The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond Part 15

x.x.xix.).

CHAPTER X

119, 10. Lamentations iv. i.

121, 12. _Abbot Robert._ This was Robert II. (fourth Abbot), a monk of Westminster, elected by the convent in 1102, but not confirmed by Henry I. until 1107. He died shortly afterwards, on the 16th September, 1107, and, after an interregnum of seven years, Albold, Prior of St. Nicasius, at Meaux, succeeded him in the abbacy. Robert was buried in the Infirmary Chapel (Douai MS.). For his character and labours, see MS. quoted in Arnold, i. 356.

121, 20. _Hubert Walter._ Hubert's father, Harvey Walter, was descended from Hubert, the first Norman settler, who received at the Conquest grants of land in Norfolk and Suffolk. Hubert is said to have been born at West Dereham, in Norfolk (Tanner, _Not. Monast. Norfolk_, xxi.), where lived, as will be seen from the text (p. 121, l. 25), his mother Matilda de Valognes (whose sister Bertha married Ranulf de Glanville). He was brought up in Glanville's household, and was so much in his confidence that he was afterwards said to have "shared with him in the government of England." In 1186 he became Dean of York, and in 1189 Bishop of Salisbury. In 1190 he went to the Holy Land, returning in 1193, in which year he was elected Archbishop of Canterbury and appointed justiciary. Richard's departure over sea in 1194 left him virtual ruler of England for the next few years. He died in 1205; and in March, 1890, a tomb opened in Canterbury Cathedral was found to contain his remains.

124, 6. _The Pope wrote._ This letter of Innocent III. was dated 1st December, 1198, and was addressed (not to the Archbishop but) to the Abbot and convent of St. Edmund (_Migne's Patrologia_, vol. ccxiv., No. 457 of the Regesta).

CHAPTER XI

134, 13. Tendens ad sidera palmas. Virgil, _aen._ i. 93.

135, 18. _Anniversary obit of the Abbot Robert._ According to the _Liber Albus_, fol. 35, the anniversary of Abbot Robert was "xvi Kal.

Octobris" (16th September). The anniversaries of Ording and Hugh, mentioned in line 20, were 31st January and the 16th November.

139, 20. _Chapel of St. Denis._ This chapel was at the west end of the church, probably north of the great western tower, with a chapel dedicated to St. Faith above it. Abbot Baldwin, who commenced the erection of the basilica, was a monk of St. Denis; hence, no doubt, the dedication of a chapel to that saint.

CHAPTER XII

142, 5. _Church of Coventry._ Hugh de Nonant (d. 1198), Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, had a violent dislike to all monks, and, whenever he could, put secular canons in their place. He had turned out the monks at Coventry, and Pope Celestine III. appointed in 1197 a Commission, on which Samson sat, for restoring these expelled monks.

The monks were re-inducted by Archbishop Hubert Walter on 18th January, 1198.

144, 1. _Church of Wetherden._ This deed is recorded in the Feet of Fines for Suffolk, 9 Richard I., No. 49.

144, 9. _master of the schools._ A perpetual pension of three marcs, payable from the t.i.thes of Wetherden to "the master of the school at St. Edmund," was granted in 1198 by John, Bishop of Norwich, at the request of Samson (_Curtey's Register_, Brit. Mus. fol. 119).

145, 24. _Chapel of St. Andrew._ According to the _Gesta Sacristarum_ (Arnold, ii. 291) the Chapel of St. Andrew was for the most part built and finished by the sacrist Hugo under Samson, and seems to have been then connected with the infirmary (iii. 87). Later on it was removed into the cemetery of the monks (iii. 187).

145, 25. _Chapels of St. Katherine and St. Faith._ Two chapels at the west end; St. Katherine to the south, over the chapel of St. John, St.

Faith to the north, over the chapel of St. Denis.

147, 19. Tractant fabrilia fabri. Horace, _Ep._ ii. i. 116.

