RELIGIOUS HOUSES mercy. . Thereupon, after payment of a fine of 1,000 marks, the liberties were restored.' Through the influence of Cardinal Wolsey, a composition was entered into between the priory and the city in 1524, whereby the latter re- signed all claims to jurisdiction within the pre- cincts to the priory, whilst the monastery gave up all claim to jurisdiction in Tombland, Holme Street, Ratton Row, and Spiteland. The city also made certain other surrenders to the priory, such as freedom from all tolls and customs, both by water and land, for all goods bought or sold for the use of the convent and their household.^ On 6 April, 1539, the great monastery of Norwich was dissolved. The monks were for the most part changed into prebendaries or secular canons, whilst the last prior, William Castleton, became the first dean of the new establishment. Among the muniments of the city of Norwich is a copy of the charter, quaintly described as the document ' whereby the prior and monks are changed from the monkish state into a dean and chapter, and so made secular priests and altered their cowls. Some consideration must now be given to the considerable number of old documents relating to the inner working and life of the cathedral priory of the Holy Trinity. In the treasury of the cathedral of Norwich no fewer than 1,400 of the old account rolls of the great Benedictine priory are carefully preserved. They are ' obedientiary rolls,' that is, they per- tained to the obedientiaries or chief officials of the priory, and are concerned with the yearly accounts pertaining to the office of the particular official. The earliest roll is of the year 1272; many earlier ones were probably consumed in the devastating fire of that particular year. The date of the latest of the pre-Reformation series is A general account roll of the year 1363 gives a Status Ohedientiariorum, with the total receipts of each officer of the convent, beginning with the prior. The officials enumerated on this roll, under the prior, were as follows, the year after each giving the date of the earliest roll still extant of that particular office : — Cellarer ' The numerous chronicles and rolls as to this outbreaic are cited by Blomefield {Hist. ofNorf. iii, 149-55, and Hudson and Tingey, Rec. of the City of Ncncich, , 340-6, and Introd. Ixxxviii-xcvii). ' Blomefield, Hist. ofNorf. iii, 1 95 and 196. ' Liber Albus, fF. 104-5. ' The Rev. H. Symonds, formerly precentor of Norwich Cathedral, compiled a useful catalogue of the rolls. There are also eight Norwich obedientiary rolls in the Bodleian, dating from 1324 to 1507. Six of them pertain to the refectorian, one to the precentor, and one to the cellarer {Cal. of Chart. R. 237.) There are more obedientiary rolls, we believe, extant of Norwich Priory than of any other English Benedictine house save Durham. 2 3 (1303), sacrist (1274), chamberlain (1292), pre- centor (1283), almoner (1276), infirmarer (1313), commoner (1284), pittancer (1289), hostellar (1320), refectorian (1289), gardener (1340), and warden of St. Paul's Hospital (1423). The priors of four out of the five cells of this cathe- dral priory also sent in their account rolls — Yarmouth (1355), Aldeby (1381), Hoxne (1394), and St. Leonard, Norwich (1348). The most interesting rolls for a history of the actual working of the great cathedral in mediaeval days are those of the sacrist ; they happen, for- tunately, to be more numerous than any of the others, although there are considerable as well as occasional gaps in their sequence.^ The income of the sacrist's office came mainly from the voluntary offerings of the faithful. The chief of these were the offerings at the high altar, to the north of which stood the costly patronal images of the Holy Trinity. In 1 30 1 the offerings at the high altar were ^^43 i6j. "jd., the Lady altar ^^14 lu. 4«?., the Relics altar ^8 1 6s. 7<^., the box {trunca) of the Cross £6 l]s. 2^d., the box at the head of Walter the bishop 565. 5^., and the box of St. Hippolitus I2J. 6d. For the next few years these offerings were of approximately similar amounts ; in 1304 the high altar gifts were ^^46, and in 1305 ;^45, but soon afterwards they diminished. The results of the Black Death, here as else- where, were to stimulate the devotions of many of the survivors. The rolls are, unfortunately, missing of the immediate years on each side of the great pestilence, but in 1343 (the latest before the pestilence) the total receipts of the sacrist were only ^^114 19J. 4-id., whilst the total for 1364 (the first extant after the pesti- lence) was j^ 1 88 13s. ills'., the rise being chiefly attributable to the offerings. For this latter year they were : At the high altar, ^^ 5 4 ys. i^d. ; 'ad crucem,' ^^21 19^. "jd. ; 'ad reliquias,' £j 8s. 2d. ; in the Lady chapel, ^3 os. 2^d. ; at the image of St. Osyth, ^^3 6s. ^^d. ; and at the image of St. Hippolitus, I is. "jd. The two lowest of the offerings before various other images were St. Katherine i^d. and St. Anne id. This year's receipts also includes the contents of a box (2ii. o|^.) at the door by the presbytery. The receipts for 1369 were ;^I92 14J. o^d., and the expenses ;ri90 lis. 2d. The high altar offerings were ^^49 I y. 8d., and those ' ad crucem ' £ij Os. 8^d. The image of St. Katherine, which had been new made in 1364, brought in 2s. 6y^. The expenses of that year included £2 6s. yd. for gilding two archangels at the high altar. ' Through the courtesy of Dr. Bensly, the writer of this section was able to make extracts from a variety of these and other rolls ; but he is more indebted to the numerous abstracts of the rolls of the sacrist, precentor, and infirmarer, which were taken some ) ears ago by Mr. P.ige, and kindly put at his dispos.tl. 21 41
