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DIOCESAN   HISTORIES. 


LICHFIELD. 

BY 

WILLIAM   BERESFORD. 

VICAR  OF  s.  Luke's,  leek, 

OK   THE   TRUSTEES   OF   THE  WILLIAM    SALT    LIBRARY,    AT    STAFFORD. 

WITH    MAP. 


PUBLISHED    UNDER   THE  DIRECTION   OF    THE    TRACT    COMMITTEE. 


LONDON : 

SOCIETY  FOR  PROMOTING  CHRISTIAN  KNOWLEDGE, 

NORTHUMBERLAND    AVENUE,    CHARING  CROSS,   W.C.  ; 

43,    QUEEN    VICTORIA   STREET,    E.C.  ; 

26,  ST.  George's  place,  hyde  park  corner,  s.w. 
BRIGHTON  :  135    north  street. 


1270423 


TO   THE 

RIGHT    REVEREND 

WILLIAM  DALRYMPLE  MACLAGAN,  D.D. 

LORD    BISHOP    OF    THE    MOTHER    DIOCESE   OF    MERCIA, 
THIS 

H^iitox^  of  tf)e  J3iocf£(e 

IS     HUMBLY    AND    HEARTILY     DEDICATED 

BY    HIS    lordship's   OBEDIENT    PRESBYTER, 

WILLIAM  BERESFORD. 


PREFACE, 


This  little  book  is  not  so  much  a  personal  history  of 
the  bishops,  or  a  chronicle  of  the  Cathedral  of  Lich- 
field, as  an  attempt  to  trace  the  course  of  religion  in 
the  diocese,  and  to  show  the  various  phases  of  feeling 
and  the  different  classes  of  institutions  in  which  it 
has  blossomed  forth  from  age  to  age.  Materials  for 
the  work  are  remarkably  scanty.  The  diocese  has  no 
great  chronicle  written  within  its  borders,  except  that 
of  Burton  Abbey,  though  those  of  Bede,  Ordericus 
Vitalis,  and  AValter  of  Coventry,  are  local  in  their 
sympathy.  Our  sketches  of  the  Norman  bishops 
have  been  largely  drawn  from  fragmentary  notices 
scattered  through  the  public  rolls,  and,  as  such,  are 
themselves  fragmentary.  The  monks  of  Coventry 
have  told  their  tale  about  the  election  struggles  of 
the  thirteenth  century  ;  whilst,  for  the  later  mediaeval 
period,  we  have  found  a  large  body  of  manuscript 
notes  on  the  Diocesan  Registers,  by  Bishop  Hobhouse, 
of  great  service.  But  we  have  followed  as  far  as  we 
could  the  main  stream  of  history  as  handed  down  in 
the  Lichfield  Chronicles,  begun  by  Thomas  of  Ches- 
terfield (1450),  continued  by  William  Whitelock 
(1560),  and  completed  to  1794  by  Samuel  Pegge  and 


VUl  LICHFIELD. 

Stebbing  Shaw.  And  on  all  periods  the  precious 
collections  bequeathed  to  the  county  of  Stafford  by 
the  late  William  Salt,  not  less  than  the  learning  and 
courtesy  of  Mr.  de  Mazzinghi,  the  librarian  in  charge 
of  them,  have  been  found  most  useful.  We  venture, 
indeed,  to  hope  that,  as  far  as  the  Registers  of  the 
Diocese  and  the  Salt  Collections  are  concerned,  this 
little  book  may  be  a  helpful  guide  to  subsequent 
labourers  in  the  same  field  of  research.  The  facts 
which  it  contains  have,  for  the  most  part,  never  before 
been  brought  into  the  light  of  modern  print  out  of  the 
dust  and  darkness  which  settled  down  on  their  own 
times. 

The  History  of  the  Diocese  of  Chester,  from  its 
foundation  in  1541,  is  to  be  told  in  a  separate  volume, 
which  will,  we  hope,  include  some  notice  of  the 
peculiar  glories  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Werburgh  and  its 
remarkable  chronicler,  Higden. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I, 

CELTS,    ROMANS,    AND    BRITISH    CHRISTIANS. 

Traces  of  Celtic  Life  and  Religion — Roman  Towns — Con- 
version to  Christianity — Early  Christian  Settlements 
— Lichfield — Chester       Pct'S'^  i 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   CHURCH    OF   MERCIA   FOUNDED. 
Overthrow  of  Saxon  Heathenism — The  First  Bishops 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    CHURCH    OF    MERCIA    BECOMES    THE    DIOCESE    OF 
LICHFIELD. 

St.  Chad — Division   of  the   Diocese  of  Mercia — Ancient 

Monasteries  —  Saints  and  Hermits        21 


X  LICHFIELD. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE    REACTION. — LICHFIELD    BECOMES 
ARCHIEPISCOPAL. 

Ecclesiastical  Reunion  of  Mercia — Political  Unification  of 

England Page  32 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE    DANES. 
Wreck   of  Previous  Institutions — The   New  Monasticism     40 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  NORMANS  AND  THEIR  NEW  WAYS. 

Removal  of  the  Bishop's  Seat  to  Chester  and  Coventry — 

Foundation  of  Monasteries 50 


CHAPTER  VII. 

REORGANISATION    AND    REVIVAL. 

The  Soldier  Bishop — Norman  Institutions  brought  into 
Lichfield,  Prebendaries  Established,  Cathedral  Re- 
built, City  Walled — Stern  Reforms,  the  Cistercians — 
Free  Churches — Durdent — Leper  Hospitals — Peche, 
the  Younger — La  Pucelle      6j 


CONTENTS.  XI 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

THE    GREAT    STRUGGLE    BETWEEN    LICHFIELD    AND 
COVENTRY. 

Election  Quarrels^ Strife  between  Bishops  and  Monks — 
Remodelling  of  the  Cathedral  Fabric — A  Traitor 
Bishop — Wolverhampton    Pa-ge  78 


CHAPTER  IX. 

REFORMATION    THWARTED     BY    THE    FRIARS. 

Early  Coming  of  the  Friars  to  Lichfield — A  Friar  Bishop 

— Chantries      94 


CHAPTER  X. 

CHURCH    INFLUENCES    IN    THE    GROWTH    OF   TOWNS 
AND    AGRICULTURE. 

Burton — Chester — Coventry — Darley,  &c 103 


CHAPTER  XL 

MORE    ELECTION    STRUGGLES. A    GOOD    AND    A    BAD 

BISHOP. 

Patteshull — The  Pope  spies  an  Opportunity — Clumsy 
Policy  of  Henry  III. — Another  Friar  Bishop — The 
"Wild  Soldier  Bishop      no 


Xll  LICHFIELD. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

SUPPLEMENTARY    SKETCH    OF    THE    THIRTEENTH    CEN- 
TURY.      LIFE   AND   TIMES    OF    BISHOP    LANGTON. 

Pas[e  122 


CHAPTER  XHI. 

A    MEDIAEVAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK. 

Acts  of  Bishop  Norbury — Building  of  the  Three  Spires — 
The  Black  Death — Contents  of  the  Cathedral  in  1346 
— Thomas  of  Chesterfield     134 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    LATER    MEDIEVALISM. 

Some  Papal  Aggressions — Reformers — William  Thorpe  — 
Desolation  and  Decline  in  Religious  Houses — Bishop 
Heyworth — Change  of  Feeling  towards  Monasteries 
—  Foundation  of  Manchester  Collegiate  Church  — 
Anchorites 148 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE    EVE    OF   THE    REFORMATION. 

Bishop  Butler  as  a  Specimen  of  Later  Medisevalism — 
Wars  of  the  Roses — The  Lords  Marchers—  Preaching 
— Bishop  Blythe — Burns  a  Lollard      165 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE   CRISIS. 

Bishop  Lee  and  his  Noble  and  Ignoble  Deeds — Return  to 
Older  Type  of  Christianity — Sketch  of  the  Minsters 
on  the  Edge  of  the  Storm  which  destroyed  so  many  of 
them       Page  182 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

WRECK    OF   THE    ABBEYS. 

Inquiry  into  the  State  of  Religious  Houses — Proposal  for  a 
See  of  Shrewsbury — Glimpses  of  Means  employed  to 
Dissolve  Abbeys  and  Friaries  —  Sales  of  Goods — 
Wreck  of  Country  Chapels — Foundation  of  Chester 
See     197 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    MARTYRS    AND    QUEEN    MARY. 
Some  Fruits  of  the  Reformation 214 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

FRESH    HEART   UNDER    ELIZABETH. 

Grammar  Schools —Literary  Bishops  and  Deans — State  of 
the   Diocese — Schools — Poverty   of    Clergy — Church 


XIV  LICHFIELD. 


Sports,  Ales,  and  Plays — Rise  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Sect — Controversy  between  New  Roman  Catholics 
and  Old  Churchmen     Po^S^  220 


CHAPTER  XX. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF  PURITAN    BITTERNESS. 

Cireat  Literary  Bishops — They  write  whilst  the  Laity  read — 
Roman  Pretended  Miracles — The  Bishop  of  Lichfield 
sent  to  the  Tower 229 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

CULMINATION    OF    PURITAN    BITTERNESS. 

The  Outbreak  of  the  Great  Rebellion — How  Lichfield 
Cathedral  fared  —  Sufferings  of  the  Clergy  —  Some 
Good  Features  of  the  Anarchy — Boscobel 236 


CHAPTER  XXH. 

THE    RESTORATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Ejection  of  Intruding  Clergy  —  Bishop  Racket's  Re- 
building of  the  Cathedral  Ruins — The  Great  Plague — 
The  Worst  Bishop  who  ever  ruled  Lichfield — Quaker 
Troubles  —  The  Revolution  —  Reaction  from  it  — 
Sacheverell —Jacobin  Riots 244 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

CONTEMPLATIVE    BISHOPS    AND    ACTIVE     EVANGELISTS. 

How  the  Church  vanquished  the  Deists — Wesleyanism — 
Aristocratic  Bishops — The  Church  Asleep — Popula- 
tion lost — Difficulties  of  Church-building P<^g^  260 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

LICHFIELD    IN    THE    PRESENT    CENTURY. 

Ryder —  Church-building — Church  Reforms — Lonsdale — 

Selwyn — Work  Achieved      276 


LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER   I. 

CELTS,    ROMANS,    AND    BRITISH    CHRISTIANS. 

Traces  of  Celtic  Life  and  Religion— Roman  Towns— Conver- 
sion to  Christianity —Early  Christian  Settlements— Lich- 
field— Chester. 

The  diocese  of  Lichfield  consists  of  the  counties  of 
Derby,  Stafford,  part  of  Salop,  and  a  parish  in  Flint- 
shire.    Until  1836  it  included  South  Warwickshire ; 
before  the  Reformation,  Cheshire  also,  and  Lancashire 
south  of  the  Ribble,  were  parts  of  it.    But  in  the  days 
of  Saint  Chad,  and  for  some  years  before  and  after 
him,  the  bishops  of  Lichfield  were  bishops  of  all  the 
kingdom  of  Mercia,  which  stretched  from  the  Humber 
and  Lincolnshire  on  the  east,  to  Gloucestershire  and 
the  Wye  on  the  west ;  and  southwards,   almost  to 
London.     Thus  Lichfield  is  the  Mother  diocese  from 
which,  at  different  times,  no  less  than  eleven  dioceses 
have  been  thrown  off,  namely, — Hereford,  Worcester, 
Lincoln,  Ely,  Peterboro',  Chester,  Manchester,  Liver- 
pool, Gloucester,  and  parts  of  Oxford  and  St.  Alban's. 
The  following  pages  are  devoted  to  a  survey  of  the 
religious  history  of  the  area  which  was  included  in 
the  diocese  from  the  seventh  century  to  the  Reforma- 

/ 


2  LICHFIELD.  ] 

tion,  comprising  Staffordshire,  Derbyshire,  Cheshire, 
South  Lancashire,  South  Warwickshire,  and  Eastern 
Salop. 

The  three  features  of  this  part  of  Mercia — peak, 
forest,  and  river — greatly  influenced  the  habits  of 
its  early  inhabitants.  The  river-valleys  seem  to  have 
been  first  occupied  ;  then,  as  wave  after  wave  of  in- 
vaders came  surging  up  them,  the  older  races  were 
forced  forwards  and  upwards  into  the  forests  and  hills. 
So,  when  the  Gospel  was  first  preached  here,  in  the 
days  of  the  Roman  occupation,  the  uplands  of  Stafford- 
shire and  Lancashire  were  inhabited  by  remnants  of 
the  Celtic  race,  who  practised  Druidism,  and  the  rich 
valleys  of  the  Trent,  Mersey,  and  Dee,  by  a  mixed 
population,  who  had  adopted  a  smattering  of  Roman 
manners. 

On  a  bleak  and  spreading  moor  of  the  Peak  of 
Derbyshire,  not  far  from  Hartington,  and  between 
Buxton  and  Ashburne,  stands  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  the  many  monuments  which  the  highland 
Celts  left  behind  them.  A  circular  platform,  167  feet 
in  diameter,  is  enclosed  by  a  ditch  18  feet  wide,  and 
an  outer  bank  of  from  18  to  24  feet  in  height.  Its 
gateways  open  north  and  south.  Within  the  circle  lie 
thirty  to  forty  large  stones,  which  may  once  have  stood 
upright.  In  the  centre  are  three  larger  stones,  which 
may  have  formed  a  cist,  or  chest.  And  near  the  south 
entrance  is  a  large  barrow,  which,  like  a  neighbouring 
barrow,  w^as  found  to  contain  the  relics  of  very  ancient 
interments, — ashes  and  urns,  of  "  the  Bronze  Age." 

The  wild  old  hills  of  our  diocese  shelter  in  their 
bosoms   many  traces,  both  of  the   habitations    and 


CELTS,    ROMANS,    AND   BRITISH   CHRISTIANS.  3 

the  death  struggles  of  the  older  Celtic  races.  A 
Roman  altar  is  preserved  at  Haddon  Hall,  bearing 
the  name  of  the  Cohors  Prima  Aquitanorum  of 
the  time  of  Hadrian  (a.d.  ii8).  Haddon,  as 
every  tourist  knows,  lies  on  the  edge  of  the  moors. 
Perhaps  the  Cohort  stationed  there,  and  another 
which  was  settled  twenty  years  later  at  Melandra 
Castle  near  Glossop,  were  protecting  the  working  of 
the  lead-mines  near  Chesterfield  and  Wirksworth.  In 
the  year  1777,  a  pig^  of  lead,  bearing  a  stamp  of 
Hadrian's  time,  was  dug  up  near  Cromford.  And  at 
this  very  time,  the  time  of  Hadrian,  as  shown  by 
excavations  made  by  the  late  Mr.  Carrington,  Britons 
were  living  in  the  limestone  caves  near  Dovedale, 
perhaps  driven  thither  by  undying  hostility  to  the 
invaders. 

What  happened  among  the  Celts  dwelling  in  the 
hills  of  Derbyshire  and  the  moorlands,  happened  also 
among  the  similar  highlanders  of  the  Longmynd  and 
Wrekin  country.  A  long  and  terrible  struggle  took 
place  before  the  Ordovices,  a  brave  Shropshire  tribe, 
were  subdued.  Almost  exactly  1,800  years  ago,  they 
surprised  the  Romans,  and  entirely  destroyed  a  troop 
of  cavalry.  The  insurrection  was  joined  by  other 
Britons,  but  was  savagely  crushed  by  Julius  Agricola, 
who  nearly  extinguished  the  offending  tribe. 

Once  in  possession  of  the  Shropshire  hills,  the 
Romans  began  to  work  the  lead-mines  there,  as  they 
did  those  of  the  hills  of  Derbyshire,  on  the  other  side 
of  our  field  of  observation.  Specimens  of  Hadrian's 
pigs  of  lead  have  often  been  found  in  Shropshire. 

Chester,  or  Deva,  "the  City  of  Legions,"  was  the 
B  2 


4  LICHFIELD. 

chief  Roman  town  in  this  neighbourhood,  and  was 
the  head-quarters  of  a  Roman  legion.  Roads  ran 
thence  eastwardly  towards  Mancunium  (Manchester), 
another  important  station,  and  southwardly  towards 
Uriconiiwi  (Wroxeter),  joining  there  the  great  Wat- 
ling  Street.  The  Watling  Street,  on  its  course  across 
the  land,  ran  through  the  south  of  the  diocese, 
passing  Uxaconium  (Oakengates),  Pennocnicciicm 
(Stretton,  or  Penkridge),  and  Etocetum  (or  Wall),  near 
Lichfield.  Before  the  road  left  Staffordshire  on  the 
London  side,  a  great  branch^  struck  out  towards 
Derbyshire,  running  past  a  military  station  in  a 
loop  of  the  Trent,  near  Burton,  on  to  Little 
Chester,  close  to  the  site  of  later  Derby,  and  then 
away  north,  both  for  the  mines  around  Liitudarinn 
(now  Chesterfield),  and  for  the  magnificent  baths  at 
Aqiice  (Buxton). 2  Military  stations  at  Wall  and  Penk- 
ridge probably  kept  watch  on  the  fierce  Celts  in 
Cannock  Chase  and  South  Staffordshire ;  and  others 
at  Newcastle,  Uttoxeter,  Parwich,  Haddon,  Brough 
(near  Castleton)  and  Glossop,  seem  to  have  hemmed 
in  or  dominated  the  equally  desperate  patriots  of  the 
hills. 

Many  traces  of  this  Roman  occupation  are  still  to 
be  found.  An  inscription  till  lately  remained  at 
Melandra  Castle,  near  Glossop,  giving  the  name  of 

'  The  Rykneld  or  Rycknield  Street.  Dr.  Pegge,  the  Rector  of 
Whittington,  Derbyshire,  and  Canon  of  Lichfield,  a  -ivell-known 
antiquary  of  the  last  century,  observed  and  proved  the  character 
of  this  road,  along  which  he  constantly  travelled.  See  Lyson's 
"  Derbyshire,"  ccx. 

'  For  a  description  of  the  Roman  Baths  at  Buxton  and  the 
seven  roads  radiating  thence,  see  "Reliquary,"  iii.,  207. 


URICONIUM.  5 

the  Cohort  stationed  there  in  a.d.  98.  The  baths 
used  by  them  at  Buxton  are  not  entirely  swept  away. 
A  milestone  was  lately  found  on  a  Derbyshire  moor. 
The  road  from  Derby  to  Shrewsbury  still  shows  the 
straight  stretches  of  its  ancient  track.  The  land  about 
Wall,  near  Lichfield,  has  signs  of  rich  archaeological 
treasures  yet  to  be  found  in  it.  But  the  most  interesting 
city  of  all — Wroxeter,  has  yielded  so  much  to  the 
diligent  spade  of  the  late  Thomas  Wright,  M.A.,  F.S.xA.., 
that  we  can  in  fancy  almost  rebuild  it.  Its  paved 
streets,  its  houses  gaily  painted  inside  and  out,  with 
their  tiled  roofs,  glazed  windows,  and  exquisite  tesse- 
lated  pavements ;  its  market-hall,  surrounded  with 
little  bazaars ;  its  basilika,  with  three  aisles ;  its 
splendid  public  baths ;  its  many  rooms  for  generating 
house- warmth ;  its  cemetery ;  its  coins,  and  much 
beside, — though  but  a  very  small  part  of  what  lies 
buried  beneath  the  uneven  fields  of  that  lonely  village 
on  the  banks  of  the  Severn, — all  tell  of  a  great  city, 
which  was  once  full  of  civilised  life.  Such  traces  are 
of  importance  to  our  present  subject.  The  preachers 
of  the  Gospel  first  came  to  towns  as  centres  of  popu- 
lation, and  in  them  the  Gospel  lamp  shone  brightly 
long  before  its  rays  reached  the  open  country. 

But  was  Uriconium  ever  Christian  ?  Mr.  Wright 
thought  not.  Bingham  tells  us  that  the  Christians 
always  buried,  never  burnt,  their  dead.  The  ceme- 
tery at  Uriconium  has  been  found ;  ^  large  numbers 
of  urns  and   sepulchral   inscriptions  have  appeared, 

'  A  Roman  cemetery  at  King's  Newton,  near  Melbourne, 
Derby,  was  discovered  some  years  ago,  and  resembles  that  of 
Uriconium. 


6  LICHFIELD. 

but  none  record  Christian  hope.  Nor  was  there  a 
single  grave  in  which  lay  a  body  unburnt.^  The 
urns  lie  in  rows,  and,  in  some  cases,  it  is  plain  that 
cremation  was  performed  in  the  excavation  intended 
for  the  grave.  Curiously,  lamps  and  little  glass  bottles 
for  "tears  "or  unguents  often  accompany  the  urns; 
but  only  in  two  instances  has  the  coin  been  exhumed 
which  was  usually  buried  with  the  ashes  to  pay  the 
fare  of  Charon's  boat,  and  these  are  coins  of  Trajan 
(a.d.  98-117),  and  Hadrian  (a.d.  11 7-138).  Only  two 
of  many  heathen  gravestones  mention  the  gods.  It 
would  appear,  therefore,  that  religion  of  any  sort  was 
fast  dying  out  of  this  part  of  England  when  the  Gospel 
came  to  it.  Nevertheless,  the  name  of  Christ  was 
not  unknown  in  Uriconium.  Coins  in  abundance, 
charged  with  the  sacred  monogram  and  the  labarum 
(the  sacred  banner  of  the  cross,  seen  in  the  heavens 
by  Constantine),  have  been  dug  up,  ranging  in  date 
from  the  first  Christian  emperor,  Constantine  himself 
(a.d.  305-306),  down  to  Gratian  (a.d.  375-381).  All 
of  them,  however,  are  fresh  and  crisp  from  the  mint, 
as  though  they  had  not  long  been  in  use. 

The  great  and  godless  city  came  to  a  bad  end. 
Dense  obscurity  envelopes  its  fate.  Traces  of  fierce 
fire  in  every  part  show  what  the  final  agent  of  destruc- 
tion was.     And  skeletons — an  old  man  hidden  with 

^  Near  Burton-on-Trent,  at  Stretton,  Roman  interments  were 
found  in  1881,  showing  the  transition  from  paganism  to  Chris- 
tianity. Among  urns,  &c.,  lay  a  full-length  skeleton,  with  a 
metal  cross  on  its  breast.  Nearly  forty  more  skeletons  were 
discovered  in  18S3.  A  similar  interment  was  found  some  years 
ago  at  Little  Chester,  near  Derby,  which  is  an  undoubted 
Roman  settlement.     Pegge  called  it  boldly  Derventio. 


FIRST    GLIMPSE    OF    LICHFIELD.  '  7 

his  money-box  in  a  hypocaust  under  the  baths  ;  a 
mother  lying  dead  not  far  from  her  abandoned  baby ; 
a  group  of  women  overtaken  and  butchered  as  they 
huddled  together  in  the  back  yard  of  a  house — 
indicate  that  the  city  was  sacked  and  then  burnt  by 
soldiery,  after  the  destruction,  or  in  the  absence,  of 
its  male  defenders. 

In  the  darkness  which  besets  the  fate  of  Uriconium, 
the  adjacent  Roman  towns  disappear.  Then,  too, 
events  must  have  happened  which  stained  the  site  of 
modern  Lichfield  with  the  title  Licid-field,  a  name 
which  is  preserved  for  us  in  Bede,  and  which  may, 
perhaps,  be  best  Englished  as  "  Dead  Men's  Field  "  ; 
for,  when  the  light  of  history  next  falls  on  this  part 
of  our  diocese,  Uriconium  is  but  an  overgrown  ruin, 
so  haunted,  in  the  imagination  of  the  new  Saxon 
invaders,  by  the  ghosts  and  goblins  of  its  former 
inhabitants,  that  no  man  would  pass  through  it ;  and 
Licid-field,  the  blood-stained  plot  which  "  derived 
its  name  from  war,"  shared  its  lonely  silence  only 
with  the  dreaded  water-nixie  and  the  croaking  lich- 
bird.i 

'  John  Rous  of  Warwick,  a  herald  of  Edward  IV. 's  time, 
seems  to  have  been  the  first  writer  of  the  legend  of  the  massacre 
of  Christians  at  Lichfield  under  Diocletian.  As  much  as  200 
years  ago,  Dr.  Plot  searched  in  vain  for  the  MS.  in  which 
Rous  was  supposed  to  have  made  his  statement.  The  deriva- 
tion of  the  word  Lichfield  which  we  follow  is  that  which  Warton 
gives,  "  ^Jf  Archivis  Ecclesicz  Lichfeldensis"  viz.,  "  Civitas 
Lichfeldensis  olim  ex  bello  Liches  nominata  fuit "  (i.  459),  a 
derivation  which  may  somewhat  strain  etymology,  but  which  is 
more  firmly  supported  by  history  and  authority  than  the  other 
which  makes  Lichfield=Lakefield.  Licid-field  is  King  Alfred's 
version  of  Bede's  "  Lyccidfelth" 


8  LICHFIELD. 

Whilst,  then,  it  seems  probable  that  the  religion 
of  the  older  tribes  in  the  hills  passed,  by  conversion, 
into  Christianity,  and  so  remained,  it  is  also  likely^ 
that  the  richer  and  newer  people  of  the  plain  had 
lapsed  into  utter  scepticism  when  the  Saxons  fell  upon 
them.  But  a  pleasing  exception  is  to  be  found  at 
Darley  Dale,  in  Derbyshire.  The  church  there  stands 
upon  the  site  of  a  Roman  villa,  part  of  the  floor  of 
which  remains.  This  was  doubtless  the  spot  upon 
which  the  Romano-Britons  of  the  neighbourhood  first 
learned  to  assemble  for  the  worship  of  the  Redeemer, 
and  on  it  rose  the  church.  A  yew-tree,  supposed  to  be 
2,000  years  old,  still  flourishes  in  the  churchyard. 

But  where  were  the  Christians  of  Uriconium?  Such 
there  surely  must  have  been.  A  glance  at  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Chester  will  perhaps  help  us  to  answer 
the  question.     But,  first,  of  Shrewsbury. 

It  is  said  by  the  celebrated  antiquary,  Leland,  that 
when  Uriconium  was  destroyed  a  remnant  of  the 
inhabitants  fled  over  the  Severn  into  the  woods. 
Lighting  on  a  spot  where  that  noble  river  almost 
encircles  a  rocky  promontory,  they  fixed  their  abode. 
The  place  was  pleasant  and  peaceable,  hence  its  name 
of  Aniwyddig^  or  Imwyddig,  the  delightful.  They  had 
reached  it  by  a  tedious  path  through  scrub  and  brush- 
wood ;  hence  it  was  also  called  Pengwyr7i^  "  head  of 
the  alders  or  willouis^''  and  in  later  days  Shrewsbury^ 
the  "  to7vn  of  trees.^''  Whether  the  ancient  British 
Church,  which  had  been  already  planted  among  the 

'  See  page  6. 

''■  No  Saxon  relics  have  been  found  at  "Wroxeter ;  no   Roman 
ones  at  Shrewsbury. 


BANCHOR    ISCOED.  9 

Ordovices,  absorbed  and  converted  the  infidel  fugi- 
tives, there  is  no  record.  But,  since  the  Saxons  were 
kept  at  bay  until  the  days  of  Offa,  we  are  sure  that 
English  heathenism  never  blasted  Salop. 

Two  traditional  facts  throw  light  on  this  period. 
By  so  good  an  authority  as  the  late  Robert  Evans  of 
Cambridge,^  it  was  thought  probable  that  St.  Augus- 
tine of  Canterbury  made  a  tour  up  the  Severn 
valley,  only,  however,  to  find  the  district  already 
Christian.  At  Cressage  he  preached  under  a  tree, 
"  Christ's  oak,"  from  which  some  think  the  village 
took  its  name,  and  which  still  stands.  iVt  Clive  he 
found  a  little  wooden  church,  which  survived  him  to 
modern  times. 

The  second  fact  is  well  known.  Just  outside  the 
north-east  corner  of  the  county  of  Salop,  the  Bishop  of 
Lichfield  has  still  charge  of  Penley,  a  parish  in  Flint- 
shire, adjoining  Banchor,  or  Bangor  Iscoed.  Bangor 
was  itself  within  the  diocese  of  Coventry  and  Lich- 
field before  the  Reformation,  and  in  that  of  Chester 
till  1836.  It  is  well  known  as  having  been  the  seat 
of  the  most  famous  of  the  British  monasteries.  The 
name  Iscoed,  or  "under-the-wood,"  tells  of  the  sylvan 
character  of  the  ancient  district  of  Chester,  which 
stretched  thence  in  a  northward  direction  as  far  as 
the  river  Ribble.  The  college,  or  monastic  body  of 
Bangor,  has  been  supposed  to  have  been  at  first  a 
company  of  converted  Britons.  It  was  very  likely  a 
settlement  into  which  converts  to  the  Gospel  were 
gathered  for  mutual  support  out  of  the  terrible  pollu- 

'  Often  said  by  him  to  Canon  Lloyd  of  Shrewsbury. 


lO  LICHFIELD. 

tions  of  surrounding  heathenism.  But  we  have  no 
authentic  record  of  its  existence  until  the  coming  of 
the  Saxons.  They  found  here  no  less  than  2,100 
monks.  No  traces  of  the  monastery  now  remain; 
but  in  William  of  Malmesbury's  time,  600  years 
ago,  the  site  was  marked  by  "so  many  ruinous 
churches,  and  such  heaps  of  rubbish,  as  were  scarcely 
seen  elsewhere."  When  Leland  visited  it,  350  years 
ago,  it  was  all  "  ploughed  ground  where  the  abbey 
was,  by  the  space  of  a  good  Walsche  mile,  and  they 
plough  up  bones  of  the  monks  ;  and,  in  remembrance, 
were  digged  up  pieces  of  their  clothes  in  sepulchre." 

If,  therefore,  we  may  judge  of  pre-Saxon  Cheshire 
by  the  condition  of  Romano-British  Christianity  in  the 
Salop  and  Stafford  lowlands,  it  seems  likely,  as  hinted 
above,  that  this  vast  company  of  Christians  was  a  sort 
of  spiritual  oasis  in  the  midst  of  a  desert — a  Christian 
colony,  surrounded  by  a  sparse  population  which  had 
lost  faith  in  heathenism,  and  had  not  yet  made  up 
its  mind  as  to  Christianity.  The  monks  lived  to- 
gether in  seven  classes  of  three  hundred  each.  Dinooth, 
Dunod,  or  Dunawd,^  their  ruler,  seems  to  have  been 
at  once  mayor,  abbot,  and  patriarch.  He  was  one  of 
the  speakers  at  Augustine's  Oak,  where,  if  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth  is  to  be  believed,  he  told  the  great 
Roman  missionary  that  the  British  Church  owed  no 
allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and  would  yield  none.^ 

The  part  played  by  so  large  an  organisation  of 
Christians  under  a  ruler  like  Dunod  might  have  been 
great  in   the   religious  revival  which,  a   little   later, 

'  A  Welsh  form  of  Donatus. 

'  Bede  II.  2.,  Geoffry  of  Monmouth,  bk.  ix.,  chap.  12. 


THE   BATTLE   OF   CHESTER.  II 

blessed  the  remnant  of  the  British  Church.  But  a 
crushing  blow  fell  upon  it  about  the  year  613. 

Chester  then  lay  in  the  heart  of  a  British  confedera- 
tion, which  stretched  from  Scotland  to  Bristol.  Ethel- 
frith,  king  of  Saxon  Northumbria,  who  had  pressed  the 
Britons  hard  in  the  north,  determined  to  attack  the 
middle  of  this  chain  of  states,  in  the  hope  of  cutting 
them  asunder.  Avoiding,  therefore,  the  Peak-land,  he 
swept  down  upon  Chester.  The  Christian  colony  fasted 
for  three  days,  and  then  sent  its  monks  forth  to  support 
their  armed  fellow-countrymen  with  their  prayers.  The 
ruthless  invader  saw  their  wild  gestures  as  they  stood 
apart  from  the  host,  and  put  them  first  to  the  sword. 

The  battle  of  Chester  decided  more  than  the  fate 
of  Bangor  monastery.  Henceforth  the  Britons  rapidly 
gave  way  to  the  conquerors,  and  Christianity  in 
Cheshire  and  South  Lancashire  was  almost  extin- 
guished, until  the  days  of  St.  Chad. 

The  fate  of  the  Christian  colony  outside  Chester 
reflects  light  on  Lichfield.  Is  it  not  likely  that  Chris- 
tians had  been  massed  here  for  mutual  protection  and 
support  amid  the  heathenism  of  ancient  South  Stafford- 
shire ?  Is  it  altogether  unlikely  that  such  a  settlement 
should  have  been  contemptuously  dubbed  *  Dead 
Men's  Plot,'  from  the  fact  that  the  Christians  rather 
buried  than  burnt  their  dead?  And  was  not  this 
dismal  title  intensified  and  perpetuated  by  a  slaughter 
of  Christians  here  by  the  invading  Saxons,  such  as 
took  place  at  Banchor  Iscoed  ?  Such  a  supposition 
accounts  both  for  the  ancient  legends  and  arms  of 
Lichfield  city,  and  for  the  choice  of  that  spot  as  a 
residence  by  St.  Chad. 


12  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  CHURCH  OF  MERCL\  FOUNDED. 

Overthrow  of  Saxon  Heathenism — The  First  Bishops. 

The  terrific  struggles  in  which  the  invading  Saxons 
overthrew  the  great  Romano-British  civilisation  which 
flourished  on  the  banks  of  the  Trent  and  Derwent, 
and  stretched  away  westwardly  to  the  Severn,  have 
left  no  story  behind  them,  except  such  as  may  perhaps 
be  read  in  existing  traces  of  encampments  and  place 
names.  Coming  along  the  Fosse  Way,  and  up  the 
Trent  from  the  east,  the  tide  of  invasion  would  seem 
to  have  met  and  overwhelmed  considerable  opposition 
at  or  near  Lichfield.  It  was  then  turned  north  by  the 
wild  lands  and  tangled  scrub,  and  perhaps  wilder 
inhabitants,  of  Cannock  Chase.  A  line  of  forts^ — 
Castle  Ring,  near  Beaudesert ;  Bury  Ring,  at  Stafford  ; 
Bury  Bank,  at  Stone ;  and  Camp  Hills,  near  Maer — 
confined  the  invaders  to  the  Trent  and  Churnet  val- 
leys. Advancing  up  both  these,  their  forces  would 
seem  to  have  joined  each  other  at  Rudyard,  near 
Leek,  and  to  have  dislodged  a  great  body  of  Britons 
from  intrenchments  at  the  top  of  Gun  or  Dun  Hill, 
where  the  earthworks  and  names  of  adjacent  lanes 

'  The  late  Mr.  Molyneux,  F.G.  S.,  of  Branston,  near  Burton- 
on-Trent,  did  much  to  bring  these  into  notice.  Earthworks 
remain. 


MARCH    OF   THE    MERCIANS.  I3 

and  farmsteads  still  speak  of  a  sanguinary  contest.^ 
The  wreck  of  the  defenders  escaped  probably  thence 
into  Cheshire,  down  the  narrow  ravine  of  the  Dane, 
and  the  rage  of  invasion  may  have  died  out,  so  far  as 
the  upper  Trent  was  concerned,  in  the  broad  valley  of 
the  "  Frith,"  which  forms  the  gateway  to  the  higher 
and  more  barren  hills  where  then  dwelt  a  remnant  of 
the  older  Celtic  races,  too  poor  to  be  robbed  and  too 
patriotic  to  be  overcome. 

How  long  the  land  west  of  Cannock  Chase  and  the 
Trent  was  held  by  the  British,  we  cannot  tell.  But 
it  is  significant  that  a  line  of  Saxon  forts  arose  oppo- 
site the  forts  of  the  Britons.  Tamworth  kept  watch 
on  Cannock,  Stafford  on  Bury  Ring,  and  Stone  on 
Bury  Bank. 

The  irreligion  which  had  previously  marked  the 
Romano-Britons  of  South  Derbyshire  and  Staffordshire 
lingered  with  the  Saxons,  their  successors.  The 
Christian  settlements  at  Lichfield  and  Banchor  had  been 
stamped  out.  Whatever  Christianity  there  was  in  the 
hills,  and  beyond  their  western  frontier,  the  attitude 
of  its  professors  was  one  of  deadly  hate  and  bitter 
hostility  towards  the  invaders.  While  the  one  side 
burned  in  the  merciless  greed  of  conquest,  the  other 
maddened  in  the  anguish  of  a  struggle  for  very  life. 
So  time  went  on.  Three  Saxon  kings  ruled  over 
Mercia,  which  included  the  Middle  Angles,  south  of 

1  "Brundock,"  "Lock-gate,"  "Savage  Heys,"  "Hostage 
Lane,"  "  Hung-rills,"  or  "  Hungryhills."  Traces  of  battle  are 
ploughed  up  in  Savage  Heys.  The  valley,  which  abounds  in 
Celtic  traces,  afterwards  became  the  home  domain  of  Dieu  la 
Cres  Abbey. 


14  LICHFIELD. 

the  Trent,  and  the  Mercians  proper,  on  the  north  of 
it.  What  the  nation  became  in  that  time  is,  perhaps, 
well  shown  by  the  character  of  Penda  the  Strong,  its 
fourth  king.  "  He  was  not  baptised,"  says  Nennius  of 
him,  "and  never  believed  in  God."^  But  he  was 
brave,  energetic,  and  successful  in  war.  Five  kings 
had  been  slaughtered  by  him.  He  was,  says  Henry 
of  Huntingdon, 

"  Fierce  as  a  wolf  by  hunger  render'd  bold  "  j 
relentless  in  the  pursuit  of  conquest,   and,  we  fear, 
unsparing  towards  his  captives. 

The  people,  it  would  seem,  were  like  their  prince. 
They  squatted  like  ghouls  amid  the  ruins  of  the  old 
Romano-British  villages  and  towns.  They  were 
heathen  if  anything  ;  and  their  long  opposition  to  the 
Gospel  entailed  upon  them  an  utter  absence  of  the 
arts  and  literature, ^  Brave  and  great  as  may  have  been 
their  deeds,  we  know  nothing  of  them  except  what  the 
writers  of  other  and  Christian  kingdoms  have  told  us. 

But,  whilst  the  condition  of  Mercia  was  thus  dark, 
a  better  day  was  about  to  dawn.  Already  Northum- 
bria  had  listened  to  the  preaching  of  men  sent  to  it 
j7  from  Ireland,  which  again  had  been  converted  by 
Patrick,  probably  a  native  of  Britain  ;  ^  and  in  the 
year  653  the  British  bishop,  Finan,  was  ruling  the 
Northumbrian  Church.  Oswiu  or  Oswy,  son  of  the  / 
saintly  Oswald  whom  Penda  had  slain,  was  then  king. 
His  son  Alchfrid  had  married  one  of  King  Penda's 
.daughters ;  and  in  652  the  hand  of  his  own  daughter 
was  sought  by  Peada,  son  of  Penda,  who  had  been 

'  Sec.  65.  ^  "  Lappenberg,"  i.,  221. 

'  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  Top.  Ireland,  xxii. 


EARLY   MISSIONARIES.  15 

admitted  by  his  father  into  the  government  of  the 
Middle  Angles. 

Tliere  was  something  very  beautiful  in  the  earnest 
piety  of  the  Northumbrian  court.  The  young  suitor 
was  received  with  kindness. ^  The  princess  was  pro- 
mised to  him  on  condition  that  his  people  became 
Christians,  and  her  brother  Alchfrid  undertook  to 
teach  him.  So  well  did  Alchfrid  explain  the  glorious 
hopes  and  truths  of  the  Gospel,  that  Peada  was 
greatly  affected.  "  I  would  be  a  Christian,"  he  said, 
"  even  if  I  might  not  have  the  virgin." 

Bishop  Finan  baptised  the  young  king  and  all  his 
attendants  in  652,  thus  admitting  them  into  fellowship 
;^  with  the  ancient  British  Church.  And  when  Peada 
came  home  he  brought  with  him  four  presbyters  of 
the  same  old  Church— Cedda,  brother  of  St.  Chad, 
and  afterwards  bishop  of  London ;  Adda,  Betti,  and 
Diuma.  They  preached  round  Leicester,  and  as 
far  north  as  Repton  ;  sometimes  they  even  crossed 
the  Trent  into  Staffordshire  and  the  Peak,  Nor  did 
the  old  king,  Penda,  oppose  them.  His  subjects  might, 
for  aught  he  cared,  become  Christian ;  he  only 
despised  the  poor  half-hearted  creatures  who  did  not 
heartily  serve  the  God  whom  they  believed. 

But  Penda's  day  was  fast  waning.  In  the  autumn 
of  the  year  655,  he  gathered  his  pagans  for  a  last 
assault  upon  Christian  Northumbria.  Thirty  legions, 
and  as  many  thanes,  followed  his  banner  to  the 
north ;  Oswy  had  but  one.  The  armies  met  at 
Wingfield,  near  Leeds ;  and  in  the  utter  rout  which 

•  See  "  History  of  Durham  "  in  this  series  of  Diocesan  His- 
tories for  other  details. 


l6  LICHFIELD. 

ensued  Penda  and  paganism  fell  togetlier.  There- 
upon Oswy  became  over-lord  of  Mercia,  having  Peada 
as  under-governor  on  the  south  of  the  Trent. 

Meantime,  the  four  priests,  in  close  union  with 
their  king,  worked  well.  The  field  was  ripe  for  harvest. 
The  Gospel  rapidly  spread  among  the  5,000  families  of 
Middle  Anglia.^  Those  of  Mercia  proper,  consisting 
of  some  7,000  families,  in  Staffordshire,  Derbyshire, 
and  elsewhere  north  of  the  Trent,  also  showed  signs 
of  longing  for  it;  and  between  the  conquest  of  Penda, 
November  15,  655,  and  the  murder  of  Peada,  which 
happened  about  Easter,  656,  Diuma,  (656-658),  with 
the  joint  consent  of  Oswy  and  Peada,  was  made 
bishop  of  the  whole  Mercian  district.  His  see  stretched 
from  the  Lindiswaras  in  Lincolnshire,  over  the  rich 
plains  of  Mercia  and  Middle  Anglia,  to  the  dense 
forests  of  the  Hwiccas  along  the  Severn  and  the 
Wye.  The  new  bishop  was  a  wandering  missionary. 
He  had  no  cathedral,  and  no  sedes.  He  and  his 
immediate  successors  were  content,  says  Wharton, 
"to  live  the  life  of  the  monastery";  that  is,  they 
followed  the  plan  afterwards,  to  some  extent,  pursued 
by  Bishops  Sehvyn  and  Patteson.  They  gathered 
their  converts,  both  male  and  female,  into  com- 
munities, over  which  they,  or  trusty  persons  under 
them,  ruled  in  a  fatherly  way.  Repton  seems  to 
have  been  the  chief  centre  of  this  kind  of  work,  and 
the  place  in  which,  at  the  end  of  his  brief  episcopate 
of  two  years,  Diuma  was  buried. 

Diuma  was,  both  by  birth  and  episcopal  succession, 

*  Florence  of  Worcester,  on  year  653.    Henry  of  Huntingdon, 
bk.  ii. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MERCIA  FOUNDED.      1 7 

an  Irish  missionary.  He  came  back  to  the  land  of 
his  fathers  as  a  stranger,  and  the  brevity  of  his  life 
seems  to  bear  testimony  to  the  biting  toil  with  which, 
despite  his  foreign  tongue  and  wide  field,  he  gathered 
^'  not  a  few  people  to  the  Lord."  His  chief  interest 
for  us  is,  that  he  was  the  first  founder  of  the  Church 
of  Mercia,  and  of  that  long  episcopal  line  which  after- 
wards settled  at  Lichfield.  That  Church  was,  in  its 
very  beginning,  closely  linked  with  the  king,  and 
altogether  distinct  from,  and  independent  of,  any 
other  Church.  The  Church  of  England  did  not 
as  yet  exist.^ 

After Diuma  came  Ceollach  or  Ceolla  (658-659), 
who  was  a  Briton  by  descent,  and  also  consecrated  by 
the  British  Bishop  of  Northumbria.  After  the  death  of 
Peada,  656,  Oswy  had  governed  the  whole  realm  of 
Mercia ;  and  under  his  auspices  the  new  bishop  came. 
But  in  the  year  658  the  Mercians  rebelled  against  the 
over-lordship  of  Northumbria ;  and  when  Oswy  fled 
Ceollach's  heart  failed  him,  and  he  deserted  his  huge 
charge  for  the  repose  of  monastic  life  at  lona. 
Doubtless,  his  Northumbrian  connexions,  not  less 
than  his  British  extraction  and  Irish  brogue,  made 
him  obnoxious  to  the  Saxons.  It  is  noted  that  the 
next  bishop,  Trumhere  (659-662)  the  Abbot,  though 
consecrated  in  the  Northumbrian  Church  was  a  Saxon 
by  birth.  Trumhere  was,  in  fact,  of  royal  blood, ^ 
and  was  appointed  Bishop  of  the  Mercians  by  the 
young  King  Wulfhere,  son  of  Penda,  who  was  now 
raised  to  the  throne.     He  died  in  the  year  662,  and 

'  Kemble,  "Anglo-Saxons,"  ii.,  ch.  viii.,  366. 
*  Bede,  bk.  iii.,  ch.  xxiv. 
C 


l8  LICHFIELD. 

was  succeeded  by  Jaruman  (662-667),  an  English 
bishop  of  Northumbrian  succession,  who  seems  to 
have  been  a  singularly  active  and  able  preacher. 
Bede  tells  us^  that  when  the  people  of  Essex  fell, 
panic-stricken,  from  the  faith,  and  began  to  rebuild 
the  idol-temples  in  a  time  of  a  plague  which  had  slain 
their  Bishop  Cedd,  King  Wulfhere  sent  Jaruman  to 
re-convert  them.  The  bishop  proceeded  "  with  much 
discretion."  Taking  with  him  a  company  of  priests 
and  teachers,  he  travelled  through  all  the  country, 
far  and  near.  The  sub-king  and  his  people  listened 
to  him.  He  persuaded  them  to  forsake  their  temples 
and  idol-altars,  and  to  reopen  the  Christian  churches. 
In  the  fervour  of  their  faith  they  confessed  themselves 
ready  rather  to  die  in  the  hope  of  the  resurrection 
than  to  live  in  the  filth  of  apostasy.  So  Jaruman  and 
his  clerks  came  joyfully  home. 

Two  years  after  the  beginning  of  Jaruman's  epis- 
copate, the  church  of  Mercia  was  called  to  reckon 
with  a  new  and  subtle  power.  The  famous  mes- 
sengers from  Rome  had  been  the  means  of  con- 
verting a  small  portion  of  Saxon  England  to 
Christianity.  Along  the  south  coast  and  in  East 
Anglia  were  churches  which  they  had  planted  :  but 
from  Lindisfarne  to  London,  from  the  Lincolnshire 
coast  to  Lichfield,  the  Gospel  had  been  spread  by 
missionaries  of  the  old  British  Church.  Between 
this  Church  and  that  of  Rome  there  was  but 
little  difference,  but  such  as  existed  was  unhappily 
magnified.     The  Britons  always  kept  Easter  on  the 

'  Bede,  bk.  iii.,  ch.  xxx. 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MERCIA  FOUNDED.       1 9 

same  day  of  the  month,  March  14,  without  respect  to 
the  day  of  the  week.  The  Roman  Easter  Day  was 
always  on  a  Sunday.  The  Queen  of  Northumbria 
kept  the  one,  the  king  the  other,  to  their  great  dis- 
comfort. The  Synod  of  Whitby  (Streanseshalch)  was 
called  (a.d.  664)  to  discuss  the  matter,  and  decided 
in  favour  of  the  Roman  mode.  The  scale  was  turned 
by  the  superior  intelligence,  not  to  say  craft,  of  Wilfrid, 
a  brilliant  young  ecclesiastic,  who  had  espoused  the 
fashions  of  the  Roman  communion.  This  was  the 
first  step  towards  the  eventual  Romanising  of  the 
Mercian  Church.  But  it  also  prepared  it  for  the 
coming  of  the  man  who  was  to  incorporate  it  into 
that  unity  of  the  Saxon  Churches,  out  of  which  rose 
our  grand  old  Church  of  England. 

Jaruman  died  in  667,  and  with  him  ceased  the 
isolation  of  the  Mercian  Church.  For  two  years  the 
see  was  kept  vacant,  and  it  was  perhaps  indicative  of 
what  was  coming  that  Wulf  here  invited  Wilfrid  to  act 
occasionally  as  its  bishop.  Wilfrid  had  by  that  time 
been  consecrated,  but  had  lost  his  see.  He  had  been 
invited  by  the  Northumbrian  Witan  to  be  Bishop  of 
York,  and  had  gone  abroad  in  search  of  Roman  orders, 
and  stayed  there  too  long  for  the  patience  of  his  prince. 
Chad  was,  therefore,  asked  to  fill  the  vacant  see,  and, 
though  the  archbishop  was  dead  before  he  arrived  a 
Canterbury,  he  got  consecration  from  Wini,  the  British 
Bishop  of  Winchester.  Presently  Wilfrid  arrived  to 
find  his  place  occupied ;  so  he  turned  aside  into  the 
monastery  at  Ripon  to  bide  his  time.  This  rebuff 
was  by  no  means  the  last  which  Wilfrid  earned  in  his 
devotion  to  the  budding  pretensions  of  the  Italian  see. 

c  2 


20  LICHFIELD. 

The  year  after  Jaruman's  death  there  came  a 
great  archbishop  to  Canterbury.  Theodore  of 
Tarsus,  the  city  of  St.  Paul,  came  at  the  invitation 
of  the  EngHsh,  and  with  the  blessing  and  goodwill 
of  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  brought  with  him  what 
was  more  precious  still,  a  tact  which  was  able  to  deal 
with  the  rude  natures  of  our  island  home,  and  powers 
of  organisation  which,  under  God,  were  equal  to  the 
task  of  welding  the  churches  of  the  English  kingdoms 
into  one.  At  a  word  from  him  in  favour  of  Wilfrid, 
Chad  retreated  from  the  bishopric  of  York  into  the 
abbey  of  Lastingham.  This  was  really  the  first  step 
to  his  coming  hither;  for,  in  669,  when  Wulfhere 
asked  his  friend  Wilfrid  to  recommend  a  bishop  for 
Mercia,  he  mentioned — 

Chad  (Ceadda)  (669-672). 

The  saint  had  already  received  the  episcopal  orders 
of  the  ancient  British  Church.  Theodore  now  pro. 
fessed  to  complete  and  seal  them  with  the  full  authority 
of  the  great  Western  Communion. 

It  would  be  interesting  to  examine  the  motives 
which  led  St.  Chad  to  accept  a  second  consecration — 
if  such  it  was — on  resuming  episcopal  work.  But, 
unfortunately,  history  has  preserved  only  one  side  of 
the  story,  and  that  the  Roman.  From  Bede's  words, 
however,  it  seems  clear  that  St.  Chad  retreated  from 
York,  not  because  he  doubted  the  validity  of  his  con- 
secration, but  because  he  felt  himself  unworthy  to  be 
a  bishop  at  all ;  and  that  he  accepted  the  suggestions 
of  Theodore  for  the  sake  of  peace  and  harmony. 

The  diocese  of  Lichfield  dates  from  this  time. 


LICHFIELD.  21 


CHAPTER     III. 

THE   CHURCH    OF   MERCIA    BECOMES   THE   DIOCESE   OF 
LICHFIELD. 

St.  Chad — Division  of  the  Diocese  of  Mercia — Ancient  Monas- 
teries— Saints  and  Hermits. 

None  of  the  nursing  fathers  of  the  Mercian  Church 
did  more  for  it  than  King  Wulfhere  (659-675),  and 
yet  none  has  been  so  ruthlessly  slandered.  Like 
Penda  the  Strong  in  energy  and  mental  power,  he 
was  altogether  unlike  him  as  an  earnest  Christian. 
The  Church,  when  he  came  to  the  throne  in  659, 
"scarcely  yet  breathed  in  his  dominions." ^  He  fos- 
tered it  with  all  possible  care,  and  after  reigning 
nineteen  years  left  it  strong.  Yet  he  has  been  accused, 
not  only  of  apostasy,  but  of  the  murder  of  two  sons, 
Wulfade  and  Rufin.  The  slander  took  the  shape  of 
a  tragic  romance  of  bewitching  interest,  which  was 
handed  down  from  age  to  age  at  Peterborough,  and 
in  the  roadside  priory  at  Stone. ^  But  beyond  what  is 
related  in  Bede  (iv.,  c.   16),  of  the  execution  of  two 

'  Will.  Malm.,  "  Histor.  Kings,"  chap.  iv. 

*  See  Dugdale,  Leyland,  "The  Martyrs  of  Stone,"  modern 
R.  C.  legend.  For  the  Peterborough  version  see  "Diocesan 
History  of  Peterborough,"  page  5.  "  Stone  Priory,"  a  lecture  by 
present  writer.  Transaction  of  North  Staff.  Field  Club,  1880,  &c. 
Wilfrid  and  not  St.  Chad,  Csedwalla  not  Wulfhere,  should  have 
been  dragged  into  it.     The  youths  were  slain  at  Stoneham. 


22  LICHFIELD. 

royal  youths  at  Stoneham,  in  the  South  of  England, 
the  tale  has  not  the  slightest  discoverable  foundation. 

To  his  work  in  Mercia  St.  Chad  brought  the 
energy  of  a  new  and  powerful  race.  The  spirit  of 
adventure,  which  had  led  his  forefathers  over  the 
stormy  seas,  made  him  a  tireless  missionary.  The 
stern  self-discipline,  which  he  had  learned  perhaps 
as  a  slave-boy  before  his  redemption  by  the  Church, 
and  strengthened  in  the  ocean-lashed  solitude  of 
Lindisfarne,  and  the  heathery  barrenness  of  Lasting- 
ham,  urged  his  devout  spirit  to  frequent  retirement 
for  prayer.  So  his  life  divides  itself  between  vigorous 
journeyings  and  devout  repose.  His  character  has 
two  distinct  sides,  the  contemplative  and  the  active. 
He  was  a  man  fond  of  quiet  thought,  full  of  faith  in 
the  supernatural,  and  loving  to  meditate  on  death. 
And  he  was  also  a  worker  who  knew  the  value  of 
time,  and  who  was  willing  to  exert  himself  to  the 
utmost  in  preaching  truth.  He  went  his  episcopal 
journeys  on  foot. 

Canon  Bright  has  sketched  him  lovingly  : — "  If  a 
high  wind  swept  over  the  moors  at  Lastingham, — or, 
we  may  add,  around  the  little  cathedral  at  Lichfield — 
he  at  once  gave  up  his  reading  and  implored  the 
Divine  mercy  for  all  mankind.  If  it  increased,  he 
would  shut  his  book  and  prostrate  himself  in  prayer. 
If  it  rose  to  a  storm,  with  rain  or  thunder  or  lightning, 
he  would  repair  to  the  church,  and  give  himself  with 
a  fixed  mind  to  prayer  and  the  recitation  of  Psalms 
until  the  weather  cleared  up.  If  questioned  about 
this  he  would  quote  the  Psalmist's  words,  'The  Lord 
thundered  out  of  heaven,'  and  urge  the  duty  of  pre- 


CHAD    SETTLES    AT    LICHFIELD.  23 

paring,  by  a  serious  repentance,  for  'that  tremendous 
time  when  the  heavens  and  the  earth  should  be  on 
fire,  and  the  Lord  should  come  in  the  clouds  with 
great  power  and  majesty  to  judge  the  quick  and  the 
dead.'  Yet,  with  all  this  dread  of  Divine  judgments, 
Chad,  in  his  own  words,  had  a  '  continual  love 
and  desire  of  the  heavenly  rewards.'  '  And  it  was 
no  wonder,'  says  Bede,  '  if  he  rejoiced  to  behold  the 
day  of  death,  or  rather  the  day  of  the  Lord,  seeing 
he  had  so  anxiously  prepared  for  it.'  "^ 

St.  Chad,  on  coming  into  the  diocese,  fixed  his  head- 
quarters at  Lichfield.  The  place  was  then  deserted 
Even  the  old  Roman  road  was  forsaken  where  it 
passed  "  Dead  Men's  Field."  Yet,  to  the  mystical 
spirit  of  the  missionary,  it  was  holy  ground,  hallowed 
by  the  traditions  of  the  past.  And  it  was  beautiful 
with  wood  and  water — the  very  spot  that  a  lover  of 
God's  fair  earth  would  choose  as  a  resting-place.  More- 
over, it  was  separated  only  by  a  gentle  eminence — 
the  "  Green  Hill  " — from  the  Derbyshire  Rycknield 
Street,  not  far  from  its  junction  with  the  Watling 
Street.  It  was  thus  a  centre  of  easy  access  into  his 
province  in  every  direction,  and  could  not  have  been 
used  as  the  hiding-place  of  a  mere  recluse. 

At  the  eastern  end  of  Stowe  Pool,  near  a  well  which 
still  bears  his  name,  St.  Chad  built  a  small  church 
and  college,  or  monastery.  There  he  gathered  a  band 
of  praying  brethren,  whose  business  seems  to  have 
been  to  uphold  him,  hand  and  heart,  in  his  toilsome 
efforts  to  convert  Mercia. 

And  now  began,  in  greater  earnest,  the  evangeli- 
^  "  Early  English  Church  History,"  231. 


24  LICHFIELD. 

sation  of  this  part  of  Mercia.  Previous  bishops 
had  worked  hard  in  Leicestershire ;  St.  Chad's 
centre  of  operations  was  in  Staffordshire.  His  way 
of  working  was  to  spend  some  time  in  prayer  and 
conference  with  his  brethren ;  and  then  to  go  out, 
refreshed  in  spirit,  on  foot  along  the  old  Roman  road, 
perhaps  chanting  psalms  as  he  and  his  band  ap- 
proached a  village ;  preaching,  and  setting  up  the 
cross  in  the  little  centres  of  population,  and  in  the 
old  Druidic  sanctuaries  ;  gathering  the  offerings  of 
the  people ;  and  then  returning  home  to  Lichfield 
for  a  short  season  of  prayer  and  conference  and  the 
training  of  clergy. 

The  eye  of  the  great  archbishop  was  upon  him  in 
all  this.  Theodore  controlled  and  directed  his  strong 
Saxon  energies  with  the  gentler  wisdom  of  southern 
lands  ;  and  in  the  courtesy  with  which  the  archbishop 
gave  Chad  a  horse,  and  lifted  him  with  his  own  arms 
upon  it,  we  see,  perhaps,  one  of  the  secrets  of  Theo- 
dore's success  in  winning  the  Mercian  Church  to 
Canterbury, 

But  the  apostolic  bishop  was  not  entirely  depen- 
dent on  alms.  When  he  founded  the  abbey  of  Barrow- 
on-Humber,  Wulfhere  gave  him  fifty  hides  of  land  as 
an  endowment ;  and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe 
that  the  same  prudent  king  made  over  to  him  a  large 
tract  of  land^  near  his  little  cathedral.  The  land  was 
probably  more  precious  to  Wulfhere  in  the  bishop's 
hands  than  in  his  own.  It  was  extensive,  it  is  true,  for 
it  stretched  at  intervals  from  Eccleshall  to  Lichfield, 

"  Domesday,    "History  of  Brewood,"  4;   Leyland's    "Ac 
count  of  St.  Chad's  7nanse  at  Stowe  "  ;  Pegge's  "  Eccleshall." 


ST.    CHAD   DIES.  25 

and  filled  up  a  good  deal  of  the  valleys  of  the  Penk 
and  Sow ;  but  it  was  rough  in  more  senses  than  one. 
Thick  brushwood  covered  it,  and  tangled  swamps 
made  it  pestilent.  It  was,  moreover,  debatable  ground 
between  Wulfhere  and  the  terrible  remnant  of  the 
Britons.  In  giving  it  to  St.  Chad,  the  king  may  have 
regarded  a  bishop  as  a  convenient  "buffer,"  or  bulwark, 
between  him  and  his  foes.  Such,  however,  as  the  gift 
was,  the  Church  accepted  it.  What  it  afterwards  became, 
the  bishops  made  it.  Chad  himself  had  an  efficient 
manager  of  secular  business  in  one  of  his  monks — 
Ovin,  an  ex-prime  minister  of  East  Anglia,  Ovin 
had  come  to  him  at  Lastingham,  axe  in  hand,  to 
offer  such  help  as  he  could  give  in  the  way  of  manual 
labour  ;  book-work  was  not  in  his  way  of  things. 

The  saint's  episcopate  was  "glorious,"  but  it  was 
short.  At  the  end  of  two  and  a  half  years  he  was  at 
Lichfield  for  a  rest.  A  languishing  sickness  had 
already  been  fatal  to  many  of  his  associates  and 
converts.  His  own  end  came  on  him  like  a  golden 
sunset. 

"A  week  before  his  death  a  sound  of  angelic  melody 
was  heard  coming  from  the  south-east,  until  it  reached 
and  filled  the  little  oratory  where  he  was  praying.  This 
the  good  bishop  interpreted  to  be  his  summons  to 
heaven.  The  voices,  he  privately  told  Ovin,  were 
those  of  angels.  The  messenger  of  death,  that 
*  lovable  guest,'  was  with  them.  They  would  come 
again  in  seven  days,  and  take  him  with  them.  About 
the  same  time,  Egbert,  a  Northumbrian  who  had 
been  a  fellow-student  with  St.  Chad  in  an  Irish 
monastery,  dreamt  that  he  saw  the  soul  of  Cedda, 


26  LICHFIELD. 

Chad's  brother,  descending  from  heaven  with  a  comr 
pany  of  angels,  to  take  the  soul  of  Chad  with  him 
into  the  heavenly  kingdom."  ^ 

On  Tuesday,  March  2,  672, — the  end  of  the  week, 
as  he  had  said — he  died.  Over  his  grave,  outside 
Stowe  Church,  a  wooden  monument  was  erected 
like  a  little  house.  It  was  roofed,  and  through  a 
hole  in  the  wall  devotees  took  handfuls  of  dust, 
which  were  mixed  with  water  to  make  a  healing  drink 
for  cattle  or  men.  The  memory  of  the  saint  is  still 
green  in  the  Midland  Counties,  where  the  cathedral 
and  twenty-one  parish  churches  are  dedicated  to  him. 
Some  of  his  bones,  too,  are  yet  in  existence,  having 
been  taken  from  their  shrine  in  the  cathedral  by  a 
prebendary  named  Arthur  Dudley,  at  the  Reforma- 
tion ;  and  after  many  wanderings  they  are  now  in  the 
Roman  Catholic  Cathedral  at  Birmingham.^ 

St.  Chad  gone  to  rest,  the  abbot  of  his  abbey  of 
Ad  Barve,  or  Barrow-on-Humber — a  deacon,  Win- 
FRID  (672-675)  by  name — was  made  bishop.  In 
the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  namely,  on  September  24, 
672,  a  synod  was  held  by  Theodore  to  consider  the 
state  of  the  newly-organised  Church.  Winfrid  was 
present.  By  the  ninth  canon  it  was  agreed  that  the 
daily  increasing  number  of  the  faithful  needed  more 
bishops.  The  resolution  was  especially  aimed  at 
Lichfield  diocese,  and  it  speaks  volumes,  not  only  for 

^  From  an  admirable  and  lovingly-written  "  Address  on  St. 
Chad  and  the  Mercian  Church,"  by  Dr.  Bickersteth,  dean  of 
Lichfield. 

'  For  a  full  account  of  this,  by  Bishop  Abraham,  see  "  Lich- 
field Diocesan  Churchman,"  Sept.  1878. 


MERCIA   DIVIDED    INTO   SEVERAL   SEES.  27 

the  labours  of  St.  Chad  and  his  predecessors,  but 
also  for  those  of  the  King  of  Mercia  and  his  family. 
Winfrid,  however,  was  probably  influenced  by  Wulfhere 
to  resist  the  ecclesiastical  subdivision  of  the  kingdom 
from  political  motives.  As  long  as  Wulfhere  lived  the 
diocese  was  kept  whole,  and  Theodore  and  his  asso- 
ciates were  patiently  and  perhaps  prudently  silent. 
But  in  675,  when  the  king  was  dead,  the  voice  of  the 
bishops  in  synod  prevailed;  and,  because  Winfrid 
clung  to  the  traditions  of  his  great  patron  in  refusing 
to  divide  his  huge  diocese  of  nineteen  counties,  he 
was  deposed. 

Winfrid  then  went  back  to  his  old  abbey,  where 
for  three  years  he  brooded  over  the  insult  which  had 
been  put  upon  the  chair  of  St.  Chad,  and  at  last  made 
up  his  mind  to  go  to  Rome — probably  about  it.  But 
fresh  misfortune  overtook  him.  As  he  travelled 
beyond  sea,  he  was  mistaken  in  name  by  some  assas- 
sins who  had  been  bribed  to  waylay  Bishop  Wilfrid ; 
they  attacked  him,  killed  some  of  his  attendants,  and 
after  sadly  ill-using  him  left  him  stripped  and  for 
dead. 

Good  King  Wulfhere  had  died  in  the  glorious  hope 
of  everlasting  life.  Abolishing  and  utterly  uprooting 
the  worship  of  idols  among  his  people,  he  caused 
the  name  of  Christ  to  be  published  throughout  his 
dominions,  and  built  churches  in  many  places.  ^ 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  one  of  these  was  at 
Lichfield ;  another,  of  collegiate  character,  is  tradition- 
ally said  to  have  been  built  by  his  queen,  Ermenilda, 

'  Florence  of  Worcester,  year  675. 


28  LICHFIELD. 

of  stones  at  a  place  in  Staffordshire  called  Stone  from 
that  circumstance,  and  near  a  spot  which  was  called 
Wulferecaster  in  Leyland's  days.  He  seems  to  have 
lived  a  good  deal  on  the  West  Staffordshire  border  of 
his  dominions. 

Sexwulf  (675-691),  abbot  of  Peterborough,  was 
now  Bishop  of  Mercia.  He  soon  began  to  divide  off 
its  various  tribes  into  separate  sees.  The  Hwiccas, 
of  Herefordshire,  the  most  distant  and  troublesome, 
he  gave  to  Putta,  refugee  Bishop  of  Rochester,  and 
a  noted  teacher  of  Church  music.  Two  years  after- 
wards, a  portion  of  Lindsey  was  taken  from  Mercia  by 
conquest,  but  soon  returned.  In  680  the  Council  of 
Hatfield  decreed  that  the  Hwiccas  of  the  Lower 
Severn  valley  should  be  formed  into  a  see,  which  took 
the  name  of  Worcester.  The  Middle  Angles  were 
to  be  shepherded  from  Leicester;  the  Lincolnshire 
men  formed  the  bishopric  of  Siddenna,  or  Stowe,  near 
Lincoln ;  while  the  newly-conquered  races  in  the 
South  may  have  been  given  to  Dorchester.^  The 
Middle  English,  and  their  Cheshire  neighbours,  were 
the  largest  charge  of  all,  and  they  remained  to  Lich- 
field. Shortly  afterwards,  Leicester  fell  to  Sexwulf 
again,  and  he  was  bishop  of  both  until  his  death 
in  691. 

This  development  of  the  Church  turns  our 
thoughts  to  the  Churchmen  of  the  time.  "  The 
sober  recital  of  historical  fact,"  said  Bishop  Selwyn, 
writing  of  this  period,  "is  decked  with  legends  of 
singular   beauty,  like  artificial   flowers  adorning   the 

'  For  the  doubt  as  to  this  see  Haddan  and  Stubbs,  ' '  Councils,  '* 
iii.,  130,  note  E.     The  date  of  Hereford  is  also  uncertain. 


KINGS   AS    EVANGELISTS.  29 

solid  fabric  of  the  Church.  Truth  and  fiction  are  so 
happily  blended  that  we  cannot  wish  such  holy 
visions  to  be  removed  out  of  our  sight."  Bede  never 
left  Jarrow,  and  his  narrative  of  what  happened  fa;r 
away,  whilst  he  was  yet  a  child,  may  be  somewhat 
highly  coloured ;  but  to  him  we  owe  not  only  the 
story  of  St.  Chad's  death,  but  also  a  glimpse  of 
Kenred,  son  of  Wulf  here,  who  was  King  of  Mercia  in 
704.  It  is  certain  that  the  conversion  of  the  country 
was  not  effected  only  by  the  teaching  of  ecclesias- 
tics. King  Kenred,  Ethelred's  successor,  often 
spoke  on  spiritual  things  to  one  of  his  thanes, — a 
man  as  good  in  military  matters  as  he  was  bad  in 
morals.  Time  after  time  that  man  promised  to  give 
himself  up  to  godly  discipline,  but  always  deferred  it 
to  a  future  day.  He  was  taken  ill.  The  king  came 
to  see  him,  and  again  renewed  his  exhortations  to 
repentance.  Not  then,  he  replied,  but  when  he  got 
better,  lest  he  should  be  laughed  at  for  yielding 
under  fear  of  death.  He  grew  worse ;  and  on  his 
next  coming  the  king  found  him  in  an  agony  of 
despair.  He  had,  he  said,  been  visited  by  two  white- 
robed  youths,  bearing  a  light  and  slender  book  in 
which  he  had  seen  his  few  good  deeds  written ; 
then  had  come  a  vast  number  of  evil  spirits,  bringing 
the  volume  of  his  misdeeds,  scaring  away  the  good 
spirits,  and  branding  him  for  hell.  In  this  terrible 
frame  of  mind  he  died.  Bede  is  so  affected  by  the 
narrative  that  he  forgets  to  record  the  effect  upon 
the  king.  William  of  Malmesbury,  however,  adds 
that  he  gave  up  the  kingdom  a.d.  709,  and  spent 
the  rest  of  his  life  in  religious  exercises  at  Rome. 


30  LICHFIELD. 

Florence  of  Worcester  tells  us  something  of 
St.  Werburga,  one  of  Kenred's  sisters.  After  the 
death  of  her  father,  King  Wulfhere,  she  too  gave  her- 
self up  to  monastic  work,  founding  two  nunneries 
in  Staffordshire,  one  at  Hanbury  in  Needwood,  and 
the  other  at  Trentham  or  Hanchurch.  In  the  latter 
she  died ;  and,  as  if  the  place  could  never  forget  her, 
a  fringe  of  ancient  yews  still  shadows  and  solem- 
nises her  cloister  square,  and  a  tradition  lingers 
that  once  upon  a  time  a  procession  of  white  swans 
wended  thence  bearing  something  precious.  The 
body  of  the  holy  maid  was,  in  fact,  carried  to  Han- 
bury for  burial,  where  it  saw  no  decay,  it  is  said,  till 
the  coming  of  the  Danes. 

Repton  was  still  the  seat  of  a  monastery,  which  was 
under  the  rule  of  Elfrida,  another  royal  lady.  Thither, 
early  in  the  eighth  century,  went  Guthlac  for  training 
in  good  ways  after  a  youth  of  unbounded  excess. 
He,  too,  was  of  royal  blood,  and  had  sacked  towns 
and  burnt  homesteads  after  the  manner  of  his  fathers. 
But  the  teaching  of  the  Church  got  hold  of  him. 
Conscience  woke  one  sleepless  night  as  he  lay 
among  his  followers  in  the  woods,  and  with  the  dawn 
he  set  off  to  Repton,  "  where  he  shore  off  the  long  hair 
which  marked  the  noble."  But  even  here  he  could 
not  rest;  he  must  needs  engage  his  spiritual  foe  "in 
the  hazard  of  a  single  combat."  So  in  the  autumn 
of  699,  when  berries  hung  ripe  over  the  stream, 
he  drifted  down  the  Trent  in  a  fishing-boat,  and 
settled  as  a  hermit  in  the  Fens,  on  the  spot  where 
Croyland  Abbey  afterwards  rose.  The  lad  whom  he 
took  with  him  was  probably  Bertram,  or  Bertoline, 


MERCIA    BECOMES    THE    DIOCESE    OF    LICHFIELD.     3 1 

whom  impossible  legend  makes  the  founder  of  a 
hermitage  at  Stafford,  whence  he  was  driven  into 
deeper  solitudes  at  Ham,  where  his  tomb  and  well  are 
still  seen.  When  Guthlac  died,  in  714,  Eadburga, 
abbess  of  Repton,  sent  him  a  coffin  of  Derbyshire 
lead  and  a  shroud.  Bishop  Hedda  visited  Crowland, 
whilst  Guthlac  was  there,  and  ordained  him  priest. 


32  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE    REACTION. LICHFIELD    BECOMES 

ARCHIEPISCOPAL. 

Ecclesiastical    Reunion    of    Mercia — Political    Unification    of 
England. 

As  the  first  fervour  of  conversion  died  away,  there 
came  a  century  of  reaction.  The  kings  of  Mercia 
were  not  all  like  Wulf  here  and  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors. Ceolred^  (709-7 1 6)  "governed  with  honour" 
for  eight  years,  "  but  oppressed  the  Church  and  died 
unshriven."  He  was  buried  at  Lichfield.  Then  came 
the  long  and  peaceful  reign  of  Ethelbald  (716-756), 
whose  character  will  scarcely  bear  the  light.  He 
gave  alms  freely,  and  prohibited  oppression  and 
robbery.  But  the  great  apostle  of  Thuringia  told 
him,  in  a  letter,^  *'  that  his  name  had  come  abroad 
with  an  ill  savour;  that  both  he  and  his  nobles 
deserted  their  lawful  waves,  and  lived  in  guilty 
intercourse  with  adultresses  and  nuns."  The  letter 
was  not  without  effect,  for,  at  the  council  gathered  to 
consider  it,  Ethelbald,  by  way  of  reparation,  granted 
a  charter  to  exempt  monasteries  and  churches  from 
all    "  taxes,    works,    and    impositions,    except    the 

'  Henry  of  Huntingdon,  year  699,  bk.  iv. 
•2  Wilkin'.s  "  Concilia,"  i.,  87. 


THE   REACTION.  33 

building  of  castles  and  bridges,  from  which  none 
can  be  exempt." 

It  is  clear  from  this  charter  that  the  clergy  of 
Mercia  were  rapidly  acquiring  a  share  of  the  pro- 
perty of  the  country.  As  men  became  Christians, 
they  recognised  their  obligation  to  bestow  a  portion 
of  their  goods  upon  those  who  ministered  to  their 
spiritual  wants  ;  but,  as  yet,  clergy  and  parish 
churches  were  few  and  far  between,  and  what  little 
belonged  to  them  was  too  often  seized  by  the  king. 
Even  monks  were  made  to  do  forced  work  for  the 
king.  Nor  did  they  escape  the  prevailing  degrada- 
tion of  morals.  Too  many  fell  into  the  national  sin 
of  drunkenness.  Some  monasteries  resembled  pro- 
prietary boarding-houses,  and  were  religious  only  in 
name.  In  church,  the  priests  were  wont  to  "  preach 
the  prayers  "  in  theatrical  style,  instead  of  chanting 
them  to  a  simple  melody,  or  reading  them  in  a 
natural  voice.  These  and  other  faults  were  attacked 
by  the  Council  of  Clovesho  (747),  at  which  Ethelbald 
and  his  nobles  and  twelve  bishops  were  present.  It 
was  then  decreed,  among  other  things,  that  the  Lord's 
Day,  Saints'  Days,  Rogation  Days,  and  the  Ember 
Fasts  should  be  kept ;  that  monks  and  nuns  should 
live  regular  lives,  and  dress  modestly  and  simply; 
that  monasteries  should  no  longer  be  the  receptacle 
of  poets,  musicians,  and  buffoons;  that  the  laity  should 
be  shut  out  of  them  ;  and  that  nuns  should  rather 
read  and  sing  psalms  than  work  embroidery. 

