Houses of Benedictine monks
The abbey of Athelney

The island of Athelney is on the north side of Stanmoor, and on the north bank of the River Tone, being about 4 miles south-west of Bridgwater. It consists of two low hills divided by a shallow depression, containing 24 acres in extent, of which the eastern and slightly higher hill where was the monastery of our Blessed Saviour, St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Athelwine, comprises 11˝ acres. It was to this place that Alfred retreated in the autumn of 877, and in the spring of 878 he built here a fortress called Ethelingaeigge. Asser, whose account is vivid and valuable, having visited the place as chaplain to Alfred himself, describes it as a small island in the midst of an impassable morass, and says that Alfred, while he often thought of the needs of his soul, among other good deeds ordered that two monasteries should be built, of which the one for monks was at Athelney. In this monastery he collected monks from every quarter, and placed over them, as their first abbot, John, an Old-Saxon priest and monk, and certain other priests and deacons from beyond the sea, of whom, finding that he had not as large a number as he wanted, he procured as many as possible from the same race in Gaul, and among them Asser tells us he had seen a young lad who was born a pagan, who had been educated in the monastery and was by no means the least in advancement of the monks there. It has been questioned whether Alfred really founded the monastery—or whether he did not enlarge a hermitage or monastery already in existence.

The dedication of St. Egelwine or Athelwine, the brother of King Kenewalch, suggests a greater antiquity, and the charter which Alfred granted to the monastery suggests that he rather enlarged than founded the house. Asser, however, who is our best authority, speaks of the monastery as recently founded by Alfred. He tells us that the monks who were gathered at first under Abbot John were not all men devoted to the service of God, and some of them resisted the discipline which the abbot would impose upon them.

On one occasion a priest and a deacon of Gallic birth, having laid their plans, hid at night in the chapel waiting for the abbot to come alone in the early morning for his prayers, and intending then and there to slay him before the altar and carry his dead body and lay it before a house of ill fame. When the abbot, John, appeared that night they attacked him, but his efforts to resist them and his shouting roused the brother monks, and though the men wounded their abbot, he was rescued, and his assailants were ultimately caught and imprisoned.

The early history of the abbey is very obscure. There was a cartulary in existence in the first half of the 18th century, of which a transcript of the earlier portion was made by Dr. Harbin in 1735, and this is now in the Phillipps library at Cheltenham. The original however has disappeared, and it seems as if probably the second portion contained the story of the abbey rather than copies of its charters. The Harbin transcript has been published by the Somerset Record Society, and it gives us a considerable group of early charters. A charter of King Alfred granting the manor of Sutton to the monastery is given in this cartulary in which he describes the place as 'the Island of Nobles.'

At the time of the Conquest, we find the abbey allied, together with Muchelney, to the great monastery at Glastonbury, so that the three foundations were acting together to resist Bishop Giso, who attempted to assert his visitorial authority as bishop of the diocese over Muchelney and Athelney but was compelled to do so through the medium of the Abbot of Glastonbury. In 1160 we find the abbey providing for the conduct of its legal affairs by assigning to Robert de Beauchamp their lands in Frogmore, on condition of his representing them at the county assize and going to the pleas and business of their church whenever he should be called. Soon after a considerable change took place in the position of the abbot. Bishop Savaric, as we have shown in our general historical sketch, persuaded Abbot Benedict II of Athelney to give the church of Long Sutton to found a prebend in the cathedral church of Wells; the Abbot of Athelney for the time being was to be ex-officio prebend of Sutton, with the stall next to the sub-dean. It was also decided that he should not be bound to reside in Wells, but must provide a vicar with four marks a yeare stall wages.

In 1249 the then abbot realized the loss of freedom which ensued from his holding the prebendal stall at Wells. On the morrow of St. George, 24 April, 1249, he was summoned to a chapter meeting at Wells, and sent as his proctor one of the monks of his abbey. The chapter refused to accept the proxy because the monk was not a canon, and they condemned the abbot for a breach of the customary rules and laws of the chapter, because he had also made complaint before one of the lords of assize concerning some fishery dispute the abbey had with the dean and chapter about their estate at North Curry, without first making application to the chapter itself.

There are two other entries in the chapter manuscripts which are not easy of explanation, as they involved loss of estate to the abbey itself. During the episcopate of Bishop Jocelin Abbot Benedict gave him the advowson of Ilton to form a prebend in Wells. The gift could not have been popular with the convent, for we find them soon after quarrelling with John, Chancellor of Wells, who held that prebendal stall. Benedict's successor, Abbot Roger, gave also to Bishop Jocelin the tithes of Pitney and Wearne in the parish of Huish to support the endowments of that prebendal church.

In the 14th century we have a good deal of evidence concerning the extent to which monastic houses were burdened by royal pensioners. In 1304 Gilbert de Ragun went to the monastery with a royal letter, bidding them receive him as a pensioner, and they appealed against this, claiming exemption because already they had two of the aged servants of the king, John de Hanele and Nicholas Freyn, living there and provided with board and lodging at the expense of the abbey.