Page images
PDF
EPUB

gesses were imprisoned; thirty carts full of the rioters were taken prisoners to Norwich; nineteen of the most notorious offenders were executed, and one was pressed to death, because he refused to put himself upon his trial. Thirty-two parochial clergymen - were convicted as abettors. The enquiries that arose out of this affair occupied near five years, the final decision being given by king Edward III. in council in 1332. The justices commissioned to investigate the amount of the damages sustained by the abbey, had estimated them at the enormous sum of 140,000l. but at the king's request the abbot remitted to the offenders 122,3331. 6s. 8d, and at length forgave them the remainder, on condition of their future good behavior. All the deeds and charters taken from the monastery were to be restored; all the instruments and obligations obtained by force, were declared null and void, and were to be delivered up to the abbot. Fox states, that Berton, the alderman, Herling, thirty-two priests, thirteen women, and 138 other persons of the town, were outlawed; and that some of these, to revenge the abbot's breach of promise, surprised him at the manor of Chevington. Having bound and shaved him, they conveyed him to London, and thence over the sea into Brabant, where they kept him a prisoner. He was at length rescued by his friends, who had discovered the place of his confinement..

The monastery of St. Edmund's Bury remained 519 years in the possession of the Benedictine monks, and during that time was governed by thirty-three abbots. Its regular revenues consisting of fifty-two knight's fees and three-quarters, together with the royalties of the eight hundreds and a half, were valued at the dissolution by the commissioners at 23361. 16s. The income of the abbey must, however, have been most materially under-rated; and besides this, the monks possessed many sources of revenue which could never be accurately ascertained. An intelligent writer of the last century calculates that all the possessions and perquiquites of this abbey would at that time (1725) be worth not less than 200,0001. per annum: and from the astonishing increase in the value of landed property and agricultural produce, since that period,

F2

period, it may safely be assumed that at this moment they would yield a yearly income of at least double the above amount.

When Henry VIII. resolved to replenish his exhausted treasury, by seizing the possessions of the monastic establishments, the abbey of Bury was included in the general destruction. Some ineffectual struggles were made by the abbot and convent, to avert the impending blow. In 1536, they settled upon secretary Cromwell and his son, an annuity of ten pounds, payable out of the rents of the manor of Harlowe, in Essex. But neither this pen. sion, nor the full acknowledgment of the king's supreme ecclesiastical authority, availed them any thing. On the 4th of November 1539, the abbot and his brethren, were compelled to surrender the monastery and all its possessions to his majesty; and driven from their splendid mansion and ample revenues, to subsist upon a scanty stipend.

The official report of the commissioners appointed to visit this abbey at the dissolution, states that they found here " a riche shryne which was very comberous to deface. We have taken," they continue, " in the seyd monastery in golde and silver 5000 markes and above, besyds as well a riche crosse with emerelds, as also dyvers and sundry stones of great value; and yet we have left the churche, abbott, and convent, very well furneshed with plate of sylver necessary for the same*."

In another report signed "John Ap Rice," and dated "from Burie, 5th Nov. 1539," he says: "As touching the convent we could geate little or no complaints amonge theym, although we did use moche diligens in oure examinacion; and therby with some other arguments gathered of their examinacions formerly, I believe and suppose they had confedered and compacted befoure oure comyng, that they shoulde disclose nothynge; and yet it is confessed and proved, that there was here such frequence of women comyn, and reassorting to this monasterie, as to no place more. Amongest the reliques we founde moche vanitie and

• MS. Cotton. Lib.

and supersticion---as the coles that St. Lawrence was tosted withal; the paryng of St. Edmund's naylls, St. Thomas of Canter. penneknyff and his bootes; and divers skulls for the head-ache, peces of the Holie Cross able to make a hole crosse; of other. reliques for rayne, and certaine other supersticious usages; for avoiding of weeds growing in corn with such other."*

In touching upon the superstitious practices, and flagrant impostures carried on at this monastery, we must not omit to mention the singular ceremony of the procession of the white bull. The sacrist of the monastery, as often as he let the lands near the town then and still called Haberdon, annexed this condition, that the tenant should provide a white bull, whenever a matron of rank, or any other should come out of devotion, or in consequence of a vow, to make the oblations of the white bull, as they were denominated, at the shrine of St. Edmund. On this occasion, the animal adorned with ribbons and garlands, was brought to the south gate of thes monastery, and led along Church-gate, Guildhall, and Abbey-gate streets, to the great west gate, the lady all the while keeping close to him, and the monks and people forming a numerous cavalcade. Here the procession ended; the animal was. conducted back to his pasture, while the lady repaired to St. Edmund's shrine to make her oblations, as a certain consequence of which, she was soon to become a mother. As foreign ladies, desirous of issue, might have found it inconvenient to repair hither in person, to assist at these ceremonies, they were certain to prove equally efficacious if performed by proxy. In a deed, a copy of which is given by Haukins,† John Swaffham, sacrist of the monastery of

F3

St.

