Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/177

 THE MUNIMENTS OF THE ABBEY OF WESTMINSTER. 117 incurred excommunication by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Tiie offence was grave, and the Abbot was judicially ordered to surrender the run-away friar with the books he had brought with him, and to do penance in liis own Abbey. The sentence was only mollified on an appeal to Rome, and the infraction of one of the items of the settlement — that all documents relating to the controversy should be given up to the friars ■ — has preserved at Westminster the records of this singular case. Coming to the title " Funerals " we have many important and most interesting documents, but the subject has been so thoroughly treated in the " Historical Memorials " that it may be passed over here. The heading " Jews " deserves special notice. This is not the place, however, to do more than to call attention to the numerous documents under the title. An ark {area) or strong box was kept at several places in which those people were di- rected to keep the documents showing their dealings with their Christian neighbours, and among the Abbey archives we find these in much greater number and extent than I know of anywhere else in this country. It is more probable, how- ever, that these documents belong rather to the contents of the ancient Royal Treasury. They consist of seventeen rolls of accounts, and upwards of 400 " stars''^ and other deeds of the time of Henry HI. and Edward I. in the Hebrew language. Coming to the heading " Indulgences," etc., we find an all worshipping at or visiting the church of Westminster, A.D. 12.;7," while the Abbey was being rebuilt ; a "Bull of Pope Urban IV., authorising the Abbot to grant dispensations to members of the monastei-y offending its rules, a.d. 1262 " ; " Indulgence by the Bishop of St. David's of forty days to those praying and worshipping in the church of Westminster and before the shrine of tSt. Edward, 1269"; "Absolution pronounced by the delegates of the Abbot on Robert de Wendon and his son for opposing the Abbot in the matter of a will (a pilgrimage to Rome is one of the conditions im- posed), 1277." These must be considered as specimens of the documents under this title. Under that of " Inventories ' From the Hebrew " chctur," a bond, or obligatory instrumeDt. VOL. XXIX. X
 * ' Indulgence by William Bishop of Connor of sixty days to