Secondly, he begins to be recognized as an experienced person who can safely be sent upon missions involving prudence and the management of men. In the same year, 1371-2, a payment of twenty shillings was made by the Steward of the Abbot's Household for the expenses of William Colchester and two valets who were sent to Northampton for the meeting of the General Chapter of the English Benedictines, probably in attendance on the Abbot of Westminster, who was frequently one of the Presidents of the Chapter.
But the next year, 1372-3, as we learn from the Sacrist, saw Colchester entrusted with a still more delicate duty. It was on this wise. Among the precious relics given to the Abbey by Edward the Confessor[12] was the girdle of the Virgin Mary--zona beate Marie--which she had made with her own hands and had herself worn.[13] It was regarded as having especial value in securing a safe delivery to expectant mothers, and when the Westminster Book of Customs was compiled by Abbot Richard de Ware about a century before Colchester's admission, it was the rule that the Sacrist or, as he was sometimes called, the Secretary, should carry the girdle of the blessed Mother of God to any destination which it was appointed to reach, or should be at charges with the bearer of it in his place.[14] So here is our Sacrist paying the expenses of William Colchester, namely, 13_s._ 4_d._, and the more considerable price of two horses for the journey, £6 16_s._ 8_d._ But the Sacrist has something to enter on the other side, an offering of £2 from the Countess of March, the lady who craved the aid of the girdle. If any one is churlish enough to say that the bargain seems but a poor one for the Convent--150_s._ spent on the journey, and only 40_s._ received from the beneficiary--the answer is that the horses would be sold at the end of the return journey for almost as much as they cost. If, again, it is objected that in any case the lady's gift was money thrown away, it is not so easy to convince the gainsayer. For while it is on record that on February 12, 1371 (_i.e._ in the year previous to that of the Sacrist's account), the lady Philippa, granddaughter of Edward III., did present her husband, the 3rd Earl of March, with a daughter who in process of time became the wife of Harry Hotspur, yet it does not appear that she was equally blessed during the year 1372-3.
