It is not doubtful that the Abbot and Chapter were well pleased with Colchester's fulfilment of the duties entrusted to him and that the large bill of costs was paid, if not with delight, at any rate with resignation. Of this we have several conclusive indications. First, within a brief space the Convent again despatched him to Rome, in 1382-3, doubtless to continue his management of the same suit. This time there is no record of his payments, nor should we be aware of his journey if it were not for two documents. One is the Chamberlain's compotus-roll of 1382-3. These accounts presented a balance of money on the one side, and a balance of materials on the other side; it was necessary for the Chamberlain to show, not merely that he had purchased so many outfits, but that he had distributed these outfits to such and such Brethren. So when he makes his statement about the habits—panni nigri—he notes that he did not give these to Brother William Colchester nor to Brother William Halle, because they were at Rome. No doubt, Colchester had represented to the Chapter the wisdom of providing him with a companion from the monastery instead of his hiring a courier as before. The other is a legal document, whose purport is of some personal interest. When Colchester left Westminster in 1382-3, Richard Excestr' was about to resign the Priorship, which he had held only since 1377. Attempts seem to have been made, perhaps by some of Colchester's Roman friends during his stay at the Curia, to secure a "provision" of the vacant office for him from the Pope, and the efforts succeeded. The document in question 36 bears date January 2, 1384, and is of the nature of a pardon to Colchester for the prejudice or contempt caused by such efforts to the Crown and its prerogatives. He denied that he was party to the attempt, and paid the necessary fee to the Hanaper for his pardon. The Priorship another took; 37 not, perhaps, because the Brethren thought Colchester unworthy of promotion or too young for it, but because the interests of the House required that he should go to Rome, whither he was sent, as the Treasurers' rolls inform us, both in 1384-5 and 1385-6. The suit against St. Stephen's Chapel still dragged on, and he alone had the knowledge and the experience for hastening its delays.
As a second proof of the confidence reposed in him we may note that in 1382 38 he was Archdeacon of the Convent; it is possible that he held the post earlier; certainly he held it in 1386; and probably he owed it to the Abbot personally. The office of Archdeacon is proverbially puzzling to the lay mind, and it may be that the Archdeaconry of Westminster creates some wonder in the minds even of other Archdeacons. The fact is that the Abbot in the exercise of jurisdiction over his Westminster area required the services of an ecclesiastical jurist in matters of divorce and of excommunication and the like; he needed also some one who would serve as his pastoral representative to those denizens of the area who were not on the foundation of the Convent. For this reason, even in Abbot Ware's time, 39 the Archdeacon was permitted to walk abroad to the Palace or elsewhere in the discharge of his duties, which, indeed, might take him much further afield; for when Abbot Colchester drew up an indenture 40 appropriating to certain memorial purposes the revenues of Aldenham church, he inserted a provision that the Archdeacon of Westminster for the time being should be in charge of the parish, receiving 40s. yearly for his labour therein. We have seen that Colchester's experience marked him out for juridical duties, and we must assume that he was not without pastoral zeal and aptitude.
A letter in Norman French addressed by "William, Conte de Salisbury" to Abbot Litlington will help us to see that his duties were of a varied character. The writer of the letter 41 was William de Montacute, 2nd Earl, who fought at Poitiers and in most of the French wars of his time. Addressing the Abbot as his dear and faithful friend, he thus unfolds his story. His servant, Nicholas Symcok, of London, has been robbed in the middle of June by highwaymen, one of whom, Richard Surrey, is popularly known as Richard atte Belle. The knight of the road has made off with some silver plate and £40 in coin, and has taken sanctuary at Westminster, being hotly pursued by his victim, who finds on Surrey's person all his lost property, less £5 of the stolen money. Symcok has deposited his recovered goods in the hands of Dan William Colchester, one of the lord Abbot's monks, who has laid them aside and placed his seal upon the package. Therefore, my good Lord—asks the Earl—I pray you have these chattels delivered up to my servant. This letter bears no date, and there is no proof that the Archdeacon as such was concerned with the affairs of sanctuary; nor does any title of office accompany the introduction of his name. But the incident was one which bore a legal character and Colchester's part in it may possibly be brought within the vague limits of archidiaconal functions. 42
We are fortunate in possessing one unquestionable intimation as to his personal circumstances while holding this office. It bears date November 9, 1386, shortly before his promotion to the highest room, and is an indenture of lease of sheep. 43 It sets forth that Thomas Charlton, the valet, and Henry Norton, the servant of William Colchester, Archdeacon of Westminster, leased to John Waryn, butcher, of Westminster, 132 muttons—multones—3 rams, and 168 ewes, of the average value of 20d. each, to be fed and kept sound till Ash Wednesday next ensuing; and there follows a statement of the terms upon which the tenant may acquire any or all of them. The bargain was apparently made by the Archdeacon's servants, and the actual document leaves it in doubt whether the sheep were his or theirs, but the endorsement 44 places the ownership beyond question and proves the sheep to have been the Archdeacon's.
