RELIGIOUS HOUSES ■ence to the abbot and to be of good conversa- tion." The continuator of Symeon of Durham's
- Historia Regum ' seems to imply that Gervase
was removed through the influence of Henry 11.^* The prestige of the house certainly recovered under his successor Laurence, a monk of St. Albans. He was evidently a man of consider- able administrative ability, for he rebuilt part of the monastery which had been destroyed by fire and recovered many of the alienated estates.'*" A further point in his favour is the fact that in his time the pope consented to the canonization of King Edward, and conceded to the abbot the use of the mitre and gloves." His relations with Saint Albans were chequered, and at one time much strained by the beginning of a lengthy quarrel as to the manor of Aldenham,*^ but as Laurence was summoned to attend the deathbed of Abbot Gorham,^' it would seem that the breach between the two houses was not permanent. Laurence died on ii April, 1175,*^ and according to Ralph de Diceto his successor was one of the ten abbots appointed arbitrarily by Henry II at Woodstock early in July. Walter had been prior of Winchester, and his election is said to have been procured by bribery on the part of the king, who feared lest, if the great abbeys were allowed to choose abbots from their own numbers, his royal authority might be undermined.^' Nothing is known, however, of the history of the house at this time beyond the fact that the papal nuncio, being received at the abbey minus reverenier, suspended the abbot from the use of the newly-acquired mitre and gloves, and the prior from his place in choir.^^ His anti-papal attitude may well have been one of Walter's strongest recommendations in the eyes of the king, and account in part for his promotion. A curious story is told concerning the part played by the abbey during the absence of Richard I from England. It is said that the " Cott. MS. Claud. A. viii, fol. 47-47.2'. " Symeon of Durham, Opera (Rolls Scr.), ii, 330. " Geita Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), i, 159 ; see Diet. Nat. Biog. for a short account and estimate of his life.
- ° Cott. MS. Claud. A. viii, fol. 48. According to
one authority Gervase had hardly left substance enough for the food and clothing of the convent {Gesta Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), i, 133).
- ' Cott. MS. Claud A. viii, fol. 48.
" V. C.H. Herts, ii, 150. " For his relations with St. Albans see Gesta Abbat. (Rolls Ser.), i, passim. " A copy of his sermons is extant at Balllol College, Oxford (Hardy, Catalogue [Rolls Ser.], ii, 410), and it was to his influence that the compilation of Allred of Rievaux's Life of St. Edward was due (Higden, Polychron. [Rolls Ser.], vii, 226-7, and ^f. Gesta Abbat. [Rolls Ser.], i, I 59). " Ralph de Dicetq, Opera (Rolls Ser.), i, 401-2. " Ibid. 404. king on leaving Sicily for the East in 1191 gave special injunctions that the appointment of a new abbot to the then vacant chair at West- minster was to be left entirely to the will of the chancellor. Longchamp accordingly, by force of exactions and importunity, gradually persuaded the convent to allow him to introduce into the abbey, with a view to his election as abbot, his brother, who had been bred a monk at Caen, and for the better security of his plan he had the agreement committed to writing and sealed with the conventual seal. Upon Longchamp's dis- grace, however, the monks, 'qui ante dies istos tarn magni cordis exstiterant ut pro more sua facta non infecerent,' seeing the times had changed, set aside their covenant and elected as abbot their own prior, William Postard.*'^ This exchange was probably an advantage to the abbey, for Postard's rule appears to have been frugal and wise ; *^ little evidence as to the fortune of the monastery during the reign of John is, however, extant. A few scattered notices of Abbot Ralph Papillon or of Arundel occur. He is said, by Leland,*' to have been a friend of Abbot Laurence, and by him appointed prior of Hurley. The latter statement is sup- ported by Ralph de Diceto, who says that he was elected at Northampton ' ne monachi emendi- catis aliunde suffragiis uterentur.' '" But of his rule at Westminster hardly anything is known. He is supposed to have held the saints in special reverence and to have added to the magnificence of certain festivals,*^ and he did his utmost to uphold the dignity of office upon one occasion when the prior, ' vir simplex et trepidus,' offered himself for correction in chapter with the other obedientiaries who had been reproved by the abbot.'^ His rule, however, ended in disaster, for he quarrelled with his brethren and was de- posed by the bishop of Tusculum in 1214, when his seal was broken in chapter. The exact grounds of Abbot Ralph's downfall are open to question. According to Wendover, who calls him William, the charges brought " Chron. of Reign of Rie. I, &c. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 405, 410, and 420. On 12 Oct. the benediction of the new abbot was performed by the bishop of Lon- don, and on the following Thursday Longchamp, try- ing to escape disguised as a woman, was captured by boatmen (Ralph de Diceto, Opera [Rolls Ser. J, ii, loi).
- « Cott. MS. Claud. A. viii, fol. 51. The author,
though not contemporary, probably represents West- minster tradition.
- ' De Script. Brit. 246. He identifies him with
Ralph the Almoner, to whom he ascribes some literary fame. '» Opera (Rolls Ser.), ii, 172. " Cott. MS. Claud. A. viii, fol. 51. " Customary, ii, 187. The prior's open humilia- tion of himself evidently scandalized the convent. There seems to have been a strong tradition in the house against lowering the dignity of the regular life by public penances. Ibid. 117. 437