The  clergy  still  lived  in  clusters,  either  under 
monastic  rules,  as  at  Repton,  Peterborough,  and 
Barrow-on-Humber,  or  under  the  immediate  eye  of 

D 


34  LICHFIELD. 

the  bishop,  as  at  Lichfield,  or  of,  perhaps,  an  arch- 
priest,  as  at  Stafford  and  Stone.  Lichfield  was, 
indeed,  the  central  spot  from  which  the  Gospel  was 
carried  out  in  all  directions  over  Mercia,  and  to 
which  its  preachers  returned  bringing  the  alms  of  the 
faithful. 

After  the  death  of  Sexwulf  (691),  the  see  of 
Leicester  was  intrusted  to  Wilfrid,  who  came  to  the 
Mercian  king  as  a  refugee  from  the  north.  But 
Wilfrid  was  again  put  to  flight  by  the  Council  of 
Easterfield  (702),  and  the  see  was  reunited  with 
Lichfield  under  Hedda  (691-721). 

And  now  the  Lichfield  of  later  times  begins  to 
emerge  from  the  gloom.  Hedda  pitched  upon  the 
present  minster  site,  and  founded  a  cathedral,  into 
which  he  translated  St.  Chad's  bones  from  Stowe. 
The  church  was  probably  built,  like  St.  Alban's,  out 
of  adjacent  Roman  ruins,  of  which  were  many  at 
Wall,  three  miles  off.     It  was  dedicated  to  St.  Peter. 

Aldwin,  or  WoR  (721-737),  held  both  Lichfield 
and  Leicester.  At  his  death,  Wicta,  Witta,  or 
HwiTTA  (737-752),  succeeded  to  Lichfield  only. 

King  Ethelbald  died  in  756,  and  then  Offa,  the 
English  Charlemagne,  succeeded  to  the  Mercian 
throne.  During  his  long  reign  (755-796)  he  restored 
Mercia  to  the  old  boundaries  of  King  Wulfhere; 
and  in  779  he  drove  the  king  of  Powis  from  his 
capital,  Pengwern,  and  changed  its  name  to  Scrob- 
besbyryg,  Shrewsbury.  On  the  ruins  of  the  British 
palace,  outside  the  town,  a  church  was  built  and 
dedicated  to  St.  Chad,  and  a  part  of  Salop  per- 
manently annexed  to  the  diocese  of  Licfield.    From 


THE   ARCHBISHOPRIC.  35 

that  time  to  the  days  of  Henry  VIII,,  the  diocese 
remained  in  size  the  same,  embracing  the  terri- 
tories afterwards  divided  among  the  archdeacons  of 
Stafford,  Coventry,  Chester,  Derby,  and  Salop-in- 
Lichfield. 

Little  is  known  of  the  first  three  bishops  of  Offa's 
reign,  Hemele  (752-764  or  765),  Cuthfrith  or 
CuTHRED  (765-768),  and  BerthunI  (768-779). 
They  lived  in  comparatively  happy  times.  The  rest 
of  England  was  full  of  trouble,  but  Mercia  was  calm 
and  prosperous  under  its  vigorous  king.  Offa  rapidly 
made  himself  over-lord  of  all  England,  and  Charle- 
magne called  him  Emperor  of  the  West,  he  himself 
being  Emperor  of  the  East.       i2  / 'o4:23 

This  great  king  little  liked  the  fact  that  all  the 
bishops  of  his  kingdom  of  Mercia  were  nothing  more 
than  suffragans  to  an  archbishop  who  lived  in  a  petty 
southern  state  upon  which  he  looked  with  contempt. 
He  therefore  determined  to  humble  Canterbury  and 
to  exalt  Lichfield,  so  as  to  concentrate  his  kingdom 
within  itself.  He  began  by  confiscating  the  Mercian 
property  of  Canterbury.  Then  he  brought  all  his 
influence  to  bear  upon  the  great  Primate  of  the  West 
• — the  pope — and  drew  from  him  the  promise  of  a 
pall  for  Lichfield.  Two  legates  brought  the  pall  into 
England,  but  conferred  it  only  some  three  years  after 
a  council  had  been  held  at  Chelsea,  785,  in  which  the 
matter  was  discussed  and  agreed  to.  And  then,  788, 
Higbert,  bishop  of  Lichfield,  assumed  metropolitan 
authority  over  all  the  sees  which  had  been  carved 

^  Berthun  is  called  bishop  of  Dorchester,  Flor.  Wor,, 
year  785. 

D    2 


36  LICHFIELD. 

out  of  the  original  diocese  of  Mercia,  viz.,  Worcester, 
Leicester,  Lincoln,  and  Hereford,  together  with 
Elmham  and  Dunwich  in  East  Anglia.  Four  sees 
only  remained  to  the  province  of  Canterbury. 

Higbert  now  signs  all  documents  as  Archbishop  of 
Lichfield,  on  equal  terms  with  Jaenbert  of  Canterbury. 
In  789  he  sat  as  Archbishop  of  Lichfield  at  a  council 
held  at  Cealchyej  in  792  at  St.  Alban's ;  in  794  at 
Cloveshoo;  in  799  at  Tarn  worth. 

The  aged  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  submitted 
reluctantly  to  his  loss  of  dignity,  and  meditated  a 
journey  to  Rome,  to  appeal  against  Offa's  hard  deal- 
ing. Death  stopped  him,  but  fortune  favoured  his 
successor,  Ethelhard,  who  became  Archbishop  of 
Canterbury  in  793.^  For  just  then  both  Offa  and 
Adrian,  the  king  and  the  pope,  who  had  sanctioned 
the  attack  on  Canterbury,  died ;  and  Ethelhard  had 
a  powerful  friend  at  Rome  in  the  person  of  the  great 
Alcuin,  Moreover,  Kenwulf,  the  new  King  of  Mercia, 
the  worthless  and  impolitic  successor  of  Offa,  now 
made  common  cause  with  Canterbury,  and  sent  the 
pope  a  letter,  which  is  the  earliest  document  extant. 
The  letter  was  accompanied  by  a  statement  of  the 
case  drawn  up  by  Ethelhard  and  a  present  of  120 
mancuses.  As  to  the  Lichfield  pall,  the  pope 
answered  vaguely ;  but  he  was  very  definite  as  to  the 
annual  present  of  365  mancuses  which  Offa  had 
promised  to  the  holy  see.  There  the  matter  rested 
for  a  while. 

'  Jaenbert  died  in  791,  and  it  is  supposed  that  the  Kentish 
clergy  kept  Ethelhard  for  two  years  out  of  the  primacy  because 
he  had  accepted  consecration  from  the  Archbishop  of  Lichfield. 


THE   ARCHBISHOPRIC   ANNULLED.  37 

About  the  year  799  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
and  Kinbert  of  Winchester  went  together  to  Rome, 
where  Alcuin  was.  They  brought  back  a  letter  to 
Kenwulf,  which  expressed  the  pope's  consent  that  the 
acts  of  Offa  and  Adrian  should  be  annulled  and  the 
full  power  of  Canterbury  restored.  But  this  was  not 
yet  done,  though  the  Mercian  suffragans  had  antici- 
pated such  a  decision  ever  since  the  death  of  Offa, 
and  had  gone  only  to  Canterbury  for  consecration.  In 
802  Pope  Leo  sent  a  second  letter,  insisting  on  the 
restitution  of  Ethelhard  to  the  dignity  of  his  prede- 
cessors, and  threatening  degradation  to  any  eccle- 
siastic who  should  dispute  his  primacy.  Alcuin  now 
came  over  to  the  Lichfield  side,  and  pleaded  that 
Higbert  might  at  least  remain  archbishop  for  life. 
But  in  801  the  latter  had  appeared  as  bishop  only 
at  the  Council  of  Cealchyth.  On  the  accession  of 
Aldulf  (801)  the  dispute  seems  to  have  been  in  abey- 
ance, perhaps  out  of  respect  to  the  suffragans  who 
had  sworn  allegiance  to  Lichfield.  But  the  last  of 
them,  the  Bishop  of  Leicester,  soon  died ;  and  in  the 
Council  of  Cloveshoo,  Oct.  12th,  803,  the  metropo- 
litan dignity  of  Lichfield  was  formally  annulled.  Still 
Aldulf  signed  next  after  Canterbury,  and  his  attendant 
priest  as  the  first  of  the  clergy.^ 

'  Professor  Stubbs,  in  "Annals  of  the  Diocese."  The  order 
of  episcopal  precedency  was  thus  : — i,  Lichfield;  2,  Leicester  ; 
3,  Lincoln ;  4,  Worcester ;  5,  Hereford ;  6,  Sherborne ,  7, 
"Winchester;  8,  Elmham ;  9,  Dummoc;  10,  London;  11, 
Rochester;  12,  Selsey.  It  will  be  noticed  that  Lichfield  was 
both  made  and  unmade  an  arch-diocese  by  councils  of  the 
Church  of  England.  The  [popes  and  kings  directed,  but  the 
national  Church  alone  effected,  these  changes. 


38  LICHFIELD. 

The  old  jealousy  between  the  kings  of  Mercia  and 
the  dignity  of  Canterbury  now  seems  to  have  been 
revived.  Kenwulf  harassed  the  Church  until  his 
death,  in  822,  and  there  is  some  evidence  for  sup- 
posing that  his  hatred  for  the  archbishop  led  him  to 
interdict  the  practice  of  religion  altogether.  And 
during  the  terrible  troubles  which  followed  this  prac- 
tical "  separation  of  Church  and  State  "  the  power  of 
the  State  dwindled  almost  to  nothing. 

Strong  measures  were  then  needed  to  preserve  the 
Church  alive,  and,  apparently  as  soon  as  the  tyrant 
was  dead,  Bishop  yExHELWALD  (818-828)  organised 
the  cathedral  upon  the  basis  of  its  present  constitu- 
tion. It  w^as  no  longer  the  one  church  of  the  diocese. 
Parish  churches  were  beginning  to  spring  up  in  all 
directions ;  built,  perhaps,  out  of  the  materials  and 
in  rude  imitation  of  the  Roman  ruins  which  still 
so  richly  spread  the  plains.  The  cathedral,  there- 
fore, now  obtained  a  new  character.  It  was  still 
to  be  the  central  church,  the  great  gathering-place 
of  all  the  Christians  in  the  diocese.  Its  band  of 
clergy  were  still  to  go  out  ministering  on  the  various 
estates  of  the  bishop.  They  were  still  to  have 
common  head-quarters  at  the  cathedral,  and  to  live 
under  canon  or  rules.  They  were,  moreover,  to 
form  a  board  of  advisers  for  the  bishop,  and  to  keep 
up  the  minster  services,  and  perhaps  also  the  minster 
farms  ;  but  the  greater  part  of  the  diocese  was  to  be 
left  to  the  ministrations  of  the  parochial  clergy.  And, 
to  distinguish  them  from  the  parish  priests,  the 
cathedral  clergy  were  probably  now  called  canons. 

We  have  now,  therefore,  arrived  at   a  period  in 


RISE   OF   THE   ENGLISH    "STATE."  39 

which  the  Church  of  England  appears  in  pretty 
much  its  present  aspect.  More  than  a  century  of 
storm  and  sunshine  had  passed  over  it.  A  line 
of  thirteen  bishops  had  ruled  at  Ivichfield,  and  the 
Church  had  already  attained  to  a  venerable  antiquity 
when  the  great  event  of  the  year  827  happened. 
Then  the  union  of  the  three  clusters  of  the  old  hept- 
archy into  one  great  nationality  first  "came  within 
the  range  of  practical  politics."  For  Mercia  was 
conquered  by  Egbert,  king  of  Wessex,  in  827.  In 
829  the  Northumbrian  thanes  met  him  at  Dore,  in 
Derbyshire,  and  offered  him  obedience  and  allegiance. 
From  that  meeting  sprang  united  England.  The 
"  State "  was  thus  at  least  a  century  younger  than 
«  The  Church." 


40  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE   DANES. 
Wreck  of  Previous  Institutions — The  New  Monasticism, 

If  tales  of  the  wealth  of  English  abbeys  and  churches 
fired  the  cupidity  of  the  Danes  in  their  own  wild 
and  barren  land,  and  made  them  desirous  of  help- 
ing themselves  to  it,  where  were  abbeys  fairer  or 
churches  richer  than  in  Mercia?  Repton,  Hanbury, 
Trentham,  Stone,  Tamworth,  Chester,  and  Shrews- 
bury, not  to  say  Lichfield,  had  been  peculiarly  favoured 
by  members  of  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  Saxon  royal 
families.  Moreover,  the  Trent  opened  out  a  highway 
for  them  from  the  eastern  shore  to  the  heart  of  the 
country. 

In  the  lurid  light  which  preceded  the  bursting  of 
the  storm,  we  have  but  a  legendary  glimpse  of  the 
bishop.  At  Easter,  851,  he  was,  says  Ingulphus, 
present,  with  St.  Swithin  and  other  bishops,  at  the 
Council  of  Kingsbury.  Bertulf,  under-lord  of  Mercia, 
was  presiding.  The  previous  winter  had  been  bitterly 
cold,  and  the  hands  of  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
were  still  numbed.  When  the  king  proceeded  to 
open  the  business  of  the  meeting,  the  archbishop  pro- 
posed that  Church  matters  should  be  taken  first,  and 
a  letter  from  the  Abbot  of  Croyland  was  put  in.    The 


THE   DANES.  4I 

moment  the  archbishop  touched  it,  he  declared  that 
new  life  flowed  from  it  into  his  chilled  hands, 
"  through  the  merits  of  the  most  blessed  Guthlac," 
whose  affairs  as  founder  of  Croyland  they  were  then 
treating  of.  The  letter  was  handed  round  with  like 
results  to  others,  and  a  document  drawn  up,  in 
which  the  archbishop  expressed  himself  "  whole  and 
healed";  St.  Swithin  "rejoiced  in  the  miracles  of 
the  Lord  "  ;  Elstan  of  Sherborne,  and  Orkenwald  of 
Lichfield,  expressed  "their  delight  at  the  successes  of 
the  Church." 

Not  long  afterwards.  Bishop  ^thelwald  died,  and 
HuNBERGHT  (828)  succccdcd,  followed  by  Tunberht 
(841  or  844).  In  868  the  Danes  came  as  near  as 
Nottingham,  but  a  victory  of  King  Ethelred  turned 
their  fury  upon  the  Fens.  Eadmund,  under-king  of 
East  Anglia,  they  bound  to  a  tree  and  shot ;  the 
Bishop  of  Lichfield,  who  was  with  him,  was  mur- 
dered; and  the  abbeys  of  Peterborough,  Crowland, 
and  Ely  "  went  up  in  flames."  The  news  struck 
terror  into  the  heart  of  this  diocese,  which  had  not 
long  to  await  its  turn.  In  874,  the  black  ships  of  the 
barbarians  pushed  up  the  Trent  to  the  very  walls  of 
Repton.  The  monastery  was  attacked  and  levelled 
with  the  ground,  and  wild  havoc  made  of  all  found  in 
it.  The  under-king  escaped,  and,  seeing  nothing  but 
hopeless  "  rapine  and  slaughter  in  every  part  of  the 
land,"  hied  him  away  to  Rome,  where  he  soon  died. 
Thus  perished  the  twin  nursing  cradles  of  Mercian 
Christianity, — the  monastery  and  palace  of  Repton. 

The  abbey  had  existed  for  two  hundred  years,  and 
had  become  the  "Westminster  Abbey  of  Mercia." 


42  LICHFIELD. 

Burial  within  its  sacred  precincts  had  been  eagerly 
sought.  There  lay  Merewald,  brother  of  Penda  the 
Strong  j  Ethelwald  and  Withlaf,  kings  of  Mercia ; 
Wymond,  son  of  Withlaf,  with  Elfleda  his  wife,  and 
St.  Wystan  their  son;  Kineard,  brother  of  Sigebert, 
king  of  the  West  Saxons ;  and  others.  But  this  was 
not  only  the  resting-place  of  illustrious  dead.  Within 
its  walls  had  lived  a  large  community  of  busy  people. 
They  had  cultivated  the  neighbouring  lands,  and  ex- 
tended their  care  even  to  the  old  Roman  lead-mines  of 
Derbyshire.  "In  835,"  we  read,  "the  Abbess  Kene- 
wara  granted  to  Hunbert^  her  estate  at  Wirksworth, 
on  condition  that  he  annually  gave  as  rent  to  Arch- 
bishop Ceolnuth — a  member  of  the  Mercian  royal 
family — lead  to  the  value  of  300s.  for  the  use  of 
Canterbury  Cathedral."  Thus  the  abbey  was  a 
pioneer  in  the  art  for  which  Derbyshire  has  ever 
since  been  noted. 

Before  the  approach  of  the  Danes,  the  wonder- 
working remains  of  good  St.  Wystan  were  transferred 
to  Evesham  by  the  fugitives  from  Repton  monastery. 
So,  too,  ere  Hanbury  was  attacked,  the  nuns  got  away 
to  Chester  with  the  treasured  body  of  St.  Werburgh. 
Hanbury  shared  the  wreck  of  Trentham  and  Stone. 
The  Danes  kept  head-quarters  at  Repton  all  that 
winter,  and  the  terror  of  their  deeds  remains  in  the 
district  to  this  day. 

Once  here,  the  Danes  were  not  to  be  shaken  off. 
Ethelfleda,  daughter  of  King  Alfred   and  Lady  of 

^  Was  this  the  bishop  ?  If  so,  we  may  have  here  a  glimpse 
of  the  acquisition  by  the  see  of  some  of  the  chapter  property  in 
the  Peake. 


THE   ROYAL    COLLEGIATE   CHURCHES.  43 

Mercia,  grappled  with  them  vigorously  and  reduced 
them  to  a  measure  of  quietness.  At  the  head  of  her 
troops  she  "  excelled  the  amazons  of  old."  When 
she  fortified  Stafford,  she  "  set  up  the  gates  of  St. 
Bertoline's," — the  church,  out  of  which  afterwards 
grew  the  collegiate  church  of  St.  Mary.  She  founded 
St.  Alkmund's  collegiate  church  at  Shrewsbury,  in  re- 
membrance of  a  Saxon  prince  who,  in  800,  had  fallen 
in  defence  of  his  father,  and  had  been  buried  first  at 
Lilleshall  and  then  at  Derby ;  and  to  her  presence 
in  West  Staffordshire,  which  was  now  the  boundary 
line  of  the  Danelagh,  as  it  had  been  of  the  older 
kingdom  of  Mercia,  may  be  owing  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  collegiate  churches  there  became  "  royal  free 
chapels."  Stone  was  royal  in  tradition ;  then  came 
Stafford  and  Gnosall ;  then  Penkridge ;  then  Wolver- 
hampton and  Tettenhall — royal  minsters  all,  dotting 
the  old  Mercian  border-line  from  "Wulfere-caster"  to 
Wulfere-hampton  } 

How  the  cathedral  fared  in  the  storm  we  have  no 
record.  The  bishops  were  unpopular  with  the  Danes, 
who  looked  upon  them  as  the  allies  of  the  Saxon 
kings.  Tunberht  was  followed  in  order  by  Ella — 
bishop   in    the    time    of    King   ^thelstan — Algar 

(941-948),  KiNSY  (949-963),  WiNSY   (964),  ElPHEGE 

(973), — signing  charters  995  and  998 — Godwin  (1004), 
Leofgar  (1020),  and  Brihtmar  (1026),  who  died  at 
Lichfield. 

Bald  as  may  be  this  list  of  names,  these  bishops 

'  The  origin  of  the  royal  associations  of  these  collegiate 
churches  is  obscure.  It  would  seem  to  be  owing  as  much  to 
Wulfhere  as  to  Ethelfleda. 


44  LICHFIELD. 

superintended  most  important  work.  Under  them, 
notwithstanding  the  presence  of  the  Danes,  the  clergy 
of  the  diocese  took  fresh  heart.  The  invaders  were 
converted.  The  clergy  were  now  freed  from  the 
rivalry  of  the  royal  monasteries,  and  perhaps  were 
the  better,  also,  by  losing  the  degenerate  patronage  of 
the  old  Mercian  royal  family,  which,  in  its  earlier 
and  better  days,  had  been  their  best  helper.  They 
worked  as  they  had  never  worked  before.  Hitherto 
the  alms  of  the  faithful  had  been  carried  to  the  bishop, 
and  converts  drafted  into  monasteries  for  religious 
training.  The  clergy  had  been  mere  mission  priests, 
who  wandered  through  the  country.  They  had  neither 
spheres  of  work  nor  homes  of  their  own  apart  from 
the  cathedral  or  some  large  central  church.  Now, 
after  the  purifying  deluge  of  the  Danes,  the  cathedral 
survives,  and  new  collegiate  centres  on  the  cathedral 
plan  are  planted  down  in  the  principal  towns.  Two 
such  were  established  in  Derby, — All  Saints'  and 
St.  Alkmund's ;  one  in  Stafford,  Gnosall,  Penkridge, 
Wolverhampton,  and  Tettenhall — the  old  Mercian 
border — and  one,  perhaps,  at  Tamworth ;  two  in 
Chester  ;  and  four  in  Shrewsbury.  To  each  of  these 
an  enrolled  body  of  canons  was  attached,  who  lived 
on  a  common  fund,  and  went  out  Sunday  by  Sunday 
to  minister  in  surrounding  chapels,  as  well  as  keeping 
up  full  and  effective  church  work  in  the  towns  in 
which  the  minsters  stood. 

But  the  parochial  system  also  grew.  The  owners 
of  estates  built  or  re-built  churches  for  themselves 
and  their , tenants,  and  solemnly  devoted — as  their 
fathers  had  done — a  tenth  of  the  land  to  the  main- 


COLLEGIATE   CHURCHES.  45 

tenance  of  their  chaplains.  The  local  clergy  thus 
obtained  a  measure  of  independence,  as  well  as  the 
opportunity  of  watching  their  work  grow  under  their 
hands,  and  also  a  direct  interest  in  the  mutual  pros- 
perity of  the  people  and  their  landlords.  Whilst 
the  collegiate  churches  had  a  large  number  of  clergy  • 
— Stafford  minster  having  thirteen  and  Penkridge  nine 
— the  parish  churches  had  seldom  more  than  one 
beneficed  priest.  Bakewell  and  Repton  are  the 
only  churches  in  Derbyshire  which  appear  in  Domes- 
day with  two.  Sometimes,  indeed,  as  at  Brailsford, 
one  country  church  served  two  manors  standing  on 
the   border-line  between  them. 

Relics  of  some  of  these  pre-Norman  churches 
remain.  There  is,  for  example,  a  bit  of  "  long  and 
short  work"  at  St.  Chad's,  Stafford,  a  beautiful  pillared 
crypt  at  Repton,  a  plain  semicircular  arch  between 
nave  and  chancel  at  Marston  Montgomery, — which, 
in  Mr.  Cox's  opinion,  is  "the  oldest  bit  of  ecclesias- 
tical masonry  "  that  he  has  met  with  in  Derbyshire. 
There  are  traces  also  at  Stanton-by-Bridge,  in  the 
windows  in  nave  and  chancel,  and  at  Caldwell  Chapel 
in  Stapenhill  parish  by  Burton-on-Trent,  as  well  as 
at  the  prebendal  church  of  Sandiacre.  Of  traces  at 
Sawley,  a  village  on  the  Trent,  Mr.  Cox  says  : — 

"  Seeing  that  we  know  there  was  a  church  here  in 
822,  Saxon  work  is  naturally  looked  for  in  this  fabric. 
Nor  is  the  expectation  disappointed.  The  archway 
into  the  chancel  is  a  semicircular  one  rising  from 
plain  imposts ;  the  masonry  above  the  arch  and  on 
the  north  side  within  the  chancel  is  rude,  and  a  small 
part  of  herring-bone  work  can  be  detected." 


46  LICHFIELD. 

At  Wilne,  a  chapel  of  Sawley,  is  a  font  which  Mr. 
Cox  thinks  "  by  far  the  most  interesting  relic  of  early 
Saxon  Christianity  that  the  county  of  Derby  possesses; 
indeed,  we  have  doubts  if  there  is  an  older  font  in 
the  kingdom  than  that  of  St.  Chad's  at  Wilne  .... 
Its  total  height  is  37  inches  ....  It  is  circular,  but 
divided  as  it  were  into  six  compartments,  sculptured 
with  interlacing  knot-work,"  &c. 

Doubtless,  Staffordshire,  Salop,  and  Cheshire,^ 
especially  the  latter,  would  yield  like  results  by  the 
discovery  of  Saxon  relics  if  equally  fortunate  in  the 
investigators. 

Side  by  side  with  the  growth  of  the  parochial 
system,  the  itinerating  system  of  ministration,  which 
had  always  prevailed  in  the  cathedral,  was  still  kept  up, 
both  in  the  cathedral  and  the  collegiate  churches. 
But  as  the  former  grew  the  latter  declined,  until  the 
canons  found  a  way  of  absorbing  the  parish  churches 
into  their  own  system  by  what  is  called  appropriation. 
The  founder  of  the  church,  or  his  heirs,  having  given 
lands  or  tithes  to  support  an  incumbent,  was  also 
patron  of  the  benefice ;  and  had  the  right,  not  only 
of  nominating  a  rector,  but  of  "  appropriating "  or 
assigning  all  the  endowments  of  the  rectory,  whether 
of  lands,  tithes,  or  offertories,  to  any  cathedral  or 
collegiate  church  in  any  diocese,  on  condition  that 
the  appropriating  church  undertook  to  send  one  of 
its  canons  to  serve  the  parochial  altar.  So  far  as  the 
system  was  confined  to  the  cathedrals,  it  worked  at 
first  fairly  well ;    but  another  sort  of  appropriators 

'  Some  such  traces  are  noted  in  the  "  Cheshire  and  Lanca- 
shire Hist.  Soc.  Transactions," 


THE   LATER   SAXON   MONASTERIES.  47 

began  to  spring  up,  whose  greediness  wrought  endless 
mischief.  These  were  the  monasteries,  of  which,  how- 
ever, there  were  but  few  in  the  diocese  before  the 
Norman  Conquest,  owing  to  poHtical  faction  and  the 
hatred  of  the  clergy  for  them ;  but  as  soon  as  the 
ominous  year  looo  had  turned  they  began  to 
appear.  In  1002  Wulfric  Spot,  one  of  the  Mercian 
earls,  founded  Burton  Abbey,  and  Leofric,  his  son, 
Coventry,  some  thirty  years  later.  The  nunnery  at 
Polesworth  seems  to  have  been  already  in  existence; 
and  it  is  said  that  another  at  Stone  had  been  reared  by 
Wulfhere's  queen.  The  priory  of  Lapley  was  founded 
by  Algar,  grandson  of  Wulfric  Spot,  out  of  regard  to 
the  wishes  of  a  dying  son  who  had  been  tenderly 
nursed  in  the  abbey  of  St.  Remigius  of  Rheims, 
when  overtaken  by  fatal  illness.  The  latter  was  the 
first  instance  of  an  alien  priory,  /.^.,  of  a  monastic 
house  subject  to  a  foreign  abbey,  that  we  have  in 
our  field  of  observation. 

All  these  religious  houses  were  filled  with  monks  or 
nuns  of  the  Benedictine  order.  They  were  of  a  type 
very  different  from  that  of  old  Repton  and  Hanbury, 
which  were  training  houses  into  which  persons  of 
both  sexes  might  retire  for  religious  teaching ;  being, 
in  short,  a  sort  of  long  "retreat."  But  the  new  kind 
of  monasteries  was  of  a  more  rigid  type.  Their 
inmates  had  for  ever  renounced  the  world,  and  lived 
under  the  strictest  discipline.  They  aimed  at  being  a 
standing  protest  against  the  terrible  sensuality  of  the 
age,  and  at  tasting  a  kind  of  heaven  on  earth  begun. 
The  older  monks  had  gone  the  round  of  monasteries, 
reading  in  each  some  grand  book  or  listening  to  the 


48  LICHFIELD. 

lectures  of  some  famous  teacher.  The  newer  monks 
were  chamed  to  one  spot  and  were  carried  to  their 
places  in  choir,  on  the  day  of  their  initiation,  stretched 
on  a  funeral  bier  and  under  a  funeral  pall,  as  being 
dead  to  the  outside  world. 

The  last  two  bishops  before  the  Conquest  were 
Ulsey  or  WuLSY  (1039-1053),  and  Leofwin.  The 
former  saw  the  foundation  of  the  abbey  of  Coventry, 
which  was  destined  to  play  so  great  a  part  in  the 
future  history  of  the  see.  Its  founder,  Earl  Leofric, 
had  married  Godiva,  a  rich  Lincolnshire  maiden, 
who  was  both  very  beautiful  and  very  good.  She  it 
was  whose  famous  legendary  ride  through  Coventry 
drew  from  her  husband  the  charter  : — 

I,  Luriche,  for  love  of  thee, 
Doe  make  Coventre  toll-free. 

And  at  her  persuasion  he  turned  the  old  nunnery  of 
Coventry  into  a  Benedictine  abbey.  For  the  support 
of  twenty-four  monks  he  gave  to  it  no  less  than  twenty- 
three  lordships.  And  Godiva  "  sent  for  skilful  gold- 
smiths, who  wrought  all  her  gold  and  silver  into  crosses 
and  images  of  saints,  and  other  curious  ornaments 
for  the  abbey."  No  other  monastery  in  England  was 
so  rich  in  gold  and  silver  and  gems.  "The  walls 
seemed  almost  too  strait  to  hold  it  all."  And  they 
failed  to  hold  it,  as  we  shall  presently  see. 

Leofwin,  the  last  Saxon  bishop,  had  been  the  first 
abbot  of  Coventry.  After  Leofwin,  who  went  over 
sea  for  consecration,^  and  who  ruled  from  1054  to  the 
eventful  year  of  the  Norman  advent,   1066,  never 

*  Because  there  was  no  archbishop  in  England  a.c.  1053. 


THE   DANES.  49 

more  bishop  took  title  from  Lichfield  only  until  the 
year  1836.  How  Leofwin  died  in  1066  may  perhaps 
be  inferred  from  the  terrible  havoc  which  William  I. 
seems  to  have  inflicted  on  the  episcopal  estates. 

We  look  upon  these  Saxon  bishops  with  greater 
interest  than  on  their  Norman  successors.  They  were 
the  founders  of  our  diocese,  and  the  first  teachers  of  its 
faith ;  and  what  they  taught  was  not  "  Romanism," 
but  in  substance  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  of 
England  as  we  know  it  now.  They  were  true  shep- 
herds and  pastors  of  Christ's  flock, — true  sons,  not 
of  Rome,  but  of  Canterbury.  They  were  surrounded 
with  a  halo  of  real  Gospel  sanctity ;  and,  in  point  of 
worldly  esteem,  were  looked  upon  as  of  as  high  a  life- 
value  as  the  king  or  his  chiefest  thane.  And  yet 
they  lived  with  and  among  their  clergy.  They  were 
the  king's  best  advisers,  the  trusty  judges  who  sat  on 
the  judgment-seat  of  all  his  hundred  courts  in  civil 
as  well  as  ecclesiastical  causes ;  yet  they  were  bishops, 
chiefest  and  through  all.  Vast,  though  probably 
worthless,  were  the  estates  which  the  piety  or  policy 
of  former  ages  had  given  them ;  but  bishops  were 
not  yet  barons.  Taking  them,  indeed,  altogether, 
they  far  more  nearly  resembled  the  Rackets  and  the 
Selwyns  of  later  days  than  the  covetous  and  soldierly 
prelates  who  came  next  after  them. 


50  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  VL 

THE   NORMANS   AND   THEIR   NEW   WAYS. 

Removal  of  the  Bishop's  Seat  to  Chester  and  Coventry — Foun- 
dation of  Monasteries. 

Three  years  after  the  Conquest  the  central  part  of 
this  diocese  was  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  Neither  clergy 
nor  laity  regarded  law.  The  woods  were  full  of  cut- 
throats, and  Stafford  was  the  rallying-point  of  a  rebel- 
lion which  brought  William  himself  on  the  scene. 
The  people  fled  before  him;  and  the  desolation  which 
fell  upon  the  neighbourhood  was  terrible. 

The  city  and  cathedral  of  Lichfield  seem  to  have 
been  left  untouched  by  the  Conqueror.  It  was  a 
poor  little  place,  surrounded  only  by  woods  and  some 
forty  acres  of  meadow.  The  canons  had  dwindled 
down  to  five,  noted  as  much  for  poverty  as  for  piety, 
and  they  were  serving  five  surrounding  chapels.  But 
the  scourging  sword  almost  touched  them,  five  adjacent 
estates  being  utterly  devastated. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  college  at  Stafford  seems 
to  have  been  early  re-modelled  by  Normans,  for  its 
thirteen  canon's  appear  in  Domesday  Book  as  being 
also  Prebe7idartes, — that  is,  members  of  the  chapter 
or  council,  who  held  separate  estates  in  right,  not  of 
the  collegiate  church  itself,  but  of  the  stalls  which 


THE  NORMANS  AND  THEIR  NEW  WAYS.     5 1 

they  held  in  it.  They  were  at  this  time,  probably, 
installed  in  a  new  church  of  most  exquisite  work- 
manship, which  was  dedicated  to  St.  Chad,  and  part 
of  which  remains  to  the  present  time.  At  Wolver- 
hampton, William  left  one  of  his  chaplains  as  dean, 
though  only  a  deacon. 

Wild  havoc  was  made  of  the  bishop's  woods  by 
the  Conqueror,  perhaps  because  they  harboured  the 
rebels  whom  he  came  hither  to  crush.  Besides  the 
five  manors  round  Lichfield  which  were  wasted, 
eleven  similarly  suffered  in  Eccleshall.  Yet  Peter 
(1072-1085),  the  Norman  bishop  whom  William  left 
here,  seems  to  have  had  as  many  ploughs  at  work  as 
the  lands  would  bear,  and  to  have  owned  no  less 
than  93,740  acres  of  wood  in  Lichfield,  11,530  in 
Eccleshall,  and  4,320  in  Baswich  and  Brewood.  His 
canons  had  49  ploughs,  and  would  thus  seem  to  be 
beginning  those  extensive  farming  operations  by  which 
capitular  bodies  subsisted,  and  for  which  they  were 
afterwards  remarkable.  The  bishop  was,  indeed,  the 
largest  forest-owner  in  Staffordshire — a  county  which, 
out  of  a  total  surveyed  area  of  468,004  acres,  had 
319,538  acres  of  wood. 

Population  was  scarce,  and  clergy  few.  There  were 
less  than  thirty  non-collegiate  presbyters  beneficed  in 
Staffordshire ;  and  the  rough  character  of  the  Trent 
Valley  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  the  Norman 
Earls  of  Chester  endowed  an  hereditary  guide  who 
had  to  meet  them,  on  their  journeys  from  London, 
at  Hopwasbridge,  near  Tamworth,  and  to  conduct 
them  through  the  mazy  swamps  and  tangled  woods 
to  Radford  Bridge  at  Stafford. 

E  2 


52  LICHFIELD. 

■  The  parishes  which  the  Saxon  bishops  had  cleared 
in  their  woods  were  still  in  existence,  and  in  1087 
beneficed  incumbents  were  living  at  Heywood, 
Longdon,  Eccleshall,  Brewood,  Baswich,  &c. 

Of  Peter  himself  we  know  little  (except  that 
he  had  been  William's  chaplain)  until  the  year  1075, 
when  he  attended  the  synod  of  London.  It  was 
then  agreed  that  the  seats  of  bishops  should  be 
fixed  in  large  towns,  as  being  centres  of  influence. 
Lichfield  was  but  a  village  :  Peter,  therefore,  trans- 
ferred his  episcopal  chair  to  Chester,  which  con- 
tained between  400  and  500  houses.  And  for  many 
centuries  afterwards  his  successors  were  commonly 
called  bishops  of  Chester,  though  none  of  them  was 
ever  enthroned  there. 

Domesday  Book  records  several  curious  and  very 
heavy  dues  payable  in  Chester  at  this  time  to  the 
bishop.  "  If  any  free  man  does  work  on  a  holy-day 
the  bishop  has  a  forfeit  of  eight  shillings.  A  slave 
or  maid-servant  so  transgressing  pays  four  shillings. 
A  merchant,  coming  into  the  city  and  carrying  a  stall, 
shall  pay  to  the  bishop  four  shillings  if  he  take  it 
down  between  the  ninth  hour  of  the  Sabbath  and 
Monday,  without  license  from  the  bishop's  officer," 
and  so  on.  An  acre  of  land  was  then  worth  a 
shilling  :  the  fines  must  have  been  tremendous. 

Peter  found  two  important  churches  at  Chester ; 
that  of  St.  John,  in  which  the  bishop  fixed  his  chair, 
had  traditions  stretching  back  to  the  days  of  King 
Etheldred,  a.d.  689.  To  it  King  Edgar  had,  in  973, 
been  rowed  up  the  Dee  by  eight  petty  kings.  Earl 
Leofric  had  established  a  dean  and  seven  canons  in 


FROM    CHESTER   TO   COVENTRY.  53 

it,  Avho  were  appointed  by  the  Bishop  of  Lichfield. 
The  other,  St.  Werburgh's,  was  a  royal  free  chapel, 
consisting,  like  the  similar  chapel  in  Stafford,  of  a 
dean  and  twelve  prebendaries,  and  looking  back 
to  Ethelfleda  as  its  founder.  Here  the  great  Norman 
earls  of  Chester,  who  were  in  reality  princes,  reigned 
as  patrons ;  and  when  Hugh  the  Wolf  was  on  his 
death-bed  the  church  was  turned  into  a  grand  Bene- 
dictine abbey,  into  which  he  came  to  spend  his  last 
hours.  Large,  therefore,  as  Chester  might  be,  and 
important  as  a  centre  of  organisation,  the  rising 
abbey  and  its  palatine  earls  eclipsed  the  little  cathe- 
dral. So  the  bishops  soon  lost  spirit.  Peter  died 
in  April,  1084,  and  Robert  de  Lymesey  (1086-1117) 
watched  for  an  opportunity  of  getting  away,  which 
came  thus.'  In  1095  the  Abbot  of  Coventi7  died, 
and  Lymesey  obtained — probably  by  purchase — the 
king's  leave  to  farm  the  revenues  of  the  abbey  until 
a  new  head  was  appointed.  For  seven  years  he  kept 
possession  of  them,  and  then,  in  1102,  by  papal 
licence,  he  took  his  bishop's  stool  to  Coventry,  and 
fixed  it  in  the  abbey  church,  being  henceforth  owner 
of  the  barony  (by  purchase  from  the  king)  and  abbot 
of  the  monastery  as  well  as  bishop.  This  position 
his  successors  strenuously  maintained,  planting  down 
their  palace  at  the  north-east  corner  of  St.  Michael's 
churchyard.  They  held  the  abbey  with  its  barony 
and  all  its  possessions  as  a  grant  from  the  crown, 
renewed  from  bishop  to  bishop,  for  a  hundred  years 
till  Bishop  Nunant  lost  all  by  grasping  at  too  much. 

So  rich  a  prize  was  not  allowed  to  pass  from  the 
Regulars  to   the   Seculars   without  a  contest.     We 


54  LICHFIELD, 

gather  from  the  chroniclers  that  the  monks  waged  a 
costly  law-suit  against  Lymesey  at  Rome,  and  that  he 
stripped  the  church  of  its  vast  treasures  to  fight  them 
there.  It  is  said  that  he  once  scraped  silver  to  the 
value  of  five  hundred  marks  from  a  single  beam.^ 
Greed  of  gold  was  the  passion  of  the  time.  "  There 
was  no  rich  man  that  was  not  an  usurer,  no  clerk  that 
was  not  a  lawyer,  no  priest  that  was  not  a  profit- 
monger The    halter  was   loosened    from    a 

felon's  neck  if  he  could  promise  any  bribe  to  the 
sovereign."  So  the  bishop  kept  the  abbey,  and 
starved  and  ill-used  the  monks. 

Stern  as  was  the  rule  of  the  Conqueror,  he  never 
succeeded  in  breaking  the  spirit  of  the  Saxons. 
Wherever  his  followers  settled  they  had  to  fortify 
themselves.  Castles  sprang  up  in  all  directions,  and 
with  them  chapels  for  the  garrisons  within,  and 
churches  for  their  dependants  outside.  Peverel 
Castle  overlooks  Castleton  Church — "long  called  the 
church  of  Peake  Castle " — and  the  twin  towers  of 
Stafford  Castle  still  frown  over  the  Castle  Church. 

Nor  did  these  Normans,  notwithstanding  their  great 
expense  in  castle  building,  stint  their  church  building. 
Underneath  the  walls  of  Tutbury  Castle,  a  Benedic- 
tine priory  was  founded  in  1080  by  Henry  de 
Ferrars,  and  annexed  to  the  abbey  of  St.  Peter 
super  Divan,  in  Normandy.  The  west  end  and 
other  portions  of  this  work  yet  remaining  show  it  to 
have  been  of  marvellous  beauty.  But  it  was  other- 
wise with  the  endowments.     Instead  of  supporting 

'  Probably  from  the  shrine  where  an  arm  of  St.  Augustine  of 
Hippo  was  preserved. 


THE  NORMANS  AND  THEIR  NEW  WAYS.     55 

their  monks  with  a  sufficient  grant  of  land,  or  a  rent" 
charge  on  their  estates,  as  the  Saxons  had  done, 
Ferrars  had  recourse  to  the  pernicious  system  of 
appropriation.  And  thus  it  happened  that,  among 
the  Derbyshire  churches,  the  rectorial  endowments  of 
Broughton,  Norbury,  and  Doveridge  were  now 
diverted  from  their  proper  purpose,  and  assigned 
to  the  support  of  Tutbury  priory.  About  the  same 
time  William  Rufus  made,  or  more  probably  sold, 
a  cheap  augmentation  of  the  revenues  of  Lincoln 
Cathedral  by  giving  the  important  parish  churches 
of  Ashburne  and  Chesterfield  to  it ;  to  which  his 
successor  added  Wirksworth.  So  there  now  began 
a  new  system  of  itinerating  ministry  —  the  sullen  . 
monks  galloping  out  on  Sundays  to  say  the  services 
at  the  appropriated  churches,  and  the  cathedral 
canons  going  round  to  the  benefices  attached  to 
their  stalls,  rather  to  collect  offerings  than  to  per- 
form spiritual  functions. 

But  what  the  Normans  gave  to  the  Church  they 
gave  heartily.  In  1072  Robert  de  Stafford  writes  as 
follows  : — 

Having  a  care  over  my  soule  and  also  for  the  souls  of  my 
foresaid  lord  "William,  and  also  for  my  wife  and  my  parents,  have 
given  certain  land,  Wrottesley  by  name,  to  the  holy  monastery 
of  Evesham So  that  the  Church  shall  for  ever  it  pos- 
sess, and  that  none  my  adversary  shall  presume  to  detract  from 
it,  nor  take  awaie  anything,  and  if  soe  be  that  anie  my  enemie 
shall  presume  to  violate  these  my  alms  which  I  have  geven  to 
god  for  the  remission  of  my  sins,  and  the  health  of  my  soul,  be 
he  alienated  from  the  inheritance  of  god  and  damned  among  the 
infernal  ghosts. 

After  describing  the  bounds  of  the  lands  given,  the 


56  LICHFIELD. 

charter  goes  on,  "  These  things  done  as  is  abovesaid, 
to  wit  in  mlxxij.  yeare  of  the  incarnation  of  our 
Lord.  These  witnesses  >J<  in  word  agreeing  whose 
names  appeare  underwritten,  >J<  I,  Robert,  delivered 
this  my  chyrograph  of  gift  under  the  scale  of  the  holy 
crosse,  and  in  geving  of  it  I  layd  it  upon  the  holy 
aultar."  Then  follow  the  names  of  a  great  band  of  wit- 
nesses who  saw  the  baron  lay  his  deed  upon  the  altar, 
and  thundered  forth  Amen  to  its  terrible  imprecation. 

Strange  to  say,  Robert  was  the  first  to  infringe  his 
own  charter,  but  Peter,  the  bishop,  reproved  him  for 
his  impiety,  and  he  made  amends  on  his  death-bed 
by  adding  to  the  gift. 

In  order  to  understand  the  spirit  in  which  monas- 
teries were  founded  we  must  strip  ourselves  of 
current  prejudices  and  look  upon  the  times  as  they 
were.  To  the  flagrant  lust  and  sin  of  the  age  the 
self-denial  of  the  monks  presented  a  strong  contrast.^ 
What  could  a  wild  Norman  baron,  whose  hand  was 
against  every  man,  see  in  the  peaceful  calm  of  the 
silent  cloister  but  a  type  of  rest  of  which  the  outer 
world  knew  nothing?  The  abbey  chant  stole  over 
him  on  the  night-wind  as  he  paced  his  battlements ; 

^  See  the  arguments  used  by  Orderlin  to  induce  Roger  de 
Montgomery  to  found  Shrewsbury  Abbey,  given  by  Ordericus 
Vitalis  : — "Consider  well,  most  noble  sir,  how  it  is  that  the 
brethren  are  constantly  employed  in  the  monasteries.     In  them 

innumerable  good  deeds  are  done  every  day Who  can 

tell  the  watchings  of  the  monks,  their  chants  and  psalmody, 
their  prayers  and  almsgiving,  their  daily  offerings  of  the  mass 
with  floods  of  tears  ?  Followers  of  Christ,  they  have  but  one 
object,  to  crucify  themselves  that  they  may  please  God  in  all 
things."— Book  V.,  ch.  i. 


THE    OLD   CLERGY   MARRIED.  57 

he  knew  the  monks  were  praying  for  him,  and 
watching  Hke  him.  It  was,  indeed,  his  faith  in  the 
efficacy  of  prayer  and  fasting  that  made  him  beHeve 
in  monks ;  and  he  was  glad  to  have  them  near  him, 
and  to  gain  for  himself  and  his  family  the  blessing  of 
perpetual  intercession.^ 

Bishop  Lymesey,  who,  by  the  way,  had  taken  part 
in  St.  Anselm's  consecration  in  1093,  died  in  1117, 
and  was  buried  at  Coventry.  For  three  years  the 
see  was  kept  vacant  by  the  king,  and  then  Robert, 
a  married  chaplain,  was  appointed.  The  monks,  who 
were  then  bitter  in  their  hatred  of  married  priests 
and  ruthless  in  slandering  them,  blasted  the  new 
bishop  with  the  title  of  Peccatum,  or  Peche  (1121— 
1 126).  He  was  buried  at  Coventry,  where  he  left  his 
son  Richard,  archdeacon,  and  probably  another  son, 
Geoffrey,  a  monk. 

The  old  English  clergy  had  up  to  this  time  married 
and  lived  in  their  parsonages,  much  as  their  suc- 
cessors do  now.  Bishop  Lymesey  left  a  daughter 
comfortably  settled  with  her  husband,  Noel,  on  the 
see  lands  near  Eccleshall.  Hugh,  dean  of  Derby,  was 
married.  So  was  the  rector  of  Bradbourne,  till  his 
rectory  was  taken  by  the  canons  regular  of  Dunstable. 
At  Whalley,  the  rectory  descended  for  centuries  from 
father  to  son,  until  neighbouring  monks  found  the 
house  so  warm  and  comfortable,  that  in  1186  they 

'  So  Randle  de  Blundeville,  founder  of  Delacres,  when  caught 
in  a  storm  at  sea,  said  just  before  the  matin-hour,  2  a.m.,  that 
the  storm  would  soon  be  over  then,  for  that  his  monks  were 
about  to  rise  to  their  prayers,  and  they  would  remember  him  in 
them. 


58  LICHFIELD. 

succeeded  in  ousting  the  parson  and  settling  in  it 
themselves  as  a  monastery.  So  that,  as  collegiate- 
clerical  life  came  into  common  practice,  the  beautiful 
family  life  of  the  old  parish  clergyman  was  obscured, 
only  to  blossom  forth  again  when  its  destroyers  were 
themselves  overthrow^n  by  Henry  VIII. 

Yet  the  monastic  system  fortified  religion  when 
sorely  in  need  of  it.  Men  said  that  Christ  was 
asleep.  Every  strong  man  did  what  he  chose,  and 
took  what  he  could.  The  weak  and  poor  suffered ; 
and  the  clergy  in  many  places  would  have  had  nothing 
left,  unless  allied  by  appropriation  to  some  powerful 
religious  body,  which  could  enforce  spiritual  censures 
at  the  sword's  point,  or  pursue  a  church  robber  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth. 

The  monks  of  the  Benedictine  order  w^ere  utterly 
secluded ;  but  an  order  of  a  middle  sort  now  came 
into  Derby,  under  the  auspices  of  its  great  earl. 

Close  by  St.  Alkmund's  church,  where  there  were 
already  six  clergymen,  yet  just  outside  the  little  town, 
he  planted  a  society  of  Austin  Canons.  These  were 
parish  priests,  living  together  under  monastic  rules, 
and  observing  the  seven  canonical  hours  of  service. 
To  this,  his  second  foundation,  the  Earl  of  Derby  gave 
the  churches  of  Uttoxeter  and  Crich,  a  tithe  of  all  his 
rents  in  Derby,  and  some  land.  But  the  town  of 
Derby,  though  small,  had  already  six  churches  and 
at  least  seventeen  clergy.  It  is  hardly  surprising  that 
Hugh  the  Priest,  dean  of  Derby,  should  speedily  offer 
the  new  brotherhood  a  tempting  site  on  his  meadow- 
land,  a  mile  or  two  away,  on  condition  that  they 
would  betake  their  church  and  themselves  thither, 


AUSTIN   CANONS.  59 

and  remember  him  and  his  family  in  their  prayers. 
This  was  the  origin  of  Darley  Abbey,  Similar  priories 
of  parish  clergymen  also  sprang  up,  about  the 
same  time,  at  Gresley,  near  Burton ;  at  Rocester, 
founded  by  Roger  Bacon,  1 146 ;  at  Trentham,  founded 
by  Randle,  second  Earl  of  Chester.  Stone  Priory 
was  founded  by  the  Baron  of  Stafford;  Caulke  by 
Maude,  widow  of  the  founder  of  Trentham,  and 
afterwards  removed  to  Repton,  1172;  Ranton,  founded 
by  Robert  Fitz  Noel,  was  a  cell  to  Haughmond, 
which  William  Fitz  Alan  built  in  mo.  Bishop 
Richard  Peche,  in  11 80,  brought  the  same  order  to 
Stafford,  but  fixed  them  down  in  a  wild  and  beautiful 
dell  by  the  river,  more  than  a  mile  from  the  town. 
So,  too,  Richard  de  Belmeis,  dean  of  the  collegiate 
church  of  St.  Alkmund  at  Shrewsbury,  finding  that 
little  town  already  overstocked  with  parochial  clergy, 
transferred  the  endowments  of  his  church  to  a  small 
colony  of  the  same  black  canons,  who  had  come  from 
Dorchester  and  were  beginning  to  build  on  one  of 
his  prebendaries'  estates  at  Lilleshall.  In  this  instance 
the  property,  which  had  hitherto  supported  ten  clergy 
in  the  town,  was  diverted  to  the  sustenance  of  a 
greater  number,  devoting  themselves  to  prayer  and 
agricultural  work  in  the  country. 

The  order  of  Clugny  found  but  few  supporters 
in  this  diocese.  Before  1161  the  great  abbey  of 
St.  Milburga,  at  Wenlock,  sent  a  small  colony  to  the 
cell  built  by  Gervase  de  Pagnell,  under  the  walls  of 
his  castle  of  Dudley;  and  that  of  Bermondsey,  in 
Surrey,  had  a  cell  before  1140  at  St.  James's,  in  the 
heart  of  Derby. 


6o  -    LICHFIELD. 

The  great  Benedictine  abbey  of  Shrewsbury,  whose 
grand  western  tower  still  fronts  the  traveller  as  he 
comes  out  over  the  English  bridge,  has  a  special 
interest  from  its  connexion  with  Ordericus  Vitalis, 
one  of  the  most  important  of  our  early  English 
chroniclers.  His  father,  Orderlin,  came  in  the  Con- 
queror's train  from  Orleans,  and  was  a  chaplain  and 
counsellor  to  Roger,  afterwards  Earl  of  Shrewsbury. 
He  lived  with  his  family  of  three  sons  at  Atcham. 
Siward,  a  Saxon  priest  of  royal  blood,  who  had  pro- 
bably been  reduced  to  poverty  by  the  Conquest,  had 
built  a  little  wooden  church,  dedicated  to  St.  Eata,  just 
outside  the  eastern  gate  of  Shrewsbury,  and  was  eking 
out  his  living  by  tuition.  To  him  the  Norman  cler- 
gyman sent  his  son  Orderic,  when  five  years  old,  as 
scholar  and  chorister.  Forty  years  afterwards,  when 
Orderic  had  long  been  a  monk  at  Ouche,  in  Nor- 
mandy, he  concluded  his  chronicle  with  an  address  to 
the  Deity,  in  which  he  thus  speaks  of  his  childhood. 
*'I  was  baptised  on  the  Saturday  of  Easter  (1075)  at 
Atcham,  on  the  banks  of  the  great  river  Severn. 
There,  by  the  ministry  of  Ordericus,  the  priest.  Thou 
didst  regenerate  me  with  water  and  the  Holy  Ghost, 
and  gavest  me  the  name  borne  by  this  priest,  who 
was  my  godfather.  When  I  was  five  years  old  I  was 
sent  to  school  at  Shrewsbury,  and  I  offered  to  Thee 
my  services  in  the  lowest  order  of  the  clergy  of  the 
church  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul.  While  there  Siward, 
a  priest  of  great  eminence,  instructed  me  in  letters 
for  five  years  from  '  Nicostrata  Carmenta,'  and 
taught  me  psalms  and  hymns  and  other  necessary 
learning."  - 


THE   SHREWSBURY   MONK.  6l 

Whether  the  old  Saxon  priest  died  whilst  Orderic 
remained  at  school  we  cannot  tell  '^  but  before  the 
boy  was  ten  years  old  the  Saxon  dedication  was 
superseded,  and  his  father  had  begun  to  build 
a  stone  church  on  the  site  of  the  wooden  one. 
This,  however,  Orderlin  abandoned  when  he  found 
himself  able  to  persuade  Roger  de  Montgomery  to 
build  a  Benedictine  monastery  on  the  spot.  Into 
that  monastery  he  went  as  a  monk,  with  his  second 
son,  Benedict.  Orderic  he  sent  over  sea.  The  latter 
continues  : — "  It  was  not  Thy  good  pleasure  that  I 
should  long  serve  Thee  in  that  place  [Shrewsbury], 
subject  to  the  disquietude  of  my  relatives,  for  such 
are  often  a  hindrance  and  burden  to  Thy  servants. 
....  Wherefore,  O  glorious  God,  Who  badst  Abra- 
ham to  depart  from  his  own  land  and  his  father's 
house.  Thou  didst  put  it  into  the  heart  of  my  father 
Oderlin  to  separate  me  entirely  from  himself,  and  to 

'  The  narrative  of  Ordericus  throws  a  ray  of  light  upon  the 
state  of  the  vanquished  Saxons  at  this  period.  Siward,  the 
nobly-born  priest,  vi^as,  it  seems,  allowed  to  teach  in  Shrews- 
bury ;  most  likely  as  long  as  he  lived  ;  and  then  the  Norman 
earl  seized  the  site  of  his  tiny  college.  The  policy  of  the 
bishops  of  Lichfield  was  the  same  on  their  extensive  estates. 
Frane,  the  forester  of  the  Saxon  bishops,  held  lands  at  Somer- 
ford  in  1086.  Bishop  Robert  Peche  gave  them  to  a  Norman 
holder,  but  allowed  Hainilda,  the  forester's  daughter,  to  retain 
them  as  long  as  she  lived.  And  "Walter  Durdert  granted  to 
Ralph,  his  steward,  the  lands  in  Bromhall  and  elsewhere,  which 
had  been  held  by  a  knot  of  Saxons — amongst  them  Siward,  the 
cobbler — together  with  the  right  of  trying  criminals  by  fire  and 
water,  and  hanging  thieves,  on  condition  that  he  supplied  the 
high  altar  at  Lichfield  with  candles  to  the  value  of  4s.  a  year. 
(W.  Salt  "Collections,"  vol.  iii.  178.) 


62  LICHFIELD. 

devote  me  body  and  soul  to  Thee.  He,  therefore, 
amid  floods  of  tears  delivered  me,  also  weeping  bitterly, 
to  the  monk  Reynold,  and  never  saw  me  afterwards. 
Being  then  a  young  boy,  it  was  not  for  me  to  oppose 
my  father's  will,  and  he,  for  his  part,  promised  me 
that,  if  I  became  a  monk,  I  should  partake  with  the 
saints  of  the  joys  of  Paradise." 

The  abbey  to  which  the  youth  was  consigned  lay 
in  the  heart  of  woods,  and  there  nearly  all  the  rest 
of  his  life  was  spent.  He  was  ordained  deacon  in 
109 1,  and  priest  nearly  sixteen  years  afterwards, 
having  in  common  with  men  of  that  age  a  deep 
reverence  and  fear  of  the  sacerdotal  office.  His 
books  were  written  at  leisure,  and  with  a  frank  and 
unassuming  simplicity.  No  others  give  us  so  much 
valuable  information  on  the  religious,  social,  and 
political  life  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries. 


J 


LICHFIELD.  6;^ 


CHAPTER  VII. 

REORGANISATION   AND    REVIVAL. 

The  Soldier  Bishop — Norman  Institutions  brought  into  Lich- 
field, Prebendaries  Established,  Cathedral  Rebuilt,  City 
Walled — Stern  Reforms,  the  Cistercians — Free  Churches 
— Durdent — Leper  Hospitals — Peche,  the  Younger — La 
Pucelle. 

On  the  death  of  Robert  Peche,  1126,  the  see  was 
again  kept  vacant  for  two  years,  and  at  last  given  to 
Roger  de  Clinton,  a  man  of  noble  birth  and  noble 
heart.  He  was  Archdeacon  of  Buckingham  and  a 
deacon  himself.  On  the  21st  of  December,  1129,  he 
was  ordained  priest,  and  the  next  day  consecrated 
bishop  at  Canterbury. 

Clinton  is  described  in  the  "  Acts  of  King  Stephen  " 
as  one  of  the  worst  three  bishops  of  that  bad  time. 
It  is  there  said  they  went  about  the  country  on  their 
war-horses,  oppressing  and  robbing  like  the  secular 
barons,  and  meanly  laying  the  blame  of  their  outrages 
upon  their  followers  :  but  this  can  hardly  be  true. 
Clinton  was  undoubtedly  a  soldier,  and  he  died 
eventually  in  the  Crusades ;  but  he  was  also  a 
reformer.  As  such,  at  all  events,  he  writ  himself 
large  on  this  diocese.  He  it  was  who  first  brought 
Norman  institutions  into  Lichfield.  The  five  canons 
there  had  been  noted  for  poverty,  piety,  and  self- 
denial  ;  and  they  served  a  circle  of  five  neighbouring 


64  LICHFIELD. 

chapels.  The  property  they  enjoyed  belonged  to 
the  bishop.  Clinton  seems  to  have  settled  it  on  the 
cathedral  as  common  chapter  property,  though  he 
added,  at  the  same  time,  a  large  additional  body  of 
prebendaries.  The  latter  were  non-resident  canons, 
who  were  to  be  members  of  the  chapter  and  to 
enjoy  a  stall  in  the  choir.  To  each  stall  a  small 
estate  or  prebend  was  attached ;  and,  as  the  names  of 
the  prebends  are  those  of  places  on  the  old  see  lands, 
we  know  that  Clinton's  reforms  were  established  at 
his  own  expense.  The  whole  chapter  was  to  pray  for 
and  to  advise  the  bishop, — to  furnish  him,  indeed, 
with  that  valuable  brotherly  counsel  which  was  given 
by  every  monastic  chapter  to  its  head,  and  which 
made  the  monks  so  formidable  to  deal  with. 

Moreover,  in  this  division  of  property  among  the 
various  clergy  of  the  cathedral,  we  see  a  recognition 
by  the  bishop  of  the  fact  which  had  done  so  much 
for  the  parochial  system,  namely,  that  men  prefer 
having  an  office  and  estate  of  their  own  to  a  mere 
share  of  common  duty  and  revenue.  And  the 
cathedral  needed  reorganisation  for  another  reason. 
It  was  no  longer  the  sole  head-quarters  of  the  bishop. 
He  had  become  a  rover,  carrying  his  court  with  him  ; 
the  cathedral  chapter  naturally  wished  to  know 
exactly  what  they  had  to  expect  from  him. 

Clinton  rebuilt  the  old  Saxon  cathedral  church  of 
St.  Peter  on  a  plan  which  will  presently  be  men- 
tioned, and  re-dedicated  it  to  St.  Chad,  whose  bones  he 
brought  into  it.  He  also  fortified  the  Close,  and 
enrolled  the  men-at-arms  available  for  service.  Out- 
side the  south  gate  of  the  city  he  planted  a  colony  of 


THE    CISTERCIAN    REVIVAL   UNDER    CLINTON.        65 

Austin  canons,  which  he  dedicated  to  St.  John.  He 
built  the  priory,  perhaps,  in  the  hope  that  the  citizens 
might  be  able  to  worship  there  in  war  time,  when  cut 
off  from  the  cathedral  by  his  new  ditches  and  strong 
gates.  At  Fairw^ell,  three  miles  away,  he  left  a 
nunnery ;  and  at  Buildwas,  in  a  damp  meadow  where 
a  stream  runs  into  the  Severn,  he  founded  an  abbey. 
The  ruins  of  its  chapter-house,  slype,  &c.,  still 
exist,  and  the  fair,  pointed,  massive  Norman  arches 
and  lofty  round  pillars,  which  still  stand  fresh  and 
sharp  in  the  minster  church,  show  what  the  first 
Norman  cathedral  at  Lichfield  must  have  been. 

The  building  of  Buildwas  for  Cistercian  monks,  no 
less  than  the  vigorous  organisation  of  diocese  and 
cathedral,  shows  the  real  character  of  this  stern  soldier- 
bishop.  The  wilder  lust  and  anarchy  of  a  previous 
period  had  now  worked  themselves  out.  Men  had 
fled  in  disgust  into  the  woods.  There  were  hermit- 
ages at  Armitage,  near  Lichfield,  on  a  rock  over- 
looking the  Trent ;  at  Calwich,  by  the  Dove ;  at 
Sandwell,  near  Wolverhampton  ;  at  Yeaveley,  near 
Ashborne,  and  elsewhere.  In  a  retreat  of  this  sort, 
on  Cannock  Chase,  a  band  of  men  had  settled  and 
were  living  under  strict  rules.  The  times  were,  there- 
fore, ripe  for  the  coming  of  the  hard-working  and  self- 
denying  Cistercians,  whose  white  robes  matched  well 
the  marvellous  self-denial  and  purity  of  their  lives. 
These  men  were  welcomed  not  only  by  the  martial 
spirit  of  Chnton  :  in  1 176,  after  he  was  dead,  Bertram 
de  Verdun  gave  them  a  track  of  wet  land  in  a  valley 
at  Croxden,  near  Uttoxeter;  and  on  it  rose  the  stately 
abbey    whose    ruined    church,    chapter-house,    and 

F 


66  LICHFIELD, 

cloister-square  are  still  grand,  even  in  decay.  And 
even  before  Clinton  came  to  the  diocese  a  colony 
of  "  White-ladies "  had  settled  in  the  woods  near 
Brewood. 

The  Cistercians  sought  lonely  and  unhealthy  neigh- 
bourhoods ;  they  courted  hardship  and  death.  But 
what  they  found  ^^ild  and  barren  they  left  fertile. 
Buildwas  and  Croxden,  White-ladies,  and  Dieulacres, 
near  Leek — the  latter  founded,  in  12 14,  by  Randle 
III.,  Earl  of  Chester — have  all  left  more  than  vener- 
able wrecks  behind  them.  The  adjacent  lands  afford 
plain  proofs  of  the  immense  work  done  by  the 
patient  toiling  "  monks  of  old,"  in  building  bridges, 
embanking  rivers,  draining  swamps,  clearing  woods, 
and,  not  least,  erecting  parish  churches. 

The  Cistercian  movement  was  most  felt  in  Cheshire ; 
Derbyshire  it  did  not  touch. 

Another  great  passion  of  the  time,  the  Crusades, 
seized  the  martial  spirit  of  Clinton,  and  carried  him 
off  to  rescue  the  Holy  Sepulchre  ;  but  he  died  at 
Antioch,  April  16,  1148,  leaving  behind  him  here,  in 
heroic  Derbyshire,  a  feeling  which,  in  Henry  II.'s 
time,  resulted  in  the  establishment  of  a  Chamber 
of  Knights  Hospitallers  at  Barrow-on-Trent  (at  the 
expense  of  the  rectory  of  that  parish),  and  in  the  reign 
of  Richard  I.  of  an  extensive  "  Commandery  "  or  hos- 
telry of  the  same  knights  at  Yeaveley,  near  Ashbourne. 
There,  right  liberal  hospitality  and  the  sacred  rites  of 
religion  were  open  to  all  comers,  especially  to  pilgrims 
bound  for  the  Holy  Land.  At  Balston,  in  Warwick- 
shire, the  Templars  had  a  Preceptory. 

So  far  the  growth  of  Church  organisation  after  the 


FREE   CHURCHES.  67 

Conquest  had  been  as  rapid  as  the  age  was  liberal 
in  the  foundation  of  religious  houses.  But  the  seeds 
of  disintegration  now  began  to  show  themselves. 
With  the  laudable  desire  to  become  a  part  of  the 
great  unity  of  western  Christendom,  the  Church  of 
England  had,  in  Saxon  days,  agreed  to  acknowledge 
that  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ought  to  have  the  first 
place  among  European  bishops.  This  much  clenched 
by  Norman  sword,  the  popes  wrested  more.  In  the 
age  after  the  Conquest,  Englishmen  rapidly  played 
their  national  Church  into  the  yoke.  Nothing  more 
contributed  to  this  than  the  quarrels  which  sprang 
from  the  pride  of  the  monks.  Lavishly  endowed, 
powerfully  supported  by  great  men,  Vv^hose  pets  and 
darlings  they  were,  they  began  to  despise  diocesan 
bishops.  They  preferred  the  pope,  as  being  a  bishop 
of  greater  dignity  and  at  a  greater  distance.  Under 
his  acknowledged  supremacy  their  spiritual  splendours 
and  substantial  wealth  might  be  deemed  secure 
from  encroachment  on  the  part  of  harsh  bishop,  or 
marauding  baron,  or  pilfering  king.  With  the  case 
of  Coventry  Abbey  before  us,  we  cannot  wonder  at 
this.  Every  great  spiritual  corporation,  therefore, 
aimed  at  being  able  to  shut  its  doors  in  the  bishop's 
face, — even  the  collegiate  churches,  and,  last  of  all, 
the  cathedral  itself. 

In  the  days  of  a  ruler  like  Clinton  this  was  not 
not  so  easy.  It  would  seem  that  the  royal  chapels 
on  the  old  Mercian  border  had  set  up  their  claim 
for  exemption.  The  collegiate  churches  at  Stafford, 
Penkridge,  Gnosall,  and  Wolverhampton  had  pro- 
bably all  called  themselves  "free";  but  Clinton  got 

F  2 


68  LICHFIELD. 

a  grant  of  them  from  the  Crown,  and  annexed  them 
bodily  to  the  possessions  of  his  cathedral,  appointing 
Helias,  archdeacon  of  Stafford,  Dean  of  Stafford. 
The  prebendaries  of  Stafford  seem  to  have  wriggled 
out  of  this  under  the  auspices  of  King  John,  who 
founded  for  them  a  new  and  larger  church  ad- 
joining the  hermitage  of  St.  Bertoline,  which  they 
dedicated  to  St.  Mary.  Into  that  they  seem  to 
have  migrated,  leaving  the  beautiful  old  parish 
church  of  St.  Chad  in  the  hands  of  the  bishop,  where 
as  a  prebend  of  Lichfield  it  has  ever  since  remained. 
Gnosall  never  shook  off  the  cathedral,  though  it  re- 
tained some  of  its  remarkable  special  privileges  down 
to  the  time  of  the  present  incumbent.  Of  the  other 
free  churches  we  may  have  to  speak  presently.  When 
Clinton  died  their  "freedom"  was  by  no  means 
accomplished. 

The  Church  was,  of  course,  all  this  time  the  Church 
of  the  nation.  But  it  was  not  yet  established,  that 
is,  its  relation  to  the  State  had  not  yet  become  clearly 
defined.  Hence  there  was  continual  strife.  Supre- 
macy alternated  between  king  and  pope.  The  abbots 
and  bishops  played  off  the  one  against  the  other,  as 
it  happened  to  suit  their  purposes.  Neither  church 
nor  churchman,  however  sacred  the  one  or  eminent 
the  other,  was  secure  from  sudden  and  violent 
changes.  The  growth  of  establishment  was  the 
establishment  of  peace. 

Hitherto  the  bishops  had  been  nominated  to  the 
see  by  the  kings  as  rightful  patrons  and  nursing 
fathers  of  the  Church.  But  an  influence,  which  has 
been  already  discussed  in  the  earlier  volumes  of  this 


THE    BISHOP    SHUT    OUT    OF    LICHFIELD.  69 

series  of  "  Diocesan  Histories  "  had  recently  been  at 
work,  and  now  King  Stephen  gives  the  monks  of 
Coventry  and  the  canons  of  Lichfield  and  Chester 
leave  to  elect  a  bishop.  They  met  at  Leicester  before 
Theobald,  archbishop  of  Canterbury.  The  monks 
assumed  the  sole  right  of  election,  and  chose  a 
monk,  Walter  Durdent,  prior  of  Canterbury.  He 
had  been  precentor  of  Lichfield,  and  might,  therefore, 
be  supposed  acceptable  here  as  bishop.  But  the 
canons  both  of  Lichfield  and  Chester  vehemently 
protested  against  the  election, — objecting,  it  would 
seem,  not  so  much  to  Durdent  as  to  his  election  by 
Coventry  only.  They  carried  an  appeal  to  Rome.  His- 
torians differ  as  to  the  result.  "  The  pope  confirmed 
the  election,"  says  the  Prior  of  Coventry.^  "  The  king 
gave  Durdent  to  Lichfield,"  says  Thomas  of  Chester- 
field, canon  of  Lichfield.  The  fact  is,  that  elections 
of  this  sort  were  a  matter  of  amicable  arrangement 
between  the  king,  the  archbishop,  and  the  leading 
electors.^ 

October  2,  1149,  Durdent  was  consecrated  by  the 
archbishop  at  the  altar  of  Christ,  in  the  cathedral 
of  which  he  had  been  prior.  Bishops  Robert  of 
London,  Walter  of  Rochester,  and  Nicholas  of  Llan- 
daff,  joined  in  the  laying  on  of  hands.  He  was 
enthroned  at  Coventry,  but  when  he  came  to  Lichfield 
the  gates  of  the  close  were  shut  in  his  face,  and  he 

'  "Monasticon,"  vol.  iii.,  220.  An  account  of  the  bishop's 
tenants  will  be  found  in  the  William  Salt  Society's  "  Staff. 
Collections,"  vol.  i.,  152,  &c.  Walter  Peche  had  land  at 
Pipe;  Rabel  Durdent  had  land  at  Wall,  1164, — both  under  the 
bishops. 

Professor  Stubbs,  preface  to  "W.  of  Coventry,"  vol.  ii.,  xl. 


70  LICHFIELD. 

began  his  rule  by  hissing  excommunication  at  the 
canons  through  the  bars.  How  the  storm  was  stilled 
we  have  no  record. 

The  struggles  of  the  monks  and  greater  collegiate 
churches  for  freedom  from,  if  not  supremacy  over, 
the  bishops — a  freedom  which,  extending  to  the  parish 
churches  appropriated  to  them,  ever  more  narrowed 
the  authority  of  the  bishops — now  grew  intense^ 
Monk  though  he  had  been,  Durdent,  when  ac- 
cepted at  Lichfield,  drew  his  secular  canons  round 
him,  and  prepared  to  secure  all  that  his  predecessors 
had  won  in  the  struggle  with  the  rising  tide  of  monas- 
ticisni.  Coventry  Abbey  was,  of  course,  held  fast. 
He  and  the  prior  were  summoned  by  the  monks  to 
Rome,  where  it  was  agreed  that  the  bishop  should 
keep  the  abbey  as  a  monastic  cathedral,  like  St. 
Augustine's  at  Canterbury,  but  that  the  prior  should 
have  the  first  voice  in  the  episcopal  elections. 

Durdent  died  at  Rome,  December  7,  1159,  and 
his  body  was  brought  to  Coventry. 

The  Pipe  Rolls  of  Henry  H.  show  the  spread  of 
agriculture  in  his  time.  The  bishop's  farm  labourers 
were  busy  clearing  his  swamps  about  Rugeley,  and, 
in  their  zeal,  seem  to  have  included  some  of  the 
firmer  land  of  Cannock  Chase,  which  belonged  to 
the  king.  Thereupon  the  bishop  was  called  to  account, 
and  charged  ;^ioo  for  the  royal  woodland  which  he 
had  grubbed  up.  The  magnitude  of  the  sum  shows 
either  great  wrath  toward  the  bishop,  or  great  dili- 
gence on  his  part  as  a  farmer. 

We  get  a  glimpse  of  the  humbler  Church  life  of  this 
same  period  from  "  The  Chronicle  of  Dale  Abbey." 


TRAFFIC    IN    CHURCH    ENDOWMENTS.  7 1 

A  certain  pious  baker  at  Derby  was  wont  every 
Sunday  to  bring  the  bread  left  in  his  shop  to  be 
given  to  the  poor  in  the  church  of  St.  Mary,  which 
then  stood  at  the  head  of  a  large  parish.  One  day, 
when  indulging  in  an  after-dinner  nap,  he  dreamt 
that  the  Blessed  Virgin  called  him  to  a  hermit's  life 
at  a  place  which  was  named  to  him  as  Deepdale. 
He  started  thither,  and  when  passing  through  the 
village  of  Stanley,  wondering  where  Deepdale  was, 
he  heard  a  woman  bid  her  child,  "  Drive  the  cows  to 
Deepdale"  (an  indication  that  lands  were  still  open  to 
common  pasture  in  East  Derbyshire).  The  man  fol- 
lowed the  cows,  and  fixed  on  a  lonely  cell  as  his  hermit- 
age.    There  afterwards  rose  the  stately  abbey  of  Dale. 

Another  phase  of  contemporary  Church  life  is 
startling  to  lovers  of  the  good  old  times  of  Roman 
supremacy.  The  Normans,  it  appears,  trafficked  freely 
in  Church  livings  and  advowsons.  One  of  them, 
Enison,  is  said  to  have  sold  the  parish  church  of 
Stone  for  a  good  horse  and  a  fur  coat.  ^  '  Domesday 
Book  notes  that  the  owner  of  a  Derby  church  "might 
dispose  of  his  tythes  as  he  would,"  i.e.,  of  the  rectory 
of  his  church  and  not  merely  its  advowson.  And 
the  late  very  learned  antiquary,  the  Rev.  R.  W. 
Eyton,  author  of  the  "  Antiquities  of  Shropshire,"  in 
the  last  paper  which  he  published,  a  paper,  namely,  on 
"Staffordshire  Charters,"  printed  in  the  second  volume 
of  the  William  Salt  "  Collections,"  2  writes:    "This 

1  See  the  "Staffordshire  Cartulary"  in  the  W.  Salt  Society's 
**  Collections,"  voh  ii. 

"^  "  Collections  for  a  History  of  Stafifordshire,"  published  by 
the  William  Salt  Archaeological  Society,  vol.  ii.,  211. 


