| Order Number | CCA-DCc/ChAnt/E/191 |
| Title | Mortuary roll |
| PreviousNumbers | I 44 (Norris) |
| Date | [Jan 1337] |
| Description | From: John de Crauden, prior of Ely Cathedral Priory; the convent of Ely Cathedral Priory
Circular letter, announcing the death of John Hotham, bishop of Ely on 7 Jan 1337 and requesting prayers for him. The roll gives a brief biography of the bishop and a long account of his virtues. It also contains subscriptions by 24 religious houses from East Anglia, ending with West Dereham Abbey [Norfolk], each giving a 'titulus' [the name of the house, its patron saint and its order], a prayer for the bishop and often a requent for reciprocal prayers. The subscriptions are not dated. [Date: date of circular letter.] [The roll would have been taken round the neighbouring religious houses, sometimes within a wide area, by a layman known as the brevigerulus and should theoretically have returned to Ely. The brevigerulus may have left the roll at Canterbury, but there is no entry for Canterbury on the roll and it could also have come here as a stray from Ely Cathedral's archive in the late 17th century, when Canterbury Cathedral's archives were returned after the Restoration.]
Initial letter decorated with full-length portrait of the bishop, wearing blue chasuble with red amice and gold mitre, holding a pastoral staff in his left hand, his right hand raised in blessing; gold background. Remaining letters of first word in gold with alternating blue background and red infill or red background and blue infill. Top border decorated with panels and scrolls containing stylized ivy leaves and other stylized plant forms, predominately in blue, red and gold. Narrow panel of blue and red decoration in left margin; above this, and below the bottom left corner of the initial, a grotesque with a human head, body of a serpent and haunches of a lion. |
| Extent | 1 roll |
| Physical Description | Parchment roll, 3mm, stitched head to tail, top edge of head torn, stained, faded, repairs |
| Language | Latin |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| Open |
| Copies | Digitised |
| Related Material | Related notes by W P Blore: CCA-U91/66 |
| Publication Note | Described and printed in A Way, Cambridge Antiquarian Society Antiquarian Communications I (1859), 125-39
Printed in J B Sheppard, Literae Cantuarienses II, pp114-121
Described and part illustrated in W P Blore, Friends of Canterbury Cathedral 10th Annual Report (1937), 28-31
Described and partly transcribed in Historical Manuscripts Commission Fifth Report (London, 1876), Appendix, p449 |