Abbot John Whethamstede’s Chronicle of the Abbey of St Albans
Abbot John Whethamstede's Register aka Chronicle of his second term at the Abbey of St Albans, 1451-1461, is a remarkable text that describes his first-hand experience of the beginning of the Wars of the Roses including the First and Second Battles of St Albans, 1455 and 1461, respectively, their cause, and their consequences, not least on the Abbey itself. His text also includes Loveday, Blore Heath, Northampton, the Act of Accord, Wakefield, and Towton, and ends with the Coronation of King Edward IV. In addition to the events of the Wars of the Roses, Abbot John, or his scribes who wrote the Chronicle, include details in the life of the Abbey such as charters, letters, land exchanges, visits by legates, and disputes, which provide a rich insight into the day-to-day life of the Abbey, and the challenges faced by its Abbot.
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Effigy in Temple Church is in Monumental Effigies of Great Britain.
THIS unappropriated bgure of an ecclesiastic lies under the south wall of the Temple Church, London [Map]. It is sculptured in a hard stone, in very sharp relief. He wears the pontifical mitre, gloves, and in his left hand is the pastoral staff which is swathed by an ornamental banda. He treads on a winged dragon. At the top of the Gothic niche in which he is placed are two supporting angels.
Note a. These bandages are represented as attached to the pastoral staves of Bishops, in the MSS. and monuments of this and the following periods of the middle age. The pastoral staff and the crosier, although often confounded, are distinct appendages. The crosier, or cross, is borne by the Archbishop; the pastoral staff, or shepherd's crook, by the Bishop, &c. "Next before the chariot went two men, bare-headed, in linen garments down to the foot, girt and shoes of blue velvet, who carried, the one a crosier, the other a pastoral staff^ like a sheep-hook." Bacon, New Atlantis.