1 Chronicle of The Abbey of St Edmund s Jocelyn of Brakelond 1173 1202 THE AUTHOR S PREFACE I have undertaken to write of those things which I have seen and heard and which have occurred in the church of Saint Edmund from the year in which the Flemings were taken without the town in which year also I assumed the religious habit and in which Prior1 Hugh was deposed and Robert made Prior in his room And I have related the evil as a warning and the good for an example THE CHRONICLE 1173 CE How the Abbot Hugh rule the church of St Edmund In those days Abbot Hugh grew old and his eyes were dim He was a good and kindly man a god fearing and pious monk but in temporal matters he was unskillful and improvident He relied too much on his own intimates and believed too readily in them rather trusting to a stranger s advice than using his own judgment It is true that discipline and the service of God and all that pertained to the rule flourished greatly within the cloister but outside the walls allthings were mismanaged Every man seeing that he served a simple and ageing lord did not that which was right but that which was pleasing in his own eyes The townships and all the hundreds2 of the abbot were given to farm the woods were destroyed and the houses on the manors were on the verge of ruin from day to day all things grew worse The abbot s sole resource and means of relief was in borrowing money that so it might at least be possible to maintain the dignity of his house For eight years before his death there was never an Easter or Michaelmas3 which did not see at least 100 or 200 pounds4 added to the debt The bonds were ever renewed and the growing interest was converted into principal This disease spread from the head to the members from the ruler to his subjects So it came to pass that if any official had a seal of his own he also bound himself in debt as he listed both to Jews and Christians Silken caps and golden vessels and the other ornaments of the church were often placed in pledge without the assent of the monastery I have seen a bond made to William Fitzsabel for a 1 040 pounds but know not the why nor wherefore And I have seen another bond to Isaac son of Rabbi Joce for 400 pounds but know not wherefore it was made I 1 A prior is the monk immediately below the abbot in rank at a monastery A hundred is an administrative unit of land like an acre but its size varies 3 Feast of St Michael the Archangel September 29 4 A standard unit of money one pound was worth quite a bit The entire revenue of the king of England for one year might be only 25 000 pounds the average county nobleman would have an annual income of ca 400 pounds and a master carpenter ca 10 pounds per year 2 2 have seen also a third bond to Benedict the Jew of Norwich for 880 pounds and this was the origin and cause of that debt Our buttery was destroyed and the sacristan5 William received it to restore whether he would or no He secretly borrowed 20 pounds at interest from Benedict the Jew and made him a bond sealed with a certain seal that was wont to hang at the shrine of St Edmund With this the guilds and brotherhoods used to be sealed afterwards but in no great haste it was destroyed by order of the monastery Now when that debt increased to 100 pounds the Jew came bearing letters of the lord king concerning the sacristan s debt and then at last that which had been hidden from the abbot and the monks appeared The abbot in anger would have deposed the sacristan alleging a privilege of the lord pope that enabled him to remove William his sacristan when he would However there came one to the abbot who pleaded for the sacristan and so won over the abbot that he suffered a bond to be made to Benedict the Jew for 400 pounds payable at the end of four years that is a bond for the 100 pounds to which the interest had increased and for another 100 pounds which the same Jew had lent to the sacristan for the use of the abbot And in full chapter6 the sacristan obtained that all this debt should be paid and a bond was made and sealed with the seal of the monastery For the abbot pretended that the debt was no concern of his and did not affix his seal However at the end of the four years there was nothing wherewith the debt might be discharged and a new bond was made for 880 pounds which was to be repaid at stated times every year 80 pounds Then came the almoner7 of the lord king and told the lord abbot that many rumors concerning these great debts had come to the king And when counsel had been taken with the prior and a few others the almoner was brought into the chapter Then when we were seated and were silent the abbot said Behold the almoner of the king our lord and friend and yours who moved by love of God and Saint Edmund has shown to us that the lord king has heard some evil report of us and you and that the affairs of the church are ill managed within and without the walls And therefore I will and command you upon your vow of obedience that you say and make known openly how our affairs stand So the prior arose and speaking as it were one for all said that the church was in good order that the rule was well and strictly kept within and that matters outside the walls carefully and discreetly managed though we like others round us were slightly involved in debt there was no debt which might give us cause for anxiety When he heard this the almoner said that he rejoiced greatly to hear this witness of the monastery by which he meant these words of the prior Now I was then in my novitiate8 and on a convenient occasion talked of these things to my master who was teaching me the Rule and in whose care I was placed he was Master Samson 5 The sacristan is the person who is in charge of the sacred vessels vestments etc of a church or religious house A chapter is the group name for all the individual monks living in a monastery or the individual clergy in a religious house like a church or convent 7 An almoner is an official in charge of distributing charity It was a prestigious position 8 A novitiate is like a monastic apprenticeship it s the time where a monk is learning his duties and being assessed by the other monks but has …
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