

et usus

est

potenter opere et sermone, secutus Iesum qui cepit facere et docere.

52.

Hs vip

LEGTIO

QVARTA

Sciuit namque beatus Ecgwinus quia ‘qui fecerit et docuerit sic homines hic | magnus uocabitur in regno celorum’,* et qui ‘ parce seminat parce et metet, et qui seminat in benedictione, de benedictionibus metet" in uitam eternam. Set beati uiri ‘sem*n aliud .

cecidit secus uiam et conculcatum

est, et uolucres celi comederunt

illud. Et aliud cecidit supra petram et natum aruit, quia non habebat humorem. Et aliud cecidit inter spinas, et simul exorte spine suffocauerunt illud.'^ ‘Expectauit tamen ut faceret uuas, fecit autem labruscas’,’ et terra mala ‘spinas et tribulos" protulit ei, et uinea sua, .

‘conuersa in amaritudinem’,’ odore suo malo a cella uinaria eum expulit. Videns igitur uir sanctus quia ‘hoc genus demonii non nisi in ' RSB cap. 64. See A. De Vogüé, Community and Abbot in the Rule of St Benedict, trans. C. Philippi and E. R.Perkins, 2 vols. (Cistercian Studies Series, v: Kalamazoo, 1979-88), ii. 329, where *magis prodesse quam preesse! is traced to St Augustine. MR 2 - Cf. Jer. 1: 10. This quotation, presumably selected by Thomas, was much used by Pope Innocent III in the letters of his first year; see Reg. Inn. III, i Indices, p. 17. * [sa. 55: 13. The whin is a thorny shrub.

* Matt. 5: 19. > 2 Cor. 9: 6;

BOOK I

50. When the blessed Ecgwine undertook the responsibility of his episcopal office, he recognized it not so much as an honour, as a burden, and desired rather to be of use than to be a person in authority.' Indeed he knew that he had been set in the Lord's garden rather as a labourer, that he might work in it and guard it. 51.

THIRD

READING

The blessed Ecgwine, therefore, cultivated the Lord's garden by removing the weeds and planting good seed, as the Lord says in these words: ‘See, I have set you there so that you may destroy and uproot, build and plant. You are to destroy and uproot vices, build and plant virtues." You must destroy unfruitful trees, and uproot useless plants. You must establish fruitful trees, and plant beneficial herbs. So it was that the blessed Ecgwine took up weapons for destruction, his axe of fierce rebuke, and he placed it at the root of a fruitless tree, and used his sharp sickle to uproot noxious plants, so that ‘the fir tree should spring up in place of the whin and the myrtle grow instead of the briar’.* He also received the tools for building, the pruning-knife of sound instruction and the spade of wholesome admonition, and he made powerful use of deed and word, following Jesus who had begun his ministry with deeds and teaching. 52.

FOURTH

READING

The blessed Ecgwine knew that ‘the man who is a doer of deeds and a teacher of men will be called great in the kingdom of heaven’,* and ‘he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whereas he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully? unto life eternal. But ‘some seed of the holy man fell on the pathway and was trampled under foot, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell upon rocky ground and as it sprang up it withered because it had no moisture. Some fell among thistles, and the thistles grew up and choked it.'^ ‘However, he expected it to produce choice grapes, but it produced wild grapes’,’ and the poor ground brought forth ‘thistles and thorns" for him, and his vineyard ‘changed into a place of bitterness’,’ and he was driven from his wine cellar because of its evil smell. The holy man, therefore, seeing that ‘this kind of demon is cast out only by prayer ® Luke 8: 5-7. * Cf. Heb. 6: 8.

Elsa’ 2: ? Cf. Amos 6: 13.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

ieiunio et oratione eicitur’,! de episcopatu conuersus est in exilium, de predicatione in peregrinationem. 53.

LECTIOCQVINTA

Cum igitur de propriis meritis non presumeret, post beatam Dei genitricem summo opere beatos apostolos Petrum et Paulum quibus Dominus potestatem non solum corpora set etiam animas et mentes hominum ‘ligandi et soluendi" tradiderat, in auxilium inplorandos credidit, ut uelamen a cordibus plebis sue errantis amoueretur. Vt ergo facilius per eos a Domino exaudiretur, eorum limina petenda decreuit. Et ut corpus inter eundum attenuaret, uinculis ferreis pedes suos astrinxit que claue poterant firmari ac reserari, et clauem in fluuium Auene proiecit. O uere prelati erga subditos caritas ineffabilis, qui se ipsum uinculis ferreis astrinxit ut subditi a uinculis peccaminum soluerentur! O fides constantis hominis fidei Abrahe comparabilis, qui per corporis sui mortificationem filios a morte anime credidit suscitandos! O beati uiri spes admirabilis, qui ut sciret an misericors Deus peccata plebis sibi commisse dimitteret in terris, humano auxilio se destituens, diuine pietati se commisit soluendum a uinculis!

54. fo, 131"! D

LECTIO

SEXTA*

Arrepto itaque itinere tot regionum digito gentium est demonstratus, aliis dicentibus quia bonus est, aliis non, set se|ductor et criminosus. landem tanta difficultate tantisque laboribus peruenit ad apostolicam urbem de uinculis apostolicis gloriantem. Denique ferro uinctis pedibus Romam ingreditur, et, quod maxime quesierat, in ecclesia beati Petri apostolorum principis ad orationem prosternitur. Quod dum uir sanctus uigilanti cura peragit, omnipotens Deus pro seruo suo uigilare non desistit. Interim famuli eius pro cibis emendis ad fluuium pergunt, quibus uenditores piscem offerunt. Quo empto et asportato et ex more condiendi exenterato, omnipotentis Dei magnificencia compedum clauiculam quibus uir l

Matt. 17: 20. Cf. Matt. 16: r9; another allusion favoured by Pope Innocent III. 3 Cf. Gen. 15: 6, and Romans 4: 12. * This reading has echoes of the fifth reading in Book I above.

BOOK

and fasting’,’ left his bishopric for exile, and his preaching pilgrimage.

FIFTH

for

READING

Since, therefore, he would not lay claim to any merits of his own, he believed that after the holy Son of God he should beseech the help of the apostles Peter and Paul, to whom the Lord gave the power *of binding and releasing" not only the bodies of men but also their souls, in order that the veil should be removed from the hearts of his erring people. So that he should more easily be heeded by the Lord through their intercession, he decided to make a journey to the threshold of the apostles. Also, so that his body should be weakened during the journey there, he bound his feet with iron chains which could be locked and unlocked with a key, and then threw this into the River Avon. What truly unspeakable love of a prelate towards his subjects, who bound himself with iron chains that his subjects should be released from the bonds of their sins! What faith, comparable to that of that man of faith Abraham,’ for he believed that by the mortification of his own body his sons could be rescued from the death of the soul! What wonderful hope that holy man had, who, depriving himself of human help that he might know whether the merciful God would cancel on earth the sins of the people committed to his care, entrusted himself to the divine goodness to release him from his bonds!

54.

SIXTH READING*

So he set off on his journey. Many of the people in the regions he passed through pointed their finger at him, some saying that he was a good man, others that he was not, but a wicked deceiver. Eventually, after great difficulty and great hardship he arrived at the apostolic city glorying in his apostolic bonds. Then he entered Rome with iron chains binding his feet, and,—a thing he most wanted to do— prostrated himself in prayer in the church of St Peter, prince of the apostles. While that holy man continued watching and praying, almighty God did not cease to keep watch over his servant. In the mean time his servants went to the river to buy provisions, and the vendors offered them a fish. Having purchased it and brought it back, they gutted it in the usual way to season it: then, through a mighty act of almighty God, they discovered in the entrails of the fish the key to

sanctus

pedes

THE

HISTORY

inueniunt;

piscis

in uisceribus

astrinxerat

suos

EVESHAM

ABBEY

ferrumque, quod Anglicus fluuius absorbuerat, Romanus Tyberis exalat. Pro antiquo igitur statere piscantis Petri coram multis redditur

clauicula

sue

inesse

fructum

qua

Dei

famulo

ipsius celestis clauigeri.

Intelligens

et optate

soluendum

sciret

igitur uir Dei

exauditionis

gratia

peregrinationi

effectum,

per omnia

uoluntati Dei se subiciens, coram cunctis clauem accepit et uincula quibus astringebatur reserauit.

ane

LECTIO

Quis iam non

dixerit beatum

uidelicet piscatoriam, urbem

SEPTIMA Petrum

reuersum,

suam

ueterem,

qui quasi in reti suo piscem ad

per tot maria traxit ut fratrem

absolueret?

ad artem

suum a uinculis corporis

itaque alicui hec quia inusitata

iam

impossibilia

uideantur, conferantur ista hiis que propter ipsum Deus post beati uiri depositionem mirabiliter operari dignatus est; et si uidebuntur mirabilia, desinent tamen uideri impossibilia, quia ea que euentus

assiduitate didicimus

quasi quodam

usu sepe in habitum

mentis

uertimus.' Sancita igitur a patribus dies annua qua beatus Ecgwinus adiit celestia regna," quot annis post depositionem superius

miraculis

illustrata.

eius illuxerat

festiua,

sepe

Domini

solempnia duplicata populi et familie sue refulget letitia,

Que

inter

natalicia

quasi corona aurea sole repercussa. Accurrit solito populosa frequentis, vine

tia ad celebria tanti patris | gaudia. Nox ipsa luciflua et dies preclara cantu et laude continuatur desunt

solita

Christi

excelsa cum

beneficia

iocunditate

seruitoribus

uel

festiua. Nec

hospitibus

suis

parata, nec desunt post missarum solempnia competentia refectionum insignia. Sed modo piscium deerat copia, ut mirabilior appareret Dei gratia. ' This may be a quotation, but we have not been able to identify it. * i.e. 30 Dec., the day of his death, and therefore of his spiritual birth.

BOOK

the fetters with which the holy man had secured his feet. The iron key, which the English river had swallowed, the Roman Tiber disgorged. Instead, therefore, of that ancient coin of Peter when he was fishing, in the presence of many people, the key was returned to God's servant, and he knew that he was to be freed with it by the grace of the One in heaven who provided it. Hence, the man of God, realizing that here was the reward for the journey he had undertaken and the means of obtaining the audience he desired, submitted himself in everything to the will of God, received the key in the presence of them all, and released the bonds with which he was bound. 55.

SEVENTH

READING

Who could now deny that the blessed Peter had returned to his ancient occupation of fishing, dragging the fish, as if in his own net, through so many seas to Rome in order to free his brother from his bodily chains? But lest these remarkable events should now seem impossible to anyone, let them be compared to those marvellous miracles which God deigned to perform on Ecgwine's account after the funeral of that holy man; and if they should seem marvellous, they will nevertheless cease to seem impossible, for the things we have learned from the repetition of an event we turn into a habit of mind, as it were, by the frequent observance of it.' Therefore, an anniversary was established by our fathers on the day when the blessed Ecgwine entered the heavenly realms,” for every year after the day of his funeral a feast-day had illumined the story, the day often being made more illustrious by miracles. This is repeated during the solemn feast of our Lord's birthday and the joy of the people and of Ecgwine's community shines brightly like a golden crown when struck by the sun's rays. Great throngs of people pour in to the accustomed place for the joyous celebrations of our great father. Night itself is bright and the day made splendid with singing and praise as the festival continues with its lofty expressions of joy. There is no lack of the accustomed benefits of Christ prepared for his servants and his guests, and after the celebration of mass, no lack in the provision of excellent refreshments. All they lacked was the abundance of fish, so that the grace of God might appear all the more wonderful.

56.

HISTORY

THE

LECTIO

ABBEY

EVESHAM

OCTAVA^"

Cum ergo super hoc ipso mane pastoris officiositas fratres deuota alloqueretur caritate, superuenit quidam qui dixit se mire magnitudinis piscem conspexisse in ipso quod subterfluit monasterio flumine. Continuo illuc concurritur; spiculis, iaculis, et cunctis armamentis preda obruitur, capitur, extrahitur, atque coram pedibus ministrorum domini exponitur, qui piscis a scolasticis foca nominatur.! Extollit populus uisum miraculum, et clamosa laude cunctorum glorificatur in sancto suo Ecgwino largitor omnium bonorum. Numquam enim antea uisus est huius generis piscis in hoc flumine, set neque in tota patria inuentus est tante magnitudinis in hoc genere, qui distributus largiflue et domesticis et aduenis suffecit gratifice. Nonne pium est credere ob meritum sancti Ecgwini beatum Petrum, quasi arte sua piscatoria, eadem potestate qua prius a flumine Anglico piscem ad refectionem conserui sui beati, uidelicet Ecgwini, Romam traduxerat, nunc eadem uirtute piscem hunc a mari magno ad idem flumen Anglicum, contra solitum cursum huiusmodi generis piscium, ad sustentationem seruorum et ueneratorum eiusdem coepiscopi sui transmisisse?

57.

fo. 131"! b

LECTIO

NONA^

Adhuc aliud miraculum post depositionem beati Ecgwini per eius merita a Domino patratum, ad superioris quod Dominus pro eo dum in hac uita esset operari dignatus est confirmationem, in medium deducamus. Quodam itaque alio tempore uir quidam scelerosus, quasi alter ille latro qui a dextris crucis Dominice in cruce dependebat et scelera sua Domino confitebatur,! pro suis reatibus Deo spontaneam ultionem exhiben|do, nouem uinculis ferreis se astrinxit in diuersis corporis sui membris. Qui, non Dominum temptans? set diuine uoluntati per omnia se subiciens, apud semetipsum decreuit se numquam ab hiis uinculis absolui nisi Dominus illum a uinculis peccatorum ostenderet absolutum. Digna igitur pro factis se subire “ This miracle is in Byrhtferth, Vita S. Ecgwini, iv. 9, and DE i. 21 ^ This miracle, which is described in readings 9 to 11, is in Byrhtferth, Vita S. Ecgwini iv. 7-8, and also in DE "2, oy ' This suggests that Byrhtferth had a bestiary to hand. It was, perhaps, an Atlantic grey seal.

> Cf. Luke 23: 33, 39-43, for the robber crucified with Jesus confessing his sins. * Cf. Matt. 4: 7.

BOOK 56.

EIGHTH

READING

The next morning, when the abbot was carrying out his duty of addressing the brethren with godly love about this very matter, one of the monks intervened, saying that he had seen a fish of amazing size in the very river which flowed below the monastery. The monks immediately ran there, and attacked their prey with darts, spears, and all kinds of weapons; it was caught, dragged out of the river, and laid before the feet of their lord's servants: this fish is called by scholars a seal.’ The people applauded the miracle they had seen and with the loud praise of them all the Bestower of all good things is glorified in their own blessed Ecgwine. For never before had a fish of this kind been seen in this river; indeed, there was not found in the whole country a fish of this kind, which was of such a size. It was divided up generously, and pleasantly satisfied the monks of the house and its visitors. Is it not right to believe that, because of the merits of St Ecgwine, the blessed Peter, with the same power with which he had previously brought the fish from the English river to Rome to refresh his fellow-servant, the blessed Ecgwine, had now, with his skill as a fisherman, as it were, sent this fish from the ocean across waters not usually frequented by fish of this sort, to that same English river, for the sustenance of the servants and venerators of his fellow bishop? 57-

NINTH

READING

But we must now bring to light yet another miracle that occurred after the funeral of the blessed Ecgwine, wrought through his merits by our Lord, as a confirmation of the miracle mentioned above, which our Lord had deigned to perform while Ecgwine was alive. It was on a certain other occasion that an evil man—a man comparable to that other robber who hung on a cross on the right hand of our Lord's, and confessed his sins to the Lord^—dispensed his own voluntary punishment for his guilty deeds, by binding himself with nine iron chains in different parts of his body. He was not putting the Lord to the test? but, submitting himself in all things to the divine will, had decided in his own mind that he would never be freed from these chains unless the Lord showed that he had been absolved from the bonds of his sins. Admitting that he was suffering a punishment worthy of the evils he had done, he had put no trust in his own

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

confessus, non de suis meritis confisus, set laboribus desudans, ieiuniis et orationibus insistens, meritis et precibus sanctorum se commendans, ferri hoc pressus pondere per diuersorum limina sanctorum pergens, ut a uinculis tam corporis quam anime absolueretur deuotissime postulabat. Cuius fidem et spem, necnon cordis contritionem, laborem et operis satisfactionem, Dominus ex alto prospiciens, iam per diuersorum sanctorum merita, quos idem penitens in circumiacentibus et longe positis regionibus per multa temporum curricula adierat, octo circulos ferreos quibus fuerat astrictus dissoluerat.

58.

ey epe

LECTIO

DECIMA

Nono uero circulo durius astringebatur, carne uidelicet circumquaque intumescente, super quo dissoluendo principalem potestatem habentes tam corpora quam animas ligandi et soluendi, beatos uidelicet apostolos Petrum et Paulum, credidit adeundos. Quorum limina cum adiisset et eorum suffragia postulasset deuotissime, tale in sompnis recepit responsum: 'Vade in Angliam, et beati presulis Ecgwini locum debito uenerationis cultu require, et misericordiam optinebis." 59. Surgens itaque a sompnis beatus penitens gaudet se pro parte accepisse quod quesierat. Exaudierant enim eum apostoli ut consilium darent, non ut (in) presens plene liberarent. Accepta itaque spe certissima eorum sibi non abfuturum auxilium quorum receperat consilium, quem cogebat necessitas dilationem tam grauem patientissime sustinuit, quia non aliter potuit optinere quod expetiit; et cum tali ualefactione itinere arrepto, edem sancti Ecgwini adiit, in cuius basilica cum per multos dies ieiuniis et orationibus expetitam et expectatam misericordie opem | prestolaretur, quadam die, hora tercia

a fratribus

monasterii

deuotissime

decantata,

et missa,

moris est, celeberime subsecuta, hora perceptionis diuini misterii uere penitenti diuinum non defuit ministerium. 60.

LECTIO

VNDECIMA

Nam uirtute diuina tante ui nonus* ille circulus dirumpitur ut ipse fragor in choro a fratribus audiretur, ac si ferrum malleo percuteretur. a

nouus R

BOOK

merits, but laboured under these hard toils, devoting himself to prayer and fasting, and entrusted himself to the merits and prayers of the saints. Oppressed by the weight of the iron chains, he made his way through the thresholds of various saints, and implored them most devoutly to free him from the bonds not only of his body but also of his soul. T'he Lord, seeing from on high his faith and hope, as well as the contrition of his heart, his labour, and the penance of his action, now through the merits of the various saints, whom the man in his repentance had approached over a long period of time in districts near and far away, had freed him of eight of the iron chains with which he had been bound. 58.

TENTH

READING

The penitent was bound more harshly by the ninth shackle, and the surrounding flesh was swollen. He believed that to be released from this he needed to approach the apostles Peter and Paul, who possessed above all others the power of binding and freeing both body and soul. When he approached their threshold and besought them most devoutly for their aid, he received this reply in his sleep: ‘Go to England, and, observing due reverence, seek out the place of the holy bishop Ecgwine, and you will obtain mercy.’ 59. Rising from sleep, therefore, the blessed penitent rejoiced that he had in part received the help he had requested. For the apostles had given heed to him in that they were giving him advice, but were not freeing him entirely for the present. Accepting with confident hope that the apostles whose advice he had received would not deny aid to him, he endured with great patience the grievous delay which necessity

forced upon him, for he could not otherwise obtain what he desired. So it was with this farewell that he set off on his journey. He came to the shrine of St Ecgwine, and when he had spent many days in Ecgwine's church in prayer and fasting, awaiting the act of mercy that he had requested and hoped for, one day at nine o'clock in the morning, when the brethren of the monastery were singing and mass was being celebrated with great devotion, as was their custom, at the moment

the holy sacrament was received, divine aid was truly at hand for the penitent. 60.

ELEVENTH

READING

That ninth shackle was severed by divine power with such force that the noise it made was heard in the choir by the brethren, as though

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Et ipso inpetu fractionis a loco ubi secus altare penitens orabat ferrum illud in chorum deiciebatur ac si manu hominis iactaretur, ut diuine

miserationis opitulatio omnibus manifestaretur. Euentus igitur ordine facti serie et rei ueritate a fratribus monasterii diligentius inquisitis, pulsantur classica, et clara uoce cum gratiarum actione attolluntur Dei magnalia. O quam ueridica Domini sententia, qua secutos se hiis que ipsi eum fecisse uiderant similia, immo maiora, facturos promiserat. Ecce enim omnibus pie credentibus patet luce quidem clarius, quod Dominus beato Ecgwino, quem mirabiliter soluerat a uinculis, potestatem contulerit mirabilius soluendi alios a nexibus tam anime quam corporis. Ad illum namque quem ab Anglia Romam traduxit a uinculis ferreis ab apostolis soluendum, de eadem urbe in Angliam per eosdem apostolos misit istum penitentem a circulo ferreo ab eodem liberandum. Celebramus^ igitur, fratres dilectissimi, deuotissime tanti patris translationem, quem Dominus omnipotens tot, tantis, et tam mirandis uirtutibus glorificat in terris et nobis manifestat glorificatum in celis.

61.

fo. 132"

LECTIO

DVODECIMA!

Gaudeat precipue ecclesia Eoueshamensis et cum summa deuotione et spirituali gaudio letetur, que tot eius beneficiis honoratur, tot possessionibus ab eo sibi adquisitus ditatur, tot libertatibus exaltatur, et priuilegiis per eum et propter eum sibi collatis munitur. Maxime autem corde et ore simul Christum ueneretur, quod propter uite eius honestatem et fidei meritum beata uirgo Maria in eodem loco per manifestam ostensionem et corporalem presentiam se manifestauit eidem; et quia ibi steterunt | beate uirginis sacratissimi pedes, idem locus sanctificatur et a summo pontifice Constantino locus sanctus nominatur. Extollant uocem in beatissimi uiri laudem specialius monachi Eueshamensis cenobii, qui per ipsum a summo pontifice ouile diuinitus preostensum, apostolica auctoritate fultum, regia " Perhaps celebremus intended ]

I'welve lections implies monastic use; see J. Harper, The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth Century (Oxford, 1991), pp. 91-5.

BOOK

iron was being struck with a hammer. And then, at the impact of the blow that severed it, the iron shackle was hurled from the spot near the altar, where the penitent was praying, into the choir, as if it had been thrown by a man's hand, so that the aid provided by divine mercy should be made manifest to everyone. When the reason for what had occurred and the truth of the matter had been carefully examined in detail by the brethren of the monastery, the bells were rung and the miracles of God were extolled in loud cries accompanied by thanksgiving. How true is the Lord's judgment by which he has promised those who followed him that they would perform miracles similar to those which they had seen him do, in fact even greater miracles! For see, to all who believe devoutly in him he makes it clearer than daylight that the Lord bestowed upon the blessed Ecgwine, whom He had miraculously freed from his bonds, the more wonderful power of releasing others from the bonds of both the body and the soul. For it was to Ecgwine, whom He had brought from England to Rome to be freed from his chains by the apostles, that he sent that penitent from Rome to England through those same apostles to be set free from that iron shackle by Ecgwine. Let us therefore celebrate, my beloved brethren, most devoutly the translation of so great a father, whom the almighty Lord glorifies by so many great and marvellous acts of goodness on earth and reveals him to us glorified in the heavens.

61.

TWELFTH

READING!

Let the church of Evesham especially rejoice and express its gladness with great devotion and spiritual joy, for it is honoured by so many benefits of Ecgwine, enriched by so many possessions acquired for it by him, exalted by so many liberties, and protected by the privileges bestowed upon it by and through him. It should also venerate Christ greatly with heart and voice because, through the virtue of Ecgwine’s life and the excellence of his faith, the blessed Virgin Mary manifested herself in Evesham to Ecgwine in a clear revelation and bodily appearance. Because those most holy feet of the blessed Virgin had stood there, that place is sanctified, and called a holy place by Pope Constantine. Let the monks of Evesham monastery more specially raise their voices in praise of that most blessed man, for it was through Ecgwine that they are called a monastery by the pope, divinely foreshown, supported by apostolic authority, endowed with

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

libertate donatum, cleri et populi benedictione sanctitum, appellantur, sicut priuilegia eiusdem cenobii testantur; ad gloriam et laudem Domini nostri Iesu Christi, ‘cui est honor et imperium"! cum patre et spiritu sancto per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.

[1222

62. Qualiter sit constitutum festiuitatem translationis sancti Ecgmini hoc tempore solempniter esse celebrandam* Magnifico rege Canuto de hac uita decedente," optimates Anglie ut iurauerant et fidem sibi dederant fieri statuere; accitisque quibusdam baronibus? iusserunt ut pro filio regis Eardecanuto quantotius irent, eumque ad Angliam deducerent.* Qui, precepto obtemperantes, maturant propter quod missi erant explere. Aderat tunc inter eos quidam episcopus nomine Aeilwardus, qui sub eisdem temporibus binas ecclesias regebat, scilicet episcopatum Lundonie ciuitatis et abbaciam sancti Ecgwini.? Is dum in medio mari cum ceteris legatis nauigaret, repente aduenit turbidus auster, nec defuit frigidissimus boreas, eurus etiam zephirusque uidebantur adesse. Ita nempe huc illucque uagabunda nauis flatibus ferebatur, ut putares omnes uentos inter se uicissim inisse certamen. Nunc naui^ uersus etherea fluctibus sublata, nunc ad ima eisdem deiecta, omnem spem salutis perdiderant. Exoritur nauticus clamor, stridor rudentum, undique letalis dolor accumulatur. Tandem tempestate deuicti et pene in ultimam desperationem deducti, post pacem in commune perlatam, Deo omnipotenti se suasque animas lacrimose commendauere. Cum ecce uenerabilis pontifex /Eilwardus, recordatus merita sancti Deoque dilecti patris Ecgwini, geminas ad sidera palmas extendens, | talia refert: *O dilecte pater, Ecgwine, tui serui nunc miserere, nosque pariter a presenti periculo mortis eripe. Vouit etiam huiusmodi uotum: ‘Si Deus omnipotens per tua dulcissima merita dignatus fuerit seruos suos inpresentiarum liberare, scrinium tibi “ex auro et argento"^ faciam preparare,^ et sanctam solennitatem tuam amplius quam antea fuerat iubebo cum honore frequentari. Vix uerbum compleuerat, cum mox, non paulatim uerum gregatim, precipiente ^ This section is taken from Dominic's Book II (DE ii. 2) DE “ prepari DE (D)

^ nauis R

* perdiderat

! 1 Tim. 6: 16.

> cnu*t, king of England from ror6 to 1035, and king of Denmark from r1or9 to 1035, died at Shaftesbury in 1035 and was buried at the Old Minster, Winchester; HBC, p. 28. * The use of the term barons is, of course, anachronistic in an Anglo-Saxon context. * Harthacnu*t arrived in England in June 1040; H BC, p. 28.

BOOK I

royal liberty, and affirmed by the benediction of the clergy and people, as the privileges of that monastery testify; to the glory and praise of our Lord Jesus Christ, ‘who possesses honour and power”! with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen. 62. Hom it mas decided that the festival of the Translation of St Ecgmine should be solemnly celebrated at that time After the great king cnu*t departed this life,” the nobles of England decided that the action they had sworn and promised to undertake should be carried out. They therefore summoned certain barons? and commanded them to go as soon as possible to the king's son, Harthacnu*t, and bring him to England.* Obeying this command, they made haste to fulfil the mission upon which they had been sent. Among them was a bishop named /Elfweard who had jurisdiction over two churches at that time, the see of the city of London and the abbey of St Ecgwine.? While he was sailing with the other envoys in mid-ocean, a fierce wind from the south suddenly assailed them, but it also seemed that a very cold north wind, as well as east and west winds were blowing. So the ship was blown by these blasts this way and that off its course, so that it might have been thought that all the winds were vying with one another in their assault upon it. One moment the ship was lifted high in the sky by the waves, the next moment hurled to the depths by them, so that the men lost all hope of safety. There was a loud cry from the sailors, a creaking of the rigging, and everywhere a distressing fear of death was building up. At last, overwhelmed by the storm and brought almost to utter despair, they achieved some peace of heart amongst them and tearfully commended themselves and their souls to almighty God. But see, the venerable bishop /Elfweard, recalling the merits of St Ecgwine, the father beloved of God, raised both hands to the heavens, and uttered these words: ‘O beloved father Ecgwine, have pity now on your servant, and rescue all of us from the present danger of death.’ He also made a vow in such words as these: ‘If almighty God deigns through your sweetest merits to rescue his servants from our present plight, I will have a shrine made ready for you **made of gold and silver’’,° and will command that your holy eminence be visited with honour more regularly than before.' Scarcely had he finished speaking, when immediately at the Lord's command, everything ^ AElfweard was bishop of London from 1035 to 1044; HBC, p. 220.

$ Exod. 31: 4.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Domino, tranquillitas redire, solaris radius illucescere, simul omnia in

prosperum cedere; naute uero cum gaudio cursum extendere, ac cum summa uelocitate terram petere. Et statim ad Flandrense litus appulsi, nimium *optata potiuntur arena’. 63. Inde ad Heardecanutum peruenientes, qui ea tempestate cum matre sua apud comitem Flandrie hospitabatur,^ communem assensum populi sibi per omnia pandunt. Sicque ut futurum regem Anglie illum cum ueneratione assumentes, cum ingenti letitia in Angliam repedarunt, eumque regem, ut mos est, constituerunt. Prelibatus ergo episcopus Aeilwardus, non immemor sponsionis sue, statim ut ad propria uenit opus quod uouerat accelerari iussit. Perfectoque scrinio cum auro et argento adornato in quo nunc ossa patris nostri sancti Odulfi? honorifice recondita seruantur, indixit omni populo, cum pontificali auctoritate, ut cum summa frequentia undique conuenirent ad celebrandam solennem translationem reliquiarum sanctissimi patris nostri Ecgwini, .iiii. idus Septembris. Seruabantur namque reliquie eiusdem patris hisdem temporibus in quodam scrinio quondam precioso fuluoque metallo bene adornato, set iam pridem a Dacis circumcirca expoliato. Veniente igitur die sancito, suffragia sancti cuncti efflagitare, omnes pari uoto quoquo modo poterant seruitio tanti patris insudare, festinabant. Denique statuto tempore adueniente quo reliquie in scrinium sibi paratum transferrentur, conueniunt cum pontifice alii uenerandi sacerdotes, parantur cruces fos22) (b et | cerei, multaque honestas omnimodis condecorata cumulatur. Ordinata itaque processione maxima cum reuerentia, in hymnis dulcisonis Deum predicantes, uoces attollunt in excelsis letantes. At postquam ad locum reliquiarum uentum est, libantes incensum cum turribulo, multo metu ac modestia cum maxima dignitate transferunt reliquias sancti patris et protectoris nostri Ecgwini in scrinium sibi officiosissime preparatum. ! Virgil, Aen. i.172. ? Harthacnu*t's

mother,

Emma,

the second

wife of cnu*t

and

the widow

of King

/Ethelred the Unready, was a daughter of Count Richard I of Normandy; see HBC, pp. 27, 28, 29. The visit of Harthacnu*t and Emma to the count of Flanders probably took place in 1035. The count of Flanders at the time, if the date of the trip is correct, was Baldwin IV, who died on 3o May 1036; see A. Capelli, Cronologia, Cronografia e Calendario Perpetuo, 6th edn. (Milan, 1988), p. 473.

* Odulf (d. 855), monk and missionary in Frisia, whose relics were stolen by Vikings and brought to England to London. There they were purchased by Bishop /Elfweard, who gave them to his abbey of Evesham; see above, 62, and below, 146; and D. Farmer, Oxford Dictionary of Saints, 4th edn. (Oxford, 1997), pp. 373-4. * The feast of the translation of St Ecgwine on 10 Sept. is recorded in a calendar,

BOOK I

happened, not gradually, but suddenly at the same time, for calm returned, the rays of the sun shone brightly, and everything was suddenly all right again. The sailors with true joy set course, and made for land with all speed. Immediately on landing on the coast of Flanders, ‘they take possession of the beach they had longed for so greatly"! 63. They then came to Harthacnu*t, who at that time was being entertained with his mother by the count of Flanders,” and informed him of their people's general acceptance of his rule over them in all matters. Thus taking him with reverence as the future king of England, they returned to England with great joy, and made him their king in their customary way. Therefore, bishop /Elfweard, not forgetful of his promise, immediately on his arrival home gave orders for the work which he had vowed to be completed as soon as possible. The shrine, in which the bones of our father, St Odulf,’ are now preserved and honourably buried, was completed and adorned with gold and silver, and with his episcopal authority the bishop enjoined upon all the people that as many as possible should meet there from all districts to celebrate the solemn translation of the sacred relics of our most holy father Ecgwine on 10 September.* The relics of father Ecgwine were at that time being preserved in a shrine once beautifully adorned with precious stones and yellow metal, but which had some time before been plundered by the Danes who lived round about. When the appointed day arrived, the whole congregation hastened to implore the saint's help, and all of them to toil with like zeal in whatever way they could in the service of so great a father. Finally when the appointed time came for the relics to be translated to the shrine prepared for them, other reverend priests met with the bishop, the crosses and candles were prepared, and great honour, graced by every means possible, was added to the occasion. And so, in ordered procession, with the greatest reverence, and in the sweet harmony of their hymn-singing, they praised God, and, rejoicing, raised their voices to the heavens. After they had arrived at the place of the relics, they dispersed the incense with the censer, and with great fear and humility, with the greatest of dignity, they translated the relics of our holy father and protector Ecgwine to the shrine most dutifully prepared for them. probably from Evesham, of the latter half of the 11th cent., no. 16 in English Kalendars before AD 1100, ed. F. Wormald (Henry Bradshaw Society Ixxii: London, 1934), p. 206. It also records the Deposition on 30 Dec. (p. 209).

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

64. Hec fuit causa qua primum translatio sancti Ecgwini constituta est. Tunc namque a prefato pontifice est statutum, ut cum frequentia populari, uti hactenus fit, altissime eadem translatio quot annis celebraretur.

BOOK I

64. This was the reason why the feast of the Translation of St Ecgwine was first established. For it was at that time that it was decreed by the afore-mentioned bishop that the feast of the Translation should be celebrated every year in the most exalted manner and be attended by a large congregation, as it has been up to this time.

(LIBER II) 65. Incipit prologus libri secundi de miraculis sancti Ecgmini que Deus per illum operatus est postquam ab hac mutabili luce decessit, editus a Dominico priore Emeshamie! Cum diuina^ omnipotentis Dei miracula per sanctos uiros mirabiliter ostensa uarios et multiplices fructus ea pie considerantibus proferant, non incommodum duximus pauca breuiter prelibare, quatinus mens tam dulci memorie intenta, uirtutem huiusmodi considerationis ualeat secundum rationem perpendere. Magnum namque fructum legentibus et audientibus, si digne id egerint, perspicue manifestant, quoniam et placidior a mundanorum fantasmate memoria custoditur,

et sepenumero tantorum patronorum exemplis celeste regnum non

fosa

negatur. Inde enim exit quamplurima dulcedo laude diuinitatis, arduus etiam amor, sanctorum gloria, fauor preteritorum, emendatio presentium, spes futurorum bonorum. 66. Vnde, quia multa que Deus per beatum patrem nostrum sanctum Ecgwinum dignatus est operari, negligentia et incuria scriptorum scimus obliuioni tradita esse, proinde congruum uidetur memorie litterarum. tradere ea que a fidelibus et credulitate. dignis uiris potuimus secundum rei ueritatem indagare. Id enim ut ageremus, multarum instantia precum | et obedientia precipientium fratrum et maxime amore sancti compulsi sumus. Preclare igitur uirtuti obedientie animum summittentes, illa precipue studuimus depromere que ab ipsis a quibus sunt uisa percepimus, prout gesta constant in ipsa ueritate. Nullo modo quippe decet preterire singula, licet non possimus tanti uiri explicare uniuersa. Sit ergo, sancto spiritu opitulante, principium narrandi quod cognouimus sanctum Dei Ecgwinum in antiquo tempore fecisse per uirtutem Dei. cuncta DE

' R now returns to DE which it reproduces more or less verbatim. However, some changes were made in the order of Book II by incorporating two chapters (19 and 20) of

DE 1. Thomas moved DE i. 20 in to follow the prologue, which is entirely Dominic's. He then reverted to DE ii.1, and followed it by DE i. 19. (He had already moved DE ii. 2 up into Book I to follow reading 12.) From DE i. 19 onwards, the sections 3 to 25 all follow Dominic. Because the textual changes were minuscule, M. Lapidge in AB did not

reproduce a full text of Dominic's Book II. He did, however, complete the edition in typescript and has very kindly lent this to the present editors. References henceforth to DE ii are to this source.

[BOOK II] 65. Here begins the prologue of the second book of the miracles of St Ecgmine, which God performed through him after he departed this changeable world, related by Dominic, prior of Evesham' Since the divine miracles of almighty God, wonderfully revealed through holy men, produce for those who contemplate them devoutly many different kinds of benefit, we have thought it well worthwhile to mention a few of them briefly, so that the mind that is intent upon remembering such joyous events may be able to consider with reason the virtue of such contemplation. Those who read or hear of these things clearly reveal that they have derived great benefit from doing so, if they have done this with good intent, for the mind is more at peace and protected from the superficiality of earthly events, and the heavenly realm is time and again confirmed by the miracles of such patrons. Indeed, how much sweet pleasure from the praise of God comes from the praise of heavenly things, even a deep love, glory of the saints, the support of past events, correction of preserit behaviour, and hope of future blessings. 66. Hence, because we know that many of the miracles which God deigned to perform through our blessed father, St Ecgwine, have been assigned to oblivion because of the negligence and carelessness of writers, it seems fitting for us to hand down a written account of those miracles of which we have been able to gain a truthful account from trustworthy men whose word can be believed. We have been impelled to do this by the urgent prayers of many, by complying with many brethren who have urged us to do this, and especially by our love for St Ecgwine. Therefore, submitting our mind entirely to the great virtue of obedience, we gave thought especially to declaring those miracles which we ascertained from those who had actually seen them, insofar as there was agreement that they had in very truth occurred. It is not right that we should in any way neglect recording individual miracles, though we cannot give a full account of all the miracles of so great a man. Let us, therefore, with the help of the Holy Spirit, make a beginning by narrating what we have learned that this saint of God did in ancient times by the power of God.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

67. Incipit liber secundus de miraculis sancti Ecgmini que Deus per illum operatus est postquam ab hac mutabili uita decessit Qualiter feretrum sancti Ecgmini sub ruina ecclesie illesum sit conseruatum * Regnum Anglie pater sancti Eadwardi regis et martiris rex Eadgarus obtinuit, rex iure uocandus. Rex enim Eadgarus Deo erat humilis ac deuotus, Christianis sanctionibus obtemperans existebat et subditus. In armis strenuus et fortis, hostibus erat ferox et immanis, equitatis iustissimus executor, set cum moderamine pietatis, suis erat, salua imperii maiestate, mansuetus et mitis. Felix ea tempestate Anglia, felix, inquam, ea tempestate Anglia. Ecclesiarum status integerrime uigebat ubique; sacri ordines diuinis mancipati solummodo misteriis, uacabant scripturis et aliis actionibus ecclesiasticis. Ipse laicalis ordo libens ac promptus debite institutum religionis exequebatur. Opima tellus ad uotum respondebat omnibus in rebus. 68. Preerat tunc cenobio Eouesham abbas Oswardus, quantum ad humanam attinet estimationem uir approbandis moribus.? Sub cuius regimine, occulta animaduersione diuina, ecclesia ipsa ruit quam beatus Ecgwinus exstruxerat. Ruit ergo, ac secum uniuersa subruit, subruens confregit, confringendo comminuit. Magnus igitur exinde apud omnes timor, meror ac dolor, set pro reliquiis beati uiri supremus ac pene solus apud omnes timor, meror ac dolor. Vere|fo. 133" bantur quippe quod beati uiri reliquie sub strage tanta omnino essent comminute, minutatimque in puluerem coacte iam nulla possent discerni certitudinis assertione. Verum ubi mundantes locum ad id uentum est, tam disposite inter saxa circumiacentia locatum adeoque sanum et incolume uas illud repertum est, quod fractura in eo nulla, nulla prorsus ulla in parte in eo uideretur lesura. Quibuscumque enim sue animaduersionis

Deus intentaret uindictam, circa hunc beatum

“ DE i. 20 and Byrhtferth tv. 11

' There are some similarities between the miracles of St Ecgwine recounted here between 67 and 72 (as to what happened to those who falsely claimed the saint's lands) and the miracles of St Kenelm of neighbouring Winchcombe, as R. Love points out, Three Anglo-Saxon Saints’ Lives, p. 75 n. 3. A. Thacker also comments on Ecgwine's cult in general and on the saint’s protection of his territorial rights, ‘Saint-making and relic collecting by Oswald and his communities’, in St Oswald of Worcester, ed. N. Brooks and C. Cubitt (London, 1966), 244-68, at pp. 260-2. ^ Edgar acceded in. 957 as king of the Mercians, and in October 959 as king of England. He died in 975; HBC, p. 27.

BOOK

67. Here begins the Second Book of the miracles of St Ecgwine which God deigned to perform through him afier he departed this changeable life!

The shrine of St Ecgmine is preserved unharmed under the ruins of the church King Edgar, the father of St Edward king and martyr, occupied the realm of England and is justly called a king.” For King Edgar was a humble and devout servant of God, obedient and submissive to the law of Christ. He was vigorous and strong in warfare, fierce and formidable to his enemies, a most just judge of equity and, guided by his religion, was gentle and merciful to his subjects, saving the imperial majesty. England was fortunate at that time, I say again, fortunate at that time. The state of the churches was flourishing and intact everywhere; the clergy were committed solely to the divine mysteries, and spent all their time in reading the scriptures and in other activities of the church. The laity carried out freely and promptly the due requirements of religion. A prosperous land was returning to its pledges in all matters. 68. Abbot Osweard ruled the monastery of Evesham at that time,’ a man of praiseworthy character so far as human estimation goes. But during his rule, by a secret judgment of God the church, which the blessed Ecgwine had built, collapsed. It fell and demolished everything with it, and in its demolishing, it shattered the church, and in its shattering, reduced it to dust. Everybody then experienced great fear, sorrow, and grief; but the fear, sorrow, and grief were felt most of all by everybody, almost solely in fact, for the fate of the relics of the blessed Ecgwine. For they feared that these relics of this holy man had been utterly reduced to dust beneath such destruction, and since they had been crushed into tiny pieces of dust, no one would now be able say with any certainty which were the relics. However, when it came to the business of clearing the place, that vessel was found so well placed among the rocks that were lying all around, and so safe and sound, that there seemed to be no fracture in it, and absolutely no harm done to any part of it. Hence, whatever men God intended to suffer the penalty of His vengeance, so far as this blessed man was 3 Thacker, ‘Saint-making’, p. 261, suggests that Abbot Osweard revived Ecgwine’s cult in the early 970s, though by the end of the century it was largely forgotten.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

uirum gratie et acceptationis sue magnam ostendebat ubique euidentiam, ipse super omnia Deus benedictus in secula. Amen.

nei

69. Item de quodam rustico qui dum reliquias sancti Ecgmini de terra tollere debuit, propriam barbam auulsit* Rege /Etelredo,^ Eadgari magni regis filio, fecundissimum Anglie regnum deuote gubernante,' uiro plurimo uirtutum flore redimito, fuit quidam auaritie pesti supra modum deditus, ac per hoc salutis sue nimium incuriosus, qui ad hoc, inimico humani generis instigante, prorupit, ut de terra sancti Ecgwini magnam partem laboraret inuadere, quatinus inuasam iuxta sui iuris libitum ualeret possidere. Contradicitur a multis sanctum locum tueri cupientibus, et precipue ab eiusdem loci abbate nomine Oswardo. Controuersia multiplicatur, et uariis obiectionibus causa diatim aggrauatur, donec, iudicum sententia, in commune decernitur dies ad hanc causam finiendam. Igitur die constituta fiunt preces studiosius, Deus et eius sancti deposc*ntur attentius. Peracta supplicatione et missis ex more celebratis, ad locum designatum cum reliquiis sancti Ecgwini properatur; ab omnibus in adiutorium sanctus Domini uocatur.* Adest et rusticus cum suis barbarice frendens, confertur in medio procerum questio," uerum finis nullus poterat adesse huic? negotio. Tandem lite terminata, a iudicibus statuitur ut manu propria rusticus reliquias sancti Ecgwini de terra quam calumniabatur | tollens, sibimet eandem terram iurando adquireret. Erat uero isdem rusticus uir grandeuus, barba ualde prolixa barbatus. Assurgens itaque, ueste deposita in medio, barbam propriam concludit palmo: ‘Per istam', inquit, ‘barbam sanctum auferam, quia mea est terra, et ego eam possidebo iure hereditario. O mira Dei uirtus! Vix emissum euolauerat^ uerbum, et ecce totam barbam coram cunctis lapsam ita proiecit ad terram ac si apposita esset, non naturaliter nata. Obstupuere omnes; uident annosum rusticum sine barba uniuersi, quosdam

ira, alios dolor, omnes demum commouet risus. Sic qui alienam iniuste cupierat inuadere terram, iure cum ipsa terra propriam " DE ii. 1 and Byrhtferth iv. 10 ^ questio om. DE

* huius R, DE

^ Aethelstano DE, wrongly ^ tandem DE (H)

* aduocatur DE * uoleuerat DE

! Athelred the Unready, acceded March 978, died 1016. He was dispossessed of the

kingdom for some months in 1013/14 by Swegn Forkbeard, king of Denmark; HBC, DEZ

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concerned He showed everywhere great evidence of His grace and favour, so may God Himself be blessed above all else for ever. Amen.

69. The story of a countryman who plucked out his own beard, when he should have been lifting the relics of St Ecgwine from the ground When King /Ethelred, son of the great king Edgar and a man of surpassing virtue, was devoutly governing the prosperous kingdom of England, there was a man who was excessively addicted to the curse of avarice, and consequently too careless of his own salvation. Hence, urged on by the enemy of the human race [the devil], he threw himself into a plan to appropriate a great part of the land of St Ecgwine, with the intention of being able to hold on to the land he had appropriated as his by right. He was opposed by many who desired to protect that holy place, and especially by the abbot of the place, called Osweard. The dispute increased and the case became more serious day by day as various charges were made, until a day was decided in common, by decree of the judges, when the case must finish. Therefore on the appointed day prayers were said more assiduously, and God and His saints were entreated more earnestly. When the prayers of supplication were over, and Mass had been celebrated according to the custom, they make haste to the designated place with the relics of St Ecgwine. The help of the Lord’s saint was invoked by everyone. The countryman was present with his supporters raging like a savage. An inquiry of leading men was convened in public, but there was no end to this business. Eventually, the suit was terminated, and the judges decreed that the countryman should lift with his own hands the relics of St Ecgwine from the earth which he was claiming, and gain for himself the land by swearing an oath. The countryman was an elderly man, who had a very long beard. He stood up, laid his cloak down on the ground, and grasped his beard with his hand, saying, ‘I swear by this beard of mine, I will remove the saint, because it is my land, and I will possess it by right of inheritance.’ O the wonderful goodness of God! Scarcely had these words been uttered, when, see! he pulled out his beard so that it fell to the ground as if it belonged there, and had not grown naturally. Everyone was stunned when they saw the aged rustic without his beard: some were moved to anger, others to grief, but all of them finally to laughter. So it was that the man who had wrongfully desired to appropriate the land, justly lost his beard with the land itself. May

HISTORY

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EVESHAM

perdidit barbam. Per omnia benedictus Deus, qui in sanctis et per sanctos suos talia operatur. 70. De alio rustico qui cum periurio terram sancti aufe(r)re uellet proprium cerebrum effudit* Quidam in uicino rusticus erat, ut id hominum genus sepius se habet, moribus agrestis et intemperanti cupiditate, parui lucri gratia ad omne malum pronus atque infrenis. Exarsit illi animus ad inuadendam iuris ecclesie beati presulis Ecgwini terrulam. Appetiuit, appetendo surripuit, surripiendo inuasit, et inuasam iuris sui iam esse rustica peruicacitate iurare cepit. Calumniatur, peierat, ac peierare^ non cessat. Tandem in causam res ponitur, et altercationi huic audiende ac definiende dies statuitur. Sanxerunt ergo iudices ut die statuto rusticus ille super calumniose inuasam terram ueniret, suamque illam terram esse in qua consistebat iuraret. Concessit arridenti animo rusticus, pluris habens obolum quam abiurande fidei sue periculum. 71. Ad diem ergo statutum qua controuersiarum finis habendus erat, uterque ad locum accessit, subituri sententiam quam super hac re iuris ac legis periti decreuerant.! Summo mane ipsius diei prior ecclesie, uir morum uenerandus honestate et actuum probitate, for 133°" nomine Wire | dus, ante sancti reliquias humi prostratus, obnixe diu orauit, orans Deo et sancto causam suam commendauit, commendando septem psalmos quos ex more penitentiales dic*nt," lacrimose omnino decantauit. Peroratis supplicetur psalmis, fratres ut hoc ipsum agerent summopere admonuit, et cum reliquiis beati Ecgwini ad subeundam iudicii censuram pergit ipse, et cum eo plurima fratrum multitudo. Affuit ex parte alia rusticanus cum multo rusticorum tumultu, atque tergiuersationibus populosis rem turbare ac uerum inquietate conantur. Tandem compulsus est ad sacramentum accedere rusticus. Sumpserat de domo sua puluerem et eo subtulares suos impleuerat, ut tuto iurare posset quod supra terram “ DE i. 19. From nom on the sections follow DE ii. 3-25, and only very minor changes are made by R in the wording ^ pegerare R ' For some

comments

on the case, see P. Wormald,

The Making of English Lam, i

(Oxford, and Cambridge, Mass., 1999), pp. 158-9. ^ Psalms 6, 31 (32), 37 (38), 50 ( 51), ror (102), 129 (130), and 142 (143). These were said prostrate after Prime and before the Litany during Lent; see The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. and trans. D. Knowles, rev. C. N. L. Brooke (OMT,

2002), pp. xxii, and 30-3. Their use by Prior Wiredus at this time was presumably because of the solemnity of the occasion.

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God be blessed in all things, who works such wonders in and through His saints. 70. Another countryman, who wished to misappropriate land of the saint through perjury, spilt his own brains There was a countryman in the vicinity of Evesham who, being of a boorish nature and inordinately greedy, as is often the case with that kind of man, had an unbridled propensity for everything evil for the sake of little gain. His mind burned to appropriate a small piece of land that rightfully belonged to the church of the blessed bishop, Ecgwine. He desired it, and in desiring it stole it, and after stealing it, appropriated it, and no sooner appropriated than he began to swear on oath with boorish obstinacy that it was his by right. He laid a claim to it, caused trouble, and did not cease to make matters worse. At last the case came to trial, and a day was appointed for the dispute to be heard and decided. The judges therefore declared that on the appointed day the countryman was to come to state his case about the land disputatiously appropriated, and to take an oath that that land on which he was staying was his own. The man agreed in good heart, having more regard for a halfpenny than for the danger of perjuring himself. ; 71. When the appointed day arrived on which an end was to be brought to the dispute, each side came to the place, to receive the decision of the men who were knowledgeable in the law and justice.' At the dawn of that day the prior of the church, named Wiredus, a man respected for his honourable character and for his virtuous deeds, prostrated himself before the relics of the saint, praying earnestly for a long time, and in his prayers commending his cause to God and the saint; in doing so he tearfully chanted in their entirety the seven psalms which are customarily called the penitential psalms.* When these had been sung with humility, he earnestly pleaded with the brethren to do the same. He then stepped forward himself with the relics of the blessed Ecgwine to submit to the judgment of the court, and with him a large number of the brethren. On the other side was the rustic, accompanied by a noisy following of many other countrymen and, with numerous people lagging behind, they tried to disturb the proceedings and subvert the truth. At length the countryman was compelled to come forward to take the oath. He had picked up some dust from his own home and filled his shoes with it, so that he could safely swear that

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

suam consisteret.! O uere rustica, non dico astutia set stultitia, uel fortasse satis condigne rustica dicetur astutia! Arbitrabatur fortassis quod Deum latere posset fraus que in tellure* lateret; at etiam in subtulari Deus fraudem rustici comprehendit. Nam ubi rusticus ipse ad reliquias iuraturus manum porrexit, ferreo falcastro quod in manu gestabat, nescio quo casu, in cerebro percussus, subito ad terram mortuus ruit; et ignominiosa, set quali illum decebat, morte uitam cum terra sancti coram omnibus amisit. Hoc diuine comminationis terrore et qui aderant et qui longe lateque audiebant exterriti, exinde locum uenerando, metuendo et amando nil omnino aduersus illum forisfacere tunc erant ausi. Itaque benedictus Deus mirabilis existens in sanctis suis.^ Gloriosus enim in se, gloriosa in sanctis suis et per sanctos suos operatur ubique. Qui uiuit et regnat per omnia secula

seculorum. Amen. 72. De quodam artifice" Tempore pacifici regis Eadwardi, summi et ultra communem ualentiam laudabilis principis, dominus abbas Mannius cenobium sancti Ecgwini deuotissime regebat, uir Deo karus et omnibus fo. 134" subiectis | amabilis. Hic inter cetera que multum extollenda operatus est, scrinium sancto Odulfo fieri decreuit, quod opus ut uidit in melius ire studuit sancto Ecgwino dedicare.* Aderant tum quam plures artificiosi, quorum omnium magister erat quidam, pater uidelicet domni Clementis postmodum Eoueshamensis prioris. Is cum, sicut huiusmodi opus exigit, sepius fundendo et tundendo ac cum scalpro incidendo labori insisteret, quadam die more solito sedens et cum scalpro paruas imaginulas diligentissime coaptans, subito casu tam grauiter manum sinistram cum ferro quod tenebat uulnerauit ut per mediam manum gutta sanguinis alia ex parte stillaret. Commotus itaque tam repentino casu: *O sancte, inquit, ^ telluri R

^ DE ii. 3

' Comparable folktales are found in Stith Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, 6

vols. (Copenhagen, 1955-8), iv. 8o (J. 1161.3), the trespasser’s defence, the man who puts earth from his own land in his shoes, and 491 (K. 2319.1), earth of two countries (Scotland and Ireland) is put in the shoes to define the wearer’s whereabouts. 2 Cf. Ps. 67: 36 (68: 35).

* For Mannig, blessed as abbot on 10 Aug. 1044, resigned in 1058 because of paralysis, and died in January 1066 (HRH, p. 47), see below, 149-54. Edward (II, the Confessor, 1042—66), resided from ro41 with the household of King Harthacnu*t, his half-brother,

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he was standing on his own land.' What true rustic—I will not say guile but stupidity—though perhaps it may quite properly be called rustic guile! He thought perhaps that trickery could conceal from God what he was concealing on earth, but God also knew of the man's trickery in his shoe. For when the countryman himself stretched out his hand to the relics to take the oath, somehow or other he was struck on the head by an iron bill-hook which he was carrying in his hand, and immediately fell dead upon the ground. Thus by an ignoble death, but one that he deserved, he lost his life along with the saint's land in the presence of them all. Both those who were present, and others from near and far who heard of it, were terrified by a fear of divine punishment. After that they reverenced the place, feared it, and loved it, and at that time made no attempt whatsoever to offend against it. So, blessed be our marvellous God who lives in His saints.? He is glorious in Himself, glorious in His saints, and performs glorious deeds in and through His saints everywhere. Who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen. 72. A story about a craftsman At the time of King Edward, the peace-maker, who was an extraordinarily valiant and renowned prince, the abbot Mannig, a man beloved of God and loved by all his subjects, was ruling the monastery of St Ecgwine most devoutly.’ Mannig, amongst other things that he did deserving high praise, decided to have a shrine made for St Odulf, and when he saw that the work was going very well, he was eager to dedicate it to St Ecgwine. There were at that time many craftsmen, and the master of them all was the father of Clement, later prior of Evesham. One day, as this kind of work requires, he was concentrating upon the task, frequently casting, hammering, and cutting with a chisel, and was sitting in his usual manner, very carefully shaping some small images with his chisel, when it suddenly happened that he cut his left hand so severely with the iron tool which he was holding, that a stream of blood gushed from one place all over his hand. Alarmed by this sudden accident, he who associated Edward with himself in the kingship, hence the ‘peace maker’; see HBC,

p. 29. * On Mannig as a goldsmith and painter, see C. R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: a New Perspective (Manchester,

1982), pp. 65—7, 8o, and 200, who describes Mannig as ‘the

greatest master craftsman of the Confessor’s reign’. Later in his life Mannig perhaps acted more as an overseer with lay professionals actually exercising the craft.

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EVESHAM

‘Ecgwine, nonne hic assum in tuo seruitio? Si quicquam de seruitio miseri peccatoris curas, iam ostende". Dixit; et statim diuina medela accedente, et dolore et uulnere per sancti uiri merita caruit. O uirum mirabilem, omniumque ore predicandum! Non interposuit tempus medele, set ad exemplum Marci euangeliste^ mox post dolorem uulneris sanitatem per Deum superinfudit.?

73. De reliquiis sancti Ecgmini furatis et reuocatis, furibus infirmitate percussis * Matrona quedam, Algitha nomine, dum sepius tempore predicti regis Eadwardi ecclesiam sancti Ecgwini frequentaret, uenit ei in mentem ob amorem sancti omnimodis temptare, si quicquam de reliquiis eius ualeret adquirere.* Cepit igitur callide uolutare qualiter desiderium suum posset facilius perpetrare. Accitis itaque secreto pueris loci

fo. 134"

eisque, ut fertur, dona tribuens et ampliora promittens, rogauit quatinus sibi de reliquiis sancti Ecgwini uel modicum quid clam perquirent," ut per hoc maiorem mercedem ab ea perciperent. Sciebat enim illam etatem minus habilem intelligentie, leuiusque posse decipi. Prebent assensum pueri, et cepere querere tempus et horam qua‘ sine noticia aliorum implerent promissum. 74. Verum quid non audet ardens cupiditas? Per | infirmam etatem perficit auaritia suum officium; pergunt nocte pueri ad sancti Ecgwini feretrum, apertoque uelociter’ scrinio, furto^ auferunt magnum thesaurum, omni margarita preciosiorem.? Proh dolor! Temerariis manibus

irreuerenter

tractant

membra

sancti,

et, sublata^

parte

brachii cum uno dente, matrone studuere clanculum deportare. Verum enimuero super tam incredibili audatia non diu distulit, ut in sequenti patuit, uindictam^ sumere ultio diuina. Nam sumens predicta matrona diu desideratum thesaurum, leta repedauit ad propria. Locatis igitur honorifice secundum suum posse reliquiis sancti Ecgwini in mundissimo locello, credebat se diutius gauisuram de furto. Cum ecce! sanctus Domini Ecgwinus per uisionem matrone noctu apparens, iubet eam se ipsum proprium reportare ad locum, dicens se iniuste ab ipsa inde fuisse sublatum. Negligit illa imperata, DEH

add. DE

^ perquirerent DE ii

/ sublate R

* quo A, DE

^ uiolenter DE

* inde

l Gf. Jer. 8t x8. * Cf. Acta Sanctorum, 25 April (St Mark), p. 348.

? Cf. Mark 5: 29.

* On relic-theft, see P. J. Geary, Purta Sacra, rev. edn. (Princeton, New Jersey, 1990).

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said, ‘St Ecgwine, am I not here in your service? If you have any concern for the service of a poor sinner, show it now!’ Such were his words; at once divine healing occurred, and the pain and the wound disappeared through the merits of the holy man, Ecgwine. How wondrous a man, worthy to be praised by the lips of everyone! No time intervened before the healing took place,’ but like the story of Mark the evangelist,” the saint sent healing by God's power immediately after the pain of the injury? 73. The relics of St Ecgwine are stolen and recovered, and the thieves are stricken with illness A certain lady named Ealdgyth used to visit the church of St Ecgwine frequently during the time of the above-mentioned King Edward. One day because of her affection for the saint she thought about trying by every means she could to acquire something from his relics.* She therefore began to ponder a cunning plan as to how she could most easily achieve her desire. She secretly summoned some boys of the place and, giving them, it is said, some presents, and promising greater rewards, she asked them to obtain secretly any small item they could from the relics of St Ecgwine, and so receive from her this greater reward. She knew that boys of that age were less capable of understanding a situation, and could be more easily deceived. The boys agreed to the task, and began to look for the best time for fulfilling their promise without others finding out. 74. What will a burning greed not dare! Avarice carries out her duty through people of impressionable age. So the boys set off at night for the shrine of St Ecgwine, quickly open the reliquary, and steal a great treasure, more precious than any pearl.’ Alas! With their audacious hands they irreverently handled the limbs of the saint, stealing a part of the arm and one tooth, and were eager to carry their secret possession back to the lady. But divine punishment was not delayed long for this unbelievable audacity, as the following reveals. For picking up her long-desired treasure, the lady returned home rejoicing. She placed the relics of St Ecgwine with as much honour as she could in the most fitting place for them, and believed that she would long rejoice over her theft. But see! The Lord’s saint, Ecgwine, appeared to the lady in a vision during the night, and commanded her to take him back to the place that belonged to him, saying that he had been wrongfully removed by her from there. She ignored the > Cf. Matt. 13: 44-6.

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OF THE

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EVESHAM

et identidem secunda admonita est eiusmodi uisione. Set cum nec sic optemperaret, uerum ob nimiam cupiditatem habendi uisiones fantasie deputasset, tercia demum uisione uenit sanctus Ecgwinus, (et) ualde commotus,

fo. 134"*

iubet^ ut se reduceret. Qua negante, ‘Prius’,

inquit sanctus, ‘quam crastinus ‘Titan solito refulserit, uelles meis optemperasse preceptis." 75. Quid moras nectimus? Matrona diluculo exurgit apertis oculis ceca, sicque dum presenti usa est uita, pulcherrimos habens oculos, permansit in perpetua cecitate. Misit tamen postea, licet sero, ad Mannium, ea tempestate abbatem monasterii sancti Ecgwini, querens licentiam habendi reliquias, et promittens se feretrum ex auro et argento adornatum ob honorem reliquiarum facturam. Spopondit etiam ipsum scrinium cum reliquiis, et insuper terram propriam que Suella’ ab incolis uocitatur, cum uita decederet, procul dubio sancto Ecgwino eiusque seruis daturam. Quam sponsionem, licet peccato filii sui prepedita per se implere nequiret, impleuit tamen postea omnipotens per dominum ac prudentisimum Agelwi|num abbatem, successorem uidelicet domni et artificiosissimi Mannii abbatis." Nam idem abbas et predictam uillam, que sibi in uadimonium tradita fuerat, ob difficultatem reddende pecunie iudicio optinuit, et etiam scrinium cum apud Wigorniam recognouisset per Dei adiutorium suo dominio mancipauit, quod usque inpresentiarum in monasterio sancti Ecgwini seruatur. Hactenus de matrona. Pueri uero supra commemorati qui prefati furti auctores extiterunt, iudicio Dei demum grauiter subiacuerunt. Nempe quidam ex eis in aqua necatus est, quidam uero quoad uixit molestia corporali pene sine intercapedine grauissime detentus est. 76. De quodam muto loquele restituto* Clarissimum omnipotentis Dei miraculum per beatum confessorem suum Ecgwinum mirabiliter seruis suis insinuatum, ad medium censemus deducendum. Erat tempore prefati regis quidam hom*o in Anglia apud Cantiam qui, pro causa soli Deo cognita, mutus in hanc lucem materno utero profusus, dolorem parentibus maximeque sibi diatim exaggerabat. Is tandem in iuuentute, diuino admonitus instinctu, per memoriam sanctorum uersus Romam ire disposuit. ^ jubens DE

! DE iis

' For the manor of Swell (Glos.), see below, 169. * For /Ethelwig, abbot from 1058 to 1077 (HRH, p. 47), see below, 151—71.

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command, and again she was warned in a second vision. She again disobeyed it, and because of her extreme desire of possession, considered that the visions were her imagination. Finally, St Ecgwine appeared in a third vision very perturbed, and ordered that she should take him back. When she refused, the saint said, ‘Before tomorrow's sun has finished its accustomed course, you will wish you had obeyed my command.’ 75. Why do we contrive to delay? At daybreak the lady rose and opened her eyes, but she was blind, and while she lived her life here, despite having beautiful eyes, she remained in perpetual darkness. Afterwards, though some time later, she sent to Mannig, at that time the abbot of the monastery of St Ecgwine, asking permission to keep the relics, promising that she would adorn the reliquary with gold and silver in honour of the relics. She also promised that when she departed this life she would certainly give a reliquary with the relics to St Ecgwine and his servants, and her own land as well, which is called Swell’ by those who live on it. Although her promise could not be fulfilled because the sinful action of her son prevented this, yet the Almighty later fulfilled it through the efforts of that wise abbot dom JEthelwig, successor to the astute abbot, dom Mannig.^ For abbot /Ethelwig obtained both the above-mentioned vill, which he acquired in a judgment because of a difficulty over paying dues, and also the reliquary, which he took into his own possession by God’s help when he recognized it at Worcester, and it has been kept safe in the monastery of St Ecgwine up to the present time. So much for the lady. As for the boys we have mentioned above, who were responsible for the theft, they finally succumbed severely to God’s judgment. One of them drowned, and another was severely crippled by a physical disability that gave him hardly any rest as long as he lived.

76. Speech is restored to a dumb man We are now of the opinion that we should make it generally known that a spectacular miracle of almighty God was wonderfully revealed to His servants through His blessed confessor Ecgwine. During the time of the above-mentioned king Edward there was a man in England, living in Kent, who for reasons known to God alone, had been born into this world dumb, and this, as time went on, caused

increasing grief to his parents, but especially to himself. Eventually, when he was in his youth, spurred on by a divine impulse, and mindful of the saints, he decided to go to Rome. So he set off on the

fo. 134"?

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Incipiens ergo iter constitutum, Romam usque perueniens, tribus ibidem annis ad limina apostolorum deuote pro infirmitate sua supplicans permansit. 77. Cui cum nichil remedii pro uoto occurrisset, post trinam reuolutionem annorum meditabatur maximo cum merore si quippiam sibi posset fieri in salutem. Ecce^ quadam nocte per dulcem quietem astitit sibi quedam persona albis uestibus induta, huiusmodi depromens oracula: ‘Quid hic’, inquit, ‘tam diu iacens frustra consumeris? Reuertere ad patriam tuam Angliam. Quere inibi monasterium sancti Ecgwini, illucque uadens cum oblatione Dei et illius sancti misericordiam deprecare, statimque sanaberis.’ Optemperans igitur mutus diuino mandato, extim |plo ad natale solum repedauit. 78. Veniens autem in Angliam, indicio ductus, per diuinum auxilium recto itinere ad monasterium sancti Ecgwini peruenit. Erat uero tunc dies sabbati.! Igitur cunctis fratribus in choro astantibus, uenit predictus uir candelam manu gestans cum uespertina sinaxis decantaretur, pergensque ante altare diutius orauit, sicque. candelam optulit. Qua oblata, rursus ad orationem stetit. Res mira et uehementer stupenda! Cum coram cunctis astaret mutus, subito cadens riuum sanguinis ex ore cepit excreare, nimiaque pre angustia in pauimento circumquaque uolutare. Finita ergo uespertina prece, accessit ad illum qua excreans iacebat domnus Aeuicius, ea tempestate prior loci, cum quibusdam senioribus, interrogans quid haberet, aut cur sanguinem excreans sic iaceret. Surgens itaque hom*o in medio fratrum, oculosque cum manibus ad Deum intendens, demum lingua resoluta, hanc primam ita cepit uocem formare: ‘Sic me adiuuet omnipotens Deus, meusque dominus sanctus Ecgwinus, per cuius meritum in me misero tale miraculum operatus est Christus, sicut uobis uera dixerim." Sumensque principium orationis omnia seriatim pandit, ut supra habetur comprehensum. Qua narratione finita, fratres. exhilarantur, conuocatur etiam populus, ora relaxantur in summis Dei laudibus; incipientesque ‘Te Deum laudamus’, classicum sonant diutius, extollentes Dei miracula quam poterant dulcius, qui est super omnia benedictus Deus. “ autem add. DE

' Although in the Middle Ages ‘dies sabbati! was Saturday, the context suggests that it may in fact have been a Sunday.

BOOK II

journey he had resolved on, and having reached Rome, stayed there for three years, praying devoutly at the threshold of the apostles for his disability. 77. When, after the passing of three years, there was no sign of the cure he desired, he began to ponder with considerable sadness whether anything at all could be done to heal him. But see, one night during the peaceful silence, a person dressed in white raiment stood before him, giving him advice as follows, ‘Why do you spend so much time lying here to no purpose? Return to your country England. There seek out the monastery of St Ecgwine, and go there with an offering; pray for God's mercy, and that of the saint, and you will immediately be cured.’ The dumb man immediately obeyed the divine command, and at once made his way back to his native soil. 78. He arrived in England, and was led by a sign; with God's help he took the right road and reached the monastery of St Ecgwine. It was now the sabbath.' Therefore, all the brethren were standing in the choir, when the man arrived carrying a candle in his hand as vespers was being sung: advancing before the altar he prayed for a long time, and then offered his candle.” Having made his offering, he again stood in prayer. Then, a wonderful and amazing thing happened! As the dumb man was standing before them all, suddenly he fell, and began to cough up a stream of blood, and, through extreme distress, thrash around in all directions on the floor. Evening prayer being over, /Efic, prior of the place at that time, came over with certain older monks to where the man was lying and coughing; they asked what was the matter, and why he was lying there in this way coughing blood. Rising in the midst of the brethren, and raising his eyes and his hands to God, his tongue was finally loosed, and he began to make this first utterance: ‘May almighty God help me as may my lord St Ecgwine, by whose merit Christ has wrought such a miracle in one so wretched as I, that I might tell you the truth.’ Starting with his prayer, he revealed the whole story in detail, as has been recounted above. When his story was ended, the brethren were overjoyed, the people were also summoned, their mouths were opened in loud praises of God, beginning with the ‘Te Deum Laudamus’; they rang the bells for a long time, extolling as sweetly as they could the miracles of God, who is God blessed above all things. ? The candle represents the man's prayer.

HISTORY

fosng

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

79. De quodam contractu reformato* Illud etiam non uidetur pretereundum quod sub eodem tempore in quodam homine cunctis apud Eoueshamium notissimo per beatissimum patrem nostrum sanctum Ecgwinum credimus patratum. Erat enim isdem miserando infirmitatis genere detentus, qui nec surgere quidem poterat" nisi dextra leuaque baculis sustentaretur, ambulans ses uero uno pede suspenso quasi tripes miserabiliter | gradiebatur. Tali autem infirmitate diutius possessus, nullo genere medele poterat mederi. Nam pes eius cum tibia et coxa in tanto fuerat tumore conuersus ut quasi monstrum quoddam fere ad instar humane medietatis intumescens, miserabile preberet spectaculum. 80. Veniens igitur quadam die ad locum ubi sancti Ecgwini reliquie conseruantur, humiliter coram altare suspirare, intimo ex corde gemere, ac cum magna intentione dominum sanctum Ecgwinum cepit deprecari. Fratres autem eadem hora per Dei prouidentiam in choro erant presentes, quorum presagam mentem cerneres ex uultuum indicio quodam modo trepidare, spem futuri miraculi concipere, sanctum Ecgwinum deuotius exposcere, in commune Dei ineffabilem misericordiam expectare. Infirmi sanitatem, sancti gloriam, sui loci honorem opperiebantur. Quam uera prophetica admiratio! (Quam) mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis!! Dum enim cunctorum astantium corda diuinitus tacta ad futuri prestolationem uiderentur arrecta, ecce! uident infirmum dextra leuaque baculos sue miserie adiutores abicere, ipsum in terram cadere, pedem infirmum extendere, donec omni passione solutus, gaudens exurgeret cum Dei laudibus. Accurrere uniuersi, singuli quasi rei ignari hominem interrogare, plaudere, admirari, Dominum et sanctum Ecgwinum collaudare ceperunt. Fit strepitus in ecclesia, sonantur classica, attollantur cantica diuina, omnium in Dei laudibus reserantur corda. Prelibatus uero uir, tantarum laudum materia, proprios

coram altari sancto relinquens baculos, cunctis spectantibus, sanis pedibus remeauit ad propria, clara uoce *benedicens Dominum qui regnat in secula'? 81. De quodam leproso sanato Eisdem temporibus quidam leprosus uisu horrendus, intractabilis, uniuerso corpore “DE 1.6

^ possit DE

! Cf. Ps. 67: 36 (68: 35).

deformis, memoriam

dolore pene

sancti Ecgwini

* astare R

* This is a common end for a prayer or collect.

BOOK!

79. A cripple is made whole again It does not seem right to us to neglect mentioning the miracle which we believe was wrought at the same time by our blessed father St Ecgwine in the case of a man who was well known to everybody in Evesham. He was crippled by a pitiful kind of disability, and could not get up unless supported with crutches on his left and his right, so that he walked along with one leg hanging, as if he were pathetically taking steps on three legs. He had possessed this disability for a long time and no remedy of any sort had been successful. His foot, shin, and thigh had coalesced into so great a swelling, that this was like some monstrosity, being almost half the size of a man, and making him a miserable sight to behold. 80. One day this man came to the place where the relics of St Ecgwine are preserved, and here he sighed humbly before the altar, with a groan coming from the depths of his being. He began with great feeling to pray to his lord, St Ecgwine. By God’s providence the brethren were at that hour in the choir, and from the looks on their faces, one could have perceived a sort of agitation in their expectant minds, which had conceived a hope of an impending miracle and were devoutly entreating St Ecgwine, awaiting in common the ineffable mercy of God. They were anticipating the healing of the disabled man, the glorification of the saint, and the honouring of their place. What a truly prophetic state of wonder! How wonderful is God in his saints!! For while the hearts of all of them standing there were divinely touched, and they seemed on tiptoe in their anticipation of what was to happen, they saw the disabled man throw away the crutches on his left and right, those supports of his wretchedness, then fall on the ground, stretch out his affected foot until, free of all pain, he stood up with joy, praising God. They all ran to him, and one by one, as though they were unaware of what had happened, began to question him, applaud him, wonder at him, and to praise the Lord and St Ecgwine. The church resounds, the bells ring out, voices are raised in divine singing, the hearts of all are unlocked in their praises of God. The man who had been the subject of such praises left both of his crutches before the holy altar and, watched by everyone, returned to his own home on healthy feet, blessing with a loud voice the Lord who reigns for ever.” 81. A leper is healed At that same time there was a leper who was horrifying to look at, and almost impossible to deal with because of his affliction, the whole of

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deuotus expetiit, et ab imo pectore gemitus effundens, sanctum Dei ut sui misereretur cum spe salutis creberrime deprecabatur. | fo. 135^ Tandem diu desiderata aduenit meritis beati uiri miseratio diuina; condonatur petenti infirmo sanitas laudibus plena. Posses namque uidere scabiem ueluti quoddam scutum de corpore cadere, uirum undique sanum effectum quamplures Deo et sancto gratias agere, infirmitatem comminus depositam quid fuerit testari, ipsum uero hominem quid sit omnibus cernentibus uoce clarius corpore sanato ostendere. Vnde uoces et cantica, plausus et iubilamina Deo magnifice libantur, qui a seculo facit mirabilia.'

82. De multiplici genere languentium sanatorum per sanctum Ecgminum * De miraculis sancti Ecgwini multa inquirentes, et super his sepe numero colloquentes cum personis fide dignis et ueneranda bonitate adornatis, id a compluribus compertum memorie studuimus mandare quod in antiquo tempore ante aduentum Normannorum in Angliam, Dei operante clementia, tanta miraculorum frequentia monasterium sancti uiri illustrabatur, ut raro dies’ sabbati solares radios occuluerit quo non qualicumque infirmitate uel molestia detentus gratam per sanctum Ecgwinum medelam aliquis eger optinuerit. Videres plerumque si adesses nunc unum, nunc duos, nonnumquam plures egrotantes causa salutis aduentasse, coram altare modo accedere, modo ab alus delatos adesse, in terram uolutare, preces effundere, gemitum emittere, in commune salutem sperare. Hos cecos, illos uero claudos, quosdam surdos, alios autem mutos, nonnullos leprosos siue paraliticos uel molestia ferri astrictos, aut qualibet alia infirmitate obsessos, cerneres

adesse.

Demoniaci

uero

in tam miseranda

con-

globatione non defuere. Verum in tali cuneo sepe gratia diuina per sancti Ecgwini merita adesse, cecos illuminare, claudos erigere, surdis auditum reddere, mutis linguam restituere, leprosos mundare, paraliticos sanare, ceterosque egrotantes non differebat curare, plures fo. 135°" etiam ferro pro criminum? | abolitione grauiter deuinctos meritis sancti Ecgwini mirabiliter liberare. Nam cum quidam huiusmodi “WOVE Gi 3

» GEASS

^ DE: die R

Me A GEH 20)

* It is not certain whether these were criminals bound in chains for their crimes, or

persons who like Ecgwine had shackled themselves for penitential purposes. Most likely they were the latter, as crimen can be used for sin.

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his body being deformed. This man devoutly sought out the shrine of St Ecgwine and, groaning from the depths of his heart, again and again pleaded with the saint of God to have pity upon him, in the hope of being healed. At last the divine pity, long desired, came through the merits of that blessed man. Healing was granted to the disabled man in answer to his prayers, healing that led to abundant praises. You could see the scab fall from his body like some sort of shield, and the man, healed in every part of his body, expressing a multitude of thanks to God and the saint; for his affliction, which he

had just been rid of, testified what he had been, while the man himself demonstrated in a loud voice to everyone who saw him what he was now that his body had been healed. Hence voices and hymns, applause and jubilation were magnificently expressed to God, who performs miracles evermore.! 82. Many different kinds of sick people healed by St Ecgwine Having conducted many investigations into the miracles of St Ecgwine and frequently discussing them with trustworthy people highly esteemed for their honesty, we have made it our business to write an account of what we have discovered from many sources. It is a fact that in ancient times before the coming of the Normans to England, by God’s mercy the monastery of that holy man became so famous for its many miracles that rarely did a sabbath day see the sun’s rays disappear without some sick person, afflicted by disability or illness, obtaining a gracious cure through St Ecgwine. You could generally see, if you were there, now one invalid, now two, often more, who had come for healing sometimes approach the altar, at other times come because they had been carried by others and would grovel upon the ground, utter prayers, and groan, hoping for healing in common with the others. You could observe some present who were blind, others who were lame, some deaf, others dumb, some with leprosy or paralysis, others bound with painful fetters, or distressed with some other illness. In that miserable throng there was no lack of those possessed by devils. But in that company the divine grace was present through the merits of St Ecgwine: the blind received their sight, the lame walked, hearing was restored to the deaf and speech to the dumb, lepers were made clean, the paralysed made whole, there was no delay in healing others who were sick, and many who were bound with heavy iron chains for their sins” were wonderfully set free by the merits of St Ecgwine. There was one

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EVESHAM

passione pressus ad sancti Ecgwini patrocinium expetendum se deuote optulisset, et circa sanctorum memoriam frequentius incubans Dei et eius sancti misericordiam expetisset, adeo quadam die suam pietatem magnifice declarauit omnipotens ut tanta ui ferrum ab infirmo excusserit, quod longius a propria sede resiliens, totam ecclesiam tinnitu intentam reddiderit, cunctis qui aderant mirantibus, et Deum una dulcimode laudantibus, qui tanta et tam mira in sanctis et per sanctos suos manifestare dignatur miracula. 83. Qualiter Sperckulfus monachus uidit beatam Mariam apud Euesham in criptis“ Ea tempestate solennitas sancti Ecgwini maxima cum ueneratione honorificentissime celebrabatur, populi etiam multitudo certatim affluebat, ingens apparatus, maxima frequentia, copiosa letitia pari modo renitebant. Tum globus monachorum aliunde aduentantium non minimo decori^ fuisse priuatus^ uidebatur. Inter quos quidam religiosus et ualde uenerabilis uite monachus Couentrensis,’ nomine Sperckulfus, solitus erat monasterium sancti^ frequentare, in sanctorum festiuitatibus aduenire, altaria circuire, in orationibus pernoctare, lucubrando (et) animum supernis intendendo, matutinos cantus cum psalmodia preueniendo, omnimodis deuote agendo Dei sibi misericordiam coaptare.^ 84. Iscum in quadam sancti Ecgwini festiuitate solito more adueniens, nocturnales ymnos in uigiliis cum psalmodia persistens preoccuparet, in cripta Deo sanctoque Ecgwino consecrata quo tum rite solitarius residebat, admirabilem uisionem conspexit. Nam cum Dauiticum canticum ex ordine deuotius reuolueret, uidit primo limina cripte diuina uirtute recludi, dehinc paulatim domum in^ qua sedebat superno lumine illucescere, demum quamplurimo fulgore eiectis tenebris irradiari. Cumque ad hoc spectaculum territus animum et fo. 135" una oculos conuertisset, ecce con |spicit processionem quam maximam sanctorum spirituum aduenientem, que, maxima pulchritudine ac summa honorificentia digesta, mirabile specimen intuenti prestabat. In qua quidam pueri luminum portitores cum candelabris precedebant, dehinc ephebi sequebantur, post quos seniores ueneranda canitie " DE ii. g

^ decore DE

* DE; priuatis R

Monachus Couentrensis Sperkulphus 2.xii7 m

^ Ecgwini add. DE

* Marg.

