Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Cerne

2. THE ABBEY OF CERNE

The Benedictine abbey of Cerne was, traditionally, founded by the first apostle of the English, St. Augustine, who, according to William of Malmesbury, having converted Kent to the faith of Christ proceeded to penetrate into the rest of the English provinces over which the rule of King Ethelbert extended, that is to say over the whole of England with the exception of Northumbria, and coming to these parts met with great rudeness from the inhabitants of the country who fastening derisively the tails of cows (fn. 1) to the garments of the evangelist and his companions drove them away. Whereupon the holy man perceiving the change that should rapidly take place in the minds of the people and 'patiently and modestly rejoicing to bear reproach for the name of Christ' cried to his companions 'Cerno Deum qui et nobis retribuet gratiam et furentibus illis emendationem infundet animam' (I see God who shall give us grace and impart to these deluded people a change of heart). The prophecy was not long of fulfilment, the people repenting of what they had done approached St. Augustine desiring to be reconciled, and he, attributing this change to God, gave to the place the name of Cernel, compounded from the Hebrew word Hel or El God and the Latin Cerno. Soon after the inhabitants became converted to the new faith and water being required to baptize them a fountain sprang out of the ground at the word of Augustine. (fn. 2)

In succeeding times, continues the chronicler, Edwold, brother to Edmund, king of the East Anglians, retiring from the world on the death of his brother at the hands of the Danes, lived the life of a hermit at St. Augustine's well 'called the silver well' at Cerne, where he died. (fn. 3) So great was the respect felt for his memory that in later times the abbey appears under his patronage as well as that of the Blessed Virgin and St. Peter. (fn. 4) After his death Ailmer or Æthelmar, generally styled earl or duke of Cornwall, translated the relics of Edwold with the assistance of Dunstan to the old church of Cerne 'where now the parish church is' and built or rebuilt the monastery which he dedicated to the honour of St. Peter. (fn. 5) The foundation was begun in the reign of Edgar according to Leland and completed in the year 987.

In his foundation charter of that year Æthelmar (or Ailmer) son of Ælward, nobleman of king Æthelred, notifies to Archbishop Dunstan and Bishop Ælfheah of Winchester that he has given to God and the monks there the place which is called Cernel in honour of the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter and St. Benedict, for his dear master king Æthelred, for himself and the redemption of his ancestors; he has granted to them also 6 cassates of land in Minterne, 10 manses at Winterborne, 6 at Bredy, 12 in the further Bredy, 3 in Rentscombe; Leofric, clerk of Poxwell, has added to the donation the vill of Poxwell which was confirmed by grant of king Æthelred; Ælfrith a relative of Æthelmar at Bincombe has given 4 cassates of land at Affpuddle, Alfwold gave 5 manses at Bloxworth; after the death of his wife the founder further bestowed on the monastery tithes of his yearly rent in Cerne and Cheselbourne together with tithes of honey, cheese and fat hogs in his other lands and desired that the monks should observe the rule of St. Benedict and should choose whatever secular patron they pleased. (fn. 6)

Canute is said to have plundered this monastery when he wasted the town but afterwards he became a considerable benefactor to it. (fn. 7) The abbey had added largely to its endowment at the time the Domesday Survey was taken; the church of St. Peter was then returned as holding land in the following places: Cerne, Little Puddle, Radipole, Bloxworth, Affpuddle, Poxwell, East Woodsford, Heffleton, 'Vergroth,' Little Bredy, Winterborne, Long Bredy, Nettlecombe, Milton, Kimmeridge, Rentscombe and Symondsbury; (fn. 8) the total, amounting to 113 hides and 3 virgates, was valued at £115, leaving out Affpuddle, the assessment of which was omitted. The widow of Hugh Fitz Grip, the Norman sheriff, held, we are told, I carucate in Poxwell formerly belonging to the demesne of the monks.

In 1156 the abbot of Cerne was returned as holding by the service of three knights. (fn. 9) Robert the abbot in 1166 notified the king the knights' fees of his church and the knights who held them. Amongst these may be noted Robert Russell who held a knight's fee, less one virgate, unjustly and against the will of the convent because neither his grandfather nor his father held it of the church nor should hold it. In the demesne of the church were three and a half knights' fees in the vill of Cerne with freehold tenure (cum tenura Francolensium). Each one of these ought to keep ward at the king's command at Corfe Castle one month in the year, or, if it should please the king to have them in the army, two knights should be found for his service in the absence of ward (interim dismissa wardia.) (fn. 10) The abbot of Cerne as a knight of the shire was summoned to Parliament in 1315 and to attend the Great Council at Westminster in 1324. (fn. 11)