72  LICHFIELD. 

Osbert,  here" — i.e.^  in  a  charter  grantmg  Castle  Church 
Stafford  to  the  canons  of  Stone— "here  called  'my 
chaplain,'  was  a  creature  of  the  era  at  which  the 
charter  passed  (1138-1147).  The  charter  itself  indi- 
cates that  this  Osbert  held  the  chapelry  ....  with 
its  appurtenant  churches,  lands,  and  tythes,  the 
livings  of  Tyshoe  and  Great  Woolford  in  Warwick- 
shire, under  Robert  de  Stafford,  and  that  Osbert 
concurred  with  that  baron  in  conferring  all  three 
benefices  on  the  priory  of  Stone.  Osbert's  position 
in  this  charter  was  probably  that  of  a  middleman  or 
agent  for  the  sale  or  disposal  of  churches  in  legal 
form  ....  Notwithstanding  his  seeming  liberality,  he 
remained  a  great  pluralist.  The  church  of  Swinnerton 
was  at  that  time  portionary.  Both  its  incumbents 
were  named  Osbert  :  one  of  the  two  was  probably 
the  pluralist.  Their  title  came  to  be  assailed  by  the 
canons  of  Stone.  They  lost  the  preferment  by  a 
decree  of  Bishop  Durdent."  ^ 

Another  trafficker  appears  on  the  scene  about  the 
same  date.  Robert,  archdeacon  of  London,  and 
Osbert  together  lay  claim  to  the  living  of  Bradley 
on  the  Stafford  barony.  It  is  pleasing  to  find  that 
Bishop  Durdent  was  more  than  a  match  for  both. 
Osbert  bore  the  name  of  "  de  Diddlebury,"  from  his 
holding  also  the  rectory  of  Diddlebury  in  Salop. 
He  was  buying  livings  for  Stone  priory,  and  Robert 
probably  for  Lilleshall  Abbey.  Both  these  houses 
were  to  be  filled  with  Austin  canons ;  and  it  may  be 
that  the  founders  intended  their  canons  to  be  active 
in  parochial  work.     If  so,  they  were  sorely  mistaken. 

'  The  Archdeacon  of  Stafford  conducted  the  inquiry. 


LEPER    HOSPITALS.  73 

About  this  time  another  feature  of  mediaeval  piety 
was  developed  :  the  Maison-Dieu  began  to  appear. 
This  House  of  God  was  a  home  of  mercy  wherein 
a  band  of  clergy  devoted  themselves,  as  fellows  under 
the  direction  of  a  master,  to  the  tender  care  of  lepers. 
The  unhealthy  dwellings  of  the  period,  the  coarse 
swillings  of  bad  fermented  liquor,  the  exceedingly 
poor  and  unwholesome  food  produced  a  continual 
crop  of  horrible  skin  diseases,  which  required  the 
separation  of  the  patient  and  the  strenuous  help  of 
devoted  hands.  At  Derby,  therefore,  at  Chesterfield, 
Ashburne,  and  Locko  in  Derbyshire,  at  Stafford, 
Lichfield,  and  elsewhere,  arose  the  Lepers'  Hospital, 
generally  dedicated  to  St.  Leonard.  It  was  mostly 
about  half  a  mile  out  of  the  town,  substantially  built, 
and  endowed  to  afford  the  best  of  food  and  medicine. 
The  chapel  was  open  to  the  hall,  so  that  patients  in 
bed  could  hear  divine  service.  But  the  ban  of  separa- 
tion must  have  made  the  life  a  hard  one.  They  had 
even  their  own  burial-grounds,  wherein  they  laid  each 
other  to  rest.  That  at  Stafford  has  lately  been  iden- 
tified by  the  present  writer.  It  lies  about  a  couple 
of  hundred  yards  from  the  site  of  the  hospital ;  and, 
among  the  many  skeletons  which  have  from  time  to 
time  been  disturbed  there,  were  the  bones  of  a  priest 
with  a  chalice  ^  by  his  side.  No  duty  seems  to  have 
been  more  clearly  set  before  the  minds  of  men  in 
those  turbulent  times  than  that  of  living  a  better  life 
than  was  then  common  :  and  this  the  Church  did  by 
the  institutions  of  the  age. 

The  poor   also  came  in  for  a  share  of  care.     A 

'  Of  ^^hich  chalice  there  is  a  drawing  in  the  Salt  Library. 


74  LICHFIELD. 

massive  building  still  in  part  remains  at  Stafford, 
which  is  now  used  as  a  public-house/  but  which  was 
once  the  hospital  of  St.  John,  a  home  and  church  of 
Norman  date  for  poor  old  men. 

Richard  Peche,  archdeacon  of  Coventr}',  and  son 
of  the  former  bishop  of  that  name,  was,  notwith- 
standing his  birth,  the  first  bishop  unanimously 
elected  by  both  chapters.  He  was  consecrated  in 
1161  by  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  in  the  presence 
of  Archbishop  Theobald,  who,  in  his  last  illness,  had 
been  carried  into  the  chapel  to  be  present  at  the 
service.  In  11 62  he  laid  hands  upon  the  head  of 
Thomas  a  Becket,  when  he  was  consecrated  to  the 
primacy,  and,  soon  after  that  luckless  prelate  was  mur- 
dered, he  showed  his  sense  of  the  crime  by  founding 
a  priory  of  Austin  canons  in  a  pleasant  valley  by  the 
side  of  the  Sow  near  Stafford,  on  the  fringe  of  his  epis- 
copal estate,  and  boldly  dedicating  it  to  the  memory 
of  the  martyr,  1180.  He  is  said  by  some  to  have 
been  sent  by  Henry,  as  joint  viceroy,  into  Ireland, — 
perhaps  to  remove  him  out  of  the  arena  of  home 
politics;  but  more  probably  Richard  Pek,  Richard 
of  the  Peake,  was  the  real  viceroy. 

Peche,  like  some  other  of  our  bishops,  seems  to 
have  remembered  his  kith  and  kin — not  by  giving 
them  good  livings  or  canonries,  but  by  settling  them 
as  permanent  tenants  on  the  episcopal  lands. 

Finding  his  end  approach,  Peche  resigned  his 
bishopric  and  retired  on  a  small  daily  pension — 
amounting  in  all  to  40s. — into  his  priory  of  St.  Thomas, 

'  The  "  White  Lion,"  Lichfield  Road. 


RICHARD    PECHE  ;    SIMON    THE    SAGE.  75 

and  put  on  the  white  surplice  and  black  cap  of  a 
canon,  to  wait  for  death  in  the  character  of  "  a  priest 
of  prayer."  He  lingered  only  from  the  Michaelmas, 
1 182,  to  October  6th,  and  when  he  died  was  buried 
before  the  altar  in  the  priory  church. 

Derbyshire  had  also  its  abbey  in  memory  of 
St.  Thomas,  Robert  Fitz  Ralph,  in  1 183,  building 
Beauchief  in  a  silent  valley  near  Sheffield,  and  filling 
it  with  Pr^monstratensians. 

On  the  resignation  of  Bishop  Peche,  the  Stafford- 
shire temporalities  of  the  see  were  put  by  the  king 
into  the  hands  of  Thomas  Noel,  who  held  them  for 
three  quarters  of  a  year.  They  sprang  from  four 
sources,  namely,  manorial  rents,  visitation  fees, — 
archidiaconal  senages  they  were  called, — episcopal 
perquisites,  perhaps  fines  and  profits  of  courts,  and 
forest  pannage.  The  total  value  was  ;^i23.  15s.  2d. 
for  the  three  quarters.  Bishop  Peche  had  augmented 
the  deanery  at  the  rate  of  twenty-five  shillings  for  the 
nine  months,  and  the  co7nmuna  or  common  income 
of  the  resident  canons  by  four  marks.  The  noto- 
rious John  Cumin,  archbishop  of  Dublin,  one  of 
King  Henry's  ambassadors  to  Rome  during  his  con- 
test with  Becket,  had  then  a  prebendal  stall  at  Lich- 
field, to  which  the  bishop's  revenue  contributed  4os.^ 

About  this  time  lived  Simon  the  Sage,  or  Simon 
Sapiens,  a  clerk  of  Lichfield.  He  was  the  bishop's 
tenant  at  Freeford — where  the  lepers'  hospital  stood — 
and  elsewhere,  and  left  at  his  death  in  1 184  a  daughter 
and  heiress, — Petronella  le  Sage.     The  allusions  to 

'  Pipe  Roll,  Henry. 


76  LICHFIELD. 

her  in  the  Pipe  Rolls  show  the  legitimate  position 
of  married  clergy  in  the  eyes  of  the  civil  law.  As  in 
the  case  of  the  Peche  family,  mere  personal  epithets 
became  family  surnames. 

Gerard  Puella,  or  La  Pucelle,  was  next  chosen 
by  the  monks  of  Coventry.  He  was  canon  of  Salis- 
bury, and  with  Petrus  Blesensis,  had  been  domestic 
chaplain  to  Richard,  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  a 
favourer  of  monks.  The  two  chaplains  were  cele- 
brated men.  They  were  among  the  earliest  professors 
of  ecclesiastical  or  canon  law,  which  was  just  then 
being  systematised  and  codified,  and  were  famous 
throughout  Christendom  for  eloquence  and  skill. 

Gerard  was  consecrated  at  Canterbury,  Sept.  25, 
1 183,  and  having  been  enthroned  at  Coventry  came 
to  Lichfield,  where,  when  the  canons  refused  to 
enthrone  him,  he  remarked,  Unica  est  sponsa  mea, 
nee  habeo  duo  eubicula  "  ("  I  have  but  one  diocese, 
and  must  I  have  but  one  cathedral  ?  "). 

Lichfield  never  appreciated  the  godly  man.  In 
four  months  he  died,  probably  by  poison,  and  was 
carried  away  to  Coventry  for  burial.  At  Canterbury, 
where  he  was  known  and  loved,  his  yearly  obit  was 
celebrated  with  the  honours  of  an  archbishop. 

During  the  vacancy  which  now  occurred,  Eugenius, 
bishop  probably  of  Ardmore  in  Ireland,  visited  the 
diocese,  and  received  5  s.  a  day  out  of  the  episcopal 
revenues.  The  deanery,  endowed  out  of  the  bishop's 
lands,  w^as  now  worth  ;^28.i  The  bishopric  had 
increased  to  ;^i79  a  year,  or  ^\\  more  than  it  was 
in  1 183. 

'  See  W.  Salt,  "Collections,"  vol.  ii.,  207. 


DIVISION   OF   THE   DIOCESE.  77 

The  diocese  was  now  permanently  divided  into 
the  archdeaconries  of  Derby,  Stafford,  Chester,  and 
Coventry.  Ricardus  Archdiaconus  (R.  Peche), 
appears  as  witness  in  a  charter  which  the  Rev.  R.  W. 
Eyton  assigns  to  the  year  1130.  Robert  Avas  Arch- 
deacon of  Stafford  before  11 26,  and  Clinton's  dapifer. 
Gorso,  steward  of  the  see  in  1130,  had  a  son  William, 
who  was  in  1139  appointed  Archdeacon  of  Chester.i 

'  Ibid.  If  Clinton  organised  the  archdeaconries,  he  did  so 
before  his  consecration.  But  the  fact  that  R.  Peche  was  Arch- 
deacon of  Coventry  points  rather  to  the  elder  Peche  as  intro- 
ducing the  order  into  this  diocese.  N.B. — The  connexion 
between  the  office  and  the  stewardships  of  the  see. 


78  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE     GREAT     STRUGGLE     BETWEEN     LICHFIELD     AND 
COVENTRY. 

Election  Quarrels — Strife  between  Bishops  and  Monks — Re- 
modelling of  the  Cathedral  Fabric — A  Traitor  Bishop — 
Wolverhampton. 

A  STRANGE  character  now  comes  upon  the  scene — a 
character  in  the  person  of  Bishop  Nunant,  or  Novant, 
regular,  secular,  political,  and  religious,  or  anything 
but  religious,  by  turns. 

Hugh  de  Nunant  (1184-1199),  a  Carthusian 
prior,  was  apparently  nominated  to  the  see  of 
Coventry  and  Lichfield  by  the  Crown  at  Christmas, 
1 1 84;  and  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that,  though  not 
consecrated  until  January,  1188,  he  came  at  once  into 
possession  of  the  temporalities  of  the  see. 

Giraldus  Cambrensis  thought  him  a  man  of 
wonderful  piety  and  eloquence  ;  Hoveden  calls  him 
singularly  wicked.  Before  his  consecration  he  was 
appointed  legate,  and  sent  into  Ireland  to  crown 
Prince  John;  in  1189  he  assisted  at  the  coronation 
of  Richard,  and  in  1190  he  was  summoned  to  that 
king's  council  in  Normandy.  As  bishop,  he  was 
remarkable  for  his  hatred  of  the  monks,  and  was  but 
newly  consecrated  when  he  took  steps  for  strengthen- 
ing   his    hands    against    them,    levelling    his    first 


^       STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  LICHFIELD  AND  COVENTRY.    79, 

measures  against  unfortunate  Coventry.  Proceeding 
to  the  place,  he  held  a  visitation  in  the  priory  church, 
and  so  exasperated  the  monks  by  his  taunting  words 
that  they  rushed  in  fury  upon  his  chair  and  broke 
his  head  with  a  cross.  But  the  astute  bishop  turned 
the  assault  to  advantage.  While  yet  black  and  blue 
he  appeared  before  the  king  at  Westminster ;  told 
his  tale  wdth  force  at  the  council  board ;  got  leave 
to  turn  the  monks  out,  and  to  fill  the  stalls  with 
secular  canons.  The  monks  remained  dependent  on 
him  for  bread,  since  he  held  their  estates,  and  they 
were  dead  to  the  world ;  and  he  kept  them  so  ill  as 
to  have  neither  pluck  nor  power  to  appeal  against 
him.  But  one  of  them  contrived  to  get  away  to 
Rome,  where,  though  he  pleaded  to  pope  after  pope 
in  vain,  as  long  as  Nunant  retained  King  Richard's 
favour,  he  doggedly  hung  on  at  the  papal  court, 
begging  his  bread  and  biding  his  time.^ 

The  Pipe  Rolls,  meanwhile,  give  us  some  curious 
glimpses  of  this  strange  bishop.  It  seems  that  he 
lost  no  opportunity  of  strengthening  his  secular 
minsters,  and  always  at  the  cheapest  rate.  When 
Richard  I.  is  raising  money  for  his  crusade  at  Easter, 
1 190,  Nunant  buys  the  manors  of  Cannock  and 
Rugeley  for  his  bishopric  for  twenty-five  marks,  or 
j£i6  13s.  4d.  At  the  same  time,  and  perhaps  by  the 
same  means,  he  obtained  a  grant  of  freedom  from 
fines  in  cases  of  murder  and  robbery  on  the  lands 
belonging   to   his   chapters   at   Coventry,    Lichfield, 

'  At  the  assizes,  \vhich,  by  the  way,  were  always  held  at 
Lichfield,  in  1205,  a  plaintiff  swore  of  Nunant  that,  m  et 
injustc,  he  had  instituted  the  Archdeacon  of  Stafford  to  Cheadle. 


8o  LICHFIELD. 

Chester,  Shrewsbury,  and  Gnosall.  A  year  later, 
1 191,  he  is  sheriff  of  Staffordshire,  farming  with 
the  taxes  of  that  county  the  manor  of  Trentham, 
which  was  the  richest  of  the  Crown  lands  in  Stafford- 
shire. From  1 191  to  II 93  he  held  also  the  shrie- 
valties of  Warwick  and  Leicester,  having  paid  the 
king  two  hundred  marks  for  the  three. 

But  secular  business  was  Nunant's  ruin.  The  Pipe 
Rolls,  which  show  how  he  farmed  the  taxes,  give  the 
first  glimpse  of  the  rock  upon  which  his  fortunes 
split.  It  happened  thus.  In  1191  Prince  John  set 
himself  to  undermine  the  authority  of  the  absent 
king.  Richard  had  left  John  in  charge  of  a  large 
tract  of  the  midland  counties  under  Longchamp, 
bishop  of  Ely,  who  was  chancellor  of  England.  The 
chancellor  was  a  foreigner  whom  the  English  hated. 
The  Rolls  show  that  Longchamp  had  to  insist  upon 
Nunant  keeping  peace  in  Staffordshire.  Nunant  then 
spent  p^9  2S.  6d.  on  ten  sergeants-at-arms,  who  were 
to  act  as  police  and  to  keep  malefactors  down.  But 
the  "  malefactors  "  would  not  be  kept  down.  They 
were  Saxons  whom  Prince  John  was  rallying  round 
himself,  and  Nunant  was  hesitating  whether  or  not  he 
should  himself  join  them.  Yet  for  a  while  longer  he 
sulkily  discharged  the  duties  of  underling  to  Long- 
champ, and  at  his  bidding  spent  jQ2(i  on  fortifying 
a  Leicestershire  castle  against  the  Saxons.  At  the 
same  time  he  busily  farmed  his  own  estates,  and  was 
pushing  on  the  clearing  of  land  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Cannock. 

Next  year,  1192,  he  called  Robert,  his  brother,  to 
help  him  with  the  Staffordshire  taxes,  appointing  him 


\ 


STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  LICHFIELD  AND  COVENTRY.    8 1 

under-sheriff.  This  brother  seems  to  have  brought 
misfortune  with  him.  In  1191  the  bishop  had  been, 
as  we  have  seen,  at  least  professedly  loyal  to  Richard, 
and  had  even  acted  as  a  mediator  between  Prince 
John  and  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  whom  the  king 
had  sent  into  the  country  to  repress  the  rising  dis- 
loyalty of  the  Saxons.  He  had  also  persuaded  John 
to  give  up  the  royal  castles  which  he  had  seized, 
himself  taking  possession  of  Peake  Castle  in  the  king's 
name.  But,  when  his  brother  Robert  joined  him,  the 
bishop  went  over  altogether  to  John's  side;  accepting, 
however,  what  seems  too  much  like  a  bribe,  and  that 
bribe  nothing  else  than  the  parish  church  of  Bake- 
well,  in  Derbyshire. 

The  church  of  Bakewell,  in  the  Peake,  was  then,  as 
indeed  it  was  long  afterwards,  the  best  endowed  in 
the  diocese.  Its  ample  revenues  supported  a  rector 
and  three  prebendaries.  On  week-days  these  said 
the  services  together  in  the  mother  church,  and  on 
Sundays  ministered  also  among  the  adjacent  depen- 
dent chapelries.  John,  as  patron  of  the  rectory,  gave 
it  by  way  of  appropriation  into  the  bishop's  hands  as 
an  augmentation  of  his  episcopal  property.  The 
bishop  made  the  gift  over  to  his  cathedral  at  Lich- 
field. Thenceforth  the  revenues  of  Bakewel'  ^^cre 
drained  away  from  the  parish ;  the  united  worship  of 
its  ancient  minster  ceased  ;  and,  of  the  clergy  found 
there  a  hundred  years  later,  two  were  begging  their 
bread. 

But  the  bishop's  fortunes  fell  with  Bakewell.  The 
king  was  now  in  prison  abroad,  and  the  bishop  con- 
spired with  John  to  keep  him  there.     Robert  Nunant 

G 


82  LICHFIELD. 

was  sent  to  negotiate  this  evil  business  with  PhiHp.  The 
king  heard  of  his  coming,  and  sent  for  him.  "  Stay 
here  as  hostage  for  me/'  he  pleaded.  "  I  am  the 
man  of  Count  John,"  was  Nunant's  proud  reply.  But 
Richard  soon  got  free,  and  reckoned  fiercely  with  the 
traitors.  Robert  Nunant  fell  into  prison  for  life. 
Within  a  month  after  the  King's  landing,  the  bishop 
was  deposed  from  his  see,  and  deprived  of  the 
shrievalty  of  Staffordshire,  which  till  then  had  remained 
in  his  hands  (April  lo,  1194).  One  of  the  great 
Staffordshire  magnates  of  the  time,  Hugh  Pipard,  was 
now  made  guardian  of  the  temporalities  of  the  see.i 

In  vain  Nunant  had  advised  the  king  to  send  all 
monks  to  the  devil ;  in  vain  had  he  sworn  in  Convo- 
cation that  if  he  could  have  his  way  he  would  strip 
every  cowled  head  in  England.  In  vain  had  he 
turned  them  out  of  Coventry.  The  monk  at  Rome 
now  got  a  hearing.  His  patience  had  outlived  two 
popes  j  the  third  his  cunning  outwitted.  The  chroni- 
clers say  that  he  was  admitted  to  the  pope  in  full 
conclave.  Being  roughly  repulsed,  he  assumed  some- 
thing of  prophetic  strain,  and  hinted  that  his  holiness 
was  rapidly  drifting  to  the  fate  which  had  overtaken 
his  two  unfavourable  predecessors.  "  Hear  ye  what 
this  fiend  says?"  exclaimed  the  pontiff";   and  then 

*  The  lands  of  the  see  were  now  : — Staffordshire — Lichfield, 
Brewood,  Eccleshall,  Baswich,  Longdon,  and  Hey  wood; 
Salop — Frees;  Derby — Sawley;  Wai^wick — Bishop's  Itchington, 
Chadshunt,  Bishop's  Tachbrook,  Coventry,  Southam,  Hard- 
wick,  andWichford. — W.S.,  "Collections,"  ii.,  64,  70.  From 
Pipard's  account  it  seems  that  one  of  the  tenants  held  by  the 
service  of  a  "sore  sparrow-hawk." 


THE  MONKS  RETURN  TO  COVENTRY.      83 

turning  to  the  monk,  swore  that  by  St.  Peter  he  should 
have  his  way.  The  letter  was  written  that  very 
morning  to  order  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  to 
change  the  canons  of  Coventry  Cathedral  for  monks 
again.  When  they  were  restored,  the  prior  obtained 
a  foothold  of  his  own,  from  which  no  subsequent 
bishop  displaced  him. 

The  annals  of  Burton  say  that  Nunant  got  his 
bishopric  back  again  for  5,000  marks  in  1194  j  but  he 
never  recovered  Richard's  favour.  And  the  chroni- 
clers have  a  characteristic  tale  of  his  dying  days. 
Overtaken  by  sickness,  as  he  in  his  turn  went  to 
complain  at  Rome,  he  sent,  say  they,  for  monks  to 
tell  them  how  bitterly  he  regretted  his  harshness  to 
their  orders,  and  to  beg  their  acceptance  of  the  goods 
and  chattels  he  was  carrying  with  him,  in  return  for 
their  forgiveness  and  the  frock  of  a  monk  to  die  in. 
Dugdale  adds,  that  he  condemned  himself  to  burn  in 
purgatory  until  the  Day  of  Judgment.  He  died 
March  27th,  1199,  and  was  buried  among  the  monks 
at  Caen. 

An  unwonted  figure  here  flits  hurriedly  across 
he  scene.  Archbishop  Hubert,  of  Canterbury,  as 
viceroy,  passed  through  Lichfield  at  the  head  of  a 
strong  royal  force  in  the  summer  of  1195.  AVhat  an 
idea  of  bishops  the  men  of  the  time  must  have  had  ! 
But  that  such  bishops  could  exercise  spiritual  authority 
is  evident  from  this  same  archbishop's  proceedings  at 
Wolverhampton. 

At  this  time  Richard  de  Dalham,  dean  of  Lich- 
field for  more  than  forty  years,  bought  his  peace  for 
ten  marks. 

G    2 


84  LICHFIELD. 

When  Nunant  was  gone,  the  election  of  a  successor 
was  the  occasion  for  another  display  of  the  grasping 
character  of  the  monks.  Their  policy  being  one  of 
opposition  to,  and  encroachment  on,  the  old  diocesan 
constitution  of  the  Church  of  England,  it  was  of 
course  important  that,  as  they  had  obtained  a  voice  in 
the  election  of  the  bishop,  they  should  choose  one 
friendly  to  themselves.  The  canons  of  Lichfield, 
and  perhaps  those  of  Chester  also,  being  electors, 
were  not  likely  to  endorse  their  choice,  especially 
since  the  one  cathedral  held  to  King  Richard,  and 
the  other  to  Prince  John.  The  contest  was,  therefore, 
unusually  keen.  The  prior  of  Coventry  lay  sick  at 
Canterbury  when  the  election  came  on  before  the 
archbishop  in  Tondon.  But  he  sent  a  couple  of 
monks  with  his  letters  patent  to  name  Geoffrey  de 
MuscHAMP  1  for  the  bishopric  ;  and  when  the  name 
was  formally  proposed  one  of  them  broke  out  into 
a  jubilant  Te  Deum,  as  if  the  election  were  complete, 
though  the  canons  of  Lichfield  had  not  voted.  "Who 
made  you  cantor  here  ?  "  growled  the  Archdeacon  of 
Stafford,  a  strong  partisan  of  Prince  John,  Muschamp 
being  King  Richard's  candidate.  "  I  am  cantor  here, 
and  not  you,"  was  the  curt  reply — a  hint  that,  as  the 
canons  of  Lichfield  were  none  too  loyal,  the  monks 
of  Coventry  were  inclined  to  usurp  the  functions  of  , 
sole  electors.  Lichfield,  indeed,  being  thus  under  \ 
royal   displeasure   had    not   even   been   invited    by 

'  Muschamp  had  distinguished  himself  whilst  Archdeacon  of 
Cleveland  by  throwing  sacred  oil  sent  from  Southwell  upon  a 
dunghill,  because  it  had  been  consecrated  by  a  suffragan  of  York 
who  was  just  then  under  a  cloud. 


STRUGGLE  BETWEEN  LICHFIELD  AND  COVENTRY.    85 

Coventry  to  the  solemnity,^  and,  when  Muschamp  was 
consecrated,  had  to  be  content  with  a  feeble  protest 
agamst  his  election.  But  when  he  died,  October  6th, 
1208,  they  secured  his  body  for  burial  in  their  old 
diocesan  cathedral,  in  spite  of  an  appeal  to  the 
contrary  by  the  monastic  chapter. 

The  next  election  was  even  more  quarrelsome, 
Lichfield  being  this  time  in  favour,  for  John  was 
king.  It  happened  at  a  critical  moment,  namely, 
in  the  time  of  the  Interdict,  when  John  was  holding 
out  against  the  appointment  of  Stephen  Langton 
to  the  archbishopric  of  Canterbury,  and  when  the 
Church  was  transferring  all  its  influence  to  support 
the  people  against  royal  tyranny.  The  monks  chose 
their  prior,  Joibert,  and  sent  their  deed  of  election 
to  the  incoming  archbishop  beyond  sea.  When 
the  king  heard  of  it  he  stopped  the  ports,  and 
seized  the  prior's  barony,  but  that  was  redeemed  for 
300  marks.  King  John  suggested  that  his  faithful 
friend,  the  Archdeacon  of  Stafford,  should  be  elected 
bishop,  but  Coventry  refused.  After  that,  he  called 
the  chapter  before  him  at  Tewkesbury,  and  proposed 
the  Abbot  of  Binesdon ;  but  they  declined  him.  At 
Nottingham  Castle  he  asked  them  to  elect  either  the 
Abbot  of  Binesdon  or  Richard  de  Marisco  ^ ;  they 
would  have  neither.  Then  a  meeting  of  both  chapters 
was  held  in  the  royal  presence ;  and  when  John 
threatened  to  annihilate  the  prior  and  all  his  order 
both  monks   and   canons  broke  forth  in  a  defiant 

'   "Walter  of  Coventry,"  ii.,  120. 

■■*  Archdeacon  of  Richmond,  and  chancellor  at  the  end  of 
John's  reign. 


86  LICHFIELD. 

Te  Deum.  Finally,  the  monks  persisted  in  electing 
their  prior  \  the  canons  had  chosen  Walter  de  Grey, 
who  was  Lord  Chancellor  and  afterwards  Archbishop 
of  York ;  but,  as  the  chapters  were  not  unanimous,  the 
pope's  legate  persuaded  them  to  make  another  elec- 
tion. They  agreed  upon  William  de  Cornhill, 
archdeacon  of  Huntingdon,  and  he  was  consecrated 
Bishop  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield,  January  23,  12 15. 
This  election,  as  narrated  in  the  "Monasticon"  in 
the  words  of  one  of  the  priors  of  Coventry,  gives  us 
an  interesting  glimpse  of  the  pluck  and  spirit  with 
which  English  Churchmen  of  that  day,  who  were  now 
the  only  champions  of  the  people  against  the  tyranny 
of  king  and  nobles,  held  out  against  electing  a  mere 
courtier.  Unlike  other  monastic  bodies,  Coventry 
Abbey,  in  the  struggles  of  John's  time,  outshines  the 
older  cathedral  in  dogged  opposition  to  royal  dicta- 
tion. Whilst  at  Nottingham  Castle,  six  of  its  monks 
were  waiting  outside  the  royal  chamber.  Fearing  lest 
the  prior  and  two  of  their  number  who  had  gone  in  to 
see  the  king  should  be  scared  into  the  promise  of  an 
unpopular  election,  they  made  up  their  minds  to 
betake  themselves  away,  so  as  to  reserve  their  votes. 
Fulk  de  Cantilupe  shut  the  castle  gate  in  their  faces, 
and  bore  off  the  keys,  swearing,  in  the  low  language 
of  the  time,  per  linguam  Dei,  that  they  should  not 
leave  till  they  had  made  a  bishop  to  the  king's  liking. 
Even,  when  the  prior  himself  had  been  threatened 
and  bribed  into  a  promise  to  elect  the  Abbot  of 
Binesdon,  one  of  his  monks  declared,  before  both 
king  and  courtiers,  that  he  would  die  rather  than 
accept  him  as  his  bishop.     Coventry  Abbey  was,  of 


BAD    CANONS    OF    WOLVERHAMPTON.  87 

course,  not  only  one  of  the  cathedrals  of  the  diocese, 
but,  as  founded  before  the  Conquest,  was  as  free  from 
obligation  to  any  of  the  barons  as  it  was  to  the  kings. 
The  history  of  our  diocese  at  this  period  furnishes 
a  very  convincing    proof  of  the  importance  of  the 
struggle   between   bishop   and    monks.      The   point 
about  which   they    wrestled   was,    virtually,  whether 
bishop  Or  pope  should  rule  the  great  institutions  of 
the  English  Church.     The  collegiate  church  of  Wol- 
verhampton had  been  founded   subject  only  to  the 
immediate  authority  of  the  pope.     Rejoicing  in  this 
precious  freedom,  the  nine  canons  who  were  there  at 
the    end    of  the   twelfth   century  became    flagrantly 
wicked.     They  misused  their  revenues  and  position 
so  abominably  as  to  be  the  common  talk  and  song  of 
the  streets.     Their  church  stood  in  a  pleasant  rural 
district,  amid  shady  woods  and  bracing  hills.     The 
great  Baron  of  Dudley,  lord  of  their  town,  probably 
set  them  no  good  example ;  and  for  the  monks  of 
Worcester,  to  whom  their  Church  was  subject,  they 
cared  nothing.     The  bishop  of  the  diocese  had  no 
direct  authority  over  them ;  but  it  is  perhaps  indicative 
of  that  bishop's  influence  that  Richard  I.  sent  Petrus 
Blesensis  (Peter  of  Blois),  the  chronicler,  who  had 
been  brother-chaplain  at  Canterbury  with  Gerard  la 
Pucelle,  to  be  their  dean.     The  good  man's  heart 
was  sadly  wrung  by  their  badness.     With  the  canons 
whom  he  found  in  the  church  he  could  do  nothing ; 
and,  as  often  as  he  appointed  a  better  clergyman  to  a 
vacant  stall,  the  old  ones  refused  to  associate  with 
him,  and  stole  his  property  and  ran  away  with  it  to 
the  woods,  where  they  spent  it  on  their  lusts.     Peter 


b5  LICHFIELD. 

wrote  an  account  of  all  this  to  Pope  Innocent,  their 
distant  bishop.  They  were  deaf  as  adders,  he  said, 
and  gloried  in  their  shame.  In  1200,  he  resigned 
his  deanery  into  the  hands  of  the  Archbishop  of  Can- 
terbury, and  departed — probably  broken-hearted — 
into  obscurity.  But  Archbishop  Hubert  was  equal 
to  the  occasion.  Secure  in  the  king's  favour,  he 
came  down — probably  at  the  head  of  troops — upon 
the  offending  canons,  and  deprived  them  all,  driving 
them  off  as  often  as  they  reappeared.  In  order  to 
set  a  better  example  to  the  neighbourhood,  he  laid 
the  foundations  of  an  abbey  about  St.  Peter's,  and 
intended  to  invite  stern  and  strict  Cistercian  monks 
to  fill  it.  But  death  cut  short  his  work;  and  the 
secular  college,  purified  and  replenished  with  clergy, 
went  on  in  better  life. 

An  important  change  now  took  place  at  Lichfield, 
The  cathedral,  scarcely  yet  fifty  years  old,  had  become 
antiquated.  Clinton's  structure  was  massive  and 
cruciform,  with  a  broad  chancel,  whose  foundations 
still  lie  under  four  of  the  more  modern  bays  of  the 
present  choir.  This  chancel  had  then  a  semicircular 
eastern  apse,  upon  the  chord  of  which  the  altar  stood. 
A  procession-path  swept  round  it.  The  bishop's 
throne  was  behind  the  altar,  facing  west,  and  the 
canons'  stalls  curved  out  from  it  westwardly  along 
the  apse.  The  choir-stalls  stretched  under  the 
lantern,  or  crossing,  into  the  nave,  as  at  Buildwas  and 
Lilleshall.  The  nave  was  about  two-thirds  of  its 
present  length,  and  probably  divided  from  its  aisles 
by  rounded  pillars,  supporting  heavy  pointed  arches 
on  square  cushion  capitals,  as  at  Buildwas.. 


LICHFIELD    CATHEDRAL    ALTERED.  Sg 

In  the  days  of  Nunant,  Clinton's  rounded  apse  was 
removed  to  make  way  for  a  square-ended  choir  of  far 
greater  length,  which  stretched  eastwardly  from  the 
nave  for  seven  bays,  and  provided  for  bishop,  and 
choir,  and  canons  within  the  screen  and  in  their  pre- 
sent decani  and  cantoris  arrangement.  To  this  chancel 
aisles  were  probably  soon  added.  In  1220  the  present 
south  transept  was  built,  and  the  present  chapter- 
house and  north  transept  some  twenty  years  later. 

The  first  extant  statutes  of  the  cathedral  date  from 
Hugh  de  Nunant.^  They  seem  to  recognise  the  fact 
that  Lichfield  had  its  own  ancient  cathedral  "  use," 
with  which  the  bishop  did  not  then  interfere.  He 
adds  a  few  liturgical  notes  on  minor  matters.  They 
are  all  such  as  might  have  been  penned  by  an  ad- 
vanced Anglican  of  to-day.  There  were  four  bells  in 
the  tower — the  "  smallest  bell,"  the  "  sweet  bell,"  the 
"  great  bell,"  and  her  "  companion."  Each  of  these 
had  a  well-known  voice ;  and,  whilst  they  were  mostly 
to  be  grouped  in  different  couples  for  ringing  the 
hours,  they  were  all  to  peal  out  in  chorus  on  great 
festivals,  and  "whenever  God  permitted  a  miracle  to 
be  wrought "  at  the  shrine  of  St.  Chad.  A  lesser, 
but  equally  well-defined,  ringing  was  appointed  when 
the  shrine  was  carried  forth  into  the  diocese  to  col- 
lect alms,  and  when  it  came  back.  The  whole  system 
of  ringing  was,  indeed,  a  code  of  signalling  which,  in 
those  clockless  times,  tolled  out,  far  and  wide,  the  time 

'  So  the  "Monasticon."  But,  from  the  mention  of  the  pre- 
bend of  Bolton  in  the  "Statutes"  ascribed  to  Nunant,  it  is 
likely  that  they  are  those  of  a  later  bishop.  The  prebend  was 
not  founded  until  much  later.     Perhaps  Weseham  revised  them. 


90  LICHFIELD. 

of  day  and  what  services  the  brethren  of  the  minster 
were  about  to  begin.  The  curfew  was  rung  at  seven 
o'clock.  Nunant  also  settled  the  order  of  business 
in  chapter ;  it  was  to  be  preceded  and  followed  by  a 
short  service  of  prayers  and  psalms.  He  clearly  de- 
fined also  the  duties  of  the  cathedral  clergy.  The 
archdeacons,  he  said,  were  not  cathedral  officers, 
except  him  of  Chester,  who  had  a  stall  as  prebendary 
of  Bolton. 

Some  points  in  these  statutes  strike  one.  The 
brethren  were  reminded  to  ask  God's  protection 
though  they  lived  within  strong  walls  and  barred  gates. 
A  sense  of  military  danger  was  ever  present;  the 
times  were  rude.  The  memory  of  the  dead  was  care- 
fully cherished — a  beautiful  testimony  to  the  comfort 
which  hope  in  the  resurrection  has  ever  added  to 
brotherly  love.  And  in  the  directions  for  the  employ- 
ment of  deacon  and  sub-deacon,  and  for  processions 
on  high  days — processions  consisting  of  these  officers, 
two  incense-swingers,  with  three  others  in  dalmatics, 
and  three  crosses,  going  before  the  gospeller, — we  have 
a  glimpse  of  the  splendour  which  was  concentrated  on 
the  singing  of  the  Gospel  in  the  first  part  of  the  Com- 
munion Service,  and  a  hint  at  the  means  which  the 
Church  employed  to  teach  rough  men  reverence  for 
the  Word  of  God,  when  first  "these  aisles  of  stones" 
were  reared. 

The  country  was  now  Christian,  at  least  in  profes- 
sion. The  cathedrals  were,  therefore,  no  longer  great 
preaching  stations  ;  they  became  simply  places  where 
worship  was  gloriously  performed,  and  where  the 
heart  of  the  diocese  uttered  itself  before  God. 


KING    JOHN.  91 

King  John  favoured  his  many  loyal  friends  in  this 
diocese  with  frequent  visits  ;  the  episcopal  manors, 
where  the  bread  of  the  Church  was  to  be  devoured, 
being,  as  a  rule,  much  more  distinguished  by  his 
presence  than  the  royal  chapels.  In  March,  1200, 
he  set  out  from  Bolsover — of  which  castle,  by  the  way. 
Bishop  Nunant  was  at  one  time  guardian — and  came 
by  Derby  and  Burton  to  Lichfield,  where  he  spent 
two  days  (April  2-4).  On  the  4th  of  April  he  was  at 
Brewood,  where  the  bishop  had  then  a  manor-house, 
and  soon  afterwards  a  park.  In  1204  he  came  again 
to  Lichfield,  March  7-10,  spending  March  13  to  15 
at  Bridgenorth ;  in  1206  he  was  at  Brewood  and 
Lichfield;  in  1207  at  Brewood;  in  i2i5at  Lichfield 
and  Bridgenorth ;  in  12 16  twice  at  Shrewsbury  and 
once  again  at  Bridgenorth.  Stafford,  Penkridge, 
Tettenhall,  and  Wolverhampton,  though  possessing 
"royal  free  chapels,"  as  did  Bridgenorth  and  Shrews- 
bury, were  never  visited  by  John,  though  they  almost 
lay  in  his  way.  The  bishop's  castle  of  Eccleshall  was 
now  fortified  ;  but  its  new  and  strong  walls  never 
gave  John  shelter. 

During  the  Interdict,  and  in  the  vacancy  of  the  see 
which  followed  Bishop  Muschamp's  death,  John  had 
given  the  deanery  of  Lichfield  to  Ralph  Nevill,  one 
of  his  courtiers,  who  was  very  nearly  lord-chancellor.^ 

On  Nevill's  elevation  to  the  see  of  Chichester,  in 
1222,  Bishop  Cornhill  gave  the  canons  leave  to  elect 
a  dean  to  succeed  him,  and  they  chose  William  of 
Manchester, — one  of  the  most  interesting  characters 

'   "  Aiclireologia,"  xxxii.,  93. 


92  LICHFIELD. 

of  the  time.  He  ruled  the  cathedral  from  the  end 
of  12  22  to  his  death,  Feb.  7,  1253.  He  seems  to 
have  been  as  remarkable  for  humility  as  for  practical 
wisdom.  On  the  death  of  Bishop  Cornhill,  in  1223, 
he  acted  on  behalf  of  the  canons  of  Lichfield,  and 
proved  more  than  a  match  for  Jeffrey,  prior  of 
Coventry,  and  his  monks.  They,  as  usual,  tried  to 
usurp  the  sole  right  of  election,  and  appointed  Jeffrey 
bishop.  The  dean  appealed  to  the  archbishop,  and 
he  again  to  the  king,  who  passed  the  matter  on  to  the 
pope.  The  archbishop  in  the  meantime  ascertained 
that  the  secular  cathedral  had  co-equal  right  of  elec- 
tion with  the  priory  cathedral,  and  decided  against 
the  right  of  Jeffrey  to  the  see.  Thereupon  both 
cathedral  chapters  appealed  to  Rome,  and  so  gave  the 
successor  of  Innocent  HI.  an  opportunity  of  exercis- 
ing the  power  which  King  John  had  put  into  the 
pope's  hands  when  he  agreed  to  become  his  vassal. 
After  some  show  of  mediation,  Honorius  asked  to  be 
allowed  to  settle  the  dispute.  Both  bodies  consenting 
to  this,  he  took  the  nomination  into  his  own  hands, 
and  appointed  and  consecrated  a  very  able  doctor. 
The  king  and  clergy  of  England  agreed  to  accept 
him.  So  Alexander  de  Stavenby  (i 224-1 238) 
came  to  Lichfield. 

In  the  days  of  the  next  pope,  Gregory  IX.  (1227- 
1 241),  whilst  William  of  Manchester  was  yet  dean,  it  was 
settled  that  the  elections  should  be  made  alternately 
by  each  chapter  in  the  presence  of  the  other,  the  Prior 
of  Coventry  keeping,  however,  the  first  vote  through 
all.  The  next  election  came  on  Stavenby's  death,  in 
1823,  when  another  dispute  was  only  avoided  by  the 


A    MODEST    DEAN,  93 

self-negation  of  the  dean.  The  monks  had  chosen 
Wilham  de  Raleigh,  but  he  preferred  to  accept  Nor- 
wich, which  was  offered  to  him  about  the  same  time, 
and  from  which  he  contrived  to  translate  himself  to 
Winchester.  Thereupon,  the  canons  claimed  the  turn 
and  elected  the  dean.  The  monks  also  claimed  it, 
and  elected  Nicholas  de  Farnham,  the  queen's  chap- 
lain and  physician.  The  dean  withdrew  on  seeing 
the  excellent  choice  made  by  Coventry,  and  persuaded 
his  chapter  to  accept  Farnham  "  for  the  good  of  the 
Church."  But  the  latter  was  equally  modest ;  "  I  am 
scarcely  able  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  priesthood," 
said  he ;  "  never  will  I  venture  to  become  a  bishop." 

From  the  fall  of  Nunant,  forwards,  the  constitution 
of  Coventry  Abbey  was  settled.  The  bishops  were 
still  enthroned  in  the  church  as  well  as  at  Lichfield, 
and  one  or  two  of  the  abbey  manors  remained  per- 
manently annexed  to  the  see.  The  prior  became 
lord  of  the  barony,  and  as  such  sat  in  Parliament. 
But  the  bloom  of  his  prestige  was  short,  no  prior 
making  any  mark  on  his  times,  after  the  oppressions 
inflicted  on  the  abbey  by  Henry  III.^ 

Had  Nunant  lived  into  King  John's  reign  he  might 
have  retained  Coventry  as  a  secular  cathedral,  and 
the  glorious  old  pile  would  probably  have  been 
standing  now. 


'  Walter  of  Coventry,  the  admirable  chronicler,  was  probably 
a  monk  of  St.  Mary's,  York. 


94  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

REFORMATION   THWARTED    BY   THE    FRIARS. 

Early  Coming  of  the  Friars  to  Lichfield — A  Friar  Bishop — 
Chantries. 

Bishop  Alexander  de  Stavenby  deserves  more  than 
passing  notice.  His  episcopate  marks  the  beginning 
of  a  new  era.  His  work  was  more  spiritual  than  that 
of  his  immediate  predecessors.  He  was  a  man  of 
vast  learning,  having  studied  in  the  celebrated  Uni- 
versity of  Bologna,  and  been  for  some  years  rector 
of  the  Divinity  school  at  Toulouse,  and  was  con- 
sidered to  excel  most  of  the  philosophers  and 
theologians  of  the  age,  having  travelled  far  in  pursuit 
of  knowledge.  Pope  Honorius  III.  had  a  special 
reason  for  sending  him  to  Lichfield.  The  exactions  of 
Innocent  HI.  had  startled  Englishmen.  Walter  of 
Coventry  tells  us  it  was  feared  that  England  would  quit 
its  allegiance  to  the  pope  altogether.  ^  Stavenby, 
therefore,  came  to  his  diocese  and  rapidly  surveyed  it. 
We  hear  of  him  finding  out  and  pleading  with  an  ex- 
communicated rebel  in  Cheshire  in  1225.  In  Septem- 
ber 1226  he  is  .going  back  to  Rome  ostensibly  on  the 
king's  business,  for  Henry  refunds  a.  loan  of  four 
hundred  marks  which  Stavenby  has  taken  up  from 
merchants,  and  gives  him  letters  of  commendation 

'  II.,  278. 


REFORMATION    THWARTED    BY    THE    FRIARS.        95 

to  persons  about  the  pope.  "The  bishop,"  he  says, 
"  is  a  man  provident  and  discreet,  and  devoted  to  the 
Holy  Roman  Church.'' ^  His  journey  may  have 
connected  the  settlement  of  the  election  controversy, 
of  which  both  Coventry  and  Lichfield  were  now 
grown  weary.  But  it  seems  more  likely  that  Stavenby, 
having  surveyed  his  diocese  and  ascertained  its 
needs,  went  back  to  Rome  for  conference  with  the 
moving  spirits  of  the  age,  with  a  vieAV  of  trying  at 
Lichfield  a  new  system  of  evangelisation  which  had 
not  yet  spread  over  England. 

Here,  indeed,  many  such  systems  had  been  tried  : 
the  parochial  system  with  its  fixed,  and  the  cathedral 
with  its  itinerating,  clergy  ;  the  monasteries  as  houses 
of  praying  laymen,  and  the  Austin  priories  as  bands 
of  praying-priests,  had  each  in  turn  paled  their  fires 
before  the  rigid  Cistercians.  And  still  the  world 
grew  worse.  Monks  proved  to  be  good  farmers  and 
excellent  landlords.  Under  the  shadow  of  the 
monastery  towns  grew  up  and  prospered.  A  well-to- 
do  abbey  was  a  commercial  colony  of  the  best  kind 
planted  down  in  the  waste.  Round  it — as  at  Build- 
was — sprang  up  workshops,  and  mills,  and  barns,  and 
many  a  cluster  of  cottages,  with  the  great  church 
towering  above  all.  But  abbey  prosperity  was  chiefly 
of  this  world,  it  little  blessed  the  hearts  of  the 
adjacent  inhabitants ;  and  between  monk  and  canon 


^  Pat.  Rot.  10  Hen.  III.  m.  i  dors.  Stavenby  sat  at  Oxford 
in  1227  as  commissioner  for  the  pope  in  hearing  an  appeal 
from  canons  and  friars  as  to  the  building  of  the  friars'  oratory  in 
Oxford. 


96  COMING    OF    THE    FRIARS. 

the  parochial  clergy  and  their  flocks  were  trodden 
down  and  disheartened.  In  1225,  for  example, 
when  the  poor  foresters  of  the  Peake  of  Derbyshire 
had  built  themselves  a  chapel,  to  which  the  bishop  had 
given  right  of  burial  and  baptism,  Lenton  Priory  and 
Lichfield  Cathedral  both  came  down  upon  it  and 
fought  a  lawsuit  for  the  tithes  of  the  land  which  was 
growing  into  cultivation  around  it.  The  possession 
of  property  which  had  been  the  mainstay  of  the 
parochial  clergy,  being  just  enough  to  bind  them  to 
the  people,  was  the  bane  of  the  monasteries,  which 
were  mostly  filled  with  foreigners.  The  latter  were 
acting  like  wedges  driven  into  the  solid  fabric  of  the 
English  Church.  appeared,  therefore,  to  thought- 
ful men  that  some  agency  was  clearly  needed  which 
should  help  to  revive  religion  in  spite  of  "the  religious," 
and  to  keep  the  people  true  to  the  allegiance  which 
the  popes  had  won. 

So  Stavenby  came  to  England  and  soon  went  back 
again  to  his  patron,  Honorius  III.  But  in  or  before 
1229  he  is  here  again  and  building  a  religious  house 
at  Lichfield,  from  which  he  hopes  the  much-needed 
new  influences  will  radiate. 

The  building  of  religious  houses  had  by  this  time 
become  a  common  event.  That  which  Stavenby  now 
planted  in  the  poor  western  part  of  his  central  city 
was  of  a  quite  new  sort — a  friary.  It  was  dedicated 
to  a  man  recently  dead,  namely,  St.  Francis,  founder 
of  the  Friar  Minors,  with  all  the  enthusiasm  with 
which,  fifty  years  before,  another  bishop  had  reared 
the  x\ustin  Priory  of  Stafford  to  the  fresh  memory 
of  Thomas  a  Becket.     But,  whereas  the  latter  house 


THE    FRIARS.  97 

had  been  designed  for  stationary  clergymen  whose 
work  should  be  farming  and  praying,  Stavenby's 
foundation  was  meant  for  an  order  of  roving 
emissaries,  possessing  nothing,  who  were  to  scatter 
themselves  over  the  diocese,  to  beg  their  bread, 
to  mingle  with  the  people,  to  visit  the  sick,  to 
preach  in  church,  market-place,  and  village  green, 
and  so  to  stir  up  the  inner  life  of  the  laity.  The 
movement  proved  to  be  one  of  great  vitality.  Houses 
of  Grey  Friars  sprang  up  directly  in  Coventry,^ 
Stafford,  Shrewsbury,  and  Chester;  and  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  members  of  the  order,  Alexander 
of  Hales,  the  "  Irrefragable  Doctor,"  was  made 
Archdeacon  of  Coventry,  a  dignity  which  he  could 
hold  in  his  professional  poverty,  since  it  was  un- 
endowed. 

The  friars  revelled  in  their  work.  They  went 
everywhere,  commissioned  to  preach  in  any  church, 
and  to  administer  the  offices  of  religion  in  any  house. 
Their  ready  tongues  and  sparkling  wit,  their  merry 
music  and  taking  tales,  soon  made  them  popular 
with  the  ladies,  at  least,  of  their  respective  "  limits  " 
or  districts.  But  their  meddling  with  parochial  work, 
their  underselling,  as  it  were,  and  denouncing  the 
ministrations  of  the  parish  clergy,  opened  another 
sore  in  the  constitution  of  the  Church.  The  monks 
had  taken  the  endowments  of  the  parish  churches. 
The  friars  now  began  to  sweep  up  the  voluntary 
offerings  of  the  people,  and  to  supplant  the  parish 
clergy  in  their  spiritual  work.     They  even  added  the 

'  Their  chapel  at  Coventry  was  being  roofed  in  1234. 
H 


98  LICHFIELD. 

trade  of  pedlars  to  their  multifarious  character  as 
general  preachers,  jesters,  gossips,  and  minstrels;  and 
after  some  years,  namely,  in  1281,  the  king  had  to 
take  the  Friar  Minors  of  Stafford  under  his  protec- 
tion from  the  common  hucksters  "  who  daily  aggrieved 
them  in  the  to^^Ti  and  county  of  Stafford." 

There  was  close  friendship  between  Stavenby  and 
the  celebrated  Robert  Grosseteste,  bishop  of  Lincoln. 
Both  sought  the  help  of  the  friars ;  and  an  interesting 
letter,  written  by  Grosseteste  to  the  bishop,  probably 
in  1236,  the  year  before  the  latter  died,  shows  that 
Stavenby  was  not  devoted  exclusively  to  the  Minor 
Friars,  for  Grosseteste  has  to  beg  of  him  to  withdraw 
his  opposition  to  the  Minors  settling  in  Chester, 
whither  the  Black  Friars  had  first  come.  It  may  be 
that,  like  his  friend,  our  bishop  found  out  that  the 
introduction  of  the  mendicant  orders  was  not  an 
unmixed  good.  But  the  letter  rather  seems  to  hint 
that  he  feared  two  houses  of  begging  preachers  would 
be  unable  to  find  subsistence  in  one  and  the  same 
town. 

Though  Stavenby  left  no  registers,  one  or  two  in- 
teresting glimpses  of  his  character  may  be  gleaned. 
He  was,  it  appears,  in  the  habit  of  holding  ordinations 
in  various  parts  of  his  diocese,  and,  amongst  others,  at 
All  Saints',  Derby.  His  "Injunctions,"  preserved  in 
Wilkins'  "  Concilia,''  show  great  earnestness  of  mind, 
and  contain  some  very  inquisitorial  directions  to 
clergy  about  confession  and  penance.  The  "  Coram 
Rolls  "  of  Edward  I.  show  that  he  kept  a  strict  eye 

1  Willmm  Salt  Society's  "Collections,"  vol.  i.,  193. 


THE    TIMES    OF    BISHOP    STAVENBV.  99 

upon  lay  offenders.  Hugh  of  Bishopsbury,  or  Bush- 
bury,  had  married  within  the  prohibited  degrees. 
Summoned  to  answer  in  Stavenby's  court,  he  made 
over  the  advowson  of  the  church  of  Penne  to  the 
bishops  of  Lichfield  on  condition  that  neither  he 
nor  his  wdfe  should  be  further  troubled  upon  the 
charge. 

It  is  said  that  Stavenby  cleared  himself  from  a 
suspicion  of  conspiracy  with  the  earl  marshal  against 
Henry  HI.  by  putting  on  his  episcopal  robes  and 
solemnly  excommunicating  all  traitors  against  the 
king's  life.  The  incident  shows  that,  though  innocent 
of  treason,  he  was  no  abettor  of  tyranny,  and  that  he 
took  a  share  in  the  brave  stand  made  by  the  English 
barons  against  Peter  des  Roches  and  the  foreign 
hordes  who  were  then  swarming  to  the  court  of  the 
foolish  young  king.  About  the  same  time,  a  number 
of  "  chaplains  and  clerks  "  lay  in  Stafford  Gaol,  and 
were  ordered  to  take  their  trial  at  a  special  gaol 
delivery,  1234.  It  may  safely  be  concluded  that 
neither  pope  nor  king  found  cordial  aid  in  this 
diocese  to  their  combined  oppressions  and  exactions. 
In  the  same  year  the  bishop  was  again  sent  to  Rome. 

The  Patent  Rolls  of  1225  show  a  feeling  of  the 
time  with  regard  to  church  and  Sunday.  The 
sheriffs  of  Stafford  and  Salop  were  directed  to 
summon  a  gathering  of  the  knights  of  the  counties; 
those  of  Stafford  at  Stafford  on  the  Sunday  before  mid- 
Lent,  and  those  of  Salop  at  Shrewsbury  four  days  after- 
wards, to  elect  four  of  themselves  for  each  hundred,  to 
go  through  it  and  to  take  a  fifteenth  of  all  the  move- 
able goods  they  could  find,  by  \ray  of  tax.    The  books, 

H  2 


lOO  LICHFIELD. 

church  ornaments,  jewels,  and  vestments  of  the 
clergy  were  to  be  excepted,  and  the  proceeds  of  the 
levy  be  stored  up  in  cathedrals,  abbeys,  and 
priories,  until  the  king  directed  whither  they  were  to 
be  sent. 

Bishop  Stavenby's  latter  years  were  occupied  with 
the  affairs  of  State.  In  1234  he  was,  as  we  have 
seen,  sent  to  Rome  on  the  king's  business,  and  in 
1235  into  France  and  Gascony  to  negotiate  a  truce 
with  the  French  king.  But  he  was  at  home  at 
Haywood  Park  in  1235,  when  he  blessed  an  abbot 
of  Evesham.  He  died  at  Andover  in  December, 
1238,  and  was  buried,  as  Cornhill  had  been,  at 
Lichfield. 

Had  Bishop  Stavenby  lived  longer,  it  is  not  at 
all  improbable  that  his  opinions  would  have  followed 
the  course  of  Grosseteste's  in  their  alienation  from 
the  Roman  see,  as  they  did  in  the  ordination  of 
vicarages.  But,  as  it  was,  his  earnest  and  impassioned 
preaching  and  his  devotion  to  his  duties  and  his 
patronage  of  the  friars  must  have  done  much  to 
rivet  the  chains  with  which  the  Church  of  England 
was  now  bound  to  Rome. 

In  his  days  began  the  institution  of  chantries.  The 
chantry  consisted  of  the  establishment  of  priests  in 
parochial  or  cathedral  churches,  whose  sole  duty  was 
to  say  daily  masses  for  the  soul  of  some  dead  person. 
The  bishop  himself  endowed  a  chantry  of  St.  Chad 
in  the  cathedral.  Hugo  Sotesby,  a  canon,  endowed 
a  chantry  of  St.  Radegund  the  Virgin  with  his  right 
in  the  service  and  profits  of  six  men  at  Whittington, 
of  another  at  Elmhurst,  and  in  the  service  of  four 


LINKS    WITH    IRELAND.  lOI 

Others  at  Whittington.     Nicolas  de  Ley  endowed  a 
third  chantry  with  houses  and  land. 

In  the  late  years  of  the  twelfth  and  the  opening  of 
the  thirteenth  centuries,  there  was  an  intimate  con- 
nexion between  this  diocese  and  Ireland.  Richard 
of  the  Peake,  often  mistaken  for  Richard  Peche, 
was  joint  chief  justice  in  1181.  John  Comyn, 
who  had  a  stall  at  Lichfield,  became  the  first  suc- 
cessor of  the  patriotic  Irishman,  Laurence,  archbishop 
of  Dublin,  Comyn  was  appointed  because  he  was 
"not  an  Irishman."  The  second  English  archbishop 
was  Henry  of  London,  archdeacon  of  Stafford,  who 
has  been  already  mentioned  in  connexion  with  the 
election  controversy.  After  his  elevation  to  Dublin, 
Henry  de  London  remained  for  a  time  in  England 
in  the  king's  council.  As  a  spiritual  baron  of  the  realm, 
he  was  brave  enough  to  protest  against  John's  sur- 
render of  the  crown  to  Pandulf,  the  pope's  emissary, 
and  to  refuse  to  sign  the  deed  in  which  the  disgrace- 
ful transaction  was  recorded.  He  was  present,  too, 
at  Runnymede,  advising  John  to  sign  the  Great 
Charter.  In  12 16  John  gave  to  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors, archbishops  of  Dublin,  who  should  ''  not  be 
Irishmen,"  the  royal  free  chapel  of  Penkridge,  with 
its  dependencies,  lying  in  his  former  archdeaconry, 
as  part  payment  of  a  heavy  debt  of  money  and 
gratitude.!  His  position  in  history  is  almost  unique; 
he  was  both  an  adherent  of  John  and  a  friend  of  the 
people.  He  maintained  the  old  ecclesiastical  position 
by  the  king's  side,  and  yet  warmly  advocated  popular 

'  Dr.  Alton's  "Archbishops  of  Dublin,"  S3. 


102  LICHFIELD, 

liberties.  The  latter  aspect  of  his  character  was 
doubtless  acquired  during  his  residence  in  Stafford- 
shire among  the  secular  clergy ;  and  it  reflects  a 
credit  upon  the  older  cathedral  which  might  have 
been  wanting,  had  his  name  been  found  side  by  side 
with  that  of  Nunant  as  a  close  friend  of  John. 


LICHFIELD.  103 


CHAPTER   X. 

CHURCH    INFLUENCES    IN    THE    GROWTH    OF    TOWNS 
AND    AGRICULTURE. 

Burton — Chester—  Coventry — Darley,  «S:c 

Sir  Walter  Scott  has  dubbed  the  abbey  of  Burton 
with  a  doubtful  fame,  as  being  the  nursery  from 
which  sprang  his  celebrated  "Friar  Tuck."i  We 
need  hardly  point  out  the  mistake  of  deriving  a 
"  Barefooted  Friar "  from  a  benedictine  abbey,  or 
express  surprise  at  meeting  with  such  a  character 
at  all  in  the  days  of  Richard  I.  There  were  no 
friars  in  England  then.  But  the  great  novelist 
has  hit  upon  one  of  the  characteristics  of  Burton 
Abbey,  namely,  its  good  eating  and  drinking. 
On  cook  and  kitchen  successive  abbots  lavished 
endowments  consisting  of  mills,  rectories,^  small 
tithes,  hogs,  simnel  cakes,  wine,  lands,  &c.,  &:c., 
with  such  persistent  reiteration  as  to  account  for 
the  presence  at  the  abbey  of  King  John  in  1200,  and 
of  a  guest  of  like  repute  in  12 13.  For  at  Michael- 
mas in  that  year,  Nicholas,  bishop  of  Tusculum,  the 
pope's  legate,  came  to  England  to  remove  the  Inter- 

'   Or  his  frock,  rather.      "Ivanhoe,"  ch.  xxvii. 
^  Even  the  vicarage  of  beautiful  Ham  in  Dovedale  was  dedi- 
cated to  Burton  Abbey  kitchen. 


I04  lICHFlElLDi. 

diet.  It  was  then  that  King  John  consented  to 
become  the  vassal  of  Rome ;  and  the  pope  forth- 
with instructed  his  legate  to  fill  up  vacant  English 
bishoprics  and  benefices  without  asking  the  consent 
of  the  patrons  or  regarding  the  fiitness  of  the  nominees. 
This  injustice  raised  a  storm  ;  and  Stephen  Langton, 
though  appointed  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  by  the 
pope,  determined  to  oppose  it  by  an  appeal  to  Rome. 
Gathering  a  council  at  Dunstable  which  endorsed 
his  opinion,  he  sent  its  decision  to  the  legate,^ 
who  then  lay  at  Burton  Abbey^  with  fifty  horse- 
men and  all  the  otherwise  numerous  trappings  of 
an  archbishop.  But  the  legate  was  equal  to  the 
occasion,  and  immediately  dispatched  Pandulf  to 
Rome  to  oppose  the  appeal.  Then  it  was  that 
Langton  put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  English 
barons,  with  the  ever-memorable  result  of  Magna 
Charta. 

Whilst  Burton  x\bbey  was  growing  in  wealth  and 
kitchen  capacity,  the  town  of  Coventry  kept  pace 
in  progress  with  the  town  of  Burton,  but  the  priory 
cathedral  itself  fell  into  fresh  difficulties.  The  monks 
held  precious  their  right  of  electing  the  bishop,  but 
found  it  much  more  difficult  to  disobey  Henry  III. 
than  John.  They  adventured  disobedience,  however ; 
but  the  king's  hand  on  several  occasions  lay  heavily 
upon  them ;  and  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign  they 
had  to  ask  the  Austin  canons  of  Darley,  with  whom 
they  were  always  friendly,  both  to  find  a  temporary 
home  for  some  of  their  brethren  and  to  render  them 
other  assistance,  without  which  they  must  have  dis- 
'  Historical  sketch  oC  the  abbey,  by  Mr.  Thomewill. 


THE    MONKS    FARM    AND    TRADE.  105 

persed.  A  trading  compact,  indeed,  usually  existed 
between  the  two  monasteries,  Coventry  exchanging 
needles  and  soap  with  Darley  for  saddles  and  riding 
furniture.  But,  after  the  year  1250,  the  tide  of 
prosperity  set  in  again ;  and  amongst  the  numerous 
benefactions  showered  upon  the  priory  were  the  ap- 
propriations of  the  two  churches  of  St.  Michael  and 
Trinity  with  their  chapels.  In  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  his 
reign,  Henry  III.  gave  them  the  privilege  of  having  a 
coroner  in  the  city,  and  of  embodying  the  merchants 
in  guild.  The  tradesmen  of  the  town  thus  found 
themselves  fostered  by  the  cathedral-priory,  and,  in 
return,  they  heaped  their  gifts  upon  the  Church  until 
Coventry  became  a  city  full  of  glorious  buildings. 

The  work  of  the  monks  professedly  was  that  of 
keeping  themselves  unspotted  from  the  world.  But 
their  lands  and  learning  made  them  men  of  "  light 
and  leading,"  and  threw  them,  as  it  did  the  bishops^ 
into  the  van  of  all  worldly  progress.  The  great 
abbeys  and  cathedrals  now  appear  as  having  huge 
farming  colonies  on  their  estates— Lichfield,  Lenton, 
and  Dunstable  owning  amongst  them  some  fifty  thour 
sand  sheep  on  the  Derbyshire  hills.  And  the  towns 
of  the  lowlands  develope  markets  under  the  same 
fostering  influences.  Brewood  gets  its  market  charter 
in  1 22 1  through  Bishop  Cornhill,  and  Prees^  its 
market  through  Bishop  Molend.  Stone  owes  its- 
market  to  its  prior ;  and  so  it  was  in  a  hundred 
instances. 

^  "  The  bishop  had  no  pillory  or  tumberell  or  judgment,  nor 
were  offenders  punished  in  the  Assize  of  Bread  and  Beer."  So- 
lenient  were  Church  landlords. 


lo6  LICHFIELD. 

Many  a  town  owes  its  very  existence  to  its  religious 
institutions.  It  was  with  Lichfield  as  with  Coventry 
in  this  respect,  though  Lichfield  never  flourished  like 
Coventry.  Burton-on-Trent  is,  perhaps,  a  good 
example  of  an  abbey  town.  Abbot  Nicholas,  who 
died  in  1197,  had  founded  Burton  town,  and  built 
the  first  street  there.  Abbot  Melborne,  who  died 
in  1 2 14,  enlarged  the  town  from  bridge  to  bridge. 
Abbot  Stafford  built  the  Monk's  Bridge  at  Eggington, 
to  do  which  was,  on  the  finding  of  a  jury,  "  nobody's 
business."  In  a  time  of  fire  and  flood,  Abbot 
Laurence,  to  whom  the  town  belonged,  took  no  rent 
from  the  people ;  and,  during  a  great  famine.  Abbot 
Thomas  Packington  found  the  people  employment 
in  making  a  new  street. 

Thus,  tliough  fenced  off  from  the  world  by  their 
rules  and  high  walls,  the  monks  were  ever  in  street 
and  market.  Wayfaring  men  were  continually  coming 
and  going,  forcing  them  to  keep  almost  open  house, 
and  to  support  kitchen  and  pantry  with  lavish  hand. 

Moreover,  as  tliey  maintained  a  large  corre- 
spondence with  brethren  elsewhere,  their  cloisters 
Avere  always  full  of  news.  So  the  abbey  of  Burton 
has  an  interest  far  beyond  that  of  its  bridges  and 
beer.  The  "  Chronicle"  of  its  scriptorium  is  one 
of  the  most  important,  and,  in  some  respects, 
the  only  source  of  our  national  history  during  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.  There  is  but  one  old  manu- 
script copy  of  it  extant,  a  quarto  of  parchment 
containing  ninety-seven  leaves  of  fourteenth-century 
writing,  arranged  in  double  columns,  and  prettily 
rubricated  throughout.     The  record  begins  with  the 


THE    CHRONICLE    OF    BURTON.  I07 

foundation  charter  of  the  abbey  in  1004  ;  its  entries 
till  1 189  are  meagre.  Thence  to  1201  it  is  a  copy 
of  Hoveden.  In  121 1  the  chronicle  begins  to  be 
original  and  important,  showing  the  deep  and  intelli- 
gent interest  which  the  local  monks  took  in  the  great 
matters  of  which  news  was  brought  into  their  abbey, 
and  the  rigid  care  with  which  they  noted  everything 
pertaining  to  the  king,  the  bishop,  and  the  Church. 

It  contains  copies  of  a  large  number  of  documents 
of  the  highest  historical  importance,  though  there  is 
much  less  about  Lichfield  than  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. There  are  some  interesting  and  unique  bits 
of  information  about  the  doings  and  sayings  of  King 
John  ;  and  occasionally  the  chronicler  copies  a  letter 
which  has  been  sent  from  the  parliaments  or  great 
councils  of  the  times.  He  also  makes  careful 
copies  of  local  ecclesiastical  inquiry  papers,  and  has 
a  full  budget  of  papers  relating  to  the  election  of 
Roger  de  Meuleng,  canon  of  Lichfield  and  chaplain 
to  the  pope,  to  the  see  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield. 
The  election  was  made  at  Coventry.  The  commis- 
sary who  had  administered  the  diocese  in  spirituals 
during  the  vacancy  of  the  see  had  been  extremely 
severe.  Grosseteste  is  spoken  of  in  terms  of  deep 
veneration,  and  the  chronicler  shows  the  spirit  of  an 
English  Churchman  in  his  full  record  of  the  answers 
given  by  Englishmen  to  the  demands  of  the  pope  for 
money. 

Turning  now  to  other  documents,  we  see  from  the 
Plea  and  other  rolls  of  the  time  that  monks  were  often 
in  the  law  courts,  and,  owing  to  the  shrewdness  of 
their  proctors,  were  frequently  successful.     It  would 


Io8  LICHFIELD. 

seem  thatheirs  not  seldom  contested  land  left  to  monks^ 
and  that  the  chapter-house  meetings  of  the  brethren 
were  sometimes  agitated  by  anxious  deliberation. 
Take,  for  instance,  the  case  of  St.  Thomas's,  Stafford. 
The  Austin  canons  were  bound  by  their  rule  to 
abstain  from  law,  yet  this  small  brotherhood  were 
wrangling,  in  the  fortieth  year  of  Henry  III.,  with  a 
Letitia  Bek  concerning  a  small  farm  at  Hopton ;  in 
the  forty-second  year,  with  Payn  de  Westeneys  con- 
cerning rights  in  Tixall,  and  with  Thomas  Comyn 
about  common  in  Gayton  and  Fradswell ;  in  the  fifty- 
fifth  year,  with  Geoffrey  de  Grisel  about  common  in 
Haylesden  ;  and,  in  1273,  with  Guy  de  Forr,  master 
of  the  Knights  Templars  in  England,  concerning  a 
ditch  thrown  down  near  Trentham.  The  list  is  not 
a  long  one ;  but  it  is  not  small  for  a  priory  which  was 
so  poor  as  to  obtain  from  Henry  III.  an  order  of 
exemption  from  the  prise  "  of  its  carts  as  often  as  we 
travel  in  that  neighbourhood." 

Many  a  noble  family  owes  the  fostering  of  its 
early  greatness  to  the  abbeys.  "  Nicholas,  prior  of  St. 
Thomas,  Stafford,  did  manumit  Richard  Norman,  Ralph 
Norman,  and  John  Norman,  sons  of  William  Norman, 
natives  suos,  18  Richard  II." — a  simple  record  at  the 
head  of  a  pedigree  which  speaks  volumes  both  for  the 
prior  of  St.  Thomas  and  his  faithful  slave,  William. 
The  noble  house  of  Aston,  long  settled  at  Tixall 
Hall,  sprang  from  Bishop  Molend's  dapifer.  But  the 
Abbot  of  Whalley,  on  the  other  hand,  was  the  last 
to  sell  a  slave  in  Lancashire,  having  in  1309  for  one 
hundred  shillings  sterling,  sold  "  one  native  with  all 
his  family  and  effects." 


CHURCH    INFLUENCES.  I09 

The  Prior  of  Birkenhead  claimed  a  monopoly  of 
the  ferry,  and  sorely  vexed  the  neighbourhood  at 
one  time  by  raising  the  fare  from  ^d.  to  ^d.  "on  the 
market-day  at  Lyverpol." 

The  great  abbey  of  Chester  as  yet  hardly  flourished. 
Time  after  time  the  Welsh  ravaged,  and  high  tides 
overwhelmed,  their  lowland  farms  on  the  Dee.  But 
still  the  monks  struggled  on  with  their  building,  until 
the  abbey  became  the  heart  of  the  fine  old  city. 

The  town  of  Stone  sprang  up  around  its  priory 
walls,  and  the  prior  obtained  its  market  charter  from 
Edward  I. 

The  Close  Rolls  of  April,  13  lo,  show  how  heavily 
the  religious  houses  contributed  to  national  expen- 
diture. Edward  II.  demanded  from  the  Staffordshire 
monasteries  the  following  supplies  for  his  army  when 
marching  against  Scotland  : — 


WHEAT. 

OATS. 

OXEN. 

SHEEP. 

Croxden    . . . 

40  quarters 

100  quarters 

20 

60 

Burton 

60 

100 

10 

SO 

St.  Thomas 

30 

60 

6 

30 

Stone 

40 

100 

10 

60 

Ranton 

20 

30 

6 

30 

Trentham... 

12 

60 

4 

30 

Tutbury    . . . 

40 

60 

10 

SO 

Dudley 

20 

60 

6 

30 

Hilton      ... 

40 

100 

20 

60 

Delacres  ... 

40 

50 

20 

60 

Rocester  ... 

12 

20 

3 

20 

Besides  this,  Burton,  and  its  neighbour  Tutbury, 
had  to  furnish  sixty  and  fifty  quarters  of  malt.  Brew- 
ing was  even  then  common  in  that  locality. 


no  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

MORE    ELECTION    STRUGGLES.       A    GOOD    AND    A    BAD 
BISHOP. 

Patteshull — The  Pope  Spies  an  Opportunity — Clumsy  Policy  of 
Henry  III. — Another  Friar  Bishop — The  Wild  Soldier 
Bishop. 

The  next  bishop,  Hugh  de  Patteshull  (i 239-1 242) 
was  chosen  at  the  desire  of  the  king.  He  was  pro- 
bably a  native  of  Patshull,  in  Staffordshire,  and  was, 
at  all  events,  the  son  of  Simon  of  Patshull,  chief 
justice  of  England.  He  was  treasurer  both  of  England 
and  of  St.  Paul's  Cathedral.  He  seems  to  have 
continued  the  good  pastoral  work  of  his  predeces- 
sors. We  meet  with  him,  for  example,  in  the  history 
of  Ashburne.  The  church  there,  like  many  others — 
Croxden  Abbey  among  the  rest — was  not  consecrated, 
and  the  Dean  of  Lincoln  drained  away  its  revenues.  ^ 
Without  Avaiting  for  consecration  himself,  Bishop 
Patshull  attacked  the  evil.  In  January,  1240,  he 
made  an  order  binding  the  Dean  of  Lincoln — Roger 
de  Weseham — to  accept  only  a  certain  small  pension 
from  the  vicar.  The  vicar  was  to  officiate  himself  at 
Ashburne  with  four  curates,  and  to  officer  the  chapel- 
ries  with  clergy  who  should  be  able  both  to  officiate 
and  to  maintain  hospitality.  In  May,  1241,  the 
bishop  consecrated  the  church  in  honour  of  St.  Oswald,. 

^  Cox's  "Derbyshire  Churches,"  vol.  iii.,  363. 


I 


PATTESHULLS    EARLY    DEATH.  Ill 

king  and  martyr,  and  the  fact  was  recorded  on  a  brass 
plate  which  is  still  extant. 

Once  again  the  promise  of  a  noble  episcopate  was 
cut  short.  Patteshull  died  in  "  full  strength"  Dec.  7, 
1 241,  after  an  episcopate  of  a  year  and  a  half.  He 
was  buried  in  the  cathedral  of  Lichfield,  before  the 
altar  of  St.  Stephen.  The  effigy  from  his  monument 
is  still  in  the  cathedral.  It  represents  a  man  ot 
powerful  frame,  with  cleanly-shaven  face  and  remark- 
ably plain  attire.  Some  probably  later  hand  has  in- 
cised his  boots  and  gloves  with  the  jewel-holes  which 
the  monument  may  originally  have  lacked' ;  and  hence 
several  worthy  writers  have  hinted — not,  perhaps, 
without  a  shadow  of  foundation— that  Patteshull  had 
the  stigmata. 

Had  Patteshull  lived,  his  time  would  have  be^n 
taxed  for  the  king's  business.  Within  a  year  of  his 
appointment  he  was  commissioned,  with  three  others, 
to  hear  a  case  brought  by  the  Seneschal  of  Chester 
against  Llewellyn  the  Younger,  son  of  the  "  former 
prince  of  North  Wales."-  Henceforward  the  bishops 
had  much  to  do  with  the  Welsh  marches. 

