deputies armed and mounted.250 From this period the convent acquired the privilege of retaining its temporalities during vacancies in the abbacy. This was effected by purchase from Edward II. at a cost of £200, and upon condition of future payments of £160 to the crown at each successive vacancy. Abbot Brokehampton, after a prosperous abbacy of thirty-four years, which he seems chiefly to have passed in enriching his monastery, died on the 15th of the calends of September, 1316, and was succeeded by another monk of this abbey

44. William de Chyryton, elected on the third of the calends of September, 1316, and confirmed on Quadragesima Sunday by pope John XXII. He rebuilt the grand gateway of the monastery, and having obtained from Edward III. the royal license,251 introduced by that monarch to restrain the erection of fortresses, he embattled and fortified the abbot's private residence and chapel, together with the rest of the abbey; and bounded the park toward the north with the existing wall. Under his auspices the central tower of the church was restored, as noticed on page 42, and many granges were rebuilt by him upon manors of the abbey.252 Among the numerous additions made in this abbacy to the conventual property,-much of which was doubtless given or bequeathed from a religious motive by individuals were the manors of Tatlynton and Witheleye; the advowsons of Leylond, Ombresleye, and Baddeby; with lands, tenements, and rents, in several parishes of the Vale. But with all these accessions there were heavy expenses to be met, and losses to be sustained for on the sixth of the nones of May, 1326, Cobham bishop of Worcester, in appropriating the church of Ombresley to this abbey, states that it was done to assist the brethren in entertaining the numerous visitors to their house, caused by its situation on a great public road; in addition to which they then laboured under "insupportable burdens, as well as the loss of twenty-eight

:

250 Proffers of Service due to the King, taken at Tweedmouth, 10th September, 1310, fourth of Edward II.—Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, vol. ii. div. i. p. 53. 251 "Licentia pro Abbatia firmanda et kernellanda." Tested at Westminster 15th March, tenth of Edward III.-Harleian MS. 3763, folio, 129 b.

252

Præterea plures grangias...... super maneria magnis sumptibus construxit et etiam reparavit."-Harleian MS. 3763.

manors and three churches." "253 Some of these burdens were doubtless fiscal; and when summoned in 1322 to attend the parliament at Ripon, abbot Chyryton appears to have anticipated a further demand for royal aids: and such apprehension seems to have prevailed among his order; for among the twenty-seven ecclesiastics who were summoned, fourteen others beside himself are found severally pleading "illness" or "bodily suffering" as incapacitating them from attendance. Our abbot therefore appointed Radulphe de Wylecote and Thomas de Evesham his joint procurators and attorneys upon this occasion. 254

The provision made by this abbot for the observance of his anniversary, exceeds in still-advancing progression that made successively by his predecessors. In the charter executed for this purpose, in 1328, it is first arranged with the prior and convent that after his departure each monk in priest's orders shall in every year, on the day of his anniversary, celebrate "one mass with the intercessory prayers, in true charity for the departed soul." 255 Then-after the observation that "the memory of an individual is in many minds more deeply impressed by benefits received,"-rents in Merstowe of ninety shillings yearly are assigned; of which one-third is apportioned to the refreshment of the whole convent on the above day, and the remainder is to be expended in bread for distribution by the almoner to the poor. The imposing observances now general on such occasions will enable us sufficiently to describe the day's procedure, from usages elsewhere. Abbatial tombs had now generally become altars, even in form; and on this day the tomb of abbot Chyryton would become a centre of devotion and a rival of the high altar itself. Gorgeous coverings are spread over it, lighted tapers are placed upon it,—and, amid the fumes of frankincense wafted from costly censers, successive services are offered up by stoled priestsfrom vespers of the preceding evening till the end of mass upon the following day. And then the almoner, standing before the tomb, would reverently distribute thence the bread which the bequest of

253 Dr. Thomas's Account of Bishops of Worcester, page 168.

254 Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, vol. ii. part i. page 336.

255 Carta Willielmi Abbatis Eveshamiæ, A.D. 1332, in Cotton. MS. Vesp. E xvii,

the deceased had purchased for the poor.256

The event, in prospect of which all these preparations were made, occured on the ides of December, 1344. His body appears to have been interred in the middle of the nave of his church; as in the spot marked c in the ground-plan at page 44, a stone coffin was found during the excavations made by Mr. Rudge, which contained the bones of an aged person, having the right arm crossed upon the breast and a well-preserved bull, or leaden seal, from pope John XXII. remaining close to the fingers. 257 This, viewed in connection with the fact that De Chyryton was the only abbot elected during Pope John's pontificate, may be considered as deciding this to be the situation of his grave. The papal seal remains in Mr. Rudge's possession, and to exhibit the medallic rudeness of the fourteenth century, even in Rome, the city of the arts, we insert the subjoined engraving; premising that the heads introduced are papal portraits of Saints Paul and Peter.