147, 20. _Adam of c.o.c.kfield._ This was the claimant whose case is reported on pp. 86-8, and again (by William of Diss) on pp. 254-6. An elaborate pedigree of the c.o.c.kfield family is given by Rokewode on pp.

140-8 of his book. His daughter's name was Nesta, and, as stated at p.

187, l. 24, she became, on her father's death in 1198, the ward and wife of Thomas de Burgh, brother of Hubert the chamberlain, who was afterwards justiciary and Earl of Kent. Nesta married three times, and died about 1248.

149, 3. Munera (crede mihi) capiunt hominesque deosque; Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis. Ovid, _Arte Amandi_, iii. 653.

CHAPTER XIII

151, 13. _Portman-moot._ Borough court. Written in English in the original Chronicle ("portmane-mot.")

151, 18. _Sorpeni._ Payment for gra.s.s for a cow.

152, 5. _Ording who lies there._ Ording (d. 1156) was one of six abbots who were buried in the Chapter House, and whose names are recorded in the MS., circa 1425, discovered by Dr. Montagu James at Douai (_James_, p. 180). The original chapter house of the monastery was built by G.o.defridus, the sacrist, about 1107. There was a fire which destroyed all the convent buildings, and Helyas, the sacrist, Ording's nephew, "reformavit ad plenum" the chapter house. His uncle was the first Abbot buried there. Ording's place of sepulture was nearest to the east end or dais. Hugo and Samson, Ording's successors, were also buried in Helyas's chapter house: Samson being, according to the Douai MS. "sepultus in capitulo sedus ad pedes Ric. Abb. sub lapidibus marmoreis ut suprascriptum est de Abb. Ordingo." About 1220 Richard of Newport, then sacrist, "vetus capitulum destruxit, et novum a fundamentis construxit." (Arnold, II. 293.) Afterwards Richard of Insula (1229-34), Henry of Rushbrook (1234-46), and Edmund of Walpole (1248-56) were also buried in the chapter house. Its dimensions, according to William of Worcester's measurements in 1479, were 60 paces by 20. In the course of some recent excavations (1902-3) the coffins of five of the above Abbots, and much worked stone and marble, have been found on the site of this chapter house.

152, 19. _tenant of the cellarer, by name Ketel_. As Ketel dwelt "without the gate," he was, being "of the cellarer's fee," subject to the "judicial duel" which William I. had introduced; whereas the argument of his fellow-burgesses seems to have been that if he had dwelt within the borough he would have been tried and acquitted or condemned by the "oaths of his neighbours"--the compurgators out of whom our jury system grew. The monks recognized that the time had come when the franchise of the town should be extended to the rural possessions of the Abbey, and all brought under a common jurisdiction.

153, 6. _within the jurisdiction._ "Infra bannamleucam," defined by Ducange as a certain territory by the boundaries of which the jurisdiction and immunities of any place, whether a town or monastery, were limited. _Bannum_ is here used in the sense of jurisdiction; and the amount of territory so enfranchised was usually reckoned as a league either way, hence banna leuca or banlieue. The exempt jurisdiction of Bury Abbey was limited to the circuit of a mile within four crosses.

153, 6. _Villeins of Hardwick._ The Latin word is _lancettos_, serfs holding by base services. In one of the cartularies of St. Edmund, the "Lancetti de Hardwick" were to cleanse the latrines of the monastery.

154, 23. _Beodricsworth._ This is the ancient name of Bury St.

Edmunds. Mr. Arnold says (I. iv.) the name of Beodric "seems to mean 'a table chieftain,' _comp._ beod. geneat, a table companion. But there is some countenance in the MSS. for Beadricsworth, which would come from beadu-rica, one mighty in war." Seynt Edmunds Biri is first subst.i.tuted for Beodricsworth in Charters from Edward the Confessor to the Monastery (cf. page 260 and Battely, _App._ ix. 134).

155, 14. _Aver-peni._ The money paid by the tenant in commutation of the service (avera) of performing any work for his lord by horse or ox, or by carriage with either.

