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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."

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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 Angliæ 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.

judicio existere de perpetrata iniquitate cognoscat, et a sacratissimo corpore ac sanguine Dei et Domini Redemptoris nostri, Jhesu Christi, aliena fiat, atque in extremo examine districtæ ultioni subjaceat. Cunctis autem eidem loco sua jura servantibus sit pax Domini nostri Jhesu Christi quater,1 et hic fructum bonæ actionis percipiant, et apud districtum judicium præmia æterna pacis inveniant. Amen.

Data Ferent' per manum Gravani, S. Romanæ Ecclesiæ Subdiaconi, Notarii, xvi[0] Kalend. Septembris, Indictione viii[o], Incarnationis D'nicæ A° Mo co lxxo vo, 2 Pontificatus vero D'ni Alexandri Papæ iii. xvi[0].

[CCCXLI.-BULL BY THE SAME POPE, ALEXANDER III., TO ALL PRELATES OF THE CHURCH AT LARGE, DEPRECATING A PERVERSE INTERPRETATION OF PREVIOUS BULLS TOUCHING NON-PAYMENT OF TITHES BY THE MONKS OF FURNESS, AND OTHERS, AND REPEATING THE TRUE INTENTION OF ALL SUCH CONCESSIONS OF PRIVILEGE.]

Declaratio pro toto Drdine [de] decimis non solvendis de novalibus, vel aliis t'ris quas propriis manibus

aut sumptibus excolimus, etc. 3.

Alexander Episcopus, [215b col. 2] servus etc. Audivimus et vehementi admiratione commoti sumus quod, cum Fratres Furnesii, sicut alii Cisterciensis Ordinis, a solutione decimarum de laboribus suis quos propriis manibus vel sumptibus excolunt, de Sedis Apost. benignitate, liberi sunt et immunes, quidam monachi et canonici, clerici et laici vestræ jurisdictionis ab eis nichilominus, contra indulgentiam Sedis Apost., decimas exigere vel extorquere

The writing appears to be quite clear, as quat' can scarcely be expanded otherwise.

It should be noted that in the Tabula Sententialis, p. 100, this date has been misprinted as Mcclxxv.

no[n] verentur, interpretatione prava et sinistra Apostolici privilegii capitulum pervertentes, asserendo de novalibus debere intelligi ubi noscitur de laboribus esse inscriptum: Quum igitur manifestum est omnibus qui recte sapiunt interpretationem hujusmodi esse perversam et intellectui sano2 contrariam, cum secundum illud capitulum a solutione decimarum tam de t'ris illis quas deduxerunt vel deducunt ad cultum, quam de t'ris cultis quas ipsi propriis manibus vel sumptibus excolunt, penitus sint immunes :-Ne ullus de cætero hanc contra eos materiam malignandi, vel ipsos quomodolibet contra justitiam molestandi, fraternitati vestræ per Apost. scripta præcipi[216]endo mandamus, quatenus universis Ecclesiasticis viris vestræ jurisdictionis, auctoritate Apostolica, districtius prohibere curetis ne a memoratis Abbate et fratribus Furnesii, vel etiam a fratribus aliorum Monasteriorum Cisterc. Ordinis, qui Archiep'atu vel Ep'atu vestro consistunt, de novalibus, vel etiam de aliis t'ris quas propriis manibus vel sumptibus excolunt, decimas exigere vel quomodolibet extorquere præsumat. Nam si de novalibus voluissemus intelligi, ubi posuimus de laboribus de novalibus, poneremus sicut in Privilegiis quorundam aliorum apponimus. Quia non est conveniens vel honestum ut contra Privilegia Sedis Apostolicæ quoquomodo veniatur, quæ obtinere debent inviolabilem firmitatem, mandamus vobis atque præcipimus ut si qui monachi vel canonici, clerici, vel laici contra Privilegia Sedis Apost. prædictos fratres decimarum exactione gravaverint, laicos excommunicationis sententia percellatis, monachos, canonicos vel clericos, contradictione et appellatione cessante, ab officio suspendatis, et tam excommunicationis quam suspensionis sententiam faciatis usque ad dignam [216 col. 2] satisfactionem inviolabiliter observari. Ad hæc præsentium auctoritate præcipiendo mandamus quatinus si quis in Fratres præscripti Monasterii violentas manus injecerit, eum, accensis candelis, publice excommunicetis, denuncietis, et faciatis ab omnibus, sicut excommunicatos, cautius evitari, donec

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• A second esse is inserted here, which, as altogether redundant, I have omitted.

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