Page:English Historical Review Volume 37.djvu/93

 1922 WESTMINSTER ABBEY IN 1444 85 The text of the visitation, which seems to be unique, has been taken from a Bury register, 1 where it perhaps suggested the economical expedient of removing the abbot's household to Bermondsey. That Westminster documents should find their way to Bury was natural enough in view of the special ' con- federation ' 2 which had bound the two abbeys since the early thirteenth century. But it is remarkable that no trace of the visitation has apparently survived among the Westminster muniments. 3 Widmore on whose work subsequent accounts of Westminster are based was therefore not unnaturally ignorant of its existence. It was, however, known to Tanner, who refers to it in his life of Flete with the reference ' Regist. Bur. Novell 1 14 ' ; 4 and we are fortunately able to identify 5 Tanner's authority with the manuscript printed below. It is also of interest to note that the date of this visitation seems to have determined the plan of Flete 's History of Westminster. 6 In his introduction Flete expresses his intention of carrying the story down to the year 1443. The choice of this singular terminus ad quern is best explained by the catastrophe of the following year, with which the author was himself so intimately connected. V. H. GALBRAITH. British Museum, Ad. MS. 7096, fo. 154. In dei nomine amen. Nos lohannes permissione divina sancti Albani [fo. 154.] Lincoln[iensis] Willelmus beate Marie Abendon[e] Sar[isburiensis] Willel- mus sancti lohannis Colcestr[ie] London[iensis] et lohannes sancti Petri de Chertesey Wyntonfiensis] diocfesis] monasteriorum abbates ordinis sancti Benedict! per presiden[tem] et capitulum generate nigrorum monachorum in Anglia necnon ex precepto metuendissimi in Christo principis et domini domini Henrici dei gratia regnorum Anglie et Francie regis illustrissimi ad visitand[um] corrigend[um] et reformand[um] monasterium sancti Petri Westm[onasteriensis] iuxta civitatem London- [iensem] sedi apostolice immediate subiect[um] tarn in capite quam in membris visitatores correctores et reformatores coniunctim et divisim slowly but steadily. Under Kirton and Norwich the work (though it did not cease) was at a low ebb : see F. Bond, Architectural Hist, of Westminster Abbey, p. 121. The difficulties of Kirton and Norwich are thus not to be explained as the result of a pardonable extravagance upon building. 1 Add. MS. 7096 (William Curteys), fo. 153 V f. 2 Printed in Widmore, p. 232. 3 I owe this to Canon Westlake, assistant keeper of the muniments, who has very kindly assisted my inquiries. 4 Bibliotkeca, p. 288 ; cf. Life of Flete in Diet, of Nat. Biog. The writer, evidently puzzled by Tanner's reference, states that Flete ruled the monastery during the suspension of Abbot Norwich, i. e. in 1467. But Flete died not later than 1466. 8 Tanner, Notilia, sub Bury St. Edmunds : ' Registrum Will. Curteis abbatis penes rev. V. lohannem Novel rect. de Hillington 1709. . . .' Moreover, the visitation occurs on fo. 114 according to the older numbering. 6 Flete's History of Westminster Abbey, ed. Armitage Robinson, p. 33. The actual narrative stops short in 1386.