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The Regimen Scaccarii in English Monasteries: The Alexander Prize Essay

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Extract

The twelfth century was a period of rapid growth in English monastic administration. It saw the establishment of an obedientiary system and of a special organisation for exploiting the estates in all but the smallest of religious houses. At the same time, however, as the monasteries solved the main problems of household expenditure and estate management by entrusting administrative responsibility to the senior members of the chapter, they created a problem of equal magnitude: that of the common control of their revenues. How far, it may be asked, did the English monasteries succeed in meeting this difficulty and in combining the joint control and individual expenditure of their monetary income in one organic system? The present essay has been written as an attempt to supply an answer to this question.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1942

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References

page 73 note 1 Knowles, Dom. D., The monastic order in England, 943–1216 (1940), pp. 427–47.Google Scholar

page 74 note 1 Here, of course, the still disputed question of origins makes it impossible to draw any very close analogy.

page 74 note 2 The Canterbury rental (in D. and C. Lib. Cant., MS. R. 31), which can be assigned to the years 1163–7, makes mention of a dispensator and thesaurarius.

page 74 note 3 Papsturkunden in England, ed. Holtzmann, W. (1935), ii. 372Google Scholar. The number of treasurers is not stated.

page 74 note 4 Chron. abbatiae Rames., ed. Macray, W. D. (R. S., 1886), p. 342.Google Scholar

page 74 note 5 Exception may be made of the weekly audit which abbot Samson conducted in person at Edmund, Bury St.'s (Chronica Jocelini de Braketonda, ed. Rokewode, J. G., Camden Soc., 1840, p. 31)Google Scholar and the scackarium consuetudinale to which the woodmen were subject at St. Albans in the twelfth century (Gesta abbatum, ed. Riley, H. T. (R. S., 1867), i. 216).Google Scholar

page 75 note 1 Voss, L., Heinrich von Blois (1932), pp. 70–7 and passim.Google Scholar

page 75 note 2 The documents relating to the work of Henry of Blois at Cluny are printed in Recueil des chartes de Cluny, ed. Bernard, A. et Bruel, A. (1894), v. 488505Google Scholar; cf. Voss, , op. cit., pp. 114–19.Google Scholar

page 75 note 3 Note, especially, the statute of Peter the Venerable which provides that ‘ubicumque facultas loci permiserit, exceptis decanis, xii fratres constituantur addito tertio priore, plerumque ordinem teneant’. Migne, , P.L., clxxxix. 1037.Google Scholar

page 75 note 4 The decree is entered in Reg. J. de Pontissara, ed. Deedes, Canon (Canterbury and York Soc., 19131924), ii. 523Google Scholar, and in Winchester Cathedral chartulary, ed. Goodman, Canon A. W. (1927), p. 5.Google Scholar

page 75 note 5 Chron. abbatiae de Evesham, ed. Macray, W. D. (R. S., 1863), p. 206Google Scholar. The cellarer was entrusted with the administration of all the unassigned revenues of the house, ibid., p. 207.

page 76 note 1 See the history of the abbey by Fowler, R. C. in V.C.H. Essex (1907), ii. 166–72.Google Scholar

page 76 note 2 ‘… rex constituit de eisdem canonicis unum priorem, et alium celerarium, et tertium suppriorem, et quartum sacristain; et alios ministros ejusdem domus prout ordo eorum poscebat’. Chron. Benedicti Abbatis, ed. Stubbs, W. (R. S., 1867), i. 174.Google Scholar

page 76 note 3 Papst. in England, i. 583–4.Google Scholar

page 76 note 4 The decree of the legate has been printed by Cheney, C. R. in Eng. Hist. Rev., xlvi. (1931), 449–52.Google Scholar

page 76 note 5 Mr. Cheney shows that ‘the chronicler (sc. of St. Mary's, York), who occasionally mentions monks as having been bursarii, records the fact that on 20 November 1301 two treasurers were appointed “per quosdam”; “set ilia ordinacio parum profuit”.’ E.H.R. loc. cit., pp. 448–9.Google Scholar

page 76 note 6 See Berlière, Dom. U., ‘Innocent III et la réorganisation des monastères bénédictins’, Revue bénédictine, xxxii (1920), 2242, 146–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 77 note 1 Graham, Rose, ‘A papal visitation of Bury St. Edmunds and West minster in 1234’, Eng. Hist. Rev., xxvii (1912), 728–39CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The legate Otto extended these provisions to all houses of Black Monks in 1238. Paris, Matthew, Chron. majora, ed. Luard, H. R. (R. S., 1876), iii. 501.Google Scholar

page 77 note 2 Les registres de Grégoire IX, ed. Auvray, L. (1907), ii. 325–6Google Scholar. The Statutes were confirmed by Innocent IV in 1253.