/ inserted R

o à : : Phis miracle story almost certainly dates from confirmed Earl Leofric's foundation; see below, 146.

after

1043,

when

a papal letter

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man oppressed with pain of this sort who devoted himself to seeking the protection of St Ecgwine. He would frequently make his bed near the shrine of the saints, and ask for the mercy of God and His saint. One day the Almighty responded to his piety with great power, so that He shook the chains from the disabled man with such force that, being flung so far from where the man was resting, they made the whole church take notice of the sound, and all who were there marvelled and praised God with sweet singing, who deigns to manifest such great and wonderful acts in and through His saints. 83. A monk named Sperckulf sees the blessed Mary in the crypt at Evesham At that time the feast of St Ecgwine was being celebrated with very great reverence in a most honorific fashion, a large crowd of people too was eagerly flocking to it; great magnificence, the huge number present, and abundant happiness alike shone forth. And then the throng of monks coming from elsewhere seemed to have been deprived of no small splendour. Amongst these was a monk of Coventry,’ a devout man, highly revered for his holy life, named Sperckulf. He was accustomed to visit the monastery of the saint frequently, to attend the feasts of the saints, to go round all the altars, to spend the night in prayer, to seek out for himself the mercy of God, by working at night, and setting his mind on heavenly things, to precede his morning chants with the singing of psalms, and to act with devotion in every way he could. 84. On the occasion of one festival of St Ecgwine he came in his usual manner, and was occupied in singing the night hymns and psalms during the eve of the festival, when, duly sitting alone in the crypt dedicated to God and St Ecgwine, he experienced a wonderful vision. He was devoutly reciting the psalms in order when he saw at first the doors of the crypt shut by divine power, and then the place where he was sitting gradually become bright with a heavenly light, until, banishing the darkness, it shone with a most brilliant light. When, awestruck, he turned his mind as well as his eyes towards this sight, then indeed he saw a mighty procession of holy spirits arriving who, set apart by their great beauty and high distinction, displayed a wonderful sight to the beholder. At the head of this procession certain boys processed, carrying lamps with candelabras; these were followed by youths, and after them came venerable older men with gleaming

Gis

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THE

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renitentes gradiebantur. Hi omnes albis stolis induti mirum spectaculum prebuere. Ad ultimum quedam persona pontificali habitu'—supra quam dici potest *mira uenustate'—redimita aduenit, quam dextra leuaque bini seniores simili habitu adornati deducebant. Accedentes ergo coram altare sancti Ecgwini, plurima cum modestia astantes matutinale officium exordiuntur.^ Quo cum summo honore expleto, unus ex eis ad missam decantandam se preparauit. Mira res! Missa incipitur, ac mirabili dulcedine more solito decantatur. Solenni uero missa finita, horisque canonicis honorifice decantatis, haud secus quam intrauerat totum illud collegium seriatim procedendo domum egreditur. Dehinc, modico interuallo expleto, ante matutinale officium classica pulsantur. 85. Ad hec credenda, licet iusiurandum tam uenerabilis uiri corda audientium autentica ueritate confirmauerit, non minimum tamen ueneranda illius uita ad omnem dubietatis caliginem detergendam proficit. Omittentes ergo quam constans et infatigabilis in oratione et in^ uigiliis, quam alacer diuini uerbi auditor, quam frequens in Dei seruicio perstiterit, illud dicendum arbitramur: quod tante fuerit abstinentie ut raro quarta uel sexta feria cibum sumpserit. Vnde, quia Deo fidelis permansit, eius secreta conspicere meruit. Non solum enim predictam uidit uisionem, set, quod est mirabile dictu, cum idem monachus quadam nocte in ecclesia Dei genitricis! que tunc temporis miro decore constructa habebatur, in illius solennitate uigilans pernoctaret, ecce uni |uersis ecclesie ianuis sponte reclusis, cum inestimabili claritate et decore conspicit simili modo processionem uenientem, sanctumque Ecgwinum cum alia quadam reuerenda persona, totius mundi lumen, miserorum et peccatorum omniumque Christianorum refugium "et solatium, Dei scilicet genitricem^* et semper uirginem Mariam, sullimissime, ut digna est, deducentem. Peruenientes igitur ante altare sancte Marie, uenerandus pontifex sanctus Ecgwinus, post matutinale officium honorifice decantatum, missarum solennia maxima uenustate exorditur. Cerneres monachum ista tuentem

mente

deductum

trepidare, animo fluctuare, ac secum

talia alternatim. reuoluere: ‘Quid est istud uidere? Num sensum meum perdidi? Putasne istius ecclesie monachi hic suum officium " add. R

^* om. DE

' Probably chasuble, cope, and mitre. ^ Matins is the service after Nocturns, which took place at daybreak. d ep m 4 x The abbey church at Evesham was dedicated to the Virgin.

BOOK II

white hair. All these were clad in white stoles, a wonderful sight to behold. At the end a person in bishop's robes arrived,! of whom it could be said he was crowned with a wonderful loveliness, and was

escorted on his left and his right by two elders adorned in similar garments. They approached the altar of St Ecgwine, and standing by it with great humility, they began the office of Matins. When the service had been brought to an end with great honour, one of them made preparations to sing Mass. How wonderful was this vision! Mass was begun, and sung in the usual manner with great sweetness. And when this solemn service was over, and the canonical hours had been honourably sung, the whole of that congregation left the place just as they had entered it, and made their way home in due order. Then, after just a short time had elapsed, the bells began to ring before the office of Matins. 85. Although the oath of so respected a man convinced those hearing the story that it was absolutely true, no less effective in dispelling any mists of doubt was the holy life of that man. Without recounting how persistent and tireless he was in spending nights in prayer, how zealous a hearer of divine scripture, how assiduous and steadfast in the service of God, we consider that mention must be made of his great austerity of life, so that he rarely took food on a Wednesday or a Friday. Hence, because he remained faithful to God, he was deemed worthy of perceiving His mysteries. But not only did this monk see the vision we have described but, marvellous to relate, one night in the church of Mary,? mother of God, a church of surpassing beauty built at that time, he was praying in the solemnity of the church, when suddenly all its doors opened of their own accord and he saw a procession similar to that of his previous vision moving towards him with incredible splendour and beauty: St Ecgwine, with another revered person, leading sublimely, as was most fitting, Mary, the mother of God,* the everlasting virgin, the light of the whole world, the refuge and solace of poor sinners and of all Christians. The reverend bishop St Ecgwine, coming to the altar of the blessed Mary after the office of Matins had been reverently sung, began most graciously the solemn service of Mass. You could have seen the monk trembling as he watched intently, agitated in mind, pondering over one thought, then another such as, ‘What is this I am seeing? Surely I have not lost my senses? Are the monks of this church carrying out * As part of this clause is not in DE, it may indicate that Thomas had a better text than that found in either of the two surviving manuscripts of DE.

IOO

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peragunt? Set hic neminem "recognosco ex illis." An spiritus sunt uel corpora que uideo? Nonne hic quidam assunt, quos diu ex hac luce subtractos intelligo? Viderat namque in illo globo quosdam quos et Eoueshamensis monasterii monachos et iam defunctos nouerat. Hac igitur ambiguitate compulsus, accedit secreto ad quendam, et que esset cui missa decantaretur inquirit. Ad quem paucis: "Tace; num ignoras dominum nostrum sanctum Ecgwinum beate Dei genitrici et semper uirgini Marie sacrum mysterium celebrantem?' Territus ille huiusmodi responsione, locum repetens rei exitum prestolabatur. Itaque peracta missarum celebratione, horisque sancte Marie ex ordine decantatis, iterum duo episcopi celi reginam et mundi dominam humillime dextra leuaque assumentes, eodem modo quo prius induxere, cum processione et summa gloria reduxere.! Istiusmodi uero rei exempla late suppetunt. 86. De quodam canonico Turonensis ecclesie Compertum quippe habemus quendam canonicum olim Turonis Deo sanctoque Martino seruientem quodam modo uniformem uidisse uisionem.” Qui cum stultitia inductus glisceret rescire causam cur fo. 136" in ordinati|one seu translatione sancti Martini que in estate celebratur nullus hominum post decantatum completorium ecclesie auderet remanere, studuit se ipsum subtus quoddam altare clanculo occulere donec, cunctis pro more discedentibus, eius rei causam quiret explorare. Quid amplius? In conticinio noctis, cum solus uastam ecclesiam. uagabundis oculis perambularet, subito uidet ecclesie. limina. patefacta, intrantemque mirabilem processionem, sanctum uero Martinum portam salutis et, post Deum, primam spem Christianorum sanctam Mariam honorifice dextra ducentem. Que, cum in medio ecclesie constitisset, incepit hanc antiphonam, ana

ex illis recognosco DE

' This miracle indicates the size and grandeur of the abbey church at the time, with its extensive crypt. For the architectural revival of the period, see E. Fernie, The Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons (London,

1983), pp. 112-61.

* This vision does not seem to be recorded in any other surviving source. Evesham was the centre of a cult of the Virgin Mary, and the story of the canon of Tours was included by Dominic here amongst the miracles of St Ecgwine because it made a useful comparison with Dominic’s other stories of the appearance of the Virgin at Evesham. To the Evesham compiler it had the added attraction that St Martin of Tours, like St Ecgwine, was both monk and bishop. Dominic knew of this Vision story, possibly from a written source or perhaps from an oral tradition. J. C. Jennings assigns it to 1039-66; see J. C. Jennings, ‘Prior Dominic of Evesham and the survival of English tradition after the Norman

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their duties here, do you think? But I do not recognize here. Are they spirits or bodies that I see? Surely, there these here whom I know departed this life long ago? indeed seen some in that company whom he had known

IOI

any of them are some of For he had as monks of

the monastery of Evesham, and who had then died. Impelled by this uncertainty, therefore, he approached one of them secretly, and asked him what the reason was for Mass being sung? The monk replied

briefly, ‘Be silent! Surely you are not unaware that our lord St Ecgwine 1s celebrating the sacred mystery for the blessed mother of God, Mary, ever virgin?’ Awestruck by such a reply, he resumed his place and awaited the outcome of the proceedings. Therefore, when the celebration of the Mass was over, and the Hours of the Blessed Mary had been sung in due order, the two bishops, most humbly taking their places again on the left and right of the queen of heaven and mistress of the world, and escorting her in the same way as before, led her from the place in procession and with great glory.' Similar examples of such visions are widely found.

86. A canon of the church of Tours Indeed we have discovered that a canon of Tours, a servant of God and St Martin, once saw a similar kind of vision. Impelled by a foolish impulse, this man yearned to discover the reason why, during the celebration of the ordination or the translation of St Martin, which is celebrated in the summer,’ none of the men dared to stay behind in the church after compline had been sung. He therefore made it his business to hide secretly under one of the altars until all had left in the usual way, so that he might investigate the reason for this. What more? During the silent hours of the night, he was wandering alone through the huge church looking everywhere, when suddenly he saw the doors of the church open, and a wonderful procession with St Martin himself entering this portal of salvation, honourably escorting on the right the Blessed Mary who, after God Himself, is the primary hope of Christians. When she came to the centre of the church, she stood there and began this antiphon, ‘I have Conquest’ (Oxford B. Litt., 1958), pp. 35, 99, who discusses in detail the work of Dominic as a hagiographer. The story from Tours may have arrived at Evesham through a pilgrim to the Evesham shrines. Dominic did not include it in his collection of the Miracles of the Virgin which was compiled before 1130, for which see J. C. Jennings, “The origins of the “Elements Series" of the miracles of the Virgin’, Mediaeval and Renaissance Studies, vi

(1968), 84—93, and R. W. Southern, “The English origin of the “Miracles of the Virgin", ibid., iv (1958), 176—216, at pp. 178-83. > 4 July.

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‘Non uidi iustum derelictum nec sem*n eius querens panem’,' eamque sola mira cum dulcedine modulando ad finem usque perduxit. Post hec ad sepulchrum sancti Martini cum processione pergit, peractoque propter quod uenerant, respexit sancta Maria clericum ista cernentem, et statim ad sanctum Martinum quasi commota subinfert, *Quis est hic clericus solus ausus hac ecclesia temere remanere?" Cui sanctus Martinus ad eius genua se prouoluens, ‘Mitissima domina, miserere, noster est clericus; iube quod placet.’ ‘Tui causa’, inquit angelorum regina, *huic ignosco; uerum precipe ut se preparet, quoniam post triduum temporale seculum perdet." Quod ut dictum, sic factum. 87. Cum igitur his et aliis quampluribus exemplis intelligamus Deum et eius sanctos ecclesias sanctas frequentare, qua instantia bonis operibus et Dei seruitio condecet omnipotentis famulos insudare; cum quanta reuerentia debet Christianus in domo creatoris sui persistere! Dilecta etenim Deo ualde sunt loca ad que ipse cum sanctis dignatur sepius uenire uisitanda. Verum quoniam tempus expostulat, ad miracula patris et protectoris nostri Ecgwini unde paululum digressi sumus, stilum uertamus. Debemus enim tanto operi morem gerere, ut in futuro mercedem a Domino queamus percipere. fo. 136"*

88. | De quodam sanato et quodam fure de mortis articulo misericorditer liberato* Reuerentissimo abbate domno Aegelwino Eoueshamensium rectore prudentissimo huius uite modum faciente, uiro quo post sanctum Ecgwinum coram seculo nullus utilior et insignior ipsa in ecclesia extitit, tempore magni Willelmi regis Anglorum et ducis Normannorum, domnus Walterus Eoueshamensem abbatiam regendam suscepit Is cum esset uir peritie multoque decore et omni facetia condecoratus, nouis rebus, ut fieri solet, animum tradidit. Ecclesiam namque recenti opere delectatus incepit, et antiquum opus quod tum temporis ex pulcherrimis in Anglia extitit, paulatim destruxit. Cerneres, mirum dictu! tam magnum antiquitatis opus in solam criptam insimul congestum; ceterum, deficiente copia operandi, in magna angustia procuratorem operis fore. Difficultate namque rerum * DE ut. to

! Ps, 36: 25 (Ps. 37: 25). * Walter had been a monk of Cerisy. He was made abbot of Evesham in 1077. William

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103

not seen one just man abandoned, nor his seed seeking bread’,' and she

alone sang this to the very end with wonderful sweetness. After this she made her way to the tomb of St Martin with the procession, and when she had finished what she had come to do, the blessed Mary looked at the clerk who was observing her and immediately addressed St Martin, as though she were angry, ‘Who is this clerk who alone has dared to remain boldly behind in this church?' Kneeling before her, St Martin replied to her, ‘Most gentle lady, have mercy! He is our clerk. Command what you will.’ ‘For your sake’, said the queen of the angels, ‘I pardon him; but tell him to prepare himself, for in three days he will forfeit his life in this world.” And what she said actually happened. 87. Hence, we learn from these and many other examples that God and his saints visit the holy churches, so that it is fitting for the servants of the Almighty to do their utmost to act virtuously and to serve God. How reverent the Christian ought to be in the house of his creator! How beloved of God are those places to which He deigns to come with his saints on frequent visits! But as the time demands it, let us now turn our pen again to the account of the miracles of our father and protector Ecgwine, from which we have digressed for a short while. For our behaviour with respect to a task of this magnitude ought to be such that we may be able in the future to receive a reward from our Lord. 88. A man is healed, and a thief mercifully escapes the moment of death The most revered abbot /Ethelwig made it his way of life to be a wise ruler of Evesham, and there was no man, after St Ecgwine, who in worldly matters was more competent or more distinguished in that church than he. In the time of William, the great king of the English and duke of Normandy, he was succeeded by Walter as ruler of Evesham abbey.” He was a man of experience, displaying great charm and refinement, who set his mind upon introducing changes, as usually happens [with a new man]. Delighted by recent architecture he began to build a church, and gradually demolished the ancient building, which at that time was one of the most beautiful in England. You could see, marvellous to relate! pieces of this great work of antiquity piled up together in the one crypt. However, as there was a lack of material to work with, the steward responsible for the work was having a difficult time. The place was fraught with troubles, first of Malmesbury (De gestis pontificum Anglorum, p. 137) says that he was a monk of Caen, but Evesham’s History is more likely to be accurate; see below, 173.

104

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EVESHAM

isdem locus cingebatur, tum petrarum, tum lignorum, tum, quod maxime in humanis necessitatem iuuat, pecuniarum. Qua necessitate compulsus, domnus abbas Walterus, conuocatis ad se binis fratribus loci,

fo. 136

honorifice

omnibus

necessariis

sufficienter

dispositis,

cum

reliquiis sancti patris nostri Ecgwini illos per Angliam direxit. Qui precepto spiritualis. patris obedientes, cum aliquotiens Angliam peragrassent, tanti patroni meritis adiuti, pecuniam plurimam sue ecclesie adquisierunt, et etiam multorum saluationis ac sanitatis emolumentum per sanctum Dei ab omnipotente concessum nobis ueraci stilo transcribendum tradiderunt. Proferamus ergo in medium pauca de multis, ad declarandum uirum uirtutis. 89. Cum predicti fratres ad Oxinefordiam, fulti reliquus. sancti Ecgwini, letabundi peruenissent, et uerbum Dei, populo spectante, predicassent, quidam uir magne, ut postmodum claruit, fidei, ad feretrum sancti Ecgwini inter ceteros humiliter accessit, ternas orationes coram cunctis deuotissime compleuit, | et per singulas preces manum ad marsupium mittens indeque triplicem oblationem sumens, sancto Dei fideliter optulit. Verum antiquus hostis haud talia passus: quendam ex suis, qui uti *palea inter triticum"! aderat, ardenti cupiditate

instigauit,

clandestino dampnum

superna

ut fideli uiro

orationibus

intento,

inferret. O mira insania! Omnibus

in sacris

fere ad

intentis, ipse infelix, ut membrum

diaboli, prope uirum

approximat, et de eius marsupio denarios quot preualet latenter abstrahit. Dupplicat nefarium opus, et identidem tertio instaurat simile facinus. Set sanctus Ecgwinus non diu distulit damnare furantis manus. Nam cum infelix tertio manum iniecisset marsupio, exaruit continuo, et ueluti clausa retenta est in eodem loculo. Videres

furem trepidare, pallescere, ueluti dementem oculos circumiacere, omnimodis mortem suspectam habere. Tandem causam intelligentes

qui aderant, furem comprehendere, factum mirari, sanctum Dei sullimi uoce collaudere, ceperunt. Fit plausus circumquaque, iudicant furem interitum ire, ex statuto maturant perficere. Monachi uero reliquias sancti secum deferentes non prius desistunt a precibus | Jer. 23: 28.

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over stone, then over wood, and then over that essential element in human affairs in times of necessity, money. Impelled by this necessity, Abbot Walter summoned two of the brethren of the place to him, and making sufficient provision for all the necessary arrangements, sent them throughout England with the relics of our father, St Ecgwine. They obeyed the command of their spiritual father, and when they had journeyed up and down England several times, they acquired a good deal of money for their church, aided by the merits of such a patron. They also gave us information, to be written down in a truthful account, of payments made by many in hopes of salvation and good health being granted by the almighty through Ecgwine, the holy man of God. Let us therefore set out a few stories out of many which show a man of virtue. 89. When these brethren, sustained by the relics of St Ecgwine, reached Oxford, they were full of joy, and they preached the word of God to onlookers. One man, of great faith, as later events proved, humbly approached the feretory of St Ecgwine amongst others, and prayed most devoutly three prayers in front of them all. During each one of the prayers he put his hand into his purse and took from it an oblation, doing this three times, faithfully offering it to Ecgwine, the saint of God. But the old enemy [the devil], that inveterate enemy of God, did not permit such things to happen. One of his followers, who was there like ‘chaff amongst the wheat',! he tempted with a passionate desire to inflict loss upon that faithful man while he was intent upon his holy prayers. What an amazing madness! While almost everybody was intent upon heavenly thoughts, this unfortunate man, as a disciple of the devil, drew near the man, and furtively stole as many pennies as he could from his purse. He then repeated his

wicked act, and did the same again a third time. But St Ecgwine did not long delay in inflicting just punishment on the hands of the thief. For when the unfortunate man had dipped his hand a third time into the purse, it instantly withered, and was held fast in the little bag as if imprisoned in it. You could see the thief all of a tremble, growing pale, looking all around him like a madman, and imagining all sorts of death. Eventually all those who were there realized the reason for this, and began to arrest the thief, to marvel at what had happened, and to raise their voices in praise of God's saint. There was applause all around; the judgment made was that the thief should suffer death, and they hastened to carry this out in accordance with the law. However, the monks, carrying with them the relics of the saint, did

HISTORY

106

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

quam, adiutorio sancti Ecgwini, instantia precum uinc*nt iudicum" statutum. Sicque in una re duplicem benignitatem per sanctum suum ostendit omnipotens, cum et seruum suum de furto, et furem misericorditer liberauit de mortis articulo. 90. De quodam puero sanato" Plerique fidelium uirorum, audientes famam uirtutum sancti Ecgwini, in seipsis sunt experti quam proximus Deo et quam efficax adiutor se in necessitate deuote inuocantibus beatus uir habeatur. Nam quidam diues, Iuo dictus, hom*o Hugonis de Grantemainilo,' cum suus filius grauissima infirmitate decoctus in articulo mortis iamiamque detineretur, ipsemet pro filio suo sanctum Ecgwinum fo. 137. deuote supplicaturus, comperta ipsi|us fama, cum candela et oblatione ad eius monasterium accessit. Indixit tamen suis hominibus antequam a domo qua infirmus iacebat discederet, ut si interim puer moreretur sibi cum festinatione statim nuntiaretur. Veniens igitur ad ecclesiam sancte Dei genitricis Marie sanctique Ecgwini, coram altare accedere, caput humillime in terram declinare, oblationem offerre, Deum supplicetur adorare, sanctumque Ecgwinum cum lacrimis deuote pro filio exorare studuit. gt. Ibique tota die cum sequenti nocte in uigiliis et orationibus ardentem candelam manibus gestando permansit, sepius humi se prosternens et pectus tundens, donec mane facto ad reuisendam prolem eum animus compulisset. Oblata ergo portione candele et licentia a sancto petita,” cum spe iter assumptum relegebat. Et ecce unus

suis

medio

itineris

occurrens,

renuntiauit

domino

proprium filium sanissimum effectum. Miratur pater; iubet ut quando uel quomodo id sit factum edicat. Cui famulus, ‘Cum lutea aurora hodie claresceret et lucem solitam per celi centrum diffunderet, qualitatem facti nobis ignorantibus sanus apparuit uester filius." Audiens hoc pater, ardentius iter agressus, ad dilectam sobolem peruenit quantotius. iudicium DE

* DE sors

' Judith Green, English Sheriffs to 1154 (PRO Handbooks xxiv, 1990), p. 53, suggests that Hugh was sheriff of Leicester before 1093, to be followed by Ivo (de Grandmesnil), his son, some time between 1093 and 1102. The text makes it clear that the Ivo mentioned here is not Hugh’s son. On Ivo de Grandmesnil and Ivo, the knight, see D. Greenway, ‘Conquest and colonization: the foundation of an alien priory, 1077’, in The Cloister and the World: Essays in Medieval History in honour of Barbara Harvey, ed. J. Blair and B. Golding

(Oxford, 1996), 46-56, at pp. 53-6. The Ivo, knight, mentioned here, is probably the Ivo referred to in this miracle. The story has obvious parallels with the story of the centurion’s

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not cease from praying until, with St Ecgwine's help and the earnestness of their prayers, they had overruled the decree of the judges. So, at one and the same time the Almighty showed a double kindness through his saint, when he mercifully saved his servant from theft, and the thief from the moment of death. 90. A boy is healed Most men of faith, who heard of the reputation of St Ecgwine's powers, experienced in their own lives how close he was to God, and how real a helper that blessed man was considered to be to those who devoutly invoked him in their times of trouble. There was a certain rich man named Ivo, a man of Hugh de Grandmesnil,' whose son had a wasting disease and was on the very point of death. Ivo, having heard of Ecgwine's reputation, went to his monastery with a candle and an offering to pray to him devoutly for his son. However, he had given instructions to his men before he left the house where the invalid lay that, if the boy died in the mean time, they were to make haste and tell him at once. Therefore, when he arrived at the church of the Blessed Mary, mother of God, and of St Ecgwine, he took care to approach the altar, to bow his head to the ground in great humility, to make his offering, to worship God in supplication, and to pray to St Ecgwine with devotion and tears on behalf of his son. 91. He remained there for the whole of the day and the following night, watching and praying, and holding the burning candle in his hands. He often prostrated himself and beat his breast, until morning came and his mind compelled him to visit his son again. He therefore offered up what was left of the candle and, requesting the permission of the saint to depart,” he began to set off on the journey he had undertaken in hope. But look what happened, one of his men meeting him in the middle of his journey, gave his master the news that his son had been made well again. The father marvelled. He bade the man to tell him when and how this had happened. The servant replied, ‘When today's golden dawn began to grow bright and to spread its accustomed light throughout the vault of heaven, your son appeared before us well, though we did not know the nature of what had happened.' Hearing this the father took to the road more eagerly, and arrived home as fast as he could to his beloved child. servant in Matt. 8: 5-13 and Luke 7:1—10 (noted by Jennings, ‘Prior Dominic’ (B.Litt.,

1958), pp. 34-5).

? This action expressed the hope that the saint would continue praying on his behalf.

108

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

92. Accurrens igitur filius obuiam, patrem sanus et incolumis amplectitur. Funduntur cum gaudio lacrime, sancti Ecgwini magnalia predicantur utrobique. Hic^ pater cum filio, illinc omnis as familia, maximo tripudio resonabat. Ad ultimum sciscitatur^ filium pater quomodo ei sanitas adueniret. *Nouit', inquit filius, Weise Deus me sanum esse, set qualiter michi sanitas acciderit ignorare." 'Tunc iterum omnes benedicebant Dominum et sanctum Ecgwinum, per quem tale miraculum insigniter est propalatum. 93. De quodam in expeditione liberato Sub isdem diebus duobus monachis cum reliquiis sancti Ecgwini pergentibus, uentum est ad maximam ciuitatem — Anglie, | In qua cum fecissent uerbum Dei ad populum, fo. 137? Lundoniam. adstabat cum ceteris quidam miles Petri de Valonia, Willelmus Spinetus nuncupatus. Qui cum intente semina uerbi Dei in agro cordis! sumpsisset, talem ibidem radicem fixit unde postea in necessitate maxima dulcem fructum percepit. Succedenti enim tempore, dum cum domino suo in citeriorem Brittanniam in expeditione aduersus Walenses pugnaturus equitasset,’ quadam die cum sociis dolose ab hostibus insidiis circ*mseptus pene morti est addictus. Nempe uniuersis coequitibus suis telis inimicorum obrutis et neci traditis, ipse solus in medio hostium positus, cum nec se posset defendere nec manus inimicorum euadere, in ultimam horam prope deuenerat miserabili certamine. Nam tanta lassitudine ipse et sonipes super quem sedebat opprimebantur, ut nec idem manibus et armis

pugnare nec equus eum quoquam ualeret deferre. 94. Reminiscens ergo uirtutum que de sancto Ecgwino apud Lundoniam audierat, ex intimo pectore ingemiscens: ‘O Domine’, inquit, ‘qui semper in tribulatione te inuocantibus? presto es, si uera constant que de sancto Ecgwino episcopo audiui, iam nunc per eius merita a presenti periculo mortis me libera." Continuo, oratione finita, aduenit repente fortitudo tanta, ut et ipse uirtutem insolitam et equus cui presidebat uelocitatem perciperet permaximam, statimque per sancti uiri merita ab inimicis mirabiliter ereptus, Deo et sancto Ecgwino "^ hinc DE

^ stipulatur DE

SUD Gers

' Cf. John 9: 20-25. * Peter de Valognes was sheriff of Essex and sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1086 and probably earlier; see Green, Sheriffs, pp. 39, 47. * Cf. Mark 4: 15.

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92. His son, running to meet him, embraced his father, fit and sound in body. They wept tears of joy, and both of them extolled the great miracles of St Ecgwine. The house resounded with great jubilation, here with the father and the son, there with the whole family present. Eventually the father asks his son how it was that his health returned. The son replied, ‘Almighty God knows that I am healed, but I do not know how health came to me."' Then again they all blessed the Lord and St Ecgwine, through whom such a miracle was wonderfully revealed.

93. A soldier is healed during a campaign At about the same time two monks, who were travelling with the relics of St Ecgwine, came to London, the largest city of England. When they had preached the word of God to the people there, a knight of Peter de Valognes, named William Thorn, was standing listening with others. He eagerly received 'the seeds of the word of God in the soil of his heart’,’ and these took so firm a root there that he later reaped a rich harvest in a time of great need... For subsequently, when he had gone on an expedition into the Welsh Marches to fight the Welsh,* he was one day cunningly ambushed by the enemy along with his comrades, and barely escaped being killed. Indeed every one of his fellow knights was struck by the enemy’s weapons and slain, while he himself, being surrounded all alone by the enemy, and unable to defend himself or to escape from their attack, was facing almost certain death in that lamentable combat. For he and the horse which he was riding were so overcome with fatigue, that neither he himself had the strength to fight with his hands or his weapons, nor the horse to carry him anywhere. 94. However, remembering the power of St Ecgwine, of which he had heard in London, and groaning in the depths of his heart, he cried, ‘O Lord, who are ever at hand “‘to help those who call upon you in trouble”, if what I have heard in London about St Ecgwine the bishop is really true, even now rescue me by his merits from the present peril of death.’ The instant he finished praying such courage suddenly came upon him, that he himself received extraordinary strength, and the horse he was controlling amazing speed. At once, by the merits of that holy man, he was miraculously snatched from his foes, and thereafter he remained a devout servant of God and St * The campaign against the Welsh presumably took place under the Conqueror and dates this before his death in 1087. 2 Gio Pseso: BID D:87) T.17:85 (BT8:65):

IIO

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

exinde mansit deuotus. Veniensque postmodum ad sancti uiri monasterium, promissum reddit^ uotum, offerens super altare oblationem et deuotam sancto fundens ex imo affectu precem. Conuocans autem priorem loci, a principio enuntiat fidem uerbi, sicut ex ordine habetur comprehensum in superiori. 95. Qualiter feretrum sancti Ecgmini in flumine submersum, siccum permanserit; et qualiter seruiens cum brachio eiusdem in eodem flumine submersus euaserit’ Res admonet ut quoddam mirum per sanctum Ecgwinum coram fonce multis insinuatum | lectori offeramus legendum. Reliquie sancti uiri quocumque deportabantur, maximo honore cingebantur, summaque diligentia custodiebantur. Dum igitur quadam die custodes sanctarum reliquiarum ad flumen quod Trenta ab accolis^ uocitatur peruenissent, et rapidam ipsam aquam transmeare necessarium duxissent, monachus quidam ex ipsis nomine Heremannus,’ timens fluminis immanitatem et tremendam precipitationem maximeque pro sanctis reliquiis sollicitus, ipsemet ante se super equum scrinium sancti Ecgwini deportare studuit, ut si quid periculi accidisset meritis sancti uiri protegeretur. Cuidam uero ministrorum precepit ut brachium sancti Ecgwini? de collo suspensum maxima cum reuerentia conseruaret. Post hec, ductore precedente, primum monachus cum reliquiis. sancti, postmodum ceteri quaquauersum sequebantur. Verum" monachus, Dei prouidentia, a recto uado paulatim aberrans et in profundum fluminis cum magno timore equitans, circumfusionem aque ad pectora usque patiebatur. Ea ad enucleationem uirtutum sancti Ecgwini prouenere, ut quanti meriti apud Deum sit sanctus facillime possis peruidere. Nam cum prefatus monachus flumen (ut diximus) transmeasset, in tantum sanctum suum clarificauit omnipotens, ut nec in theca scrinii nec in aliquo uestimento monachi una saltem gutta aque quiret reperiri, set ueluti per fluctuantes segetes seu siluas in autumnali tempore equitatum isset, ita a natura elementalis aque discriminatus appareret. ^ reddidit DE

aie

* incolis DE

4 Vere DE

' A Lotharingian name, possibly illustrating Evesham’s close ties with the continent in the rith cent. On the contacts see V. Ortenberg, The English Church and the Continent in the tenth and eleventh centuries (Oxford, 1992), pp. 57—9, and 106. ^ For a fine example of an early 12th-cent. arm-reliquary, see plate 10 and p. 16 of R. Ó Floinn, Irish Shrines and Reliquaries of the Middle Ages (National Museum of Ireland,

BOOK

Ecgwine. He came later to the monastery of that holy man and, fulfilling a vow that he had made, he placed an offering upon the altar and with deep feeling uttered a prayer of devotion to the saint. He then summoned the prior of the monastery, and from that moment proclaimed his trust in the word of God, as has been recounted in detail above.

95. The feretory of St Ecgmine sinks in a river, but remains dry; a servant sinks in the same river mith an arm of the saint, and escapes The subject urges us to bring to the reader's attention a particular miracle which occurred in the presence of many people. Wherever the relics of the holy man were carried they were encompassed with great honour, and guarded with the greatest diligence. One day, therefore, when the guardians of the holy relics arrived at a river called the Trent by those living near it, and considered that it was necessary to cross its fast-flowing water, one of them, a monk named Heremann,' was alarmed at the height of the river and its frightening speed of flow, and especially anxious about the holy relics. He therefore determined himself to carry the reliquary in front of him on horseback, so that if any danger occurred he would be protected by the merits of St Ecgwine. He told one of the attendants to hang the arm of St Ecgwine’ from his neck, and to keep it safe with the greatest of reverence. After this, with the guide in front, the monk went first with the relics of the saint, and after him the rest followed as and when they could. The monk, however, by the providence of God, strayed gradually from the straight route over the shallows, and with great fear rode his horse into the deep water, thus causing the swirling water to flow up to his breast. This had happened so that the power of St Ecgwine might be revealed, and that you might more readily perceive how important the saint is to God. For when the monk crossed the river, as we have said, the Almighty raised his saint's fame to such heights, that not a single drop of water could be found either in the inside of the reliquary or in any of the monk's clothing: it was as though he had gone riding through the waving cornfields or the woods in autumn, and so that it appeared to be shunned by the nature of the watery element. 1994); and for a 13th-cent. example, Liturgical Objects in the Walters Art Galley (Baltimore, 1967), plate 25. By the time of Dominic's writing, St Ecgwine's arm may have been encased in a metal reliquary with a hollowed out wooden core to take the arm bone, such as that of St Lachtin.

112

fo. 137°

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

96. Quis astantium et tam mira uidentium secundum posse non laudabit^ Dominum? Quis tam insigne prodigium minus predicabile estimauerit quam si super aquas ierit? Vtrunque etenim contra legem nature fieri certum est. Quis scientium tam clarum miraculum quoad uixit non aliis in opportunitate predicare studuit?^ Veruntamen omnipotens non in hoc solummodo facto mo|dum declarandorum meritorum sancti uiri statuit, set statim in eodem loco haud multum dissimile miraculum per dilectum suum sanctum Ecgwinum manifestauit. 97. Minister enim, cui brachium sancti Ecgwini superius commendatum diximus, dum cum eodem brachio non recto tramite uadum attemptaret, in gurgitem incidit permaximum, in quo pridie nauis una demersa fuerat. Quod cum in littore astantes cernerent pallescere, trepidare, cum ingenti tumultu et dolore ad Dominum exclamare, sanctumque Ecgwinum cum lacrimis inuocare ceperunt. Monachi uero tum pro famuli periculo, tum pro brachio sui protectoris in maxima angustia extitere: omnes in commune nomen sancti Ecgwini cum clamore inuocauere. Cum ergo diu multumque sub aquarum mole uir prelibatus latuisset, omnesque qui aderant hunc iam necatum existimarent, tandem super aquas uiuus apparuit, et tertio immersus tertioque super liquidum elementum uisus, demum per uirtutem sancti ad terram extraitur fessus, ubi tam insigne miraculum cunctis astantibus est ostensum, ut nec in theca brachii sancti Ecgwini nec in uexillo quod infra positum seruabatur uel una solummodo aque gutta apparuerit, neque quicquam in eo madidum repertum fuerit. Opstupuere uniuersi; pariter collaudant magnalia sancti Ecgwini; eiusque ministrum apprehendentes et ad domum deducentes leti prope eum permanent, curam impendentes. Qui cum plurimum aque ab ore dimisisset, postera die sanus et incolumis ceptum iter accelerat cum ceteris.

98. De cereis sine adiutorio hominis accensis" Alio tempore dum reliquie sancti Ecgwini a monasterio sancti Pancratii deferrentur,' processione precedente cum cruce et ardentibus cereis, repente ui uentorum cerei extincti sunt. Set cum uno pene ^ Jaudauit DE

SDE arena

' St Pancras, Lewes, a Cluniac house, was founded in 1077 by William de Warenne and his wife.

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96. Who among the bystanders, seeing such marvellous events, will not give as much praise to God as they can? Who could think so amazing a miracle as being less estimable than if he had ridden above the waves? For there is no doubt that each is an event contrary to the laws of nature. Who amongst those who know of so extraordinary a miracle has not made it his aim, while he is alive, to tell others about it when the opportunity occurs? Yet the Almighty decided that the manner of declaring the merits of this holy man should not rest with this miracle alone, but immediately displayed another very similar miracle through his beloved St Ecgwine. 97. The attendant we mentioned above, to whom the arm of St Ecgwine had been entrusted, in attempting to cross the shallow water with the arm by the wrong course, fell into very deep water, where the previous day a ship had sunk. When those standing on the shore saw this, their faces turned pale and their bodies trembled, they began to cry aloud with great clamour and sorrow to the Lord, and to call upon St Ecgwine tearfully. The monks were in great distress both over the danger to the servant and over the arm of their protector, and all of them as one called loudly upon the name of St Ecgwine. When the man, therefore, had been a very long time under the deep water, and all who were there thought he had now been drowned, he at last appeared above the water alive. He sank three times, but appeared on the surface of the river again three times, and at last through the goodness of the saint was dragged to the bank exhausted. It was here that the extraordinary miracle was revealed to all the bystanders: namely, that not a single drop of water was to be seen either in the bag carrying the arm of St Ecgwine, or on the banner which had been put into it to keep it safe, and no dampness was found at all in it. Everybody was amazed, and together they praised the great deeds of St Ecgwine; and leading the servant by the hand, and joyfully escorting him back home, they stayed near him, and looked after him. When he had expelled most of the water from his mouth, he was well the following day, and set off speedily with the others on the journey they had begun.

98. Candles are lit without human assistance At another time when the relics of St Ecgwine were being carried from the monastery of St Pancras [Lewes],! and a procession was making its way with cross and burning candles, the candles were suddenly extinguished by a gust of wind. However, when they had

114

HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

miliario processissent, rursus cerei diuinitus accensi, ardentes cunctis mirantibus uisuntur.

fo. 138"

99. De muliere cuius infans ex utero rupto fuerat extractus“ Preterea multi diuersarum infirmita|tum morbo detenti, cum de aqua benedicta unde brachium sancti Ecgwini lotum fuerat hausissent, celerem sanitatis effectum maturius percepere. Quedam etenim mulier cuius infans infra materna uiscera morti addictus fuerat, nec, sicut plerisque, abortiuus exierat, uerum in materno utero computruerat. Dum de aqua unde sancti Ecgwini brachium erat lotum cum spe salutis sumpsisset, statim in sequenti nocte uigilando cum cognatis et amicis ante feretrum sancti, dirupta est aluus illius, uenienteque aurifabro cum forcipe! et infantilia ossa "iam fere medio anno putrescentia’ a maternis uisceribus extrahente. Que prius iugi dolore et maximo fetore torquebatur postmodum sanitati reddita est.

100. De altera muliere sanata* Altera item mulier, cuius brachium miserrime fuerat contractum, per beatum Ecgwinum coram multis sanata est. ror. De uirtute sancti Ecgwini pacificandi homines? Omnibus autem pie intuentibus liquet sanctum Dei Ecgwinum filium pacis extitisse, cuius reliquiis tam miram Dominus gratiam conferre dignatus fuerit ut quantacumque quilibet discordie peste discissi fuissent, presentibus eius reliquiis mox in pacis gremio filiis pacis consensissent. Nam cum quidam ita nece karorum indurati essent ut, neque auctoritate regali seu episcopali uel cuiuslibet dignitatis deuicti, paci assensum preberent, aduenientibus in id locorum sancti Ecgwini reliquiis, confestim ianua pacis? in commune omnibus patefacta est. Omnes presentes in hoc facto obstupescere, nonnulli etiam pre gaudio flere cepere.

"DEM.

^* om. DE

aro

? DE it. 17

' The goldsmith was called because his tools included forceps, or pincers, used for intricate work; see J. Cherry, Goldsmiths (London, 1992), p. 27, and Theophilus, The Various Arts: De diversis artibus , ed. and trans. C. R. Dodwell (OMT, 1986), p. 68. ^ A possible reference to John 10: 1-2.

BOOK II

i15

processed for almost a mile, the candles were lit again by divine power, and to everyone's amazement were seen burning. 99. A moman's baby is delivered from her burst womb Besides this there were many who were disabled by different kinds of illness, but when they had drunk from the blessed water in which the arm of St Ecgwine had been washed, they soon began to feel the swift effect of good health again. There was a certain woman whose baby was doomed to death in its mother's womb, but had not, as in the case of many others, been aborted, and so it had begun to decay in the mother's womb. However, after the mother had drunk from the water in which St Ecgwine's arm had been washed, in the hope of being healed, the following night, when she was praying with relatives and friends before the shrine of the saint, her belly burst, and a goldsmith arrived with forceps! to remove from the mother’s womb the baby’s bones, which had now been decaying for almost six months, from the mother’s abdomen. So the woman who before this had been tormented by perpetual pain and the greatest stench, was afterwards

restored to health. 100. Another woman is healed Another woman, whose arm had been pitifully deformed, was also healed through the blessed Ecgwine in the presence of many people. 101. The power of St Ecgmine to bring men peace It is obvious to everyone who contemplates the matter piously, that God's saint Ecgwine was a son of peace, through whose relics the Lord deigned to bestow such wonderful grace that any who had been torn apart by the bane of strife, however great it might be, were soon in the embrace of peace, and one with the sons of peace, when the relics of the saint were at hand to help. For when there were any who had been so hardened by the death of those they loved, that though they could not be subdued by royal or episcopal authority or by that of any person of position, they would show their willingness to be peaceful, if the relics of St Ecgwine arrived in the place where they were staying, and the door of peace’ was immediately opened to everyone alike. All who witnessed this fact were amazed, and some even began to weep for Joy.

116

fo. 138°

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

102. De eodem" Rursus in ciuitate Wintonia uir quidam, acerbitate interfecti filii prope in amentiam uersus, ita indeuincibilis permanserat, ut nulla precum instantia multo temporis ad pacis concordiam potuerit inflecti. Ventum est ad illam ciuitatem cum reliquiis sancti Ecgwini, et finito | sermone pro quo uenerant, admonentur sanctarum reliquiarum custodes quatinus paci studerent. Cumque sermo pacis exortus esset, et preces ad predictum uirum pro amore sancti inflectendum subiuncte fuissent, non ualens ille ulterius presentiam reliquiarum et uim uerborum sufferre, coram cunctis fugam iniit. Cerneres illum a multis insequi, nec a quoquam posse comprehendi. Mox uirtute sancti Ecgwini spontanee reductus, ante sanctas reliquias corruit, sine mora omnia indulgens firmissima pace concessa. Quo facto, quam multorum ora in Dei laudibus relaxata sunt! 103. De muliere a graui infirmitate sanata" Mulier quedam in Dorobreui triennio grauissima | infirmitate detenta est. Hec cum cognouisset reliquias sancti Ecgwini illuc aduentasse, misit per manus nuntiorum suam oblationem ad feretrum, ampliora promittens si Deus per sancti uiri merita sibi optate sanitatis concederet gaudia. Sequenti uero die ipsa mulier leta et incolumis propris manibus ad sanctum Ecgwinum suam oblationem

detulit,

collaudans

Dominum

et eius fidelem

seruum

sanctum Ecgwinum.

104. De homine uincto, soluto et liberato a morte* Solennis dies sancti Ecgwini erat in proximo cum quidam eius minister comprehensus in latrocinio morti adiudicatus est. Impositus ergo miser ille super uile iumentum, uinctis manibus post tergum, deducebatur iuxta monasterium sancti Ecgwini ad locum suo capiti periculosum. Qui recordatus^ futuri diei magnam solennitatem et sancti Ecgwini miram benignitatem, de iumento cui insidebat sponte cecidit, et ad monasterium sancti fugiendo peruenit. Inueniensque hostium apertum statim ingreditur, et coram altare sancti Ecgwini adiutorium postulans prosternitur. Mirum dictu! continuo manice dissolute liberas manus hominis reddidere. fo. 138" Ita per merita sancti Ecgwini et a | ligamine manuum et ab “ DE ii. 18

^ DE ii. 19

* DE ii. 20

^ recordans DE

BOOK II

117

102. A similar miracle Again, in the city of Winchester [Hants] there was a man who almost went mad with anger when his son was killed. He had remained so impossible to subdue, that for a long time he could not be influenced by any earnestness in prayer to calm down and be at peace. When men arrived in that city with the relics of St Ecgwine, and after the discussion for which they had come there was over, the guardians of the holy relics were admonished to concentrate their minds on achieving peace. Talk of peace began, and prayers were added to influence the above-mentioned man to a love for the saint. Unable to endure any longer the presence of the relics or the force of the sermon, he took to flight in the presence of them all. You could have seen him being pursued by many people, but unable to be apprehended by anyone. But through the power of St Ecgwine he was soon escorted back of his own accord, and he fell prostrate before the holy relics. In no time he accepted everything, and was granted an assured peace. Whereupon the lips of many were opened in praise of God. 103. A woman is healed of a serious il[ness A woman of Rochester [Kent] had been disabled by a very serious illness for three years. When she learned that the relics of St Ecgwine had arrived in that city, she sent by the hands of messengers her offering to the reliquary, promising larger gifts if God would grant her through the merits of St Ecgwine the joys of the good health she longed for. On the following day the woman, now healed, joyously brought her offering in her own hands to St Ecgwine, praising the Lord and his faithful servant St Ecgwine. 104. A man is bound, freed, and rescued from death It was soon a sad day for St Ecgwine when one of his servants was caught stealing and sentenced to death. The wretched man was put on a decrepit nag, his hands bound behind his back, and brought near the monastery of St Ecgwine to a place perilous to his life. Aware of the great solemnity of that day to come, and the wonderful kindliness of St Ecgwine, he fell of his own free will off the nag on which he was sitting, and taking to flight, came to the monastery of the saint. Finding the entrance open he immediately entered, and falling before the altar of St Ecgwine, implored his help. Wonderful to relate! the manacles immediately loosened and the man’s hands were freed. So it was that by the merits of St Ecgwine he was freed from the bonds on

118

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

insectatione persequentium inimicorum proinde gratias agens permansit.

EVESHAM

liberatus,

sancto

amodo

105. De illeso cadente ab ecclesia Eweshamie* Nec pretereundum remur quod multis oppido mirum uisum est, neminem in destructione monasterii sancti Ecgwini de uita pericl*tatum. Quadam namque uice cum tigna presbiterii studuissent deicere, astabat quidam operarius in media domo super trabes, molitus quomodo ad tigna deicienda ualeret insistere. Cum repente omnia insimul tigna ruinam maximo fragore dedere et pariter ruentia^ mortem uicinam in medio trabium astanti intentauere. Quid faceret miser, quo se uerteret, subita ruina interceptus ignorabat. Tempus consili aberat, proiciens ergo se inter binas trabes nequaquam interlaqueatas, ipsasque hinc et illinc geminis manibus apprehendens, superueniens pondus ita illesus sustinuit. Tunc qui astaret potuisset * uidere omnes presentes ueluti exangues effectos trepidare, pre timore uociferari, una sanctum Ecgwinum ab omnibus inuocari. Compresso igitur tanto clamore, prefatus uir mirabili sinuamine ad superiora reductus, exurgit incolumis et letus, Dominum collaudans et sanctum Ecgwinum humillimis uocibus cunctique id cognoscentes gratias retulerunt pro diuinis mirabilibus. 106. De quodam raptore percusso infirmitate, et, pecunia restituta, sanato"

Pandendum uero cunctis pie legentibus uidetur mitissimum Dei seruum sanctum Ecgwinum non solum subiectis et eius tutelam humiliter expetentibus adiutorem benignissimum, uerum enimuero etiam eum eique commissa contempnentibus uindicem durissimum. In multis enim necessitatibus maximis et diuersis semper presto fuit suis seruis se inuocantibus. Sepe etiam in grauissimis placitis expetitus, mirum adiutorium prebuit exposcentibus. Plerumque fo. 138°” uic |toriam affuturam per euidentissimas uisiones multifariam tremebundis insinuauit. Quas ob nimiam copiam omittentes, fastidioso lectori breuitati studentes morem gerimus. ^ DE ii. 21

^ corr. Macray; ruentes R, DE

* potis esset DE

4 DE ii. 22

BOOK II

119

his hands, and from the pursuit of his enemies who were chasing him. From that moment he continued to give thanks to the saint. 105. 4 man is hurt falling from the church of Evesham We consider that we should not overlook relating a miracle that seemed to many absolutely amazing, when nobody’s life was endangered during the demolition of St Ecgwine’s monastery. It was on a particular occasion, when the monks had set their minds on removing the timbers of the presbytery, one of the workmen was standing in the centre of the building above the beams, working out how he could take up a position to remove the timbers, when suddenly all the timbers came down at the same time with an enormous crash, and as they fell together, they threatened imminent death to the man standing amidst the timbers. Caught by the sudden fall, the poor man did not know what he was to do, or where to turn. There was no time to think about it, and so hurling himself between two beams which were in no way connected, and clutching them with both hands, he thus held up the weight as it fell unharmed. Then anyone standing there could have seen that everybody present was in a state of agitation, drained as it were of their blood, and calling out in fear, while St Ecgwine was invoked by them all as one. But then all the great clamour was silenced as the man by amazing contortions was brought up again, and emerged joyfully safe and sound, praising God and St Ecgwine in words of great humility. When everybody learned what had happened they rendered thanks for divine miracles. 106. A robber is struck by illness, and after returning the money, is healed It seems right to us to reveal to all devout readers that St Ecgwine, that most merciful servant of God, was not only the kindest of helpers to his servants and to those who humbly sought his protection, but was also a most severe punisher of those who scorned the powers entrusted to him. In their many times of great and varied need, he was always ready to help his servants who called upon him. But often he received requests also on most important occasions, and provided wonderful help to those requesting it. He generally conveyed information of many kinds of future victory by clear visions to those who were of a fearful nature. Although we are omitting some of the accounts of these visions, because of their large number, we will nevertheless gratify the reader who is hard to please with a brief account.

I20

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

107. Id autem cunctis tam sanctum uirum cognoscentibus liquet, raro quempiam eum impune contempsisse, uel iniuriam sibi suisque sine uindicta irrogasse. Vnde licet multimoda et magnifica suppetant exempla in mediocribus et inspectandis etiam personis, unum tamen ex compluribus, magis summatim tangentes quam narrantes, causa breuitatis, subnexuimus.

108. Quidam auaritia et tipo superbie distentus, improbitate magis quam ui, aliquot nummos a ministris sancti Ecgwini haud equa lance adquisiuit. Quamobrem sanctus uir iniuria suorum commotus, per uisionem hominem alloquitur, iubens ut quod iniuste de se adquisierat reportaret. Minatur insuper dampnum grauissimum, ^ni optemperatum ierit,^ affuturum. Sed cum ille paululum" credulus minime obsecundaret, de equo cadens detrimentum corporis incurrit. Admonetur iterum; et nec sic obaudiens simili damno grauius percellitur. Verum sanctus Ecgwinus non prius destitit quod suum erat tertio expetere, donec predictus uir, grauissima infirmitate decoctus, uellet nollet, per quendam reuerendum archidiaconum denarios quos iniuste adquisierat ad altare sancti Ecgwini remitteret. Venit ergo archidiaconus ad monasterium sancti Ecgwini, conuocans ad se priorem loci cum ceteris fratribus, coram altare rem gestam ex ordine pandit. Nec mora indulgent fratres misericordiam poscenti, nummi offeruntur, reus absoluitur, infirmus a sancto Dei diuinitus

curatur.

fo. 139^

109. De uirtute sancti Ecgmini circa incendia extinguenda* Inter cetera que sanctus ac dilectus Dei Ecgwinus multa et mi|ra seruis suis dignatus est intimare, omnem facundiam ea uidentur excellere que in igneo elemento ualde admiranda nouimus eum misericorditer egisse. Hec licet tam multa sint ut uix quisquam studiosorum omnia comprehendere sufficiat, ad declaranda tamen cetera tria in medium breuiter proferamus consideranda. Apud monasterium sancti Ecgwini predium quoddam ditissimarum domorum a domino Aelfwardo episcopo et abbate fuerat edificatum,! quod maximo honori deditum a multis diuitibus frequentabatur per scalae, cer br EDS (d)

^ paulum DE (H)

QU D

HOO

' This estate appears to have been like the sort of ‘urban manor’ identified, for example, at Winchester and at Oxford in the roth to 11th cent.; see J. Blair, Anglo-Saxon Oxfordshire (Stroud, 1994), pp. 151-2. For the development of the town of Evesham, a classic monastic borough, from the mid-rith cent., see R. H. Hilton, ‘The small town and urbanisation—

BOOK

I2I

107. It is clear to all who know this holy man that seldom did anyone scorn him with impunity or inflict injury upon him or his servants without being punished. Hence, although there are many kinds of wonderful miracles to choose from that relate to both ordinary and distinguished persons, for the sake of brevity we have included just one of many, more summarizing than narrating. 108. It is about a man who was very greedy and puffed up with a sort of pride, who had, dishonestly rather than violently, gained possession of several coins from servants of St Ecgwine by devious means. Because of this the holy man was angered by this wrong done to his servants, and addressed the man through a vision, telling him to take back what he had wrongfully gained from them. He further threatened him that he would be severely harmed if he did not obey. When the man, hardly believing him, did not in the least obey him, he fell off his horse and suffered an injury to his body. He was warned a second time, and similarly disobeyed, so he was stricken with a similar but more severe injury this time. St Ecgwine did not cease yet a third time to seek what was his own, until the man, softened by his severe disability, whether he wished it or not, sent back to the altar of St Ecgwine, by a revered archdeacon, the pennies which he had wrongfully acquired. The archdeacon came to St Ecgwine's monastery, and summoning the prior of the place with the other brethren, revealed in detail before the altar what had happened. Without delay the brethren granted forgiveness to the man at his request, the coins were offered up, the accused absolved, and the sick man was divinely healed by God's saint.

109. The power of St Ecgmine to extinguish fire Amongst the many other miracles which St Ecgwine, beloved of God, deigned to make known to his servants, those really amazing deeds in the element of fire, which we know he mercifully performed, seem beyond our eloquence to describe. Although these are so many that scarcely any of his devotees has the ability to retain them all in his memory, let us briefly bring forward for consideration three of them to exemplify the rest. Near the monastery of St Ecgwine an estate of very costly houses had been built by /Elfweard, bishop and abbot.' This was greatly honoured and visited by many wealthy people Evesham in the Middle Ages', Midland History, vii (1982), 1-8, and T. R. Slater, *Medieval town-founding on the estates of the Benedictine Order in England', in Pomer, Profit and Urban Land, ed. F.-E. Eliassen and G. A. Ersland (Aldershot, 1996), pp. 70-92.

I22

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

annum. Hoc, peccatis exigentibus, igne inuasum, miserabile cunctis uidentibus prestabat spectaculum. Commoti qui aderant uniuersi ad patrocinium currunt sancti Ecgwini, asportant eius feretrum ad locum periculi, et per medium unius domus ad quam maxime ignis uergebat deferentes reliquias sancti, rei exitum prestolantur, de uirtute sancti pontificis confisi. Mira dicturus sum! Statim ut ad illam domum ignis peruenit, unam medietatem consumpsit, aliam dimisit; nec ultra ausus est ignis suum protelare incendium quam quo sancti Ecgwini deportatum fuerat feretrum.! Sic sanctus pontifex et suam ecclesiam liberauit et preclarum miraculum ostendit, et uoces Deum confitentium in sullimi extulit. Huiusmodi uero miraculum bis demonstratum est per sanctum Dei Ecgwinum.

fo. 139^

110. De eodem * Nec minus illud erat quod in eodem elemento per sanctum Ecgwinum operatus est Christus. Circa ecclesiam sancti uiri quedam altissima et maxima sepes de spinis in uicino fuerat constructa,' quam cum ignis ex uicinis domibus emissus inuasisset, maximum timorem seruis sancti pontificis incussit. Timebant enim omnes ne per uicinam sepem monasterium sancti Ecgwini ab igne corriperetur. Concurrunt igitur ad ecclesiam, arripiunt scrinium sancti, deferunt quantotius ad ignem, ac super sepem prope incendium ponentes, ta |lia efferunt uociferantes, ‘Domine sancte pater Ecgwine, si uis, te ipsum ab incendio

defende.

Vix emissum

est uerbum

cum,

ecce!

tantum crepitum reddidit incendium quasi super ignem aquam infunderent utres centum. Mox uiribus exemptis, insimul totum consopitum est incendium. Quis cernentium in tam mirabili facto non laudauit Dominum? Omnibus etenim est patefactum multum apud superos posse beatum Dei confessorem Ecgwinum. i11.

De ecclesia"

Monasterium' sancti patris nostri Ecgwini sepe, ut retulerunt qui uiderant, incendio consumptum foret, nisi hoc uirtus sancti pontificis * DE i. 24

^ De ecclesie R. DE ii. 25

“ Nonasterium for Monasterium R

' Cf. a miracle recorded in Bede, HE iii. 17 (pp. 204-5), where a buttress, against which Aidan had been leaning when he died, survived during a fire, while all around burned down. aD.

(G0 Cox

building,

destruction,

and

excavation

of Evesham

abbey:

documentary history’, Transactions of the Worcestershire Archaeological Society, 3rd ser. xii (Worcester, 1990), 123-46, at pp. 132-3, notes the similarity of the story of the hedge

BOOK II

123

throughout the year. However, because of men's sins, the estate was invaded by fire and provided a miserable sight to all those who saw it. All who were there were alarmed, and hastily sought the protection of St Ecgwine. They carried his reliquary to the place of danger, and bringing the relics of the saint through the middle of one house to which the fire was making its way, awaited the outcome, trusting in the power of the holy bishop Ecgwine. What a wonderful story I am about to relate! Immediately on reaching that house, the fire consumed half of it and left the other half, and it did not dare extend its flames beyond the place to which St Ecgwine's reliquary had been carried.! Thus the holy bishop both rescued his church and displayed a significant miracle, and raised to the heavens the voices of those who trusted in God. A miracle of this sort was twice demonstrated by God's saint, Ecgwine.

110. A similar miracle No less wonderful was that miracle which Christ performed in the same element of fire through St Ecgwine. Around the church of the holy man at no great distance a very high and extensive thorn hedge had been grown.” When the fire from the nearby houses spread it attacked this hedge and struck great fear into the servants of the holy bishop. They were all afraid that St Ecgwine’s monastery would catch fire from the hedge. They therefore hurried together to the church, seized the reliquary of the saint, and took it as quickly as they could to the fire and, placing it upon the hedge near the fire, they uttered words such as these, crying, ‘O lord and holy father Ecgwine, if it is your will, defend yourself from the fire.’ Scarcely had these words been uttered when, indeed, the fire made a loud crackling noise, as if they were pouring water from a hundred buckets upon the flames. Soon, its strength spent, the whole fire died down at once. Who of those who saw this did not praise the Lord for so wonderful a deed? It was made manifest to all, that God’s blessed confessor, Ecgwine, had great power in heaven.

irr. The church The monastery of our holy father Ecgwine, as those who witnessed it have reported, would often have been destroyed by fire, had not the with that told in Stephen of Ripon’s Life of Bishop Wilfrid (The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, ed. B. Colgrave (Cambridge, 1927), pp. 146-7), and suggests that Dominic may have taken it from there.

124

HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

pia defensione protegeret. Allatis namque ad locum incendii sancti uiri reliquiis, plerumque uis uentorum aliorsum retorquebatur, nonnumquam uero ipsum incendium consopiebatur. Nam cum quodam tempore maximo prope monasterium flagrante incendio, sancti Ecgwini scrinium per angustissimum tramitem inter duas domos a fratribus deferretur, continuo ut in id locorum est uentum, omne pariter incendium cessauit consopitum. Nec plus erat spatii quo sanctus fuerat delatus quam longitudo pedis unius. Remansit ergo una domus ab igne illesa, alia uero periit consumpta. Hinc itaque rogemus Dominum uirtutum, ut per tantum patronum Ecgwinum soluat uincula peccatorum nostrorum, et pascat nos gratia beneficiorum suorum, et conuertat aut excidat capita aduersariorum, et in die belli et in ruina mundi obumbret nos scuto bone uoluntatis et uelamento^ alarum suarum, et liberet ab igne uastationum et a flamma uitiorum et a suppliciis eternorum incendiorum, perducatque nos ad huius patris nostri consortium, cum quo ipsum auctorem omnium laudemus in secula seculorum. Amen.!

^ inuelamento DE (H)

BOOK II

125

holy bishop defended it by his power and devoted protection. For when the relics of the holy man had been brought to the place of the fire, the force of the winds was generally turned to some other direction, and sometimes the very fire died down. On one occasion when there was a large fire burning near the monastery, the reliquary of St Ecgwine was carried along a very narrow path by the brethren between two houses, and immediately on its arrival at that place, it caused the whole fire everywhere to die down. The width of the passage down which the saint was carried was no more than a foot. One house had been unharmed by the fire, the other was completely destroyed. Hence, therefore, let us ask the Lord of all goodness to free us through our great patron Ecgwine from the bonds of our sins, and nourish us with the grace of his benefits; to convert or destroy the lives of his enemies, and in the day of war and the downfall of our world to protect us with the shield of his good will beneath the shelter of his wings; to rescue us from the fire of destruction, from the flames of vice, and from the punishment of the eternal fires; and to lead us into the fellowship of this our father, Ecgwine, with whom we may praise Him, the creator of all, for ever and ever. Amen.!

! A common ending to a collect.

(LIBER TERCIVS) PARTICVLA

fo. 140^

PRIMA

112. Incipit prologus libri tercii Ne bonorum et malorum post mortem apud homines eadem sit conditio, bonorum uidelicet egregiis actibus cum factoribus suis commorientibus et malorum prauis operibus cum actoribus suis consepultis, ueteres Grai scripti remedium obiecere prudenter, et scriptores suos, quos dixere historiographos, ad conscribendas rerum historias studiosius exciuerunt, ut uocis uiue silentium uox scripta suppleret. Romani uero Grecorum emuli perpetuande uirtutis causa non solum stili assumpserunt offitium set et statuas adiecerunt, et sic, tam ueteres representando quam prouocando posteros, uirtutis amorem, tum per oculos tum per aures, ad interiora multipliciter demissum, imitantium mentibus firmius impresserunt. Porro patrum gesta sanctorum, quos frequentius commemorat et commendat ecclesia, neminem

ad imitandum

accenderent,

si conscia

ueritatis

antiquitas legendam nobis hystoriam non reliquisset. Et nisi Dominus tam in Nouo quam in Veteri Testamento que sint fugienda et que imitanda tum scribendo tum aliis scribenda expressisset, nullus bona a malis distinxisset. Hiis et aliis exemplis instructi, ut benefactorum ecclesie Eueshamensis a tempore fundationis sue memoria sit in benedictione, et ut gloria eorum tractu temporis non marcescat nec eximia eorum gesta obliuio posteritatis extinguat, set ut quod ab eis magnifice factum fuit posteri sumant in exemplum, eorum gesta stilo commendare dignum duximus. Necnon et eorum qui eiusdem ecclesie bona distraxerunt malefacta denotabimus,

ut nos bonorum

exemplis informati a malis male alienata reuocare studeamus et que ab eis fuerunt dispersa congregare nitamur.' Ad quod faciendum tanto facilius prouocabimur et artius astringemur, quanto magis in periculum anime sue ipsos ea fecisse, et possessores non minus ' Cf. Isa. 11: 12. On the writing of the prologue, see above, p. xliv.

[BOOK THREE] PART

ONE

112. The Prologue The ancient Greeks, in order that evil men should not enjoy the same standing in society as good men, wisely introduced a literary remedy. That the distinguished deeds of good men should not die with their doers, nor the evil actions of wicked men be buried with their perpetrators, they made a determined effort to stir their writers whom they called historians to record their history, so that the written word might be substituted for the silence of the spoken word. The Romans, emulating the Greeks in their desire to perpetuate virtue, not only employed the service of the pen but also erected statues, so, as much by reminding men of their ancestors as by challenging their descendants, they implanted deep within men in many ways, through both the eye and the ear, a love of virtue, and strongly influenced the minds of those seeking it. Furthermore, the deeds of the holy fathers whom the church frequently commemorates and commends would not have enthused any man to imitate them if antiquity, aware of the truth, had not left us a history for us to read. And had not the Lord made it clear as much through the writings of the New Testament as of the Old what men should shun and what imitate, in addition to making it clear through the works of other writers, no one would have distinguished good from evil. We have thus learned from these and other precedents; and in order that the memory of the benefactors of the church of Evesham from its very foundation should be blessed, and that their glory should not grow dim through the passage of time, or posterity’s forgetfulness obliterate their great deeds but rather take their brilliant achievements as their example, we have thought it good to write an account of what they did. Likewise we shall also record the evil deeds of men who pillaged the property of this church in the hope that, encouraged by

the example of good men, we may strive to recover what has been wrongfully alienated by evil men, and endeavour to gather in what has been scattered by them.’ We shall be the more easily stirred to do this and the more strictly obliged to achieve it, the more aware we are that those men committed their acts in peril of their souls and that the

128

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

periculose, immo pernitiosius et magis iniuriose et sine ratione, ea possidere, cognouerimus. “Explicit prologus." fo. 140°°

| 113. Incipit liber tercius de constitucione Eueshamensis cenobii, et benefactoribus et malefactoribus et abbatibus eiusdem ecclesie, et operibus eorum bonis et malis, collectus et compositus a Thoma priore Emeshamie ex uariis cartis et scriptis et factis manifestis. Anno igitur ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo quartodecimo, sanctus ac Deo dignissimus antistes Ecgwinus postquam ecclesiam Wigornensem ueluti pastor bonus tercius gloriosissime rexerat, sextodecimo episcopatus sui anno, cum longo confectus fuisset senio, prefatam sedem pontificalem ex toto reliquit, constituto pro eo, secundum suum uelle et electionem, uenerabili uiro Wilfrido episcopo.’ Ad locum istum primitus ab eo Eouesham appellatum quem, Sancti Spiritus reuelatione et beatissime Dei genitricis semper uirginis Marie manifesta apparitione confortatus, diligentissime primus in honore ipsius angelorum et hominum regine per sex annos construxerat, mente et corpore pariter rediit, atque in magna contemplatione Dei, ueluti in uita sua plenissime habetur, usque ad ultimum diem transitus sui nouem annis sanctissime uiuens hic permansit. 114. Sciant ergo omnes huius sancte ecclesie filii atque amici? perfecte eam diligentes tam presentes quam futuri, quod locus iste tunc temporis nichil pertinebat ad Wigornensem ecclesiam cui ipse episcopus preerat, set, ut prefati sumus, diuino admonitus instinctu, a rege /Ethelredo filio Pendan regis, cuius meminit Beda uenerabilis presbiter in. gestis Anglorum, illum optinuit, et monachilem congregationem, pro amore Dei atque salute anime sue, primus omnium hic constituit. Hic autem nomina possessionum quas ana

rubricated in R

' Wilfrid succeeded Ecgwine as the fourth bishop of Worcester. His dates are uncertain: HBC, p. 223, gives 718 to 743X745, ?29 Apr. 744. See next note. * The earliest source for the date of Ecgwine's death is Jo. Wo., ii. 174—5, who says that Ecgwine died on 30 Dec. 717 (in one MS, 716). John of Worcester also says that Wilfrid

was chosen 'during Ecgwine's lifetime to fill his place, and received the church of Worcester’. ‘Thomas dates Ecgwine's resignation as bishop to 714. By saying that Ecgwine remained at Evesham for nine years before his death (presuming that he accepted the 717 of John of Worcester), Thomas brings the date of Ecgwine’s arrival at Evesham to 708-9. In saying that Ecgwine resigned as bishop of the Hwicce in his sixteenth year, Thomas makes Ecgwine's accession 698-9. This does not contradict any charter evidence, but it does conflict with John of Worcester's statement (156—7) that Ecgwine succeeded Oftfor in

BOOK

III PART

129

owners of property alienated are in no less danger, indeed that their possession of these things is more pernicious, even more damaging, and is without entitlement. The end of the prologue 113. Here begins book three: the establishment of the monastery at Evesham; its benefactors, despoilers, and abbots: their deeds, good and bad, collected and composed by Thomas, prior of Evesham, from the various charters, documents and manifest deeds In the year AD 714 the prelate Ecgwine, a holy and very godly man, after he had ruled the church of Worcester gloriously as its third good shepherd, frail by reason of old age, resigned in the sixteenth year of his episcopate, and by his wish and nomination the venerable Wilfrid was appointed as his successor.’ He retired in body and mind alike to that place first called by him Evesham. Encouraged by a revelation of the Holy Spirit and a clear vision of the eternal virgin Mary, the most blessed mother of God, he was the original builder of this place over a period of six years, in honour of the very Queen of angels and men. He remained there for nine years till the day of his death, living a holy life and meditating much upon God, as is fully revealed in his life. ? 114. Let all sons and friends of this holy church, who love it perfectly now and in the future, know that this place in no way belonged at that time to the church of Worcester, over which the bishop himself ruled. No, as we have said already, led by divine inspiration, Ecgwine received Evesham from King /Ethelred, son of King Penda, who is mentioned by the venerable priest Bede in his Deeds of the English, and for love of God and for the salvation of his own soul, he was the very first to establish there a congregation of monks. It seems right to us at this juncture to catalogue the 692; see Sims-Williams, Religion and Literature, p. 142 n. 124. Thomas

had, indeed,

provided a perfect chronology to fit with the visit to Rome, and the consequent documents. "Thomas seems sure that Ecgwine resigned, with which John, a Worcester source, does not disagree in his statement that Wilfrid was appointed bishop during Ecgwine's lifetime. It was supremely important to the Evesham case for exemption to establish that Ecgwine had indeed resigned because although the idea of being both bishop and abbot was acceptable in the 8th cent., it would clearly have meant by Thomas’s lifetime that the abbey was subject to the bishop. The 'Life' is Book I, above. * This phrase is based on an opening form of a 12th-cent. ecclesiastical charter. * On JEthelred, son of Penda king of Mercia, see HBC, p. 16, and Bede, HE v. 24,

pp. 566—7. According to Bede, /Ethelred of Mercia abdicated in 704 and became a monk. Bede, however, has nothing to say about Ecgwine and Evesham. William of Malmesbury in his notice of Evesham (Gesta Pontificum, pp. 296—8) pointed out Bede's ignorance of the bishop and his abbey.

130

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

idem reuerendus pater noster beatus Ecgwinus huic ecclesie adquisiuit, et eorum nomina a quibus eas optinuit, ut eorum memoria sit in benedictione, denotanda dignum duximus. 115. Nomina benefactorum Eueshamensis cenobii et possessionum eiusdem Anno igitur ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo primo, rex Merciorum /Ethelredus, filius Pende, in honore beate uirginis Marie, dedit uiro uenerabili Ecgwino episcopo Hethomme.' Anno fo. 140* incarnati uerbi septingentesimo tercio dedit idem | rex ecclesie beate Marie constructe in Hethom, postquam beata uirgo Maria in eodem loco comparuerat, beato Ecgwino Chadelburi, Fladeburi et Stredfort, quam postea, mortua Ostritha regina, occupauit /Ethellardus Wicciorum subregulus, donec beatus Ecgwinus daret eidem pro ea Fladeburi.

Eodem

anno

dedit Offa rex eidem ecclesie in Hethom,

Huffam, tres Littletonas, Potidenho,’ Huniburne, Aldintone, Baddeseie, Bretfortone et Wikewane. Set Oswardus, mortuo /Ethellardo subregulo fratre eius, occupauit postea eandem terram uiginti mansarum in Thuiforde donec beatus Ecgwinus tradidit ei Stredford. 116. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo sexto, /Eilwardus Wicciorum subregulus, consentiente rege Kenredo, dedit ecclesie beate Marie in Hethomme Ambresleiam.? Eodem anno Ailricus, Osheri regis filius, consentiente rege Kenredo, dedit ecclesie beate Marie in Hethomme Childeswikewane,* et Walterus (filius) Dudde, sacerdos, Suelle maiorem.? 117. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo octauo," Kenredus rex Merciorum, filius Wlferi, dedit ecclesie beate Marie in Hethomme ex una parte Auene, Nortonam, Echeslench, Chirchlench, Mortonam, Biuintonam, Husebarewe, Witheleiam, Samburne, Kine-

wartune, Salford et alteram Salford; ex altera parte Auene, Hamtone, Bengwithe, Willerseie, Dunnintone, Bradewelle, Tetlestrope, Stowam, Malgaresburi, Burthtone.?

118. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo undecimo, rex Merciorum Chelredus, filius /Ethelredi regis, dedit ecclesie beate

Marie in Hethomme,"

Raggeleiam,

Arewe, Eccleshale, Wileshale,

' Thomas normally uses the early form ‘Hethomme’ (OE at Homme, ‘at the bend’) for the site of the monastery at Evesham; see below, 116-18. " For Poden in Church Honeybourne, see D. Hooke, Charter-Bounds (Woodbridge,

1990), pp. 382-3.

> Sawyer, no. 54: V fos. 25'—26; H fo. 67^".

* Sawyer, no. 1174; V fo. 33°; H fo. 66". * Glos. Sawyer, no. 1175; H fo. 67".

Worcestershire

Anglo-Saxon

BOOK III PART I

131

possessions which our reverend father Ecgwine acquired for this church, and to give the names of those from whom he received them, so that their memory may be blessed. 115. The names of the benefactors of the church of Evesham and of its possessions In the year AD 701 /Ethelred, king of the Mercians and son of Penda, gave Evesham! to the venerable bishop Ecgwine, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary. In 703 /Ethelred gave Chadbury, Fladbury, and Stratford-upon-Avon [Warws.] to Ecgwine for the church of the

blessed Mary, which had been built in Evesham after the blessed Virgin had appeared in that place. Afterwards, following the death of Queen Osthryth, /Ethelheard, subking of the Hwicce, occupied these lands until the blessed Ecgwine exchanged them for Fladbury. In the same year King Offa gave Offenham, the three Littletons, Poden,’ Church Honeybourne, Aldington, Badsey, Bretforton, and Wickhamford, to the church of Evesham. Osweard, after the death of his brother /Ethelheard the subking, later seized possession of the same land, consisting of twenty hides in Twyford, until Ecgwine gave him Stratford [Warws.]. 116. In the year AD 706 /Ethelweard, subking of the Hwicce, with the

agreement of King Cenred, gave Ombersley to the church of the blessed Mary in Evesham. ? In the same year /Ethelric, son of King Oshere, with the agreement of King Cenred, gave Childs Wickham to the church of the blessed Mary in Evesham.* The priest Walter Dudde gave it Lower Swell.’ 117. In the year aD 708° Cenred, king of the Mercians, son of Wulfhere, gave to the church of the blessed Mary in Evesham, Norton, Atch Lench, Church Lench, Abbots Morton, Binton [Warws.], Hilborough, Weethley, Sambourne, Kinwarton, Salford and the other Salford,’ on the one side of the Avon; and on the other side, Hampton, Bengeworth, Willersey [Glos.], Donnington, Broadwell, Adlestrop, Stow-on-the-Wold, Maugersbury, and Bourton-on the- Water."

118. In the year AD 711 Ceolred, king of the Mercians, son of king JEthelred, gave to the church of St Mary in Evesham,’ Ragley, $ 409 (Cenred with Offa); see Hooke, Charter-Bounds, pp. 46—57. Source V fos. 68'—9', with further properties mentioned (noted H fo. 59'), regarded as spurious. Cf. Sawyer, no. 80.

7 From Binton on in Warws., but the ‘other Salford’ is Oxon., formerly Glos.

* The properties from Willersey onwards are all in Glos. ? Sawyer, no. 81 (710); H fo. 62°.

I32

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Addrichestone, Dorsintone, Brome, Mulecote,’ Buuintone, Hildeburuurche, et unam hidam in Budifordia.? 119. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo sextodecimo Ethelbaldus, filius. Alewi, rex Merciorum, dedit ecclesie beate Marie et domino Ecgwino primo abbati de Eouesham,! Hactone, Brainesford, Hamptone iuxta Wictium emptorium, Houptone, Witfo. 140°" tone, et Lench Bernardi, | Westone, Hudicote, Stoke.! Hec autem fuit causa commutationis supradictarum uillarum de Fladeburi, Stradford et Tuiford.? /Ethelardus Wictiorum subregulus, cognatus Ostrithe regine et regis Offe,° ea mortua sine liberis, quia Chelredus non erat filius eius, et rege Ethelredo facto monacho, dicens regem

non posse hereditatem uxoris sue alicui conferre, occupauit Stredford quia ibi fortior erat donec beatus Ecgwinus redderet ei Fladeburi quia erat heres regine Ostrithe. Quo defuncto sine liberis, Oswardus frater eius occupauit iniuste uiginti mansas in Tuiford, ut heres Offe regis de terris eius in regno Merciorum, donec beatus Ecgwinus reddidit ei Stredford, dicens fratrem suum illam iuste tenuisse, et iniuste pro propria hereditate de Fladeburi ei contulisse. Set episcopi Wigornie, fortiores nobis, ut suo predecessori datas postea eas adquisierunt, et ecclesia nostra cui date erant illis iniuste caret. 120. Post decessum uero beati Ecgwini quas possessiones huic ecclesie

alii contulerint

et nomina

conferentium,

ut et eorum

orationibus nostris perpetua habeatur memoria, hic subnectendum bonum et utile putauimus. 121. Anno igitur ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo uicesimo primo, predictus Ethelbaldus rex dedit ecclesie beate Marie in Eouesham unam portionem quam accole Sele nuncupant, cum statu trium mansium in loco ubi salse aque ebulliunt," que debet reddere ' Milcote was a hamlet near the confluence of the Avon and the Stour containing that part of Weston-upon-Avon which is in Warws., Weston itself being chiefly in Kiftsgate hundred

(Glos.), but also in Barlichway

hundred

(Warws.)

There

were

actually two

Milcotes, see below, 169, 174. * All the identified places are in Warws. with the exception of Dorsington, which is in Glos. * Sawyer, no. 83; H fo. 62". : Stoke is almost certainly Larkstoke in Ilmington, Warws.

* The name, Twyford, is preserved in Twyford House and Farm. The ford was across the Avon from Offenham to Evesham. For identification, see Hooke, pp. 23-4, 48-9 (map), and 408-17; and PN Wores., p. 265.

^ The passage might Osthryth was the wife Northumbria. She was 20-2 (pp. 400—1); v. 24

Charter-Bounds,

be taken to read kinsman of Queen Osthryth and of King Offa. of King /Ethelred of Mercia and daughter of Oswiu, king of murdered by her own Mercian nobles in 697; see Bede, HE iv. (pp. 564—5). King Offa is the king of the East Saxons.

BOOK III PART I

133

Arrow, Exhall, ‘Wileshale’, Atherstone, Dorsington, Broom, Milcote,! Binton, Hilborough, and one hide in Bidford 119. In the year AD 716 /Ethelbald, son of Alhwih, king of the Mercians, gave to the church of St Mary and to Ecgwine, the first abbot of Evesham,’ Acton Beauchamp, Bransford, Hampton Lovett near Droitwich, Upton Warren, Witton in Droitwich, Sheriff’s Lench, Weston-upon—Avon [Glos.], Hidcote [Glos.], and Stoke.* Now this was the reason for the exchange for the above-mentioned vills of Fladbury, Stratford-upon-Avon [Warws.], and Twyford. /Ethelheard, subking of the Hwicce, and kinsman of Queen Osthryth and King Offa,° on the death of the queen, who left no heirs, as Ceolred was not her son and /Ethelred had become a monk, ’ said that the king could not bestow his wife’s inheritance upon anyone, and seized possession of Stratford where he had a strong force, until the blessed Ecgwine returned Fladbury to him because he was an heir of Queen Osthryth. Since /Ethelheard died without children, his brother Osweard wrongfully seized possession of twenty hides in Twyford as the heir of King Offa to his lands in the kingdom of the Mercians, until Stratford was returned to him by the blessed Ecgwine. Osweard said that his brother had held rightful possession of Stratford and had wrongfully bestowed it upon Ecgwine in exchange for his own inheritance of Fladbury. However, the bishops of Worcester, being stronger than we were, later acquired those possessions as they had been given to their predecessor, and our church to whom they had been given was unjustly deprived of them. 120. After the death of the blessed Ecgwine, other men bestowed certain possessions upon this church, and we have thought it right and beneficial to include their names here, so that we may remember them for ever in our prayers. 121. In the year AD 721 the above-mentioned King /Ethelbald gave to the church of the blessed Mary in Evesham a plot of land which its inhabitants call ‘Sele’, with three dwellings situated in the place where salt water bubbles up:? it should produce 360 measures of salt 7 Her husband, /Ethelred entered the monastery of Bardney and became its abbot, HE v. 19 (pp. 528-9), v. 24 (pp. 566-7), and see 498n, 368n. It is generally assumed that Ceolred was Osthryth's and /Ethelred's son, but Bede HE v. 19 does not actually say so. 5 ‘Sele’ is probably Sale Green in Droitwich. This may bear some relation to Sawyer, no. 97; V fo. 27", which calls it ‘Saltwich’. On the importance of the ancient brine springs at Droitwich and on the production of salt, which was used as a preservative and was thus a very lucrative commodity to possess, see D. Hooke, “The Droitwich salt industry: an examination of the West Midland charter evidence’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, ii (1981), 123-69.

