RELIGIOUS HOUSES if Cromwell wished it. On 26 February he wrote again to Cromwell, saying that he had delivered the cross of Bromholm to the late prior of Pentney, the bearer of both letter and relic' On 20 February Robert Southwell, solicitor to the Court of Augmentation, had a grant made to him by royal warrant of Bromholm Priory with all its manors, lands, advowsons, and pen- sions.' Prior Lakenham obtained a pension of twenty marks.^ Priors of Bromholm Vincent, temp. Hen. I.* Philip, c. I 2 10 Vincent,^ 1229 Clement,* occurs 1258 John/ occurs 1268, 1272 Roger,* occurs 1285, 1293 William de Tutington,^ died 1313 William de Witton,'" elected 13 13 John de Hardingham," elected 1334 Clement Chandellier,'^ resigned 1418 John Paston," elected 141 8 Nicholas,'^ occurs 141 9 John Paston,'* resigned 1430 Robert York,'* elected 1430 John Tyteshall," elected 1460 John Macham,'* elected 1504 John Underwood " (bishop of Chalcedon), I 509 William Lakenham, occurs 1530, last prior The thirteenth-century fine circular seal (3 in.) of this priory bears the priory church ; in the centre, under a round-headed arch is St. Andrew seated, with a patriarchal cross in right hand (the holy cross of Bromholm), and a book in the left. In the pediment overhead, in a sunk trefoiled opening, is the half length Virgin and Holy Child. Over the roof is a pierced sixfoil. Legend : — . . . M tjl SANCTI ^ ANDREE ^ DE ® BROMHOLM * 19. THE PRIORY OF ST. MARY, THETFORD^' The Cluniac priory of Thetford was first founded on the Suffolk side of the river by ' L. and P. Hen. Fill, xii (i), 145, 239. ' Aug. Off. Books, ccix, fol. 30 i. ' Ibid, ccxxxii, fol. 36.
- Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. xi, 26.
' Cluni Chart, ii, 202. * Camb. Chart. 52. ' Ibid. * Cluni Chart, ii, 154-6. ' Pat. 6 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 20. '" Ibid. m. I 5, 14 " Norw. Epis. Reg. ii, 71. " Cluni Chart, ii, 1 98. " Ibid. " Paiton Letters, iii, 448, 484. '^ Ibid, i, 29. "■' Add. Charters, 141 -313 ; 14, 571. Paston Letters, ii, 541-3 ; iii, 275-6. '^ Norw. Epis. Reg. xiii, 23. " Ibid, xiii, 100. '° Top. Ch. 54 ; Blomefield, Hist, of Norf. xi, 23. " Geoffrey Rocherio, prior of Thetford about 1350, wrote a full and interesting account of the foundation Roger Bigod in the reign of Henry I. Roger had made a vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Land, but was allowed to commute this by applying the money which it would have cost to the establishing of a monastery. He com- municated his intention to Hugh, abbot of Cluni ; and although the abbot could not spare monks from his house to form the new foun- dation, he welcomed the proposed addition to the order, and asked for a silver mark yearly in token of its dependence. The abandoned cathedral church of the East Anglian bishops, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, was at first selected as the church of the new priory, and a cloister or cells of woodwork were erected for the accommodation of the monks. Lanzo, prior of Lewes, in 1 1 04 sent twelve monks to serve at Thetford, together with Malgod, a man of simple life, to serve as their prior. Thetford, desolate at the loss of its bishops, welcomed the monks, and for three years they were busy in building the new monastery within the borough. At the end of this time Stephen, a monk of noble parentage and of the highest learning and morals, a great friend of the abbot of Cluni and sub-prior of Lewes, was sent to Thetford to complete the foundation, and to take the place of Malgod, who was recalled, as prior. Stephen at once saw that the monastic site, surrounded by the houses of the burghers, was inconveniently straitened, and that there was no room for a guest-house. He soon prevailed on the founder, with the sanction of the king, who often held his court at Thetford, to give them a pleasant and open site on the other side of the river in the county of Norfolk. Herbert, bishop of Norwich, turned the first sod of the new foundation, and the prior, founder, and many noblemen laid the foundation stones. But the eighth day after the stone- laying Roger Bigod died, and an unseemly dispute ensued between the prior and bishop as to the place of his burial. Eventually the latter prevailed, and Roger was buried in the cathedral church of Norwich. Meanwhile the building went on, the revenues increased, and Prior Stephen lived to see its completion, and the removal of the convent to their new premises on St. Martin's Day, 1 1 14. In 1240 Gregory IX granted leave to the priory of Thetford to appropriate the church of Notheli, in the diocese of London, which was in a MS. now at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. It is transcribed in Martin's Hist, of Thetford (Ap- pendix, 29-32), and an English abstract is given by Blomefield {Hist, of Norf. W, 103-5). The foundation charter of Roger Bigod, and of his son William, and the confirmation charter of Hen. I, as well as a long list of subsequent benefactors, are given by Martin, and also by Dugdale, from a register of the priory which was destroyed in the fire of the Cotton library In 1731. Cott. MS. Vitel, fol. iv. See also Duckett, Chart, and Rec. of Cluni, i, 60, 6 1 . 363
