The Abbey of St. Albans
from 1300 to the Dissolution
of the Monasteries
THE STANHOPE ESSAY
1911
BY
VIVIAN H. GALBRAITH
MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY
SCHOLAR OF BALLIOL COLLEGE
Oxford
B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET
London
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., LIMITED
MCMXI
| PAGE | |||
| Introductory | 3 | ||
| I. | The Revival within the Abbey during the 14th Century | 11 | |
| II. | The Necessity for Dissolution | 35 | |
| (A) Sketch of the Economic History, 1300–1539 | 36 | ||
| (B) Decay of the Monastic Spirit in the 15th Century | 47 | ||
| Appendix. | The Account of William Wallingford in the ‘Lives and Benefactions of the Later Abbots’ | 73 | |
| List of the Abbots of St. Albans from 1300 to 1539 | 75 | ||
| A List of the Chief Authorities | 76 | ||
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In the later Middle Ages the Abbey of St. Albanswas the most brilliant, though by no means thewealthiest,1 of the English monasteries. There wasample reason for this pre-eminence. Proximity toLondon kept its members abreast of the times andfreed them from the stain of provincialism, and itsposition on the Great North Road ensured as itsfrequent guests the greatest men in the kingdom.Its hospitality became proverbial, and Matthew Parisrecords that there was room in the monastic stablesfor three hundred horses at one time. Always, too,there was the glamour of literary greatne