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reduced their numbers beneath the original establishment of 40, yet, from the two statements of their affairs which have been given, they appear to have been usually in debt. Their founder had indeed bestowed upon them, in addition to their other possessions, a valuable rectory and a rich and extensive glebe, but this was all. He permitted them to take possession of the old parsonage-house, and to provide for themselves better accommo- dations at their leisure, and, thus circumstanced, they judged wisely to adopt a magnificent plan, and to pursue it, though slowly yet with uniformity, rather than to disgrace themselves and what they conceived to be the cause of God by mean and hasty erections. But by what mismanagement, it will be asked, were their funds inadequate to the 1 The Lady Chapel, built by abbot Paslew, seems not to have formed a part of the original plan. 2 Townley MSS. 3 Harl. MS. 1830 [f. 24]. 4 [It is incorrect, so far as the date, which (being in Arabic figures in the Harl. MS. 1830, f. 24) was misread 1438, instead of 1435, as we have intimated in the text.] * I now think [adds Dr. Whitaker in 3rd edition, p. 75,] that no more is meant by these words than that the new stalls were substituted for old ones. The choir itself appears to have been finished long before. o It had not been wanting so long. See the last note [and note *]. BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 101
completing of the present building in a much shorter period ? Perhaps by no mismanage- ment at all. The claims upon their hospitality were immense, and sometimes drew from them complaints on a subject, which, to do them justice, rarely excited their murmurs without cause. Hospitality was a virtue common to all the religious houses ; but the peculiar situation of Whalley, almost at an equal distance between Manchester and Lancaster, in the centre of a barren and inhospitable tract, and in the great route of the pilgrims l from north to south, rendered these demands singularly oppressive here. Their liberality in money was also great. The nobility and gentry of the county had corrodies or pensions ; the poor friars, the minstrels, the officers of the Ecclesiastical Court in their visitations, and even the servants of ordinary visitants, partook liberally of their bounty. Then again, the most hopeful of their novices were educated at the universities, and encouraged to pro- ceed to the higher degrees, when degrees cost at least half as much in terms of money as at present. - Besides, their demesnes, though rich in pasturage, were not very favourable to the growth of grain. The collection of corn-tithe in kind, throughout the greater part of their parishes, must have been nearly impossible ; and the conveyance of the grain they were compelled to purchase, extra patriam as they termed it, must have been extremely incon- venient, in consequence of the state of the roads.
to assert, what may be proved from their accounts, that not more than a fourth part of their large income was consumed in their own personal expenses.
ject of their receipts and expenditure. Of the adjoining Hermitage, founded by Henry Duke of Lancaster, nothing has occurred since the foundation ; but, in the time of abbot Eccles, an instance of misconduct in a votress of this establishment afforded a pretext, which may seem to have been willingly embraced, for petitioning the King, who was now become patron as Duke of Lancaster, to dissolve an institution which did no credit either to itself or the monastery on which it depended. It appears, that under the general description of a recluse, votaries of either sex might be included. 3 Accordingly King Henry VI. by [writ of privy seal] dated July 6, a. r. 15, nominated one " Isola de Heton de com. Lane, vidua, quod ipsa pro termino vitse suss esse possit anachorita in loco ad hoc ordinato juxta ecclesiam parochialem de Whalley." This 1 The mention of Pilgrim Cross in Tottington at once marks their route, and the frequency of their journeys. The Shrine of Becket, and of our Lady of Walsingham, probably had many devout and idle visitants from the North ; and in the title De Donis of the Computus A. 1478, is a sum charged as given " itinerantibus versus Jerusalem."
