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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 14  1882  page 141

St Radegund's Pramonstratensian Abbey by W. H. St John Hope B.A.

also to have been, in 1207 (9 John), a design of translating it to River, near Dover.
   After the settlement of its troubles, St. Radegund's increased in wealth and reputation; and many were the notable personages who desired to be buried in its church after their decease.
   In September 1302, King Edward I received the Great Seal with his own hands in the King's Chapel * at St. Radegund's; and delivered it to William Greenfield, his chancellor. †
   Little or nothing has come down to us of the later history; but, towards the end of the fifteenth century, a ray of light is thrown upon it from a Visitation Book, ‡ between the years 1472-1501, of Richard Redman, Bishop of St. Asaph, § and Commissary-General of the Præmonstratensian Order in the British Isles.
   We have not space for the entire series of visitations, but it is evident that successive Abbots and Priors had allowed the buildings to fall into a sad state of decay. In 1482 the Visitor reports:

   Aug. 31. Distinctissime precepimus Abbati ut pro toto posse et omni celeritate reparare et sustentare festinet tam Ecclesiam claustrum quam omnes alias domos interiores et exteriores que vero modo verisimile usque ad terram ruitura videntur.
Fratres a mane usque ad vesperam faciant opus in ortis (? hortis).

   Doubtless this latter mandate points to the incompatibility of devotion and meditation with the noise and bustle of building operations.
   In 1488, the Abbot is again urged to hasten on the reparation of the buildings, and a list of the names of the brethren is given:
   Henricus, abbas; Thos. Raypese, prior; Will. Kyrkeby;
   * Perhaps one of the chapels in the church, which had been endowed by one of the three previous soveriegns.
   † Lord Campbells Lives of the Lord Chancellors, i., 182.
   ‡ Ashmolean Library, Oxford, MS. 1519.
   § The Order was exempt from all episcopal jurisdiction, and Bishop Redman was Commissary-General, not from his office, but because when first appointed he was Abbot of the Monastery of S. Mary Magdalene at Shap, in Westmoreland.

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