RELIGIOUS HOUSES Norman invasion, its lands had not been added to by the Conqueror or his followers. William Rufus, Henry I, Stephen, Maud, Henry II, Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I all granted charters confirming the monks of St. Benet in their liberties. Stephen granted them the two hundreds of Foley and Happinge, with their rents and customs, and also a small portion of land in Yarmouth. Henry III, in 1247, granted the abbey two fairs to be held at Grab- bards Ferry — instead of in the immediate neigh- bourhood of the abbey, where they had been found to disturb religious tranquillity — one on the vigil and day of the translation of St. Bene- dict, and the other on the vigil and day of St. James ;^ he also granted them, in 1253, free warren over all their Norfolk lordships. The chartulary contains transcripts of various papal bulls of a confirmatory nature, or extend- ing certain special privileges to the abbey. The earliest of these is one of Eugenius III, 1145. The most important is one granted by Lucius III in 1 1 83, whereby divine service might be celebrated in the abbey (with doors closed, and without ringing of bells) during an interdict ; it also contains a proviso strictly prohibiting the exaction of any fee by bishop, archdeacon, or any official, when the abbot sought benediction at the hands of his diocesan.^ The taxation roll of 1291 showed that the abbey had property in seventy-six Norfolk parishes, and that its annual income was ^^326 4.S. 35^^., which sum was much aug- mented by further grants and the rise in value of the abbey's estates, so that the Valor of 1535 shows a clear annual income of ^^583 ijs. O^d., though it is notable that its spiritualities had much decreased, only eleven churches being in the monks' hands at this date. Elsin is called the first abbot by Oxenedes, and was abbot in 1020, when there were twenty- six monks in the convent, of whom twelve, under the control of their good Prior Uvius, were sent by King Cnut with half the books and other furniture of the house to form the nucleus of that monastery which afterwards at- tained to such fame as the abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. Under Elsin the church, which had previously been of mud {ecclesia lutea was recon- structed in stone, and he was still abbot in 1046, at the time of the Confessor's charter.' ' Chart. R. 31 Hen. Ill, m. 13. There are numerous charters and rolls relative to this abbey at the Bodleian ; Cal. of Bodl. Chart. 239—49. Among them are confirmatory bulls of Gregory I, Innocent IV, and Alexander IV. ^ Oxenedes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 291-2. There is a full account of the early abbots down to Richard de Bukenham, in the chronicle of John of Oxnead, 291-300, a monk of this house. This chronicle (Cott. MS. Nero D, ii) V!z% printed and edited by Sir Henry Ellis in the ' Chronicles and Memorials ' series, in 1859. 33 Thurstan de Ludham, the second abbot, was assiduous in the construction of the monastic buildings. He died on 7 October, 1064, and was buried before the altar of St. Michael ; Oxenedes gives the epitaph which was on his tomb in the thirteenth century. His successor, Ethelwold, is described as prudent and honour- able in everything he undertook. He com- pleted the various buildings undertaken by his predecessors, including an eastern campanile for the church ; but left a western tower half finished. Harold entrusted Abbot Ethel- wold with the defence of the sea-coast, on which account he had many differences with the Conqueror ; but he retained the abbacy until his death, which took place on 14 No- vember, 1089,* when Ralf, the first abbot of Norman origin, succeeded, who died on 6 Octo- ber, HOI. Richard, or Richer, the fifth abbot, completed the western bell-tower of the church which Abbot Ethelwold had begun, and placed therein two great bells. He is said, however, to have alienated monastic lands to relatives. He died on 19 January, 1 126. His successor was Con- rad, sacrist of the church of the Holy Trinity, Canterbury, a man of holy and wise life, and confessor of Henry I. He brought with him to Holm two chasubles and a benedictionary of St. Dunstan, as well as a chalice made by the saint's own hands, and these were still preserved with honour when Oxenedes wrote his chronicle. He died on 16 February, 1128, andwas suc- ceeded by William Basset, who was to some small extent a despoiler of the substance of the monastery. He was originally a monk of Utica, Normandy; he died in 1 134, after a rule of seven years. Anselm, said by Dugdale to have been prior of Dover, was the next abbot ; he began to rule in 11 33, and died on 9 December, 1140. Daniel, whose profession was that of a glassmaker, and who before his entry into re- ligion had a wife and child, succeeded Anselm as abbot, but was soon followed by Hugh, a nephew of King Stephen, who defended the rights of the monastery with much vigour. He, however, became involved in a painful scandal through the machinations of his enemies, and although innocent according to Oxenedes's Chronicle, was so overwhelmed with shame that he resigned his abbacy and left the neighbour- hood, but was subsequently appointed abbot
- This is Oxenedes's statement ; it is more reliable
than that of William of Worcester, who asserts that he fled into Denmark at the time of the Conquest and never returned. ' This abbot does not occur in Oxenedes's chronicle or list ; the reference to his name in the extended Dugdale is ' Obit Cant. ' ; the date of his death is given as 1 1 40 in Chron. Minor Set. Benedicti de Hulmo (printed at the end of Oxenedes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 432).
