Beck, and at the same page; again in the same year, in an agreement between the Abbot and one Laurence Starkey, of Lancaster, (ib. p. 308); in 1529, in a demise of the tenement at York known as "Furness House"

(ib. p. 309); in 1531, in an information given by William Tunstall, and answered by the Abbot (ib.); and in 1532, in a document signed at Hawkshead by the Abbot and six of his monks, as well as by forty-five of the Convent

tenants.

36. ROGER Pele. "Last of the Monastic monarchs of Furness, Roger Pele or Pyle, was elevated to the abbatical dignity about the year 1532 . . . The first notice we find of Pele's rule is a memorandum in the Coucher (See No. CLXXXII.) of his reception of the homage of Richard Kirkby, of Kirkby Ireleth, on Easter Sunday, April 13th, 1532.” This extract is from Beck's Annals, and he also gives many letters and other documents with Pele's signature, written in the period intervening between the date just given and that of the Dissolution, which there is no necessity to notice in detail in the present instance. The only notice necessary is that the dissolution of Furness Abbey took place April the 9th, 1537.

With this attempt, insufficient as it is, but the best that can be made with the materials at the Editor's command, to give an authentic list of the Abbots of Furness, and of the ascertained dates serving in some sort to mark out the periods during which their sway extended, the present Introductory notes must terminate. No one can be more thoroughly aware than the writer himself how inadequate

they are. Still, so far as they go, it is believed that in the main they will prove, when further investigation makes a nicer analysis possible, fairly correct and consistent with historical truth. One thing, however, the Editor thinks it right to add, and that is that so far as his opinion goes, the greater part of the list of Abbots as given by the Coucher scribe, uncorroborated by any collateral testimony, as so much of it is, and marked with apparent inconsistencies, requires to be received with caution, if not with hesitation, and nicely sifted if, as is to be hoped, further and fuller materials are ever placed at some future Editor's disposal.

Danby,

July 23rd, 1887.

J. C. A.

A short description of the Coucher Book itself was given in the Prefatory Notice, and it may not be inexpedient to append here a corresponding notice of its history so far as it is known. And, perhaps, for such a purpose no better course could be taken than that of reprinting what was published in one of the Reports issued by the Council of the Chetham Society some four years ago :"The Coucher Book is a handsome volume, measuring 16 inches by 10 inches, and it once contained 293 folios. Its history may be pretty clearly traced. On the seizure of the Abbey in 1537, two Chartularies and other

muniments, trussed up in three packs, were dispatched to Cromwell in London, on the backs of three mules, and 35s. 4d. was expended for their conveyance. Three years later the Abbey lands were annexed to the Duchy of Lancaster; and the Coucher books were then kept in the office of the Duchy, Gray's Inn, and afterwards Lancaster Place, Strand. They were consulted by Leland, Camden (Britt. ed. 1594, p. 588), Sampson Erdeswick (Harl. MS. 5019), and Robert Creswell, Somerset Herald (MSS. 294, 5855); and there, too, Roger Dodsworth made his transcripts and abstracts, including the copies of the charters afterwards printed in the Monasticum Anglicanum, 1655 (vol i. pp. 704, seq.). When West compiled his Antiquities of Furness, 1774, he did not, or could not, consult the Register of Furness proper, but contented himself with the Charters printed in the Monasticon, or with the abstracts from the originals in Dodsworth's MSS. . With all the other inestimable archives of the Duchy office, the MS. was, in 1868, presented by her Majesty the Queen, as Duchess of Lancaster, to the National Record Office in Fetter Lane."

The Furness Coucher.

PART III.

[COLLECTION OF PAPAL BULLS, CONVEYING IMMUNITIES, PRIVILEGES, CONFIRMATIONS, AND THE LIKE.]

[215.] PRIVILEGIA.

Alexander.'

[CCCXL.-BULL OF PROTECTION BY POPE ALEXANDER III., COMPRISING ALSO A CONFIRMATION OF ALL GRANTS, PRESENT AND FUTURE, TO THE CONVENT, ESPECIALLY THE CONSUETUDINES CONCEDED BY KING HENRY I., CERTAIN SPECIAL PRIVILEGES AND IMMUNITIES, AND EXEMPTION FROM THE PAYMENT OF TITHES UPON LANDS

BROUGHT UNDER CULTIVATION BY THEMSELVES.]

nuimus, et præfatum monasterium in quo Divino mancipati estis obsequio, sub B. Petri et nostra protectione suscipimus, et præsentis scripti patrocinio communimus: Inprimis siquidem statuentes ut Ordo monasticus, qui secundum Domini et B. Benedicti Regulam et institutionem Cisterc. Fratrum in

'The initial letters in the Privilegia usually contain a half-length figure, or perhaps two, of Popes or monks, and, for the most part, in the attitude of bestowing a benediction. On reference to the Tabula Sententialis, it will be seen that Pope Adrian's concession, as well as the first part of this by Alexander III., is lost through the mutilation referred to at the foot of p. 536.

eodem loco noscitur institutus, perpetuis ibidem temporibus inviolabiliter observetur. Præterea quascunque possessiones, quæcunque bona, idem Monasterium in præsentiarum juste et canonice possidet, aut in futurum concessione Pontificum, largitione Regum vel Principum, oblatione fidelium, seu aliis justis modis, præstante Domino, poterit adipisci, firma vobis vestrisque succs et illibata permaneant, libertates quoque, immunitates ac regias consuetudines a karissimo in Christo filio nostro, Henrico illustri Anglia Rege, rationabiliter Monasterio vestro concessas et scripti sui pagina roboratas, auctoritate Apostolica confirmamus. Si qua vero libera et absoluta persona pro redemptione animæ suæ Monasterio vestro se conferre voluerit, ac eam suscipiendi facultatem liberam habeatis, adj[i]cientes autem auctoritate Apostolica iterum [215 col. 2] dicimus, ne quis fratres vestros, Monachos vel Conversos, post factam in Monasterio vestro professionem, absque licentia vestra suscipere audeat vel tenere. Ad hæc paci et tranquillitati vestræ prima diligentia providere volentes, auctoritate Apostolica prohibemus ut nullus infra clausuram locorum seu grangiarum vestrarum violentiam facere, furtum vel rapinam committere, aut ignem ponere, aut homines capere seu interficere audeat. Statuimus insuper ut de laboribus quos propriis manibus aut sumptibus colitis, tam in t'ris antiquitus cultis, quam in novalibus, sive de nutrimentis animalium vestrorum, a vobis decimas. inpetere vel extorquere nemo præsumat. Decernimus ergo ut nulli omnino hominum liceat præfatum Monasterium temere perturbare aut ejus possessiones auferre, vel ablatas retinere, minuere, seu quibuslibet vexationibus fatigare, set illibata et integra omnia conserventur eorum, pro quorum gubernatione et sustentatione concessa sunt, usibus omnimodis profutura, salva Sedis Apost. auctoritate. Si qua igitur in futuro Ecclesiastica sæcularisve persona, hanc nostræ constitutionis paginam [215] sciens, contra eam temere venire temptaverit, secundo, tertiove commonita, nisi præsumptionem suam digna satisfactione correxerit, potestatis, honorisque sui dignitate careat, reamque se Divino

Nullus.