Adam. As being one of the principal Benedictine monasteries, the abbots here were doubtless summoned to parliament from the earliest period. Among the oldest writs extant,-23d of Edward III.—the abbot of Evesham stands fifth in order; and is, in after summonses, commonly distinguished, with those of Bury, St. Albans, and Waltham, by the appendage of "Exempti," indicative of their freedom from visitation by the diocesan; and these four usually take precedence of all others of their class and order.43

This abbey from an early period claimed, as former portions of this chapter have intimated, entire exemption from episcopal jurisdiction. During the reign of Canute, Elfward abbot here and at the same time bishop of London, provided that Avikin then prior of the monastery should be constituted dean of the whole Vale; that this church might not again be deprived of its exemption, as it had previously been by Adulf bishop of Worcester in the reign of Ethelred the Unready. 44 In the time of abbot Randulph the dean also visited the churches throughout the vale as peculiars of this abbey: he also collected therein the Peter's-pence or yearly payment of one penny from each house to the see of Rome,-called Rome-scot by the Anglo-saxons-except where they were collected by the bishop; and appropriated the proceeds to the expenditure of his office, reserving the yearly payment of twenty solidi to the pope.45 This collection is warranted by a bull from pope Gregory, (presumed to be Gregory VIII.) dated from the Lateran in the fourth year of his pontificate; such payments to be gathered from the residents on the monastic demesne and also at Moreton and Ombersley. 46 An opinion upon the question of a privileged peculiar in the Vale of Evesham, prepared for Bishop Freake about the year 1587, cites the Decretals as stating that Celestinus the pope exempted the churches in the Vale; but observes that as shown by the White Book of the bishoprick the abbots of Evesham had exercised their ecclesiastical jurisdiction partly by consent of the

43 Vide Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, vol. i. pp. 28, 30, 32, 47, 56, 78, and 80. 44 Cottonian MS. Vespasian B xv.

45 Constitutions of Abbot Randulf, in Cottonian MS. Augustus II.

46 Ecclesiastical Documents, part ii. published by the Camden Society, 1840, pp. 70, 71, 72.

bishop of Worcester, for which the bishop had received from the abbey the advowsons of Hillingdon, Kinwarton, and Weston.47 This is authenticated by an agreement made at Fladbury, in 1242 upon St. Katherine's day, during the abbacy of Thomas de Gloucester. It is witnessed among others by Simon de Evesham archdeacon of the east riding of York, and is copied by Dr. Nash (ii. 178) from the White Book of the bishops of Worcester.

Pentecostals were formerly made from the chapelries in this deanery to the monastery, as the mother church. These oblations, from their being made at whitsuntide and their consisting of a farthing from every householder, were also termed whitsun-farthings. From a document in the Petyt MSS. in the Inner Temple library,48 it appears that certain of the villagers in making these payments individually at the monastery, were accustomed to repair thither in distinct processions, carrying a cross and banners. This being done at a period of general and boisterous festivity, rivalries and quarrels had taken place; and in 1442 "many mutilations and even murders" had occurred. In these tumults the inhabitants of ChurchHoneybourne had been so conspicuous, that in the above year pope Eugenius IV. upon a petition exhibited to him, ordained that this long-established custom of procession should cease; but that the usual payment from each householder to the monastery should continue.

Of the cells, or monasteries subordinate to and governed by this abbey, the earliest appears to have been the priory at Othenesei, now Odensee the capital of the isle of Funen, in the Baltic. Application having been made from that priory for instruction in the Benedictine discipline according to the usage of Evesham abbey, William Rufus permitted twelve monks and three clerks to remove thither, accompanied by five moniales and three attendants; all of whom were to receive in their new situation the same allowance of food and clothing as they did here.49 In 1174 the affiliation with

47" Memorandum concerning the priviledged Peculiar in the Vale of Evesham," in Nash's Worcestershire, i. 422.

48 De Processione Villanorum de Honeyborne ad Evesham, copied in Nash, vol. i. page 200.

49 Account of Robert, abbot of Evesham, in Harleian MS. 3763.

51

this abbey was completed; Evesham being then, in a charter from Waldemar I. king of Denmark, recognized as the mother church.50 The priory of Penwortham in Lancashire was confirmed as a cell to this abbey by bull from pope Alexander III. during the twelfth century. According to bishop Tanner, Warine Bussel having in the time of William the Norman given the church and tythes of Penwortham, with other estates thereabout, to this abbey, the priory was soon after erected, and Benedictine monks from Evesham were placed therein.52 In the Harleian cartulary this cell is stated to have had no endowment distinct from the parent monastery, and that in prior Wylecote's time, 1320, it had never been presented to or instituted by the bishop of the diocese.53 In the return made to the First-fruits' office in the 26th of Henry VIII. it is valued at £114. 16s. 10d. yearly; from which, according to bishop Tanner, the prior paid £63. yearly to the abbey of Evesham. The site of the priory was granted in the 34th of Henry VIII. to John Fleetwood of London.