134

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

annuatim trescentas sexaginta mittas salis. Dedit etiam capellas sancti Albani! et sancte Margarete in Wigorn’, cum pluribus domibus circumiacentibus. 122. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo quinquagesimo septimo "Thingfrith^ rex Merciorum dedit ecclesie beate Marie et sancti Ecgwini in Eouesham, Eunlade, Deillesforde, Chesteltune, Cornewelle, Salford, Derneford,’ Schiptone.^ 123. Anno ab incarnatione Domini septingentesimo septuagesimo quarto Bertulfus* rex Merciorum dedit ecclesie beate Marie Virginis et beati Ecgwini, Pebewrtham, Quentonam, Sloptram. 124. Anno ab incarnatione Domini nongentesimo septuagesimo tercio Huue pe Huuede, comes Warewikie, dedit ecclesie beate Marie et beati Ecgwini, consentiente rege Eadgaro, Witlakesforde | fo. 141™

et Greftone Minorem. 125. Anno ab incarnatione Domini nongentesimo octogesimo sexto Ethelredus rex Anglie, frater beati /Edwardi, dedit ecclesie beate Marie in Eouesham et ecclesie beati Eadwardi in Stowia unam mansam sitam iuxta Malgaresburie. Quod ius antiquitus quidam raptor, Wlfric Ripa uocamine, a prefato monasterio inique abstulit, set prefatus rex Ethelredus hoc’ eidem monasterio postea reddidit.?

126. Anno ab incarnatione Domini millesimo octauodecimo Kanutus rex Anglie dedit ecclesie beate Marie et beati Ecgwini Baddebi et Newham.’ Idem Kanutus dedit quinque terras in Gloucestre et duas in Winchelcumbe et unam in Norhamtone.* 127. Anno ab incarnatione Domini millesimo quinquagesimo quinto Eadwardus rex Anglie dedit ecclesie beate Marie et beati Ecgwini

Suuellam minorem" et Graftone maiorem, et concessit quod porth et mercatio essent apud Eouesham.'° 128. Alio uero tempore Warinus Bussel dedit ecclesie de Euesham “ S[chip]tone: chip written into the margin (s. xv): the same hand in a different ink has gone over the *d' and ‘e of Deillesforde,

above

^ h inserted over an erasure

' For this chapel, see Wulfstan’s ‘synod’ of 1092, C. & S., i, pt 2, no. roo: there is no mention of St Margaret’s. On the veracity of the *1092 synodal document’, see J. Barrow,

‘How the twelfth-century monks of Worcester perceived their past’, in The Perception of the Past in Twelfth-Century Europe, ed. P. Magdalino (London, 1992), pp. 53-74, at 60-9. ^ Thingfrith is a mistake for his son Offa. Offa ruled from 757 to his death in July 796; HBC, p. 16. ' Cf. Sawyer, no. 112; H fo. 63". Offa, king of Mercia, to Evesham, 777. Dornford is more likely to be Dorn in Blockley, Glos. (formerly Worcs.), a hamlet west of the Fosse Way, than Dornford in Wootton (Oxon.); see VCH Oxor., xi. 267-8, and PN Worcs. p. 98. * Berhtwulf was not king of the Mercians until 823. Cf. Sawyer, no. 191, of 840,

BOOK III PART I

135

per annum. /Ethelbald also gave to the church the chapels of St Alban! and St Margaret in Worcester along with several houses situated around them. 122. In the year aD 757 Offa,’ king of the Mercians, gave to the church of the blessed Mary and St Ecgwine of Evesham, Evenlode [Glos.], Daylesford [Glos.], Chastleton [Oxon], Cornwell [Oxon], Salford [Oxon, formerly Glos.], Dornford,’ and Shipston-on-Stour [Warws., formerly Worcs.]. 123. In the year AD 774 Berhtwulf,* king of the Mercians gave to the church, Pebworth, Quenington, and Slaughter [all Glos.]. 124. In the year AD 973 Ufa ‘the Huuede’, earl of Warwick, gave to the church of St Mary and St Ecgwine, with the assent of King Edgar, Wixford [Warws.] and Grafton Minor [Warws.].? 125. In the year AD 986 /Ethelred, king of England, brother of the blessed Edward, gave to this church and to the church of the blessed Edward in Stow [Glos.], one hide situated near Maugersbury [Glos.]. The monastery [of Evesham] was formerly robbed of this property by a thief called Wulfric Ripa, but King /Ethelred later restored it to this monastery again.^ 126. In the year aD 1018 cnu*t, king of England, gave Badby and Newnham [both Northants] to the church of the blessed Mary and the blessed Ecgwine.’ He also gave it five tenements in Gloucester, two in Winchcombe [Glos.], and one in Northampton.* 127. In the year AD 1055 Edward, king of England, gave to the church of the blessed Mary and the blessed Ecgwine, Upper Swell,” and Grafton Major [Warws.], and granted Evesham borough status and a market." 128. Subsequently, Warin Bussel gave to the church of Evesham the Berhtwulf granting Evesham, Quinton (Warws.), Pebworth (Glos.) and Mappleborough in

Studley (Warws.); H fo. 63°. ? Sawyer, no. 1214 (with the date 962); H fo. 64". The charter was probably forged at Evesham between 1097 and 1104; see C. Hart, Early Charters of Northern England and the Northern Midlands, p. 79. On Ufa, the sheriff, see below, 135. The meaning of ‘the Huuede’ is unknown: the scribe reproduces the Anglo-Saxon thorn. $ [n 1016. Sawyer, no. 935; H fo. 64". Domesday Book, i (Record Commission, 1783), fo. 165b, records that Evesham has ‘Malgeresberie ad Eduuardestou’, where there had been eight hides TRE, ‘et nona hida iacet ad ecclesiam S. Edwardi: Rex Adelredus quietam

dedit ibi". 7 Sawyer, no. 957 (1020); H fo. 65°. * No charters of cnu*t for these properties have survived. ? Glos. Cf. Sawyer, no. 1026, probably spurious. ! On the development of the town from this date, see Slater, ‘Medieval founding’, pp. 78-81; and Hilton, ‘Small town and urbanisation’, p. 1.

town-

HISTORY

136

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

ecclesiam de Penwrtham et terciam partem decimarum de dominico de Lailonde et de Meoles et Farintone cum pertinentiis suis.’ Ricardus Bussel dedit ecclesie ^ Eoueshamensi sex bouatas terre in Longeton et totam ecclesiam de Lailonde et quartam partem piscarie de Penwrtham et unum rete liberum^ et capellam de Meoles.* Albertus frater eius dedit duas bouatas terre in Lailonde et assartum de Blakesha[m].’* Ricardus uero episcopus Conuentrensis* per cartam suam hec omnia cum prioratu nobis confirmauit. Comes autem Rogerus Pictauensis dedit nobis* Hocwike; hanc tenemus de rege. Nigellus constabularius Cestrie medietatem de Thelewelle et unam piscariam et unam hidam in Goldhore.^ Milo Crispin dedit dimidiam hidam in Hildendone;’ Brien filius Comitis dedit ecclesiam de Hildendone;? Alnod sacerdos dedit ecclesiam beati Michaelis in Cornhulle, London'.? Rodbertus de Stafford dedit Wrottesleiam et Liuentonam." Willelmus Fossard dedit ecclesiam de Huntintun." a—a

(s. xv)

tmo lines written over an erasure * tmo or three letters illeg.; ins. over an erasure ^ dedit nobis ims. marg. (s. xv)

! Penwortham was founded as a cell of Evesham some time between 1104 and 1122 (see KH, pp. 56 and 73, and VCH Lancashire, ii (1908), p. 104), the dates of Abbot Robert of Evesham's abbacy, by Warin Bussel, baron of Penwortham (1102-49). The charter printed in W. Farrer, The Lancashire Pipe Rolls . . . also Early Lancashire Charters (Liverpool,

1902), pp. 320-1 (from H fo. 89") appears to be a composite piece of work, covering gifts made piecemeal, including land in Martin, not mentioned here. For the Bussels, see Mon. Angl. ili. 417-21, where Dugdale includes some of the family’s charters and the confirmation of Pope Alexander III. It is likely that the cell was served by Evesham monks from the beginning. The reason why Warin Bussel chose to favour the abbey of Evesham appears to have been that his wife, Matilda, had property in Evesham: her gift of two bovates of land in Evesham is recorded in a charter of her son, Albert Bussel; see

Documents relating to the Priory of Penwortham and other possessions in Lancashire of the Abbey of Evesham, ed. W. A. Hulton (Chetham Soc. xxx, 1853), pp. xvii-viii, and 5—6 (no. vi). ? Hugh Bussel’s charter (see next note) states that this net was in the river Ribble.

' Probably

Blacklache

(meaning

‘black

pool)

which

is in Leyland:

the name

perpetuated in Blacklache House; E. Ekwall, The Place-names of Lancashire (Publications of the University of Manchester, English ser. xi, 1922), p. 133. Hugh Bussel, son of Albert, confirmed

these three gifts of his grandfather, Warin, his uncle, Richard, and his father,

Albert, in a charter copied into V fo. 75', and witnessed by Warin, his heir, Henry, his brother, and Antigonia, his wife. The texts of all four charters are in H fos. 89'—9o'. * Richard confirmation

Peche, cons. after 18 Apr. 116r, resigned 1182, d. 6 Oct. 1182. His is noted in EEA xvi (1998): Coventry and Lichfield 1160-1182, ed. M. J.

Franklin, no. 34. * In c. 1149, Earl Ranulf (II), earl of Chester, confirmed this gift of Howick (in Leyland), made by Count Roger at the time of Earl Ranulf (I; 1120-9) of Chester, his father; V fo. 75': printed in Charters of the Anglo-Norman Earls of Chester 6:1071—1237, ed. G. Barraclough (Record Soc. of Lancashire and Cheshire, cxxvi, 1988)), no. 9o, who

failed to note

that this was

a confirmation.

See Judith Green,

‘Earl Ranulf II and

BOOK III PART I

137

church of Penwortham [Lancs.], and a third of the tithes of the demesne of Leyland, Meols and Farington [all Lancs.], with their appurtenances.’ Richard Bussel also gave the church of Evesham six bovates of land in Longton [Lancs.], the whole of the church of Leyland, a quarter of the fishery of Penwortham, one free net,” and the chapel of Meols. His brother Albert gave it two bovates of land in Leyland and the assart of ‘Blakesham’.* Richard, bishop of Coventry,* by his own charter confirmed all of these properties for us with the priory [of Penwortham]. Count Roger the Poitevin gave us Howick,” and we hold this of the king. Nigel, the constable of Chester, gave us half of Thelwall [Ches.], as well as a fishery and a hide of land in Golborne.^ Miles Crispin gave us half a hide in Hillingdon [Middx.]; Brian Fitz Count gave us the church of Hillingdon;? the priest Alnod gave us the church of the blessed Michael in Cornhill, London. ” Robert of Stafford gave us Wrottesley [Staffs.] and Loynton;!° William Fossard gave us the church of Huntington; Hugh fitz Lancashire’, The Earldom of Chester and its Charters, ed. A. 'T. Thacker (Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society, Ixxi, 1991), p. 103.

* Possibly in Winwick (Lancs). 7 Miles Crispin was probably a younger son of William Crispin. The family came from Neaufles in Normandy. He had substantial estates in England by 1086, including lands in Oxfordshire. He married the daughter of Robert d'Oilly; see J. A. Green, The Aristocracy of Norman England (Cambridge, 1997), pp. 35, 38, 77, 274. * Brian Fitz Count, illegitimate son of Count Alan of Brittany, created lord of Abergavenny by Henry I, and a staunch supporter of the Empress Matilda, married Matilda, the widow, or more likely daughter, of Miles Crispin, heiress to the lordship of Wallingford; see Green, Aristocracy, pp. 132, 145, 285, 373. ° All three gifts are noted in V fo. r2". Miles Crispin apparently received some of the lands of Roger of Montgomery after they were forfeit, including Hillingdon. For the text of Brian Fitz Count's charter, see V fo. 17', also in H fo. 87°*.

10 *[ 1venton! appears to be Loynton (Staffs.), a township in the parish of High Offley. Robert of Stafford was by 1086 the most important lay tenant-in-chief in Staffs., and probably the sheriff. A younger son of Roger de Tosny, he acquired land from a number of antecessors, the most important of whom was a thegn called Wulfgeat. This gift of land at Wrottesley to Evesham abbey is noted by Green (Aristocracy, p. 76) as being very early for a Norman giving land to a Benedictine house and is also of interest because it is witnessed by two members of a thegnly family, /Ethelwine the sheriff and Turchil (of Arden) his son, which leads her to suggest that Robert may have married into that family; see R. W. Eyton, The Staffordshire Cartulary, Collections for a History of Staffordshire, ii (1881), p. 178.

" Early Yorkshire Charters, ii, ed. W. Farrer, (1915) no. 1058, purports to be the confirmation by William Fossard I of the gift of the church of Huntington (Yorks.) made by (Robert) his father to the church of St Ecgwine of Evesham, dated c.1140—59. The following charter, no. 1059, is the grant of the church by Roger, the abbot, and the convent of Evesham to Richard, abbot, and the convent of Whitby, for an annual pension of ros.

Roger was only abbot for one year, 1159-60, so the charter can be precisely dated. The source for both charters is the Whitby cartulary. For the Fossard pedigree, see Early Yorkshire Charters, ii. 327-8.

138

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Hugo filius Rogeri dedit nobis Suleston' et unam carrucatam terre de hereditate Margarete uxoris sue ad petitionem eiusdem, et Paganus de Nauers dedit eidem loco insulam que dicitur Serpham.^ Willelmus de Harewecurt dedit nobis quinque solidos in molendino de Westun.? fo. 141° Robertus de Kikeswic dedit nobis decimas de Pikerleye.* | Isti fuerunt huius ecclesie principales et primi benefactores, quibus pro misericordia sua magna benefaciat Deus et retribuat eis secundum retributionem quam retribuerunt nobis, respondens ipsis secundum benefacta eorum, ‘ut centuplum accipiant in regno celorum"? 129. Set quia tum per uarias temporum incommoditates et bellorum incursus, tum per malignorum hominum impugnationes et inuasiones, tum per prelatorum et subditorum huius ecclesie insufficientiam, malitiam et negligentiam, a pluribus maleuolis Dei et ecclesie huius inimicis diuersis temporibus hec bona multimodis direpta et subtracta dinosc*ntur, et iterum, per gratiam Dei, per sufficientiores, diligentiores et magis que Dei erant quam carnis et sanguinis diligentes, malignorum prelatorum et subditorum bonos successores, pro magna parte reuocata et redintegrata consistunt, tam malefactores quam benefactores, tam dispersores quam redintegratores ut utrique dignam remunerationem et mercedem, iusticiam et misericordiam consequantur, stilo, licet insufficienti, commendabimus. 130. Hoc etiam in subsequenti opere diligens lector attendat quod si

aliquando alium a predictis aliqua ex predictis huic ecclesie contulisse scriptum inuenerit, magis reuocasse quam de nouo contulisse intelligat, quamuis adquirenti, conseruanti, et dispersa reuocanti, eadem merces a Domino debeatur. 131. Igitur omnes possessiones a sanctissimo patre nostro beato Ecgwino adquisitas integerrime sine diminutione et cum summa libertate decem et octo abbates post eius depositionem possederunt, quorum nomina sunt hec: Primus ab eo /Ethelwold abbas; secundus,

Aldbore

abbas;

tercius,

Aldbath;

quartus,

Aldfefert;

' Southstone is in Stanford-on- Teme. Hugh Fitz Roger has not been further identified. * Gilbert Foliot's confirmation of these two grants, dated r148x 1163 (Foliot Letters, p. 363 no. 298) reveals that Southstone was intended as a cell of Evesham, and that Payne de Noyers' grant of the island of ‘Serpham’ (presumably in the river Teme) was for the

same cell. The cell was dedicated to St John the Baptist, but no more is heard of its existence. It probably failed soon after the grants were made. Payne de Noyers was possibly the Payne, brother of Alexander de Nuariis, both of whom attested a charter of

Richard Fitz Pons giving his wife the manor of Leach in Gloucestershire in c.1127; see Ancient Charters Royal and Private prior to A.D. 1200, part 1, ed. J. H. Round (Pipe Roll Society, x: 1888), no. 12. * William de Harcourt is presumably the William, son of Robert Fitz Anschetil, whose

BOOK III PART I

139

Roger gave us Southstone! and a carucate of land from the inheritance of his wife Margaret at her request, and Payne de Noyers gave us an island called ‘Serpham’;? William de Harcourt gave us five shillings revenue from the mill of Weston-upon-Avon [Glos. and Warws.|; and Robert de Kikeswic gave us the tithes of Pixley [Herefs.].* These were the principal and original benefactors of this church. May God bless them for their great mercy, and reward them according to the gifts they have made to us; may He answer their prayers according to their good deeds, ‘that they may receive a hundredfold in the Kingdom of Heaven'? 129. However, it is well known that these possessions have in many ways, and at different times, been plundered or removed by many ungodly men who were hostile to this church. This happened sometimes during periods which were prejudicial to the interests of the church or when enemies invaded, sometimes through the assaults or encroachment of men of ill-will, and sometimes through the incompetence, malice, or neglect of the rulers or servants of this church. But then again, by the grace of God, because of the competence and the diligence of the good men who succeeded those bad rulers and servants, who cared more for the things of God than the things of flesh and blood, these possessions have for the most part been restored or renewed. We shall therefore entrust to our pen, unworthy though it be, the prayer that malefactors and benefactors, those who have squandered our resources and those who have restored them, may each receive their due reward, recompense, justice and mercy. 130. The attentive reader should note that if he finds it written in any later record that someone other than the above-mentioned persons bestowed some properties upon this church, he should be aware that that person had restored property to the church rather than bestowed new property upon it, though the Lord grants the same reward to those who acquire, those who preserve, and those who gather up what has been scattered. 131. All the possessions acquired by our most holy father, the blessed Ecgwine, were held wholly without diminution, and with absolute freedom, by the eighteen abbots who followed after his death: the first was /Ethelwold, the second Aldbore, the third Aldbeorth, the fourth family were prominent tenants of the Beaumont twins. He attested from the 1120s to 1149; see D. Crouch, The Beaumont Twins (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 124-6 and n. 8o. * Robert de Kikeswic has not been further identified. ? Cf. Matt. 19: 29.

fo. 141° a

ABBEY

THE

HISTORY

I40

EVESHAM

quintus, Tildbrith; sextus, Cutulf; septimus, Aldmund; octauus, Credanus sanctus; nonus, Thincferth; decimus, Aldbald; undecimus, Ecbrith; duodecimus, Elferd; terciusdecimus, Wlfard; quartusdecimus, Kinelm; quintusdecimus, Kinath; sextusdecimus, Ebba; septimusdecimus, alter Kinath; octauusdecimus, Eduuinus abbas.! Isti omnes pariter per ordinem hanc abbatiam integram atque indiuisam cum terris | et possessionibus et magna libertate ueluti pater Ecgwinus dereliquit quamplurimis annis tenuerunt. 132. De prima destructione Eueshamensis ecclesie, et dispersione monachorum et substitutione canonichorum, per Alchelmum et Wlricum laicos et Osulfum episcopum Deinde uero defuncto abbate Eaduuino, et rege /Edmundo,* non illo sancto, regnante, quidam nefandissimus princeps huius patrie, Alchelmus nomine, a rege eodem iuuenili etate minus sapiente hanc abbatiam optinuit, et quasi lupus rapax,* primus raptor huius ecclesie, gregem Christi dispersit, seruos Dei monachos inde fugauit, terras et possessiones sibimet accepit, quosdam canonicos in loco monachorum, quibusdam terris sibi relictis, constituit, et quamdiu uixit contra Deum et omnes sanctos eius iniquissime tenuit. Post eius denique mortem diuersi homines sub diuersis regibus laicali potentia locum istum possederunt, ueluti erat quidam sancte ecclesie raptor iniquissimus nomine Wlfricus,’ et episcopus quidam nomine Osulfus,° et ita de una potestate in aliam potestatem contrariam res huius monasterii miserrime distrahebantur, quoadusque rex pacificus /Edgarus in regno confortatus, sapientium consilio et maxime sancti Dunstani archiepiscopi," sinodum totius Anglie fecit congregari, in qua prefatus archiepiscopus Dunstanus et sanctus Osuualdus .

' Very little is known about these early abbots. They appear in charters and records, many of which cannot be verified, and which reveal little more than their names. There are, however, two notable exceptions with the fourteenth and fifteenth abbots in the list,

Abbots Cynelm and Cynath, who were deduced by Armitage Robinson to have been trained in the Worcester familia of the scholarly bishop Waerferth, and who continued to be associated with the bishop's entourage after they became abbot of Evesham. Indeed, it is not unlikely that Abbot Cynath accompanied Bishop Cenwald of Worcester on his visit to certain German monasteries in 929; see J. Armitage Robinson, The Times ofSaint Dunstan

(Oxford, 1923), pp. 38-40. Thomas is likely to have copied this list from a source presumably drawn up in the mid to late tenth century. 2

^ Edmund

I, son of King Edward the Elder, b. 921, acc. Oct. 939, cons. ?28 Nov. 939,

d. 26 May 946. Not St Edmund, king of the East Angles, acc. 855, d. 20 Nov. 869, whose popularity as a saint, especially in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, presumably explains this comment;

HBC, pp. 9, 26.

+ Ealdorman, 940-56.

BOOK

III PART

IA4I

Aldfrith, the fifth Tilhberht, the sixth Cuthwulf, the seventh Aldmund, the eighth the holy Credan, the ninth Thingfrith, the tenth Aldbald, the eleventh Ecgberht, the twelfth /Elfrith, the thirteenth Wulfweard, the fourteenth Cynelm, the fifteenth Cynath, the sixteenth Ebba, the seventeenth another Cynath, and the eighteenth Edwin.' All of these abbots alike, for all these years, held this abbey intact and undivided, with its lands and possessions, and in complete freedom, just as father Ecgwine left it. 132. The first destruction of the church of Evesham; the dispersal of the monks and the substitution of canons by the laymen, Ealhhelm and Wulfric, and Bishop Oswulf After the death of Abbot Edwin, when King Edmund was ruling’— not the saint—a certain nefarious chief man of this country, named Ealhhelm,? gained possession of this abbey from the king when he was young and lacking in wisdom. Like a ravening wolf* the first despoiler of this church scattered Christ's flock, and drove the monks, God's servants, from this place. He appropriated their lands and possessions, and in place of the monks he installed some canons, keeping some lands for himself. As long as he lived he held these lands without right, against God and all His saints. After his death various men under different kings possessed this place with lay power. One of these despoilers of the holy church was called

Wulfric,? and another was a bishop named Oswulf.^ So the possessions of this monastery were shamefully dragged from one form of power to another which differed from it, until the peace-maker, King Edgar, was confirmed in his kingdom.’ On the advice of his witan, and especially of the archbishop, St Dunstan," he convened a synod of the whole of England.’ At this synod Archbishop Dunstan and St * Cf. Gen. 49: 27. ? This is presumably the Wulfric who bury, and Daylesford (Glos.), given to him has been suggested by P. Sawyer, Charters this was Wulfric pedisequus, a possible connections

with

the West

Midlands.

held land at Bourton-on-the-Water, Maugersby King Eadred in 949; see Sawyer, no. 550. It of Burton Abbey (London, 1979), p. xlviii, that kinsman of Wulfric spot, whose family had

C. Hart,

however

(Early

Charters

of Northern

England and the North Midlands (Leicester, 1979), pp. 371-2), identifies him as Dunstan's brother; see n. 8 below. * Oswulf, bishop of Ramsbury from 949x51 to his death in 970; HBC, p. 220. 7 Edgar I, son of King Edmund I, b. 943, acc. 957 as king of the Mercians, Oct. 959 as king of all England, cons. ?960/1, d. 8 July 975; HBC, p. 27. * Archbishop of Canterbury, acc. 959, d. r9 May 988; HBC, p. 214. ? The synod must have been held between 971 (the accession of Oswald to York) and

975, the death of Edgar, if the Evesham

writer is correct in stating that Oswald was

I42

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

archiepiscopus! ac beatus /Etheluuoldus Wintoniensis ecclesie antistes omnesque alii episcopi et abbates et principes huius patrie affuerunt, ibique decreuerunt ut omnes ecclesie que destructe fuerant a monastica religione restaurarentur.? 133. De reformatione eiusdem ecclesie et reuocatione monachorum et amotione canonicorum per beatos Dunstanum et Ethemoldum" et per Oswardum abbatem Qua de re sanctus Atheluuoldus iussu regis et beati Dunstani et aliorum magnatum communi decreto ad plures ecclesias transiens, abbates et monachos constituens, tandem ad istum locum uenit et Osuuardum abbatem hic constituit, commendans ei terras et possessiones quas Alchelmus Christi aduersarius post mortem Eadwini abbatis abstulit.

fo. 14r

134. De secunda dispersione" monachorum et substitutione canonicorum per Alferum et Godwinum laicos et Algesium episcopum* Deinde uero, defuncto rege pio Eadgaro, et filio eius Eaduuardo, qui postea martir effectus est, iuuenili nimium etate et sensu simplici regnante, et ideo parum fortiter regno suo dominante, dux quidam sceleratissi| mus, Alferus nomine, potentissimus huius patrie dominator, monachos iterum de multis ecclesiis expulit. Hic namque ad istum locum pergens monachos iterum hinc expellens, canonicos paucos constituens,^ hanc uillam Eouesham et Vffenham et reliquas ^ MS Ethewoldum ? mritten over

^ b MS dispersitione

archbishop of York at this time, and was probably the Synod of Winchester held in 970 x 3; see below, n. 3. John of Worcester, under the year 969 (Jo. HWo., ii, p. 419, and in a passage

based on Byrhtferth's Vita .S. Osmaldi) mentions that Edgar ordered Dunstan of Canterbury, Oswald of Worcester (not of York—he received the archbishopric in 971), and /Ethelwold

of Winchester

to expel secular priests from

the greater monasteries.

Byrhtferth says that this was in a council at Easter but he does not mention Oswald as being present; C. & S., i. pt. 1, pp. 113-18, 114 n. 4. This (and the present account) appear to be the only sources for the action taking place in a synod and neither Byrhtferth nor the Evesham writer can be deemed wholly reliable. In a general context, and for a critical examination of the sources, (Paderborn, 1985), pp. 259-60.

see Hanna

Vollrath, Die Synoden

Englands bis 1066

' Bishop of Worcester from 961—71, when he was translated to York, but he retained

the see of Worcester, dying on 29 Feb. 992; HBC, p. 224. On the possible tampering with this and the next passage in an attempt to write out the part played by Oswald, as bishop of Worcester, in the reform of Evesham—which would perhaps have suggested a certain subjection to the see later—and for the consequent boosting of the importance of /Ethelwold

in the revival, see D. Cox,

‘St Oswald

of Worcester

at Evesham

Abbey:

BOOK III PART I

143

Oswald, archbishop,' the blessed /Ethelwold, bishop of Winchester,’ and all the other bishops, abbots, and chief men of this country were present. There they decreed that all churches whose monastic religion had been suppressed should be restored as monasteries.?

133. The re-establishment of this church, the restoration of the monks, and the removal of the canons by the blessed Dunstan and A:thelwold, and Abbot Osmeard After the general decree had been made on this matter, St /Ethelwold, by order of the king, the blessed Dunstan, and the other magnates, visited several churches and reinstated abbots and monks. At last he came to this place and here reinstated Osweard as abbot, entrusting to him the lands and possessions which Christ's enemy, Ealhhelm, had taken from the abbey after the death of Abbot Edwin. 134. The second dispersal of the monks and substitution of canons by the laymen /Elfhere and Godmine, and by the bishop, Athelsige" 'Then the pious King Edgar died, and his son Edward, who later became a martyr, reigned when he was too young and naive.” His control of his kingdom was consequently weak, and a certain unscrupulous man called /EÉlfhere, who was a powerful lord in this district, again expelled monks from many churches. He came to this place and again expelled the monks from here, and installed a few canons. He took this vill of Evesham, Offenham, and other vills Cult and Concealment’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, liii (2002), 1-17, at pp. 2-4, 15— 16. The rewriting could be the work of either Dominic or Thomas. ? cons. 29 Nov. 963, d. 1 Aug. 984; HBC, p. 223. See next note, and below, 133, 325. * fEthelwold appears to have drawn up the Regularis Concordia ‘in the wake of a synod held in Winchester some time between 970 and 973’; see Wulfstan of Winchester, Life of St "Ethelmold, ed. M. Lapidge and M. Winterbottom (OMT, 1991), p. lviii. Monasteries were to be restored, and lay overlordship over monasteries was condemned; see Regularis Concordia, ed. T. Symons (NMT, 1953), pp. 1-2, and 7 (cl. 10). On /Ethelwold's part in the restoration of the monks, see Wulfstan of Winchester, Life of St /Ethelmold, pp. xlvi. On the view that Oswald at Worcester did not totally eject the clerks, but put in monks alongside them, see J. Barrow, ‘How the monks of Worcester perceived their past’, in The Perception of the Past in Twelfth-Century Europe’, ed. P. Magdalino (London, 1992), pp. 53— 74, at 56—7, and the references cited there. * /Kthelsige I of Sherborne, acc. 978x979, d. or trans. 991x993; HBC, p. 222. > Edgar died in 975. His son, Edward, was born c.962, acc. July 975, d. 18 March 978; "TB ps 27: ® On the second dispersal, see D. J. V. Fisher, "The anti-monastic reaction in the reign of Edward the Martyr’, Cambridge Historical Journal, x (1950-2), 254-70, esp. p. 265: ‘When, as at Evesham, ejection was followed by a redistribution of monastic lands and the restoration of secular clergy, it is easy to see why the movement was popular.’

144

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

hic in circuitu sibi in dominio assumpsit, fratri suo, Alfuuardo nomine, Ambresleie dedit, et octo hidas apud Biuintone quibusdam militibus suis tradidit, presbiteris uero quicquid sibi placuit de terris ecclesie concessit. | 135. Hiis temporibus quidam potens hom*o Vfa nomine, uicecomes uidelicet super Wareuuicscire, reddidit huic loco cum corpore suo defuncto uillam Withlagesford, quinque hidas. Set presbiteri qui tunc temporis prefuerunt nimis incauti postea filio suo, Wlfgeato nuncupato,' ipsam terram eo tenore dederunt ut post mortem eius ecclesia iterum cum tota substantia que ibi tunc reperta fuisset eam reciperet. Set hec donatio ad ecclesie dampnum longo tempore durauit, scilicet usque quo abbas Ageluuius, tempore sancti Eaduuardi regis, a Wigodo regis barone* digno pretio eam comparauit. Quandam etiam uillam nomine Mapeldreboreh, quinque hidas habentem, ipsi presbiteri cuidam uiro nobili, Agelmaro nomine, similiter suo die concesserunt, sed ita iniuste concessa usque in hodiernum diem ea caret ecclesia. Has et alias de his terris quas habebant potentibus hominibus iccirco dederunt ut adiutores plures haberent, ne monachi eos iterum ex hoc loco expellerent. Set, Dei gratia, ‘in uanum laborauerunt’.® Igitur dux Alferus, de quo superius prefati sumus, in egritudine constitutus, de uita sua desperatus est.

136. De Fredegaro abbate Quapropter uocauit ad se quendam monachum, Freodegarum nomine, qui cum eo conuersabatur, et dedit ei abbatiam, Eouesham uidelicet et Vffenham, et alias terras simul quadraginta hidas quas ipse habebat. Reliquas uero terras ecclesie presbiteris et aliis amicis suis prius dederat. 137. Set ipse abbas Freodegarus ad locum istum perueniens, pauco for142;^ tempore hic | potuit commorari, quia clericos fortiores se inueniens nullo modo ualuit eos hinc expellere. Qua de re quendam potentem hominem adiit, Godwinum nomine, qui tunc temporis terram habuit ' Priests probably indicates canons, and the word miles is not contemporary with the acts described. ^ For Ufa, the sheriff, see above, 124. ? He has not been further identified. * Wigod held Wixford in King Edward's day; by 1086 it was in Evesham's hands; see Domesday Book, published by the Record Commissioners, 2 vols. i (1783), fo. 239". There is nothing to connect him with Wigod of Wallingford, a considerable landowner, holding property in at least seven shires, and possibly as many as eleven, for whom see M. K. Lawson,

cnu*t:

The Danes in England in the Early Eleventh

Century (London and New

BOOK III PART I

145

which were in this neighbourhood, and made them part of his own demesne; he gave Ombersley to his brother /Elfweard, handed over eight hides of land at Binton [Warws.] to some of his thegns, and gave his priests whatever lands of this church he pleased. 135. It was during these times that a powerful man named Ufa, the sheriff of Warwickshire, restored to this church, to be received with his dead body, the vill of Wixford [Warws.] which consisted of five hides However, the priests in charge at that time were most imprudent, for they subsequently gave that land to Ufa's son Wulfgeat* on condition that the church received it back again on his death along with the property that had been found on it. In fact this gift to Wulfgeat, to the detriment of the church, lasted for a long period of time, until, indeed, Abbot /Ethelwig in the reign of St Edward bought it from the king's baron Wigod^ at a fair price. Similarly those priests granted a nobleman named /Ethelmzr? the vill of Mapleborough [Warws.] which consisted of five hides, and so injurious was the grant that the church does not possess Mapleborough even today. The priests made gifts of these and other lands to influential men in order to secure more helpers to prevent the monks expelling them again from this place. But by the grace of God ‘they laboured in vain’.° Indeed, the ealdorman /Elfhere, of whom we have spoken above, fell sick and despaired of his life. 136. Concerning Abbot Freodegar He consequently summoned to his side a monk called Freodegar, with whom he was associated, and gave him the abbacy, Evesham and Offenham, and other lands he possessed amounting to forty hides altogether. He had previously given the remaining lands of the church to priests and others of his friends. 137. Abbot Freodegar came to Evesham but was able to stay for but a short time as he found that the clerks were stronger than he, and he could in no way expel them. He therefore went to see a man of great influence named Godwine’ who at that time held land called York, 1993), pp. 172, 180. The term baron is not contemporaneous, captures Wigod’s standing in post-Conquest terms. > The name is too common to make any satisfactory identification. The we know connected with Evesham, who was leasing land for three lives Abbot /Elfweard and the convent in 101623 (Sawyer, no. 1423), seems

account. © Ps. 126 (127): 1. 7 Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey; see below 144 n. r.

but it perhaps

one /Ethelmaer in Norton from too late for this

146

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Tofecestre appellatam, et optinuit ab eo ut mutuo sibi daret hanc terram pro ista abbatia. Placuit autem id prefato principi, atque ad regem /Ethelredum, fratrem beati /Edwardi martiris, accessit, donans sibi trescentas mancusas auri eo tenore ut sibi abbatiam hereditario iure perpetuo donaret. Rex igitur cupiens habere illud aurum stulte concessit sibi hunc locum. Protinus ille huc pergens presbiteros sibi subiecit, omnique abbatia iniuste res et possessiones eius diripiens sicut uolebat dominari cepit. 138. Deinde post aliquantum tempus rex predictus dedit hanc abbatiam cuidam episcopo, Agelsio nomine. Set is iterum" post non multum tempus iram regis incurrens, ab episcopatu deiectus mare transiit et nunquam reuersus est. Deinde rex dedit eam cuidam alio" episcopo, /Ethelstano uocato.* 139. De secunda reuocatione monachorum et prima subiectione Eueshamensis ecclesie episcopis Wigornie per Aldulfum episcopum et Aluricum abbatem Quo defuncto, Aldulfus episcopus Wigornie* a rege eam optinuit, et primus libertate sua fraudauit et sue iurisdictioni /subiecit. Ille autem constituit hic abbatem, Alfricum nomine.?

140. De Algaro abbate Post cuius etiam mortem Alfgarus abbas prefuit. Inter hos omnes quoque semper Goduuinus quadraginta habuit hidas, uidelicet hanc uillam Eouesham et Vffeham, Ambresleie, Burhtun, Lencwike, ita ut

nec episcopi nec abbates plus possent habere quam ecclesiam et reliquas terras quas presbiteri tenuerunt.

solummodo

141. De redemptione terrarum a Godmino per Brihtmarum abbatem Defuncto iterum isto abbate Alfgaro, Britthmarus quidam abbas prefuit huic loco. Qui uir uenerabilis super Goduuinum coram ^ js iterum over an erasure

^ MS alii

' Son of Edgar, b. ?968/9, acc. Mar. 978, cons. 979, d. 25 Apr

xor WBC. p27

* /Ethelsige I of Sherborne, acc. 978x979, d. 991x993; HBC, p. 222. Dorothy Whitelock has shown that the story of his incurring the king's wrath and crossing the sea never to return is due to a misunderstanding. Instead the bishop went in 99r on a royal embassy to Richard of Normandy,

after which no more

is heard of him; D. Whitelock,

Some Anglo-Saxon Bishops of London, Chambers Memorial Lecture 1974 (H. K. Lewis for University College London, ¢.1975), p. 23 n. 3. * ?/lfstan of London 959x64—995 x996 (HBC, p. 220). He may have held the abbacy of Evesham from 99r until his death c.995; Whitelock, ibid., p. 23 and n. 3.

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Towcester [Northants]. He was successful in arranging with him an exchange of Towcester for the abbey. Godwine, pleased with the transaction, then approached King /Ethelred, brother of Edward the martyr,’ and gave him three hundred gold mancuses on condition that the king made him a gift of the abbey to be his by hereditary right forever. The king, being eager to have the gold, foolishly granted him this place. Godwine came here straightway and, having established control over the priests, unjustly robbed the whole abbey of its property and possessions, and began to rule it just as he pleased. 138. Then after some time King /Ethelred gave this abbey to a certain Bishop /Ethelsige. But again, he soon incurred the wrath of the king and, after being deprived of his bishopric, he crossed the sea never to return.” The king then gave the abbey to another bishop called /Elfstan.?

139. The second restoration of the monks, and the first subjection of the church of Evesham to the bishops of Worcester by Bishop Ealdmulf and Abbot /Elfric When /Elfstan died the king gave Ealdwulf, bishop of Worcester, possession of the abbey. He was the first to rob it of its liberty and to subject it to his own jurisdiction. However, he did install an abbot here named /Elfric. ?

140. Concerning Abbot A:lfgar When /Elfric died, he was succeeded by Abbot /Elfgar. During the abbacies of all these men Godwine always remained in possession of the forty hides comprising the vill of Evesham, Offenham, Ombersley, Bourton-on-the-Water [Glos.], and Lenchwick.^ Consequently, the only land the bishops or abbots could hold was the church and the other lands which the priests held.

141. Abbot Brihtmar redeems the lands from Godwine When Abbot /Elfgar died an Abbot Brihtmer succeeded him here. A godly man, he repeatedly sued Godwine before many chief men of * Abbot of Peterborough; bp of Worcester 992-4 June 1002 (d.). He was translated to York in 995, but retained the bishopric of Worcester (HBC, p. 224). ^ During the excavations begun in 1811, a burial was discovered in the north transept with a lead plate inscribed, *Hic requiescit domnus abbas /Elfricus huius loci anima sua requiescat in pace Amen’; see VCH Wores., 11. 388.

* See above, 136.

148

HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

multis principibus huius patrie frequenter placitauit,! eo quod iniuste terras ecclesie possideret. Qua de re diiudicatum est ei, ut tantum aurum quantum regi dederat sibi redderet, et ipse terras ecclesie iure reciperet. Quod et ipse libenter fecit, et quadraginta hidas ecclesie restituit.

fo. 1427

142. De primo [Ageluui|no abbate? Huic uero abbati quidam nomine Ageluuinus abbas successit, et suo tempore abbatiam istam ut decessor eius reliquirat | integram conseruauit.

143. De secunda inuasione possessionum huius abbacie per Godwinum Quo etiam ex hac luce instabili migrante sepedictus Goduuinus sancte ecclesie aduersarius per potentiam suam abbatiam istam iterum inuasit, terras et possessiones diripuit, suoque dominio contra Deum miserabiliter mancipauit. Et hoc sine iussione regis fecerat, eo quod ipse eodem tempore mare transiens adiit comitem Normannie Rodbertum, cuius filiam habebat uxorem, fugiens namque quasi imbellis uerecundose^ persecutionem Sueinonis regis fortissimi Danorum, qui tunc temporis maximam partem huius patrie cum maximo exercitu inuaserat.* 144. De plena reuocatione possessionum huius ecclesie et particulari reformatione libertatis e1usdem, et plena expulsione Godmini per Eilwardum abbatem, et aliis operibus eius Set eodem pagano duce secundo aduentus sui anno diuinitus extincto, rex /Ethelredus patriam reuersus) quendam monachum Ramesiensem,

Alfuuardum nomine, constituit abbatem in hoc loco.?

Qui uir uenerabilis huc adueniens, fretus auxilio Dei atque regis, peruasorem iuris huius sancte ecclesie, Goduuinum uidelicet, cum magna fortitudine hinc expulit, et terras abbatie huius sicuti melius fuerant antiquitus, Dei gratia annuente, uiriliter omnes adquisiuit. Goduuinus uero qui eas iniuste habuit, eodem anno Dei nutu in “ se over erasure extends into the margin and is written again in the next line and expunged (s. wv)

! This may mean the shire court. The word patria is used.

? Athelwinus (/Ethelwine or /Ethelwig) called ‘the first’ to distinguish him from Abbot /Ethelwig (1058-77), on whom see below, 151 f. * The chronicler is mistaken. Emma (Elfgifu), who married /Ethelred as his second

wife, was the daughter of Count Richard I of Normandy, not Robert. She later married cnu*t of Denmark, the son of Swegn. Robert I, duke from 1027-35, was the father of William the Conqueror (/7BC, pp. 27, 28, 34).

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this district! on the grounds that he had no right to possess lands of this church. In this matter judgment was given in the abbot's favour, namely, that he should pay Godwine as much gold as he had given the king, and himself receive rightful possession of the church. He gladly did this, and Godwine restored the forty hides to the church. 142. Concerning the first abbot Athelwig* Brihtmar was succeeded as abbot by a man named /Ethelwig who during his period of office preserved the abbey intact, just as his predecessor had left it.

143. Godwine’s second assault upon the abbey’s possessions When /Ethelwig departed this mortal life, this Godwine I have so often mentioned, who was an adversary of the church, used his great power to make a second assault upon the abbey. He robbed it of its lands and possessions and deplorably alienated them for his own demesne, contrary to God's will. He had done this without mandate from the king because the king at that time was abroad visiting Count Robert of Normandy, whose daughter he had married. King /Ethelred, who was no soldier, had fled shamefully from the pursuit of Swegn, the powerful king of the Danes, who at that time had invaded a large part of this country with a very large army.* 144. The full restoration of this church's possessions and the partial recovery of its liberty; the complete expulsion of Godwine by Abbot "Elfineard; and other of his deeds The pagan leader was killed by divine intervention within two years of his accession, so King /Ethelred returned to his own country.’ He installed a monk of Ramsey named /Elfweard as abbot of Evesham.^ When this godly man arrived here, relying on the help of God and of the king, and with considerable courage, he expelled from this place the man Godwine who had invaded the rights of this holy church. Also, by God's grace, he manfully regained all the lands of this abbey as they had been more fully held in antiquity. But in fact that same Godwine, who held these lands wrongfully, was by God's + /Ethelred was in exile in Normandy from Jan. 1014 until Lent of that year; HBC,

iD. 25 ? The pagan leader is Swegn. Following his death in ror4, King /Ethelred began his second reign which lasted until his death in 1016; HBC, p. 27. $ Elfweard was abbot from c.1014 to 1044; see H RH, p. 47, and Jo. Wo. ii. 540—1.

I50

f0, 142.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

bello contra regem Danorum, cnu*tonem Sueinonis filium, facto occisus est.! 145. Ita denique post mortem abbatis Eaduuini a tempore tegis /Edmundi, non illius qui uere sanctus appellatur sed alterius! usque ad finem fere regni regis sepedicti /Ethelredi, quod laboriosissime triginta annis tenuit, diuersi huic loco prefuere prelati, laici uidelicet, presbiteri, episcopi, et abbates, et ideo nimirum res et ornamenta^ huius sancte ecclesie que pater noster Ecgwinus uel alii qui post eum pacifice eidem prefuerunt direpta atque in diuersis locis distracta dinosc*ntur. Et multa digna memoria hic facta profunde obliuioni traduntur, de quibus aliquid magis pie arbitrari elegimus quam aliquid presumtuose diffinire; quamuis ob tocius loci sanctificationem, locum sanctum diuidendo et loca a locis distinguendo, strictius et discretius loca in quibus facta sunt specificari non curemus, cum tamen ea infra ambitum huius | cenobnu facta nequaquam" dubitemus. Set hoc ‘est mirabile in oculis nostris" quod in tot et tantis tribulationibus et tam uariis et subitis personarum hic iniuste dominantium mutationibus, priuilegia Constantini episcopl^ que reuerendus pater noster beatus Ecgwinus adquisiuit,* uel ab episcopis Wigornie cum huic ecclesie dominabantur, uel a clericis quando huic loco prefuerunt, maxime cum talium contra incursus concepta et scripta sint, omnino non fuerint demolita. Set hoc per Dei misericordiam et interuentum eiusdem gloriose genitricis Marie factum esse credimus, que sicut locum quem elegit penitus pericl*tari passa non est, sic eius iura et iuris confirmationes ad eiusdem ecclesie reformationem illesa conseruare dignata est. 146. Vir uero prudens /Eluuardus abbas, qui etiam sub cnu*tone rege Londoniensis ecclesie episcopus effectus est, non tamen huius loci gubernationem deserens, laboriose, ueluti prefati sumus, omnes terras ante habitas reuocauit, et Bradewellam pro sex marcis auri redemit a consanguineo suo rege cnu*tone? Qui rex " marg. Nota de rebus et ornamentis ecclesie dirept. (s. xv)

^ erasure here of one

mord (?pape) * episcopi has been written over ?pape. Marginal note beside the entry reads Nota de priuilegiis Constantini episcopi non sunt demolit (s. xc) ' Godwine, ealdorman of Lindsey was killed at the battle of Ashingdon in ro16; see ASC (s.a. 1016), p. 96, version C, and Jo. Wo., ii. 490-1. ? See 132 n. 2 (p. 140), above.

* Ps. 117 (x18): 23. * For the privileges, see below, 318-28. > /Elfweard was appointed bishop of London in 1035; see HBC, p. 220. For him, see M. Lawson, cnu*t, pp. 149-50, 155, 193. Ann Williams has suggested that he was perhaps a

BOOK

III PART

I5I

will killed in the battle he fought against the Danish king cnu*t, son

of Swegn.! 145. To sum up then. After the death of Abbot Edwin in the reign of King Edmund [I]—not St Edmund, but the other king of that name^—4until almost the end of the reign of the frequently mentioned King /Ethelred, who ruled with great vigour for thirty years, different kinds of rulers, viz. laymen, priests, bishops, and abbots, governed this place. It is not surprising therefore that the property and treasures of this holy church, which were given to it by our father Ecgwine and others who ruled the same church peaceably, were pillaged and are known to have been dispersed to various places. Many things which have happened here deserve to have been recorded, but have been consigned to utter oblivion. We have preferred to treat these deeds with respect rather than to describe them in any way presumptuously. Because of the holiness of the whole place, we would not want to make too specific or too distinctive mention of the places where these deeds occurred by dividing up a holy place, or by differentiating one place from another, though we should not doubt in the least that they took place within the precincts of this monastery. Indeed, ‘it is marvellous in our eyes" that despite the many great tribulations and various sudden changes of persons who engaged in unjust rule here, the privileges of Pope Constantine, which our revered father Ecgwine acquired,' were not completely destroyed by either the bishops of Worcester when they ruled over this church, or by the clerks when they were in charge here: this is especially marvellous since the privileges were formulated and written against the assaults of such people. We believe that this was achieved through the mercy of God and the mediation of his glorious mother Mary: just as she did not allow the place which she had chosen to be completely endangered, so she chose to keep its rights and confirmations of privilege intact in order to effect the restoration

of this church. 146. The wise Abbot /Elfweard, who was also appointed bishop of London in the reign of King cnu*t, did not abandon his rule of this place, but with great vigour, as has already been said, recovered all the lands previously held by this church, and for six marks bought Broadwell [Glos.] back from King cnu*t, who was his kinsman.? The kinsman of /Elgifu of Northampton, in * *co*ckles amongst the Wheat": Danes and English in the Western Midlands in the first half of the eleventh century', Midland History, xi (1986), 1—22, at p. 8.

152

fo. 142"

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

reliquias beati Wistani! et nigram casulam meliorem cum alus ornamentis ad eam pertinentibus huic ecclesie contulit.^ Iste etiam rex dedit huic ecclesie Baddebi et Neueham.* Idem uero /Eluuardus episopus et abbas sanctissimas corporis reliquias fere omnes beati Odulfi confessoris a mercatoribus eas Londonias portantibus mercatus est digno pretio, id est, centum marcis, atque ad istum locum quem maxime dilexerat transmisit, laudabiliter reseruandas hic perpetuo." Libros etiam plurimos tam diuinos quam gramaticos de Londonia transmisit. Iste etiam abbas, postquam Aldulfus episcopus Wigornie* hanc abbatiam sibi et successoribus suis subiecerat, primus abbatum in libertatem proclamauit, et in tantum optinuit quod uenerabilem uirum Auitium huius ecclesie priorem decanum Christianitatis tocius uallis constituit, quam nunquam libertatem ecclesia ista postea amisit? Qui prior et decanus^ fuit a rege cnu*tone et ab aliis principibus huius patrie plurimis ualde dilectus et honoratus pro sua sanctitate.|Iste prior quasi ex paterna hereditate duas uillas Baddebi et Neueham huic sancte ecclesie reddidit. Hoc idem fecit postea beatus Wlsius? cum parentes sui easdem uillas iterum iniuste occupassent; de una enim erant parentela. Eius etiam ortatu Leoffricus comes et Godgiua comitissa, eo quod pater erat confessionum suarum, prudentissime mundum in plurimis spernentes, elemosinis et orationibus diligenter instantes,^ Couentreiam abbatiam? pluresque alias ecclesias pro amore Dei gloriose edificantes, terris et possessionibus et plurimis “ marg. Nota de reliquiis beati Vlstani (s. xv") ^ marg. Nota de reliquiis beati Odulfi (s. xv^)/ emptis et datis ecclesie (s. xvii) “ marg. Nota de primo decano istius loci (s. xv?) ^ ualde deleted ' Wigstan, prince of the royal house of Mercia, was murdered (probably at Wistow, Leics.) in 849 for opposing the marriage of his mother, whom he had asked to rule as regent, to Beorhtric, his cousin, on the grounds that the marriage would be incestuous. He was buried in the royal monastery at Repton, the mausoleum of the Mercians, with his father and grandfather. In 1019, /Elfweard asked cnu*t for the relics of his cult; see Acta Sanctorum, 1 June, cols. 85-6; AB lviii (1940), 90—103; Jennings in EHR, Ixxvii (1962), 298—304. : Sawyer, no. 957 (1020). The tradition of the Benedictine abbey of Crowland, to which

Badby belonged at the time of Domesday, was somewhat different, namely that Badby had been given on a hundred-year lease to Northman, brother of Leofric. On Northman's death it passed to Leofric, who gave it to Evesham. Sawyer, no. 977, is the grant by King cnu*t of Newnham (Northants, not Notts. as Sawyer) to /Efic the monk of Evesham and is

likely to be genuine; Lawson, cnu*t, pp. 155, 240. It is easy to see how Northamptonshire possessions of Evesham were brought together in this way.

the two

BOOK III PART I

153

king granted this church the relics of the blessed Wigstan! and a fine black chasuble with other precious things belonging to it. He also gave it Badby and Newnham [Northants]. That same bishop and abbot /Elfweard purchased all the holy relics of the body of the blessed Odulf at a fair price of one hundred marks from the merchants who were bringing them to London, and he sent them to the place for which he had the greatest affection, to be lovingly preserved here for ever.? He also sent from London a large number of books, not only sacred works but also grammars. /Elfweard was the first abbot, after Ealdwulf, bishop of Worcester," had subjected this abbey to himself and his successors, to proclaim its liberty; and so successful was his rule that he was able to appoint the venerable /Efic, prior of this church, as dean of Christianity in the whole of the Vale, and this church never again lost its liberty.? As prior and dean /Efic was highly respected and honoured for his godliness by King cnu*t and most of the other leading men of this country. As prior he restored to this holy church, as if from his patrimony, the two vills of Badby and Newnham. The blessed Wulfsige? did the same thing afterwards, when his relatives had once again wrongfully taken possession of these same vills; for they were from the same kindred. Persuaded by Wulfsige, their spiritual father, Earl Leofric, and Countess Godgifu, wisely rejecting the world for the most part, and assiduous in almsgiving and prayer,’ magnificently built the abbey at Coventry? and many other churches in their love for God, and enriched them with lands, possessions, and many beautiful * The relics of Odulf, the monk and missionary to Frisia, who died in 855, which came to rest in Evesham, had been stolen by Viking pirates from Staveren, but Odulf died at Utrecht, which makes their authenticity dubious. See Acta Sanctorum, 12 June, cols. 591—5; for their later history, see below, 149. There were two feasts of the translation, 10 Oct. and 24 Nov. * See above 139. ? On the liberty, the Vale, and the dean of the Vale, see Sayers, ‘The proprietary church in England: a note on “Ex ore sedentis" (X s. 33. 17), Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, kan. Abt. \xxiv (1988), 231-45, at pp. 234-5, 238-40. The older Benedictine houses claimed exempt areas, administered later as deaneries, or more frequently archdeaconries, under the abbot; for Bury St Edmunds, St Albans, Glaston-

bury, and Westminster, see Sayers, ‘Monastic archdeacons’, in Church and Government in the Middle Ages: Essays presented to C. R. Cheney, ed. C. Brooke et al. (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 177-203, repr. in Lam and Records in Medieval England (London, 1988), ch. vi. 5 Wulsi [Wulfsige], a hermit saint (and monk of Crowland before he became a monk at Evesham). According to John of Worcester, Wulfsige, who had led the solitary life for more than forty years, was instrumental in Wulfstan's acceptance of the bishopric of Worcester in 1062, reproving him for his obstinacy and disobedience (7o. Wo., 11. 590—1). UE GO SROmEE2: 12 * Founded in (?)1043: in that year a papal confirmation was granted; KH, pp. 53 and 63.

I54

fo. 143

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

ditabant ornamentis honestissimis. Hanc etiam abbatiam ualde diligentes honorabant, facientes hic honorabilem ecclesiam in honore sancte Trinitatis," in qua fecerunt constitui crucem non modicam et ymaginem sancte Dei genitricis Marie. sanctique Iohannis Euangeliste argento et auro honorabiliter fabricatas; necnon etiam uillam quandam, Shuocham nomine, et uiridem casulam et minorem nigram capam et multa alia ornamenta preciosa huic loco contulerunt. 147. Supra namque retulimus hoc quod in priuilegiis patris nostri Ecgwini reperimus, uidelicet, quod ipse centum uiginti hidas huic loco ex utraque parte fluminis huius quod dicitur Auene adquisiuit,' hanc uillam uidelicet Eouesham et Lencwike ex parte ista, Hamtune quoque et Beningwrthe ex alia; set hee due Hamptone et Beningwrthe cum aliis terris plurimis ablate et a diuersis hominibus, sicut superius dictum est, sunt possesse a tempore /Edmundi regis usque ad tempora cnu*tonis regis sub hoc Ailuuardo episcopo et huius loco abbate. Ipse igitur rex cnu*to in primo anno regni sui? quendam ducem super omnes potentiorem huius terre pro causis quas nouerat fecit occidi, Edricum nomine, cum quo etiam et aliis plurimis militibus suis quidam potens hom*o Normannus uocabulo, frater uidelicet huius Leofrici comitis, perimitur eius iussione.* Quapropter rex, quoniam Leofricum plurimum dilexerat, ut emendaret erga eum propter* mortem fratris sui, fecit eum comitem et principem super omnes terras, ab ista Wigornensi prouintia usque ad Sco|tiam, insuper et terras fratris sui, que plurime erant, sibi concessit. Inter has namque uillam supradictam Hamptune quinque hidas Leofricus accepit, quam frater suus Normannus donante rege /Ethelredo plurimis annis possedit. Cum autem aliquot annis ipse comes eam possideret, et frequenter huc ueniendo amicitiam atque noticiam prefati prioris Auitii et aliorum fratrum, ecclesiam illam quam prediximus edificando multaque beneficia peragendo, ex toto haberet, tandem cognoscens quod pater noster Ecgwinus primitus eam huic ecclesie obtineret, rogatu omnium fratrum pro alia terra quam prius dederat, Suocham

nomine,

ita omnino

liberam

huic

ecclesie

perpetualiter

' marg. Nota de ecclesia de Couentre (s. xv") ^ marg. Nota de ecclesia in honore sancte "Trinitatis facta (s. vv") * propter inserted (s. xv)

' This church of Holy Trinity is somewhat puzzling, as there is no further mention of it: it seems likely that it was actually attached to the abbey as a chapel, either from the time of its construction or perhaps later as a result of further building having taken place. There is no evidence that Holy Trinity was a previous dedication of either of the two parochial

BOOK III PART I

treasures. hey lovingly honoured this abbey by building here a noble church in honour of the Holy Trinity.! In it they had a large cross erected as well as an image of St Mary, Mother of God, and another of St John the Evangelist, beautifully fashioned in silver and gold. They even bestowed upon this abbey a vill named Southam [Warws.], a green chasuble, a small black cope, and many other precious treasures. 147. We have referred above to something that we found in the privileges of our father Ecgwine, that Ecgwine himself acquired for this place 120 hides on each side of the river Avon,” comprising the vill of Evesham and Lench on the one side, and Hampton and Bengeworth on the other. However, the two vills of Hampton and Bengeworth with many other lands were taken away and possessed by various men, as related above, from the time of King Edmund till that of King cnu*t under Bishop A‘lfweard who was also abbot of Evesham. During the first year of his reign,’ King cnu*t had one of the most powerful leading men in this land, named Eadric, put to death for reasons best known to himself. Executed along with him and many others of his thegns was an influential man called Northman, brother of Earl Leofric.* However, as the king had a very high regard for Leofric, in order to compensate him for the death of his brother he made him an earl and chief man over all the territories from the region of Worcester north to Scotland, and granted him in addition his brother's lands, which were numerous. Amongst these Leofric received the above-mentioned Hampton which consisted of five hides that his brother Northman had possessed for many years as a gift of King /Ethelred. The earl himself held possesssion of this land for several years, but he came to know Prior /Efic and other brethren very well, and became their friend during his frequent visits to this place, because of his building of the church we have mentioned, and through the benefits he bestowed. Eventually he learned that our father Ecgwine had originally held that land for this church, so, at the request of the brethren and in exchange for Southam [Warws. |—the other land which he had previously given to the church—he granted it to this church to be held completely free for ever, just as he had chapels of St Laurence and All Saints, which stood (and still stand) close to the abbey; see

Cox, ‘Building, construction, and excavation’, p. 124. ? See above, 28.

3 ie. 1017. * On this whole episode, see ASC F; Encomium Emmae Reginae, ed. A. Campbell (Royal Historical Society, Camden 3rd ser. lxxii, 1949), 11.15, pp. 30-2; Hemming, i. 259, 281. See also Jo. Wo., i1. 504-5.

156

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EVESHAM

concessit, quemadmodum ipse, rege donante, longo tempore possedit, et ueluti in carta sua que in fine huius operis habetur per scripta apertissime demonstratur.! 148. Venerabilis igitur prior iste Auicius anno ab incarnatione Domini

millesimo

tricesimo

octauo

hac

luce

discessit,

et in

eadem ecclesia sancte Trinitatis coram eadem religiosa comitissa Godgiua uenerabiliter sepultus extitit, cuius et memoriam habuit quamdiu uixit. Postea uero gloriosus Ailuuardus Londoniensis ecclesie, ut prediximus, antistes, huius ecclesie pastor piissimus, in egritudine constitutus, iussit suis ut huc eum deducerent, cupiens, si Deus disponeret, in hoc loco quem plurimum ante dilexerat, menbra sua fragilia perpetualiter requiescere. Set quidam fratres atque laici quos ipse antea diuitiis et honoribus plurimum exaltans huic loco prefecerat, diabolico instinctu ad maximum dampnum huius sancte ecclesie contra eum rebelles effecti, per legatos sibi mandauerunt quod si huc ueniret omnes monachi discederent.^ Quo audito, uir ille uenerabilis plus quam dici ualet contristatus, et pro hiis nefandissimis traditoribus suis nimium huic loco iratus, toto animo ad Ramesiensem fo. 143^

ecclesiam conuersus, ubi prius fuerat monachus fecit se deduci, et omnia ornamenta que secum portabat, uidelicet casulas, | capas, palla plurima multaque alia ornamenta que huic loco offerre cogitabat, uersa uice prefate ecclesie Ramesie omnia condonabat. Et ita millesimo quadragesimo quarto anno ab incarnatione Domini uitam temporalem finiens, ibi sepultus requiescit.? 149. De abbate Mannio et sanctis operibus eius Eodem anno, facto consilio apud Londonias,! Mannius huius ecclesie

monachus abbas a rege /Eduuardo, secundo uidelicet anno regni eius, eligitur, atque ad istum locum quarto idus Augusti consecratur.? Hic uir ualde uenerabilis et sacris litteris aliisque plurimis artibus fuerat imbutus, uidelicet cantoris, scriptoris, pictoris aurique fabrilis operis scientia pollens, super omnes alios fere huius patrie magister optimus habebatur. Apud Cantuariam uero atque ecclesiam Couentreiam ! Charter of Leofric giving Hampton; Sawyer, no. 1223 (1033X 1038). The text is in V

on fo. 30° *: it no longer survives as part of R. * The chronicler does not point out that /Elfweard had leprosy. At least, this was the gloss put on what John of Worcester described as /Elfweard's infirmity (Jo. Wo., ii 540—1) by the Ramsey chronicler; see Chronicon abbatiae Rameseiensis, ed. W. D. Macray (RS Ixxxiii; London, 1886), pp. 157-8. * Cf. the account in Jo. Wo., ii. 540-1, who gives the date of /Elfweard's death as 25 July.

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possessed it for a long time as a gift from the king: this is clearly shown in his charter which is to be found at the end of this work.' 148. However, the venerable prior, /Efic, departed this life in the year of our Lord 1038, and was honourably buried in the same church of Holy Trinity in the presence of the devout Countess Godgifu who remembered him as long as she lived. After this the blessed /Elfweard, who was bishop of London as we have said, and the most devoted shepherd of this church, fell ill. He commanded his men to bring him here, for he desired, God willing, to rest his frail limbs for ever more in this place which he had previously loved so much. However, some of the brethren and laymen whom he himself had given authority over this place, after first exalting them with abundant riches and high honours, objected to this. With evil intent, and to the greatest detriment of this holy church, they rebelled against him and told him through their messengers that all the monks would leave if he came here.? When that venerable man heard this he was saddened beyond words and, very angry with this place, because of those who had unspeakably betrayed him, he turned with all his heart towards the church of Ramsey [Hunts.] where he had previously been a monk, and had himself taken there. All the treasures which he was carrying with him, such as chasubles, copes, a large number of altar-frontals, and all the many other treasures which he was intending to offer this place, he now gave to the church of Ramsey. And in the year of our Lord 1044 his life on this earth ended, and he was buried there.?

149. Abbot Mannig and his holy deeds That same year at a Council held in London,* Mannig, a monk of this church, was appointed abbot by King Edward in the second year of his reign, and was consecrated abbot of this place on ro August.’ This venerable man had been well educated in both sacred literature and many other arts, so that he was an accomplished cantor, scribe, painter, and goldsmith; he was also considered to be the best master before all others in the whole of this country. He produced many highly acclaimed works at that time at Canterbury and at the church of * See C.& S., i pt 1, p. vii n. 2. No record known other than the references to Mannig's 1044) and Jo. Wo., ii. 541. The editors of C. have been appointed to the see of London at > ASC (D), p. 108 (s.a. 1044) also.

of this Council (which took place in 1044) 1s appointment at it in ASC (D), p. 108 (s.a. & S. surmise that Robert of Jumiéges may this Council.

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sicuti in multis aliis locis plurima opera tunc temporis ualde laudabilia operatus est. In isto denique loco ecclesiam maiori opere quam antea fuit construere cepit, et usque ad bonum finem consummando consecrari fecit. Villa que appellatur Chirichlench suo tempore reddita est huic ecclesie. Similiter et Witheleia primitus a patre nostro Ecgwino adquisita, et tempore /Edmundi regis ueluti plures alie usque ad sua tempora ablata, iterum, Dei gratia, sibi est reddita.! Feretrum etiam sancti Ecgwini ex argento, auro et lapidibus pretiosis composuit, in quo erant tres lapides magnam partem ecclesie de nocte illuminantes, in quo opere quoddam miraculum contigit diuinitus, ut credimus, peractum. Nam quidam inter aurifices post abbatem magister aliorum, Godricus nomine, cum sculperet quandam ymaginem que deberet poni in illo scrinio, contigit ut manum sinistram cum artificiali subula mediam perfoderet; at ille, statim sanguinem extergens nichilque doloris sentiens, set quodam ligamine uulnus manus sue ligans, crastina die surgens de lecto, repperit ipsam plagam ex omni parte curatam. Quam rem mox ostendit abbati, qui simul cum fratribus gratias et laudes | fo. 143^ referunt Deo omnipotenti sanctoque Ecgwino suo patri. Idem artifex Godricus postea, tempore Walteri abbatis, monachus factus, plurimis annis uiuens in bona conuersatione sancto fine quieuit in pace.? Fecit etiam idem abbas Mannius

feretra beati Odulfi et sancti Credani;

missalem librum atque psalterium magnum propria manu descripsit ac laudabiliter depinxit, necnon et plura alia opera huic ecclesie laudabiliter operatus est. 150. Ante septem fere annos! ex hac luce sue transmigrationis, iustissima Dei clementia, patientiam eius uolens probare sicut et sancti Iob, permisit eum incurrere grauissimam atque insanabilem corporis infirmitatem quam Greci paralisin appellant, ita ut, dissolutis omnibus menbris, ultra non ualeret aliquid disponere de ista abbatia.

' Mannig also supposedly received a confirmation of the abbey's privileges and of Leofric’s grant of land at Hampton (for which see Sawyer, no. 1398; V fo. 31") from Bishop Lyfing between 1042 and 1046. Bishop Lyfing says that he confirmed the gift ‘with his writ and seal at the command of the king [Edward]. * This story is included also in 72 above, where Godric is said to be the father of the monk Clement who later became prior.

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Coventry, as he did in many other places. In Evesham he began to build a church of larger proportions than before, and when he had completed the work successfully he had it consecrated. During Mannig's time the vill of Church Lench was returned to this church. Similarly Weethley [Warws.], which had been first acquired by our father Ecgwine and during the time of King Edmund had been alienated like many other vills up to this time, was again restored to this church by God's grace.’ Mannig also had a shrine of St Ecgwine set up, made of gold, silver and precious stones. In this there were three gems which illuminated a large part of the church at night, and upon this shrine a miracle occurred which, we believe, was wrought by God. The story is that one of the goldsmiths named Godric—who was master of the others after the abbot—was carving an image which had to be placed upon that shrine when he happened to stab the middle of his left hand with the awl with which he was working. He immediately wiped away the blood, thought nothing of the pain, but tied a bandage around the gash on his hand. However, when he got up the next morning, he found that the wound had completely healed. He straightway showed this to the abbot who, along with the brethren, gave thanks and praise to Almighty God and to their father St Ecgwine. That same smith, Godric, later in the time of Walter, became a monk: he lived a godly life, and after a holy end, rested in peace.” Abbot Mannig also built shrines to the blessed Odulf and St Credan.? With his own hand he copied a missal and a large psalter, beautifully illuminating them; and he produced many other works for this church in praiseworthy fashion. 150. About seven years! before Mannig passed from this world God, by His just mercy, wishing to test his ability to endure suffering as He had the blessed Job, allowed Mannig to suffer a serious incurable disease which the Greeks call ‘paralysis’. As a result he could not move his limbs, and so was no longer able to administer any of the business of the abbot's office.

* Credan was an 8th-cent. abbot of Evesham in the time of King Offa. Virtually nothing is known about him, except that his relics were put to the ordeal by Abbot Walter in 1077, along with those of Evesham's other saints, and that his tomb was saved when the tower

collapsed in 1207 (see Farmer, Oxford Dictionary ofSaints, p. 117, and below, 436). For St Odulf, see above, 146 and n. 3 (p. 153). * This was in 1058: Mannig survived until Epiphany 1066; see below, 154 and n. 4.

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151. De ampliatione huius cenobii per Elwinum abbatem et magnificis eius actibus Qua de re prudenti usus consilio quendam de suis monachum elegit ad id officium honestis moribus ualde probatum, tam generis nobilitate quam diuina lege ac seculari prudentia plurimum ualentem, nomine Ageluuinum, qui multo antea tempore episcopatum Wigornensis ecclesie sub Aldredo archiepiscopo laudabiliter rexerat,! et nunc sub eo iure prepositi tocius abbatie huius curam agebat. Misit quoque eum cum quibusdam fratribus et honorabilibus secularibus personis ad regem Aeduuardum,! grauibus morbis demonstrans se esse oppressum, orans et multum supplicans ut huic uiro abbatiam istam ex toto traderet et abbatem pro eo faceret. 152. Quod rex prudens cognoscens eiusque pie peticioni annuens, fecit eum apud Glocestre, ubi tunc curiam suam tenebat, coram multis principibus huius patrie ab Aldredo archiepiscopo honorabiliter in Paschali sollempnitate die festiuitatis sancti Georgii. martiris consecrari,! et ab illo tempore tam sibi quam cunctis baronibus suis carus, et inter primos necessarios consiliarius habebatur. I53. Reuersus namque domum cum multis optimatibus, ex parte regis grandi honore atque amore suscipitur tam a fratribus quam ab omnibus huius sancte ecclesie populis. | Quamdiu uero abbas suus Mannius superuixit maximam ei curam gerebat, constituens duos de

melioribus personis cum quibusdam seruientibus qui die noctuque ei humiliter. deseruirent. Ipse autem frequenter eum uisitans, que uolebat humili deuotione obediendo perficiebat, nec unquam quamdiu supererat in loco abbatis causa humilitatis stare uolebat. 154. lransut quoque uir ille Mannius^ eadem nocte et hora, ut fertur, qua rex gloriosus /Eduuardus, festiuitate uidelicet sancte ephiphanie Domini," quorum animas, ut credimus, angeli suscipientes deduxerunt in gaudium Domini sui. 155. Viuente autem isto Dei cultore rege /Eduuardo septem annis abbas Ageluuius huic loco preerat,? pluresque terras tam ab eo quam ^ Mannius

over an erasure (s. xv)

/Ethelwig was elected abbot in 1058 and died in 1077; HRH, p. 47. Ealdred, bishop of Worcester from 1047 to 1062, also held the archbishopric of York from 1061 to 1069 (BG, pi 224): * Edward the Confessor, acc. 1042, d. 5 Jan. 1066 (HBC, p. 29). * F. Barlow, Edward the Confessor (London, 1970), p. 209 n. 3, argued that this was 23 April 1058 rather than ro59 (as Macray, p. 87) because Easter day in 1059 fell on 4 April, hence 23 Apr. was hardly Eastertide, whereas in 1058 Easter day was 19 Apr. The statement that Abbot /Ethelwig ruled Evesham for seven years during the reign of King Edward the Confessor (see below, p. 161 nn. 4, 5) would be correctly reckoned from 1058

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151. The enlargement of the monastery by Abbot /Ethelmig, and his great deeds After taking wise advice about his condition, Mannig appointed one of his monks to that office, a man highly recommended by his own virtuous character. He was a man not only of great nobility of family but of considerable knowledge in divine and secular law. His name was /Ethelwig, who a long while back had admirably administered the bishopric of Worcester for Archbishop Ealdred,' and now under him by right of the provostship took on the care of the whole abbacy. Mannig also sent him with some brethren and reputable lay persons to King Edward,’ explaining that he was very ill, and earnestly entreated him to hand over the office of abbot entirely to /Ethelwig, making him abbot in his stead. 152. The king gave wise consideration to this and assented to his respectful petition. He had /Ethelwig duly consecrated by Archbishop Ealdred at Gloucester, where he was at that time holding his court, in the presence of many leading men of this country on the festival of St George the martyr during Eastertide.* From this time on /Ethelwig was as beloved by the king as he was by his [the king's] barons, and was regarded as a counsellor amongst his closest friends. 153. He returned home with many great men, and on the king's behalf was received with great honour and affection not only by the brethren but also by all the people associated with this holy church. While Mannig, his abbot, survived he showed him the greatest possible concern, appointing two of his best men with some servants to serve him respectfully day and night. /Ethelwig himself visited him frequently, and with humble devotion obediently carried out whatever he wished. In his humility he never wished to occupy the position of abbot as long as Mannig lived. 154. Mannig is said to have passed away on the same night, and at the same hour, as the blessed King Edward, during the festival of the Holy Epiphany of the Lord,* and we believe the angels received their souls and led them into the joy of their Lord. 155. Abbot /Ethelwig ruled this place for seven years during the reign of King Edward,? that devoted servant of God, and held many rather than 1059 if the chronicler preferred a period of just under seven years, i.e. 7 years less 3 months, rather than a period of nearly eight years (7 years 9 months). + Edward the Confessor is said to have died on 5 Jan. (BC, p. 29), and Mannig circa Epiphany—his obit was kept on 6 Jan. (HRH, p. 47). Since the feast began with the vigil on the previous day, 5/6 Jan. would explain the statement. > ie. from 1058 to 1066 (Jan.).

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ab aliis bonis hominibus optinebat, quarum nomina inferius demonstrabimus. Defuncto nempe rege isto et Haraldo regnum accipiente, | quicquid uolebat ab eo impetrauit. Deinde rege Willelmo ipsum Haraldum Dei iudicio expugnante,? totaque Anglia secundum uelle suum ex toto dominante, tam episcopi quam abbates multique nobiles huius patrie latitabant, eius persecutionem atque ferocitatem fugientes. Iste tamen abbas Ageluuius confidens in Domino? ad eum accessit, Deique gratia donante super omnes fere huius Anglice gentis barones maximam amicitiam apud eum obtinuit, quam usque ad ultimum diem sui obitus idem rex erga eum fideliter seruauit. 156. Plures itaque abbatie alieque ecclesie terras et possessiones illo tempore Normannis inuadentibus perdiderunt, set ipse Dei nutu non solum nullas perdidit set maioribus opibus et honoribus abbatiam istam multipliciter adauxit. Et quoniam rex sapiens cognouerat eum (esse) uirum prudentem, pene omnes huius gentis homines seculari sapientia precellentem, commisit ei curam istarum partium terre, uidelicet Wirecestrescire, Glouecestrescire, Oxenefordscire et Wareuuikescire, Herefordschire, Stafordscire, Scrobschire, ita ut omnium fo. 144-

huius patrie consilia? atque iudicia fere in eo penderent. Et non solum in istis partibus, set etiam per totam An|gliam ubicumque ueniebat, tam Franci quam Angli? pro iustissima lege tenebant quicquid ipse legibus secularibus dicebat. Quotienscumque ad placita uel ad sciras pergebat undique concursus populorum eum frequentabat, quisque pro sua necessitate consilia atque auxilia contra aduersarios humiliter postulabat: unde comites et uicecomites cunctique regis barones optimum consiliarium naturali scientia preditum eum cognoscentes, quasi dominum illum uenerabantur. Et ubicumque ueniebat uel ad curiam regis seu alicubi ad placita semper nobilitas hominum sequebatur eum, atque humili obsequio ei famulabatur. 157. Isdem namque temporibus erat uir religiosus, ‘simplex et ' Harold had acceded to the throne on 6 Jan. 1066. He died at Hastings on 14 Oct. of the same year; see HBC, p. 29. * See previous note, * Cf. eg. Ps. 10: 2 (11: 1); Rom. 14: 14; and numerous other references. ‘ The considerable achievements of /Ethelwig in gaining lands for Evesham (see below, 166—70) gave him an almost saintly character in the eyes of the Evesham historians. From the Worcester viewpoint, /Ethelwig was nothing short of a ‘devil figure’, classed in the same category as Urse d'Abetot; see P. Wormald, ‘Oswaldslow: an “immunity’?’, in St Oswald of Worcester:

Life and Influence, ed. N. Brooks and C. Cubitt (Leicester,

1996),

pp. 117-28, at 125; and E. Mason, St Wulfstan of Worcester (Oxford, and Cambridge, Mass., 1990), p. 127, “Vo the Worcester writers . . . any unavoidable mention of him in

their works was unfavourable.' For the two contrasting narratives about the lands at issue,

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lands both from him and from other good men, and we shall mention their names below. After the death of King Edward, Harold succeeded to the throne, ! and /Ethelwig obtained from him whatever he wished. Then King William, as a judgment of God, defeated Harold himself in battle? and subjected the whole of England completely to his own will. As the result, bishops, abbots, and many noblemen of this country went into hiding, fleeing his fury and persecution. However, Abbot /Ethelwig, trusting in the Lord,* went to see him and, as a gift of God’s grace, was received at William’s court with great friendship, greater than that accorded to almost all the barons of English race; and William maintained that friendship towards him faithfully to the very end of /Ethelwig's life. 156. Many abbeys and other churches lost lands and possessions at the time the Normans invaded, but /Ethelwig by God's will not only lost no possessions but in many respects enhanced his abbey with more extensive buildings and greater honours.* The king was shrewd enough to recognize that he was a prudent man, with more worldly wisdom than almost all other men of his race, so he entrusted him with care of the following areas: Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire. Hence, the councils? of all the men of this region and the judgments depended almost entirely on him. Indeed, it was not only in those regions but also throughout the whole of England that wherever he went both Frenchmen and Englishmen® considered any pronouncements he made on secular laws to be the most just law. Whenever he proceeded with the hearings at the shire courts, crowds of people thronged him on every side, and every man would abase himself and ask for his counsel and assistance in his needs against his adversaries. Hence, earls, sheriffs and all the king’s barons acknowledged him as the best of counsellors, endowed with common sense, and revered him as though he were their lord. So wherever he went, to the king’s court or to moots elsewhere, a group of nobles always followed him and served him in humble obedience. 157. In those days there was a bishop of Worcester called Wulfstan, a see English Lawsuits from William I to Richard I, ed. R. C. van Caenegem (Selden Soc. cvi, 1990), no. IO, pp. 29-32. ? What seems to be meant here is the shire courts. ® The use of the term ‘French and English’ is characteristic of royal writs of the r2th cent. rather than the 11th and reflects an author of that date, not earlier; see Regesta Regum

Anglo-Normannorum: p. 64.

The Acta of William I (1066-1087), ed. D. Bates (Oxford, 1998),

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rectus’, Wigornensis ecclesie antistes, Wlstanus nomine.' Hic cognoscens abbatem Ageluuium uirum prudentem tam apud regem quam apud omnes principes eius seculari prudentia et fortitudine plurimum ualere, sepissime ad se conuocans‘ et ipse ad illum ueniens, eius consilio atque auxilio utebatur in multis utilitatibus ecclesie sue. Qua de re uir ille uenerabilis eius fretus iudicio ac fortitudine quam plurimas terras antea perditas adquisiuit. 158. Contigit autem eo tempore Willelmi regis ut Thomas archiepiscopus Eboraci, prudens hom*o, episcopatum Wigornensis ecclesie uellet subicere sue ecclesie.^ Ad hanc rem defendendam duas marcas auri abbas sibi accomodauit et unam dedit, et ita, Deo opitulante et

abbate uerbo et opere consilium et opem ferente, libertatem ecclesie sue seruauit. Et quoniam episcopus erat uir bonus et pater suarum confessionum, quasdam terras sibi dedit quarum nomina ista. sunt, uidelicet, Bisepesdun" et Cagecote, et ipse sibi mutuo concessit uillam que uocatur Milecote. Non solum autem huic ecclesie set et omnibus ubicumque fuerat aduocatus beneficiorum suorum suffragia gratanter impendere studuit. Nam quadam uice uocatus ab archiepiscopo Lanfranco, quasdam terras diu ablatas Cantuariensi ecclesie Christi ipse iudex et testis adquisiuit. Pro qua re usque in hodiernum | eius dies ibi in ecclesia illa I6:144/P diem anniuersarius depositionis obseruatur.' Abbatia etiam de Gloecestre in primis, uenerande memorie Serlone abbate? ibi ueniente, tunc temporis erat pauperima, set, eodem abbate humiliter rogante, multimoda frequenter ei sua impendit leuamina. Rex etiam Willelmus tollens abbatem Wincelcumbensem, Godricum nomine," fecit constitui in captiuitate apud Gloecestre moxque^ huic abbati Ageluuio suam abbatiam commisit, quam fere per’ tres annos quasi propriam in cunctis gubernando seruauit. Deinde rex donauit illam cuidam abbati Galando nomine, et, " con over an erasure (s. xv)

^ que interlined (s. xiii" )

* per interlined (s. xiii’)

! Job x: r. Wulfstan II, el. 29 Aug., cons. 8 Sept. 1062, d. 19 or 20 Jan. 1095. See the

account of the devout Wulfstan and his election to the see of Worcester in Jo. Wo., ii.

