RELIGIOUS HOUSES cated. In 1426 John Paston or Wortes, who seems to have had great influence at Rome, was appointed, by papal provision, bishop of Cork ; but a private letter of William Paston of that year, writing of him as * this cursed bysshop for Bromholm,' states that there were two other persons ' provided to the same bysshopricke yet lyvyng,' and that Prior John being still apostate would be unable to hold it. When the bishop- ric did become vacant, in 1430, Jordan chancel- lor of Limerick obtained the see ; Prior John and others in vain endeavoured to oust him.' In 1430 John Paston resigned Bromholm ; it seems that he had not resided there for many years. In that year Judge Paston wrote to the English vicar-general of the abbot of Cluni, who alone had power over the profession of Cluniac monks in this country, stating that there were divers virtuous young men in the garb of monks but unprofessed at the priory of Bromholm, some of whom had been there for nine or ten years, and praying that the prior of Thetford might be empowered to receive their profession.^ John Tyteshall succeeded as prior in 1460. Among the Paston Letters are two from this prior, one of the year I46i,and one circa 1480.^ The great event during his rule was the burial at the priory, of John Paston, the son of Judge Paston. He died in London on 21 or 22 May, 1466, and everything connected with his obsequies was carried out on a sumptuous scale. The inter- ment at Bromholm took place on 29 May. jf5 13J. 4c/. was spent as a dole, and immense quantities of food and drink were supplied. A London chandler received £^ igx. ^d., and another chandler 551. iid., in addition to many torches of local supply ; it is not therefore won- derful that a glazier had to be paid 2od. for taking out, and afterwards resetting, two panes of the windows of the conventual church ' to late owte the reke of the torches.'* By his will John Paston left to the prior 40J., and to each of the nine monks 6j. 8<y. Sir John Paston, by will of 1477, left his body to be buried in the conventual church of Bromholm by the founder's arch on the north side, near his father's tomb ; an altar and tomb were to be erected at a cost of ;^20, and a like sum to be spent on ' a closette made at my cost over my father's body.' His desire for his father's memorial was that there should be none like it in Norfolk.' Prior John Tyteshall ruled for many years. Shortly before his death he was engaged in re- building the dorter of his house. At that time ' Paston Letters iG3.rdine:T),,xv, zi, 25-6 ; Cotton, Fasti Eccl. Hibemie. ' Paston Letters, i, 29-30. Ibid, i, 541-3 ; iii, 275-6-
- Ibid, ii, 266-71.
' Ibid, iii, 207-8, 224. Sir John Paston, how- ever, died suddenly in London in 1479, and was buried at the White Friars. Ibid, iii, 202. 2 361 he wrote to John Paston, begging for his good ofBces with the duchy of Lancaster to obtain him a grant of timber ; his special desire was to have ' viii princypall beemys everych on («V) in length xj yerds.'* Prior Tyteshall was succeeded by John Macham, who was followed in 1509 by John Underwood, who became suffragan to the see of Norwich under the title of bishop of Chalcedon. William Lakenham, who was the last prior, occurs in 1530. That which made this remote Norfolk priory celebrated throughout England, and through many parts of continental Christendom, for up- wards of three centuries, was its possession of a famous cross made from fragments of the true cross. It was brought to England in 1223, and its story is told with some detail by Matthew Paris.' An English priest who served in the em- peror's chapel at Constantinople, having in his charge a cross made of the wood of our Saviour's cross, absconded on the emperor's death and brought it to England, and made it a condition of bestowing it on any monastery that he and his two sons should be admitted as monks. To this condition the sceptical monks of St. Albans and other great houses demurred, but at last the monastery of Bromholm, poor in worldly goods but rich in faith, believed the priest's story and agreed to his terms, and the cross was set up in their church. Its fame rapidly spread, and it soon became a place of pilgrimage. In the 'Vision of Piers Plowman ' occur the lines — And bidde the Roode of Bromholm, Bryng me out of dette. In the ' Reeve's Tale ' of Chaucer is the pious ejaculation : — Helpe, holy cross of Bromeholme. The miracles associated with this pilgrimage were numerous. It is mentioned in the annals of Dunstable and Tewkesbury, and by other early chroniclers. About 131 3 Edward II visited this monastery, on account of his special devotion to 'the glorious cross ' of Bromholm, and granted them the manor of Bacton, worth j^i2 91. ']d. a year, for an annual payment of 10s. ^ but it had a royal pilgrim at a far earlier date in the daughter of Margaret countess of Kent, sister of Alexander of Scotland, who visited Bromholm in 1233, when her mother and Henry III were at Bury St. Edmunds. Boniface IX, in August, 140 1, granted an indult to the prior of Bromholm and his suc- cessors, and other fit priests, religious or secular, deputed by them, to hear the confessions of and grant absolution to (saving reserved cases) the multitude who resort from afar to their church, " Ibid, iii, 277. ' Matth. Paris, Chron. Majors (Rolls Ser.), iii, 80. « Chartul. fol. t,b. 46
