RELIGIOUS HOUSES Suffolk, and was held to be of the annual value of ;^68 IS. ()y. Licence was granted in May, 1305, for the alienation in free alms by William de Ros of Hamelak and Maud his wife to the prior and convent of Pentney, of an acre of land in Shote- sham and the advowson of the church of St. Mary in that town.^ In 1 316 the priory paid a fine of ten marks to secure the alienation in mortmain by Petronel de Nerford of the church of Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, and a moiety of an acre adjoining the church.^ In the same year the bishop of Ely sanctioned the appropriation of this church to the priory.' The church of Bilney was irregularly appro- priated by Pentney Priory without royal sanc- tion. When the benefice was vacant in 1344, Edward III presented to the rectory, claiming that it was in the crown's gift by reason of the appropriation being made, after the publication of the mortmain statute, without the the licence of any of the king's progenitors.* Another irregularity, this time on the part of the crown, came to light in the following year, when pardon was granted by Edward III to Pentney priory — at the request of Peter de Brewes, king's yeoman — for entering upon and appro- priating the church of Little Abington, of their patronage, which the king remembers he granted them licence to appropriate, after the death of the late rector, before obtaining formal letters of licence/ Pentney during the years 1 166-7 played a part of some importance in the struggle between the ecclesiastical and royal authorities — Becket and Henry II. Hugh, earl of Norfolk, had cast covetous eyes upon the priory's lands, and had seized them on the pretext of a recovery made, apparently by collusion, against William de Vaux, the patron and son of the founder ; against this seizure the prior and canons appealed to Rome, and the pope ordered the sentence of excommunication to be pronounced by the bishop of London against the earl. The bishop, however, finding himself in the dilemma of either disobeying his ecclesiastical superior or offending the king, endeavoured to persuade Earl Hugh to restore the lands ; he seems to have offered other lands to the canons in exchange, but they refused his offers, declining to give up a site which had been dedicated to God's service. The earl continuing obdurate, the pope sent an order for his excommunication and that of William de Vaux to Becket, who ordered the bishops of Norwich and Ely to publish it, while he at the same time wrote to the canons com- forting them and urging them to have courage ' Ca/. of Pat. 33 Edw. I, pt. ii, m. 24. ' Ibid. 9 Edw. II, pt. ii, m. 32. ' Cat. of Camb. JJn'iv. MSS. v, 291, 457.
- Pat. 18 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 44.
' Ibid. 19 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 20. and to make no rash compromise with the earl.^ The exact course of subsequent events is difficult to trace, but victory eventually must have rested with the canons, as they continued in possession of their lands at Pentney. Vincent de Caldecote, one of the canons ot St. Mary Magdalen, Pentney, obtained an indult in 1349 to choose a confessor for plenary remission at the hour of death.' In the follow- ing year Henry de Yakesle, another of the canons, obtained a like indult.* In 1468, Walter bishop of Norwich, with the consent of the priors and convents of both houses and of John earl of Northumberland, patron of the priory of Wormegay, united Wormegay, on account of its poverty, with the priory of Pentney, of which it was hencefortli considered a cell. To secure the union and consolidation of the two priories, the prior and convent of Pentney covenanted to pay 40^. per annum to the prior of Norwich for a moiety of the church of Fordham, which had been appropriated to Wormegay in 1346 ; and 20a'. per annum for the church of Westbrigg, which had been appro- priated to them in 1416. The rectories of East Tuddenham and Wormegay were also appropriated to the same priory. Pentney Priory was visited on 7 November, 1492, by Archdeacon Nicholas Goldwell, as commissary for his brother the bishop. Ralph Midylton the prior, John Lyncoln the sub-prior, and sixteen canons were present. Nothing was discovered that required reformation. On 6 July, 1 5 14, Dr. Thomas Hare visited the priory as commissary of Bishop Nicke. The prior and twelve canons were severally examined. John Woodbridge, the prior, said that he had not made any return of his accounts to his brethren for the last two years. Thomas Wormegay and William Maltershale complained that they had no schoolmaster for two years. The other ten canons contented themselves with omnia bene. No injunctions followed this visitation. The suffragan bishop of Chalcedon and other commissaries visited Pentney on 5 July, 1520. After a sermon in the chapter-house by Master Dry from the text Fraternltatem diligate, the prior and ten other members of the convent were separately examined, when each testified that all was going on well. At another visitation held in August, 1526, when Robert Codde was prior, the five canons and four novices who were examined gave an equally satisfactory report. The final visitation of Pentney before its dissolution was on i August, 1532. Prior Codde, Sub-Prior Richard Stafford, and eleven canons testified omnia bene. Canon Richard 389 Hist, of Abp. Becket (Rolls Sen), vi, 543-59. Cal. Papal Reg. iii, 359. ' Ibid. 404.