588-93. * For Thomas of Bayeux’s designs on Worcester, see Jo. Wo., iii. 13, 17. Thomas’s predecessor, Ealdred, bishop of Worcester, had retained that see when he became archbishop of York. On Ealdred’s death in 1069, Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester claimed the Worcester lands, The case was not settled until after the consecration of Thomas in 1170 or in 1171 when York's claims to make Worcester ‘its handmaiden’ were quashed. * [n the north-west part of Stratford-upon-Avon. * See Christ Church, Canterbury, obits, BL Cotton MS Nero C IX fo. 5. (14 kal. Mar. = 16 Feb.); printed J. Dart, History and Antiquities ofthe Cathedral Church of Canterbury

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‘guileless, upright man’.' He saw that Abbot /Ethelwig was an intelligent man having considerable influence not only over the king, but also over the king’s leading men because of his worldly wisdom and influence, so he would often ask him, therefore, to visit him, or would himself go and see him, and ask his advice and help on many practical issues concerning his church. As a consequence, that venerable man, relying on /Ethelwig's advice and influence, regained all the lands he had previously lost. 158. It was in the time of King William that Thomas, archbishop of York and a knowledgeable man, wanted to make the see of Worcester subject to his own church.’ To assist Wulfstan in protecting his interests, the abbot lent him two marks of gold and gave him one mark, so with God's help and with the advice and assistance which /Ethelwig gave him by word and deed, Wulfstan preserved the liberty of his church. As the bishop was a good man and /Ethelwig's spiritual father, /Ethelwig gave him certain lands which were called Bishopton? and ‘Cagecote’, and the bishop granted him in exchange a vill called Milcote. He sought freely to bestow the assistance of his good deeds not only on this church but on all on whose behalf he had acted. On one occasion, in fact, when he was summoned by Archbishop Lanfranc, he regained for Christ Church Canterbury, as both judge and witness, certain lands which had long been alienated. Because of this service the anniversary of his demise is still observed in that church to this day.* There is also the particular case of Gloucester Abbey: at the time Serlo? of blessed memory came there as abbot it was very poor, but when he respectfully asked /Ethelwig for help he often received from him all sorts of assistance. Then, when King William removed Godric, abbot of Winchcombe, from office," keeping him in captivity at Gloucester, he soon entrusted that abbey to Abbot /Ethelwig, and for almost three years he administered it and looked after it in all respects as 1f it were his own. The king then gave it to a certain Abbot Galandus, and when this man died a (1726), p. xxxiv, and R. Fleming, ‘Christchurch’s [s/c] sisters and brothers; an edition and discussion of Canterbury obituary lists’, in The Culture of Christendom. Essays... in Commemoration of Denis L. T. Bethell, ed. M. A. Meyer (London and Rio Grande, Oh., 1993), p. 134. This service rendered by /Ethelwig does not appear to be recorded elsewhere. > Serlo, abbot from 1072 to 1104, had been previously a canon of Avranches and then a monk of Mont-S.-Michel; HRH, p. 52. $ Godric, son of Godeman, royal chaplain, and abbot from 1054, was removed by the Conqueror in 1066 and retired to Evesham; HRH, p. 79. The source for his retiring to Evesham is Diplomatarium Anglicum aevi Saxonici, ed. B. Thorpe (London, 1865), p. 617.

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eo post modicum tempus ex quo eam accepit defuncto, iterum isti abbati Ageluuio committitur, qua longo tempore postea uti propria dominabatur.! 159. Pater quoque pauperum, iudex uiduarum, pupillorum, orphanorum, peregrinorum," omnium miserorum consolator erat piissimus, elemosinas largifluas ubicumque pergebat fecit distribui benigniter omnibus. Nam in primis temporibus sui regni rex Willelmus fecit deuastari quasdam sciras istis in partibus propter exules et latrones qui in siluis latitabant ubique, et maxima dampna pluribus hominibus faciebant, uidelicet Eoueruuicscire, Ceastrescire, Scrobscire, Stafordscire, Deorbiscire, unde maxima multitudo senum,

fo. 144^

iuuenum, mulierum cum paruulis suis famis miseriam fugientes dolentissime huc ueniebant, quos omnes ille uir miseratus pro posse suo alebat. Plures namque diu absorti durissima fame, dum cibum auidius sumerent moriebantur. Iacebant miseri homines per totam uillam tam in domibus quam deforis, necnon et in cimiterio isto languidi, huc antequam uenirent fame consumpti, et iccirco ut cibum corporis sentiebant plurimi uita deficiebant. Qua de re facta est magna mortalitas multo tempore de talibus hominibus, ita ut cotidie fere quinque uel sex homines, aliquando plures, miserabiliter morientes, a priore huius loci sepeliebantur. Et quoniam plurimi pueruli inter eos habebantur, unicuique seruienti uel ministro huius ecclesie necnon et quibusdam fratribus ad hoc posse habentibus, | unum puerulum dompnus abbas ut alimento corporis sustentarentur commendabat. Quorum nonnulli probi uiri postea effecti, in multis officiis fratribus honeste seruiebant. 160. Erat quippe tunc temporis quidam prior hic, iuuenis quidem corpore set tamen morum probitate etatem transiens, Alfricus nomine, qui fecit dorsellos capituli. Hunc abbas constituit, ut omnes superuenientes peregrinos et pauperes deuote susciperet, atque necessaria uite sollicite administra(r)et eis. Precepit etiam, celerario et omnibus prepositis abbatie huius ut ei in omnibus obedirent, et quicquid ad opus egenorum constituerat, uidelicet, ! The abbey was in /Ethelwig's custody until 1068/9, when Galandus was made abbot; HRH, pp. 79, 257. If Galandus did not cease to be abbot until 1075,‘the many years’ of /Ethelwig's rule seems an exaggeration on the part of the author (whether Dominic or Thomas at this point), as /Ethelwig died in 1077. ^ Cf. Ps. 67: 6 (68: 5), ‘patris orfanorum et iudicis viduarum". ? On the harrying of the north, for which this is a major source, see John Palmer, ‘War and Domesday waste’, in Armies, Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval Britain and France (Harlaxton Medieval Studies, vii (1998), ed. M. Strickland, pp. 256-75. Ann Williams,

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short time after accepting the appointment, he again entrusted the abbey to Abbot /Ethelwig, who ruled over it for many a year after this as though it were his own. ! 159. Furthermore, /Ethelwig was a father to the poor, a judge of widows, wards, orphans, and foreigners, and with great gentleness consoled all who were wretched; he had an abundance of alms lovingly distributed to everybody wherever he went. Indeed, in the early years of his reign, King William had some shires in these regions of England laid waste because of the exiles and outlaws who were hiding in the woods everywhere, and he inflicted enormous damage upon many people: counties affected were Yorkshire, Cheshire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, and Derbyshire, and from these regions a large number of young and old, and women and children, came fleeing to Evesham in great distress from the misery of famine.’ In his concern for them all /Ethelwig gave them all the sustenance he could. Many who had long been oppressed by severe hunger died through eating the food too ravenously. Throughout the whole vill wretches lay languishing either in the houses or in the streets, even in the cemetery itself, being exhausted by hunger before they got there, and therefore when they tasted food for the body most of them died. For this reason there was high mortality among such people, so almost every day five or six people, sometimes more, perished miserably and were buried by the prior of this place. As these people included many young children, the abbot entrusted to every servant or official of this church, and even to some brethren who had the resources for this, the responsibility of sustaining one child each with bodily nourishment. Some of these children grew up to be men of high integrity who served the brethren honourably in many spheres of duty. 160. At that time there was a prior here called /Elfric, a man of youthful strength of body, but older than his years in holiness of character, who had had hangings made for the chapter-house. The abbot appointed him to the duty of welcoming cordially all pilgrims or poor persons who came to them, and of providing them with the necessities of life. He also commanded the cellarer and all the reeves of this abbey to obey /Elfric in every respect and to provide him fully and promptly with everything that he wanted for the work amongst The English and the Norman Conquest (Woodbridge, 1998), pp. 40, 53, says that many of the refugees fleeing from the north to Evesham were the men and families of Earl Edwin of Mercia.

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omnem decimationem suam et insuper quicquid necessarium haberet sine dilatione habundanter ei redderent. Solebant illis temporibus multi peregrini de Aquitannia, de Hibernia, ac de aliis terris plurimis huc uenire, quos omnes iste suscipiens necessaria prebebat. Et quoniam pater Benedictus in regula iubet ut mensa abbatis cum peregrinis et hospitibus fiat,’ semper de mensa quoque sua ipse abbas cotidie tredecim pauperes largiter reficiebat; preter istos, ad mandatum duodecim pauperes siue esset domi seu foris specialiter usque ad diem obitus sui habebat, qui uictum et uestitum in omnibus ueluti unus monachus semper habebant. Quorum pedes et manus aut per se aut per priorem suum, qui maxime hanc curam sub eo gerebat, cotidie lauari aqua calida humiliter uolebat. Inter hos namque pauperes quidam erant leprosi, quorum manus et pedes sicuti aliorum libenter lauando osculabatur. Isti namque omni nocte ad matutinos, et in die ad utrasque missas et ad omnes horas debebant sine dilatione uenire, nec alicui licebat uel domum aut alicubi licebat uel domum aut alicubi remeare uel discedere sine licencia prioris qui, ut diximus, maximam

ORTA

curam super eos gerebat. Hyemis quoque tempore, uidelicet a festiuitate omnium sanctorum? usque ad Pascha, uenientes ad matutinos in ecclesia remanebant usque ad diem, orationibus US uacantes, et ita primo | mane aut ipse abbas aut prior faciebat ad eos sicut supra dictum est mandatum Domini cotidie. Omnibus noctibus principalium festiuitatum pro abbate et fratribus debebant tota nocte in ecclesia uigilare usque ad mane. A festiuitate omnium sanctorum usque ad natale Domini et iterum a septuagesima? usque Pascha, ter in ebdomada, uidelicet die Dominica, quarta et sexta feria, unusquisque eorum, abbate donante, accipiebat singulos denarios. Similiter ipsis primis diebus natalis Domini, Pasche, Pentecostes, et omnibus summis festis per annum, denarii tam illis quam aliis pauperibus misericorditer ab eo erogabantur. Et quando aliquis eorum moriebatur protinus prior in loco suo alium constituebat. Erant nempe pauperes ceci, claudi, et ita debiles ut tamen possent ad ecclesiam uenire et secundum quod dictum est uiuere, nisi maior infirmitas aliquem. eorum impediret. Preter istos suprascriptos et preter omnes aduenientes pauperes et peregrinos, quinquaginta habebat egenos qui cotidie sibi constitutum accipiebant cibum. 161. Et non solum talibus pauperibus, set etiam pluribus nobilibus ad ' RSB cap. lvi.

? 1 Nov. ? Septuagesima Sunday is the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday.

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the needy; this included the whole of his tithe and also anything else he considered necessary. In those days many pilgrims used to come to Evesham from Aquitaine, Ireland, and many other lands; all of these he would welcome and provide with necessities. Since Father Benedict commands in the Rule that the abbot's table should include pilgrims and guests,’ the abbot always fed thirteen poor persons lavishly at his own table also. Besides those, he made a special point of having twelve poor persons for Maundy up to the day of his death, whether he was at home or abroad, and they always received food and clothing, just as if they were monks. It was the abbot's wish in all humility that their feet and hands should be washed in warm water every day, either by himself or by his prior who used to deputize for him especially in this duty. There were some lepers amongst these poor persons whose hands and feet he would wash and kiss just as he did those of others. All of these had to attend matins promptly every night as well as the two daytime masses and all the daily offices: none of them was allowed to go home or anywhere else, or to leave the monastery, without the permission of the prior who, as we have said, took very great care of them. During the winter-time, from the feast of All Saints? until Easter, they would come to matins and then stay in the church until dawn, spending their time in prayer; then, in the early morning every day, either the abbot himself or the prior would administer the Lord's Maundy to them, as we have stated above. Every night during the principal feast days they had to spend the whole night in the church until the morning in prayer for the abbot and the brethren. From the feast of All Saints until Christmas, and again from Septuagesima? until Easter, each one of them received three times a week, on Sunday, Thursday, and Saturday, a penny which was given to them by the abbot. Similarly, on the first day of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and all the principal festivals throughout the year, pennies were generously given by the abbot not only to them, but to other poor persons as well. When any of them died the prior immediately substituted another poor person. Indeed, some of the poor, though blind, lame, or weak, were nevertheless able to come to the church and live in the manner described unless the infirmity of any of them was so great as to prevent him from doing so. Apart from those described above, and all the poor or pilgrims who came to the abbey, the abbot had fifty needy persons who every day received food which had been appointed for them. 161. But it was not only to the poor such as those to whom he became

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eum confugientibus, paterna hereditate omnique substantia miserabiliter sublata rege Willelmo iubente, factus est refugium et adiutor!

piissimus in maximis necessitatibus. 162. Quocienscunque ad curiam regis uel alicubi iter ageret et aliquis pauper nudus occurreret, mox aliquem de suis hominibus expoliabat et pauperi uestimenta eius dabat, set suo postea 'duppliciter reddebat? Omni namque anno quatuor uel quinque dies ante natale Domini et iterum post diem palmarum tota ebdomada ante Pascha quasi excercitus magnus pauperum et peregrinorum huc solebant uenire, quibus omnibus tam per se quam per monachos uel fideles laicos elemosinas largiter ministrando erogare, mandatum Domini faciendo manus et pedes lauare, quibusdam uestimenta, plurimis calciamenta, multis studuit denarios benigniter erogare, omnes quoque letos fecit hinc recedere. 163. Cunctis etiam noctibus precipuarum solennitatum per annum ad honorem Dei et sanctorum eius, coram uno quoque altari fecit candelam ardere tota nocte usque mane. Plures namque missas secundum quod tempus habebat cotidie solebat libenter audire, et ad unamquamque earum, sacerdoti sacra sollennia celebranti unum uel plures denarios cum magna cordis compunctione studebat offerre. 164. Et quoniam erat tam diuitibus quam pauperibus erogator largissimus, dedit ei diuina clementia copiam rerum maximam in omnibus. Ornamenta quoque adquisiuit plurima, uidelicet casulas, cappas, pallia? crucem magnam, et quoddam altare auro et argento pulcherrime operatum, necnon etiam quandam capellam ualde honestam in honore sancti Nicholai construi et consecrari laudabiliter fecit. 165. Ante suum tempus duo fratres huius loci diabolico instinctu seducti, quasdam reliquias de feretro furati sunt sancti Ecgwini patris nostri, et tradiderunt eas cuidam matrone nobilissime Aldithe nomine, set alter eorum, Alfricus uocabulo, qui auctor erat sceleris,

uolens huc redire, diuino iudicio cadens in isto flumine periit de terra uiuentium pro tanto crimine. Apparuit ergo uir Dei sanctus Ecgwinus ipsi matrone in uisione semel et iterum et tercia nocte, iubens minando ut suas reliquias quantocius huc ad ecclesiam reportaret. Set illa, feminea decepta cupiditate, nullo modo uolens id perficere, ! Cf, Ps. 9: 10 (9: 9). ? Cf. Job 42: ro; Zech. 9: 12. ' The word pallia is used generally for cloths that cover something: here it is likely to mean altar-cloths, chalice-covers, crozier-covers, or funeral palls, rather than cloaks.

* On the cult of St Nicholas, see D. Greenway, ‘Conquest and colonization: the foundation of an alien priory, 1077’, in The Cloister and the World: Essays in Medieval

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a refuge and a devoted helper! in their great necessity, but also to many nobles who fled to him for protection when King William commanded their family inheritances and all their property to be ruthlessly taken from them. 162. Whenever /Ethelwig journeyed to the king's court or anywhere else and was met by a poor man having no clothes, he would immediately take the clothes from one of his men and give them to that man, but he would later ‘restore to his own man twice what he had taken’.* Every year, four or five days before Christmas, and again after Palm Sunday for the whole week before Easter, a great army, as it were, of paupers and pilgrims would come here; to all of these he would himself give generous alms, or would delegate monks or devoted laymen to do this. Then he would carry out the Lord's Maundy, and wash their hands and feet. He sought generously to provide some with clothes, more with footwear, and many with pennies, and so caused all to depart joyfully from here. 163. Every night of the year when there were church feasts to the honour of God and his saints he had a candle kept burning all night before every single altar until the morning. Every day he gladly heard as many masses as he had time for, and at each of these, greatly pricked in his conscience, he gladly offered one or more pennies to the priest celebrating that solemn service. 164. Since he was as generous a benefactor of the rich as he was of the poor, God in his mercy gave him a great abundance of everything. He acquired many treasures also, such as chasubles, copes, altarfrontals,? a large cross, an altar beautifully worked in gold and silver, and, to his further praise, he had a fine chapel built, and dedicated to St Nicholas.* 165. Before /Ethelwig's time two brethren of this monastery, led astray by the wiles of the devil, stole some relics from the shrine of our father St Ecgwine, and gave them to a certain noble lady Ealdgyth. One of them called /Elfric who instigated the crime wanted to return here, but by God's judgment he fell into the river and passed from the land of the living for his dreadful crime. Then the man of God, St Ecgwine, appeared to the lady in a vision, first on one occasion, then a second time, and finally a third time at night, when he commanded her to take his relics back to this church as soon as she could. However, beguiled by feminine greed, she utterly refused to do this, History in Honour of Barbara Harvey, ed. J. Blair and B. Golding (Oxford, 1996), pp. 46— GOnati5 0. and esp) 027:

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Dei iudicio mox percussa est perhenni oculorum cecitate. Qua de re plusquam dici ualet timore perterrita, ueniens huc ad abbatem Mannium et fratres, clamans se ream et culpabilem et impetrans ab eis indulgentiam, obtinuit ab eis ut quamdiu uiueret eas possideret, fecitque statim honorabiliter fieri auro atque argento hoc minus fo. 145 feretrum sancti Ecgwini et reliquias intus re| poni. Set post mortem eius filius suus, Arnisius uocabulo, paterne hereditatis effectus heres, quasi imprudens uiuendo luxuriose atque insipienter perdidit cuncta que habebat, et istud feretrum sancti Ecgwini cuidam potenti homini custodiendum commendabat. Quod ut abbas Ageluuius cognouit, protinus adueniens, recto iure illud debere esse proprium huius sancte ecclesie adplacitauit, et ita, Dei gratia opitulante, suum uelle impetrauit, et ad istum locum cum magna reuerentia, processione maxima contra facta tam fratrum quam populorum, reportari fecit.! 166. Hactenus de isto dompno abbate Ageluuio plura locuti sumus, set testis est Deus,’ testes omnes angeli et sancti eius sunt, quia quicquid tam de illo quam de alus supra retulimus, ueracem narrationem ad noticiam tam presentium quam sequentium fratrum et amicorum huius sancte ecclesie fideliter fecimus. Partim namque in antiquis cartis huius loci reperimus, partim a fidelissimis uiris audiuimus, partim nos ipsi oculis nostris perspeximus. Nunc igitur in fine huius operis uolumus per ordinem terras demonstrare quas ipse a rege /Eduuardo et ab aliis bonis hominibus laboriosissime maximaque pecunia redimendo adquisiuit huic sancte ecclesie, et usque ad mortem absque omni questione in pace tenuit magna cum libertate. 167. In Wiricestrescire: Beningwrthe, Heamtune; ultra Wiricestre: Uptun, Wittune, Leinch, Eacesleinc, Ciricleinc.? Cum erat prepositus sub Mannio abbate,’ Biuintune, Dailesford, Eunilad, Brainesford, Actune. Hec fuit terra patris sui: has duas uillas dedit Vrsoni? pro ' For roughly the same story, see above, 73-5. A. Gransden (Historical Writing in England c.$50—c.1307 (London, 1974), p. 113) has pointed out the differences between the two accounts, the most important of which are that firstly, according to the Miracles (above), Ealdgyth promised to return the relics and make a gift of the manor of Swell (while in the History there is no mention of Swell in this context), and secondly that, on Ealdgyth's death, the relics went to Worcester from which Abbot /JEthelwig recovered them by legal process. This is at odds with the above account, and the omission of the relics being taken to Worcester is significant, though it may not be due to Thomas.

? Cf. I Kgs. (I Sam.) 12: 5. * The Lenchs were actually to the east of Worcester. * See above, 151. Sawyer, no. 1238 (probably spurious), is the restitution of Daylesford

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and so, by God's judgment, she was soon struck permanently blind. She was unspeakably distressed by what happened to her, so she came here to Abbot Mannig and the brethren proclaiming her guilt and sin, and pleading for their forgiveness. She was allowed by them to retain possession of the relics for the rest of her life, and she at once took measures to have a shrine of St Ecgwine made, smaller than the monastery's shrine, adorned with gold and silver, and to have the relics placed inside it. However, after her death, her son Arnisius became heir to his father's estate and, through living extravagantly and imprudently like the foolish man he was, he lost everything he possessed, and he entrusted that shrine of St Ecgwine to the protection of a certain magnate. When Abbot /Ethelwig learned of this he went straightway to see him, contending that the shrine ought by rights to belong to this holy church. The result was that, with God's help, he obtained Arnisius' agreement to this, and had the shrine brought back to the church with great reverence, with a procession of the monks and people going out to meet it.! 166. We have now spoken a good deal about Abbot /Ethelwig, but God is witness, as are all his angels and saints, that everything we have hitherto stated about him and others has been truly and faithfully written for the edification of both present and future brethren and friends of this holy church. Some facts we have found in the ancient charters of this place, some we have learned from trustworthy men, and others we have ourselves witnessed with our own eyes. So now, at the end of this work we would like to provide a catalogue of the lands which /Ethelwig recovered and acquired for this church with great effort and at great expense from King Edward and other good men, lands which he held peaceably, without any dispute and with considerable immunity until his death. 167. In Worcestershire: Bengeworth and Hampton; beyond Worcester: Upton Warren, Witton, Lench, Atch Lench, and Church Lench.? When he was Abbot Mannig's deputy,* he acquired Binton [Warws.], Daylesford [Glos.], Evenlode [Glos.], Bransford, and Acton Beauchamp: this was his father’s land, and these last two vills he exchanged with Urse? for Bengeworth which Urse had (1061x5) by /Elfgar, earl of Mercia, to Abbot /Ethelwig. For the benefactions of the Mercian earls to Evesham, see Williams, The English and the Norman Conquest, p. 24 and n.

By > Urse d'Abetot, sheriff of Worcester c.1068/9—1108; see J. A. Green, English Sheriffs to 1154 (PRO Handbooks, no. 24, 1990), p. 87.

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Beningwrthe quam iniuste occupauit, sicut medietatem iterum postea fecit et omnes tres iniuste detinet.! 168. In Wareuuicscire: Witlakesford, Aruue, Ecleshale, Rageleia, Eatherichestun, Brome, Graftun et alia Graftun,’ Hildesburguurthe, Saltford. 169. In Gloecestrescire: Suelle, Ceasteltun et alia Ceasteltun, Cornuuelle, Quenintun, Sciptun, | Saldford, Deorneford, Stoke, Westun, Hudicote, Peppeuurthe, Dorsintun, Mulecote et alia Mulecote.? 170. De hiis terris quasdam optinuit ab ecclesia Wigornensi quas

prelati eiusdem

ecclesie iniuste occupauerant,

s(c)ilicet Actun

Benenguurthe, Mulecote et Westun, Eunilade et Dailesford, et plures domos in Wigornia,* set Stredford et Fladeburi non reuocauit. De hiis terris quas, ut diximus, suo tempore adquisiuit, quibusdam

bonis hominibus pro magna necessitate et honore ecclesie dedit, et inde Deo et sibi fideliter quamdiu uixit seruiebant. De aliis terris quas antecessores sui adquisierunt nichil omnino dedit, set in manu sua usque ad obitum ad necessitatem fratrum honorabiliter tenuit. Nec unquam alicui parenti de hiis uel de aliis terris aliquid concessit, set terras parentum suorum quascumque poterat habere ecclesie tradidit. 171. Omni tempore uite sue non continue set frequenter dolorem pedum grauissimum quem Greci ‘podagra’ appellant? patiebatur. Et hac infirmitate ante finem suum diutissime fatigatus, tandem anno Dominice incarnationis. millesimo septuagesimo septimo plenus dierum in uera confessione sanctoque uiatico corporis et sanguinis Domini percepto, coram fratribus et filiis eum nimio dolore plangentibus, quos paterno amore dilexerat, quartodecimo kalendas Martii hominem exiuit et quo diuine clementie placuit spiritum transmisit. Cuius anime succurrat et misereatur summa pietas Dei: Amen. 172. Quando enim ipse primitus abbas effectus est, non erant hic nisi duodecim fratres; tunc uero cum obiit triginta sex dimisit," quibus abbatiam maiorem et habundantiorem terris et possessionibus quam unquam antea fuit, omnibus bonis plenissimam, dereliquit. Et quinque archas plenas argento ad nouam ecclesiam construendam quam facere disposuerat, reliquit. 1

viz. Hampton, Upton, and Witton. viz. Grafton Major and Grafton Minor. Chastleton [? two], Cornwell, and Salford are all now in Oxon. in the area roughly between Moreton-in-Marsh and Chipping Norton. * The Worcester source (Hemming) mentions Acton, Eastbury, Bengeworth, Milcote, and Weston as belonging to the convent of Worcester, Evenlode and Daylesford as the property of the bishop; printed English Lamsuits, ed. van Caenegem, p. 31. 2

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wrongfully seized; but later Urse again took a moiety of the land and wrongfully held on to all three places.! 168. In Warwickshire he acquired Wixford, Arrow, Exhall, Ragley, Edstone, Broom, Grafton and the other Grafton,” Hilborough, and Salford. 169. In Gloucestershire he acquired Swell, the two Chastletons, Cornwell, Quenington, Shipston-on-Stour, Salford, Dornford, Stoke, Weston-upon-Avon, Hidcote, Pebworth, Dorsington, and

the two Milcotes. ? 170. Some of these lands he obtained from the church of Worcester whose bishops had wrongfully seized them: these were Acton Beauchamp, Bengeworth, Milcote, Weston-upon-Avon [Glos. and Warws.], Evenlode, Daylesford [both Glos.], and many dwellinghouses in Worcester,* though he did not recover Stratford [Warws.] or Fladbury. He gave some of these lands, which, as we have said, he acquired during his lifetime to certain good men to pay for the needs of the church and to maintain its good name; they then faithfully served God and the abbot for as long as he lived. He gave nothing whatsoever away of any of the lands which his predecessors had acquired, but kept them in his possession to provide for the needs of his brethren while he lived. Nor did he ever grant any of these or other lands to any relative; indeed, he handed over to the church such lands as he was able to get from his own kinsmen. 171. Throughout his life /Ethelwig suffered, not all the time but frequently, with a painful foot complaint which the Greeks call *podagra'? Worn out by this affliction for a considerable time before his end, he finally departed this mortal life on 16 February AD 1077 at a good age. He made a true confession, received the last sacrament of our Lord's Body and Blood in the presence of his brethren and sons who mourned him deeply, for he had loved them as a father, and he entrusted his spirit to God's divine mercy. May God in his great pity succour him and have mercy upon his soul. Amen. 172. When /Ethelwig first became abbot here [1059] there were no more than twelve brethren: when he died he left thirty-six to whom he bequeathed an abbey which was larger and richer in lands and possessions than it had ever been, enjoying an abundance of everything.^ He also left five caskets full of silver for the erection of a new church which he had planned to build. ^ ‘Podagra’ is gout. $ On the number of monks at Evesham, see below, App. V.

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173. De operibus abbatis Walteri bonis et malis, et de amissione terrarum quas Alwinus abbas congregauerat, et constructione huius ecclesie ex pecunia ab eodem Ailmin (o) ad hoc congregata fo. 145°° Tercio | quoque mense post discessum patris huius Ageluuii, misit rex huc quendam monachum de monasterio quod uocatur Cerasia, Walterum nomine, litteris tam liberalibus quam gra(m)maticis undecumque eruditissimum, qui fuit capellanus Lanfranci archiepiscopi.) Hic uero abbas effectus, omnem abbatiam hanc sicuti antecessor suus habebat suscepit. Set quia tunc temporis iuuenis erat etate, minus seculari prudentia preditus quam oporteret, sequens consilia quorundam iuuenum parentum suorum ad maximum dampnum ecclesie, noluit homagium a pluribus bonis hominibus quos predecessor suus habuerat suscipere, eo quod terras omnium si posset decreuit auferre.? Qua de re in iram et odium contra eum conuersi, ad Odonem fratrem regis, Baiocensis ecclesie episcopum, qui tunc temporis sub rege quasi quidam tirannus prefuit huic patrie, miserunt, falsa accusatione dicentes abbatem Ageluuium per fortitudinem, non recto iure, tantas terras adquisisse. Quapropter presul prefatus, nefandorum hominum consilio deprauatus, cupiditate etiam iniquissima res ecclesie habendi nimium illectus, regem fratrem suum adiit, et tam peccunia quam iniquis suis accusationibus terras sancti monasterii huius sibi dari optinuit.* 174. Protinus ergo quasi lupus rapax? consilia malignantium in loco qui dicitur Gildenebeorge? iubet congregari, quinque uidelicet sciras, ibique plus per suam iniquam potentiam quam recto iure ex triginta sex terris quas abbas Ageluuius per dignam peccuniam ecclesie adquisiuit, uiginti octo uillas fecit eidem abiurari et suo iniquo dominio usurpari. Quarum nomina hic subtitulantur: Beningwrthe, Heamtun, Vptun, Wittun, Aruue, ' Ethelwig died 16 or 17 Feb. 1077, so the third month is presumably April or May. Walter was abbot from 1077-1104; HRH, p. 47. William of Malmesbury says that he was a monk of Caen (Willelmi Malmesbiriensis monachi de gestis pontificum Anglorum, ed. N. E. S. A. Hamilton (RS lii, 1870), p. 137), a mistake possibly arising from his association with Archbishop Lanfranc, who had been abbot of St Etienne, Caen (see next note). Cerisy-laForét was an ancient Benedictine house restored about 1030 by Robert, duke of Normandy;

Cottineau, 1, col. 656.

* See M. Gibson, Lanfranc of Bec (Oxford, 1978), pp. 171 n., 183-4; and The Letters of Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. and trans. H. Clover and M. Gibson (OMT 1979), no. 54. For his famous testing of Evesham's pre-Conquest relics, see the miracles following the Vita S. Wistani (Macray, pp. 335-7). * Cf. below, 180 and n. 1, for his creation of hereditary tenures.

* On Odo of Bayeux's reputation and his large estates, see David R. Bates, ‘The character and career of Odo, bishop of Bayeux (1049/50—1097)', Speculum, 1 (1975), 1-20. For

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173. The deeds of Abbot Walter, good and bad; the loss of lands which Abbot Athelwig had accumulated; and the erection of this church from the money accumulated for this purpose by the same Athelmig In the third month after the death of father /Ethelwig, the king sent here a monk named Walter from a monastery called Cerisy.! A man of extensive learning in letters, as much in the liberal arts as in grammar, he was the chaplain of Archbishop Lanfranc,” and received the whole of the abbey just as his predecessor had left it. However, being a young man at that time, he was endowed with less worldly wisdom than he should have been and, to the great detriment of the church, he followed the advice of some youthful relatives of his. He refused to receive homage from many good men whom his predecessor had received, because he intended to confiscate the lands of all these men if he could. Turning hostile and resentful towards him, therefore, they sent to the king's brother Odo, bishop of Bayeux, who ruled that church at that time under the king like some tyrant, and they made false accusations that Abbot /Ethelwig had acquired many lands by force rather than by legitimate means. The result was that this prelate, corrupted by the counsel of wicked men and enticed by an inordinate passion to appropriate this church's property, went to the king, his brother, and by bribery and false accusation was successful in having the lands of this holy monastery given over to him.* 174. So, like a ravening wolf,’ he straightway summoned from the five shires? councils of men hostile to us, to gather in a place called Gildenebeorge. There, more by his own evil influence than by legitimate means, he had this abbey deprived of twenty-eight vills from the thirty-six territories which Abbot /Ethelwig acquired for the church by his honest money, and seized them for his own unjust lordship. Here is a list of their names. Bengeworth, Hampton, Upton four hides in Lench, which Odo took from Evesham and gave to Urse d'Abetot, see DB Worcs. 11. ?-Gen. 49: 27; cf. Matt. 7: 15; Acts 20: 29. 5 Worcs., Glos., Oxon., Warws., and the former Winchcombeshire.

For the four-shire

stone in the parish of Evenlode which stands where these shires met, see A. Mawer and F. M. Stenton, The Place-names of Worcestershire (PN vol. iv, Cambridge, 1927), p. 124. In a 12th-cent. copy of a charter of 969 the bounds of Evenlode at one point on their circuit run from one stone to another and so on and mark the northern extremity of the parish. For the lost county of Winchcombeshire, see J. Whybra, A Lost English County: Winchcombeshire in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries (Studies in Anglo-Saxon History, 1:

Woodbridge, 1990). 7 [ldeberga (now lost), probably in Evenlode; see Place-names of Worcestershire, pp. 124-5; DB Worcs. notes (not paginated) to ch. ro (the abbey of Evesham) nos. 11 and 12 (VCH Worcs., i. 307); Hemming, i. 213-15.

178 fo. 146?

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Ecleshale, Raggeleie, Saltford, Eatheristun, | Brome, Graftune, Ceasteltun, et alia Ceasteltun, Cornuuelle, Quenintun, Sciptun, Saltford, Deorneford, Stoke, Hudicote, Peppeuurthe, Dorsintun, Milecote, et alia Milecote, Actun, Branesford, ^Wiuleshale, Biuinton’, Budiford,’ Eunilade, Deilesford, Westune, Leinch quam Vrsini tenent contra rotulum Winton. De hiis uero Walterus abbas Westune ’Hamptun’ et medietatem de Beningwrthe, quam Ernegrim tenuit, reuocauit, medietatem uero quam episcopus dedit Assere? occupauit Vrso. Set paruo post tempore iusto Dei iudicio rex Willelmus contra fratrem nefandum nimium commotus, fecit eum durissimis uinculis ferreis alligari et usque ad diem obitus sui in arta custodia teneri. Similiter fere omnes periuros huius ecclesie diuina ultio citius ex hac luce miserabiliter extinxit. 175. ‘Iste abbas, licet tot terris priuatus, numerum tamen fratrum et rigorem ordinis solicite auxit. Ipse tamen primo fecit clericum decanum et senescallum iure hereditario de consanguineis suis,' priore senescallo amoto.' Fecit etiam criptas et ecclesiam superius usque ad nauem,? excepta turri quam non perfecit nisi arcus et primas fenestras, maxime de pecunia quam Ageluuinus abbas“ ad hoc opus reliquerat.^ Vineam etiam ultra aquam ille primitus fieri fecit. Terra de Hildedun et Penuurtham Hocuuic et piscatio apud Theleuuelle suo tempore reddite sunt huic ecclesie. ‘Libros multos fecit.' ^* Wiuleshale . . . Budiford written over erasure ^* Hamptun' . . . Vrso written over an erasure ^* [ste . . . amoto written over an erasure ^ Ageluuinus abbas 2 written -— | . " . . over an erasure ** Libros... hereditauerit written over an erasure

' The Roll of Winchester

is undoubtedly

Domesday

Book, which

was kept in the

treasury at Winchester and which the writer, like Jocelin of Brakelond (see 7B, p. 42, and for the Latin text, The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond, ed. and trans. H. E. Butler (NMT,

1949), p. 46), mistakenly believed to be in the form of a roll, as indeed most Exchequer records were. DB Worcs. 11, 2 (176a) says that Urse held Sheriff's Lench (four hides) and also Acton Beauchamp from the bishop of Bayeux. It also states that the bishop had wrongfully taken the four hides in Lench from the church of Evesham and given them to Urse. ‘Two hides of this land had been given, with King William's consent, by Gilbert, son of ‘Thorold, to the church of Evesham

for the soul of Earl William, and one monk was

accordingly placed in the church of Evesham. ‘The other two hides were acquired by Abbot /Ethelwig from King William for 1 gold mark, assigning the land to the church of Evesham for his own soul. Cf. V fos. ro'-rr: *Lench (Bernardi: inserted). Cotton MS Vesp. B XXIV (V) fos. 6'—7" is (part of) a Domesday satellite (see ‘Evesham A: a Domesday Text’, ed. P. Sawyer, Miscellany, i (Worcs. Hist. Soc. 1960): it does not, however, include this account, but much the same story is given in V on fos. 10'—11'. Thomas undoubtedly had access to these texts.

^ Cousin and chamberlain of Brihtheah, bishop of Worcester from 1033-8; see Hemming. For the restorations to Abbot Walter, see English Lamsuits, ed. van Caenegem,

BOOK III PART I

179

Warren, Witton, Arrow, Exhall, Ragley, Salford, Edstone, Broom, . Grafton, the two Chastletons, Cornwell, Quenington, Shipston on Stour, Salford, Dornford, Stoke, Hidcote, Pebworth, Dorsington, the two Milcotes, Acton Beauchamp, Bransford, ‘Wileshale’, Binton, Bidford, Evenlode, Daylesford, Weston-upon-Avon, and Lench which the family of Urse hold wrongfully, according to Domesday Book.’ Of these lands Abbot Walter recovered Weston, Hampton, and that part of Bengeworth which Ernegrim held, though Urse seized the part which the bishop gave to Asser.? Not long after this, however, King William through the just judgment of God, being greatly provoked by his evil brother, had him clapped in the harshest of iron chains and had him kept in prison under close guard until the day of his own death.? Similarly, divine punishment soon brought about the wretched death of almost all those who had borne false witness against this church. 175. Abbot Walter, though deprived of so many lands, took pains to enlarge the number of brethren and to increase the austerity of the Order. He first appointed a secular clerk as dean and made one of his kinsmen hereditary steward, having removed the former steward.* He also had the crypts built and the upper church as far as the nave, though this did not include the tower, of which he only completed the arches and the first windows: this work he carried out mostly with the money which Abbot /Ethelwig had left for it.^ He first had the vineyard planted beyond the river. It was during Walter's time that the land of Hillingdon [Middx.], Penwortham, Howick [both Lancs.] and the fishery at Thelwall [Ches.] were returned

to this church.

had many

books

made.’

It is said,

p. 32. Both the writ and the notification are from the Evesham cartulary, V fos. 24" and 28', and may have received some Evesham emendations. * The source for Odo's arrest in 1082 is the 4SC. The reasons for the arrest were supplied considerably later in three sources of the r120s when it was suggested that Odo was trying to buy the papacy. For the likely veracity of the story, see Bates, ‘Odo’, pp. 1— 20, at 15—19. ^ Another relative, his brother Ranulf, was enfeoffed by the abbot in Witley, Kinwarton, Stoke, Morton, Littleton, and Bretforton; see V fo. 11°, and DB Worcs. 10,

13 (175d). On the hereditary steward, see P. Brand, “The rise and fall of the hereditary steward in English ecclesiastical institutions’, in Warriors and Churchmen in the High Middle Ages: Essays presented to Karl Leyser, ed. T. Reuter (London and Rio Grande, 1992), pp. 145-62 at 152, 161, for Evesham. > Medieval churches were constructed from the east to the west. * On the building works at Evesham from the abbacy of Abbot Walter to that of Abbot Adam, see Cox, ‘Building, destruction and excavation’, pp. 125-7. 7 The sense here is that he had many books copied.

HISTORY

180

quod

Dicitur tamen uerit.^ ! .

THE

ABBEY

fere omnes

EVESHAM

milites huius

abbatie

heredita-

176. De operibus abbatis Roberti Huic substitutus est Robertus monachus de Gimeges? cuius tempore per Randulfum cancellarium regis forum de Stowa fuit adquisitum.? Iste multas terras dicitur distribuisse consanguineis suis, sicut et predecessor eius. 177. De operibus abbatis Mauricii ualde bonis Huic successit Mauricius huius ecclesie monachus. Iste fecit capitulum et dormitorium et priuatum locutorium cum capella sancte Marie Magdalene et multa ornamenta ecclesie adquisiuit, et multa alia bona fecit.

178. De operibus Isti substitutus fo. 146" comitis Milonis neorum amouit aliorum a loco Kenelmi, quibus cimiterium

abbatis Reginaldi summe bonis est Reginaldus, monachus Gloucestrie, nepos | Herefordie,* cuius adiutorio et aliorum consanguidomos militum de Kinewertun et de Coctun? et ubi modo est ortus monachorum et crufta sancti quasi obsessa fuit abbatia. Totam etiam abbatiam et

muro

optimo

uallauit," et uillam aqua

circumdedisset,

sicut apud Quiquewelle patet, nisi salubri consilio predicti comitis ! While this had become the practice by Thomas's time, it would be an early example of the growing tendency for both lay and ecclesiastical lords to enfeoff in heredity, if it had, indeed, taken place under Abbot Walter. ? Benedictine

abbey,

dioc.

Rouen,

Seine-Maritime,

Normandy.

There

are

some

problems over the sequence of the abbots between Walter and Reginald Foliot. H. B. Clarke (“The Early Surveys of Evesham Abbey’) has argued, on the basis of Survey O, that Maurice preceded Robert and was abbot from r104-c.1121, but if we accept that the market at Stow was, indeed, granted in 1107 (see next note) in the abbacy of Robert, then this order is doubtful. Other Evesham sources, Harley MS 229 and Vesp. B XV, also give the sequence as Robert followed by Maurice (printed Mon. Angl., ii. 26, 37), but both of them say that Robert died in 1096, which must be wrong, and Maurice in 1122, which is unlikely. J. C. Jennings's solution to the problem seems the most likely, namely that there were two abbots Robert, one before Maurice and one after, and that Thomas of Marlborough missed out the second Robert. Jennings suggested the following chronology: Walter of Cerisy, May 1077-20 Jan. 1104; Robert of Jumiéges, 1104—post 1108; Maurice, post 1108—c.1121; Robert II c.1121—29; Reginald, 27 Jan. 1130-25 Aug. 1149; ‘Prior

Dominic’ (B.Litt., 1958), pp. 12-14. ' The charter of King Henry I, granting to the abbey of Evesham a market at Stow every Thursday, on the petition of Ranulf, the chancellor, probably of 1107 c.1 Aug., is noted in Regesta, ii. no. 831. For Ranulf the chancellor, see Henry, Archdeacon of Huntingdon: Historia Anglorum, ed. and trans. Diana Greenway (OMT, 1996), pp. 468—

BOOK

III PART

181

however, that he gave hereditary tenures to almost all the knights of

this abbey.! 176. The deeds of Abbot Robert Robert, a monk of Jumiéges,” succeeded him, and it was during his time that a market was acquired at Stow-on-the-Wold [Glos.] through Ranulf, the king's chancellor? Robert is said to have distributed many of the abbey's lands to his relatives, as had his predecessor. 177. The excellent deeds Maurice, a monk of this house, a dormitory, and Magdalene; he acquired other good things.

of Abbot Maurice church, succeeded Robert. He built a chapter a private parlour, with the chapel of St Mary many treasures for the church, and did many

178. The excellent deeds of Abbot Reginald Maurice was succeeded by Reginald, a monk of Gloucester, the nephew of Milo, earl of Hereford.* It was with the help of the earl and other of his relatives that he removed the houses of the knights of Kinwarton and Coughton? and of others from the place where thereisnow the monks’ garden and St Kenelm's croft. The abbey had been besieged, as it were, by their houses. He enclosed the whole abbey and cemetery with a well-built wall,° and he would have surrounded the vill with a moat like the one to be seen at ‘Quiquewelle’,’ had he not received some 71; and Judith Green, The Government of England under Henry I (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 28, 45:41603 11725 175. * Reginald Foliot succeeded Maurice in 1130. He was the uncle of Gilbert Foliot, abbot of Gloucester from 1139-48, who later became bishop of Hereford, and then of London. On Milo, created earl of Hereford by the Empress Matilda in 1141, see GEC vi, cols.

451-4. ^ Evesham owed the service of five knights in 1166; two of these were Ranulf of Coughton and Ranulf of Kinwarton (Warws.): Liber Niger Scaccaru, ed. Thomas Hearne, i (London, 1774), 175. DB Worcs. records three hides in Kinwarton belonging to Evesham which were held by Ranulf, probably Abbot Walter’s brother (for whom see Hemming, i. 80-3, trans. DB Worcs., App. v, H Texts no. 2). The land held in Coughton seems to have come to Ranulf from the gift of William Fitz Corbucion who at the time of Domesday Book held four hides from Turchil, abbot of Abingdon (VCH Warws., 1. 325 and iu. 79). Knights had residences in the monasteries they protected: those at Peterborough have survived near the west end. * On the removal of the knights’ houses and the building of the boundary wall, see Cox, ‘Building, destruction and excavation’, p. 133. 7 The identification of this place is far from certain, but it may be Quevilli (Latin Quevillium) near Rouen, in the Seine-Maritime. Roger of Torigni records that Henry II

182

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

impediretur, ne forte locus tam munitus a rege occuparetur. Magnam etiam partem murorum nauis ecclesie sicut adhuc distingui potest fecit, et refectorium et regulare locutorium! cum capella et aulam hospitum cum camera et magnam coquinam fecit, et duo mese scilicet sancti Ecgwini et sancti Osuualdi,^ et magnum textum,? et crucem huius ecclesie pretiosiorem, et culmen feretri sancti Ecgwini in recompensationem feretri quod abbas Mannius fecerat, et tempore suo, instante werra et urgente fame ut dicebant, *filii Belial* multi monachi huius ecclesie, abbate ignorante inter prandendum, auro et argento et lapidibus spoliauerunt. Duo etiam thurribula et candelabra deaurata fecit. Campanas etiam, Benedictum uidelicet et socium eius fecit, et tintinnabula,? scilicet Glucestre et socium eius adquisiuit. Magnum etiam dorsellum® et duo sancti Ecgwini de choro fieri fecit. Maiorem etiam nigram capam et multa alia uestimenta, libros etiam et ornamenta, huic ecclesie adquisiuit. [Iste etiam tempore pape Innocentii secundi pro libertate ecclesie tuenda contra episcopum Simonem pedetemtim cum eo Romam 1uit, et in libertatem uiriliter conclamauit et in parte obtinuit, et super eo priuilegium predicti pape adquisiuit.’

fo. 146°"

179. De sanctis et uirilibus actibus abbatis Willelmi Huic successit Willelmus de Andeuilla? monachus Christi | ecclesie Cantuarie, ubi iacet sepultus ad capud beati Thome martiris, qui antequam illuc iret causa uisitationis’ quando ibi a domino est uisitatus, uidit in sompnis, sicut fratribus retulit, quod sol sepultus erat ad pedes eius. Que uisio interpretationem accepit processu temporis, postquam beatus Thomas sepultus est ad pedes eius. 180. Iste audacter Willelmum de Bellocampo'" et complices suos, restored and improved his grandfather's castles and (fortified) dwelling houses including that at Quevilli; Chronicle of Robert of Torigni, ed. R. Howlett, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry IT, and Richard I, iv (RS \xxxii, 1889), 209. ' The use of the adjective regulare before parlour here seems to be to accentuate that the refectory and the parlour, with the chapel, were for the monks’ use, while the hall, the chamber, and the kitchen were for the use of the guests. RSB cap. 53, on the reception of guests, draws attention to the separate kitchen, ^ On arm reliquaries, see above, 95 n. 2. On Oswald's arm at Evesham, see Cox, ‘St Oswald of Worcester at Evesham Abbey’, pp. 1—17, at 5-7. ' This could be taken to mean a large woven tapestry rather than a gospelbook.

* 1 Kgs. (1 Sam.)2: 12. ? ^ 7 the

Tintinnabula suggests smaller bells. The dorsal is a curtain, placed usually behind an altar. See below, 329-31 (JL. 7999). The privilege of Innocent II was acquired at the time of Second Lateran Council of 1139.

BOOK

III PART

183

sensible advice from the earl of Hereford not to do so lest so well fortified a place be seized by the king. He built the greater part of the nave walls of the church just as they can be seen today, and he also built a refectory, a parlour, with a chapel, and a hall for guests, with a chamber, and a large kitchen.! He had two arm [reliquaries] made, one for the arm of St Ecgwine and the other for St Oswald’s,’ a large gospelbook,? the most valuable cross of this church, and the roof of St Ecgwine's shrine to make good the shrine which Abbot Mannig had made, for it was during Reginald's time, when they were threatened by war and oppressed by famine, so they said, that many monks of this church— sons of Belial ^— stripped the shrine of its gold, silver, and precious stones between meal times, without the knowledge of the abbot. He also had made censers and gilded candlesticks. T'hen he had bells made, the ‘Benedict’ and its companion, and acquired two bells, the ‘Gloucester’ and its companion. He also had a large dorsal? made, and two for St Ecgwine in the choir. He acquired for this church a large black cope and many other vestments as well as books and treasures. In the time of Pope Innocent II, in order to protect the exemption of this church from the jurisdiction of Bishop Simon, he went with him with some trepidation to Rome, and manfully championed our freedom. He won his case in part and àcquired a privilege concerning it from this pope.’

179. The holy and courageous deeds of Abbot William Reginald was succeeded by William de Andeville,? a monk of Christ Church Canterbury, where he lies buried by the head of St T'homas the Martyr. Before he went there [to Canterbury] on a visit, William was visited by the Lord here, when he saw in a dream, so he told the brethren, that the sun had been buried at his feet. This vision had its fulfilment in process of time after Thomas was buried at William's feet. 180. This William courageously excommunicated William Beau-

champ’? and his accomplices who had destroyed the walls of the * Abbot from 1149 to 1159, when he was buried in the crypt of Canterbury cathedral near St Thomas’s first resting place after his murder in 1170. His obit was kept at Canterbury on 3 Jan., see Christ Church obits, BL Cotton MS Nero C IX fo. 3"; printed by J. Dart, History and Antiquities of.. . Canterbury (1726), p. xxxii, and R. Fleming in The

Culture of Christendom, ed. M. A. Meyer, p. 130. ? The Latin causa uisitationis is used below by Thomas to mean a visitation rather than a visit, but it would not seem to be an appropriate interpretation here. 10 William (I), son of Walter, d. 1170 (see Ann. Mon., i. 55, ii. 65, iv. 382, 389) succeeded his father Walter, who d. c.1131 (see E. Mason, St Wulfstan, p. lviu for a

HISTORY

184

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

qui muros cimiterii destruxerant et bona ecclesie tempore werre rapiebant,' in facie inermis armatos excommunicauit, "quare nullus eorum secundum religionem Christianam et ritum Christianorum decessit; set et eadem die multi ex eis ab hominibus abbatie occisi sunt, quorum unus miles, cognomento de Abetot ab eis occisus apud Almeleiam est sepultus extra cimiterium nec adhuc reconciliatus.^? Viriliter etiam castellum quod erat Bengewrthe ad capud

pontis contra eundem Willelmum obtinuit et funditus destruxit, et cimiterium ibidem consecrari fecit. 181. De paruo Rogero, set factis magnanimo Huic substitutus est Rogerus monachus sancti Augustini Cantuarie,' qui paruo tempore, uiriliter tamen sicut abbas prior, uixit, et molendina iuxta pontem de Euesham’ fecit. 182. De regulari conuersatione Ade abbatis, et bonis operibus et malis tempore eius peractis Isti successit Adam monachus Cluniacensis de Caritate. Iste ferme uixit triginta annos,' et felicia habuit tempora, et multa bona hic eius tempore facta sunt, et ipse ‘uiriliter egit? et benefacientes adiuauit,‘ et multos ad benefaciendum ortatus est et coegit. Eius enim tempore feretrum sancti Ecgwini perfectum est, et aqueductus et lauatorium a—a

over an erasure in the text; text extends into the left-hand margin

interlined (s. xv)

^ de Euesham

* adiuuit

genealogy, and Green, Aristocracy, p. 300). He joined the empress in 1141, following Stephen's grant of the earldom of Worcester to Waleran of Meulan, and the king's insistence that William should become Waleran’s vassal. The empress's charter to him, of

¢.25 July-1 Aug. 1141, confirmed the castle of Worcester to him, to be held in chief hereditarily, and the shrievalty of Worcestershire at the same farm as his father had paid (Regesta, ii. 68).

' It would seem likely that William's destruction of the cemetery walls at Evesham and his plundering of the abbey’s property occurred soon after William de Andeville's election as abbot in 1149. The abbey of Evesham seems to have suffered considerably from acquisitive magnates at this time. In a letter of Gilbert Foliot, of c. April-May 1150, it is reported that Roger, earl of Hereford, had infringed sanctuary at Evesham by capturing some knights of Ralph of Worcester in the abbey (Foliot Letters, pp. 127—9, no. 93); and in another letter, of c. July to Aug. 1150, Foliot refers to knights being captured in a cemetery and to sacrilege at Leominster, as well as at Evesham (ibid. no. 96, pp. 133-5). The attack on the walls of the cemetery and the spoiling of church property were conceived as forms of sacrilege by churchmen who at this time were attempting to limit warfare by introducing the idea of the Truce of God, periods when hostilities ceased.

> The castle at Elmley is supposed to have been built by Robert le Despenser, brother of Urse d'Abetot, the sheriff. When the castle at Worcester fell into decay it became the chief stronghold of the Beauchamps (VCH Worcs. iii. 339). When Urse d'Abetot's son, Roger,

BOOK

III PART

185

cemetery and plundered the property of the church during time of war,' armed as they were while he faced them unarmed. So none of them departed this life with the blessing of the Christian religion or the Christian rite. Indeed, many of them were killed on the same day by the men of the abbey, and one of them, a knight called Abetot who was killed by the abbey men, was buried at Elmley Castle? outside the cemetery, and he still remains unreconciled. Furthermore William courageously won possession from William Beauchamp of the castle which was situated at the head of Bengeworth bridge, and he utterly destroyed it. He then had the cemetery there reconsecrated. 181. The deeds of Roger, brief but magnanimous Roger, a monk of St Augustine's Canterbury, succeeded William.? He lived for but a short time but, like the previous abbot, lived courageously. He built mills by the bridge at Evesham. 182. Abbot Adam, his life according to the Rule, his good works, and the

evils perpetrated in his time Adam, a Cluniac monk of La Charité, succeeded Roger. He lived for almost thirty years and enjoyed prosperous times. * Many good things were done here in his time: he ‘acted with courage’, helped those who did good, and urged and compelled many to do good. Indeed, in his time the shrine of St Ecgwine was completed, and a conduit and a washing place were constructed with the help of had been disgraced and deprived of his lands before 1114, Henry I soon granted the d'Abetot lands and Elmley to Walter de Beauchamp (I), the husband of Urse's daughter; see Mason, pp. xx—xxi, and p. lviii for the Beauchamps of Elmley. It is not clear who this particular d'Abetot was. > Roger was abbot from 1159 to 1160. In May to June 1159 Archbishop Theobald wrote to the convent of Evesham, charging them to proceed to an election in June, with the assistance of the bishops of Coventry and Worcester and of the abbots of Pershore and Winchcombe; The Letters ofJohn of Salisbury, i, ed. W. J. Millor, H. E. Butler, rev. C. N. L.. Brooke (OMT, 1986), no. 109. The archbishop's letter, if known to Thomas, might have been taken to support Thomas's claim that the church of Evesham was subject only to the archbishop of Canterbury. * He was abbot from 1161—89 (so he was abbot for almost thirty years and must have lived considerably longer). Originally a monk of the Cluniac priory of La Charité-surLoire in the diocese of Auxerre, Niévre (Cottineau, i, col. 705), he was prior of Bermondsey, dependent on La Charité, from 6 June 1157 until his election as abbot of Evesham on 16 Apr. 1161 (HRH, pp. 47, 115). Early in 1161 Gilbert Foliot, bishop of Hereford, presumably acting as vicar during a vacancy in the see of Worcester, wrote to the prior and convent of La Charité asking them to release Adam from obedience to them; Foliot Letters, pp. 177—8, no. 134. > Gio Deutes 1:6:0P5330:251(51:224): 32) Macc. 23 64::and Cor. 16: 13.

HISTORY

186

fo. 146°?

OF THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

multorum bonorum uirorum adiutorio facta sunt. Iste fecit duas maximas campanas, et emit magnam nigram casulam de nigris secundo meliorem, et capam rubeam cum auibus aureis et stolam et manipulum suum tintinnabulis et alia uestimenta emit, et multa obedienciarios emere compulit. Quedam redemit et quedam uarie ornauit et bene disposuit. Et Nouum Testamentum et Vetus glosata huic ecclesie adquisiuit.’ Pistrinum etiam, bracinum et granarium et uetus infirmaria, que nunc est thalamus abbatis, et priuatum dormitorium eius tempore facta sunt. Indagi|nem etiam de Vffeham ^domos et uiuaria et thalamum qui nunc est ad infirmariam et lectricium capituli ipse^ fecit." Claustrum etiam, quod Mauricius et Reginaldus abbates pro parte fecerant, et nauis ecclesie, cum adiutorio decani de Welles? maxime et aliorum bonorum uirorum, eius tempore perfecta sunt. Et ipse multas fenestras uitreas apposuit, et multas apponi fecit. Duas etiam hidas terre in Neuueham pro centum marcis emit ecclesie isti ab illis qui dic*ntur de Watteuilla. Calicem etiam aureum in egritudine in qua decessit fieri fecit, quem Rogerus abbas postea distraxit pro redemptione regis Ricardi.* Partem etiam illam de Raggeleie que de feodo ^modo est et Kingleyam, que fuerunt quondam uaccaria huius ecclesie, et postea caducum per exilium Wiberti Trunket, quas de consensu eiusdem post reuersionem eius et ad petitionem domini regis dederat Rogero filio Willelmi, postea ab Henrico filio eiusdem Rogeri redemit. Set predictus successor, eas ne exhiberet, pro eis sex homines tantum in uita eorum, sine consensu conuentus, retento tantum molendino, remisit." ^*

? written over an erasure

^* written over an erased passage

! On the biblical Glossa ordinaria (the standard exposition of the text for teaching purposes), see B. Smalley, The Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd edn. (Oxford, 1983), pp. 40-66. The glosses to Abbot Adam's bible may have been those of Anselm of Laon and his assistants, and of Gilbert the Universal. By the middle of the 12th cent. all the books of the bible had been covered by various glossators, the chief of whom were the above, and most monasteries acquired glossed bibles for the instruction of their monks in the Holy Scriptures. * This may be the splendid lectern dug up in the grounds of Evesham abbey in 1813 and

now

in Norton

church,

see

Nikolaus

Pevsner,

Worcestershire

(The

Buildings

England: Penguin, 1968), p. 226 and pl. 17, who compares it with that at Crowle and a similar piece at Much Wenlock (p. 130). Pevsner inclined to the view that if it is Abbot Adam's lectern it dates from the end of his abbacy, and Neil Stratford has seen in the Crowle lectern similarities with the foliage in the south transept at Wells. Edward Rudge, ‘Description of the reading desk of the abbey church of Evesham in Worcestershire’, Archaeologia, xvii (1814), 278-9, with two plates, on whose grounds the Evesham lectern was found, on not much authority connected it with Thomas of Marlborough’s lectern, see

below, 521. There is a plate of the Wenlock lectern in English Romanesque Art 1066-1200

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187

many good men. He had two large bells made, bought a large black chasuble better than the second-best amongst the black ones, a red cope ornamented with golden birds, a stole and a maniple with little bells, and other vestments, and he compelled the obedientiaries to buy many more. Some of these he got out of pawn, some he ornamented in various ways and put in good order. He also acquired for this church glossed New and Old Testaments.’ A bakery, brewery, granary, and the old infirmary, which is now the abbot’s chamber, and a private bedroom were all built in his time. He also had constructed a park for game at Offenham, houses and fishponds and a chamber, which is now near the infirmary, and he himself made a lectern for the chapter house.” The cloister which Abbots Maurice and Reginald had in part built, and the nave of the church, were completed during his time with the help of the dean of Wells? in particular and of other good men. He himself put in many glazed windows and had many others put in. He bought for this church two hides of land in Newnham [Northants] from the de Waterville family at a cost of one hundred marks. He had a golden chalice made during the time of the illness from which he died, though Abbot Roger later disposed of it to ransom King Richard.* That part of Ragley [Warws.], which is at present held in fee, and Kingley [Warws.], which were once cow farms of this church, were later escheated because of the exile of Wibert Trunket; but after his return, when he was asked by the king to give these lands to Roger fitz William, he did so. Subsequently Adam bought these lands back from Roger's son Henry. But his successor, so that he would not have to give up the lands, conceded for them six men during their lifetime, not including the mill, without the consent of the convent. (Arts Council, 1984), p. 203, pl. 170, where Zarnecki dates it to c.1180, and all three lecterns are illustrated in F. T. S. Houghton, “The stone lecterns at Abbots Norton, Crowle and Wenlock’, Birmingham and Midland Archaeological Society Transactions, xxxix

(1914), 1-4.

? See below, 184. His interest in Ombersley and Badby, as well as the convent of Evesham, suggests that he may have been a local man. Little else is known about him, other than that as dean of Wells he acted on occasion as judge delegate and expressed an interest

in the customs at Salisbury; see Greenway, Fasti, vii. 8-9, and the references cited there.

* Tn 1193, the emperor Henry VI demanded a ransom of 150,000 marks of silver for the release of King Richard I. The monastic houses were not exempt from the taxation and requisitioning of plate that ensued; see Howden, Chronica Magistri Rogeri de Houedene, ed. W. Stubbs (4 vols., RS li, 1868-71), iii. 208-11, and 290, for the replacement of chalices by King Richard I in 1195. The king’s begging letter of 1193 to the prior and convent of Christ Church, Canterbury, asking for a loan, and promising compensation ‘ad duplum' is in Ep. Cant., pp. 61-2.

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183. Hic etiam insignia episcopalia preter anulum primo ecclesie isti adquisiuit, et priuilegium Alexandri pape quod bene operatur ad libertatem. Verum molendinum “de Samburna et Hocwike et Farintone et Wrotesleie et Liuinton’ ad firmam posuit et uirgatam terre in Euesham Ernaldo Camberlango. In Baddebi fratri prioris manerium, in Salford Waltero Grim quasdam terras male dedit et quasdam amisit ueluti iuxta Oxoniam Goldore et Hildendun quas potuit retinuisse. Hic etiam primo confirmauit officium porte per cartam ecclesie Henrico cum quadam muliere que petit illud iure hereditario. 184. Viginti etiam libras de Burtona que prius libere pertinebat ad cameram monachorum sibi appropriauit. Eius tamen tempore" fuit Ricardus decanus de Welles qui adquisiuit redditum. quindecim marcarum de ecclesia de Ambresleia ad opera ecclesie istius et optimas confirmationes earundem, et qui fecit aulam que nunc est abbatis. Iste etiam decanus pensionem ecclesie de Baddebi duarum marcarum^ et quosdam alios redditus adquisiuit, unde cereus ante magnum altare et corpora sanctorum perhenniter ardens appositus fo. 147^ est. Cuius etiam maxime auxilio | et ecclesia et ornamenta et omnia predicta perfecta sunt. Igitur quamuis predecessores istius abbatis fuerint uiri religiosi et ualde ordinati, iste tamen abbas dicitur pre ceteris ordinem reformasse. Hec uobis fideliter scripsimus sicut cognouimus et uidimus pro parte, pro parte uero a fidelibus relatoribus audiuimus et didiscimus. 185. De intrusione abbatis Rogeri, et qualiter monachos depresserit tam ecclesie Christi Cantuarie quam ecclesie Eueshamsis Huic successit Rogerus, nullius monasterii monachus, quia cum esset quondam monacus ecclesie Christi Cantuarie propter proditionem missus est in carcerem a conuentu, et eo quod' reuelasset secreta capituli domino Balduuino Cantuariensi archiepiscopo qui tunc ““ de Samburna . . . Eius tamen tempore written over an erased passage marcarum :nserted in margin (s. xv) * eo quod ? mritten over an erasure

^ duarum

' For the text of the letter of Alexander III, see below, 332-6. ^ William, bishop of Worcester's charter (V fo. 16°; H fos. 86'—7), allowing Evesham r5 marks a year from the church of Ombersley can be very precisely dated to between 1189/

go and 2 or 3 May rr9o when Bishop William died. Master Peter de Leche, archdeacon of Worcester, who witnessed the charter, did not succeed to the archdeaconry until 1189/90. See Greenway, Fasti, ii. 100, 105. John (of Coutances), bishop of Worcester (1196-8),

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189

183. Adam was the first to acquire the episcopal insignia for the church, except for the ring, as well as the privilege of Pope Alexander which well defines our liberty.’ But the mill of Sambourne [Warws.], as well as Howick and Farington [Lancs.], and Wrottesley and Loynton [Staffs.], he farmed out to Ernald Camberlang, as he did a virgate of land in Evesham. In Badby [Northants] he made a poor gift of the manor to the prior's brother, and in Salford [Oxon.] of certain lands to Walter Grim, and lost others, just as he did Goldor near Oxford and Hillingdon [Middx.] which he could have held on to. He first confirmed by a charter of the church the office of porter for Henry, and for a certain woman who claimed it by hereditary right. 184. Adam also appropriated for himself twenty pounds from Bourton-on-the-Water [Glos.] which had previously and freely belonged to the monks’ chamber. During his time Richard, dean of Wells, acquired a rent of fifteen marks from the church of Ombersley to undertake building works in this church and excellent documents confirming this money;? he also built a hall which now belongs to the abbot. Dean Richard also acquired a pension of two marks from the church of Badby, and certain other revenues which enabled a candle to be kept permanently burning before the high altar and the bodies of the saints. It was with his assistance in particular that the church and its treasures, and all the things mentioned, were completed. Hence, though his predecessors had been devout men who had lived strictly in accordance with their Order, nevertheless it is said that Adam surpassed them in his regeneration of discipline. This record is a faithful account of these deeds as I either learned of them or saw them myself, or as I heard or ascertained them from the trustworthy accounts of others.

185. The intrusion of Abbot Roger and how he oppressed the monks of both Christ Church Canterbury and the church of Evesham Adam was succeeded by Roger, who was not a monk of any monastery. Indeed, he had once been a monk of Christ Church Canterbury, but was imprisoned by the convent as a traitor and because he had revealed the secrets of a chapter-meeting to Baldwin, archbishop of Canterbury, who at that time was in dispute with the confirmed this (V fo. 17; H fo. 87"). Abbot Adam died on 12 Nov. 1189 and Richard, dean of Wells, was dead by late 1189, so there may have been earlier charters of the bishops of Worcester allowing this, the ‘excellent confirmations’ referred to. Richard's role seems to have been that of a fund raiser.

190

HISTORY

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EVESHAM

temporis aduersabatur monachis, uolens erigere capellam de Hakintune.' “A quo carcere, iuratoria data cautione de stabilitate, egressus," nescio per que loca nudus^ effugit manus eorum et a Cantuariensi archiepiscopo honorifice est susceptus, qui eum lateri suo quasi socium indiuiduum iunxit, et postea, inuitis monachis et reclamantibus, priorem ecclesie eiusdem prefecit set non profecit, quia nunquam postea uniuersitati reconsiliatus est, quamuis exactissimam diligentiam et multas expensas ad hoc postea apposuerit, et sic inde exclusus nullius monasterii monachus remansit. 186. Quem cum monachi nollent recipere ipse intrusit se, et omnes possessiones monachorum inuadendo sibi usurpauit, et bona eorum diripuit, et monachis uictum et uestitum subtraxit, et prioratum eorum per ‘filios Belial" ministros suos ne monachi exirent obseruauit, tantum duorum fratrum fugitiuorum fultus auxilio. Duos etiam fratres ad ipsum archiepiscopum destinatos honoris gratia statim capi fecit et a se diuisos custodie mancipari. Tandem' studuit archiepiscopus eum alteri preficere ecclesie. De qua prefectura, quasi spiritu prophetico preuentus, ita scribit Alanus abbas Theokesberie in libro de demolitione capelle de Hakintona, ubi etiam omnia predicta de eo plenius scribit: Interim uero ob reuerentiam archiepiscopi ne uideretur et ipse in hac parte succubuisse, ipso rege id procurante, uix semel nominandus set ubique dampnandus Rogerus Norreis, Dei et ecclesie sue hic et ubique inimicus manifestus, in Eoueshammsem promouetur abbatem, conuentu illius ecclesie quantum licuit reclamante, set aduersus equitatem preualente malicia, hic ille sicut promeruit ‘de mercede iniquitatis agrum possedit"? In huiusmodi ^" A quo carcere . . . egressus written over an erasure ^ nudus written over an erasure * tantum duorum fratrum . . . custodie mancipari. Tandem written over an erasure; followed by further erasure and overwriting. This is followed by a passage which extends by seven lines into the lower margin and into two added lines at the top ofthe right-hand column (b), being carefully crafied to fit in with the original text, ending abbatiam ac si di (di/ceret)* (p. 192) ' In the dispute between the archbishop and convent, Roger Norreis had sided with Archbishop Baldwin. On Hackington (1 mile north of the city of Canterbury) and the proposed chapel and college there, see Ep. Cant., the conyent’s letter-book, which is largely devoted to the archiepiscopal plans to build a college with prebends at Hackington, esp. pp. 2-3, 8-73, 79-80, 339-41, and Gervase, i. 337-8 (its origins) and 498—soo (its demolition). * The Latin ‘stabilitas’ meaning steadfastness; to a Benedictine, this implied steadfast-

BOONKSIIISPATRIDS

IQI

monks over his wish to build a chapel at Hackington.' He was let out of prison after giving a promise on oath of 'stability';? and, having escaped unclothed from the hands of the monks through certain places, he received a warm welcome from the archbishop of Canterbury, who accepted him as a confidant and subsequently, despite the opposition and protests of the monks, made him prior of that very same church.? But he did not profit from this, for he was never after that reconciled to the whole community no matter how great the effort he made or how large the expense he subsequently paid out to achieve this, and so he was excluded from Christ Church, and was no

longer a monk of any monastery. 186. When the monks refused to accept him, he intruded upon them: there he made an assault upon all their possessions, and appropriated them for himself. He stole their property, deprived the monks of food and clothing, and used his servants, those ‘sons of Belial’,* to keep a watch on the priory so that the monks should not get out, and was supported with aid from two runaway brethren. He sent the two brethren to the archbishop himself to receive his commendation, but then immediately afterwards he arrested them, and, disclaiming them, had them placed in custody. In the end the archbishop was keen to put him in charge of another church. Alan of Tewkesbury, as if inspired by a prophetic spirit, wrote as follows about this ‘promotion’ in a book concerning the destruction of the chapel of Hackington in which he also recorded, at greater length, all the aforesaid deeds of Roger: Meanwhile—in fairness to the archbishop, lest it should seem that he himself had slipped up in this matter, it was in fact the King himself who had procured it—Roger Norreis, to be named barely once but to be damned everywhere, an open enemy of God and His church here and everywhere, was promoted abbot of Evesham, and this was despite the objections of the convent of that church being expressed as loudly as was permissible. But wrong prevailed against right, and he ‘purchased a field bought with the proceeds of infamy'? But what sort of end will result ness of purpose and observance of his vow not to leave the cloister without permission of the abbot; for its use see RSB caps. 4, 58, 60 and 61. 3 [n 1189. For Norreis's character, career, and escape down the monastic sewer, see Gervase, i. 379-82, 404, 460, 481, and 484.

SO Kes. (Sam) 2512. ? Acts 1: 18. A reference to Judas Iscariot.

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HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

autem introitu qualis sequetur exitus, ipsum non latet iudicem qui examinator est meritorum, et cetera.! | sepe dicere fo. 147" De hoc sui ipsius ingressu ipse abbas Rogerus consueuerat, quod dominus rex pro seruitio suo dedit ei hanc abbatiam, ac si diceret, ‘Non per ostium set aliunde ingressus sum in ouile ouium’;’ et reuera a nullo capitulo fuit postulatus, sicut canones fieri precipiunt.’ Iste abbas magnanimum se exibebat et multis litteris habundare uidebatur, facundus enim erat et eloquencia pollebat. Curialis etiam nimium extitit et dapsilis, et gloriosus in mensa, cibis et potibus habundancius affluens, et quibus et quando uolebat copiose et honorifice hec largiebatur, non ut Christi* militem ut beatus Sebastianus,* set ut exordinationes suas sub absconso clamide tegeret. 187. Erat enim uinolentus et luxuriosus super omnes monachos Anglicanos, quamuis se monachum non confiteretur, et simplicem fornicationem mortale peccatum esse non concederet, et per hoc mulieres seduceret, nisi incestui uel adulterio iungeretur, quamuis ipse nec hiis nec illis parceret, ut dicebatur. Et nos ex parte hec uera esse cognoscimus, stilum tamen temperamus, Deo teste, propter ordinis reuerentiam. 188. Et cum talis esset post paucos annos postquam huc uenerat, quibus satis modeste erga conuentum se habebat, in tantam superbiam elatus est ut quasi pro multis litteris suis et dapsilitate sua uideretur insanire, et ecclesiam,

capitulum,

claustrum

et refecto-

rium, fere penitus cum cura animarum et obseruancia ordinis abiecit. Per multos enim annos ante depositionem suam (septem uel amplius) capitulum non tenuit, in refectorio non comedit, in ^ Follomed by domini erased

' Alan, abbot of Tewkesbury, who had been prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, from 1179-86, collected the letters and wrote a life of St Thomas of Canterbury; Greatrex, Biog. Reg., pp.69—70,

and Richard

Sharpe, A Handlist

of Latin

Writers of Great Britain and

Ireland before 1540 (Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin, i, Turnhout, 1997), pp. 33-4. In 1184, as prior of Canterbury, he had been much concerned with the process of electing an archbishop, favouring free election by the chapter. In the course of this dispute, the king declared that the prior wished to be a second pope in England; Gervase, i. 310-25, and esp. 313. The book on the destruction of the chapel at Hackington has unfortunately not survived, but M. Harris's edition of Alan's own letters, written as prior of Canterbury

and abbot of Tewkesbury (‘Alan of Tewkesbury and his letters, I-II, Studia Monastica, xviii (1976), 77-108, 299-351), includes letters relating to Hackington (nos. 20-3, 26, pp. 308-14, 315) and one which refers to this work (no. 30, p. 319: see also p. ror). The et cetera makes it certain that Thomas had more of the text, and probably all of it, by him. 2 Cf. John ro: 1.

BOOK III PART I

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from such a beginning! for he will not escape the Judge Himself, who will decide our just dues, etc.! Abbot Roger himself would often say of this entry of his into his possessions that the king gave him this abbey in return for his service, as if he were saying ‘I have entered the sheepfold not by the door but by some other way'^ And indeed, he had not been chosen by any chapter-meeting as the canons decree should be done. As abbot he made himself out to be high-minded, and he seemed to be a welllettered man, for he was a fluent and eloquent speaker. He was also too much the man of court, and loved feasting; he was boastful at the table, and too fond of food and drink, which he would bestow lavishly, and as a mark of honour, upon anyone he wished, whenever he wished, not with the intention of concealing his being a soldier of Christ, like the blessed Sebastian,* but rather to hide his misconduct beneath a cloak of concealment. 187. Roger surpassed all English monks in his winebibbing and lechery, although he did not claim to be a monk, and did not agree that simple fornication was a mortal sin. He would therefore seduce women, provided it did not involve incest or adultery, though it is said he refrained from neither the one nor the other. We know this to be entirely true, though we are restraining our pen out of respect for the Order. 188. Although the abbot was that kind of man, he behaved quite reasonably towards the convent for a few years, but after that he became so puffed up with pride that his great learning and his lavish living seemed to make him mad,’ and he abandoned the church, the chapterhouse, the cloister and the refectory almost entirely, as also the care of souls and the observance of discipline. During the many years before his deposition he did not hold a chapter for seven or more years, he did ? It is difficult to know what the writer has in mind here: perhaps Decretum C 17 q. 2 c. 3 (Friedberg i col. 814), which incorporated RSB 64, lines 1-5, or X. I 6. r4 (Friedberg ii col. 54), * ut forma electionis canonice in omnibus conventualibus ecclesiis observetur . . . electores in unum locum’, but, if the latter, it means that the comment was written after 119r which may well be the case. Richard I made a practice of imposing his nominees as

abbots, as Alan of Tewkesbury notes, and as after the Constitutions of Clarendon elections took place in the king's chapel, it was not difficult for kings to impose their choice more subtly. * St Sebastian was created a captain of the pretorian guards by the Emperor Diocletian, who did not know he was a Christian. One of the most renowned Roman martyrs, but one for whom there is very little certain evidence, he was believed to have suffered death from arrows and came to be regarded as the model Christian soldier, like St George; see Acta Sanctorum, ii (Antwerp, 1643), 20 Jan., pp. 257-96, esp. 258, 265. > Cf. Acts 26: 24.

HISTORY

194

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

claustro cum fratribus non sedit, ecclesiam raro introiuit, et tam in ecclesiam quam claustrum capitulum cappatus uenire consueuit, et camisiis et lintheaminibus, ut de ceteris exordinationibus circa : 1 uestimenta taceamus, palam utebatur. 189. Monachos etiam tanto contemptui habere cepit, quod non

fo. 147^

propriis nominibus nec monachos, set caniculos, uassallos et ribaldos nominare consueuerat.” Et si aliquando pro defectu ciborum murmurarent, quod sepe non sine causa | contingebat, eos prebendarios suos nominauit, et ideo quod placeret ei ipsis daret; et quasi ad proprii criminis excusationem omnes indifferenter mecos uocauit. Verum quamuis in tanto despectu haberemur, tamen hec fuit in nostro pectore cura minor, set super hoc magis dolebamus quod abbas noster, ut diximus, non tantum alienauit se a nobis, set etiam uictum et uestitum nobis subtraxit, et ea in abyssum suam conuertit, et cameram et sacristariam et alias obediencias in manu sua quantum ei placuit tenuit? 190. Aliquando quibusdam falsis fratribus? ad firmam tradidit, retinens aliquando sibi et approprians meliorem portionem obedienciarum et aliam tradens falsis fratribus. Aliquando etiam commutauit, nobis inconsultis, bonas portiones cum peioribus, ueluti Burthonam’ que fuit de camera cum Samburna que est de celeraria. Ita nos spoliauit aliquando camera quod per multa tempora multi fratres, ob defectum frocorum, nec chorum nec capitulum sequi poterant, alii, quod peius erat, ob defectum cucullarum et femoralium nec diuina celebrare nec in conuentum intrare poterant. Per multos etiam dies in solo pane et aqua uiximus, et multis in pane duro et ceruisia parum differente ab aqua sine pitancia" fuimus. Ipse uero ‘deliciis affluebat”’ cum quibusdam fratribus, et tum per quartam partem anni, tum amplius, apud Baddebi, et iterum apud Bradeuuelle uel Burctun, in .

' RB cap. 55 has little to say about clothing, other than that it should be suitable to the climate, fit properly, and the cowls and tunics were to be of better quality if the monks had to travel, when they were also to wear drawers. It was obviously supposed to be plain, unattractive, and serviceable. While abbots were allowed garments of better cloth, Norreis's attire was clearly more akin to a wealthy lay person's; see below, 477 and 478, for further comments. ? The word ‘ribald’, meaning a person of low status, a menial of a rascally kind, appears

in use in the 12th cent. and came to be used by other clerics of rascally monks. ' Diana Greenway has pointed out to us that the term prebendary was used not only for a canon, but also for an estate-labourer of very low grade who lived in the lord's household.

* Rev. 20: 3. * This means that he was taking the revenues of these departments, as Abbot Samson did with the cellary at Bury; see 7B, pp. 78-9. *Cf2: Goren, 20:

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not eat in the refectory, did not sit in the cloister with the brethren, and rarely entered the church, but when he did come into it he would do so wearing a cloak, as he did when entering the cloister and the chapter-house; and he would openly wear shirts and linen garments, not to mention other irregular clothing, over his vestments.! 189. He began to treat the monks with such contempt that it had become usual for him to call them, not by their proper names or ‘monks’, but ‘puppies’, ‘vassals’, or 'ribalds'.^ If ever they grumbled about the lack of food, which they often did with good reason, he would call them his prebendaries? and so give them what he pleased and, as if to excuse his own crime, he called them adulterers. Yet, though we were held in such contempt, we were less concerned about this in our hearts, for we were more saddened by the fact that our abbot, as we have said, not only alienated from us so much of our property but also deprived us of food and clothing which he diverted to his own bottomless pit, and kept the chamber, the sacristy, and other obediences in his own hands to do as he pleased with them.? 190. Sometimes he handed over this property to some false brethren? for them to farm, sometimes he kept back and appropriated for himself the better portion belonging to the obediences, handing over the other portion to the false brethren. Sometimes, without consulting us, he finally exchanged the good portions for the inferior, like Barton,’ which was the property of the chamber, for Sambourne [Warws.], property of the cellary. At last, then, he robbed us of the wardrobe, so that many brethren were often unable to attend either the choir or the chapter because of the lack of garments, while others—which is worse—could not celebrate divine offices or go in to the convent because they had no cowls or breeches. For days on end we lived on bread and water alone, and on many occasions we lived on stale bread and ale that was hardly distinguishable from water, and received no pittance.* The abbot himself enjoyed with certain brethren ‘an abundance of choice foods." Then for three months of the year, and for longer later on, he would stay at Badby [Northants.], or again at Broadwell or Bourton-on-the-Water [both Glos.], for in 7 The demesne farm in Evesham. 5 The monastic pittance was an additional small dish, usually of fish, eggs, or some kind

of delicacy, provided in addition to the normal diet on special days or for special reasons, as after blood-letting. The obedientiary concerned was the pittancer, and his department the pittancery, see Barbara Harvey, Living and Dying in England 1100-1540: The Monastic Experience (Oxford, 1993), pp. 10-12. 24 Gf. Isa. 66: 11; S. of S. 8: 5; Eccles. 2: 1 and 25; and Job 22: 26.