45. William de Bois, who was also a monk of Evesham, succeeded abbot Chyryton. He was, according to Nash, of the ancient family of Attwood of Wolverley in this county, called from the french, De Bois. He was elected on the calends of January, was confirmed

256 Thus at the anniversary of abbot Vitalis, who died in 1082, his tomb ". was covered with a carpet, and over that a covering of silk wrought with gold, and two wax candles of two pounds each.... were placed there from the hour of vespers till the last mass of the requiem the following day; and the prior was to celebrate mass on that account."-Dart's Westminster, vol. i. book ii. cap. iii. After the last mass

at Avignon by pope Clement VI. and was installed at Evesham on the day of Pentecost, 1344. His appointment seems to have given much satisfaction to the brethren. They are represented in the Harleian Chronicle as receiving him with much honor and affection upon his return from France; and each of the Registers describes him as an affable, generous, and facetious man. The rapid increase of the conventual possessions, still advancing, becomes amazing and while regarding the accessions made here during each succeeding abbacy, we no longer wonder at being told that the clergy were ultimately proprietors of seven-tenths of the whole kingdom. 258 We are rather disposed to inquire how even the remnant could escape their clutches. Thus among the list of acquisitions made during the abbacy of De Bois we reckon four manors, one advowson, sixtyone tenements, twenty-four cottages and upwards, the term "very many" being used here in one instance instead of the number,-three carucates of arable land, thirty-six and a half virgates and sixtyone acres of other land, five closes, several curtilages, two vineyards, two bakehouses, and one dove-house. The yearly value of these

the almoner distributed the bread, as is noticed in the same work in the account of abbot Walter's anniversary. In 1338 the following was the provision made at the interment of abbot Adams in the monastery of Peterborough :Wax 250 lbs.

Plaice, 10 seme
Welks

.

20qrs.

Conger, 1 seme

5 sek

40 qrs.

1 hhd. & 1 pipe

8500

100

Codlings

12 seme

257 Communication from E. J. Rudge, Esq., in Vetusta Monumenta, vol v. page 7. 258 Upon good authority, it is stated that the clergy were proprietors of seventenths of the whole kingdom; and, out of the three remaining tenths thus left to king, lords, and commons, the four numerous orders of mendicants [friars] were to be maintained, against whom no gate could be shut, to whom no provision could be denied, and from whom no secret could be concealed."-Wade's History of the Middle and Working Classes, 8vo. 1842, page 15, a.

acquisitions as severally given in the record, 259-realizes an addition during only one abbacy of upwards of £318 to the yearly revenue of the monastery.260

Among the additions made to the ecclesiastical ornaments by this abbot, were a mitre, pastoral staff, abbatial vestments and insignia; with tapestry for the abbot's stall, at the south of the altar and two great bells were cast, named Mary and Ecgwin, which were anointed by the archbishop of Nazareth with the holy chrism. The same abbot obtained from pope Urban VI.-doubtless not without cost-the privilege that his successors might be consecrated in England by whichever catholic bishop they should choose. He also purchased from one Nicholas Porter his right to the office of gatekeeper to the abbey, which the said Nicholas held in fee. 261 The dreadful pestilence of 1349 which ravaged Europe, but particularly England, devastated also this town and monastery. So that in 1350 express provisions were made in consequence by this abbot, under the convent seal. The pestilence is described as then raging here; and the number of monks destroyed by it was so great, that the usual appropriation to the poor of each monk's allowance for one year after his decease, could not in consequence be observed. Lands were at the same time appropriated to provide yearly for ever one chaplain to celebrate mass at the altar of St. Stephen in the great church daily, immediately after holding the chapter, "for the souls of the brethren departed in this fearful pestilence." 262 Such was the virulence of the disorder that those who were seized by it are elsewhere stated to have usually died within a few hours, and scarcely any survived beyond the third day. The greater portion of the cattle also perished by it. It swept away so many of the clergy

259 Acts of Abbots, in Harleian MS. 3763.

260 This amount we obtain by adding together the rentals, as given in the manuscript in libræ, solidi, and denarii. This multiplied by 3, to reduce the heavy coinage of that period to the modern standard, gives the money value above stated. But this intrinsic value, further multiplied by 5 to show its availability, will augment the amount to £1590 of modern money.-See Henry on this subject in History of Great Britain, book iii. cap. vi.

261 Item adquisivit de eodem Nicholaio Porter officinum janitoris portæ abbathiæ Eveshamiæ, quod ipse Nicholas habuit in feodo."-Acts of Abbots, Harl. MS. 3763, 282 Harleian MS. 3763, folio 159 b.