to 100Z. at present. 3 [Our author, as before noticed in p. 97, did not correctly understand that the Hermitage at Whalley was founded for one female votary only.] 102 HISTORY OF WHALLEY. [BOOK II. CHAP. II. vow was probably taken in the first fervours of sorrow, which soon wore off, so that the widow grew weary of her confinement, and broke loose from her vows and her cell together. Vowesses like these, who, under pretence of total solitude, were only exempted from the restraints of social retirement, seem to have been in general a disgrace to their profession. Leland mentions an anchoress " in media urbe (of the town of Wakefield) unde aliquando inventa fecunda ; " and, among some old charters relating to the parish of Rochdale, I have seen an attestation, jilii monialis (in the proper sense of anchoress) de Newbold. Nay, even among those females who were kept under the stricter discipline of the cloister many it is to be feared were little better than those solitaries who kept their own keys ; and friar "Wrath, the mischievous spy of Piers Plowman, would remember many instances like that of dame Parnel, l though he does indeed hint that her misconduct stood in the way of her advancement. However, the behaviour of this Isola or Isold de Heton occasioned a representation to the King, which contains the following passage : 2 To THE KTNG OWRE SOVEREIGN LORD, &c. Be hit remembryd that the plase arid habitacion of the seid recluse is within place halowed, and nere to the gate of the seyd monastre, and that the weemen that have been attendyng and acquayntyd to the seyd recluse have recorse dailly into the seyd monastre, for the livere of brede, ale, kychin, and other thyngs for the sustentacyon of the seyd recluse accordyng to the composityon endentyd above rehersyd : the whyche is not accordyng (fitting) to be had withyn such religyous plases. And how that dyvers that been anchores and recluses in the seyd plase aforetyme, contrary to theyre own oth and professyon, have brokyn owte of the seyd plase, wherin they were reclusyd, and departyd therfrom wythout eny reconsilyatyon. And in especyal how that now Isold of Heton that was last recluysd in the seyd plase, at denomynatyon and preferment of owre Sovereign Lord and Kyng that nowe is, is broken owte of the seyd plase, and hath departyd therfrom contrary to her own oth and professyon, not willyng nor entendyng to be restoryd agayn, and so livyng at her own liberte by this two yere and more, like as she had never bin professyd. And that divers of the wymen that have been servants ther and attendyng to the recluses afortym have byn misgovernyd, and gotten with chyld withyn the seyd plase halowyd, to the grete displeasaunce of hurt and disclander of the abbeye aforeseyd, &c. Please hyt your Highness of our espesyal grase to grant to your orators the abbat, &c. This petition had the desired effect of delivering the abbey from the shame and vexa- tion occasioned by these disorderly women ; for, by letters patent reciting the scandals which had been given by the recluses upon this foundation, Henry VI. dissolved the Hermitage endowed by Henry Duke of Lancaster his ancestor, appointing in its place two chaplains to say mass daily in the parish church of Whalley, for the soul of the said Duke
of the seventeenth century, by Weever, and inserted in his " Funerall Monuments," p. 155 ; but he omitted to mention the reception which it met with, and the effect which it produced. Indeed, it was a representation likely to interest the chastity and zeal of Henry VI. and is far from conveying an unfavourable idea of the state of morals in the house. BOOK II. CHAP. II.] THE ABBEY. 103
Henry, and for his own good estate while living, and on the anniversary of his own death for ever, ordaining an obit to be celebrated by thirty chaplains. * Under the three succeeding princes of the house of York, it is scarcely to be supposed that the latter condition would be performed, unless the monks of Whalley were bold and faithful Lancasterians indeed. It might however be remembered, after the accession of Henry VII., who felt or affected great reverence for the memory of this blameless man, and would in all probability have obtained his beatification, had not the reigning Pontiif (Julius II.), as Lord Bacon 2 observes, " been a man who knew how to distinguish between innocence and sanctity."
have stood upon the site of those dirty cottages which defile and disgrace the western side of the churchyard. 3
of Henry VI. 1443 or 4. After his death is a succession of four Abbots, in the space of twenty-nine years, of whom nothing is remembered but their names, 4 viz. X. RALPH CLIDERHOW,* [or SCLATER,] vicar of Whalley. XI. NICHOLAS BILLINGTON. XII. ROBERT HAMOND, al. HARWOOD. 6 XIII. WILLIAM BILLINGTON. All probably monk's names, indicating the places of their respective births. Next occurs a man whose name frequently appears in the local transactions of those times. XIV. RALPH HOLDEN, elected the llth or 12th Edw. IV. It is in the highest degree probable that this abbot was younger son of Adam Holden of Holden, and Alice his wife, daughter of William Holland of Heaton.