196

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EVESHAM

quibus maneriis nobilia et quasi regia edificia construxerat, moram faciebat, et uentri et lateri uacabat omni tempore usque ad depositionem suam. Nos uero, teste Deo, apud Eouesham cupiebamus saturari de secundo pane quam famuli eius comedebant, et non erat qui daret nobis.! 191. Prima querela monachorum contra abbatem archiepiscopo tunc legato et assignatione reddituum ad pitanciariam fo. 147? Tandem,’ inedia urgente, ad nos reuersi, conquesti | sumus super hiis domino Huberto Cantuariensi archiepiscopo tunc temporis tocius Anglie legato. Set abbas ad callida argumenta conuersus, muneribus promissis et datis et quibusdam fratribus corruptis, obedientiis nobis ad tempus restitutis, pacem sibi comparauit, et sic tunc a manu domini legati euasit, assignatis tamen pro bono pacis ex precepto domini legati certis redditibus ad pitanciariam, quia prius uina et medones de celario et carnes de lardario abbatis statutis temporibus ad hoc accipere consueuimus, unde magnum murmur et magni defectus sepe contingebant. Restituta etiam nobis tunc est ecclesia sancti Laurentii per dominum legatum,? quam prius abbas dederat, nobis reclamantibus, cuidam clerico suo Gilberto, et sic per istas tribulationes in melius reparati sumus. 192. Legatione autem finita post annum, abbas iterum monachos subpeditauit, et tam redditus pitanciarie quam redditus operis et omnes redditus eorum fere sibi iterum appropriauit et ‘infinitam peccuniam sibi congregauit, maxime de hiis que ad monachos pertinebant, per quam pecuniam monachos eum sepe accusantes ab accusatione uiriliter repulit et eos prout uoluit sibi subiugauit. Multos enim magnates regni et maxime iusticiarium? per ciborum dapsilitatem et munerum largitionem, que temporibus necessitatis habundantissime effundebat, sibi amicos comparauerat Monachi uere nichilominus semper insidiabantur ei et uicia eius pro posse suo ' Cf. Luke 15: 16, ‘et nemo illi dabat". ^ This was probably in 1197; see below, n. 4. * One of the two chapels within the abbey precinct. * According to Gervase of Canterbury, Hubert’s legatine jurisdiction ceased on 8 Jan. 1198, following the death of Pope Celestine III (Gervase, i. 551). He had been appointed on 18 Mar. 1195; Ep. Cant., pp. 368-9. Hubert had been an active papal legate, in 1195 holding a council at York, in which he deposed the abbot of St Mary’s, a house with close connections with Evesham; see C. & S., i pt 2, pp. 1042-52, for the accounts of the council and its canons. * Cf. Gen. 47: 14.

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these manors he had built noble edifices, like palaces, and he always had time for his belly and *bed' right up to the day he was deposed! As God is our witness, we at Evesham would have been satisfied to eat the inferior bread which his servants ate, but there was nobody to give

it to us.! 191. The first complaints of the monks against the abbot made to the archbishop, at that time papal legate, and the allocation of revenue to the pittancery Eventually compelled by hunger, we came to our senses and complained of our ill-treatment to Hubert, archbishop of Canterbury, who was then papal legate. The abbot resorted to cunning argument and corrupted some brethren with gifts or promises of them. He restored the departments to us for a while, won himself a reprieve, and so escaped being punished by the legate. Nevertheless, to keep the peace, fixed revenues were assigned to the pittancery by command of the legate, for previously we used to receive at appointed times wine and mead from the cellarer instead, and meat from the abbot's larder, which often resulted in much grumbling and numerous deficiencies. The church of St Laurence was also restored to us at this time by the legate.? The abbot had previously given this church, despite our objections, to his clerk Gilbert, so out of our troubles our fortunes were restored. 192. A year later, when the legate’s jurisdiction ceased,' the abbot again began his oppression of the monks: he once again appropriated for himself the revenues of the pittancery and the income of the building fund; in fact, virtually all of their revenues. He ‘accumulated endless sums of money" for himself, especially from sources which belonged to the monks. He used this money to fend off with vigour the accusations frequently made against him by the monks, and he made them subject to his own will. In fact, the abbot had secured the friendship of many magnates of the realm, and particularly that of the justiciar,? because of the extravagant banquets and generous gifts that he bountifully lavished upon them during times of want. Nevertheless, the monks were always setting traps for him and attacking his 5 Geoffrey Fitz Peter, earl of Essex from 1199, succeeded Hubert Walter as justiciar in 1198 and remained in the office until his death in 1213. As justiciar, the chief executive, regent when the king was abroad, and presiding over the Exchequer and the court of King's Bench, he was the most powerful person in the land after the king; see GEC, v, cols. 122-5, and F. West, The Justiciarship in England 1066-1232 (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 102-77.

198

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ABBEY

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impugnabant. Ipse uero eos paruipendens et conatus eorum, ipsos persequebatur et odio habebat, et quosdam a domo postea eiecit. In quosdam uero in thalamo suo missos a conuentu manus uiolentas inici fecit, in alios precepit inici. Set tamen, Deo adiutore, semper manus eius uiui effugimus, quamuis dicatur quod quidam ob defectum necessariorum perierunt. 193. Secunda querela conuentus archiepiscopo non tunc legato, et commutatione Samburne pro Tetlestrop, et turris constructione Iterum miseria et inedia compulsi hec ferre non potentes domino fo. 148" Cantuariensi, | ut suo speciali legato quamuis iam non generali, in transmarinis agenti, unde abbas seuiendi assumpserat audatiam, scripserunt monachi suas afflictiones et abbatis tirannidem et exordinationes; qui postquam rediit ualde commotus uenit Eueshamiam, et ibi de hiis que audierat diligentem fecit inquisitionem. Set abbas et tunc etiam ad nota subsidia confugiens, fratribus corruptis sicut prius per munera et amicos suos, obedienciis nobis restitutis, pacem sibi comparauit. Recepit tamen ea uice pro bono pacis Samburne iterum, et dedit nobis Thatlestrope ad cameram loco Burtune, et sic semper tribulatio profuit. Set adhuc pax paruo tempore durauit; nam iterum, paruo post occupato archiepiscopo pro causa de Lameithe,^? peius quam unquam prius nos flagellauit, et omnia nostra sibi appropriauit et ‘facta sunt nouissima nostra peiora prioribus;? et sic sepe habuimus redditus ad nos pertinentes et sepe eis spoliati eramus. Et quamuis tot aduersa sustineremus, tamen per quendam magnanimum et magni consilii uirum et bonum monachum, magistrum uidelicet Thomam de Northuuic,! qui per sapientiam suam et maxime fisicam qua pollebat magnam gratiam tocius patrie sibi comparauerat, turrim ecclesie ereximus conuertentes redditus pitanciarie quandocunque ^ Lameit[he]; he znterlined (s. xv)

' After ceasing to be legate, Hubert Walter is not recorded as being abroad again until Sept. 1198 (with only one possible short return in the middle of the month), staying abroad until Apr. 1199. He then returned to Normandy in June and was there until almost the end of the year. He may have come to Evesham in the spring of 1200: he is recorded as at Worcester on 10-11 Apr. See EEA, 3: Canterbury 1193—1205, ed. C. R. Cheney and Eric John (1986), pp. 311—12.

^ After the plan for the college at Hackington failed, the archbishops did not give up their idea of a secular college to provide for their clerks, but transferred the project to Lambeth, where they now owned the manor. Innocent III's decision of 20 Nov. 1198, ordering destruction of the chapel, did not reach Hubert until 2 Jan. 1199, when he was in

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vices whenever they could. He himself scorned them and their efforts, and he persecuted and hated them; some he later expelled from the house. Some of those whom he had expelled he physically assaulted in his own chamber, and gave orders for the same to be done to others. Yet, with God's help, we always escaped from his hands with our lives, though it must be said, some died because of the lack of life's necessities. 193. The convent’s second complaint to the archbishop, who was no longer legate; the exchange of Sambourne for Adlestrop; and the building of a tower

Again, forced by wretchedness and need, and unable to endure this ill-treatment, the monks wrote of their troubles and of the abbot’s tyranny and outrageous behaviour to the archbishop of Canterbury as their special legate, though no longer general legate. He was busy abroad,' so the abbot had resumed his bold attacks upon us. When the archbishop returned he was very concerned about our complaint and came to Evesham. There he conducted a careful inquiry into the reports he had heard, However, the abbot took refuge among his wellknown helpers—brethren whom he had bribed with gifts and his own friends—and, restoring the departments to us, he secured a reprieve for himself. At that time he took Sambourne [Warws.] back again to maintain the peace, and gave us Adlestrop [Glos.] for the chamber in place of Bourton-on-the-Water [Glos.]: so our constant trouble eventually benefited us. Yet peace lasted for but a short time, for soon after this the archbishop's time was taken up with the Lambeth affair,” and once again the abbot scourged us worse than before. He appropriated everything belonging to us, and *our last state was worse than our first’. So, whenever we had revenues belonging to us we were robbed of them. Yet we endured all those adversities with the help of a good monk, Master Thomas de Northwich, who was a man of good sense.* He had won a considerable reputation throughout the land for his wisdom and especially for his knowledge of medicine in which he had shown great skill. With his help we built a tower for the church, using the revenues of the pittancery whenever we possessed Normandy. Hubert, however, kept up the struggle over the Lambeth college until an arbitrated award was accepted on 6 Nov. 1200, and ratified by the pope in the following May; see Ep. Cant., pp. 459-68, and 512-14; and Gervase, i. 483, 534—59, 562—5, 576-87.

Ss CfaMatta 12:45. * He does not appear in BRUO or BRUC, but see below, 268.

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eos habuimus et omnia alia quecumque nobis subtrahere potuimus in opus illud. 194. Hactenus de hiis; ueniam autem nunc ad ea que pro libertate ecclesie passi sumus in labore et erumpna, in fame et siti, in frigore et nuditate, *in itineribus sepe, periculis fluminum, periculis latronum, periculis in ciuitate" Romana, 'periculis in solitudine, periculis in mari, periculis in falsis fratribus’, ut ‘minus sapiens dico’,' plus omnibus passus sum ego. ‘Deus et pater Domini nostri Iesu Christi scit, qui est benedictus in secula, quod non mentior."

! 2 Cor. 11: 23. > 2 Cor. 11: 26-31. The passage is closely related to the Pauline epistle. Whole phrases

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them, and every other source of revenue which we could secure for that work. 194. This is the story so far. I shall now come to what we endured to secure the liberty of our church through toil and hardship, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, ‘in being constantly on the road, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger in the city’ of Rome, ‘danger in the wilderness, danger on the sea, danger from false brethren’, and—as ‘I am speaking like a fool’'—I suffered more than all my brethren. “The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for evermore, knows that I do not lie.””

have been taken over by Thomas, and reworked, changing the order slightly. To danger in the city, he has added ‘of Rome’.

PARTICVLA

SECVNDA

195. Incipit particula secunda qualiter episcopus mandauerat se uenturum fo. 148"

causa uisitationis et (de) fatuo responso abbatis In diebus illis erat dominus Malgerius episcopus | Wigornie, 'uir iustus et timens Deum’.' Iste abbatis exordinationibus condolens et nostre miserie compatiens, zelo bono ductus,” indulgentiam? a domino papa maxime propter correctionem status nostri, ut ipse sepe dicebat, impetrauit, uidelicet ut liceret sibi ecclesias diocesana lege sibi subiectas, appellatione remota, uisitare. Et scripsit abbati sub hac forma: *Noueritis quod tali die ueniemus ad uos, causa uisitationis eadem die uobiscum moram facturi) Abbas uero uisis litteris post cibum in die assumptionis beate Marie,’ iuris tam ciuilis quam canonici ignarus, nullius communicato consilio, respondit, ‘Bene uenerit, pro paruo reputans, ut erat dapsilis, quod episcopus cum eo hospitaretur, non capiens intellectum litterarum. 196. Recedente itaque nuncio cum tali responso, facta est contentio inter discipulos abbatis quidnam sibi uellet tale mandatum, et quia iuris peritus eram uocatus sum ego qui eram in claustro.? Quibusdam dicentibus quod episcopus uenit uidere abbatem ut amicus, aliis non, set ut abbatem deponeret quia odio eum habebat. Ego uero dicebam quia si eum causa uisitationis admitteret, ex ui uerbi huius ‘causa uisitationis' et ratione predicte indulgentie quam apud Gloucestriam, ubi uisitacionem inceperat,° iam exhibuerat, quod episcopus potestatem habebat tam in capite quam in menbris’ errata usque ad depositionem et degradationem corrigere; et quod nichil libertatis amodo ecclesie nostre relinqueretur si eum ut diocesana lege subiecti ' Acts 10: 22. Mauger was consecrated bishop on 4 June 1200 and died on r July 1212; and see below, n. 4 (p. 204). All the dating for this section depends on proceeding back from the secure date of the pope's mandate of 22 May 1203, see below, 247. * For ‘zelus bonus’ cf. RSB cap. 72. ? The Latin indulgentia is not easy to translate into English. The literal translation ‘indulgence’, meaning the papal letter that remitted enjoined penance, is not appropriate here. The papal letter in question, where ‘indulgemus’ was used, was obtained on 24 Apr. 1202. It is printed in Reg. nn. 111, v (1993), no. 23 (24), and calendared in Cheney, Letters, no. 407: it empowered the bishop to visit churches subject to him under diocesan law, forbidding appeal. Mauger clearly knew that he was treading on glass here: for example, 1 Comp. IIT. 25. 4 (Alexander III to the archbishop of Canterbury) makes it quite clear that diocesan rights of visitation were clearly circ*mscribed when monasteries were ‘the special sons of the Roman church’, in which case visitation could only be by the pope or his

representative.

* 15 Aug.

PARI

IWO

195. Here begins the second part concerning the bishop's instruction that he would be arriving to undertake a visitation, and the foolish reply of the abbot At that time [1202] Mauger, ‘a just, godfearing man’, was bishop of Worcester.! Commiserating with us over the abbot's irregularities, and sympathizing with our suffering, he was led by a great zeal? to petition the pope for an empowerment! especially to bring us back into a proper state—as he himself often said—so that he might visit the churches which were subject to him by diocesan law without the possibility of appeal. He wrote to the abbot in these terms: ‘Know that we shall be coming to you on a particular day for a visitation with the intention of staying with you from that day.’ The abbot read the letter after dinner on the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mary, but ignorant of both civil and canon law and taking no one's advice, he told the bishop, in reply, that he would be welcome, and as he was an extravagant man he thought little of it that the bishop would be lodging with him, for he did not perceive the significance of

the letter. 196. When the messenger had left with the abbot's reply, a disagreement occurred amongst the abbot's monks over what the bishop's instruction meant, and as I had legal knowledge I was summoned, for I was a cloister monk.? Some monks were saying that the bishop was coming to see the abbot as a friend, but others disagreed, saying that he was coming to depose the abbot because he disliked him. I said that if he admitted him for a visitation then because of the force of the words 'for a visitation', and in consideration of the previously mentioned empowerment which he had already shown at Gloucester when he had undertaken a visitation there,° the bishop had complete power as much over the head as over the limbs? to punish wrongs even to deposition from office or by deprivation of orders; and that no freedom would remain to our church if we admitted him as we were > The cloister monks were the learned monks employed primarily in some scholarly pursuit. ^ No record survives of this visitation. 7 Caput and membra are used by Thomas in conjunction to signify the head, the mother church or monastery, and the limbs, the chapels; see below, 204, 215, 229, 283. Its origin is in the idea of the Roman church as the caput, and all other subject churches as the limbs;

see Gratian, Decretum, D 12. 1; D 34. 6; C 1 qu. 1 c. 63 (Friedberg i cols. 27, 127, 381). In this instance, however, it might mean the abbot (caput) and the monks (membra).

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THE

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EVESHAM

admitteremus. Quare statim dissuasi, immo prohibui, ne eum sub tali forma admitteret.

ex parte conuentus

197. De controuersia et dissentione conuentus de admittendo uel non admittendo episcopo Mane autem facto! conuenimus cum abbate nostro ut de admittendo episcopo uel non admittendo sufficiencius tractaremus. Et facta est inter nos magna dissencio et multi parietes^ facti sunt. Quibusdam | fo. 148"* enim fautoribus abbatis bene erat, qui cum ipso in stercore suo quasi sus in uolutabro computruerant; isti semper ita uiuere uellent ut cotidie cum abbate suo splendide epularentur. Hii litem nolebant, scientes quia lites magnas expensas requirunt. Alii autem ualitudinarii, alii uero senes, alii hic nutriti quibus alia loca erant incognita, propter nimias litis expensas timentes maiorem inediam, et etiam, si ita res urgeret, fratrum dispersionem: querebant ut pax fieret in diebus suis, qui, licet in aliis non fauerent abbati, in hoc tamen casu communiter cum eo steterunt. 198. Isti omnes cum abbate dicebant quia res de qua agebatur ualde ardua erat et supra uires ecclesie et nostras, dicentes totam abbaciam etiam si monachi nichil ex ea perciperent tantis sumptibus non sufficere. Non tacentes quod episcopus ualde fauorabilis erat utpote uir sanctus et in scientiis profundi pectoris ecclesie Romane cardinalis. Et a domino papa speciali quadam dispensatione propter magnas uirtutes quibus pollebat in episcopum consecratus, et pre ceteris episcopis, ut dicebatur, dilectus.! Quod ex multis argumentis comprobabant, addentes quod multi abbates et monachi ante nos fuerunt qui nos sciencia, moribus, sanctitate et seculari prudencia precellebant et nobis prefulgebant, et illi tam ardua non attemptauerunt, et ' Of 16 Aug. * The MS clearly has parietes and although there do not appear to be other examples of its use in the sense of ‘factions’, this reading is supported by the unambiguous masc. pl. endings for facti and multi, so that there is no strong case for emending the text to multe partes facte sunt. ? At the bottom of this fo. has been transcribed, in a fine charter hand of the early 13th cent,

a letter

from

Abbot

Reginald

Foliot

to his nephew

Gloucester, concerning Evesham's relationship with can be dated 1139x 1148. It was doubtless placed here below in App. III. * Mauger, formerly archdeacon of Évreux, royal bishop of Worcester before 8 Apr. 1199. On account

Abbot

Gilbert

Foliot

the bishops of Worcester, which with some care. The text is printed

clerk, and physician, was elected of Mauger's illegitimate birth, the

election was quashed by Pope Innocent III; see Greenway, Fasti, ii. 100. In Feb. 1200,

however, probably immediately after declaring the election void, the pope wrote allowing

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subject to diocesan law. I therefore urged him at once not to admit the bishop under such a formula—in fact on behalf of the convent I forbade him to do so. 197. The dispute and disagreement within the convent over the admittance or non-admittance of the bishop In the morning! we met our abbot to discuss more fully whether to admit the bishop or not. There was considerable disagreement amongst us and many factions? were formed.’ Some supporters of the abbot who had been wallowing with him in their own dung like swine in a hog-pool were happy with his decision; they would want to go on living evermore as they were doing every day, feasting splendidly with their abbot. They did not want litigation, knowing that lawsuits incur heavy expenses. There were some who were infirm, some old, others who had grown up here and, knowing nothing of other places, were afraid of greater privation because of the heavy expenses of litigation, and feared even the dispersal of the brethren if circ*mstances forced it: these men were for peace being made in their time, and though they did not support the abbot in other matters, they stood together with him in this emergency. 198. All of them said, as did the abbot, that the point of the dispute was a very difficult one and beyond our strength or that of our church, and that even if the monks could understand nothing of this the whole abbey was unable to bear the cost of such expenses. They voiced their opinion that the bishop was highly respected as a holy man and as a man with the depth of understanding of a cardinal of the Roman church. He had been consecrated bishop by the lord pope by a special dispensation because of the great virtues in which he excelled, and, so men said, was beloved above other bishops.* They tried to prove this by many arguments, adding that there were many abbots and monks before us who surpassed and outshone us in knowledge, behaviour, holiness, and worldly wisdom, but they had not attempted the chapter to postulate Mauger, so that he might then dispense him and confirm the election. This letter (printed SZJ, no. 6) was seen by the decretal collectors as a significant pronouncement, as it outlined both the pope's power over the control of elections and the position of illegitimates promoted to high orders. It was included in the contemporary collections of Rainer, Gilbert, and Bernard, and Innocent’s first official collection, 3 Comp. I. 6. 5, and thence X. I. 6. 20 (Friedberg ii cols. 61—3). Macray (p. xxiii n. 1) understood "Thomas to mean that Mauger was a cardinal, but there is no other evidence that Mauger was a cardinal and it is highly unlikely. Knowles answered the problem by changing cardinalis to cardinalibus, then the sentence might read that Mauger was well-regarded by the cardinals (M. O., p. 335 n. 1), but the sense of utpote can be ‘as’.

206

fo. 148'*

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

tamen pie et sancte et iuste uixerunt in hoc seculo, et diuitiis et honoribus gauisi sunt;' nos uero propter exordinationes nostras Deo et hominibus minus fauorabiles, immo quasi contemptibiles habebamur et pauperes. Ius etiam nostrum ualde exile et infirmum dicebant, maxime eo quod a ducentis uel trescentis annis retro episcopi Wigornenses omnes fuissent sollempniter cum processione sollemni ad diuinorum celebrationem et procurationem sufficientem in ecclesia nostra admissi.^ Et abbates nostri supra memoriam hominum | ab episcopis Wigornie benedictionem acceperunt et eis professionem fecerunt, et crisma et oleum et ordines ab eisdem monachi susceperunt? Et ideo presumptuosum et supersticiosum uideri tam longam consuetudinem et tantorum uirorum 'sequi uestigia" nolle, et tam sanctorum magnorum et prudentum predecessorum nostrorum metas et uite fines uelle transgredi. Et etiam si quod ius ad proclamandum in libertatem haberemus, per tantum et tam longum abusum, immo contrarium usum, uideatur penitus abolitum et abrogatum.? Obiciebant etiam nobis quod nos iuuenes querebamus litem causa euagandi, scientes quia nos qui liti insisteremus semper bonis habundaremus sicut tanta causa exigebat, illi uero domi inedia perirent. 199. Ft illi qui hec dicebant erant ‘de senioribus populi',? qui quasi uidebantur regere ecclesiam nostram, et reuera de filiis prudentioribus lucis huius erant in generatione sua,’ et si aliqui illorum zelum bonum? habebant tamen non secundum scientiam.^ Alii nec zelum habentes bonum, querebant que sua erant non que lesu Christi. Set fauorem et pacem captantes multos fratres seduxerunt qui cum non essent ex nobis a nobis exierunt," et usque ad diem sententie pro nobis late nobiscum amplius non ambulauerunt.' Et adhuc ex corde quidam nobiscum non ambulant quamuis nobiscum de libertate participentur et gaudeant. ' This may be a quotation, but we have not been able to identify it. ? See X. IIL. 39. 6 (Friedberg, ii cols. 623—4), clause 3 of the Third Lateran Council: on such occasions demands were not to be excessive. For a useful survey of procuratio canonica, the proper reception of a bishop, receiving him in a solemn procession and entertaining him and his retinue, see C. Bruhl, *Zur Geschichte der Procuratio canonica vornehmlich im 11. und 12. Jahrhundert’, in Aus Mittelalter und Diplomatik, i (Hildesheim, Munich, and Zurich, 1989), pp. 323-35. ? Only a bishop could confer the holy orders of deacon, priest etc., and bless the oils used in consecration and anointing. * Cf. 1 Pet. 2: 21. * On rights that were abused or fell into disuse, see Decretum, D 74. 7 (Friedberg, i col. 263); and for a full discussion, see below, 354 and n.

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so difficult a task and yet had lived in this world with piety, holiness, and righteousness, and had rejoiced in riches and honours;! indeed, because of our breaches of the Rule we experienced less favour with God and men, and were in fact considered contemptible and poor. They even said that there was scant or weak justice in our cause, and made the particular point that for the past two or three hundred years all the bishops of Worcester had been duly admitted into our church in solemn procession for the celebration of divine service and had been properly entertained. Our abbots had, as far back as could be remembered, been blessed by the bishops of Worcester and made profession to them, and the monks had accepted chrism, oil, and orders from those same bishops. For these reasons it seemed to them presumptuous and pretentious to be unwilling to maintain their long-standing custom, to refuse to ‘follow in the footsteps'* of such great men, and so prefer to cross the *metes and bounds' of life set by our great saints and wise predecessors. Even if we had any right to freedom, that right would appear to have been completely destroyed and abrogated by long and considerable abuse of it, or rather by our total disregard of it. They also accused us of being young men who wanted to go to law so that we might roam about, on the grounds that they knew that we who were insisting on litigation would always have more than enough personal wealth if this lengthy case demanded it, while they would perish at home from starvation. 199. Those who were expressing these views were from among ‘the older members of our people'? who seemed, as it were, to rule our monastery and, in fact, belonged to the ‘children of light’ who are wiser in their generation,’ and if any of them possessed great zeal? it was not according to knowledge.’ Some who did not have great zeal

were seeking their own interests not the interests of Jesus Christ.'° In courting favour and peace they misled many brethren who, although they were not of their number, deserted us," and until the day when judgment was pronounced in our favour no longer walked with us.'^ Indeed, some of these still do not walk with us in their hearts even though they share with us, and rejoice in, our liberty. $ Cf. e.g. Matt. 26: 47. * Cf. RSB cap. 72. MN (Caves oy oy 7? Cf. John 6: 66.

7 Cf. Luke 16: 8. ? Romans 10: 2. H Cfr John 2: r9.

208

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

200. Erant ibidem tunc et alii fratres habentes zelum Dei secundum scientiam,' zelantes libertatem sicut legem Finees,’ scientes quod libertas rei est inestimabilis. Qui propter ea que audierant quasi furore accensi, cum sanioris consilii fratribus, sicut quondam Mathathias cum filiis suis et amicis, firmantes facies suas steterunt ex aduerso, opponentes se murum pro domo Domini.? Eligentes mori in curia Romana ad quam reuersio nostra et ecclesie nostre est et erat, | et libertatis fo. 149^ quam subire plenam subiectionem et seruitutem ecclesie sue perpetuam subuersionem. 201. Et dixerunt, ‘Quare detraxistis sermonibus ueritatis! Ad detrahendum uerba componitis et nitimini subuertere libertatem ecclesie uestre. Non timeatis paupertatem uestram uel litis expensas, quia si maneria nostra impignorare uoluerimus uel si pecuniam a

Iudeis sub usuris uoluerimus uel in curia Romana a Romanis sub penis statutis, inueniemus qui usque ad mille marcas uel amplius quantum uoluerimus accommodabunt nobis, sub testimonio sigilli capituli nostri, quia conuentus quasi immortalis est.? Et nos in longa tempora soluendam peccuniam accipiemus et non dispergemur. Episcopus autem non inueniet qui aliquod manerium eius loco pignoris accipiat, nec qui pecuniam ei mutuo det nisi in modica summa, quia si episcopus moreretur statim pignus liberaretur, et nisi creditor probaret demonstratiue quod in necessarios usus ecclesie pecunia esset expensa, successor debitum soluere non teneretur. Quare nos in expensis magis possumus quam episcopus. Quod dicitis episcopum esse fauorabilem tam aput Romanos quam alios, hoc non timeatis, quia causa sua ecclesie Romane odiosa est,° ueluti que contra eam est instituta; et causa nostra, que libertatis est, inter omnes causas magis fauorabilis est, et maxime apud ecclesiam Romanam, cui uolumus, sicut debemus, nullo mediante’ subici, que etiam diligit exemptiones. Et apud dominum Cantuariensem fauorabiles sumus, cui cura animarum nostrarum et correctio status huius ecclesie a domino papa specialiter sunt commissa. Quod dicitis ante nos fuisse et maiores et sanctiores uiros, uerum

est, et in hoc

! Romans 10: 2. * 1 Macc. 2: 26; Num. 25: 11. Phineas’ zeal for the law was shown by his slaying of an Israelite who had dared to have intercourse with a Midianite woman, Num. 25: 6-8. dm M Belo ToU

* Job 6: 25. * This comment reflects the Roman law notion of the undying corporation. Thomas’s use of the word ‘odious’ here perhaps stems from ‘prescription is odious (or hated)’, for which see below, 370, 382.

7 The claim of being directly subject to the Roman pontiff ‘nullo mediante’, without

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RWMUBISPARECDUTI

209

200. There were also other brethren in the monastery at that time who had a zeal for God based upon knowledge! and a zeal for liberty of the sort Phineas had for the law,” knowing that liberty is a precious possession. These brethren were enraged by what they had heard and, with brethren of sound judgment, set their faces against them, and set themselves as a wall for the house of the Lord, as Mattathias once did with his sons and friends.* They preferred to die in the Roman curia upon which depends and depended our recovery and that of our church, rather than to suffer complete subjection, subservience, and the perpetual loss of their church's liberty. 201. This was what they said: ‘Why have you despised the words of truth?* You compose speeches to despise it, and strive to deprive your church of its liberty. You should not be fearful for your own poverty or for the expenses of a lawsuit, for if we are willing to mortgage our manors or borrow money from Jews at interest or from Romans in the Roman curia under a binding legal contract, we shall find those who will accommodate us up to a thousand marks or to an even greater sum if we wish under the authority of our chapter seal, for a convent is virtually immortal? We shall receive money to be repaid over a long period of time and we shall not be broken by this. But the bishop will not find anyone to accept any manor of his as a security, and no one to lend him money except a paltry sum, because should the bishop die the security would immediately disappear, and unless his creditor could prove conclusively that money had been spent for the necessary use of the church, a successor would not be compelled to pay the debt. So then, we are more able to face expenses than the bishop. You should not fear, as you say, that the bishop is in favour both with the Romans and with others, for his cause is odious? to the Roman Church as it is directed against that Church; whereas our cause, that of liberty, is the most approved amongst causes, and especially in the Roman Church to which we are willing, as we ought, to be subject without any intermediary,’ which Church also looks kindly upon exemptions. Further, we enjoy the favour of the archbishop of Canterbury to whom the care of our souls and the power of correction of this church has been specially entrusted by the pope. Your statement that our predecessors were great and holy men is true, any intermediary, was the hallmark of exemption. Privileges using this phrase are found for St Albans from the 1180s, Lucius III and Clement III, for Malmesbury granted by Celestine III in the 1190s. For Evesham, 'nullo mediante' appears for the first time in the indult of Clement III, see below, 337-8.

210

fo. 149^

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THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

bene patet quod nunquam illi pleno iure et diocesano subiecti erant Wigornensi episcopo. Si uero nos episcopum causa uisitationis admiserimus, quod antecessores nostri nunquam fecerunt, nichil | libertatis ecclesie isti remanebit. Si exordinati sumus, ecce tribulatio, pena peccati et exordinationis nostre; qua tribulatione correpti, patienter sustineamus et emendemus in melius quod negligenter peccauimus, et non rememorabuntur omnes iniquitates nostre nec coram Deo nec coram hominibus." ! 202. ‘Quod autem dicitis predecessores nostros admisisse episcopos sollempniter, et abbates fecisse eis professionem, et benedictionem et crisma et oleum et ordinationes ab eis recepisse, uerum est, et male

factum est illud, et periculum imminet nobis.’* Set, benedictus Deus!

fo. 149"*

semper cum protestatione libertatis et cum reclamatione facta sunt ista, quare prescriptionem? non timemus, et de iure nostro, per gratiam Dei conseruantis nobis priuilegia nostra, certissimi sumus, nisi prescriptio obsit, cuius interruptio facillime probatur. Et si in iudicio possessorio succubuerimus,’ que cura? Cum quasi certi simus quod in petitorio obtinebimus.’* Et quia ambigua sunt fata causarum, miser est qui sponte se offert seruituti dum stare potest in libertate, maxime cum nil peius possit ei contingere quam ut seruus efficiatur. Et absit a nobis quod bonis ecclesie in deliciis abutamur, et illa que libera creata est ancilletur eternaliter, quod nec etiam amodo locus sit ei in libertatem proclamandi, et sic iniuste pereat, et non sit qui condoleat, cum satis habunde habeat unde defendatur. 203. ‘Ergo state nobiscum si uultis, quia nos neque pro uita neque pro morte a libertate recedemus, nisi per sententiam domini pape. Quod nunquam continget, quod dominus papa uidelicet contra se ipsum et ecclesiam Romanam et tot priuilegia Romanorum pontificum sententiam det.’ Nos uero parati sumus omne pondus litis in nos suscipere, et adire curiam Romanam, et stare ibi pro libertate, non ut euagemus ut uos dicitis, set ut ibi moriamur si forte transierint dies nostri; et sicut fuerit | uoluntas in celo sic fiat.? Hec nos sanioris

consilii fratres cum fletu dicebamus.^ ^ Romana papa (2s. xiv") add. in marg. ^ marg. iudicium possessorium (2s, wiv”)

* marg. nota optime (2s. xiv) Mors

^ ?Romana ecclesia (2s. xiv^) add. in marg. ^ marg. iudicium. petitorium (2s. xiv?) / marg. nota constanciam (2. xi^)

Cf; Isa. 432/25; * This may be a quotation (cf. below, 266) but it has not been traced. ? Rights that had been held for a considerable time and gone unchallenged. See below, 392-5, 359.

DOONKRSIUISPARITLE

211

and in this respect it is quite clear that they were never fully subject to the bishop of Worcester as their diocesan. But if we admit the bishop for a visitation, something our predecessors never did, no liberty will remain for this church. If we cause a breach of the Rule then expect tribulation and punishment for our sin and for our transgression; but when chastened by this suffering let us endure it patiently and do our best to correct our thoughtless sins, and not all our iniquities will be remembered before God or before men.! 202. ‘Your statement that our predecessors formally admitted bishops, that abbots made profession to them, received the blessing, chrism, oil and orders from them, is true, but it was a mistake to have done so and perilously threatens us now.” But blessed be God, those things were always done with a declaration of freedom and a protest, so we do not fear prescription,’ and (through the grace of God who preserves our privileges for us) we are very sure of our rights, but if prescription goes against us, we can easily show interruption. Even if we are not successful in a possessory judgment, why worry? For we can be virtually certain of being successful in the petitory judgment.* And because the outcome of lawsuits is doubtful, he is a miserable man who voluntarily consigns himself to servitude when he can make a stand for liberty, especially when nothing worse could happen to him than to become a slave. God forbid that we should waste the church’s possessions in pleasure-seeking and that that which has been created free should be enslaved for ever; or that henceforth there should be no chance for it to champion its liberty, but simply to perish unjustly with no one to grieve over it, when it has abundant resouces with which to defend itself. 203. “Therefore stand with us if you will, for we shall not give up our liberty either for life or death unless through the pope’s sentence. But that will never happen, for in truth the pope would never pass a sentence against himself, the Roman church, and the many privileges of the Roman pontiffs. We are certainly prepared to shoulder the whole burden of a lawsuit, to go to the Roman curia and to make a stand there for liberty, not to roam about abroad as you say, but to die there if perchance our time has come; and may God’s will be done as it is in heaven.? Such were the words that we brethren of sounder

judgement spoke tearfully.^ * The petitory action was the action concerning the right of ownership, while the possessory action concerned the actual possession at the time. > Luke r1: 2. $ On the brethren of sounder judgement or wiser counsel, see RS B cap. 64. RSB cap. 3

212

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

204. Abbas uero, constantiam nostram uidens, considerabat omnia uerba hec, conferens in corde suo.’ Et communicato consilio missi sumus tres monachi in crastino? ad episcopum, qui libertatem et ius ecclesie nostre protestaremur et quod nequaquam eum causa uisitationis admitteremus, et pro iure ecclesie et contra omnia grauamina que propter hoc nobis contingere possent appellaremus. Quod et factum est.^ Episcopus uero se nichilominus uenturum et secundum indulgentiam domini pape, appellatione remota, iure diocesano, corrigenda tam in capite quam in menbris se correcturum asserebat.? 205. De dolo abbatis ut accepta securitate status sui episcopum admitteret et nos ei dolo traderet Quod cum abbati retulissemus, ad callida argumenta et assueta presidia se conuertit. Et per quosdam familiares suos sollicitauit episcopum si quo modo posset ad hoc inducere eum, ut accepta securitate status sui, uidelicet quod in personam suam non animaduerteret, eum admitteret. Hoc enim prius fecerat cuidam episcopo Wigornensi, lohanni uidelicet de Constantiis, quem ad capitulum admisit et statuta eius et decreta scripta et lecta, reclamantibus fratribus, ibidem custodienda suscepit. Set dedit ei sexaginta marcas et renunciauit usui mitre, tunice, dalmatice et sandaliorum omnibus diebus uite illius episcopi ne in personam suam animaduerteret. Set iste episcopus nichil simoniace facere uoluit, set tamen distulit diem aduentus sui in alium diem.*

206. De fuga abbatis et repulsione episcopi Veniente igitur die abbas summo mane recessit Bradeuuellam.? Et relictis ouibus mercennarius fugit quia non pertinebat ad eum de a

marg. nota appellacionem contra episcopum. (2s. x70")

requires the abbot to consider the important business of the house in council and exhorts the abbot to listen to advice. However, it leaves no doubt that the abbot is the final arbiter.

Those of sounder judgement neither implied necessarily a majority nor the older monks. See below, 293, 402, 502, for further references. ' Cf. Luke 2: 19. 2

17 Aug. See above, 196 at n. 7. Bishop John of Coutances, Mauger's predecessor, was elected probably in Jan. 1196, consecrated on 20 Oct. and died on 24 Sept. 1198. The visitation would not have taken place until after consecration. The account suggests that no formal visitation did, indeed, take place, so probably no statutes or decrees were ever issued. At any rate no trace of them 3

has survived. The use of the mitre, tunic, dalmatic, and sandals, in addition to the gloves

and the ring, had been granted to Abbot Adam by Pope Clement III on ro July 1189

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213

204. The abbot, seeing our determination, thought over all that we had said and pondered it in his heart.' After there had been a discussion, three of us monks were sent the following day* to the bishop to affirm the liberty and rights of our church, to say that we had no intention whatsoever of admitting him for a visitation, and that we should be making an appeal regarding the rights of the church in spite of all the trouble which might afflict us because of this. And that was what happened. The bishop declared that he would still come and, in accordance with the pope's empowerment, forbidding an appeal, would by diocesan right correct everything that needed

correcting both in the head and in the limbs.? 205. The abbot's deceitful plan to admit the bishop provided his own status mas maintained, and to sacrifice us to that plan When we reported this to the abbot, he resorted to cunning arguments and to ensuring that he had his customary protection. Using some members of his household he made an approach to the bishop saying that, provided he could persuade the bishop to maintain his status and not proceed against him personally, he would admit him. He had in fact proposed this before to a bishop of Worcester, namely John of Coutances, whom he admitted into the chapter-house and, despite the objections of the brethren, agreed to observe both his statutes and decrees written down and read out. In fact he gave the bishop sixty marks and renounced the use of the mitre, the tunic, dalmatic, and sandals for the rest of that bishop's lifetime so that the bishop should not proceed against him personally. But that bishop had refused to commit simony and postponed his

visit to another time.* 206. The flight of the abbot, and the rebuff of the bishop Early the next morning the abbot withdrew to Broadwell? The hireling abandoned the sheep and fled because he neither cared for (below, 337-8; JL 16426): they were confirmed to Abbot Norreis by the same pope on

25 Jan. 1191 (H fo. 98"; V fo. 79', printed PUE i, no. 269; JL. 16664; not in R) and then reissued to Roger Norreis by Pope Celestine III on 13 Jan. 1192 (339-41). Simony was the sin of Simon Magus (Acts 8: 18-20), trying to obtain spiritual powers for money, widely condemned by this time, of which the bishop might well have been accused had he proceeded with the visitation. ? On 18 Aug. There was a manor house of the abbot at Broadwell, near Stow-on-theWold (Glos.). VCH Glos., vi (1965), 51, says that Norreis built a house there about 1200,

from this evidence.

HISTORY

214

fo. 149^

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

ouibus, quia non est ingressus per ostium in ouile ouium, sicut prius dictum est. Nos uero ut acefali magis de recessu abbatis quam de aduentu episcopi consternati. Timentes eum ‘inuenisse gratiam in oculis! episcopi, uidentes etiam quod pro anima nobis res erat, accinximus | nos, et inuocantes adiutorium Dei uiriliter stetimus ex aduerso) Et summo mane, anticipantes horam canonicam,' celebrauimus capitulum nostrum multis ex causis, scilicet ut cum episcopo iterum non ingrederemur pretorium, et ut longo tractatu quid facto opus esset deliberaremus. 207. Veniente itaque episcopo," de communi consilio obserata sunt hostia tam celle hospitum quam stabuli et coquine, et omnia suppellectilia episcopi et equi et falere equorum posita sunt sub diuo, quia ‘non erat eius locus in diuersorio’.° Porte uero et hostia ecclesie, qua omnes Cristiani ingrediuntur, aperta erant. Et ingrediens episcopus per claustrum recepit se in ecclesiam. Et facta oratione, cum sedisset iuxta maius altare, uocati sunt abbas et conuentus noster uoce preconia. Et alus sedentibus in claustro, comparuimus coram eo duodecim ad hoc electi ut iudicem responsis aggrederemur. Et episcopus, demisso uultu et simpliciter ut erat uir sanctus, dixit: ‘Deo teste, compassus^ miserie uestre et desolationi huius ecclesie, ueni huc propter uos ut statum uestrum et ecclesie uestre in melius reformem. Igitur conuenite omnes in capitulo, et audite mandatum domini pape, et obedite michi ut episcopo uestro sicut faciunt ceteri monachi uicini uestri, et bene erit uobis."

208. Et ego, in cuius ore posuerunt eram,

licet

minor

essem

omnibus

uerba

fratribus

sua quia iurisperitus meis,"

sic respondi:

‘Domine episcope, de bona uoluntate uestra gratias agimus uobis, et bonum zelum uestrum retribuat uobis dominus. Verum quia ea que dicitis sine perpetua subuersione libertatis ecclesie nostre et detrimento honoris nostri et periculo animarum nostrarum, immo perpetua dampnatione earum, facere non possumus: eligimus magis ^ sum erased

! John ro: 1 and 13. ? Cf, Gen. 18: 3.

TAG (Dyohet Co} sy, * This probably means that the chapter was held before Prime. * The chronology is not clear here as to when exactly the bishop came. Abbot Roger had retired to Broadwell on Sunday 18 Aug. and the bishop excommunicated the monks on the following Friday, 23 Aug.

* Luke 2: 7.

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III PART

215

the sheep nor ‘entered through the door into the sheepfold’,' as has been said before. So, being headless, we were more perturbed by the abbot's departure than by the arrival of the bishop. Since we feared that he had found favour in the bishop's sight” and saw also that the matter concerned our souls, we prepared for action, called upon the help of God and took up a firm ‘stand against him’.’ At dawn, before the canonical hour,* we celebrated our chapter for several reasons, but especially that we might not enter into the chapter-house with the bishop again, and also to engage in a long discussion as to what needed to be done. 207. Accordingly, when the bishop came? the doors were by common consent locked, not only the doors of the guest chambers but also of the stables and kitchen; then all the bishop's belongings, horses, and harnesses were put out in the open because there was ‘no place for him in the inn'. The gates and entrances of the church where all Christians enter were open. So the bishop entered and made his way through the cloister into the church. After he had delivered a speech and had sat down by the high altar the abbot and our community were publicly summoned. While other monks sat in the cloister twelve of us, selected for this purpose, appeared before him to put our case to our judge. The bishop with downcast looks spoke to us in plain language, being the holy man he was: ‘As God is my witness, it is out of compassion for your suffering and because of the desolation of this church that I have come here on your account, so that I may reestablish for the better your status and that of your church. Assemble then all of you in the chapter-house, hear the mandate of the pope, and obey me as your bishop as other neighbouring monks do, and it

shall be well with you." 208. I was given the task of speaking on the others’ behalf because I had legal knowledge, though I was the least of all my brethren.* This was my reply: ‘Lord bishop, we thank you for your good will, and may the Lord reward you for your great zeal.’ However, we cannot comply with your wishes without for ever surrendering our church's liberty, without losing our honour or endangering our souls, indeed, without damning them eternally: we prefer instead to suffer earthly 7 Cf. Deut. 5: 33 ‘et bene sit uobis’. * Matt. 25: 40. This is a common form of expressing humility, but here it may also be a reference to the date of Thomas’s entry into the community (1199-1200) and late profession, i.e. he was the most recently professed of the monks, having studied at Paris

and taught at Oxford; see Introduction. ? Cf. RSB cap. 72.

216

fo. 150"

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

temporaliter hic flagellari et temporalium sustinere defectum donec a domino papa per legatum suum uisitemur,! quam a non | nostro pastore correctionem momentaneam accipientes, ecclesiam nostram que libera est ancillando, in perpetuam, a qua resurgere non possimus, retrudere seruitutem." 209. Et intrante conuentu ad horam terciam, dixi episcopo, ‘Surge uelociter? et recede hinc cito; et exi a nobis. Ecce enim conuentus adest ad opus Dei.’ Et episcopus, ‘Num mine?’ Et ego,'Vtique; stulte enim uenistis.’ Et episcopus exiens ab ecclesia secessit in capitulum cum abbatibus, prioribus, et multis clericis; et iterum et secundo et tertio preconia uoce uocati sumus. Et qualibet uice nos duodecim coram eo comparuimus probris et conuiciis inuicem affecti et nos afficiendo, et comminantes episcopo ut recederet, semper predicta repetendo et apellationem innouando. 210. Qualiter episcopus excommunicauerit conuentum excepto abbate Tandem circa horam diei nonam cum ingredi deberemus ad sumendum cibum, erat enim uigilia sancti Bartholomei, per priorem de Gloucestria et quosdam alios nuntiauit nobis quod nos et ecclesiam nostram a diuinorum celebratione propter contumaciam suspendit,* excepto abbate. Et sic nec petita nec data benedictione a nobis recessit." 211. Nos uero appellationi nostre innitentes solempnius quam prius, si fieri potuit, diuina celebrauimus. Et statim post cibum duos monacos suos, qui hic propter combustionem ecclesie Wigornensis morabantur," mandantes quod illos tantum ut sibi subiectos suspenderat et ideo eos a nobis emisimus illi transmisimus. 212. In crastino uero misit hic abbatem de Alincestre? et quosdam clericos, quibus cum nusquam ad nos pateret ingressus, sicut precauimus, scientes ea que futura erant, illi accensis candelis et fixis in porta cymiterii. Sollempniter auctoritate episcopi nos a

marg. episcopus cum rubore recessit (s. viv")

' The claim that only a pope or his legate could visit was made by exempt houses. Pope Alexander III granted this exemption to Bury St Edmunds in 1175, and in 1196 Pope Celestine III warned Archbishop Hubert Walter to keep away from exempt houses; see PUE iii. nos. 217 and 477. Evesham had not as yet acquired any such right. ? Acts I2: 7. 3 23 Aug. ^ Contumacy was the refusal to appear before an ecclesiastical tribunal or gathering to give answer, the citation or summons having been made three times, as stated above.

BOO

DISP

ROIDEE

217

scourging and endure earthly loss until we receive a visit from the pope through his legate,' rather than to accept temporary correction from one who is not our shepherd and, by handing over our church, which is free of servitude, force upon it perpetual enslavement from which we could not recover.’ 209. When the community came in [to the church] at nine o'clock in the morning I said to the bishop, ‘Rise quickly? and leave this place at once; depart from us! See, the community is here to undertake the work of God.’ The bishop replied, ‘Surely these are not threats?’ I said, “They are indeed, for you came on a foolish errand.’ So the bishop left the church and retired to the chapter-house with abbots, priors, and many clerks; a second and a third time we were publicly summoned. Whenever we twelve appeared before him we were each time assailed by reproaches and noisy abuse, but we retaliated and demanded that the bishop should withdraw, constantly repeating what we had said before and renewing our appeal. 210. The bishop excommunicates the convent except for the abbot Eventually about three o’clock in the afternoon, when we should have been going in to eat, for it was the vigil of St Bartholomew,’ he informed us through the prior of Gloucester and some others that because of our contumacy* he was suspending us and our monastery, except for the abbot, from the celebration of divine service. He left us without a blessing being asked for or given. 211. Setting our sights now upon our appeal we celebrated divine service with greater solemnity, if such were possible, than before. Straightway after our meal we sent back to the bishop two of his monks, who were staying with us because of a fire in the church of Worcester,? telling them that the bishop had suspended only those that were subject to him and that we were therefore sending them away from us. 212. The next day he sent here the abbot of Alcester? and some clerks, but as there was no entry for them anywhere by which they could reach us—for we had kept a careful watch in anticipation of what might happen—they lit candles and fastened them on to the gate of the cemetery. Then on the authority of the bishop they solemnly > The fire at Worcester had occurred on 17 Apr. 1202 and was very devastating; see ‘Annales Prioratus de Wigornia’, Ann. Mon. iv, ed. H. R. Luard (1869), p. 391. ® 24 Aug. It is impossible to identify the abbot of this Benedictine house in Warwickshire; see HRH, p. 26.

218

fo. 150"

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

excommunicauerunt, excepto abbate.“ Et hec non fuit in nostro pectore cura minor quod abbas noster a nobis semper separabatur, set maxima causa timoris ne cum episcopo collusisset, nec stetit per abbatem quin ita fieret. Nos uero nichilominus semper diuina sollempniter celebra |uimus.

213. Qualiter abbas noluit communicare magistro Thome de Merlebergia monacho propter sentenciam episcopi Eadem die missus sum a conuentu ut nuntiarem hec domino abbati, quamuis a suis omnia ei prius nuntiarentur et, quicquid abbas diceret, iniunctum est michi ut ad dominum Cantuariensem procederem et

sententie episcopi peterem infirmationem. 214. Qui cum uenissem Bradeuuelle ad abbatem, stans deforis et querens loqui ei, responsum est michi ex parte abbatis quod recederem et quod abbas non loqueretur michi quia excomunicatus eram. Ego uero recessi apud Suellam, manerium de camera,’ et pernoctaui ibi, cogitans quia nox haberet consilium. Et putans quod abbas ebrius esset, sicut cotidie esse consueuit et sepe bis una die, uel quod tunc haberet ibi aliquam de concubinis suis, propter quas sepe nos consueuerat excludere a thalamis suis, quamuis concubinas suas nobis uidentibus in thalamis suis passim consueuerit habere. Summo itaque mane ueni iterum Bradeuuellam,? et non patebat michi ingressus, nec in melius mutatum est consilium. Set idem responsum recepi quod prius; nondum enim spem amiserat quin episcopum adhuc aliquo modo corrumperet et nos ei dolo traderet. Set episcopus filius ueritatis iniquitati eius non consensit." 215. Qualiter archiepiscopus Hubertus ad monachos contra episcopum sit conuersus, et de potestate archiepiscopi in ecclesia Euesha(m)ensi Et ego recessi, et tercia die? occurri domino Cantuariensi in itinere per tria miliaria ultra Londonias." Et eo cum fletu et eiulatu magno ex parte fratrum salutato, tamen satis rhetorice ex ordine narraui ei omnia que facta erant, et instanter petii sententie episcopi relaxationem, a

marg. nota qualiter conuentus est excommunicatus

(s. wiv")

' Swell, about two miles from Broadwell, belonged to the chamberlain, the obedientiary in charge of providing the monks’ clothing. * This would appear to be a classical quotation, but we have been unable to trace the author, It is included in a series of Latin proverbs in Bodleian Library, MS Bodley Auct. F. 16, p. 54a l. 23, a 15th-cent. MS from Worcester priory.

3 25 Aug.

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III PART

219

excommunicated us, except for the abbot. We felt deeply concerned that the abbot was always separated from us, but it was a particular cause for anxiety that he might have conspired with the bishop, and it was no fault of the abbot that this did not happen! We nevertheless continued to celebrate divine service with full solemnity.

213. The abbot refuses to associate with the monk, Master Thomas of Marlborough, because of the bishop’s sentence The same day [24 Aug.] I was sent by the community to inform the abbot [at Broadwell] of these matters, though he received prior information of everything from his own men, and I was commanded, no matter what the abbot might say, to proceed to the archbishop of Canterbury to seek annulment of the bishop’s sentence. 214. When I came to the abbot at Broadwell, I stood outside [the manor house] and asked to speak to him. The reply I received on behalf of the abbot was that I should return home as the abbot would not speak to me because I had been excommunicated. I left for Swell, a manor belonging to the chamber,’ and I spent the night there, thinking that the night has its counsel.” I thought that the abbot might have been drunk, as he usually was every day, often twice a day, or that on this occasion he had one of his concubines there, for he had often kept us out of his apartments because of them, despite the fact that he used to have his concubines wherever he had bedchambers and that we saw what was going on. So very early next morning I went again to Broadwell,’ but I was not let in and there was no change for the better in the abbot's intentions. Indeed, I received the same reply as before, for he had not lost the hope yet of corrupting the bishop in some way and of delivering us up treacherously to him. But the bishop, a child of truth, did not consent to his

wickedness.* 215. Archbishop Hubert is won over to the side ofthe monks against the bishop: the archbishop's pomers over the monastery of Evesham So I left, and three days later? I met with the archbishop of Canterbury on my journey, three miles from London.^ I greeted him on behalf of the brethren with bitter tears and groans, but then I told him in very persuasive terms in detail all that had happened and immediately requested release from the bishop's sentence, adding in na uten Goreng? 0:

? 227/28 Aug.

* Broadwell, just outside Stow, to London, is a distance of about 80 miles.

220

fo. 150°"

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THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

aditiens in fine, ‘Pater sancte, res uestra magis agitur! quam nostra et causa uestra est pro qua stamus. In priuilegiis enim nostris continetur, quod cura animarum ecclesie nostre a domino papa uobis commissa est et si quid sinistre partis inibi compertum fuerit oriri, potius auribus uestris deferatur quam per alicuius occultam sententiam locus sanctus deprauetur iniuste. Et uos anno preterito, si ad memoriam reducitis, hoc priuilegio et iure nostro usi estis, et, episcopo presente et non | contradicente, que erant corrigenda in domo nostra. Et nobis omnibus presentibus etiam scriptis nostris tam in capite quam in membris correxistis, et sic in possessione iuris uestri et nostri constituti estis. Ergo, domine, defendite partes uestras et oues uestras." 216. Et archiepiscopus, ‘Bene meminimus omnium horum, et nolumus quod omnibus palam dicatis set dissimuletis, quia per beatum Iulianum? nec ius nostrum nec possessionem quamdiu uixerimus, Deo dante, amittemus’.’ Igitur tam in diuinis offitiis quam in mensa iunxit me lateri suo per tres dies,* ‘et cum accepissem cibum cum eo

confortatus sum’.° 217. Tercia uero die? obuiauit nobis apud Haueringedune’ magister Iohannes de Cerneia, clericus episcopi Wigornensis, uir in iure canonico ualde profundi pectoris.^ Et narrauit domino Cantuariensi modo suo ea que facta fuerant, petens confirmationem sententie episcopi instanter, et ego in multis contradicens ei petii constantissime infirmationem eiusdem.* Et archiepiscopus, ‘Magister Iohannes, quedam ita sunt ut dicitis, quedam non. Set bene scimus quod episcopus uester non de consilio uestro ut credimus, set potius “ marg. nota constanciam archiepiscopi pro priuilegiis (2s. xiv") episcopi Wig’ contra nos (2. xiv) © marg. 2Responsio

* marg. altercacio

' Cf. Horace, Ars Poetica, 179.

? This was perhaps in Feb. or March 1201, when Hubert was in the vicinity at Worcester; FEA 3: Canterbury, 1193-1205, p. 313. * This oath of Hubert Walter's, reported again later, 231, perhaps proceeds from the popularity of St Julian ofLe Mans under King Henry II, for the king was born in Le Mans and baptized in the church of St Julian, where the saint's relics were venerated. It is said that at his baptism Henry was placed under the protection of St Julian, the Empress offered a pall in gratitude, and his grandfather gave an annual rent in England; see M. Chibnall, The Empress Matilda (Oxford, 1991, Cambridge, Mass., 1992), pp. 6o—r. St Julian was reputedly the first bishop of Le Mans and the apostle of the neighbourhood, with many churches dedicated to him there, and a few in England. Hubert Walter had early connections with the royal court of Henry II through his uncle Ranulph Glanville, the justiciar; see C. R. Cheney, Hubert Walter (London, 1967), pp. 17-19. Perhaps the king himself used the oath. * To 230/31 Aug. Hubert Walter was on his way to Worcester, this time in connection with the canonization of Wulfstan. Worcester is some 75 miles from West Wycombe (see

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conclusion, ‘Holy father, this case concerns your interests! even more than ours, and it is your cause for which we stand. For contained in our privileges is the fact that the care for the souls of our church has been entrusted by the pope to you, and that if anything of an evil nature is found to have occurred there it should be brought to your notice to prevent that holy place being unjustly slandered by anyone’s secret sentence. Last year, if you recall, you had recourse to this privilege and our rights, and in the presence of the bishop, who did not contradict you, you completely amended what needed amending in our house.* You corrected both the head and the limbs, in the presence of us all, even putting it in writing, and by doing this you were established as the possessor of what was your right and ours. Therefore, my lord, protect your own interests and your sheep.’ 216. The archbishop replied, ‘We well remember all these things, but we do not wish you to make this common knowledge but to keep it to yourselves for, by the blessed Julian,’ we shall not relinquish either our right or possession as long as we live, God allowing it.’ He then took me for three days* as his companion not only during divine office but also at his table, ‘and when I had dined with him I was reassured'? 217. On the third day? we were met at ‘Haveringedune’ [in West Wycombe] by a clerk of the bishop of Worcester, Master John de Cerneia who had a profound understanding of canon law. He informed the archbishop of Canterbury in his own manner of the things which had occurred, and asked earnestly for confirmation of the bishop's sentence, but I opposed him on many points and resolutely attacked the weakness of his arguments. The archbishop replied, *Master John, some points are as you say, some are not. But we are well aware that your bishop has, in our opinion, been hasty in passing such a sentence against such an important convent, and done below, n. 7), but he arrived in Worcester on 1 Sept.; see Ann. Mon. iv. 391, and EEA 3: Canterbury, p. 314 (for Hubert's itinerary). > Acts 9: 19.

$ 230/31 Aug. 7 West Wycombe (Bucks.) was on the usual route between Oxford and London for travellers from Worcester and Evesham; see William of Malmesbury s Saints’ Lives, ed. R. "Thomson and M. Winterbottom (OMT, 2002), pp. 76—7 and n. 3. 5 Master John de Cerneia was probably an Oxford master, as he occurs c.1184—1200 witnessing charters in the Oxford area (mainly included in the Oseney Cart.). BRUO, p. 378. See also Charters and Documents . . . of Salisbury, selected by W. Rich Jones and ed. W. D. Macray (RS xcvii, 1891), p. 50, where he witnesses a Salisbury charter of 1191 in company with Azo, archdeacon of Salisbury. He may be the Master J., rector of Cerney (Glos.), who occurs in the Cirencester formulary; see Sayers, P7D, p. 50.

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magistri Willelmi de Verdun! talem precipitauit sententiam, non deferens appellationi, in tantum conuentum, nobis inconsultis.’ Et reuera de consilio Willelmi fuit, sicut prius archiepiscopo suggesseram. ‘Ite’, inquit archiepiscopus, ‘et quinta die post hanc compareatis coram nobis apud Wigorniam, et ibi quod iustum fuerit statuemus.’ Et accepta benedictione recessimus. Et cum uenissem domum nuntiaui fratribus que facta fuerant, qui, ‘gauisi gaudio magno’,’ cantabant et flebant. 218. De arreptione itineris abbatis ad curiam Romanam et reuocatione eiusdem, et pace reformata inter eum et conuentum Abbas uero noster secesserat apud Baddebi,* et preparauit se ad iter ut Romam iret, iam enim plene spem amiserat de corrumpendo episcopo. Veniente igitur die comparuimus coram archiepiscopo, episcopo cum aduocatis suis et multis allegationibus petente" sententie sue confirmationem, et similiter nobis petentibus e contrario fo. 150°° infirmationem. Et non profecimus, set | datus est nobis alius dies apud Lincolniam.? 219. Veniens autem domum, ex precepto fratrum secutus sum abbatem nostrum ut eum ab errore uie sue reuocarem.^ lam enim iter arripuerat et habitum mutauerat, ut quibusdam fratribus nuntiauerat, non enim conuentui hec mandauerat. Ego uero procedens inueni eum apud Neweburi uersus mare in habitu seculari. Et narrans ei que facta fuerant et qualiter dominus archiepiscopus Cantuariensis communicauit nobis, consolans etiam eum per uerba archiepiscopi que dixerat michi, et qualiter spem concepimus de infirmanda sententia episcopi, promisi etiam ei in uerbo Domini quod si episcopus obtineret contra nos in possessorio iudicio, quod maxime timebamus, qui 'timor postea euenit nobis, quod nos ^ petende R

' Clerk of Bishop John of Coutances and archdeacon of Gloucester from 1200 to 1210, when he died (obit 7 May); see Ann. Mon. iv. 390 and The Cartulary of Worcester Priory, ed. R. R. Darlington (PRS Ixxvi, n.s. xxxviii (1968)), p. Ixvi; as witness, nos. 175, 370 (pp. 95, 195); and as papal judge delegate in 1200x1203 in a case between the priory of Worcester and Richard of Peopleton over tithes in Harvington, no. 384 (p. 20r). He does not appear in BRUO and was probably not an Oxford master. He was also a canon of Rouen and probably a relative of the baron Bertram de Verdun; Greenway, Fasti, ii. 108. See also below, 257 at n. 3.

> On ?4/5 Sept. + Matt. 2: ro.

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it not on your advice, we believe, but rather on that of Master William de Verdun; he has disregarded the appeal and failed to consult us.’ It was indeed on the advice of William [de Verdun] as I had previously intimated to the archbishop. ‘Go now,” said the archbishop, ‘and appear before us in five days’ time at Worcester,” and there we shall decide what is right.’ After receiving his blessing we left. On arriving home I told the brethren what had occurred and they, ‘rejoicing with

great joy',? sang and wept. 218.

The abbot undertakes a journey to the Roman curia; he is recalled

and peace is restored between him and the convent Our abbot had retired to Badby* and prepared himself for a journey to Rome, for he had completely lost hope of corrupting the bishop. On the appointed day we appeared before the archbishop, as did the bishop with his advocates pleading confirmation of his sentence with many arguments, while we for our part were pleading its annulment. We did not complete the proceedings, so another date was given to us at Lincoln.? 219. | arrived home, but on instructions from the brethren I went off to find our abbot to recall him from the error of his ways.° He had already begun his journey and had taken off his habit, as he informed some brethren, though he had not sent word of this to the convent. On the journey I found him at Newbury on his way to the coast clothed in secular dress.’ I informed him of events and of the manner in which the archbishop of Canterbury received us. Cheering him by repeating the words the archbishop had spoken to me, and telling him how we entertained the hope that the bishop’s sentence would be annulled, I also promised him in the name of the Lord that, if the bishop was successful against us in the possessory judgment, which we very much feared (‘a fearful thing that later came about)? we * Badby (Northants.) belonged to Evesham, and the abbot had a house there, see above,

190. ? Cheney in EEA 3: Canterbury, 1193—1205, p. 314, puts this as early Oct., but it could just as well be late Sept.: all we know for certain is that it was before 19 Oct.

SAISSu

7 Newbury (Berks.). He was presumably on his way to Southampton. While abbots may have been allowed more freedom in their dress than monks, and while monks, too, appear to have been permitted warmer and more practical clothing when travelling, Thomas seems to have regarded Norreis's attire as constituting, in intention at least, a definite breach of the Rule (RSB, cap. 55), though there does not appear to have been legislation on the matter at this date. * A temporary order for possession, while the case was heard prior to a final judgment.

Gh Jobe: 25:

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nunquam coram episcopo aliquid quod faceret ad eius depositionem ei obiceremus, set fideliter cum eo contra episcopum pro statu persone sue staremus, si reuerteretur et staret nobiscum in causa ecclesie. 220. Quam promissionem meam fratres mei, cum postea Rome essem, tempore restitutionis episcopi uiriliter compleuerunt, stantes cum eo usque ad habitus sui deiectionem, cum episcopus circa personam suam uellet facere inquisitionem. Et fratres ei nichil dicere uellent, episcopo sub pena excommunicationis precipiente. Ille uero tali accepta securitate reuersus est Eueshamiam, et facti sunt amici eadem die abbas et conuentus, quia 'antea erant inimici ad inuicem'.!

TONS

221. De auxilio conuentus ad litis expensas 'Tunc etiam prouisum est quod omnia ea que prius nobis inuitis abstulerat, uidelicet redditus pitantiarie’ qui pertinebant ad potum, saluis paucis nobis caritatibus* uini, et fabrice ecclesie, et duo pulmenta, scilicet frumenti et fabe,? et uuastelli,° et caritates de cellario exceptis quibusdam certis diebus, et coopertoria, cederent in usus suos, ad sustentationem litis quamdiu lis duraret. Et quamuis prius hospitalitas apud nos deperiisset et, resecante abbate tam hospitibus quam seruientibus abbatie pro | uoluntate sua liberationes, multi fame periissent, tamen modo concessimus quod hec omnia cederent in usus abbatis ad litem, et nos nunquam super hiis quamdiu de uoluntate nostra subtraherentur eum accusaremus. Nos uero, sicut prius nolentes ita modo uolentes, per multos annos postea nudis et puris oleribus pro pulmento usi sumus, et elemosinarius pascebat seruientes nostros; et facta est tranquillitas/ in mari nostro.

222. Qualiter archiepiscopus nos pro non excommunicatis habuerit, sentenciam episcopi nec confirmando nec infirmando Igitur pace inter nos sic reformata, abbas noster, quasi tiro ut erat magnanimus, uiriliter preparauit se ad litem aput Lyncolniam^ ubi “ Lyncolnuiam the yn written over (s. xv)

! Luke 23: 12. ? See above, 189-90, 191-2, 193. ? The pittancer was the monastic official who distributed ‘pittances’. Pittances were small dishes of food, usually fish, eggs, or delicacies of some kind, in addition to the normal

diet, given on special days, and for particular reasons: they were thus the first target if economies had to be made. See M.O., pp. 463-4; JB, p. 126 n. 7, and cf. p. 97.

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would never accuse him before the bishop of anything that he had done which would cause him to be deposed, but would stand by him loyally against the bishop in order to maintain the status of his person, provided that he returned and stood by us in the cause of the church. 220. My brethren manfully fulfilled my promise when I was later in Rome during the time of the bishop's restitution. They stood by him even over his abandonment of his habit, when the bishop wanted to hold an inquiry into his character and behaviour. The brethren refused to say anything, despite the bishop's command to do so under pain of excommunication. On receiving such an assurance he returned to Evesham, and that same day the abbot and the convent, *previously mutual enemies, became friends'.! 221. The help given by the convent towards the expenses of the lawsuit Then agreement was reached that all those things which the abbot had previously taken away from us against our will? should be given up for the abbot's use in sustaining the lawsuit as long as it lasted; these were the revenues of the pittancery? for drink (except for a few caritates* of wine being granted to us), for the church fabric, for the

two dishes, namely of cereal and beans,’ for wastel-bread,° for the caritates from the cellary (except on certain agreed days), and for outer garments. Even though hospitality had previously perished amongst us and, during the time that the abbot was dividing up the allowances as he wished—both amongst the guests and amongst the servants of the abbey—many had perished through hunger, yet we now agreed that all these things should be surrendered to the abbot to use for the lawsuit, and we never made any accusations against him over these sacrifices as long as they were made with our consent. Just as we had previously refused, so we now agreed, and for many years after this we used only plain and simple vegetables in place of pulses, and the almoner fed our servants; and tranquillity reigned’ in our sea. 222. The archbishop treats us though he does not confirm or So, when peace had in this abbot, like a confident young

as though me have not been excommunicated annul the bishop's sentence way been re-established between us, our blood, prepared himself manfully for the

* Also extra allowances, especially of drink, made on feast days and on the commemoration of benefactors. ? See below, 405. ^ Bread made with the finest flour; see below, 425. 7 Cf. Matt. 8: 26; Mark 4: 39; and Luke 8: 24.

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honorifice ab archiepiscopo susceptus est et confortatus. Et ibi pondus litus uersum est super me, in tantum quod propter elegantes allegationes meas abbas meus, ut ipse sepe fatebatur, in specialem dilectionem recepit me; ipse enim iam audierat ex ore meo.! Set aliud erat in ore suo, aliud in corde. Hec et alia de me ipso," Deo teste, ideo uobis dico ut memoriam mei in orationibus uestris habeatis qui de hac libertate gauisuri estis, quia plus omnibus pro ea laboraui. 223. Set nec tunc apud Lincolniam ad plenum profecimus, licet ibi certitudinem de non confirmanda sententia episcopi receperimus et de adiutorio archiepiscopi. Set datus est nobis alius dies apud Londonias in crastino sancti Luce euangeliste.^ Et illuc processimus copiose muniti aduocatis, episcopus uero constipatus non solum aduocatis set etiam fere omnibus episcopis huius prouincie, et precipue astantibus ei Eliensi, tante auctoritatis uiro," et Herefordensi.* 224. Tandem post multas et uarias allegationes utrimque propositas, archiepiscopus taliter exorsus est: 'Sententiam episcopi licet post appellationem latam? nec confirmabimus nec infirmabimus, ideo precipue quia causa pro qua lata est commissa est iudicibus delegatis a domino papa. Et tu, domine abbas, sequere litteras tuas et iudices tuos." 225. Et recessimus gaudentes, et prosecuti sumus causam nostram coram iudicibus nostris. lam pridem enim me procurante omnibus fo. zg1? uiribus meis ut questio status | moueretur inter nos et episcopum et crebro me predicante quod in breui moueretur, perquisiuimus litteras domini pape, uidelicet quod episcopus contra priuilegia Romanorum pontificum nobis iniuriosus existeret. Et per has litteras fecimus uocari episcopum in prima die litis nostre ante archiepiscopum apud Wigorniam.

“ Nota (s. xii)

! Luke 22: 71. ? 1g Oct.

* Eustace, bishop of Ely from 1198 to 1215, had been treasurer Salisbury before his promotion to the episcopacy; Greenway, Fasti, respected judge, who was noted for his interest in the canon law and implementation; see Sayers, PJD, pp. 125, 180, 242, and SLIJ, no. decretal letter ‘Pastoralis’ which was addressed to him.

of York and dean of ii. 45. He was a much for his attention to its 22 for Innocent III's

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case at Lincoln where he was honourably received and encouraged by the archbishop. There the heavy responsibility of the case devolved upon me to such an extent that, as a result of my eloquent arguments, the abbot conceived a special affection for me, as he often admitted; he had himself now heard the case from my own mouth.' But he used to say one thing and mean another. I am telling you of these things and others about myself, as God is my witness, so that you who will rejoice in this liberty may remember me in your prayers, for I laboured more than any to secure it. 223. However, we were not then wholly successful at Lincoln, though we received a definite assurance that the bishop’s sentence would not be confirmed, and that the archbishop would support us. Another date was fixed for us at London on the morrow of the feast of St Luke the Evangelist. We proceeded there fortified by an abundance of advocates, though the bishop was surrounded not only by advocates but also by nearly all the bishops of this province, especially by his supporters, the bishop of Ely, who was a man of great authority, and the bishop of Hereford.* 224. At length, after both sides had made many various allegations, the archbishop began his reply: *We shall neither confirm the bishop's sentence nor annul it, though given after appeal,” and this is particularly because the case which it concerns has been entrusted to judges delegated by the pope. You, my lord abbot, obey your letters and your judges.’ 225. We left rejoicing, and proceeded with our case before our judges. For some time past I had been vigorously insisting that an inquiry into the status between the bishop and ourselves should be instituted and frequently predicted that this would soon happen, when we secured a letter from the pope stating that the bishop was acting unlawfully and contrary to the privileges granted to us by Roman pontiffs.^ Using this letter we succeeded in having the bishop summoned on the first day of our case before the archbishop at Worcester. * Giles de Braose, elected before 19 Sept., cons. 24 Sept. 1200, d. 17 Nov. 1215, was the

son of one of King John's closest followers. His career prior to his election is completely unknown, but, as bishop of Hereford, he, too, was a frequent judge delegate; see EEA 7: Hereford, 1079-1234, ed. J. Barrow (1993), pp. xlv-vi. 5 Tt was strictly illegal to proceed after appeal, though, as here, this was not always observed; see Sayers, P7D, p. 96.

* The letter has not survived.

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226. De primo itinere episcopi et nostro Romam pro hac causa Erant autem iudices nostri de Malbesburia, Abbendonia^ et de Eignesham? abbates. Coram quibus cum episcopus aliquotiens comparuisset, tandem ab eis ut sibi suspectis appellauit! et in propria persona appellationem est prosecutus. Nos uero misimus contra eum quendam monachum Ermefredum nomine, uirum discretum bene litteratum et optimum notarium, qui in curia Romana diem clausit extremum, et quendam cursorem, collateralem abbatis, qui litterarum nostrarum portitor fuit. Qui similiter postea rediens a curia labore consumptus obiit. Hic enim mos semper erat noster quod nos mittebamus unum quasi ex latere nostro, et abbas alium quasi ex latere suo, non enim unquam credebamus nos nobis ad inuicem. Iudicibus uero nostris non deferentibus appellationi, datis magnis indiciis et diffusis dilationibus episcopo, causam quasi lento pede prosecuti sumus, expectantes quidnam episcopus impetraret.

227. De iterata depressione conuentus ab abbate et dilapidatione immobilium Abbas autem noster, quasi canis ad uomitum conuertens,^ ut semper consueuerat deprimi in aduersis et eleuari in prosperis. Videns quia in longa tempora restitutio episcopi, si quando tamen futura erat, dilata fuit, confisus etiam de eo quod nos uix uel nunquam durante lite inter nos et episcopum contra eum actionem institueremus, quasi securus factus, non hiis que nos ei concesseramus ad litem sustinendam contentus, cepit in nos durius grassari quasi expectans ut adhuc Iordanis efflueret in os eius.^ Et sacristariam, thalamum

et omnes

Obedientias nostras amplius et durius quam unquam prius sibi appropriauit, et nos fame, frigore et inedia durius quam prediximus ^ marg. nota (s. xiv^, probably referring to the next sentence, and belom to the right of nota) cameram (s. xiii") ! The abbot at the time was Robert of Melun, a royal clerk and justice; HRH, p. 56. Malmesbury in Wiltshire was a Benedictine house that also claimed exemption from the diocesan; see D. Knowles, ‘Essays in Monastic History. IV. The Growth of Exemption’, Downside Review, | (1932), 201-31, and 396—436, at pp. 225-31. * Hugh, abbot of Abingdon (Benedictine, Berks.), was a friend of Roger Norreis; see Cheney, /nnocent III, p. 197 n. 73, citing Gerald of Wales, iv. 192. * Benedictine, Oxon. Robert, abbot of Eynsham, was a former sub-prior of Christ Church, Canterbury (before 1193), and prior of Dover c.1194—7, HRH, pp. 49 and 88. He was known to Roger Norreis, being reappointed by the archbishop as sacrist of Christ Church in 1187 when Norreis was chosen as cellarer. Both appointments were unacceptable to the convent. Unlike Norreis, however, he had spoken out against the archbishop's treatment of the monastic chapter, and became, indeed, a proponent of the

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226. The first journey of the bishop and ourselves to Rome in connection with this case Our judges were the abbots of Malmesbury,’ Abingdon,’ and Eynsham. After the bishop had appeared before them on several occasions, he eventually appealed from them [to Rome], as he doubted their impartiality,! and prosecuted his appeal in person. To oppose him we sent a monk called Ermefred,? a man of good sense, well-educated and a very good notary, who died at the Roman curia, and a courier, an associate of the abbot, who was the carrier of our documents. Later he likewise died returning from the curia, worn out by hard work. It was always our custom to send one of our men to represent us, and for the abbot to send one of his men to represent him, as we had a mutual distrust of each other. Our judges did not pay any regard to the appeal, but allowed lengthy adjournments and caused extended delays for the bishop, with the result that we prosecuted a case which proceeded at a snail's pace, while we waited to see what response the bishop would obtain. 227. The abbot's oppression of the convent once again, and his squandering ofits property Our abbot, however, who had always had a tendency to experience depression in adversity and elation in prosperity, now changed his attitude again, like a dog returning to his vomit.^ Seeing that the restitution of the bishop's powers was likely to be delayed, if in fact it ever occurred, and confident that we would be very unlikely to bring an action against him if the lawsuit between us and the bishop went on for any length of time, he became virtually fearless, and began to prey upon us more harshly, not content with the concessions we had already made to him to help him sustain the suit, expecting Jordan to continue flowing, as it were, into his mouth.’ He appropriated for himself a larger and more injurious share of the sacristy, of the chamber, and all our obedientiaries’ offices than ever before, and inflicted upon us hunger, cold, and privation more grievously than we convent against the archbishop; Greatrex, Biog. Reg., pp. 265—6, citing Gervase, and Ep. Cant., and HRH, pp. 49, 88. * See L. Fowler, ‘Recusatio iudicis in civilian and canonist thought’, in Post Scripta: Essays in Medieval Lam . . . in honor of Gaines Post, ed. J. R. Strayer and D. E. Queller (Studia Gratiana, xv, 1972), pp. 717-85, esp. 777-8 and the references cited there.

> See below, 245, 358, 432. $ Cf. Prov. 26: 11; 2 Peter 2: 22.

7 Job 4o: 18.

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affecit. Nec hoc ei ad cumulum dampnationis sue suf| fecit, set quasi sciens que super eum uentura erant, antequam deponeretur, ut ipse sepe dicebat, quod talem redderet abbatiam quod nunquam aliquis post eum ea gauderet. Cepit possessiones ecclesie dilapidare," consanguineos suos ditare, dans nepoti suo Rogero assarta de Ambresleia ad ualentiam centum solidorum annuorum et amplius; et colludendo cum aduersariis nostris, possessiones ecclesie pro pecunia in curia domini regis eis concedens: ueluti Waltero le Poer? in eadem uilla de Ambresleia terram que fuit Hardingi, caducum ecclesie, ad congregandam sibi ‘mammonam iniquitatis? Et aliis multas alias: scilicet sex uirgatas in Tatelestrop,’ et duas in Neuham scilicet Iohanni et Hugoni, et ut quasi tales, deposita uillicatione, reciperent eum in domos suas.

228. De diligencia conuentus et tribulatione eorum circa reuocat(1)onem alienatorum Set nos non ferentes tantam iniquitatem, licet circumdedissent nos undique angustie, quoddam assartum quod dederat senescallo nostro ad tuitionem aliorum, quod ipse seminauerat, non ueriti sumus metere. Pro quo facto et regis iram contra nos excitauimus et indignationem archiepiscopi incurrimus. Quantum tunc abbas noster subleuatus et elatus fuerit supersedeo dicere quia non possem edicere. 229. Itaque missus sum ego et tunc ut animos regis et archiepiscopi quocumque modo mitigarem et nos in facto isto excusarem. Et ueniens ad curiam regis non potui loqui ei, set minas et opprobria ibi recepi. Veniens ad archiepiscopum prius ab eo conuicia et asperas increpationes sustinui. Tandem post multas excusationes ita conclusi: *Pater sancte, nostis quia periculosa est desperatio. Obseruatio ordinis periit apud nos quia nos fame et inedia perimus.‘ Possessiones ecclesie nostre dilapidantur, edificia nostra diruuntur. Nichil ergo ^ marg. nota dilapidationes Rogeri (s. xiv?) ^ marg. nota conuicia (s. xiv*) “ marg. Super (or Si?) i.c. secunda querela. Iterum ii. c. diterata?? {et omnibus rf. pro eodem questione (otia est (?) or onera est. (This is in the same hand that guides for rubrics.)

Underneath Responsio (2s. xiv") ' The most common way of conveying land by this time was by the fine, which was drawn up under the superintendence of the king’s court and from 1195 preserved in its records, being drawn up in the form of a tripartite indenture, the third part, or foot, remaining with the royal court; see A. W. B. Simpson, An Introduction to the History of the Land Law (Oxford, 1961), pp. 115-17. The Curia Regis rolls record no suits concerning these grants at the time in question.

BOOK

III PART

231

had expected. But he did not do this to add to the weight of his guilt, but as if he knowing what was to come to him, before he was deposed, as he himself had often said, to reduce the abbey to such a state that no one should ever after him have joy in it. He began to squander the possessions of the church and to enrich his own relatives: to his nephew Roger he gave assarts at Ombersley which had an annual value of roo shillings or more; he colluded with our adversaries, granting them in the king’s court’ possessions of the church for money: to Walter le Poer^ he granted land in the same vill of Ombersley, land which belonged to Harding, an escheat of the church, to gather for himself ‘the mammon of unrighteousness’.* He also granted many other possessions to other people: six virgates of land in Adlestrop* and two in Newnham to John and Hugh,’ so as to ensure that these people would receive him in their homes once he had laid down his stewardship. 228. The efforts of the convent, and its ordeal over the recovery of alienated land Indignant at such ill-treatment, though difficulties hemmed us in on every side, we were not afraid to gather in the harvest on an assart which the abbot had given to our steward in return for overseeing other lands and in which he had himself sown the seed. Our action stirred the king's anger against us, and we incurred the displeasure of the archbishop. I refrain from mentioning how delighted and elated our abbot was as I could not adequately describe it. 229. I was therefore sent to allay the animosity of the king and archbishop in any way I could, and to offer explanations for what we had done. When I came to the king’s court I was not able to speak to him, but received threats and insults there. On coming to the archbishop I at first sustained reproach and sharp rebuke. But eventually after lengthy explanation I concluded with these words, ‘Holy father, you know that despair is dangerous. Maintenance of discipline has perished amongst us because we are perishing of hunger and privation. The possessions of our church are being squandered and our buildings destroyed. There is nothing left for ? See Curia Regis Rolls ofthe Reigns of Richard I and John, 1207-9, v (HMSO, 1931), p. 238. The le Poers held land from Evesham also at Newnham in Northants.

