In the middle of the fourteenth century a violent altercation took place between the priory and St John's Abbey. The Abbey complained to the pope that prior John with two of his canons, John Noreys and Thomas de Gipwico, along with several laymen, attacked one of the monks of St John's with a sword and dagger and blockaded them within the abbey, before a third canon with some laymen forced entry and attacked the abbot and convent. Pope Urban V on 1 July 1363 ordered the Archbishop of Canterbury to excommunicate the offending prior and canons if they could be found guilty. This incident appears to have arisen out of disputes over control of the church of St. Peter and other matters in Colchester and over Layer de la Haye. These disputes were settled the following year.