155, 20. _Eels from Southrey._ aelgiva, Queen of Canute, gave to the Monastery yearly four thousand eels, with her gifts which pertained thereto at Lakenheath. The manor of Southrey, in Norfolk, with three fisheries, was appropriated to the cellarer (Rokewode, p. 151).

157, 2. _haggovele._ Probably head-tax or hearth-tax.

159, 2. Romans xii. 10.

159, 9. Summa pet.i.t livor. Ovid, _Rem. Amoris_, 369.

CHAPTER XIV

163, 8. Habakkuk iii. 2.

164, 11. _Chest with the shirt of St. Edmund._ Archdeacon Herman, in his treatise _De Miraculis Sancto Eadmundi_ (Arnold, i. 26 _et seq._), describes how Leofstan (2nd Abbot) decided to open the coffin containing St. Edmund's body and examine the remains. The body was found covered with a vestment stained with blood and pierced with arrows. This was taken off and the body wrapped in a linen sheet. In the continuation of Herman's work, ascribed to Samson himself, there is an account of another Herman, a monk of Bury, and a popular preacher, who displayed irreverently certain relics of St. Edmund. He took the shirt out of its casket, and unfolded it for the people to kiss. Tolinus the sacrist commented severely on the occurrence, and on the third day at sunset Herman died. The "feretrum c.u.m camisia S.

Edmundi" was amongst the relics carried in procession round the Church on Christmas Day, Palm Sunday, Easter Day, and probably other high festivals (Rituale, Harl. MS. 297, cent, xiv., quoted by _James_, p.

183).

165, 1. _Cup of St. Edmund._ To drinking from this cup various miracles are ascribed: a rich lady cured after long suffering from fever; a Dunwich man with dropsy; a girl afflicted with a great swelling, who drinks from the cup thrice in the name of the Trinity; a Cluniac monk of St. Saviour's, Southwark, named Gervasius, whose story is told in great detail in Samson's _De Miraculis_ (Arnold, i. 202-3).

It is said that an indulgence _toties quoties_ was granted to pilgrims who drank from this cup "in the worshippe of G.o.d and Saint Edmund,"

hence its name of "Pardon Bowl"; but I have not found the original authority for this.

165, 19. Luke xii. 2.

166, 9. Psalm lxiii. 11.

170, 4. Isaiah i. 2.

171, 18. _verse inscribed._ In the _Cronica Burienis_ (Arnold, iii. 8) this verse is given in a slightly different form--"Martyris ecce zoma Michaelis servet agalma," the writer adding, "Agalma, id est, sacra receptacula divinitatis." "Zoma" is probably the Greek word "soma,"

body. But it has also been translated "garment," and Carlyle's version of the inscription (_Past and Present_, ch. xvi.) is, "This is the Martyr's garment, which Michael's Image guards." Lord Francis Hervey, in his edition (1902) of Recce's _Breviary of Suffolk_, says, "Having regard to the fondness of the mediaeval versifiers for rhyme, I feel tempted to suggest that the word may have been 'salma,' a word of unknown origin, which in Italian means corpse.... The verse in question was most probably not home made, and was not clearly intelligible to the monks themselves."

171, 21. _iron rings._ This phrase is somewhat obscure: "annuli ferrei sicut solebat fieri in cista Norensi." Ducange gives "Norrensis" as an occasional equivalent for Northmannus, hence Mr. Arnold suggests for cista Norensis "a Norwegian chest" (i. 311).

175, 10. _Ailwin the monk._ Ailwin, also written Egelwin, was keeper of the shrine of St. Edmund before the foundation of the Abbey. In view of the invasion of England by the Danish chief Turchil, Ailwin fled, in 1010, from Beodricsworth to London with the body of St.

Edmund, returning 1014. In 1050 Ailwin, then a very aged man, was invited by Abbot Leofstan to come from Hulme to Bury to identify the body of the Saint.