276 ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS. and ring which had belonged to the deceased prelate. The matter appears accordingly to have been ailjusted without delay, since a formal acquittance is found in the same volume (f. 161, v"), by which Henry, Priur of Christ Cluirch, acknowledged to have received from ^ladoc. Archdeacon of Anglesea, and others, co-executors of Bisho}) Anian, " quinque niarcas sterlingorum pro palefrido, freno, et sella cjusdem Episcopi, de jure et con- suetudiiie — nobis et ecclesie nostre debitis, sede Cantuariensi et Bangorensi siinul vacantibus. Sigilla vero, capam pluvialem, capellum, et botas dicti E|pi^copi — recepimus ab eisdcm." l)ated at Canterbury, Feb. 3, 1328. It may appear probable that the delay on this occasion had been caused solely by a natural excess of caution on the part of the official or the executors, and the uncertainty in which they may have been placed, in a remote part of the realm, as to the see of Canterbury being actually vacant or not ; more especially as the convent had proceeded to make their election of Simon Mepham some months previously. All doubt having however been removed by the Archbishop's requisition, the claims of the Prior of Christ Church were speedily satisfied. A similar occurrence is recorded in the Register, on the decease of David Martyu, Bishop of St. David's, March 'J, 132S. llis executors had delivered the seals and ring to Master Edmund do Mepliam, who had departed this life, and a letter is found from Henry de Eastry, Prior of Clirist Church, to Robert Leveye, Edmund's executor, requesting him to render up those objects to which the Prior was entitled. l3ated ou St. Martin's day, (Nov. 11,) 1328.'- The Wardrobe Books and other records would doubtless show that the rights of the crown were constantly enforced on the decease of archbishops and bishops with no less jealous vigilance than those of the Church of Canterbury. In the AVardrobe Book of 2Sth Edward I., for instance, amongst the " Jocalia remanencia in fine anni 27, de jocalibus datis et post decessum prelatorum Regis (.s'/c) rcstitutis anno 26" (1298 — I'H) mention is made of the silver covered cup of William de llollium. Arch- bishop of Dublin, who died in 1298, and of his gold ring set with a sapphire, as also of many silver clp/ii and gold rings set with various gems, delivered to the king on the decease of several other prelates at that period. In the same record arc to be found the gold rings of the Abbots of Glas- tonbury, St. Albans, and Abingdon, lately deceased, in custody of tiio keeper of the King's wardrobe.^ It is deserving of remark, that at an earlier period no claim as regarded the pontifical ring ajqtears to have been acknowknlged by the Bisliops of Rochester. There is a curious relation in the contemporary life of GuM(iiilj)h, liishop of that see a.d. 1077 — IK'S, stating that shortly before ids death he sought to lay aside all worldly dignity, and presented his jtontifical ring to Ralph, Abl>()t of I'Essay in Normandy, afterwards cho-en by Archbishop Anselm as Gundulph's successor at Kochester. The narrative also proceeds to relate that Ernulph, Abbot of Peterborough, who succeeded Bishop Ralph on his being raised to the prinuicy at the death of Anselm, had a vision in which Gundulph aj)peared and ollered him a ring of great weight; and in fulfilment of the presage, beit)g matle liishop of Rochester, Ernulph received, as the biographer ob.serve8, that very ring which Gundulph in his = lUijjiHtcr K. IJ, f. I.')!l. liy the Sciricly of Aiilii|iiuriiH, |i|i. ;j)3, ■ I.il.i.T(;ur.|.n.l,f -Jll i;.hv. 1 ,i,.iI.Ii->1m.1 .•'.'ill.