The abbey of Alcester, founded by Ralph Boteler of Oversley, in 1140, became a cell to the abbey of Evesham in 1467. In the previous year Edward IV. as patron in right of his duchy of Lancaster, expressed in letters patent that "through divers misfortunes and the negligence of many abbots there then was not, nor of a long time had been any monk to bear the abbot company," and that the revenues were so diminished that they could neither maintain the appointed number of monks nor exercise offices of hospitality and piety; for which cause the king granted to Richard [Pembroke], then abbot of Evesham, and his successors, the right of patronage and advowson, that he should procure it to be united and appropriated to that monastery. This was completed on the

50 In Cotton MS. Vespasian B xxiv. Copied also in Dugdale's Monasticon, ii. p. 25; and in Tindal's Evesham, p. 160.

51 Dated from the Lateran on the 3d of the nones of March, without further indication as to the period.-Harl. MS. 3763, fol. 112, copied in Dugdale's Monasticon, vol. iii. p. 418.

Tanner's Notitia Monasticon. Lancashire, xiv.

Dugdale's Monasticon, iii. p. 418.

26th of April 1467, by Carpenter bishop of Worcester; when, upon the resignation of Richard Tuttebury last abbot of Alcester, it became from this period a cell to the abbey of Evesham. It was at the same time ordained by the said bishop that three monks from Evesham in priest's orders should reside at Alcester, one as prior and the others as his assistants, to say mass and to perform other divine offices. He also reserved from its revenue a yearly pension of 138. 4d. to himself and successors; to the prior and convent of Worcester, 68. 8d.; and to the archdeacon of Worcester 6s. 8d.; which payments the abbot of Evesham by his bond, dated 6th May 1466, obliged himself and successors to pay yearly in the cathedral church of Worcester.54

On 26th February, 1515, the abbey of Evesham obtained license from Sylvester bishop of Worcester to rebuild the church at Alcester, then in ruins, to change its form, and reduce its dimensions, suitable to the then number of monks.55 In the 26th Henry VIII. the revenues of this priory being certified as no more than £65. 78. 11d. above reprises, it was suppressed with the smaller monasteries, under the statute of 27th Henry VIII. The site and lands were ultimately demised by the king to Fouk Grevill, esq., who pulled down the priory to enlarge his house at Beauchamp's court.56 The site of the manor of Pebworth, part of the estate of the same monastery was granted to Richard Fermour for term of his life by letters patent, "being of the value of £4. 6s. 8d. by the yere." 57

The monastery was situated about half a mile north of the town of Alcester, and having a moat on two sides, and the river Arrow at the north and east, it was popularly termed "the church of our Lady of the Isle." The site is still called the Priory Close, and in ploughing there early in the present century "a stone coffin was found, with places formed to admit the head, the elbows, and the heels of the corpse. "58

54 Dr. Thomas's edition of Dugdale's Warwickshire, p. 772.

55 Regist. Sylv. Gigles, fol. 118, in Dugdale's Monasticon, iv. 173.

56 Leland's Itinerary, second edition, iv. 71.

57 Grant of 36 Henry VIII. in Augmentation Office.-Dugdale, iv. 180.

58 Beauties of England and Wales, Warwickshire, p. 289.

CHAPTER III.

ARCHITECTURAL SURVEY OF THE

CHURCH & MONASTERY-MAGNIFICENCE OF THOSE EDIFICES

THEIR PRESENT REMAINS.

THE situation chosen by bishop Ecgwin as the site of his monastery was—as is usual with such institutions-the most eligible and beautiful in the vale. Its exact position was upon that genial bank immediately southward of the present town. Here the conventual church and monastic quadrangle were erected, upon the garden ground that now immediately adjoins the parochial cemetery. The original church was founded in 701, but could hardly at that period have been built of stone: for in 960, the whole fell down; the shrine and relics of the founder being all that were preserved.59 Inf the reign of Edward the Confessor the church was re-built by abbot Mannie upon a larger scale, and was consecrated during his abbacy, only twelve years before the Norman conquest, by Leofwine bishop of Lichfield.60

When William had secured himself upon the English throne, and the possessions of this abbey, in common with others, had been transferred to a Norman ecclesiastic,-Walter of Cerasia,--the new

59 "Tempore istius abbatis Oswardi occulta animadversione dominica ecclesia Evesham ruit quam sanctus Egwinus construxerat, ac secum universa subruit atque comminuit præter feretrum sancti Egwini cum ejusdem reliquijs quod divina gratia conservatum est illæsum."-Cottonian Register, Vesp. B.

60"He [bishop Aldred] commissioned bishop Leofwine to consecrate the minster at Evesham; and it was consecrated in the same year, (1054) on the sixth before the ides of October."--Saxon Chronicle, by Ingram, p. 243.