Section II

Account of the convent of the Carmes, Carmelites, or White Friars, in South Lynn, with a sketch of that religious order.

This House stood close to the river Lenn or Nar, in the field now called the friars. All the remains of it have long disappeared, except the Gateway or Gate-house, which is supposed to have been the principal entrance into the place. It is said to be founded about 1269, by the lord Bardolph of that time; though others say that the founder was Thomas de Feltsham, but that the lord Bardolph, the lord Scales, and Sir John Wigenhale were also considerable benefactors to it. William le Breton was also among its benefactors in the reign of Henry III. having endowed it with lands in South Lynn, Burgh Green, Dillingham and other places, in Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. William lord Randolph, who died in the 9th of Richard II. was buried here. In the 12th of the same reign these monks had a patent for the rent of ten quarters of frumenti, and ten quarters of barley, to receive them annually of the manor of Stow Bardolph, granted by John lord Bardolph.—April 13th, 1379, Sir Hamon Felton, of Litcham willed his body to be buried in the church of the Carmes, at Lynn. The noble family of Hastings also appear to have been great benefactors to this house.—From all these circumstances it may be very plainly seen, that this convent was a place of considerable note and reputation, and that, probably, for many ages. But nothing could save it from that dissolution which all such places experienced in the memorable reign of Henry VIII.—The site of it was then purchased by John Eyre Esq. who was one of that king’s auditors or receivers; and he conveyed it to a priest, from whom the corporation purchased it, who have been in possession of it ever since. How long after that it was suffered to stand does not appear. The Steeple was probably that part of it which stood the longest, except the Gatehouse above-mentioned. The said Steeple appears to have stood near a 100 years after the dissolution: it fell, as we are told, for want of due repair, on the 9th of April 1631, after having stood upwards of 360 years. Where this lofty steeple and the great church and convent of the Carmelites stood for so many ages, not a stone is now left upon another. A plain field or pasture is all that is now to be seen; just as if such an extensive edifice had never existed or stood there. The case is much the same with the other Lynn monasteries, except that of the Grey Friars, whose steeple still remains, owing to more attention being paid to the keeping of it in repair.

The Carmelites, together with the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, constituted the four famous orders of Mendicants: and it is somewhat remarkable that they all established themselves at Lynn, and had the whole town, in a manner, divided among themselves, which seems not to have been unusual with them. —Of the present order, that of the Carmes, or Carmelites, the following account will give the reader, it is presumed a sufficiently correct idea.

“About the middle of this century (the 12th) a certain Calabrian, whose name was Berthold, set out with a few companions for mount Carmel, and there, upon the very spot where the prophet Elias is said to have disappeared, built an humble cottage with an adjoining chapel, in which he led a life of solitude, austerity, and labour. This little colony subsisted, and the places of those that died were more than filled by new comers; so that it was at length erected into a monastic community by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem. This austere prelate drew up a rule of discipline for the new monks, which was afterwards confirmed by the authority of the Roman pontiffs, who modified and altered it in several respects, and among other corrections mitigated its excessive rigour and severity. Such was the origin of the famous Order of Carmelites, or, as they are commonly called, of the Order of our Lady of mount Carmel, which was afterwards transplanted from Syria into Europe, and obtained the principal rank among the mendicant or begging orders. It is true the Carmelites reject, with the highest indignation, an origin so recent and obscure, and affirm to this very day, that the prophet Elias was the founder of their ancient community. Very few, however, have been engaged to adopt this fabulous and chimerical account of their establishment, except the members of the order, and many Roman Catholic writers have treated their pretensions to such a remote antiquity with the utmost contempt.”

“Scarcely, indeed, (says Maclaine) can any thing be more ridiculous than the circumstantial narrations of the occasion, origin, founder, and revolutions of this famous order, which we find in several ecclesiastical authors. They tell us, that Elias was introduced into the state of monachism by the ministry of angels; that his first disciples were Jonah, Micah, and also Obadiah, whose wife, in order to get rid of an importunate crowd of lovers, who fluttered about her at the court of Achab after the departure of heir husband, bound herself by a vow of chastity, received the veil by the hand of father Elias, and thus became the first abbess of the Carmelite order. They enter into a vast detail of all the circumstances that relate to the rules of discipline, which were drawn up for this community, the habit which distinguished its members, and the various alterations which were introduced into their rule of discipline in process of time. They observe, that among other marks which were used to distinguish the Carmelites from the seculars, the tonsure was one; that this mark of distinction exposed them, indeed to the mockeries of a profane multitude; and that this furnishes the true explication of the term bald-head, which the children addressed, by way of reproach, to Elishah, as he was on his way to Carmel. (2 Kings ii. 23) They tell us, moreover, that even Pythagoras was a member of this ancient order; that be drew all his wisdom from mount Carmel, and had several conversations with the prophet Daniel at Babylon, upon the subject of the Trinity. Nay they go still further into the region of fable, and assert, that the Virgin Mary and Jesus himself assumed the habit and profession of Carmelites; and they load this fiction with a heap of absurd circumstances, which it is impossible to read without the highest astonishment.”

The Carmelites came into England in 1240, and appear to have obtained an establishment at Lynn not a very long while after. What sort of men they were, the reader can now form some idea.