#113 A MEDIEVAL PRIOR

 

For the past week, I have been mucking around in Tudor times, trying to determine if there was one or two sets of John, William & Thomas Mundy brothers and who were their parents.  I do know, however, that the last prior of Bodmin, Cornwall was my 13 times great uncle Thomas Mundy (-1548).

                                                                  THOMAS MUNDAY

                                                        St. Petroc's, Bodmin, Cornwall

In medieval England, there were many types of religious institutions: abbeys and priories (monasteries for monks and canons), nunneries, friaries, hospitals, collegiate churches, chantries, and houses of military orders such as the Hospitallers. Abbeys had greatest prestige and abbots sat in the House of Lords. Unless  very large, priories did not have this importance. Priories were often smaller than abbeys, but some (like Bodmin) were quite large, wealthy, and powerful. In an abbey, the leader was called an abbot (or abbess); a prior (or prioress) was the leader of a priory and responsible for overseeing the community of canons or monks.

                                                             Comparison: Monk, Canon, Friar, Secular Priest

Role	Community type	Rule of life	Ordination	Main duties	Examples
Monk	Lives in a monastery (abbey or priory).	Follows a monastic rule (Benedictine, Cistercian, Cluniac, etc.).	Some monks were priests, but not all.	Prayer (Divine Office), manual labour, sometimes scholarship.	Westminster Abbey (Benedictines), Fountains Abbey (Cistercians).
Canon	Member of a cathedral or collegiate church, or of an order of canons regular (e.g. Augustinians).	Secular canons: no strict monastic vows. Regular canons: live under a rule (usually St Augustine).	Many were priests, though some were deacons or subdeacons.	Daily liturgy, administering cathedrals or major churches, sometimes parish care.	Bodmin Priory (Augustinian Canons), Southwell Minster (secular canons).
Friar	Lives in a friary (urban/town-based).	Mendicant orders (Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites, Austin Friars).	Almost always priests (to preach and hear confessions).	Preaching, teaching, serving the poor; lived on charity, not estates.	Greyfriars (Franciscans), Blackfriars (Dominicans) in London.
Secular Priest	Serves in a parish or chantry; not part of a monastery or friary.	No communal rule — lives among laity.	Ordained priest.	Pastoral care of parishioners: Mass, sacraments, funerals, etc.	Parish priests all over England; chantry priests in endowed chapels.

Bodmin Prior was the largest and most important monastic house in Cornwall in the Middle Ages. It was founded as a Celtic monastery in the 10th century and then refounded as an Augustinian  priory in the 12th century. The priory church was dedicated to St.Petroc, a 6^th century Welsh missionary saint whose cult was especially strong in Cornwall. St.Petroc’s relics were venerated in the church, making it a local pilgrimage centre. (The bones were lost during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.)

                                12th century Sicilian ivory casket that once housed the bones of St. Petroc                                                The casket survived, but the bones were likely scattered when Monasteries were                                                                      dissolved by Henry VIII.

Bodmin Prior became the mother house of the Augustinians in Cornwall and one of the richest religious houses in the county; the priory controlled extensive lands across Cornwall including manors, fisheries and town properties.  The town of Bodmin grew up around the priory, with the church serving as both a monastic and parish church. The priory church was very large and only a part survives today as St.Petroc’s Church, Bodmin. When built it was the largest church in Cornwall (and it still dominates the town); it is 151 feet long and 65 feet wide. 

Monks and canons lived very different religious lives. Monks lived in a monastery under strict rules such as poverty, chastity, obedience; their life was contemplative and dedicated to prayer, silence, fasting, manual work like farming and scholarly work like copying manuscripts, or crafts. Monks were usually cloistered (i.e. cut off from the outside world). Canons, by contrast, lived in the church community and their focus was more pastoral—leading worship, preaching, teaching, administering sacraments, caring for pilgrims, and providing hospitality. They were not cloistered and interacted with laypeople. Their day was more balanced--half liturgy, half service to the congregants.

Bodmin Priory was a religious community of Augustinan canons.

 Daily life for an Augustinian canon followed this routine:

                4:30-5 am: Rise for Matins/Lauds in the priory church                                                                                Morning: Celebrate Mass (sometimes many priests at side altars) Canons heard confession                     or preached                                                                                                                                               Mid Morning: Pastoral duties—teaching, tending pilgrims (Bodmin was a major site of                                 pilgrimage to St. Petroc), providing hospitality, visiting outlying parishes                                                 Noon: Return for Divine Office (set prayers at set hours)                                                                             Afternoon: Administration (land, rents, schools) The prior handled finances, disputes,                                    correspondence                                                                                                                                         Evening: Vespers (evening prayers), sometimes a public service for townspeople                                       Night: Compline (night prayers), rest    

       

                                                                                

                                                 

Thomas Mundy was almost certainly a close kin to, if not the son of, John Mundy, Lord Mayor of London. Thomas also went by the alias of Wandsworth (from Surrey), a common practice at the time to distinguish branches of a big family and also to legally tie him to his property. The Wandsworth tag suggests his branch of the family had property or origin in Wandsworth, Surrey and that Thomas may have spent time there or inherited land through that line.  The alias shows he somehow belonged to the Mundy family of London but also had a connection to Wandsworth by origin, property or inheritance.

