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PREFACE
PREFACE
Samson and his Arch-Eulogist. —Abbot Samson of St. Edmundsbury and his biographer, Jocelin of Brakelond, undoubtedly owe such immortality as they possess to their introduction to the world at large by Thomas Carlyle. Learned historians and commentators of the past had made use of the dry facts of the Chronicle for their disquisitions and treatises; but none had recognized the human interest of Jocelin's narrative until the Sage of Chelsea seized upon it as evidence of that theory of Hero Worship
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CHAPTER I bury abbey under abbot hugh
CHAPTER I bury abbey under abbot hugh
T HAT which I have heard and seen have I taken in hand to write, which in our days has come to pass in the Church of St. Edmund, from the year when the Flemings were taken captive without the town, at which time I took upon me the religious habit, being the same year wherein prior Hugh was deposed, and Robert made prior in his stead: and I have mingled in my narration some evil deeds by way of warning, and some good by way of profit. Now, at that time, Hugh the abbot was old, and his eyes were s
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CHAPTER II the monks discuss the vacancy
CHAPTER II the monks discuss the vacancy
H UGH the abbot being buried, it was ordered in chapter that some one should give intelligence to Ranulf de Glanville, the justiciar of England, of the death of the abbot. Master Samson and Master R. Ruffus, our monks, quickly went beyond seas, to report the same fact to our lord the King, and obtained letters that those possessions and rents of the monastery, which were distinct from those of the abbot, should be wholly in the hands of the prior and convent, and that the remainder of the abbey
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CHAPTER III the choice of a new abbot
CHAPTER III the choice of a new abbot
O NE year and three months having elapsed since the death of Abbot Hugh, the King commanded by his letters that our prior and twelve of the convent, in whose mouth the judgment of our body might agree, should appear on a certain day before him, to make choice of an abbot. On the morrow, after the receipt of the letters, we all of us met in chapter for the purpose of discussing so important a matter. In the first place the letters of our lord the King were read to the convent; next we besought an
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CHAPTER IV samson's installation
CHAPTER IV samson's installation
N OW when the news of the election arrived at the monastery, it gladdened all the cloister monks and some of the officers also, but only a few. "It is well," many said, "because it is well." Others said, "Not so; verily we are all deceived." The elect, before he returned to us, received his benediction from my lord of Winchester, who, at the same time, placing the mitre on the head of the abbot, and the ring on his finger, said, "This is the dignity of the abbots of St. Edmund; my experience lon
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CHAPTER V the new abbot's reforms
CHAPTER V the new abbot's reforms
A FTER these things the abbot caused inquisition to be made throughout each manor, concerning the annual quit rents from the freemen, and the names of the labourers and their tenements, and the services due from each; and he reduced all into writing. Likewise he repaired those old halls and unroofed houses round which hovered kites and crows. He built new chapels, and likewise inner chambers and upper stories in many places where there never had been any dwelling-house at all, but only barns. He
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CHAPTER VI samson's personal characteristics
CHAPTER VI samson's personal characteristics
T HE abbot Samson was of middle stature, nearly bald, having a face neither round nor yet long, a prominent nose, thick lips, clear and very piercing eyes, ears of the nicest sense of hearing, arched eyebrows, often shaved; and he soon became hoarse from a short exposure to cold. On the day of his election he was forty and seven years old, and had been a monk seventeen years. He had then a few grey hairs in a reddish beard, and a very few in a black and somewhat curly head of hair. But within fo
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CHAPTER VII the abbot as peer of parliament
CHAPTER VII the abbot as peer of parliament
I N that manor of the monks of Canterbury which is called Eleigh, and is within the hundred of the abbot, a case of homicide occurred; but the men of the archbishop would not permit that those manslayers should stand their trial in the court of St. Edmund. Thereupon the abbot made his plaint to King Henry, stating that Baldwin the archbishop was claiming for himself the liberties of our church, under authority of a new charter, which the King had given to the church of Canterbury after the death
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CHAPTER VIII the case of henry of essex
CHAPTER VIII the case of henry of essex
[F OR the purpose of diffusing the knowledge of the blessed King and martyr, we have annexed this, we hope not irrelevantly, to the foregoing. Not that I who am so insignificant a person, and of scarcely any account, should set it forth with a historical title; but insomuch as Master Jocelin, our almoner, a man of exalted piety, powerful in word and deed, did so begin it at the request and desire of his superior, I may look upon it as my own work, because, according to the precept of Seneca, wha
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CHAPTER IX troubles without
