Item 1 - Indulgence: Pope Sixtus IV

John Sante was elected as abbot of Abingdon on 29 November 1468. It is not known when and where he was born, nor at what point he entered the Abingdon Abbey as a Benedictine monk. From 1468 onwards, however, Sante was active in a number of important diplomatic and administrative assignments, both on behalf of the English crown and, from the mid-1470s, the papal curia. He was made papal nuncio and commissary to England, Ireland and Wales, and in 1477, appointed to the highest rank of papal legate by Pope Sixtus IV. Sante served both Edward IV and Henry VII of England, but in 1489, was accused of conspiracy against the king in having sought to further the rebellion of John de la Pole, earl of Lincoln, two years earlier. As a result of this, Sante’s property as abbot was confiscated. He was pardoned in 1493.