That Lewes suffered severely from the Black Death of 1348-49 is certain, but we know very little about it, and indeed the history of the house is negligible until, in the beginning of the fifteenth century the whole system of Cluny was called in question and it was claimed on behalf of Lewes that it should be raised to an abbacy with the power to profess monks.  It will be remembered that the Abbot of Cluny—­the only Abbot within the Congregation—­alone could profess, and in times of war, such as the fourteenth century, this must have been very inconvenient.  Indeed we read of men who had been monks their whole life long, but had never been professed at all.  It is therefore not surprising that such a claim should at last have been put forward.  It is equally not surprising that such a claim was not allowed.  The Abbot of Cluny refused to raise Lewes to the rank of an abbey, but he granted the Prior the privilege of professing his monks; this in 1410.  So things continued till in 1535, the infamous Layton was sent by Thomas Cromwell to inquire into the state of the Priory of Lewes, to nose out any scandal he could and to invent what he could not find.  His methods as applied to Lewes are notorious for their insolence and brutality.  He professes to have found the place full of corruption and rank with treason.  And in this he was wise, for his master Cromwell wanted the house for himself.  Upon November 16, 1537, the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes was surrendered.  It was then served by a Prior and twenty-three monks and eighty servi; and it and its lands were granted by the King to Thomas Cromwell.

Such was the end of the most famous Cluniac house in England, the sanctuary founded by that De Warenne who had built up Lewes between his Castle on the height and his monastery in the vale.  Almost nothing remains to-day of that great and splendid building, but in 1845, in building the railway, the coffins of the founders De Warenne and his wife Gundrada were found.  These now lie in St John’s Church, here in Southover close by, which belonged to the Priory.  It was originally a plain Norman building of which the nave remains, the rest of the church as we see it, being for the most part either Perpendicular or altogether modern.

Of course the Priory of St Pancras was not alone in the fate that befell it at the hands of the Tudor in 1537.  The only other religious house in Lewes suffered a like fate.  This was the convent of the Franciscans, dedicated, as most authorities agree, in honour of Our Lady and St Margaret.  The Friars Minor were established in Lewes before 1249, and their convent was one of the last to be surrendered, in 1538.

From St John’s Church, the visitor, not without a glance at the old half timber house close by said to have been the residence of Anne of Cleves, will pass up to the High Street where, under the Castle, stands the parish church of St Michael, the only ancient part of which is the round Norman tower, a rare thing.  A fourteenth century brass to one of the De Warennes is to be seen within.  Further west is the Transitional Norman church of St Anne, with curious capitals on the south side of the nave.  Here is a fine basket-work Norman font, and in the south aisle at the east end a vaulted chapel.  To the north of the chancel is a recessed tomb.