Lewes Priory Chapter House

Text Box: The Lewes Chapter House The Chapter House at Lewes was the centre of community affairs. All major decisions were taken in the morning Chapter, presided over by the Prior or his deputy, where the monks gathered, usually after the conventual Mass, for the reading of a chapter of the Rule of St Benedict, a homily from the Prior on a major feast day, the reading of the obituary rolls and the chanting of psalms for the dead whose anniversaries fell on that day and for any business which needed to be transacted. This might include the granting of confraternity to major benefactors and the welcoming of important guests, the punishment of individual monks, the admission of novices, the acceptance of gifts, the granting of benefices, leases or any other property transactions. Burial in the Chapter House was a particular honour restricted to a few special individuals who had made major contributions to the priory and the presence of whose remains enabled them symbolically to participate in all the important decisions of the community. Founders like William and Gundrada de Warenne, who would be remembered daily in the prayers in chapter, might therefore be expected to be buried in the Chapter House, together with other figures of equal importance such as Lanzo, the first prior, whose remains were almost certainly those found just eastwards of the founders by the railway excavators in 1845. Several of the earliest de

Text Box: Warennes, especially those directly responsible for the endowment and construction of the Priory, might therefore be expected to be found buried there, as was clearly the case from the other remains discovered in 1845, including the second earl, who was largely responsible for the construction of the Great Church, and whose body lay at the feet of his parents; and the third earl who had the Great Church consecrated before going on the second Crusade to the Holy Land, where he was killed and his body buried—the excavators finding a lead urn with a clay vessel inside containing his viscera. Many of those buried in the Chapter House are listed in the 15C Cartulary and in an early 16C herald’s visitation book, both of which record the burials there of successive earls and their wives down to Hamelin de Warenne (d.1202), brother of Henry II, after which only Richard Earl of Arundel (d.1376) and Eleanor, his wife, were accorded the privilege. Richard was especially favoured as being responsible for persuading Edward III to grant Lewes denization in 1350, thereby removing the threat of confiscation of its properties due to its previous status as an alien, French, monastery during the Hundred Years War. In the Lewes Annals he is described as: “praecipuus benefactor domus Lewensis, qui inter cetera beneficia per hujus laborem et auxilium monachi Lewenses, cum sellis suis, eiusdem subjectis, cujuscunque sunt nacionis, indigenen facti sunt, qui prius alienigene sunt reputati.”

Text Box: Illustrated London News 8th November 1845 The projected line of railway from Brighton to Hastings … runs … through the grounds of the ancient Priory of St Pancras ...On Tuesday morning, the workmen exposed a leaden Cist, or coffer, surrounded by a few square Caen stones. After clearing away the soil, the Cist was carefully removed, and, on being opened, was found to contain human bones … the name GUNDRADA, as it is spelt, being cut upon the lid… Soon after the finding of this Cist, and at a short distance from it, the workmen found a second cist, precisely similar in form, character and material … and on the lid is inscribed WILLMs … This has been readily interpreted into the name of William of Warren; by this means establishing the fact that these Cists contain the remains of Gundreda, the founder of the Priory, and of her lord, the first earl of Warren and Surrey … About a foot to eastward of the first-named remains were, also, discovered those of some great ecclesiastical personage, probably one of the Priors … The skeleton was enveloped in a cowl of thin woollen cloth, having underneath it a finer linen garment. The cowl covered the head; the hands were resting across the breast, and the shoes were on. The body had, evidently, been buried, without a wooden or leaden coffin, upon a layer of fine sea beach, and enclosed within a stone Cist, which was very perfect. Portions of hair, of dark red, were still to be seen...

Left: Tomb of Gundrada de Warenne detail Top: Bristol Romanesque Chapter House Right: Tomb of Richard Earl of Arundel