The income of the abbey in the Taxatio of 1291 was assessed at £177 8s., including spiritualities amounting to £13 17s. 4d. from the churches of Radipole, Poxwell, Hawkchurch, Symondsbury, Long Bredy with the chapel of Little Bredy, and Powerstock, (fn. 12) and temporalities valued at £164 0s. 8d. within the deaneries of Bridport, Dorchester and Whitchurch. (fn. 13) The clear annual income of the monks in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 was declared at £575 17s. 10¼d., (fn. 14) when they held the parsonages of Cerne, Kimmeridge, Affpuddle, and Hermitage, (fn. 15) the manors of Cerne, Hawkchurch, Milton, Symondsbury, Maiden Newton, Mappercombe with Nettlecombe, Little Bredy, Long Bredy, Winterborne, Nether Cerne, Minterne, Middlemarsh, Bloxworth, Poxwell, Affpuddle, and Milborne St. Andrew, with parcels of land in various other manors and parishes. (fn. 16)

The history of the abbey is perhaps the least eventful of any of the Dorset houses with the exception of that of the sisters at Tarrant Kaines; the period between the two great assessments of church property is almost entirely filled in with the record of fresh grants and privileges added to those the house already enjoyed, varied with the usual charges and demands made on houses of the royal patronage. Henry II by a charter undated granted to the monks wreck in all their lands by the sea, and rights of 'bellum' 'polam' and 'forum' (market) in the vill of Cerne, with all their liberties to their knights and free-tenants, and their services, doing service of two knights for scutage and of one knight on an expedition. (fn. 17) John in 1213 ordered Hugh de Neville to grant the abbot seisin of his wood pertaining to the manor of Bloxworth of which he had previously been disseised by the king. (fn. 18) Henry III, who was at the abbey 11 January 1223, (fn. 19) signified his assent on 12 February, 1230, to the election of Richard prior of Abbotsbury as abbot; the appointment of a superior being relegated to the election of the said prior, the sub-prior and sacrist or any two of them. (fn. 20) An inquiry was instituted in 1275 into the complaint of the abbot that whereas the charters of Henry II and Henry III, inspected and confirmed by the present king, entitled him to wreck of the sea on the coast of his lands in Brownsea and Rentscombe as enjoyed by his predecessors, two tuns of wine cast upon his lands had been seized by the constable of Corfe Castle and conveyed to the castle; (fn. 21) as a result of the inquisition Edward I the following year confirmed the abbot's claim and ordered the constable to return the tuns in question or make due reparation. (fn. 22) In October of the same year the convent received a grant of protection to last a year. (fn. 23) Edward II in 1318 granted a licence for the monks to acquire lands and rents to the yearly value of £10, in part satisfaction of which they obtained 5 messuages, 30 acres of land and a moiety of an acre of meadow in Cerne, and added to that another five messuages and land in Cerne and Middlemarsh and ten acres of land in Wootton by Bridport. (fn. 24) In the same year they obtained a charter of free warren over their lands in Cerne, Minterne, Middlemarsh, Winterborne, Little Bredy, Poxwell, Bloxworth, Symondsbury, Wootton, Hawkchurch, Brownsea, Mappercombe, Nettlecombe, Milton, and Long Bredy &c. (fn. 25) From Edward III the brethren secured a licence enabling them to acquire further lands in Estyep by Symondsbury, Wootton and Bloxworth. (fn. 26) On the death of Abbot John de Hayle, who died at the close of 1382 after holding office for only six months, the king made over to the prior and convent the custody of the temporalities of the house, retaining only the knights' fees and advowsons, for the payment of £20 at the exchequer for the first five weeks or part of the same, and afterwards at the rate of £4 a week. (fn. 27) Richard II on payment of a fine in 1392 gave a licence for the alienation in mortmain by William Batecombe and Edward Stykelane of one messuage, &c., and 5s. rent in Frome St. Quintin and Milborne St. Andrew to the abbot and convent in aid of their maintenance and for the support of certain charges. (fn. 28) Two years later by another licence Richard Chideock and Joan his wife were permitted to make over certain lands in Symondsbury, not held in chief, to the brethren to support the charges of the fabric of their church. (fn. 29) The monks took the precaution of obtaining from Henry IV, Henry VI and Edward IV inspection and confirmation of the letters patent of Richard II confirming their previous charters. (fn. 30) On 10 August, 1471, Edward IV issued a general pardon to the abbot for all offences committed by him previous to 6 August and for all alienations and acquisitions of land made without the king's licence. (fn. 31) Henry VIII in 1513 made over to the abbey the free chapel called 'le Hermytage' of Blackmoor, Dorset. (fn. 32)

