Once upon a time, Abbot Hugh, wishing to conciliate Master Samson, appointed him sub-sacrist; and he, often accused, was often transferred from one office to another. At one time he was appointed guest-master, at another time pittance-master, at another time third prior, and again sub-sacrist; and many were then his enemies who afterwards flattered him. But he, not acting as the other officials did, never could be induced to turn flatterer; whereupon the abbot said that he had never seen a man whom he could not bend to his will, except Samson the sub-sacrist.
In the twenty-third year of his abbacy, Abbot Hugh bethought him that he would go to St. Thomas for the purpose of performing his devotions. He had nearly got to the end of his journey, on the morrow of the nativity of the Blessed Mary, when, near Rochester, he most unhappily fell from his horse, so that his knee-pan was put out and lodged in the ham of his knee. The physicians came about him, and sorely tormented him, but they healed him not. He was brought back to us in a horse-litter, and received with great attention, as was most fitting. What more? His leg mortified, and the disorder mounted to his heart. The pain brought on a tertian fever, and on the fourth fit he expired, and rendered his soul to God on the morrow of St. Brice.
Ere he was dead, everything was snatched away by his servants, so that nothing at all remained in the abbot's house except the stools and the tables, which could not be carried away. There was hardly left for the abbot his coverlet and two quilts, old and torn, which some, who had taken away the good ones, had placed in their stead. There was not even a single article of a penny's worth that could be distributed among the poor for the good of his soul.
The sacrist said it was not his business to have attended to this, alleging that he had furnished the expenditure of the abbot and his household for one whole month, because neither the firmars who held the vills would pay anything before the appointed time, nor would creditors advance anything, seeing that he was sick even unto death.
Luckily, the farmer of Palgrave furnished us with fifty shillings to be distributed among the poor, by reason that he entered upon the farm of Palgrave on that same day. But those very fifty shillings were afterwards again refunded to the King's bailiffs, who demanded the whole farm-rent for the King's use.
CHAPTER II
the monks discuss the vacancy
HUGH the abbot being buried, it was ordered in chapter that some one should give intelligence to Ranulf de Glanville, the justiciar of England, of the death of the abbot. Master Samson and Master R. Ruffus, our monks, quickly went beyond seas, to report the same fact to our lord the King, and obtained letters that those possessions and rents of the monastery, which were distinct from those of the abbot, should be wholly in the hands of the prior and convent, and that the remainder of the abbey should be in the hands of the King. The wardship of the abbey was committed to Robert of Cockfield and Robert of Flamville, the steward, who forthwith put by gage and safe pledges all those servants and relatives of the abbot to whom the abbot had, after the commencement of his illness, given anything, or who had taken anything away belonging to the abbot, and also the abbot's chaplain (a monk of the house), whom the prior bailed. Entering into our vestiary, they caused all the ornaments of the church to be noted down in an inventory.
During the vacancy in the abbacy, the prior, above all things, studied to keep peace in the convent, and to preserve the honour of the church in entertaining guests, being desirous of irritating no one, of not provoking anybody to anger; in fact, of keeping all persons and things in quietude. He nevertheless winked at some acts in our officials which needed reformation, and especially in the sacrist, as if he cared not how that officer dealt with the sacristy. Yet during the vacancy, the sacrist neither satisfied any debt nor erected any building, but the oblations and incomings were foolishly frittered away.
Wherefore the prior, who was the head of the convent, seemed by the greater part to be highly censurable, and was said to be remiss; and this thing our brethren called to mind among themselves, when it came to the point of making choice of an abbot.