Print of Dunstable Priory.
Published 24 December 1819.
Longman & Lackington & Co
and Joseph Harding, London.
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The great necessity and heavy debts of the Priory called for stringent measures, and William le Breton had shown himself unable to meet the difficulty. Efforts were made to curtail expenses and get money for the payment of debts. There is no sign of any other grave faults having been committed, nor of anything like luxurious living.
Dunstable Priory Portal.
Date: 10 May 2015.
Source: Own work.
Author: DrMoschi
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The new Prior, according to the Bishop’s advice, set himself to limit the expenses of the whole Priory and assigned a fixed income to the Kitchen for the future.
The deposed Prior had proper maintenance assigned to him at Ruxox Priory, Flitwick, Bedforshire.
The Canons seem to have borne no ill-will to Bishop Sutton for his corrections and were ready on his next visit to their Church (which was made not officially, but only in passing) to praise him for his excellent Sermon. [Editor: This can be interpreted as an excellent Career move by the Canons.]
Other visitations of his are mentioned in 1284, 1287, 1288, and 1293; the last was only to confer Orders.
Dunstable Priory.
Main Portal and facade detail.
Date: 10 May 2015.
Source: Own work.
This File is licensed under the
Share Alike 4.0 International licence.
Author: DrMoschi
(Wikimedia Commons)
Archbishop Peckham came in 1284, but found all well (“as the Bishop had been there quite late,” the Chronicler naively remarks) and Archbishop Winchelsea in 1293.
The only serious charge that could be laid to the door of the Canons all through the 13th-Century was their inability to keep clear of debt, and the record shows that this was often quite as much their misfortune as their fault.
There are many incidental remarks of the Chroniclers which serve to show that the tone of the Priory was thoroughly Religious, and that the Canons were faithful in keeping their Rule.
It will suffice to instance, early in the 13th-Century, the generous treatment of the two young Canons (one only a Novice), who escaped by night through a window and went to join the Friars Minor at Oxford.
Dunstable Priory.
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They were indeed Solemnly Excommunicated and compelled to return; but, after they had done their Penance in the Chapter House and had been absolved, they were allowed a year to consider the matter, and, if after that time they preferred the stricter Order, they were granted permission to depart; if not, they might remain at Dunstable.
PART EIGHT FOLLOWS.