Christopher, whose eldest son, the first of that name in the direct line, was Ralph, and probably so called after the abbot. There appears also a Ralph Holden, of Aspden, in the
1 Coucher Book, uli supra [not in the Chetham Society's edition.] 2 Life of Henry VII. [References to the existing evidences of the proposed canonization of Henry VI. will be found in Trevelyan Papers (Camden Society), vol. iii.] 3 These nuisances are now removed (1818) at the instance of the Author, by walling-up the doors ; which, till within the last five years, opened into the church-yard, on the north and west sides. * [In the list of Abbots, Harl. MS. 1830, f. 23, Nicholas Billington is said to have preceded Cliderhowe, the latter being numbered as eleventh, the former as tenth Abbot.] 6 The family name of this abbot was Sclater ; for there is a receipt, Townley MSS. G. 20, from Joh. Pilkington to Had. Sclater, Abbot of Whalley, for 6s. 8d. 6th Edw. IV. 6 I have never met with any original charters of this abbot, who must have sat a very short time ; but in the Townley MSS. the name is spelt Harwood; which I am inclined to think right, as Hamond is no common name in the North, and nothing is more probable, than that a native of the neighbouring village of Harwood should have become a monk of Whalley. 104
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[BOOK II. CHAP. II. year 1454, * who seems to have been progenitor of the Holdens of Chargeley, 2 but must have been too young to have been ancestor of the abbot. 3
Whalley and sir Christopher Parsons, rector of Slaidburn, on account of the tithes of certain lands called Hall Flatt and Countess Meadows, together with Slaidburn Mill, which, though not included within the forest of Bowland, and actually surrounded, like many other small insulated tracts, by another county, were in fact ancient demesne lands belonging to the castle and castle parish of Clitheroe. Some servants of the abbey, with Christopher Thornbergh, then bursar of the house, at their head, driving away a few tithe calfs from these lands, were set upon by a mob instigated by the rector, who with dreadful outcries of ftgll ge monfte, Stage ge tUOnfce, attacking the tithing party, sent them home cruelly beaten, and in a very evil plight. Their next step was to swear the tenants of these bateable lands, upon the crosse of a groat, to pay no tithes but to the rector, whose conduct on the whole appears to have been extremely violent and unwarrantable. This story, with all its circumstances, is most tragically and lamentably set forth by the sufferers, recentibus odiis, in a memorial yet extant in the Coucher Book, 4 and subscribed by the abbots of Salley, Cockersand, &c., for the whole fraternity were up in arms at such an attack upon the property of a monastery and the person of a monk. However, each party appealed to his own ordinary ; and, as it did not seem very clear to whom the cogni- zance of the cause appertained, whether to the Bishop of Lichfield, in whose diocese the abbey stood, or to the Archbishop of York, in whose diocese the tithes accrued, 5 at length,
Edw. IV. ; and, though he is not mentioned as Monk or Abbot of Whalley, I think it most likely (on account of the vicinity of Chageley to Whalley) that he was the person.
were arranged in the following order, in which, it must be understood, they ranked by pairs : I. Abbot of St. Maries, York. Abbot of Fountains. Abbot of Salley. Abbot of Rivaulx. Abbot of Whitby. Abbot of Meaux. II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
Prior of Duresme. Abbot of Whalley. Abbot of KirkstalL Abbot of Bylande. Abbot of Selby.
Prior of Bridlington. The rank which these great ecclesiastics bore is strikingly displayed at this feast, in which the temporal barons were placed at an inferior table. * [Not in the Chetham Society's edition.] 5 Hence it appears that tithe-causes, in the fifteenth century, were cognizable by the ordinary. The Court of Exchequer is never mentioned. BOOK II. CHAP. II.]
THE ABBEY. 105
after much wrangling, both parties agreed to refer the dispute to King Edward IV., who, after an hearing before the privy council, determined it very rightly in favour of the house. '
an. reg. 2 do , from which I transcribe the following passage as a specimen of the language and orthography of that time :
succor tbam in all theyr rigbts, wole and charge you and every of you, that unto thain in contynuying tham in the same yee be helping aidyng and assistyng to your powers. And in espcciall our tenants of Boulond, that yee do pay the said abbot and convent as ye have done aforetyme after the tenor of the said jugement, havyng no consideracyon to noo awarde, bounde, ne dome made contrary to the said jugcment withouten assent and wyll of the said abbot and convent, and that yee ne faile to do the premissez as yee will avoyde our great displeasir.
ing in the cause which has been related above might possibly recommend him to this dignity ; which he enjoyed only six years, and, dying in 1486, " was followed by
that name. His government began nearly with that of Henry VII. and ended about four years before it ; a period of great tranquillity, such as usually precedes a storm. 3 [He died 13 July, 1507-1 4 On his decease the convent elected their prior 5 1 It is remarkable, that in an inspeximus of 7th lien. VII. relating to this cause, of which the original is now before me, Edward IV. is styled Dn. Ed. nuper re/j. Anrjl. quart, but Richard III. Dn. R. iwper de. facto ct iion tie jure reg. Angl. Surely personal resentment had its share in this distinction ; for Henry VII. no more acknowledged the right of Edward V. on which the usurpation of Richard was grounded, than that of his father. It is curious, that this appellation of Kings de facto was applied by the house of York to that of Lancaster, but afterwards retorted.
