eighty in breadth and supported by twenty-four pillars. Besides the dome, there was a high west tower over the middle aisle, and the whole fabric is supposed to have been equal in some respects in grandeur to St. Peter's at Rome. As to its height, no data are left to enable us to form an opinion.*

The abbey was governed by an abbot, who had several great officers under him, as a prior, sub-prior, sacrist, and others; and in its most prosperous state there were eighty monks, fifteen chaplains, and one hundred and eleven servants, attending within its walls. It had three grand gates for entrance; and its lofty walls enclosed three other churches, besides the abbey church, several chapels, the cloisters, and offices of every kind.

Among other privileges conferred on this abbey, we find that Edward the Confessor granted to abbot Baldwyn the liberty of coinage, which was confirmed by William the Conqueror. Stophen, in his seventeenth year, gave authority for two additional mints to be set up in Bury. Stow informs us, that there was one in the town in king John's time. Edward I. and II. also had mints at Bury; and some of their pennies coined here are yet

extant.

The abbot of Bury enjoyed all the spiritual aud temporal privileges of the mitred abbots; and in addition to them, some very important exclusive immunities. Of the latter kind, was the exemption from the ecclesiastical authority of the diocesan, so that none but the Roman pontiff, or his legate, could exercise any spiritual power within the limits of the abbot's jurisdiction. This privilege often involved him in violent disputes. As early as the reign of William the Conqueror, we find the abbot Baldwin engaged in a controversy on this subject with Herfastus, bishop of Hulm, Hulm, who had announced his intention of removing the see to Bury. The abbot, alarmed at this threatened invasion of the privileges of his convent, applied to the king, and by his advice, repaired to Rome, where pope Alexander II. not only confirmed its former immunities and exemptions, by a bull dated at the Lateran, 6th Calend. Novemb. A. D. 1071. but also presented him with a porphyry altar for his church, with this extraordinary privilege, that if all the rest of the kingdom were under excommunication, mass might be there celebrated, unless expressly and by name prohibited by his holiness. These favors only served to redouble the bishop's exertions to carry his point, and he resolved to try what the seductive eloquence of gold would effect; while the monks, on the other hand, had recourse to still more persuasive means. The issue of this affair is thus related by archdeacon Herman, who himself bore a part in the transaction. "The bishop riding one day, and conversing on the injuries which he meditated against the monastery, was struck upon the eyes by a branch, and a violent and painful suffusion of blood occasioned immediate blindness; St. Edmund thus avenging himself, and punishing the temerity of the invaders of his rights. The prelate long remained entirely blind, and could obtain no relief. Coming in one morning and commiserating his condition, I said to him: My lord Bishop, your endeavors are useless, no collirium will avail; you should seek the favor of God and St. Edmund. Hasten to abbot Baldwin, that his prayers to God and the saint may provide an efficacious medicine! This counsel, at first despised, was at length assented to. I, Herman undertook the embassy, and executed it on the same day, the festival of St. Simon and St. Jude. The abbot benignantly granted the request; and the feeble bishop came to the monastery, being graciously received by the abbot, and admonished to reflect, that as offences against God and St. Edmund were diminished, the medicine to be applied would more certainly alleviate his sufferings. They proceeded into the church, where, in the presence of the elder brethren, and certain peers of the realm, Hugo de Montfort, Roger Bigod, Richard, the son of Gilbert'

Gilbert, &c. the bishop declared the cause of his misfortune; recites the injuries he had conceived against this holy place; confesses himself culpable; condemns his advisers under an anathema; and binds himself by a vow to reject such counsels. He then advances with sighs and tears to the foot of the altar; places on it the pastoral staff; prostrates himself before God and St. Edmund; performs his devotions, and receives absolution from the abbot and brethren. Then having made trial of the abbot's medicine, and as I saw, by the application of cauteries and colliriums, assisted by the prayers of the brethren, in a short time he returned perfectly healed: only a small obscurity remained in the pupil of one eye as a memorial of his audacity."*

A few years afterwards, however, this prelate, forgetful of his professions, renewed the contest, which was not terminated till the king convokeda council at Winchester, in which the subject was fully discussed, and the claims of the abbot admitted by that august assembly. William at the same time granted a charter, confirming all those of his predecessors, and subscribed by himself, his queen, his three sons, two archbishops, thirteen bishops, and twenty abbots and nobles.

