priestes comenly be preferryd unto. And we all faythfully schall pray unto Almighty God long to preserve his moost noble Grace, wyth encrease of moche felicitie and honor. "And in witnes of all and singuler the premisses, we the saide warden, and covent of the Grey Freers in Stanforde, to these presents have put owr covent sceall the yeght day of Octobre, in the thyrtythe yere of the raygne of owr moost soverayne king Henry the yeght. "Factum JOHANNIS SCHEMY, Gardian, Per me fratrem JOHANNEM ROBARDS, 3. A more humble Form of surrender. Other resignations were far more humble and submissive, with an acknowledgment of their vicious and voluptuous lives. Such was the surrender made by the prior and convent of St. Andrew's in Northampton which because very tedious, we shall only transcribe so much thereof as concerneth our present purpose. "But as well we as others our predecessors, called religiouse persons within yowr said monastery, taking on us the habite of owtward vesture of the said rule, onely to the intent to lead owr liffes in the ydle quyetnesse, and not in virtuose exercyse, in a stately estimation, and not in obedient humylyte, have undre the shadowe or colour of the saide rule and habite, vaynely, detestably, and also ungodly, employed, rather devowred, the yerely revenues yssuing and comyng of the saide posseshion, in continuall ingurgitations and farcyngs of owr carayne bodyes, and of others, the supportares of owr voluptuose and carnal appetyte, with other vayne and ungodly expensys; to the manyfest subvertion of devocion, and clennes of lyvyng; and to the moost notable slaunder of Christ's holy evangely, which in the forme of owr profeshyon, we did ostentate, and openly devaunt to kepe moost exactly withdrawyng thereby from the symple and pure myndys of yowr Grace's subjectes, the onely truth and comfort, which they oughte to have by the true faith of Christe. And also the devyne honor, and glory, onely due to the glorious majesty of God Almyghty, steryng them with all perswasions, ingynes, and polyce, to dedd images, and counterfett reliques, for owr dampnable lucre. Which our moost horrible abominacions, and execrable persuacions of yowr Grace's people, to detestable errours, and our long coveryd ipocrysie cloked with fayned sanctite; we revolving dayly, and continually ponderyng in owr sorrowful harts, and therby perseyving the botomlas gulf of everlasting fyre, redy to devowre us, if, persysting in this state of lyving, we shulde depart from this uncertayn and transytory liffe, constrayned, by the intollerable anguysh of owr conscience, callyd as we trust by the grace of God, who wold have no man to perysh in synne: with harts moost contrite, and repentante, prostrate at the noble feet of yowr moost royall majestye, most lamentably doo crave of yowr Highnes, of yowr abundant mercy, to grant unto us moost greevous against God, and yowr Highnes, your most gracious perdon, for owr saide sondry offences, omyssyons, and negligences, comytted as before by us is confessed agaynst yowr Highnes, and yowr most noble progenitors. And where yowr Hyghnes, being supreme hedd, immedately aftre Christ, of his Church, in this yowr roialme of England, so consequently generall and onely reformator of all religious persons, there, have full authority to correct or dyssolve at yowr Grace's pleasure, and libertye, all covents and religious companyes abusing the rewles of their profession. And moreover to yowr Highnes, being owr soveraygn lord, and undoubted fownder of yowr said monastery, by dissolucion whereof apperteyneth onely the oryginall title, and propre inherytance, as well of all other goods moveable and unmoveable, to the said monastery in any wyse apperteyning or belonging, to be disposed, and imployed, as to yowr Grace's most excellent wysdeme shall seme expedyent and necessary. "Per me FRANCISCUM, Priorem. Per me JOHANNEM, Sub-Priorem. Per me TнO. SMYTH. Per me THо. GOLSTON. Per me Roв. MARTIN. Per me JACOB. HOPKINS. Per me Ric. BUNBERY. Per me JOHANNEM PETTЕ. Per me WILL. WARD. Other resignations varying in their words met (for the main) in the matter, and were with all speed presented to the king's visitors. As school-boys hope to escape with the fewer stripes, for being the first in untying their points; those convents promised to themselves VOL. II. the kindest usage, which were forwardest in their resignations, though all (on the matter) fared alike. 4, 5. Betwixt first and last no great Difference. Yea, John de Warboise, so called from the place of his nativity in Huntingdonshire, (where my worthy friend Mr. William Johnson is well beneficed,) though the first, with his sixty Benedictine monks, who with solemn subscription renounced the pope's supremacy, and now as officious as any in surrendering his convent to the king's visitors, met with no peculiar and extraordinary civility above others of his Order. Such resignations sealed and delivered, the visitors called for the seals themselves, which now had survived their own use, having passed the last effectual act; and these, generally made of silver, were by the king's officers presently broken in pieces. Such material stamps being now abolished, it will be charity to preserve their impressions, and exhibit them to posterity; which here we shall endeavour, rendering some probable reason how most of them refer to the founders, or situation, or some remarkable action therein. XII. THE SEAL OF ARMS OF THE MITRED ABBEYS IN ENGLAND. 