CHAPTER IX troubles without
G EOFFREY Ridel, Bishop of Ely, sought from the abbot some timber for the purpose of constructing certain great buildings at Glemsford. This request the abbot granted, but against his will, not daring to offend him. Now the abbot making some stay at Melford, there came a certain clerk of the bishop, asking on behalf of his lord, that the promised timber might be taken at Elmswell; and he made a mistake in the word, saying Elmswell when he should have said Elmsett, which is the name of a certain
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CHAPTER X troubles within
CHAPTER X troubles within
T HE cellarers quickly succeeded each other, and every one of them at the year's end became involved in a great debt. There were given to the cellarer, in aid, twenty pounds out of Mildenhall, but this did not suffice. After that, fifty pounds were assigned to the cellarer each year from the same manor; and yet the cellarer used to say that this was not enough. The abbot, therefore, being anxious to provide for his security from loss and comfort, as well as for our own, knowing that in all our w
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CHAPTER XI samson's contests with knights, monks and townsmen
CHAPTER XI samson's contests with knights, monks and townsmen
K ING Richard commanded all the bishops and abbots of England that for every nine knights of their baronies they should make a tenth knight, and that without delay those knights should go to him in Normandy, with horses and arms, in aid against the King of France. Wherefore it behoved the abbot to account to him for sending four knights. And when he had caused to be summoned all his knights, and had conferred with them thereon, they made answer that their fees, which they had holden of St. Edmun
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CHAPTER XII the cares of office
CHAPTER XII the cares of office
A COMMISSION of our lord the Pope had been directed to Hubert, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to the lord Bishop of Lincoln, and to Samson, Abbot of St. Edmund, touching the reformation of the church of Coventry, and the restoration of the monks thereto, without any revision of their case. The parties being summoned to Oxford, the judges received letters of request from our lord the King, that this business should be respited. The archbishop and the bishop, seeming to know nothing, were silent, a
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CHAPTER XIII the customs of the township
CHAPTER XIII the customs of the township
M ANY persons marvelled at the changes in the customs that took place by the order or permission of the lord abbot Samson. From the time when the town of St. Edmund received the name and liberty of a borough, the men of every house used to give to the cellarer one penny in the beginning of August, to reap our corn, which annual payment was called rep-silver. Before the town became free, all of them used to reap as serfs; the dwellings of knights and chaplains, and of the servants of the court lo
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CHAPTER XIV the shrine of st. edmund
CHAPTER XIV the shrine of st. edmund
I N the year of grace one thousand one hundred and ninety-eight, the glorious martyr Edmund was pleased to strike terror into our convent, and to instruct us that his body should be kept more reverently and diligently than it had hitherto been. There was a wooden platform between the shrine and the high altar, whereon stood two tapers, which the keepers of the shrine used to renew and stick together, by placing one candle upon the stump of another in a slovenly manner. Under this platform there
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CHAPTER XV the monastery in revolt
CHAPTER XV the monastery in revolt
N OW when the abbot had obtained the favour and grace of King Richard by gifts and money, so that he had good reason to believe that he could succeed according to his desire in all his undertakings, the King died, and the abbot lost his labour and outlay. However, King John, immediately after his coronation, setting aside all other affairs, came down to St. Edmund, drawn thither by his vow and by devotion. We, indeed, believed that he was come to make offering of some great matter; but all he of
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CHAPTER XVI the election of a new prior
CHAPTER XVI the election of a new prior
R OBERT the prior was at this time in a dying state; but while he was yet alive many opinions were uttered as to appointing a new prior. Some one, therefore, related to us, that the abbot sitting in the choir, and steadfastly beholding all the brethren from the first to the last, found no one upon whom his spirit might rest to make him prior, save Herbert his chaplain. By these and similar acts the will of the abbot was made apparent to most of us. One of us hearing this, answered that it was no
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CHAPTER XVII the abbot's foibles
CHAPTER XVII the abbot's foibles
T HE wise man hath said, "No one is in every respect perfect"; nor was the abbot Samson. For this reason let me say this, that according to my judgment the abbot was not to be commended when he caused a deed to be made and ordered the same to be delivered to a certain servant of his, for him to have the sergeanty of John Ruffus, after the decease of the same John. Ten marks, as it was said, "did blind the eyes of the wise." Wherefore, upon Master Dennis, the monk, saying that such an act was unh
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APPENDIX I samson as an author.
APPENDIX I samson as an author.
