*

servants. The abbot, who had a prior, sub-prior, sacrist, and other officers under him, enjoying all the privileges of the mitred Abbots, with many important exclusive rights and immunities. He was a spiritual parliamentary baron, he held synods in his own Chapter house, and he appointed the parochial clergy of the town. Nor were his temporal 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 of Bury, comprising, as already stated, eight hundreds and a half. In the town, and within a mile round it, he had also the authority of chief

* Mitred Abbots were distinguished from Bishops by small variations in their official ornaments. The mitres of Bishops were adorned with gold and precious stones. By an ordinance of Pope Clement the Fourth, those of Abbots were adorned with gold only. The Abbots also carried the crosier in the right hand; which the Bishops did in the left. These pastoral crooks were sometimes barely curled, sometimes more ornamented, and like maces rather than crosiers. The public dress of an Abbot was nearly episcopal; consisting of the dalmatie, or seamless coat of Christ, signifying holy and immaculate piety; of the mitre, emblematic of Christ, the head of the church; of the crosier, or pastoral cane; of the gloves, which, because occasionally worn or laid aside, typified the concealment of good works, for shunning vanity, and the demonstration of them for edification; of the ring, as Christ was the spouse of the Church; and of the sandals, because as the foot was neither covered nor naked, so the gospel should neither be concealed, nor rest on earthly benefit. Their parliamentary robes were a gown, hood, and cassock.

magistrate, and of inflicting capital punishments. Without his permission, no officer of the king could hold a court, or exercise any office, in Bury. As lord of the town, he claimed the right of appointing the alderman; but an agreement was at length made, that the burgesses composing the corporation should elect that officer, who, in entering upon his functions, should receive the abbot's confirmation, and 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 thyng appropre nor accroche that longyth to the said abbot and covent; nor take upon the thyngis that long on to the office of the bay liscipp of the sayd town: also, that ye schall 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 as

ye may leyfully do. Thees artycles and poyntis ye shall observe and kepe the tym that ye stand in this office. So help yow God and all hys seynts, and by this boke."

The supreme authority, exercised by the abbot, was a cause of frequent dissention between him and

the inhabitants.

"In 1327, the townsmen, headed by their alderman and chief burgesses, and having collected 20,000 persons from the neighbouring 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 £500, in ready money, and 3000 florins. They also carried away three charters of Canute, four of Hardicanute, one of Edward the Confessor, two of Henry the First, three of Henry the Third, twelve papal bulls, with several deeds, written obligations and acknowledgements 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 £10,000 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 burgesses 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 inquiries,

that arose out of this affair, occupied nearly five years, the final decision being given by Edward the Third, in 1332. The justices commissioned to investigate the amount of the damages sustained by the abbey, had estimated them at the enormous sum of £140,000; but at the king's request, the abbot remitted to the offenders 122,333l. 6s. 8d. and, at length, forgave them the remainder, on condition of their future good behaviour. 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, 32 priests, 13 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 priHe was at length rescued by his friends, who had discovered the place of his confinement.""

soner.

The exemption of the abbey 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 monasterial jurisdiction, also involved the abbots in many violent disputes. In the reign of William the Conqueror, Herfastus, bishop of Hulm, having announced his intention of removing the see to Bury, the abbot (Baldwyn) alarmed at this threatened invasion of the privileges of his House, appealed to the King, by whose advice he repaired to Rome; where Pope Alexander II. not only confirmed the rights and immunities of the abbey, by a buil, dated at the Lateran, in the month of November, 1071, but presented him with a porphyry altar for his church, with the extraordinary privilege, that, should all the rest of the kingdom be under excommunication, mass might be there celebrated, unless expressly prohibited by his Holiness. Notwithstanding this decision of the Pope's, the contest was continued until a pretended miracle compelled the bishop to desist from his hostile efforts.* A few

* Archdeacon Herman, who bore a part in the transaction alluded to, states as follows:-"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 invader of his rights. The prelate long remained blind, and could obtain no relief. Coming in one morning, and commiserating his condition, I said to him: My lord bishop, your endeavours are useless, no collirium will avail; you should seek