RELIGIOUS HOUSES their patron at the high altar of the new presby- tery ; and on 8 June, 1275, he died at a good old age. It would seem that during his illness the abbot either passed into a state which was mistaken for death, or else appeared certain to die within a few hours, but subsequently rallied, as on 15 May, 1275, custody of their abbey during voidance through the death or cession of Abbot Richard was granted to the prior and convent of Holm for a fine of 120 marks. This grant, however, was vacated, and the letters patent securing it were surrendered as not made use of.^ The abbot, however, died next month, and on 13 June news of his death reached the king at Westminster, and leave to elect was granted. The convent were very prompt in their new election, for two days later the king signified to the bishop of Norwich his assent to the election of Nicholas de Walsham, the prior, and the temporalities were restored on 4 July." Archbishop Peckham held a visitation of the monastery on 6 and 8 December, 1280,' but no record of the proceedings has been preserved. In the winter of 12S7-8 there was a terrible irruption of the sea. The abbey of St. Bene- dict suffered severely. The sea invaded all the outbuildings to such a depth that they could only be approached by boats, and it was found necessary in a time of such danger to give shelter to the horses in the (nave of the) church.^ Abbot Nicholas, after a rule of twenty-seven years, died on 15 November, 1302. On 1 5 December royal assent was given to the election of Henry de Broke;* the temporalities were restored on 8 January, 1303, but at the same time the king's escheator distrained the abbot for a palfrey and cup alleged to be due to the crown from each newly appointed abbot. At an inquest held on 27 February the jury found that no such service had ever been made or claimed from the abbots of Holm.^ Never- theless, on some plea not now apparently discoverable, the abbey evidently reverted to the king's hands, as in November, 1303, and in July, 1304, the crown presented to the respective livings of Antingham and Stalham, which were in the abbey's gift.' On 29 May, 1305, how- ever, Edward I granted to the abbot and convent of St. Benet that the prior and convent in time of voidance might have the temporal- ities, saving knights' fees and advowsons, when they fall in ; and that no escheator, sheriff, or other official was to intermeddle with the custody of the abbey, its manors, cells, or goods, save that the escheator or his minister might at the ' Pat. 2 Edw. I, m. 18. ' Ibid. 3 Edw. I, m. 20, 19, 16. ' Oxenedes, Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 257.
- Ibid. (Rolls Ser.), 270-1.
' P.it. 31 Edw. I, m. 45. ' Prynne, op. cit. iii, 996. ' Pat. 32 Edw. I, m. 29, II. beginning of every voidance take simple service within the gates of the abbey, and immediately retire without carrying away anything, or stay- ing beyond a day, or leaving any substitute in his place.* The result of this concession was to much simplify the process and much reduce the expense consequent on a new election ; but royal assent and formal seizing and restitution of the temporalities continued. The ancient connexion of the abbeys of St. Benet and St. Edmund naturally tended to promote good feeling between them, and the relations of the two houses appear to have been particularly friendly during the first half of the fourteenth century, the abbots alternately invit- ing one another to various functions.' Conse- quently, when the townsfolk of St. Edmund's attacked the abbey in 1326-7 and drove its inmates to seek shelter, it was to Holm that William Stowe, the sacrist, fled for safety, and there he was joined by many of his brethren who had been absent from the monastery at the time of the riots.'^ The abbot of St. Benet's was further consulted on this occasion by the abbot of St. Edmund's, and was afterwards appointed by the pope to enforce restitution of the property stolen at Bury, by virtue of which authority he excommunicated the offenders in spite of a humble petition for leniency from the burgesses.'^ The abbey's sympathy with their sister house may have been partly due to their having them- selves suffered occasionally from the lawlessness of the age, as the abbot of Holm in 13 16 complained that when he sent his fellow-monk, Roger de Neatishead, to the hundred of North Er- pingham on business, Roger de Antyngham, with his brother Nicholas and others, assaulted the monk at Southfield on his return, took him from place to place through the town-fields, cut off the tail of his horse, and surrounded the manor of the abbot at Antingham so that the men therein could not go forth to carry victuals to the abbey for the sustenance of the abbot and convent or to do any other work ; seized and imprisoned a groom riding the abbot's palfrey through the town ; impounded the palfrey with its saddle and kept it without food ; seized another horse of his on the king's highway at North Walsham ; harassed hirn at Antingham by taking his plough-cattle, and in other ways, so that he has been unable to cultivate and sow his lands, and have so threatened his men and servants of the town of Antingham that they have fled away.'^ Besides losses incurred through the animosity of their neighbours the monks were occasionally put to further expense in supporting pensioners
- Ibid. 33 Edw. I, m. 23.
' Mem. of St. Edmund's Abbey (Rolls Ser.), iii, 36-8. Ibid. 38-9. Ibid. 40-8. Pat. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 20 d. 333
