Lewes Priory : priors (2)

Text Box: Origins and background continued Lewes Priory, as second daughter of Cluny, seems to have continued to attract its priors from amongst the most able in the Cluniac order until at least the outbreak of the Hundred Years War in the 1290s and probably until the end of the appointment of foreign monks as priors at the end of the 14th century. Typical 13th century examples include Miles de Colombiers, prior from c.1269 to 1274 when he was promoted to become abbot of Vezelay, and his immediate successor Peter de Villiaco, who had been prior of Souvigny, the fourth daughter of Cluny, before his appointment to Lewes in 1275. However he resigned after only 6 months to become prior of St Martin des Champs, Paris, the third daughter of Cluny. Such men were clearly in the first rank of Cluniac monks. Others like John de Tyenges, prior from 1276-85, were clearly men of tried and tested ability. He came to Lewes having been prior of Gaye (Marne), and left Lewes when he was appointed prior of St Mary la Voulte (Haute-Loire). Other Lewes priors subsequently appointed to continental houses were Stephen de Sancto Romano, prior of Lewes from 1302-7, when he was appointed prior of Beaulieu in Argonne; and Hugh de Chintriaco, prior of Lewes from 1350-62, when he apparently became prior of Tournus. From the appointment of William de Foville in 1257 and John de Cariloco (Charlieu) in 1364, six of the 15 priors had formerly been prior of another English Cluniac house. William de Foville (1257-68) had been prior of St Andrew, Northampton; John of Avignon (1285-92) had been prior of Wenlock; John de Monte Martini (1307-24) had served as prior of Prittlewell; Peter de Jocellis (c.1329-44) was formerly prior of Castle Acre; Gerald Rothonis (1362-3) had been prior of Montacute and John de Cariloco (1364-96) had been prior of Bermondsey. From the death of John de Cariloco until the surrender in 1537 all nine priors were Englishmen and all appear to have been Lewes monks. At least six had previously held the office of chamberlain, with responsibility for the day to day management of the priory’s extensive property and financial oversight of its income and expenditure. Between them they accounted for 117 of the last 141 years of the priory’s existence. Being an effective administrator was therefore the key qualification of successful candidates for appointment as prior in Lewes Priory’s final years.

Text Box: Business overseas: at Cluny and the Papal court As head of the second daughter of Cluny and the most senior Cluniac house in England with 8 dependent monasteries, including two in Normandy and estates spread across the length and breadth of England, the prior of Lewes was frequently away from home on business. In the early centuries the requirement for all novices to be professed by the Abbot of Cluny in person meant either a journey to Cluny by the prior accompanying his new recruits or an abbatial visit to England. Lewes Priory itself, as the grandest Cluniac church in England was the usual venue for such ceremonies. Thus in 1251, according to the Lewes Annals, Abbot William “on the day of Saint Florencia the virgin [20th June] came to Lewes, and afterwards, on the day of Saint Alban the martyr [22nd June], made monks there, and on the day of Saint John the Baptist [24th June] chanted the high mass.” Similarly in 1260 Abbot Yvo came to Lewes “on the day of St Giles [1st September] and went away on the day before the Nativity of the Blesssed Virgin Mary [7th September] and made many monks at Lewes on the nones of September [5th]; and again in 1277 another abbot Yvo “came to England and landed on the fourth of the ides of June [13th] and came to Lewes on the sixteenth of the calends of July [16th June] and made there the

Text Box: professions of 32 monks and thereafter continued on to the king”. William Horton recorded a similar event in 1355 when Abbot Ardruyn of Cluny visited Lewes and professed 32 monks in the chapel St Mary. But such visits by the abbot of Cluny to England were few. At other times the prior accompanied novices to Cluny, as for example in 1311 when Edward II issued a safe conduct for the prior of Lewes to pass over the sea at Dover “with certain novice monks of his order for profession before the abbot of Cluny” with reasonable expenses for himself, his monks, his household, horses and equipment, provided they did not attempt to take anything out of the country with them contrary to the late king’s order (prohibiting the sending of money abroad). From 1200 onwards priors of houses directly dependent on Cluny were expected to attend the annual chapter-general held at Cluny each Easter. From the 1250s until the 1360s there are frequent records in the Close Rolls and Patent Rolls of the issue of licences for the prior of Lewes to travel abroad at the rate of between two and five such licences in every decade. Often these licences referred to attendance at the chapter-general or visiting the mother house on the business of the Cluniac order. Licences for at least 28 such journeys survive for the period between 1250 and 1362. In theory, at least, such journeys were annual. Usually they entailed absences of several months. Occasionally a prior might be away for a much longer period, as in 1305 when prior Stephen successfully petitioned Parliament for a royal licence for up to two years to prosecute a number of appeals at the papal curia against the archbishop of Canterbury and his clerks. At least one prior died during such a visit. Peter de Jocellis, was granted a safe conduct in February 1344 to travel to Cluny “by reason of his canonical obedience due to his superior and for business concerning the rule of his order”. He died whilst away and was buried at La Baume. William de Russinol (1249-56), having apparently developed a desire to visit Jerusalem whilst on business at the papal curia in Rome in 1255, returned to Lewes in March of that year and set out again a few months later with his chaplain to the Holy Land. Although the chaplain returned, as the Lewes Annalist records, William de Russinol did not, presumably dying there.

Top: Clayton parish church, Sussex : mid-12th century wall painting: St Peter with an abbot of Cluny, probably St Odo