The Abbey of St. Albans from 1300 to the Dissolution of the Monasteries THE STANHOPE ESSAY 1911 BY VIVIAN H. GALBRAITH MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE Oxford B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET London SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., LIMITED MCMXI...

In the later Middle Ages the Abbey of St. Albans was the most brilliant, though by no means the wealthiest, 1 of the English monasteries. There was ample reason for this pre-eminence. Proximity to London kept its members abreast of the times and freed them from the stain of provincialism, and its position on the Great North Road ensured as its frequent guests the greatest men in the kingdom. Its hospitality became proverbial, and Matthew Paris records that there was room in the monastic stables

The ‘fourteenth century revival’ is perhaps too dignified a name for the feeble efforts at reformation in the majority of English monasteries. Most houses failed utterly to arrest the decay that had set in during the thirteenth century, and for the rest of their existence underwent a slow internal dissolution which was merely consummated by the measures of Henry VIII. To this rule there were exceptions. At Bury St. Edmunds, 8 for instance, while John Tymworth was abbot (1379–1390), there was a m

A great spiritual peer who as a mitred abbot took his place in Parliament among the magnates, the Abbot of St. Albans was a no less important personage in virtue of his huge landed possessions. Indeed, it has never been determined whether the right of such abbots to sit in the Upper House rested upon their spiritual dignity or their position as tenants-in-chief and great landlords. The Abbot of St. Albans exercised a wide seignorial jurisdiction over the Hundred of Cashio from early times, and l

The task of interpreting the Abbey’s history during the fifteenth century is difficult in the extreme. The confusion, the aimlessness which characterised political history are reflected in the records of St. Albans. Although the material is at least as plentiful as before, the impression conveyed by the facts is blurred and uncertain. With the death of De la Mare the lines of development become obscured. The fourteenth century had witnessed a steady upward movement culminating in the Abbacy of D

The account of William Wallingford’s abbacy in the Lives and Benefactions 113 ... is inconsistent with all that is known of him from other sources. The Abbot is described in a tone of excessive admiration which cannot be reconciled with the account of him supplied by Morton’s letter. In the Lives and Benefactions ..., for instance, he is stated to have left the Monastery entirely free of debt. This is not only intrinsically improbable, but is directly contradicted by Morton’s statement. Again, i

Among these authorities the material is derived primarily from Gesta Abbatum , Vols. II and III , Annals of John Amundesham , and Register of John Whethamstede, 1422–1488 . Where no authority is given for a statement it is from one of these volumes. Reference to these for every fact cited would have unduly encumbered the essay with notes. HOLYWELL PRESS, OXFORD. 1  In view of the fact that the Abbey contained sixty monks, St. Albans was relatively slenderly endowed. Cf. below, p. 23. 2  The shri