Samson having been generally looked upon as a man of action rather than as a man of letters, it seems desirable to consider at greater length than is possible in the general Introduction, his claims to be regarded as a literary character. In the Bodleian Library at Oxford is a huge codex of 898 pages (MS. 240) in a script of the 14th century. This once belonged to Bury Abbey, as at the beginning is the note "Liber monachorum Sancti Edmundi, in quo continetur secunda pars Historia auree, quam scr
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CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER I.
1 , 4. The year when the Flemings were taken captive. On the 17th October, 1173, Richard de Lucy, the chief justiciary of King Henry II., defeated at Fornham St. Genevieve, near Bury St. Edmunds, the rebel Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, who had landed from Flanders at Walton in Suffolk on the 29th September, 1173, at the head of a force of Flemings. The chroniclers speak of large numbers of the foreign mercenaries as being killed at the battle of Fornham. The Earl and Countess of Leicest
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CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER II.
12 , 3. Ranulf de Glanville. The famous author of the oldest of our legal classics, the "Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England," was of Suffolk stock, and was born at Stratford St. Andrew, Saxmundham. He succeeded Richard Lucy as chief justiciary of England, and thenceforward he was the king's right-hand man (Richard of Devizes called him the "King's eye"). At the moment of Abbot Hugh's death Henry II. was in France (he kept that Christmas at Le Mans), so the monks appreciated the importan
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
25 , 12. Jeremiah xxiii. 40. 25 , 21. Cf. 1 Corinthians xii. 3. 26 , 23. Verba Mea. The 5th Psalm in the Vulgate begins with these words. 31 , 9. Waltham. The interview with Henry II. took place at Bishop's Waltham, in Hampshire, on the 21st February, 1182. 31 , 15. Geoffrey the Chancellor. Geoffrey was a natural son of Henry II.—it is generally stated as by Fair Rosamond, though this is now discredited by the facts adduced in the Dict. Nat. Biog. He was successively Bishop of Lincoln (1173), Ch
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
37 , 24. Threshold of the gate. Samson alighted at what is now known as the "Norman Tower." 38 , 4. Martyri adhuc. Rokewode gives on page 115 the text (with the musical notes) of this response, the words of which are: "Martyri adhuc palpitanti, sed Christum confitenti, jussit Inguar caput auferri: sicque Edmundus martyrium consummavit, et ad Deum exultans vadit." In a MS. (Digby 109) now at the Bodleian Library (which contains also a copy of Abbo's Passio ) this response comes after the 5th less
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
43 , 11. Enclosed many parks. At the Abbot's manor at Melford was an old deer park of very ancient foundation. It was called Elmsett or Aelmsethe, or the Great Park, and consisted chiefly of open wood. It was in olden times termed "Magnus Boscus Domini," and in the surveys of Edward I. and Henry VI. it is reckoned both as park and wood, the wood part being in the latter survey 217a. 2r. 34p. The whole was impaled round and stored with deer. (Parker's Melford , pp. 310-11). 43 , 12. beasts of cha
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
62 , 7. Pulpit. This pulpit, from which Samson preached in his native dialect of Norfolk, was one of the works of Hugo the sacrist (Arnold, ii. 291). 65 , 3. Norfolk Barrator. See note to p. 18, line 9 (pages 226-7). 66 , 21. Sale of holy water. Ducange cites the acts of a synod of Exeter in 1287, that from ancient times the profits arising from the distribution of holy water had been set apart to maintain poor clerks in schools. 68 , 23. Schools. Samson is usually credited with having founded a
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CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VII.
77 , 23. Charters of the King. This dispute with the monks of Canterbury, heard before King Henry II. on the 11th February, 1187, raised the whole question of the Liberty of St. Edmund, a matter respecting which the Bury monastery was extremely tenacious. A marginal note in the original MS. of the Chronicle, against the puzzled phrase of the King (see page 78, lines 1-3), says: "Our Charter speaks of the time of King Edward, and of the time of his mother, Queen Emma, who had eight and a half hun
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CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER VIII.
