It
is equally not surprising that such a claim was not allowed. The Abbot
of Cluny refused to raise Lewes to the rank of an abbey, but he granted
the Prior the privilege of professing his monks; this in 1410. So
things continued till in 1535, the infamous Layton was sent by Thomas
Cromwell to inquire into the state of the Priory of Lewes, to nose out
any scandal he could and to invent what he could not find. His methods
as applied to Lewes are notorious for their insolence and brutality. He
professes to have found the place full of corruption and rank with
treason. And in this he was wise, for his master Cromwell wanted the
house for himself. Upon November 16, 1537, the Priory of St Pancras at
Lewes was surrendered. It was then served by a Prior and twenty-three
monks and eighty servi; and it and its lands were granted by the
King to Thomas Cromwell.
Such was the end of the most famous Cluniac house in England, the
sanctuary founded by that De Warenne who had built up Lewes between
his Castle on the height and his monastery in the vale. Almost nothing
remains to-day of that great and splendid building, but in 1845, in
building the railway, the coffins of the founders De Warenne and his
wife Gundrada were found.
Pages:
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228