Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 29.djvu/167

THE MUNIMENTS OF TIIK ABBEY OF WESTMINSTER. 137 nients.^ These were then by far the most numerous and important of the collection, and each chief officer of the Abbey had liis own section to attend to. A s^'stem then prevailed which has now nearly died out, if not entirely. Instead of the income of the establishment being received by one officer, and distributed to the various branches for expenditure, the places themselves which were the sources of income were assigned to a certain section of the establish- ment, put into the hands of the officers themselves, and kept under their own management. Thus a most fruitful source of quarrel and jealousy existed, and was always causing difficulties and troubles. The Bailiff, Chamberlain, Cellarer, ►Saci'ist, and Treasurer, had each his share of the estates of the Abbey approj)riated to his office ; and the accounts of those estates, and the documents connected with them, to- gether with their own official accounts, were in their custod}--, and were the occupants of the old chests in the Muniment Room. These accounts are sometimes accompanied by In- dentures or Inventories relatinu; to the office, describino; the duties of the officer, and setting out the stock which passed from one to another. In illustration I would refer to a charter of Abbot Wenlock in the time of Edward I., which ap))ropriate(l the manor of Am well in Hertfordshire to the Cellarer.of the Abbey, and to an earlier one of Abbot Ilumez, granting Parham in Sussex to the convent — an instrument made in Chapter in very solemn form, the common seal being said to be affixed at the " very altar of St. Peter, the Prince of Apostles," and having in it a clause in which any one infringing the charter is "terribly anathematized." Henry III., in his solicitude and care for the Abbey, actu- all}'^ took in hand the settlement of a serious dispute among its officers about their rights and revenues. In 1225 a formal agreement or " composition " had been made between Abbot Berkyng and the convent for the distribution of the revenues to the various branches of the Monastery. In 1252, while all the cares of the rebuilding of the Abbey were upon the king's hands, so serious a dispute had arisen " by reason of the composition," that he had to interfere to reconcile the members of the establishment. That instru- • See the Introduction to the " Doniea- Lite Archdeacon Hale, for an account of day of St. Paul'H, of the year M.ic.xxii," manorial arrangements of ecclesiastical e<litc<l for the Cam<len Society by the foundations.