The third means adopted by the Convent for marking its sense of Colchester's services to the House was more exceptional. I give the statement of it as it stands in the vellum volume called Liber Niger Quaternus, a fifteenth-century copy of an earlier black paper register compiled by a very active monk called Roger Kyrton, or Cretton, 45 who entered the Convent in 1384-5, served many offices under Abbot Colchester, and survived him by about fourteen years:—
"On September 25, 1382, there was granted to Brother W. Colchester Archdeacon of Westminster a chamber, together with that part of the Garden which belongs to the Lady Chapel; also a pension of six marks [£4] and an additional monk's allowance—corrodium—such as is enjoyed by the seniors; but on condition that if the said William be promoted to any prelacy elsewhere, the pension, the allowance and the chamber are to revert to the Convent."
Two questions of topography arise here, the position of the Garden and that of the chambers, or "camerae." It is not necessary to assume that they were contiguous. "The part of the Garden which belongs to the Lady Chapel" cannot be located with certainty, but the Convent Garden lay in the acres eastward of St. Martin's Church, Charing Cross, which still retain the name, and are now the scene of the sale of garden-produce that is grown elsewhere. Our great chartulary called Domesday 46 shows that the Lady Chapel was given considerable property in this district during the reign of Henry III., under whom the chapel was built. In view of our information that within four years the Archdeacon possessed a flock of 400 sheep, it seems reasonable to suppose that his share of the Garden included considerable pasturage, and that he sometimes took his walks abroad in the direction of Charing to see if it was well with the flocks.
There is less doubt about the position of the chambers, which are often mentioned in connexion with the Infirmary, and which were probably attached to Little Cloisters, then recently rebuilt by Abbot Litlington. To this day the south side of Little Cloisters shows an alternation of old doors and old windows that suggests a row of almshouses. It thus becomes easy to realize that a separate residence, instead of the usual bed in the Great Dormitory, was a privilege highly prized and rarely conferred.
It is natural to ask in what conditions the tenants of these chambers lived, and the answer can be given in some detail. We have a long strip of frail paper, 47 3 ft. 7 in. × 5½ in., which deals with the post-mortem distribution of the effects of a monk whom William Colchester must have known long and well. Richard Excestr' said his first Mass, as did Colchester himself, in 1361-2; he became Prior quite early in life, in 1377; but, as we have seen, he resigned the office in 1382, and we do not know why his tenure of it was so brief. That the reason was not discreditable to himself may be inferred from the fact that on his resignation he was given precedence next after the new Prior, receiving a pension of four marks, a double, or Prior's, assignment of clothing, and a double share of the pittances that marked certain anniversaries, till his death in 1397. In this paper, then, his modest effects are arranged according to the rooms in which they stood, like the items in an auctioneer's catalogue when the sale is to take place, by order of the executors, on the premises. We gather that he has a reception-room, or "aula," where he can entertain a few friends, with a special welcome for any Brother who can play chess (for among his possessions are a chess-board and a set of chess-men 48); a pantry, or "buteleria," for his little store of plate and crockery and napery, including a silver cup and cover, thirteen silver spoons (was it a complete "Apostle" set?), and a table-cloth 3½ yards in length; a bedroom, or "camera," containing his white bedstead with a tester over it, and a "parpoynt," as well as his wardrobe; a kitchen, or "coquina," equipped with "droppyngpannes," "dressyng-Knyues," "flesshhokys," "anndyrons," a "treuet," and three pans which like the trivet are honestly described in the catalogue as being the worse for wear; 49 and a library, or "studium," with ten books and three maps. Among these books there was of course some scholastic theology and canon law, but there was also the Latin version of the Book of Messer Marco Polo, as if to signify that the latest modern literature was by no means excluded. The Provost of King's, who was kind enough to look through the list for me, takes this to be, as I suspected, 50 a very early instance of English interest in the Venetian traveller's adventures; and added that he believes it to be still more rare that a man of this monk's period should possess a map of Scotland.