siderable buildings or repairs were going on in his time. " This Indenture, &c. bearing date Jan. 28, C IK-n. VII. witnessyth that William abbot of Whalley hath bought of Sir John Talbot knight a parcel of wood callyd Keytey- hurst, for which y c said Sir John is payd xviij J. The Boundes wherof begin at the great Holgh * standing in the southe parte of y e wood without Whitefeld Rawe, so following y Rawe to Dinkelly Moor, and from, &c. &c. to Kibble Bank then to Deidweynstobbe, and so following from Deidweynstobbe uppe throgh the Wode, from oke to oke, as they are markyd, and so following y e skirts of y c Hurst, fro oke to oke, unto the Holgh Sappeling, standyng in y p southe parte aforesaid. Y e seid Abbot to have alle Wode within y c Boundys aforesaid, except sappeling, holyn, ashe, crabtre, and haythorne, with* they be deid." Townley MSS.
dominus Joannes Paslow, et sic regnavit annos 29 et amplius. Cotton. MS. Vesp. D. xvii. f. 16.] * I hare long doubted the meaning of the words Holgh and Holgh Sappeling ; but am now inclined to think them synonymous with Hag, in the following passage of Lawson's " New Orchard and Garden, 1597," which I quote from Dr. Hunter's edition of Evelyn's Sylra, p. 476 : "I see a number of Hayi; where, out of one root, you shall see three or four pretty oaks or ashes, streight and tall." I think the meaning is, a large old root, sending up several young stems. VOL. I. P
10G
HISTORY OF WHALLEY.
[Boon II. CHAP. II. XVII. JOHN PASLEW, B.D., whom his arms, lately remaining in the windows of the abbey, prove to have been of the Paslews of Wiswall. 1 I suppose him to have been son of Francis Paslew, who occurs in charters about the year 1460. To him or to his predecessor, Rede, is to be ascribed that quadrangular building which the Assheton family chose for their habitation, and which appears to have been the abbot's lodgings. I am induced to refer this part of the abbey to so late a period, by some appearances in the wood-work, which I think were peculiar to the reign of Henry VII. and the earlier part of that of his son.
ferred to in the indentures for erecting the north aisle of Burnley church, A.D. 1533, s which appears to have been building A.D. 1521, from a considerable sum charged in the compotus of that year profabrica ecclesice. Thus the first twenty years of this abbot passed, like those of his predecessors, in the duties of his choir, in the exercise of hospitality, in attention to the extensive possessions of his house, or in the improvement of its buildings ; but a storm was now approaching, before which either conscience or bigotry prevented him from bending, and which brought quick and premature destruction on him and his house. The religious houses in general were now greatly relaxed in discipline, and many of them dreadfully corrupted in morals. What was the state of Whalley, however, as no report of the visitors is extant, must be left to conjecture ; but charity should incline us to think no evil of an institution professedly religious, against which no specific evidence appears.
Dawson, Esq. of Hornby Castle, where I have seen it, and is now in the hands of his nephew, Richard Dawson, Esq." Lecture by the Rev. R. N. Whitaker, Vicar of Whalley, 12 Feb. 1807.]
or one of his monks, in the Leiger Book* of Whalley, out of which it was copied by Weever (Fun. Mon. p. 394) : "A.D. Mv c xiii. Hoc anno Jacobus Scotie rex in Borea triumphaliter ab Anglis interemptus est: cujus corpus, quum ha;c scripserim (quoniam membrum ab Ecclesia evulsum de hoc mundo abscesserit) hue usque in domo Carthusien- sium apud Rychmund mortalibus miserandum spectaculum inhumatum jacet ' Qui videt testimonium perhibuit, et verum est testimonium ejus.' Lib. Monasterii de Whalley, in com. Lane." No very decent application of the words of St. John.
sians in question was that at Sheen, near Richmond in Surrey, where the chronicler Stowe himself saw what was said to be the royal deposit, as related in the following passage: " After that the Earle of Surrey had taken order, and set the North in good quiet, he returned to the Qaeene, with the dead bodie of the Scottish King, which bodie inclosed in lead (as before is showed), as I have beene informed, was conveyed to Shine, a Monastery in Surrey, founded by King Henry V. where it remained for a time, in what order I am not certaine, but since the dissolution of Yüklə 4,81 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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