Thomas Mundy was appointed Prior of Bodmin, considered one of the most prestigious roles in Cornwall, ranking just below an abbot, but carrying immense local authority. As prior, he would have overseen dozens of canons, managed extensive estates, exercised temporal power as landlord, employer and local justice. Thomas may not have been a parliamentary lord, but he was at the top of Cornwall's ecclesiastical world--a landlord, a patron, custodian of Cornwall's greatest shrine and a figure powerful enough to provoke opposition from the county's local gentry.  He had real authority over townspeople and tenants.

                                                                        Bodmin Church

Thomas was also the last prior of Bodmin, the final head of the religious house before it was dissolved by Henry VIII in the 1530s.

In 1534, Henry VIII split from the Roman Catholic Church. There were many reasons. Queen Catherine of Aragon had not given Henry a male heir: wishing to marry Anne Boleyn, he asked the Pope for an annulment which was refused. Claiming that the Pope had no jurisdiction in England—that only a king had authority under God in his own kingdom—Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy declaring “Henry the Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England.” This gave Henry total control over the Church’s doctrine, appointments and wealth. By breaking with Rome, Henry could dissolve the monasteries, seize their enormous wealth (lands, gold, rents) to refill the Crown’s treasure and allow Henry to reward loyal supporters with the confiscated land.   

                                                                Henry VIII

                                                        Dissolution of the Monasteries

Thomas was installed as Prior of Bodmin on May 10, 1534. This was after Henry split with Rome. His appointment was directly by Henry VIII and it was strongly opposed by the Arundell family, a leading Cornish gentry family who felt that Thomas’ appointment infringed on their hereditary patronage rights to appoint local churchmen; the Arundells most likely distrusted a royal outsider being dropped into “their” priory.

(It is highly unlikely, however, that Thomas Mundy ever met Henry VIII face-to-face. His role made him important in Cornwall, but not prominent enough nationally to warrant a royal audience. His dealings with the Crown would have been through commissioners and the King's chief Minister, not the king himself.)

The dissolution of English monasteries began in 1536 and by 1540 virtually every abbey, priory, and convent in England was closed. But Thomas had anticipated what was going to happen and he began, preemptively, giving 99 year leases of the priory manors to his kin and allies. His niece, for example, received a 99 year lease at nominal rent on Padstow Manor. This estate is still owned by the Prideaux family; the family was also granted the tithes and fish rights in the Padstow area that had belonged to the Bodmin Priory.  Thomas leased out other manors, tithes and fisheries to relatives at low rents. This was a common tactic among priors trying to keep property in friendly and familial hands before the Crown confiscated it.

                                                            Prideaux Place, Padstow                                                                                 The Prideaux family acquired the estate, previously owned by the Prior of Bodmin,                                   at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The present house was completed                                   in 1592 and has been owned by the same family for fourteen generations. 

Thomas was the last prior at Bodmin. He signed the surrender of it to the Crown in 1539. All remaining priory lands reverted to the Crown. The most valuable parcels were then sold to raise cash for Henry VIII or granted to loyal nobles and gentry to secure political support. Unlike monastic estates, the priory church of St.Petroc’s survived because it doubled as the town’s parish church. After dissolution, the nave/choir continued in parish use, making St. Petroc’s the largest surviving church in Cornwall. However, most of the conventual buildings (cloister, dormitory, refectory, etc.) were destroyed or fell into ruin.

As the last prior Thomas lost his position, but he most likely received a small pension. After suppression, he continued to appear in records as “Thomas Munday, alias Wandsworth, Late Prior of Bodmin.” suggesting that he integrated into secular life (unlike many monks who struggled after dissolution). In 1547, he was accused of helping a Carthusian monk escape abroad, perhaps a sign that he retained Catholic sympathies. Thomas  lived until at least the early 1550s, leaving a will proved in 1555. In it, he asked for remembrance (i.e. prayers) to be made for his soul, and for the masses, through the souls of his parents, benefactors and those connected to the priory. (This was standard in wills of clerics.) He left his moveable goods and chattels to certain named persons and he specifically left money and his “red robe/gown” to his cousin and niece. There was little reference to any major real estate bequests outside of those already granted or leased earlier. The will shows that even after Dissolution, he retained enough moveable wealth to make bequests. He does not mention any children which is consistent with him being a cleric. There are no tomb, brass or memorial records of his burial. Was he buried in St.Petroc's church, Bodmin where he served as prior? Or with his Mundy family in London where his will was proven suggesting that he might have been living there?

 

Thomas Mundy alias Wandsworth                                                                                                                       d. btw 1548/9-1554-55                                                                                                                            my 13 X great uncle (Harper line)