As there was nothing exceptional in the disposal of the ex-prior's goods, 51 the incident may be fairly taken as an illustration of Convent life as Colchester lived it, and we may therefore go on to notice that, putting together the sum that Excestr' left in cash and that which was realized by the sale of some of these articles, the Convent was able to pay the cost of his illness and burial; the items ranged from 2d. for milk to 10s. for the fee of the brief-writer who wrote out the formal announcement of his death on one shilling's worth of parchment for the information of other Benedictine houses, and £4 13s. 4d. for a marble slab with a memorial inscription. As Excestr' died in 1397, we may think of Abbot Colchester as saying the last words over the open grave of his former neighbour in Little Cloisters.
Our Archdeacon was not destined to remain such for any great time. On November 29, 1386, there passed away during a meal-time 52 at his manor house of la Neyte, near Westminster, our great builder, Abbot Nicholas Litlington, to whom we owe the south and west sides of the Great Cloister, the Little Cloisters, Jerusalem Chamber, the Abbot's Dining Hall, and much besides of the present Deanery, and the great Missal. 53 The vigour of Litlington's character can be realized from what we have seen of the fight which he maintained through William Colchester for the privileges of the Abbey, but Colchester must have witnessed a more remarkable proof of the old man's pluck. In the Liber Niger (f. 87) there is a record to the effect that a threatened invasion of our shores by the French King in 1386 caused the Chapter of the Convent to come to the unanimous opinion that the old Abbot and two of his monks, John Canterbery and John Burgh, should don full armour and proceed as far as the coast, on the ground that it was lawful to do so for the defence of the realm. 54 It is astonishing that Litlington should have contemplated such an enterprise at his age, for we have a letter in Norman French, not dated, but clearly referring to this period, in which he excuses himself on the ground of "age et feblesse" for not coming to the Abbey "en propre persone" to bring to the King the famous ring of St. Edward. But Litlington's possession of armour cannot be doubted. There remains a schedule 55 of his effects at his death, which shows that those which passed into the hands of his successor consisted chiefly of various accoutrements, and included six hauberks; a helmet called a "pisanum"; seven others called basnetts with ventailles or vizors; a "ketelhat"; a pair of steel gloves; some "leg-harneys"; fore-braces and back-braces; and four lance-heads.
