Its inability to resist kingly and papal extortion during the thirteenth century left the Abbey in a state of miserable poverty. Financial comfort could be restored only by regulating these exactions. This the abbots appear to have realised, and John of Berkhampstead’s (1290–1301) new arrangement[17] with the King is the first step towards a remedy of the evil. The existing debt was cancelled, and the Abbey secured possession of the revenues during a vacancy in return for a payment of 1,000 marks. Any advantage which this exclusion of the King’s escheator might have conferred upon the Abbey was nullified by the unhappy occurrence of no less than five vacancies between 1290 and 1349. Each of these involved not only the payment of 1000 marks to the King, but a far more serious expenditure to secure papal confirmation. The financial embarrassment of the House surely increased.[18] As a result of a special appeal to the Pope, Abbot Hugh secured a licence to receive special subsidies from the cells in order to lighten the debt.[19] But from papal exactions there was no escape. In vain the Abbot begged to be excused from personal attendance at the Curia. His presence was insisted on; the usual enormous fees were exacted, and a licence to contract a loan to meet the expense thus incurred was the only relief afforded him.[20] Abbot Hugh early became a favourite of Edward II, and the King’s lavish endowments might well have served to repair the Abbey’s fortunes but for the extensive building operations which were necessary. The church fabric was in a ruinous condition; walls were falling and roofs tumbling in, and Abbot Hugh had little choice but to restore the south side of the church. Small wonder that the debt which was 2,300 marks in 1308 was more than double that sum twenty years later.
At the accession of Richard Wallingford the Abbey’s condition attracted the notice of the Crown, and a commission was appointed[21] in 1327 to ‘inquire by whose negligence the existing defects and dissipation of the Abbey’s revenues had been brought about.’ Two years later (perhaps as a result of the commission) Abbot Richard received permission to live abroad for three years ‘to avoid the burden of too great expense.’[22] In this unsatisfactory condition the Abbey finances remained till 1349, when the Black Death visited St. Albans with unusual severity. Abbot Michael and three-fourths of the convent perished, and there is little doubt that the mortality among the Abbey’s tenants was high.[23] This catastrophe must have further impoverished the Abbey, and the 1000 marks due to the King on de la Mare’s accession could only be paid by instalments.[24]
The Financial Measures of de la Mare.
De la Mare realised that the payment to King and Pope of large sums at irregular intervals was fatal to any organisation of the Abbey’s finances, and to him is due the credit of having conceived the more workable system of annual contributions. Soon after the outbreak of the Great Schism, a petition was addressed to the Pope, supported by commendatory letters from the King, John of Gaunt, Princess Joanna, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Abbot prayed that in return for an annual payment of twenty marks the election of succeeding abbots should receive confirmation without their personal attendance at Rome.[25]
The arguments which the envoys to Rome were to employ in the hope of winning the Pope’s consent to the proposed measure show clearly the difficulties of the Abbey at this time. The whole annual revenue had fallen to £1,053.[26] Of this, £465 was assigned to the Abbot—‘and to the said Abbot pertains the entertainment of noble guests and of all laymen, and the prosecution of pleas in the various royal courts; which, inasmuch as laymen are more hostile to monks than they were wont, are more expensive than formerly, and also occur more frequently.’ The remaining £600 was considered inadequate for the maintenance of the convent.
An objection to this plea of poverty, viz., that the Abbey was really much richer than it represented, owing to the existence of its numerous cells, was anticipated. The cells were said to be a charge on the mother house, which at its own expense was continually involved in litigation on their behalf.
Hospitality, it appeared, was the greatest burden the Monastery had to bear. ‘Also the Lord Pope is to be informed that the Monastery of St. Albans is near London, where the King’s Parliaments, Convocation, and other assemblies of nobles and clergy are held. And the nobles and magnates of the realm, both on their journey there and on their return, are entertained at the Abbey, to its great expense and loss.’ The dearness of provisions, owing to the proximity of rich neighbours, had also helped to impoverish the Abbey, and finally, the partial felling of its woods to pay its debts to the King and Roman Court had diminished a former source of income.
At this time the Pope stood in great need of English support, and might therefore have been expected readily to grant Abbot Thomas’s requests. Yet the desired privileges were secured only by lavish bribery among court officials. William le Strete, one of the Abbey’s proctors at Rome, writes to the Abbot[27]: ‘And I hope that the business will come to a good end; but I do not know it at all for certain, seeing that the Pope is very capricious.’ He goes on to say that the Pope has not yet read a single letter from the Abbot, ‘and be pleased to know that your business cannot be carried out here through letters from anyone, but only through money.’ Negotiations were continued until 1396. In that year Richard II addressed a further appeal to Boniface IX: ‘Whereas ... the Monastery of St. Albans[28],’ he wrote, ‘... has its means grievously diminished by the heavy expenses of the visits of the abbots-elect to the Apostolic See to obtain confirmation and benediction.... It is situate in the uttermost parts of the earth, and is in comparison with other monasteries of the realm over slenderly endowed, and that too in a barren place; whereas therein beyond the other monasteries of the realm the highest devotion, regular discipline and daily hospitality flourishes; whereas if each abbot-elect were bound to make such visit the number of monks would be minished, their devotion chilled, and hospitality be not observed....’ This letter had the desired effect, and the Abbot’s petition was granted forthwith.[29]
The weakness of the central power during Richard II’s minority had offered a favourable opportunity for making a similar arrangement with the Crown. In lieu of a payment of 1,000 marks in each vacancy, Abbot Thomas had induced the Government to accept an annual tribute of fifty marks.[30]
Half a century earlier such measures might have completely restored the Abbey’s finances, and even during the fifteenth century they sensibly lessened its embarrassment. More they could not do, for the decay of the economic system was to make prosperity impossible.