RELIGIOUS HOUSES notified to his abbot." He was sentenced by the abbot of Beaulieu to be imprisoned, and the judgement against him was finally confirmed by the pope,'^ though at first he had obtained letters of rehabilitation.^' The house in 1427 was so much impoverished owing to the mismanagement of Abbot Paschal, who seems to have obtained his position wrongfully'* and to have taken advantage of it to plunder the abbey,'" that it was committed by the advice of the council to Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, the bishop of Winchester, the abbot of Beaulieu, and others.'^ A question as to the custody of the temporalities arose in 1 441, the abbey being called upon to answer for £s^^ ^^^- ^o*^- ^^^^ ^^ ^^ ^^^ *° the king from its lands in London and Middlesex during the vacancy on the death of the last abbot, John Pecche. The abbot and convent appealed to the king, who acknowledged that his predecessors had never had the custody at such times, and promised for himself and his heirs that the convent should in future be unmolested in this respect." The civil wars do not seem to have affected the position of the abbey at all ; its charters were confirmed by both Edward IV ^' and Henry VII, and the abbot served on the various commissions for the administration of the district adjoining the abbey, both under Ed- ward IV *" and Henry VIII." It was probably during the reign of Edward IV that the Lady Chapel was added at the expense of Sir Thomas Montgomery." After the difficulties with Rome had arisen the king appointed Henry More the abbot of St. Mary's, among others,*' to visit the houses of the Cistercian order in England, Ireland, and Wales, and More received the thanks of Margaret, marchioness of Dorset, in i533 for the zeal he had shown in the reformation of the house of Tiltey.** Reform, however, was not what the king wanted, and the abbey of Cogge- shall must have been given to More in com- mendam in 1536,*' either because his precarious " Cal. Pop. Letters, v, 517. It appears rather extra- ordinary that he should commit the same faults twice. " Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 602. " Ibid, v, 517. " Nicolas, Proc. and Ordin. of the Privy Council, iii, 269. His entrance to the office is spoken of as ' intrusio.' " The jewels of the house had apparently been pawned. Ibid. '^ Cal. of Pat. 1422-9, p. 394. " Add. Chart. 39405. ^ Cal. of Pat. 1461-7, p. 162 ; 1476-85, p. 4. " Add. Chart. 39405.
- » Cal. of Pat. 1476-85, pp. 215, 466.
«' L. and P. Hen. Fill, i, 1972 ; ibid, v, 166 (8). " His will is dated July, 1489, and directs that his body shall be buried in the Lady Chapel which he had lately made. Nicolas, Testam. Vet. 396. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, v, 978 (6). " Ibid, vi, 1304. "Ibid, xi, 385 (37): health made a speedy recurrence of first-fruits likely,*' or more probably because he could be relied on to surrender when required. More indeed gave it up to the king in about eighteen months,*' and made a good bargain, for he was reimbursed for all his expenses and received a pension of 1 00 marks for life from Sir Thomas Seymour who obtained the site and lands.** The surrender of St. Mary Graces seems to have taken place in September, 1538.*' At that time there were ten monks including the abbot, only one more than there had been in 1376,^" before the richest endowments had been made. They all received pensions for life : the abbot 100 marks, the sub-prior ^^6 13^. 4^/., and the others ;^5 6;. 8a'. each.°^ More was still living ' in 1544."= From the time of Richard II "' there was a prior as well as an abbot ; afterwards there appears to have been also a sub-prior, as at the dissolution one of the monks is so called.'* The income of the abbey in 1535 amounted tOj^6o2 iiJ. I ojd'. gross and j^ 5 47 os. 6i^. net," of which more than ;^300 was derived from rents and ferms in London and the suburbs,"' and the rectory and tithes of Allhallows Staining." " Ibid, xi, 392. Anthony Knyvet, writing to Cromwell, says that it would profit the king to give Coggeshall to More, since he was likely to have the first-fruits and the monastery again in a few years, for More was once a year ' almost gone.' •Mbid. xiii (I), 221. "Ibid. " The pensions granted to the abbot and monks in April, I 539, were to be enjoyed from the preceding Michaelmas (Aug. Off. Misc. Bk. 233, fol. 262-3). Many of the abbey lands were made over by the abbot and convent in December 1538 to Sir Thomas Audley to be held of the king {L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiii (2), 969). Wriothesley, however, in his Chron. (Rolls Ser.), i, 94, says the surrender took place 31 March, 1539. '" The original number of monks was five ; the king had ordered one more to be added in 1358 (Add. MS. 15664, fol. 138) ; and two were to be added as a condition of the bequest of Nicholas de Loveyne, knt., in 1375 (Add. Chart. 39405). " Aug. Off. Misc. Bk. 233, fol. 262-3. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xix (l), 368, fol. 19. " Burton, Chron. Mon. de Melsa (Rolls Ser.), 277. William de Wendover, the prior, was made abbot of Meaux in 1399. There is mention of another prior in 1400. Cal. of Pat. i 399-1401, p. 397. " L. and P. Hen. Vlll, xiv (i), 688. The office of prior seems to have been vacant at this time. " Valor Ecd. (Rec. Com.), i, 398, 399. ^ Ibid, i, 398. Edward III had given the abbey tenements and rents in the parishes of St. Dunstan in the East, St. Martin Vintry, All Saints 'at Hey- wharf,' St. Michael Paternoster, St. Sepulchre, St. An- drew Holborn, St. Swithin, St. Mary Woolchurch St. Bride, St. Mary Billingsgate, &c. Add. Chart. 39405. Tenements were also left to the monks in the parishes of St. Michael Queenhithe, and Allhallows Thames Street. Sharpe, Cal. of Wills, ii, 564, 437. " Valor Ecd. i, 398. 463