Though general opinion pointed to his election in Litlington's stead, Colchester was in some danger of disappointment. He had spent so much time abroad—a very large proportion of the preceding nine years—being engaged all the time in a cause which brought him into collision with the preferences of the Court, that it is not wonderful if the King desired the election of another. We can thus easily credit the statement of a Westminster chronicler, 56 whom the Dean of Wells believes to have been the rival candidate himself, that, when the vacancy occurred, the King wrote thrice to the Prior and Convent urging them to find their new Abbot in Brother John Lakyngheth, the very Treasurer whom we have seen in the act of paying to William Colchester the sums required for his long journeys and his legal costs, perhaps with a keen satisfaction at thus facilitating his rival's absence. But the Convent had made up its mind, and within a fortnight 57 of Litlington's decease, Colchester was elected Abbot by compromission; that is to say, the Brethren chose a committee of five or seven of their number and entrusted to them the choice of the best man. Richard II. was angry, and refused for a while to receive the nomination. We have the request 58 of the Prior and Convent to the King, written in French, but not bearing any date, to give his consent to their choice of "daunz William Colchestre un de lours commoignes en abbe et pastoure." The letter was written at a time when Richard could be said to have "graciousement accroiez votre roial assent al election auantdite," and when it was only necessary to petition him to make formal announcement of it to the Pope. But there was considerable delay also on the part of the Pope, who wanted to quash the election and to appoint by "provision." 59 But the King's ambassador intervened, and the bulls of confirmation were issued September 1, 1387. Colchester was installed October 12, and made a great feast to his friends on St. Edward's Day. His temporalities had been restored September 10. 60 All this places Richard's attitude towards him in some doubt, especially as, on November 10, the King, who walked barefoot from Charing to the Abbey precincts, was there received by Colchester and his Brethren vested in copes. Almost immediately there arose a difficult question about sanctuary, as to which the reader may be again referred to the Polychronicon. 61 Words almost fail the scribe as he pictures the reverence and love of the King for the Church. "There is not a Bishop on the bench," he says, "who displays as much zeal for the Church's rights."
Thus it came to pass that King and Court alike poured upon the Abbey the benefits of their generosity in spite of Colchester's election, and in the case of the Court the gifts came quite as readily from Richard's enemies as from his friends. Within three months of Colchester's installation, on December 1, 1387, a deed 62 was executed whereby the Abbot and Convent bound themselves to observe the anniversary of Thomas of Woodstock, Richard's uncle and at that time his fierce enemy, and of Eleanor de Bohun, his wife, in return for a splendid gift, which included vestments of cloth of gold, broidered with their initials, silver-gilt vessels for the altar, a silver-gilt thurible adorned with images of the saints, and two silver candlesticks formed of angels bearing the heraldic shields of the houses of Essex and Hereford. 63
Richard's own gifts to the church during Colchester's time were even more magnifical. On May 28, 1389, there was a royal grant, witnessed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and many others, conveying to the Convent a richly adorned chasuble of cloth of gold, two tunicles, three albs, the orphreys bearing representations of the Holy Trinity, the Virgin Mary, St. John Baptist, St. Edward the Confessor, St. Edmund the King, and "a certain Abbess." In 1394, after the death of his beloved Queen, Anne of Bohemia, came Richard's grant of £200 yearly to maintain an anniversary for her, and for him when he should depart hence; 64 which was followed in 1399 by his grant to the Abbey of manors and lands in Middlesex, Bedfordshire, and Berkshire, 65 whence an equivalent in rents would be derived in perpetuity. To this gift the Dean and Chapter owe the advowson of Steventon, Berkshire, which they still retain. On the other side, it may be admitted that Richard made use of the Abbey's resources; we have his note of hand for a loan of £100, dated September 11, 1397. 66 To what extent he fostered that building of the Nave, which our documents speak of as the New Work, has been told in detail elsewhere. 67 It comes to this, that Colchester's effigy in stained glass looks into the Nave from a window which probably dates from Henry III.'s time, but it faces towards Purbeck pillars which were the work of one of our Abbot's most zealous officers, Peter Coumbe. The portion of the triforium above his window is also due to Henry III., but in his old age Colchester may well have seen the workmen busy with the erection of the corresponding section of the clerestory.
As before, if we want to know an Abbot's interests and his manner of life at home, we shall go to the accounts of his stewards or Seneschals. His rent-roll is less than Abbot Litlington's, and there are heavier arrears. The country is greatly unsettled and it is not an easy time for landholders. We possess a clear "statement 68 of the lands and apportionments of the lord William by the grace of God Abbot of Westminster," as audited in the year 1388. The total revenue when fully paid has fallen to £617 16s. 1d., but there are arrears amounting to £104 12s. 7d. However, if his receipts are less, his stock is still plentiful; he possesses 58 horses and 19 foals; 351 heads of cattle; 2287 sheep and lambs; and 299 pigs. When he listened to his monks and lay clerks singing the 144th Psalm, he had every reason to join in the desire "that our garners may be full and plenteous with all manner of store: that our sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets: that our oxen may be strong to labour"; and he knew his times well enough to ask also that there may be "no complaining in our streets."