page 77 note 3 Regestrum visitationum archiepiscopi rothomagensis, 1248–69, ed. Bonnin, T. (1852), pp. 44, 56, 57, 71, 203, and passim.Google Scholar

page 77 note 4 Wilkins, D., Concilia, ii. 17.Google Scholar

page 77 note 5 Chapters, ed. Pantin, W. A. (Camden 3rd series, xlv, 1931), i. 36, 84–5.Google Scholar

page 78 note 1 Thus Mr. R. H. Snape dwells on one aspect of Pecham's policy of financial centralisation—the institution of treasuries—while entirely neglecting the other, and equally important, feature—tue establishment of auditing committees. English monastic finances (1926), p. 40Google Scholar. He does, however, give a useful list of the houses to which Pecham addressed his financial injunctions.

page 78 note 2 Pecham himself described the financial organisation which he in stituted at Glastonbury Abbey in 1281 as a regimen scaccarii (Reg. epist. J.P., ed. Martin, C. T., R. S., 1882, i. 264)Google Scholar, and the word scaccarium became the general designation for an exchequer and its procedure in the custumals, court-rolls and account-rolls of such abbeys as Peterborough, St. Albans, and St. Augustine's, Canterbury.

page 79 note 1 Reg. Wm. Greenfield, 1306–15, ed. Thompson, A. H. (Surtees Soc., 1931– ), ii. 205, 227; iii. 82–3, 115, 117, 137, 225–6 and passim.Google Scholar

page 79 note 2 Reg. Henry Woodlock, 1305–16, ed. Goodman, Canon A. W. (Canterbury and York Soc., 1934–), pp. 511, 514, 526, 527–8, 535, 753Google Scholar. In one at least of these houses, Chertsey, a central treasury already existed.

page 79 note 3 Reg. epist. J.P., iii. 823–4.Google Scholar

page 79 note 4 Thompson, A. Hamilton, Bardney Abbey (privately printed), ii. 15Google Scholar. An episcopal visitation of the abbey in 1379 showed that the injunctions of Pecham were still unobserved; ibid., ii. 24.

page 79 note 5 The case of Rochester is considered in detail in a forthcoming article in Eng. Hist. Rev.

page 80 note 1 Reg. epist. J.P., i. 262–4.Google Scholar

page 80 note 2 These rolls are now at Longleat, the seat of the Marquis of Bath. They are in many ways comparable to the pipe rolls of Peterborough Abbey in D. and C. Lib., Peterborough.

page 80 note 3 See Flower, C. T., ‘Obedientiars' accounts of Glastonbury and other religious houses’, Trans. St. Paul's Ecclesiological Soc., vii (1912), 5062Google Scholar. Evidence is here adduced (p. 54) of the internal cellarer rendering his summary account of all the monastic departments on the eve of the Dissolution.

page 81 note 1 Ely chapter ordinances and visitation records, 1241–1515, ed. Evans, S. J. A. (Camden Miscellany, xvii. 1940), p. 1Google Scholar. The ordinance makes known the existence of treasurers at Ely at this date. Their functions appear to have been limited to the transference of income from the prior to the obedientiaries; ibid., pp. 1–2.

page 81 note 2 Ely ordinances, p. 4.Google Scholar

page 81 note 3 ibid, p. 21.

page 81 note 4 ibid., p. 28. In 1307 Bishop Robert of Oxford instructed the prior and sub-prior to be present with the three monks at the audit (ibid., p. 30), while in 1314 the prior and chapter confined the membership of the committee to the prior and three monks; ibid., p. 38.

page 81 note 5 In D. and C. Muniment Room, Ely.

page 81 note 6 21 treasurers' accounts are extant for the period 1324–1529.

page 82 note 1 The average of the obedientiaries' incomes for the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been calculated by Evans, S. J. A. in Ely ordinances, p. xii.Google Scholar

page 82 note 2 See ibid, pp. 9, 31, 34, 38.

page 82 note 3 In spite of their vast outlays in building expenses these two priors managed to keep their house free from all serious indebtedness. See Sacrist rolls of Ely, ed. Chapman, F. R. (1907), iiGoogle Scholar. passim, and Anglia sacra, ed. Wharton, H. (1691), i. 644–62.Google Scholar

page 82 note 4 Ely ordinances, pp. 52–3.Google Scholar

page 82 note 5 The first account of the sub-prior acting in this capacity covers the years 1416–20, and there are several other of his accounts extant for the fifteenth century.

page 83 note 1 The three last surviving accounts of the treasurers, audited in 1474, 1476, and 1525, were rendered jointly with the steward of the lands.

