| Description | From: William de Verdun, archdeacon of Gloucester
To: Hubert Walter, archbishop of Canterbury
He has received the archbishop's mandate (recited). The archbishop had received a complaint from the abbot and convent of Bordesley Abbey [Worcestershire] that, after they had appealed to the archbishop, certain of the monks and their brothers were attacked at their grange at Combe ('Cumba') [in Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire] and that P, rector of Chipping Campden ('Campeden''), and his accomplices, took away their grain by force. The archbishop commands William to excommunicate the offenders, give redress to the monks and restore things to the state they were in before the appeal was made.
William excommunicated all those who had attacked the monks or the lay brothers and summoned the parties to appear before him on. The monks put their case but the other party would not accept the validity of the archbishop's mandate to William, because it was a copy and did not have the authority of the archbishop's seal. P appealed to the archbishop. William remitted the case to the archbishop's audience because he could not proceed, and fixed the date as 16 Sep. P objected to the lack of time because he needed to return to Chester? ('Cestria') [Cheshire] before he could proceed with the appeal. The monks objected that it was harvest time and the crops would perish unless the harvest was gathered in soon, adding that those things necessary for the case could be found at Campden, not Chester. P also said that he needed the help and advice of certain persons in Chester to prosecute the appeal. William therefore fixed the date as 30 Sep. Address on seal tongue. No date. [Date: as in English Episcopal Acta, cited below.] |