We have six rolls of his Seneschals between 1388 and 1403, and we may put together from these the facts that are to be gleaned about him. At this time, at any rate, he was a man of good health. There is a slight reference to an indisposition in 1389, and once there is a fee of one shilling to a doctor for treating his "tibia," which seems to have been a peculiarly vulnerable part of monkish anatomy. On the other hand, he does not appear to have been as fond of field sports as his great predecessor; at least in 1402-3 his steward bought 359 rabbits, 41 woodcock and a pheasant, which would hardly be necessary if his lordship were in the habit of inviting the neighbouring gentry to help him keep down his game. It is evident that his estates are being well managed. We can tell, for instance, that in 1388-9, on his manors of Eybury, Denham, Laleham and Pyrford, he sold 215 stone of wool at 1s. 9d. a stone. He made red wine at Islip, and his price for it was £2 12s. 6d. a pipe. The needs of his own establishment were mainly supplied from Denham and Pyrford, especially the former; for his accounts are full of small payments to servants who had driven pigs from Denham to la Neyte. In other words, when he was in town he did not patronize the Westminster tradesmen, but he purchased supplies from himself as over-lord of Denham. For these he paid his factor at Denham the current price, so that the manor could give a good account of its takings at the end of the year.
And this careful accountancy went to quite practical lengths. For instance, the Abbot was wont to receive during each year a large number of "exennia," which, as we have seen, were complimentary presents mostly offered in kind. It happens that there is a complete list of these with the names of the donors for 1388-9. The clergy beneficed on the estate, such as the rector of Islip, the vicar of Hurley, where the Abbey had a daughter priory, the rectors of Oddington and Sutton on the Gloucestershire property, and the vicar of Brailes in Warwickshire; the heads of the affiliated convents, such as Hurley, Greater Malvern, Deerhurst, and Pershore; the tenants, such as the miller at Pyrford; the man who rents the church farm at Longdon; various monks of the Abbey, such as John Stowe, who brings now a lamb as a peace-offering, now the results of his skill with the line, a pike or an eel, and now that which he has taken with his bow, a brace of bittern; and Peter Coumbe, the Sacrist and warden of the New Work, who offers a swan and a brace of pheasants. The gifts, in fact, are from all sorts and conditions of folk. There is the King's larderer with his modest present of fish; there is Master Thomas Southam, Cardinal Langham's lawyer, who now sends the Abbot a pipe of red wine, the most costly of all the gifts, in the hope, no doubt, of continuing to serve his present lordship in a similar capacity; and, most pathetic of all, there are two women, who claim to be of the Abbot's kin, 69 and who offer for his acceptance half a dozen capons. But the point for us is the careful management of his affairs, which appears in the fact that each of these eighty-three contributions is entered by the Seneschal at its market-price. The pipe of wine figures at £2 13s. 4d.; the lamb at 8d.; the six capons from the poor relations at 2s.; and the brace of bittern at 2s. 6d. Altogether these tributes towards his maintenance save the expenses of the mansion by £14 11s. 6d., and a reference to his steward's balance-sheet under the head of "outside receipts" shows this exact sum entered as derived from the "exennia" of divers persons. Prudent housewifery could scarcely go further. On the other hand, he does not so treat the presents he receives from the great ones of the earth. When a stag arrives from Windsor, or a buck from the Baroness Despenser, the cash value of these compliments is not taken into the account; there is merely an acknowledgment that certain recognitions in money have been given to the bearers of the gifts.