The  mind  of  Patteshull  and  the  ceremonial  deve- 
lopment of  the  age  are  perhaps  illustrated  by  the 
cathedral  statutes  ascribed  to  him.  He  forbade  talk- 
ing or  laughing  in  choir,  and  ordered  bowing  towards 
the  altar  on  entering,  leaving,  or  crossing  the  chancel. 
As  a  rule,  the  Services  were  to  be  said  standing,  but 
the  choir  might  sit  during  the  long  Psalmody  of  the 

'  An  eminent  modern  authority  assigns  this  Pgure  to  Weseham 
(see  page  117),  and  Weseham's  to  Patteshull. 
2  Pat.  Rot.  25  Hen.  III.  m.  8. 


112  LICHFIELD. 

night  office,  as  well  as  through  the  Lessons,  and  when 
not  singing  in  the  antiphonal  parts  of  the  Service. 
During  the  Glorias  they  were  to  stand  towards  the 
east.  They  were  to  wear  black  capes  with  surplices, 
and  amices  or  hoods,  but  red  might  be  used  on  great 
festivals.  There  were  only  four  choristers  until  the  dawn 
of  the  Reformation,  when  they  were  increased  to  twelve. 
The  understanding  which  had  been  come  to  by 
Coventry  and  Lichfield  before  the  pope  in  the  days 
of  Bishop  Stavenby,  did  not  prevent  a  fierce  struggle 
with  regard  to  the  election  of  Bishop  PatteshuU's  suc- 
cessor.^ Richard  Crasius,  the  abbot  of  Evesham, 
who  had  been  blessed  at  Haywood,  was  urged  upon 
Coventry  Cathedral  by  the  king.  The  prior  voted 
for  him,  and  he  resigned  the  chancellorship  of  Eng- 
land in  prospect  of  the  bishopric.  But  the  major 
part  of  the  Coventry  electors  chose  their  precentor, 
William  de  Monte  Pessulano,  a  very  pious  and  learned 
man.  The  difficulty  thus  started  was  obviated  by  the 
death  of  Crasius.  And  then,  rather  than  forego  their 
choice  of  Pessulano,  the  stout  monks  of  Coventry 
suffered  greatly  from  the  wrath  of  the  king,  to  whom 
he  was  obnoxious.  So  heavily,  indeed,  lay  the  royal 
hand  upon  them,  that  they  fled  in  all  directions  to 
other  monasteries  for  refuge. 

^  "  The  appointments  to  the  bishoprics  were  a  constant  matter 
of  dispute.  The  freedom  of  election  promised  by  John  had 
resulted  in  a  freedom  of  litigation,  and  little  more.  The  attempts 
of  Henry  III.  to  influence  the  chapters  were  undignified  and 
unsuccessful ;  his  candidates  were  seldom  chosen;  the  pope  had 
a  plentiful  harvest  of  appeals.  Between  1215  and  1264  there 
were  not  fewer  than  thirty  disputed  elections  carried  to  Rome 
for  decision." — Stubbs'  "Const.  Hist.,"  vol.  iii.,  306.    - 


MORE   FRIARS.  I13 

Meantime,  a  council  was  assembled  by  the  pope 
at  Lyons.  Thither  went  Passulano,  and  with  tears 
and  sighs  unfolded  his  grief  and  resigned  the 
bishopric.  Thereupon  the  pope,  still  regarding 
England  as  a  vassal  kingdom  of  his  own,  ventured — 
this  time  without  leave — to  "  provide "  a  bishop. 
Thanks  to  Bishop  Grosseteste,  who  was  then  at 
Lyons,  the  appointment  was  that  of  a  good  man — 
Roger  de  Weseham^  (i 245-1 256),  dean  of  Lincoln, 
A  better  man  could  hardly  have  been  found.  He  was 
distinguished  both  by  learning  and  piety,  and  had  suc- 
ceeded Grosseteste,  after  a  short  interval,  as  lecturer  in 
the  famous  Franciscan  school  in  Oxford.  He  was  con- 
secrated by  Innocent  IV.  and  the  bishops  of  Here- 
ford and  Lincoln  at  Lyons,  February  19th,  1245. 
The  king  had  kept  the  see  vacant  for  nearly  four 
years,  during  which  time  he  had  presented,  among 
others,  John  de  Francies,  the  Frenchman,  to  a  pre- 
bend in  the  cathedral  church  of  Lichfield,  and 
Master  Nicholas,  of  St.  Alban's,  to  Penne  Church. 

King  Henry  had  visited  the  diocese  in  person  in 
the  autumn  before  Patteshull's  death,  and  stayed  at 
Lilleshall  Abbey.  When  the  bishop  died,  he  had 
bidden  the  two  chapters  to  elect  a  "  pastor  who 
should  be  devoted  to  God,  needful  to  the  rule  of 
your  churches,  and  useful  to  ourselves  and  our 
kingdom."  He  was  very  angry  with  his  friend  Pope 
Innocent  for  filling  the  see  without  consulting  him, 
"to  the  prejudice  of  his  dignity,"  and  he  seized  its 

'  Pegge's  excellent  tract  upon  this  bishop  is  now  in  the  Salt 
Library,  r,t  Stafford. 

I 


114  LICHFIELD. 

endowments.  But  the  pope — perhaps  as  a  peace- 
offering — immediately  proposed  to  make  the  royal 
chapels  free  from  episcopal  control.^  Weseham, 
however,  in  spite  of  both  pope  and  king,  went  to 
work.  He  demanded  admission  to  St.  Mary's  free 
chapel  at  Stafford  to  "  celebrate  orders."  Against 
this  the  king  appealed  to  Rome  ;  ~  but  the  bishop 
was  admitted,  and  the  canons  of  the  free  chapel 
rebuked  and  fined  ;  and  in  a  year  Weseham's  pleasant 
manners,  Avhich  won  all  hearts,  induced  Henry  to 
release  the  endowments  of  the  see.  So  uncertain 
was  papal  favour,  so  fickle  the  English  king  ! 

In  1252  Weseham,  keeping  in  mind  the  good  ways 
of  working  which  he  had  seen  at  Lincoln,  issued  a 
set  of  Visitation  Questions,  thirty-five  in  number. 
He  asks  about  the  life  and  conversation  of  his 
archdeacons  and  their  families.  Hitherto,  the  bishops 
had  been  great  officers  of  State,  who  left  the  local 
oversight  of  their  clergy  to  the  archdeacons  and 
the  rural  deans.  The  ''  sumpnours "  or  "  bull 
dogs  "  of  the  latter  searched  out  and  reported  evil 
deeds.  The  archdeacons  had  been  wont  to  visit 
attended  by  a  goodly  following  of  horses  and  hounds 
—hunting  wild  game,  in  fact,  as  they  progressed 
from  parish  to  parish.  Weseham  will  inquire  into 
this,  and  also  into  the  acts  of  the  rural  deans.  He 
wdll  know  whether  the  laity  are  getting  Church 
l)roperty  into  their  hands  by  way  of  ferm  or  lease. 
He  asks  whether  clergy  are  incontinent,  whether  they 

'  That  is,  beyond  ihe  reach  of  the  bishop's  ban  of  excom- 
munication. 

-  Tat.  Rot.  27  February,  30  Hen.  III. 


EARLY   VISITATION    QUESTIONS.  1 15 

keep  concubineSj  or  have  female  relatives  living  with 
them  so  as  to  raise  scandal,  or  whether  any  of  them 
are  married.  He. suspects  witchcraft  and  sorcery. 
He  wants  to  know  whether  the  clergy  frequent  ale- 
houses and  fight,  or  indulge  in  trade  or  usury,  or  go 
in  non-clerical  attire  to  market.  He  asks,  also,  as  to 
clerical  residence,  licence,  ordination,  and  simony, 
and  wishes  to  know  whether  deacons  act  as  priests 
in  hearing  confessions  and  consecrating  sacraments. 
He  has  a  question,  too,  as  to  the  consecration  and 
repair  of  churches,  the  fencing  of  churchyards,  and 
the  due  keeping  of  communion  vessels  j  and  wishes 
to  know  whether  the  clergy  duly  keep  the  consecrated 
host  and  carry  it  solemnly  to  the  sick,  or  improperly 
use  the  holy  oil  and  balsam  which   the  bishop  has 

V     blessed.1 

P  The  good  bishop's  health  broke  down  in  the 
middle  of  his  work.     In  1253  a  suffragan,  Brandon, 

^/7- bishop  9^  Ardacchen,  probably  Arsiagh,  is  officiating 
■  for  him.  In  1253  he  induces  the  two  cathedrals  to 
agree  to  send  an  equal  number  of  proctors  to  future 
elections  of  bishops,  and  sets  the  cathedral  at  Lich- 
field in  order.  The  archdeaconry  of  Chester  is  now 
set  apart  as  a  prize  to  tempt  men  of  power  into  the 

j       diocese ;  he  annexes  to  it  the  rectory  of  Bolton  as  a 

'  prebend,  and  so  brings  the  archdeacon  into  chapter. 
Round  him  he  gathers  some  of  the  best  men  of  the 
time.  His  friendship  with  Grosseteste  is  cemented 
by  the  endowment  of  a  chanting  priest,  who  should 
pray  for  the  bishops  of  Lichfield  and   Lincoln,  and 

'    "  Burton  Annals,"  p.  317,  Oxford  edition. 
I    2 


Il6  LICHFIELD. 

for  the  Dean  of  Lincoln.  Richard  de  Mepham,  a 
sagacious  and  learned  man,  who  had  helped  the  Grey 
Friars  to  settle  in  Oxford,  is  made  Archdeacon  of 
Stafford.  Peter  de  Radnor,  confessor  to  the  Bishop 
of  Hereford,  is  appointed  Archdeacon  of  Salop, 
1246,  and  Chancellor  of  Lichfield,  1260.  William 
de  Kilkenny,  handsome,  eloquent,  and  learned  in 
both  laws,  is  made  Archdeacon  of  Coventry  1246; 
and  when  in  1250  he  is  advanced  to  the  bishopric  of 
Ely  he  is  succeeded  here  by  the  equally  learned, 
though  less  scrupulous,  John  de  Kirkeby,  treasurer 
of  England,  who  also  follows  him  to  Ely  in  1286. 
But  the  greatest  of  this  brilliant  band  is  a  famous 
Greek  scholar,  John  de  Basing,  or  Basingstoke,  who 
had  been  a  pupil  of  the  Lady  Constantia  at  Con- 
stantinople. He  was  the  author  of  a  Greek  grammar 
and  a  "  Harmony  of  the  Gospels  " — marvels  in  that 
purely  Latin  age.  He  succeeded  to  the  arch- 
deaconry of  Chester  in  1247,  when  Silvester  de 
Everdon  went  out  of  it  to  be  Bishop  of  Carlisle. 

The  good  bishop  was  repeatedly  absent  from  parlia- 
ments and  councils.  He  was  a  friar,  and  his  mind 
seems  to  have  been  set  on  spiritual  duties.  He  saw 
that  nothing  but  divine  truth  could  make  men  free 
from  the  terrible  sins  of  the  age ;  and,  to  put  it  in 
definite  shape,  he  drew  up  a  set  of  "  Institutes  "*  for 
the  instruction  of  his  clergy,  urging  them  to  preach 
vigorously  and  in  English.  The  "  Institutes  "  told  them 
what  to  preach.  Founding  his  advice  on  Acts  iv., 
12,  he  sets  forth  Christ  as  the  only  name  of  salva- 

'  Quoted  by  Pegge,  from  the  Bodleian  copy. 


WESEHAMS    DEATH.  II7 

tion,  and  enumerates  seven  sacraments,  the  seven 
gifts  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  seven  virtues,  the  eight 
beatitudes,  seven  deadly  sins,  twelve  acts  of  faith, 
&c.  His  tract  is  meagre  though  concise  :  in  those 
days  of  dense  ignorance  it  was,  perhaps,  all  that 
could  be  attempted. 

Finding  weakness  increase,  Weseham,  in  1256, 
settled  himself  in  his  manor-house  of  Brewood  on 
a  retiring  pension  of  300  marks,  and  then  resigned 
the  see.  On  Sunday,  May  20th,  1257,  he  died,  and 
on  the  following  Tuesday  was  buried  at  Lichfield 
by  Fulk,  archbishop  of  Dublin.  His  grave  in  the 
cathedral  was  afterwards  covered  by  a  little  chapel 
of  carved  wood.  We  incline  to  believe  that  the  stone 
effigy  now  lying  opposite  the  Consistory  court  door 
is  his.  It  represents  a  man  of  delicate  build  and 
moderate  height,  grasping  the  pastoral  staff  with  thin 
hand,  and  wearing  a  slight,  wavy  beard;  angels  cense 
his  head. 

A  prelate  of  different  sort  succeeded,  namely, 
Roger  de  Meuleng,  or  Molend,  or  Meyland,  or 
LoNGESPEE  (1256-1295),  canon  of  Lichfield.  He 
was  unanimously  elected  by  both  chapters,  the  poll 
being  kept  open  some  time  at  Coventry  for  the  con- 
venience of  all  comers.  He  was  a  natural  son  of 
William  Longespee,  earl  of  Salisbury,  and  was  pro- 
bably chosen  bishop  because  he  was  a  nephew  of  the 
king.  He  was  consecrated  March  10,  1258,  all  the 
bishops  being  present  or  sending  excuses,  except  those 
of  Wales,  who  could  do  neither  on  account  of  the  war. 
It  is  said  that  he  could  scarcely  speak  a  word  of 
English.    In  1259,  on  the  Saturday  before  Christmas, 


Il8  LICHFIELD. 

he  made  a  furious  attempt  to  visit  St.  Mary's,  Stafford, 
one  of  the  royal  free  chapels.  A  "  multitude  of 
clerks  and  laymen,  bearing  lances,  swords,  bows  and 
arrows,  and  other  arms,''  came  with  him,  and  "  broke 
open  the  doors,  and  beat  and  wounded  the  canons." 
Summoned  to  the  assizes,  "  the  bishop,  being  present 
in  court,  says  he  is  unwilling  to  answer  this  plaint 
here,  because  he  is  an  ecclesiastic.  Whereupon 
comes  Richard  de  Clare,  earl  of  Gloucester  and 
Hertford,  and  says  that  Bogo,  his  son,  is  dean  of 
the  aforesaid  chapel ;  and  he  alleges,  for  the  said 
Bogo,  that  no  plea  ought  to  be  taken  here  concerning 
the  rights  of  the  said  chapel."^  The  end  of  the 
struggle  was,  that  the  bishop  was  allowed  to  use  the 
free  churches  of  Derby  and  Stafford  for  ordination 
and  as  meeting-places  for  his  clergy,  but  was  to 
be  deprived  of  the  power  of  excommunicating  or 
otherwise  punishing  the  clergy  of  the  minsters 
themselves. 

This  quarrel  was  probably  revived  after  Molend's 
return  to  England  in  1284,  and  was  not  settled  till 
1292.  Long  before  this  latter  date,  Molend  seems 
to  have  settled  down  into  the  utmost  carelessness,  and 
was  probably  non-resident, — living  somewhere  abroad. 

The  minster  clergy  played  wild  pranks  in  his 
absence.  Parish  churches  were  ruthlessly  appro- 
priated, and]  chapter  vied  with  chapter  in  greed. 
Religion  rapidly  declined  until  the  wholesome  visita- 
tion of  Archbishop  Peckham  in  1282;  then  the 
monasteries  were  made  to  disgorge  some  of  their 
spoils  by  endowing  vicars,  and  the  chapters  admonished 
'   "Assize  Rolls." 


ANOTHER    SOLDIER    BISHOP.  II9 

in  severe  terms ;  the  bishop  was  ordered  into  resi- 
dence, and  told  both  to  cease  his  permission  of 
appropriations  and  to  provide  an  English-speaking- 
suffragan  who  both  could  and  would  visit  the  diocese. 
Two  years  afterwards,  thinking  the  bishop  remiss  in 
obeying,  Peckham  appointed  Elias  de  Napton,  arch- 
deacon of  Derby,  to  act  as  coadjutor^  assigning  him  a 
stipend  of  loo  marks  out  of  the  bishopric,  and  telling 
the  bishop  to  consult  him  on  every  official  act.  This 
seems  as  if  Molend  were  indiscreet  and  quarrelsome 
as  well  as  idle.  Some  of  his  earlier  acts  point  to 
the  same  conclusion.  In  March,  1264,  his  rela- 
tive, King  Henry  III.,  had  intrusted  him  with  the 
delicate  duty  of  treating  on  his  behalf  with  Simon 
de  Montfort,  the  powerful  earl  of  Leicester.  He 
seems  to  have  blundered,  for  the  battle  of  Lewes 
followed.  In  the  next  year  he  was  bidden  to  seek 
out  all  rebels  in  his  diocese,  and  to  admit  them  to 
the  king's  peace,  Simon  being  one.  These  commis- 
sions are  valuable  as  showing  that,  though  Molend 
was  a  near  relative  of  the  king,  he  had,  nevertheless, 
kept  himself  from  espousing  either  side  in  the  fearful 
and  bloody  quarrels  of  the  age ;  and  that  as  bishop 
he  could  be  hopefully  employed  as  peacemaker, 
though,  as  a  statesman,  he  did  badly.  Had  he  suc- 
ceeded better  in  political  matters,  he  might  never 
have  withdrawn  himself  beyond  sea. 

Bad  as  Molend's  neglect  was,  the  diocese  probably 
owes  three  important  gifts  to  him.  The  see  was 
enriched  by  the  grant  of  Cannock  Chase  from  his 
royal  relative.  The  plan  of  the  splendid  west  front 
of  Lichfield  Minster  was  brought   into  England  by 


I20  LICHFIELD. 

him.  It  was  the  result,  perhaps,  of  many  a  day 
wasted  in  sight-seeing  abroad ;  but  it  shows  a  mar- 
vellous taste  for  the  beautiful,  and — since  the  lower 
story  of  it  was  probably  built  by  him — a  prodigality 
of  expense  which  his  more  thorough  successors  could 
not  copy.  By  him,  too,  Lichfield  House,  or  "Chester 
Place,"  was  begun.  He  bought  the  site  stretching 
from  the  Strand  to  the  Thames,  having  trees  and  its 
own  quay.  In  front  of  the  palace  rose  a  cross, 
where  the  itinerant  judges  used  to  sit  to  hear  and 
determine  cases.  On  one  side  was  the  palace  of  the 
bishops  of  Worcester.  Molend  brought  stone  from  the 
Medway  for  his  chapel.  Of  all  the  destroyed  monu- 
ments of  the  past,  this  was,  perhaps,  one  of  the  most 
exquisite.  Built  by  Molend,  in  the  best  period  of 
English  architecture,  it  could  not  fail  to  be  extremely 
beautiful.  Somerset  House  stands  on  the  site,  which 
was  wrenched  from  the  see  in  the  reign  of  the  great 
spoiler,  Henry  VIII. , in  exchange  for  Hanbury  Rectory. 

The  brightest  character  of  this  period  is  that  of 
the  archdeacon  of  Stafford,  Thomas  Cantilupe.  Him- 
self of  noble  Derbyshire  blood,  he  seems  to  have  cast 
in  his  lot  with  one  of  the  great  barons  of  his  arch- 
deaconry, Ferrars  of  Chartley,  earl  of  Derby;  for,  after 
that  unfortunate  nobleman  had  been  taken  prisoner 
from  among  woolsacks  stored  in  Chesterfield  Church, 
Cantilupe  received  a  patent  of  the  king's  pardon. 

The  friendship  and  sympathy  of  so  holy  and  gentle 
a  man  must  have  had  a  wonderfully  softening  and 
civilising  effect  upon  the  hard-fighting  and  rebellious 
baron.  Cantilupe  became  Bishop  of  Hereford,  and  at 
length  attained  a  place  in  the  Calendar  of  Saints. 


PILGRIMS.  121 

Molend  died  December  26,  1295,  and  was  buried 
January  3,  near  his  throne  in  the  old  cathedral. 
His  seal  has  a  cathedral  bearing  three  gables  or 
spires. 

The  custom  of  going  up  to  the  cathedral  on 
Mid-Lent  Sunday,  the  day  when  the  Lcetare  Jeru- 
salem was  sung,  was  kept  up  in  the  diocese  at 
least  as  late  as  1284.  But  in  1357  the  register 
shows  another  custom.  The  parishioners  of  Longdon, 
Walsall,  Yoxall,  &c.,  trooped  up  to  the  mother-church 
in  Whitsun  week,  headed  by  banners.  Other  bands 
came  into  collision  with  them,  and  they  were  requested 
by  the  bishop  to  come,  indeed,  as  before,  but  to  carry 
only  a  simple  cross,  without  banners  and  without 
noise.  The  order  for  this  reformation  was  to  be 
written  in  the  missal  of  every  parish.  The  pilgrim 
bands  came  into  the  close  over  the  pool,  and  entered 
the  minster  by  the  south  door.  Turning  to  the  right, 
down  the  south  choir  aisle,  they  got,  perhaps,  a  short 
exhibition  of  the  head  of  St.  Chad  as  they  passed 
along  under  the  little  stone  gallery  over  the  pre- 
bendaries' robing-room  door.  Then  they  would  go 
onwards  towards  the  great  shrine,  where  their  yearly 
offerings  were  made. 

These  old  customs  still  live  on  in  some  sort. 
Whitsun  Monday  is  still  a  great  day  at  Lichfield  and 
in  the  Close ;  and  "  Mothering  Sunday,"  when  lads 
who  have  gone  from  home  go  back  to  visit  their 
parents,  still  keeps  a  popular  hold  in  South  Stafford- 
shire. 


122  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

SUPPLEMENTARY    SKETCH    OF    THE    THIRTEENTH    CEN- 
TURY.      LIFE    AND    TIMES    OF    BISHOP    LANGTON. 

Looking  back  upon  the  thirteenth  century — the 
grandest  of  the  Middle  Ages — from  the  point  at 
which  we  have  now  arrived,  we  see  a  gloomy  picture. 

The  great  diocese  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield  is 
united  by  the  gathering  of  its  archdeacons  at  Lich- 
field, and  by  the  rotation  of  the  bishops  through  the 
old  manors  of  the  see  which  lie  round  Stafford.  The 
little  towns  of  Lichfield  and  Brewood  palpitate  with 
Church  life,  and  are  more  than  once  gay  with  royal 
presence.  Coventry  rallies  round  its  cathedral  and 
thrives.  Chester  is  riddled  by  the  raids  of  the  Welsh, 
and  continually  noisy  with  passing  armies.  Derby 
trembles  under  the  troubles  of  its  brave  earl,  who  is 
at  last  taken  prisoner  out  of  the  Avool-bales  stored 
in  Chesterfield  Church.  Stafford,  Shrewsbury,  and 
Bridgenorth  are  closely  linked  together  as  gaol 
towns,  and  as  possessing  royal  free  chapels,  Avhich 
have  their  own  powers  of  life  and  death. 

Into  the  churches  press  criminals  of  all  sorts  for 
refuge.  None  but  ecclesiastics  can  save  them  from 
injustice.  There  they  can  stay  for  six  weeks  if  they 
choose,  until  the  coroner  holds  an  inquest  about  them, 


SKETCH    OF    THE    THIRTEENTH    CENTURY.       1 23 

lid  they  abjure  the  reahn,  and  depart  branded  with 
le  cross,  to  the  nearest  seaport.^ 

The  bishops  are  great  barons,  responsible  only  to 
le  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  in  spiritual  matters, 
lough  the  Pope  of  Rome  is  continually  over-riding, 
ut  when,  in  1257,  Molend  attacks  the  royal  free 
lapel  of  Stafford,  the  king  writes  a  secret  letter  to 
ly  that  he  is  to  be  called  to  order  through  his  barony, 
'heir  lordships  live  in  pleasant  parks.  From  that  of 
ire  wood,  in  1243,  after  Patteshull's  death,  the  king 
Lves  three  bucks  and  eight  does  to  Fulk  Fitzwarren. 
/"olves  and  bears  are  still  extant.  The  bishops  occa- 
onally  hunt :  and  even  AVeseham,  in  1250,  gets  into 
le  hands  of  the  justice  of  the  forest  for  taking  a  fawn 
5  he  passes  through  the  royal  deer  preserves  of  the 
eake. 

Between  the  bishops  and  the  parochial  clergy  there 
1  a  wide  difference,  bridged  over  in  some  degree  by 
le  archdeacons  and  rural  deans.  The  former  are  a 
Drt  of  local  bishops,  with  every  power  except  that  of 
rdination  and  confirmation ;  the  latter  certainly 
xist  here  in  the  thirteenth  century,  though  their  duties 
re  chiefly  those  of  spies  and  tax-gatherers,"  who 
2em  to  be  as  little  beloved  as  the  apparitors  of  the 
ishops  themselves. 

'  So,  in  1282,  "  a  certain  unknown  Christian  woman  put 
ereself  in  the  church  of  St.  Chad  at  Stafford,  and  confessed 
ereself  a  robber,  and  abjured  the  reahii  before  the  coroner." 
-"Assize  Rolls." 

-  The  Dean  of  Christianity  at  Stafford  was  written  to  in  1254 
)  execute  a  grant  of  tenths  to  Heniy  III. — "  Annals  of  Burton, 
loIIs  Series,  325." 


124  LICHFIELD. 

The  churches  are  the  common  meeting-places  of 
the  people,  and  the  services  are  made  additionally 
attractive  with  stage  plays  and  gorgeous  pageants. 
At  Lichfield  there  is  a  wonderful  ceremony  called  the 
"  censing  of  the  clouds." 

The  king  interferes  in  small  matters  of  religion, 
whilst  greater  ones  are  utterly  neglected.  In  1250 
the  sheriff  of  Staffordshire  is  ordered  to  prohibit  bakers 
from  selling  loaves  marked  with  the  Cross,  or  the 
Lamb  of  God,  or  the  Saviour's  name,  lest  the  sacred 
device  should  be  broken  or  dishonoured.  But  dis- 1 
order  is  everywhere  rampant.  The  woods  of  Stafford- 
shire and  the  king's  forests  in  Cheshire  swarm  with 
robbers.  The  men  of  Stafford  and  Salop  are  told  to 
keep  the  king's  peace,  but  in  1249  ^^e  king  has  to 
do  so  himself  and  distrain  the  counties  for  the  cost. 
The  paths  about  Hopwas,  in  the  old  episcopal  woods, 
have  to  be  freed  from  trees  lest  they  should  shelter 
murderers,  1257.  The  bishop  and  the  abbot  of 
Burton  have  to  swear  in  men-at-arms,  1229,  each  to 
procure  by  the  Whit  Sunday  following  a  habergeon, 
if  he  be  worth  a  knight's  fee,  or  15  marks;  or  a 
hauberk  if  half  a  knight's  fee,  or  10  marks.  Men 
worth  40s.  are  to  have  iron  helm,  doublet,  and  lance  ; 
or  those  of  20s.  a  bow  and  arrows,  unless  they  live 
in  the  forests,  when  they  must  have  hatchet  and  lance. 

The  bishop  farms  many  of  his  broad  acres  him- 
self When  Stavenby  dies,  1229,  the  corn  he  leaves 
in  the  ground  is  sold  by  the  king  for  ;^ioo. 

A  vast  amount  of  Church  building  is  going  on. 
The  cathedral  has  grown  to  its  nineteenth-century 
size,   though  not  yet  standing   in   its  present  dress. 


SKETCH    OF    THE    THIRTEENTH    CENTURY.       I25 

The  king  constantly  grants  oaks  from  his  forests  for 
church  building;  forty,  for  example,  to  Lichfield  in 
1243  ;  two  in  1250  to  Penkridge  to  make  stalls — for 
sitting  is  being  introduced  into  the  choirs  of  collegiate 
churches  as  a  relief  to  poor  human  nature ;  and  six 
to  the  fabric  of  AVolverhampton ;  twenty  in  1255  to 
St.  Mary's  at  Stafford  from  Teddesley ;  five  in  1255 
to  St.  Thomas's  Priory,  and  six  to  Tettenhall. 

The  exactions  of  Rome  and  the  king  go  on  hand-in- 
hand.  Bishop  Stavenby,  in  1229,  has  to  be  reminded 
that  he  has  been  thrice  asked  to  pay,  and  delayed 
to  do  so.  And  in  1244  the  sheriff  is  to  inquire  what 
benefices  are  held  in  Staffordshire  by  Italians — viz., 
Romans,  Tuscans,  and  Lombards — men  appointed  to 
livings  by  the  pope,  who  draw  away  the  revenues  but 
never  set  foot  in  their  parishes.^ 

The  great  collegiate  churches  do  not  secure  even 
decent  morality  in  their  vicinities:  in  1272  one  man 
kills  another  before  the  door  of  Ralph,  cancfh  of 
Tettenhall ;  Bishop  Molend  stops  up  a  mile  of  road 
in  or  near  Hatherton ;  Ralph  de  Loges,  of  Rodbas- 
ton,  outrages  a  young  woman  who  falls  into  his 
hands,  steals  a  neighbour's  team  of  six  oxen  and  a 
bull  and  ploughs  his  land  with  it,  and  when  a 
canon  of  Penkridge  rides  into  his  court  sends 
him  away  on  foot.  The  matter  comes  to  Stafford 
assizes,  and  all  but  the  rape  are  excused,  because 
"  done  in  war  time,"  or  rather,  perhaps,  because 
Loges  is  too  dangerous  a  man  to  be  impleaded.  The 
moat  of  the  rich  rascal's  house  still  shows  its  strength. 

'   "Close  Rolls,"  Sa:t  Library. 


126  LICHFIELD. 

A  man  is  murdered  at  Dunstan,  hard  by;  the  hue 
and  cry  raised,  but  in  vain  ;  and  the  jury  "  falsely 
present  the  plaint."  Adam  of  Penkridge  stabs  his 
neighbour,  and  becomes  an  outlaw;  at  the  inquest 
the  coroner  takes  a  bribe  of  two  shillings.^  Almost 
every  village  has  its  murder  or  two.  Trial  by  duel 
is  twice  mentioned  in  the  early  Rolls  of  Henry  III.;  but 
the  better  mode  is  rapidly  feeling  its  way  into  existence. 

The  great  weapon  of  the  Church  at  this  time  is 
the  power  of  excommunication,  which  is  terribly 
feared.  A  great  evil  exists  in  the  filling  of  Church 
offices  with  foreigners  who  cannot  speak  the  language, 
and  who  look  upon  benefices  as  mere  property.  A 
similar  evil  lurks  in  the  monasteries,  which  are  both 
alienated  from  the  bishop  and  raking  up  the  endow- 
ments of  parish  churches  to  themselves.  Thus  the 
laity  are  left  to  the  care  of  mere  hireling  priests ; 
thus,  too,  the  good  work  of  endowment,  done  by  the 
Saxons,  is  being  undone  by  the  Normans  ;  and,  as 
the  benefices  become  poor  by  the  estrangement 
of  endowments,  the  people  fall  back — in  spite  of 
hosts  of  monastic  and  minster  clergy — into  anarchy. 
Bishop  after  bishop  strives  hard  against  this ;  they 
call  in  the  aid  of  friars,  but  the  friars  are  also  foreign 
in  their  sympathies ;  they  are  no  part  of  the  English 
Church,  and  England,  in  1295,  is  rather  permanently 
worse  than  better  for  their  sixty-five  years  of  work. 

The   brightest   features   of    the   century   are    the 

'  "  Assize  Rolls,"  Salt  Library.  One  year's  list  of  murders, 
&c.,  over  and  above  those  punished  on  the  gallows  and  in  the 
pits  (for  women),  of  chartered  abbeys,  minsters,  and  castles,  is 
terrible  readinc:. 


I 


BISHOP    LANGTON.  127 

awakening  earnestness  and  zeal  of  some  of  the 
bishops,  and  the  holy  fervour  of  church  building, 
most  conspicuous  where  the  bishops  had  greatest 
influence.  St.  Michael's,  Coventry,  probably  owes 
its  first  grand  outlines  to  Bishop  Patteshull,  whose  it 
was  when  he  died,^  and  Brewood  Church  to  Bishop 
Cornhill.  The  cathedral,  too,  began  to  change  its 
early  English  features  three  years  before  Stavenby's 
death,  and  masons  were  constantly  employed  after- 
wards. 

The  diocese  of  Lichfield  had  its  full  share  of 
claim  to  the  great  men  of  the  time.  In  politics,  the 
archdeacons  of  Stafford  were  very  conspicuous,  one 
of  them  having  borne  an  important  share,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  winning  the  great  Charter ;  another,  Thomas 
de  Cantilupe,  the  last  canonised  Englishman,  being 
some  time  Chancellor  of  the  Baronial  Regency. 
Bishops  Weseham  and  Stavenby  were  near  friends  of 
Grosseteste,  and  might  have  followed  his  policy  in 
later  years  had  they  lived  as  long  as  he. 

But  before  the  century  was  out  another  great 
politician  became  bishop.  Walter  de  Langton 
(1296-1321),  lord  high  treasurer  of  England,  was 
chosen  by  both  chapters  in  the  present  chapter-house 
at  Lichfield,  and  his  close  connexion  with  Edward  I. 
must  have  done  much  to  bring  order  and  justice 
into  these  wild  regions.  But  Edward  had  to  feel  his 
way  gradually.  In  establishing  parliaments,  he  tried 
to  conciliate  all  classes,  and  to  win  the  best  of  the 
clergy  to  his  side  ;  but  he  was  only  able  to  persuade 

'   "  Close  Rolls,"  Salt  Library. 


128  LICHFIELD. 

the  deans  of  peculiars  like  Lichfield  and  St.  Mary's^ 
Stafford,  to  attend;  the  parochial  clergy  still  clung 
to  their  diocesan  synods. 

The  first  part  of  Langton's  life  was  deeply  involved 
in  the  political  work  which  had  raised  him  to  the  see. 
He  was  friend  and  trusted  adviser  to  Edward  I.  in 
his  later  years,  and  was  left  in  charge  of  the  great 
king's  funeral.  But  his  struggle  with  Edward  II.  set 
him  free  for  distinctly  episcopal  work,  not,  however, 
without  great  unpleasantness  to  himself.  The  quarrel 
began  whilst  the  young  king  was  still  Prince  of  Wales. 
The  high-minded  bishop  rebuked  the  prince's  folly  and 
extravagance,  and  tried  to  keep  him  from  taking  the 
line  which  eventually  destroyed  him.  In  revenge, 
the  Prince  madly  broke  the  bishop's  parks  and  chased 
his  deer,  and,  as  soon  as  Langton  had  decently 
buried  the  old  king,  threw  him  into  prison,  and  made 
Piers  Gaveston  the  companion  to  himself  which 
Langton  had  been  to  his  father. 

Whilst  Langton  lay  in  prison,  or  was  being  moved 
about  between  Windsor  and  the  Tower,  the  king 
aimed  a  blow  at  a  great  religious  institution.  The 
Templars  were  doomed  to  simultaneous  extinction  in 
every  county  in  England.  In  Staffordshire  the 
sheriff  was  ordered  to  be  at  Lichfield  very  early  in 
"the  morning  of  the  morrow  of  the  Epiphany,"  1308, 
with  a  trusty  band  of  fourteen  men.  Five  days  later 
came  a  secret  letter  directing  him  to  pounce  upon 
the  knights  of  the  order,  and  to  seize  their  persons, 
property,  writings,  and  chattels.  They  had  a  precep- 
lory  at  Keele,  near  Stoke-on-Trent. 


LAXGTON  S    Rf:GISTER.  I  29 

Langton  got  out  of  prison  speedily  ;  for  in  130S 
he  held  ordinations  at  Chester,  Colwich,  Ronton,  and 
Tamworth.  It  presently  fell  into  the  bishop's  power 
to  ruin  Gaveston,  and  his  forbearing  to  do  so  pro- 
voked the  archbishop  to  excommunicate  him  ;  but 
the  favourite  died  by  the  axe  of  the  barons  in  131 2, 
and  the  high-minded  moderation  of  the  bishop  was 
rewarded  by  a  return  to  his  office  of  Treasurer. 
However,  he  soon  shook  himself  free  from  Court 
trammels,  and  henceforth  lived  only  for  his  diocese. 

Langton's  registers  are  the  first  which  have  come 
down  to  our  day.  They  record  a  multitude  of 
rapidly-recurring  institutions  to  the  benefices  of  the 
diocese.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  it  was  usual  for  la}- 
patrons  to  confer  livings  on  youths  of  tender  years, 
who,  after  induction,  were  licensed  to  continue  their 
studies  for  one,  two,  or  three  years  in  the  schools. 
William  de  Draco,  a  youth  of  fifteen,  was,  at  the 
pope's  instance,  licensed  to  hold  a  benefice  in  1309  ; 
Conrad  Homeschilt,  a  German,  rector  of  Filingley, 
got  five  years'  leave  of  studious  absence.  In  a  single 
month,  February,  1300,  licences  for  one  year's  study 
were  given  to  Alexander  de  Verdon,  rector  of  Bid- 
dulph,  Roger  Bagod,  rector  of  Alvechurch,  Nicholas 
de  Aylesbury,  rector  of  Pattingham,  Roger  Fitzherbert, 
rector  of  Norbury,  and  Richard  Birchal,  vicar  ofTaten- 
hill.  In  the  same  month,  Richard  Touchet,  rector  ot 
Middlewich,  and  Simon  Touchet,  of  Mackworth, 
were  sent  to  college  for  two  years,  and  "Walter 
de  Fordingay,  rector  of  Mackworth,  for  three.  These 
facts  show  that  lay  patrons  were  eager  to  thrust  their 

K 


130  LICHFIELD. 

relatives  upon  benefices  before  they  were  old  enough 
to  be  ordained.  The  system  was  much  worse  than 
the  modern  one  of  putting  in  "warming-pans,"  in 
the  shape  of  clergy  pledged  to  resign  again  wlien 
called  on. 

Few  Romans  seem  settled  here  then;  but  in  1307, 
at  a  hint  from  the  pope,  Richard  de  Belmont  was 
licensed  to  hold  two  livings;  in  12 13,  "Robert 
de  Patera "  got  the  prebend  of  Pipa  Parva ;  as 
in  1307  Raymond,  cardinal  deacon  of  "the  holy 
Roman  Church,"  adds  the  precentorship  of  Lichfield 
and  a  prebend  to  his  already  ponderous  plurality  in 
other  places.  In  1230,  a  "cardinal  deacon  of  St. 
Theodore  "  was  made  archdeacon  of  Coventry,  and 
in  13 14  "James  of  Spain"  died  prebendary  of 
AVolvey.  But  in  13 18  Richard  de  Verdon  was  made 
to  disgorge  Davenham,  a  family  living,  "'  by  reason  ot 
the  new  law  against  pluralities." 

The  monasteries  were  visited.  In  1304,  "G.  of  Glas- 
tonbury" was  ordered  by  Langton  to  punish  the  canons 
of  Haughmond,  Salop,  as  "irregular,  inordinate,  incor- 
rigible " ;  and  in  1 2 1 3  and  1 2 1 5  there  were  faults  among 
the  Austin  canons  of  Norton,  Cheshire,  and  Repton, 
Derbyshire,  which  required  amendment.  Some  eight 
or  ten  "  curates"  were  assigned  by  the  bishop,  in  1304 ; 
to  the  vicar  of  Lapley,  because  he  was  old  and  blind  ; 
to  the  rector  of  Maxstoke,  in  1307,  because  he  was 
infirm  ;  and  in  another  instance  because  the  rector  was 
a  minor.  The  bishop  was  still  roving  about  the 
country ;  but  twice  a  year  he  contrived  to  be  in  his 
diocese,    when    he   held    ordinations    like    his    pre- 


LANGTON  S    BUILDINGS.  131 

decessors,  almost  always  varying  the  place,  rotating 
through  his  own  manors,  and  ordaining  at  Brewood, 
Chelsea,  Eccleshall,  Colwich,  Itchington,  Salop, 
Stafford, 1  Lichfield,  Coventry,  Derby,  Wybunbury, 
Frees,  Spondon,  &c., — oftener  at  Derby  than  else- 
where,— and  admitting  hosts  of  candidates.  At 
Derby,  for  example,  in  1307,  93  sub-deacons,  69 
deacons,  and  116  priests  were  ordained;  and  at 
Burton  in  1300,  37  sub-deacons,  59  deacons,  99 
priests,  and  61  acolytes;  at  Lichfield  in  1303,  228 
sub-deacons,  99  deacons,  and  79  priests ;  and  at 
Kenilworth  in  1304,  84  sub-deacons,  119  deacons, 
and  5  priests. 

It  was  as  founding  our  magnificent  Lady  Chapel, 
and  for  his  other  noble  buildings,  that  Langton  is 
commonly  remembered.  He  rebuilt,  also,  Eccleshall 
and]  Haywood  manor-houses ;  walled  the  close,  for 
"the  honour  of  God,  the  dignity  of  the  cathedral,  and 
the  bodies  of  the  saints  there  reposing,  and  also  for 
security  and  quiet  of  the  canons  "  :  got  leave  from 
the  king  to  crenellate  his  houses  at  Beaudesert, 
Asshely  David,  and  elsewhere  ;  and  to  pave  Eccles- 
hall and  Lichfield  with  money  raised  by  market  dues 
and  customs.  In  the  thirty-third  year  of  Edward  I.  he 
had  further  leave  to  crenellate  his  house  in  London. 
The  prudent  bishop  may  have  foreseen  trouble  to 
himself  from  Prince  Edward's  lawless   spirit.      He 

'  The  right  of  ordaining  was  left  to  the  bishop  in  the  free 
chapels  of  St.  Mary  at  Salop,  and  Stafford,  but  not  at  Wolver- 
hampton and  Bridgenorth. 

K   2 


13-  LICHFIELD. 

also  enshrined  St,  Chad's  bones  in  sumptuous  work- 
manship, gave  vessels  and  a  jewelled  cross  of  gold  and 
costly  vestments  to  the  altar  at  the  cathedral  ;.  made 
a  bridge  over  the  minster  pool,  and  housed  the 
choristers.  But  his  greatest  work  was  the  splendid 
palace  which  he  built  for  himself  on  the  north-east 
side  of  the  close, — a  palace  whose  grey  embattled 
walls,  turrets,  and  high  tower  at  the  north-eastern 
angle,  the  base  of  which  remains,  were  long  a  feature 
of  the  place.  Its  great  hall  was  frescoed  with 
Edward's  wars.  But  all  this  work  impoverished  the 
bishop's  see-lands. 

When  the  winter  of  132 1  was  setting  in  (November 
6th),  Langton  died  in  London,  and  was  carried  to 
Lichfield.  Twenty  monks  from  Coventry  joined  in 
his  funeral,  and  from  the  cathedral  the  mourning 
brotherhood  went  in  solemn  procession  to  Stowe,— 
where  St.  Chad  had  first  been  buried, — in  honour  ot 
the  munificent  donor  of  the  saint's  new  shrine. 

The  present  Lady  Chapel  was  built  during  the 
next  bishop's  rule,  mainly  with  money  that  Langton 
left.  Langton's  body  was  removed  into  it,  and  a 
sumptuous  monument  erected  ovet  it. 

And  now  we  approach  the  period  when  the  glorious 
west  end  of  the  cathedral  and  its  three  spires  were 
built,  and  gain  a  glimpse  or  two  of  the  means 
employed  to  build  them.  Similarity  between  the 
fabrics  of  Lichfield  and  Wells  may  be  accounted  for 
by  the  interest  taken  in  both  by  Gilbert  de  Bruere, 
canon  of  Wells,  and  Langton's  executor.  Funds 
Avere  raised  for  the   work   not  only  by  large    gifts 


CATHEDRAL    BUILT    BY    SUBSCRIPTION.  1 33 

^nd  legacies  from  the  bishops  and  clergy,  but  also  by 
general  contributions  throughout  the  diocese,  both 
under  the  name  of  '"Tchad's  Pennies  "  and  by  way  of 
direct  subscription.  Indeed,  the  next  bishop,  Nor- 
bury,  expressly  commended  the  fabrics  of  his  two 
■cathedrals  to  the  alms  of  the  congregations,  and 
banned  the  clergy  from  pleading  for  any  other  object 
•vwhilst  the  work  was  going  on. 


134  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

A    MEDI/EVAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK. 

Acts  of  Bishop  Norbury — Building  of  the  Three  Spires — The 
Black  Death — Contents  of  the  Cathedral  in  1346 — Thomas- 
of  Chesterfield. 

The  two  chapters  had  been  unanimous  in  burying 
Langton,  but  they  disagreed  in  the  election  of  a  suc- 
cessor; and  Pope  Julius  XXII. ,  doubtless  spying 
therein  an  opportunity  of  strengthening  his  position 
against  the  policy  of  the  English  Edwards,  intruded 
Roger  de  Norbury,  or  Northburg  (1322-1359),. 
on  the  see.  He  was  consecrated  at  Hales  Abbey,* 
June  27,  and  for  nearly  forty  years  lived  a  diligent 
life  among  our  forefathers,  checking  and  punishing 
sin,  and  making  every  one  of  the  many  clergy  under 
him  do  his  duty  according-  to  the  light  of  the  age 
and  the  means  at  his  disposal. 

Norbury's  "Register  "'  is  still  in  excellent  preserva- 
tion at  Lichfield.i  It  is  a  goodly  volume,  written  in 
clear  characters  on  parchment ;  and  from  it,  and  other 
contemporary  documents,  a  fairly  complete  picture 
may  be  put  together  of  the  life  and  work  of  a  medi- 
aeval bishop, — which  is  here  attempted. 

The  newly-consecrated  prelate  left  Hales  Abbey 

'  A  valuable  paper  on  this  "  Register  "  will  he  found  in  the 
William  Salt  Collection,  vol.  i.,  by  Bishop  Hobhouse,  to  whose 
learning  and  kindness  the  writer  of  this  volume  is  much  indebted. 


A"  MEDIEVAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK.  1 35 

with  a  token  of  his  favour,  promising  a  forty  days' 
indulgence  (a  prospective  relief  from  the  penances 
to  be  imposed  at  the  ensuing  Shrovetide)  to  all  who 
would  pay  a  pilgrimage  to  Hales  to  see  the  head  of 
St.  Barbara  and  pray  for  the  king  and  queen,  leaving 
a  gift  behind  them  for  the  poor  monks  when  departing. 
He  began  his  episcopal  career  by  renewing  the 
commission    of  Langton's   suffragan,   the    Bishop  of 
Magdun    (Melun  in   France),  who  was   to   help   at 
ordinations.     And  such  help  was  clearly  needed ;  for 
Norbury,  like  his  predecessors,  ordained  candidates 
in  troops.     The  examination  of  so  many  young  men 
would  in  these  days  be  a  very  serious  business ;  in 
those  it  was  strict  enough  as  to  literary  attainments. 
No  one  could  be  ordained  who  could  not  read  ;  and 
for  the  higher  grades  some  knowledge  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture was  required.     But  it  was  impossible  to  ascertain 
the  moral  fitness  of  numbers  so  large,  and  the  bishop 
seems  to  have  contented  himself  with  a  system  of 
ban.     Proclamation   was    made    in    the    ordination 
service  that  every  one  who  felt  himself  unworthy  of 
holy  orders  must  take  himself  off:   but   Avhen   the 
motives  which  were  leading  men   into  orders  were 
often  of  the  most  mercenary  character,  the  ban  must 
have  fallen  lightly  on  many  a  conscience.     Rectors 
afterwards  appear  in  the  "  Register  "  as  only  acolytes. 
One  of  the  Derbyshire  Segreaves,  after  living  a  life  of 
lust  and  rapine,  tried  to  save  his  life,  when  at  last 
brought  to  bay,  by  declaring  that  he  was  and  always 
had  been  a  priest.^ 

^  In  149 1,  it  was  possible  for  a  bishop  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield 
to  record  in  his  register  that  a  youth  not  yet  in  his  first  tonsure 


136  LICHFIELD. 

And  many  even  of  the  better  sort  of  ca)idi<lates 
were  never  intended  for  ordinary  parish  work.  Some 
were  to  be  Austin  canons,  and  some  chantry  priests ; 
some  secular  canons,  others  chaplains  in  monasteries 
or  friars. 

Violence  still  marks  the  times  :  a  dispute  broke 
out  between  the  canons  of  Lichfield  and  those  ot 
Penkridge  with  regard  to  the  chapel  at  Cannock,  and 
the  former  contrived  to  lodge  the  latter  in  Stafford 
gaol,  whence  they  pleaded  to  the  king  that  divine 
offices  in  his  royal  chapel  of  Penkridge  had  been 
extinguished  by  their  imprisonment.^ 

The  roads  swarm  with  robbers  :  the  canons  of 
Rocester  have  a  chantry  by  the  Watling  Street ;  but, 
on  account  of  the  rude  visits  which  their  chaplain 
receives  from  highwaymen,  they  summon  him  to 
pray  for  his  patron  within  the  protection  of  their  own 
strong  walls.  The  friars,  who  are  much  on  the  roads, 
and  are  often  well  laden  with  the  produce  of  their 
begging  tours,-  of  course  do  not  escape.     In  132 1  the 

had  been  made  warden  of  the  collegiate  church  of  Newport,  and 
That  he  had  given  him  seven  years'  leave  of  absence  to  prosecute 
his  studies  in  the  universities. 

'"  Parliamentary  Rolls,"  Edw.  II.,  quoted  by  Mr.  T.  de 
Mazzinghi,  of  Stafford. 

^  The  contents  of  a  friar's  bag  may  be  inferred  from  Chaucer : — 

"  Yeve  us  a  bushel  whete,  or  malt,  or  reye, 
A  Goddes  kichel,  or  a  trippe  of  chese, 
Or  elles  what  you  list  we  may  not  chese  ; 
A  Goddes  halfpenny,  or  a  ma^^se  peny ; 
Or  yeve  us  of  your  brawn  if  ye  have  any, 
A  dagon  of  your  blanket,  leve  dame, 
Our  suster  dere  (lo,  here  I  write  your  name), 


A    MEDL^VAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK.  I37 

bishop  hands  Edmund  de  Drayton  over  to  the  secular 
arm  for  robbing  a  Welsh  friar.  In  1338  a  Grey  Friar 
of  Lichfield  and  his  attendant  bagman  are  both 
assaulted.  This  time  the  assailants  are  not  caught, 
so  the  bishop  flings  excommunication  broadcast  at 
them  from  the  altar. 

Adultery  falls  under  the  bishop's  cognizance,  and 
is  severely  punished;  so,  William  de  Kniyeton,  in 
1328,  is  sentenced  to  be  "  fustigated  "  six  times  round 
the  cathedral  on  six  Sundays,  and  through  Lichfield 
market-place  on  week-days.  The  archdeacon  ot 
Stafford  is  to  "  fustigate "  the  first  time  in  person. 
(Questions  of  legitimacy  also  come  to  him  from  the 
king's  courts;  and  in  1322-3  he  gives  the  judges 
leave  to  hold  assizes  at  Derby  in  Advent  and  Lent, 
but  will  not  make  it  a  precedent. 

The  bishop  was,  of  course,  surrounded  by  officials  ) 
some  of  whom  we  may  notice.  His  *'  vicar-general  " 
gave  institution  in  his  name,  and  notified  his  assent 
in  provincial  councils  and  Parliaments,  of  which  two 
for  the  whole  diocese  were  held  at  Stafford  in  1336 
and  1337.  In  the  former,  a  tax  of  a  sbilling  in  the 
mark  was  voted  to  the  king.^  A  seneschal,  or  bailiff, 
looked  after  the  estate,  which  was  large  and  scattered. 
The  bishop's  ^^ paroc'/ius" — whom  Dr.  Hobhouse  con- 
siders to  have  been  a  purveyor, — complains  of  being- 
Bacon,  or  beef,  or  such  thing  as  ye  find." 

A  sturdy  harlot  went  hem  ay  behind, 
That  was  hir  hostes  man,  and  bare  a  sakke, 
And  what  men  yave  hem  laid  on  his  bakke. 

'  See  Mr.  Green's  remarks,  'Tli^lory  of  the  Knglish  People,"' 
i-  35S. 


138  LICHFIELD. 

robbed  of  birds  at  Shrewsbury.     A  penitentiary,  such  | 
as  Gilbert    de    Neunham,  monk  of  Coventry,   1322, 
•was  appointed  sometimes  for  the  whole  diocese,  and 
sometimes  for  parts  of  it,  to  hear  the  confessions  of 
the    clergy  and    laity;    and  a  second   and    superior  J 
officer, — at  one  time  Friar  Osbert,  of  Sutton,  Salop, —  ' 
was  made  preacher  and  confessor  in  the  diocese,  and 
penitentiary  in   cases   reserved   to   the   bishop.     In 
1329  the  rector  of  Hanmer  was  penitentiary  for  the 
"Welsh-speaking  clergy  and  laity"  of  the  diocese, 
the  rector  of  Nepe  acting  for  the  other  part  of  Salop. 

In  1328  a  lord  bishop  of  Assavens  was  authorised 
to  ordain. 

In  1328  the  rector  of  Walton,  wanting  a  curate,  is 
allowed  to  have  one  on  his  setting  aside  for  him,  by 
way  of  stipend,  a  house  in  the  parish,  the  oblations  at 
the  altar,  and  at  marriages  and  churchings,  the  tithes 
of  a  hamlet,  and  herbage  of  church  and  chapel  yards ; 
but  the  curate  was  to  find  chaplains  for  the  chapels, 
and  a  deacon  at  20s.  per  annum  for  the  church. 
The  abbots  of  Lilleshall,  Erdbury,  and  Shrewsbury, 
were  permitted  to  retire  on  pensions.  Two  churches 
required  "  reconciliation  "  after  bloodshed.  Monks 
often  ran  away  from  their  cloisters,  and  were  induced 
by  the  bishop  to  return  to  their  monasteries,  or  were 
publicly  banned  if  they  remained  at  large.  Indeed, 
the  most  striking  use  was  made  of  the  power  of 
excommunication.  Park-breakers  were  threatened) 
from  church  altars,  and  offenders  publicly  banned 
whilst  still  at  large.  Thus,  under  terror  of  this  sort 
of  denunciation,  poor  Elizabeth  Zouch,  who  with  a 
companion   had   run  away  from   the  White    Ladies 


A    MEDIEVAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK.  1 39 

of  Brewood,  came  cringing  to  the  bishop.  She  made 
confession  in  Brewood  Church ;  and  being  absolved 
was  led  by  the  bishop  back  to  the  abbey  gate,  three 
miles  away,  where  she  humbly  sued  for  re-admission, 
and  was  admitted  to  penance. 

Bishop  Norbury  made  a  thorough  visitation  of  his 
diocese  :  the  clergy  did  not  like  it ;  and  one  or  two 
fierce  assaults  were  made  upon  apparitors,  especially 
in  Newport  Church.  But  the  visitation  was  carried 
into  every  part  of  the  diocese.  Parishes  were  thrown 
into  groups  of  four  or  five  for  this  purpose  ;  the  clergy, 
churchwardens,  and  five  or  six  people  from  each 
being  summoned  to  attend  at  particular  places. 
Some  of  the  meetings,  however,  were  not  held  on 
account  of  the  men  being  summoned  to  the  Scotch 
wars.  The  cathedral  vainly  pleaded  exemption  and 
the  absence  of  the  dean. 

This  inquiry  unearthed  some  curious  facts.  The 
vessels  and  vestments  of  Greenby  Church  were  found 
to  be  kept  carelessly  in  a  shed  belonging  to  Ronton 
Abbey,  the  appropriators.  The  bishop  orders  them 
to  be  laid  up  in  church  with  a  deacon  to  watch  them. 
The  roof  of  Mayfield  Church  is  dilapidated,  and  must 
be  mended,  though  church-rates  are  not  mentioned 
in  the  order.  The  parishioners  of  Rocester  ask 
whether  they  ought  to  attend  the  eucharist  at  the 
abbey  or  the  parish  church,  and  are  told  they  may  go 
to  either.  A  couple  of  strolling  fortune-tellers  and 
magicians  skulking  about  Warwickshire  are  warned 
off  by  denunciation  in  all  churches  in  the  archdea- 
conry of  Coventry.  Monks  of  Sandwell  are  wandering 
abroad  under  pretence  of  pilgrimage  to  Rome.     The 


140  LICHFIELD. 

prior  of  Holonde  must  not  sojourn  in  solitude  at 
Greston  Manor,  The  bishop  of  Carlisle  may  ordain 
'''five  or  six  friends"  in  1334,  and  three  more  at 
Stanton-by-Bridge  a  little  later,  in  1345, — interesting 
glimpse  of  life  at  Melbourne,  Carlisle's  "  half-way 
house."  vStone  Priory  lying  near  the  king's  highway, 
complains  that  it  is  eaten  up  by  passing  guests,  and 
gets  the  rectory  of  Madeley  to  help  its  buttery.  The 
new  prior  of  Tutbury,  having  visited  the  bishop  at 
Frees  in  1334,  is  kidnapped  on  his  way  home,  and 
carried  off  no  one  knows  whither, — the  offenders 
are  banned  from  the  altar.  There  had  been  parochial 
troubles  at  Birmingham  in  Langton's  time, — Bishop 
Norbury  takes  off  a  sentence  of  excommunication. 
A  dead  knight  may  be  buried  in  1342  at  Arden  in 
Cheshire,  if  any  one  can  say  he  had  repented  before 
dying  excommunicate.  The  monasteries  a4"e  visited 
■except  the  Cistercian  houses.  Hunting-dogs,  fine 
dresses,  and  costly  pleasures,  are  found  among  the 
White  Ladies  (Cistercians)  of  Brewood ;  and  the 
bishop's  decree  for  reformation  is  translated  into  French 
because  the  prioress  cannot  read  Tatin.  Disorder, 
incontinence,  arms,  and  hunting,  appeared  in  Tut- 
bury Priory,  and  utter  confusion  in  the  alien  priory  of 
Lapley— cut  off  from  its  head-quarters  by  the  French 
wars.  Darley  Abbey,  too,  needs  reformation ;  and 
the  hospital  of  St.  Thomas  of  Birmingham  is  "  full  of 
vile  reprobates."  St.  John's  Tower  at  Chester  is  in 
danger  of  falling ;  the  vestments  are  worn  out,  and 
the  canons  non-resident.  The  bishop  first  warns 
them,  and  then  takes  reformation  into  his  own  hands. 
The  choir-men  at  Lichfield  have  ministered  without 


A    MEDl.EVAL    BISHOP    AT    WORK.  I4E 

the  "  choral  habit "  required  by  statute, — the  bishop 
gives  them  the  rectory  of  Penn  Church  wherewithal  tO' 
buy  surplices  and  tippets. 

Rectory  after  rectory  still  continues  to  be  absorbed 
by  monastic  bodies  :  twenty-four  parishes  suffer  thus- 
"  by  authority  of  the  Holy  See,"  under  Bishop  Nor- 
bury ;  but  everywhere  he  forces  the  monks  to  ordain 
vicarages. 

How  mercilessly  the  parishes  are  robbed  by 
cathedral  and  monastery  may  be  seen  from  the 
"  Taxatio  "  of  Pope  Nicholas  of  Langton's  time,  1288. 
St.  Michael's,  Coventry,  was  worth  ^^33.  6s.  8d.  a 
year  to  the  prior,  but  only  ;^5  to  the  vicar.  Wirks- 
worth  rectory  was  valued  at  ;^46.  135.  4d.,  which, 
together  Avith  a  pension  of  ;j^i3.  6s.  8d.  from  the 
vicarage,  was  paid  to  the  dean  of  Lincoln,  leaving 
but  ;^io  a  year  to  the  vicar.  How  Bake  well  Rectory, 
worth  ;^i94  a  year,  and  the  richest  in  the  diocese, 
was  spoiled  has  been  already  shown.  From  the 
black  heather  of  Alstonfield,  in  the  Staffordshire 
moorlands,  the  abbot  of  Cbmbermere  took  ;^i3. 6s.  8d. 
The  people  of  Prestbury  showed  their  appreciation  ot 
this  sort  of  robbery  in  1326  by  sending  their  tithe 
sheaves  to  the  abbot  of  St.  Werburgh's  at  Chester  so 
loosely  bonded  as  to  fall  to  pieces.  Bradbourn  was 
worth  ;^4o  to  the  monks  of  I^unstable,  Chesterfield 
^^T,  to  the  dean  of  Lincoln.  From  Leek  and  its  hill- 
side chapels  the  abbot  of  Dieulacres  drew  away  ;^2S 
a  year. 

The  case  of  LUtoxeter,  however,  seems  hardest. 
"  Dominus  Hugo,  of  Vienna,"  mulcted  the  living  in 
jQio  a  year,  and  the  abbot  of  Darley  in  ;£i.  6s.  8d. 


142  LICHFIELD. 

In  Norbury's  time  the  living  was  finally  appropriated  to 
the  new  chapel  of  twenty-four  priests  and  twenty-four 
knights,  which  the  king  was  founding  at  Windsor. 

Bishop  Norbury's  attachment  to  the  papacy  must 
have  done  much  to  keep  alive  the  sore  feeling  of 
England  toward  Rome.  In  1348  he  gave  the  trea- 
surership  of  Lichfield  Cathedral  to  "  Master  Hugh  of 
Palermo,"  at  the  pope's  request.  In  1331  he  had  for 
three  years  kept  no  less  than  forty  benefices  vacant 
so  as  to  send  their  revenues  to  the  "  French  Pope  "; 
and  in  1332  he  added  twelve  others  to  the  number. 
The  pope  still  regarded  England  as  a  vassal  kingdom 
of  his  own. 

The  appropriation  of  Uttoxeter  to  the  Chapel  of 
the  Garter  was  by  no  means  the  only  connexion 
between  this  diocese  and  English  chivalry.  In  April, 
1348,  Lichfield  was  selected  as  the  scene  of  one  of 
the  few  splendid  Hastiludes  which  celebrated  the 
glorious  victory  of  Crecy,  and  it  is  even  likely  ^  that 
the  incident  then  and  there  took  place  which  sug- 
gested to  the  gallant  and  joyous  king  the  foundation 
of  that  most  noble  order.  There  were  water  sports  on 
the  minster  pools,  and  a  passage  of  arms,  in  which 
the  king,  on  his  great  war-horse,  with  seventeen 
knights,  tilted  against  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  and 
thirteen  others.  The  flower  both  of  English  chivalry 
and  of  English  beauty  was  there.  No  less  than  two 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  visors  were  provided  for 
ladies.     Amongst  them  were  the  Princess  Isabel,  the 

^  "Reliquary,"  for  October,  1878,  and  January,  1879,  where 
the  question  is  discussed  by  Mr.  Mazzinghi.  "  Archteologia," 
xxxi.  118. 


THE    THREE    SPIRES    FINISHED.  I43 

Lady  Wake,  the  Princess  Joanna,  Lady  Bohun,  or 
Stafford,  and  others.  Robes  of  blue  and  hoods  of 
white  were  the  prevaiUng  colours. 

The  three  spires  were  then  probably  nearly  finished. 
The  next  scene  they  looked  down  upon  was  of  vastly 
different  character.  Treading  on  the  heels  of  this 
gaiety  came  the  Black  Death,  whose  terrible 
ravages  here  have  been  already  alluded  to  by  Mr.  J. 
C.  Cox.  1  The  havoc  made  among  the  clergy  was 
terrible ;  from  the  archdeacon  of  Stafford  down- 
wards they  stood  to  their  posts,  and  died  with  their 
people. 

Bishop  Norbury  died  November  22,  1358,  and  was 
buried  under  a  sumptuous  tomb  in  the  cathedral. 
He  was  Lord  High  Treasurer  of  England  in  1322, 
1340,  1341,  and  1342  ;  nevertheless,  he  seems  to 
have  been  in  constant  residence  in  his  diocese. 

The  dean  of  Tarn  worth  now  appears  on  the 
scene.  ^  An  ordination  was  held  in  his  church  in 
1359  by  the  suffragan  of  the  diocese,  Thomas  Bishop 
Magnassiensis,  a  monk  of  Merevale.  He  had  been 
consecrated  for  such  work  in  1353.  In  June, 
1360,  he  ordains  again  in  the  Friary  church  at  Lich- 
field, and  in  August  at  Mancetter, 

The  discovery  of  the  "Sacrists'  Roll  "  of  1346 — the 
year  of  the  Black  Death — which  has  recently  been 
made  at  Lichfield,''^  gives  us  a  glimpse  into  the 
interior  of  the  cathedral  at  that  time.  It  would 
appear  that   there  were  then   only  four  residentiary 

^  "Derbyshire  Churches,"  vol.  iv.,  Introduction. 

'  First  mentioned,  1259. 

^  Derbyshire  Archaeological  Society's  Journal,  1881. 


144  LICHFIELD. 

canons,  though  there  had  been  five  at  the  Conquest, 
as  also  there  -were  at  the  Reformation,  There 
were  also  four  choristers,  who,  on  Innocent's  Day, 
marched  in  copes  in  a  procession  of  children, — one 
of  the  many  pretty  sights  of  the  old  ritual.  The 
dean,  Master  Richard  FitzRalph,  was,  by  the  way, 
on  the  verge  of  promotion  to  the  archbishopric  of 
Armagh. 

Many  precious  things  are  mentioned  in  the  "Roll," 
the  first  being  the  relics  of  St.  Chad.  The  head  in  a 
certain  painted  wooden  case  ;  an  arm  which  could  be 
kissed  by  pilgrims  ;  some  of  his  bones  in  a  portable 
shrine,  which  was  occasionally  carried  round  the 
diocese.  Besides  these,  there  was  the  great  shrine 
of  Walter  Langton's  sumptuous  workmanship,  which 
had  cost  ;^2,ooo.  Ten  boxes  contained  the  remains 
of  other  saints  ;  and  there  were  various  items  which 
spoke  of  pilgrimages  to  the  Holy  Land,  and  of  the 
connexion  of  the  cathedral  with  the  saints  of  the 
Church  in  nearly  all  past  ages  and  climes.  There 
were  bones  of  St.  Stephen,  St.  James,  St.  Helen,  St. 
Barbara,  and  St.  Blase  ;  the  head  of  St.  Godric,  a 
northern  hermit,  who  mingled  ashes  with  his  flour ; 
a  specimen  of  his  bread ;  blood  of  a  bishop  of 
Cologne  ;  part  of  the  hair  shirt  of  St.  Cuthbert,  <S:c. 

There  was  a  noble  cross  of  pure  gold,  worth  ^£200, 
which  Langton  had  given  ;  others  of  lesser  value ; 
three  especial  processional  crosses,  one  much  the 
worse  for  wear,  the  other  broken,  and  six  or  eight 
others,  one  of  which,  made  of  cheaper  material, 
seems  to  have  been  used  on  ordinary  occasions  to 
save  the  others.     There  were  two  ivory  images  of  the 


CATHEDRAL    FURNITURE.  1 45 

Blessed  Virgin,  four  ivory  pixes  for  the  eucharist, 
four  beryls  for  striking  fire  on  Easter  Eve,  eight  gold 
rings  which  had  been  offered  by  magnates,  six 
brooches  which  had  been  given  by  Henry  III.  and 
P^dward  I.,  and  endless  jewels  and  other  trinkets. 

Generous  Langton  had  given  a  chalice  decked  with 
precious  stones,  with  two  phials  of  pure  gold,  worth 
y^8o.  There  were  nine  chalices  of  silver  gilt  with 
iheir  patens,  and  three  others,  five  thuribles,  of  which 
four  were  "noble  silver"  vessels,  tv/o  having  silver 
chains.  King  Henry  had  given  two  silver  candle- 
sticks, and  there  were  also  other  chalices,  thuribles, 
&c.,  of  smaller  note. 

Langton  had  given  "a  most  precious  cope,  decorated 
with  figures,  with  fourteen  sets,  namely,  four  copes, 
four  tunicles,  two  chasubles  of  white  samite,  powdered 
with  gold."  There  were  also  two  frontals  for  the  high 
altar  of  the  same  set,  and  "two  most  valuable  frontals 
with  figures,  of  which  one  is  wide  and  the  other 
large,  but  narrow ;  also  one  frontal,  narrower  than  the 
others,  which  is  joined  with  a  pall  for  the  high  altar, 
and  that  frontal  is  exceedingly  precious  because  it  is 
wholly  adorned  with  noble  pearls,  with  two  hundred 
buttons  of  pearls."  There  were,  also,  many  other 
vestments,  of  which  some  were  lent  out  to  the 
prebendal  churches ;  many  palls  and  hangings,  which 
had  been  given  by  Kings  Edward  I.  and  III.,  by 
Queens  Eleanor  and  Isabel,  and  other  great  persons. 
There  were  many  chasubles,  one  of  which,  of  bal- 
dekin,  with  the  albe,  amice  or  hood,  stole,  and  fanon 
or  maniple,  was  the  gift  of  Dean  John  de  Derby.  The 
sacrist  had  made  eight  out  of  twenty-three  "  unsuit- 

L 


146  LICHFIELD, 

able  albes."  There  were  thirty-two  amices,  thirty-four 
stoles,  "  one  of  which  has  twelve  kiiops  of  silver," 
thirty-five  fanons  or  maniples,  some  of  which  corre- 
sponded with  the  stoles,  one  having  twelve  silver 
knops.  Queen  Eleanor  had  given  a  good  vestment  ; 
Bishop  Roger  de  Meuland  another ;  Master  Roger 
de  Rothwell,  archdeacon  of  Chester,  another,  &c. 
The  prior  and  brethren  of  St.  John  had  borrowed  a 
set  of  vestments  and  books. 

In  the  choir  lay  numerous  books,  some  of  them 
chained,  including  the  Holy  Bible, — which  was  then 
commonly  divided  into  two  volumes  at  the  Psalms  ; 
"  two  most  ancient  books  which  are  called  the  books  of 
the  blessed  Chad,"  and  two  ordinals,  one  within  and 
another  and  a  nobler  volume  Avithout  the  choir. 
One  of  the  chained  books  was  "  The  Acts  of  the 
English,"  and  there  were  volumes  on  martyrology  and 
lives  of  the  saints. 

The  "  Roll  "  was  written  in  plague  time.  It  looks  as 
if  the  canons  were  setting  *'  their  house  in  order  "  in 
the  very  face  of  death  ;  and  it  shows  plainly  enough 
that  the  gorgeousness  of  the  old  worship  was  largely 
owing  to  the  generosity  of  the  worshippers.  They 
gave  to  God  in  giving  sumptuous  vestments  for  His 
service,  just  as  men  now  give  to  missions  or  the  poor. 

Only  one  of  all  the  volumes  mentioned  survives  to 
tlie  present  day,  and  that  is  the  precious,  ancient 
volume  of  "  St.  Chad's  Gospels."  The  book  may, 
indeed,  have  belonged  to  that  saint,  though  it  had 
wandered  a  good  deal  since  his  day.  It  had  been 
sold  in  Saxon  times  by  Cingal  to  (lelhi  "  for  a  good 
horse."     Gelhi  gave  it  to  a  bishop  of  Llandaff'for 


THE    LICHFIELD    CHRONICLER.  I47 

the  good  of  his  soul,'"'  and  since  Bishop  Wynsy's 
time  (a.d.  964-973)  it  had  been  at  Lichfield,^  where 
it  is  in  the  present  year  of  grace,  1883. 

Some  of  the  history  of  old  times  which  the  volumes 
contained  has  been  handed  down  to  our  day  in 
Thomas  of  Chesterfield's  "  Chronicle."  Thomas 
probably  wrote  this  history  in  his  younger  days,  and 
after  many  a  leisurely  perusal  of  the  books  then  in 
the  choir  and  of  documents  which  have  long  since 
perished.  His  work  in  Latin  was  printed  in  Henry 
Wharton's  "  Anglia  Sacra  "  ;  but  it  used  to  be  posted 
up  on  wooden  tables  near  the  south  door  of  the 
cathedral,  that  every  pilgrim  who  could  read  might 
know  the  antiquity  of  the  holy  fane. 

Thomas  was  archdeacon  of  Salop  and  prebendary 
of  Tarvin,  1423-1425,  and  in  1447,  five  years  before 
his  death,  he  held  the  diocese  in  commission  for 
spiritualties  during  the  vacancy  of  the  see.  He 
bequeathed  a  garden  near  the  friary  to  the  vicars 
choral,  and  they  sang  him  "  an  obit "  every  year. 

'  The  volume  wandered  during  the  Great  Rebellion  with 
William  Higgins,  the  precentor.  See  Bishop  Abraham's  article, 
"Dio.  Churchman,"  May,  1S76. 


L    2 


I4S  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    LATER    MEDL^iVALISM. 

Some  Papal  Aggressions — Reformers — William  Thorpe — Deso- 
lation and  Decline  in  Religious  Houses — Bishop  Heyworth 
— Change  of  Feeling  towards  Monasteries— Foundation  of 
Manchester  Collegiate  Church — Anchorites. 

The  hundred  years  between  1360  and  1460  were  a 
period  of  decline  and  decay,  which  were  seen  clearly 
in  the  state  of  the  religious  houses.  Meantime  the 
popes  relaxed  nothing  of  their  exactions,  except  when 
forced  by  the  awakening  spirit  of  the  English  nation. 
The  bishops  were  diligent  in  performing  ''episcopal 
functions,"  but  there  was  not  a  great  man  among 
them.  Nearly  all  were  "  provided  "  by  the  pope  on 
the  nomination  of  the  king ;  the  king  sending  a  letter 
to  the  chapters  to  say  whom  he  would  accept  if 
elected  as  bishop,  and  at  the  same  time  writing  to  the 
pope  to  ask  him  to  "  ])rovide  "  such  a  one  to  the 
see.  Thus  all  parties  enjoyed  a  share  in  the  elections, 
and  none  had  spirit  to  protest  against  the  other.  In 
one  instance,  that  of  Walter  Skirlaw,  1386,  the 
pope  even  removed  the  bishop,  against  his  will,  to 
what  was  considered  an  inferior  see. 

Yet  England  seems  to  have  been  weary  of  papal 
aggression.  Thomas  of  Chesterfield,  who  lived  in 
the  period  now  under  review,  breaks  o!T  his  "  Chro- 


WILLIAM    THORPE,    THE    LOLLARD.  1 49 

nicle  "  at  the  year  1348,  when  he  gets  into  the  thick 
of  the  Roman  robberies.  From  the  days  of  Diuma, 
he  had  traced  the  annals  of  the  see ;  but,  after 
recounting  three  successive  intrusions  of  deans  upon 
Lichfield  Cathedral  by  the  pope,  his  pen  finally  failed. 
Ill  137 1  a  Roman  cardinal  held  the  deaner)^,  and  one 
whom  the  bishop  described  as  "  a  stranger  "  occupied 
the  premises,  and  duly  sent  the  revenues  of  the 
deanery  to  his  master  over  sea.  Such  exactions 
were  grounded  by  the  popes  on  the  plea  that  Eng- 
land had  become  a  vassal  of  St.  Peter  by  the  action 
of  King  John  ;  and  they  helped  to  prepare  the  public 
mind  for  the  fierce  reckoning  with  Rome  which  came 
in  Tudor  times. 

As  Rome  led  the  way  downwards  in  doctrinal 
matters,  she  was  patiently  followed,  as  we  shall  see,  by 
the  bishops  of  the  period,  who  meekly  endorsed  her 
opinions  by  attending  her  councils ;  but  the  great 
upheaval  caused  by  Wycliffe's  doctrines  Avas  not 
unfelt  here.  John  of  Gaunt,  duke  of  Lancaster,  the 
political  patron  of  Wycliffe,  had  his  castle  at  Tutbury. 
No  one  who  sees  its  ragged  ruins  can  wonder  that 
Lollardy  should  have  some  influence  in  the  diocese. 
The  brown  old  hills  of  North  Staffordshire,  too,  seem 
to  enshrine  the  memory  of  secret  Lollard  services 
held  in  "  Lud  Church  " ;  -  but  the  movement  first 
comes  into  clear  daylight  at  Shrewsbury,  wliere  AVil- 
liam  Thorpe  was  apprehended  in  1407. 

Thorpe  was  apparently  one  of  Wycliffe's  "  poor 
preachers";  he  got  leave  to  preach  in  the  old  Norman 

'  See  "Legends  of  the  Moorland  and  Forest  in  North  Staf- 
fordshire." 


150  LICHFIELD. 

minster  at  Shrewsbury,  and,  being  seized  by  the  bailifif 
and  burgesses  of  the  town,  was  sent  to  Archbishop 
Arundel  with  a  request  that  he  should  come  back  for 
"  his  duresse  "  at  Shrewsbury.  His  examination,  as  pre- 
served by  Bishop  Bale,  throws  light  oh  the  important 
character  of  these  early  Reformers.  "  My  father  and 
mother,"  he  told  Arundel,  "  spent  mickle  money  in 
divers  places  about  my  learning,  for  the  intent  to 
have  made  me  a  priest  of  God  :  but  I  had  no  will  to 
be  a  priest.  And  when  they  perceived  this  in  me, 
for  that  they  might  make  me  consent  to  be  a  priest, 
they  spake  to  me  full  oftentimes  very  grievous  words  : 
but  at  the  last  ....  I  prayed  them  to  give  me 
licence  for  to  go  to  them  that  were  named  wise  priests 
to  have  their  counsel."  Such  were  Wyclifie  and 
Philip  of  Rampington,  then  canon  of  Leicester. 
"  The  third  Sunday  after  Easter,  1407,"  ran  his  accusa- 
tion, from  the  worshipful  communality  of  Shrewsbury, 
''William  Thorpe  came  into  the  town;  and,  through 
leave  granted  unto  him  to  preach,  he  said  openly  in 
St.  Chad's  Church  in  his  sermon,  that  the  sacrament 
of  the  altar  after  the  consecration  was  material  bread  ; 
and  that  images  should  in  no  wise  be  worshipped ; 
and  that  men  should  not  go  on  pilgrimages ;  and 
that  priests  have  no  title  to  tithes  ;  and  that  it  is  not 
lawful  for  to  swear  in  any  wise."  Asked  if  this  were 
wholesome  learning,  Thorpe  said,  "  I  never  preached 
nor  taught  thus,  privily  nor  apertly." 

Then  follows  an  interesting  dialogue  between  the 
Archbishop  and  Thorpe,  in  which  the  Archbishop 
occasionally  swears  profanely.  The  Lollard  shows 
that  he  desires  to  be  a  faithful  son  of  holy  Church,  and 


ST.    CHADS,    SHREWSBURY.  I5I 

:to  obey  ecclesiastical  superiors  in  all  that  was  not 
contrary  to  the  law  of  Christ.  He  preaches,  he  says, 
because  he  is  a  priest.  All  the  Lollards  would  gladly 
ask  for  the  bishop's  licence  if  there  was  any  hope  of 
getting  it.  What  happened  at  Shrewsbury  was  this  : — 
"As  I  stood  there  in  the  pulpit,  busying  me  to  teach 
the  commandment  of  God,  there  knelled  a  sacring 
bell ;  and,  therefore,  mickle  people  turned  away 
hastily,  and  with  noise  ran  from  me.  I  seeing  this, 
said,  '  Good  men,  ye  were  better  to  stand  here  still 
.and  to  hear  God's  word  ]  for  certes  the  virtue  and 
meed  of  the  most  holy  sacrament  of  the  altar  standeth 
more  in  the  belief  thereof  that  ye  ought  to  have  in 
your  soul,  than  it  doth  in  the  outward  sight  thereof. 
And  therefore  ye  were  better  to  stand  still  to  hear 
God's  word,  because  that  through  the  hearing  thereof 
men  come  to  the  very  true  belief  " 

We  get  here  a  glimpse  of  the  old  church  of  St.  Chad : 
its  nave  unencumbered  with  seats,  preaching  going  on 
in  one  part  of  the  church  and  mass  in  the  other,  and 
the  people  standing  to  hear  or  rushing  away  to  see 
as  they  pleased. 

Asked  by  the  Archbishop  whether  he  believed  that 
aiothing  of  material  bread  remained  in  the  elements 
after  consecration,  Thorpe  replied,  that  such  a  phrase 
did  not  occur  in  Scripture,  and  that  he  had  never 
used  it.  The  very  spirit  of  the  Reformation  lurked 
in  his  subsequent  words,  "  The  sacrament  of  the 
altar  is  the  sacrament  of  Christ's  flesh  and  blood  in 
form  of  bread  and  wine.  Whatever  prelates  have 
•ordained  in  the  church  our  belief  standeth  ever 
whole.     Sir,  St.  Augustine  saith,  '  That  thing  that  is 


152  LICHFIELD. 

seen  is  breads  but  what  men's  faith  asketh  to  be 
informed  of  is  very  Christ's  body.'  In  the  secret  of 
the  mid-mass  on  Christmas  Days  it  is  written  thus. 
^ Idem  refuhit  jyeits,  sic  to-rena  substantia  nobis  confe rat 
quod  divinuni  est.'' ''  "Answer  me  shortly,"  broke 
forth  the  Archbishop.  "  Believest  thou  that  after  the 
consecration  of  thi&  foresaid  sacrament  there  abideth 
substance  of  bread  or  not?"  And  Thorpe  replied, 
"  Sir,  as  I  understand,  it  is  all  one  to  grant  or  believe 
that  there  dwelleth  substance  of  bread,  and  that  this- 
most  worthy  sacrament  of  Christ's  own  body  is  acci- 
dent without  subject  ....  I  dare  not  deny  it,  nor 
grant  it."  The  Archbishop  said  he  would  not  oblige 
him  by  subtle  arguments,  but  make  him  obey  the 
determination  of  holy  Church.  He  replied  that  "By 
open  evidence  and  great  witness  a  thousand  years 
after  the  Incarnation  of  Christ,  the  determination, 
which  I  have  here  before  you  rehearsed  was  acce['t 
of  holy  Church." 

In  the  controversy  which  followed  on  the  second 
count  of  the  indictment,  Thorpe  declared  that  he  had 
not  said  images  were  "  not  to  be  worshipped  in  any 
wise."  The  Archbishop  granted  that  "nobody  ought 
to  do  worship  to  any  such  images  for  themselves ; 
but  a  crucifix  ought  to  be  worshipped  for  the  passion 
of  Christ  that  is  painted  thereof," — just  as  men  doft 
their  hats  to  the  seals  of  their  lord's  letters.  Thori)e 
thought  the  argument  did  not  apply,  and  the  Arch- 
bishop then  touched  upon  the  spirit  in  which  medi- 
aeval art-work  was  done.      "  Beyond  the  sea  are  the 

best  painters    that    I  ever  saw This  is  their 

maimer,  and  it   is  a  good  manner.     A\'hen  that  an 


{ 


WILLIAM    THORPE,    THE    LOLLARD.  153; 

image-maker  shall  carve,  cast,  or  paint  any  images,, 
he  shall  go  to  a  priest  and  shrive  him  as  clean  as  if 
he  should  then  die,  praying  ....  and  praying  the 
[iriest  to  pray  for  him  that  he  may  have  grace  to 
make  a  fair  and  devout  image."  Thorpe  thought 
that  ihe  holy  living  of  priests  was  the  best  way  of 
setting  Christ's  image  before  men,  and  a  good  sermon 
the  best  means  of  moving  them  to  devotion.  He 
had  said  at  Shrewsbury  that  nobody  should  trust  that 
there  were  any  virtue  in  imagery  made  with  man's 
hands  ;  nobody  should  bow  to  them,  nor  seek  them, 
nor  kneel  to  them.  The  Archbishop  wound  up  the 
point  by  saying,  that  he  was  a  rotten  member  cut 
away  from  holy  Church  or  he  would  not  think  so. 

On  the  third  point,  Thorpe  avowed  that  he  had 
taught  at  Shrewsbury  the  lawfulness  of  two  sorts  of 
pilgrimages.  It  was  right  to  travel  towards  the  bliss 
of  heaven,  and  to  regard  every  good  word  spoken, 
good  thought  entertained,  or  holy  deed  done,  as  "  a 
step  numbered  of  God  toward  Him  in  heaven."  The 
hosts  of  pilgrims  who  then  passed  to  popular  shrines 
showed  by  their  works  that  this  was  not  their  style  of 
pilgrimage.  "  Fond  people  "  they  were,  "  who  blame- 
fully  wasted  God's  goods,  spending  their  goods  upon 
vicious  hostellers  that  were  ofttimes  unclean  women, 
of  their  bodies." 

Thorpe's  fate  is  unknown.  The  Archbishop  was 
leaving  Saltwood  Castle  that  day,  and  had  "  far  to 
ride":  the  poor  priest  probably  languished  long  in 
its  prison.  One  cannot  but  look  back  to  him  as  one 
of  the  pioneers  of  the  Reformation.  His  brave  words 
for  holiness  of  life,  and  his  profound  knowledge  of 


154  LICHFIELD. 

Holy  Scripture  and  Christian  antiquity,  were  a  century 
and  a  half  in  advance  of  his  time.  Like  St.  Chad 
and  Weseham  he  made  much  of  Gospel  preaching ; 
like  the  Reformers,  he  was  full  of  the  early  fathers 
and  Bible  lore.  His  views  of  Church  reformation  had 
hardly  yet  shaped  themselves  into  the  wild  political 
''liberationism"  of  subsequent  Lollards,  or  got  free 
from  communistic  ideas  upon  Church  property ;  but 
he  was  sound  in  the  main,  and  one  of  the  first  who 
brought  into  this  diocese  the  ideas  which  resulted  in 
the  break-up  of  Mediaevalism. 

In  1423  one  John  Grace,  an  anchorite  friar,  came 
out  of  his  cell  and  preached  five  days  together  in  the 
"  lytull  parke"  at  Coventry,  and  "seying  that  he  was 
licentiate  and  licence  to  preche  of  the  bishop's  minys- 
ters  of  this  diocese ;  and  he  had  preched  at  Lichfield 
ther  in  the  close  among  the  canons  three  dales  to- 
gether; and  after  he  preched  at  Burmingham,  and 
after  at  AVallsall,  and  after  yt  at  Collyshull,  and  so 
come  down  hither ;  the  which  John  Grace  was  at 
that  time  a  famous  man  among  the  people."  The 
prior  of  St.  Mary's  and  a  Grey  Friar  opposed  him,  and 
said  that  he  was  unlicensed  to  preach,  and  were  nearly 
killed  by  the  mob.  In  this  hubbub  we  hear  nothing 
of  the  parochial  clergy.  Prior  and  friar  are  alone  in 
their  opposition  to  the  reforming  preacher. 

The  state  of  Salop  may  be  at  least  inferred  from 
*'  The  Vision  of  Piers  the  Plowman,"  the  author  of 
which  was  born  at  Cleobury  Mortimer  ;  whence  he 
perhaps  drew  his  sad  description  of  the  gulf  which 
was  opening  between  the  people  and  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  in  its  then  unreformed  state. 


THE    LATER    :\IEDI^VALIS.M.  155 

The  first  bishop  of  this  period  was  Robert  de 
Stretton  (1360-1386),  who  found  the  diocese 
prostrate  after  the  Black  Death.  He  is  remarkable 
as  having  failed  to  pass  the  examination  for  bishop's 
orders  which  the  archbishop  commonly  held  before 
consecrating.  He  could  not  even  read  his  mother- 
tongue,  nor  recite  his  profession  in  Latin  ;  but,  as 
the  Black  Prince  and  the  pope  insisted  on  his  conse- 
cration, the  archbishop  delegated  a  couple  of  suffragans 
to  perform  it,  disdaining  to  do  so  himself. 

One  of  Stretton's  first  acts  was  to  admit  a  young 
lady  of  twenty  to  be  abbess  of  Polesworth,  expressly 
stipulating  in  his  commission  that  no  questions  as 
to  age  were  to  be  asked  her.  The  unsettled  state  of 
the  country  after  the  plague  is  reflected  in  Stretton's 
"  Register,"  by  the  fact  that  exchanges  of  livings 
became  for  a  time  remarkably  frequent,  and  by  the 
state  of  the  monasteries.  In  136 1  Breadsall  Priory 
could  not  support  its  prior ;  and  the  one  remain- 
ing monk  of  Sandwell  asked  the  bishop  to  choose  a 
prior  over  the  empty  cells  :  he  was  sole  remaining 
elector.  The  bishop  appointed  the  survivor  himself  ^ 
Other  items  also  illustrate  the  times.  In  1368  the 
vicar  of  Walsall  was  recalled  to  his  monastery  at 
Hales  Owen  "for  discipline."  In  1380  the  rector 
of  Stoke-on-Trent,  "  only  in  his  first  tonsure,"  was 
licensed  to  lease  his  glebe,  to  be  absent  as  long  as 
the  earl  of  Lancaster,  his  patron,  wanted  him,  and 
to  get  higher  orders  wherever  he  could. 

'  So  with  Canwell  in  15 14.  Stretton  is  quoted  in  the  law- 
books as  having  been  sentenced,  at  the  end  of  a  trial  on  a  qiiaix 
iiiipedit,  to  go  "to  the  devil," — the  only  instance  of  the  kind. 


156  LICHFIELD, 

In  1363  a  friar  was  inducted  at  St.  John's,  Chester, 
into  an  anchorite's  cell  in  the  churchyard,  and  Pope 
Urban  annulled  the  exemption  from  episcopal  visita- 
tion which  his  predecessor  had  granted  to  the  abbey 
of  St.  Werburgh.i 

InStretton's  days,  and  in  the  year  1378,  the  plague 
again  broke  out  in  the  diocese,  killing  the  clergy  of 
Clown  and  Mickleover,  both  of  them  newly-appointed, 
and  probably  young  men.  The  clergy  of  Loppington 
and  Rodenin  Salop  also  disappear  at  this  time  suddenly. 

Richard  II.  was  present  when  Bishop  Richard 
ScROPE  (1386-1396),  ill-fated  like  himself,  was  en- 
throned to  follow  the  brief  episcopate  of  Walter 
Skirlaw  (i 386-1386),  He  was  present  again  vrhen 
the  dean,  with  his  eight  residentiaries  and  many  pre- 
bendaries stripped  off  their  shoes,  met  the  king's 
confessor,  John  de  Burghill  (1398-1414),  a  bare- 
footed black  friar,  at  the  western  entrance  of  the 
churchyard,  and  led  him  to  the  episcopal  throne. 
On  that  September  day  the  king  made  a  huge  feast] 
in  the  episcopal  palace ;  but  the  scene  changed;] 
and  in  a  year  Richard  was  brought  as  a  prisoner  foi 
a  night's  lodging  to  Clifford's  Tower,  near  the  western! 
gate,  whence  he  tried  to  escape  by  dropping  through] 
a  window  into  the  lonely  moat. 

Burghill,  the  barefooted  bishop,  seems  to  have 
kept  his  asceticism  to  the  last,  and  to  have  bestowed 
his  worldly  substance  upon  the  Church  and  the  poor. 
His  effigy  was  engraven  in  brass  over  his  grave  in 
Lichfield  Lady  Chapel,  and  his  memory  lived  long 

^  The  abbot  had  obtained  exemption  against  the  wish  of  his 
convent  and  of  his  patron,  the  Prince  of  Wales. 


HEYWORTH,    THE    VISITING    BISHOP.  157 

in  both  cathedrals.  At  Coventry,  104  shillings  were 
distributed  to  the  poor  at  his  anniversary. 

After  him  came  John  Catterick,  or  Ketterick 
(1415-1419),  translated  hither  from  St.  David's.  He 
sat  in  the  council  of  Constance  (141 5) — which  burned 
Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague,  and  forbade  the  sacra- 
mental cup  to  the  laity,  —  and  was  a  celebrated 
scholar  of  the  older  sort.  On  his  translation  by  the 
pope  to  the  bishopric  of  Exeter,  William  Hey  worth, 
abbot  of  St.  Alban's,  succeeded,  who  ruled  from  1419 
to  1447,  in  the  interests  of  the  older  learning,  and  in 
Imrmony  with  the  pope,  who  ''  provided "  him  to 
Lichfield.    He  attended  the  council  of  Basle  in  1434. 

A  period  had  then  begun  in  which  the  bishops  of 
Lichfield  were  free  from  the  cares  of  statesmanship. 
For  nearly  a  century  none  of  them  seem  to  have 
been  much  about  the  court.  Old  institutions  were 
passing  out  of  date  and  new  ones  springing  up. 
Secular  churchmen  seemed  to  turn  their  backs 
upon  the  monasteries,  and  to  spend  the  little  they 
had  to  spare  either  on  the  cathedrals  or  in  founding 
colleges.  So,  in  1385,  Stretton  had  left  his  mitre 
and  pastoral  staff  to  his  successor,  200  marks  and 
some  plate  and  missals  to  the  cathedral.  Scrope  had 
turned  his  attention  to  the  vicars  choral,  and  gathered 
them  into  a  collegiate  body,  which  was  endowed  by 
his  successors,  and  housed  in  a  fine  brick  building 
by  Bishop  Blythe,  just  in  time  to  tempt,  but  to  escape, 
robbery  by  Edward  VL 

Indeed,  thetemper  of  the  time — a  time  which  deposed 
a  pope,  and  debated  the  re-union  of  the  Greek  and 
Latin  Churches — was  almost  hostile  to  monasteries. 


158  LICHFIELD. 

Heysvorth  came  hither  from  the  great  abbey  of 
St.  Alban's,  bringing  Avith  him  full  knowledge  of  the 
cloister  life  which  lives  for  us  in  the  pages  of  Chaucer. 
We  get  glimpses  of  it  in  our  own  diocese  as  we  follow 
liim  from  place  to  place  on  his  visitation  tours.  The 
abbot  of  Burton  defied  him,  refusing  to  come  to  Lich- 
field to  answer  for  his  irregularities.  The  abbot  of 
St.  Werburgh's,  Chester,  confessed  that  the  bishop  had 
the  right  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  abbey,  but 
contrived  to  shut  Heyworth  out  for  life. 

In  1428  Heyworth  visited  the  cathedrals,  and  set- 
tled for  ever,  by  judicious  compromise,  the  vexed 
question  as  to  his  right  to  do  so.  He  came,  he  said, 
'"'■  tain  jure  ordliiario  qua  in  aitctoritate  a  Papa  delegato,'" 
and  should  come  again  every  seven  years.  He  would 
give  due  notice  to  the  dean,  who  should  summon  the 
chapter.  The  accustomed  peal  should  be  rung  at  the 
time  of  his  arrival,  and  the  choir  and  chapter,  in  silk 
copes,  should  meet  him  at  the  west  door  ;  thence 
they  should  conduct  him  in  procession  to  the  high 
altar,  where  he  should  stand  or  kneel  alone  in  prayer ; 
and  after  that  they  should  proceed  together  to  the 
chapter-house,  where  he  would  inquire  into  the  title 
and  conduct  of  every  canon.  But  the  prebendaries^ 
and  the  vicars  of  prebendal  churches,  the  priest 
vicars,  and  other  officers  and  ministers  of  the  cathe- 
dral, were  to  be  free  from  the  bishop,  and  subject 
only  to  the  dean  and  chapter.  After  several  days  of 
deliberation  the  dean  and  chapter  agreed  to  this 
arrangement.^ 

^  The  instrument  of  agreement  ii  printed  in  Wilkirs's  "  Con- 
cilia," iii.,  508. 


RISE    OF    MANCHESTER.  159 

New  statutes,  in  1428,  were  given  to  Tamworth 
Minster.  In  1446  two  of  the  Austin  canons  of  Stone 
were  allowed  to  undertake  the  care  of  the  parish 
cliarch,  just  as  a  little  later,  in  1504,  an  Austin  canon 
of  Breadsall  Priory  was  licensed  by  the  next  bishop 
to  give  occasional  assistance  in  parish  work.  The 
novelty  of  these  hints  shows  how  little  spiritual  work 
the  monks  really  did  among  their  neighbours,  and 
how  seldom  a  hard-pressed  clergyman  could  send  to 
the  monastery  for  help.  The  monks,  indeed,  were 
growing  more  and  more  secular;  and  in  1440  the 
bishop  allowed  Darley  Abbey  to  throw  the  burden  of 
maintaining  chaplains  at  Glapwell  and  Walley,  in 
Bolsover  parish,  and  at  Alvaston,  in  St.  Michael's, 
Derby,  upon  the  vicars  of  the  mother-churches  under 
pretence  of  re-uniting  these  chapels  to  their  mother- 
churches. 

In  the  time  of  Bishop  Heyworth,  the  town  of  Man- 
chester first  cropped  out  into  importance.  The  greater 
part  of  Lancashire  lay  in  this  diocese,  including y^;//' 
indeed,  out  of  its  six  hundreds,  and  all  the  tract  of 
woody  country  between  the  Mersey  and  the  Ribble. 
This  tract  was  reckoned  in  Domesday  as  part  of 
Cheshire  ;  and  Liverpool  was  as  yet  a  lonely  stretch 
of  beach  on  the  "  Liverpoole," — an  obscure  creek  of 
the  Mersey.  Manchester  was,  undoubtedly,  the  most 
wealthy  and  populous  town  in  Lancashire.  It  seems 
to  have  consisted,  before  the  reign  of  Edward  III., 
of  two  towns, — the  one,  Aldport,  or  the  old  port, 
on  the  Irwell,  near  the  Campfield,  the  site  of 
the  chief  fortress  of  the  Roman  Mancunium ;  the 
other  was  situated  near  the  confluence  of  the  Irwell 


t6o  LICHFIELD. 

iind  the  Irk.  From  the  Conquest  there  had  been 
two  churches  :  the  one  near  Aldport,  dedicated  to  St. 
Michael ;  the  other  near  the  new  town,  dedicated  to 
St.  Mary.  In  no  other  place  in  Lancashire,  as  far  as 
I  know,  were  there  at  that  early  time  two  churches 
so  near  to  each  other  as  these  Manchester  churches. 
Rude  buildings  of  timber,  they  were  richly  endowed 
by  the  Gresleys  and  De  la  Warrs,  the  ancient  lords 
of  Manchester.^  The  rector  of  ^Manchester  was  the 
first  of  the  secular  clergy  resident  in  Lancashire  ;  and, 
in  so  remote  a  part  of  this  great  diocese,  was,  no 
doubt,  a  great  personage. 

Thomas  de  la  Warre  was  now  rector.  Succeeding 
to  the  family  peerage  on  the  death  of  his  brother,  he 
determined  to  mark  the  event  by  doing  something  for 
the  good  of  the  town.  So  he  called  the  townspeople 
by  sound  of  the  bell,  and  addressed  them  upon  the 
increasing  magnitude  and  population  of  the  town, 
on  the  deficiency  of  its  religious  instruction,  on  the 
decay  of  its  old  churches,  and  the  non-residence  of 
its  rectors.  He  proposed,  with  their  consent,  to  turn 
his  parish  church  into  a  college  for  a  number  of 
clergy,  who  in  prayer  and  pastoral  visitation  should 
work  together  for  the  good  of  the  town  ;  to  increase 
the  endowments  to  ^^200  a  year;  and  to  provide 
the  collegiate  buildings  at  his  own  expense.  Thus 
he  sowed  the  seed  from  which  the  present  cathedral 
of  Manchester  sprang.  The  bishop  gave  the  new 
institution  a  body  of  statutes,  which  occupy  a  large 
share  of  the  space  in  his  "  Register." 

'  Halley's  "  Lancashire  Nonconformity,"  i.  9  ;  an  admirable 
work  if  its  unfair  bias  towards  dissent  be  discounted. 


TONGE    AND    BATTLEFIELD.  l6l 

So,  too,  in  1 410,  when  Isabel,  widow  of  Sir  Fulke 
de  Penbridge,  desired  to  found  an  institution  in  which 
she  and  her  family  should  be  remembered  and  prayed 
for,  she  paid  ^^40  to  the  king  for  leave  to  buy  the 
advowson  of  Tonge  Church,  Salop,  from  the  abbey 
of  Shrewsbury.  She  rebuilded  the  church  in  its  pre- 
sent beauty,  and  endowed  it  with  about  ^^500  a  year, 
of  modern  value,  to  support  a  warden,  five  chaplains, 
and  thirteen  old  men.  Bishop  Heyworth  watched 
the  growth  of  the  new  institution,  and  sanctioned 
the  transfer  to  it  of  the  property  of  the  old  alien 
priory  of  Lapley  which  Edward  III.  had  dissolved. 
Every  day  in  the  new  house  had  its  duties  : — on 
Sundays,  Mondays,  and  Fridays,  the  "  Mass  of  the 
Holy  Ghost "  was  to  be  said  ;  on  Tuesdays,  a  "  Mass 
for  the  Salvation  of  All  Men " ;  on  Wednesdays, 
"The  Angels'  Mass";  and  on  Saturdays,  the  "Mass 
of  Rest."  The  chaplains  were  tied  to  the  spot  for 
life,  being  "  incapable  of  other  preferment "  ;  and 
only  the  warden  might  wander  from  the  church. 

If  any  of  the  old  men  Avere  bed-ridden  they  were 
to  be  visited  three  times  a  Aveek  by  one  of  the  chap- 
lains ;  and  if  any  stranger  dined  in  hall,  the  chap- 
lain who  introduced  him  had  to  pay  for  his  dinner — 
3d.  if  at  the  high  table  and  |d.  at  the  low. 

The  battle  of  Shrewsbury  was  fought,  according  to 
the  rhyming  chronicle  of  Stone, 

On  St.  Mary's  Even  sickerlie 
In  the  year  One  thousand  four  hundred  and  three. 

There  fell  the  hope  of  the  Percies  and  the  head 
of  the  Staffords.  The  latter  earl  was  brought  to 
Stafford.  Over  his  grave  was  built  a  friary  of  a  new 
kind — that  of  Augustinian  hermits.     A  similar  friary 

M 


l62  LICHFIELD. 

sprang  up  outside  the  gates  of  Shre'\\'sbury.  On  the 
field  of  the  struggle  itself,  the  rector  of  the  parish 
built  a  small  collegiate  church,  which  was  called 
"Battlefield,"  and  dedicated  it  to  St.  Mary  Magdalene. 
The  rector  thus  recorded  in  the  most  striking  manner 
the  deep  impression  which  the  sanguinary  fray  had 
made  upon  the  neighbourhood;  but  he  also  showed 
his  leaning  toward  the  Lancastrian  party, — leanings 
which  he  shared  with  many  a  brother  clergyman. 

The  shutting  up  of  anchorites  in  small  cells  attached 
to  town  churches  seems  to  have  been  a  feature  of  the 
time.  The  ceremony  of  enclosing  them  was  apparently 
looked  upon  as  of  great  importance  and  solemnity. 
In  1509  the  bishop  suffragan  himself  went  to  Mac- 
clesfield to  shut  up  Joan  Hythe,  a  nun  from  Derby, 
in  a  cell  at  the  church.  Such  a  cell,  with  a  little 
awmbry  or  recess  in  the  wall,  seems  to  have  existed 
on  the  northern  side  of  St.  Chad's  chancel  at  Stafford.^ 

The  anchorites  were  sometimes  of  noble  birth,  and 
were  in  any  case  necessarily  waited  on  by  servants. 
Neighbouring  householders  sent  them  food,  which 
was  passed  in  to  them  through  a  curtained  hole  in  the 
wall.  At  these  openings  many  a  troubled  conscience 
asked  their  prayers  and  advice,  and  sometimes,  in  the 
case  of  an  anchoress,  not  a  little  gossiping  was  done. 
When  not  so  employed,  or  at  prayer,  or  listening  to 
the  service  within  the  adjoining  church,  the  anchorite 
was  supposed  to  be  musing  on  religious  subjects, 
especially  the  Passion  of  our  Blessed  Lord ;  and 
forth  from  such  a  cell,  burning  with  the  living  fire 
of  a  soul  which  knew  both  itself  and  God,  came  one 

^  Traces  of  the  cell  were  plain  before  the  last  restoration  of 
ihe  chancel.     The  awmbr}-  is  still  seen. 


ANCHORITES.  1 63 

of  the  great  diocesan  preachers  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
John  Grace,  who  is  mentioned  on  page  154. 

One  of  the  dukes  of  Lancaster  gave  two  hundred 
and  eighty  acres  for  the  support  of  two  anchoresses 
"  in  a  certain  place  in  the  churchyard  of  "Whalley, 
and  their  successors,  being  recluses,  there  to  pray  for 
his  soul  for  ever."  But,  to  the  '•  grete  displeasaunce 
of  hurt  and  disclander  of  the  abbeye,"  "divers  of  the 
w}Tnen  ....  servants  ....  have  byn  misgovernyd 
and  gotten  with  chyld  within  the  seyd  plase  halow}'d.''  ^ 
King  Henry  VI.,  therefore,  confiscated  the  propert}^ 

At  Anchor  Church,  near  Repton,  and  the  Hermitage 
at  Bridgenorth,  there  are  curious  rock  chambers  which 
belong  to  the  hermit  or  country  class  of  solitary  recluse. 
The  former  lies  in  the  rocky  shore  of  a  romantic 
bit  of  back-water  from  the  Trent  :  the  latter  is  cut  in 
the  rock  overlooking  the  road  through  Morf  forest 
It  is  said  that  a  brother  of  Athelstan  had  once  his 
lonely  abode  and  rude  orator}-  in  the  latter  place ; 
and  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.  a  succession  of  her- 
mits was  ushered  into  it  under  royal  seal  and  patent, 
with  formalities  the  same  as  those  used  to  introduce 
a  dean  or  prebendary-  to  the  constable  of  Bridgenorth 
Castle.-  On  the  2nd  of  Februar}-,  1328,  John 
Oxindon  was  presented  by  the  king  :  five  years  later 
Andrew  Corbridge  ;  two  years  afterwards,  Edmund 
de  la  Mare ;  and  eleven  j-ears  after  that,  Roger  Burgh- 
ton.  '•  Either  the  hermits  must  have  been  near  the 
termination  of  their  pilgrimage  when  inducted,  or  a 
damp  cell  did  not  agree  with  them."' 

'  ^^^littake^'s  "History  of  ^Vhalley,■■  p.  77. 
*  Ey ton's  "  Antiquities  of  Salop.*' 
M    2 


164  LICHFIELD, 

Curiously,  both  at  Bridgenorth  and  at  Macclesfield, 
tales  of  chests  of  buried  treasure  linger  even  to  our 
day  :  that  at  Macclesfield  is  supposed  to  lie  deep 
down  in  the  old  town  well,  in  the  church  wall,  and 
to  be  guarded  by  two  mighty  frogs  which  "spit  fire  " 
as  often  as  their  ward  is  threatened  by  adventurous 
explorers. 

In  1405  Coventry  was  the  scene  of  a  Parliament 
whose  proceedings  might  have  been  tinged  by  nine- 
teenth-century radicalism.  It  was  summoned  by  writ, 
dated  at  Lichfield,  and  was  held  in  the  Great  Chamber 
of  the  Priory.  Its  mark  was  made  on  history  by 
boldly  proposing  to  supply  the  king's  needs  out  of 
Church  property.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
was,  however,  able  to  stave  off  the  sacrilege.  The 
clergy,  he  said,  supported  the  State  by  their  prayers 
as  well  as  by  the  services  of  their  lands.  The  Speaker 
thought  the  prayers  were  "  a  slender  supply." 
Whereupon  the  Archbishop  rebuked  him,  and  was 
able  to  touch  the  king's  conscience  with  regard  to 
his  coronation  oath.  Turning  to  the  Commons,  he 
added  : — 

"You,  and  such  like  as  you,  have  advised  the  king  to  con- 
fiscate the  alien  priories  on  pretence  he  should  gain  great  riches 
by  it ;  and,  indeed,  they  were  worth  many  thousands.  Not- 
withstanding, it  is  most  true  that  the  king  is  not  half  a  mark 
the  richer  for  it ;  for  you  have  extorted  or  begged  them  out  of 
his  hands  and  have  appropriated  their  goods  to  your  own  uses. 
So  it  may  be  well  conjectured  that  your  request  to  have  our 
temporalities  proceeds  not  so  much  for  the  king's  profit,  as  for 
your  covetousness.  For,  without  doubt,  if  the  king  should  fulfil 
your  wishes,  he  would  not  be  one  farthing  the  richer  for  it  by 
the  year's  end.  And,  verily,  I  will  sooner  have  my  head  cut  off 
than  this  should  be." 


LICHFIELD.  165 


CHAPTER  XV. 

THE   EVE    OB-    THE    REFORMATION. 

Bishop  Butler  as  a  Specimen  of  Later  MediEevalism — Wars  of  the 
Roses — The  Lords  Marchers — Preaching — Bishop  Blythe 
— Burns  a  Lollard. 

The  period  which  now  comes  under  notice  was  one 
in  which  Church  matters  were  well  symbolised  by  the 
incoming  mode  of  architecture.  In  many  places, 
from  the  choir  of  Lichfield  Cathedral  downwards,  the 
huge  clerestory  windows  of  the  Perpendicular  style 
were  now  introduced,  pouring  down  floods  of  light. 
Grammar-schools  and  colleges  were  springing  up  in 
all  directions ;  as  soon  as  people  began  to  learn 
to  read  they  provided  these  larger  windows.  The 
naves  had  hitherto  been  in  great  measure  lighted  only 
through  the  aisles ;  but  since  they  were  still  used  as 
markets  and  exchanges,  or  as  places  to  walk  and 
gossip  in,  even  whilst  service  was  going  on  in  the 
choir,  the  greater  light  from  above  must  have  revealed 
anything  but  religion  in  the  crowd  below. 

The  first  bishop  of  the  period,  William  Booth 
(1447-1450),  was  speedily  translated  to  York.  Whilst 
here  he  found  the  numerous  manor-houses  of  the  see 
a  cumbrous  and  expensive  adjunct  to  episcopacy,  and 
prudently  resolved  to  reduce  their  number.  Accord- 
ingly, he  got  leave  from  the  pope,  in  1448,  to  abandon 


l65  LICHFIELD. 

all  to  decay  except  the  palaces  of  Coventry  and  Lich- 
field, the  castle  and  manor-house  of  Eccleshall,  which 
latter  two  were  probably  the  grim  old  fortress  and  3. 
pleasant  residence  under  its  protection, — the  manor- 
house  of  Beaudesert,  which  was  conveniently  near  to 
and  yet  sufficiently  far  from  Lichfield,  and  the  beautiful 
and  dignified  town  residence  of  the  bishops  in  the 
Strand.  But  whilst  keeping  up  Lichfield  Palace,  he 
had  no  intention  of  living  there  ;  he  committed  it,  with 
the  pools,  and  the  boats  and  swans  upon  them,  to  the 
care  of  William  "Plumer,"  who  was  also  commissioned 
to  do  the  "  plumbing  "  work  in  all  the  houses  of  the  see. 

The  next  bishop,  Nicolas  Cloose  (1452-145 2), 
had  often  been  resident  in  the  diocese  whilst  bishop  of 
Carlisle;  the  " halfway-house "  between  Carlisle  and 
London  being  at  Melbourne,  near  Derby.  He  was 
famous  for  skill  in  the  lightsome  architecture  of  the 
time,  and  was  trusted  by  the  king  to  superintend  the 
building  of  King's  College  chapel  at  Cambridge. 

Then  came  the  busy  rule  of  Reginald  Bolars 
or  Butler  (1453 -1459),  translated  hither  from 
Hereford  by  papal  bull.  His  "Register"  is  full  of 
characteristic  incidents,  at  which,  a  cursory  glance 
may  be  given  in  these  pages. 

Some  transactions  of  a  familiar  kind  are  recorded, 
and  some  new  ones.  Newport  church,  Salop,  is 
made  collegiate,  and  several  rectories  are  appropriated 
to  chapter-bodies ;  but  the  older  appropriations  begin 
to  be  challenged :  in  1456  an  abbot  has  to  prove  his 
title  to  the  rectory  of  Kinfare ;  and  the  abbot  of 
Burton  has  no  less  than  five  disputes  of  the  kind. 

The  rectory  of   Eckington,  Derbyshire,  was  then 


ACTS    OF    BISHOP    BOLARS.  167 

held  by  two  rectors.  The  patron  petitioned  the  bishop 
to  unite  the  moieties,  which  was  done  in  1456,  on  the 
resignation  of  one  of  the  holders.  But  we  are  startled 
to  read  that,  in  1455,  "Friar  Cliff"  so  far  forgot  the 
characteristic  intention  of  his  order  as  to  bring  a 
papal  dispensation  allowing  him  to  hold  a  benefice, 
and  to  be  made  rector  of  Swarkestone,  in  Derbyshire. 
This,  however,  is  by  no  means  the  only  instance  of 
papal  meddling.  The  pope  has  apparently  estab- 
lished also  a  claim  that  every  bishop  should,  on  his 
first  appointment,  bestow  a  benefice  upon  some  papal 
nominee,  or  a  pension  if  no  living  were  vacant.  Such 
a  demand  was  made  on  Bolars. 

Benefices  are  now  often  exchanged,  and  as  often 
resigned ;  the  old  incumbents  being  entitled  to  pen- 
sions, secured  by  oath  taken  of  their  successors.  In 
1457  two  claimants  demand  institution  to  the  vicar- 
age of  Rotley  ;  the  nominee  of  the  prior  of  Clatercote 
being  admitted  on  giving  a  bond  to  resign  if  his  rival 
should  prove  his  title. 

The  old  chapel  of  St.  Helen's,  Derby,  is  still  in 
existence ;  the  abbot  elect  of  Darley  being  "  con- 
firmed "  there  in  1458. 

Rural  deans  are  also  still  at  work;  for,  in  1456, 
the  dean  of  Stafford  is  to  proclaim  excommunication 
against  some  unknown  breaker  of  warren  on  the 
bishop's  lands  at  Berkswich ;  and  there  is  careful 
note  of  the  fact  that  the  archdeacon's  officials  had 
given  in  their  obedience  to  the  bishop.  Perhaps  the 
latter  were  trying  to  shake  themselves  free  from  the 
bishops,  and  to  exercise  independent  authority,  after 
the  manner  of  their  brethren  in  the  extreme  north  of 


l68  LICHFIELD. 

Lancashire.     As  yet,  however,  both  rural  deans  and 
archdeacons  are  subject  to  the  bishop. 

Derbyshire  seems  to  have  been  just  then  proHfic 
in  chantries,  a  fourth  priest  being  admitted  in  1454 
at  Chaddesden. 

The  improved  style  of  manor-house,  then  rising  in 
all  directions,  is  reflected  in  the  "Register"  by  fre- 
quent notices  of  licences  granted  by  the  bishop  for 
celebrations  in  private  chapels.  Christopher  de  Holt, 
in  1456,  has  a  two  years'  licence  to  hear  mass  in  his 
chapel.  In  1457  Henry,  son  of  Humphrey,  duke  of 
Buckingham,  is  licensed  to  be  married  in  the  chapel 
of  Maxstoke  Castle  to  his  cousin  Margaret,  countess 
of  Richmond.  Agnes  Davenport,  in  1455,  is  allowed 
to  have  her  private  chaplain  for  the  celebration  of 
divine  offices.  Sir  Edward  Talbot  may  have  private 
mass  at  Blackburne,  and  Richard  Erdeswick  at 
Sandon.  Another  squire  may  worship  at  home  during 
sickness. 

Confessions  and  indulgences  claim  much  attention. 
John  Woodcoat,  chaplain,  is  in  December,  1457, 
commissioned  to  "  shrive  the  anchorite  of  Polesworth." 
Friar  Gedne)^,  a  Carmelite,  in  1456,  may  hear  the 
confessions  of  a  hundred  persons.  John  Grene,  M.A., 
a  chaplain,  may  preach  in  the  diocese. 

Indulgences  figure  largely  in  connexion  with  the 
architecture  of  the  time,  being  lavishly  bestowed  for 
periods  of  forty  days  on  all  who  would  help  in  repairing 
old  bridges  or  building  new  ones.  The  bridge  at 
AVolsley,  which  connected  episcopal  property,  was 
thus  favoured  in  1455.  There  was  then  a  chapel  at 
"  Bridge  foot."     In  the  same  year  Packington  Bridge 


ACTS    OF    BISHOP    BOLARS.  1 69 

received  a  like  help ;  the  bridge  at  Weston-on-Trent 
and  Yoxall,  in  1458  ;  at  Oreton,  and  Aston,  and  How- 
bridge,  perhaps  Hugbridge,  in  1457.  And  again,  in 
1455,  the  bishop  offers  a  forty  days'  indulgence  to 
every  one  who  would  listen  to  the  sermons  of  a  canon 
of  Haughmond  who  was  to  preach  through  the  diocese 
in  "  Latin  or  English," 

Excommunicate  persons  now  give  the  bishop  con- 
siderable trouble,  and  he  more  than  once  petitions 
the  secular  arm  to  help  him  in  catching  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  stoutly  demands  that  convicted 
clerks  be  handed  over  from  the  king's  prisons  to 
his  own. 

Lollardy  has  not  yet  died  out,  though  it  now  appears 
as  a  wild  and  fanatical  heresy,  which  would  be  abhorred 
even  in  the  nineteenth  century.  In  1454  John 
Woodward,  of  Tamworth,  is  tried  in  Bishop  Butler's 
court  for  flatly  denying  any  sort  of  efficacy  in  the 
consecration  of  the  eucharist,  and  maintaining  that 
there  was  no  saving  power  in  baptism  or  Church 
ordinances,  and  that  it  mattered  but  little  whether 
man  and  wife  were  married :  the  culprit  saved  him- 
self by  abjuring  his  heresies. 

The  morals  of  the  people  seem  to  have  been  fairly 
pure  at  this  time.  The  bishop  mentions  no  case  of 
adultery  in  his  Register  :  but  when  the  nunneries  at 
Polesworth  and  Chester  were  visited,  slight  abuses 
were  found  therein ;  and  in  November,  1457,  a  run- 
away husband,  who  had  gone  into  the  diocese  of  Bath 
and  Wells,  was  reached  by  the  bishop  from  his  ecclesias- 
tical court  by  a  citation  issued  through  the  bishop  of 
that  diocese.     Widows,  too,  v>'ho  desired  to  devote 


lyo  LICHFIELD. 

themselves  to  Church  work,  donned  the  veil  of  per- 
petual widowhood  on  promising  not  to  marry  again. 
The  veiling  took  place,  we  suppose,  in  the  sacristy, 
not  the  church,  before  the  bishop  or  his  commissary  ; 
and  entitled  the  devotee  to  become  a  deaconess  if  she 
could  obtain  such  an  appointment. 

The  bishop's  own  Hfe  was  by  no  means  tranquil. 
In  November,  1457,  he  issues  a  protestation  touching 
the  rights  of  his  see,  in  preparation  for  some  expected 
invasion  of  them,  perhaps  from  the  "  Liberationists  " 
of  the  day,  of  which  there  was  then  no  lack  ^ ;  and 
in  1454,  though  master  of  a  thousand  a  year  in  the 
money  of  the  time,  his  clergy  vote  him  a  charitable 
subsidy  of  a  shilling  in  the  pound  in  "  relief  of  his 
burdens."  Does  the  bridge-building  illustrate  this? 
Or  was  it  because  he  was  then  lying  under  the 
suspicion  of  the  crown  as  having  acted  doubtfully,  if 
not  dishonestly,  when,  as  abbot  of  Gloucester,  he  had 
been  commissioned  to  pawn  the  crown  jewels  ? 

The  state  of  the  nunneries  has  been  already 
noticed.  That  of  the  abbeys  was  far  worse,  though 
Haughmond  appears  to  be  in  peculiar  favour,  judging 
from  the  important  officers  ^  thence  selected.  The 
once-famous  abbey  of  Burton  has  sadly  fallen.  Forty 
years  before  this  time,  Abbot  Sudbury  had  refused  to 
come  to  Lichfield  when  summoned  by  the  bishop  to 
give  account  of  his  irregularities.  Now,  drunkenness 
is  the  least  crime  of  his  successor,  Henley,  who  is 
dismissed  by  the  bishop  from  his  office.  The  prior  of 
Burscough,   in    Lancashire,   too,  is,   about  the  same 

'  See  note  on  Coventrj'  Priory,  p.  164. 

-  Diocesan  penitentiary  as  well  as  preacher. 


ACTS    OF    BISHOP    BOLARS.  17T 

time,  found  guilty  of  having  practised  sorcery  in  con- 
junction with  a  neighbouring  clergyman ;  Butler 
punishes  both,  suspending  the  prior  and  depriving 
the  vicar. 

Nor  was  there  less  to  correct  in  the  churchyards. 
The  houses  of  the  chapter  at  Lichfield  were  in 
"scandalous  ruin,"  and  the  bishop  ordered  the 
canons  to  repair  them.  Blood  had  been  shed  in  the 
cathedral  graveyard,  and  in  the  churchyards  at  Ros- 
therne  and  Ellesmere.  The  churches  of  Wolver- 
hampton, Stone,  and  St.  Werburgh's,  Derby,  needed 
"  reconciliation,"  after  like  pollution,  before  the 
century  was  out. 

The  decline  of  the  once-popular  Grey  Friars  may, 
perhaps,  be  indicated;  Butler  records  that  in  1452 
he  had  examined  Friar  Wells  before  licensing  him  to 
hear  confessions. 

Towards  the  end  of  this  bishop's  Register  we  have 
a  curious  glimpse  of  old-world  life  at  Gnosall. 
William  Godthank  had  been  accused  of  theft.  He 
and  eight  of  his  neighbours  were  summoned  into  the 
church  on  a  Sunday  in  1458.  He  swears  before 
the  altar  that  he  is  innocent  and  the  neighbours 
that  they  believe  him,  and  the  bishop  thereupon 
threatens  excommunication  against  any  one  who 
should  in  future  slander  him.  This  ceremony  of 
"purgation  "  is  not  often  mentioned  in  the  "  Registers," 
and  when  it  is,  Eccleshall  Church  is  generally  the  scene 
of  it.  For  example  :  when  a  felon  at  Chester  Assizes 
claimed  benefit  of  clergy,  and  was  sent  by  the  judge 
to  the  bishop  for  ecclesiastical  trial,  proclamation  was 
made  in  church  and  market  at   Coventry    that    his 


172  LICHFIELD. 

purgation  would  take  place  in  Eccleshall  on  a  certain 
day,  when  and  where  all  who  desired  to  support  his 
oath  of  innocence  were  to  appear. 

Butler  left  his  books  to  the  library  of  Gloucester 
Abbey,  and  his  chalice  and  vestments  to  Lichfield 
Cathedral,  where,  in  1459,  he  was  buried.  A  prelate 
of  higher  type  succeeded  him. 

Wild  as  the  times  had  been  during  the  Welsh  and 
Scotch  wars  of  the  early  Henries  and  Edwards,  they 
became  wilder  still  in  the  wars  of  the  Roses.  No- 
where was  the  strife  fiercer  than  in  this  diocese. 
Here  were  fought  the  battles  of  Shrewsbury  and 
Bloreheath ;  and  from  Coventry  went  the  Lancastrians 
to  the  bloody  field  of  Northampton.  Tutbury  was  the 
castle  of  John  of  Gaunt ;  the  duke  of  Buckingham 
owned  the  towers  of  Stafford,  and  depended  for  his 
strength  on  his  trusty  troops  of  Stafford  knots.  In 
Cheshire  were  the  Stanleys  ;  at  Heeley,  the  Audleys, 
heroes  of  Poictiers,  and  losers  of  Bloreheath  ;  at 
Tamworth,  the  Marmions.  The  great  king-maker 
himself  lay  on  our  border,  and  was  obliged  to  accept 
alternate  precedency  as  the  first  of  the  barons  with 
the  head  of  the  Staffords  now  rising  to  the  height  of 
their  bad  fortune  as  dukes  of  Buckingham.  It  was, 
therefore,  impossible  that  the  Church  should  pass 
tranquilly  through  a  period  so  tempestuous,  or  some- 
times avoid  taking  sides. 

John  Halse,  or  Hales  (1459-1492),  had  hardly 
got  into  his  castle  of  Eccleshall,  after  his  nomination 
by  the  Crown,  before  he  was  called  on  to  give  shelter 
to  Queen  Margaret.  She  had  witnessed  the  battle  of 
Bloreheath  from   Muccleston  steeple,   and  when  all 


GOOD    BISHOP    HALES.  1 73 

was  lost  to  the  Lancastrians,  had  got  her  horse's  shoes 
reversed  by  a  smith  (whose  descendants  still  live 
amongst  us),  and  fled  for  dear  life  to  the  new  bishop's 
strong  walls.  The  event  showed  Hales's  leaning  to 
the  Lancastrian  cause  and  its  new- world  sympathies, — 
a  leaning  shared  by  the  vicars  choral  of  Lichfield,  as 
shown  by  the  pardon  granted  them  by  Edward  IV., 
"pro  raptibus  mulierum,  rebellionibus,  insurrectioni- 
bus,  felonis,  conspirationibus  maintenenciis,  ac  aliis 
trangressionibus,  offensis,  &c."  The  terrible  cata- 
logue probably  only  means  that  the  cathedral  at 
Lichfield,  like  that  of  Coventry,  had  been  very  loyal 
to  the  former  government  as  long  as  it  lasted. 

Conspicuous  among  the  characteristics  of  this  time 
is  the  extensive  use  of  brick  at  Lichfield.  This 
material  was  used  in  building  a  library  between  the 
nave  and  the  deanery,  and  for  canons'  houses,  and, 
a  little  later,  on  colleges  for  the  choristers,  chantry 
priests,  and  vicars. 

Under  the  long  rule  of  such  a  bishop,  the  spirit  of 
the  coming  Reformation  could  not  but  gather  strength 
among  the  ordinary  clergy  of  the  diocese.  He 
fostered  solid  learning,  and  invited  able  men  from 
the  University  to  fill  his  stalls  at  Lichfield.  Foremost 
among  these  was  Dean  Heywode,  who  spent  about 
;^6oo  of  money  of  modern  value  upon  the  library. 
In  point  of  learning,  James  Beresford,  vicar  of  Ches- 
terfield^ and  Wirksworth,  and  one  of  the  benefactors 
of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  outshone  his 
brother   canons ;    and   in    1493    Dr.    John    Yotton, 

'  Whence  his  father  had  marched  out  at  the  head  of  a  troop 
of  his  sons  and  servants  to  fight  for  the  Red  Rose. 


174  LICHFIELD. 

succeeding  good  Dean  Heywode,  gave  loo  marks 
towards  finishing  the  library  ;  he  left  also  a  sum  of 
money  at  his  death  to  endow  a  clergyman,  who  should 
either  preach  the  gospel  in  neighbouring  churches,  or 
plead  the  cause  of  poor  churchmen  when  they  found 
themselves  in  the  bishop's  courts. 

The  short  episcopate  of  William  Smyth  (1492- 
1496)  is  remarkable  only  for  its  large  ordinations. 
The  bishop  was  himself  mostly  absent,  being  lord- 
president  of  the  Welsh  Marches  ]  Thomas  Fort,  prior 
of  Stone,  being  suffragan. 

During  the  vacancy  of  the  see,  before  Smyth's 
consecration,  Richard  Wycherley,  rector  of  Powick 
and  suffragan  bishop  of  AVorcester,  ordained  two 
days  in  succession ;  and  when  the  bishop  began  work 
in  person,  he  ordained  two  hundred  persons  at  once 
in  Tutbury  Church, 

As  the  founder  of  Brasenose  College  in  Oxford, 
Smyth's  interest  in  learning  is  beyond  doubt.  He 
showed  it  here  by  rejecting,  in  1494  and  1495,  can- 
didates nominated  to  livings  by  the  monks  of  Repton 
and  Beauchief,  and  in  the  latter  year,  especially,  by 
turning  out  the  Austin  canons  of  St.  John's  Priory,  at 
Lichfield,  and  refounding  that  house  as  a  free  grammar- 
school  and  a  home  for  aged  men.  In  building  afresh 
there,  he  used  brick ;  and  he  furnished  his  poor 
beadsmen,,  not  only  with  the  row  of  quaint  chimneys 
for  which  St,  John's  is  still  remarkable,  but  with  the 
luxury  of  a  load  of  fuel  from  Cannock  Woods  once 
a  day  as  often  as  they  liked  to  send  for  it, 

Smyth's  chief  work  was  that  of  his  presidency  of 
Wales,  and  as  such  he  lived  in  splendid  state  in  the 


THE    BISHOPS    AS    LORDS    :M ARCHERS.  1 75 

castle  at  Ludlow,  or  in  the  pleasant  summer  residence 
at  Bewdley,  which  belonged  to  Arthur,  Prince  of 
Wales,  to  whom  he  was  a  sort  of  viceroy  and 
premier. 

This  presidency  had  its  own  council,  which  sat  in 
term-time  at  Ludlow,  a  mace  of  majesty  being 
carried  before  the  first  lord  as  before  the  lord  chan- 
cellor or  the  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons. 
The  council  heard  appeals  and  redressed  wrongs  ; 
they  issued  warrants  which  were  current  throughout 
Wales  ;  they  were  on  the  commission  of  the  peace 
for  every  county  in  the  principality,  and  had  a  voice 
in  the  nomination  of  lords  -  lieutenant,  sheriffs, 
€scheators,  &c.  From  the  revenues  belonging  to 
the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  lord-president  was  allowed 
;^2o  a  week  for  a  table  for  himself  and  the  council. 
His  chaplain,  who  was  to  be  a  master  of  arts  at  least, 
had  a  stipend  of  ^50  a  year,  ?>.,  of  ^^500,  at  least,  in 
modern  money,  and  board  for  himself  and  servants. 

This  high  office  fell  to  several  succeeding  bishops 
of  Lichfield,  who  were  thus  drawn  away  from  their 
diocese  in  stirring  times. 

Smyth's  "Register,"  and  that  of  his  successor,  John 
Arundel  (1496-15 03),  afford  a  few  characteristic 
gleanings. 

In  1 49 1  the  marriage  of  Sir  W.  Trotebeck  and 
Joanna  Butler  was  annulled  by  the  archbishop, 
"  causa  co7isanguinifatis  quarto  gradu  non  dispensatcE.^ 
Such  entries  often  occur  in  following  years. 

Jacob  Lawe  and  Sampson  Meverell,  base-born, 
and  Godfrey  Ely,  blind  of  one  eye,  are  dispensed  by 
the  pope  for  ordination. 


176  LICHFIELD, 

In  1493  the  canons  of  Gresley  Priory  ask  the 
bishop  to  choose  a  prior  for  them,  instead  of  electing 
one  themselves, — Robert  Mogge  is  appointed. 

In  1495  the  treasurership  of  the  cathedral  is 
looked  upon  as  a  Derby  benefice,  because  deriving 
its  emoluments  from  Sawley  rectory. 

In  1493  the  pope  allows  James  Stanley,  son  of 
the  earl  of  Derby,  to  hold  preferment,  but  to  post- 
pone priest's  orders  for  seven  years. 

Among  others,  the  rectors  or  vicars  of  Stoke-on- 
Terne,  Uttoxeter,  St.  Peter's,  Derby,  retire  on  pensions. 

In  1498  the  four  White  Nuns  of  Brewood  ask  the 
bishop  to  appoint  them  a  prioress,  in  the  place  of 
Alice  Wood  retiring  on  a  pension.  The  abbot  of 
Lilleshall  also  retires  on  a  pension. 

The  life  of  the  next  bishop,  Geoffry  Blythe 
(i  503-1 534),  was  not  uneventful.  He  was  a  native 
of  Derbyshire ;  the  house  where  his  parents  lived 
at  Norton,  near  Sheffield,  as  well  as  his  chantry- 
chapel  and  chantry-house,  being  still  pointed  out. 

Blythe  was  popular  at  Lichfield  for  his  gifts  to  the 
minster.  He  built  a  house  for  the  choristers,  gave 
little  silver  images  of  St.  Catherine  and  St.  Chad, 
and  delighted  the  hearts  of  the  canons  by  dissolving 
Fairwell  nunnery  and  bestowing  its  goods  on  them. 
In  return,  they  bound  themselves  to  say  an  obit  for 
him  every  year,  little  foreseeing  the  ruthless  over- 
turning in  store  for  all  such  engagements. 

Blythe's  episcopate  seems  to  have  been  by  no  means 
of  an  even  tone.  In  15 10  he  was  prisoner  in  the 
Tower ;  at  another  period  he  is  surrounded  by  ener- 
getic Reformers ;  and,  again,  he  is  burning  heretics. 


THE    LOLLARDS.  177 

Smyth  had  ordained  John  Colet,  the  well-known  and 
enlightened  dean  of  St.  Paul's.  Dr.  Collingwood, 
dean  of  Lichfield,  under  Blythe,  from  15 12  to  1522, 
was  not  unlike  Colet.  He  was  a  busy  preacher; 
and,  when  sermons  were  few  and  far  between, 
preached  half  an  hour  every  Sunday. 

Perhaps  the  fact  that  Collingwood  was  at  length 
buried  near  St.  Chad  indicates  a  longing  for  the 
better,  if  ruder,  churchmanship  of  St.  Chad's  day  ; 
at  all  events,  whilst  Collingwood  was  dean,  Blythe 
did  not  molest  the  Lollards,  who  were  still  to  be 
found  among  the  poor  and  uneducated, — the  sort 
of  people  who  are  now  Primitive  Methodists.  In 
the  early  part  of  his  episcopate,  Blythe  had  re- 
luctantly endeavoured  to  stamp  them  out;  in  151 1 
bishops  elsewhere  had  persecuted  heresy,  and  in 
November  Blythe  tardily  followed  their  example. 
He  sat  at  Maxstoke  Priory,  holding  the  "  Court  of 
Heresy,"  of  which  Fox  has  made  so  much  in  his  story 
of  "  The  Martyrs  of  Coventry."  Thomas  Fletcher, 
smith,  and  others,  were  then  tried  for  Lollard 
leanings.  All  saved  themselves  by  abjuration ;  but 
in  the  following  March,  when  the  scene  shifted  to 
Coventry  Cathedral,  Joan  Warde,  or  Washbury, 
finally  affirmed  her  want  of  faith  in  transubstantiation, 
pilgrimages,  and  image-worship,  and  was  handed  over 
to  the  sheriff  for  the  flames.  Her  fate  sufficed  Blythe 
until  seven  years  after  Collingwood's  death ;  indeed, 
it  seems  clear  that  he,  at  least,  did  not  persecute 
unless  the  state  of  ecclesiastical  feeling  forced  him  to 
do  so.  He  had,  as  we  have  seen,  tardily  joined 
the  general  movement  in  151 1;  and  the  long  list  of 

N 


178  LICHFIELD. 

Joan  Washbury's  recantations  in  his  "Register"  shows 
how  slow  he  was  to  condemn  her.  Nor,  again,  till 
carried  off  his  feet  by  the  strong  wave  of  passion 
raised  throughout  England  in  1528  by  Bilney  and 
the  English  New  Testament,  did  he  resume  the  part 
of  inquisitor.  This  time  the  culprit  was  a  clergyman  : 
reforming  doctrines  had  reached  a  higher  class  once 
more.  Richard  Coton,  for  a  sermon  preached  at 
Atcham  near  Shrewsbury,  was  sentenced  to  carry  a 
faggot  in  procession  round  the  cathedral,  and  after- 
wards round  Atcham  Church. 

The  kindliness  of  Blythe,  which  crops  out  through 
all  the  enforced  savagery  of  his  conduct  toward  the 
Lollards,  seems,  as  we  have  said,  to  have  endeared 
him  to  the  clergy.  But,  from  his  frequent  absence 
as  lord-president  of  the  Welsh  marches,  they  could 
not  have  seen  much  of  him. 

For  many  years  the  real  work  of  the  diocese  had 
been  done  by  suffragan  bishops,  and  a  short  cata- 
logue of  their  names  may  be  given  here.  Under 
Bishop  Heyworth,  in  1428,  we  read  of  '•'■  Lao- 
mensis  Eps^  In  1452  the  bishop  of  Down  and 
Conor  ordains  in  the  cathedral,  and  the  bishop 
of  Sodor  in  the  Black  Friars'  church  at  Chester ; 
John  of  the  Isles,  Insulen,  John  Green  (bishop  of 
Sodor  and  Man),  is  ordaining  in  1456,  and  the  bishop 
of  Aghadoe  in  the  Black  Friars,  Chester,  which  was 
probably  a  larger  church  than  St.  John's,  in  1481  ; 
in  1492-3  he  is  doing  the  same  work  at  Tutbury; 
in  1494  at  Coventry,  and  St.  Peter's,  Salop  ;  and  in 
1495  at  Eccleshall,  Coventry,  and  Stone.  Very  few 
bishops  after  him  seem  to  have  itinerated  for  ordina- 


THE    BISHOPS    SUFFRAGAN.  1 79 

tions,  which  now  began  to  be  held  at  Lichfield  only, 
and  that  four  times  a  year. 

The  number  of  candidates  was  still  large  :  42 
acolytes,  45  subdeacons,  42  deacons,  and  51  priests 
being  ordered  at  Coventry  when  last  mentioned  above. 

Arundel's  suffragan  is  called  ^'-  Pavadensis  Eps^ 

During  the  dark  days  before  the  Reformation,  the 
evil  habit  of  translating  bishops  was  begun  by  the 
pope,  Bishop  Skirlaw  being  the  first  of  our  bishops 
who  was  moved.  The  monasteries,  too,  rather  than 
lay  patrons,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  began  to  sell  the 
"next  two  "  turns  to  presentations  in  their  gift.  And 
in  T547  Bishop  Sampson  (1543-1554)  actually  sold 
to  three  laymen  the  right  of  nominating  an  archdeacon 
of  Stafford,  and  in  1554  the  next  presentation  to 
three  prebendal  stalls  ! 

But  to  return  to  Blythe's  time.  In  1529  the 
proctors  of  the  five  archdeaconries  met  to  elect  Dr. 
Ralph  Sneyd  and  the  archdeacon  of  Salop  (Stete)  tO' 
represent  the  diocese  in  Convocation.  The  two  were 
paid  wages  for  their  maintenance  by  a  tax  upon  bene- 
fices. They  were  elected  to  represent  the  diocese  in  the 
memorable  Convocation  of  that  year  which  met  under 
the  magnificent  roof  of  St.  Paul's,  in  November,^  and 
at  which  they  deliberated  upon  the  reformation  of  the 
Church.  Their  decision  to  extinguish  abuses  with 
regard  both  to  monasteries  and  candidates  for  ordi- 
nation, and  their  strong  protest  against  the  encroach- 
ment threatened  by  Parliament  upon  the  liberties  of 
the  Church  as   secured  by  "  Magna  Charta,"  show 

'  For  a  full  account  of  this  Convocation  see  Canon  Dixon's 
"  History,"  i.  30. 

N    2 


l8o  LICHFIELD. 

how  willingly  Churchmen  entered  upon  the  great 
work  of  reformation  which  was  now  beginning  in 
earnest. 

A  note  or  two  from  Blythe's  "Register"  may  be 
illustrative  of  the  times. 

In  15 lo  John  Blyth,  scholar  of  Paris,  is  made 
archdeacon  of  Coventry.  He  is  also  prebendary  of 
Weeford. 

In  1 5 15  three  persons  buy  the  next  two  turns  of 
the  advowson  of  St.  Michaels,  Coventry,  and  three 
others  that  of  Arley.  Birmingham  and  Avon  Dassett 
were  sold  in  1523. 

In  15 16  John  Bonde,  citizen  of  Coventry,  founded 
Wardend  chapel,  near  Birmingham,  and  the  vicar  of 
Aston  gave  it  certain  parochial  rights. 

In  1529  the  vicar  of  Allestry  is  found  to  have  a 
right  to  tithe  of  trees  (fol.  17). 

In  15 14 but  one  monk  remained  in  Canwell  Priory: 
he  was  made  prior. 

In  15 1 7  an  acolyte,  a  minor,  already  doubly  bene- 
ficed, is  made  rector  of  Leigh. 

In  1530  a  canon  of  Ronton  is  rejected  as  indoctus 
and  indigtms  when  nominated  to  the  vicarage  of 
Seighford.  And  John  Blythe  is  made  archdeacon  of 
.Stafford  in  the  place  of  Jeoffry  Blythe,  resigned.  The 
bishop  cares  for  his  family. 

In  1506  the  warden  of  Manchester,  Stanley,  was 
made  bishop  of  Ely. 

In  15 19  Thomas  Linacre,  M.D.,  Henry  VIII.'s 
physician,  is  made  parson  of  Wigan. 

William  Blythe  is  made  joint  keeper  of  Beaudesert. 

^\'illiam   Setel  is  handed  over  from  York  Assizes 


JOTTINGS    FROM    BLYTHE's    REGISTER.  i8t 

convicted  of  felony.  He  claims  to  be  a  subdeacon, 
ordained  by  Bishop  Hales,  but  his  name  is  not  on 
the  lists. 

In  1509  the  foundation  of  St.  John's  Chapel,  on 
the  south  side  of  Manchester  Minster,  is  confirmed. 

The  espousals  of  two  infants,  Thomas  Sothwell 
and  Margaret  Boteler,  are  declared  null  and  void, 
in  15 13,  by  the  pope.  They  are  absolved  for  cohabi- 
tation, and  allowed  to  marry,  though  cousins. 

In  1527  the  Lichfield  chapter  bind  themselves  to 
say  an  obit  for  Blythe  in  return  for  his  gifts,  which 
are,  p^^ioo,  the  union  of  Fairwell  Nunnery  to  their 
funds,  the  chorister-house,  &c. 

In  1 5 10  the  king  in  council  writes  to  the  bishops 
of  the  province  of  Canterbury  requiring  them  to 
forego  their  appeal  to  Rome  against  their  archbishop 
in  the  matter  of  probate,  and  accept  the  king's  deci- 
sion as  final, — Bishop  Blythe  accepts  it. 

In  the  last  two  entries  we  have  the  foreshadowing 
of  two  important  events, — the  fall  of  the  monasteries 
and  the  rejection  of  the  papal  primacy. 

A  noteworthy  deed  was  done  then  by  Denton, 
dean  of  Lichfield,  who  brought  water  into  the  close 
by  means  of  leaden  pipes.  The  Grey  Friars  had 
done  the  same  thing,  and  their  conduit  now  supplies 
the  Black  Country  ;  the  Austin  Friars  of  Stafford 
had  set  up  water-works  nearly  a  century  before,  thus 
achieving,  four  hundred  years  ago,  what  the  corpora- 
tion of  Stafford  have  for  the  last  three  years  been 
attempting  in  vain. 


152  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    CRISIS. 

Bishop  Lee  and  his  Noble  and  Ignoble  Deeds — Return  to  Older 
Type  of  Christianity — Sketch  of  the  Minsters  on  the  Edge 
of  the  Storm  which  destroyed  so  many  of  them. 

It  was  in  the  year  153 1  that  the  king  forced  the 
clergy  to  style  him  "  their  supreme  head  on  earth, 
next  after  Christ,"  and  fined  them  the  enormous 
sum  of  ;;^ioo,ooo  as  the  penalty,  under  the  Act  of 
Praemunire,  for  acting  under  Wolsey.  Bishop  Blythe 
scarcely  siirvived  this  blow.  He  died  in  London  the 
same  year,  and  was  brought  to  Lichfield,  where  he 
was  buried  near  the  shrine  of  St.  Chad. 

During  the  vacancy  which  now  occurred,  the  chan- 
cellor of  the  diocese,  Rowland  Lee,^  bore  a  share 
in  an  event  of  the  greatest  importance.  Probably 
through  his  connexion  with  the  bishops,  as  lords- 
president  of  Wales,  Lee  had  been  made  one  of  the 
royal  chaplains.  Henry  VIII.  had  for  some  time 
been  troubled  in  mind  about  his  marriage  with  his 
sister-in-law,  Catherine.  Whether  his  scruples  arose, 
as  well  they  might,  from  an  honest  doubt  as  to  the 
pope's  right  to  legalise  such  a  marriage,  or  whether 
from  sheer  love  for  Anne  Boleyn, — who  would  favour 

^  I.ee  had  gone  with  Beydell  to  examine  the  Holy  INIaid  of 
Kei:l,  but  could  get  nothing  out  of  her. 


ROWLAND    LEE    MARRIES    HENRY    AND    ANNE.       1 83 

his  suit  only  on  condition  that  she  became  his  wife, — 
cannot  be  decided.  Certain  it  seems  that  Wolsey 
had  urged  the  pope  to  annul  the  marriage  with  Cathe- 
rine. Both  EngHsh  and  foreign  Universities  had 
declared  that  the  pope  had  no  power  to  grant  such  a 
dispensation  as  that  under  which  the  king  had 
married  Catherine ;  they  had  declared  the  match 
contrary  to  the  laws  both  of  God  and  nature.  The 
pope,  being  under  the  influence  of  Catherine's 
relatives,  had  trifled  seriously  with  Henry's  passions 
or  principle  :  he  had  kept  him  for  years  in  suspense. 
As  it  had  been,  therefore,  in  the  beginning  of  papal 
primacy  in  England,  when  the  fears  of  the  king  were 
worked  upon  to  pronounce  in  favour  of  St.  Peter 
lest  he  should  shut  him  out  of  heaven  ;  as  it  had 
been,  too,  in  the  days  of  King  John,  when  a  powerful 
pope  took  advantage  of  the  king's  weakness  to  plant 
his  feet  on  England's  neck  ;  so  now,  it  happens  again. 
But  this  time  it  is  a  powerful  king  who  flings  a  feeble 
pope  aside  when  he  refuses  to  listen  to  his  suit  for  a 
fair  trial  of  his  great  personal  grievance,  and  deter- 
mines to  act  without  him.  Act  King  Henry  did  by 
marrying  Anne  Boleyn. 

The  ceremony  was  performed  early  on  a  November 
morning  in  1532,  either  in  a  chamber  at  Whitehall 
or  in  the  chapel  of  Sopwell  Nunnery,  near  St.  Alban's, 
in  Bedfordshire  :  Rowland  Lee  officiated.  Lingard 
says  that  Henry  deceived  Lee  as  to  the  pope's  con- 
sent, and  sent  for  him  as  if  to  say  mass.  It  is  much 
more  likely  that  Lee  saw  clearly  enough  that  the  pope 
ought  really  to  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter. 

Some  time  afterwards  Lee  was  promoted  to  the 


1 84  LICHFIELD. 

vacant    see   of  Coventry  and    Lichfield.     He   ruled 
from  1534  to  1543, — nine  eventful  years. 

Having  married  the  king  to  Anne  Boleyn,  he  had 
to  bear  a  heavy  share  in  making  the  nation  accept 
the  marriage.  The  nun  of  Kent  and  her  accom- 
plices, failing  to  accept  his  arguments,  had  been  exe- 
cuted at  Tyburn.  Sir  Thomas  More  and  Fisher, 
bishop  of  Rochester,  in  spite  of  the  new  bishop's 
powerful  logic,  though  not  affirming  that  the  marriage 
was  unlawful,  would  not  swear  that  they  would 
preach  and  proclaim  it  to  be  just  and  holy,  or  that 
the  king  was  head  of  the  Church  of  England,  and 
that  the  bishop  of  Rome  had  no  more  power  in 
England  than  any  other  foreign  prelate.  Lee  left 
them  to  their  fate.  They  both  went  to  the  block. 
Lee  failed,  too,  in  persuading  the  Observant  friars 
of  Greenwich  to  take  the  oath,  and  left  them  to  the 
king's  bitter  mercy  when  he  came  into  his  diocese. 

The  choice  of  Lee  for  the  difficult  and  delicate 
task  of  persuading  the  strong  adherents  of  the  Roman 
usurpation  who  held  out  for  it  when  all  the  bishops  and 
ecclesiastics  in  England  had  given  it  up  and  sworn 
against  it,  shows,  at  least,  Henry's  confidence  in  the 
powers  of  his  new  bishop — a  confidence  further  illus- 
trated by  Lee's  immediate  appointment  to  be  presi- 
dent of  Wales.  To  the  Principality  Lee  betook  him- 
self; the  diocese  was  committed  to  the  care  of 
suffragans  :  hence  his  episcopal  career  is  of  strangely 
barren  interest.  His  "  Register  "  is  remarkable  for 
nothing  but  the  enormous  amount  of  traffic  and 
trickery  which  was  going  on  with  regard  to  Church 
patronage.      Caveats  abound.     In  one   year,  1532- 


ROWLAND    lee's    REGISTER.  185 

1533,  the  prebends  of  Ufton  and  Oloughton,  the  chan- 
tries of  St.  Michael  and  St.  Clement's,  Coventry,  and 
the  livings  of  Aghton,  Coleshill,  Stoke-on-Trent, 
Ercall  major,  Southam,  Fillongley,  Forton,  Plesley, 
Arley,  Newport  collegiate  church,  Quatt,  Tarporley, 
Derby,  St.  Peter,  Sandbach,  Whitwell,  Acton,  Check- 
ley,  Eckington,  twice,  Aldridge,  and  Sandon,  twice, 
appear  to  have  been  in  dispute,  if  not  in  the  market. 

The  great  events  of  the  time  leave  no  trace  behind 
them  on  the  pages  of  the  bishop's  official  record, 
excepting  the  erection  of  Chester  into  an  episcopal 
see.  No  clergy  seem  to  have  resigned  their  livings 
when  the  Church  and  king  adjudged  themselves  free 
from  Roman  control.  This  is  surely  a  fact  of  the 
gravest  importance.  The  Church  consists  of  its 
members ;  they  were  the  same  after  as  before  this 
crucial  period  of  reformation.  No  "  Roman  Catholics 
turned  out  "j  no  "Protestants  came  in."  They  who 
assert  that  the  old  Church  ceased  to  be,  and  that 
a  new  Church  was  created  by  Henry  VIII.,  assert  a 
fancy  of  the  most  baseless  kind. 

Lee's  nine  years  of  rule  in  Wales  were  of  vast  good 
to  the  Welsh  people.  He  cleared  their  borders  of 
robbers,  knit  them  by  wholesome  legislation  into  the 
English  nation,  and  divided  their  country  into  coun- 
ties ;  so  that  much  of  the  feeling  which  now  exists 
between  England  and  Whales,  as  contrasted  with  the 
ill-feeling  between  England  and  Ireland,  is  really 
owing  under  God  to  the  calm  wisdom  of  Rowland 
Lee.  So  clear,  indeed,  was  his  mind,  that  an  Act 
of  Parliament  which  he  promoted  *'  for  certain  ordi- 
nances in  the  king's  dominions  and  Principality  of 


l86  LICHFIELD. 

Wales,"  contains  "a  most  complete  code  of  regula- 
tions for  the  administration  of  justice  with  such  pre- 
cision and  accuracy  that  no  clause  of  it  has  yet 
occasioned  a  doubt  or  required  an  explanation." 

Lee's  suffragans  were  Pavidensis  and  John  of 
Penrith.  The  former  superintended  the  diocese 
during  the  vacancy  between  Blythe's  death  and  the 
bishop's  consecration  ;  the  latter,  John  Bird,  abbot 
of  Chester,  was  consecrated  by  the  archbishop  on 
June  24th,  1537,  under  the  Act  for  the  appointment 
of  suffragans. 