1-28. The Design of the Work. The Arms of Tavistock, of Glastonbury, of Middleton, of Malmsbury, of Abingdon, of Reading, of Hide, of Battle, of St. Augustine, of Gloucester, of Tewkesbury, of Winchcomb, of Cirencester, of St. Alban's, of St. John's of Jerusalem, of Waltham, of Colchester, of Bury, of St. Benet's, of Thorney, of Ramsey, of Peterborough, of Crowland, of Bardney and Evesham, of Shrewsbury, of Selby, of York. IN presenting of them, I will not be confined to the strict terms of blazonry; the rather, because some of their arms may be presumed so ancient, as fitter to give rules to, than take them from, our modern heraldry: and what my pen cannot sufficiently describe, therein the reader may satisfy himself by his own eye to which these coats are presented in the last sheet of this volume after the history of Waltham abbey.† I will make a method of my own, beginning (where the sun ends) SPEED in his "Description of Huntingdonshire." In the present edition this heraldic plate is here inserted, as most suitable to accompany the description in the text.-EDIT. in the west Tavistock in Devonshire gave Varrey Or and Azure, on a Chiefe Or, two Mulletts, Gules. Glastonbury gave Vert (as I conjecture the colour) a Crosse Bottone Argent. In the first quarter the woman with a Glory holding a babe (radiated about his head) in her arms, because, forsooth, by the direction of the angel Gabriel their church was first dedicated to the Virgin Mary.* Middleton, in Gloucestershire, gave Sable, three Baskets, Argent, replenished with loaves of bread, Gules. Had the number of the baskets been either seven or twelve, some would interpret therein a reference to the reversions preserved by Christ's command of the loaves miraculously multiplied; whereas now they denote the bounty of that abbey in relieving the poor. What Malmsbury in Wiltshire gave, I cannot yet attain. Abingdon gave a Crosse flurt betwixt Martelletts Sable, much alluding to the arms of our English kings before the Conquest; who, it seems, were great benefactors thereunto. The abbey of St James's in Reading, gave Azure, three Scallop Shells Or. Here I know not what secret sympathy there is between St. James and shells; but sure I am, that all pilgrims that visit St. James of Compostella in Spain, (the paramount shrine of that saint,) returned thence obsiti conchis, "all beshelled about " on their clothes, as a religious donative there bestowed upon them. The abbey of Hide, juxta Winton. gave Argent a Lyon rampant Sable, on a Cheiff of the second, four Keyes Argent. Battle abbey in Sussex, gave Gules a Crosse betwixt a Crown Or, in the first and third quarter; a Sword (bladed Argent, hilted Or) in the second and fourth quarter thereof. Here the arms relate to the name, and both arms and name to the fierce fight hard by, whereby duke William gained the English crown by conquest, and founded this abbey. Nor must it be forgotten that a text pierced through with a dash, is fixed in the navel of the Crosse. Now, though I have read letters to be little honourable in arms,‡ this cannot be disgraceful, partly because church-heraldry moveth in a sphere by itself, partly because this was the letter of letters, as the received character to signify Christus. St. Augustine's in Canterbury gave Sable a Cross Argent. Cross we now the Thames, where westward we first fall on St. Peter's in Gloucester, whose dedication to that apostle sufficiently rendereth a reason for the arms thereof; namely, Azure two Crosse Keyes (or two Keys Saltire) Or. See the first century of this "Church History," vol. i. page 13, paragraph 11. ↑ ERASMUS in his Dialogue called Peregrinatio Religionis ergó. "Accidence of Arms." Tewkesbury gave Gules, a Cross of an antique form Or, a border Argent. I will not adventure on the blazoning of the arms of Winchcomb, (having much conformity therein with Mortimer's coat,) but leave the reader to satisfy his own eyes in the inspection thereof. I should be thankful to him who would inform me of the arms of Cirencester, which hitherto I cannot procure. St. Alban's gave Azure, a Cross Saltire Or.* Westminster abbey gave Azure, a Cross furt betwixt five Marteletts Or; and this I humbly conceive were anciently the entire arms of that abbey, being in effect the same with those of king Edward the Confessor, the first founder thereof. But afterwards their conventual seal was augmented with the arms of France and England on a Chiefe Or betwixt two Roses Gules, plainly relating to king Henry VII. enlarging their church with his chapel. The prior of St. John of Jerusalem gave Gules a Cross Argent, which the lord prior sometimes impaled with (but before) his own coat, and sometimes bare it in a Cheife about it.‡ The arms of Waltham abbey in Essex appear at this day neither in glass, wood, nor stone, in or about the town or church thereof. At last we have recovered them (Unus homo nobis!) out of a fair deed of Robert Fuller's, the last abbot, though not certain of the metal and colours; namely, Gules, (as I conjecture,) two Angels (can they be less than Or?) with their hands (such we find of them in Scripture, Matt. iv. 6) holding betwixt them a Cross Argent, brought hither, saith our antiquary,§ by miracle out of the west, whence Waltham hath the addition of "Holy Cross." The arms of St. John's in Colchester, I leave to the eye of the reader. Bury gave Azure, three Crowns Or; the arms of the kings of the East Angles, assumed in the memory of king Edmund, (to whom this abbey was dedicated,) martyred by the Danes, when his crown of gold, through a crown of thorns, (or arrows rather,) was turned into a crown of glory. St. Benet's-in-the-Holme, in Norfolk, gave Sable, a Pastorall Staffe Argent picked below, and reflexed above, (intimating the abbot's episcopal jurisdiction in his own precincts,) betwixt two Crowns Or, pointing at England and Norway, the two kingdoms of Canutus, the founder thereof. The aforesaid staff was infulated; that is, adorned with a holy lace or label, carelessly hanging down, or cast across, such with which their mitres used formerly to be fastened. St. Mary's in Coventry had no arms in their seal, as my good friend Mr. Dugdale informed me. †Thus SIR THOMAS TRESSAM. 1 Thus SIR THOMAS DOCKWRAY. SCAMDEN'S Brit, in Essex. |