It is natural to ask whether the accounts show signs of luxurious habits. Certainly not in his furnishing. Thus, in 1401 he was adding to the accommodation of his London mansion of la Neyte. For his new parlour he obtained a cupboard for 10s., two chairs for 4s. 6d., six stools for 4s. 4d., and a deal table for the same sum. I think (the word is not quite clear) that he had a curtain provided for his study-window at a cost of 1s. 8d.; and there was a fireplace in his parlour, for which his Seneschal laid out 7d. upon coal. Certainly not, again, in wine and strong drink; for his outlay under this head was about a sixth part of the sum which he spent upon corn and meat. Nor is there any evidence that he used his position for the enrichment of poor relations. It may be that we can detect a needy kinsman in one John Colchester who was granted 3s. 4d. by my lord's command at la Neyte in March, 1389, and it was quite possibly for a sister-in-law—the wife of Thomas Colchester—that he ordered a diamond ring 70 at a cost of 40s. on May 31 of that year, perhaps because it was her birthday. When one of his servants was sent to Colchester on some personal business of the Abbot, the man was evidently not expected to comport himself as if his master's resources were unlimited, for his total expenses were 2s. 4d.
The Abbot liked to have one or two of the younger monks around him, such as John Sandon and Thomas Merke, whom we have met, as Shakespeare also met him, in the events that gather mysteriously round the end of Richard II.'s reign. No doubt, they joined him at table in the new parlour of la Neyte, but the only sign of further bounty towards them was a gift of 6s. 8d. to them jointly for a treat—pro gaudiis—a term which survives in the custom of applying the word "gaudy" to those College entertainments to which at the moment Oxford is patriotically a stranger.
When the great man moved about, it was seemingly not with any great train; otherwise it would hardly be necessary for the Seneschal to give 1s. 8d. to a certain man for guiding my lord out of the forest of Rockingham, as if the Abbot were too lonely to face the possible appearance of Robin Hood with equanimity. But, of course, there were exceptional circumstances when he would travel in the dignity of his position. There was a formal visitation of the manors of Denham, Laleham, Staines, and Pyrford in 1402-3, which cost over £6, and visits to Henry IV. in the same year at Ware and Windsor and Berkhamstead, at an expense of about £4. A short time after, the Abbot had to face a continental journey, but £4 12s. is no great sum to enter as "the expenses of my lord and his household in setting out for Calais with porterage and the hire of a boat to take him to the ship, and also the expenses of John Sandon and John Stowe [two monks] and part of the household on their way back to London."
Not a little of his petty expenses arose from the frequency with which he was officially visited by persons of position who were not too proud to receive a present of money, and would have resented its absence. They were mostly content with much less than the 20s. imparted to the Remembrancer of the King's Exchequer, but the gifts of 3s. 4d. mounted up when the Abbot must receive now a Herald and his boy, now the Sheriff of Middlesex and his valet and his boy, now a messenger with a summons to Parliament, now two criers from the King's Bench, and all within a brief space of time.
But Abbot Colchester did indulge one luxury, whether out of a taste for it or because it was the fashion of the time, I cannot say. He was fond of being entertained, particularly by musicians; and his Seneschal's accounts during these six or seven years are full of small payments to such persons, from a boy who danced before my lord at Walsingham for 6d. to Henry the piper—fistulator—who was retained at Pyrford all Christmas time for 14s. He could provide some of this enjoyment from the resources of the Abbey, as when he made two clerks bring a pair of organs from Westminster to Pyrford. His chief delight was to have Master Percyvale and other of the King's minstrels, especially on great festivals such as St. Peter ad Vincula, and he could listen to Percyvale for the modest consideration of 2s. Evidently it came to be known that he had tastes of this kind, for William of Wykeham's pipers journeyed to Pyrford to strut their little hour before the Abbot; Henry Despenser, the fighting Bishop of Norwich and doughty champion of Richard II., sent his minstrels to entertain my lord when he was at Birlingham; the Duke of Gloucester, Thomas of Woodstock, kept a blind harper who gave a performance at Denham; and the other visitors included the Abbot of Eynsham's player—lusor—and the musicians of the ill-fated Earl of Arundel. Even when he was resident for a space in Northampton for the General Chapter of the Benedictine Order, he was sometimes entertained by mummers. 71
But it would not be fair to think of him as having no desires that went down to the realities of things. For he lived in troublous times, and he knew how Christian men should face the serious issues that then emerged. His duty to the country and to the various properties for which he stood in trust called him away from Westminster often, and sometimes for prolonged periods. It is possible by means of the accounts of his various bailiffs to follow his comings and goings; for the receipts from the properties must be delivered to the Abbot in person, and there is thus an entry of the cost of journeying to such and such a place, wherever he happened to be, and generally of the cost of one or two horsemen for safety's sake. But the Abbey and the welfare of his Brethren were in his mind, and he kept a guiding hand upon their spiritual concerns, particularly in times of trial. There is an instance of this in a document, 72 which bears no date except August 31, but which may be assigned with reasonable certainty to Richard II.'s troubled reign. It is headed in another hand, "W. Abbot of Westminster to the Prior of the same place"; but this is an error. The Abbot in a quite exceptional way addresses himself to the officers or obedientiaries without mentioning the Prior, and I incline to attributing the document to the latest years of Richard II., because the Prior, John de Wratting, 73 was then becoming unequal to his duties. It is true that our evidence for this is dated 1405, 74 but, as Wratting was then over eighty, it may hold almost as well for seven or eight years earlier. The Abbot's message is as follows:—