page 83 note 2 Payments to lay auditors occur constantly in the fifteenth century accounts. Cf. Ely ordinances, p. xvi, note 2.Google Scholar

page 83 note 3 See the accounts of the receiver for the years 1334–5 and 1337 printed in Obedientiary rolls of St. Swithun's, Winchester, ed. Kitchin, G. W. (Hants Rec. Soc., 1892), pp. 224–53.Google Scholar

page 83 note 4 See the observations on the espernium made by Canon Goodman, A. W. in Winchester Cath, chart., p. 1.Google Scholar

page 83 note 5 The pipe roll of this year (in D. and C. Lib., Winchester) reveals payments made to the treasury by the manorial Serjeants and reeves. Cf. Crondal records, ed. Baigent, F. J. (Hants Rec. Soc., 1891), p. 51.Google Scholar

page 83 note 6 The appointments of counsellors with regular pensions payable at the treasury are recorded in the Register of the Common Seal, 1345–1496, fos. 24, 33v, 37, 46, 51, 51v (D. and C. Lib., Winchester).

page 84 note 1 Kitchin, , Obedientiary rolls, pp. 62–3Google Scholar. cf. Winchester Cath. chart., pp. 81–4.Google Scholar

page 84 note 2 Reg. Woodlock, p. 750.Google Scholar

page 84 note 3 Eighteen pipe-rolls are extant (D. and C. Lib., Winchester) for the period covered by the years 1248–1326. The title of the roll is written at the foot of the dorso of the last membrane.

page 84 note 4 The 1248 roll, however, consists of single membranes sewn together at the top.

page 84 note 5 For an account of the episcopal exchequer, see Swift, Eleanor, The machinery of manorial administration (an unprinted London M.A. thesis, 1930), pp. 2657.Google Scholar

page 85 note 1 These allowances were recorded at the foot of each account. See the record of allowances made by the auditors in 1378 to the Serjeant of Silkstead, cited by Drew, J. S., Compton near Winchester (1939), p. 53.Google Scholar

page 85 note 2 In the fifteenth century the accounts of most of the Wiltshire manors of the priory were audited on the spot by professional auditors.

page 85 note 3 Eng. Hist. Rev., lv (1940), 353–69.Google Scholar

page 86 note 1 Literae cantuarienses, ed. Sheppard, J. B. (R. S., 1887), i. 481–3.Google Scholar

page 86 note 2 Thus, in their 1204–5 account the treasurers announced in respect of a debt owing to the cellarer ‘et debuimus ei ad scaccarium’ (D. and C. Lib., Canterbury (hereafter abbreviated as Canterbury MS.) D. iv fo. 15v—and references to ‘partes solucionis debitorum facte ante scaccarium’ are of common occurrence (e.g., in 1213. Cant. MS. F. ii fo. 54).

page 86 note 3 On the meaning and use of the word scaccarium, see Dialogus de scaccario, ed. Hughes, A. and others (1902), 60Google Scholar, and Poole, R. L., The Exchequer in the twelfth century (1912), 100–2Google Scholar. At the head of the 1313 Assisa scaccarii account of Christ Church (see infra) there is a representation of a chessboard.

page 86 note 4 The documents which are extant cover the years 1225–1336 at irregular intervals (Cant. MS. M. 13. xix), and a continuous series of Assisae for the years 1252–62 is enrolled in Cant. MS. Reg. H. fos. 172–217.

page 86 note 5 Normally, of course, the treasurers were members of the auditing committee.

page 86 note 6 The eight senior monks who audited the account of the prior in 1456 were described at the head of the account as ‘barones hoc anno’. Cant. MS. M. 13. xvii mem. 10. In 1432 a monk who received a small payment from the firmarius of Monkton at the audit was designated a baron. Cant. MS. Monkton account-roll, 1431–2.

page 87 note 1 The treasury at Christ Church was situated between the north wall of St. Andrew's chapel and the south side-aisle wall of the infirmary hall at a short distance from the scaccarium or exchequer building in the eastern range of the infirmary cloister. See Willis, R., Architectural history of monastery of Christ Church (1869), pp. 7482, 101–2.Google Scholar

page 87 note 2 Cant. MS. D. iv passim.

page 87 note 3 The distinction between revenue received by or without tally occurs in the earliest treasurers' accounts.

page 87 note 4 Poole, R. L., op. cit., p. 104.Google Scholar

page 87 note 5 Reg. epist. J.P., ii. 403–4.Google Scholar

page 88 note 1 Willis, R., op. cit., p. 185.Google Scholar

page 88 note 2 British Museum, Cott. MS. Galba E. iv fo. 73v.