3 Luke 16: 9.

* [n Glos.

> Feet of Fines searched from 1182-99 in PRS, vols. xvii, xx, xxiii, and xxiv, reveal only

a fine between the Abbot and Roger Huberti Northants. (PRS xxiv, no. 219).

of 20 Jan. 1199 for land in Newnham,

232

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ABBEY

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superest, nisi ut nos a loco discedamus. Set quia turpe est monacho furtim. recedere, et inhonestum sine cause connitione habitum relinquere, | ex certa scientia! hec fecimus," scientes quia contra iura regni fecimus, quamuis de iure ciuili? recte fecerimus quia quicquid plantatur, seritur uel inedificatur, omne solo cedit, radices si tamen egit; et solum nostrum esse constat, nec sine consensu nostro potest alienari; ergo recte messi sumus quod ille seminauerat in solo nostro. Cum igitur domino regi conquesti fuerimus et ibi auxilium non inuenerimus, et cum pluries uocauerimus uos litteratorie et uiua uoce ut perpetuum legatum nobis a domino papa datum et nolletis uenire, communicato consilio tale quid fecimus. Et nisi modo ueneritis, peiora faciemus, propter que oportebit uos uenire et tam in capite quam in membris corrigenda corrigere. Sin autem ut requiratur sanguis noster de manibus uestris! non in occulto set palam relinquemus habitus nostros ad pedes uestros ut “ante tribunal domini nostri Iesu Christi reddatis rationem pro animabus nostris"; quamuis coram domino papa sitis inexcusabiles nisi corrigenda apud nos correxeritis, sicut in priuilegiis nostris continetur, ad quem nos contra uos et abbatem nostrum appellauimus, nisi ad uos ueneritis, et sic poteritis amittere curam quam habetis de nobis.’ 230. Et cum audisset hunc sermonem motus est archiepiscopus. Immo et magistri mei in scolis, clerici archiepiscopi, uidelicet I. de 'Tinemue?

et S. de Suuelle? et Honorius,

exclamauerunt

dicentes

^ hec fecimus interlined (s. xiii") ' For the origin and the history of the phrase, see J. Krynen, **De nostre certaine science": remarques sur l'absolutisme législatif de la monarchie médiévale frangaise’, in Renaissance du pouvoir législatifetgenése de l'état moderne, ed. A. Gouron and A. Rigaudiére (Montpellier, 1988), pp. 131—44; and L'empire du roi: idées et croyances politiques en France, vie—xvve siécle (Paris, 1993), pp. 395-402, noted by Boureau, ‘How Law came to the monks’, pp. 53—7. Krynen traces the notion of ‘certain knowledge’, (i.e. what is generally known to be the case), back to late-12th cent. Bologna and the school of Bulgarus in their

considerations of the place of custom. See also O. Hageneder, ‘Probleme des papstlichen Kirchenregiments im hohen Mittelalter (Ex certa scientia, non obstante, Registerführung), in. Lectiones. Eruditorum Extraneorum in Facultate Philosophica Universitatis Carolinae Pragensis Factae, fasc. iv (Prague, 1995), pp. 49—77, at 71—7. Familiarity with its use may have been imparted to ‘Thomas through works available to him before he reached Bologna, see next note, and for further example of its use by Thomas, see below, 264. * ie, Roman Law. This is a paraphrase of Justinian’s Institutes 2. 1. 31-2. Cf. F. de Zulueta and P. Stein, The Teaching ofthe Roman Lam in England around 1200 (Selden Soc. Supplementary ser. viii: London, 1990) for the text of aLectura on the Institutes produced for English students in c. 1200, and p. 33, for the particular reference. The MS (BL Royal MS 4 B IV) belonged to Worcester priory in the 14th cent. We do not know the author of the Lecture, but it is likely to have been a pupil of Vacarius who was also influenced by Johannes Bassianus, of whom Simon of Sywell (Thomas’s own master) was probably a

BOOK III PART II

us but to abandon the place. But because it is a disgrace for a monk to leave secretly and dishonourable for him to renounce his habit without examination of the case, we have done these things in the certain knowledge! that our actions have been contrary to the laws of the kingdom but in accordance with the civil law” which states that whatever is planted, sown, or built becomes altogether the possession of the soil if it takes root there; and it is undisputed that it is our soil, and cannot be alienated without our consent. Therefore we were right to reap what he had sown in our soil. We complained to the king but found no help there, and we appealed to you as the permanent legate given to us by the pope on many occasions both by letter and orally, but you declined to come, so, after taking advice, which we have done, unless you come now we shall do worse things and you will have to come and rectify whatever needs rectifying not only in the head but also in the limbs. But if our blood be required at your hands,* we shall abandon our habits at your feet, not secretly but openly, that you may “render account for our souls before the judgment seat"* of our Lord Jesus Christ. However, you will be utterly without excuse before the pope unless you rectify what needs rectifying amongst us, as is contained in our privileges. We have appealed to the pope against you and our abbot in case you do not come to us, and you will thus be able to give up the responsibility which you have for us.’ 230. The archbishop was perturbed when he heard what I said. Indeed, my masters in the schools, clerks of the archbishop [Hubert Walter], namely J[ohn] of Tynemouth,’ S[imon] of Sywell,° and Honorius [of Richmond]’ spoke out, saying that what I said was just, student; pp. xliv n. 1, Ii. Thomas, therefore, could have become acquainted with it in Oxford and it is certainly possible that the author was Simon of Sywell. The ‘laws of the

kingdom' are those of the feudal law.

3 Cf. Ezek. 3: 18, 20 et al.

^ Cf. Matt. 12: 36; Luke 16: 2; Rom. 14: 12; 1 Pet. 4: 5. ? A noted canonist, some of whose glosses, like those of Simon of Sywell (see next note), survive in a student's lecture notes. Both were teaching at Oxford before 1199: this dating comes from their having taught T'homas of Marlborough before his profession at Evesham. In general see Boyle,‘Canon law before 1380’, in History ofthe University of Oxford, 1. The Early Schools, ed. J. I. Catto (Oxford, 1984), pp. 531—2; the seminal article of E. Rathbone and S. Kuttner, ANC, pp. 317, 325; and BRUO, p. 1923. There is evidence for John of Tynemouth in Oxford as early as 1188. Probably in or before 1198 he became a member of Archbishop Hubert Walter's household, then a canon of Lincoln, and finally archdeacon

of Oxford. ® Also in the archiepiscopal household, he was entrusted with the archbishop's counterseal in 1202 when Hubert Walter was abroad (the archbishop returned in May); EEA 2: Canterbury, 1162-90, ed. C. R. Cheney and B. E. A. Jones (1986), p. xxvii; and EEA 3: Canterbury, 1193—1205, ed. C. R. Cheney and E. John (1986),p. 313. He became a

[See p. 234 for n. 6 cont. and n. 7]

234

OMIM

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EVESHAM

quia recte locutus sum," murmurantes contra archiepiscopum; propter uerbum quod subieci, ‘Domine pater, consulite fame uestre quia abbas noster aperto ore clamat cotidie se non timere quamdiu uos et iusticiarius! uixeritis, exprimens causam uos diffamando quod uidelicet uobis tantum seruierit quod securus sit de uobis." 231. Et archiepiscopus, ‘Vt sciat mundus quia manus mee munde sunt in hac parte, non erit hoc prouerbium amodo in Israel? per beatum Iulianum? nos ueniemus et ita corrigenda corrigemus quod secundo opus non erit.' Et facto | dictum compensasset nisi morte preoccupatus fuisset.* 232. Qualiter Thomas monachus captus fuerit ab abbate et liberatus per archiepiscopum et clericos eius Igitur de consilio archiepiscopi secessi Wigorniam ut possessionem nostram de assarto contra abbatem et senescallum defenderem, qui illuc conuenerant in manu forti ut possessionem assarti recuperarent et factum abbatis saluarent. Ad hoc enim semper nitebatur abbas ut de ecclesiis et possessionibus ecclesie sine consilio nostro pro uoluntate sua posset disponere.? Et cum audisset abbas que feceram, excommunicauit me et cum cognouisset quod essem Wigornie gauisus est. Et obseruauit portas ciuitatis ut me comprehenderet. Set ego non ueneram ut fugerem set ut ex aduerso starem," et cum stetissem coram iusticiariis, et abbas ex aduerso cum senescallo obiciens michi quod eram excommunicatus. Orta est dissentio inter iusticiarios utrum deberem admitti contra abbatem, et nobis recedentibus ut super hoc interlocutionem reciperemus, data est interlocutio contra ^ marg. *Responsio “optima (2s. xiv") canon of Lincoln, like John of Tynemouth, and treasurer of Lichfield. He had taught at Bologna before his spell in Oxford (Boyle, p. 532; BRUO, p. 1704; ANC, pp. 326—7). ’ The third of the trio in the archiepiscopal household, who had taught Thomas, had studied in Paris. He wrote a very successful textbook of canon law, the Summa decretalium questionum (not as yet edited), and was probably teaching in Oxford from (?) 1192, when he occurs as a witness to a judge-delegate case. In 1195 he became chief legal officer to the archbishop of York (BRUO, pp. 956—7; Southern, in History of the University ofOxford, i,

p. 19; ANC, pp. 296, 304). Archbishop Hubert Walter presented him to the churches of Yarring and Patching (in the archiepiscopal peculiar of Tarring in Sussex) between 25 Sept. 1198 and ? Nov. 1200, and it is at this time that he must have joined the archiepiscopal household (Cheney thought not much before 1200, EEA 3 no. 384 n.). He went to Rome and established his claim to the archdeaconry of Richmond in the curia (20 Dec. 1200), returned to England in 1201, but was in Rome again in 1202, and back in

England by late 1203, as appears from an archiepiscopal charter which he witnessed with Simon of Sywell and John of Tynemouth, dated ?late 1203x April 1204 (EEA 3 no. 536). This meeting, however, suggests that he may have returned to England earlier.

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and they expressed their disapproval of the archbishop because of what I went on to say: ‘Father, consider your reputation, for our abbot openly declares every day that he is not afraid so long as you and the justiciar [Geoffrey fitz Peter]! are alive, giving as his reason (and so slandering you) that he obeys you only because he owes his safety to you.’ 231. The archbishop replied, ‘So that the world may know that my hands are clean in this connection, henceforth this proverb will cease

in Israel,” by the blessed Julian,’ we shall come and thus amend what needs amending, and it will not need to be done again.’ And he would have matched the word with the deed had he not been overtaken by death.* 232. The monk Thomas is arrested by the abbot and freed by the archbishop and his clerks After my discussion with the archbishop I left for Worcester to defend our possession of the assart against the abbot and his steward, but they had met in strong force there to recover possession of the assart and vindicate the abbot’s action. Moreover, the abbot was for ever trying to dispose of the churches and of the possessions of the church as suited him without consulting us.” When he heard what I had done he excommunicated me, and was delighted when he heard that I was in Worcester. He kept a watch on the gates of the city with the intention of seizing me. But I had not come with the intention of fleeing but of ‘making a stand against him’,° and when I took my place before the justices, the abbot opposing me with his steward objected to my presence on the grounds that I had been excommunicated. A dispute therefore broke out amongst the justices as to whether I should be allowed to oppose the abbot, so we withdrew in order that a decision might be given us on this matter. This was given against me ! Geoffrey Fitz Peter, created earl of Essex in 1199, was appointed justiciar on 11 July 1198 and remained in office until his death on 14 Oct. 1213; F. West, The Justiciarship in England, 1066-1232 (Cambridge, 1966), pp. 97-177, and HBC, pp. 71-2. ? Cf. Matt. 27: 24, for Pilate washing his hands, and Ezek. 12: 23 for the proverb in the land of Israel which said that the days were prolonged and every vision failed. 3 See above, 216 and n. * Hubert Walter died at Teynham on 13 July 1205. 5 RSB cap. 3 envisaged two councils, one of all the brethren called by the abbot only for important affairs, and a council of elders for routine affairs. See A. de Vogüé, Community and Abbot in the Rule of St Benedict, trans. C. Philippi (Cistercian Studies Series, v.r: Kalamazoo, 1979), pp. 162-3.

S GPAEph G11.

236

fo. 1527°

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me, uidelicet me non habere personam standi in iudicio quia excommunicatus eram."! 233. Et tunc comprehendit me abbas meus ut mitteret me in carcerem apud Ambresleiam et occideret me, ut credebam. Idem enim fecerat monachis Cantuariensibus et cuidam homini nostro Augustino de Salford quem duris cruciatibus occidit, et ideo magis timui cognoscens eius tirannidem. Et cum iter agerem cum hiis qui ducebant me, ecce subito apparuerunt michi tres predicti uiri, magistri mei,” ‘in uia qua ambulabam!,? et statim circumdederunt me et liberauerunt me de manibus eorum denunciantes eos excommunicatos. Quorum tres morte subita perierunt, uidelicet Simon frater senescalli, qui occisus est a latronibus extra Wigorniam; Mattheus Dolfinus, cognatus abbatis, qui proprie sagitte incumbens obiter mortuus est Dauid Pugio a Willelmo de Arderne pede percussus in pectore ab equo cecidit et membris confrac |tis mortuus est. Quartus uero Ricardus de Kent, camerarius abbatis, rogante abbate cum essemus in curia Romana ut iniuriam ei remitterem ad peticionem meam a penitenciario domini pape absolutus est.* 234. Hec ideo scripsi *ut timeant subditi obedire dominis? in atrocioribus contra canones sicut illi fecerunt? 235. Ductus itaque sum a predictis magistris meis ad dominum Cantuariensem qui et ipse uenit Wigorniam eadem die.’ Qui cum collocasset me a latere eius dum sumeremus cibum, uenerunt ex parte abbatis clerici eius magistri Robertus de Vulfeiaà? et Germanus. Offerentes ei palefridum et cuppam argenteam cum litteris abbatis in quibus petebat quod redderet me, excommunicatum suum, secundum regulam beati Benedicti puniendum et tractandum? Et ü

marg. utrum monacus excommunicatus potest admitti in iudicio contra abbatem (25. xiv) ^ marg. quomodo (or ?quando) liberata est(?) .. incarceretur(?) (s. xiv?) * marg. vindicta Dei (^. wiv") ^ marg. nota optime. Passage bracketed down to Germanus (235)

' It was a common principle in both royal and ecclesiastical courts excommunicated might not take part in the proceedings. ^ John of Tynemouth, Simon of Sywell, and Honorius of Richmond.

that anyone

> Isa. 48: 17.

* By the r4th cent. the office of the papal penitentiary operated under a cardinal penitentiary who had under him minor penitentiaries, native speakers from the various countries of Christendom, and at this time the English penitentiaries recorded were almost entirely Benedictines; see M. Harvey, The English in Rome 1362-1420 (Cambridge, 1999), p. 154. The papal penitentiary in question may have been an unnamed Cistercian monk mentioned by Gerald of Wales (iii. 288) in 1203. John of Salerno acted as cardinal penitentiary in 1207; Cheney, Letters, no. 741, but he is less likely because the absolution probably took place in 1204-5, i.e. when both Thomas and Richard were in Rome.

BOOK III PART II

237

on the grounds that I had no right to appear in court because of my

excommunication.! 233. My abbot then seized me in order to send me to prison in Ombersley, and put me to death, as I believed. Indeed, he had done this to monks of Canterbury and to one of our men called Augustine de Salford whom he murdered by cruel tortures, so I had all the more reason to fear this, knowing of his tyranny. However, while I was journeying with the men who were taking me to prison, the three men, whom I have mentioned previously as my masters,” suddenly appeared ‘on the road along which I was walking? they immediately surrounded me and freed me from the hands of my captors, declaring them excommunicated. Three of them perished by sudden death: Simon, brother of the steward, was killed by robbers outside Worcester; Matthew Dolfin, a relative of the abbot, died incidentally by falling on his own arrow; and David Pugio, being kicked in the chest by William de Arderne, fell from his horse and died of fractured limbs. There was a fourth man, Richard of Kent, the abbot’s chamberlain: when we were in the Roman curia the abbot asked me to forgive that man’s ill-treatment of me, and he was absolved by the

papal penitentiary on my petition.* 234. I have recorded this in the hope that ‘subordinates may be afraid to obey their masters’, as these men did, in cruel acts which are

contrary to the canons.° 235. I was accordingly taken by these masters of mine to the archbishop of Canterbury who also came himself to Worcester on the same day.’ He gave me a place by his side while we dined, when clerks from the abbot’s party arrived, Master Robert de Wolvey? and Master German. They offered the archbishop a palfrey and a silver cup along with a letter from the abbot in which he requested that the archbishop return me, his excommunicant, to be punished and dealt with according to the Rule of the blessed Benedict." My response to > p Pet.

18, ‘servants

obey

your

masters’,

the opposite

command,

has clearly

influenced Thomas’s choice of words here. 5 This is clearly a reference to ‘Si quis suadente diabolo’, requiring those who committed violent acts against the clergy to go to the pope for absolution, Decretum C 17 q. 4 c. 29 (Friedbergi cols. 822—3); c. 15 of the second Lateran Council). On the point, see

E. Vodola,

Excommunication

in the Middle

Ages (University

of California

Press:

Berkeley, Los Angeles, London, 1986), pp. 28-9, 139. 7 1203 ? spring. The date depends on arguing back from the mandate in 247 for the sequence of events. * Warws.: for him see below, App. II A. ? According to the Rule, the abbot had general corrective powers over his monks.

238

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EVESHAM

ego, ‘Pater sancte, ante sententiam appellaui et in prosecutione appellationis mee sum: et ideo nulla est sententia abbatis. Cum igitur uestrum sit tueri appellantes,! etsi oportuerit me mori uobiscum non recedam a uobis." 236. Et archiepiscopus nuntiis, ‘Ite cum exeniis uestris ad abbatem ut seruet ea usque dum mittamus pro eis, quia nos in breui ueniemus Eueshamiam et secundum posse nostrum pacem inter abbatem et conuentum et monacum istum, Deo donante, reformabimus.' Hec omnia dicebat, ut erat uir summe prudentie, ne abbatem terreret et ut sine appellatione iudicium eius subiret. In crastino uero missi sunt ad me priores Iohannes et Petrus” cum clericis predictis ex parte abbatis et conuentus ut uenirem domum, quia paratus erat pacem pro uoluntate conuentus reformare. Quod cum nunciassem archiepiscopo, submurmurans dixit quod ad colludendum recessi, et ego, quod non. Tandem dixit,‘Vade, et per beatum Iulianum, si ab accusatione quam instituisti coram nobis recesseris, animaduertemus fOn T5205 in te durius quam in abbatem si | uictus esset." 237. Et accepta benedictione recessi cum prioribus meis, et ueniens domum multos ‘falsos fratres'* inueni querentes occasionem aduersum me, qui dixerunt me nuntiasse domino Cantuariensi exordinationes domus nostre. Et uerum fuit, quia aliter non potui expedire negotium; quia scriptum est, ‘Iustus in principio accusator sui est.”° Ego uero rem tacitus considerabam cum quibusdam fratribus fidelibus, quibus uerba archiepiscopi reuelaui, et reformationem pacis impediui. 238. De exilio quatuor monachorum pro assarto et de compromissione in archiepiscopum et coarbitros suos, et de prima scriptura consuetudinum et reddituum conuentus Quarta autem die uenit ad nos archiepiscopus." Et ingressus capitulum blande leniterque locutus est abbati, nobis uero durius, obiurgans nos et increpans tam pro assarto quam pro aliis exordinationibus nostris. Tandem proposuit ea que ego dixeram ei, requirens an uera ' This is a reference to the archbishop's right and obligation of tuitorial appeal, by which he might protect the person and property of the appellant pending litigation; see Sayers, PJD, pp. 96-9. * [n the larger Benedictine convents, the prior was often assisted in his duties by a subprior and a third prior. * See above, 216 n. 3. DECIGN2 den

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this was, ‘Holy father, I appealed before the sentence, and am in process of prosecuting my appeal: the abbot's sentence therefore has no validity. Since it is your duty to protect appellants,’ I will not leave you even if I have to die in your presence.’ 236. The archbishop's reply to the messengers was, ‘Go with your gifts to the abbot that he may keep them until we send for them, for we shall shortly be coming to Evesham, and if God grants it, we shall use every means in our power to restore peace between the abbot and the convent, including this monk.’ Being a man of great ingenuity he said all this so that he should not frighten the abbot, and so that he would submit to judgment without an appeal being made. The next day Priors John and Peter’ were sent to me, with the previously mentioned clerks, on behalf of the abbot and the convent telling me to come home, as the abbot was prepared to restore peace in accordance with the convent's wishes. When I informed the archbishop of this he grumbled a little, saying that I left to make terms with the abbot against him, but I denied this. At last he said, ‘Go, and by the blessed Julian? if you withdraw the accusation which you have made before us, we shall punish you more severely than we shall the abbot if he is defeated.’ 237. After receiving his blessing I left with my priors, and on arriving home I found many ‘false brethren’* looking for an opportunity to attack me, who said that I had informed the archbishop of Canterbury of the breaches of the Rule in our house. This was the truth, for I could not speed the business in any other way; as it is written, ‘the first to present his case seems to be the one in the right." I secretly considered the matter with some of the brethren I trusted, informed

them of what the archbishop had said, and hindered the restoration of peace. 238. The exile offour monks over the assart, the agreement to submit to the arbitration of the archbishop and his fellom arbiters, and the first written record of the customs and revenues of the convent Four days later the archbishop came to us.° He entered the chapterhouse and spoke in a friendly, amiable manner to the abbot, but more sternly to us, reproaching and upbraiding us as much over the matter of the assart as about our other breaches of the Rule. Finally he laid before us the facts which I had told him, asking whether they were > Prov. 18: 17. * The visit was probably in the spring of 1203, see above, 235 n. 7.

240

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EVESHAM

essent. Et paucis respondentibus quia sic, abbate uero quod non, et multa contra conuentum proponente. Archiepiscopus lite sic contestata excommunicauit omnes qui falsa ei dicerent de statu domus, tam de capite quam de membris, uel uera celarent. Et facta singulari inquisitione, tam per se quam per clericos suos et uiros religiosos. Tandem, communicato consilio, ita exorsus est archiepiscopus, *Quamuis solus possem corrigere que corrigenda sunt, tamen quia debemus omnia facere cum consilio, consulimus si uultis quod abbas eligat unum bonum uirum, et conuentus alterum, in quos simul et in nos compromittatis quod appellatione remota arbitrio nostro! stabitis quicquid circa statum ecclesie huius uel personarum uestrarum arbitrando dictauerimus, uel modo statim iudicium recipiatis". 239. Ego uero sciens quod abbas a sententia archiepiscopi posset appellare, consului conuentui ut arbitros eligeremus. Abbas uero de facili consensit, timens sibi, et sciens quia reis et fugientibus prosunt dilationes, et quod nox habet consilium; hic enim semper mos eius fuit quod omnia negotia in diem futurum prorogauit. Et abbas elegit fo. 152"? Clementem abbatem de Certesia,! nos | uero Eustachium episcopum Eliensem:* et firmata est hec compromissio per iuramentum utrarumque partium" in uerbo Domini, et per cartam sigillo abbatis et conuentus munitam. Conditionem etiam nostram quantum causa nostra permisit correxit tunc archiepiscopus et abbatem coartauit. Et tunc primo consuetudines nostras scribi iussit, set non confirmauit. Set, ut domino regi satisfaceret, qui motus erat pro assarto, quatuor ex fratribus relegauit, quorum ego unus eram, set post quindecim dies ut causam nostram contra episcopum agerem reuo-

catus sum. 240. Quamuis hoc bellum quasi intestinum cum abbate nostro haberemus, nichilominus tamen causam contra episcopum egimus et defendimus tam uiriliter et diligenter, sicut rei exitus comprobauit, quod ipse archiepiscopus et alii terre magnates admirati sunt, dicentes quod nunquam tales monacos uiderunt. ^ partium corr. and follomed by trium del ' For arbitration, see Sayers, P7D, pp. 104-8. In theory (at least) there was no appeal from arbiters as they were freely chosen and submitted to. ? See above, 214 n. 2.

HRH,

p. 39, has no Clement,

but a Master Martin

as abbot from

1197 to 1206.

BOOK

III PART

241

true. A few replied that they were, but the abbot said they were not, and made many charges against the convent. So, since the case was contested, the archbishop pronounced excommunicate all who should make false statements to him about the state of the house, both the mother house and the dependencies, or conceal the truth. He then examined them one by one, not on his own but with his clerks and other religious. Finally, having taken advice, he communicated his decision in these words, ‘Although I have the power alone to rectify what needs rectifying yet, because we ought to do everything with advice, we are asking you either to be willing for the abbot to choose one good man, and the convent another, and to submit to their and our arbitration’ without appeal, whatever the results of our arbitration may be concerning the state of this church and your persons, or to receive judgrnent here and now.’ 239. Knowing that the abbot could appeal against a judgment made by the archbishop, I advised the convent to choose arbitration. The abbot readily agreed out of fear for himself, knowing that delays always benefit the defendants and fugitives, and that ‘night has its counsel? it was always his way to procrastinate in all matters of business. The abbot chose Clement, abbot of Chertsey,’ and we chose Eustace, bishop of Ely:* the compact was ratified by both parties swearing an oath in the name of the Lord, and in a charter sealed with the seal of the abbot and convent. The archbishop then revised our position so far as our case allowed, and restricted the powers of the abbot. He also gave orders for our Customs to be put into writing then for the first time, but he did not confirm them. However, in order to placate the king, who had been perturbed over the matter of the assart, he banished four of the brethren, of whom I was one, though I was recalled a fortnight later to plead our case against the bishop. 240. Although we were having this internal battle, as it were, with our abbot, we nevertheless conducted our case against the bishop, and we were so forceful and energetic in our defence, as the outcome of the suit proved, that the archbishop himself and other leading magnates in the land were amazed, saying that they had never

before seen such monks. Clement, abbot of the Cistercian house of Neath, who died in 1218 and may have been abbot at this date (p. 138) seems the only possible recorded candidate.

* See above, 223 n. 3.

242

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241. Qualiter causam libertatis coram iudicibus communibus egerimus Episcopus enim iam pridem redierat a curia et litteras de umi nunciorum nostrorum predictorum impetratas apportauerat apes episcopo? et priori? de Couentre et archidiacono Norhamptonie,* in quibus continebatur quod ipsi causam super exemptione ac subiectione tam monasterii quam ecclesiarum Vallis audirent, et in iudicio possessorio sentenciarent, super proprietate uero causam diligentissime examinatam ad dominum papam diffiniendam transmitterent, certum partibus terminum prefigentes, quo cum ipsis instrumentis autenticis, quod ualde periculosum fuit nobis, et attes-

£0,053.

tationibus domino pape se presentarent, sententiam recepture. 242. In cuius cause actione® summa cautela fuit hec, quam nemo nouit preter me solum usque ad publicationem attestationum. Cum enim dominus papa distinxisset, ut audistis, quod iudices in possessorio cognoscerent et sentenciarent, in petitorio uero tantum cognoscerent et non sententiarent, aduersarii nostri a Domino infatuati* nobiscum sine distinctione simul et semel in utroque iudicio litem contestati sunt, gaudentes propter litis contestationem et cupientes quocumque modo, ut moris est actorum, peruenire ad eam. Quare | indifferenter testes et mixtim tam super proprietate quam

possessione

admissi

sunt,

sic, Deo

disponente,

causa

proprietatis cum causa possessionis citissime sine omni dilatione et difficultate examinata est. Hec ideo uobis dixerim quia si aduersarius noster usus fuisset consilio legis, prius egisset causam possessionis, et nactus possessionem compulisset nos ad onera probationum in causa proprietatis. Et sic in longa tempora ! The messengers (perhaps more fittingly described as the convent's representatives) were Ermefred and Richard, see 226 above and 245 below. For the text of the letters, which were dated 22 May 1203, see below, 245—7; see also Cheney, Letters, no. 478. Mandates were usually addressed to offices rather than to their holders, as in this case. * Geoffrey Muschamp, cons. 21 June 1198, d. 6 Oct. 1208; previously archdeacon of Cleveland; see EEA 17: Coventry and Lichfield, 1183-1208, ed. M. Franklin (Oxford, 1998), pp. xlvii-xlix, and HBC, p. 253. * Master Jorbert (?Josbert), 1198-1216, formerly a monk of La Charité, was also prior of

Much Wenlock, which he retained with Coventry. According to Roger of Wendover (Chronica sive flores historiarum, ed. H. O. Coxe (4 vols., English Historical Soc.: London, 1841—2), iii. 128, and Matthaei Parisiensis chronica majora, ed. H. R. Luard (7 vols., RS lvii,

1872-83), ii. 445—6, s.a. 1198) he was furthermore prior of Daventry and of Bermondsey, both, like Much Wenlock, Cluniac houses dependent on La Charité; see HRH, pp. 41, 116, 117, 123. He was a likely choice of judge for the convent of Evesham. The monks of Coventry elected him bishop in 1208 or 1209, but the king for his part was trying to get the canons of Lichfield to elect his nominee, the royal chancellor, Walter de Grey. The legate Pandulf is said to have quashed both elections; SLJ, p. 125 n. 3.

BOOK III PART II

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241. We conduct the case for liberty before the accepted judges The bishop had now been back from the curia for some time and had brought letters—which had been impetrated with the consent of our previously mentioned messengers'—addressed to the bishop,” to the

prior of Coventry,’ and to the archdeacon of Northampton.* The contents of these letters were that these men should themselves hear the case regarding the exemption or subjection of both the monastery and the churches of the Vale, and should give a judgment as to possession, and after careful investigation, should submit their findings about the ownership to the pope for him to make a decision. They were to arrange a particular day for the parties to present themselves before the pope with the authentic documents (a most perilous situation. for us!) and with their evidence, to receive judgment on the case. 242. In the proceedings of this case? there was this very important safeguard which nobody knew but me until the publication of the witnesses’ evidence. This was that when the pope made this distinction, as you have heard,’ that the judges should listen to testimony and pass judgment in the possessory case, but should only listen to testimony and not pass judgment in the petitory case, our opponents were frustrated by the Lord,? for they contested both cases at one and the same time without distinction. They had been glad to join issue and eager to start the contest in any way they could, as is often the case with plaintiffs. So they admitted testimony without distinction or discrimination concerning both ‘ownership’ and ‘possession’, and by divine providence the case concerning ‘ownership’ was very quickly heard along with that concerning ‘possession’ without any delay or difficulty. I have told you this to point out that if our opponent had followed the counsel of the law before he had argued the case for possession and so had won possession, he would have forced us to shoulder the burden of proof in the case about ownership. Then the examination of the * This R. (see below, 245 n. 3) was probably Master Robert de Manecestre, but it might

be Master Richard of Kent; Greenway, Fasti, ili. 31. > ie. a judgment as to immediate possession as distinct from a judgment as to the main case of ownership. The churches (or chapels) of the Vale were six in number: St Lawrence Evesham, All Saints Evesham, Lenchwick, Norton, Abbot's Morton, and Offenham. Nine extra churches were also claimed: Church Lench, Kinwarton, Weston, Ombersley,

Willersey, Broadwell, Stow, Bourton, and Swell; see below, 433-4. * For the procedure before the church courts, see Sayers, P7D, ch. 2, esp. pp. 70-95. 7 See above, 241. * This may be a quotation, but we have been unable to identify it.

244

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

differetur examinatio cause proprietatis, et episcopus diutius, immo forte usque in hodiernum diem, gauisus esset possessione, sicut nos gaudemus de possessione iurisdictionis Vallis, predicte legis usi consilio. 243. Igitur cum uentum esset ad publicationem attestationum, tunc primo recordati sunt aduersarii nostri quod stulte egerint, et querentes quod iudices publicarent tantum attestationes de possessione, illas uero de proprietate tegerent, nobis reclamantibus ne hoc fieret, immo omnibus publicatis simul utraque lis marte suo discerneretur.’ Allegantibus etiam nobis hec fieri non posse, quia ita commixte erant attestationes quod nequaquam sine preiuditio et discrimine partis nostre quin alique publicande tegerentur et tegende publicarentur poterant separari. Quasi impossibilitate separandi constricti, omnes publicauerunt. Et sic utraque causa simul examinata est et adiudicata est episcopo restitutio plene iurisdictionis in nos et monasterium nostrum. Nobis uero possessio plene iurisdictionis Vallis totius reseruata est et absoluti sumus ab impetitione episcopi in possessorio 1udicio de iurisdictione ecclesiarum Vallis. Et missus est episcopus in plenam possessionem iurisdictionis quo ad monasterium et monachos anno secundo ex quo lis inceperat, dominica qua cantatur Misericordia Domini.’ Et causa instructa cum attestationibus tradita est utrique parti: et nobis priuilegia, episcopo uero eorum transcripta signata, tradita sunt, deferenda ad dominum papam statuto termino, in octabis uidelicet sancti Martini fo. 153? proximo sequente, | quo cum his omnibus coram domino papa compareremus sententiam recepturi. 244. Litere domini pape per quas causa ista actitata fuit et sententia in possessorio iudicio pro episcopo lata Hic litteras domini pape per quas hec causa actitata’ est, necnon et sententiam in possessorio iudicio de monasterio nostro contra nos latam, et grauem satisfactionem nostram, simul et in eodem iudicio de ecclesiis Vallis pro nobis sententiam latam, cum ipsa relatione ad dominum papam facta, huic operi interserenda dignum duxi.

sua for suo and marg. discereret

! actitata: final -ta interlined

! 24 Apr. 1205. * The octave is the eighth day after the feast, including the day of the actual feast in the reckoning, so in this case between 18 Nov. (St Martin's day) and 25 November.

BOOK III PART II

245

case for ownership would have been prolonged and the bishop would have enjoyed possession for a longer time, indeed, very probably until the present time, just as we rejoice in our possession of the jurisdiction of the Vale, because we followed the counsel of the afore-mentioned law. 243. Accordingly, when it came to the publication of the evidence of the witnesses, our opponents then for the first time realized the foolishness of what they had done, and requested that the judges should publish only the evidence relating to possession and withhold that relating to ownership. We objected to this being done, demanding instead that, since all the testimony had been published at the same time, each of the two cases should be decided in its own context. We also argued that our opponents were asking for the impossible, for the evidence had been so intermingled that it could in no way be separated without prejudice or discrimination against our case, and some evidence which should be published might be withheld while other evidence which should be withheld might be published. Forced by the virtual impossibility of separating the evidence, they published all of it. So both cases were tried at the same time and the judgment given was that the bishop should have restored to him full jurisdiction over us and our monastery. We were to keep possession of full jurisdiction over the whole of the Vale and were absolved from the bishop's claim to possession of jurisdiction over the churches of the Vale. T'he bishop entered into full possession of jurisdiction over the monastery and its monks two years after the instigation of the lawsuit, on the Sunday when Misericordia Domini is sung.! The case which had been drawn up, with the evidence of the witnesses, was handed over to each party: we received our privileges, the bishop received sealed transcripts of them, to take to the pope on an appointed date; this was in the octave of the next feast of St Martin,” when we were to appear before the pope with all these things to receive sentence. 244. The papal letter which commenced the case, and the possessory judgment given in favour of the bishop At this point I have thought it worth including in this work the letter of the pope through which the case was initiated, the sentence given against us in the possessory judgment relating to our monastery, our heavy penance, and the sentence given simultaneously in our favour in the same judgment relating to the churches of the Vale, together

with the report made to the pope.

246

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

245. ‘Omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filiis tam presentibus quam futuris, G. Dei gratia episcopus, et I. prior Couentren'? et R. archidiaconus de Norhamton’,’ eternam in Domino salutem. Litteras

fono

domini pape Innocentii tercii in hec uerba suscepimus: “Innocentius episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, uenerabili fratri episcopo et dilectis filiis priori Couentr’ et archidiacono de Norhampton’ Lincoln’ diocesis, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Constitutis in presentia nostra uenerabili fratre nostro Wigorn’ episcopo et dilectis filis E. et R. nuntiis abbatis et monachorum Euesham’, cum super subiectione ac exemptione ipsius monasterii uellent adinuicem litigare, dilectum filium B. tituli sancte Susanne presbiterum cardinalem eis concessimus auditorem.* In cuius presentia proposuit episcopus memoratus quod cum abbas et monachi de Euesham hactenus ecclesie Wigorn’ diocesana extiterint lege subiecti, et predicti loci abbates ab episcopo Wigorn' benedictionis munus suscipere, sibique per libellum professionis canonicam obedientiam exibere, ad sinodum Wigornie uocati accedere, consueuerunt. Et ipsos episcopos ad eorum monasterium accedentes cum processione recipere, ac in multis aliis ipsis quasi deuoti filii obedire, et omnia spiritualia ab ecclesia Wigornie percipere; nunc in spiritu contumaci debitam. eidem episcopo reuerentiam et obedientiam subtrahere moliuntur. Cum enim nuper idem episcopus una cum dilectis filiis abbate Winchelc',? priore Gloecestrie, clericis pluribus et iurisperitis, certo die prefixo et ab eis recepto ad eorum monasterium causa uisitationis accederet, ipsum re^|cipere noluerunt, set contumaciter resistentes eidem, neque iure uti communi nec speciale priuilegium per quod essent exempti ostendere uoluerunt. Set nec etiam indulgentiam eidem episcopo a nobis concessam, cuius auctoritate de intrinseca et extrinseca religiosarum domorum administratione que ipsi diocesana sunt lege subiecte, appellatione remota, potest cognoscere, curauerunt “ bottom right-hand corner of fo. 153" uastium (?nascium) accedentes (2s, xiv) l ) 3 4

See See See See

above, 241. above, 241. above, 241. Maleczek, pp. 134-6. Benedict had been promoted cardinal priest of S. Susanna

in 1201. He had been previously cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Domnica, and was to become cardinal bishop of Porto and S. Rufina from 1213 to 1216. He was sent on legation to the Latin kingdom (Constantinople) from 1205 to 1207, and had links with the Greek Church. On auditors who might be appointed to examine cases in Rome, see Sayers, P7D,

pp. 14-25. * Master Robert of Hasleton, 1196-1221; HRH, p. 79. Not in BRUO or in BRUC.

BOOK III PART II

247

245. *To all the sons of holy mother church, both present and future, Gl[eoffrey Muschamp], by the grace of God, bishop [of Coventry]! and J[orbertus], prior of Coventry, and R[obert], archdeacon of Northampton, everlasting salvation in the Lord be yours. We have received a letter of Pope Innocent III in these words: ‘Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his venerable brother bishop and his beloved sons, the prior of Coventry and the archdeacon of Northampton, of the diocese of Lincoln, greetings and apostolic benediction. Since we have before us our venerable brother, the bishop of Worcester, and the beloved sons E[rmefred] and R[ichard], the representatives of the abbot and monks of Evesham, who wish on each of their parts to contest in law the issue of the subjection or exemption of the same monastery, we have appointed our beloved son B[enedict], cardinal priest of St Susanna, as auditor.* In his presence the said bishop has submitted that the abbot and monks of Evesham have until now been subject to the church of Worcester under diocesan law, that abbots of the said place have received the grace of benediction from the bishop of Worcester, have been accustomed to show canonical obedience to him through a deed of profession, and to attend the synod at Worcester when summoned. Furthermore he submits that when bishops of Worcester have come to their monastery it has been their custom to receive them with a procession, to obey them in many other respects also as devoted sons, and to accept all spiritual benefits from the church of Worcester; but that now, in a contumacious spirit, they are endeavouring to abandon the reverence and obedience owed to that same bishop. Recently, when the same bishop with his beloved sons, the abbot of Winchcombe,? the prior of Gloucester, several clerks and men experienced in the law, came to their monastery on a day previously arranged and agreed by them in order to undertake a visitation, they refused to receive him, and contumaciously opposing him, were unwilling either to refer to anything in the ius commune? or produce any special privilege by which they had acquired exemption. Furthermore, they have not bothered to give heed to the empowerment granted by us to the same bishop, by the authority of which he can exercise, without appeal, jurisdiction over the internal and external administration of religious houses which are subject to him under diocesan law, even ® The ius commune was an amalgamation of Roman law and of canon law. It should not be confused with English common law. For further citations, see below, 302, 303, 357, 381 and 382 (twice).

248

fo. 153?

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

audire multociens requisiti. Episcopus uero, communicato predictorum uirorum et iurisperitorum consilio, tam manifestam ipsorum contumatiam et inobedientiam canonica pena percellens, ipsos et eorum monasterium et capellas pertinentes ad ipsos a diuinorum celebratione suspendit. Set ipsi, contumatie contumatiam adiungentes, illam sententiam contempserunt et officium exequi minime formidarunt; Wigornensem ecclesiam ac episcopum memoratum iurisdictione atque obedientia in eos hactenus habita et obtenta pacifice, pretermisso iuris ordine, spoliantes. Preterea in ecclesiis et capellis Vallis Eueshamie cum uacant, personas et uicarios instituere, causas matrimoniales et sacrilegii tractare, licet nullum super hiis priuilegium habeant uel ostendant, presumunt et iniungere penitentias publicas et sollempnes. 246. "Nuntii uero prefati abbatis et monachorum ex aduerso proponere curauerunt ^quod, cum monasterium de Euesham ad Romanam ecclesiam nullo pertineat mediante, sicut in priuilegio felicis memorie^ Constantini ‘pape tercii^? et aliorum predecessorum nostrorum noscitur contineri, predictus episcopus contra libertatem ‘ab apostolica sede optentam^ et iam per quingentos annos in pace possessam presumit contra iusticiam molestare. Illud cum omnibus ad idem in diocesi sua pertinentibus, post appellationem ad nos legittime interpositam et coram officialibus uenerabilis fratris. nostri Cantuar? archiepiscopi et ipso episcopo sepius innouatam, ecclesiastico interdicto et excomunicationi supponens. Pensiones insuper prohibuit eis reddi, et multa | alia grauamina eis non cessat pro sue uoluntatis arbitrio irrogare. 247. "Volentes igitur tam episcopi predicti quam memorati monasterii iura integre conseruari, discretioni uestre per apostolica scripta mandamus, quatinus episcopo, si de spoliatione constiterit, sicut iustum fuerit appellatione postposita restituto, reuocantes in irritum si quid post appellationem ad nos legittime interpositam temere fuerit ^" quod... memorie sfruck through

^^ pape tercii erased

^* ab...optentam

erased

' On sacrilege, the violation or profanation of any person, place, or thing belonging to the Church, see Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique, vii, cols. 830—4.

? The mistake here is obvious: for it was Pope Clement III who had first incorporated the phrase ‘nullo mediante’ in a letter for the convent of Evesham. The mistake was perhaps one of a brainwashed copyist who had drunk deeply of Evesham myth. No Pope Constantine III is recorded. Pope Constantine I was crowned on 25 Mar. 708 and died on 9 Apr. 715; Pope Constantine II, elected on 28 June 767 and crowned on s July, was deposed on 6 Aug. 768. 'T'o accord with the story of Ecgwine, Pope Constantine I must

BOOK

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249

though they have been many times required to do so. After consulting with the said persons and men experienced in the law, the bishop inflicted canonical punishment for such wilful disobedience and contumacy, and suspended the monks and their monastery and dependent chapels from the celebration of divine services. The monks, however, compounded their wilful behaviour with further contumacy. They scorned that sentence and celebrated divine service without any fear. By so doing they ignored the rule of law and robbed

the church of Worcester and the said bishop of jurisdiction and of their obedience to them which had been peaceably held and maintained till the present day. Moreover, when the churches and chapels of the Vale of Evesham become vacant, they take it upon themselves to institute parsons and vicars in them, to decide matrimonial disputes and cases of sacrilege,’ though they neither have nor produce any privilege to do these things, and they also presume to impose solemn and public penance. 246. ‘The said representatives of the abbot and the monks on their part have thought fit to submit that, since the monastery of Evesham belongs to the Roman church with no intermediary, as is known to be stated in a privilege of Pope Constantine III? of happy memory and of others of our predecessors, the said bishop presumes to-act contrary to the liberty obtained from the apostolic see and possessed peaceably for five hundred years and to cause the monastery trouble unjustly. He [the bishop] has pronounced an ecclesiastical interdict and sentence of excommunication upon it and upon all belonging to it in his diocese, after an appeal has been lawfully made to us and often reiterated in the presence of officials of our venerable brother, the archbishop of Canterbury, and made to the bishop himself. Furthermore, he has forbidden pensions to be paid to the monks, and continues to impose many other burdens upon them in order to achieve his purpose. 247. "Since therefore we desire that the rights of the said bishop and the said monastery be wholly preserved, we command you, by this apostolic letter, to see that the bishop is restored, if he ceases his spoliation, as he should do while an appeal is pending, and to reject as invalid any imprudent action attempted after an appeal which has been lawfully made to us. You are to see that the sentence of the said have been intended, but as the papal chancery at this stage was not investigating the early sources, and no mention is made of the story of Ecgwine here, the original mandate is

likely to have read ‘felicis memorie Clementi pape tercii.

250

He Eyre

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

attemptatum; et facientes predicti interdicti sententiam si rationabiliter lata est usque ad satisfactionem debitam inuiolabiliter obseruari. Audiatis que adinuicem duxerint proponenda, et omnia redigentes in scriptis, eadem sigillis uestris inclusa et originalia etiam, si qua habent, nobis mittere procuretis: prefigentes partibus terminum competentem quo cum ipsis sententiam, auctore Domino, recepture nostro se conspectui representent. Testes autem qui fuerint nominati si se gratia, odio uel timore subtraxerint, per censuram ecclesiasticam cessante appellatione cogatis ueritati testimonium perhibere, nullis litteris obstantibus, si que apparuerint harum mentione non habita a sede apostolica impetrate. Quod si non omnes his exequendis interesse potueritis, tu, frater episcope, cum altero eorum ea nichilominus exequaris. Datum! Ferent’ xi kal. Iunii pontificatus nostri anno sexto." ? 248. Huius igitur auctoritate mandati cum partes in presentia nostra die ad hoc prefixo consisterent, dictus episcopus intentionem suam iuxta narrationem in litteris summi pontificis comprehensam concipiens. R. abbatem et monachos de Euesham obedientiam et subiectionem quam ipsi predecessoribus suis episcopis exhibere consueuerant, ipsi preter iuris ordinem subtraxisse asseruit. Sibique tanquam iniuste spoliato restitutionem fieri, et sententiam suspensionis, quam in monasterium et abbatem et monachos Eueshamie ob contumatiam eorum tulerat, confirmari postulauit. | Pars uero abbatis et monachorum intentionem episcopl expressius infitians, ea que domino pape ex parte eorum suggesta erant et que in litteris ipsius domini pape comprehensa sunt, se probaturam proposuit. 249. Itaque super predictis admissis ex utraque parte sufficienter ad probationem testibus diligenterque examinatis, tandem tempore suo attestationes pupplicauimus. Cumque ex^ attestationibus et disputatione super eis copiose habita, aliisque. documentis indubitatum redderetur, R. abbatem a Willelmo bone memorie Wigornensi episcopo benedictionis munus recepisse; et tam ipsi quam Wigorn’ ecclesie professionem in libello sollempniter fecisse; procurationem a

ex ins. in marg. (s. xiii")

' There are certain problems with the meaning of Dat’ (whether it means given, i.e. issued or dated) as opposed to Actum, used rarely in papal documents, but presumably

then signifying given or enacted, rather than dated. ^ Cheney, Letters, no. 478 (PRO E 135/21/60). ' Master William of Northolt, elected c.25 May, cons. 21 Sept. 1186, d. 2 or 3 May 1190. He had been archdeacon of Gloucester and a prebendary of London, and before that clerk to archbishops Theobald and Richard of Canterbury; Greenway, Fasti, ii. 100, 107.

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interdict is inviolably observed, if it has been reasonably imposed, until there is due satisfaction. You are to hear the submissions of both parties and, after making a copy of all of these, you are to send them to us under your seals, and also the originals, if they have any: arrange a day convenient for both parties to present themselves before us on which they shall in person receive sentence in the name of the Lord. If any witnesses who have been named withdraw through favour, hostility, or fear, you are, disallowing appeal, to compel them under threat of ecclesiastical censure to give evidence to the truth, notwithstanding any letters that appear to have been impetrated from the apostolic see which do not make mention of these matters. But if all three of you are not able to be present in the execution of these duties then you, brother bishop, are to carry them out nevertheless with one of the two other commissioners. Dated at' Ferentino the 22nd of May

in the sixth year of our pontificate [1203]".? 248. When the parties had assembled before us on the day previously arranged in compliance with the pope's mandate, the said bishop imagined that his claim was as set out in the account included in the pope's letter. He therefore declared that abbot R[oger] and the monks of Evesham had contrary to the rule of law withdrawn the obedience and submission which it had been their practice to show to previous bishops. He demanded that, since he had been, as it were, robbed unjustly of these things, they should now be restored to him, and that the sentence of suspension for contumacy, which he had passed on the monastery and on the abbot and monks of Evesham, should be confirmed. The abbot and monks for their part expressly rejected the claim of the bishop and declared that they would prove the arguments laid before the pope on their behalf and contained in the pope's letter. 249. Therefore, when the said witnesses for both parties had been admitted and had been thoroughly examined sufficiently to establish proof, we finally published the attestations at an appropriate time. When the truth was clearly established from the attestations and detailed discussion of it had been undertaken, as well as from other documentary evidence, the following facts clearly emerged. Abbot R[oger] had received the grace of blessing from William of blessed memory, bishop of Worcester; he had made solemn profession in writing both to him and to the church of Worcester; he had provided * M. Richter, ed., Canterbury Professions (Canterbury and York Soc. lxvii: London, 1973), p. 111, prints a form of a profession by an abbot.

252

fo. 1547

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conuentui Wigornensis ecclesie die impense benedictionis, ut abbatum lege diocesana subditorum et benedictorum moris est, ministrasse; installationemque ab eodem episcopo per personas ad hoc ab eo delegatas ei factam esse. Item, cum liquido innotesceret felicis recordationis episcopum Iohannem! uisitationis officium apud Euesham explentem et quedam statuta in capitulo promulgantem, ab abbate et monachis fuisse benigne admissum, necnon abbatem predictum sinodo quam idem episcopus apud Wigorniam celebrauit tanquam quemlibet ex subiectis abbatibus interfuisse, adeo quod et primum in sinodo locum post episcopum sibi uendicaret. Preterea, cum luce clarius constaret prescriptos abbatem et monachos oleum, crisma et ordines ab antiquis retro temporibus ab episcopis Wigornie percepisse, et omnes in primo aduentu suo apud Euesham cum processione, procuratione et debita reuerentia, de antiqua consuetudine,” ab abbate et monachis fuisse receptos, et eos in memoratis abbate et monachis et monasterio quedam alia que iuris ordinarii sunt plerumque exercuisse. 250. Nos, uirorum prudentum consilio freti, supradictum episcopum, tanquam indebite iurisdictionis | sua spoliatum, restituendum decreuimus, et ei ecclesieque sue possessionem iurisdictionis in sepedictis abbate et monachis et eorum monasterio tanquam sibi lege diocesana subditis, salua secundum tenorem mandati apostolici proprietatis causa, sententialiter adiudicamus. Insuper etiam sentenciam suspensionis quam idem episcopus in monasterium de Euesham et monachos ob eorum contumatiam tulerat usque ad condignam satisfactionem confirmauimus. Que quidem satisfactio secundum dispositionem nostram exhibita est, sicut idem episcopus postea coram nobis in iure confessus est. Vt igitur sentencia nostra firmitatis uigorem optineat in posterum, eam presenti scripto et sigillorum nostrorum appositione roborauimus.' 251. Forma satisfactionis contumacie conuentus Est autem forma satisfactionis huiusmodi: *G. Dei gratia episcopus et I. prior Couentr’ et R. archiadiaconus Norhamtonie, R. Dei gratia abbati et conuentui

Eueshamie,

salutem

in Domino.

Nouerit

uniuersitas

uestra nos auctoritate nobis a domino papa commissa obseruato iuris ordine confirmasse sentenciam suspensionis quam dominus Wigorn' ' Master John of Coutances, el. ?Jan., cons. 20 Oct. 1196, d. 24 or 25 Sept. 1198. He had been previously dean of Rouen and archdeacon of Oxford; Greenway, Fasti, ii. 100. 2

^ See above, 198 and n.

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hospitality for the representatives of the church of Worcester on the day the benediction was bestowed, as abbots who are subject to diocesan law are accustomed to do when they receive blessing; and his installation in office had been undertaken by the same bishop through the agency of priests chosen by him for this purpose. It was also well known that bishop John! of happy memory had been kindly admitted by the abbot and monks, when carrying out the duty of a visitation at Evesham and promulgating certain statutes in the chapter. The said abbot had also been present at a synod, which the same bishop celebrated at Worcester, like any other subject abbot, and indeed to the extent that he claimed his position next to the bishop in the synod. Moreover, it has been made manifestly clear that the said abbot and monks have received oil, chrism, and orders from the bishops of Worcester since the earliest times and that all the bishops on their first coming to Evesham were received by abbot and monks according to ancient tradition with a procession, hospitality and due reverence;? and that the bishops had generally exercised other rights possessed by the ordinary over the said abbot, monks and monastery. 250. We, therefore, relying on the counsel of wise men, have decided to make restoration to the said bishop on the grounds that he has been unjustly robbed of his jurisdiction, and we give formal judgment that he possess Jurisdiction over the said abbot, monks and monastery on the grounds that they are subject to him under diocesan law, without prejudice, as is said in the papal mandate, to the case of ownership. Furthermore, we have confirmed the sentence of suspension that the same bishop passed on the monastery and monks of Evesham for contumacy, until the appropriate penance has been done. This penance has been specified to accord with our requirements, as the bishop himself later lawfully accepted in our presence. In order that our judgment should possess permanent validity, we have ratified it in the present document by affixing our seals to it.’ 251. The terms of the convent's atonement for contumacy The terms of the atonement are as follows: *"G[eoffrey] by the grace of God bishop, and J[orbertus| prior of Coventry, and R[?Robert] archdeacon of Northampton, to R[oger], by the grace of God abbot, and the convent of Evesham, greetings in the Lord. Let it be known that, by the authority entrusted to us by the pope, having duly observed the rule of law, we have confirmed the sentence of suspension which the bishop of Worcester promulgated against you

254

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

episcopus in uos et monasterium uestrum propter inobedienciam uestram promulgauit. Que iuxta tenorem mandati domini pape usque ad condignam satisfactionem est obseruanda. Licet autem in uos pro delicti uestri qualitate durius forsan esset animaduertendum, mitius tamen uobiscum agere uolentes, modum satisfactionis sub hac forma temperauimus, uidelicet ut monasterium uestrum et tota congregatio uestra ab illa hora qua dominus Wigorn' satisfactionem de delicto uestro recepturus ad monasterium uestrum accesserit ab omni cesset offitio diuino et campanarum pulsatione per triduum continuum. Quo expleto, assumantur de congregatione uestra tresdecim monachi qui diuina celebrent in ecclesia uestra per tres septimanas continuas fo. 154^ ad maius altare, dumtaxat aliis omnibus preter predictos | tresdecim toto illo tempore ab omni diuino offitio cessantibus. Completis uero illis tribus septimanis, predicti tresdecim per tres alias septimanas ab omni diuino offitio cessabunt, ceteris omnibus qui prius cessauerant ad officium diuinum restitutis. 252. Decreuimus etiam ut in aduentu domini Wigornensis ei ad ianuam maiorem abbatie uestre nudis pedibus omnes occurratis ibique, coram eo prostrati, de commisso uestro ueniam humiliter postuletis, presentibus et astantibus cum eo quot et quibus uoluerit uiris religiosis presbiteris et clericis et seruientibus. Deinde capitulum uestrum una cum eodem capitulo ingressi cum uiris religiosis quotquot episcopus secum ducere uoluerit, singuli singulas ab eodem recipiatis disciplinas. Hunc autem satisfactionis modum procuratori uestro sentencialiter iniunximus, et uniuersitati uestre benigne suspiciendum et humiliter obseruandum mandamus. Valete." 253. Sentencia pro ecclesia Eueshamensi lata in possessorio iuditio de

iurisdictione. Vallis Forma autem sentencie pro nobis late est huiusmodi: ‘Omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filiis, illi qui prius, salutem. Litteras domini pape Innocentii tercii in hec uerba suscepimus: "Innocentius et cetera, ut prius". Harum igitur auctoritate cum partibus presentibus causa prenominata in nostra uentilaretur presentia. Dominus episcopus inter cetera proposuit quod episcopi Wigorn' et eorum officiales causas matrimoniales et sacrilegii de parrochianis monachorum in Valle consistentibus, tractare et diffinire solebant, quibus cognitionibus monachi preter iuris ordinem ipsum spoliauerunt.

BOOK III PART II

25r

and your monastery because of your disobedience. This must be observed in accordance with the terms of the pope's mandate until amends have been made. Although a harsher punishment should perhaps have been meted out to you in view of the nature of your sin, nevertheless, wishing to deal gently with you, we have moderated the atonement in the following terms. From the moment that the bishop of Worcester arrives at your monastery to receive penance for your sin, your monastery and your whole congregation is to cease all divine services and the ringing of the bells for three whole days. When this time has passed, thirteen monks are to be taken from your congregation to celebrate divine office in your church at the high altar for three successive weeks, while all the other monks except these thirteen are to take no part in any divine service for the whole of that time. When the three weeks are over, those thirteen monks will for three further weeks take no part in any divine services, while those who have abstained previously will resume divine services. 252. We have also decided that on the bishop of Worcester's arrival you are all to meet him at the great gate of your abbey barefooted, and there, after prostrating yourselves before him, are with humility to ask his pardon for your wrongdoing, and you are to do this in the presence of whichever and however many religious, priests, clerks and servants as the bishop chooses to witness the event. Then you are to enter your chapter-house together with the bishop and with as many religious as he chooses to take with him, and are one by one to receive chastisem*nt from him. We have instructed your proctor on the manner of your atonement in the terms of the sentence, and we command your whole community to undergo it in good heart, and observe it with humility. Farewell. 253. The sentence in the possessory case in favour of the church of Evesham concerning jurisdiction over the Vale The terms of the sentence given in our favour are as follows. ‘To all the sons of holy mother church, as before, greetings. We have received letters of Pope Innocent III, in these words: “Innocent, etc. (as before)". This case was heard in our presence on the authority of these letters, with both parties in attendance. The bishop submitted, amongst other things, that the bishops of Worcester and their officials had been accustomed to hearing and deciding matrimonial disputes and cases of sacrilege amongst the monks’ parishioners living in the Vale, and that knowing this the monks have, contrary to the rule of

256

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Ideoque restitutionem sibi fieri postulauit. Admissis igitur super hiis, prout ordo iuris exigebat, testibus, cum episcopus prenotata que intendebat non probasset, in illo possessorio monachos ab impetitione episcopi, salua proprietatis causa, auctoritate iudiciali absoluimus.'

fo. 154

254. Relatio iudicum ad dominum papam Est autem forma relationis huiusmodi: ‘Sanctissimo domino et patri in Christo karissimo I. | Dei gratia sancte Romane sedis summo pontifici G. diuina permissione dictus episcopus et I. prior Couentreie et R. archidiaconus Norhampton' salutem, et promptum in omnibus cum humillima subiectione et debita reuerentia famulatum. Receptis sanctitatis uestre litteris in causa que inter dominum Wigorn' et abbatem et monachos de Euesham super statu eorundem monachorum et monasteri sui uertebatur. Eam que ex eisdem litteris consequebatur negotii prosecutionem cum summa diligentia pro modulo discretionis nostre adhibuimus. Ea siquidem quorum tam cognitio quam decisio nobis fuit commissa, licet non sine multo labore et tedio plene, expediuimus. Illa uero quorum inquisitio nobis fuit demandata, diffinitio uero excellentie uestre reseruata, utpote de statu Vallis et de exemptione monasterii de Euesham negotium, in presentia nostra diu et diligenter uentilari fecimus. Et iuxta tenorem commissionis uestre tandem causam ipsam instructam paternitati uestre transmittimus, terminum partibus quo coram uobis sententiam recepture compareant, scilicet diem octabarum beati Martini, prefigentes. Nequid etiam necessarie instructionis desit, transcriptum uestre commissionis cum attestationibus et partium disputationibus sub sigillis nostris, priuilegia quoque originalia ipsorum monachorum, sanctitati uestre transmittimus; in rite actis a nobis dominationi uestre debitum exsoluentes,

in secus gestis uel per incuriam omissis insufficientiam qua laborauimus humiliter recognoscentes. Hoc autem ad instantiam partium adicimus quod neutra pars allegationibus in presentia uestra, si placuerit, proponendis renuntiauit. Item et illud exprimendum duximus, quod priuilegia ipsa monachis de Euesham, transcripta uero domino Wigorn', uobis presentanda de utriusque partis ' 25 Nov. 1205. The year is determined by the passage in 243, above, at n. 1 (p. 244).

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law, robbed him of this right. He has accordingly demanded restitution of this right to himself. Witnesses were admitted in this connection as the procedural law demanded, but since the bishop did not prove the case which he brought, we have by our judicial authority acquitted the monks of the bishop's charge concerning possession, save for the case of ownership.’ 254. The report of the judges to the pope The terms of the report are as follows: ‘To the most holy lord and beloved father in Christ I[nnocent], by the grace of God high pontiff of the holy Roman see, G[eoffrey], by divine permission, bishop, J[orbertus]| prior of Coventry and R[?Robert] archdeacon of Northampton, greetings; we are ready to serve you in all things in humble obedience and with due reverence. The letters of your holiness have been received in the case between the bishop of Worcester and the abbot and monks of Evesham concerning the status of these monks and their monastery. We have undertaken the prosecution of the matters which these letters demand with the greatest care as far as our ability allows. Indeed, we have dealt fully with the matters entrusted to us that required both investigation and decision, but not without considerable exertion and fatigue. We have long and diligently examined in court the matters that we were required to investigate, but upon which the decision was to be left to your excellency, namely the status of the Vale and the exemption of the monastery of Evesham. In accordance with the terms of your commission we are now at last despatching to you, father, the case itself fully documented, and have fixed the octave of the blessed Martin! as the day for the parties to appear before you to receive sentence. So that no essential documentation should be lacking, we are despatching to your holiness a copy of your commission with the testimony and arguments of the parties under our seals, and also the original privileges of the monks themselves. In due performance of our task we thus discharge our duty to your lordship; where we have fallen short or overlooked anything through negligence we humbly acknowledge the shortcomings of our labours. We add this, at the request of the parties, that neither side has renounced its right to submit its case in your presence, if it chooses. We have also thought it right to point out that, on the agreement of both parties, we have handed over the privileges themselves to the monks of Evesham, with transcripts to the bishop of Worcester, to be presented to you.

258 LOWS)

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

consensu tradidimus. Presit | diu et semper prosit uniuersali ecclesie sanctitas uestra.’

255. De iterata controuersia et dissensione conuentus de subiciendo se iurisdictioni episcopi uel non subiciendo Episcopus uero quamuis non posset impedire quominus relatio fieret et causa super proprietate finem sortiretur legittimum, tamen cogitabat monachos seducere, ne uidelicet instarent quod in petitorio iudicio cito sententiaretur, et eos benigne tractauit. Et omnes consuetudines domus eis habere fecit, et statum illorum in melius reformauit, et quoscumque habere potuit ad sumendum cibum secum apud Fladeburie! deduxit, et multos seduxit in tantum quod multi dicerent quod bonum erat subici episcopo per quem tam cito talem et tantam status sui consecuti erant reformationem et correctionem; eligentes cum populo quondam Israelitico permanere in seruitute, sicut illi concupierunt sedere in Egipto super ollas carneas," magis quam tot et tantis laboribus et inediis et forte in uanum tolleratis ad loci sancti et sui ipsius libertatem elaborare. Non attendebant miseri quia ecclesiam liberam immo ingenuam natam ancillare et in seruitutem retrudere est locum sanctum prophanare, quia prophani inhabitatores hec sustinerent dum mortaliter peccando gauderent et epularentur de bonis ecclesie, quibus ipsa defendi deberet ne in seruitutem detruderetur. Nescientes etiam" onera episcopalia: quod,’ uidelicet, non tantum semel in anno, set quotiens opus fuerit secundum canones? uisitabit episcopus monasteria sibi subiecta, et procuratio uisitationem semper comitatur, et non tantum episcopi set etiam archidiaconi, officiales et ministri eorum in magnum grauamen monasteriorum admittuntur, et equi eorum ad perhendinandum donec per moram ibi meliorentur.* Et etiam redditus monasteriorum clericis episcoporum et archidiaconorum conferri solent, et alia dona importabilia que ‘nos omnia aliquando sustinuimus, et uicini nostri fo. 155°” grauius. Nec intelligentes* quod | episcopi ab abbatibus ut monachos “ H substitutes Item for Nescientes etiam ^. H substitutes in locis non exemptis sicut ualde onerosa quia for quod '* exempti grauiter sustinet et H ' The bishops of Worcester had a manor house at Fladbury. ^ Exod. 16: 3. i ' Visitation annually was customary, but the canons were vague on this matter, see

Decretum C 18 qu. 2 c. 29 (Friedberg, i cols. 837-8). By the 13th cent., many bishops were seeking to make their inspections more frequently. In the case of exempt monasteries, the archbishop had the right of visitation. Mauger's seeking an empower-

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Long may your holiness reign and always be a blessing to the universal church.’ 255. The dispute renewed and disagreement in the convent over its subjection or non-subjection to the bishop's jurisdiction Although the bishop could not prevent the report being made and the case about ownership being decided at law, he nevertheless contemplated winning the monks over to his point of view. His purpose was to prevent their insistence that sentence be passed quickly in the petitory matter, so his treatment of them was kindly. He allowed them to retain all the customs of the house, he improved their status, and he invited those monks he could to dine with him at Fladbury;' he thus succeeded in winning many of them over to his point of view. Indeed, he seduced many to such extent that they said that it was a blessing to be subjected to a bishop through whom one could so swiftly obtain so great an improvement and amendment of their status. Like the people of Israel in the past, they were choosing to remain in servitude, just as the Israelites desired to sit by the fleshpots in Egypt,” rather than strive for their freedom and that of the holy place by enduring the many great labours and the deprivation to be suffered, perhaps in vain. These wretches did not give heed to the fact that to enslave a church which is free and of noble foundation is to desecrate a sacred place, in that irreverent men dwelling here might maintain this place, while rejoicing in acts of mortal sin and squandering the possessions of the church, with which the church ought to be being protected, not thrust into slavery. They are unaware of the burdens that episcopal authority brings: the bishop will visit the monasteries subject to him not just once a year, but as often as there is need in accordance with the canons,’ and a visitation always requires hospitality, for not only are bishops admitted but also archdeacons, officials, and their servants, to the considerable inconvenience of the monasteries; then their horses have to be stabled until they are rested by their stay there.t Furthermore, it is usual for even the revenue of monasteries to be given to the clerks of bishops and archdeacons, as well as other gifts we cannot afford, which we have had to put up with at times and which our neighbours have suffered from still more seriously. Nor do these monks realize that bishops are ment (indulgentia) to visit Evesham legitimacy of his action. * See above, 198 and n. 2 (p. 206)

suggests

that he had

some

qualms

about

the

260

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

deprimerent facillime solent corrumpi, ^quod nos aliquando experti sumus. Non intellexerunt etiam^ quante^ expense sint necessarie ad sequendum conuenticula et uocationes oues! episcoporum, ^nec scire uolebant quod^ mortaliter peccarent ‘si scientes et uolentes ecclesie sue adulterum superinducerent cum habeat sponsum, dominum uidelicet Cantuariensem, ecclesie nostre tutorem et nobis perpetuum legatum, cui cura animarum nostrarum a domino papa est commissa, et siquid sinistre partis apud nos compertum fuerit oriri potius eius auribus deferatur quam per alicuius occultam sententiam locus sanctus deprauetur iniuste, ut per eius corrigatur cautelam et industriam. Et qui talem habebant absque onere correctionem qui corrumpi non potest, quasi relinquentes Iesum petierunt Barraban.^ | 256. Et omnibus diebus uite mee quandocumque ab abbate deprimebamur magis uolebant quidam falsi fratres a non suo iudice episcopo Wigornensi habere correctionem cum predictis oneribus quam a patre suo Cantuariensi archiepiscopo sine omni onere,* cum idem archiepiscopus nostram habeat unicam ecclesiam in Anglia sibi commendatam et 1deo specialissimam post Cantuariensem sibi intitulatam. Quare nequaquam omittere poterit quin ad uocationem nostram ad nos ueniat et corrigenda ita corrigat, quod ob defectum eius ad dominum papam recurrere nos non oporteat. 257. Set nec hoc eos terruit, quod ego maxime uerebar, ne si episcopus in nos et monasterium nostrum plenam haberet iurisdictionem ad hoc omnimodis operam daret—sicut magister Willelmus de Verdun? summus consiliarius eius sepe dicebat—quod episcopus abbas noster efficeretur, sicut fuit beatus Ecgwinus predecessor eius, ÍOXTESE sicut fecerunt episcopi Saresburiensis et Bathoniensis contra Malbesburiam et Glastoniam, et maximos redditus earundem abbatiarum sibi appropriauerunt.* “4 om. H

^ et follows in H

* om. H

^" miseri igitur essent et H

Sor]

fo. 116", which ends here, adds qui ecclesiam que libera est ancillari permitterent / marg. Nota optime . . . (/mo to three words) pro archiepiscopo * marg. in scored hand (pencil) Super quondam querel’, Iterum ' This appears to refer to the activities of Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury, in particular as the ‘tutor’ (protector) and as legate, in connection with the appeal. Perhaps Thomas also had in mind the original protection for Evesham granted by Pope Constantine and addressed to Archbishop Berhtwald of Canterbury; see below, 318-28,

esp. 321, 324. ? Cf. Matt. 27: 20.

* See above, 217 and n. 1 (p. 222). * Malmesbury was challenged c. 1174 by the bishop of Salisbury over the consecration of its abbot: the abbot and convent resisted the challenge and in 1191 acquired the right of

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usually very easily bribed by abbots to oppress their monks, something we have ourselves at times experienced. They have also failed to realize the magnitude of the expenses inevitably incurred in attending the assemblies and summonses of bishops. They did not want to know that they were committing mortal sin if knowingly and willingly they were introducing an adulterer into their church when it is betrothed already to the archbishop of Canterbury, the protector of our church and our permanent legate.’ It is to him that the pope has entrusted the care of our souls, and if anything wrong is found to have occurred in our midst it is to his attention that this can be brought, and this is better than allowing a holy place to be unjustly damaged by a secret sentence of someone else. The wrong can then be put right through his prudent and painstaking effort. These men already had a man who cannot be corrupted to put right what was wrong without any burden to them, but they are like the men who abandoned Jesus for Barabbas.? 256. Whenever during my time here we were being harassed by the abbot, certain false brethren wanted to accept correction from the bishop of Worcester, who was not their judge, with the difficulties I have mentioned, rather than from their father, the archbishop of Canterbury, which involved no disadvantage at all. Our monastery is the only church in England which has been entrusted to the archbishop, and so it has a special claim upon him after Canterbury. It follows then that he cannot refuse to come to us at our request and amend what requires amending, for it would not be right for us to refer a matter to the pope through any default of the archbishop. 257. However, these brethren were not alarmed by what I particularly feared, that if the bishop were to possess full jurisdiction over us and our monastery, he would exert himself in every way to achieve one thing (as Master William de Verdun, his chief adviser, has often said)! that as bishop he might become our abbot, as the blessed Ecgwine his predecessor was, and as the bishops of Salisbury and Bath became by their actions against Malmesbury and Glastonbury, appropriating for themselves the very large revenues of those abbeys.* visitation only by a /egate a latere; Peter of Blois, Epp., ed. Giles, no. 68 (PL ccvii, cols. 1456-9); and Reg. Malmesbury, i. 370-1. In 1190 the bishop of Salisbury renewed his claims, not only for the abbot's profession of obedience. He summoned the abbot of Malmesbury ‘to lay aside the very name and staff of a pastor’ (sed de ipso nomine pastoris ponendo simul et baculo); The Chronicle of Richard of Devizes of the Time of King Richard the First, ed. J. T. Appleby (NMT, 1963), p. 14. But the popes came to Malmesbury's rescue, Celestine III exempting them from the bishop's jurisdiction in 1191 (JL 16748). Savaric,

262

HISTORY

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258. Nec propter periculum amissionis iurisdictionis Vallis moti sunt, nescientes quia impossibile est monasterium subiectum esse episcopo et Vallem exemptam, que tantundem ualet quantum residuum abbatie. Sola enim correctio per censuram ecclesiasticam quam habemus in malefactores nostros, quam alii monachi non habent, inestimabilis est, quam nos habere non possemus nisi curam animarum et libertatem Vallis optineremus. Prudentiores uero hec uidebant, et ideo episcopo non consentiebant.

bishop of Bath, a poor see, had engineered an arrangement whereby the abbot of Glastonbury, Henry de Soilli, was given the bishopric of Worcester in 1193, so allowing Savaric to set up a see in the rich abbey of Glastonbury, which he did in 1197, becoming its abbot as well; see Adami de Domerham, Historia de rebus gestis Glastoniensibus, ed. T. Hearne, 2 vols. (London, 1727), ii. 352-88, and Cheney, Innocent III, pp. 220-5.

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258. These brethren were not perturbed by the danger of losing jurisdiction over the Vale. They did not know that it is impossible for the monastery to be subject to the bishop and for the Vale to be exempt from his jurisdiction, for it can only remain intact in so far as the abbey remains so. There is one sole right which we possess, that of correction with ecclesiastical censure against those who would harm us, which other monks do not have, and this is a priceless possession, but we could not have this 1f we did not possess the care of souls and the liberty of the Vale. The more prudent monks perceived this and accordingly did not agree with the bishop.

PARTICVLA

TERCIA

259. Incipit particula tercia de itinere abbatis et Thome monachi et causis itineris eorundem ad curiam Romanam Verumptamen tempore restitutionis episcopi dominus abbas et ego absentes fuimus. Publicatis enim attestationibus, quasi certificati eramus de restitutione episcopi quoad iurisdictionem in monasterio nostro. Abbas uero timens ne episcopo restituto eum coram ipso accusaremus, quamuis hoc eum timere non oporteret propter predictam promissionem nostram, sicut ex post facto claruit, et nos tunc ei sepius hoc expressimus. Tamen preparauit se ut curiam Romanam adiret, per hoc et communem ecclesie utilitatem ueram causam itineris sui occultans. Timuit enim maxime compromissionem quam feceramus in dominum archiepiscopum et coarbitros suos, coram quibus parati eramus, immo instanter petiuimus, eum accusare usque ad depositionem. Quam compromissionem effugere uolens et contra eam aliquid impetrare, cupiens ut se a manibus nostris liberaret, nequaquam se ab itinere desisturum predixit. 260. Conuentus uero eius malitiam non ignorans nequaquam se et causam ecclesie sue ei committebat. Set abbatem ad hoc induxit, licet

uix, quod me, quia iurisperitus eram et merita cause nostre noueram,

de communi assensu procuratorem totius cause coram domino papa constituerunt. fo. 155"?

261. Set nec abbas se michi committebat, set socium | itineris quendam clericum suum "Thomam de Warrewike michi dedit, ipse uero lento pede subsequebatur. Et antequam iter arriperemus, dominus abbas et ego et predictus clericus iurauimus adinuicem quod in causis ecclesie tam realibus quam personalibus quilibet nostrum alteri in hoc itinere fideliter se haberet, quod nequaquam illi michi obseruauerunt, sicut ex post facto plenius uobis patebit. 262. Fratres uero Deo et beate Marie et beato Ecgwino et aliis patronis huius ecclesie et michi causam suam et ecclesie sue cum summa deuotione et fletu committebant. Ego uero de misericordia Dei et beate Marie et predictorum patronorum nostrorum meritis et

PAORICPEHREE 259. The journey of the abbot and the monk Thomas, and the reasons for their journey to the Roman curia To resume: at the time the bishop's rights were restored, the abbot and I were away. The evidence had been published, and we had been informed of the restoration of the bishop so far as jurisdiction over our monastery was concerned. So the abbot, now that the bishop was restored, was fearful that we might make accusations against him before the bishop, though he should not have feared this because we had previously promised not to do so. Later events revealed that his fears were groundless, but we had often to reassure him of this. Nevertheless he prepared for his journey to the Roman curia, concealing the true reason for his journey both because of this fear and for the common good of the church. In particular he feared the agreement which we had made with the archbishop and his arbitrators in whose presence we had been prepared—in fact had urgently requested permission—to make accusations against him to secure his deposition. It was because he wished to escape the effects of this agreement and to gain some advantage against it, and because he desired to extricate himself from our clutches, that he declared that he had no intention whatsoever of giving up the journey. 260. The convent, well aware of the abbot's ill will, had no intentions of entrusting themselves and the cause of their church to him. They therefore persuaded him, though with some difficulty, to make me, by common consent, proctor in the whole case before the pope because of my experience in the law and knowledge of the merits of our case. 261. However, the abbot distrusted me, so he gave me one of his clerks, Thomas of Warwick, to accompany me on the journey, while he himself was to follow behind at a slower pace. Before we set off the abbot, the clerk, and I swore a mutual oath to be loyal to each other on the journey, in the cases of the church both about immoveable and

moveable property, but they completely failed to observe this oath in their behaviour towards me, as later events will reveal to you. 262. The brethren tearfully committed their cause and that of their church in heartfelt prayer to God, the blessed Mary, the blessed Ecgwine, the other patrons of the church, and to me. As for myself, I put my trust in the mercy of God, in the merits of blessed Mary and

266

HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

fratrum orationibus confisus iter michi iniunctum deuotissime obediendo suscepi, cum lacrimis et eiulatu, adiungens quod nisi in causa proprietatis obtinerem irrediturus irem, et nunquam nisi in regno celorum eorum faties uiderem. Proposueram enim si uictus fuissem me apud aliquem locum religiosum in urbe tantum dampnum ecclesie nostre per me illatum deflendo diem clausurum extremum. Tota enim fere patria, de uictoria nostra desperans, per presumptionem meam et superbiam tantam causam et tam arduam supra uires nostras nos fuisse aggressos asserebat. 263. De primo aduentu Thome monachi et socii eius ad curiam, et quid tunc ibi egerint Accepta itaque benedictione, ualedicens fratribus, in die sancti Michaelis! cum predicto clerico et duobus seruientibus in duobus equis iter arripui. Et quadragesimo die? recessus nostri per gratiam Dei ego et clericus cum equo nostro, quia ipse iam tres mutauerat, urbem sumus ingressi. 264. Et cum ad hoc laboraremus ut litteras ad hoc reuocatorias obtineremus quod iudicium possessorium in Anglia suspenderetur, et super eodem, quia illud maxime timebamus, cum iudicio petitorio fo. 156^ ad dominum papam fieret relatio. Quadam | die, cum ad hoc multas induxissem rationes, dominus papa super eo reuocatorias michi benigne concessit. Ego autem super hoc letus effectus optuli domino pape cuppam argenteam sex marcarum. Et cum quadam die sollicitarem illum super litteris illis, dixit, ‘Audiuimus quod abbas uester detentus sit in itinere. Vade et inquire ubi et a quo. Et liberabimus eum, et tunc habebis litteras tuas.’ Et cum adhuc instarem proterue, dicens quia littere episcopi non fatiebant mentionem de nostris prioribus et ideo debui habere reuocatorias. Dominus papa iratus respondit michi, ‘Ex certa scientia dedimus tales litteras episcopo,

et ideo

nolimus

eas

reuocare;

et adiecit,

‘Est

modo

responsum tibi.' Et ego, ‘Vtique, domine, responsum est, sed de potestate." Et dominus papa, ‘Et non est de iure responsum?' Et ego, "Domine, nescio.’ Et dominus papa commotus precepit ut tacerem et recederem. ' 29 Sept. 1204. The year is determined by working back from the date of the pope's sentence on 24 Dec. 1205. * ? 4 Nov., but the reference is biblical. * Cf. Krynen, L'empire du roi, pp. 398—9, who sees its use here in a papal/monarchical context, as, indeed, part of the ‘plenitudo potestatis'. See above, 229 and n. 1 (p. 232).

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these patrons of ours, and in the prayers of the brethren; and I undertook the journey that I had been instructed to make in loyal obedience, with tears and lamentation. I added these words: that I was setting off never to return, never to see their faces again till we met in the kingdom of heaven, unless I was successful in the case over ownership. It was my intention, should I be defeated, to end my days at some religious house in Rome, mourning the great injury that I had inflicted upon our church. Indeed, virtually the whole locality, despairing of our victory, was asserting that it was through my presumption and pride that we had taken on a great and difficult contest beyond our strength to sustain.

