1 - Letter from Pope Gregory IX to the Abbot-Elect and Convent of St Edmunds Forbidding the Establishment of any Oratory Within a Mile of Bury St Edmunds, 21 December 1233 [Cul Ms Add. 850, Fol. 207R]
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 December 2023
Summary
Gregory the bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved sons the [abbot-]elect and convent of St Edmund, of the Order of St Benedict, in the diocese of Norwich, greeting and the apostolic blessing. Your devotion to us has humbly besought us, since it was briefly forbidden by the Apostolic See that anyone (apart from the Roman pontiff or his legate) should claim any power or right to [celebrate] masses, or [establish] a convent, or [hold] a synod, or exercise any episcopal functions whatsoever within the limits of your monastery, within one Roman mile from its altar. We deign to strictly forbid anyone from doing the same, since the place is in this way acknowledged to pertain to us in full jurisdiction, and the aforesaid monastery is immediately subject to the Roman church. Since, therefore, it would redound to the derogation of the privileges of the same monastery, which ought to be kept whole by us, if it should happen that a chapel were [built] within the aforesaid limits, and others should be admitted to the same; we, providing for the indemnity of the same monastery with paternal concern, by the authority of these presents forbid that anyone should dare to build an oratory or chapel (with you being unwilling) within the aforesaid limits. Let no man whatsoever infringe this rescript of prohibition of ours, or dare to have the temerity to contradict it. But if anyone should presume to attempt this, let him know he will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of the good apostles Peter and Paul. Given at the Lateran, on 21 December, in the seventh year of our pontificate.
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- The Franciscans in Medieval Bury St Edmunds , pp. 47 - 48Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2023