"My beloved sons in Christ,
"The most serene Prince our lord the King has urgently required of us that in this present time of dire necessity we should be instant in prayer to the most High with all our hearts for the good estate of King and country. For enemies without and rebels within are confederate in their malicious plots to shatter the peace of the realm. You therefore to whom (under us) belongs the administration of government in our monastery we hereby urge and enjoin that, considering what we say above, you should put a limit upon the Brethren's walks abroad and upon their ridings into distant parts—except of course in the case of the Monk Bailiff—until God grants us more peaceful times. Call all and singular your Brethren to Chapter and bid them from me to be content with their usual recreation within the house and to give themselves so much the more earnestly to meditation and prayer as the distress and wickedness of the times become more pressing. Go in solemn procession every fourth day round the bounds of the monastery, and every sixth day through the vill of Westminster, praying for a successful issue and for the common weal of the King and the realm—petitions which are already earnestly commended to the private prayers of all the Brethren. Summon all the chaplains and clerks dwelling within St. Margaret's parish to join you, and specially the clerks of our Almonry, according to custom. Fare you well in Christ now and for ever."
The Abbot wrote from Denham; but his heart was with his Brethren in a time of trouble.
There are also signs that in normal times he was exercising an effect on the organization of conventual activity. In his roll for 1393-4 the officer called the Warden of the Churches made entry that he had paid to Peter Coumbe, as Sacrist, the sum of 32s., at the rate of 4s. for each of the Abbey's eight principal feasts," in accordance with the recent ordinance of the lord William now Abbot." 75 It is an intimation that the Abbot was already making his influence felt, and was encouraging his Brethren to regard the solemnities of divine worship 76 as the chief care of their monastic life.
But though we may realize that Abbot Colchester loved his Convent and cherished it, we still have to think of him as being often compelled to wander far from it. True, he had spent so much time in Rome before his election, that he was able to escape in 1390 the triennial visit ad limina which was normally expected of an Abbot. He was represented on that occasion by John Borewell, an active and efficient monk, who had succeeded him in the Archdeaconry in 1387; he was also represented by the gifts of himself and his Brethren on the occasion of the year of Jubilee, which are carefully recorded in the Liber Niger (f. 92). But that exemption did not avail to keep him at home, for we are told that on December 14, 1391, he set out for the Continent on the King's business, the King being responsible for his travelling charges and his safe conduct. 77
In 1393 he was commissioned by the Pope to join the Bishop of Salisbury and the Abbot of Waltham in an inquiry into the statutes and customs of the Collegiate Chapter of the Chapel in Windsor Castle, and to correct and reform these, where they seemed to need it. 78 John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, and our Abbot were there associated not for the first time or the last. Two years later the Bishop died, and was buried by Richard's desire in the Confessor's Chapel. Waltham was a successful favourite, without claim to royal sepulture, and we may assume that Colchester and the Convent were among the many who protested. It is, perhaps, not unfair to assert that "the Abbey was well considered for this," or that the monks' "scruples were overborne by gifts of money and vestments." 79 Yet it is a fact that, whereas the Bishop was buried in 1395, the indenture tripartite, 80 which dealt with the use to be made of the gifts, was not drawn up till July 15, 1412. It recites that the Bishop, who had served the Kings of England from his boyhood in their Chancery and in other and higher offices, was buried among the tombs of the Kings; 81 that at the sight of his bier—we must, no doubt, think of Abbot Colchester as standing by—Richard II. had given to the Abbey a rich "Jesse" vestment valued at 1000 marks, and that the executors had added another vestment valued at £40 and 500 marks in money. Colchester and the Convent covenanted to observe the Bishop's obit—September 18—which we know they did to the last. They also admitted into their company one of the Bishop's executors, Ralph Selby, Archdeacon of Buckingham, giving him precedence next to the Prior with corresponding privileges, and granting him, in 1402-3, a yearly pension of £4. This does not support the notion of the Convent's hostility to John de Waltham; at the same time it occurs too late to be reckoned as a bargain entered into for the purpose of securing to the Bishop a posthumous honour which they were unwilling to accord, even when Richard II. asked for it.