263. The first visit of the monk Thomas and his companion to the curia, and their actions there at that time Having received a blessing and said goodbye to the brethren, I set out on Michaelmas day! with the clerk I have mentioned and two servants on two horses. Forty days after we set out for Rome,’ the clerk and I, by God's grace, entered Rome with our horse, the clerk having changed horses three times by then. 264. We now made efforts to obtain a letter of revocation to have the possessory judgment in England suspended and—we were particularly anxious about this—to have it referred to the pope along with the petitory judgment. Since I had produced many arguments for this to be done, one day the pope kindly granted me a revocatory letter allowing this. Overjoyed at this I made a gift to the pope of a silver cup worth six marks. However, when one day I pressed him for that letter, he replied, *We have heard that your abbot has been detained on the journey. Go and find out where he is and by whom he has been arrested. We shall free him and you will then have your letter.' I still insisted somewhat boldly on having it, saying that the bishop's letter made no mention of our former judges and that I therefore ought to have the letter of revocation. The pope replied angrily to me, ‘It was from certain knowledge? that we gave such a letter to the bishop, and we should not therefore wish to revoke it; and he added, ‘You now have my reply.’ I retorted, *A reply has certainly been given, my lord, but from a position of power!’ To this the pope replied, ‘And is that not a just reply?’ I said, ‘I do not know, my lord.’ The pope, offended by this remark, told me to hold my tongue and leave him.

268

HISTORY

OF THE

ABBEY

OF EVESHAM

265. De recessu eorundem a curia ut liberarent abbatem captum in Francia, et de dolo abbatis contra Thomam monachum et aduentu abbatis ad curiam Romanam Et recessimus in octabis sancti Hyllarii,! et cum uenissemus Placentiam? audiuimus quod abbas noster captus fuerat aput“ Cabilonem.? "Taceo causam captionis sue quia de ea certus non sum, cum ibi tunc presens non fuerim. Timeo etenim uerenda patris mei detegere, ubi nulla utilitas sequitur ex reuelatione, nec graue animarum uel ecclesie dispendium prouenit ex^ taciturnitate. Tunc mansimus ibi per tres dies ut pleniores de abbate audiremus rumores, quia ciuitas illa in biuio posita est.* Tertia die audiuimus quod liberatus erat, licet cum magna rerum suarum et pecunie iactura, et quod iam Lumbardiam fuerat ingressus. Tunc communicato consilio ego et socius meus diuisi sumus abinuicem, utrique nostrum ab altero fide data quod quicumque nostrum prius abbati obuiaret alteri nuntiaret. Et ego recessi Papiam, ille uero recessit Vercellum, et obuiauit abbati nec fo. 156^ renuntiauit michi. Abbas | uero ut a me declinaret, per Mediolanum deuiando iter fatiens, per aliquot dies ibidem moram fecit, et post Diem Cinerum Romam recessit? 266. De secundo aduentu Thome monachi ad curiam et de insidiis abbatis ut eum occideret et de litteris quas abbas contra eum et conuentum impetrauit Quod cum michi uigilanti, quia res pro anima michi erat, innotesceret, magis timui, et quamuis periculum michi immineret? et 'angustie michi essent undique’,’ tamen indui mente uirum et," accinctis renibus, accepto baculo in manibus,

confisus in Domino

lento pede secutus sum eum. Et quinto die post eum ingressus sum ciuitatem,

occulte

tamen,

uestibus

diuaricatis,

et tamen

in ipso

ingressu porte ciuitatis a quibusdam ex familia abbatis cognitus sum. Ego uero, quia ualde contremuit eum anima mea, dedi quandam summam pecunie cuidam aduocato curie quem prius noueram, qui si abbas me comprehenderet dedit michi fidem quod me liberaret. 267. Et sic securior factus accessi ad abbatem, et inueni eum ' aput added in margin (s. xiii")

^ ex interlined (s. xiii)

! 20 Jan. 1205.

^ Piacenza was at the cross roads of Lombardy. Roads from it led eastwards to Bologna and southwards, via Lucca and Siena, to Viterbo and Rome. * Chalon-sur-Saóne on the main route south to the Alpine passes and northern Italy,

* See n. 2 above.

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265. Their departure from the curia to free the abbot who had been arrested in France; the abbot’s treachery against the monk Thomas, and

the abbot's arrival at the Roman curia We left on the octave of St Hilary,’ and on arriving at Piacenza? we heard that our abbot had been arrested at Chalon.? I do not mention the reason for his arrest because I am not sure why it occurred, not having been there at the time. I am fearful of disclosing the ‘holy acts’ of my father when no benefit accrues from the revelation, and no serious harm to souls or to the church follows from remaining silent. We stayed there for three days so that we could hear more detailed reports of what had happened to the abbot, for that city is situated where two roads meet.* On the third day we heard that he had been freed, though at great cost to his personal possessions and money, and that he had now entered Lombardy. Then after discussion, my companion and I went our separate ways, each of us promising the other that whoever met up with the abbot first would inform the other. I left for Pavia, he for Vercelli: there he met the abbot, but he did not inform me. To avoid meeting me the abbot turned aside and travelled by way of Milan. He stayed there for several days and after Ash Wednesday left for Rome.? 266. The second visit of the monk Thomas to the curia; the abbot’s plot to kill him, and the letters that the abbot obtained against him and the

convent As this was a matter that concerned my soul, I kept alert and so learnt what had happened. I was accordingly more anxious, but though danger and difficulties threatened me,” and ‘there were troubles on all sides", I adopted the spirit of aman? and, preparing myself for action, took my staff in my hand, trusted in the Lord, and followed the abbot cautiously. I entered Rome five days after he had arrived there, but secretly and in disguise, yet the moment I entered the city gate I was recognized by some of the abbot's household. I was at heart very afraid of him so I gave a sum of money to one of the advocates at the curia whom I had got to know previously, and he promised to bail me out if the abbot arrested me. 267. So it was with more confidence that I visited the abbot, but I ? 23 Feb. 1205. 5 This may be a quotation (cf. above, 202), but it has not been traced.

d Gio Daniera 22) (Sus.22): * This is probably a quotation, but we have not been able to identify it.

270

HISTORY

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

iacentem in lecto (minuerat enim sibi). Et eo salutato non respondit michi uerbum. Et dixerunt michi famuli eius ut recederem ne molestus essem domino suo; et recessi. In crastino uero, iterum assumpto mecum aduocato meo cum quibusdam testibus et relictis eis eminus extra domum ut uiderent me ingredientem et quererent me si non egrederer; accessi ad abbatem; petita tamen tunc licentia, et eo salutato non respondit, et adieci, ‘Domine, si ita diuisi fuerimus

cum sim procurator cause nostre et expensas magnas fecero, et uos, sicut decet, maiores, male erit ecclesie nostre. Quare melius est si placet uobis quod moram fatiam uobiscum sicut unus de seruientibus uestris." 268. Ipse uero tumidas exarsit in iras, et dixit, ‘Cum odio me habeas et inimicus meus sis et proditor pessimus, admitterem ego te in domum meam ut me occideres? Et contumelias et probra et | multa dixit michi. Et ego blande et leniter dixi, fo. 156°" obprobria ‘Domine, non sum proditor, nec hic timere me debetis, cum iurauerim uobis ante recessum meum ab Anglia me uobis fidelem fore in itinere isto.' Ille uero post multas altercationes, quasi ueneno effuso mitigatus, dixit, ‘Si fidelis es, sta nobiscum; si infidelis, recede.’ Et ego dixi,‘Quia fidelis sum, maneo uobiscum.’ Et mansi ibi per quindecim dies manducans et bibens, set abbas non erat michi loquens. Verumptamen prima die peruenit ad me edictum abbatis ne egrederer ostium tabernaculi,’ nec curiam ingrederer nisi cum eo. Hoc ideo fecit ne audientis interessem et aliquibus litteris eius contradicerem.^ Perquisiuit enim interim indulgentiam quod liceret ei appellatione remota corrigere irregulares excessus monachorum suorum, et aliam quod liceret ei expellere a domo sua appellatione remota duos pacis perturbatores, unum medicum et alium iurisperitum, bone memorie magistrum "Thomam de Northwich? et me uolens ab hac domo eicere. ' Cf. Exod. 33: 10; a somewhat ironic comment. * A reference to the courts of the ‘audientia publica’ and of the ‘audientia litterarum contradictarum'. In the public audience, mandates were read out, enabling the proctors to make an objection if they thought their clients would be adversely affected. The auditor then transferred the proceedings to the auditor of contradicted letters, who, if he accepted the objection, drew up cautiones, letters stating that the recipients were exempt from any adverse effects from the letters in question. The auditor of contradicted letters was also the papal functionary who supervised the arrangements for the appointment of judges delegate. The procedure was for each party to choose a judge and for the auditor to provide the third, getting the parties to agree on the place of the hearing. For further details and examples of the practice, see J. Sayers, *Canterbury proctors at the court of

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found him lying in bed for he had been letting blood. I greeted him but he made me no reply. His servants told me to leave in case I upset their master, so I did so. Again the next day I took my advocate with me and some men to witness what happened. I left them at some distance from the house so that they might see me entering and then come asking for me if I did not come out again. This time I asked permission before visiting the abbot, but when I greeted him he made no reply, so I added, ‘My lord, if you and I stay apart, I as proctor in this case will incur considerable expenses, and you, as befits your position, even greater, and this will ill serve our church. It would be better then, if you agree, for me to stay with you as one of your servants.’ 268. The abbot, ablaze with growing anger, replied ‘Since you regard me with hatred and are my foe and a most evil traitor, am I to admit you into my house for you to murder me?’ And he hurled copious insults, abuse, and reproach at me. My reply was amicable and conciliatory: ‘My lord, I am not a traitor, and you ought not to fear me in this place for I swore to you before my departure from England that I would be loyal to you on this journey.’ At first he argued a good deal, but then, calming down as if the poison had left him, he said, ‘If you are loyal, stay with me; if not, then depart.’ I replied, ‘I am loyal, so I will stay with you.’ I remained there for fifteen days, boarding, but the abbot avoided speaking to me. However, on my first day there I received a command from the abbot not to go out of the door of the lodgings,’ and not to go into the curia unless it was with him. His intention was to prevent me from attending the audiences and objecting to any of his letters. For he was seeking an empowerment in the mean time to correct the unlawful excesses of his monks, without any appeal being allowed, and a further permission to expel from his house, without appeal, two disturbers of the peace; one of these was a doctor, the other a man experienced in the law, for it was Master Thomas de Northwich of blessed memory,’ and me, whom he wished to banish from his house. Audientia Litterarum Contradictarum’, Traditio, xxii (1966), 311-45 (repr. in Law and Records in Medieval England (Variorum: London, 1988), ch. iii, with addenda); and ead., ‘The court of Audientia Litterarum Contradictarum revisited’, in Forschungen zur Reichs-,

Papst-und Landesgeschichte: Peter Herde zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. K. Borchardt and E. Bünz (Stuttgart, 1998), pp. 411-27. For the formularies of the court, see P. Herde, Audientia Litterarum Contradictarum (2 vols., Bibliothek des Deutschen Historischen Instituts in Rom, xxxi-ii: Tübingen, 1970). 3 Not in BRUO, or BRUC. See above, 193, and below, 395, 436, and 446.

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

269. Qualiter Thomas monachus reconciliatus sit abbati in curia et quid postea sbi egerint et impetrauerint Erat autem ibi tune quidam capellanus abbatis Henricus de Coleham monachus, cuius memoria in benedictione sit pro eo quod animam

to. 150°

meam ibi saluauerit. Qui cum audiret abbatem insidiantem uite mee, quadam nocte cum simul iaceremus, sicut semper consueuimus in itinere illo, non enim de die ausus fuit loqui michi, flens et eiulans dixit michi, ‘Doleo super te, frater mi; quere diffugium si potes, quia abbas "querit animam tuam"! Contra multas insidias abbatis me premuniens, et contra modos insidiarum me reddens cautiorem, tunc tradidi ei quadraginta solidos sterlingorum,’ ne ab* abbate eis spoliarer si forte manus in me iniceret. 270. In crastino post meridiem allocutus est me | abbas sub hac

forma, ‘Pessime proditor, nondum completa est malitia tua? Quousque durabis in impietate tua? Ecce nichil possumus impetrare in curia ista te impediente. Per reginam angelorum uindicabor in te.’ Et ego paratus fui cum cultello quem accinxeram lateri meo si manus michi iniecisset defendere me. 271. Et premunitus et premeditatus securius respondi, ‘Domine pater, utinam amouissetis omnes proditores a latere uestro, qui suam imperitiam et insuffitientiam ad negotia complenda per proditionem quam michi imponunt excusant; et utinam nossetis fidelitatem meam et diligentiam in negotiis agendis. Et ille quasi mitigatus respondit, 'Si fidelis es et sapiens, ut dicis, dic quid facto opus sit in curia ista. Et cum petissem super hoc deliberationem, suscepit me in ampliorem gratiam, Et tune in breui impetrauimus confirmationem omnium priuilegiorum in preiuditium aliorum conceptorum quibus usi eramus, et etiam usum illorum que in preiudicium aliorum non sunt concepta. Vnde abbas ibi mitra et aliis insigniis episcopalibus coram domino papa pluries usus est." Impetrauimus etiam optimam indulgentiam appellandi a quolibet grauamine, in qua plura specialia continentur. 272. Set contra episcopum, quia iam significauerat episcopus domino pape quod pro eo lata fuit sentencia in iudicio possessorio, pendente B

ab interlined (s. xtii')

! 2 Kgs. 16: rr (2 Sam, 16: 110). * These were probably shillings sterling. For the sterling money of England, and its rates

in other

currencies

before

1300

(including

the denari provisin’ of Rome),

P. Spufford, Handbook of Medieval Exchange (Royal Historical Handbooks, xiii: London, 1986), pp. 198, 208-10.

Society, Guides

see

and

BOOK III PART III

273

269. Thomas the monk is reconciled to the abbot in the curia; their actions and petitions there At this time one of the abbot’s chaplains was in Rome, the monk Henry de Coleham—may his memory be blessed for he saved my life there. He had heard that the abbot was plotting against my life, so one night when we were all in bed (for we both shared a bed as we always did on that journey) he spoke to me sadly and in tears, for he had not dared to talk to me during the day: ‘I am sorry for you, my brother; make your escape if you can, for the abbot is “planning to kill you"."! He forewarned me against many plots of the abbot, and helped me to be on my guard against the kinds of plot planned. I then entrusted him with forty shillings of silver coin? to prevent my being robbed of them 1f I happened to fall into the abbot's hands. 270. The next afternoon the abbot spoke to me in these terms: ‘You most evil traitor, is there no end to your ill-will? How long will you persist in your wickedness? Don't you see, we shall fail to achieve anything in that court while you obstruct proceedings! I swear by the Queen of the Angels that I will punish you.’ I was ready to defend myself with the knife which I had belted to my side if he laid hands on me. 271. Forewarned and prepared in mind, I replied with confidence, ‘My father, I only wish you had removed from your presence all the traitors who excuse their own inexperience and inability to fulfil the business by accusing me of betrayal; if only you would recognize my loyalty and ability to handle this business.’ The abbot, somewhat pacified, answered, ‘If you are loyal and knowledgeable, as you say, tell me what must be done in this court.’ When I asked for freedom to act in this business he was more friendly towards me. It was not long before we petitioned for confirmation of all the privileges we had used which were perceived as prejudicial to other privileges, and also for the use of those which were not thought to be prejudicial to the other privileges. After this the abbot often wore the mitre as well as other episcopal insignia in the presence of the pope.’ We also sought the best empowerment for appealing against any hardship suffered, and many detailed provisions were contained in that concession. 272. However, we were not able to impetrate anything against the bishop because he had already indicated to the pope that sentence had been given in his favour in the possessory judgment, while the case 3 One of these privileges was doubtless the right of the abbot to wear the mitre, etc., granted by Pope Celestine III; see below, 339-41, for the text.

HISTORY

274

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

relatione super proprietate, nichil potuimus impetrare, nec contra compromissionem pro qua uenerat, quia iuramento firmata fuit." 273. Acceptis etiam mutuo quadringentis marcis, uisitauimus dominum papam in ualentia centum librarum sterlingorum, et cardinales et curiam in ualentia centum marcarum,' qui hec noluerunt accipere donec multis ex eis constaret quod causam non haberemus in curia.

TOSS

274. De recessu abbatis a curia, et mora Thome monachi apud Bononiam Cum itaque intemperies aeris instaret et moram fecissemus per sex ebdomadas, in crastino octabarum Pasce cum licentia et benedictione | domini pape recessimus ab urbe. Ex consilio etiam domini pape et domini Hugulini cardinalis, postmodum episcopi Hostiensis quem prius elegeram (quia iurisperitus erat) ecclesie nostre et cause nostre tutorem et protectorem, relictus sum ego Bolonie cum benedictione abbatis donec relatio ueniret. Et ut ibi plenius de causa nostra instruerer, et moram ibi faciens per dimidium annum reuera multum ibi profeci, audiens cotidie leges et canones? 275. De crudelitate et proditione abbatis circa magistrum Adam Sortes monachum et miseria et laboribus eiusdem Ade in itinere Abbas uero uersus Angliam properauit. Et cum ueniret Vercellum occurrit ei magister Adam Sortes monacus noster. In litteratura adprime eruditus, qui antequam esset monacus rexerat scolas artium liberalium per multos annos.* Qui missus fuerat a conuentu ad prosequendam appellationem quam fecerant contra sententiam iudicum in Anglia quam tulerant in possessorio iuditio super iurisdictione monasterii pro episcopo. Abbas autem cum cognouisset causam aduentus sui, sciens quod dominus papa in nulla parte reuocaret iurisdictionem 1udicum, dixit ei ut reuerteretur cum eo. Ille uero, ut erat simplex et iustus, sciens quia omnia speranda sunt a patre monasterii, uolens regulariter uiuere, tres marcas argenti tradidit " firmata fuit erased, written over, and fuit extended into the margin (s. xv)

! See above, 269 n. 2. The mark sterling equalled 160 pence or 13s. 4d.; see Spufford, Medieval Exchange, p. 198. 2

* A relative of Pope Innocent III, and later elected pope as Gregory IX; see Maleczek, pp. 126-33. He signs as bishop of Ostia by 8 June r206. * On the law school and teaching at Bologna, see C. Calcaterra, Alma Mater Studiorum: L'Università di Bologna nella storia della cultura e della civiltà (Bologna,1948), pp. 21—45, and Lexicon des Mittelalters, ti (Munich and Zurich, 1983), pp. 370-87, esp. 374-87. * Abbot Norreis deprived him of the office of sacrist in 1207, and in that year he became prior of Evesham's dependency of Penwortham, remaining there until 1213, when he

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for ownership was awaiting decision; nor were we able to petition for anything against the compromise of the arbiters for which the bishop had come, for this had been confirmed under oath. 273. Having acquired a loan of four hundred marks, we visited the pope with a gift worth a hundred pounds of silver coin, and the cardinals and curia with gifts worth a hundred marks,’ but they refused to accept them until most of them were convinced that we had no case pending in the curia. 274. The abbot leaves the curia, and Thomas the monk stays at Bologna As bad weather persisted, we remained in Rome for six weeks, but the day after the octave of Easter [18 April 1205] we left Rome with the pope’s permission and his blessing. After discussion with the pope and Cardinal Hugolinus, later bishop of Ostia? whom I had previously chosen, because of his experience in the law, to be the guardian and protector of our church and our cause, I was left at Bologna with the abbot’s blessing until the report should arrive. This was so that I should receive fuller instruction on our case, and, remaining there for six months, I in fact gained much from doing so, for I attended lectures every day on civil and canon law.? 275. The abbot’s cruel treatment and betrayal of the monk, Master Adam Sortes, and Adam’s suffering and troubles on the journey The abbot hurried home to England. On arriving at Vercelli he was met there by one of our monks, Master Adam Sortes. He was extremely learned in literary pursuits and, before he became a monk, had for many years ruled a school of liberal arts.* He had been sent by the convent to prosecute the appeal that they had made against the sentence of the judges [delegate] in England passed in favour of the bishop in the possessory judgment concerning jurisdiction over the monastery. The abbot, discovering the reason for Adam's arrival, and believing that the pope would not revoke the jurisdiction of the judges in any respect, told him to return with him. Adam, a guileless and just man, believing that one could completely trust the father of a monastery and desiring to live according to the Rule,’ handed over to the abbot the three marks of silver which he presumably died; HRH, p. 94. His previous career as a scholar and teacher before he became a monk of Evesham is not known, but he was probably an Oxford master; see BRUO, iii. 1730. For further mentions of him, see below, 316, 371, 384, 386, 435, 436,

446, 499, and 525.

? ie. obeying the abbot unquestioningly, RSB cap. 5.

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abbati suo quas secum habuit. Et cum esset pedes, defecerat enim ei equus eius, prima die precepit abbas ut equus ei conduceretur, set non ad finem diete, et compleuit pedes quod non potuit eques. Simili modo actum est cum eo in crastino, et non apposuit amplius abbas conducere ei equum, et cum non haberet uiaticum usque ad unum denarium necesse habuit sequi abbatem propter uictus necessaria. Et sequebatur pedes abbatem per abrupta montium. Quidam uero de familia abbatis miserti illius, tum per unum miliare tum per duo uel tria fecerunt eum | refocillaret et fo. 157" ascendere equos suos, ut misera eius membra compages membrorum quocumque solamine consolidaret. Quod cum abbas comperiisset uel expresse prohibendo uel submurmurando fecit quominus famuli eius hanc gratiam ei amplius impenderent.^ 276. Tunc ualde coartatus amplius eum pedetentim sequi non potuit, set quia res pro anima ei erat, eum lento pede sequens semper ad finem diete peruenit, licet tarde, et semper cum abbate pernoctauit. Ita quod abbas super eo admiraretur non tamen misereretur. Set ad complendam malitiam suam in eo, sepe duplomate uel fere utebatur, ut sic eum sequentem uel labore frangeret, uel non potentem sequi post tergum relinquens fame et inedia perimeret. Inuidebat enim ei propter scientiam suam, et odio habebat eum propter ueritatem suam. Inter hec omnia, cum idem frater esset magister in Israel! et sacerdos Dei altissimi? et ut scurra uagus? haberetur in domo abbatis, abbas ei sepe conuiciabatur et probris et contumeliis eum afficiebat. 277. Tandem cum uideret nec laboribus eum posse frangi nec obprobriis uinci, et uenissent Masconam,* abbas dixit ei expresse, *Recede a me, societatem enim tuam

nolo, et recto itinere uade in

Angliam; quia ego per aliam uiam circuibo loca sanctorum"? et dedit ei unam

marcam

ad uiaticum; et tamen adhuc secutus est eum, et

tercia die nesciebat quo diuerteret abbas. 278. De aduentu abbatis in Angliam, et qualiter episcopus eum excommunicauerit, et qualiter conuentus fideliter secundum quod prius promiserant cum eo steterint ‘Tandem uenit in Angliam et abbas similiter, set non tam cito. Quo cum ueniret et episcopus iam pridem in absentia sua adeptus esset “ preceded by non struck through

! John 3: 10.

? Heb. m: x.

? Horace, Epist. i: 15.

* Midway between Lyon and Chalon-sur-Saóne on the route north. * "They were in fact close to Cluny, or perhaps Abbot Norreis had some of the shrines of Auvergne in mind.

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had with him. He was travelling on foot as his horse had let him down. On the first day the abbot told him to hire a horse for himself, but not for the whole day, so he finished on foot what he could not do on horseback. The same was done the next day, the abbot spending no more on the hire of a horse for him, and since he had less than one silver penny left for the journey, he had to follow the abbot because he needed food. So he followed the abbot on foot over the precipitous mountains. Some of the servants of this compassionate abbot made him ride their horses, first for one mile, then for two or three miles, so as to refresh his poor limbs and strengthen the joints of his limbs with whatever relief he could get. When the abbot learnt of this he expressly forbade them to do this, and grumbling about it, made sure that his servants did not do him this favour any more. 276. Considerably disabled, therefore, Adam was no longer able to keep up with the abbot on foot, but because it was a matter of life or death for him, he followed him at a slower pace, always catching up with him by the end of the day. T'hough it was late when he arrived, he always spent the night with the abbot. The abbot was amazed at him on this account, but he never pitied him. Indeed, to satisfy his ill will towards Adam, he would often, or quite frequently, travel with the utmost haste in order to exhaust him with the effort of keeping up with him; or, if he could not keep up, the abbot would leave him behind to die of starvation and want. The reason was that he envied him his knowledge, and hated him for his integrity. While undergoing all this suffering, this same brother was a master in Israel,’ and a priest of the most high God’ but, so that he should be regarded as a homeless buffoon? in his house, the abbot reviled, abused, and insulted him.

277. At last the abbot saw that Adam could not be broken by his exertions, nor defeated by insults, so when they came to Macon' the abbot told him explicitly, ‘Leave me, for I do not want your company, and go directly to England; I shall be travelling by another route around the holy places", and he gave him one mark for travelling expenses. However, Adam continued to follow the abbot, but after three days he lost track of him. 278. The arrival of the abbot in England; the bishop excommunicates him, and the convent stand loyally by him because they had previously promised to do so At last Adam arrived in England, as did the abbot, though not as quickly as Adam. On his arrival the bishop, who had during the

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possessionem iurisdictionis monasterii, scripsit ei episcopus ut eum reciperet cum fratribus. Abbas uero, clausis ianuis, episcopum exclusit et eum admittere renuit, appellans auctoritate noue indulgentie nostre. Set episcopus non deferens appellationi eum excom| nullus in partibus istis ausus esset ei municauit, et cum communicare secessit Lennam,' et ibi morabatur per multum tempus. 279. Interim episcopus accessit ad abbatiam et admissus est a fratribus. Et uoluit facere singularem inquisitionem de persona abbatis. Et cum fratres non immemores promissionis sue hoc renuerent et episcopus eos propter hoc uellet excommunicare. Monachi proiecerunt cucullas suas ad pedes episcopi? et dixerunt quod recederent a domo ista donec causa principalis finem sortiretur legitimum. Episcopus uero pietate motus inquisitionem distulit, et sic abbas tunc per conuentum euasit manus episcopi. 280. De tercio aduentu Thome monachi et aduersariorum eius ad curiam et relatione iudicum, et qualiter primo coram domino papa comparuerunt Ego uero, interim de causa nostra bene instructus Bolonie, post festum sancti Michaelis recessi Romam? Et in predictis octabis sancti Martini uenit ad me relatio* per predictum clericum abbatis, set et aduersari nostri uenerunt, magister uidelicet Robertus de Clipstonia? et R. persona de Rippel et magister Ernaldus de Bathonia,’ qui plusquam per quartam partem anni steterat in curia prius pro episcopo contra nos, ne aliquid ibi contra eum impetraremus. Et cum esset episcopus in possessione iurisdictionis monasterii nostri, et debuissent aduersarii nostri si prudenter egissent, ut moris est possidentium, subterfugere sententiam. Miro modo a Domino infatuati, statim optulerunt se liti, et relationem cum transcriptis priullegiorum nostrorum sigillis iudicum signatis domino pape obtulerunt. Ego uero ultra quam credi possit de eorum stulticia pre gaudio admirans gratias egi Deo, cogitans quod manus eius nobiscum operaretur. Et uocatus nomine procuratoris Eueshamensis, sicut ' Presumably King’s Lynn (Norf.): it is not clear why Abbot Norreis should have gone there. * A symbolic gesture signifying renunciation of obedience. ' 29 Sept. 1205. * Between 18 Nov. and 25 Nov. See above, 254, for the report. * Master Robert de Clipstone (?Clipston, place unidentified) seems certainly to have been an Oxford master. He witnesses charters connected with the city and its religious houses between 1197 and 1201. An active judge delegate at this time, arbiter, and delegate of the legate Guala, he was official of the bishop of Worcester by 1211 and remained such until at least 1223-4; see Sayers, PJD, pp. 49-51, and 126; BRUO, i. 443. The Cirencester

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abbot's absence now gained possession of the jurisdiction over the monastery, wrote to him and told him to receive him with the brethren. But the abbot closed the doors, shut the bishop out, and refused to admit him, appealing to the authority of our new 'empowerment'. However, the bishop, ignoring the appeal, excommunicated him, and when nobody in those parts of the country dared to give him communion, he left for Lenna,' and remained there for some considerable time. 279. In the mean time the bishop came to the abbey and was admitted by the brethren. He wanted to conduct a special inquiry into the character and behaviour of the abbot. When the brethren, remembering their promise, refused to participate in this, the bishop wished accordingly to excommunicate them. However, the monks threw their cowls at his feet” and said that they would leave that house until the principal lawsuit was legally settled. The bishop, moved by their loyalty, postponed the inquiry and, as a result, the abbot at that time because of the convent escaped the hands of the bishop. 280. The third visit of Thomas the monk and his opponents to the curia, and the report of the judges |delegate]; their first appearance before the

pope After receiving excellent instruction at Bologna on our case, I returned to Rome after Michaelmas.? The report arrived in the octave of St Martin* by way of the abbot's clerk, but our opponents also arrived, Master Robert de Clipstone,? R. parson of Ripple, and Master Ernald of Bath? who had previously acted in the curia against us for three months on the bishop's behalf, in case we should petition there for anything to his prejudice. When the bishop was in possession of the jurisdiction over our monastery, our opponents, 1f they were going to act wisely as those in possession usually do, ought quietly to have avoided forcing sentence. However, in a marvellous way the Lord befuddled their minds, for they immediately initiated litigation, and presented the report to the pope with copies of our privileges impressed with the seals of the judges. I was amazed and delighted, for their foolishness was beyond belief, and I gave thanks to God, convinced that His hand was with us in our task. On being summoned in my capacity as the Evesham proctor—a title by which I formulary (Oxford, MS Bodley Laud lat. 17, fo. 224vb) suggests that he was a clerk to the canonist John of Tynemouth, as archdeacon of Oxford 1215-21; see ANC, p. 325 and n. 39. ® No more is known of either R. parson of Ripple (Worcs.) or Master Ernald of Bath.

280

fo. 157'*

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ABBEY

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quamdiu steti ibi semper a domino papa et omni curia nominatus sum, comparui, et precepit dominus papa quod in tercium diem parati essemus ad litigandum. 281. Ego uero cogitans si Dominus ita prouidisset, sicut per gratiam Dei postea factum est, quod causa super iurisdictione monasterii qua destituti eramus | procederet, illa uero super iurisdictione Vallis cuius possessione gaudebamus semper uel in longa tempora differetur. Dixi, ‘Pater sancte, nondum plene peruenerunt ad me priuilegia nostra quibus causam libertatis et exemptionis ecclesiarum Vallis defendam, nisi tantum ea que ad consequendam libertatem et exemptionem monasterii nostri pertinent.' Et reuera tantum unum Constantini, et aliud Innocentii secundi, et indulgentie Clementis et Celestini ad me uenerant cum attestationibus et transcriptis omnium priuilegiorum.' Aliud uero Constantini et illud Alexandri attulit michi post sententiam latam magister Adam Sortes? 282. Et dominus papa dixit, ‘Sufficit: uolumus enim ut tantum causam super libertate monasterii agatis; super libertate autem Vallis postea agetis'. Et gauisus sum de diuisione causarum; et cum multum cogitarem quenam esset stulticia aduersariorum nostrorum quod tam instanter sententiam in causa proprietatis super iurisdictione monasterii quererent, in cuius possessione erant constituti, Cito comperi quod timebant ne morerentur si in ciuitate morarentur, magis querentes uitam propriam saluam facere quam causam domini sul lucrifacere. Set ego habens preciosiorem causam meam quam animam meam, quia, ut sepe dixi uobis, pro anima michi res erat, non que mea erant querebam,! set que Iesu Christi et ecclesie mee. Nec moram nec mortem timui, cupiens si opus esset animam meam pro causa libertatis ecclesie mee ponere. Hoc ideo uobis scripsi ut sciatis omnes homines esse quasi mercennarios' in negociis ecclesie nostre preter solos monachos, et ut nunquam negotia ecclesie nostre alicui sine monacho commitatis. 283. De secunda apparitione coram domino papa et allegationibus magistri Roberti Igitur die à domino papa nobis constituta coram eo comparuimus, et dixit dominus papa, "lantum de causa principali et de capite ' For the text of these documents, see below, 318-31, 337-41. ? The sentence is ‘Ex ore sedentis! of 18 Jan. 1206, 342-55. documents that came after that, see below, 318-31, 332-6. ur Gor. 10:24.

For the text of the * Cf. John ro: r2.

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was always known by the pope and the whole curia as long as I acted in that court—I appeared, and the pope instructed me to be ready to start proceedings in three days. 281. I now believed that, if the Lord so provided, as by God's grace it later proved he did, the case for jurisdiction over the monastery, of which we had been deprived, would proceed, and the case for jurisdiction over the Vale, of which we were in joyful possession, would be deferred either for ever or at least for a considerable period of time. I thus addressed the pope: ‘Holy father, I have not yet received our privileges in full upon which I shall base my defence of the liberty and exemption of the churches of the Vale, but only those which support our case for the liberty and exemption of our monastery.' In fact I had received only one of Constantine, another of Innocent II, and indults of Clement [III] and Celestine [IIT], along with the written evidence and copies of all the privileges.! Master Adam Sortes brought me the other of Constantine and that of Alexander [III] after sentence had been passed.” 282. The pope replied, ‘That is sufficient, for we want you to conduct only the case for the liberty of the monastery; the case for the liberty of the Vale you will conduct later.' I was delighted about the separation of the cases, and pondered over the foolishness of our opponents in seeking an immediate sentence in the case of ‘ownership’ of the jurisdiction over the monastery when ‘possession’ had already been decided in their favour. I soon discovered that they were afraid that they might die if they remained in the city, being more concerned to preserve their own lives than winning their master’s case. But I considered my case more precious than my own life for, as I have often remarked to you, the issue concerned the good of my soul, and I was seeking not my own things? but those of Jesus Christ and my church. I feared neither delay nor death, and was willing, if necessary, to lay down my life for the cause of my church's liberty. I have written this for you, first that you may know that all men, except for the monks, are working in the affairs of our church like hirelings,* and secondly that you may never entrust the affairs of our church to anyone but a monk.

283. The second appearance before the pope, and the arguments of Master Robert Accordingly, on the day appointed for us by the pope we appeared before him, and his words to us were, ‘You are to confine your speech

282

fo. 158^

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ABBEY

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dicatis, non de menbris.' Et magister Robertus de Clipston’ procurator episcopi, cum esset reus a re, quia in possessione iurisdictionis monasterii | erat constitutus, immo et a reatu, sicut per sententiam contra eum postea latam est declaratum, actor effectus est. Ego uero gratias agens Deo, cogitabam quia digitus Domini esset? qui mecum operabatur. Et ut uir facundissimus et in utroque iure, ciuili uidelicet et a^ canonico, adprime eruditus. Quoddam proemium multis et magnis sententiis inuolutum et profundis misteriis implicatum premisit, nesciens modum curie, quia dominus papa ueluti seriis occupatus talia fastidiret. Et cum in longum protraheret sermonem, dominus papa tedio affectus aliquantum toruo oculo illum respitiens, dixit, *Nolumus tantum proemium; ad ea que res desiderat accede. Et ipse propter sermonis sui interruptionem, ut michi uidebatur, perturbatus, ad iudicium possessorium se conuertit. Et omnem intentionem suam super eo fundauit, et elegantissime allegans profundis et optimis rationibus nitebatur ostendere sententiam in iudicio possessorio in Anglia pro episcopo rite fuisse latam et esse legittimam, quare eiusdem a domino papa petit instanter confirmationem. Et cum dominus papa adhuc ei diceret ut breuiloquio uteretur, tandem completis allegationibus super predicta sententia lata pro episcopo in iudicio possessorio, intacta causa proprietatis, subticuit.

284. De responsione Thome monachi et allegationibus magistri Roberti Tum ego dixi, ‘Pater sancte, cum ad recipiendam sentenciam in causa proprietatis super subiectione et exemptione monasterii nostri ad pedes sanctitatis uestre uenerimus, num‘ placet uobis quod hiis que super possessione ab aduersario nostro dicta sunt respondeam cum per gratam Dei et uestram quasi momentanea sit illa possessio episcopi? Et dominus papa, ‘Non loquamini', inquid, ‘amodo de illa possessione, set tantum de subiectione et exemtione monasterii, et tantum procuratores loquantur ut per eos de facto certificemur, quia fo. 158° uterque uestrum" iurisperitus est. Et cum opus fuerit aduo |cati respondeant nobis de iure.’ 28s. Stetimus enim uallati aduocatis nostris (conduxeramus enim ^ expunged R written unum)

/ proietatis R

* erasure of?unum before num (scribe may have

^ uestrum add. R

1 er

Fhe words caput and membra are used to signify the abbey of Evesham, on the one

hand, and the dependent parishes, on the other. 2 "(^ ^ = Ch Bxodaowne:

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to the principal case only, and to the monastery, not to the dependent parishes." The bishop’s proctor, Master Robert de Clipstone, although he was in a position of defence because his party was already in possession of the jurisdiction over the monastery and also because he was in actual fact the defendant—as the sentence passed against him later showed—was in effect the plaintiff. I gave thanks to God, for I believed it was the hand of the Lord? that was working with me, even as that very eloquent man [Robert], especially erudite in both civil and canon law, began a prologue complicated by many and long legal opinions and interlaced with profound mysteries, not knowing the ways of the curia, for the pope, a man occupied in serious matters, is disdainful of such things. As his speech went on and on, the pope became bored stiff, and finally, glaring at him, said, ‘We don't want all this introduction; get to the point of your argument!" Robert, in my view, was put off by this interruption of his speech, and turned to the subject of the possessory judgment. He based his whole case upon this and, making a very eloquent submission, he endeavoured to show by some profound and well-argued points that the sentence in the possessory judgment in England had been rightly and legitimately made in favour of the bishop, and that he was therefore requesting that this judgment should be confirmed immediately by the pope. When the pope insisted that he should be brief, he concluded his arguments on the sentence made in the possessory judgment in the bishop's favour and brought his speech to an end without touching upon the case of ownership. 284. The response of Thomas the monk to the arguments of Master Robert I then said, ‘Holy father, since we have come before your Holiness to receive sentence in the case of "ownership" which concerns the subjection and exemption of our monastery, I take it you do not want me to reply to what our opponents have said about "possession", since, by God's grace and your own, the bishop's possession is, as it were, temporary? The pope replied, ‘Do not talk now about possession, but only about the subjection or exemption of the monastery, and let only the proctors speak so that we may be apprised by them of the actual situation, because both of you are experienced in the law. And when there is need the advocates may reply to us on the rights of the case.’ 285. Indeed, we stood there hemmed in by our advocates, for we had

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nobis optimos aduocatos): ego quatuor et^ aduersarius quatuor, set ego meliores. Preueneram enim aduersarium, et elegeram michi de tocius mundi partibus meliores: Mone uidelicet Merandum Hispanum, quem postea tempore consilii! uidi episcopum, qui nulli mortali simul in utroque iure tunc temporis habebatur secundus.” Hunc cum regeret scolas Bononie dominus Winton’ Romam adduxerat, et stetit ibi pro domino rege et episcopis Anglie contra monachos Cantuarienses super iure eligendi Cantuar’ archiepiscopum.’ Et alium, quendam" uidelicet militem Papiensem, Bertrandum nomine, dominum legum, qui nulli totius Lumbardie post dominum Assonem in iure ciuili habebatur secundus.* Hunc monachi Cantuarie adduxerant, et stetit pro eis in predicta causa contra dominum regem et episcopos Anglie. Et cum hiis duobus locutus fui Bononie antequam Romam uenirent. Habui etiam magistrum Petrum Beneuentanum, capellanum domini pape, postea cardinalem et episcopum Portuensem, qui primus habebatur inter aduocatos curie; set et magistrum Willelmum prouintialem clericum domini cancellarii:? hac usus cautela ut per istos duos aliqua secreta curie discerem, quod et ita factum est. Et dedi primo qualibet die consistorii quinquaginta solidos Proueniensium,’ secundo et tercio quadraginta, ^ et interlined; contemporary or same hand

^ quendam corrected from quendand’

! The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. ? Merandus (also occurs as Melendus) of Spain was a famous canonist and teacher at Bologna, the senior colleague of his compatriot, Bernard of Compostella. He was teaching at Vicenza c.1209. He glossed the Decretum (before 1188) and the Compilatio Prima (of Bernard of Pavia) and produced some Questiones, which survive. He became bishop of Osma (Spain) in c.1210. The identification was made by S. G. Kuttner, ‘Bernardus Compostellanus Antiquus. A study in the glossators of the canon law’, Traditio, i (1943), 277-340, at pp. 301—2, 327; repr. in Gratian and the Schools of Law 1140-1234 (Variorum: London, 1983), article vii. ' On the death of Hubert Walter on 13 July 1205, a dispute over the right to elect the archbishop of Canterbury broke out between the monks of the cathedral priory of Christ

Church, Canterbury, and the suffragans of the see. The bishop of Winchester in question was Peter des Roches who was in Rome in 1205 to secure his own election to that see (Cheney, Letters, no. 631, and Ann. Wint., p. 79), and it was apparently at this time that he hired Merandus to act for the king and the suffragans (of whom he was one) in the matter of the Canterbury election. Thomas is the only source for this. * No more is known of the civilian, Bertrand of Pavia. C. R. Cheney (in his index under Pavia in /nnocent IIT) calls him Bernard bishop of Pavia, but there is nothing to substantiate

that statement. Pavia was a notable Lombard and Roman law school from the beginning of the 11th cent, and probably the main centre for legal studies before the rise of the schools at Bologna; see C. Radding, The Origins of Medieval Jurisprudence: Pavia and Bologna 850— 1150 (New Haven,

1988), pp. 171-4, and F. Calasso, Medio Evo del diritto, i, Le Fonti

(Milan, 1954), pp. 305-15. On Azo see below, note to 313.

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hired for ourselves the very best: I had hired four and my opponent four, though mine were better. In fact, I had forestalled my opponent by choosing the best advocates in the whole world: they were Master Merandus Hispanus whom I later saw, at the time of the Council! as a bishop, and he was considered second to none at that time in both branches of the law.’ The bishop of Winchester had taken him to Rome when he lectured in the schools at Bologna, and he there represented the king and the bishops of England against the monks of Canterbury over the right to elect the archbishop of Canterbury.? The second was a knight from Pavia called Bertrand, a law teacher, who was considered second to none in the whole of Lombardy after Azo in civil law.* The monks of Canterbury had brought him to Rome, and he represented them in the above-mentioned case against the king and bishops of England. I had spoken to these two men at Bologna before they came to Rome. Thirdly, I had Master Peter of Benevento, papal chaplain, and afterwards cardinal bishop of Porto, who was considered the best of the advocates in the curia; and my fourth was Master William, ‘provincial’ clerk of the chancellor:° I contrived to engage these two men in order to learn some of the secrets of the curia, and I succeeded in this. And I gave to the first on each day of

the consistory fifty shillings of Provins,’ to the second and third forty ? Master Peter (Collivaccinus) of Benevento, papal notary and subdeacon, and compiler of Innocent IIIs official canon law collection, Compilatio Tertia, was created cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Aquiro in 1212, cardinal priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso in 1216, and cardinal bishop of Sabina, not Porto as Thomas states, in 1217; Maleczek, pp. 172-4 and 293. ^ He is possibly the notary who dated per manum only a few weeks after Pope Honorius IIPs election and who became his vice-chancellor from 1220 to 1222 (cf. P. M. Baumgarten, Von der apostolischen Kanzlei (Cologne, 1908), pp. 72-3. The reference, however, to a notary of Innocent III called William, with whom this person had been tentatively identified, acting as datary on 25 Feb. r211 (see H. Bresslau, Handbuch der Urkundenlehre für Deutschland und Italien, 2nd edn., i (Leipzig, 1912), p. 248), was shown by R. von Heckel to be incorrect (Historisches Jahrbuch, lvii (1937), 278-9). S. G. Kuttner (in Traditio, vii (1949—51), 279—358, at p. 301 n. 54) and J. E. Sayers (Papal Government and England during the Pontificate of Honorius III (1216-1227) (Cambridge, 1984), p. 30) wrongly followed Bresslau. Master was a courtesy title for papal officers, and the ‘provincial’ clerk may have been the clerk who dealt with the Provinciale, or list of dioceses of the western Church; see Gerald of Wales, iii. 165. According to C. R. Cheney, ‘The office and title of papal chancellor 1187—1216', Archivum Historiae Pontificiae, xxii (1984), 369—76, at p. 373, the pope did not appoint an officer with the title of chancellor, until John, cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin, in Dec. 1205, and the action we are concerned with was presumably still in Nov. 1205. 7 For shillings of Provins, see Spufford, Handbook of Medieval Exchange, pp. 164—7, esp. 164 and 167. The denier of Provins travelled from the great fair-town of Champagne along all the major trade routes. By the 1170s the denarius provisinus was the dominant currency of central Italy. The senate of Rome, with the agreement of the pope, began to

286

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quarto uiginti. Et cum conqueretur aduersarius noster quod subtraxissem ei copiam aduocatorum, respondit dominus papa subridendo, ‘Nunquam defuit alicui copia aduocatorum in curia Romana’, et precepit ut dicerem. 286. De primis allegationibus Thome monachi pro exemptione Eueshamensis cenobii Tunc ego, iam pridem cognoscens quia curia breuiloquio gaudebat, flens et eiulans dixi, *Pater sancte, postpositis philosophorum figuris, fo. 158^ dialeticorum enigmatibus | et retorum coloribus, lingua pre timore balbutiente, sermone licet incomposito ad ea que res de qua agitur desiderat accedo. Igitur, pater sancte, monasterium nostrum, immo uestrum, a tempore fundationis sue liberum extitit et exemptum. Immo, quod maius est, quasi ingenuum natum quia liberum fundatum, et ad hoc probandum habemus priuilegia Romanorum pontificum. Dicit enim Constantinus papa quod duo reges Anglie Kenredus et Offa, cum quibus beatus Ecgwinus ad limina apostolorum uenit, in loco ostense uisionis plurima de suis beneficiis in presentia sua regia libertate donata et apostolica auctoritate confirmata contulerunt. Pater sancte, non dicitur quod contulerint plurima loco, set plurima in loco, hoc est de loco, et dicitur plurima de suis beneficiis, non omnia.“ Non enim totum locum qui uocatur Vallis Gloecestrie contulerunt set quedam beneficia in Valle Gloecestrie. Nec dicitur cui contulerint illa beneficia; unde necesse est intelligere quod domino pape et ecclesie Romane contulerint ea, cum omnia sint principis et maxime ea que non determinantur in culus bonis sint, et cum eo presente et confirmante hec donata sint. 287. ‘Et quod clausula illa ita debeat intelligi, expresse per subsequentia capitula "in eodem priuilegio contenta et in sequenti declaratur; dicit enim idem Constantinus’ in eodem priuilegio Britwaldo Brittanniarum primati, **Constitue ouile Christo diuinitus ostensum, apostolica auctoritate fultum, regia libertate donatum"! nec dicit cui. Et cum non consueuerit summus pontifex precipere quod aliquod monasterium fundetur nisi quod in solo sibi donato a

marg. Nota optime hic ad ?animandum dominum

(s. xv)

papam contra adversarios nostros

*» €

inserted in the margin (s. xiii!)

mint provisini. Provisini became the standard money of Rome (lire, soldi, and denari), Innocent III himself, in 1208, fixing an official rate of exchange between senatorial and

French provisini; by this time the number of French coins in circulation was dwindling.

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shillings, and to the fourth twenty shillings. When our opponent complained that I had deprived him of the supply of advocates, the pope replied with a smile, ‘No one has ever lacked a supply of advocates in the Roman curia!’, and he then instructed me to speak. 286. The first arguments of Thomas the monk in favour of the exemption of Evesham monastery Aware now for some time that the curia rejoiced in brevity, I spoke as follows, with much emotion: ‘Holy father, I am abandoning all philosophical concepts, dialectical puzzles and rhetorical embellishments. Instead, it is with a hesitant tongue, from fear, and with simple language that I come to the essential points of this case. Holy father, our monastery, or rather, your monastery, has been free and exempt from the time of its foundation. What is more, it is as if it were of noble birth because it was founded free, and we have the privileges of the Roman pontiffs to prove it. Pope Constantine says that in his presence two kings of England, Cenred and Offa, with whom the blessed Ecgwine came to the threshold of the apostles, granted very many gifts in the place where the vision was revealed, and these were donated as a royal liberty and confirmed by apostolic authority. Holy father, it does not say that they granted very many things to the place, but very many things in the place; that is, relating to the place, and it says very many of their gifts, not all. For they did not bestow the whole place which is called the Vale of Gloucester, but certain estates in the Vale of Gloucester. It does not say to whom they granted those gifts: hence, it is necessary to understand that they granted them to the pope and the Roman church, since all things belong to the head, especially those things which are not specified as belonging to anyone in particular, and especially when they are granted in the pope's presence and with his confirmation. 287. ‘In order that that clause should thus be understood, it is expressly contained in the subsequent clauses of the same privilege, and affirmed in the same privilege, for Constantine tells Berhtwald, primate of Britain, in the same privilege, “Establish for Christ a flock which has been divinely revealed, supported by apostolic authority, and endowed with royal liberty”,' but he does not say for whom. But since the pope did not usually give instructions for any monastery to be founded unless it was to be founded on soil that had been given to ! See below, 320.

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fuerit fundandum, relinquitur quod reges locum illum summo pontifici et ecclesie Romane contulerint, et illud ouile "diuinitus ostensum", apostolica auctoritate fultum, regia libertate donatum, fuisse collatum summo pontifici et ecclesie Romane, et ideo, excepto apostolico, ut suum et in suo solo | constitutum nulli est subiectum. Ad hoc etiam benefacit quod in eodem priuilegio Constantinus statim subiungit, loquens Brituualdo, ‘““Tibi autem et successoribus tuis, memorato episcopo Ecguuino assentiente, curam animarum eiusdem ecclesie precipue iniungimus."! Non enim auferret summus pontifex alicui diocesano episcopo curam animarum alicuius ecclesie sicut isti fecit, quod ex eo patet quod eo consentiente alii, ut suo uicario, curam animarum tradidit, non enim requiritur consensus alicuius nisi in his que in eius fiunt lesionem, nisi ecclesie specialiter sue et auctoritate sua fundate. Quod expresse in secundo priuilegio Constantini continetur, ubi denuntiat Brituualdo, quatinus ecclesias Dei per Brittanniam dispositas tua ipsius^ et sanctorum apostolorum auctoritate protegas ne quis peruasor cuiuscumque ordinis a Deo et nobis constituta priuilegia subruat. Inter quas eam que nuperrime a uenerabili uiro. Ecguuino nostra et regia auctoritate constituta est, precipue tue ditioni submittimus.”” 288. ‘Ecce quod auctoritate summi pontificis est ecclesia nostra constituta et Brittanniarum primati ut suo legato commissa. Cum ergo suffitienter probauerim, ut michi uidetur, quod monasterium nostrum a tempore fundationis sue fuerit summo pontifici donatum et eius auctoritate fundatum, sequitur necessario quod illi soli et ecclesie Romane sit subiectum: quia nephas esset dicere quod aliquis ordinariam potestatem in rebus et bonis summi ordinarii haberet; nam et hoc in inferioribus ecclesiis uideo. Non enim aliquis diocesanus episcopus in possessionibus metropolitani sui quamuis infra limites diocesis sue sitis ordinariam exercet iurisdictionem, multo fortius nec

in possessionibus summi pontificis. ' tua ipsius struck through ' See below, 321. * On interpretation

^ interlined

of the early texts

and

the ambivalence

of the words

used,

particularly ditio (rule, authority) in relation to Evesham, see M. Rathsack, Die Fuldaer Fülschungen: Eine rechtshistorische Analyse der pápstlichen Privilegien des Klosters Fulda von

751 bis ca. 1158 (2 vols., Pápste und Papsttum, xxiv (I-II): Stuttgart, 1989), i. 74-6. On the early privileges for Fulda, cf. the views of H. Jakobs, *Zu neuen Thesen über der Fuldaer Papsturkunden’,

Deutsches

Archiv,

xxxvii

(1981),

792-5,

and

id., ‘Zu

den

Fuldaer

Papsturkunden des Frühmittelalters', Blatter für deutsche Landesgeschichte, cxxviii (1992), 31-84.

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him, it follows, first, that the kings had granted that place to the pope and the Roman church, secondly, that the flock which had been "divinely revealed", supported by apostolic authority, and endowed with royal liberty had been granted to the pope and the Roman church, and thirdly, therefore, as it is the pope's flock, established on his soil, it was subject to no authority except the apostolic one. Moreover, there is an additional benefit in that in the same privilege Constantine straightway commands Berhtwald, Especially do we lay upon you and your successors, with Bishop Ecgwine's consent, the care of souls in that same church."! Now the pope will not deprive any diocesan bishop of the care of souls of any church, as he did to Ecgwine, unless the church has been specifically founded as his own and by his authority—t is clear from this that it was with the bishop's consent, as his vicar, that he handed over to another the care of souls, for consent is not required of anyone except in those cases in which someone suffers loss. This is clearly contained in the second privilege of Constantine in which he declares to Berhtwald, *We command you to protect the churches of God scattered throughout Britain by your own authority and that of the holy apostles, so that no assailant of any rank may undermine the privileges instituted by God and us. Amongst those we especially place under your rule that church most recently founded by the venerable Ecgwine with our authority and that of the king.’”” 288. ‘Notice then that our church was established by the authority of the pope, and was entrusted to the primate of Britain as the pope's legate. Since in my view I have given sufficient proof that our monastery was from the time of its foundation presented to the pope and founded on his authority, it of necessity follows that it is subject to him alone and to the Roman church. It would be wrong to say that anyone might have the power of the ordinary in matters or property belonging to the highest ordinary; I see that this is also the case in churches of less importance. No diocesan bishop exercises jurisdiction as ordinary over the possessions of his metropolitan even if these are situated within the boundaries of his diocese, and much stronger are the arguments against his doing so over the possessions of the supreme pontiff. 3 This is the classic argument concerning exemption. The ordinary, the diocesan bishop, had no jurisdiction if the monastery was directly under the pope. The reference in the next sentence is to peculiars, areas within a diocese, subject to a superior who was not the bishop of the diocese.

290

fo. 159" a

fo. 159" D

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289. ‘Si uero alicui hec ad plenam libertatem ecclesie nostre minime | sufficere uidentur, habemus ex eisdem priuilegiis et aliis expressam exemptionem. Dicit enim Constantinus in primo priuilegio, “Ipsum ergo locum quem regia potestas regie libertati donauit, et nos auctoritate Dei et sanctorum apostolorum et nostra donamus." Cum itaque reges dederint locum illum regie libertati, hoc est seculari et temporali, et summus pontifex Romane et ecclesiastice libertati donauit. Cum enim summus pontifex indeterminate locum dedit libertati, quia beneficia imperatoris? amplissime sunt interpretanda, omnimode et summe, id est, Romane, libertati donasse intelligitur. Nam cum serui manumittuntur, Romane libertati donantur, et sicut reges donarunt eum libertati quoad temporalia sic et summus pontifex quoad spiritualia libertati donauit. 290. ‘Quod autem priuilegium hoc ita debeat intelligi expresse in indulgentiis Clementis et Celestini innuitur, ubi dicitur, *Largitione nostri muneris et gratie eos duximus decorandos quos fidei meritum ac deuotionis constantia nobis reddunt acceptos, et qui nullo mediante ad iurisdictionem beati Petri et nostram specialiter pertinere nosc*ntur. Hac itaque ratione inducti et deuotionis et fidei uestre intuitu prouocati, tibi, fili^ abbas, et successoribus tuis usum mitre, anuli, cirotecarum et dalmatice, tunice et sandaliorum, necnon et sacerdotalia uestimenta benedicendi de consueta clementia et de benignitate sedis apostolice duximus concedendum." 291. ‘Ecce constat locum nostrum Romane libertati a Constantino esse donatum cum per istos constet eum soli Romano pontifici et ecclesie Romane esse subiectum. In secundo uero priuilegio Constantini dicitur, *Constituimus ergo in nomine Domini ut isdem locus sub monarchia proprii abbatis sit liber." Cum igitur monarchia interpretetur “unicus principatus", constat quod solus abbas ibi principalem potestatem | et iurisdictionem debet exercere, et sic episcopus excluditur. Et quod hoc priuilegium ita debeat intelligi, expresse continetur in priuilegio Innocentii pape secundi, ubi dicitur, "Statuimus insuper ac, predecessoris nostri felicis memorie Constantini pape uestigiis inherentes, decreuimus, ut solummodo penes " filu R ' See below, 322. * For the beneficium imperatoris, see Digest 1. 4. 3. And for the use of the maxim by Innocent III himself, see 3 Comp. 1. 2. 6 (X. s. 40. 16, Friedberg ii col. 916) and 3. 18. 3 (X. 3. 24. 6, Friedberg ii cols. 534—5), cited by K. Pennington, Pope and Bishops: The Papal Monarchy in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Philadelphia, 1984), p. 170 n. 64.

BKOOWS.

RAM GP TE)

291

289. ‘Should these arguments seem to anyone not sufficiently convincing to justify the complete liberty of our church, we have exemption categorically declared in those same privileges, and in others. In the first privilege Constantine says, “‘the very place which royal power has given as a royal liberty, we also give by the authority of God and the holy apostles, and by our own authority."! Although then kings have given that place royal liberty, that is, a worldly and temporal liberty, the supreme pontiff has given it Roman and ecclesiastical liberty. But since the supreme pontiff has given the place indefinite liberty—and the gifts of the emperor? must be interpreted in the fullest sense—then he is understood to have granted a liberty which embraces the highest and the most comprehensive liberty, that is, Roman liberty. When slaves are set free they are given Roman liberty, and when kings have given a place liberty so far as temporal things are concerned, so the pope has given it liberty so far as spiritual things are concerned. 290. 'In order that this privilege should be understood, it is made perfectly clear in the indults of Clement and Celestine when it is stated, *We have decided that those men, whose faithfulness and undying devotion render them acceptable to us, and are known to belong especially to the jurisdiction of the blessed Peter and ourself without any intermediary, should be honoured with the generosity of our grace and favour. Motivated by this principle and stirred by an awareness of your devotion and faith, we have decided to bestow upon you, my son abbot, and your successors, through the grace and favour of the apostolic see, the right to use the mitre, ring, gloves, dalmatic, tunic and sandals, as well as to bless priestly vestments.” 291. ‘Notice then, it is established that our place has been given Roman liberty by Constantine, since it is established by those privileges that it is subject to the pope alone and the Roman church. In the second privilege of Constantine it is stated, *We therefore decree in the name of the Lord that the same place be free under the sole rule of its own abbot.” Since then sole rule is to be interpreted as “the leadership of one only", it is established that the abbot alone ought to exercise principal power and jurisdiction, and the bishop is thus excluded. In order that this privilege should be understood in this way, it is expressly stated in a privilege of Pope Innocent II, where it says, Following in the steps of our predecessor, Pope Constantine of happy memory, we further command and decree > See below, 337-41.

202

fo. 159°"

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ABBEY

EVESHAM

te et successores tuos tocius domus et ecclesie tue et aliorum locorum ad eandem ecclesiam pertinentium pastoralis cura consistat, et eorundem ordinatio in tua et successorum tantum tuorum potestate permaneat, sicut est hactenus obseruatum, salua per omnia sedis apostolice auctoritate." Non dicitur quod aliqua ibi sit salua episcopi auctoritas, set tantum abbatis ibi exerceatur potestas. Ecce manifeste probatur quod solus abbas noster ibi ordinariam habeat dispositionem et iurisdictionem. Si cui uero, quod tamen non credo, adhuc in dubium uenit quin ecclesia nostra ab ipsa fundatione sit libera, ueniamus ad iura episcopalia que habent episcopi in monasteriis non^ exemptis, et uideamus si contra hec muniti simus per Romanorum pontificum priuilegia. 292. (Igitur episcopi ab abbatibus non exemptis professionem et obedientiam cum eis benedic*nt exigunt et accipiunt, nec ab aliis possunt benedici quam ab episcopo diocesano. Abbas uero noster ab episcopo Wigornensi nec benedictionem accipere nec professionem nec obedientiam ei facere tenetur^ Dicit enim Constantinus in secundo priuilegio, Defuncto autem abbate, secundum canonicam auctoritatem uel de ipso monasterio uel de parrochia Wictiorum? abbas a fratribus eiusdem loci eligatur. Qui in eadem ecclesia libere et canonice sine aliqua exactione consecratus ob reuerentiam uenerabilis Ecgwini anulo in celebratione missarum utatur."* Ex uerbis huius priuilegii habere potestis quod a quocumque maluerit episcopo possit abbas noster benedici cum in propria ecclesia debeat benedici. Absurdum enim esset | quod episcopus, si abbas ei subiceretur, ab abbate nostro uocaretur ut ei in propria ecclesia benediceret, cum abbas subiectus ad episcopum uenire debeat propter benedictionem, et subiectus a superiore debeat uocari, et non e conuerso. Et cum absque omni exactione debeat benedici, patet quod nec professio nec obedientia ab eo debet exigi. 293. ‘Quod autem hoc priuilegium ita debeat intelligi expresse continetur in priuilegio Innocentii secundi; dicit enim, *Obeunte ' non interlined s. xii

' See below, 325, 330. Thomas is clearly interpreting the silence of the Constantinian privilege on the rights of the diocesan in the light of what Innocent II had granted. * A sign of exemption was that an abbot might be blessed by any bishop of his choice: he might therefore escape professing obedience to the diocesan. Papal privileges to exempt houses specified this; see PUE iii. no. 187 (JL. 12148) Alexander III for Bury St Edmunds, dated 7 Apr. 1172. Thomas is clearly amplifying the Constantinian text here in the light of Innocent II's privilege. The failure to mention the diocesan specifically cannot be taken as the grant of free choice of bishop. Cf. Rathsack, Die Fuldaer Fülschungen, who analyses the

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that the pastoral care of your entire house, church, and other places belonging to the same church should rest solely with you and your successors, and that the ordering of those places remain your prerogative alone and that of your successors, as has been observed hitherto, saving the authority of the apostolic see in all things."! Nothing is said in the privilege about the bishop having any authority in the monastery, only that the power of the abbot be exercised there. There is clear proof then that our abbot alone has the authority and jurisdiction of the ordinary. But should anyone remain in doubt— though I cannot believe this—that our house has enjoyed freedom from its very foundation, let us come to the episcopal rights which bishops have in those monasteries which are not exempt, and see whether we have been protected against these through the privileges of the Roman pontiffs. 292. ‘Bishops demand and receive profession and obedience from abbots not enjoying exemption when they give them blessing, and such abbots cannot receive blessing from any other than their diocesan bishop. But our abbot is not bound to receive blessing from the bishop of Worcester, nor to make profession or promise obedience to him.^ For Constantine says in the second privilege, * When the abbot dies, his successor is to be chosen by the brethren of that place, in accordance with canonical authority, either from the monastery itself or from the diocese of the Hwicce.? He is then to be consecrated in that church freely and canonically without any exactions and, out of reverence for the venerable Ecgwine, is to use the ring in the celebration of mass.” * From the words of this privilege you can gather that our abbot can receive blessing from any bishop he chooses, though he should receive blessing in his own church. It would be absurd for a bishop to be invited by our abbot to give him blessing in his own church if the abbot were subject to him, for a subject abbot must come to the bishop for blessing, as a subject must be invited by his superior, not vice versa. Further, since he must receive blessing without any exaction, it is clear that neither profession nor obedience must be demanded of him. 293. "This privilege ought to be understood, for it is expressly stated in the privilege of Innocent II, ““When you, the present abbot of this papal privileges for Fulda from 751 to c.1158, on the imprecision and nebulousness of the texts where exemption is concerned. 3 ie. the diocese of Worcester.

* See below, 326.

204

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uero te nunc eiusdem loci abbate uel tuorum quolibet successorum, nullus ibi qualibet subreptionis astutia seu uiolentia proponatur nisi quem fratres eiusdem loci communi assensu uel fratrum pars consilii sanioris elegerit. Qui in eadem ecclesia absque omni exactione a quocumque maluerit benedicatur episcopo, dum tamen catholicus sit et gratiam sedis apostolice habeat et communionem." Ecce manifeste ostensum est abbatem nostrum ab episcopo Wigornensi nec benedictionem debere suscipere nec professionem nec obedientiam ei debere facere. 294. ‘Habent etiam episcopi diocesani monasteria sibi subiecta tueri et uisitare et in eis errata corrigere, quorum nullum habet episcopus Wigorn' in monasterio nostro. Scribit enim Constantinus Brittanniarum primati in primo priuilegio, dicens, ““Tibi autem, et successoribus tuis, memorato Egwino episcopo assentiente, curam animarum eiusdem ecclesie precipue iniungimus, ut si, quod absit, aliquo diaboli impulsu quisquam peruasor aut tirannus sanctum locum minuere aut impugnare presumpserit, tibi a Deo concesse potestatis sententia et anathematis percussus uerbere, complere non audeat? 295. ‘Ecce expresse patet quod, cum cura animarum nostrarum, tutela tocius^ ecclesie nostre Cantuar! archiepiscopo sit commissa. Et quod cum tuitione etiam errata nostra habeat corrigere, ut tam tuitio quam correctio ei committatur, expresse subiungitur in eodem priuilegio, ubi dicitur, *S1 quid uero sinistre partis inibi compertum fuerit oriri, auribus summi pontificis patrie potius deferatur quam per alicuius occultam sententiam sanctus locus iniuste deprauetur.""* 296. ‘Cum igitur onera tuitionis et correctionis sequantur honores et commoda uisitationis et procurationis, merito illi cui onera non imponuntur honores et emolumenta subtrauntur. Ex hoc igitur priuilegio patet nullum ab ecclesia nostra predictorum deberi Wigorn' episcopo, cum a domino papa Cant’ archiepiscopo ut suo legato uel uicario hec sint commissa. Et de consensu Ecgwini episcopi Wigorn', cuius consensus non requireretur‘ nisi in eius preiudicium aliquid. statueretur, quamuis dominus papa | qui uocatus est in ‘ elegerint in the privilege below

^ tocius interlined (s. xiii")

* requiretur R

' See the charges against the election of Abbot Norreis, above, 186 and n. 3 (p. 193). For election by the wiser part, the sanior pars, see RSB cap. 64: 'siue etiam pars quamuis parua congregationis saniore consilio elegerit', and The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed. and

trans. D. Knowles, rev. C. N. L. Brooke (OMT, Oxford, 2002), pp. 108-9 and n. 293. * See below, 329-30 ? See below, 321. * See below, 321.

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place, or any of your successors, die, let no successor be appointed there through any kind of underhand chicanery or force, but only a man chosen by the brethren of the monastery by common consent, or by that part of the brethren of wiser counsel.' Then let him receive blessing in that church from any bishop he chooses without any payment provided that he is catholic and enjoys the grace and communion of the apostolic see." There is clear evidence then that our abbot is not bound to receive blessing from the bishop of Worcester, nor bound to make profession or vows of obedience to him. 294. ‘Diocesan bishops have to protect and visit monasteries which are subject to them, and to correct what is wrong in them, but the bishop of Worcester has to do none of these things in our monastery. Indeed, in his first privilege Constantine writes to the primate of Britain in these words, *We especially lay upon you and your successors, with Bishop Ecgwine's assent, the care of souls in that same church so that, if any trespasser or tyrant, God forbid, should presume through any devilish impulse to impair or impugn this holy place, he may be alarmed by the condemnation which God has empowered you to pronounce and by the shock of an anathema, and so not dare to carry out his intention.’ 295. "There is clear evidence that, along with the care of our souls, the protection of the whole of our church has been entrusted to the archbishop of Canterbury. Also, it is expressly decreed in the same privilege that along with protection the archbishop has to correct our errors, so not only protection but also correction is entrusted to him: * Should anything of an evil nature be found to have occurred there, let it be brought to the notice of the archbishop of the country rather than that holy place should be unjustly brought into ill-repute by someone else's underhand condemnation."* 296. ‘Since therefore the responsibilities of protection and correction go with the honours and advantages of visitation and procuration, it is right that the one who is not burdened with these responsibilities should be deprived of the honours and rewards. It is clear from this privilege that our church owes none of these latter to the bishop of Worcester, since the pope has entrusted these things to the archbishop of Canterbury as his legate or vicar. He did this with the consent of Ecgwine, bishop of Worcester, though his consent would not be required unless something were decided to his prejudice, for the lord pope who is called to the plenitude of power can do all these

296

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plenitudinem potestatis! hec omnia auctoritate sibi a Deo commissa ex propria potestate facere possit, nullius requisito consensu uel fauore. Et tamen sine ratione talia facere non consueuit. Et cum possint episcopi infra diocesim suam in qua maluerint ecclesia non priuilegiata sinodum, capitula, ordinationes et missas publicas celebrare, hec Wigorn’ episcopo in ecclesiis nostris facere ab Innocentio prohibetur ubi dicitur, *Sanximus etiam ut in abbatia uestra aut in capellis uestris aliquis episcopus sinodum uel capitula aut ordinationes aut missas publicas, nisi inuitatus ab abbate illius loci uel a fratribus, celebrare non presumat."^ Cum etiam non liceat non exemptis sacramenta ecclesiastica nisi a suo episcopo diocesano accipere, ut nichil nobis desit ad plenitudinem libertatis conceditur nobis ab Alexandro papa tercio ut ea a quo maluerimus accipiamus episcopo, ubi dicitur, ““Crisma uero, oleum sanctum, dedicationes ecclesiarum, consecrationes altarium, ordinationes clericorum qui ad sacros ordines fuerint promouendi, a quocumque malueritis succi-

piatis episcopo.””* 297. ‘Ecce, pater sancte, ut michi uidetur, sufficienter ostendi monasterium nostrum esse liberum et ab omni iurisdictione episcopali prorsus exemptum, et contra omnia iura episcopalia per predictorum priuilegiorum dicta capitula plene esse munitum. Si uero alia sunt iura episcopalia contra que per priuilegia Romanorum pontificum non simus muniti, petimus ut uos uestigia predecessorum uestrorum sequentes de consueta clementia et benignitate sedis apostolice suppleatis, ne ecclesia nostra, immo uestra, a sui fundatione libera pro modico episcopo seruiat. Sin autem necesse est ut pro hiis episcopo satisfaciamus’. Et hec cum magno fletu et eiulatu dixi. 298. Et dominus papa conuersus ad cardinales, subridendo, uulgariter loquens, dixit, ‘Iste omnia aufert episcopo, et postea dicit, habeat fo. r60"*

episcopus residuum.’ Et conuertens dixit, *Responde hiis."

se | ad aduersarium

nostrum

299. De responsione magistri Roberti et’ allegationibus Th{ome] monachi, et qualiter priuilegia falsa^ fuerunt a magistro R. accusata, set a domino papa ut uera approbata Et ille: *Pater sancte, bene dixisset aduersarius noster si priuilegia, in quibus omnem uim et potestatem allegationum suarum fecit et ^ dedicationes ecclesiarum. * corrected from falsi

om.

im the privilege

recited below

^ interlined

! On the plenitude of power, see K. Pennington, Pope and Bishops, PP. 43-74.

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things in his own power by the authority entrusted to him by God, and requires the consent or favour of no one.' But it was not his habit to act in this way without reason. Although bishops are able to celebrate a synod, chapters, ordinations, and public masses within their own diocese in whatever church they choose that is not privileged, the bishop of Worcester is forbidden by Innocent [II] to do so in our churches when it is stated, ‘‘We also decree that no bishop should presume to celebrate a synod, chapters, ordinations, or public masses in your abbey or in your chapels unless invited to do so by the abbot of the monastery or by the brethren.”* Now churches which do not enjoy exemption would only be allowed to receive the sacraments of the church from their own diocesan bishop, but in order that we should enjoy full exemption, Pope Alexander III permits us to receive the sacraments from any bishop we choose when he states, **You may receive chrism, holy oil, the dedication of churches, the consecration of altars, the ordination of clerks who are to be promoted to holy orders, from any bishop of your choice. 297. ‘So then, holy father, I believe I have given sufficient reason to establish that our monastery is free and absolutely exempt from all episcopal jurisdiction, and that it is fully protected against all episcopal rights over it, in the said sections of the privileges I have quoted. Should there be other episcopal rights against which we are not protected by the privileges of the Roman pontiffs, we petition you to follow the examples of your predecessors, and act with the customary clemency and kindness of the apostolic see to prevent our church, or rather, your church, which has been free from its

foundation, from being subject, even for a short time, to a bishop. If you cannot do this, then we would have to meet the bishop's demands.’ I delivered this speech with expressions of deep emotion. 298. The pope turned to the cardinals with a smile and in his native language said, "This fellow takes everything away from the bishop and then says “‘let the bishop have the leftovers!"" He then turned to our opponent and said, ‘Make your reply to these arguments" 299. The reply He impugns the genuine Master Robert have been valid

of Master Robert to the arguments of Thomas the monk. genuineness of the privileges; but the pope accepts them as

? See below, 329.

? See below, 334.

began, ‘Holy father, our opponent's speech would if the privileges, upon which he has based all the force

298

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fundamentum totius cause sue posuit, uera essent, cum sint falsa. Nam carta! et stilus, filum et bulla, priuilegiorum Constantini penitus in terra nostra ignota sunt. Portitor uero indulgentiarum Clementis et Celestini fuit publicus falsarius, Nicholaus de Wareuuich, et ideo eas falsas credimus, et hoc idem de aliis dicimus." 300. Et dominus papa precepit ut exhiberem ea, et exhibui. Et dominus papa propriis manibus tractauit ea, et traxit per bullam et cartam si forte posset bullam a filo amouere.^ Et diligentissime intuens ea tradidit cardinalibus intuenda; et cum per girum uenissent iterum ad dominum papam, ostendens priuilegium Constantini dixit, *Huiusmodi priuilegia que uobis ignota sunt, nobis sunt notissima, nec possent falsari’, et ostendens indulgentias dixit, *Iste uere sunt’, et restituit michi omnia. Set qualiter michi et ecclesie et cause nostre timuerim cum per girum uiderent priuilegia cardinales et cum dominus papa ita dure ea tractauit, supersedeo dicere quia non possem uobis edicere. Quamuis nichil michi conscius essem, tamen sciui quod ille qui habebatur pro falsario, forte quia publicus cursor fuit curie, indulgentiarum portitor fuit; et circa priuilegia Constantini omnia michi ignota erant. Set cum approbata fuerunt, inestimabili gaudio repletus sum. Et hec fuit secunda interlocutio* pro nobis data. Prima enim fuit cum primo fui Rome pro reuocanda iurisdictione iudicum, ne in iudicio possessorio? sententiarent, quam interlocutionem propriam ipse papa postea reuocauit.

301. Et cum iam esset hora prandendi precepit dominus papa quod recederemus, et quod aduersarius noster aliter responderet cum alias uocati essemus. Et post triduum iterum uocati fuimus, et respondit tunc aduersarius noster.

' Carta can mean a sheet of writing material (hence possibly papyrus); see A. Giry, Manuel de Diplomatique (Paris, 1894), p. 495, and esp. n. 3, and it makes much better sense here if taken to mean the material of the document. It is just possible that what was shown to Innocent was a papyrus document, for he had seen such whereas Master Robert had obviously not. R. L. Poole (Lectures on the History of the Papal Chancery, (Cambridge, (915), p. 148) assumed it to be parchment, following Bresslau (i^ p. 19), and see M. Spaethen, *Giraldus Cambrensis und Thomas von Evesham über die von ihnen an der Kurie gefürhten Prozesse’, Neues Archiv, xxi (1906), 595—649, at p. 639. * For Innocent’s decretals on forgery, see X. V. 20 cc. 4-9 (Friedberg, ii cols. 817—

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and import of his arguments and rested the foundation of his whole case, were genuine, but they are forgeries. Indeed, the writing material! the style, the thread, and the bulla of Constantine's privileges are completely unknown in our land. What is more, the bearer of the indults of Clement and Celestine was a known forger named Nicholas of Warwick, and we therefore believe them to be false, and say the same about the others." 300. The pope instructed me to produce them, and I did so. He took them in his own hands and pulled between the bulla and the document to see if he could separate the bulla from the cord. Scrutinizing them very carefully, he then handed them to the cardinals for them to scrutinize, and when they had gone the rounds of them all they came back to the pope. Holding up the privilege of Constantine, he said ‘Privileges of this kind which are unknown to you are very well known to us, and could not be forged’; then holding up the letters, he said, “These are genuine’, and he returned them all to me. I am not going to tell you how fearful I was for myself, our church and our case, when the cardinals looked in turn at the privileges and when the pope handled them so roughly, for I could not describe it to you. Although I personally had nothing to be guilty about, I knew that the man who was the bearer of the letters, and happened to be an official messenger of the curia, was considered a forger; and about the privileges of Constantine, I was entirely ignorant. But when they were accepted as genuine I was overjoyed. This was the second interlocutory* judgment given in our favour. The first was when I was originally at Rome acting for the revocation of the jurisdiction of the judges [delegate] to prevent a possessory judgment? being given, though this interlocutory sentence the pope later revoked. 301. Since it was now time for dinner, the pope commanded that we should adjourn, and that our opponent should make his reply in opposition when we were summoned again. Three days later we were again summoned, and our opponent continued his speech in reply. 22). He was particularly concerned about the probity of the messengers who delivered letters. Unfortunately no more is known of Nicholas of Warwick. ? X. V. 20 c. 5 (Friedberg, ii cols. 818-19), provides nine tests for forgeries, drawing attention to a close examination of how the bulla was attached to the cords. Expert forgers might attach an authentic bulla to a forgery. ^ An interim sentence, dealing only with part of the matter in dispute. > A sentence giving possession.

300

fo. 160

fo.160"

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302. De secundo consistorio et de obiectione prescriptionis contra priuilegia *Pater sancte, si priuilegia uera sunt et uideantur operari pro eis, ad liber |tatem tamen nichil prosunt illis, quia eis usi non sunt. Immo episcopi Wigornenses e contrario in monachos et monasterium eorum iure communi! tanto tempore usi sunt quod contra eos et priuilegia eorum ius episcopale prescripsisse uidentur, sicut per depositiones testium sanctitati uestre plenissime patebit." 303. Et incipiens a capite allegationum mearum probauit per dicta testium omni exceptione maiorum quod episcopi contra omnia capitula priuilegiorum nostrorum iure communi in monasterio nostro usi erant, sicut in aliis diocesana lege sibi subiectis. Probauit enim per testes quod episcopi abbatibus nostris benedixerant, et quod abbates professionem eis fecerant, et quod episcopi in ecclesia nostra sollempniter cum processione admissi fuerant, et quod missas publicas et sollempnes in ecclesia nostra celebrauerant, et quod decreta eorum et statuta ibi admissa fuerant, et quod ab eis crisma et oleum et ordinationes receperimus, et quod abbas noster ad sinodum episcopi uenerat. Tunc conuersus ad me dominus papa dixit, ‘Procurator, responde." Prohibuerat enim ne aduocati loquerentur de facto, nisi de iure tantum et cum opus esset, quia dixit procuratores nosse factum et iura. Ego sciens quod hec omnia uentura erant super me,” bene premeditatus respondi. 304. De responsione Thome monachi contra obiectionem prescriptionis" ‘Pater sancte, nequaquam ita est ut dicit aduersarius noster. In nullo enim priuilegiis nostris abusi sumus, immo legittime et plenissime eis usi sumus, ita etiam quod prescriptione contra omnia iura episcopalia optime muniti sumus. Et si aliquando episcopi contra priuilegia nostra nitebantur uenire, per optimas contradictiones et iuris nostri et priuilegiorum nostrorum protestationes eorum malicie obuiauimus. Ita quod contra ecclesiam nostram numquam aliqua currere potuit prescriptio, sicut ex ipsis attestationibus sanctitas uestra liquido perpendet. Quod enim dicit episcopos Wigorn' abbatibus nostris benedixisse et abbates eis professionem fecisse uerum est, | sed ^ prescriptoris R

^ prescriptoris R

' See above, 245, and below, 303, 357, 381, 382. ^ John 18: 4.