• MS. Cotton. Lib.

↑ William Haukins, a school-master of Hadleigh, in this county, who in his Corolla varia, a very scarce book, printed at Cambridge in 1684, has given a humorous account of the ceremonies of the procession, in not inelegant Latin verse. He observes, that not a century had then elapsed, since the processions ceased, and the tradition of them was still generally prevalent. In his work, he has introduced three leases, that contain the condition above specified

St. Edmund's Bury, certifies all Christian people, that on the 2d June 1474, three religious persons, whom he names, of the city of Ghent, came and offered, as had been accustomed of old time, at the shrine of the blessed King, Virgin, and Martyr, St. Edmund, in the presence of several reputable people, and of the said martyr, one white bull, for the accomplishment of the longing of a certain noble lady (in relevamen desiderii cujusdam nobilis dominæ.)

in

Before the dissolution, Bury contained an inferior monastic establishment of Grey Friars, or Franciscans. About 1255 or 6some brethren of this order came to the town during a vacancy the abbacy, and having procured a situation in the north part of Bury, began to perform religious exercises. The monks, indignant at this intrusion, and finding remonstrance of no effect, demolished the buildings and expelled the friars, who applied to the court of Rome for redress: when Pope Alexander IV. reproved the monks, and ordered the friars to be put in possession of an estate in the west part of Bury. The monks still continued firm in their resistance to this encroachment on their privileges; so that king Henry III. who with many of his nobility had espoused the cause of the Franciscans, was obliged to send down his chief justice to Bury, and to establish them by force. Upon this, they lost no time in constructing suitable religious edifices. The pope soon after dying, the monks renewed their application to his successor, and seconding it with an argument which seldom failed of persuading

the

specified. To one of them, dated 26th April, 1533, is appended the seal of the monastery, of which he has given a neat engraving. On one side is represented St. Edmund, with his crown and sceptre, seated under a gothic canopy, with a bishop standing on each side, and this legend, AGMINE STIPATVS SEDET HIC REX PONTIFICATVS: on the reverse, in the upper part, appears the same king tied to a tree, transfixed with numerous arrows, while several persons, armed with bows on either side are taking aim at his body. In the lower part, he is kneeling, and a man has just cut off his head close to which sits its brute protector. The legend is: SIGNVM SECRETVM CAP 'LI SANCTI EDMUNDI REGIS ET MARTIRIS. An engraving of the same seal is al so given in Yates's History of Bury.

4

the papal court, Urban IV, revoked the bulls of his predecessor, commanded the friars to demolish their buildings, and on pain of excommunication, to leave Bury within one month. The friars had not courage to withstand this injunction; but publicly renouncing all right and title to their estate in the town, the abbot and convent assigned them part of the monastic possessions in Babberwell, where they erected some handsome edifices. The site of this religious establishment is still called the Friary.

At the reformation there were in Bury, five hospitals, St. Savior's at North-gate, St. Peter's at Risby-gate, St. John's at South-gate, St. Stephen's and St. Nicholas' at East-gate; one college, called Jesus college, in College street, consisting of a warden, and six associates, and the following chapels, whose names and situations are yet known, though the buildings have long been demolished: St. Mary's, at East-gate bridge, another at West-gate, and a third at Risby-gate; St. Michael's, in the Infirmary; St. Andrew's, in the cemetery of the monks; St. John's, in the hill; and St. John's ad fontem; St. Anne's in cryptis; St. Thomas's, near St. Savior's; St. Lawrence's, in the court yard; St. Gyles's, near the nave of the church; St. Petronill's, within the South-gate; St. Botolph's, within Southgatestreet; St. Edmund's, or Round chapel in the church-yard; and St. Denis's, besides the Hermitage, at West-gate, and thirteen other chapels, the sites of which are unknown, on account of the many alterations made in the town since that time, by fire and other accidents. Thus it must have contained upwards of forty churches and chapels, most of which were amply endowed, and together afforded subsistence and employment to forty or fifty ec. clesiastics, under a deacon and archdeacon.

During the prosperity of the abbey, it comprehended within its precincts, besides the conventual church, three others, St. Margaret's, St. Mary's, and St. James's. The former has long ceased' to be appropriated to religious purposes, and is now used as the town-hall. The others are the churches of the two parishes into which Bury is divided.

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »