The disastrous reign of John, so full of controversy and frustration, was to end an epoch in English monastic history, but the first years of the new king brought little change, so far as the black monks were concerned, from the conditions that had prevailed under Richard. Though the controversies in which Coventry and Christ Church were engaged had ended, or were on the point of ending, in 1199, Evesham was in trouble and about to embark upon its great struggle against bishop and abbot, St Augustine's, Canterbury, was still actively carrying on its secular warfare for exemption, and one or two more houses were occupied with suits of one kind or another. All, likewise, had to bear their share in the exactions made necessary by the foreign relations and wars of the king. But on the whole the life of the Church in England was more peaceful under the control of the Justiciar Geoffrey FitzPeter and the Chancellor Hubert Walter than it had been in the days of Richard.

Christ Church, Canterbury, in particular, after almost fifteen years of wearing controversy, enjoyed a brief space of rest in which relations with the archbishop were not only tranquil but cordial. The period of calm, however, was not to last, and the origin of the great storm was to be found again at Canterbury, and was to bring an even more severe visitation upon the house.