Welsh Journals

BIOGRAPHICA ET BIBLIOGRAPHICA A FORM OF INDULGENCE ISSUED BY THE ABBEY OF STRATA MARCELLA, [1528]. (PLATE XIV. 15) At the sale of the Helmingham Hall library, the property of Lord Tollemache, at Sotheby's saleroom, on 14 June 1965, the National Library of Wales acquired a copy of a printed form of indulgence issued by or for the Monastery of Strata Marcella in Montgomeryshire. It was Lot 144 in the catalogue of the sale. The existence of this form of indulgence was previously known from what had been regarded as a unique copy in British Museum Egerton MS. 2410. This manuscript consists of correspondence addressed to Sir Lionel Tollemache. It can therefore be assumed that both examples were at one time in the possession of the Tollemache family. Neither copy is complete and both have strips from another copy pasted over parts of the original document. The National Library copy has a strip 86 X 18 mm. pasted over the four bottom lines beginning between the 'n' and the 'i' of 'absolutionis' and ending at the straight cut which is clearly visible in the accompanying illustration. The British Museum copy has a similar strip covering four lines higher up beginning immediately before the full point following 'innocessim ?'. In the latter a strip has been cut away along the entire right hand margin, excising half the block and some seven letters from each line, with two further indentations into the last eight lines bringing the outer margin eventually as far in as the line of the end of the word 'culpa' and so to the foot of the document. Otherwise, the texts agree with one another in spite of the statement in Sotheby's catalogue that in line 3 the British Museum copy reads 'batas' instead of 'beatae'. In fact, both read 'beate'. (See a facsimile of the British Museum copy facing page i of Y Cymmrodor, Vol. XXIX.). As will be observed from Plate 15 a few letters and words have been lost partly through peeling and partly by holes at the extreme right of the last seven lines in the National Library copy. Both copies lack an imprint but the work is assigned to Richard Pynson and is given the date 1528 in Sotheby's Catalogue. Richard Pynson was printer to King Henry VIII until his death early in 1530. The internal evidence does little to set a precise limit to the dating. The then abbot was named John, Thomas Wolsey was then Cardinal of York, Primate of England, Legate of the Holy See, and Chancellor of England. Clement VII was the Pope who, with the Cardinal, authorized the indulgence. Clement VII was Pope from 1523 to 1534. Wolsey was archbishop of York from 1514 and Cardinal and Lord Chancellor from 1515. He died in November 1530. Judging by this internal evidence the indulgence could have been printed at any time between 1523 and 1529. The abbot of Strata Marcella at its suppression in 1536 was John Price. He was S4 years of age in 1547,1 but there is no record of the date of his appointment. It is possible that the John of the indulgence was his predecessor who held the office in 1503 and whose name was John or Evan.2 John Price would have been too young to be abbot in 1503. The date 1528 is probably based on a comparison with other specimen's of Pynson's printing. The two examples are of blank forms of the indulgence, space being left for the insertion of the grantee's name. The form of the indulgence enables the named recipient to participate in the benefits of indulgences from penances which had been granted by Cardinal Wolsey and Pope Clement VII to such Christian people as might visit the monastery of Strata Marcella on the feasts of the Assumption, the Exaltation of the Cross, the Circumcision, and Palm Sunday, or within the following octaves, or who