Parish priests and their people in the middle ages in England . nity to establish themselves in a house inthe north part of the town ; but the new abbot gotrid of them in the peremptory way in which a land-lord gets rid of a contumacious tenant—he pulled thehouse down over their heads. The friars appealedto Itome ; the pope directed the archbishop, and thearchbishop sent his commissaries, to conduct theminto a new habitation in the west quarter of thetown ; but the monks drove out both the EpiscopalCommissaries and their clients. The king sent downthe chief justice to give them possession of a
Parish priests and their people in the middle ages in England . nity to establish themselves in a house inthe north part of the town ; but the new abbot gotrid of them in the peremptory way in which a land-lord gets rid of a contumacious tenant—he pulled thehouse down over their heads. The friars appealedto Itome ; the pope directed the archbishop, and thearchbishop sent his commissaries, to conduct theminto a new habitation in the west quarter of thetown ; but the monks drove out both the EpiscopalCommissaries and their clients. The king sent downthe chief justice to give them possession of a newsite, but the monks did not submit to the chief justice,and made good their opposition. At length a com-promise was arrived at, and the friars were allowedto settle outside the Four Crosses, which marked * In 1233 the convent obtained a prohibition from the pope to erectan oratory or chapel within a Roman mile of their altar (* PapalLetters, vol. i. p. 137, Rolls Series). THE MEDIEVAL TOWNS. 513 the Liberties of St. Edmund for a mile in everydirection.*. St. Albans. Offa, the great King of the Mercians, in the eighthcentury, is said to have discovered the relics of , the Proto- _ _ Martyr of Britain,and built a monas-tery to contain themon the site of themartyrdom. A po-pulation gatheredaround the monas-tery. The foundingof St. AlbansTown is ascribed to Usinus, the sixth abbot, in thetenth century. He is said to have built three parishchurches for the people: St. Michaels, St. Peters,and St. Stephens, on the north, south, and westsides of the abbey, and established a market forthem. From Domesday it appears that the townwas then part of the possessions of the abbey, andwas held by the abbey in demesne. Early in the fourteenth century, the inhabitantstried to relieve themselves from this hereditary juris-diction, and wrested from Abbot Eversden (i 308-1326)the right to elect two of their number to represent * When the Countess of Clare, the lady of one of the manor
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