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302. The second consistory and the charge of prescription made against the privileges ‘Holy father, even if the privileges are genuine and were to appear to operate in their favour, yet they are of no advantage to them so far as liberty is concerned, for they have not made use of them. On the contrary, bishops of Worcester have for so long a time used the ius commune’ against the monks and their monastery that they appear to have asserted episcopal right by prescription against them and their privileges, as will be abundantly clear to your holiness in the depositions of witnesses.’ 303. Beginning with the chief of my arguments he proved through the statements of witnesses, using every extract of the more important of them, that bishops, contrary to the clauses of our privileges, had used the ius commune in the case of our monastery as in that of other monasteries subject to them under diocesan law. Through the statements of witnesses he proved that bishops had given blessing to our abbots, that abbots had made profession to them, that bishops had been formally admitted into our church in procession, that they had celebrated solemn masses publicly in our church, that their decrees and statutes had been accepted there, that we had received chrism, oil, and ordinations from them, and that our abbot had attended the bishop’s synod. Turning to me, the pope said, ‘Proctor, make your reply.’ He had forbidden the advocates to speak about the facts of the case, unless they concerned the law, and then only when necessary, because he said proctors know the facts and the rights. Knowing that I would be faced with all these matters,” and so having thought about them beforehand, I made my reply. 304. The reply of Thomas the monk to the argument of prescription ‘Holy father, it is not at all as our opponent says. In no respect have we failed to use our privileges, rather have we made the fullest legitimate use of them as to have been very well protected by prescription against all episcopal rights. If bishops endeavoured at any time to oppose our privileges we met their ill intent with the excellent counter-arguments of our rights and the counter-evidence of our privileges. The result was that no prescription was ever able to operate against our church, as your holiness will clearly judge from the written statements of the witnesses themselves. Our opponent’s statement that bishops of Worcester gave blessing to our abbots, and that abbots made profession to them is true, but these things were

302

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capitulo Eueshamensi contradicente hec facta sunt et abbatibus protestantibus quod saluis priuilegiis suis hec fecerunt sicut per tales testes probatur." Quod autem dicit episcopos Wigornie cum sollempni processione fuisse a nobis admissos uerum est, set cum protestatione priuilegiorum et caritatiue et pro ecclesiis que non probantur exempte hec fecimus" sicut illi testes probant. Ad missas etiam sollempnes eos admisimus‘ set uocatos sicut in priuilegio Innocentii pape continetur et sicut tales testes probant. Quod autem dicit statuta episcoporum fuisse a nobis admissa falsum est. Immo statuta Henrici episcopi! ab abbate nostro penitus fuerunt apud Fladeburiam refutata et reiecta post traditionem. Et decreta eciam episcopi lohannis? postquam lecta fuerunt in capitulo omnino a saniori parte capituli contradicta et refutata fuerunt sicut plenissime per hos et illos testes probatur. Quod uero sacramenta ecclesiastica ab eis recepimus, hoc nobis non nocet quia secundum priuilegium Alexandri pape hoc nobis licet a quo maluerimus episcopo facere;' et cum protestatione talis libertatis et auctoritate priuilegii illius hoc fecimus. Et caritatiue petiuimus et accepimus sicut per tales testes probatur. Quod autem abbas noster ad sinodum uenit non nocet, quia pro membris que non probantur exempta hoc fecit, et hoc ibi publice protestatus est sicut illi testes probant.

fo. 160°”

305. De disputatione aduocatorum circa usum et abusum priuilegiorum et prescriptionem et interruptionem per tres audientias Tunc dominus papa conuersus ad aduocatos dixit, ‘Ecce instructi sumus de facto per procuratores. Nunc autem instruatis nos de iure circa usum et abusum priuilegiorum et circa prescriptionem et interruptionem, et cum deliberatione cum uocati fueritis." 306. Et recessimus. Et post aliquot dies uocati sumus. Tunc aduocati nostri tam illa die quam iterum post aliquot dies per duas uidelicet audientias quam egregie et subtiliter fere omnes utriusque iuris, canonici uidelicet | et ciuilis, apices et difficultates in allegationibus circa usum et abusum priuilegiorum et prescriptionem ^ marg. Nota quod nullus prior celle nostre (ins.) nec aliquis eiusdem debet facere obedienciam episcopo. Et conpulsus debet dicere saluis priuilegiis monasterii nostri (s. xv?) ^ tio to three words erased after fecimus and before sicut * one to tmo words erased after admisimus and before set ! el. 4 Dec., cons. 12 Dec. 1193, d. 24 or 25 Oct. 1195; HBC, p. 279. The statutes in question are not known to have survived. * el. Jan., cons. 20 Oct. 1196, d. 24 Sept. 1198; ibid. * For Alexander III’s privilege, see below, 332-6.

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done despite the opposition of the Evesham chapter, and with the protestation of the abbots that they did these things saving their privileges, and the witnesses’ evidence proves this. His contention that we admitted bishops of Worcester in a solemn procession is true, but we did so saving our privileges and in a spirit of love, and only for the churches that do not have proof of exemption, as the witnesses' evidence proves. We admitted bishops even to solemn masses, but they were invited, as the privilege of Pope Innocent provides, and the evidence of the witnesses proves. His statement that the statutes of bishops were accepted by us, however, is false. Indeed, the statutes of Bishop Henry [de Soilli]' were utterly refuted and rejected by our abbot at Fladbury after they were handed over. When the decrees of Bishop John [of Coutances]! had been read in chapter they were completely opposed and rejected by the wiser section of the chapter, and this is fully proved by the various witnesses. It is not prejudicial to our case that we received church sacraments from bishops because, according to the privilege of Pope Alexander [III], we are allowed to receive them from any bishop of our choosing,’ and we have done this still affirming the liberty to do so and on the authority of that privilege. We have asked for, and received, this service in a spirit of love, as is proved by the appropriate witnesses’ evidence. Again, it is not prejudicial to our case that our abbot went to a synod, because he did this on behalf of those dependencies which have no proof of exemption, and this was publicly proclaimed there, as the witnesses' evidence proves.’ 305. The disagreement of the advocates in the three hearings over the use and lack of use of the privileges, and over prescription and interruption in the exercise of prescriptive rights Then the pope turned to the advocates and said, ‘We have been instructed by the proctors upon the facts. You must now instruct us upon the law relating to the use and lack of use of privileges, and relating to prescription and interruption, and must do so with deliberation, since you have been summoned.’ 306. We withdrew. Then several days later we were summoned. That day, and again on an occasion several days later, our advocates cleverly and subtly exhausted in the two hearings almost all the finer points and difficulties of both branches of the law, canon and civil, relating to the arguments about the use and lack of use of privileges

304

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et interruptionem exhauserint. Supersedeo dicere quia non possem uobis edicere. 307. In secundo uero consistorio dixit dominus papa, 'Sufficit usque huc dixisse de hiis. Nunc autem, procuratores, redite ad priuilegia et per ea de iure ecclesiarum uestrarum sufficientius nos instruite quando uocati fueritis'. Et exiuimus. Post aliquot dies uocati comparuimus et dixit magister Robertus. 308. De quinto consistorio et de allegationibus magistri Rodberti super interpretatione priuilegiorum ‘Pater sancte, prima die proposuit aduersarius noster quedam capitula priuilegiorum suorum per que nitebatur ostendere monasterium suum esse liberum et exemptum. Set ego uideo quedam capitula in eisdem priuilegiis predictis sibi repugnantia. Vnde michi uidetur quod cum priuilegia sibi adinuicem sint contraria nullius sunt momenti, uel saltem ad plenam libertatem insufficientia cum per ipsa priuilegia quedam iura episcopalia in monasterio illo episcopo nostro reseruentur. Dicit enim Constantinus quod abbas eiusdem loci primum locum post Wictiorum presulem! sua auctoritate iugiter optineat. Set cum locum illum nec in generali consilio nec prouinciali possit optinere, quia hoc alu episcopi inferiores nostro non permitterent, restat ut ad sinodum episcopalem ueniat, et ibi locum illum optineat et sic episcopo subitiatur. In priuilegio uero Alexandri continetur quod Wigornenses episcopi aliquid iniuste ab eis non exigant set hiis tantum contenti sint que antecessores eorum^ antecessoribus suis constat rationabiliter exhibuisse. Ergo constat antecessores eorum aliquid antecessoribus episcoporum rationabiliter impendisse. Ergo episcopi aliquid petere possunt et ipsi hoc eis exhibere tenentur. Ergo episcopo in aliquo subitiuntur; ergo non sunt plene exempti, uel potius, cum nullus possit esse in parte liber et in parte seruus," nullo modo sunt exempti.

" quod add

^ followed by aliquid struck through

! See X. V. 33. 17 (Friedberg, ii cols. 862—4). In 1219, Abbot Randulf appealed that, although mitred, he was not given the place after the bishop at the synod called by Bishop William of Blois; see ‘Annales de Wigornia’, Ann. Mon., iv. 411.

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and about prescription and interruption. I refrain from telling you what they said for I could not repeat it. 307. In the second consistory the pope said, ‘Enough has now been said on these subjects. Return now to the privileges, proctors, and instruct us more fully upon the rights of your churches when you are summoned.' We departed. On being summoned several days later we made our appearance. Then Master Robert spoke.

308. The fifih consistory, and the arguments of Master Robert about the interpretation of the privileges *Holy father, on the first day our opponent laid before us certain sections of his privileges by means of which he was endeavouring to show that his monastery was free and exempt. However, I see some sections in those same privileges that contradict one another. Hence, it seems to me that, because there are privileges that oppose one another, then they are of no importance, or at least of insufficient competence to allow full liberty because in those same privileges certain episcopal rights are reserved in that monastery for our bishop. For Constantine states that the abbot of the same place should on his own authority always hold the first place after the bishop of the Hwicce.' But as he could not hold that position either in a general council or in a provincial council, because the other bishops, though less important, would not allow this, it remains for him to come to the episcopal synod and to hold that place there and so be subject to the bishop. In the privilege of Alexander [III] it is stated that bishops of Worcester should not make any unjust demands upon the abbots but be content with those things alone which it is agreed the abbots’ predecessors had reasonably rendered to the bishops' predecessors. It is agreed therefore that the abbots' predecessors had reasonably rendered some things to the bishops’ predecessors. Therefore bishops can make some demands of them, and the abbots are bound to meet them. The abbots are therefore subject to the bishops in some measure; they are not therefore fully exempt, or rather, since no one can be partly free and partly a slave,’ abbots are in no respect exempt.’

? ‘Cum nullus possit esse in parte liber, etc.’ is probably a comment on /nstitutes 1.3 pr. ‘Omnes homines aut liberi sunt aut serui’, deliberately echoing /nstitutes 2. 14. 5. Cf. de Zulueta and Stein, Teaching of Roman Law in England, pp. 12, 49, and lxi.

306 fo. 161™

fo. 161°

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309. | De subtilissima responsione Thome monachi et aduocatorum eius circa interpretationem priuilegiorum“ Et cum perorasset respondi ego dicens, ‘Mirum michi uidetur qualiter aduersarius noster ponere os in celum ausus sit,’ dicens priuilegia Romani pontificis nullius esse momenti cum etiam instar sit sacrilegii de sententia eius disputare. Cum enim dicta testium secundum leges ita sint interpretanda ut sibi adinuicem non sint contraria, ne testes periurii arguantur, multo fortius priuilegia summi pontificis benigne sunt interpretanda, ut sicut nunquam possunt esse inania ita nec sibi unquam sint contraria." 310. Et post hec responderunt aduocati nostri quod absque preiudicio libertatis ecclesie nostre poterat abbas ad sinodum episcopi uenire et ibi locum primum optinere, set non pro capite set pro membris que non probantur exempta. Et statuta episcoporum que illa membra contingunt recipere et seruare absque libertatis nostre lesione. Sic enim necesse est et nos aliorum episcoporum in quorum episcopatibus beneficia ecclesiastica habemus, si uocati fuerimus, sinodos adire, et quoad illa beneficia eorum statuta seruare, non tamen ipsi in monasterio nostro uel in nobis aliquam possunt exercere iurisdictionem. Simili modo dixerunt illud Alexandri intelligendum, uidelicet quod aliquid tenebamur exhibere episcopis pro membris que nondum probantur exempta, sicut et aliis episcopis pro beneficiis que habemus in eorum episcopatibus. Et subticuerunt aduocati. 311. Dominus uero papa conuersus ad me dixit, "Procurator, uisne aliter respondere hiis, ut si forte capitula ista non possint intelligi de membris, quod illis de capite intellectis monasterium uestrum conseruetur illesum, liberum et exemptum?! Ego uero, qui ab initio cause hec duo capitula fere usque ad mortem timueram, uidens quod timor quem timueram iam euenit michi. Quia iacula que preuidentur minus feriunt, bene premeditatus, dixi, ‘Pater sancte, ego hec de capite bene expono, et ne libertatem nostram in aliquo ledant eis multipliciter respondeo.’ | Et dominus papa dixit, "Non credimus.' Et dixi, ‘Deo propitio, faciam.' Et respondi, ‘Bene “ The heading is incorrectly indicated to be placed after sint contraria at the end of the paragraph marg. priuilegia Romani pontificis benigne sunt interpretanda (2s. xv) “ marg. Responsio procuratoris nostri (s. xv) ^ marg. Responsio (s. xv) ! Cf. Ps. 72: 9 (73: 9). * The origin of this idea is in the Roman law, Code 9. 29. 2, whence Gratian, Decretum C 17 Q. 4 p. €. 29 Sr. 2 (Friedberg, i cols. 822—3). It is found in a letter of Innocent III of 1203 (Reg. Inn. IIT, vi no. 75 (P 1925) p.114 and n. ror), ‘quod . . . legitime non fuisset, cum instar sacrilegii sit de statutis principum iudicare'.

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309. The astute reply of Thomas the monk and his advocates on the interpretation of the privileges When he had finished his speech, I replied in these words: ‘I consider it amazing that our opponent should set his mouth against the heavens! and say that the privileges of the Roman pontiff are of no importance, for it is tantamount to sacrilege to question the pope's judgment.^ Just as the statements of witnesses made in accordance with the law must be so interpreted as not to conflict with one another, lest witnesses be accused of perjury, much more important is it that the privileges of the high pontiff be generously interpreted so that, as they can never be foolish, they may never conflict with one another.’ 310. After this our advocates replied that the abbot could go to the episcopal synod and hold first position there without prejudice to the liberty of our church, but not on behalf of the mother church, only on behalf of the dependencies which do not have proof of exemption. They said that he could receive and observe decrees of bishops which concern those dependencies without detriment to our liberty. Indeed, it is necessary for us not only to go, if summoned, to the synods of other bishops in whose dioceses we have ecclesiastical benefices, but also to observe their decrees while we hold those benefices, but they have no power to exercise any jurisdiction in our monastery or over us. In similar terms the advocates said that Alexander’s privilege must be understood to mean that we were bound to render something to the bishops on behalf of the dependencies which do not yet have proof of exemption, just as we do to other bishops for the benefices we hold in their dioceses. The advocates said no more. 311. The pope turned to me and said, ‘Proctor, do you wish to refute these arguments, on the grounds that even if those sections of the privileges perhaps cannot be understood to apply to the dependencies, being understood to apply to the mother church, your monastery will be preserved unharmed, free and exempt?’ Indeed, I had been frightened almost to death from the outset of the suit by these two articles, and saw that the fear which I had experienced was now being realized. However, just as darts which are foreseen have less impact, I was well prepared in mind and said, ‘Holy father, I am going to give a full explanation of these arguments that concern the mother church and make various assertions in my reply to them to prevent them harming our liberty in any respect.’ The pope replied, ‘We do not believe this possible. My response was, ‘With God's help

308

fo. 161

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concedo quod abbas noster in sinodo episcopali primum locum post episcopum obtineat, set non ratione abbatie uel menbrorum set ut nuncius uester et minister.“ Sic enim dicit Constantinus, ut “locum primum post Wicciorum presulem auctoritate nostra iugiter obtineat"; non dicit quod auctoritate propria ut abbas uel ut persona alicuius ecclesie set ut missus uester. Si queritis ad quid missus, dico ad hoc, ut uideat ne episcopus aliquid contra priuilegia Romani pontificis statuta, et ne ecclesiam domini pape, uidelicet Eueshamensem, in aliquo ledat. Et hoc dico ad similitudinem illius quod idem papa Constantinus Britwaldo Brittanniarum primati in eodem priuilegio precipit, dicens, ‘Tue fraternitati denuntiamus quatinus ecclesias Dei per Brittanniam dispositas, tua ipsius et sanctorum apostolorum auctoritate protegas, ne quis peruasor cuiuscumque ordinis a Deo et nobis constituta priuilegia subruat. Inter quas eam que nuperrime a uenerabili uiro Ecguuino nostra et regia auctoritate constituta est tue ditioni precipue submittimus, ut tibi et posteris tuis potestate diuinitus concessa ab omni eam aduersariorum impugnatione liberam in perpetuum reddas."' Cum igitur gratia uestri et in priuilegio nostro domino Cantuariensi precipitur ut priuilegia nostra et ecclesiam nostram protegat et defendat, quis dixerit hoc abbati nostro pro propria ecclesia’ et in proprio priuilegio non esse iniunctum, maxime cum absurdum esset archiepiscopum qui nos tueri tenetur, propter hoc ad sinodum episcopi uenire. Relinquitur ergo abbati faciendum, quod facere^ non potest archiepiscopus, ut uidelicet abbas intersit synodo episcopi ad tuitionem priuilegiorum nostrorum. Et hoc auctoritate domini pape non aliqua sua propria necessitate. 312. 'Quod autem |* dicit Alexander quod Wigornenses episcopi hiis contenti sint que antecessores nostros antecessoribus suis constat rationabiliter" exhibuisse. Cum non constet antecessores nostros antecessoribus suis aliquid rationabiliter exhibuisse et iam productionibus testium sit renuntiatum, et non probauerunt aliquid fuisse eis rationabiliter a predecessoribus nostris exhibitum. Constat nos nichil debere eis exhibere. Non enim hoc nomen que hic aliquid implicat a

marg. Nota optime quod abbas debet interesse sinodo episcopi non ratione abbatie uel

membrorum set ut nuncius [pape] (s. xv) “ marg. Nota hiis(?) bene (s. xv)

^ followed by et in propria ecclesia expunged

“ followed by non facere struck through

* Top of

Jo. lefi margin R* penbrok (s. xv). (Richard Pembroke was elected abbot in 1460) / constat expunged * marg. Nota quod abbas non debet facere episcopo Wyg’ non sub conditione aliquod(?) obsequen(?) ad [pape?] non expressat’ in bull’ (2s. xv)

IDOIORSDUISPATRCIDE

309

I shall succeed.’ I went on, ‘I readily admit that our abbot may hold first place after the bishop in the episcopal synod, but this is not in respect of the abbey or the dependencies, but because he is your messenger and minister. For Constantine puts it like this, **Let him hold for ever the first place after the bishop of the Hwicce on our authority"; he does not say that he should hold it on his own authority as abbot or as parson of any church, but as your representative. If you ask "representative for what?", I say for this, that he may see that the bishop does not make any decree against the privileges of the Roman pontiff, and does not in any way harm the pope's church at Evesham. I say this to comply with the command which the same Pope Constantine gave to Berhtwald, primate of Britain, in the same privilege when he said, We command you, brother, to protect the churches of God scattered throughout Britain, by your own authority and that of the holy apostles, so that no assailant of any rank may undermine the privileges instituted by God and us. Amongst these churches we especially place under your authority that church most recently founded by the venerable Ecgwine under our authority and that of the king, to ensure that by the power divinely granted to you and your successors you keep it for ever free from all assaults of its enemies." Since therefore it is by your favour and in our privilege that the archbishop of Canterbury is commanded to protect and defend our privileges and our church, who could say that this command has not been given to our abbot on behalf of his own church and in respect of his own privilege, especially since it would be absurd for the archbishop himself, who is bound to protect us, to come to the bishop’s synod for this purpose? It remains to say therefore that the abbot must do what the archbishop cannot do, attend the bishop’s synod to protect our privileges: he does this on the authority of the pope, not because

he needs to do so on his own account. 312. ‘Pope Alexander says that the bishops of Worcester should be content with those things which it is agreed our predecessors regularly rendered to their predecessors. Since, however, it is not agreed that our predecessors regularly rendered anything to their predecessors and any suggestion that they did has been repudiated by the evidence submitted by witnesses, our opponents have not proved that anything was regularly rendered to them by our predecessors. It is established therefore that we are under no obligation to render ! See below, 324.

310

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

nec implicite ponitur. Set magis quasi sub conditione dicitur," ut is sit sensus, quod Wigornenses episcopi hiis contenti sint que, id est, si que, antecessores nostros antecessoribus suis constat rationabiliter exhibuisse. Si enim domino pape constitisset quod antecessores nostri antecessoribus episcopi aliquid impendissent, illud expressisset. Set quia de nullo exhibito uel exhibendo ei constitit, ideo sub conditione dixit et probandum quod esset exhibendum episcopo reliquit. Ergo cum nichil probauit exhibitum, nichil est exhibendum.'* 313. Et ad hanc interpretationem confirmandam quasdam leges quas a domino Assone," tunc temporis legum dominorum domino Bononie,’ non sine precio didiceram, induxi. Cum igitur conclusissem, et placuisset ei simulque assidentibus, ut michi uidebatur, dixit michi dominus papa, ‘Visne amplius allegare?' Et ego, ‘Pater sancte, sufficit michi: peto sententiam nisi aduersarius noster aliud dixerit. Et respiciens ad aduersarium nostrum, dixit, ‘Renuntias tu allegationibus?’ Et ille, ‘Renuntio.” Et dominus papa, ‘Discedite, et scribite nobis summatim allegationes uestras et detis nobis hac die. Et confidite in Domino et per gratiam Dei in breui habebitis sententiam." Et recedentes uterque nostrum seorsum suas scripsit allegationes. Nos uero breuius, quam hic sint scripte et subtilius et melius. Et tradidimus eas domino pape in uespera.

fo. 161'*

314. De ieiunio,! orationibus et elemosinis Thome monachi postquam in causa fuit conclusum et allegationibus renuntiatum Tunc bene sciens ego quod iam ad humanas rationes nullus erat recursus, | ad diuina presidia, sanctorum uidelicet suffragia, elemosinas, orationes et ieiunia sum conuersus. Erat autem feria quinta, dies scilicet Iouis ante natiuitatem Domini que instante die Dominica erat celebranda, et circumiui loca sanctorum commendans eis me et causam ecclesie mee. Et cuilibet egeno tam petenti quam non petenti de bonis ecclesie conferens, in continua oratione ieiunus permansi usque ad sabbatum postquam lata fuit pro nobis sentencia.) Sabbato " marg. Nota sub conditione fit quicquid fit episcopo Wig’ (2s. xv) ^ marg. Nota optime (?s. xv) * marg. Nota sententiam (?s. xv) " marg. Nota sententiam doct[oris] Assonis Bononie (2s. xv) * jeunio R

' Azo was the leading glossator at the time, see H. Lange, Rómisches Recht im Mittelalter, i: Die Glossatoren (Munich, 1997), pp. 257—71, for his influence and writings, and ‘Azzone’ in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, iv. 774—81. It was said that he who did not have Azo's Summa ‘should not go to court’, cited P. Stein, Roman Law in Medieval History (Cambridge, 1999), p. 48.

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31I

anything to them. Indeed, this expression which things" does not imply, nor implicitly specify, any actual thing. Rather it is a hypothetical statement, so that the sense is that the bishops of Worcester should be content with those things, that is, if there are any things, which it is agreed our predecessors regularly rendered to their predecessors. Indeed, if the pope had been convinced that our predecessors had paid anything to the predecessors of the bishop he would have said so. But because he was not convinced that anything was rendered or ought to be rendered, he spoke hypothetically, and left it to be proved that some service was rendered to the bishop. Since no proof has been forthcoming that anything was rendered, there is no obligation for anything to be rendered now.’ 313. In order to corroborate this interpretation I referred to certain laws which I had learned—not without expense—from Azo, at that time the leading lawyer at Bologna.! When I had concluded my speech, and the pope and the judges sitting with him were satisfied, as it seemed to me, the pope said to me, ‘Do you wish to put forward any further arguments?’ I said, ‘No, holy father, I am satisfied: I ask for sentence, unless our opponent has anything else to say.’ Looking at our opponent he said, ‘Do you reject their arguments?’ And he replied, ‘I do.’ So the pope then said, ‘Go and make written summaries of your arguments and give them to us today. Then put your trust in the Lord, and by God's grace you will soon receive sentence.’ Each of us went off to our separate quarters and wrote out our arguments. I did it more concisely than is recorded here, and better and more subtly. We then handed them over to the pope that evening. 314. The fasting, praying, and almsgiving of Thomas the monk afier the conclusion of the case and the rejection of the charges Well aware then that I had no recourse to human solutions, I turned to divine protection, that is to the intercession of the saints, to almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. It was the Thursday before Christmas,” which was to be celebrated this year on a Sunday, so I travelled around the holy places commending myself and the cause of my church to the saints. I bestowed alms from the church upon any needy person I met who asked for them as well as upon those who did not ask for them, and I persisted in prayer and fasting until the Saturday after the sentence was given in our favour.’ Very early on ? 22 Dec. 1205.

3 31 Dec.

HISTORY

312

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

uero summo mane! accessi ad curiam et, cuiuslibet cardinalis ingredientis pedes^ tenens, magis lacrimis quam uerbis motum animi mei indicaui, ut scilicet seruorum suorum et ecclesie sue

misererentur. Supplicaui et tam miserabiliter quod non solum cardinales set etiam aduersarii mei et omnes qui me uiderunt mei miserebantur. Tandem perseuerante me in oratione, circa horam diei nonam exiuit de thalamo dominus papa cum cardinalibus. Et cum sedisset uocati sumus procuratores Eueshamie et Wigornie. Et confortatus" sum eo quod preponerent me aduersario meo in casu illo, quamuis fere semper ita consueuerant apparitores, multociens enim benefeceram eis ut liberiorem haberem ingressum; idem enim ibi sunt apparitores et hostiarii. Et cum staremus sicut consueuimus ex aduerso ad inuicem, dixit dominus papa, ‘State simul in medio, iam enim non est lis inter uos‘ quia pacificata sunt omnia’. Et non intellexi primum quid loqueretur, set postquam spiritus sanctus datus est nobis? per sententiam domini pape, omnia nuda et aperta erant oculis meis. Et cum coniungeremur, dixit dominus papa.

fo. 162^

315. De sententia domini [pape] et aduentu magistri Ade monachi ad curiam ‘Causam que uertebatur inter uenerabilem fratrem ^nostrum Wigornensem episcopum et dilectos filios nostros abbatem et conuentum Eueshamie super subieccione et exemptione cenobii Eueshamensis diligentissi |me examinauimus. Et inspectis priuilegiis et attestationibus et perspicaciter intellectis, eam sentencialiter determinauimus.* Et in scriptum redigi fecimus et preter consuetudinem nostram per scripturam eam recitari uolumus'. 316. Et surgens magister Philippus primus notariorum, postea Troianus episcopus, dixit, *Abbati et fratribus Eueshamensis cenobii, et cetera’. Et cum audissem quod scriberet nobis, reuixit spiritus d

^ marg. d

Nota bene (s. xv)

marg. Nota sententiam pape

marginal note

id marg. Nota processu(?m) gau.. (s. xc) “nos R * decreuimus mritten above in the hand of the scribe of the

/ marg. sententia lata

124 Dec. ) Cf. John r5: 26.

* Cf. Gen. 3: 7. * This is probably the papal official who acted as tax collector in England, arriving before 24 Apr. 1200. He presumably did not stay long, as he was on legation in Germany in 1201~2, but as C. R. Cheney states (‘Master Philip the notary and the fortieth of 1199’, EHR lxii (1948), 342-50), there were two notaries called Master Philip, so the identification is not certain. He became bishop of Troja (Foggia, prov. Apulia) in 1212

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the Saturday morning,’ I went to the curia and, grasping the feet of any cardinal who was entering, I showed my feelings more by my tears than by my words to gain their pity for their servants and their church. So pitiable was my supplication that not only the cardinals but also my opponents and all who saw me pitied me. At last, while I was still at my prayers, at three o'clock in the afternoon the pope came out of his chamber with the cardinals. When he had sat down the proctors of Evesham and Worcester were summoned. I was encouraged by the fact that they placed me in front of my opponent on that occasion, though the ushers had almost always done this, for I had on many occasions rewarded them so that I might get in more easily (the summoners there are the same as the doorkeepers). When we stood, as we were accustomed to do, facing each other, the pope said, ‘Stand together before me, for there is no lawsuit between you now, as everything has been settled.’ At first I did not understand what he meant, but after the Holy Spirit was given to us^ through the sentence of the pope, everything was unveiled and my eyes were opened. When we were standing side by side the pope spoke. 315. The sentence of the pope and the arrival ofthe monk, Master Adam [Sortes], at the curia ‘We have most carefully examined the case which has been argued between our reverend brother, the bishop of Worcester, and our beloved sons, the abbot and convent of Evesham, about the subjection or exemption of the monastery of Evesham. The privileges and the testimony of witnesses have been examined and clearly understood, and we have come to a decision on the sentence. We have had this put in writing and, in accordance with our custom, we wish the sentence

to be read out from the document.’ 316. Master Philip, the senior notary

and afterwards

Troja,* rose

and

said, ‘To

the abbot

brethren

bishop of of Evesham

monastery, etc.’ When I heard that the document was addressed to (P. B. Gams, Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae a beato Petro apostolo (Leipzig, 1931), P- 937). On the primicerius notariorum, the senior notary, cf. M. Tangl, Die pápstlichen Kanzleiordnungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck, 1894), pp. 62 n. 5, 63 nn. 20, 21, and 65 n. 6. There is little on the curial notaries as early as this, but see P. Herde, ‘Offentliche Notare

an der papstlichen Kurie im dreizehnten und beginnenden vierzehnten Jahrhundert’, Studien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters: Jürgen Petersohn zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. M. Thumser, A Wenz-Haubfleisch, and P. Wiegand (Stuttgart, 2000), pp. 239-59, at

239-40.

314

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

meus. Noui enim modum scribendi domini pape per moram quam feceram in curia, quod multum profuit cause nostre, quia non scriberet nisi uictori. Vnde cum episcopus habeat eandem sententiam quam et nos procurator eius non potuit impetrare ut in sententia episcopi scriberet episcopo set nobis sicut et in nostra. Et cum legisset sententiam latam pro nobis, iuimus ad pedes domini pape tam uictus quam uictor, ut mos est, gratias agentes. Et cum inclinarem me ad osculandum pedes domini pape, tum pre gaudio tum pre ieiunio defecit spiritus meus et factus sum fere exanimatus, ita quod non potui surgere et^ precepit dominus papa ut subleuarer. Et cum iam quasi a graui sompno euigilassem, dixit dominus papa ut acciperem notam et diligenter inspicerem si forte quid esset corrigendum et nuntiarem el. Et, accepta benedictione, cum nota recessi gaudens. Et cum uenissem ad hostium, inueni magistrum Adam Sortem^ stantem; qui uenerat tunc ab Anglia cum quibusdam instrumentis. Et suscepto eo in osculo pacis, cum simul cibum sumpsissemus, confortati sumus, gratias agentes Deo pro omnibus benefitiis suis, qui fecit nobiscum secundum magnam misericordiam suam,' qui uiuit et regnat per omnia secula seculorum. Amen? 317. Transcripta priuilegiorum quorum auctoritate sententia lata fuit pro exemptione Eueshamensis ecclesie In hoc loco tam ipsa priuilegia quorum auctoritate sententia pro nobis lata est quam ipsam sententiam per quam quasi ab Egyptiaca seruitute liberati sumus, huic scripto interserenda bonum et utile putaui.

fo. 162/^

318. Primum priuilegium Constantini pape * | Constantinus? episcopus seruus seruorum Dei Brithwaldo' /ecclesiarum^ Brittanniarum/ primati salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Venerabilem uirum. Ecgwinum episcopum quem bis tua fraternitas ad apostolicam sedem misit, etiam nunc secundo manipulis iustitie refertum tibi remittimus, monentes quatinus sic suos effectus adiuuando prosequaris sicuti illum a Deo incepisse et in uia Dei cucurrisse cognouisti. 319. Porro de uisione illa, immo aperta ostensione qua se beata uirgo a : b . interlined marg. Adam magister et monachus * The text appears also in H and V: variants from R are reported below Gaia * Brihtwaldo H

’’ Britanniarum ecclesie /7; Brittaniarum ecclesie /

! 1 Pet. 1: 3; Titus 3: 5, et al.

* ecclesiarum struck through

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315

us, my spirit revived. During my stay in the curia I had learned of the pope's manner of writing (which was of considerable benefit to our cause) that he addressed only the victorious party in writing. Now since the bishop has the same sentence as we do, his proctor could not demand that in the bishop's [copy of the] sentence the pope should address it to the bishop in writing, for it had to be addressed to us, as in our [copy of the] sentence. When he had read the sentence which had been given in our favour, we both approached the pope's feet as vanquished and victor and expressed our thanks as was the custom. I then bent to kiss the pope's feet, but my spirit failed me because of my joy, and my weakness through fasting, and I all but fainted. As I could not get up the pope gave instructions that I should be helped up. When I came to my senses as if after a deep sleep, the pope said that I would receive a draft and that I should examine it carefully to see 1f anything in it required correcting and bring it to his attention. Then after receiving his blessing, I left overjoyed with the draft. When I reached the door I found Master Adam Sortes standing there; he had just arrived from England with some documents. After greeting each other with a kiss of peace, we had a meal together, and then, being in good heart, we gave thanks to God for all his benefits who had dealt with us according to his great mercy,! who

lives and reigns for ever and ever, Amen.” 317. Transcripts of the privileges on whose authority the sentence was given in favour of the exemption of the church of Evesham At this point I have thought it right and beneficial to insert in this written account not only the actual privileges on whose authority the sentence was given in our favour, but also the sentence itself by which we were freed, as it were, from slavery in Egypt. 318. The first privilege of Pope Constantine Constantine, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Berhtwald, primate of the churches of Britain, greeting and apostolic benediction. We are now sending back to you a second time, with his hands filled with justice, the venerable bishop Ecgwine, whom you have twice sent to the apostolic see. We advise you to assist and promote his accomplishments, knowing that he has begun the course with God and is continuing in the way of God. 319. Concerning the vision, or indeed this open manifestation by ? A common ending to a collect.

316

fo. 162"

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

Maria ei manifestauit, eque ita certum esse teneamus quemadmodum de uiri bonitate non dubitamus.^ Denique uigilantiam tuam admonemus quatinus ilis in partibus in quibus manifestatio habita fuisse refertur concilium^ tocius Anglie cogas, episcopos sacrique' ordinis religiosas personas illuc conuenire facias, optimatesque regni cum proceribus suis adesse precipias. 320. Quibus in nomine Domini congregatis denuntiamus quod duo reges Anglie, Kenredus et Offa, cum quibus iamdictus episcopus ad limina apostolorum uenit, in loco ostense uisionis plurima de suis beneficiis in presentia nostra regia libertate donata et apostolica auctoritate confirmata contulerunt, quatinus ibidem congregatio monachorum secundum regulam memorandi patris Benedicti, que minus in illis partibus adhuc habetur, possit instaurari et indesinenter Christo famulari. Ipsas autem donationes et beneficia prefati reges in ipsorum priuilegio nominatim determinauerunt et a nobis corroborari fecerunt. Igitur, frater dilecte, quoquomodo Christus annuntietur lucrum Christi inquire,’ opus Christi exerce, promulgatisque in concilio undique^ sententiis tum a Deo ostense uisionis, tum apostolice auctoritatis, tum regie libertatis et donationis, tum tui ipsius clerique et populi assensus | et fauoris, constitue ouile Christo, diuinitus

ostensum,

apostolica

auctoritate.

fultum,

regia

libertate

donatum, cleri et populi benedictione sancitum. 321. Tibi autem et successoribus tuis, memorato episcopo Ecgwino” assentiente, curam animarum eiusdem ecclesie precipue iniungimus ut si, quod absit, aliquo diaboli impulsu quisquam peruasor aut tirannus sacrum locum minuere aut impugnare presumpserit, tibi a Deo concesse potestatis sententia et anathematis percussus uerbere, complere non audeat. Si quid uero sinistre partis inibi compertum fuerit oriri, auribus summi pontificis patrie potius deferatur quam per alicuius occultam sententiam sanctus locus deprauetur iniuste." 322. lpsum ergo locum quem regia potestas regie libertati donauit et nos auctoritate Dei et sanctorum apostolorum et nostra donamus ut nullus cuiuscumque ordinis hom*o hoc quod constituimus deprauare aut minuere^ presumat. Qui hoc destruxerit aut male contaminauerit sit ille maledictus. Qui uero conseruauerit’ et adauxerit benedictionibus repleatur. " marg. Visio concilitium |

beate

Virginis beato que om. H

Egwino

est auctorizata ab ecclesia (s. xv) ^ marg. reges Kenredus Offa (s. xv)

* marg. nota exortationes [? pape erased] / require * concilio and undique om. V. h' Egwino o ouri anise 1 marg. contra peruasores episcopo H |5 ecclesie1 nostre sententia1 excommunicationis (s. xv) !/ iniuste deprauetur H |” * diminuere H

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317

which the blessed Virgin Mary showed herself, we hold it to be just as certain as we do not doubt the man's goodness. Finally we advise you to be watchful and to call a council of all England in those parts in which the manifestation is said to have occurred, to have the bishops and religious of a holy order assemble there, and to instruct the magnates to attend together with their followers. 320. We proclaim to those who are gathered in the name of the Lord that two kings of England, Cenred and Offa, with whom the said bishop came to the threshold of the apostles, have in our presence granted very many of their beneficences in the place where the vision was revealed, and these were given with royal liberty and confirmed by apostolic authority. This is so that in that place a congregation of monks can be installed and for ever serve Christ in accordance with the Rule of the memorable father Benedict which is as yet little observed in those parts. The aforesaid kings have named those gifts and beneficences in their privilege, and have had them ratified by us. "Therefore, beloved brother, seek the good of Christ in whatever way it may redound to Christ's glory; carry out Christ's work; and having set out in council overall the opinions both of the vision shewn by God, of apostolic authority, of royal endowment and liberty, and of the consent of your own clergy and people, establish for Christ a flock which has been divinely revealed, supported by apostolic authority, granted the royal liberty, and ratified by the blessing of the clergy and the people. 321. Especially do we lay upon you and your successors, with Bishop Ecgwine's consent, the care of souls in that same church, so that if any assailant or tyrant, God forbid, presume through any devilish impulse to impair or impugn this holy place, he may be alarmed by the condemnation which God has empowered vou to pronounce and by the shock

of an

anathema,

and

so not

dare

to carry

out

his

intention. Should anything of an evil nature be found to have occurred there, let it be brought to the notice of the high pontiff [archbishop] of the country rather than that holy place be unjustly brought into ill-repute by someone else's underhand condemnation. 322. Therefore, let no man of any rank dare to bring in to ill-repute or to impair the very place to which royal power has granted the royal liberty, and to which we also grant liberty by the authority of God and the holy apostles, and by our own authority. Let any man who destroys or maliciously pollutes it be accursed. But let the man who preserves or increases it be showered with blessings. ! seruauerit H V

318

HISTORY

THE

ABBEY

EVESHAM

323. Scripta est^ hec epistola anno dominice incarnationis "septingentesimo nono^ in ecclesia saluatoris Lateranensi, precipiente et confirmante Constantino^ apostolice sedis antistite, astantibus et confirmantibus regibus Anglie Kenredo et Offa,! rogante uenerabili uiro Ecgwino episcopo coram archiepiscopis et episcopis et principalibus* et nobilibus diuersarum prouinciarum, cunctis clamantibus et dicentibus, *Quicquid in hac constitutione uestra sanctitas exercet laudamus, concedimus et confirmamus."

+ Ego Constantinus Romane sedis episcopus per signum sancte crucis has donationes et libertatem^ confirmaui. + Ego Ecgwinus humilis episcopus confirmaui. + Ego rex Kenredus' corroboraui. t Ego rex Offa consensi. fo. 162^

324. | Secundum priuilegium Constantini Constantinus episcopus seruus seruorum Dei Britwaldo^ Brittanniarum/ primati salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Diuina dispensatione ad hoc promoti ut apostolica auctoritate paci ecclesiarum insistamus, tue fraternitati denuntiamus quatinus ecclesias Dei per Brittanniam dispositas tua ipsius et sanctorum apostolorum auctoritate protegas, ne quis peruasor cuiuscumque ordinis a Deo et nobis constituta priuilegia subruat. Inter quas eam" que nuperrime a uenerabili uiro Ecgwino nostra et regia auctoritate constituta est tue ditioni precipue" summittimus ut tibi et posteris tuis potestate diuinitus concessa ab omni eam aduersariorum impugnatione liberam in perpetuum reddas. 325. Iustum enim nobis uidetur ut, quoniam isdem" uenerabilis Ecgwinus, exemplum Domini secutus,’ se humiliando inibi effectus est abbas, iccirco hec ecclesia secundum quod per legatum suum Ethelwoldum‘* expetiit, ampliorem dignitatem a nostra sede sui merito optineat. Constituimus ergo in nomine Domini ut isdem a

om. V ici di oc? Re marg. R (s. xv) S Ce

* principibus H V

^ libertates H

* Lateran’ |/; scripta anno 709 in ecclesia saluat? * antiste 7^ / pluribus archiepiscopis V

" Kenredus rex V

"s I^

HV ! Britanniarum Z/, Brithanniarum 74 " etiam eam ^" quem idem H ? om. V * Ethelwaldum H V ' Early papal privileges were dated until 781 under Pope Adrian I. From emperor was substituted. The year of possibly not until the mid-11th cent.;

* Brithwaldo V

"em.

by the year of the emperor, the eastern emperor Pope Leo IX (798) the regnal year of the western grace was not used before the late roth cent., even see R. L. Poole, Studies in Chronology and History,

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323. This letter has been written in the seven hundred and ninth year of our Lord's incarnation in the Lateran church of the Saviour, by the command and with the confirmation of Constantine, bishop of the apostolic see, in the presence, and with the confirmation, of the kings of England Cenred and Offa,’ at the request of the venerable bishop Ecgwine, in the presence of archbishops, bishops, chief men, and nobles of various provinces, all crying out and saying, ‘Whatever your holiness is executing in this statute, we approve, allow and confirm.’ + I Constantine, bishop of the Roman see, have confirmed these gifts and liberty, with the sign of the holy cross. + I, the humble bishop Ecgwine, have confirmed these. + I King Cenred have ratified these. + I King Offa have given my assent.

324. The second privilege of Constantine Constantine, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to Berhtwald, primate of Britain, greetings and apostolic benediction. Appointed by divine dispensation so that with apostolic authority we might preserve the peace of churches, we command you to protect the churches of God scattered throughout Britain by your own authority and that of the holy apostles so that no assailant of any rank may undermine the privileges instituted by God and us. Among these churches we especially place under your rule that church most recently founded by the venerable Ecgwine with our authority and that of the king, to ensure that by the power divinely granted to you and your successors you keep it for ever free from any assault of its enemies. 325. It seems right to us that, since the same venerable Ecgwine, following the example of the Lord, humbled himself and was made abbot in that place, this church should therefore obtain greater honour from our See through the merits of its lord, as it has requested through its legate /Ethelwold.^ We therefore decree, in the name of ed. A. L. Poole (Oxford, 1934), pp. 172-9, esp. 178-9 and notes. The ratification by the

kings is also unacceptable. ? Bishop /Ethelwold was responsible for the removal of the canons and the return of the monks in the early 970s (see above, 133). It is, of course, impossible that he had acted on behalf of the community at Evesham in the days of Pope Constantine. Among other peculiarities, the unusual sanction clause forbidding the substitution of canons for monks, together with the reference to /Ethelwold, dispels the possibility that this privilege dates from 713. Most likely this redaction dates from the 1120s, see Sayers, ‘ “Original”,

Cartulary and Chronicle', pl. I, and pp. 375-7. If /Ethelwold were a misreading for JEthelred, king of the Mercians (675—704), and Evesham's patron, though it is clear in all the sources, it is no more illuminating. Forgers were clearly at work.

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locus sub monarchia proprii abbatis sit liber ab omni tirannica exactione, et nullus cuiuscumque ordinis hom*o aliquod grauamen ibi inferre audeat. 326. Defuncto autem abbate, secundum canonicam auctoritatem uel de ipso monasterio uel de parrochia Wictiorum abbas a fratribus eiusdem loci eligatur. Qui in eadem ecclesia libere et canonice sine aliqua exactione consecratus, ob reuerentiam uenerabilis Ecgwini anulo in celebratione missarum solummodo utatur, primumque locum post Wictiorum presulem nostra auctoritate iugiter obtineat. 327. Si quis igitur hoc priuilegium infringere uoluerit siue in loco monachorum clericos immittere temptauerit, coram Deo et angelis eius in perpetuum sit anathema. Si quis uero hanc nostram auctoritatem seruauerit, conseruet eum Deus in eternum. 328. Scripta est hec epistola anno Dominice incarnationis septingenfo. 163^ tesimo tercio^ | decimo," presidente apostolice sedi papa Constantino‘ et +” hoc signum sancte crucis? propria manu faciente. 329. Priulegium Innocentii secundi Innocentius episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, dilecto filio Reginaldo^ abbati Eueshamensis monasteri! eius que successoribus canonice substituendis in perpetuum. Sicut iniusta poscentibus^ nullus est tribuendus effectus, ita legittima desiderantium

non est’ differenda

petitio. Hoc nimirum intuitu, dilecte in domino fili Reginalde abbas, tuis iustis postulationibus impertimur assensum, et monasterium Eueshamie cui, Deo auctore, presides, quod a tempore fundationis sue sedes apostolica specialibus decreuit priuilegiis" honorandum, sub beati Petri et nostra protectione suscipimus et presentis scripti priulegio communimus. Statuentes ut quascumque possessiones, quecumque bona, idem locus inpresentiarum iuste et canonice possidet aut in futurum concessione pontificum, largitione regum uel principum, oblatione fidelium, seu aliis iustis modis poterit adipisci, firma tibi tuisque successoribus^ et illibata permaneant. Sepulturam quoque eiusdem loci liberam esse omnino decreuimus, ut eorum! qui se ibi" sepeliri deliberauerint deuotioni et extreme uoluntati nullus obsistat. Sanctimus" etiam ne in uestra abbatia aut in " tercio mritten over an erasure ^ dec? xiii? H V * Constantino papa J^ a4 om. V Se gol / Reinaldo I^ * eiusdem 77 ^ petentibus H ' om. V ! priuilegiis decreuit |^ * successoribus que tuis H illi H ume el " Statuimus H

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the Lord, that the same place should be free of the demands of all tyrants and be under the sole rule of its own abbot, and that no man of any rank whatsoever should dare to inflict any trouble upon it there. 326. When the abbot dies his successor is to be chosen by the brethren of that place, in accordance with canonical authority, either from the monastery itself or from the diocese of Hwicce. He is then to be consecrated in that church freely and canonically without any charge and, out of reverence for the venerable Ecgwine, is to use the ring only in the celebration of mass, and on our authority always to hold the first place after the bishop of the Hwicce. 327. Should anyone want to violate this privilege or to attempt to introduce clerks in the place of monks, let him be forever accursed before God and his angels. But may God preserve him who protects our authority unto eternal life. 328. This letter has been written in the seven hundred and thirteenth year of our Lord's incarnation when Pope Constantine was occupying the apostolic see, and we make this sign of the cross with our own hand. 329. The privilege ofInnocent II i Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved son Reginald, abbot of Evesham monastery and to his canonically appointed successors in perpetuity. Just as those who make unjust demands should not be granted fulfilment of their desires, so those who make legitimate requests for things they desire should not be kept waiting. It is no wonder then, abbot Reginald, beloved son in the Lord, that, thus motivated we assent to your just demands, and receive the monastery of Evesham, over which you preside with

God's permission, and which from the time of its foundation the apostolic see has decreed should be honoured with special privileges, under the protection of the blessed Peter and of ourselves, and we confirm this by the privilege of this present document. We decree that whatever possessions and whatever goods this same monastery at present holds justly and canonically, or is able to obtain in future from the grant of popes, or from the gifts of kings or princes, from the offerings of the faithful or by other lawful means, these are to remain secure and unimpaired for you and your successors. We also decree that burial in the same place be entirely free, so that no man may obstruct the prayers or last wishes of those who have entrusted their bodies to be buried there. We also decree that no bishop should

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capellis uestris aliquis episcopus sinodum^ uel capitula aut Ordines tiones aut missas publicas nisi inuitatus ab abbate illius loci uel a’ fratribus celebrare presumat. Oblationes etiam que in eadem abbatia uel in ceteris ecclesiis uestris ad manum pontificis uel cuiuslibet ibi* missam celebrantis offeruntur uestris usibus cedant, nec eisdem personis eas sibi retinere aut clericis uel laicis distribuere liceat. Decimas insuper quas hucusque canonice optinuistis in refectiones fo. 163^ pauperum uel in edificia et ornamenta | ecclesiarum, distribuendi iuxta consuetudinem apud uos hactenus habitam liberam uobis concedimus facultatem.! Liceat quoque uobis clericos uel laicos € seculo fugientes, nisi forte certis ex causis excommunicati sint, absque alicuius contradiccione ad conuersionem suscipere, et ea que de iure suo legittime secum attulerint usibus monasterii cedant. Prohibemus sane ne altaria, cimiteria, decime et quecumque alia eiusdem monasterii iuris existunt, a quolibet auferantur uel minuantur. “Nec pro* communi terre interdicto uestrum monasterium a diuinis uacet officiis, set clausis ianuis, exclusis excommunicatis uel interdictis, diuina *]iceat uobis officia? summissa uoce celebrare et debita sepulture tam uobis quam famulis uestris impendere. Obeunte uero te nunc eiusdem loci abbate uel tuorum quolibet successorum, nullus ibi qualibet subreptionis astutia seu uiolentia preponatur nisi quem fratres eiusdem" loci communi assensu uel fratrum pars consilii sanioris elegerint. 330. Qui in eadem ecclesia absque omni exactione a quocunque maluerit benedicatur episcopo, “dum tamen* catholicus sit et gratiam ‘sedis apostolice" ‘habeat et communionem.' Sane dignitates et libertates omnes sancto Ecgwino episcopo ipsius? loci fundatori ac postmodum abbati ab apostolica sede concessas et scripto confirmatas, consuetudines etiam quas peculiares eius merito hucusque tenuistis in parrochiis, in^ processionibus, in ordinationibus, inconuulsas uobis manere sancimus. In crismate ab episcopo accipiendo et per ecclesias uestras gratis distribuendo sicut hucusque consueuistis teneatis. Statuimus insuper ac, predecessoris nostri felicis memorie Constantini pape uestigiis inherentes, decreuimus’ ut solummodo penes te et fo. 163°" successores tuos tocius domus et ecclesie | tue et aliorum locorum ad eandem ecclesiam pertinentium pastoralis cura consistat et eorundem " V.om. R ^ om. H / eius V ** dummodo // ^ eiusdem V * et H

* ibidem H ^7 nisi H ^* uobis officia liceat J^ ^^ Romane sedis 1” '" et communionem habeat J^ ' decernimus ’

' On monastic possession of tithes, see G. Constable, Monastic Tithes from their Origins to the Twelfih Century (Cambridge, 1964), pp. 82-3, 99-136.

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presume to celebrate in your abbey or in your chapels, a synod, chapters, ordinations, or public masses, unless invited to do so by the abbot of that place or by the brethren. Let the oblations in that abbey or in your other churches which are handed to the bishop or other celebrant of mass there, be given up for your use, and not be kept by those persons for themselves or distributed to the clerks or laity. As for the tithes which you have canonically possessed up till now for the relief of the poor or [to be used] for the buildings and ornaments of the churches, we grant you free licence to distribute these in accordance with the custom hitherto practised among you.! You are also to be permitted to receive into the religious life, without hindrance from anyone, clerks or lay persons abandoning the world, unless they have for particular reasons been excommunicated, and they are to surrender for the use of the monastery the things they have lawfully brought with them which are rightfully theirs. We forbid anyone to remove or impair the altars, cemeteries, tithes, or any other things which rightfully belong to that monastery. Your monastery is not to be without divine services because of a general interdict placed upon the land, but after closing your doors and excluding those who are under sentence of excommunication or interdict, you may celebrate divine services with subdued voices, and you may carry out the obligations of burial both for yourselves and your servants. When you, the present abbot of the monastery, die, or any of your successors, let no successor here be proposed through any kind of underhand chicanery or force, but only a man chosen by the brethren of the same place by common consent, or by a company of brethren of wiser counsel. 330. The abbot may be blessed in that church by any bishop of his choice, provided that that bishop is catholic and has the favour of, and is in communion with, the apostolic see. Furthermore, we decree that you should continue to enjoy undisturbed all the honours and liberties granted by the apostolic see to St Ecgwine, bishop and founder of that place and later abbot, and confirmed in writing, as well as the special customs in his honour which you have hitherto maintained in the parishes in processions and ordinations. You are to continue to receive chrism from the bishop and to distribute it free around your churches just as you have hitherto been accustomed to do. Following the example of our predecessor Pope Constantine of happy memory, we further command and decree that the pastoral care of your entire house, church and other places belonging to the

324

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ordinatio, sicut hactenus est obseruatum, in tua et successorum tantum" tuorum potestate permaneat, salua per omnia sedis auctoritate apostolice.' 331. Si quis sane in posterum hanc nostram constitutionem sciens contra eam temere uenire temptauerit potestatis honorisque sui periculum patiatur et a sacratissimo corpore et sanguine domini nostri lesu Christi alienus fiat atque in extremo examine districte ultioni subiaceat. Conseruantes autem hec, omnipotentis Dei et beati Petri ac^ Pauli apostolorum eius gratiam consequantur. Amen. Amen. Amen. Ego/ Innocentius catholice ecclesie episcopus subscribo. Ego Lucas presbiter cardinalis tituli sanctorum Iohannis et Pauli subscribo.* Datum Laterani per manum Almerici sancte Romane ecclesie diaconi cardinalis et cancellarii? sexto decimo kalendas Maii, indictione secunda, incarnationis dominice anno millesimo centesimo tricesimo octauo, pontificatus domini Innocentii pape^ secundi anno decimo.

332. Priulegium Alexandri tercii Alexander episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, "dilectis filiis Ade abbati monasteri1 Euesh' eiusque fratribus tam presentibus quam futuris regularem uitam professis in perpetuum. Pie postulatio uoluntatis effectu debet prosequente compleri ut et deuotionis sinceritas laudabiliter enitescat et utilitas postulata uires indubitanter assumat. Quocirca, dilecti in Domino filii, uestris iustis postulationibus clementer annuimus, et prefatum monasterium in quo diuino mancipati estis obsequio,

fo. 163

et predecessoris

nostri felicis memorie

Inno-

centii pape uestigiis inherentes sub beati Petri et nostra protectione suscipimus, et presentis scripti priuilegio communimus, statuentes ut quascumque possessi|ones, quecumque bona, idem monasterium inpresentiarum iuste et canonice possidet, aut in futurum concessione pontificum, largitione regum uel principum, oblatione fidelium, seu alis iustis modis, prestante Domino, poterit adipisci, firma uobis a

oberuatam (sic) est |

^ om, H

/ V adds +

' apostolice auctoritate [^ fo. 79

* V adds +

^ om. H

om,

d eH

' French in origin, and a papal scribe, he assisted the chancellor in 1137/8 (see next note), and was created cardinal priest of SS. John and Paul in 1132. He subscribed (i.e. witnessed papal documents with his autograph signature) from 1132 to rr4o. He died in

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same church, rest solely with you and your successors, and that the ordering of those places remain your prerogative alone and that of your successors, as has been observed hitherto, saving the authority of the apostolic see in all things. 331. If in future anyone knowing our decree should dare to try to set aside its provisions, let his position of power and honour be endangered and he be deprived of the most sacred body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, and at the last Judgment may he endure the severest punishment. Let those who preserve these decrees receive the grace of Almighty God and his apostles, blessed Peter and Paul, Amen, Amen, Amen. I Innocent, bishop of the catholic church, subscribe. I Luke, cardinal priest of the title of St John and St Paul, subscribe. ! Dated at the Lateran by the hand of Almeric, cardinal deacon of the holy Roman church, and chancellor,’ on the sixteenth day of April, the second Indiction, in the year of our Lord’s incarnation 1138 [recte 1139], in the tenth year of the pontificate of Pope Innocent II.

332. The privilege of Alexander III Alexander, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons Adam, abbot of the monastery of Evesham, and his brethren professing the religious life both now and in future, in perpetuity. The demands of a pious request should meet with a swift response so that the purity of devotion may laudably shine forth and the benefit demanded take sure strength from this response. Therefore, beloved sons in the Lord, we are pleased to consent to your just demands and we receive into our protection and that of the blessed Peter the aforesaid monastery in which you are bound by divine service; in doing so we are following the example of our predecessor Pope Innocent of happy memory. We confirm this by the privilege of this present document. Hence, we decree that whatever possessions and whatever goods this monastery at present holds justly and canonically, or is able to obtain in future from the grant of popes, or from gifts of kings or princes, from the offerings of the faithful or by other lawful means, by the Lord’s providence, these are to remain secure 1140/1; see B. Zenker, Die Mitglieder des Kardinalkollegiums von 1130 bis 1159 (Würzburg, 1964), p. 136.

? Papal chancellor and cardinal priest of S. Maria Nuova from 1123 to his death in 1141; Zenker, Kardinalkollegium, pp. 142-4.

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uestrisque successoribus et illibata permaneant. Decimas fructuum uestrorum a quadraginta^ annis ab ecclesia uestra canonice et inconcusse possessas, in refectiones pauperum uel in edificia et ornamenta ecclesiarum, distribuendi, iuxta rationabilem consuetudinem apud uos hactenus habitam, liberam uobis concedimus facultatem. Liceat "uobis insuper^ clericos uel laicos liberos et absolutos e seculo fugientes, absque alicuius contradictione ad conuersionem suscipere, et ea que de iure suo legittime secum attulerint usibus monasterii cedant. Prohibemus sane ne altaria, cimeteria, decime et

fo. 164

quecumque alia eiusdem monasterii iuris existunt a quolibet auferantur uel minuantur. Sepulturam quoque ipsius loci liberam esse concedimus ut eorum deuotioni et extreme uoluntati qui se illic sepeliri deliberauerint, nisi forte excommunicati uel interdicti sint, nullus obsistat salua tamen canonica iusticia «ecclesiarum illarum" a quibus mortuorum corpora assumuntur.' Cum autem commune interdictum terre’ fuerit, liceat uobis clausis ianuis, non pulsatis tintinnabulis, exclusis excommunicatis et interdictis, suppressa uoce diuina offitia celebrare. 333. Obeunte uero te nunc eiusdem loci abbate uel tuorum quolibet successorum, nullus ibi qualibet surreptionis astutia seu uiolentia preponatur nisi quem fratres communi assensu uel fratrum pars consilii sanioris, secundum Dei timorem et beati Benedicti regulam, prouiderint | eligendum. 334. Sane dignitates et libertates omnes sancto Ecgwino episcopo eiusdem* loci fundatori ac postmodum abbati ab apostolica sede concessas et scripto confirmatas, consuetudines etiam quas peculiares eius merito rationabiles hucusque tenuistis in parrochiis, in processionibus, in ordinationibus, inconuulsas uobis manere sancimus. Crisma uero, oleum sanctum, consecrationes altarium, ordinationes

clericorum" qui ad sacros ordines fuerint promouendi, a quocumque malueritis suscipietis episcopo, *sicut est hactenus obseruatum,* "dummodo episcopus catholicus sit^ et gratiam atque communionem 'apostolice sedis habeat' et ea gratis et absque prauitate uobis uelit exhibere. 335. Statuimus etiam ut Wigornenses episcopi a uobis aliquid iniuste ors illarum ecclesiarum : a db al fi ; bb: insuper uobis; V H J^ * ipsius V / interlined V ** order reversed with h—h below in V note "" habeat sedis apostolice 7^

^ V: om. R ^^ see previous

' Benedictine houses normally had cemeteries for the burial of lay persons, especially

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and unimpaired for you and your successors. As for the tithes of your crops canonically and constantly held by your church for forty years for the relief of the poor, or for the buildings and ornaments of the churches, we grant you free licence to distribute these in accordance with the regular custom hitherto practised among you. You are also to be permitted, without hindrance from anyone, to receive into the religious life clerks or free laymen abandoning the world, and they are to surrender for the use of the monastery the things they have lawfully brought with them which are rightfully theirs. We forbid anyone to take away or impair the altars, cemeteries, tithes, or any other things that rightfully belong to that monastery. We also grant free burial in the monastery, so that no man may hinder the devotion or the last wishes of those who have resolved to be buried there, unless they have been excommunicated or are under interdict, saving however the canonical rights of those churches from which the bodies of the dead have been taken.’ When a general interdict has been placed upon the land, you are to be permitted to celebrate divine services with subdued voices, but you must close your doors, refrain from ringing the bells, and exclude those who are under excommunication or interdict. 333. When you, the present abbot of this place, die or any of your successors, let no successor be proposed there through any sort of underhand chicanery or force but only a man whom the brethren of the monastery by common consent or whom that part of the brethren of wiser counsel have taken measures to elect in the fear of God and in accordance with the Rule of the blessed Benedict. 334. Furthermore, we decree that you should continue to enjoy undisturbed all the honours and liberties granted by the apostolic see to St Ecgwine, bishop and founder of that place and later abbot, and confirmed in writing, as well as the special customs in his honour which you have hitherto regularly maintained in the parishes, in processions, and in ordinations. You will receive from any bishop of your choice, as has been the practice hitherto, chrism, holy oil, the consecration of altars, and the ordination of clerks who are to be promoted to holy orders, provided that the bishop is catholic and enjoys the approval and communion of the apostolic see, and is willing to provide these services for you free and without simony. 335. We also declare that the bishops of Worcester should make no those in towns. The question of to whom the mortuaries were payable (normally the parish priest) was therefore often a disputed one.

328

fo. 164^

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non exigant, set hiis tantum contenti sint que antecessores uestros antecessoribus suis constat rationabiliter exhibuisse. Decernimus ergo ut nulli omnino hominum liceat supradictum monasterium temere perturbare, aut eius possessiones auferre uel ablatas retinere, minuere, seu quibuslibet uexationibus fatigare, set illibata omnia et integra conseruentur, eorum pro quorum gubernatione et sustentatione concessa sunt usibus omnimodis profutura, salua sedis apostolice auctoritate. 336. Si qua igitur in futurum ecclesiastica secularisue persona hanc nostre constitutionis paginam sciens contra eam temere uenire temptauerit, secundo tercioue commonita nisi presumptionem suam congrua satisfactione correxerit, potestatis honorisque sui dignitate careat, reamque se diuino iudicio existere de perpetrata iniquitate cognoscat. Et a sacratissimo corpore “et a^ sanguine Dei et domini nostri redemptoris Iesu Christi aliena fiat, atque in extremo examine districte ultioni subiaceat. Cunctis autem eidem loco sua iura seruantibus sit pax Domini nostri lesu | Christi, quatinus^ hic fructum bone actionis percipiant et apud districtum iudicem premia eterne pacis inueniant. Amen. Amen. Amen.“ + Ego Alexander catholice ecclesie episcopus subscribo.^ + Ego Hubaldus Hostiensis episcopus subscribo.! ‘+ Ego G. Albanensis episcopus subscribo.^? ‘+ Ego Henricus presbiter cardinalis subscribo./? + Ego Iohannes presbiter cardinalis subscribo.* + Ego "presbiter W. cardinalis subscribo.^? + Ego lacinctus diaconus cardinalis sancte Marie in Cosmidin

subscribo.° + Ego Odo diaconus cardinalis sancti Nicholai in Carcere Tullii subscribo.’ + Ego Iohannes diaconus' sancte Marie in Porticu subscribo.? ‘Datum Turonis’ per manum Hermanni sancte Romane ecclesie 7T* om. Vac for et Al ! et add. V * Amen written once V, Triple Amen om. H “ subscripsi V, and im all cases throughout the cardinals’ subscriptions rom p 'T om, H (which places this subscription after presbiter W. cardinalis below; titulus sanctorum Nerei et Achilles add. V * titulus sancte Anastasie add. V ^^ Willelmus presbiter cardinalis tituli sancti Petri ad uincula subscripsi followed by Walterus Albanensis episcopus subscripsi Jl; H adds Henricus here, before Walterus ' card. add. V; this subscription om. H ^7 Dat’ Turon’ V ' Later Pope Lucius III, he was created bishop of Ostia by Pope Adrian IV in 1158, subscribed between 1159 and 1181, and died in 1185; see Zenker, Kardinalkollegium, pp. 22-5. He and the following cardinals who subscribe are some of the most influential of the curial cardinals.

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unjust demands of you but should be content solely with those things which it is accepted your predecessors had regularly provided to their predecessors. We therefore decree that no man whatsoever be permitted arrogantly to disturb the above-mentioned monastery, to remove its possessions, to hold on to them if he has removed them, to demean the monastery or to weary it with any sort of harassment, but all things are to preserved unimpaired and intact which belong to those men for whose governance and succour those things are likely to be beneficial in various ways, saving the authority of the apostolic see. 336. Should therefore any person, ecclesiastical or lay, knowing of this document containing our decree, attempt arrogantly to oppose it, let him, unless he amends for his presumption by giving appropriate satisfaction, after a second or third warning lose the dignity of his position and power, and understand that he stands guilty of eternal sin at the divine judgment. Also let him be deprived of the most sacred body and blood of God and our redeemer Jesus Christ, and be liable to the severest punishment at the Last Judgment. But may the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with all who preserve the rights of that place that they may see the fruit of their good works and at the awful Judgment discover the rewards of eternal peace. Amen, amen, amen. ) + I, Alexander, bishop of the catholic church, subscribe. + I, Ubaldus, bishop of Ostia, subscribe.’ * I, G. [Walter], bishop of Albano, subscribe.? + I, Henry, cardinal priest, subscribe.? + I, John, cardinal priest, subscribe." + I, W[illiam], cardinal priest, sign my name? + I, Hyacinth, cardinal deacon of St Mary in Cosmedin, subscribe.^ + I, Odo, cardinal deacon of St Nicholas in carcere Tulliano, subscribe.’ + I, John, [cardinal] deacon of St Mary in Porticu, subscribe.* Dated at Tours by the hand of Herman, subdeacon of the holy ? Succeeded Nicholas Breakspear (Pope Adrian IV) as bishop of Albano; Zenker p. 39. *-A Cistercian cardinal, from Pisa, cardinal priest of SS. Nereo and Achilleo, 1151—5;

Zenker, pp. 96—101.

* From Naples, cardinal priest of S. Anastasia; Zenker, pp. 73-7. > Cardinal priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli, 1158—76; Zenker, pp. 118-23. 1144-91, later Pope Celestine III; Zenker, pp. 161—7. 1152-74; Zenker, pp. 171-4. * 1158-67, Bishop of Palestrina from 1190; Zenker, pp. 168—70.

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subdiaconi" et notarii, nonas Iunii, indictione undecima, incarnationis dominice anno millesimo centesimo sexagesimo tercio, pontificatus uero domini^ Alexandri pape tercii anno quarto. “Amen. Amen. Amen.” 337. Indulgentia Clementis Pape Clemens episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, dilectis filiis Ade abbati et fratribus sancti Ecgwini Eueshamensis monasterii salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. 338. Largitione nostri muneris et gratie eos duximus decorandos quos fidei meritum ac deuotionis constantia nobis reddunt acceptos, et qui, nullo mediante, ad iurisdictionem beati Petri et nostram specialiter pertinere nosc*ntur. Hac itaque ratione inducti et deuotionis et fidei uestre intuitu prouocati, tibi, fili abbas, sicut ex gratia et liberalitate sedis apostolice tu et successores tui usum cirotecarum et anuli habetis, ita quoque usum mitre, dalmatice, tunice et sandaliorum/ de consueta clementia et benignitate eiusdem* sedis apostolice duximus concedendum. Indulgentes ut hiis omnibus in sollempnibus diebus infra monasterium tuum et obedientias eius, in processionibus quoque ipsius monasterii, in concilus Romani pontificis et legati eius, atque in sinodis episcoporum "incunctanter utaris." Datum Lateran’ sexto idus Iulii pontificatus nostri anno secundo. Amen. Amen. Amen.’ fo. 164"*

339. | Indulgencia Celestini pape Celestinus episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, dilectis filiis Rogero abbati et fratribus sancti Ecgwini Eueshamensis monasterii salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. 349. Largitione nostri muneris et gratie eos duximus decorandos quos fidei meritum ac deuotionis constantia nobis reddunt acceptos, et qui, nullo mediante, ad iurisdictionem beati Petri et nostram specialiter pertinere nosc*ntur. Hac itaque ratione inducti et deuotionis et fidei uestre intuitu prouocati, tibi, fili abbas, et successoribus

tuis, sicut ex gratia et liberalitate sedis apostolice tu et successores tui usum mitre et anuli habetis, ita quoque usum cirotecarum, dalmatice, tunice, et sandaliorum necnon et uestimenta sacerdotalia benedicendi, de consueta clementia et de benignitate sedis apostolice duximus concedendum. Indulgentes ut^ hiis omnibus in sollempnibus diebus ^ subdiaconusi J^ ! om. V © domni necnon et uestimenta sacerdotalia benedicendi add. H, V utamini /^ ' marg. Nota bene / ut interlined

om. V * om. V

* Rogero V ^^ inc*ntante

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Roman church, and notary, on 5 June, the eleventh Indiction, in the

year of our Lord's incarnation 1163, in the fourth year of the pontificate of Pope Alexander III. Amen, amen, amen. 337. The Indult of Pope Clement Clement, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons, Adam, the abbot, and the brethren of St Ecgwine's monastery of Evesham, greetings and apostolic benediction. 338. We have decided that those whose faithfulness and steadfast devotion render them acceptable to us, and who are known to belong especially to the jurisdiction of the blessed Peter and ourself without any intermediary, should be honoured with the generosity of our bounty and grace. Motivated by this principle and stirred by an awareness of your devotion and faith, we have decided, my son abbot, that just as you and your successors, through the grace and generosity of the apostolic see, have the right to use the gloves and ring, so we should, with the usual clemency and kindness of the apostolic see, bestow upon you the right also to use the mitre, dalmatic, tunic, and sandals. We therefore give you permission to use these without delay on all holy days within your monastery and its dependencies, also in processions of the monastery itself, in the councils of the pope and his legate, and in the synods of bishops. Dated at the Lateran on ro July, in the second year of our pontificate [1189]. Amen, amen, amen. 339. The Indult of Pope Celestine Celestine, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons, Roger, the abbot, and the brethren of St Ecgwine's monastery of Evesham, greetings and apostolic benediction. 340. We have decided that those whose faithfulness and steadfast devotion render them acceptable to us, and who are known to belong especially to the jurisdiction of the blessed Peter and ourself without any intermediary, should be honoured with the generosity of our bounty and grace. Motivated by this principle and stirred by an awareness of your devotion and faith, we have decided, my son abbot, that just as you and your successors, through the grace and generosity of the apostolic see, have the right to use the mitre and ring, so we should also bestow upon you, with the accustomed clemency and kindness of the apostolic see, the right also to use the gloves, dalmatic, tunic, and sandals, as well as the right to bless priestly vestments. We therefore give you permission to use these without delay on all holy

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infra monasterium uestrum" et obedientias eius, in processionibus quoque ipsius monasterii, in conciliis Romani pontificis et legati eius, atque in sinodis episcoporum incunctanter utamini. Statuentes ut nulli omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostre concessionis infringere uel ei aliquatenus contraire. 341. Si quis autem hoc attemptare presumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis Dei et beatorum "Petri et Pauli ‘apostolorum eius se nouerit incursurum. Datum Rome apud sanctum Petrum, idus Ianuarii, pontificatus nostri anno primo. 4Amen. Amen. Amen.^! 342. Sentencia Innocencii pape tercii super exemptione Eueshamensis cenobii* Innocentius episcopus, seruus seruorum Dei, dilectis filiis abbati et fratribus Eueshamensis cenobii salutem et apostolicam benedictionem. Ex ore sedentis in throno procedit gladius bis acutus.? Quoniam ex ore Romani pontificis qui presidet apostolice sedi rectissima debet exire sententia, que contra iustitiam nulli parcat set reddat quod suum est unicuique.* igitur inter uos et uenerabilem fratrem | nostrum fo. 164°" 343. Cum Wigornensem episcopum super monasteri uestri subiectione ac libertate controuersia uerteretur et nos eam examinandam commisissemus iudicibus delegatis. Ipsi eandem causam sufficienter instructam ad nostram presentiam remiserunt, certum partibus terminum prefigentes quo cum instrumentis et attestationibus nostro se con-

spectul presentarent sententiam recepture. 344. Partibus igitur in presentia nostra per procuratores! idoneos constitutis, audientiam prebuimus liberam et benignam. Et quidem monasterii uestri proposuit procurator quod idem monasterium ab ipsa sui fundatione liberum exstitit et exemptum, ad hoc probandum priuilegia predecessorum nostrorum inducens, duo uidelicet Constantini, unum Innocentii, et alterum Alexandri, nec non indulgentias a

om, V

procures

a Petri V

/0 procuratores,

and

“a before apostolorum R

a4 om H, V

OTT corn

ins. rato

' Pope Celestine III issued a document on the same day, and in exactly the same form as this, for the abbot of Westminster; printed PUE i, no. 301. As copied into Harley MS 3763 fo. 99, the Evesham document does not include the triple Amen.

^ This letter was registered on fos. 62'—63" of the papal register for the eighth year of Innocent III and is printed in Reg. Inn. ITT, viii, no. 205 (204), pp. 351—7. On the significance of the letter, parts of which came to be incorporated in the Decretales (X. V. 33. 17,

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days within your monastery and its dependencies, also in processions of the monastery itself, in the councils of the pope and his legate, and in the synods of bishops. We decree that no man at all be permitted to violate this document concerning our concession or to oppose it in any respect. 341. Should anyone presume to attempt this, let him know that he will incur the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed Peter and Paul, His apostles. Dated at St Peter's, Rome, on 13 January in the first year of our pontificate [1192]. Amen, amen, amen.! 342. The sentence of Pope Innocent III over the exemption of Evesham monastery? Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to the beloved sons, the abbot and brethren of Evesham monastery, greetings and apostolic benediction. From the mouth of the One who sits upon the throne proceeds a two-edged sword. So the sentence that proceeds from the mouth of the Roman pontiff who sits upon the apostolic seat should be most just, a sentence that spares nobody who opposes justice, but renders to each his due.* 343. With regard to the dispute that existed between you and our venerable brother, the bishop of Worcester, over the subjection or the

liberty of your monastery, we had entrusted this to judges delegate for them to examine it. When they had gathered sufficient material on the case they returned it to our court, and fixed a final date by which the parties were to present themselves before us with their documents and written evidence in order that they might receive sentence. 344. The parties have now been represented before us by suitable proctors, and we have given them a free and sympathetic hearing. ‘The proctor representing your monastery has argued that the monastery has been free and exempt from its very foundation, and he has introduced the privileges of our predecessors to prove this, two of Constantine, one of Innocent, another of Alexander, as well as indults Friedberg, ii cols. 862—4), see P. Landau, ‘Papst Innocenz III. in der richterlichen Praxis Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kooperationsmaxime', in Festschrifi für Rudolf Wassermann (Darmstadt, 1985), pp. 727-33, and J. Sayers, “The proprietary church in England: a note on “Ex ore sedentis" (X. V. 33. 17)’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stifiung für Rechtsgeschichte, kan. abt. Ixxiv (1988), 231—45.

3 Cf. Rev. 19: 15. * Digest 1. 1. topr: ‘justice is the constant and perpetual wish to give each person his due.’ This definition of Ulpian preoccupied the pre-Accursian glossators from Irnerius to Azo; see the discussion in Stein, Teaching of Roman Lam, pp. lvi-viii. See also Digest 16. 3. 31.1, and Znstitutes 1. 1. 3.

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Clementis et Celestini. Quorum usum continuum a longis retro temporibus per depositiones testium ostendere" nitebatur. 345. In primo siquidem priuilegio Constantini continebatur expressum quod sancte recordationis Ecgwinus Wigornensis episcopus ad apostolicam sedem accedens, uisionem quandam qua se beata Virgo Maria manifestauit eidem prefato predecessori nostro reuerenter exposuit. Et tunc temporis duo reges Anglorum Kenredus et Offa, cum quibus iam dictus episcopus apostolorum limina uisitauit, in loco uisionis ostense de bonis suis plurima beneficia in presentia eiusdem predecessoris nostri regia libertate" donarunt. Que ipse auctoritate apostolica confirmauit, quatinus in eodem loco monachorum congregatio secundum beati Benedicti regulam, que minus in illis partibus tunc uigebat, ad diuini nominis constitueretur honorem. 346. Vnde prefatus pontifex Brithwaldo Brittanniarum primati per apostolica scripta mandauit ut coadunato consilio constitueret ouile | fo. 165* diuinitus preostensum, apostolica auctoritate munitum, regia libertate donatum, sibi et successoribus suis, memorato Ecgwino episcopo assentiente, curam animarum eiusdem ecclesie precipue iniungendo, ut ab omni peruasorum impulsu et tirannorum incursu potestate sibi tradita defensaret. Si quid uero sinistre partis inibi comperiretur oriri, eiusdem primatis auribus potius' deferretur quam per alicuius occultam sententiam locus sanctus deprauaretur iniuste. Ipsum ergo locum quem antedicti reges libertati donarunt, idem predecessor noster apostolice sedis auctoritate donauit, ut nullus cuiuscumque ordinis hom*o quod ipse constituerat deprauare aut^ diminuere attemptaret. 347. In secundo uero priuilegio eiusdem Constantini pape perspeximus contineri quod ipse prefato primati per apostolica scripta mandauit, ut ecclesias Dei per Brittanniam constitutas protegeret et foueret. Inter quas eam que nuperrime" tunc a uenerabili uiro Ecgwino episcopo apostolica et regia auctoritate fuerat constituta ditioni eius precipue submittebat, ut eam ab omni aduersariorum impugnatione liberam inperpetuum reddere procuraret. Constituens ut idem locus sub monarchia proprii abbatis ab omni tirannica exactione sit liber, et nullus cuiuscumque ordinis hom*o aliquod ibi inferre grauamen presumat. Abbas autem secundum auctoritatem “ interlined V (in another hand?) * nuperrime corr. H

^ liberalitate J^

* interlined V

8 acu

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of Clement and Celestine. Through the testimony of witnesses he has endeavoured to show that there has been continuous use made of these since the earliest times. 345. The first privilege of Constantine contained the statement that when Ecgwine of sacred memory, bishop of Worcester, visited the apostolic see he reverently described to our aforementioned predecessor a vision in which the blessed Virgin Mary revealed herself. At that time two kings of the English, Cenred and Offa, with whom Bishop Ecgwine was visiting the threshold of the apostles, had, in the presence of this predecessor of ours, bestowed with royal liberty many gifts from their own possessions on the place where the vision was manifested. Pope Constantine confirmed these gifts with his apostolic authority in order that a community of monks might be founded to the honour of the divine name in that place under the Rule of the blessed Benedict which at that time did not thrive in those parts. 346. Hence the said pope [Constantine], by apostolic letters, commanded Berhtwald, primate of Britain, to convene a council, and to establish the flock which had been signified in the divine vision. Now that this had been ratified by apostolic authority and endowed with royal liberty, and that the care of souls had been specifically laid upon him and his successors with the assent of Bishop Ecgwine, Berhtwald was to defend this church from every assault of assailants and tyrants by the power entrusted to him. Should any evil faction be found to appear there, then the primate should be informed of it to prevent that holy place being wrongly maligned through any underhand scandal. Accordingly, the very place to which the aforesaid kings gave liberty, our predecessor granted the authority of the apostolic see so that no man of any rank whatsoever should attempt to corrupt or demean what he himself had established. 347. We have also observed that the second privilege of Pope Constantine contains the command to the said primate made in apostolic letters to protect and cherish the churches of God established throughout Britain. Amongst these churches he gave him especial responsibility for the church which had only just been established by the venerable bishop Ecgwine with apostolic and royal authority, that he might take care to keep it free for ever from all assaults of its enemies. He decreed that the same place should be under the sole rule of its own abbot, free from all demands of tyrants, and that no man of any rank whatsoever should presume to trouble it in any way. The abbot was to be chosen by the brethren in

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canonicam uel de ipso^ monasterio uel de parrochia Wictiorum a fratribus eligatur. Qui libere ac canonice sine aliqua exactione in eadem ecclesia benedictus ob reuerentiam uenerabilis Ecgwini qui episcopali sede dimissa in eodem monasterio factus est abbas, anulo in celebratione solummodo missarum utatur, primumque locum semper obtineat post presulem Wictiorum. 348. Ex horum" priuilegiorum capitulis monasterii uestri procurator nitebatur ostendere quod ipsum monasterium a prima sui fun |dafo. 165" tione ab omni episcopali iurisdictione fuit prorsus exemptum, tum quia dicitur apostolica tantum et regia auctoritate" constructum, unde non nisi ad apostolicam sedem in spiritualibus et regiam coronam in temporalibus intelligitur pertinere, cum summus pontifex non consueuerit aliquod monasterium ut sua construatur auctoritate mandare, nisi quod in fundo sibi^ donato fuerit construendum; tum quia locum ipsum quem reges donasse dic*ntur regie libertati et ipse donauit, ut, sicut illi donauerunt eum’ libertati quantum ad temporalia, sic et iste quantum ad spiritualia intelligatur libertati donasse, cum ad illos utique temporalia, ad istum spiritualia pertinerent; tum etiam quia curam animarum eiusdem ecclesie precipue iniunxit Brittanniarum primati, quam et ditioni eius precipue dicitur submisisse. Vt siquid ibi oriretur sinistri per ipsius corrigeretur industriam et cautelam, unde uidetur correctionem ipsius loci ei solummodo commisisse sicque ad alium minime pertinere; tum quia prefatum locum sub monarchia proprii abbatis manere decreuit: unde cum monarchia interpretetur unicus principatus, uidetur quod abbas ipsius loci solus in eodem loco principalem obtinet potestatem.

349. Quod autem /priuilegiorum ipsorum uerba^ intelligi debeant tali modo sequentia priuilegia manifestius declarare uidentur. Nam in priuilegio felicis memorie Innocentii continetur ne aliquis episcopus in ipsa abbatia uel in capellis ipsius sinodum uel capitulum, ordinationes aut missas pupplicas, nisi inuitatus ab abbate et fratribus ipsius loci celebrare presumat." Et cum abbas in eodem monasterio fuerit electus absque omni exactione a quocumque maluerit episcopo in ipsa benedicatur ecclesia dum modo catholicus fuerit et gratiam a

om. I ergo follows in } / uerba priuilegiorum ipsorum H I^ celebrare non potest (s. vv)

interlined V “ interlined H * interlined V * marg. episcopus missas nisi inuitatus ab abbate

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accordance with canonical authority from the monastery itself or from the dioc

History of the Abbey of Evesham [PDF] - VDOC.TIPS (2024)