The charges on the abbey included the usual requests for aid in the Scotch war, (fn. 33) and later on for loans in the war with France. (fn. 34) In the general distribution of pensioners among the religious houses during the wars Hugh Cade was allotted to Cerne Abbey in 1315; (fn. 35) the following year John de Kent was sent to receive the allowance which John Hawayt had had. (fn. 36) Peter Polter, or Pulter, was sent by Edward III to the abbey in 1338 in the place of Thomas de la Garderobe, deceased, (fn. 37) and in his turn was succeeded by John Serle in 1347. (fn. 38) In accordance with the usual custom in connexion with houses of the royal patronage the Close Rolls record the appointment of a clerk to receive a pension in 1312 on the election of a new abbot, (fn. 39) and again in the year 1324. (fn. 40) In the reign of Henry VIII William Bonde, yeoman of the guard, in 1337 received a grant of a corrody in the monastery void by the death of Richard March. (fn. 41) The contribution by the abbey to the grant raised by the spirituality in aid of the expenses incurred by Henry VIII 'in recovering the crown of France' is set down at £200. (fn. 42)

Many of the grants to the abbey were made with the object of founding chantries and establishing anniversaries for the benefit of the grantors. In 1335 William de Whitefield gave his manor of Milborne Michelstone to the abbot and convent for the provision of two chaplains to celebrate daily in the abbey church for his soul and the souls of his ancestors and heirs. (fn. 43)

Roger Manyngford and John his son in 1382 obtained from Richard II a licence permitting them to grant the convent the advowson of the church and, on the death of the chaplain, the reversion of the manor of Stoke by Bindon for daily celebration for the good estate of the said Roger while living, and for his soul after death, and the souls of his wives, children and ancestors, and for the performance of other works of charity. (fn. 44) Edward IV in 1482 permitted the appropriation of a third part of the manor of Maiden Newton to the monastery for the sustenance of a chaplain to celebrate daily at the altar of St. John Baptist for the good estate of the king and Elizabeth his consort. (fn. 45) Among the few references to this abbey in the episcopal registers may be found the record of the establishment of the Stafford chantry by an indenture dated Trinity Sunday, 1403, between the abbot and Humphrey Stafford, knt., whereby, in return for the grant of the manor of Milborne St. Andrew, the convent agreed to provide a chaplain to celebrate a daily mass to be called 'the Stafford masse' at the altar of Holy Cross in the nave of the church or of St. Michael near, (fn. 46) for the good estate of the said Humphrey and Elizabeth his wife, and for their souls after death, together with the soul of the abbot, and of various other members of the Stafford family, who, it was stipulated, should be admitted as participants in all the spiritual benefits of the house, vigils, sacraments, almsgiving, and in the masses of the monks. An anniversary was to be fixed on which certain doles and distributions should be made, and a poor man or bedeman yearly appointed whose special duty it was to be present at the founders' mass, and to pray continually for their souls, in return for which he should receive the sum of 17s. 4d. yearly, and five yards of cloth for a gown. (fn. 47) In the Valor of 1535 the charges on the monastery include the sum of 46s. 8d. in a yearly distribution to the poor on 14 December for the soul of Ailmer, 'sometime duke of Cornwall, founder of the monastery;' 66s. 8d. assigned for the provision of food, clothing, beds and other necessaries in the abbey for two poor men for the soul of the said founder, and a weekly distribution of bread and ale to thirteen poor men 'called freers' at a yearly cost of £11 5s. 4d. (fn. 48) The total annual expenditure of the house under the head of almsgiving and in commemoration of the souls of founders and benefactors came to £34 6s. 3d. (fn. 49)

Articles containing charges of a serious character were brought up on the eve of the dissolution against the last abbot, Thomas Corton, wherein he was denounced (1) for gross immorality, (2) for letting the church and abbey lands go to ruin, (3) for wasting the goods of the house on his mistresses and natural children, and bestowing gifts out of the conventual funds on the former on their marriage. (fn. 50) William Christchurch, monk of the house, came forward also with complaints that the abbot did not maintain constituted obits and doles, and permitted some of his monks to be proprietors, that he allowed two of them 'who daily haunt queans' to celebrate mass without confession, to play at dice and cards all night and celebrate in the morning; women, it was alleged, were allowed freely into the abbey. In addition 'Dan Will Christchurch' had his tale of personal injuries to recount; he had been imprisoned by the abbot for his illspeaking, dismissed from the monastery, and the prior of Monmouth had been given twenty nobles to receive him in his priory where he had been very ill-handled. (fn. 51) It would be rash to accept these statements without more reliable evidence, but they were sufficient to draw down on the abbey the officials of the High Commissioner, and abbot and monks were forbidden to go outside the bounds of the monastery. Great inconvenience naturally resulted, and on 2 September, 1535, a letter was written to Cromwell requesting in the interests of the house that the abbot might have liberty to ride abroad to attend to the affairs of his monastery 'as you have allowed the abbot of Sherborne,' adding, 'the abbot sends you his fee of 5 marks sterling.' (fn. 52)

