[23] Gesta Abbatum III, p. 147, ‘per epidemias hominum et mortalitatem bestiarum facultates monasterii redditae sunt exiles.’ Also Walsingham, Hist. Ang. I, 273. ‘At that time,’ says Walsingham, ‘villages formerly very populous were bereft of inhabitants, and so thickly did the plague lay them low that there scarcely survived enough to bury the dead.... Many were of opinion that scarce a tenth of the population survived.’
[24] Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1348–1350, p. 476.
[25] Gesta Abbatum III, p. 146. A minor demand was liberty for the abbot-elect to receive benediction at the hand of whatever bishop he chose.
[26] Gesta Abbatum III, p. 148. Summa taxae omnium bonorum.
[27] Gesta Abbatum III, p. 171.
[28] Cal. Papal Letters IV, p. 293. Sep., 1396.
[29] The grant of the same privilege to the Abbey of Evesham in 1363 was used as a strong argument by de la Mare during negotiations.
[30] Gesta Abbatum III, p. 143. In 1396, Bury St. Edmunds made a similar arrangement, the annual payment being fixed at £40 (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1396–99, p. 21). About a year later, following the example of St. Albans, Abbot Cratfield, of Bury St. Edmunds, made an agreement with Boniface IX identical with that of de la Mare (Cal. Pat. Rolls, 1396–99, p. 406).
[31] He tells, for instance, how in 1384, in the midst of an argument with the Duke of Lancaster, he threw his shoes and cap through the window. In 1387 a judge made difficulties about signing a document presented to him. His son said, according to Walsingham, that his father was knocked down and kicked as he lay.
[32] Trokelowe, p. 167.