‘Remember dearest brethren and reverend fathers that by the said recognisances and due to seven years of dearth and common murrain of beasts, the goods of the house of Pipewell had been so exhausted that nothing remained for the meagre sustenance of the monks; sometimes they sat in the refectory for three or four days with only black bread and potage, at other times they wandered from market to market to buy bread, and this they patiently endured. I, the wretch and sinner who have occupied the place of abbot, therefore counsel, ask, implore, and warn in as much as I am able, lest another abbot fall so deeply into the hands of Lombards, that they heed the French maxim ‘leger est aprendre mes fort est a rendre’.