Amid  the  excitement  of  his  political  work  in  Wales 
and  the  courtly  splendours  of  Ludlow  Castle,  Lee 
could^^give  but  little  personal  attention  to  his  episcopal 
work.  Burnet  has  preserved  a  set  of  Injunctions 
which  he  issued,  1538.  In  them  he  bids  the  "clergie 
within  the  diocess  of  Coventrie  and  Lichefelde  "  to 
observe  the  king's  injunctions,  and  to  procure  copies 
of  them  before  the  "  Feast  of  Lammas  nexte  ensuing." 
They  are  to  teach  their  parishioners  that  the  king's 
Majesty  is  only  Supreme  Head  under  Chryst  in  Erthe 
of  this  his  Churche  of  England.  That  every  parson 
or  impropriator  of  any  parish  church  shall,  on  this 
side  Whitsuntide,  provide  a  "  Boke  of  the  hole  Byble 
both  in  Latin  and  alsoe  in  Englishe  and  lay  the  same 
in  the  Quiere  for  every  man  that  will  to  loke  and 
reade  thereon," — gently  and  charitably  exhorting  them 
to  use  a  sober  and  "  modeste  haviour  in  the  readynge 
and  inquisition  of  the  true  sense."  Monastic  and 
cathedral  impropriators  were  to  provide  a  sermon 
every  quarter  in  their  churches  from  which  they  drew 
profit.     The  Paternoster,  ave,  and  creed  were  to  be 


THE    BIBLE    RE-OPENED.  187 

recited  in  English  every  Sunday  from  the  pulpits,  and 
every  third  Sunday  the  seven  deadly  sins. and  the  ten 
commandments.  The  certainty  and  severity  of  the 
final  judgment  were  to  be  impressed  upon  penitents 
in  the  confessional.  Friars  and  monks  were  not  to  be 
curates  without  licence.  No  one  was  to  be  admitted 
to  holy  communion  till  he  could  repeat  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  ave,  creed,  and  ten  commandments  without 
book.  The  solemnity  and  binding  character  of 
matrimony  were  to  be  taught  twice  a  quarter.  Parish 
clergy  were  not  to  be  forsaken  for  the  ministrations 
of  friar  or  monk, — that  were  but  "  to  cloke  and  hide 
lewd  and  naughtie  lyvyng."  No  testimonial  from 
monk  or  friar  was  considered  trustworthy.  Church 
ales,  and  the  resorting  of  youths  and  other  unthrifts 
in  sermon-time  to  the  ale-house  for  unlawful  games, 
blasphemies,  and  other  enormities,  and  for  bowling 
and  drinking,  were  not  to  be  tolerated,  and  the  pub- 
licans told  so.  Twelve  times  a  year  the  form  and 
manner  of  christening  were  to  be  declared,  and  mid- 
wives  instructed  how  to  christen,  and  exhorted  to 
have  a  bowl  of  pure  water  ready  as  birth  drew  on. 
Certain  clergy  dressed  and  lived  like  laymen, — they 
were  to  wear  only  clerical  attire. 

Many  of  these  injunctions, — as,  for  example,  the 
teaching  of  the  creed,  and  Lord's  Prayer,  and  ten 
commandments,  the  injunctions  as  to  dress  and 
drunkenness, — were  but  the  echo  of  what  was  passed 
seven  hundred  years  before  at  the  Council  of  Cloves- 
hoo.  Those  on  preaching  were  much  like  those  of 
Weseham,  three  hundred  years  before.  The  only 
new  feature  in  them  is  the  opening  of  the  Bible  to 


1 85  LICHFIELD, 

the  laity  in  the  EngHsh  tongue.  Thus  the  Church 
of  the  diocese,  at  the  Reformation,  struck  out  no  new 
line  of  doctrine.  The  errors  of  modern  Rome  were 
many  of  them  fixed  on  the  Roman  communion  by 
the  Council  of  Trent,  which  as  yet  had  not  been 
summoned.  The  Church  of  England  comes  out  of 
her  Reformation  with  her  old  organisation  of  bishops, 
priests,  and  deacons  ;  her  old  Saxon  doctrines  ;  her 
old  parish  churches  and  secular  cathedrals  ;  and  her 
old  services  purified,  transla,ted,  and  condensed.  The 
Church  of  Rome  from  this  point  goes  deeper  down 
into  the  mire  of  mediaeval  fancy ;  she  embraces 
erroneous  "  developments  "  as  articles  of  faith  ;  and, 
,  in  the  days  of  Pope  Pius  V.,  contemporary  with  our 
Queen  Elizabeth,  she  instructs  her  English  votaries  to 
discard  her  old  services  for  new  ones,  "with  some 
things  added  out  of  the  old  English  uses.''^ 

But  all  this  was  not  accomplished  without  serious 
loss  both  to  the  bishopric  and  Church  of  the  diocese 
of  Lichfield.  A  return  to  Saxon  Christianity  was 
only  effected  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  Norman  and 
mediaeval  institutions. 

The  cathedral  at  Lichfield  was  now  complete.  A 
hundred  years  before,  Dean  Heywode  had  put  the 
finishing  strokes  to  its  great  beauty.  He  had  given 
it,  among  other  choice  gifts,  an  illuminated  missal,  an 
alabaster  altar-piece  for  the  chantry-chapel  of  St.  Blaise, 
and  a  pair  of  organs,  one  of  which,  of  great  power 
and  beauty,  was  dedicated  to  St.  Chad  and  placed  on 
the  screen.     He  had  stained  the  windows  and  pic- 

'  See  title  of  Roman  Mass-books. 


GLIMPSE    OF   THE    CATHEDRAL.  1 89 

tured  the  walls  of  the  chapter-house.  He  had  given 
the  great  "  Jesus  bell,"  which  had  been  solemnly 
dedicated  by  Robert,  bishop  of  Achonry,  the  suffragan. 
Whitlock  tells  us  of  other  gifts.  Bishop  Blythe  also 
had  been  very  liberal,  having  given,  among  much 
else,  ;^"2o  to  be  spent  on  tapestry. 

Not  the  least  interesting  feature  of  the  cathedral  at 
this  time  were  the  many  memorials  of  the  dead.  Just 
inside  the  west  door  Bishop  Hales  had  been  buried ; 
his  dean  had  chosen  to  be  laid  at  his  feet,  and  the 
band  of  learned  canons  who  had  helped  him  to 
redeem  the  fair  fame  of  Lichfield,  had  come  one 
after  another  to  lie  near  him.  Magnificent  monu- 
ments with  effigies  marked  the  graves  of  Butler, 
Burghill  (a  brass  in  the  Lady  chapel),  and  Stretton, 
in  St.  Andrew's  chapel.  Blythe  and  Lord  Basset  lay 
in  marble  on  the  north  and  south  sides  of  St.  Chad's 
splendid  shrine,  between  the  great  altar  and  the  Lady 
chapel.  Dean  Hey  wood  lay  in  double  effigy,  the  one 
in  full  doctor's  robes,  the  other  denuded  even  of  flesh, 
in  the  wall  on  the  south  side  of  the  choir.  Not 
far  away  was  Langton's  monument.  Another  stone 
bishop's  in  a  blue  mantle,  with  gold  quatrefoils  over  a 
red  gown,  lay  where  Hackett's  lies  now.  Nearly 
opposite  lay  underground  the  stone  coffin,  discovered 
in  1662,  of  Bishop  Cornhill,  thus  inscribed  on  a 
leaden  breast-plate  : — 

Anno  ab  icarnacoe  dni  mccxxii  obiit  Will 
Coventr  &  Lichefeld  eps.  xiii  kal.  Septembiis 
Regni  reg.  Henrici  fil  Job  xii  sub  Honorio 
Pp  iii  &  I.  Stepho  Cantuar,  ecclie  archieps  h  rexit 
Aut  eccliam  istam  viii  annos  &  I  .  .  .,  menses. 


IQO  LICHFIELD. 

Patteshull  had  been  buried  before  the  altar  of 
St.  Stephen;  Weseham  had  an  oratory  over  his  grave. 
Tasteful  and  lazy  Molend  lay  under  a  tomb  on  the 
south  side  of  the  presbytery. 

It  would  thus  appear  that  the  greater  number  of  the 
monuments  were  ranged  on  each  side  the  south 
aisle  of  the  choir,  increasing  in  richness  until  the 
spectator  passed  to  the  back  of  the  altar,  where  lay 
the  richly-decked  shrine  of  St.  Chad,  blazing  with 
jewels.  Some  of  the  saint's  bones  were  there ; 
and  his  skull  was  encased  in  gold.  The  little  cells 
in  the  wall  of  the  Lady  Chapel  may  have  been 
occupied  by  the  ecclesiastics  who  watched  the 
shrine. 

Outside,  the  walls  of  the  Close  were  strong,  its 
moat  deep,  and  its  gates  defended  by  towers.  The 
palace  filled  the  north-eastern  corner.  It  was  pro- 
bably entered  by  a  gateway,  over  and  about  which 
were  ranges  of  small  rooms  "  for  the  bishop's  gentle- 
men," after  the  manner  of  Battle  Abbey  gateway. 
Next,  westwardly,  came  the  deanery,  a  prebendiB?'^ 
house  or  two,  and,  west  and  south-west,  a  series 
of  colleges — the  passion  of  the  age — for  choristers, 
chantry  priests,  and  residentiary  canons.  The  eye 
fell  on  row  after  row  of  goodly  buttress,  and  gable, 
and  mullioned  window — all  in  fair  contrast  with 
the  western  front  of  the  minster.  Unlike  the  abbeys, 
the  cathedral  church  dominated  the  whole  plan,  and 
wrote  in  great  hieroglyphics,  "  God  is  in  the  midst 
of  her ;  she  shall  not  be  moved." 

Within  the  ten  years  after  1531,  a  vast  change 
passed  over  the  external  face  of  this  diocese,  and 


STATE    OF    THE    ABBEYS.  I9I 

nearly  all  the  religious  doctrines  and  institutions  of 
Norman  growth  were  then  uprooted  and  destroyed. 
The  Church  herself  stood  firm ;  but  every  abbey  fell 
in  the  storm,  and  among  them  the  grand  old  priory- 
cathedral  of  Coventry. 

The  abbeys,  indeed,  were  now  great  farming  com- 
munities, with  granges  scattered  far  and  wide  over 
the  country,  where  some  of  their  brotherhood  culti- 
vated the  glebes  and  drew  away  the  tithes  of  parish 
churches.  So  Combermere  Abbey,  in  Cheshire,  had 
a  grange  at  Wincle,  to  look  after  sheep  on  the  East 
Cheshire  hills ;  another  at  Gateham  to  watch  the 
rectory  of  Alstonfield  in  the  moors;  another  at  Yarlet, 
near  Stone,  to  take  care  the  vicar  of  Sandon  got  but 
a  scanty  share  of  the  endowments  of  his  parish 
church.  St.  Thomas's,  Stafford,  had  huge  farming 
plant  at  Baswich  and  Herberton, — on  the  one  side 
keeping  watch  on  the  prebendary  of  Baswich  ;  on 
the  other,  on  the  canons  of  St.  Mary's  and  the  pre- 
bendal  rector  of  St.  Chad's,  as  well  as  making  the 
most  of  the  land  itself.  Oxen,  sheep,  cows  and 
calves,  and  swine,  hay  and  corn,  wains  and  har- 
ness, and  troops  of  servants,  enter  largely  into  the 
inventories  of  these  monasteries.  The  home 
buildings  were  of  exceeding  beauty.  At  the  little 
priory  of  St.  Thomas,  Stafford,  there  was  a  noble 
church  with  four  bells  and  a  clock,  and  chambers 
furnished  with  beds  and  hangings  of  beautiful 
material,  whilst  yet  the  lay  people  lay  generally  on 
straw. 

The  churches  of  the  abbeys  were,  however,  now 
little  more  more  than  the  Westminster  Abbeys  of  the 


192  LICHFIELD. 

great  families.  Before  the  altar  at  Hilton,  near  Stoke, 
and  probably  also  at  Darley,  near  Derby,  lay  the 
marble  tombs  of  the  Lords  Aiidley.  Stone  Priory  was 
encumbered  both  in  chapter-house,  cloister,  chancel, 
and  chapels,  with  the  glittering  tombs  of  the  Staffords. 
Before  the  altar  at  Croxden  lay  three  simple  stone 
coffins  containing  two  Verdons  and  a  Furnival, — 
coffins  which  still  remain  in  their  places,  though  the 
altar  is  gone. 

As  long  as  the  old  nobility  flourished  the  abbeys  had 
been  secure,  but  many  noble  houses  vanished  in  the 
wars  of  the  Roses,  and  others  fell  before  the  Tudors. 
A  new  race  was  springing  up  who  cared  nothing  for 
famous  dust,  and  who  longed  only  for  the  fertile  lands 
which,  under  the  careful  husbandry  of  a  long  line  of 
abbots  and  priors,  had  been  developed  round  the 
stately  minsters.  Even  the  old  nobility,  who,  like 
the  Stanleys,  had  held  lands  under  St.  Werburgh's 
at  Chester,  and  the  old  gentry  who  had  here  and 
there  held  a  grange  or  two  under  an  abbey,  began 
to  think  that  it  would  be  just  as  pleasant  to  hold 
the  lands  in  their  own  right.  So  that  when  Henry 
VIII.  became  strong  enough  to  sway  Convocation 
and  Parliament  against  the  English  usurpations  of 
the  pope,  the  abbeys  could  look  for  stanch  friends 
neither  to  the  bishops,  who  had  all  along  disliked 
them,  nor  to  the  gentry,  who  coveted  their  wealth. 
But  the  poor  loved  them  as  their  nursing  mothers. 
St.  Thomas,  Stafford,  with  seven  monks,  had  thirty 
servants,  including  four  plough-drivers,  at  its  disso- 
lution ;  and  Delacres,  with  thirteen  monastics,  had 
thirty-three,  besides  troops  of  contented  tenants,  who, 


COVENTRY    PRIORY.  1 93 

when  the  lands  fell  into  the  market,  were  able  to  buy 
their  own  farms.^ 

But  debt  pressed  heavily.  St.  Thomas,  with  an 
income  of  ^141,  owed  ;^235.  12s.  yd.  at  its  disso- 
lution. Delacres,  with  an  income  of  ;C'22'],  owed 
^lyi.  los.  6d. 

When  Rowland  Lee  became  bishop,  Coventry  was 
a  city  of  wonderful  beauty.  Full  of  religious  houses, 
and  of  citizens  whose  delight  lay  in  honouring  the 
Church  which  fostered  them,  the  good  taste  of  Old 
England  had  luxuriantly  blossomed  forth  in  stone. 
Here  was  the  priory-cathedral,  larger  and  richer  far 
than  its  model  at  Lichfield,  and  possessing  a  revenue 
of  over  ;^7oo  a  year.  The  prior  was  a  peer  of  Par- 
liament, and  his  abbey  a  fit  tarrying-place  for  kings. 
Here  Henry  of  Monmouth,  Prince  of  Wales,  had 
been  arrested  by  the  doughty  mayor  of  the  city  for 
some  wild  freak  in  1411.  Here,  in  1410,  Bishop 
Cattrick  had  gathered  his  clergy  to  vote  St.  Osburga, 
the  local  saint,  worthy  of  a  "  double  festival."  In 
the  long  room  of  the  priory,  in  1414,  King  Henry 
held  the  "  Unlearned  Parliament,"  which  had  not 
a  lawyer  in  it,  and  the  "Laymen's  Parliament,"  which 
dealt  hardly  with  the  clergy.  King  Henry  VL  came 
in  1456,  and  on  Whitsun-day  went  with  his  queen, 
crowned  and  in  state,  in  a  long  and  splendid  pro- 
cession of  prelates,  nobles,  ladies,  and  churchmen, 
through  the  mill-yard,  and  into  St.  Michael's  Church 

'  When  Randle  de  Blundeville  gave  Leekfrith  to  Delacres,  it 
was  forest.  When  Sir  Ralph  Bagnall  got  it  from  the  Crown 
after  the  sack  of  Delacres,  it  had  almost  as  many  farms  as  at 
present. 

O 


194  LICHFIELD. 

by  the  western  door.  At  mass  he  gave  his  gown  of 
cloth  of  gold  for  an  altar-cover,  and  returned  to  the 
priory  by  the  cathedral-door,  which  opened  into  St. 
Michael's  churchyard.  In  October  he  was  here  again 
with  his  court.  In  September,  1459,  he  held  in  the 
Chapter-house  the  Parliameiitum  diaboHcum,  which 
fulminated  attainders  against  the  Yorkists,  who  were 
so  soon  to  triumph  at  Blore  Heath.  And  here,  directly 
afterwards,  the  Lancastrian  bishop.  Bishop  Hales,  was 
consecrated.  In  1467,  the  Yorkist,  Edward  IV.,  and 
his  queen,  kept  Christmas  here;  and  in  1487,  the 
Lancastrian,  Henry  VII.,  and  his  queen,  were  here 
in  council,  and  the  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  sitting 
on  the  bishop's  throne,  cursed  with  bell,  book,  and 
candle,  all  who  should  impugn  the  king^s  title  to  the 
crown.  Henry  VIII.  and  his  queen  visited  the  city 
in  15 IT,  and  in  1528  the  Princess  Mary  came  to  see 
the  plays.  The  whole  city,  indeed,  was  full  of  religious 
houses  and  "  guildhalls,"  having  in  it  the  only  Car- 
thusian monastery  in  the  diocese.  Its  cathedral  was 
certainly  the  finest  church  the  bishop  had.  Some 
traces  of  it  still  remain  :  which  shall  be  described  in 
Mr.  Fretton's  words  : — 

"  On  removing  the  old  premises,  which  had  been 
used  as  the  school-house,  and  digging  for  the  founda- 
tion of  the  new  schools,  the  whole  of  the  inner  portion 
of  the  west  front  has  been  opened  to  view,  with  part 
of  the  exterior,  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation, 
and  clearly  indicative  of  the  splendid  building  of 
which  it  formed  a  part.  What  remained  of  the  north- 
western tower  has  been  incorporated  with  the  new 
buildings,  much  to  the  detriment  of  the  older  frag- 


RUINS    OF    COVENTRY    PRIORY.  1 95 

ment,  for  what  was  left  of  its  characteristic  ornamen- 
tation has  been  mercilessly  sheared  off,  and  in  parts 
made  as  clean  as  a  new  pin,  the  turrets  being  capped 
with  a  nondescript  species  of  pyramid,  resembling 
extinguishers  rather  than  anything  else.  The  inner 
portion  referred  to  of  the  west  front  has  been  left 
uncovered,  the  churchyard  being  sloped  off  to  the 
original  floor,  so  that  the  plan  of  this  end  can  be 
easily  traced,  and  displays  the  commencement  of  the 
nave  and  north  and  south  aisles ;  the  great  western 
doorway,  deeply  recessed,  and  originally  decorated 
with  detached  columns,  giving  access  to  the  nave. 
At  the  north-west  and  south-west  of  the  aisles  were 
towers,  each  of  which  had  newel  staircases  in  its  outer 
turrets,  the  bases  of  the  towers  forming  recesses  at 
the  extremities  of  each  aisle.  The  aisles  had  not, 
however,  as  at  Lichfield,  western  doorways,  and 
were  narrow,  the  style  being  that  of  the  Early 
English,  which  prevailed  in  the  early  part  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  The  south  aisle  wall  is  com- 
pletely buried  under  the  debris  which  has  accumulated 
between  it  and  Trinity  churchyard,  and  upon  which 
the  road  alongside  of  Priory  Row  is  now  carried. 
Traces  of  the  walling  of  the  great  transept  are  per- 
ceptible adjoining  Hill  Top,  and  still  farther  east  an 
entrance  to  some  wine-vaults  gives  access  to  what 
has  been  frequently  but  erroneously  regarded  as  the 
cr}-pt  of  the  cathedral.  These  vaults  extend  west- 
ward, under  the  houses  in  Priory  Row,  as  far  as 
Hill  Top,  and  the  original  walling  is  clearly  per- 
ceptible ;  but  I  have  not  as  yet  discovered  the  least 
trace  of  vaulting,  or  of  semi-columns  or  corbelling 

o   2 


196  LICHFIELD. 

that  could  have  supported  any.  Nor  would  the  level 
allow  of  it,  unless  we  assume  that  the  floor  of  the 
choir  was  elevated  an  unreasonable  height.  What- 
ever there  may  be  of  crypt  (and  I  can  readily  believe 
in  the  existence  thereof),  it  is  below  this  level  that 
we  must  seek  for  it ;  and  referring  to  the  description 
of  Willis,  who  speaks  of  chambers  being  buried  under- 
ground, there  is  ample  room  for  the  supposition 
proving  correct,  could  a  thorough  investigation  be 
made  in  portions  of  the  site.  Between  Priory  Row 
and  the  river,  in  the  gardens  at  the  back  of  the 
houses,  and  in  the  wood-yard,  in  New  Buildings, 
and,  in  fact,  all  over  the  site,  are  traces  of  the  various 
monastic  buildings,  of  which  only  a  careful  and  com- 
plete examination  would  enable  us  to  form  an  ap- 
proximate idea  of  their  design,  plan,  age,  and  purpose. 
I  am  quite  satisfied  that  even  a  partial  excavation, 
where  practicable,  would  richly  repay  both  expense 
and  trouble." 


LICHFIELD.  197 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

WRECK     OF     THE     ABBEYS. 

Inquiry  into  the  State  of  Religious  Houses — Proposal  for  a  See 
of  Shrewsbury — Glimpses  of  Means  employed  to  Dissolve 
Abbeys  and  Friaries — Sales  of  Goods — Wreck  of  Country 
Chapels  — Foundation  of  Chester  See. 

On  the  22nd  of  December,  1536,  Layton  and  Legh, 
two  royal  commissioners  appointed  to  examine  and 
report  upon  the  state  of  monasteries  and  colleges, 
met  at  Lichfield  and  proceeded  thence  towards  York- 
shire, visiting  the  Trentside  abbeys  on  their  way. 
They  gathered  the  results  of  their  inquiry  into  Com- 
perta,  or  Registers  of  Disclosures.  The  disclosures 
are,  indeed,  of  the  most  abominable  kind,  Repton, 
Gresley,  St.  James,  and  the  Nunnery  at  Derby,  Dale, 
Whalley,  St.  Werburgh's,  Chester,  Birkenhead,  the 
Nunnery  at  Chester,  the  college  of  Manchester,  and 
St.  John's,  Chester,  and  Combermere — all  are  blasted 
with  foul  character,  only  varying  in  degree  of  iniquity. 
Every  special  sin  of  which  a  celibate  could  be 
imagined  guilty  by  vile  minds  was  laid  by  the  com- 
missioners at  monastic  doors.  The  new  Austin  friary 
of  Breadsall,  and  Bunbury  College,  Cheshire,  are 
the  only  exceptions  in  this  district. 

A  Black  Book  was  compiled  from  the  Disclosures 
throughout  the  country,  and  read  before  Parliament 


198  LICHFIELD. 

amid  cries  ot  "  Down  with  them!  Down  with  them!" 
Then  came  the  Act  which  gave  to  the  king  all  abbeys 
with  incomes  of  less  than  ;^2oo  a  year.  Not  a 
mitred  abbot  in  the  House  of  Lords  Hfted  his  voice 
against  it ;  and  the  bishops  were  by  no  means  reluc- 
tant to  the  removal  of  so  many  of  their  most  trouble- 
some opponents. 

By  this  sudden  sweep  the  great  abbeys  were  left  in 
trembling  loneliness.  Instead  of  seven  monasteries, 
with  an  aggregate  income  of  ;,^  1,6 9 9,  Cheshire  had 
now  only  three, — St.  Werburgh's,  with  a  revenue  of 
^1,003.  5s.  iid.  ;  Combermere,  worth  ^225;  and 
the  abbey  of  Vale  Royal,  which  Edward  I.  had 
founded  at  a  cost  of  ;^3 2,000,  and  which  held  out 
against  plunder.  In  1538,  "William  abbat  there"  wrote 
to  Cromwell  from  Lichfield  that  neither  he  "nor  my 
brethren  have  never  consented  to  surrender  our 
monastery,  nor  yett  doo ;  nor  never  will  doo  by  our 
willes,  onless  it  should  pleas  the  king  to  bid  us." 
Derbyshire,  which  had  houses  to  the  annual  value  of 
^859,  had  but  Darley  left  (^258).  Whalley  (^321), 
which  would  have  stood  alone  in  Lancashire,  had 
been  dissolved  for  "treason."  Staffordshire,  whose 
monastic  property  had  aggregated  ^1,494,  was  bereft 
of  all  but  Burton  (^267),  and  Delacres  in  Leek 
(^^227).  Combe  (^3ii)»  Merivale  {£2^^),  and 
Nuneaton  (;^2  53)  stood  in  Warwickshire,  besides 
the  cathedral  of  Coventry.  The  chantries,  friaries, 
and  collegiate  churches  were  not  then  touched. 

Though  the  monasteries  had  all  through  their  his- 
tory been  thorns  in  the  side  of  the  Church,  and 
had   preyed   without    mercy   on   the    parish   clergy, 


WRECK    OF    THE   ABBEYS.  1 99 

the  destruction  of  so  many  hallowed  and  beautiful 
buildings,  the  scattering  of  so  many  valuable  libraries, 
the  silencing  of  so  many  silvery  bells,  the  secularizing 
of  so  many  sacred  sepulchres,  cannot  be  thought  of 
without  regret.  The  contents  of  the  houses  were  sold 
almost  without  reserve,  the  sites  granted  or  sold  to 
laymen,  and  the  buildings  demolished.  On  one 
Sunday,  the  grantee  of  Repton,  assembling  all  the 
masons  and  carpenters  from  far  and  wide,  pulled 
down  the  priory  church,  "lest  the  rooks  should  come 
back  to  their  nest  and  build  again."  Cranmer  prayed 
Cromwell  to  grant  the  site  of  Rocester  to  a  friend  of 
his.  The  new  owner  of  Calwich,  near  Ashburne, 
"a  Lancashire  man,  made,"  wrote  Erdeswicke,  "a 
parlour  of  the  chancel,  a  hall  of  the  church,  and  a 
kitchen  of  the  steeple,  which  may  be  true,  for  I  have 
known  a  Cheshire  gentleman  who  hath  done  the 
like." 

The  bishop  of  Lichfield,  Lee,  got  St.  Thomas's, 
Stafford,  as  a  family  possession,  and  settled  Fowler, 
one  of  his  sister's  children,  there  as  a  country  gentle- 
man.    So  it  was  everywhere. 

A  bill  is  printed  by  Mr.  Wright,  which  was  unpaid 
as  late  as  1555.  It  goes  far  to  show  that  brokers 
followed  the  auctions.  "The  Worshipful  Johan 
Skudemore,  esquyer,"  is  reminded  that  he  bought 
bell  and  other  metal  at  the  abbey  sales,  and  that  he 
still  owes  for  lead — at  Rocester,  6  foder^;  Croxden, 
14  foder;  Delacres,  4  foder  j  Tutbury,  6  foder, 
I  quarter;  St.  Thomas,  44  foder;   Lilleshall,  5  foder; 

^  igh  cwt.  to  the  foder. 


200  LICHFIELD. 

Shrewsbury,  67^  foder,  300  lb. ;  Dudley,  4  foder — an 
enormous  weight  of  metal  !  Can  we  wonder  that  the 
poor  lead-miners  came  to  speedy  ruin  ? 

Whilst  the  wreck  was  going  on,  and  Henry's  heart 
was  warmed  by  the  smiles  of  his  approving  courtiers, 
as  well  as  by  the  rapid  filling  of  his  coffers,  he  pur- 
posed devoting  some  of  the  spoil  to  an  increase  of 
cathedrals  and  colleges.  A  scheme  was  draughted 
in  1538  for  endowing  a  bishopric  of  Nottingham  and 
Derby  out  of  the  abbeys  of  Welbeck,  Worsop,  and 
Thurgaton.  Shrewsbury  and  Wenlock  abbeys  were 
to  be  cathedrals  for  Salop  and  Stafford.  The  great 
minster  of  St.  Modwen  at  Burton  was  to  be  made 
a  collegiate  church  and  school.  This  scheme  was 
abandoned.  But  an  Act  had  been  passed  in  1534 
to  allow  the  appointment  of  twenty- four  suffragan 
bishops,  one  of  whom  was  to  take  his  title  from 
Shrewsbury.  Under  this  Act  John  Bird,  abbot  of 
Chester,  was,  in  1537,  consecrated  as  "John  of 
Penrith,"  to  assist  Lee. 

It  seems  that  Henry  had  a  second  scheme  for  the 
Shrewsbury  bishopric.     This  is  as  follows  : — 

SHREWSBURY. 
[Fol.  72  of  MS.] 
Fyrst  a  Bushope. 

Item  a  Deane  for  the  corps  of  his  promotion  xxvii.  //.   )       ,.  ^ 
Item  iiiii.  s.  by  day  ...  ...  ...     Ixxiii.  //.  ) 

Item  vi.  prebendaryes  each  of  them  in  corps  J 

vii.  //.  xvi.  s.  viii.  d.         ...  ...  ...       xlvii.  //.  >  cxx.  //. 

Item  to  each  of  them  viii.  d.  by  day  in  divident  Ixxiii.  //.  ) 
Item  a  scolemaster  to  tech  gramer  ...         xx.  //. 

Item  vi.   peticanons  to  kepe  the  quier  of  whice  oon 

of  them  shalbe  sexten  (/or  x.  //'. )  every  of  them  to  have 


SCHEME    FOR    SHREWSBURY    BISHOPRIC.         201 

yerly  x.  //.  and  the  vi.  [th]  that  shalbe  sexten  to  have 
yerely  xii.  //.  Item  a  gospeller  and  a  pistoler  which 
shalbe  bounden  to  kepe  the  quier  every  of  them  to 
have  by  yere  vi.  //.  xiii.  s.  iiii.  d.  Ixxv.  /i.  vi.  s.  viii.  (f. 

Item  vi.  laymen  to  sing  in  the  quier  every  of  them  to 

have  by  the  yere  vi.  It.  xiii.  s.  iiii.  d...         ...  ...       xl.  //. 

Item  a  master  to  tech  the  children  of  the  quier  by  yere        x.  //. 

Item  vi.    Choristers   every  of  them   to  have  by  yere 

iiii.  //.  vi,  s.  viii.  d.      ...  ...  ...  ...  ...       xx.  /;'. 

Item  bred  Wine  Wax  candell  and  oyle  for  the  churche 

by  yere  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...         v.  //. 

Item  to  two  servants  for  the  church  by  yere  wages  and 

diete      ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...  ...         x.  //, 

[Fol.  72  back  of  MS.] 

Item  iiii.  poore  men  or  of  the  king's  servants  decayed 

every  of  them  to  have  by  yere  v.  //.  . . .  ...  ...       xx.  //. 

Item  to  be  distributed  in  Almes  to  householders  yerely      xx.  //. 

Item  to  be  imployed  yerely  for  makyne  of  high  wayes       xx.  //, 

Item  for  the  Reparacions  yerely  ...     Ixvi.  //.  xiii.  s.  iiii.  d. 

Item  to  the  steward  of  landes    ...  ...  ...  ...         v.//. 

Item  to  the  Auditor  by  the  yere  ...  ...  ...  v.  //. 

Item  to  the  porter  for  his  wages  and  diete  by  the  yere         v.  //. 

Item  to  the  butler  for  his  wages  and  diete  by  the  yere         v.  /{. 

Item  to  oon  chief  Cooke  for  his  wages  and  diete  yei'e  v.  //, 

Item  a  under  Cook  for  his  wages  ...  ...  ...       iiii.//. 

Item  for  a  steward  for  the  kechyn  for  making  of  his 

book  by  yere     ...  ...  ...  ...        vi,  //,  xiii.  s.  iiii.  d. 

Item  a  Cater  which  shal  fynde  his  horse  at  his  charges 
to  have  by  the  yere  for  hys  diete  and  the  fynding  of 
his  horse  ...  ...  ...  ...        vi.  //.  xiii.  s.  iiii.  d. 

Item  for  extraordinarye  charges ...  ...  ...  ...        xx  //. 

XX 

Sum  of  all  the  charges  ...     v.  c.  iiii.  ix.  //.  vi.  s.  viii.  d. 

[Fol.  73  of  MS.]  [U.  ;^589,  6s.  Scf.] 

Sum  of  the  deductions  not  charged  with  tenthes  in  the 

commen  possession...  ...  ...  ...  cxxxiiii.  //. 

For  the  tenthes  Iiii.  //.  xi.  s.  iiii.  d.  ob.     \  xx. 
For  the  frutes  xxvi.  //.  xv.  .r.  viii.  d.  gd.  \  iiii.  //.  vii,  s.  ob.  gd. 

li.e.  £Zo.  -js.l 


202  LICHFIELD. 

And  soo  to  bere  the  charges  and  to  pay  tenthes  and 
first  frutes.  It  may  please  the  kyng's  Maiestie  to 
endowe  the  church  with  ...       vi.  c.  Ixix.  //.  xiii.  s.  ix.  d. 

li.e.  ^669.  1 3 J.  ^d.l 

Thus  ends  the  scheme  for  the  Bishoprick  of  Shrewsbury, 

A  titular  bishop  of  Shrewsbury  was  consecrated 
in  1537  in  the  batch  of  suffragans,  but  for  work 
elsewhere ;  and  Dr.  Boucher,  last  abbot  of  Leicester, 
was  nominated  as  bishop  of  that  diocese.  The 
abbey  revenues  were  worth  from  ;^53o  to  ^650 
a  year.  But  Henry's  debts  pressed  heavily,  and  he 
sold  the  estates  to  two  traffickers  in  monastic  land, 
who  again  parted  with  them  to  a  tailor ;  and  he,  to 
secure  his  spoil,  speedily  reduced  the  minster  buildings 
to  ruin,  leaving  only  the  nave  and  its  tower,  which 
formed  the  parish  church  of  Holy  Cross. 

The  disgraceful  trickery  by  which  the  greater 
abbeys  and  the  poor  friaries  were  induced  to  yield 
themselves  to  the  king  is  well  known.  Richard,  bishop 
of  Dover,  "except  that  he  was  a  lenient  and  simple- 
minded  man,"  was  not  a  bad  specimen  of  the  com- 
missioner sent  to  do  the  Avork  of  destruction.  He 
naively  tells  Cromwell,  in  1538,  "I  have  ben  at 
Coventre  and  Aderstone.  In  every  place  is  poverty, 
and  much  shift  made  with  such  as  they  had  before, 
as  jewel-selling,  and  other  shift  by  leases,  but  in  all 
these  plases  I  have  sett  stays  by  indentures  making, 
and  the  comun  seals  sequestering.  So  that  I  think 
before  the  year  be  out  there  shall  be  very  few  houses 
able  to  live,  but  shall  be  glad  to  give  up  their  houses 
and  provide  for  themselves  otherwise.  At  Atherston 
all  is  gone.     They  were  not  able  to  pay  my  costs, 


HOW   THE    FRIARIES    WERE    STRANGLED.         203 

nor  to  give  me  one  penny  of  the  contribution  to 
their  visiter  accustomed.  All  not  worth  40s.  and  a 
bell." 

And  again,  still  speaking  of  the  friaries, — 
"  I  have  to  bear  into  the  king's  hands  ii  convents 
at  AVorcester,  i  in  Bridgenorth,  i  in  Atherstone,  and  i 

in  Lechefylde Since  then  I  have  taken  in  the 

king's  hands  ii  convents  at  Stafford,  i  in  Newcastle 
Underlyne,  and  ii  in  Shrewsbury.  And  there  one 
standeth  still  ....  because  I  alvvay  have  declared 
that  I  had  no  commission  to  suppress  no  house,  nor 
none  I  did  suppress  but  such  as  was  not  abul  to  live. 
Iff  they  gave  their  howses  into  the  king's  hands  for 
poverty,^  I  received  them,  and  else  none.  Now  for 
that  house  in  Schrewsburey  that  standeth  yet,  it  is  of  the 
Black  friars,  and  I  could  find  no  great  cause  in  them 
to  cause  them  to  give  up.  And  also  it  shall  declare 
that  I  do  not  suppress  the  howses  but  such  as  give 
up.  The  Austen  Friary  at  Stafford  is  a  poor  house 
with  small  implements,  no  jewels,  but  one  little 
chalice,  no  lead  in  the  house,  in  rents  by  year  6s.  8d. 
The  Grey  Friars  there  has  half  the  choir  leaded  and 
a  chapel,  small  implements,  no  plate  but  a  chalice 
and  6  small  spoons,  in  rents  26s.  4d.  The  Black 
Friars  in  Newcastle  is  all  in  ruin  and  a  poor  house, 
the  quire  leaded  and  the  cloister  lead  ready  to  fall. 
Farms  by  the  year  40s.  One  Master  Broke  hath  got 
from  the  prior  by  three  leases  the  most  part  of  the 
houses  and  ground.  He  would  have  given  me  gold 
to  have  granted  two  of  his  leases,  but  I  took  no  peny 

'  The  reader  will  see  from  the  former  letter  how  carefully 
Dover  had  made  them  poor. 


204  LICHFIELD. 

of  him,  nor  of  none  other,  nor  non  ever  woll 

No  silver  there  above  xiii  oz. 

"  In  Shrewsbury  be  iii  houses.  The  Black  friars 
stand.  The  Grey  friars  had  conveyed  all,  and  made 
a  great  rumour  in  the  town,  for  which  they  were  glad 
to  give  up  all  in  the  king's  hands.  That  is  a  proper 
house  ....  no  jewels,  but  a  plate  cross  of  silver 
and  one  little  chalice  ;  no  rents,  but  iii  or  iiii  acres  of 
arable  land  lying  close  to  it.  The  Austen  Friars  are 
all  in  ruin  ;  nothing  in  the  house.  No  chalice  to  say 
Mass,  nor  would  anybody  lend  one.  No  friars  there 
but  the  prior — like  to  be  in  a  frenzy,  and  ii  Irishmen. 
I  have  discharged  the  prior  of  his  office  and  sent  the 
ii  Irishmen  to  their  own  country.  .  .  .  Pardon  my 
rude  writing  and  let  Mr.  John  Bothe,  a  great  builder 
in  those  parts,  have  Newcastle  material  for  money. 
That  Master  Bothe  for  your  sake,  shewed  me  many 
pleasures  and  gave  me  venison. 

"  I  hear  the  prior  (of  the  Austens,  Salop)  is  come 
to  London  to  sue  for  his  house  again.  It  were  pity 
that  he  should  speed." 

The  reckless  manner  in  which  the  sales  were  con- 
ducted may  be  seen  from  the  inventories  printed  by 
the  late  ]\Ir.  T.  Wright  and  the  late  Mackenzie 
Walcot.  At  Dieulacres,  six  oxen  sold  for  ;£4.  5s., 
sixty  ewes  and  lambs  for  66s.  8d.,  three  horses  for 
20s.,  and  thirteen  swine  for  as  many  pence  a-piece.^ 
At  the  Grey  Friars,  Stafford,  prices  were — four  vest- 
ments and  two  tunicles  of  old  pressed  velvet,  13s.  4d. : 
two  copes  of  red  tartan,  T2d.;  a  suit  of  blue  sarcenet, 
3s.  4d. ;  green  branched  silk,  6s.  8d,j  two  tunicles  of 
^  Sleigh's  "Leek,"  first  edition,  p.  63. 


PRICES  AT  ABBEY  SALES.  205 

dunne  silk,  2od. ;  three  altar  clothes,  126..  A  cope  of 
linen,  stained,  was  bought  by  a  friar  for  4d.  Two  rolles 
clothes  sold  for  6d.  The  prior  bought  two  corporas 
cases  for  4d.  Churchwardens  of  a  neighbouring  church 
bought  a  corporas  for  4d.;  Friar  Wood  bought  a  vest- 
ment of  blue  fustian  and  one  of  white  diaper  for  6d. 
A  yellow  say  vestment  brought  i2d.  All  the  seats  sold 
for  6d. ;  an  alabaster  table  for  2s.  8d.;  the  seats  in 
St.  Francis's  chapel  for  4d.,  an  image  of  St.  Catherine, 
6d. ;  all  the  books  in  the  quire  and  coffer  in  the  library 
— a  library  enriched  by  the  labours  of  Matthew  Staf- 
ford, a  local  chronicler, — for  2s.  A  pair  of  organs,  2s. ; 
the  books  in  the  vestry,  8d. ;  a  missal,  8d. ;  two  altar- 
candlesticks  and  a  pyx  of  copper,  i2d. ;  a  bere  frank, 
2d.  The  roof  of  the  noble  minster  at  Croxden,  whose 
walls  still  partly  stand,  fetched  ;£6  ;  and  the  roof  over 
the  dortar,  the  range  running  south  from  the  church, 
;^i.  13s.  4d.  The  three  great  bells  of  Hulton  sold 
for  ;^i9.  1 6s. 

Little  though  bishops  regretted  the  downfall  of 
the  abbeys,  Rowland  Lee  made  an  earnest  effort  to 
save  Coventry  Cathedral.  Cromwell  seems  to  have 
promised  that  it  should  stand.  But  in  January,  1537, 
the  bishop  wrote  from  Wigmore  Castle  : — 

"  I  am  informed  by  letters  enclosed  from  the  mayre 
and  aldermen  of  the  city  that  Dr.  London  repairs 
thither  for  suppression  of  the  same.  My  good  lord 
help  me,  and  the  city,  both  in  this  and  that  the 
church  may  stand,  whereby  I  may  kepe  my  name, 
and  the  city  have  commodity  and  ease  of  to  their 
desire,  which  shall  follow  if  by  your  Lordship's  good- 
ness it  might  be  a  college  church  as  Lichfield 


206  LICHFIELD. 

So  that  poor  city  shall  have  a  perpetual  comfort  of 
the  same,  as  knoweth  the  Holy  Trinity."  What 
happened  we  know. 

^Meantime  the  state  of  morality  seems  to  have  been 
low.  "  I  have  hitherto  visited  the  archdeaconries  of 
Coventry,  Stafford,  Derby,  and  part  of  Chester," 
wrote  the  notorious  Legh  to  Cromwell  in  August, 
1538.  Nothing  there  is  lacking  but  good  and  godly 
instruction  of  the  more  rude  and  poor  people,  and 
reformation  of  the  heads  in  those  parts.  For  certain 
of  the  knights  and  gentlemen,  and  most  commonly 
all,  live  so  incontinently,  having  their  concubines 
openly  in  their  houses,  with  fiv^e  or  six  of  their 
children,  putting  from  them  their  wives,  that  all  the 
country  be  therewith  not  a  little  offended,  and  taketh 
evil  example  of  them,"  He  had  taken  order,  he 
says,  with  such  for  their  reformation  under  pain  of 
the  vicar-general's  displeasure. 

The  hint  at  the  tail  of  this  letter  is  of  grim  signi- 
ficance. When  Lee,  the  bishop,  told  the  Friars 
Observant  of  Greenwich  that  he  left  them  to  be 
dealt  with  by  the  king,  the  ensuing  events  were  the 
suppression  of  the  whole  order  and  the  death  of 
mf^'-  friars  in  prison.  When  Legh,  the  visitor,  hinted 
to  Cromwell  that  the  gentry  of  the  diocese  needed 
chastisement  it  was  time  for  them  to  anticipate  trouble ; 
the  tick  of  Cromwell's  pencil  would  have  sent  the 
most  powerful  of  them  to  the  block.  The  northern 
district,  in  Cheshire  and  Lancashire,  had  been  bitterly 
offended  by  the  fall  of  the  monasteries.  The  abbot 
of  Whalley  had  been  hanged,  and  multitudes  of  the 
lower  class  had  taken  part  in  the  hapless  "pilgrimage 


SHRINES   DESTROYED.  207 

of  grace."  The  letter  shows  the  diocese  cowering  now 
at  Henry's  feet. 

Another  letter  to  Cromwell  from  Sir  William  Basset, 
of  Langley,  near  Derby,  illustrates  the  superstitions 
which  were  now  disappearing.  He  had,  he  said, 
within  forty-eight  hours  after  receiving  Cromwell's 
letter  fetched  to  his  own  house  the  images  of  St  Anne 
of  Buxton,  and  St.  Modwen  of  Burton ;  and,  lest 
there  should  be  a  return  to  superstition,  had  defaced 
the  tabernacle,  severely  lectured  the  attendants,  and 
removed  the  shirts,  sheets,  and  votive  wax,  and  crutches, 
as  things  which  allured  and  enticed  the  ignorant  people 
to  make  offerings  there.  He  had  also  locked  up  the 
baths  at  Buxton,  and  sealed  the  doors,  lest  any  should 
wash  in  them  till  Cromwell's  pleasure  were  further 
known. 

There  was  a  similar  shrine  at  lugestre.  In  the 
reign  of  Henr}-  VH.  a  chapel  had  been  built  on  the 
waste  there,  near  some  salt  springs.  An  aged  man, 
formerly  clerk  there,  told  Walter  Chetw}-nd  that  the 
adjoining  wells  were  '•  much  frequented  by  lame  and 
diseased  persons,  many  whereof  found  there  a  cure 
for  their  infirmity,  insomuch  that,  at  the  dissolution 
thereof,  the  walls  were  hung  about  with  crutches,  the 
relics  of  those  who  had  been  benefited  thereby.  Xor 
was  the  advantage  small  to  the  priest,  the  oblations 
of  the  chapel  being  valued  in  the  king's  books  at 
£6.  13s.  4d."i 

When  the  shrines  fell  into  the  royal  coffers  Lee 
again  exerted  himself  on  behalf  of  that  of  St.  Chad  at 

'  "Chetw}Tid  MS.,'-  Salt  Librarv. 


2o8  LICHFIELD, 

Lichfield.  A  prebendary  ran  away  with  tlie  saint's 
bones,  but  the  jewels  and  precious  metals  of  the 
shrine  were  granted  for  the  "  necessary  uses  "  of  the 
fabric. 

In  1545  the  collegiate  churches,  chantries,  hospi- 
tals, guilds,  and  fraternities  of  the  country  were  confis- 
cated. Then  fell  the  old  royal  chapels  of  Stafford, 
Shrewsbury,  Chester,  Bridgenorth,  Derby,  and  Penk- 
ridge,  and  the  newer  foundations  of  Newport,  Astley, 
Macclesfield,  Tonge,  Battlefield,  &:c. 

Some  idea  of  the  havoc  thus  wrought  in  Stafford 
alone  may  be  formed  from  the  fact  that  ten  years 
before  there  had  been,  within  a  circle  with  a  radius  of 
half  a  mile,  one  royal  college  with  twelve  preben- 
daries; a  dean  in  St.  Mary's  ;  St.  Bertoline's,  a  parish 
church,  adjoined  it ;  another  in  the  main  street  of 
the  town,  St.  Chad's,  had  one  clergyman.  There  were 
two  hospitals,  two  friaries,  and  a  priory.  There 
remained  but  the  parish  church  of  St.  Chad,  with  its 
one  clergyman ;  and  the  shell  of  St.  Mary's  Minster, 
with  a  lonely  rector  and  vicar.  St.  Bertoline's 
Church  was  forsaken ;  and  a  wide  circle  of  country 
chapels,  which  had  been  dependent  on  the  canons 
of  the  minster,  were  left  to  tumble  into  picturesque 
ruin. 

Nor  did  the  bishopric  escape.  For  nearly  a  thou- 
sand years  the  bishops  of  Lichfield  had  been  lords  of 
nearly  all  the  land  between  Eccleshall  and  Lichfield. 
7^hey  had  redeemed  it  from  a  state  of  waste.  In 
1547,  Henry  VIII.  compelled  Bishop  Sampson  to 
surrender  the  manors  of  Longdon  and  Haywood  in 
exchange  for  tithes  worth  ^183  a  year,  in  order  to 


WRECK    OF    THE    ABBEYS.  209 

enrich  the  Paget  fomily.  By  this  iniquitous  piece  of 
tyranny  the  Church  was  robbed  of  her  ancient  rights 
in  Longdon,  Whittington,  Haselour,  Morehull,  Street- 
hay,  Curborough,  Somerfield,  Harborne  and  Smeth- 
wick,  Pipe,  Wall,  Woodhouse,  Pipe  Ridware,  Norton 
and  Wirley,  Fisherwick,  Tipton,  Freeford,  Hanascre 
and  Armitage,  Weeford,  Thickborne,  Hints,  Packing- 
ton,  Tymore,  Tamhorne,  Corboro',  Elmhurst,  Caldi- 
cott,  Stotfold,  and  Hammerwich.  The  bishop  thus 
lost  two  of  his  principal  manor-houses,  and  hence- 
forth lived  at  Eccleshall,  as  being  the  centre  of  his 
remaining  lands.  Then,  too,  the  manors  of  Gayton, 
Chadsunt,  Bishop's  Ichington,  Tachbrook,  and  the 
rectory  of  Fenny  Compton,  in  Warwickshire,  were 
wrested  away. 

The  see  of  Chester  was  founded  in  1541.  The 
abbey  of  St.  Werburgh  became  a  cathedral*  church  ; 
a  bishop  was  domiciled  in  the  abbot's  lodge,  a  dean 
in  St.  Thomas's  Chapel^  and  a  grammar-school  set  u]) 
in  the  refectory.  Cheshire  and  Lancashire  formed 
the  see. 

After  the  loss  of  its  minster,  the  population  of  the 
ancient  and  beautiful  city  of  Coventry  declined  by 
half  in  a  single  generation. 

The  city  of  Lichfield  suffered  little  in  the  wreck, 
except  in  the  final  closing  of  the  palace  and  the 
migration  of  the  bishops  to  Eccleshall. 

Burton  Abbey  church  was  for  a  short  time  made 
collegiate,  but,  being  again  robbed,  lost  its  chancel 
and  degenerated  into  a  feebly  endowed  parish  church. 
So  it  was  at  Stone. 

Some  antiquary  in  days  to  come  will  show  in  start- 
p 


2IO  LICHFIELD. 

ling  colours  how  heathen  ideas  of  "  boggart "  and 
goblin,  and  pixie  and  fairy,  re-appeared  in  the  moor- 
lands of  Staffordshire  and  the  broad  forest-slopes  of 
East  Cheshire,  and  how  the  people  fell  back  into 
some  of  the  groping  darkness  of  Druidic  tradition, 
after  the  wreck  of  Combermere  and  Chester  abbeys 
drained  away  almost  all  the  endowments  of  the  scat- 
tered chapels  in  the  wide  parishes  of  Alstonfield  and 
Prestbury  into  lay  hands. 

In  a  list  at  the  end  of  his  noble  volumes  on  the 
"  Derbyshire  Churches,"  Mr.  Cox  has  given  the 
names  of  ninety-five  chapels  in  Derbyshire  which  have 
disappeared  since  King  Henry  robbed  the  minsters. 
And  so  it  was  everywhere  ;  for  country- churches  can- 
not survive  the  loss  of  endowment. 

Prayer  and  praise  in  many  a  lonely  hillside  chapel 
were  then  silenced.  The  ruins  of  such  chapels  round 
Stafford  show  the  sweeping  character  of  the  desolat- 
ing blow  which  fell  upon  St.  Mary's  Minster.  Hopton 
and  Salt  utterly  lost  their  churches,  though  recent 
piety  has  now  done  much  to  recover  the  villages^  from 
the  three  centuries  of  barbarous  semi-heathenism 
into  which  they  then  fell.  The  walls  of  Cresswell 
chancel  still  sadden  the  traveller  as  he  passes  along 
the  railway  north  of  the  town.  What  had  happened 
at  Coventry  happened  at  Cresswell.  The  silencing  of 
worship  in  the  village  church  was  followed  by  the 
depopulation  of  the  village.     There  are  now  but  two 

'  A  late  Earl  Talbot  built  and  endowed  Salt  Church  a  few- 
years  ago,  and  the  vicar,  Rev.  Prebendary  Bolton,  built  and 
re-opened  a  mission-chapel  at  Hopton. 


WRECK    OF    THE    ABBEYS.  2TI 

houses  in  the  parish,  and  the  "  vale  of  increase  "  has 
become  a  dismal  swamp. ^ 

Bad  as  the  monks  had  been,  they  were  at  least 
ecclesiastics,  under  control  of  the  bishop,  in  their 
dealings  with  their  poor  village  chapels.  The  life  of 
the  minster  throbbed,  if  feebly,  in  the  farthest  of 
those  chapels.  The  parish  churches  were  the  abbey's 
lungs ;  their  endowments  the  very  breath  of  its 
nostrils.  Henceforward,  chapel  was  clubbed  with 
chapel  to  eke  out  the  beggarly  stipend  of  a  parson 
who  on  Sundays  went  afoot  from  one  to  another  to 
say  the  services  and  preach  the  "Word.  Little  wonder 
that  some  of  the  people  began  to  slip  through  the 
enfeebled  Church's  fingers. 

Even  deeper  depths  of  spoliation  must  be  fathomed 
before  we  can  turn  to  the  brighter  side  of  this  period 
of  history.  The  parish  churches  had  lost  much  of 
their  possessions  in  the  wreck  of  the  minsters  by  which 
half  of  them  were  appropriated.  The  laity,  demo- 
ralised by  so  much  robbery,  now  began  to  lay  violent 
hands  on  church  vessels  and  vestments.  Lonely 
churches,  such  as  Castle  Church  and  Baswich,  Staf- 
ford, were  broken  into  and  robbed.  To  Bonsall,  in 
1553,  came  "John  Nauton,  and  dyd  take  from  the 
tabul  two  corporas  with  the  case  vioUnter,  insomuch 
as  the  parsons  did  not  minister  for  the  want  of  them." 
Nauton  was  probably  an  ultra-Reformer.  Another 
rogue,  Henry  Browne,  was  probably  a  Retrogressionist ; 


'  "Chetwynd  MS.,"  Salt  Library.  IMuch  has  lately  been 
done  to  drain  the  marshes  north  of  Staftbrd,  but  still  they  flood 
mercilessly. 

P      2 


212  LICHFIELD. 

for  he  "  tooke  away  the  Communion  Boke  violenter!^ 
The  inhabitants  of  Rushton,  near  Leek,  sold  a  chalice 
and  a  bell  to  repair  Hug  Bridge.  At  Shareshill  a  bell 
had  been  sold  "  by  the  assent  of  the  whole  parish 
for  ;^4,  whereof  ^2  peyd  to  the  bysshope  for  his 
laysance  to  byrrey,  and  30s.  to  his  officers  for  the  com- 
positions, and  ye  resydeu,  which  is  los.,  remenes  in 
the  hands  of  one  Fyllyp  Duffeld."  Mr.  Richard 
Norton,  late  churchwarden  of  Newcastle,  had  sold 
two  brass  candlesticks  ;  and  a  former  surveyor  "  toke 
away  one  chalice  weing  7  oz.,  belonging  to  the  service 
of  the  Treneti."  St.  Mary's,  Stafford,  had  lost  a  set 
of  splendid  vestments  by  lending  them  to  Master 
Doctor  Aparie.  From  the  wrecked  prebendal  chapel 
of  Hopton  "  three  grett  belles  "  were  taken,  and  two 
from  Salt. 

It  was  now  no  uncommon  thing  for  a  man's  hall  to 
be  hung  with  altar-trappings,  and  his  wife  to  be  clad 
in  costly  eucharistic  vestments.  Friends  pledged 
each  other  in  chalices,  and  watered  their  horses  in 
marble  coffins  taken  not  only  from  the  ruins  of  the 
minsters,  but  out  of  the  churches.  The  king's  council, 
therefore,  determined  to  stop  sacrilege  by  taking  the 
ornaments  and  vestments  which  were  left.  In  the 
seventh  year  of  Edward  VI.  they  made  a  clean  sweep 
of  the  vestries,  leaving  in  each  only  a  surplice  for  the 
curate,  a  chalice  and  paten,  and  one  or  two  linen 
cloths  for  Holy  Communion,  the  sacring  bells,  and 
the  bells  in  the  towers.  What  rich  plunder  the  king 
thus  gathered  may  be  inferred  from  a  few  extracts  from 
the  inventories.  At  Alstonfield,  a  moorland  parish 
church,  which  had  already  lost  its  rectory  in  the  ruin 


PLUNDER  OF  PAROCHIAL  VESTRIES.       2x3 

of  Combermere  Abbey,  the  commissioners  left  as 
usual  the  articles  mentioned  above,  the  "  gret  bells  " 
in  the  steeple  being  three.  But  they  took  two  copes 
of  blue  velvet  and  gold  ;  one  sepulchre  cloth  of  yellow 
and  red  sarsenet ;  three  vestments  of  velvet,  sey,  and 
fustian;  four  other  old  ones,  and  an  albe ;  two 
stoles,  five  fans,  twelve  pelles,  two  chasubles,  and 
four  corporases ;  five  old  altar-cloths,  four  towels, 
one  font-cover,  one  rochet,  eight  old  banner-cloths, 
two  candlesticks  of  brass,  three  crosses  of  brass,  a 
pair  of  brass  censors,  two  wooden  pyxes,  and  two 
cruets  ;  one  lantern,  one  old  veil,  one  chalice  and 
paten  of  silver,  a  hand-bell,  four  little  bells,  a  pyx 
and  cover,  a  holy-water  stock  of  wood  [and  a  pick 
and  spade  to  make  graves  with].  At  Ranton,  a 
church  without  a  tower,  two  bells  were  left  hanging 
on  a  tree,  and  a  sanctus  bell.  The  latter  kind  of 
bell  seems  to  have  been  left  in  most  places. 


214  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE  MARTYRS  AND  QUEEN  MARY. 

Some  Fruits  of  the  Reformation. 

Had  the  Reformation  consisted  only  of  spoliation 
and  destruction,  it  would — with  the  exception  of 
clearing  away  superstitious  objects — have  been  wholly 
bad.  To  this  day  the  country  has  not  recovered 
from  the  effects  of  the  large  measure  of  disendow- 
ment  which  then  took  place. 

But  there  was  a  brighter  side.  Light  broke  in 
through  the  rents  made  in  the  sanctuary  walls.  An 
English  service  and  an  open  Bible — neither  the  one 
nor  the  other  substantially  new — were  put  into  the 
people's  hands.  Parsons  again  became  preachers  ; 
and,  though  communities  of  religious  men  had  been 
scattered,  the  lonely  "curat"  might  now  take  to  him- 
self a  wife.  And  so,  on  the  ruins  of  medievalism 
rose  again  the  happy  sight  which  England  had  lost 
for  centuries — the  English  parsonage,  with  its  blessed 
and  powerful  influences  for  good. 

The  bishop  of  Chester  was  married.  So  was 
Laurence  Saunders,  the  martyr,  when  he  read  accept- 
able divinity  lectures  in  Lichfield  Cathedral.  ,  And 
when  he  was  in  prison,  in  Mary's  reign,  "his  wife 
yet  came  to  the  prison-gate,  with  her  young  child  in 
her  arms,  to  visit  her  husband.     The  keeper  durst 


\ 


THE  MARTYRS  AND  QUEEN  MARY.      215 

not  suffer  her  to  come  into  prison.  Yet  did  he  take 
the  little  babe  unto  his  father.  Saunders,  seeing  him, 
rejoiced  greatly,  saying  that  he  joiced  more  to  have 
such  a  boy  than  two  thousand  pounds.  And  to  the 
byestanders,  which  praised  the  goodliness  of  the  child, 
he  said,  '  What  man,  fearing  God,  would  not  lose 
this  life  present,  rather  than  by  prolonging  it  here  he 
should  adjudge  this  boy  to  be  a  bastard,  his  wife  a 
whore,  and  himself  a  whoremonger  ....?'" 

Laurence  Saunders  was  one  of  a  band  of  power- 
ful and  popular  preachers,  who,  under  the  govern- 
ment of  Edward  VI.,  preached  the  reformed  faith. 
These  men  were  followed  by  vast  multitudes,  who 
hung  upon  their  lips  and  drank  in  deep  draughts 
of  scriptural  truth. 

A  pleasant  glimpse  of  reformed  religion  is  seen  in 
the  life  of  Joan  Waste,  who  was  martyred  at  Derby, 
under  Bishop  Baine,  in  1556.  "When  she  was 
about  12  or  13  years  old,"  says  an  old  manuscript, 
which  smacks  of  Fox,i  "  she  learned  to  knit  hosere 
and  sleeves,  and  other  things,  which,  though  blind, 
she  could  in  time  doe  verrie  well,  ....  and  in  no 
case  would  be  idle.  Thus  continued  she  with  her 
father  and  mother  during  their  lives.  After  their 
departure  she  kept  with  Robert  Waste,  her  brother. 
In  the  time  of  Edward  VI.,  of  blessed  memorie,  she 
gave  herself  dailie  to  goe  to  the  church  to  hear  Divine 
service  read  in  the  vulgar  tongue.  And  thus,  by 
hearing  homilies  and  sermons,  she  became  marvel- 
lously well  affected  to  the  religion  then  taught.     So 

'  Printed  in  Glover's  "  Derljyshire,"  ii.  612. 


2l6  LICHFIELD. 

at  length,  having  by  her  labour  gotten  and  saved  a 
New  Testament,  she  caused  one  to  be  provided  for 
her.  And  she  was  of  herself  unlearned,  and  by  reason 
of  her  blindness  unable  to  reade ;  yet,  for  the  greate 
desire  she  had  to  understand  and  have  printed  in 
her  memorie  the  sayinges  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
contained  in  the  New  Testament,  she  acquainted 
herself  chiefly  with  one  John  Hurt,  then  prisoner 
in  the  common  hall  of  Darbie  for  debts.  This  sober, 
grave  man,  of  three  score  and  ten  yeares,  did,  for  his 
exercise,  daylie  read  unto  her  some  one  chapter  of 
the  New  Testament.  If  he  were  otherwise  occupied, 
or  letted  through  sicknesse,  she  would  repair  unto 
one  John  Pemerton,  clerke  of  the  parish  church  of 
All  Saintes,  in  Derby,  ....  and  sometimes  she  would 
give  a  penie  or  two  to  such  persons  as  would  not 

freely  read  to  her Without  a  guide  she  could 

go  to  any  church  in  Derbie.  In  her  life  she  expressed 
the  vertuous  fruits  and  exercise  of  her  knowledge  of 
God's  Holy  Word." 

Not  less  pleasant  is  Becon's  account  to  his  friends 
of  the  Peake  country  : — "  Coming  into  Alsop  in  the 
Dale,  I  chanced  upon  a  certain  gentleman  called 
Alsop,  lord  of  that  village,  a  man  not  only  ancient  in 
years,  but  also  ripe  in  the  knowledge  of  Christ's 
doctrine.  He  showed  me  his  books,  which  he  called 
his  jewels.  There  was  the  New  Testament,  after  the 
translation  of  Myles  Coverdale,  which  seemed  to  be 
as  well  worn  by  the  diligent  reading  thereof  as  was 
ever  portass  or  mass-book,  ....  Many  gentlemen 
do  not  only  love  but  live  the  Gospel.  He  had  many 
godly  books,  as  'The  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,' 


RELIGION    IN    THE    PEAKE.  217 

*  The  Parable  of  the  Wicked  Mammon,'  '  The  Reve- 
lation of  Anti-Christ,'  '  The  Law  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures,' '  The  Book  of  John  Frith  against  Purgatory,' 

&c In   these   godly   treatises,    this   ancient 

gentleman,  among  the  mountains  and  rocks,  occupied 
himself  diligently  and  virtuously." 

A  religious  movement  which  could  produce  cha- 
racters of  this  sort  was  surely  of  God.  They  were  of 
pure  metal,  and  when  the  fires  of  Mary's  reign  tried 
them  they  shone  out  brightly.  Saunders  died  grandly 
at  Coventry ;  Joan  Waste  at  Derby.  Actuated  by 
the  example  of  the  former,  Robert  Glover  and  Joice 
Lewis,  two  Warwickshire  gentlefolk,  went  to  the 
stake.  Baine  sent  the  mayor  of  Coventry  to  appre- 
hend John  Glover.  The  mayor  disliked  his  errand, 
and  sent  Mr.  Glover  word  that  he  had  better  be  out 
of  the  way  when  he  came.  Robert  was  an  invalid 
brother  of  John,  and  was  then  lying  ill  in  the  house. 
Failing  to  find  John,  the  scoundrels  forced  Robert  to 
get  up  and  go  with  them,  though  the  warrant  was 
not  for  him.  Baine  ordered  him  and  some  of  his 
companions  in  sorrow  to  Lichfield.  It  was  four 
o'clock  ere  they  reached  that  city  and  dismounted 
at  the  Swan.  After  supper,  Jephcot,  the  jailer  of  the 
Close,  came  and  hurried  the  invalid  into  a  loathsome 
dungeon.  Thence  again  he  was  sent  to  Coventry, 
where  he  and  Cornelius  Bungay  were  led  to  death  in 
a  place  called  the  "  Hollows,"  outside  the  city  gate. 
Victorious  over  all  the  pains  of  death.  Glover 
seemed  to  see  his  Master  in  person.  He 'dapped 
his  hands  and  cried,  "  Austin,  He  is  come  I  He  is 
come  !" 


2l8  LICHFIELD. 

Mrs.  Lewis,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Curzon  of 
Croxall,  and  niece  of  Bishop  Latimer,  a  neighbour  of 
the  Glovers  in  Warwickshire,  fell  into  Baine's  hands 
soon  afterwards — coolly  led  to  prison  by  her  husband. 
She  was  burned  at  Lichfield.  Some  wine  having  been 
procured  for  her,  she  stood  by  the  stake,  saying,  "  I 
drink  to  all  them  that  unfeignedly  love  the  Gospel 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  and  wish  for  the  abolish- 
ment of  popery."  Her  friends  drank  also,  and  many 
vromen  of  the  company  ;  numbers,  including  even 
the  sheriff,  cried  ^^  Ameny 

Six  persons  are  said  to  have  been  burnt  in  Lich- 
field diocese  under  Mary ;  Sampson,  the  bishop,  died 
at  the  beginning  of  her  reign.  Mary  began  by 
claiming  headship  of  the  Church  of  England,  and,  as 
such,  she  granted  licenses  to  preach.  But  she  stopped 
the  pilfering  of  Church  property;  made  Lichfield  into 
a  county  of  itself;  and  enabled  Baine,  whom  she 
made  bishop,  to  save  something  to  his  successors 
from  the  general  wreck.^  Baine  was  a  bishop  to  her 
mind.  Having  begun  young  to  fight  the  pope's 
battles,  he  became  hardened  into  his  service  by  keen 
controversy,  and  held  the  belief  that  there  could  be 
no  Church  outside  the  Roman  jurisdiction.  He  had 
squabbled  with  Latimer  at  Cambridge,  in  1530,  so 
furiously  as  to  disturb  the  peace  of  the  University. 
England  had  soon  become  too  hot  for  him,  till  Mary 
recalled  and  promoted  him  to  Lichfield.    His  dogged 

'  Mary  restored  some  fragments  of  Church  property,  endowing, 
for  example,  two  clergy  in  All  Saints',  and  one  in  St.  Alk- 
mund's,  Derby,  in  place  of  the  thirteen  whose  maintenance 
Edward  VI.  had  confiscated. 


THE    MARTYRS    AND    QUEEN    MARY.  219 

adherence  to  the  pope  came  out  without  restraint 
when  he  sat  with  Tonstall,  Bonner,  and  others,  to 
examine  Archdeacon  Philpot.  And  even  after  Mary's 
death  he  was  still  high  in  power  and  influence  among 
the  ruling  classes,  from  which  Mary's  fires  had  burnt 
out  the  reforming  party.  He  and  Scott  of  Chester — 
a  man  of  his  own  sort — were  two  of  eight  champions 
chosen  to  argue  on  the  Roman  side  against  eight 
English  Churchmen  in  a  dispute  which  was  to  have 
been  held  at  Westminster.  He  buried  Mary,  and 
resigned  the  see  when  Elizabeth  became  queen. 

If  Baine  is  to  be  regarded  as  belonging,  after  his 
resignation,  to  any  Church  other  than  the  Church  of 
England,  that  Church  died  with  him.  Neither  he 
nor  any  of  his  brother  seceders  handed  on  their 
"  succession "  by  ordaining  others  to  follow  them. 
At  their  deaths  they  left  no  other  Church  in  existence 
than  that  from  whose  episcopal  thrones  they  had 
retired.  The  modern  Roman  Catholic  sect  in  Eng- 
land had  then  no  existence  in  England.  We  shall 
presently  note  its  arrival  here. 


220  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

FRESH    HEART    UNDER    EL1Z\BETH. 

Grammai"  Schools  —  Literary  Bishops  and  Deans  —  State  of 
the  Diocese — Schools — Poverty  of  Clergy — Church  Sports, 
Ales,  and  Plays — Rise  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Sect — 
Controversy  between  New  Roman  Catholics  and  Old 
Churchmen. 

The  furious  storm  through  which  the  Church  of  this 
diocese  passed  in  the  days  of  Henry  VHI.  and  his 
daughters  did  not  overthrow  it.  With  the  exception 
of  Bishop  Ralph  Baine  (1554-1558),  who  treason- 
ably refused  to  own  EHzabeth  either  as  Christian  or 
queen,^  Dean  Ramridge,  Draycott,  the  red-handed  chan- 
cellor, a  few  canons,  and  a  very  few  clergy,-  the  men 
who  ministered  in  the  churches  in  the  days  of  the 
Latin  mass  went  on  without  disturbance  into  the  use 
of  the  reformed  Prayer-book.  For  that  book  was 
only  a  version  of  the  old  services  translated  into 
English  dress,  and  disentangled  from  the  corrupt 
growths  of  centuries. 

Bishop  Baine  was  full  of  disease  when  he  resigned 

'  He  would  neither  swear  allegiance  nor  give  her  the  Eucha- 
rist. Scott,  of  Chester,  went  into  lay  communion  at  the  same 
time. 

^  Perhaps  fourteen  out  of  640.  I  have  examined  the  bishop's 
*'  Register"  for  this  number.  Dean  Ramridge  ran  away  into 
Flanders,  where  he  was  waylaid  by  thieves  and  robbed  and 
murdered.' 


LITERARY    BISHOPS    AND    DEANS.  221 

the  see,  and  was  dead  before  his  successor,  Thomas 
Bentham  (1560-1579),  was  consecrated.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  William  Whitlock,  the  Lichfield  chroni- 
cler, who  lived  through  the  Reformation,  speaks  of 
Bentham,  not  as  the  firsts  but  as  the  "  sixty-fifth 
bishop  in  order  from  Diuma  the  first,"  ^  and  with  that 
remark  the  Mediaeval  Chronicles  end.  Whitlock's 
chronicle  ceases  with  the  life  of  Bishop  Bentham. 
His  predecessor,  Thomas  of  Chesterfield,  ended  his 
story  at  the  height  of  Roman  corruption  ;  Whitlock 
lays  down  his  pen  as  soon  as  he  sees  the  Church 
once  more  free. 

Whilst  Baine  had  been  sitting  in  judgment  on 
Archdeacon  Philpot,  Thomas  Bentham,  his  successor, 
was  in  exile  with  Ball,  Pilkington,  and  others.  Baine 
himself  had  come  from  abroad  when  Edward  VI. 
died,  and  been  made  bishop ;  Bentham  returned 
before  Mary's  death.  Indeed,  during  part  of  Mary's 
reign  he  had  ministered  to  the  one  congregation  in 
London  which,  amid  "  enemies  more  sharp-sighted 
than  Argus  and  cruel  than  Nero,"  kept  up  the  Re- 
formed Worship  ;  and  which,  though  "  often  dispersed 
by  the  attacks  of  its  enemies,"  and  "  losing  a  very  great 
number  of  its  members  at  the  stake,"  had,  "  never- 
theless, grown  and  increased  every  day."  A  sermon 
of  Bentham's  after  Mary's  death  set  the  Londoners 
in  a  blaze  of  controversy,  and  drew  from  the  new 
queen  an  order  to  silence  pulpits. 

Mild  in  the  exercise  of  power,  and  exemplary  in 
their  daily  lives,  passing  most  of  their  time  among 
the  towers  and  trees  of  Eccleshall  Castle,  the  Reformed 

'   "Arglia  Sacra,"  vol.  i.,  459. 


22  2  LICHFIELD. 

bishops  of  Lichfield  were  unlike  their  rich  and  bust- 
ling predecessors.  For  learning  and  contemplation 
then  took  the  place  of  wealth  and  incessant  excite- 
ment. Bishops  no  longer  ruled  provinces,  galloped 
from  manor  to  manor,  or  muttered  curses  from  church 
altars  at  deer-stealers.  Their  full  energy  was  spent  on 
inquiry  into  that  Divine  Truth  to  which  the  destruction 
of  Medigevalism  had  turned  attention,  and  which  has 
since  become  the  passion  of  the  English  Church. 
The  current  period  was  a  breathing-time,  a  time 
for  weighing  the  many  arguments  which  various 
parties  had  put  forth,  and  for  careful  deliberation  with 
a  view  to  future  action. 

Laurence  Newell,  the  new  dean  of  Lichfield 
(1559-1576),  was  one  of  the  first  fruits  of  the 
new  style.  The  condensation  of  the  minster 
services  into  mattins  and  evensong  left  the  minster 
clergy  full  time  for  reading.  He  looked  about 
him  probably  for  the  precious  wreckage  of  abbey 
libraries  which  was  then  floating  in  the  markets, 
and  treasured  up  a  number  of  documents  which 
have  come  down  to  us  in  the  Cotton  Library.  He 
even  revived  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon,  and  has  left 
a  Dictionary  of  the  language  in  the  Bodleian  Library. 
His  leisure  became  "learned."  The  Reformed  cathe- 
drals were  beginning  to  nurse  the  sciences  as  they 
had  hitherto  nursed  the  arts. 

During  the  Tudor  period,  a  period  of  destruction, 
grammar  schools  struck  root.  Derby,  one  of  the 
oldest  in  the  diocese,  had  been  founded  as  an  abbey 
school  by  Bishop  Durdent.  Stafford,  about  1450; 
Wolverhampton,     15 15;     Sutton    Coldfield,     1519; 


GRAMMAR    SCHOOLS,  223 

and  Bridgenorth,  1503,  were  all  probably  schools  of 
the  new  learning.  Edward  VI.  and  Elizabeth  aug- 
mented them  out  of  the  wreck  of  Church  property, 
and  founded  others.  To  Stafford  Edward  VI.  gave 
the  two  old  hospitals  of  St.  John  and  St.  Leonard. 
Shrewsbury  Abbey  School  was  saved  from  perishing 
by  a  share  of  the  spoils  of  the  royal  collegiate  church 
of  St.  Mary,  Salop.  Bridgenorth,  in  1547,  got  part 
of  the  plunder  of  the  chantries  of  the  town.  Walsall 
was  similarly  augmented  by  Queen  Mary  in  1553; 
Birmingham  in  1552  by  Edward  VI. ;  Nuneaton  in 
1553  out  of  the  possessions  of  the  Trinity  guild  of 
Coventry;  Wellington,  1549.  In  Mary's  reign  the 
bishop  augmented  Lichfield  Grammar  School.  Queen 
Elizabeth  founded  Ashborne  School  in  1585  ;  Chester- 
field, Tamworth  (out  of  the  guild  of  St.  George), 
Atherstone,  1573.  In  her  reign  a  number  of  schools 
were  endowed  by  private  individuals.  Lawrence 
Sheriff  in  1567,  founded  Rugby,  settling  on  it  the 
endowments  of  Brownsover  Parsonage,  Sir  John 
Port,  in  1557,  bought  part  of  the  ruins  of  Repton 
Priory,  and  founded  a  school  there;  the  head-master 
living  in  the  Prior's  Lodge  to  this  day.  Thomas 
Allen  founded  Stone  and  Uttoxeter  schools.  On 
the  ruins  of  Coventry  Cathedral  a  school  had  been 
grafted  by  Henry  VIII. 

The  dates  of  these  schools  show  how  lardy  the 
crown  was  to  recognise  the  duty  of  carrying  on  the 
good  work  of  education  which  abbey  and  collegiate 
church  had  laid  down  at  the  general  dissolution  in  1538. 