I pass by Colchester's part, if he took any, in Richard's journey to Ireland in 1399; 82 for our records throw no light on what did not concern the Convent. There appears to be no doubt that he was confederate with the Earls of Rutland, Huntingdon, Kent, and Salisbury, who were at first confided to his safe-keeping by Henry IV.; that he took part on December 17, 1399, in a secret gathering of the conspirators within the Abbey; that he was arrested, and sent first to Reigate and then, January 25, 1400, to the Tower; and that he was released, after a trial there held on February 4. 83 He had, of course, received Henry IV. when he made his progress to Westminster on October 12, 1399, and had taken part in the coronation on the following day. 84
But inside the Convent there was an evident desire to eschew partisanships, as any one can realize who reads Roger Cretton's bare and impartial record in the Liber Niger. 85 I therefore pass from public questions and take up an otherwise undated letter 86 of the Abbot, written from Cologne on October 10, to two important Westminster monks whom we have already had before us, Peter Coumbe and John Borewell. It reveals Colchester's close interest in Abbey affairs, however far away he might be, and it is even somewhat peremptory in tone. For he had referred to them some detail of monastic business, and says that he is daily awaiting their answer, in order that he may take action accordingly. The Convent, he adds, is to receive with due honour a relation of the Bishop of Lincoln, remembering that his lordship has always been gracious to them in matters of conventual concern.
We must try to fix the date of this journey through Cologne, and some things can be soon settled. It must be before 1409-10, when John Borewell died. 87 He was in office as Granger, Kitchener, Cellarer, and Gardener almost till his death, and he had been in partnership with Peter Coumbe, as manager of the funds provided for Queen Anne's anniversary, 88 from 1394 to 1399. But who is the Bishop of Lincoln? It is tempting to think of the princely Henry Beaufort, the most potent holder of the see at this period; if so, the journey would fall at some time before 1404, when Beaufort was translated to Winchester, and thus it might even be got just within the limits of the partnership above-mentioned, for he was appointed to Lincoln in 1398. But we have evidence pointing to 1407 and 1408 as the time with which the visit to Cologne must be connected, and bringing Henry Beaufort's help and Abbot Colchester's travels into further association. It is a tattered paper document 89 which states that when Colchester was in foreign parts in 1407, 90 the collector of Romescot for the county of Surrey doubled his demand upon the chapels of Pyrford and Horsell from 12½d. each to 25d. each, and laid them under interdict when payment was refused. But the Bishop of Winchester issued a special mandate to the collector to desist from the exaction. Beaufort was therefore not abroad at the time with Colchester, but was defending his interests at home. But both Colchester and Philip Repingdon, Bishop of Lincoln, were in Italy in 1408. Colchester was at Lucca and Pisa in May, supporting the Cardinals who were struggling with Gregory XII., 91 and his old friend, Bishop Merke, was with him. At Siena, on September 18, Gregory created ten new Cardinals, and one of these was Philip Repingdon. 92 It would be natural that he and Colchester should then meet, possibly travelling homeward together, and being in Cologne on October 10.