In 1393 he was commissioned by the Pope to join the Bishop of Salisbury and the Abbot of Waltham in an inquiry into the statutes and customs of the Collegiate Chapter of the Chapel in Windsor Castle, and to correct and reform these, where they seemed to need it.[78] John de Waltham, Bishop of Salisbury, and our Abbot were there associated not for the first time or the last. Two years later the Bishop died, and was buried by Richard's desire in the Confessor's Chapel. Waltham was a successful favourite, without claim to royal sepulture, and we may assume that Colchester and the Convent were among the many who protested. It is, perhaps, not unfair to assert that "the Abbey was well considered for this," or that the monks' "scruples were overborne by gifts of money and vestments."[79] Yet it is a fact that, whereas the Bishop was buried in 1395, the indenture tripartite,[80] which dealt with the use to be made of the gifts, was not drawn up till July 15, 1412. It recites that the Bishop, who had served the Kings of England from his boyhood in their Chancery and in other and higher offices, was buried among the tombs of the Kings;[81] that at the sight of his bier--we must, no doubt, think of Abbot Colchester as standing by--Richard II. had given to the Abbey a rich "Jesse" vestment valued at 1000 marks, and that the executors had added another vestment valued at £40 and 500 marks in money. Colchester and the Convent covenanted to observe the Bishop's obit--September 18--which we know they did to the last. They also admitted into their company one of the Bishop's executors, Ralph Selby, Archdeacon of Buckingham, giving him precedence next to the Prior with corresponding privileges, and granting him, in 1402-3, a yearly pension of £4. This does not support the notion of the Convent's hostility to John de Waltham; at the same time it occurs too late to be reckoned as a bargain entered into for the purpose of securing to the Bishop a posthumous honour which they were unwilling to accord, even when Richard II. asked for it.
I pass by Colchester's part, if he took any, in Richard's journey to Ireland in 1399;[82] for our records throw no light on what did not concern the Convent. There appears to be no doubt that he was confederate with the Earls of Rutland, Huntingdon, Kent, and Salisbury, who were at first confided to his safe-keeping by Henry IV.; that he took part on December 17, 1399, in a secret gathering of the conspirators within the Abbey; that he was arrested, and sent first to Reigate and then, January 25, 1400, to the Tower; and that he was released, after a trial there held on February 4.[83] He had, of course, received Henry IV. when he made his progress to Westminster on October 12, 1399, and had taken part in the coronation on the following day.[84]