The King's Commissioners were instructed to induce superiors to surrender their houses promptly and willingly in the hope of securing liberal treatment for themselves. In December, 1538, Sir Thomas Arundel wrote to Cromwell that the abbot of Cerne, in spite of persuasion, was making efforts to obtain the continuance of his house, and with that object in view was prepared to offer 'His Majesty' 500 marks and 'your lordship' £100. (fn. 53) The doom of the house could not be averted, however, and on 15 March following (1539) the abbot, with the prior and fifteen of his brethren surrendered the abbey to the king in the person of John Tregonwell, the commissioner, (fn. 54) the abbot subsequently receiving a pension of £100, the prior £10, one brother £8, another £7, the sub-prior and nine of the inmates sums ranging from £6 13s. 4d. to £5 6s. 8d., and three remaining brethren 40s. each. (fn. 55)

Abbots of Cerne

Ælfric, appointed about 987, on the refoundation of Cerne as a Benedictine monastery (fn. 56)

Alfric Puttoc, occurs 1023 (fn. 57)

Withelmus, occurs 1085 (fn. 58)

Haimo, deposed 1102 for simony (fn. 59)

William, occurs 1121 (fn. 60)

Bernard, became abbot of Burton in 1160 (fn. 61)

Robert, occurs 1166 (fn. 62)

Dionysius, occurs 1206, (fn. 63) resigned 1220

R., elected 1220 (fn. 64)

William de Hungerford, elected 1232 (fn. 65)

Richard de Suwell or Sawel, elected 1244, (fn. 66) died 1260

Philip, elected 1260 (fn. 67)

Thomas de Ebblesbury, elected 1274 (fn. 68)

Gilbert de Minterne, elected 1296, (fn. 69) died 1312

Ralph de Cerne, elected 1312, (fn. 70) died 1324

Richard de Osmington, elected 1324 (fn. 71)

Stephen Sherrard, elected 1356 (fn. 72)

Thomas Sewale, elected 1361, (fn. 73) died 1382

John de Hayle, elected 1382, (fn. 74) died in same year

Robert Symondsbury, elected 1382 (fn. 75)

John Wede, elected 1411, (fn. 76) died 1427

John Winterborne, elected 1427, (fn. 77) died 1436

John Godmanston, elected 1436, (fn. 78) died 1451

William Cattistoke, elected 1451, (fn. 79) died 1454

John Helyer, elected 1454, (fn. 80) resigned 1458

John Vanne, elected 1458, (fn. 81) died 1471

Roger Bemyster, elected 1471, (fn. 82) died 1497

Thomas Sam, elected 1497, (fn. 83) died 1509

Robert Westbury, elected 1510, (fn. 84) died 1524

Thomas Corton, elected 1524, (fn. 85) surrendered his abbey 1539

A thirteenth-century round seal with very fine but imperfect impression represents the west front of the church, with elaborate details of early English architecture. On the foliated crockets of the roof on the left side there is a small bird, on the right the corresponding bird has been broken off. In base under two roundheaded arches of masonry are two half-length figures of the founders, St. Augustine and Æthelmar, with their hands uplifted to support the church above them. On each side behind them a cinquefoil, that on the right broken away. The legend is wanting. (fn. 86)

An example of the above seal with very imperfect impression is to be found attached to the surrender deed of the abbey. (fn. 87)

The abbot's seal of the fifteenth century, pointed oval, with fine but imperfect impression, shows in three canopied niches full-length figures of the Virgin crowned, with the Child in her right hand, and a sceptre fleur-de-lis in her left hand, St. Catherine with crown, nimbus and wheel on the left, and St. Margaret with crown on the right standing on a dragon and piercing his head. In base under a round-headed arch the abbot, half-length, with mitre and staff, praying. On the masonry at the sides two shields of arms; on the left a lion rampant within a border bezanty; the right a cross engrailed between four lily-flowers slipped, Cerne Abbey. (fn. 88) Legend defective:—

SIGILL . . . . DE CERNE

The signet of Abbot Roger Bemyster is attached to a deed dated 1475, of which only an indistinct fragment remains representing a ram or goat with the legend [R]OGER[US]. (fn. 89)