MANAGING the INHERITANCE: GAINS, LOSSES, and CHALLENGES in the TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, and FOURTEENTH CENTURIES the Previous Chapte
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CHAPTER FOUR MANAGING THE INHERITANCE: GAINS, LOSSES, AND CHALLENGES IN THE TWELFTH, THIRTEENTH, AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES The previous chapter revealed that Plympton Priory, like many other religious houses founded in England in the twelfth century, was depen- dent on the goodwill and generosity of a network of patrons and benefactors in order to create a sizeable endowment. This chapter will investigate how, after the initial wave of donations in the decades after the foundation of the priory in 1121, these relationships endured or changed over time. For, while the majority of heirs of the original benefactors made no challenges to the gifts made by their predecessors, some did, and they engaged Plympton Priory in court cases to determine rightful ownership. We shall see how Plympton Priory reacted to such challenges and asserted its claims to its inheritance. Another crucial factor in the priory’s management of these disputes was the support of its patrons, the bishops of Exeter. This chapter will explore the role of the bishops in defending the priory when members of the laity took the canons of Plympton to court, and will consider the bishops’ continued interest in this episcopal foundation. The canons of Plympton Priory were hardly alone in enduring chal- lenges to their rights; indeed, property disputes and court cases were common occurrences at medieval religious houses. Very often, the lay disputants were heirs of the original donors or patrons. Brian Golding, in his study of the Gilbertine order, noted that “attempts to recover advowsons alienated in the twelfth century were particularly common in the following century as either the heirs of the donor or their lords tried to regain control of ‘their’ churches.”1 An examination of the early charters of Waltham Abbey provides a perfect example of this tendency: in the thirteenth century, Waltham was involved in disputes with descendants of donors who made claims to the advowsons of 1 Brian Golding, Gilbert of Sempringham and the Gilbertine Order, c. 1130–c. 1300 (Oxford, 1995), p. 367. 100 chapter four Croxby, Caterham, and Lambourne churches.2 In her study of Llan- thony Secunda Priory (Lanthony by Gloucester), Ann Geddes found that “while disputes undoubtedly arose from strained relations, it is signi cant that they rarely emerge except among parties with close ties or coincident interests.”3 Occasionally religious houses had the misfor- tune of having their patronage fall into the hands of a descendant of their founder who was particularly litigious—as the Cistercian Quarr Abbey had reason to know in its dealings with its patroness, Isabella de Fortibus, Countess of Albemarle, during a lengthy dispute in the late thirteenth century.4 The documents available provide a limited picture of the history of Plympton Priory in this period. They record the disputes or convey- ances that found their ways into the Curia Regis Rolls or the Feet of Fines, but they unfortunately do not tell us much about the positive and uneventful relationships between the priory and descendants of lay benefactors. Of necessity, this chapter will primarily discuss con icts in which Plympton Priory was engaged, but one must keep in mind that calmness and peace may well have been just as characteristic of the relations of the priory with other individuals and groups at this time. Disputed Advowsons and Rights to Spiritualia Before beginning an examination of one of the most common types of disputes in which Plympton Priory was involved, it will be helpful to consider the development of the legal context of advowson cases. The judicial venue for the hearing of cases concerning advowsons was one of the areas of contention between Henry II and Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, in their dispute over the jurisdictions of church and state. Indeed, the \ rst clause of the Constitutions of Clar- endon of 1164 dealt with this matter. Henry II declared that it had been a custom of the realm for disputes concerning the advowsons of churches—even if these disputes involved members of the clergy—to 2 Early Charters of the Augustinian Canons of Waltham Abbey, Essex, pp. xl, xli, xliii. 3 Ann M. Geddes, “The Priory of Lanthony by Gloucester: an Augustinian House in an English Town, 1136–1401” (Ph. D. Diss., Johns Hopkins University, 1997), p. 116. 4 Isabella de Fortibus was the last of the Redvers family: Stanley Frederick Hockey, Quarr Abbey and its Lands, 1132–1631 (Leicester, 1970), pp. 103–13. Rievaulx Abbey similarly had dif\ culties with a “bad patron” in the thirteenth century. See Jamroziak, Rievaulx Abbey and its Social Context, pp. 123–30..