Heavily  as  Elizabeth  preyed  upon  Church  property 
elsewhere,  she  did  something  here — little  though  it 


224  LiCHFIELD. 

Avas — towards  restoring  it.  Coming  through  Stafford 
on  her  way  from  Chartley  Castle  to  that  of  Stafford, 
she  was  met  at  the  Eastgate  by  the  Corporation,  who 
gave  her  a  draught  of  fine  ale  in  a  grand  two-handled 
cup.  The  schoolmaster  made  a  pathetic  statement 
of  the  misery  into  which  the  royal  old  town  had 
fallen  since  the  wreck  of  its  Church  institutions. 
Moved,  either  by  the  ale  or  the  speech,  she  promised, 
and  eventually  accomplished,  the  return  of  some  of 
the  property  of  St.  Mary's.  But  the  gift  was  entrusted 
to  the  Corporation,  and  they  kept  the  larger  part  of 
it  for  themselves.  They  paved  the  streets  with  the 
prebend  of  Marston.  Nor  did  their  brethren  of 
Derby  deal  more  honestly  with  the  returns  of  INIary 
for  the  support  of  the  two  robbed  minsters  there. 
For  hundreds  of  years  both  municipal  bodies  cheated 
the  churches,  until  Henry  Cantrell,  vicar  of  St.  Alk- 
mund's,  Derby,  in  the  last  century,  and  William  Cold- 
well,  lately  rector  of  St.  Mary's,  Stafford,  forced  their 
hands. 

Deep  indeed  was  the  poverty  of  the  clergy  now. 
The  vicar  of  St.  Alkmund's,  Derby,  starving  on  ^8  a 
year,  perhaps  hardly  ever  received,  hanged  himself 
on  the  rope  of  his  smallest  bell.  Not  only  had  the 
endowments  of  the  churches  been  swept  into  lay 
hands,  but  many  of  the  sources  of  income  open  in 
pre-Reformation  times  were  of  necessity  now  closed. 
Marriage,  too,  now  being  fully  permitted  to  the 
clergy,  was  more  common,  increasing  poverty. 

The  old  style  of  religion  had  been  endeared  to  the 
less  educated  classes — indeed,  to  the  heart  of-  merrie 
England  " — by  its  festivities.     The  churches  had  been 


OLD  ENGLISH    SUNDAY    SPORTS.  225 

pleasant  meeting-places,  not  so  much  for  worship  as 
for  gossip.  Sunday  was  the  great  day  for  sport  and 
relaxation,  and  many  an  old  stone  among  us  still 
bears  marks  of  the  arrow-sharpening  which  went  on 
after  service  was  over,  in  preparation  for  bouts  of 
archery.  The  church  ales  were  as  popular  as  the 
church  wakes.  They  were  the  "tea-parties"  and 
"  bazaars  "  of  our  fathers.  Sometimes  they  were  held 
in  a  circle  of  villages  for  the  benefit  of  a  particular 
church.  So  in  1532  the  little  village  of  Chaddesden 
spent  34s.  lod.  on  an  "  aell "  for  the  benefit  of  the 
grand  tower  of  All  Saints',  Derby,  which  was  then 
being  built,  and  earned  by  it  over  ^25.  8s.  6d. — more 
than  ;^4oo  of  our  money;  Brailsford  spent  14s.  5d., 
and  paid  in  ^^ii.  3s.  4d.  to  the  same  good  work. 
Wirksworth,  also,  for  an  outlay  of  27s.  yd.  returned 
a  sum  which  is  not  named.  These  carousals  were 
held  in  church.  Henry  VIII.  succeeded  in  banishing 
them  from  the  sacred  buildings  ;  but  whilst  Bradford 
the  Martyr  thundered  from  the  rood-loft  at  Man- 
chester to  a  breathless  crowd,  a  greater  crowd  was 
engaged  in  boisterous  sports  outside.  At  Stafford 
the  parish  churches,  and  also  the  Grey  Friars,  were 
repaired  by  a  fund  raised  at  the  "  Hobby  Horse,"  1 — 
a  procession  of  a  wooden  horse  gaily  decorated 
with  ribbons,  and  accompanied  by  music  and 
morrice-dancers  who  begged  from  door  to  door. 
Lichfield   had    its    "  Green    Hill   Bower,"   which    is 

'  "Old  Hob," — a  terrible  figure,  made  with  the  skull  of  a 
horse  and  drapery  covering  a  man  who  works  the  jaws, — acting 
"soulers,"  and  soul-cake  begging  are  still  popular  in  East 
Cheshire  and  Staffordshire. 

Q 


226  LICHFIELD. 

Still  popular ;  and  until  lately  there  were  merry  pro- 
cessions at  Wolverhampton  minster.  The  Derbyshire 
Well  Dressings  grow  in  popularity  year  by  year,  and 
place  after  place  is  reviving  them. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  Elizabeth's  long  reign. 
For  years  the  same  comprehensive  spirit  animated 
the  Church,  which  yet  embraced  all  parties,  even 
those  who  longed  for  the  return  of  Mediaevalism,  and 
the  "  few"  who,  like  Lever,  archdeacon  of  Coventry, 
were  inclined  to  push  Reformation  to  Puritanical 
extremes. 

With  the  Papists,  religion  soon  became  treason.  They 
spoke  of  England  as  ruled  by  a  "female  papacy,  un- 
lawfully begotten,  and  lawfully  deposed  by  the  pope." 
In  the  year  1569,  Pope  Pius  V.  was  foolish  enough 
to  issue  a  Bull  to  that  effect.  All  his  adherents, 
therefore,  had  to  choose  between  obedience  to  him 
on  the  one  hand,  and  schism  from  the  Church  of 
England,  of  which  they  were  members,  and  treason 
to  the  queen  on  the  other.  And  it  was  then  that  the 
English  Roman  Catholic  sect  first  began  to  exist  as  a 
separate  body. 

The  dioceses  of  Lichfield  and  Chester  furnished 
their  share  of  these  traitors.  The  hills  of  Derbyshire, 
the  woods  of  Chester  and  Stafford,  and  the  lonely 
sea-coast  of  Lancashire  sheltered  many  a  family  who 
were  slow  to  learn  the  Reformed  faith. ^  From  Rossal, 
near  Fleetwood,  the  notorious  Cardinal  Allen  sprang. 
He  it  was  who  gathered  brave  young  English  youths 

'  The  pre-Reformation  Church  was  the  Church  of  England. 
The  Church  of  Rome  was  always  a  distinct  and  foreign  body, 
never  located  in  England  till  now. 


RISE    OF   THE    ROMAN    SECT.  227 

into  seminaries  abroad  and  then  sent  them  forth  to 
preach  treason  in  England  as  "  seminary  priests." 
Whilst  he  remained  secure  over  sea,  they  were  taken 
like  birds  in  the  snare  of  the  fowler,  and  died  like 
Britons.  The  English  felt  the  justice  of  Elizabeth's 
severity,  but  were  sorry  for  the  youths  who  perished. 
Ludlam,  Garlick,  and  Sympson,  who  were  condemned 
at  Derby  assizes,  and  executed  on  Derby  gallows  in 
1588,  had  something  of  the  bearing  of  martyrs,  and 
some  of  their  quartered  remains  were  fetched  away 
at  night  for  burial  with  full  approval  of  the  town 
watchmen.  An  entry  in  an  old  Stafford  manuscript 
shows  the  feeling  there  : — 

"1587.  This  yere  Mr.  Baileffs  tooke  a  seminarye 
preist  called  Sutton  sayinge  of  masse  in  the  town. 
And  there  was  taken  with  him  Erasmus  Wolsley, 
Esquier,  William  Macclesfeilde,  Esquier,  Anthony 
Crompton,  gent.,  William  Mynors,  one  Mr.  Sprott, 
and  two  others  called  Thornburye,  who  were  all 
arraigned  at  the  next  assize  and  condemned  of  treason. 
The  preist  was  a  very  reverend,  learned  man,  and  at 
his  arraignment  disputed  very  stoutly  and  learnedlye. 
He  only  was  executed,  that  was  hanged  and  quar- 
tered. And  it  was  done  in  a  most  villainous,  butcherly 
manner  by  one  Moseley  [town  hangman],  who  with 
his  axe  cut  off  his  head  while  he  had  yet  sence  and 
was  readye  to  stand  upp,  through  his  mouth.  The 
others  afterwards  fined  out  their  pardons." 

The  coming  of  the  Spanish  Armada  in  1587,  and  the 
subsequent  detection  of  many  a  foul  plot  here  and  else- 
where, justified  the  Government  in  the  use  of  strong 
measures.    But  Churchmen  left  harsh  measures  to  the 

Q  2 


2  28  LICHFIELD. 

civil  power,  contenting  themselves  with  the  use  of 
moral  and  literary  weapons.  Thenceforward  our 
divines  bore  the  brunt  of  a  fierce  attack  from  the  vast 
and  powerful  hosts  of  Papists  abroad.  The  digni- 
taries of  Lichfield  were  foremost  in  the  fray.  Thomas 
Morton  began  to  write  whilst  bishop  of  Chester,  and, 
when  promoted  to  Lichfield  (1618-1632),  even  ven- 
tured to  engage  Bellarmine  on  the  royal  supremacy.^ 
DeanTooker  (1604-1620),  a  writer  of  elegant  Latin, 
fought  a  literary  "  duel  "  with  Martin  Becani,  a  Jesuit 
of  Mentz.  The  latter  says  he  has  heard  of  Tooker 
as  a  "genial  and  court-like  minister,  who  eats  and 
drinks  exquisitely,  and  knows  only  the  kitchen  and 
the  wine-cellar."  The  "genial"  life  of  the  reformed 
English  clergy,  forsooth,  was  not  less  a  puzzle  to 
the  gloomy  papists  than  the  ponderous  learning  and 
crushing  logic  of  the  Anglican  champions. 

After  Bentham's  time,  a  break  occurs  in  the  grand 
series  of  diocesan  registers.  From  Langton,  1297,  to 
Bentham,  1578,  the  series  is  complete  and  treasured 
up  in  fourteen  large  volumes.  But,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  few  Acts  of  Overton  and  the  Registers  of 
Morton,  1618-31,  and  Hackett,  1662-70,  the  series 
is  not  resumed  till  1692,  whence  it  comes  down  to  our 
own  day,  the  whole  being  comj^rised  in  thirty-two 
volumes. 

'  Both  volumes — that  of  Morton  on  the  "  Supremacy,"  and 
Becani's  reply — are  in  the  Salt  Library,  which  is  .1  rich  treasury 
of  Staffordshire  lore. 


LICHFIELD.  229 


CHAPTER   XX. 

DEVELOPMENT    OF    PURITAN    BITTERNESS. 

Great  Literary  Bishops — They  write  whilst  the  Laity  read — 
Roman  Pretended  Miracles — The  Bishop  of  Lichfield  sent 
to  the  Tower. 

William  Overton  (i 580-1 609),  promoted  to  the 
see  of  Coventry  and  Lichfield  from  the  rectory  of 
Stoke-on-Trent,  owed  his  education  to  Glastonbury 
Abbey.  Like  his  dean,  he  was  genial,  hospitable 
and  kind  to  the  poor ;  and  he  kept  his  house  in  good 
repair,  "  which  married  bishops  were  observed  not  to 
do."  A  printed  sermon  of  his,  on  "  Discord,"  may 
have  been  suggested  by  a  famous  quarrel  which  hap- 
pened between  himself  on  the  one  side,  and  Beacon 
and  Babington,  struggling  together  for  the  chancellor- 
ship of  the  diocese,  on  the  other.  The  dispute  was 
carried  to  the  council,  who  referred  it  to  the  arch- 
bishop ;  he  again  "  travailed  much "  with  Overton, 
that  both  combatants  might  be  appointed  in  com- 
mission, but  had  at  last  to  send  Whitgift  of  Win- 
chester to  settle  the  dispute  on  the  spot,  Zachary 
Babington  becoming  chancellor. 

Overton,  who  was  twice  married,  died  at  Eccleshall, 
and  was  succeeded  for  a  month  by  Dr.  George  Abbot 
(Dec.  3,  1609,  Jan.  20,  16 10),  Dean  of  Winchester 
and  Prolocutor  of  Convocation.     Abbot  could  hardly 


230  LICHFIELD. 

settle  here  before  his  translation  to  London.^  He 
was  the  lifelong  opponent  of  Laud,  whom  he  pre- 
ceded to  Canterbury,  2 

So  far,  the  two  dioceses  of  Lichfield  and  Chester 
had  been  governed  by  quiet  inoffensive  bishops,  who 
fostered  theological  learning,  and  allowed  the  freest 
study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Our  lonely  woods  and 
hills  were  last  to  feel  the  glow  of  enthusiastic  devo- 
tion which  the  Bible  inspired.  But,  in  and  about 
the  larger  towns,  men  of  refinement  and  wealth  were 
striving  hard  to  mould  their  lives  upon  Bible  rules. 
These  men  were  the  earlier  Puritans,  and  were  by 
no  means  Dissenters.  But  a  series  of  causes  began 
with  the  reign  of  James  which  did  much  to  alienate 
them.  Not  least  of  these  was  the  change  in  the 
character  and  policy  of  the  bishops. 

One  of  them,  Richard  Neill  (16 10-16 14), 
was  an  exaggerated  instance  of  King  James's  rapid 
translations.  Consecrated  to  Rochester  in  1608, 
he  came  hither  in  16 10;  and,  holding  also  the 
deanery  of  Westminster,  was  moved  to  Lincoln 
1 614,  to  Durham  161 7,  to  Winchester  1628,  and  to 
York  1632.  No  other  bishop  has  ever  been  moved 
so  often,  "  He  hath  made  a  shift  to  be  taken  for 
a  knave  generally  with  us  at  the  Court."  Abbot 
hated  him,  "He  dealt  ill  with  the  late  lord-treasurer, 
and  most  falsely  with  the  archbishop  (Bancroft)." 
He  was  one  of  the  four  bishops  who  concurred  in 
divorcing  the  Earl  and  Countess  of  Essex  in  1613, — 

^  Four  or  five  of  his  works  are  in  the  Salt  Library  ;  and  also 
his  brother's  sermon  at  the  wedding  of  Sir  John  Stanhope. 
*  His  sermon  on  "The  Sabbath"  is  in  the  Salt  Library. 


WIGHTMAN    BURNT,  23 1 

a  dirty  business.  But  his  name  has  a  deeper  stain. 
When  the  king  raised  a  storm  by  burning  Bartholomew 
Legate,  for  a  sort  of  Unitarianism,  in  Smithfield, 
Neill  determined  to  support  him  by  burning  Edward 
Wightman,  of  Burton-on-Trent,  at  Lichfield.  Wight- 
man  held  the  "  wicked  heresies  of  the  Ebionites, 
Cerinthians,  Valentinians,  Arians,  Macedonians,  of 
Simon  Magus,  of  Manes,  of  Manichaeus,  Photinus, 
and  the  Anabaptists,  and  other  heretical,  execrable, 
and  unheard  of  opinions." 

From  a  picked  body  of  the  judges  the  king  had 
obtained  an  opinion  that  heretics  might  still  be  burnt, 
and,  when  Neill  had  tried  and  excommunicated  Wight- 
man,  a  royal  warrant,  dated  March  9,  1611-12,  was 
sent  to  the  sheriff  of  Lichfield  to  burn  him.  Derby- 
shire men  will  hear  with  pleasure  that  the  promoters 
of  this  bloody  deed  took  especial  pains  that  Lord 
Coke  should  not  be  included  among  the  judges  who 
were  asked  to  decree  it  lawful. 

Neill's  successor,  John  Overall  (1614-1618), 
takes  a  high  place  in  Church  history.  He  wrote 
the  part  of  the  grand  old  Church  Catechism  which 
explains  the  Sacraments,  and,  in  defence  of  the  Divine 
Right  of  Government,  a  "Convocation  Book"  which 
was  suppressed  for  a  time,  but  which  produced  a 
profound  impression  when  it  converted  Shirlock 
nearly  a  century  later.  He  was  the  friend  of  Vossius 
and  Grotius ;  a  man  of  deep  scholastic  learning ; 
and,  as  perhaps  the  greatest  teacher  of  his  time, 
was  able  to  break  up  the  narrow  Calvinism  which 
had  taken  possession  of  the  Church,  and  to  infuse 
into  it  something  of  his   own  better  Arminianism. 


232  LICHFIELD. 

"  I  asked  Archbishop  Williams,"  says  Racket,  "  what 
it  was  that  pleased  him  in  Dr.  Overall  above 
all  others  that  he  had  heard.  He  gave  me  this 
answer  : — '  First,  Dr.  Overall  was  used  to  prove  his 
conclusions  out  of  two  or  three  texts  of  Scripture,  at 
the  most,  and  no  more ;  being  such  places  upon 
whose  right  interpretation  the  judgement  of  the  cause 
did  chiefly  depend.  Secondly,  that,  above  all  men 
that  he  ever  heard,  he  did  most  pertinently  quote 
the  Fathers.  And  thirdly,  when  he  had  fixed  what 
was  prime  and  principal  in  any  debate,  with  great 
meekness  and  sweetness  he  gave  great  latitude  to 
his  auditors,  how^  far  they  might  dissent,  keeping  the 
foundation  sure  without  breach  of  charity. ' " 

Overall  was  translated  to  Norwich  in  1618,  and 
died  in  the  following  year. 

Neill  had  burnt  a  heretic.  Thomas  Morton 
bishop  of  Chester  1 616-16 19,  and  of  Lichfield  1619- 
1632,  was  destined  to  set  the  country  in  a  blaze. '^ 

The  definite  teaching  of  Overall  left  this  diocese 
quiet  and  orthodox.  But  schism  grew  apace  in  Chester, 
and  soon  spread  into  the  hill  country  of  Lichfield. 

As  bishop  of  Lichfield,  Morton  travelled,  con- 
ferred with  schismatics,  and  preached  as  diligently 
as  he  had  done  while  bishop  of  Chester.  Here 
he  wrote  his  Caii^a  Regia  against  Bellarmine,  and 
a  small  square  tract  against  local  Papists,  whom, 
in  162 1,  he  found  pretending  to  work  miracles. 
"  The  Romish  priests  at   Bilston  are  desirous    that 

^  For  a  notice  of  the  causes  which  produced  Puritanism,  see 
Chester  m.  this  series  of  "Diocesan  Histories."  Morton  wrote 
"The  Book  of  Sports." 


ROMAN    WONDERS    EXPOSED.  233 

their  disciples  should  know  whether  the  Protestants 
or  Romanists  are  more  safe  in  their  religion.  To 
this  purpose  they  advise  with  their  faithful  doctor, 
the  devil,  and  set  the  resolution  down  in  what  they 
call  'A  Faithful  Relation.'"  This  '^Relation" 
was  an  account  of  the  Boy  of  Bilston,  whom  they 
had  "  possessed  with  a  devil."  "  I,"  saith  the  priest, 
"  commanded  the  devil  to  show  how  he  would  use 
one  dying  out  of  the  Romish  Church,  which  he  did 

by  violent  pulling  and  byting  of  the  clothes 

Then  I  asked  him  what  power  he  had  over  a  Roman 
Catholicke  dying  out  of  mortall  sinne  ?  Hee  then 
thrust  doun  his  head,  trembled,  and  did  no  more." 
The  boy  presently  accused  a  woman  of  having 
bewitched  him,  and,  at  her  trial  at  Stafford  in  162 1, 
was  handed  over  to  the  bishop  for  examination.  The 
bishop  fetched  him  to  Eccleshall,  posed  the  devil 
with  a  sentence  or  two  of  the  Greek  Testament, 
caught  the  boy  in  the  manufacture  of  "  symptoms/' 
and  sent  him  back  to  Stafford  effectually  cured. 

One  of  the  pleasantest  traits  of  the  time  is  the 
patronage  of  the  bishops  and  nobles  for  promising 
scholars.  Overall  had  young  John  Cosin,  "whom 
he  liked  well  for  his  knowledge  and  fair  writing,"  as 
his  secretary  at  Eccleshall,  and  Neill  took  the  youth 
when  Overall  died.  Morton  fostered  George  Canner, 
a  blind  boy,  whom  he  sent  to  Cambridge  with  an 
uncle  to  take  care  of  him,  and  then,  having  taught 
him  theology  in  his  own  palace,  ordained  him,  and 
gave  him  the  vicarage  of  Clifton  Campville,  the 
rectory  of  which  he  held  with  the  see  in  commendam. 
The  blind  vicar  used  to  recite  the  prayers  and  preach. 


234  LICHFIELD. 

The  Lessons  he  could  repeat  after  twice  hearing  them 
read  by  his  uncle ;  the  Sacraments  had  to  be  ad- 
ministered by  deputy. 

Gilbert  Sheldon,  the  future  archbishop,  Avho  was 
born  at  Stanton,  near  Ashburne,  in  1598,  and  had 
received  his  baptismal  name  from  Gilbert  earl  of 
Shrewsbury,  his  father's  master,  was  now  a  young 
Oxford  graduate.  John  Lightfoot,  son  of  the  vicar 
of  Uttoxeter,  had  been  born  at  Stoke-on-Trent  Rec- 
tory in  1602,  where  his  father  lived  as  curate.  In 
1 617  he  went  up  to  Cambridge  from  a  school  at 
Moreton  Green,  near  Congleton  ;  and  at  nineteen 
years  of  age  was  a  master  in  Repton  school.  At 
twenty-one,  he  was  ordained  to  the  curacy  of  Norton 
in  Hales,  Salop,  where  he  met  with  Sir  Robert  Cotton, 
and  began  in  earnest  the  study  of  Hebrew.  He  was 
vicar  of  Stone  Prior}'  in  1628,  where  he  married,  and 
in  1630  rector  of  Ashley,  in  the  same  county  of  Staf- 
ford. There  he  built  himself  a  study  in  the  garden, 
and  spent  day  and  night  in  reading  the  holy  tongue. 

Bishop  Morton  was  a  friend  of  Isaac  Casaubon 
and  of  the  archbishop  of  Spalatro,  who  came  over  as 
a  convert  from  the  Roman  Church.  Spalatro  got  good 
preferment  here,  but  went  back  again  in  hope  of 
better  when  he  heard  that  an  old  school-fellow  was 
to  be  pope.  Morton  begged  him  to  remain  in  Eng- 
land.    "  Does  your   lordship  expect  to  convert  the 

pope  and   his    conclave  ?  "  he   asked "  Do 

you  take  them  for  devils,  that  they  cannot  be  con- 
verted ? "  was  the  testy  rejoinder.  "  No,  my  lord, 
nor  take  I  Spalatro  for  a  god  that  he  should  be 
able  to  convert  them.     What  about    the  Council  of 


DEVELOPMENT    OF    PURITAN    BITTERNESS.       235 

Trent  ? "  "I  will  venture  to  say,"  returned  the 
foreigner,  "  that  there  are  thousands  upon  thousands 
in  Italy  with  whom  that  council  goes  for  nothing." 
On  getting  to  Rome,  Spalatro  found  that  his  friend 
was  dead.  The  new  pope  knew  not  this  Joseph  ;  but 
his  defection  from  Rome  he  did  know,  and  the  luck- 
less wanderer  died  in  prison. 

Robert  Wright  (163 2- 1644)  followed  Morton. 
He  has  been  censured  by  some  writers  as  a  covetous 
man.  They  say  that  he  made  Bristol  poor  before  he 
came  hither,  and  that  he  laid  his  axe  heavily  on  the 
Eccleshall  timber.  But  he  suffered  much.  For 
his  share  in  Laud's  "Canons"  he  was  fined  ;^5,ooo. 
Both  the  churches  of  the  diocese  and  their  services 
were  greatly  improved  under  him.  Copes  and  music 
were  again  used  in  the  cathedral,  and  something  of 
Patteshull's  reverence  for  the  altar  was  re-enjoined. 
In  1 641  he  was  one  of  the  twelve  bishops  who  left 
the  House  of  Lords  because  the  populace  were 
becoming  excited  against  bishops.  They  left  it  with 
the  famous  protest  against  legislation  in  their  absence. 
For  this  the  twelve  were  taken  into  custody,  and 
Wright,  as  an  old  man,  was  allowed  to  plead  his  own 
cause  at  the  bar  of  the  Commons.  He  appealed  to 
the  members  from  his  present  and  past  dioceses  for 
their  "  knowledge  of  his  courses."  He  desired  to 
"regain  the  esteem  which  he  was  long  in  getting,  but 
had  lost  in  a  moment."  "  For  if  I  should  outlive,  I 
say  not  my  bishopric,  but  my  credit,  my  grey  hairs 
and  many  years  would  be  brought  with  sorrow  to  the 
grave." 


236  LICHFIELD 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

CULMINATION    OF    PURITAN    BITTERNESS. 

The  Outbreak  of  the  Great  Rebellion — How  Lichfield  Cathedral 
fared— Sufferings  of  the  Clergy — Some  Good  Features  of 
the  Anarchy — Boscobel. 

In  1 641  the  Puritan  faction  roused  popular  feeling 
against  the  Church.  The  bishops  found  it  dangerous 
to  attend  the  House  of  Lords.  The  famous  protest 
of  the  twelve  bishops,  already  mentioned,  was  then 
drawn  up.  On  Jan.  30,  1642,  the  protestors  were 
voted  to  the  Tower,  and  episcopal  voters  banished 
from  the  Lords  with  the  king's  consent.  Petitions 
then  poured  in  to  this  maimed  and  defective  Parlia- 
ment from  all  parts,  interceding  for  episcopacy  and 
the  Liturgy.  That  from  Cheshire  was  signed  by 
10,000  yeomen  and  gentlemen.  "Our  pious,  ancient, 
and  laudable  form  of  Church  service,"  it  said,  "com- 
posed by  holy  martyrs  and  worthy  instruments  of 
reformation,  with  such  general  consent  received  by 
all  the  laity,  that  scarce  any  family  or  person  that 
can  read  but  are  furnished  with  Books  of  Common 
Prayer,  in  the  conscionable  use  whereof  many 
Christian  hearts  have  found  unspeakable  joy  and 
comfort,  wherein  the  famous  Church  of  England, 
our  dear  mother,  hath  just  cause  to  glory."  But 
Scotch  treason,  Puritan  malice,  moorland  ignorance, 
and  city  faction  were  now  leagued  against  her,  and 


THE    BISHOP    GARRISONS    ECCLESHALL.  237 

the  usurping  Parliament  swept  her  away.  The  over- 
whehning  political  influence  of  the  Scotch  insured 
the  passing  of  the  "  Root  and  Branch  Bill "  in  the 
autumn  of  1642.  In  September,  1643,  the  "Pres- 
byterian Directory  "  was  forced  on  the  clergy  ;  and  in 
February,  1644,  every  person  over  eighteen  years  of 
age  was  ordered  to  take  the  Covenant.  Churchmen 
could  not  take  it  without  "  injury  and  perjury  to 
themselves."  The  clergy  therefore  forfeited  their 
livings  in  thousands,  and  went  out  in  mid-winter  to 
starve  or  beg.  For  a  year  the  silence  of  utter  deso- 
lation fell  upon  most  of  the  sanctuaries,  and  blood  was 
flowing  like  water :  for  war  was  raging  now  on  every 
side,  and  Langton's  strong  walls  and  deep  moats 
became  useful.  Though  the  king  had  betrayed  the 
Church  and  led  the  clergy  into  ruin,  they  were  loyal 
still.  The  old  Bishop  of  Lichfield,  robbed  of  his 
revenues,  shut  himself  up  with  a  royalist  garrison 
in  Eccleshall  Castle.  Chester,  Stafford,  and  Lich- 
field, struck  for  the  king.  The  cathedral  close  wsLSpj^, 
the  point  first  assailed.  Lord  Brook  prayed,  as  he  .  j 
approached  it,  for  a  token  from  heaven  that  the 
destruction  which  he  designed  for  it  was  of  God. 
On  St.  Chad's  day,  1643,  "Dumb  Dyott "  saw  him 
from  the  central  tower,  and  aimed  a  bullet,  which 
struck  a  piece  of  timber  and  glanced  off  into  his 
brain.  Then  Sir  John  Gell,  of  Hopton,  took  com- 
mand. Stowe  Church  became  a  Roundhead  garrison ; 
and  on  Sunday,  March  5,  the  Close  capitulated,  and 
was  filled  by  roundheads.  In  April,  however.  Prince 
Rupert,  after  a  ten  days'  siege,  drained  the  moat  and 
stormed   the  northern  walls   with   great   loss.     The 


238  '  LICHFIELD. 

place  yielded,  on  the  21st,  and  Colonel  Hervey  Bagot 
was  left  in  charge  of  it  for  the  king. 

During  the  short  time  that  the  Roundheads  had 
the  Close  they  wrecked  it,  destroying  monuments, 
burning  records,  and  smashing  windows,  bells,  and 
organs.  They  hunted  a  cat  through  the  aisles, 
christened  a  calf  in  the  font,  and  carried  away  all 
they  could  before  Prince  Rupert  came,  leaving  the 
great  spire  lying  in  ruin  over  the  chapter-house. 

Stafford  had  been  taken  by  treachery.  Gell  was 
now  at  the  head  of  the  mercenary  Moorlanders,  and 
a  strong  league  took  up  quarters  at  Eccleshall,  and 
stormed  the  castle  for  a  week  in  vain,  fortifying  them- 
selves in  the  church  when  attacked  by  royalists  who 
had  come  to  relieve  the  castle.  Captain  Bird  then 
gave  place  in  the  castle  to  "  Abel  a  Dane,"  who 
betrayed  it  in  three  days.  Only  one  of  its  brave 
old  towers  now  remains  to  show  what  defiance  the 
bishops  of  Lichfield  could  once  hurl  at  their  foes. 

Bishop  Wright  died  during  the  siege.  And  in  1 644, 
Accepted  Frewen,  president  of  Magdalen  College, 
Oxford,  was  consecrated  in  his  college-chapel  by  the 
archbishop  of  York  and  four  bishops,  on  the  king's 
nomination.  But,  having  neither  cathedral,  revenues, 
nor  power,  he  retired  into  Kent,  and  lived  there  till 
t66o,  v/hen  he  was  translated  to  York. 

In  1646,  when  the  king's  cause  had  become  des- 
perate, the  close  at  Lichfield  finally  opened  its  gates 
to  the  Parliamentary  spoilers.  ^ 

'  For  the  Earl  of  Northampton's  sally  from  Lichfield,  and 
death  at  Hopton,  see  "Peterborough,"  in  this  series  of  "Dio- 
cesan Histories,"  page  184. 


CLERGY    ROBBED    AND    SPOILED.  239 

Coventry,  during  these  times,  was  disloyal, — 
avenging  the  loss  of  its  "  holy  and  beautiful  house  " 
a  century  before  upon  the  race  of  the  sacrilegious 
king, — and  in  consequence  lost  the  first  place  in  the 
title  of  the  bishop.     There  Baxter  thundered. 

Meantime,  the  committees  for  "  scandalous  "  and 
"  plundered "  ministers  made  havoc  of  the  clergy 
who  remained.  Walker  has  told  us  of  some  of  these, 
but  as  he  was  a  Devonshire  man  he  knew  but  little  of 
the  vast  amount  of  suffering  which  here  fell  upon 
them.i 

All  the  dignitaries  of  Lichfield  were  deprived ; 
and  only  eight  or  ten  of  them  lived  to  be  restored. 
Higgens,  archdeacon  of  Derby,  was  precentor. 
When  the  Close  was  attacked  he  got  away  to  the 
king's  army,  and  ere  long  found  himself  a  prisoner 
at  Coventry.  There  he  bought  his  liberty  at  a 
high  price,  and  retired  to  his  living  at  Stoke-on- 
Tern.  He  had  been  shot  at  as  he  went  to  prayers 
in  the  minster  at  Lichfield ;  his  wife  and  family 
were  now  turned  into  the  street  at  Stoke,  the 
neighbours  being  forbidden  to  give  them  shelter. 
When  he  got  his  "  fifth  "  of  the  living  he  set  up  a 
little  school,  but  was  deprived  even  of  that,  and  his 
family  were  reduced  to  beggary.  "  I  myself,"  wrote 
his  son,  "  not  having  tasted  a  bit  of  bread  for  two  or 
three  days,  have  been  glad  to  satisfy  my  hunger 
on  crabbs  and  hedge-fruits."  The  archdeacon  of 
Coventry  "  was  urged  with  drawn  swords  and  bloody 

^  He  mentions  20  in  Cheshire,  5  in  Derbyshire,  13  in  Lanca- 
shire, 31  in  Salop,  17  in  Staffordshire,  and  16  in  Warwickshire. 


240  LICHFIELD. 

halberds  to  serve  the  idol "  (so  he  called  the 
Covenant) ;  "  they  offered  me  ;^4oo  per  annum, 
sweetened  with  commendation  of  my  abilities,  to 
bow  to  it."  At  Alford,  in  Cheshire,  soldiers  drove 
the  rector's  wife  mad  by  carrying  her  out  of  the 
house  to  abuse  her  on  a  dunghill.  The  rector  of 
Clifton  Campville  was  thrown  into  Coventry  gaol 
when  the  plague  was  there.  Mr.  Langley  was  de- 
prived of  St.  Mary's,  Lichfield,  because  he  had 
preached  and  administered  the  Sacrament  on  Christ- 
mas-day. Soldiers  broke  into  Staunton  Rectory,  Salop, 
at  midnight,  with  cocked  pistols,  seized  "  the  rogue," 
as  they  called  the  rector,  and  ripped  open  his  beds 
to  make  sacks  for  his  tithe-corn.  When  Dr.  Temple, 
vicar  of  Burton-on-Trent,was  gone  to  London  to  meet 
his  persecutors,  his  wife  was  dragged  out  of  childbed 
and  placed  in  a  chair  in  the  churchyard  in  the  middle 
of  a  cold  night.  The  livings  were  left  vacant  or  filled 
with  makeshifts  of  the  poorest  sort.  One  Peartree, 
a  pedlar,  succeeded  Dr.  Arnway  at  Hodnet;  Crutch- 
low,  a  butler,  followed  Mr.  Orpe  at  Staunton  ;  and 
Hopkins,  a  glover,  became  quasi-vicar  of  High 
Ercall. 

In  1643  the  bishop's  estates  were  confiscated;  the 
manors  of  Frees,  Burton-in-Wirral,  Farndon,  Knuts- 
hall,  and  Eccleshall  were  sold,  together  with  various 
rents  and  the  palace  of  Coventry,  for  a  total  sum  of 
^^29,180.  Deans  and  chapters  had  been  abolished 
previously,  though  not  without  eloquent  speeches 
from  Sir  Benjamin  Rudyard,  and  from  Dr.  John 
Hacket,  who  was  heard  at  the  bar  of  the  Commons. 

It  is  often  said  now-a-days    that   the   Church  of 


CULMINATION    OF    PURITAN    BITTERNESS.         24I 

England  is  a  "  Parliamentary  Church,"  The  suffer- 
ings of  our  fathers  at  the  hands  of  the  Parliament 
show  the  falsehood  of  the  statement.  When  Parlia- 
ment assumed  the  reins  of  Church  government  she 
was  speedily  brought  to  the  state  in  which  we  see  her 
in  1650, — a  bleeding  and  mangled  body,  without 
resident  bishop,  cathedral,  or  canonical  clergy  and 
liturgy. 

During  the  confusions  which  then  prevailed,  every 
man  was  allowed  to  be  a  law  unto  himself,  provided 
he  was  lawless  towards  the  Church.  Yet  the  reign  of 
anarchy  had  some  good  features.  "  Drunken  Barnaby  " 
sings,  forsooth,  of  Cheshire  puritanism  : — 

I  came  to  Over,  O  profane  one, 
And  there  I  found  a  puritane  one, 
A  hanging  of  his  cat  on  Monday, 
For  killing  of  a  rat  on  Sunday. 

But  there  was  much  real  religion.  Many  a  godly 
churchman  found  rest  and  shelter  among  the  Stafford- 
shire hills.  Dr.  Sheldon  came  to  Mayfield,  and 
Izaak  Walton  fished  Beresford  Dale  and  Bentley 
brook  in  peace,  when  London  was  no  place  for 
honest  folk  to  dwell  in  !  Some  of  the  Puritan 
ministers  were  exceedingly  zealous  and  earnest.  Mr. 
Machin,  a  native  of  Newcastle-under-Lyme,  was 
"  ordained  "  to  the  curacy  of  Ashburne.  He  found 
there  that  Quakerism  was  a  "  degree  of  possession," 
since  a  sick  Quaker  whom  he  visited  "raved"  the 
more,  the  more  he  prayed  for  him.  Having  a  little 
property  both  in  his  own  right  and  that  of  his  wife, 
he  set  apart  a  portion  of  it  for  weekly  lectures  in  the 

R 


242  LICHFIELD. 

old  minster  towns  of  mid-Staffordshire,  which  he 
kept  up  for  six  years.  Mr.  Woolrich,  a  farmer  at 
Chebsea,  near  Eccleshall,  got  the  living  when  the 
vicar  was  deposed,  but  he  faithfully  paid  him  his 
"fifths,"  and  spent  the  rest  upon  "supplies"  for 
puritanical  Sunday  services.  Moreover,  the  Govern- 
ment established  lecturers  in  the  market  towns,  and 
augmented  the  prebendal  churches  out  of  the  confis- 
cated prebends  of  the  cathedral.  "  Whereas,"  wrote 
the  Trustees  for  the  Maintenance  of  Ministers,  in  1655, 
"for  the  better  carrying  on  of  the  work  of  the 
ministry  in  the  market  town  of  Stafford,  the  charge 
whereof  being  very  great,  we  have  humbly  presented 
to  his  highness  and  the  Counsell,  that  the  yearly 
summ  of  ffifty  pounds  be  granted  unto  such  godly 
and  painful  preachers  of  the  Gospell  as  shall  bee 
from  time  to  time  approved  by  his  highness's  com- 
missioners for  approval  of  publique  preachers,  and 
appointed  to  bee  assistant  in  carrying  on  the  work  of 
the  ministry  in  the  said  town  ; "  his  highness,  Richard, 
Protector  of  the  Commonwealth,  then  appointed 
Mr.  Noah  Brian  to  be  vicar  of  St.  Mary's  in  Stafford, 
and  ]Mr.  Greensmith  lecturer.  The  latter  got  the 
handsome  stipend  of  ;^5o  a  year  out  of  the  "Rectories 
of  Gnosall,  Stotfold,  Bishop's  Hull,  Edgbaston,  and 
Rugeley,"  which  had  been  cathedral  prebends.  St. 
Chad's,  Lichfield,  was  also  augmented  by  ^50,  and 
the  vicarage  of  Gnosall  by  ;£!"].  But  in  1654,  "  no 
provision  had  been  made  for  Wolverhampton,"  whose 
collegiate  church,  having  survived  the  Tudor  wreck, 
was,  like  Manchester,  confiscated  in  the  Stuart 
troubles.     Mr.  Gibbs  Gallimore,  minister  of  Colwich, 


I 


THE    ROYAL   OAK.  243 

had  a  vote  of  ;£2o  out  of  the  rectory  of  Colwich, 
which  was  worth  ;^iio;  and  ]Mr.  John  Butler,  one 
of  the  ministers  of  the  '' cittie  of  Lichfield,"  ;z^i5o. 
So  it  was  in  other  places.  But,  from  complaints 
which  are  constantly  recorded,  it  seems  that  these 
admirable  augmentations  were  not  always  paid. 

In  the  heart  of  the  old  episcopal  woods  of  Brewood, 
the  Giffards  of  Chillington  had  a  hunting-box, 
which  they  built  during  the  reigns  of  Elizabeth  and 
James  I.  to  shelter  the  emissaries  of  the  new  papist 
sect.  The  house  still  stands  ;  and  near  it,  is  a  fine 
healthy,  full-proportioned,  and  partly  hollow  old  oak- 
tree,  which  professes^  to  be  that  which  shared,  with  the 
wonderful  secret-places  still  to  be  seen  in  the  house, 
the  honour  of  hiding  Charles  II.  He  came  thither 
after  the  battle  of  Worcester,  September  6,  165 1,  and 
was  in  a  "pollard  oak"  with  Captain  Carless,  and  a 
good  supply  of  bread,  cheese,  and  small  beer,  when  he 
saw  soldiers  going  up  and  down  the  thickets  of  the 
wood  looking  for  persons  who  had  escaped."  Not 
far  away  are  the  grey  ruins  of  Whiteladies.  The 
church  was  long  used  as  a  Romish  burial-ground,  and 
there  lie  the  remains  of  ''  Dame  Joane,"  mother  of 
the  five  brave  Penderells,  who,  though  Romanists, 
heroically  sheltered  the  fugitive  king  from  his  remorse- 
less foes. 

'  On  a  brass  plate  in  front  of  it.     The  tree  is  fenced  about 
%vilh  tall  iron  rails,  and  its  holes  plastered  over  with  lead. 


R    2 


244  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 

THE    RESTORATION    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

Ejection  of  Intruding  Clergy  —  Bishop  Hacket's  Rebuilding 
of  the  Cathedral  Ruins — The  Great  Plague — The  Worst 
Bishop  who  ever  ruled  Lichfield — Quaker  Troubles — The 
Revolution  —  Reaction  from  it  —  Sacheverell  —  Jacobin 
Riots. 

England  awoke  in  1660  from  the  reign  of  Non- 
conformity as  from  a  troubled  dream,  and  asked  at 
once  for  her  Church. 

Church  life  rapidly  revived  in  the  diocese.  The 
men  who  had  usurped  the  livings — the  glovers,  tailors, 
soldiers,  and  others,  as  well  as  such  churchmen  as 
had  drifted  into  incorrigible  presbyterianism — were 
ejected  in  1662.  Palmer  gives  a  list  of  them,  naming 
thirty-seven  in  Derbyshire,  forty  in  the  whole  of 
Shropshire,  forty-nine  in  Staffordshire,  and  thirty-five 
for  the  whole  county  of  Warwick.  The  purchasers  of 
the  bishop's  property  were  also  dispossessed.  Such  of 
the  old  and  lawful  clergy  as  survived  were  restored 
to  their  livings  and  dignities.  The  skinner  in  Ercall 
Vicarage  and  the  butler  at  Staunton  had  now  to  give 
place  to  lawful  clergy.  It  is  clear,  indeed,  from 
Calamy's  own  pages  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
ejected  ministers  were  not  episcopally  ordained,  and 


THE    RESTORATION    OF   THE    CHURCH.  245 

more  than  probable  that  many  others  had  not  been 
ordained  at  all.  The  ejected  vicar  of  Tipton  was  a 
"  moderate  independent."  The  vicar  of  Clifton 
Campville  had  never  found  a  bishop  who  would 
ordain  him.  Calamy  makes  much  of  the  learning  of 
his  heroes,  but  Bishop  Hacket  found  them  "  great 
dunces."  The  plague  and  debt  drove  out  the  vicar  of 
Church  Stretton.  Jollie  of  Norbury  was  "not  a  man 
for  Common  Prayer,  but  much  approved  the  Scotch 
presbitery."  Norbury  of  Over  Peover  was  apparently 
not  beneficed.  The  list,  in  fact,  will  not  bear  investi- 
gation. 

Some  of  the  ejected  ministers  practised  physic  ; 
one  dug  coal  profitably ;  others  farmed.  Some 
gathered  dissenting  congregations,  which  built  and 
endowed  chapels.  One  of  these  was  the  "  Old  Meet- 
ing "  at  Birmingham,  whose  chapel  was  lately  sold  by 
the  Unitarians  for  ;^3o,ooo.  The  general  drift  of 
such  congregations  was  towards  Arianism  ;  and  many 
of  them  entirely  died  out.  The  Puritanism  of  the 
Reformation  is  now  almost,  if  not  entirely,  extinct. 

Some  of  the  ministers  were  blatant  in  their  non- 
conformity, like  Mr.  Garside  of  Bosley,  whom  Sir 
J.  Shakerley  pulled  out  of  the  pulpit  in  1660.  They 
were  always  in  trouble.  Others,  like  Mr.  Garside's 
next  neighbour,  were  "prudent,"  and  never  met  with 
imprisonment. 

Bishop  Frewen  was  at  once  translated  to  York,  and 
when  Calamy  at  length  finally  declined  the  see,  John 
Hacket  (1661-1671)  accepted  it.  He  came  in  the 
spring  of  1661,  and  was  met  on  the  road  with  unmis- 
takable tokens  of  welcome.     At  Coventry,  Sir  Thomas 


246  LICHFIELD. 

Norton  made  a  Latin  speech,  and  at  the  edge  of 
Staffordshire  the  schoohiiaster  of  Stafford  paid  him  a 
similar  compHment  on  behalf  of  the  county. 

Hacket  went  straight  to  Lichfield,  where  he  found 
terrible  traces  of  the  late  evil  times.  The  cathedral 
had  been  devoted  to  destruction.  Its  materials  were 
to  have  been  sold,  but  it  partly  escaped  this  fate.  Yet 
there  was  neither  church  nor  home  to  receive  the 
new  bishop.  Eccleshall  Castle  was  in  ruins,  and 
the  splendid  palace  which  Langton  had  built,  and 
the  fortifications  of  the  close  were  heaps  of  hopeless 
wreck.  The  minster  was  floorless,  and  half  roofless. 
Its  great  spire  lay  over  the  chapter-house  and  choir ; 
and  the  monuments,  Avindows,  organs,  and  bells  were 
utterly  wrecked.  Pickins,  a  pewterer,  had  "  knockt 
in  pieces  "  the  goodly  "  bell  of  Jesus.'"' 

But  Hacket  was  just  the  man  for  the  time.  He 
had  been  forty  years  in  orders,  and  had  climbed  up- 
wards through  every  stage  of  ministry  to  the  episco- 
pate. He  was  old  when  he  came  to  Lichfield,  but  his 
small  shapely  figure,  his  pleasant  face,  and  cherry 
ringing  voice  showed  no  signs  of  decay.  His  clergy 
said  the  king  must  have  the  "  old  apostolic  spirit  of 
discerning "  since  he  had  sent  them  a  bishop  so 
exactly  to  their  minds. 

Hacket  lost  no  time  in  beginning  to  build  up  Jeru- 
salem. He  set  his  carriage  horses  to  remove  rubbish ; 
he  furnished  a  prebendary's  house  as  a  palace ;  he 
opened  a  subscription  through  the  diocese,  which 
brought  in  the  grand  total  of  ;,/^2 0,000.  The  king 
gave  timber,  Sir  Christopher  Wren  was  architect,  but 
the  bishop  was  life  and  soul  of  the  whole  work.     And 


HACKETS    LIFE.  247 

on  Christmas-eve,  1669,  the  restored  cathedral  was 
re-dedicated. 

That  was  a  joyful  occasion.  The  choir,  clergy,  and 
cathedral  body  entered  by  the  west  door  saying 
Psalms.  They  passed  up  the  south  aisle,  round  by  the 
Lady  Chapel,  down  the  north  aisle,  and  up  the  nave. 
The  choir-gates  were  formally  opened  and  the  choir 
space  perambulated,  the  bishop  settling  at  a  fald- 
stool in  the  middle,  where  he  offered  the  dedicatory 
prayers.  Then  morning  prayer  was  said ;  and  for  three 
days  he  feasted  the  officials  of  the  cathedral  and  city, 
and  the  gentry  of  both,  in  succession  in  his  house. 

The  castle  of  Eccleshall,  like  those  of  Tut- 
bury,  Stafford,  and  many  another  mediaeval  fortress 
in  the  diocese,  was  now  untenable.  Hacket  lived  in 
his  little  black-and-white  palace  at  the  north-western 
corner  of  Lichfield  Close.  Twice  in  the  month  he 
preached  in  the  cathedral,  and  on  the  other  Sundays 
drove  out  to  preach  in  neighbouring  towns.  His 
bright  sermons  and  wise  counsels  must  have  done 
much  to  revive  corporate  Church  life.  And  his 
hospitable  habits  drew  the  gentry  round  him.  But 
he  gave  no  countenance  to  the  lasciviousness  of 
the  age.  He  refused  to  ordain  men  with  long  hair ; 
and  on  one  occasion  rose  from  table,  pushed  up 
his  chair,  and  would  have  left  the  room,  had  not 
the  gentleman  Avith  whom  he  was  dining  stopped  a 
flow  of  impure  talk  which  had  broken  out. 

Hacket  provided  a  couple  of  organs  for  the 
cathedral.  His  last  work  was  to  restore  the  bells;  but 
before  they  were  hung,  he  bade  farewell  to  tlie  world 
and  retired  into  his  chamber  to  meet  his  approaching 


248  LICHFIELD, 

end.  During  that  solemn  week  the  tenor  was  hung, 
and  when  its  clear  notes  boomed  forth,  Racket  came 
out  of  his  chamber  to  listen,  "  It  is  my  passing-bell," 
he  said ;  and  so  it  was.  Sir  Andrew,  his  son,  saw  the 
work  completed. 

Whilst  the  great  spire  was  rising,  a  calamity  visited 
the  diocese  in  common  with  the  rest  of  England, 
which  tested  the  stuff  of  which  the  restored  clergy 
were  made.  The  two  western  spires,  in  their  new- 
ness hundreds  of  years  before,  had  looked  down  on 
the  Black  Death.  The  great  spire  now  rose  again 
above  the  Great  Plague,  Hacket,  in  the  midst  of 
the  building,  collected  nearly  ;^35o  for  the  smitten 
Londoners  ;  but  William  Mompesson,  rector  of  Eyam, 
in  Derbyshire,  set  an  example  of  heroism  worthy  of 
the  legitimate  successors  of  the  men  who  had  stood 
to  their  posts  in  1346, 

The  plague  came  to  Eyam  in  a  tailor's  package  in 
September,  1665,  and  the  tailor's  death  began  a 
mortality  which  lasted  a  year  and  swept  away  260 
out  of  a  population  of  350.  When  Mompesson 
found  that  his  parish  was  infected  he  prevailed  upon 
his  people  to  shut  themselves  up  within  its  limits. 
The  Earl  of  Devonshire,  then  at  Chatsworth,  sup- 
plied them  with  food,  which  was  brought  to  wells  and 
stones  on  the  borders  of  the  plague-stricken  area. 
The  church  was  shut  up ;  the  passing-bell  rang  till 
its  tale  became  meaningless ;  the  churchyard  had  to 
be  closed,  and  people  buried  their  dead  how  they 
could.  A  family  of  Talbots  was  entirely  destroyed. 
One  woman  buried  with  her  own  hands  a  husband 
and  six  children.     The  rector  lost  his  wife,  but  he 


RAPID    DECLINE    OF    DISSENT.  249 

never  forsook  his  post,  and  Mr.  Stanley,  his  ejected 
predecessor,  helped  him  bravely.  The  two  were, 
indeed,  almost  the  only  "  shepherds  "  left.  The  kine 
lowed  unmilked  in  the  fields,  and  sheep  wandered 
where  they  would.  The  people  were  gathered  three 
times  a  week  into  a  rocky  dell  for  prayers,  and,  in- 
spired by  their  heroic  clergyman,  were  true  to  their 
promise  to  die  rather  than  endanger  their  neighbours 
by  wandering  ov'er  their  border. 

Dissent  had  now  almost  died  out.  In  1676  there 
were,  indeed,  only  1,949  papists  and  5,042  non- 
conformists to  155,720  churchmen  in  the  diocese. 
The  returns  in  which  these  figures  are  found  show  the 
localities  in  which  dissent  still  flourished  most. 
Popery  was  strongest  at  Solihull  in  Warwickshire,  at 
Sedgeley  in  Staffordshire,  at  Norbury  and  West 
Hallam  in  Derbyshire,  Birmingham  had  2,582  con- 
formists, 1 1  papists,  and  30  dissenters.  The  town 
was  less  than  Tamworth,  and  only  half  the  size  of 
Bakewell.  Dissent  had  155  members  in  Stafford 
(where  the  Church  had  1,100)  and  claimed  larger  num- 
bers in  the  moorlands  than  elsewhere,  having  one- 
third  of  the  population  of  Grind  on,  and  one-sixth  of 
that  of  Ipstones. 

In  Stafford  the  Roman  Catholic  influence  of  the 
once-powerful  barons  of  the  town  only  fostered 
thirteen  of  their  own  sect,  and  this,  too,  before  the 
execution  of  Henry,  Lord  Stafford,  who  died  for 
treason  in  1680.  The  prevalence  of  popery  at  West 
Hallam  and  Sedgeley  may  be  illustrated  by  the  well- 
known  trials  of  Busby  and  Bromwich  as  "popish 
priests."      They   were    both    found    guilty   of    high 


250  LICHFIELD. 

treason,  condemned,  and — pardoned.  At  Glossop, 
where  William  Bagshaw,  the  "  Apostle  of  the  Peake," 
had  been  vicar,  there  were  52  nonconformists, 
and  1,984  Church  people.  At  Kenilworth  there 
were  618  conformists  and  235  dissenters,  with  no 
very  clear  reason  to  account  for  the  heavy  percentage 
of  the  latter,  except,  perhaps,  the  fact  that  when  the 
nonconforming  minister  was  ejected  he  haunted  the 
neighbourhood  till  "  the  country  was  too  hot  for 
him,''  and  then  "  hid  himself  in  a  wood,"  whence  he 
got  away  to  London. 

Whilst  Lichfield  had  thus  the  best  of  bishops,  it 
had  the  worst  of  deans.  In  1663,  Tho^l\s  Wood 
(bishop  1671-1692),  son  of  a  court  official,  had  paid 
;^ioo  to  Charles  IL  and  got  the  deaner}-.  "A 
prett}'  story,"  says  Pepys,  "  was  current  about  him. 
Hacket  excommunicated  him,  and  caused  the  sen- 
tence to  be  read  in  the  cathedral  whilst  Wood  was  in 
church.  The  culprit  not  only  refused  to  withdraw, 
but  made  the  service  to  be  gone  through  with, 
though  himself,  an  excommunicate,  was  present  (which 
is  contrary  to  the  canon),  and  said  he  would  justify 
the  quire  therein  against  the  bishop,  and  so  they  are 
at  law."  The  whole  chapter  hated  Wood,  and  sent 
a  letter  to  the  archbishop  complaining  that  their 
stalls  under  such  a  dean  were  intolerable.  The  arch- 
bishop thought  Wood  ''  puritan,  covetous,  sordid  "  ; 
yet  court  influence  made  him  bishop  at  Racket's 
death.  And  then  it  was  seen  that  he  hated  Lichfield 
as  Lichfield  hated  him.  He  took  money  which  had 
been  provided  for  a  palace,  and  retired  to  Hackney, 
where,  though  very  rich,  he  lived  in  a  mean  house  of 


RESTORATION    OF    APPROPRIATIONS.  25 1 

his  own,  "  sawing  and  cleaving  of  wood  for  exercise 
to  save  firing."  In  July,  1681,  he  was  ordered  to 
return  to  his  diocese.  He  promised  to  do  so  "when 
the  weather  was  somewhat  cooler,"  but  he  was  back 
at  Hackney  again  next  year.  The  king  and  the  arch- 
bishop now  both  pressed  him — the  former  to  devise 
his  fortune  to  a  royal  nominee,  the  latter  to  do  his 
duty.  He  refused  both,  and  in  1684  was  sus- 
pended; but  in  1686  he  had  influence  enough  at 
court  to  recover  his  revenues.  Soon  afterwards 
he  placed  ;^2,6oo  in  the  hands  of  Dean  Addison 
for  the  building  of  a  palace  at  Lichfield,  but  after 
it  was  built,  refused  the  keys  of  it  as  long  as 
possible. 

Wood  was  a  servile  flatterer  of  James  II.,  but  did 
not  vacate  the  see,  or  rather  the  revenues,  of  Lichfield 
for  the  difficulties  of  the  nonjurors. 

At  this  time  a  small  but  very  interesting  and  excel- 
lent movement  Avas  bearing  fruit,  which  had  been 
originated  fifty  years  before  by  Morton  whilst  bishop 
of  Lichfield.  This  was  no  less  than  the  augmenta- 
tion of  poor  vicarages  at  the  expense  of  the  appro- 
priated rectories.  Morton's  heart  bled  for  the  parishes 
of  Northamptonshire  from  which  he,  as  bishop  of 
Coventry,  drew  away  the  tithes ;  and  both  he  and 
his  successor,  Wright,  voluntarily  gave  back  something 
of  them  to  the  parochial  clergy.  The  movement  spread, 
and  at  one  time  promised  to  become  general.  But  in 
the  end  covetousness  prevailed.  Nevertheless,  Bishop 
Kennett,  in  his  "  Case  of  Impropriations,"  has  some 
good  things  to  tell  of  the  tithe-owners  of  this  neigh- 
bourhood.     Lord   Digby   restored    the   impropriate 


252  LICHFIELD. 

tithes  to  Coleshill  and  Upper  Whitacre,  near  Bir- 
mingham. "  As  for  Coleshill,  by  a  solemn  paper  left 
signed  with  his  own  hand  to  provide  against  all 
casualties,  lest  he  should  die  before  he  had  accom- 
plished what  he  intended,  he  took  care  to  tell  his 
surviving  relations  how  upon  mature  deliberation  he 
was  fully  and  religiously  resolved  to  restore  the  tithes 
— which,  as  he  words  it,  belonging  to  the  Church  by 
several  titles,  ought  not  to  be  withheld."  Poor 
Whalley  and  other  Lancashire  churches  got  some- 
thing of  their  own  again  from  the  kindness  of  the 
archbishop.  And  Walter  Chetwynd,  Esq.,  of  Ingestre, 
in  dedicating  his  rebuilt  parish  church,  laid  a  deed 
on  the  altar  conveying  to  his  clergyman  the  tithes  of 
the  church  of  St.  Peter,  Hopton,  which  had  been 
destroyed  in  the  wreck  of  St.  Mary's  College  at 
Stafford. 

Whilst  Wood  was  bishop,  Lancelot  Addison 
became  dean,  and  was  superintending  the  building 
of  the  palace  whilst  Joseph,  his  son,  was  going  to 
Charterhouse  and  Oxford.  The  elder  Addison 
owed  this  preferment,  and  perhaps  also  the  arch- 
deaconry of  Coventry,  to  his  services  in  a  foreign 
chaplaincy. 

Joseph  Addison,  the  son,  was  born  in  167 1,  and 
was  now  at  Magdalen  College,  where  his  classical 
knowledge  and  rare  powers  of  expression  began  to 
attract  attention.  Dryden  spoke  of  him  as  a  "most 
ingenious  "  and  "  most  excellent  young  man,"  who 
had  pointed  out  many  faults  in  his  translation  of 
Virgil.  His  verses  to  King  William,  who  had  spent 
a    night  at   the    deanery    in    1690,   made    his   for- 


THE    ADDISONS.  253 

tune.  The  dean  intended  him  for  Holy  Orders,  and 
young  Addison  went  so  far  as  to  bid  farewell  to  the 
Muses  in  near  prospect  of  dealing  with  more  weighty 
truths.  But  the  eye  of  Lord  Halifax — the  cleverest 
writer  of  the  day — was  upon  him,  and  ere  he  could 
take  Orders,  Halifax  had  secured  his  promising  talents 
to  the  Government  by  the  offer  of  an  ample  pension. 
And  so  this  youth  of  "  sweet  seriousness  "  passed  out 
from  the  fostering  shade  of  the  old  cathedral  on  his 
brilliant  career  as  a  writer.  The  Government  which 
wielded  the  mighty  sword  of  William  HI.  were  happy 
in  perceiving  the  power  of  Addison's  pen.  What  he  did 
for  them  is  well  known ;  but  what  he  did  for  morality 
and  religion  was  greater  still.  The  Christian  influence 
of  his  Lichfield  home  never  forsook  him.  His  pleasant 
and  captivating  essays  were  lay  sermons,  of  quiet  but 
marvellous  power,  and  they  never  lost  their  true 
ring.^ 

The  influences  of  the  Revolution  were  now 
strong  at  Lichfield.  They  were  made  stronger  still 
in  1692,  when  the  royal  almoner,  William  Lloyd 
(1692-1699),  bishop  of  St.  Asaph,  was  appointed 
bishop.  Lloyd  ^  was  a  singularly  holy  and  accurate 
man,  and  a  popular  preacher  in  high  places.  Whilst 
dean  of  Bangor,  he  had  been  a  friend  and  fellow- 
student  of  Bishop  Pearson  of  Chester  (whose  funeral- 

^  Addison's  father,  the  dean,  who  died  in  1704,  and  his  mother 
and  sister,  lie  in  the  minster-yard  at  Lichfield,  The  dean  was 
bm-ied  in  the  greensward  at  the  west  end.  Dean  Bickersteth 
restored  the  inscription  in  1882. 

^  For  more  of  Lloyd  see  "Worcester,"  in  this  series  of 
Diocesan  Histories. 


254  LICHFIELD. 

sermon  he  preached),  and  was  himself  the  greatest 
Chronologist  of  his  day.  Marshall's  tables  were  taken 
from  his  MSS.  Bishop  Burnet,  in  1693,  was  glad  to 
acknowledge  that  his  "  History  of  the  Reformation  " 
was  undertaken  at  Lloyd's  suggestion,  with  the  help 
of  Lloyd's  wonderful  historical  collections.^  He 
speaks  of  him  as  having  revised  that  work  at  a  time 
when  he  was  spending  all  day  in  parish  work,  and  the 
greater  part  of  the  night  in  study. 

In  the  Salt  Library  are  two  MS.  volumes  of  this 
date,  in  which,  for  forty  years,  the  chancellors  of  the 
diocese  jotted  down  memoranda.  They  contain  a 
number  of  forms  and  faculties  which  illustrate  the 
times.  W.  Blore,  vicar  of  ISIancetter,  has  complained 
that  the  Communion-table  in  his  church  "  stands  in 
the  middle  of  the  high  chancel,  by  reason  whereof  he 
is  constrained  to  go  in  great  disorder  from  seat  to 
seat  to  deliver  the  Sacrament  to  the  parishioners;  but, 
where  seats  are  double,  he  cannot  distinguish  whether 
people  receive  on  their  knees."  The  table  is  there- 
fore ordered  to  be  removed  to  the  east  end  and  railed 
off.  A  large  tank  may  be  erected  in  St.  Michael's 
Churchyard,  Derby,  for  town  water.     There  are  one 

'  "You  know  well,  that  you  were  tlie  person  that  prest  me 
most  to  undertake  that  work  ;  and,  to  encourage  me  to  it,  you 
promised  me  two  very  valuable  things  ;  the  one  was  the  copying 
out  of  all  your  '  Collections '  relating  to  that  time  ;  the  value 
of  this  can  only  be  judged  by  those  who  have  seen  with  what 
an  amazing  diligence,  and  to  hov/  vast  an  extent,  and  in  how 
exact  a  method  all  those  many  volumes, — I  had  almost  said, 
that  library'  of  Collections, — is  digested.  No  part  of  this  pleased 
me  more  than  that  criticalness  which  is  so  peculiar  to  yourself, 
in  marking  all  dates  so  punctually." 


ACTS    OF   THE   TIME.  255 

or  two  half-obliterated  orders  for  public  penance. 
Adultery  still  comes  within  the  cognizance  of  the 
bishop's  court.  A  parish-clerk,  of  Wolfancote,  is 
sworn  before  the  vicar  of  Napton  that  he  shall 
faithfully  execute  the  office,  "  by  taking  care  of 
church  books  and  other  utensils  committed  to  his 
charge ;  by  not  causing  the  bells  to  be  range  or 
jangled  at  unseemly  times ;  and  by  being  obedient  to 
his  minister  in  all  things  lawful  and  customary." 
There  are  also  writs  to  magistrates  for  committal  to 
prison  for  non-appearance  and  contempt  of  court  in 
cases  of  non-payment  of  tithe.  The  first  is  issued  in 
1 68 1,  at  the  request  of  Dean  Addison,  against  Mary, 
relict  and  executrix  of  George  Holland,  of  Wichnor. 
As  the  defendant  had  married  again,  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal authorities  could  not  have  been  very  hasty  in 
their  proceedings. 

All  three  offenders  were  probably  Quakers,  for  now 
began  what  the  Quakers  were  pleased  to  call  their 
"  sufferings,"  about  which  a  somewhat  bitter  con- 
troversy sprang  up  in  the  diocese.  The  "  List  of 
Sufferings,"  published  by  the  Quakers  themselves, 
shows  an  average  of  one  prosecution  in  four  years 
in  each  county  in  the  diocese,  and  not  more  than 
twenty  cases  in  the  whole  diocese  for  forty  years. 
The  greater  part  of  their  "  sufferings  "  arose  from 
attachments  for  contempt,  and  their  chief  complaint 
is,  that  they  were  cited  into  the  ecclesiastical  courts 
instead  of  into  the  presence  of  magistrates. 

The  next  bishop,  John  Hough  (1699-17 17),  had 
the  good  fortune  to  enjoy  uninterrupted  health  and 
popularity  to  an  advanced  age.     He  began  life  as  a 


256  LICHFIELD. 

scholar  at  Walsall  and  Birmingham,  and  was  president 
of  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  Avhere  his  brave  stand 
in  1687  against  a  Roman  Catholic  whom  James  II. 
wished  to  foist  into  his  place,  made  him  the  idol 
of  people.  For  the  nation  was  just  then  in  an  agony 
of  fear  for  the  stability  of  its  Protestantism.  The 
king,  James  II.,  was  a  Papist,  and  the  Church  was 
regarded  as  the  bulwark  of  the  Reformation.  Hough's 
bold  action  in  Oxford  put  him  on  the  popular  footing 
of  the  seven  bishops ;  and,  as  he,  unlike  the  greater 
part  of  them,  welcomed  the  advent  of  William  of 
Orange,  his  advancement  was  certain.  In  1690  he 
was  made  bishop  of  Oxford,  a  see  which  he  held 
with  his  college  presidency.  The  fame  of  his  great 
exploit  had  gone  before  him  when  he  came  to  the 
diocese  of  Lichfield  in  1699.  Here  all  the  clergy 
but  four  had  followed  the  example  of  the  seven 
bishops,  and  refused  to  read  James  II. 's  "  Declaration 
of  Indulgence."  Hough,  therefore,  was  a  most  ac- 
ceptable bishop,  and  his  halo  did  not  fade.  He 
was  learned  and  conscientious  enough  to  command 
respect  as  a  bishop,  and  yet  withal  so  pleasant  and 
cheery  in  manner  as  to  pass  for  the  ideal  Englishman 
he  had  shown  himself  at  Magdalen.  But  beyond 
the  fact  that  he  remodelled  the  palace  which  Lloyd 
had  built  on  the  ruins  of  Eccleshall,  for  his  own 
comfort,  and  that,  for  the  comfort  of  his  dean, 
he  annexed  Tatenhill  Rectory  to  the  deanery,  and 
refused  the  primacy  in  17 15,  there  is  nothing  remark- 
able about  his  Lichfield  career.  He  was  an  instance 
of  a  brave  and  good  man  in  thorough  harmony  with 
the  spirit  of  his  age. 


SACHEVERELL.  257 

The  Church  of  England  was  now  as  popular 
among  the  laity  as  the  bishop  of  Lichfield  and 
Coventry.  But  all  her  members  were  not  of  the 
same  mind.  Violent  disputes  broke  out  between 
Whig  bishop^  and  Tory  clergy,  which  raged  fiercely 
in  Convocation,  where  High  Churchmen  were  led  in 
1704  by  Dr.  Bincks,  ^  dean  of  Lichfield,  the  pro- 
locutor. The  clergy  complained  bitterly  against 
being  compelled  by  the  Test  Acts  to  administer  Holy 
Communion  to  notorious  schismatics,  who  only 
sought  it  as  a  qualification  for  ofiice.  They  asked 
redress  at  the  hands  of  Parliament,  and  the  bishops 
opposed  them.  Their  fury  increased  when  Queen 
Anne  seemed  to  take  sides  against  them,  and  when, 
in  1706,  Convocation  was  prevented  by  prorogation 
from  expressing  its  opinion  on  the  union  with  Scot- 
land. Then,  as  the  reaction  from  Revolution  grew, 
the  controversy  on  the  divine  right  of  kings  revived, 
and  the  Whigs  were  denounced  in  unmeasured  lan- 
guage. But  Whigs  were  in  office,  and  they  deter- 
mined to  make  an  example  of  the  Tory  preachers. 

They  selected  Dr.  Henry  Sacheverell  as  their  victim. 
He  was  a  Dorsetshire  man ;  but  his  Derbyshire 
extraction  brought  him  to  All  Saints',  Derby,  as  assize 
chaplain,  in  1709.  He  was  not  an  able  man,  but 
he  had  a  caustic  pen ;  and  his  fine  presence  and 
grand  delivery  gave  infinite  force  to  his  attack  on  the 

'  Bincks  was  taken  to  task  severely  for  preaching,  on  the  5th 
of  November,  that  there  was  no  reason  to  fear  the  Romanists. 
Before  this  he  had  been  censured  by  the  House  of  Lords  for  a 
sermon  which  he  preached  January  30th,  1702.  See  Smollett, 
chap.  vii. ,  vol.  i.,  p.  453. 

S 


258  LICHFIELD. 

Government.  For  this  sermon  he  was  tried  in  West- 
minster Hall ;  but,  though  found  guilty,  he  could 
not  be  punished,  for  his  cause  was  popularly  identi- 
fied with  that  of  the  Church  and  throne,  and  the 
nation  espoused  it  with  vehemence.  Parliament  was 
dissolved  and  filled  with  High  Churchmen  ;  Dissent- 
ing meeting-houses  Avere  pulled  down,  and  the  Church 
of  England  was  for  the  time  completely  triumphant. 

A  glimpse  of  the  Derby  clergy  in  17 15  is  given 
us  by  William  Hutton.  In  that  year  "  there  were 
frequent  riots  in  favour  of  the  House  of  Stewart. 
Personal  insults  and  broken  windows  were  the  result. 
This  wild  fire  was  fed  by  combustibles  from  the  pulpit. 
Sturges,  of  All  Saints',  prayed  publicly  for  '  King 
James — I  mean  King  George.'  The  congregation 
became  tumultuous ;  the  military  gentlemen  drew 
their  swords  and  ordered  him  out  of  the  pulpit,  into 

which  he  never  returned Harris,  of  St.  Peter's, 

was  repeatedly  called  to  order  by  the  powerful  voice 
of  the  magistrates.  Cantrill,  of  St.  Alkmund's,  drank 
the  Pretender's  health  on  his  knees,  and  January  30 
became  the  holiest  day  in  the  year.  But  the  wiser 
Lockett  of  St.  Michael's  rather  chose  to  amuse 
himself  with  mowing  his  grass-plot  than  meddling 
with  politics." 

Shrewsbury  was  even  more  disturbed  than  Derby. 
The  following  extract  is  from  the  diary  of  Mr,  Rey- 
nolds, a  Dissenting  minister  : — "  At  night,  July  6, 
17 15,  our  meeting-house  was  pulled  down";  and 
afterwards,  on  a  review  of  the  year,  he  proceeds  : — 

"  A  hideous,  malignant  spirit  broke  forth,  and  was 
remarkably   rampant  in  Lancashire,  Shropshire,  and 


WHIG    AND    TORY    RIOTS.  259 

Staffordshire.  Mobs  and  riots  arose  in  divers  places 
and  pulled  down  meeting-houses,  unprovoked,  unmo- 
lested. They  began  in  Oxford ;  then  Manchester 
meeting-house  came  down ;  then  that  of  Wolver- 
hampton ;  then  ours  in  Salop ;  scarce  anything  was 
done  to  prevent  it.  Then  followed  the  ruins  of  those 
at  Wem,  Whitchurch,  and  many  others.  In  Salop 
we  were  threatened  with  the  ruin  of  private  houses 
for  divers  nights  together.  The  rioters  usually  came 
in  the  night,  and  worked  at  pulling  down  the  chapel 
till  they  had  demolished  it  as  far  as  they  pleased. 
Untoward  boys  carried  on  the  desolation  by  day." 

This  was,  of  course,  not  the  work  of  the  Church,  but 
of  the  mob,  who  were  agitated  with  fear  lest  England 
should,  after  all,  be  betrayed  by  the  innovations  and 
revolutions  of  the  last  decade  or  two,  and  who  saw  that 
the  best  pillar  of  the  State  was  the  Church,  round  which 
the  State  had  sprung  into  being  and  power. 


s  2 


26o  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

CONTEMPLATIVE   BISHOPS   AND   ACTIVE    EVANGELISTS. 

How  the  Church  vanquished  the  Deists — Wesleyanism — Aris- 
tocratic Bishops — The  Church  Asleep — Population  lost — 
Difficulties  of  Church-building. 

Deism  sprang  up  in  the  Great  Rebellion  and  grew 
through  the  Revolution  far  on  into  the  eighteenth 
century.  It  was  the  earnest  effort  of  reason  to  oust 
revelation  and  mystery  from  religion  ;  just  as  popular 
forces  had  driven  the  old  dynasty  of  the  Lord's 
Anointed  from  the  English  throne.  The  attempt 
succeeded  best  among  the  best  educated.  At  Chats- 
worth,  the  "  Palace  of  the  Peake,"  in  the  greatest 
family  in  Derbyshire,  Thomas  Hobbes,  of  Malmes- 
bury,  had  lived  as  tutor  and  honoured  guest  for  three- 
quarters  of  a  century.  His  influence  over  neighbour- 
ing squires  may  probably  be  illustrated  by  what 
Cotton  of  Beresford  said  of  him  in  1683,  four  years 
after  his  death.  The  mischievous  old  philosopher 
was  to  Cotton's  mind — 

In  nature  the  best  read  ; 
Who  the  best  hand  has  to  the  wisest  head, 
Who  best  can  think  and  best  his  thoughts  express. 
("Wonders  of  the  Peake.") 

Thus  planted  among  the   most  influential  classes, 
deism  flourished.    But  it  met  its  match.    The  bishops 


THE   DEISTS.  26 1 

and  a  few  others  engaged  its  professors  in  a  contro- 
versy, not  of  platform  speeches  or  newspaper  letters, 
but  of  considerable  volumes.  They  encountered  it 
fully  and  fairly ;  and  they  stamped  it  out.  England 
then  settled  down  upon  the  firm  basis  of  a  reason- 
able faith  to  await  the  evangelical  revival  which 
blessed  the  Church  later  on.  Such  men  did  for 
Christian  evidences  what  their  predecessors  had  done 
for  the  Reformation. 

Edward  Chandler  (17 17-1730)  had  been  Lloyd's 
secretary.  He  was  one  of  the  writers  whom  the 
controversy  with  the  Deists  called  forth.^  His  great 
opponent  was  Collins,  and  his  first  book,  "  A  Defence 
of  Christianity  from  the  Miracles  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment," was  published  in  answer  to  the  "  Scheme  of 
Literal  Prophecy  Considered."  This  came  out  in 
1725,  and  when  the  Schematist  had  replied,  Chandler, 
in  1727,  sent  forth  a  "Vindication"  of  his  Defence, 
in  two  octavo  volumes. 

Well-placed  Churchmen  now  sat  writing  in  their 
libraries ;  and,  though  their  dioceses  and  parishes 
suffered,  they  did  work  which  no  other  men  could 
have  done  in  defence  of  Christian  truth. 

The  next  bishop,  Richard  Smallbroke  (1730- 
1749),  a  native  of  Birmingham,  was  also  a  writer 
against  the  Deists.  His  style  is  Tillotsonian,  and 
his  sentences  musical  but  immensely  long.  In  his 
"  Vindication  of  the  Miracles  of  our  Saviour  against 
Woolston,"  he  offended  the  Quakers,  whom  he  called 

^  Curiously,  Dr.  Samuel  Chandler,  a  Dissenting  minister,  was 
writing  against  the  Deists  at  the  same  time,  and  with,  perhaps, 
greater  power  than  the  bishop. 


262  LICHFIELD. 

"  Deists  in  an  allegorical  disguise."  He  thought  they 
"allegorized  away  the  letter  of  the  New  Testament 
by  opposing,  or  at  least  preferring,  an  inward  Christ 
to  an  outward  and  historical  one."  The  Quakers 
were  just  then  in  the  height  of  their  clamour  for 
Parliamentary  favours.  Their  grievances  of  forty 
years  before  were  raked  up  and  magnified,  and  tract 
followed  tract  about  their  supposed  "wrongs." 