page 88 note 3 Lit. cant., i. 104.Google Scholar

page 88 note 4 This is abundantly evidenced by the Serjeant's accounts (Cant. MSS.) of the individual manors. Thus in 1286 the serjeant of Meopham disbursed 8s. 11½d. ‘in expensis dominorum Roberti Poucyn et G. de Chileham ultra compotum audiendum’, and in 1302 the serjeant of Cliffe paid 9s. 6d. ‘in expensis dominorum H. Motte et s. de Sancto Paulo in eundo ad audiendum compotos prepositorum Essexe de anno preterito et redeundo’ and 13s. ‘in expensis eorundem super compotum manerii de Clyve de anno preterito’. Reference is made in 1322 to the serjeant of Chartham rendering his account on the manor ‘coram auditoribus dictorum prions et conventus, ad audiendum compotos balliuorum et servientium suorum deputatis’ (Lit. cant., i. 91)Google Scholar. Notice, however, that the new prior compelled the serjeant of Walworth in 1332 to bring his account for audit to the exchequer and to answer for his debts; ibid., i. 481–3.

page 89 note 1 Two secular auditors were present on the Kentish estates of Christ Church in 1337. (Lit. cant., ii. 168)Google Scholar, and Dr. J. F. Nichols has shown (in an unpublished London Ph.D. thesis on the Essex custody of Christ Church, p. 145) how a professional auditor acted as bailiff-general of the manors in the last century or so before the Dissolution.

page 89 note 2 The whole controversy is rehearsed at length in Cant. Reg. Q. fos. 25v–26v, 28v–29.

page 89 note 3 Reg. Winchelsey (Canterbury and York Soc.), p. 373.Google Scholar

page 89 note 4 ibid., pp. 373, 378.

page 90 note 1 It is entitled ‘Ordinacio facta ad scaccarium in die quatuor coronatorum de blado mittendo domi anno regni Edward xvi’. Cant. MS. R.E. 99.

page 90 note 2 B.M. Cott. MS. Galba E. iv ios. 73v–74. The monks were almost certainly guided in their ordinances on agricultural practice by Walter of Henley's Treatise on husbandry and an anonymous treatise on the same subject, which were enrolled in several of the conventual registers. (Walter of Henley's Husbandry, ed. Lamond, E., 1890, pp. xxv, xl)Google Scholar. In many details the language of the ordinances corresponds closely to that of these thirteenth-century manuals on estate-management.

page 90 note 3 Lit. Cant., i. 104.Google Scholar

page 90 note 4 B.M. Cott. MS. Galba E. iv fo. 95v.

page 90 note 5 Dugdale, , Monasticon (1817 ed.), i. 104.Google Scholar

page 90 note 6 Cant. MS. D.E. 3 fo. 44v.

page 90 note 7 Ibid., fo. 46v.

page 91 note 1 Ibid., fo. 48.

page 91 note 2 Ibid., fo. 44v.

page 91 note 3 ‘Item in ea parte minationum vestrarum qua cavetur, quod nullus tractatus circa negotia monasterii nostri habendus nisi in praesentia sexdecim confratrum nostrorum haberetur, nobis visum est jus et parvitatem nostra m nimis per hoc forerestrictam, cum nostrae voluntatis existat, juxta naturam, qualitatem, et exigentiam hujusmodi negotiorum et tractatuum, aliquando plures, et aliquando numero minores seu pauciores, ad hujusmodi tractatum, prout nobis videbitur, convocare, tarn de jure quam de consuetudine monasterii nostri supradicti’ (Lit. cant., ii. 397)Google Scholar. I have been unable to consult Islip's register on account of the war.

page 91 note 4 Lit. cant., i. 396–7.Google Scholar

page 92 note 1 Lit. cant., iii. 46.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Eng. Hist. Rev., loc. cit.

page 92 note 3 Chronicle of John Stone, ed. Searle, W. G. (Camb. Antiq. Soc. Publ., 1902), p. 84.Google Scholar

page 93 note 1 See the analysis of these visitations made by Dr. Coulton, G. G. in Five centuries of religion (1936), iii. 456–7Google Scholar, with full references.

page 93 note 2 The accounts of the obedientiars of Abingdon Abbey, ed. Kirk, R. E. G. (Camden Soc., 1892)Google Scholar, passim, afford a good example of this type of organisation.

page 93 note 3 References will be found in the article on Priory, Rochester cited above. Cf. Visitations of the diocese of Norwich, 1492–1532, ed. Jessopp, A. (Camden Soc., 1888), pp. 96, 126–7, 161.Google Scholar

page 93 note 4 J. Amundesham annales, ed. H. T. Riley (R.S., 1870), i. 276–7.Google Scholar

page 93 note 5 Jessopp, , Visitations, p. 79.Google Scholar

page 93 note 6 e.g. at Ely. See above.

page 94 note 1 Savine, A., English monasteries on the eve of the Dissolution (1909), pp. 252–3.Google Scholar