In 1345, a contention not less violent, commenced on the same account, between the abbot, and William Bateman, bishop of Norwich, who claimed a right of subjecting the convent to ecclesiastical visitation. King Edward III. by letters-patent, determined in favor of the abbey, and commanded the bishop to desist from his attempt to violate its privileges. The prelate, however, disregarded this mandate, and excommunicated the messenger who served it upon him. The abbot now had recourse to the law; a jury returned a verdict in his favor, and sentenced the bishop to pay thirty talents, or 10,0001, the penalty attached to his offence by the charter of Hardicanute. In subsequent proceedings this judgment was affirmed; but though the bishop's temporalities were decreed to be held in the king's hands till the fine should be paid

• Registr. Rub. Collect. Buriens. p. 330.

paid, and a day was appointed to seize his body, he found means of delay till the 25th of September, 1347, when the archbishop summoned a council at St. Paul's to decide the matter, and a compromise was concluded between the contending parties. The bishop engaged not to molest the monastery in the enjoyment of its privileges, and on this condition was restored to his ecclesiastical authority and temporalities

The abbot of Bury was a spiritual parliamentary baron; he held synods in his own chapter-house, and appointed the parochial clergy of the town. His temporal were not less important than his ecclesiastical prerogatives. He possessed the power of trying and determining by his high-steward all causes within the franchise or liberty, which extended, as we have seen, over eight hundreds and a half: and in the town, and a mile round, he had the authority of chief magistrate, and of inflicting capital punishment. No officer of the king could, without his permission, hold a court, or execute any office in Bury. As lord of the town, he claimed the right of ap pointing the alderman, though it was afterwards agreed that the other burgesses composing the corporation should enjoy the privilege of electing that officer. Before he entered upon his functions however, he was expected to receive the abbot's confirmation, and to take the following oath :---" Ye schall swere that ye schall bere yow trewly and faithfully in the office of the aldermanscipe of this town of Bury, ayens the abbot and the covent of this place and all her mynistris: ye schall bere, kepe, and maintaine pees to yowre powere, and ye schall nor thing appropre nor accroche that longyth to the said abbot and covent, nor take upon the thyngis that long on to the office of the bayliscipp of the sayd town: also that ye shall not procure, be yow, nor be noon other, privyly nor openly, any thyng unlawful, that might be harme or damage on to the seyd abbot and covent, nor suffered to be done; but that ye schall be redy to meynteyn and defende them and there mynistris yn all the ryghts and customs that of dew long on to them, inasmuche VOL. XIV.

F

as

as ye may leyfully do. Thees artycles, and poyntis ye shal observe and kepe the tym that ye stand in this office. So help you God and all his seynts and by this boke."*

This supreme authority exercised over the town by the abbot, was a cause of frequent dissention between him and the inhabitants, which sometimes terminated in the most violent outrages. The most remarkable of these disputes occcurred in 1327, when the townsmen, headed by their alderman and chief burgesses, and having collected 20,000 persons from the neighboring towns and villages, made an attack upon the monastery and its possessions, and threatened the total destruction of the establishment. Having demolished the gates, doors, and windows, and beaten and wounded the monks and servants, they broke open the chests and coffers, out of which they took great quantities of rich plate, books, vestments, and other valuables, besides five hurrdred pounds in ready money, and three thousand florins, They also carried away three charters of Canute, four of Hardicanute, one of Edward the Confessor, two of Henry I. three of Henry III. twelve papal bulls, with several deeds, written obligations and acknowledgments for money due to the convent. Great part of the monastery was reduced to ashes, and many of the manors and granges belonging to it in Bury and its vicinity, shared the same fate. The abbot being at this time in London, the rioters seized and confined Peter Clopton, the prior, and about twenty of the monks, whom they afterwards compelled, in the name of the whole chapter of the convent, to execute, under the capitular seal, a deed, constituting the burgesses a guild or corporation. They also forced them to sign an obligation for the payment of ten thousand pounds to certain of the townsmen, to discharge them from all debts due to the monastery, and to engage not to proceed against them at law for any damage done to the monastery. The king being informed of these transactions, a military force was sent to suppress the disturbance. The alderman and twenty-four of the burgessen

• Yates's Hist. of Bury, p. 94. copied from a ledger-book of the abbey