A HISTORY OF LONDON this it would appear that the Westminster Use was closely allied to that of Sarum. There are, however, certain differences in the introits and grails, and the sequences of St. Thomas of Can- terbury, St. Edward the Confessor, St. Peter ad Vincula, and the Common of the Apostles are peculiar to Westminster, as are also the distribu- tion of lessons on Easter Eve and the collect before the first lesson on that day. The missal also contains a greater number of prayers for private use by the celebrant than any other English mass book.'" On hearing of Litlington's death the king sent John Lakyngheth, a candidate of his own, to Westminster ; but the convent, disregarding the royal wishes, elected their archdeacon, William of Colchester. Richard was greatly annoyed, and for some time refused to admit the new abbot ; eventually, however, he was pacified, and wrote to Rome, satis gratiose, on William's behalf."* The century closed pros- perously. A long-continued dispute with the canons of St. Stephen's, Westminster, was de- cided largely in favour of the abbey ; '*' Christ- church, Canterbury, gave their share of the com- mon Benedictine hall at Oxford to the monks of St. Peter's,"* and the king was munificent in his benefactions and in the assistance he gave towards the completion of the new buildings."' In the tragedy with which the reign ended Abbot Colchester played a somewhat inexplicable part. '" The Litlington Missal has been printed by the Henry Bradshaw Society with a liturgical introduc- tion by Dr. Wickham Legg, from which the above notes are taken ; Missale ad Usum Westm. pt. iii, introd. passim. The liturgical colours given in the Westminster Customary (60-1) are as follows : — The first Sunday in Advent and every Sunday to the feast of the Purification (or Septuagesima Sunday if it fell earlier than the Purification), white. The vigil and feast of the Nativity, the feast of the Circumcision, high mass on St. Edward's Day, the octave of St. Edward's Day, high mass on the feast of the Epiphany, and the octave of that feast, white. Ascension Day and its octave, the vigil and feast of the Nativity of St. John Baptist, the fe.ists of the Assumption and the Nativity of the Virgin and the feast of St. Michael, white. Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sun- days, dark red isub-rubeus). The first Sunday in Lent and Passion Sunday, black. The octave of Whitsunday, embroidered, or either scinliilata, red, saffron {croceus), or grey {glaucus). Passion Sunday to Ascension D.iy and other Sundays throughout the year except the above, also the feasts of the Decollation of St. John Baptist, St. Edward, St. Thomas the Archbishop, and other martyrs, red. '" Higden, Polychron. (Rolls Ser.), ix, 89. '" See account of St. Stephen's, infra. ^ Lit. Cant. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 14. '" Cal. of Pat. 1 1^1-6, passim. He was with the king in Ireland at Whitsun- tide, but the following autumn he was one of the commissioners sent to the Tower to receive Richard's abdication,'^* and was among those who recommended the king's entire isolation from any of his former companions ; "' at the same time he was appointed one of the executors of his will,'*** and was suspected of complicity in the conspiracy against Henry IV in 1400."' Very few details of the history of Westminster in thefifteenth century survive. Beyond a statement by one of the chroniclers of the day to the effect that if the Lollards succeeded, one of their first enterprises would be the destruction of the abbey,"' the monastery seems to slip out of the general current of national history, and the few notices that do occur are purely domestic. About the middle of the century a discontented monk accused the abbot of having recourse to a necro- mancer to discover the thief of certain plate from his chapel and wine-cellar ;'*' this in itself, how- ever, is insufficient evidence as to the character of the abbot or the state of the house — one mal- content among some forty or fifty monks would be scarcely surprising, though it may be noted that the abbot resigned in 1463.^" A real in- stance of misgovernment arose, however, some few years later, when Abbot George Norwich was asked to retire to another house for a time on account of his maladministration and debts. The debt incurred amounted to at least 3,037 marks 6s. 8d., and the resources which should have met it had been reduced by alienations and grants in fee. A certain Brother Thomas Ruston, evidently a partisan of the abbot, was holding four offices, and had brought them to decay by his neglect ; he had burdened the house with his own debts, and was suspected of having embezzled six or seven copes at the time when he was keeper of the vestry. The memorial presented to the abbot was signed by thirteen monks, two of whom, Thomas Milling, the prior, and John Eastney, were afterwards them- selves abbots."* The tone of the document reflects great credit on the spirit of the house at the time : it is at once businesslike, moderate, and respectful, and the abbot wisely acquiesced in the scheme set before him, and appointed Milling one of the five commissioners to admmister the abbey during his retirement. Milling was elected to succeed Norwich as abbot in 1469,"' but his rule was short, for in "' Trokelowe and Blandford, Jnn. (Rolls Ser.), 248, 252. "' Rolls of Par/. (Rec. Com.), iii, 426^. '™ Nicolas, Test. Vet. 33. '" Trokelowe and Blandford, Ann. (Rolls Ser.), 330. '^' Walsingham, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 298. '" Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. viii, pt. i, 265. '" Ca/. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 290. '« D. and C. Westm. 'Abbots ' (22). '" Ca/. of Pat. 1467-77, p. 179. 446