101 -105. The whole of this Chapter is obviously an interpolation in the Chronicle by some monk other than Jocelin himself. The story of Henry of Essex is included in the long and elaborate "vita et passio cum miraculis Sancti Edmundi" prepared in the fourteenth century in the monastery at Bury, and now preserved in the Bodleian Library (MS. 240); and at the end of this transcript the compiler adds, "Cuius narracionem Jocelinus audiens, in scriptis redegit" ( Nova Legenda Anglie , ed. Horstman,
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
106 , 6. stay at Melford. The manor of Melford was given to the monastery in the time of Leofstan (second Abbot) by Earl Alfric, the son of Withgar (Parker's History of Long Melford , p. 1). At Long Melford, 13 miles south of Bury, was a country house belonging to the Abbots of Bury; and at the present Melford Hall there are said to be still some relics of this occupancy. After Samson died, in 1211, there was a dispute that lasted a considerable time as to the validity of the election of Hugo, h
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
119 , 10. Lamentations iv. i. 121 , 12. Abbot Robert. This was Robert II. (fourth Abbot), a monk of Westminster, elected by the convent in 1102, but not confirmed by Henry I. until 1107. He died shortly afterwards, on the 16th September, 1107, and, after an interregnum of seven years, Albold, Prior of St. Nicasius, at Meaux, succeeded him in the abbacy. Robert was buried in the Infirmary Chapel (Douai MS.). For his character and labours, see MS. quoted in Arnold, i. 356. 121 , 20. Hubert Walter.
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
134 , 13. Tendens ad sidera palmas. Virgil, Æn. i. 93. 135 , 18. Anniversary obit of the Abbot Robert. According to the Liber Albus , fol. 35, the anniversary of Abbot Robert was "xvi Kal. Octobris" (16th September). The anniversaries of Ording and Hugh, mentioned in line 20, were 31st January and the 16th November. 139 , 20. Chapel of St. Denis. This chapel was at the west end of the church, probably north of the great western tower, with a chapel dedicated to St. Faith above it. Abbot Baldwin,
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
142 , 5. Church of Coventry. Hugh de Nonant (d. 1198), Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, had a violent dislike to all monks, and, whenever he could, put secular canons in their place. He had turned out the monks at Coventry, and Pope Celestine III. appointed in 1197 a Commission, on which Samson sat, for restoring these expelled monks. The monks were re-inducted by Archbishop Hubert Walter on 18th January, 1198. 144 , 1. Church of Wetherden. This deed is recorded in the Feet of Fines for Suffolk
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
151 , 13. Portman-moot. Borough court. Written in English in the original Chronicle ("portmane-mot.") 151 , 18. Sorpeni. Payment for grass for a cow. 152 , 5. Ording who lies there. Ording (d. 1156) was one of six abbots who were buried in the Chapter House, and whose names are recorded in the MS., circa 1425, discovered by Dr. Montagu James at Douai ( James , p. 180). The original chapter house of the monastery was built by Godefridus, the sacrist, about 1107. There was a fire which destroyed a
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CHAPTER XIV
CHAPTER XIV
163 , 8. Habakkuk iii. 2. 164 , 11. Chest with the shirt of St. Edmund. Archdeacon Herman, in his treatise De Miraculis Sancto Eadmundi (Arnold, i. 26 et seq. ), describes how Leofstan (2nd Abbot) decided to open the coffin containing St. Edmund's body and examine the remains. The body was found covered with a vestment stained with blood and pierced with arrows. This was taken off and the body wrapped in a linen sheet. In the continuation of Herman's work, ascribed to Samson himself, there is an
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CHAPTER XV
CHAPTER XV
178 , 6. King John ... came down to St. Edmund. John paid several visits to Bury Abbey during Samson's abbacy: once in 1199, immediately after his coronation, when he made the miserable offering described by Jocelin on p. 178; a second time in 1201, when returning from Northumberland; a third time in 1203, when, according to Rokewode (p. 154), "he made a pilgrimage to St. Edmund's, at the feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, and gave the convent ten marcs annually, payable from the exchequer, for th
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CHAPTER XVI.
CHAPTER XVI.
190 , 6. Numbers xi. 26. 191 , 1. When the Prior died. Mr. Rokewode assigns Robert's death to 1200, perhaps because the narrative of the election of his successor follows in the Chronicle the account of the visit to the monastery of Hugh, Abbot of Cluny. 192 , 9. Proverbs xix. 11. 193 , 19. Deut. xvii. 8. 196 , 19. [Herbert] the new prior. This election seems to have taken place in 1200. After Samson's death in 1211, Herbert had a great deal of anxiety arising out of King John's refusal to accep
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CHAPTER XVII.
CHAPTER XVII.
200 , 8. Deut. xvi. 19. 200 , 16. Galatians v. 9. 201 , 20. Dean of London. This quotation from the Ymagines Historiarum of Ralph de Diceto, Dean of St. Paul's, who died about 1202, is interesting, as showing that apparently a manuscript copy of that work was in the possession of Bury Abbey shortly after its compilation. Diceto has often been identified with Diss in Norfolk: and there are evidences that William of Diss had a good deal to do with Jocelin's Chronicle (cf. pages 242, 254). Bishop S
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