that the canons of Michelham latterly held a tolerably tranquil course till they were overtaken by the dissolution.
Before that fatal event a few incidents of miscellaneous character, and of more or less interest, are recorded to have happened.
On the 26th of June, 1283 (11º Edw. I), John de Kyrkeby (the modem Kirby), who had been chosen Bishop of Rochester, renounced his election at Michelham before the Archbishop of Canterbury (John Peckham).[1]
On the 14th of September, 1302, the canons were enlivened by the presence of royalty. Edward I, in passing from Hampshire through Sussex into Kent, came from Lewes and spent the night at Michelham, proceeding onward next day to Hurstmonceux and Battel.[2] A writ dated from the priory is in existence, giving the living of "Sneyeleswell" (Snailwell, R. Cambr.), in the diocese of Ely, to John de Echingham, perhaps prior, and thus requited for his hospitality.
The next incident we meet with is rather discreditable to the then head of our venerable house, but luckily for his reputation, his name has passed into oblivion. At a general chapter of the Black Monks (or Benedictines), held at the monastery of St. Andrew, Northampton, July 5, 1423, at which William, Abbot of St. Edmund's Bury, and John, Prior of the cathedral church of Worcester, were presidents, "was read a long letter rhetorically written by the Prior of Michelham, canon of the order of St. Augustine, levelled against the present Abbot of St. Augustine in Canterbury; but because, as is most truly conjectured, it is not thought to have sprung from the root of charity—nay, rather has been maliciously worked up (peractizata) into an immoderate censure of the aforesaid venerable father—for this cause our lord presidents have decreed that it be buried among them that sleep."[3]
- ↑ Angl., Sacra, I, 352.
- ↑ Suss. Arch. Collections, II, 153-5. "It puzzles us much to understand," says Lord Campbell, "how not only the king and his court, but the king and both houses of parliament were anciently accommodated in a small town; but it appears that a great many truckle beds were spread out in any apartment, and with a share in one of these a luxurious baron was contented; the less refined not aspiring above straw in a barn. Both Charles I and Cromwell slept in the same bed with their officers. By the statutes of Magdalen College, Oxford, each chamber on the first floor in ordinary times was to contain two truckle beds." (Life of Waynflete). The difficulties at Michelham must have been surmounted in a similar way.
- ↑ "Ipsam inter dormientes decreverunt sepeliri," equivalent, in modem language,