Smallbroke's  Charge,  in  1735-6,  speaks  of  "  extra- 
ordinary local  efforts  to  spread  Popery."  In  the 
year  1744-5,  he  attacked  the  prevailing  system  of 
clerical  non-residence,  which  left  the  parishes  to  drift 
into  dissent.  Pluralists  were  beginning  to  introduce 
"  half  service,"  by  giving  only  one  service  a  Sunday 
to  each  of  their  parishes,  instead  of  both  morning 
and  evening  prayer.  Clergy,  dressed  in  lay  habits, 
frequented  stage  plays,  and  other  places  of  large 
concourse  which  he  would  only  hint  at.  Clandestine 
marriages  were  too  frequently  encouraged.  "  I  would 
endeavour,"  he  concluded,  "  to  refresh  and  reinforce 
the  obligations  of  the  clergy  to  a  more  than  ordinary 
diligence  in  their  proper  studies,  and  to  quicken  and 
invigorate  their  more  exact  performance  of  the 
pastoral  duties  by  an  additional  argument.  I  mean 
the  absolute  necessity  of  them,  as  more  especially 
occasioned  by  those  that  are  distinguished  by  the 
denomination  of  Methodists.  For  the  preachers 
among  those  of  that  sect  pretend  to  charge  the 
parochial  clergy  ....  with  such  gross  neglect  of 
their  duty,  and  such  remissness  in  instructing  the 
people  in  the  way  to  salvation,  or  their  teaching  them 
so  falsely  and  erroneously  the  doctrines  of  the  Gospel, 


OLD    CHURCH    METHODISTS.  263 

that  it  is  become  necessary  to  have  the  supplemental 

preaching  of  true  Christianity  by  themselves 

They   throw   all    the    disgrace    and  contempt    they 

possibly  can   on  the  parochial  clergy These 

new  itinerants  copy  the  popish  pattern  of  regulars  in 

contest  with   seculars They  have  thrown   off 

all  subjection  and  obedience  to  episcopal  government, 
and  act  in  defiance  of  the  bishops  that  ordained 
several  of  them." 

Hostility  was  now  opening  between  bishops  and 
"  some  whom  they  had  ordained,"  because  the  zeal 
of  the  latter  outran  the  wonted  limits  of  old-fashioned 
Churchmanship.  But  this  zeal  was  to  a  large  extent 
the  outcome  of  the  religious  life  of  the  Church  of 
England,  and  was  not  more  valuable  in  warming  men 
to  holiness  and  improved  morality,  than  were  the 
learned  arguments  of  stately  bishops  in  settling  the 
foundations  of  faith.  But  Smallbroke  spoke  out  the 
fears  of  the  nation  when  he  said  that  Wesleyanism 
was  Popery.  As  such,  and  not  as  being  a  religious 
movement,  people  opposed  it ;  they  feared  it  would 
lead  back  to  the  era  of  old  and  terribly  troublesome 
times. 

The  Wesleys,  Whitfield,  Fletcher  of  Madeley,  were 
clergymen ;  there  is  little  need  to  trace  their  Methodism 
to  its  springs  in  the  old  Church.  But  the  lay  preachers, 
also,  drew  much  of  their  Christianity  from  the  same 
source.  It  seemed,  indeed,  as  if, — since  Church  life 
had  been  restricted  within  the  limits  of  severe  dignity 
among  its  prelates, — it  must  need  burst  out  irregularly 
elsewhere.  It  did  so  among  Wesley's  first  lay  preachers 
in  this  neighbourhood.     In  the  "  Lives  "  which  they 


264  LICHFIELD. 

have  left  behind  them,  they  own  great  obhgation  to 
the  Church.  One  of  them,  Mr.  Robert  Roberts  says 
of  Upton,  in  Cheshire,  in  his  youth  : — 

''  I  went  to  church  and  received  the  sacrament 
ahuost  every  Lord's  day.  Divine  light  broke  in  upon 
my  soul  with  so  much  clearness,  that  I  was  astonished 
at  myself,  and  was  ready  to  say,  '  Where  have  I  been, 
and  what  have  I  been  doing  all  my  life  till  now  ? ' 
The  Scriptures  seemed  new  :  as  also  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer,  and  everything  that  was  spiritual. 
And  I  was  fully  convinced  that  doctrines  taught  by 
the  Methodists,  and  those  contained  in  the  Word  of 
God  and  the  Common  Prayers  of  the  Church  of 
England,  must  stand  or  fall  together."  Matthew 
Thomas  Harly  traces  serious  impressions  to  the 
evening  of  the  day  of  his  confirmation.  He 
preached  in  Derbyshire.  "In  1754,"  he  says, 
"  brother  Mitchell  desired  me  to  come  and  help 
him  in  the  Staffordshire  circuit.  Accordingly,  I 
went  to  Birmingham,  Wednesbury,  &c.  Brother 
Crab  was  then  with  us,  and,  as  we  were  too 
many  for  the  few  places  about  Birmingham,  I  made 
an  excursion  into  the  wilds  of  Derbyshire,  preached  at 
Wootton,  the  Ford,  Snelston,  and  Ashburne.  I  had 
often  a  great  desire  to  preach  in  that  town,  but  was  at 
a  loss  how  to  introduce  myself  However,  I  provi- 
dentially heard  of  a  Mr.  Thompson,  a  serious  man, 

who  kept  the  toll-gate I  took  Thomas  White 

with  me I  stayed  a  few  days  preaching  morning 

and  evening."  But  the  road  commissioners  stopped 
the  preaching,  not,  however,  before  one  or  two  of 
the  steadiest  and  most  influential  Church  people  in 


DISSENT   ATTACKS   METHODISM.  265 

the  neighbourhood  had  given  in  their  adhesion  to 
Methodism.  One  of  them,  Judith  Beresford,  was  an 
intimate  friend  of  Dr.  Johnson,  and  cannot  be  con- 
sidered a  Dissenter. 

James  Pawson,  another  lay  preacher,  was  appointed 
to  Manchester  circuit  in  1766,  and  in  1768  to  Wed- 
nesbury.  He  heartily  blesses  God  that  he  had  been 
taught  the  Church  catechism.  Another,  Mr.  Peter 
Jaco,  who  preached  over  Cheshire,  Lancashire,  and 
Derbyshire,  in  1754,  was  first  effectually  roused  to 
repent  of  sin  by  the  pointed  reference  to  "  damna- 
tion,"— "  a  most  erroneous  translation," — in  the  ex- 
hortation in  the  Communion  office.^ 

Wesleyanism  had  thus  unmistakably  a  broad 
footing  in  the  Church  of  England,  though  the 
bishops,  engrossed  as  they  were  in  the  vital  struggle 
with  intellectual  evil,  suspected  it,  because  they  did 
not  understand  it.  Many  good  men  joined  it.  The 
general  body  of  Church  people  seem  to  have  regarded 
it  from  a  neutral  standpoint.  But  the  rabble,  who 
frequented  public-houses,  and,  in  their  own  opinion, 
expressed  the  voice  of  the  nation,  proceeded  to  blows 
against  it,  and  the  Staffordshire  black  country  was 
the  scene  of  some  very  disgraceful  riots.  Mr.  Wesley 
writes  : — 

"Sat.,  Feb.  18,  1744,  I  received  an  account  from 
John  Jones  of  another  kind  of  invasion  in  Stafford- 
shire ....  On  Monday,  Jan.  23,  a  great  mob 
gathered  together  at  Darlaston,  a  mile  from  Wed- 
nesbury.     They  fell  upon  ....  Joshua  Constable's 

'  These  instances  are  all  taken  from  a  single  bundle  of 
' '  Lives  "  in  the  Salt  Library. 


266  LICHFIELD. 

wife.  Some  of  them  threw  her  down  ....  Monday, 
30th.  The  mob  gathered  again,  broke  into  Joshua 
Constable's  house,  pulled  part  of  it  down,  broke 
some  of  his  goods  in  pieces,  and  carried  the  rest 
away — particularly  all  his  shop-goods  ....  They 
sought  for  him  and  his  wife,  swearing  they  would 
knock  their  brains  out ;  their  little  children,  mean- 
while, wandered  up  and  down  .  .  .  ."  This  was  but 
one  of  a  series  of  assaults,  and  Mr.  Wesley  com- 
ments thus  on  a  paragraph  in  the  papers  of  Feb. 
18,  1744  : — "  '  By  a  private  letter  from  Staffordshire 
we  have  advice  of  an  insurrection  of  the  people 
called  Methodists,' — the  insurrection  was  not  of 
the  people  called  Methodists,  but  against  them —  . 
'  who,  upon  some  pretended  insults  from  the  Church 
party,' — they  pretended  no  insults  from  the  Church 
party,  being  themselves  no  other  than  trne  members 
of  the  Church  of  England ;  but  were  more  than 
insulted  by  a  mixed  multitude  of  church-goers  (who 
seldom,  if  ever,  go  near  a  church),  Dissenters,  and 
Papists — '  have  assembled  themselves  in  a  riotous 
manner.'  Here  is  another  small  error  perso7ice. 
Many  hundreds  of  the  mob  did  assemble  themselves 
in  a  riotous  manner,  having  given  public  notice 
several  days  before  (particularly  by  a  paper  set  up 
in  Walsall  market-place),  that  on  Shrove  Tuesday 
they  intended  to  come  and  destroy  the  Methodists, 
and  inviting  all  the  country  to  come  and  join  them. 
'  And,  having  committed  several  outrages,' — without 
ever  committing  any,  they  have  suffered  all  manner 
of  outrages  for  several  months  past, — 'they  proceeded 
at  last  to  burn  the  house  of  one  of  their  adversaries.' 


DISSENT   ATTACKS    METHODISM.  267 

Without  burning  or  making  any  resistance,  some 
hundreds  of  them  on  Shrove  Tuesday  last  had  their 
own  houses  broken  up  ;  their  windows,  window-cases, 
beds,  tools,  goods  of  all  sorts,  broke  all  to  pieces,  or 
taken  away  by  open  violence;  their  live  goods  driven 
off;  themselves  forced  to  fly  for  their  lives,  and  most 
of  them  stripped  of  all  they  had  in  the  world." 

On  the  5th  of  March,  Wesley  "  was  much  pressed 
to  write  an  address  to  the  king."  He  wrote — "We 
are  a  part  of  that  Protestant  Church  established  in 
these  realms  ....  We  detest  and  abhor  the  funda- 
mental doctrines  of  the  Church  of  Rome."  And  he 
speaks  of  himself  and  his  brother  as  "  We  of  the 
clergy."  The  address  was  not  presented,  but  it  sets 
the  rage  of  the  Staffordshire  mobs  in  its  true  light. 

The  Wesleyan  circuits  in  Birmingham  and  Derby 
were  formed  about  1782. 

Smallbroke  is  charged  by  Pegge  with  "filling  the 
Church  of  Lichfield  with  his  relations."  In  this  he 
resembled  Blythe;  the  two  enjoying  the  proud  dis- 
tinction of  having  been  the  only  bishops  of  Lichfield 
who  lavished  public  patronage  on  their  private  families. 
Blythe  was  far  the  worse  of  the  two.  Three  Blythes 
obtained  no  less  than  two  archdeaconries,  two  resi- 
dentiary canonries,  and  seven  prebendal  stalls,  during 
his  episcopate.  But  the  time  was  now  approaching 
when  the  very  chair  of  St.  Chad  itself  was  to  be  too 
often  filled  from  similar  motives. 

Frederick  Cornwallis  (i  749-1 768)  was  the  son 
of  a  peer,  and  was  the  second  bishop  of  Lichfield 
who  attained  to  the  dignity  of  Canterbury,  whither 
he  was  translated  in  1768,  after  eighteen  years  of 


268  LICHFIELD, 

eighteenth-century  "  diHgence,  wisdom,  and  benevo- 
lence" here.  John  Egerton  (i 768-1 771)  was  the 
grandson  of  the  earl  of  Bridgewater,  and,  being  in  ill 
health,  in  177 1  was  moved  on  by  Lord  North  to 
Durham,  to  make  way  there,  as  he  did  here,  for 
Brownlow  North  (1771-1774).  North  was  Bishop 
of  Lichfield  and  Coventry  for  three  years.  He 
was  then  translated  to  Worcester,  and  thence  to 
Winchester.  And  then  Richard  Hurd  (1774- 
1781),  a  native  of  Staffordshire,  and  a  scholar  of 
Brewood  School,  spent  a  decade  as  Bishop  of  Lich- 
field and  Coventry  before  his  translation  to  Worcester. 
Then  came  the  long  rule  of  James  Cornwallis 
( 1 781-1824).  Indeed,  from  the  first  Cornwallis, 
1750,  to  Henry  Ryder  (1824-1836),  every  bishop 
of  Lichfield,  except  Hurd,  was  the  near  relative  of 
the  head  of  some  noble  house.  And  Hurd  was  a 
remarkable  exception.  Though  the  son  of  a  farmer, 
he  was  one  of  the  most  courtly  men  in  existence. 
His  bearing  won  the  heart  of  George  IH.  on  his 
first  appearance  at  court,  and  for  a  long  time  he  was 
the  friend  and  the  trusted  adviser  of  that  good  king ; 
but  his  cold  and  prim  propriety  saw  little  but 
fanaticism  in  the  work  of  Wesley.  He  seldom  ap- 
peared in  public,  and,  when  he  did  so,  it  was  with 
all  the  pomp  and  circumstance  of  a  splendid  peer. 
Is  it  a  marvel  that  such  bishops  had  small  share  in 
the  evangelical  revival? 

All  the  bishops  of  the  last  century  lived  at  Eccles- 
hall,  which  the  Cornwallises  greatly  improved.  Hurd 
planted  and  his  successor  drained  it.  They  were 
not  often  at  Lichfield,  though  one  of  them  revived 


THE   CATHEDRAL.  269 

the  early  daily  morning  service  there,  which,  before 
the  Great  Rebellion,  had  been  largely  attended  by 
artisans  and  tradespeople.  The  statutes  of  the 
cathedral  were  also  revised. 

Hough  increased  the  number  of  the  residentiary 
canons  from  four  to  eight,  by  heaping  two  prebends 
upon  each  of  the  additional  stalls  without  giving 
them  a  vote  in  chapter.  This  was  done  by  Act  of 
Parliament.  James  Cornwallis,  in  1796,  got  a  second 
Act  to  reduce  the  number  to  six  of  equal  standing 
on  the  foundation,  but  the  fifth  and  sixth  were  still 
to  retain  double  stalls.  The  arrangement  brought 
two,  at  least,  of  the  prebendaries  into  more  real  con- 
nexion with  the  cathedral. 

Sad  havoc  was  now  made  of  the  beautiful  fabric. 
No  longer  needed  for  great  diocesan  gatherings, 
since  there  was  so  little  diocesan  life,  the  grand  old 
building  was  manipulated  in  1789  in  accordance 
with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  The  pews  and  pulpit 
in  the  nave  were  removed ;  the  gravestones  were 
swept  out  of  it.  A  body  which  had  lain  near  the 
pulpit  for  500  years  was  overhauled,  and  a  pair  of 
boots  taken  from  its  coffin  to  adorn  Mr.  Green's 
museum.  The  soles  helped  to  elucidate  a  passage 
of  Shakespeare.  The  choir  was  enlarged  to  contain 
the  whole  congregation.  The  stone  reredos  between 
choir  and  Lady  Chapel  was  abolished,  though  this 
happily  carried  with  it  a  Grecian  altar-piece.  The 
fragments  of  the  reredos  were  used  to  deck  the 
loft  on  which  the  organ  stood  at  the  entrance  of 
the  choir.  The  length  of  the  choir  outgrew  its  width, 
and   the   wits   of  the   day  lamented    that   Milton's 


270  LICHFIELD. 

epithet  of  "  long-drawn  "  had  been  changed  at  Lich- 
field into  "  wire-drawn."  The  old  stalls  were  dex- 
terously painted  with  "the  appearance  of  new  oak." 
On  a  Thursday  in  June,  1795,  after  ;^8,ooo  had  been 
spent  under  the  direction  of  James  Wyatt,  the  crip- 
pling of  the  cathedral  was  completed  by  the  addition 
of  a  painted  east  window  from  a  design  of  Sir  Joshua 
Reynolds.  It  was  then  that  the  massive  buttresses 
of  the  south  transept  were  replaced  with  cheap  and 
clumsy  substitutes  of  Wyatt's  design,  and  the  solid 
groining  of  four  bays  of  the  nave,  which  was  pressing 
in  the  walls,  was  changed  for  lighter  plaster.  The 
sad  transformation  fitly  symbolised  the  close  of  a 
century  of  drooping  Church  life. 

The  beautiful  stained  glass  which  now  adorns  the 
Lady  Chapel  came  from  Herckenrode  Abbey,  near 
Liege.  It  was  purchased  by  Sir  B.  Boothby,  in  1802, 
for  ;^2oo,  and  then  generously  conveyed  by  him  for 
the  same  price  to  the  dean  and  chapter  of  Lichfield. 

The  dean  and  chapter  had  still  sole  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  churches  which  had  been  appropriated 
to  them  in  past  times.  The  clergy  of  these  "pecu- 
liars" were  exempt  from  visitation  by  the  archdeacons, 
and  were  the  only  clergy  who  met  at  visitations  in 
the  cathedral,  and  in  chapter  churches,  such  as 
Bake  well.  Before  1775,  the  dean  used  to  charge  them 
in  the  consistory ;  but  after  that  date  they  listened 
to  a  sermon  from  the  pulpit,  Canon  Seward  being 
the  first  preacher  at  Bakewell,  and  his  sermon  a  fierce 
defence  of  the  Test  Acts. 

Nothing  perhaps  was  more  characteristic  of  the 
eighteenth  century  than  its  Pagan  buildings  and  its 


DEPRAVED   CHURCH    BUILDING.  27 1 

galloping  parsons.  In  many  cases,  fine  old  mediaeval 
fabrics,  such  as  at  St.  Chad's,  Shrewsbury,  and  the 
priory  church  at  Stone,^  were  the  sole  relics  of  splen- 
did minsters ;  they  were  now  brought  down  by  neglect 
and  by  the  pernicious  custom  of  indoor  funerals, 
which  damaged  the  foundations ;  and  they  were  not 
restored.  Large  Grecian  halls,  with  tiny  eastern 
recesses  to  serve  as  chancels,  were  built  instead — not 
seldom  on  other  sites — and  with  funds  raised  by  the 
sale  of  the  pews.  Thus  the  poor  were  gradually  shut 
out  of  church  altogether,  and  thus  arose  another  of 
the  difficulties  which  the  apathy  of  the  eighteenth 
century  was  preparing  for  the  energy  of  the  nineteenth. 

Another  strand  in  the  cord  which  helped  to  strangle 
the  working-class  element  in  the  Church  was  the 
extreme  difficulty  of  founding  a  new  church.  An  Act 
of  Parliament  was  necessary  for  every  one,  and  it  is 
said  that  John  Thornton,  the  friend  of  Wilberforce, 
was  obliged  to  spend  ;^i 0,000  before  he  could  lay 
the  foundation-stone  of  a  church  which  he  desired  to 
build.  Something,  however,  was  done  in  this  way  at 
Liverpool,  where,  in  1765,  there  were  29,000  people 
and  three  large  churches.  At  Birmingham,  about  the 
same  date,  there  were  six ;  whilst  the  chapels  of  the 
old  Dissenters  were  but  few  and  small. 

In  country  places  there  was  a  good  deal  of  cheap 

'  Browne  Willis  happened  to  come  to  Stone  before  the  old 
priory  church  was  altogether  demolished,  and  he  pleaded  hard, 
but  in  vain,  with  Lord  Gower  and  the  bishop  of  Lichfield  to 
preserve  this  exquisite  relic  of  mediceval  church-building.  The 
old  church  fell  at  midnight  after  the  funeral  of  Elizabeth  Unit, 
on  the  last  day  but  one  of  1749. 


272  LICHFIELD. 

chapel-building.  Over  the  door  of  Elkstone,  in  the 
moorlands,  was  a  tablet,  stating  that  the  whole  erection 
cost  little  more  than  ;^2oo.  The  services  were  not 
more  costly.  I  knew  a  clergyman  who  had  held 
three  curacies  in  the  hills  early  in  the  present  century, 
which  were  four  and  six  and  seven  miles  apart — a 
mountain  lying  between  every  two.  He  rushed 
through  the  service  at  each,  and  walked  the  distances 
with  a  pebble  in  his  mouth  to  keep  it  moist. ^  The 
gross  endowments  of  all  three  were  scarcely  enough 
to  live  on  ;  and  it  has  only  been  by  hard  saving, 
persistent  begging,  and  the  help  of  Queen  Anne's 
Bounty,  that  these  cures  are  now  augmented. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  century  the  Close  at 
Lichfield  was  a  garden  of  poesy.  Dr.  Johnson  and 
Garrick  had  come  and  gone.  In  the  palace  lived 
Canon  Seward,  rector  of  Eyam,  and  his  daughter 
Anna,  poets  both.  Dr.  Darwin's  "Botanical  Garden" 
was  just  outside  the  city ;  Darwin  himself  was  as 
fond  of  biological  speculation  as  his  descendants  have 
since  been.  The  Darwin  theory  of  that  day  was 
that  "All  things  are  made  from  shells,"  and  Seward 
thus  bantered  its  ingenious  author  : — 

From  atoms  in  confusion  hurled 
Old  Epicurus  built  a  world, 
Maintained  that  all  was  accidental, 
Whether  corporeal  power  or  mental ; 
That  neither  arms,  heart,  head,  or  mind, 
By  any  foresight  were  designed. 


'  This  was  the  Rev.  D.  Turner,   curate  to  his  father,  who 
was  incumbent  of  Meerbrook  and  Rushton,  and  curate  of  Flash 


THE    LAST    CENTURY    DARWINISM.  273 

Darwin  at  length  resolves  to  list 

Under  this  famed  cosmogonist  ; 

He,  too,  denounces  his  Creator, 

And  forms  all  sense  of  senseless  matter. 

Great  magician  !  He,  by  magic  spells, 

Can  all  things  raise  from  cockle-shells, 

Make  men  start  up  from  dead  fish-bones 

Just  as  Deucalion  did  from  stones, 

And  worlds  create,  while  eyelid  twinkles, 

Of  lobsters,  crabs,  and  periwinkles. 

(MS.  Salt  Library. ) 

A  good  feature  of  the  century  was  the  large  number 
of  charitable  bequests,  the  rise  of  societies  for  pro- 
viding for  "clergy  widows  and  orphans,"  and  the 
increase  of  church  and  school  endowments  by  bequests 
of  land  from  private  individuals.  A  new  spirit  was, 
indeed,  creeping  in  by  slow  degrees.  The  belter 
times  of  our  own  day  began  to  dawn  amid  the 
densest  darkness  of  eighteenth-century  deadness ; 
and,  through  all,  the  heart  of  the  country  remained 
true  to  its  Church.  In  the  beginning  of  the  century, 
as  we  have  seen,  the  nation  was  rejoicing  because  the 
clergy  proved  more  than  a  match  for  Rome.  In  the 
middle  of  the  century,  the  same  champions  vanquished 
the  Deists.  In  the  end  there  was  a  scare  lest  the 
infidel  and  republican  principles  of  the  French  Revo- 
lution   should   spread   to   England.     This   was   the 

for  thirty-five  years.  Between  Meerbrook  and  Rushton  lies 
Gun  Hill,  more  than  1,000  ft,  above  the  sea;  and  Flash  lies 
nearly  at  the  top  of  Axe  Edge,  by  Buxton  ;  and  between  Flash 
and  Meerbrook  again  are  Goldsich  Moss  and  the  Roches, — the 
latter  being  some  Soo  or  900  feet  above  Meerbrook  :  all  these 
were  crossed  by  Mr.  Turner  in  taking  his  three  services. 

T 


2  74  LICHFIELD. 

secret  of  the  popular  clamours  at  Birmingham  in 
1 79 1  against  Priestley,  who  was  in  open  sympathy 
with  the  French.  To  the  Church,  men  turned  again 
for  guidance,  and  meeting-houses  were  wrecked 
by  "  Church  and  King  "  mobs,  because  the  people 
for  the  moment  saw,  in  the  lurid  light  from  abroad, 
whence  old  England's  greatness  had  come,  and  by 
whom  it  was  threatened. 

The  century  had  not  waned  before  another  eminent 
literary  canon  began  to  come  for  two  months  in  a 
year  to  Lichfield.  Robert  Nares,  M. A.,  F.R.S., F.S. A., 
lived  at  Reading,  and  had  written  some  popular 
books,  when,  in  1798,  Cornwallis  gave  him  a  stall, 
and  in  1800  the  archdeaconry  of  Stafford.  He  is  best 
known  for  his  "  Glossary  of  Shakespearian  Words," 
which  he  wrote  in  his  leisure  hours,  and  published  in 
1822,  seven  years  before  his  death.  A  Charge  of  his 
in  the  Salt  Library  shows  the  exquisite  English  which 
such  men  wrote,  and  also  their  strong  feeling  against 
the  Wesleyans,  who  were  then  turning  the  world 
upside  down,  whilst  dignitaries  sat  serene  in  their 
libraries. 

But  if,  instead  of  wasting  energy  in  empty,  though 
honest,  declamation  about  the  Methodists,  Nares  and 
his  contemporaries  had  set  themselves  to  carry  the 
Gospel  to  the  poor,  a  vast  amount  of  mischief  and 
sorrow  might  have  been  prevented.  For  just  then 
large  communities  were  being  gathered  together  in 
commercial  centres  all  over  the  north-western  mid- 
lands. Liverpool  imported,  Manchester  sold,  Lanca- 
shire and  Derbyshire  spun  cotton  from  America  in 
enormous  quantities.      Wherever   a   stream   rushed 


GROWTH    OF   MANUFACTURING   TOWNS.  275 

down  the  valleys  in  sufficient  force,  mills  were  erected, 
and  thither  workpeople  flocked.  A  similar  phenomenon 
occurred  in  the  Black  Country,  where  the  coal  and 
iron  trades  began  to  change  the  very  face  of  the  land. 
Round  Birmingham,  which  got  its  first  order  for  guns 
from  William  III.,  sprang  up  a  great  hardware  trade  ; 
and  it  was  to  the  people  thus  drawn  away  from  the 
old  villages  and  their  churches  that  Wesley  and  his 
followers  addressed  themselves.  And  the  people  be- 
came Methodists  or  nothing,  because  there  was  little 
else  for  them.  Had  the  clergy,  whose  ministrations 
they  ever  valued  and  preferred,  gone  out  to  them, 
they  would  have  been  gladly  received,  and  obediently 
followed.  The  case  of  the  late  John  Cooper  illustrates 
this.  Mr.  Cooper  made  a  fortune  in  London,  and  on 
coming  home  again  to  Ashburne,  early  in  the  nine- 
teenth century,  desired  to  found  a  church.  But  the 
way  was  hedged  up  with  worse  than  thorns  : — there 
was  a  stubborn  patron,  a  stubborn  vicar,  and  a  still 
more  stubborn  statute  law  to  overcome.  He,  there- 
fore, founded  a  chapel  and  an  almshouse  which  now 
belong  to  the  Independent  sect. 

To  overtake  the  spiritual  destitution  which  then 
sprang  up,  and  to  train  reclaimed  Churchmen  in  the 
apostolic  and  evangelical  worship  of  their  forgotten 
forefathers,  has  been  since  the  great  and  toilsome  task 
of  subsequent  bishops,  and  has  cost  more  than  one 
noble  life. 


T  2 


276  LICHFIELD. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

LICHFIELD    IN    THE    PRESENT    CENTURY, 

Ryder — Church-building — Church  Reforms — Lonsdale — 
Selwyn — Work  Achieved, 

There  are  people  in  Eccleshall  still  who  remember 
the  stately  bearing  of  Bishop  Lord  Cornwallis.  The 
castle  adjoins  the  churchyard  ;  but,  instead  of  walking 
through  the  shrubbery  to  church,  this  great  man — 
the  last  of  the  old  sort — drove  with  four  horses 
through  the  town  and  solemnly  marched  from  the 
gates  to  the  church  door  between  lines  of  gazing 
rustics.  He  carried  his  hat  in  his  hand  and,  of 
course,  wore  a  wig ;  and  no  one  thought  of  leaving 
church  until  he  had  gone  out.  He  was,  in  fact,  the 
patriarch  and  squire  of  the  place  as  well  as  bishop  of 
the  diocese.  His  work  for  good  was  quiet  and  old- 
fashioned,  but  perhaps  none  the  less  real.  But  the 
churchmen  of  Lichfield  diocese  will  never  forget  the 
meanness  of  his  letter  to  Pitt  in  1791  whining  for  the 
deanery  of  St.  Paul's,  or  Pitt's  dignified  and  crushing 
reply.  Such  letters  would  have  been  strangely  im- 
possible to  the  next  bishop. 

For  better  times  began  with  Henry  Ryder  (1824- 
1836).  He  had  been  bishop  of  Gloucester  from 
1 815,  and  came  hither  in  the  flower  of  that  splendid 


BISHOP   RYDER.  277 

manhood  which  still  seems  to  breathe  in  Chantry's 
marble  at  Lichfield.  The  revival  of  religious  enthu- 
siasm had  now  long  touched  individuals  among  the 
upper  classes  in  the  diocese.  Reginald  Heber  had 
left  rich  Hodnet  Rectory,  in  Salop,  to  spend  his  life 
in  the  Indian  bishopric ;  Rowland  Hill  sprang  from 
the  same  county.  Henry  Ryder  was  a  Staffordshire 
man,  and  the  son  of  Nathaniel,  earl  of  Harrowby.  He 
was  thus  as  nobly  born  as  any  of  his  predecessors. 
But,  on  coming  to  the  diocese,  he  startled  everybody 
by  plunging  into  evangelistic  work  and  preaching  in 
all  directions.  The  holy  fire  of  his  enthusiasm 
caught  his  more  learned  and  old-fashioned  arch- 
deacons, of  whom  Dr.  Butler,  the  first  great  head- 
master of  Shrewsbury  school,  was  one.  The  old  style  of 
charge,  therefore,  now  disappears,  and  the  bishop  and 
archdeacons  address  themselves  to  the  Church's  crying 
need — the  reclamation  of  her  poor.  '•'  How  often," 
said  the  bishop  in  1832,  "must  the  Urbicus  of  our 
days  have  to  exclaim  in  the  bitterness  of  his  heart — 
Where  alas  are  those  my  '  stray  sheep  ' — stray  from 
compulsion  in  the  wilderness  of  this  evil  world  ;  those 
poor  whom  I  might  instruct,  according  to  the  promise 
of  making  them  wise  unto  eternal  life  ?  " 

With  all  the  earnestness  of  Wesley  and  our  last- 
century  evangelists,  Ryder  worked  on  the  old  lines  of 
the  Church  of  England  in  his  attempt  to  recover  the 
masses.  He  used  the  parochial  system  as  the  basis 
of  his  plan,  and  strove  to  find  room  for  every  man  to 
worship  in  his  parish  church. 

After  eight  years  of  faithful  labour,  he  could 
point  to  twenty  new  churches   opened  and  to  ten 


278  LICHFIELD. 

more  in  building;  45,000  sittings  had  been  added  to 
the  accommodation.  In  1825  there  had  been  double 
Sunday  services  in  only  263  churches;  by  1831  the 
number  rose  to  354 ;  and  in  1832  a  searching  inquiry 
was  made  throughout  the  whole  diocese,  which,  in- 
cluding Coventry,  was  found  to  have  a  population  of 
1,065,090  people.  In  each  of  166  parishes  there  was 
an  average  population  of  4,700  ;  in  the  others,  an 
average  of  5  80,  and  church  accommodation  for  320,000 
only.  Birmingham  had  not  church  room  for  one 
seventh  of  its  people ;  Derby,  Coventry,  and  Wolver- 
hampton for  not  one  fifth ;  Leek,  Tipton,  Darlaston, 
AVestbromwich,  Nuneaton,  and  the  Derbyshire  and 
Shropshire  coal  districts  were  worse  off,  and  only  a 
quarter  of  the  existing  seats  VN'ere  free.  In  fifty 
parishes  there  was  no  school. 

A  glance  at  the  charges  of  the  archdeacons  shows 
us  the  state  of  things  in  the  counties.  Dr.  Butler,  in 
182 1,  advised  the  Derbyshire  churchwardens,  "on 
account  of  the  agricultural  depression,  to  do  only 
such  repairs  to  churches  as  are  necessary,"  and  to 
eschew  ornament,  but  to  accommodate  the  poor.  In 
1825  he  had  193  churches,  of  which  30  were  exempt ; 
there  were  135  clergy,  91  parsonages,  and  11,759 
children  in  schools.  He  urges  the  increase  of  free 
seats,  and  presses  forward  the  provision  of  schools. 
Ten  years  later  he  has  150,672  people  in  the  Derby- 
shire towns,  and  only  12,000  free  seats  for  them.  He 
now  suggests  the  building  of  galleries  rather  than 
that  of  new  churches,  since  time  flies  and  souls  are 
scattered.  "A  gallery  for  250  persons  can  be  built 
for  ;^3oo  or  less." 


CHURCH    EXTENSION    SOCIETY.  279 

In  Salop  Archdeacon  Bather  had,  in  1830,  a 
population  of  92,000;  99  churches,  of  which  69 
were  in  good  repair ;  37,134  seats,  and  99  parsonages 
for  61  incumbents  and  19  curates.  There  were  two 
sermons  a  Sunday  in  29  churches,  and  in  31  only 
one  service.  He  had  67  day-schools,  43  Sunday- 
schools,  and  3  for  infants,  with  4,293  free  day  scholars, 
and  2,792  Sunday  scholars,  making  a  total  of  7,085 
children.      In   1838   the  scholars  had  increased  to 

7,653- 

In  1839  Archdeacon  Hodson  says  that  since 
Ryder's  accession  30  new  churches  had  been  built  in 
Staffordshire,  adding  upwards  of  30,000  sittings.  He 
wants  church  room  for  225,000  ;  he  has  it  for  125,000. 

But  in  1835  five-sixths  of  the  million  souls  in  this 
diocese  were  still  shut  out  of  church.  In  order  to 
remedy  such  a  terrible  evil,  Ryder,  with  the  advice 
of  his  gifted  and  constant  companion,  Archdeacon 
Hodson,  determined  to  organise  a  Church-Building 
Associatiojn  on  the  plan  of  the  Incorporated  Society. 
A  great  meeting  was  called  at  Birmingham,  which 
was  then  the  chief  town  of  the  diocese.  The 
bishop  took  the  chair,  and  amongst  those  present 
were  the  earls  of  Dartmouth,  Aylesbury,  and  Bradford, 
Viscount  Lifford,  the  Hon.  Dean  Howard,  the  four 
archdeacons,  Sir  John  Wrottesley,  &c.  The  bishop 
said  he  had  long  felt  it  imperative  to  give  his  gravest 
consideration  to  the  extension  of  religious  instruction, 
and  was  sure  the  attendance  that  day,  and  the  con- 
tributions already  received,  were  truly  satisfactory 
evidences  that  the  religion  of  the  Established  Church 
was  most  appreciated  by  those  who  were  best  able  to 


260  LICHFIELD. 

form  a  correct  judgment  of  its  value  and  importance. 
Lord  Dartmouth  said  he  "  believed  that  the  seces- 
sions from  the  ranks  of  the  Church  ....  were  to  be 
attributed  to  the  want  of  church  room  more  than  to 
any  other  cause."  "Religious  dissenters  had," he  knew, 
"  publicly  acknowledged  that  the  Established  Church 
afforded  the  best  security  for  the  toleration  they  en- 
joyed." He  proposed  the  first  resolution,  which  was 
on  the  importance  of  finding  church  accommodation 
for  all  classes.  Dean  Howard  prophesied  success 
for  the  society.  He  always  found  that  whenever  the 
ministers  and  friends  of  the  Established  Church  came 
forward  and  showed  by  their  actions  that  they  meant 
to  do  good,  simply  and  purely,  the  people  of  the 
country  were  willing  to  meet  them  half  way,  and  to 
receive  any  spiritual  benefit  which  they,  the  clergy, 
were  desirous  of  offering;  but  the  clergy  must  depend 
on  the  laity  for  support.  Lord  Bradford  proposed 
the  erection  of  a  Diocesan  Society,  and  Archdeacon 
Hodson  showed  that  they  had  no  intention  of  tres- 
passing on  the  Incorporated  Church-Building  Society. 
Archdeacon  Bather  spoke  warmly  : — "Who  then  is  to 
provide  these  churches  ?  It  has  been  gravely  asser- 
ted that  the  clergy  may  do  the  work.  The  clergy, 
gentlemen  !  I  address  myself  to  candid  and  high- 
minded  men.  Public  documents  let  you  know  the 
extent  of  our  great  revenues.  To  maintain  ourselves 
and  our  families  we  have,  one  with  another,  yC^^5  ^ 
year.  Can  we  build  churches  out  of  such  means  ?" 
A  committee  was  then  formed,  and  that  year  no 
less  than  ;^i 5,000  was  subscribed  to  its  funds.  In 
1838  a  second  appeal  under  Bishop  Butler  produced 


PARSONAGES    WANTED.  261 

^6,000,  and,  in  1841,  Bishop  Bovvstead  pleaded 
hard  for  it  and  got  ^^i 6,000.  Bishop  Lonsdale's  first 
appeal,  in  1846,  brought  in  ^{^i  9,000.  During  the 
first  twenty  years  of  the  society's  life,  the  church 
accommodation  increased  in  Derby,  Stafford  and 
Salop  to  248,000;  but  at  the  same  time  the  popula- 
tion had  grown  by  274,000. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  church-building  was 
not  all  that  was  needed.  "  Our  society,"  said  Arch- 
deacon Bather,  "  lately  built  a  large  church  at  Welling- 
ton, Salop.  The  incumbent  offered  it  to  thirteen 
clergymen  in  succession  ;  an  endowment  there  was — 
;^4o  a  year  and  the  pew  rents.  Nobody  would  take 
it — there  was  no  house ;  and  on  the  very  day  after 
the  consecration  it  was  likely  to  have  been  shut  up. 
It  so  happened  that  I  was  present.  How  could  I 
endure  this  ?  '  I'll  find  you  temporary  help  at 
least,'  I  said  ;  for  I  knew  what  my  own  pious  and 
excellent  curate  would  do.  He  readily  went  at  my 
request ;  and  after  a  Sunday  or  two  the  good  people 
of  Wellington  coveted  and  desired  their  neighbour's 
curate.  I  forgave  them  that  wrong.  'You  shall 
have  him,'  I  said,  '  if  he  likes  to  go  to  you  ;  but  I'll 
make  a  bargain  with  you.  You  shall  find  him  a 
house  at  once  to  put  his  head  in  ;  and  you  shall 
do  your  best  to  build  a  parsonage.'  They  agreed 
immediately,  and  there  he  is  doing  much  good  work ; 
but  this  could  not  have  been  done  had  not  this 
society  been  able  to  make  on  this  occasion  its  first 
grant  towards  parsonages  of  ^200.  I  would  rather 
have  five  churches  with  resident  incumbents,  than  ten 
served,  as  the  phrase  is,  from  a  distance." 


282  LICHFIELD. 

Side  by  side  with  the  raising  of  churches  and 
vicarages  went  the  effort  to  build  schools ;  but 
here,  again,  the  chief  difficulty  was  the  want  of 
able  teachers.  "  A  grocer  has  to  be  trained  before 
he  can  sell  a  pound  of  tea,"  pleaded  Archdeacon 
Hodson.  "  How  can  a  schoolmaster  teach  without 
training?"  The  result  of  his  pleading  was  the  estab- 
lishment at  Lichfield  of  a  training-school  for  masters, 
the  first  of  its  kind  in  England,  and  of  Boards  of 
Education. 

Bishop  Ryder's  eye  and  heart  were  ever  among  the 
poor.  He  noted  their  hard  and  unhealthy  toil  in 
mills  and  forges ;  ^  spoke  of  temperance  societies  ; 
and  urged  on  the  Truck  and  Factory  Acts,  and  lost 
no  opportunity  of  visiting  lowly  homes.  A  clergyman 
who  dined  with  him  at  the  house  of  a  lady,  some 
little  distance  from  Lichfield,  remembers  well  how  the 
bishop,  instead  of  sitting  over  wine  after  dinner, 
asked  the  butler  for  a  great-coat  and  lantern,  and 
went  to  visit  a  sick  man  before  following  the  ladies 
to  the  drawing-room. 

His  confirmations  were  very  striking.  All  the  re- 
sources of  a  loving,  holy  soul  Avere  poured  upon  them. 
He  sent  a  printed  letter  to  the  parents  and  god- 
parents of  every  candidate  before  the  event,  and 
Archdeacon  Hodson,  his  chaplain,  gave  a  second 
letter  to  each  of  the  candidates  as  they  rose  from 
under  the  imposition  of  hands.  Then  followed  a 
short   pastoral   charge  from    the   pulpit,   which   the 

'  He  remarked  that  the  Evanses  of  Darley  were  an  honourable 
exception  in  their  care  for  workpeople,  for  whom  they  built 
Darley  Church. 


EFFORTS   TO   OVERTAKE   THE   POPULATION.       283 

bishop  repeated  from  place  to  place  with  marvellous 
power. 

Ryder  was  neither  a  great  scholar  like  Lonsdale,  nor 
a  great  administrator  like  Selwyn  ;  but,  like  Clinton, 
Stavenby,  Hales,  Racket,  and  Hough,  he  came  to 
Lichfield  at  the  right  time,  and  did  the  special  work 
which  the  age  required.  But  the  poor  had  been 
shut  out  too  long,  and  gathered  in  manufacturing 
masses  too  grossly  dense  to  be  readily  reclaimed. 
Moreover,  the  standard  of  church  membership  was 
now  one  of  pure  life  and  intelligent  worship.  It  was 
no  longer  enough  to  herd  together  in  the  house  of 
God  ;  and  the  Church  ales  and  Sunday  romps  of 
former  days  were  no  longer  used  to  entice,  nor  the 
strong  whip  of  a  coercive  Uniformity  to  drive,  the 
people  into  the  sanctuaries. 

Division  of  the  diocese  was  now  imminent ;  but 
it  came  too  late.  The  holy  bishop  broke  down 
under  his  work  and  died  in  March,  1836,  having  done 
wonders  for  the  Church  of  England.  The  impression 
made  by  his  personal  character  upon  Birmingham  is 
said  to  have  kept  the  town  quiet  in  a  moment  of 
great  exasperation  against  the  clergy. 

In  July  Samuel  Butler  (1836-1839),  who  for 
seventeen  years  had  been  archdeacon  of  Derby,  suc- 
ceeded and  carried  on  the  good  work  so  well  begun. 

James  Bowstead  (1840- 1843)  succeeded  Butler. 
He  laboured  diligently  and  conscientiously  during 
his  brief  episcopate,  giving  his  life  as  the  price  of  an 
effort  to  bear  the  terrible  strain  of  so  large  a  charge. 

And  now  came  a  time  of  sweeping  changes.  At 
the  end  of  1836  the  archdeaconry  of  Coventry  was 


284  LICHFIELD. 

severed  from  Lichfield  and  annexed  to  Worcester ; 
thus,  though  Coventry  was  never  a  diocese  in  itself, 
the  two  ancient  cities  and  titles  were  sundered,  and 
henceforward  the  bishops  were  bishops  of  Lichfield 
only  in  name,  as  they  had  been  all  along  in  reality. 

In  1846  the  deanery  of  Bridgenorth  was  subtracted 
by  order  in  council  and  added  to  Hereford. 

In  the  same  year  a  still  greater  change  was  made  in 

the  ABOLITION  of  ALL  PECULIAR  and  EXEMPT  JURIS- 
DICTION, and  when  Archdeacon  Hodson,  in  1847, 
gathered  the  re-united  clergy  under  the  roof  of  the 
cathedral,  or  St.  Peter's  at  Wolverhampton,  he  spoke 
of  the  re-union  as  a  most  welcome  and  joyous  thing. 
Thenceforth,  the  archdeacons  were  empowered  to 
visit  every  church  ;  and  their  doing  so  has  brought 
ventilation  and  life  to  the  old  waste  places.  Nor  was 
this  the  only  result  of  the  revival  of  Church  feeling. 
The  mischief  wrought  by  the  appropriation  of 
parochial  rectories  to  the  cathedral  was,  about  the 
same  time,  reversed  and  turned  to  good.  The  livings 
annexed  to  monasteries  had  been  for  three  centuries 
in  lay  hands,  those  of  the  cathedrals  had  been  care- 
fully preserved  as  Church  property ;  and  just  when 
bishops  like  Ryder  were  straining  every  nerve  to 
overtake  the  needs  of  the  English  people,  by  provid- 
ing them  with  the  means  of  grace,  this  treasury  was 
opened.  The  cathedrals  found  the  funds  out  of  which 
most  of  the  immense  number  of  new  churches  then 
rising  in  populous  places  were  endowed.  All  the 
churches  in  Wolverhampton,  for  example,  have  been 
endowed  out  of  the  revenues  of  St.  Peter's  collegiate 
church,  which  was  then  dissolved  as  a  minster.     We 


RURAL    DEANS.  285 

need  hardly  tell  oi;r  readers  that  this  was  done  by  the 
incorporation  of  the  bench  of  bishops  and  others  as 
the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  whose  power  came 
from  Parliament,  but  its  revenues  from  the  minsters, 
prebends,  and  bishop's  lands.  The  number  of  resi- 
dentiary canons  was  cut  down  at  Lichfield  from 
six  to  four,  and  the  stipends  of  the  canons,  which 
had  varied  with  the  amount  of  fines  on  leases,  was 
fixed  at  ;^S'^'^  ^  year.  The  lands  of  the  bishopric 
were  valued  at  ;^3,923,  and  the  episcopal  stipend 
fixed  at  ^4,500;  so  that  Lichfield  profited  by  the 
change. 

The  changes  which  were  thus  taking  place  amounted 
to  little  short  of  a  revolution.  Amid  them  all  there 
sprang  up  again  in  Lichfield  diocese  the  order  of 
Rural  Deans.  Bishop  Ryder  and  his  archdeacons 
had  talked  over  the  revival  of  the  order  at  their 
very  last  meeting.  He  had  caused  accurate  search 
to  be  made  for  the  ancient  order  in  the  Lichfield 
archives,  but  without  result.  In  Derby  they  had  been 
five — High  Peake,  Chesterfield,  Derby,  Ashburne,  and 
Castellar ;  in  Salop,  three  —  Newport,  Bridgenorth, 
and  Salop ;  in  Stafford,  eight — Stafford,  Lapley  and 
Trysail,  Leek  and  Alveton,  Newcastle  and  Stone, 
Tamworth  and  Tutbury.  Ryder  intended  to  multiply 
the  number  largely,  and  to  give  to  each  rural  dean  a 
group  of  about  a  dozen  benefices,  making  him  rather 
the  agent  of  the  bishop  for  the  guidance  and  en- 
couragement of  diocesan  work,  than  the  mere  mer- 
cenary deputy  of  the  archdeacons  as  in  older  times. 
Bishop  Bowstead  consolidated  the  order  by  drawing 
up  rules  for  it,  and  Bishop  Lonsdale  gave  it  steady  life. 


2  86  LICHFIELD. 

The  long  and  wise  episcopate  of  John  Lonsdale  > 
(1843-1867)  deepened  Ryder's  work,  and  added  to 
it.  Lonsdale  was  eminently  a  man  of  business ;  his 
correspondence  alone  was  marvellous,  and  he  had 
the  valuable  faculty  of  encouraging  good  workers, 
and  of  winning  the  love  and  attachment  of  his  clergy. 
"There  is  difference  of  opinion  among  us,"  said 
Lord  Dartmouth,  at  the  Wolverhampton  Congress  in 
1867,  "but  there  is  no  difference  in  our  feeling 
towards  the  bishop."  Without  a  successor  like  him, 
Ryder's  work  might  have  been  lost;  under  him  it 
grew,  and  developed  new  features.  The  Training- 
College  at  Lichfield  was  moved  to  Saltley,  when 
other  dioceses  were  willing  to  join  the  work  begun 
here.  A  college  for  mistresses  was  opened  at  Derby. 
Canon  Hutchinson  was  encouraged  in  his  novel  but 
grand  idea  of  a  Diocesan  Choral  Association  with 
magnificent  triennial  festivals  in  the  cathedral.  Pre- 
bendary Edwards,  and  Rev.  E.  T.  Codd,  Cotes  Heath, 

'  The  previous  career  of  Lonsdale  was  well  told  by  his 
friend  Archdeacon  Moore  in  1867,  a  fortnight  after  the  good 
bishop's  death  : — "He  was  indeed  no  common  man.  From  his 
earliest  years  he  had  been  a  diligent  and  successful  student.  At 
Eton  he  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished  of  her  sons  ;  and 
those  who  at  some  distance  followed  him  at  Cambridge  can  well 
remember  how  the  fame  of  his  two  Latin  odes,  especially  that 
on  the  death  of  William  Pitt,  was  still  living ;  and  how  vivid 
was  the  recollection  of  his  great  and  successful  struggle  with 
Rennell  for  the  University  scholarship,  during  the  examination 
for  which  he  produced  those  Latin  alcaics,  as  a  translation  of 
part  of  a  chorus  in  the  'Hecuba,'  which  are  still  presei-ved, 
and  still  continue  to  be  admired  as  amongst  the  most  perfect  of 
modem  Latin  verses ;  and,  as  some  think,  not  vmworthy  to 
stand  beside  those  of  ancient  times.     An  eminent  scholar  he 


BISHOP   LONSDALE,  287 

in  1852,  mooted  the  foundation  of  a  theological  college 
at  Lichfield.  Though  fiercely  opposed,  the  founda- 
tion was  effected  in  1857.  Under  its  first  principal, 
Canon  Curteis,  the  college  became  a  great  institution, 
and  in  its  first  twenty-five  years  trained  no  less  than 
420  clergymen.  Under  Lonsdale,  too,  Mr.  Erskine 
Clarke,  vicar  of  St.  Michael's,  Derby,  launched  the 
first  Parish  Magazine.  But  the  most  notable  feature 
of  this  episcopate  was  not  only  ^that  more  than  150 
churches  were  built,  but  that  order,  beauty,  and  good 
architecture  characterised  the  work  in  countless  resto- 
rations. William  Coldwell,  of  St.  Mary's,  Stafford, 
led  the  way  by  the  restoration  of  that  weather-beaten 
minster  under  young  Gilbert  Scott ;  Wolverhampton, 
St.  Mary's,  Shrewsbury,  and  countless  others  followed, 
and  the  cathedral  itself  was  restored  between  1854 
and  1 86 1.  Writing  in  1866,  Archdeacon  Moore  said 
there  was  scarcely  then  a  dilapidated  church  in 
Staffordshire. 

certainly  was ;  perfect  in  Latin,  thoroughly  sound  in  Greek. 

For  some  time  he  was  a  student  of  the  law As  assistant 

preacher  at  the  Temple,  he  soon  obtained  from  that  learned 
body  the  character  of  an  able  expositor  and  practical  teacher  of 
Scriptural  truth  :  a  character  which  was  more  than  confirmed 
when,  in  after  years,  he  became  the  preacher  at  Lincoln's  Inn. 
....  He  was  chaplain  to  two  successive  archbishops ;  he 
held  at  different  times  two  country  livings  ;  he  was  rector  of  the 
large  parish  of  St.  George's,  Bloomsbury,  which,  however,  he 
soon  gave  up ;  he  was  precentor  of  Lichfield  Cathedral,  which, 
through  Archbishop  Howley,  he  exchanged  for  a  stall  in 
St.  Paul's ;  he  was  Principal  of  King's  College,  London ;  had 
been  a  Fellow,  and  for  a  brief  space  Provost  of  Eton.  He  had 
just  accepted  the  archdeaconry  of  Middlesex,  when,  in  1843,  he 
became  bishop  of  Lichfield." 


2S8  LICHFIELD. 

Under  Lonsdale,  too,  appeared  the  first  promise  of 
much  other  good  work  which  has  since  been  devel- 
oped— notably  the  mission  movement,  which  was  then 
begun  here  by  ISIr.  Twigg,  of  St.  James's,  Wednesbury, 
under  whom  the  Rev.  George  Body  was  trained.  In 
the  Diocesan  Calendar^  which  was  established  by 
Prebendary  Edwards  in  1856,  Diocesan  Synods  were 
mooted  \  and  with  his  latest  breath  the  great  and  good 
old  bishop  advocated  Denstone  College. ^ 

He  was  buried  at  Eccleshall.  The  alabaster  effigy 
in  the  cathedral  shows  the  massive  character  of  his 
manly  features.  But  his  inimitable  look,  keen  and 
yet  playful,  the  venerable  white  head  and  expressive 
under  lip,  the  high-keyed  voice  of  pleasant  changeful 
intonation,  the  gentleness,  strong  sense  and  keen  wit 
of  "good  Bishop  Lonsdale,"  will  be  cherished  lovingly 
till  the  generation  which  knew  him  die  out.  "  His 
works  do  follow  him." 

As  years  pass  on,  the  memory  of  Bishop  Lonsdale 
seems  to  become  brighter.  It  is  far  from  being 
eclipsed  even  by  the  noble  episcopate  of  Bishop 
Selwyn ;  and  yet,  undoubtedly,  George  Augustus 
Selwvn  (1867-1878)  was  one  of  the  greatest  bishops 
who  ruled  at  Lichfield.  Scarcely  inferior  to  Lons- 
dale in  scholarship,  he  brought  with  him  an  experience 

'  Bishop  Lonsdale's  last  ordination  was  held  at  St.  Mary's, 
Stafiford.  At  Stafford  he  attended  a  stormy  meeting  about 
Denstone  College  on  the  last  afternoon  of  his  life.  On  reaching 
Eccleshall  Castle  after  it,  "  he  sat  down  to  his  always  frugal 
meal,  ate  a  little,  and  complained  that  he  felt  some  unusual 
sensations,  walked  from  the  table  to  his  chair  by  the  fireside, 
sat  quietly  down,  bowed  his  head,  and  died." 


BISHOP   SELWYN.  289 

of  episcopal  work  which  dated  back  two  years  before 
Lonsdale  was  consecrated,  and  a  constitution  trained 
to  severe  exertion  by  many  a  wonderful  journey  over 
sea  and  land.  Many  now  living,  of  course,  remember 
the  marvellous  force  with  which  he  spoke,  and  the 
ceaseless  activity  of  his  work  in  the  first  few  months 
of  his  episcopate.  There  was  a  freshness  about  him 
then  which  smacked  of  the  salt  sea,  and  an  ardour 
which  seemed  as  if  the  warmth  of  southern  suns  still 
glowed  in  his  veins.  His  bearing,  as  he  entered  the 
cathedral  at  his  installation  in  1868,  made  a  great 
impression  upon  the  handful  of  clergy  present, 
an  impression  which  deepened  into  loving  awe  and 
reverence  on  closer  contact  with  him  as  he  went 
through  his  diocese.  His  voice  in  the  pulpit  was  like 
a  great  organ,  rising  into  tremendous  power  as  his 
earnestness  kindled  with  his  theme.  Young  men,  as 
they  sat  by  him  at  dinner,  listening  to  the  solemn 
words  about  God's  work  which  fell  from  his  lips  in 
unwearied  flow,  were  quickened  to  resolve  greater 
earnestness  in  their  own  lives. 

The  powers  which,  under  God,  had  been  success- 
ful in  New  Zealand,  in  the  organisation  of  the  Church 
of  those  islands,  and  the  formation  of  daughter 
bishoprics,  were  here  devoted  to  a  revival  of  the 
CORPORATE  LIFE  of  the  diocese.  The  diocese  was 
Selwyn's  empire  ;  whilst  thoroughly  loyal  to  the 
Church,  he  would  have  it  complete  in  itself.  The 
cathedral  was  to  be  its  centre.  So  he  sold  the 
palace  of  Eccleshall  and  came  to  live  in  the  palace 
at  Lichfield.  The  residentiary  canons  were  sum- 
moned from  the  four  quarters  of  the  country,   and 


290  LICHFIELD. 

are  now,  under  Bishop  Maclagan,  all  but  one,  resi- 
dent in  the  Close.  The  huge  archdeaconry  of  Stafford 
was  divided  on  the  death  of  Archdeacon  Moore  in 
1877,  and  Canon  lies  and  Sir  Lovelace  Stamer,  two 
thoroughly  successful  parish  clergymen,  were  appointed 
over  Stafford  and  Stoke  respectively.  The  clergy  of 
the  diocese  were  visited  by  the  bishop  in  their  isola- 
tion, and  confirmations  were  brought  into  every  parish. 
The  last  arrangement  involved  so  large  a  tale  of 
episcopal  work,  that  Bishops  Abraham  and  Hob- 
house  were  associated  with  the  bishop  as  coadju- 
tors. In  this,  the  Mediaeval  spirit  which  mingled 
strongly  with  Selwyn's  nineteenth  century  wisdom,  dis- 
played itself  Bishop  Abraham  was  endowed  by  the 
virtual  appropriation  of  Tatenhill  Rectory  on  its  sever- 
ance from  the  deanery  at  Dean  Champneys'  death  in 
1875.  The  archdeacon  of  Stoke  of  course  retained 
his  rectory  of  Stoke ;  Bishop  Hobhouse  became 
chancellor  of  the  diocese  ;  and  the  principal  of  the 
Theological  College  was  made  a  residentiary  canon. 

But  the  bishop's  greatest  work  was  done  for  the 
clergy  in  the  organisation  of  conferences,  carried  out 
almost  at  the  expense  of  his  life,  and  in  the  face  of 
great  opposition.  Selwyn,  too,  gave  countenance 
and  development  to  other  ideas  which  had  been 
suggested  in  Lonsdale's  time.  The  triennial  choral 
gathering  in  the  cathedral  was  so  greatly  successful, 
that  similar  festivals  were  made  to  alternate  with  it 
in  the  vacant  two  years.  One  of  these  was  a 
*'  Diocesan  Home  Mission  Festival,"  in  which  the 
work  of  Church  Defence  Societies,  Sunday  Schools, 
and  District  Visiting,  was  recognised  ;  and  the  other, 


BISHOP    SELWYN.  29 1 

a  "  Diocesan  Foreign  Mission  Festival,"  when  emi- 
nent missionaries  were  brought  face  to  face  in  the 
cathedral,  or  palace-garden,  with  the  Church  folk  of 
the  diocese.  The  hearty  services  and  long  proces- 
sions of  clergy  and  choristers,  and  the  friendly 
gatherings  of  these  great  days,  did  much  for  diocesan 
life.  And  in  1875,  a  '*  Diocesan  Temperance 
Society,"  and  in  1876  a  "  Diocesan  Sunday,"  were 
mooted.  The  former  has  now  30,000  members.  The 
object  of  the  latter  was  to  appropriate  a  Sunday  for 
general  collections  towards  supplying  the  newly 
complete  government  of  the  diocese  with  funds. 
The  first  of  these  ''  Sundays  "  was  held  in  Selwyn's 
last  year,  and  the  result  of  its  collections  was 
^2,278.  OS.  7d. 

Other  features  of  Selwyn's  episcopate,  besides  his 
strong  and  characteristic  passion  for  foreign  missions, 
were  his  establishment  of  the  "  probationer  system," 
by  which,  through  four  half-yearly  examinations  and 
a  year  at  Lichfield,  young  men  of  high  character  may 
attain  to  Holy  Orders  ;  his  granting  licenses  to  lay- 
preachers  ;  his  fondness  for  temperance  work  and 
for  every  agency  which  promoted  the  good  of  working 
men;  his  eagerness  in  visiting  workhouses,  prisons, 
and  asylums  :  and  his  solemn  sermons  on  coalpit 
banks  and  canal  wharves.  His  last  effort,  that, 
namely,  to  provide  a  chapel-barge  and  an  itinerant 
chaplain  for  mission  work  among  the  canal  popu- 
lation, showed  that  the  heart  of  the  great  sea  mis- 
sionary was  still  true,  both  to  its  love  for  souls  and 
its  passion  for  the  tiller.  As  he  sat  fainting  in 
the  vestry  of  St.  Mary's,  Shrewsbury,  after  his  last 

u  2 


292  LICHFIELD. 

confirmation,  he  compared  the  effort  which  the  work 
of  that  day  had  cost  him  to  "  holding  on  a  ship  in 
a  storm." 

These  are  but  some  of  the  works  on  which  Selwyn 
spent  his  powers,  and  which  brought  him  to  a  too 
early  grave.  What  Ryder  planned  and  died  over, 
and  Lonsdale  consolidated  with  almost  more  than 
human  strength,  Selwyn  touched  with  new  life.  Ryder 
built  churches,  Lonsdale  filled  them,  Selwyn  united 
them.  He  had  the  power  of  stirring  the  diocese  and 
concentrating  its  interest,  and  he  used  that  power 
to  the  full,  but  it  cost  him  life. 

Perhaps  Selwyn's  influence  was  never  more  clearly 
seen  than  on  two  occasions: — when,  in  concluding  the 
Stoke  Congress  of  1875,  he  drew  the  mighty  audience 
to  its  feet  by  his  recital  of  the  Ter  Sanctus ;  and  again, 
when  five  hundred  surpliced  clergy,  the  present  prime 
minister,  Mr.  Gladstone,  the  present  lord  chancellor, 
and  thousands  of  others,  assembled  to  see  his  body 
laid  in  the  rock  on  which  Lichfield  Minster  stands. 

The  marble  effigy  of  Selwyn  in  the  Lady  Chapel 
wall  is  considered  a  faithful  likeness.  It  shows  well 
the  cast  of  his  features  ;  but  the  commanding  figure 
of  the  man,  the  way  he  stood,  his  immense  range  of 
bronzed  forehead,  the  native  blackness  of  his  hair, 
his  weather-beaten  look,  his  strong  hands  and  great 
depth  of  chest,  lent  a  tinge  of  romance  to  the  other- 
wise polished  and  handsome  person  of  the  great 
missionary  bishop,  which  can  neither,  as  a  whole, 
be  imitated  in  marble,  nor  ever  forgotten. 

In  taking  leave  of  the  diocese,  we  may  glance  at 
the   results    attained   in    providing  seats    for   public 


WORK    DONE    SINCE    1819.  293 

worship,  which  will,  to  some  extent,  show  the  vitality 
of  the  Church  herself  during  the  last  fifty  years.  At 
first  sight  those  results  are  disappointing. 

In  1 80 1  there  was  church-room  in  the  diocese  for 
about  one-fourth  of  the  population.  In  1831,  owing 
to  the  enormous  influx  of  operatives  to  our  mining 
and  manufacturing  districts,  the  proportion  fell  to 
one-fifth;  but,  by  1846,  it  rose  to  one-third.  In 
1836  the  diocese  was  lessened  by  the  excision  of  the 
archdeaconry  of  Coventry,  and  in  1846  by  that  of 
Bridgenorth  Deanery.  But,  by  1851,  its  population 
in  the  lesser  area  had  become  nearly  as  large  in 
numbers  as  had  been  that  of  the  greater  area ;  yet 
the  proportion  of  sittings  remained  more  than  one- 
fourth.  In  1 88 1  the  population  had  grown  by  half, 
whilst  the  proportion  of  sittings  declined  to  less  than 
a  fourth.  No  argument  could  be  stronger  than  this 
decline  for  the  further  sub-division  of  the  diocese. 
A  million  and  a  half  of  souls  are  too  great  a  charge 
for  oversight  by  a  single  bishop. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  position  of  the  Church, 
with  regard  to  the  provision  of  public  worship  for  the 
people,  has  been  brought  back  to  what  it  was  when 
the  century  opened,  and  before  the  extraordinary 
development  of  towns  in  its  first  fifty  years.  In 
other  words,  the  clergy  of  the  last  generation  did 
their  duty  nobly  in  keeping  pace  with  the  growth  of 
population,  but  they  could  not  and  did  not  regain 
what  those  of  the  eighteenth  century  lost. 

The  average  number  of  churches  consecrated  in 
Lichfield  diocese  per  bishop  per  year  since  1819  has 
been  about  as  follows  : — Cornwallis,    2  ;  Ryder,    4  ; 


294  LICHFIELD. 

Butler,  9  ;  Bowstead,  ii  ;  Lonsdale,  6| ;  Selwyn,  5^  ; 
Maclagan,  4^.  The  energy  of  Churchmen,  never 
perhaps  greater  than  it  is  at  present,  is  thus  passing 
into  some  new  channel — that,  perhaps,  of  extending 
mission  chapels,  which  are  now  spreading  in  every 
direction. 

Yet  the  actual  tale  of  work  accomplished  is  enor- 
mous. "Between  1831  and  1861,"  said  Archdeacon 
Moore  twenty  years  ago,  "whilst  the  population  did 
not  quite  double  itself,  the  churches,  the  sittings, 
and  the  clergy,  increased  threefold."  The  poor 
have  been  rescued  from  the  miseries  of  exclusion 
from  public  worship.  Ryder's  Church-Extension 
Society  has  encouraged  the  building  of  180  perma- 
nent new  churches,  and  61  temporary  ones,  and  the 
enlargement  of  263  others,  thus  gaining  138,419 
seats,  of  which  no  less  than  98,814  are  free.  Vast, 
therefore,  as  has  been  the  expense  to  which  Church- 
men had  put  themselves  in  church-building — and 
they  spent  ^^i, 177, 584,  in  lump  sums  of  over  ;^5oo 
each,  between  1840  and  1876 — the  provision  for  the 
poor  has  been  still  more  marvellous.  Instead  of 
having  only  one-fourth  of  the  accommodation,  as  in 
1832,  they  have  now  two-thirds. 

The  increase  in  the  various  counties  may  be  thus 
stated:  —  in  Derbyshire  we  have  in  1882  about 
110,000  sittings,  of  which  70,000  are  free,  instead  of 
the  12,000  of  1835;  and  the  clergy  have  increased 
from  135,  their  number  in  1825,  to  322.  In  Salop, 
the  sittings  were,  including  Bridgenorth  Deanery, 
37,134;  they  are  now  over  50,000  without  Bridge- 
north,  32,000  being  free;  whilst  the  clergy  have  risen 


BISHOP    MACLAGAN.  295 

from  80  in  the  larger  area  to  163  in  the  smaller.  In 
Staffordshire  the  sittings  are  now  about  190,000,  of 
which  the  free  seats  are  120,000,  instead  of  27,000 
as  in  1825,  with  488  churches. 

The  320,000  sittings  of  Ryder's  time  may  be  very 
fairly  estimated  as  having  grown  into  750,000  at  the 
present  day,  over  the  whole  of  the  area  of  his  diocese. 

The  bishop  of  Lichfield  estimates  the  present  defi- 
ciency as  representing  40  churches  and  75  mission 
chapels  among  a  million  and  a  half  of  people. 

But  these  figures  do  not  represent  the  total  growth 
of  the  Church.  That  must  be  looked  for  not  only 
in  the  vast  network  of  schools,  but  also  in  revived 
beauty  of  churches,  frequency  and  heartiness  of 
the  services,  and  in  the  various  agencies  for  good 
which  now  circle  round  a  parish  parson,  and  make 
glad  the  old  waste  places.  Where,  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  there  was  one  service  a  day, 
and  where  the  worshippers  divided  their  interest  be- 
tween the  curate's  sermon  and  disorderly  struggles 
outside  the  church,  there  are  now  schools  and  par- 
sonages, and  peaceful  Sundays,  and  double  if  not 
treble  the  number  of  services  in  the  week. 

The  diocese  now  awaits  a  new  departure,  which 
seems  to  be  promised  in  the  episcopate  of  William 
Dalrymple  Maclagan  (1878).  Men  are  longing 
for  revived  spiritual  life,  and  looking  to  the  Church, 
under  God,  for  it.  Already  the  appointment  of  a 
"Diocesan  missioner  "  and  a  system  of  visitation  which 
brought  the  Bishop  at  once  face  to  face  with  every 
individual  clergyman  have  struck  the  key-note  of  the 
future.     We   trust   it    may  be    no    idle   dream  that, 


296  LICHFIELD. 

when  Dean  Bickersteth  completes  his  noble  restora- 
tion of  the  west  end  of  the  cathedral,  the  bishop  may 
be  able  to  rally  clergy  and  laity  alike  to  a  mighty 
effort  of  united  prayer  for  a  glorious  outpouring  of 
the  Holy  Ghost.  The  altars  are  rebuilt,  and  de- 
voted ministers  stand  beside  them.  May  God  send 
them  a  new  Pentecostal  gift  of  living  fire  which 
shall  enable  the  Church  of  England  to  do  in  future 
for  the  toiling  millions  of  the  Midlands  what  she  did 
for  the  scattered  squatters  of  Mercia. 


ADDITIONAL   NOTE. 


THE    MEDIEVAL    "USE       AT   LICHFIELD. 


Heyworth's  Statutes  make  it  clear  that  the  Use  of  Sarum 
was  followed  at  Lichfield  in  1428.  See  Wilkins'  Concilia,  III. 
505.  The  Diocese  had  its  own  office  for  St.  Chad's  Day, 
March  2nd.     Maskell's  Ancient  Liturgy,  3rd  edition,  LXX. 


INDEX. 


Abbot,  Bishop,  229 
Addison,  Joseph,  252 
Adultery,  32,  137,  255 
Anchorite,  156,  162,  168 
Appropriation,   47,    126,    141, 

159 

Arbor  Low,  2 

Archbishopric  of  Lichfield,  34, 

37 

Archbishop :     Higbert,     36 ; 

Aldulf,  37 
Archbishop    of      Canterbury : 
Theodore,  20,  26  ;    Hubert, 
83;  Langton,  85,  104;  Peck- 
ham,  118  ;  Sheldon,  234 
Archdeacons,  77  :  Stafford,  72, 
loi,    120,    167,    180,    274; 
Chester,  115  ;  Coventry,  57, 
97,  116;  Derby,  119;  Salop, 
147  ;  Stoke,  290 
Ardmore,  Suff.  Bp. ,  76 
Ashburne,  73,  no,  275 
Augmentations,  242,  251 
Austin  canons,  52,  58,  108 

Batne,  Bishop,  217,  218,  219 
Bakewell,  81,  270 
Bangor  Iscoed,  9 
Battlefield,  161 
Bentham,  Bishop,  221 
Bible,  186 

Birkenhead,  Prior  of,  109 
Birmingham,  140,  271 
Bishopric  robbed,  208 


Bishops,    suffragan,     76,    115, 

143,    178;  co-adjutor,    119, 

290 
Black  death,  143 
Blesensis,  Petrus,  76 
Blythe,  Bishop,  176,  267 
Boleyn,  Anne,  184 
Booth,  Bishop,  165 
BoscoBEL,  243 
BowsTEAD,  Bishop,  283 
Boy  of  Bilston,  233 
Bradbourne,  57 
Brewood,  91,  105,  117 
Brick,  use  of,  173 
Bridgenorth,  91,  122,  284 
Bridges,  106,  169,  2H 
Brook,  Lord,  shot,  237 
BuRGHiLL,  Bishop,  156 
Burton  Abbey,   47,    103,    109, 

124,  200,  210  ;  Chronicle  of, 

106 
Butler,  or  Bolars,  Bishop, 

166,  283 


Cannock,  65,  119,  173,  174 

Castles  :  Castleton,  54,  8l  ; 
Stafford,  54  ;  Tutbury,  54, 
149  ;  Maxstoke,  168  {see 
Eccleshall) 

Cathedral  :  founded  by  Hed- 
DA,  34 ;  organised  by  Ethel- 
WALD,  38  ;  clergy  itinerate, 
24,  46  ;  canons,  38  ;  preben- 


298 


LICHFIELD. 


daries,  50,  64  ;  rebuilt,  64, 
88 ;  poverty  of,  50  ;  fortified, 
64  ;  statutes,  89  ;  services, 
89,  90,  112,  269;  endovi^- 
ments,  79,  81  ;  furniture, 
144;  aspect  of,  in  Middle 
Ages,  188  ;  three  spires,  143; 
Ladye  chapel,  132  ;  re- 
opened, 247;  Wyatt's  alte- 
rations, 269  [see  Coventry ; 
see  Chester) 

Cathedrals,  struggle  between, 
69,  78,  112 

Chad,  St.  :  20-27  ;  bones  of, 
26,  144 ;  Gospels  of,  146 ; 
shrine  of,  26,  132,  144 ; 
pennies,  133 

Chandler,  Bishop,  261 

Chantries,  loo,  168,  176 

Chester,  Roman,  3  ;  battle  of, 
II;  city  of,  40;  cathedral 
of  St.  John,  52  ;  bishop  at, 
52,80;  friars,  97,  98;  abbey 
ravaged,  109,  122  ;  141  ;  see 
of,  209;  earls  of,  51,  53; 
anchorite  at,  156;  nunnery 
at,  169 

Chesterfield,  55,  120;  Thomas 
of,  147,  148 

Church  extension,  279 

Church  of  England,  how  much 
older  than  State,  39 

Cistercians  :  Buildwas,  65,  66  ; 
Croxden,  66 ;  Dieulacres, 
57  ;  White  ladies,  66  ;  Che- 
shire, 66 

Civil  wars,  172,  237 

Clergy  deprived,  239 

Clinton,  Bishop,  63-68 

Cloose,  Bishop,  166 

Colleges,  157,  174 

Collei^iate  churches  :  Saxon, 
44,  80,  125,  128,  160 

Confirmation,  Ryder's,  282 

Cornhill,  Bishop,  86 

CoRNWALLls,  Bishop,  267 


Councils  and  Synods,  26,  27, 
28,  32,  33.36,37,40,52,113 

Coventry  :  abbey  founded,  48  ; 
bishop  moves  to,  53  ;  67,  79, 
80;  monks  turned  out,  79; 
restored,  82,  112;  grows, 
106;  monks  of,  112;  events 
at,  164,  193;  ruins  of,  194; 
friars,  202  ;  disloyal,  239  ; 
archdeaconry  sundered,  283 

Dale  Abbey,  71 

Danes,  40-44 

Darley  Abbey,  59,  159 

Darwinism,  272 

Deans  of  Lichfield,  Addison, 
252  ;  Bincks,  257  ;  Colling- 
wood,  177;  Dalham,  83; 
Denton,  181  ;  Ueyvvode, 
173;  Manchester,  92; 
Newell,  222  ;  Tooker,  230  ; 
Yotton,  173;  Wood,  250; 
rural,  123,  167,  285 

Deism,  260 

Derby,  44,  58,  71,  73,  77,  98, 
118,  258 

Destitution,  spiritual,  278 

Diocese  :  boundaries  of,  i,  20  ; 
endowed,  24  ;  Salop  added, 
34  ;  divided,  28 ;  Chester 
abstracted,  209 ;  Coventry 
and  Bridgenorth  abstracted, 
284 

Dioceses,  daughter,  i,  209 

Diocesan  synods,  128,  170,  179 

Dissent,  decline  of,  249 

Dublin,  75,  loi 

DuRDENT,  Bishop,  69,  72 

Dyott,  Dumb,  237 

Early  inhabitants,  2 
Eccleshall,  131,  171,  172,  210, 

237,  247,  255,  268,  276,  289 
Election  of  bishops,  68,  84,  92, 

107,  112,  115,  134,  148 


INDEX. 


299 


Endowments,  24,  33,  44,  46, 
48,  51.  55.  58,  64,  71,  75, 
8t,  103,  160,  164,  197,  209, 
224,  240,  251,  273,  285 

Ethelfleda,  42 

Examination  for  orders,  135 

Exchange  of  benefices,  167, 185 

Excommunication,  169 

Families,  rise  of,  108 

Free    churches,    67,     79,    87, 

114,  118,  158,  270,  284 
Frewen,  Bishop,  245 
Friars,  96,  126,  171,  202 

Cell,  Sir  J.,  237 
Glass,  stained,  270 
Gnosall,  43,  67,  171 
Grace,  John,  154 
Grammar  schools,  223 
Grossteste,  Bishop,  100 
Guthlac,  St.,  30 

Hacket,  Bishop,  245 
Hales,  Bishop,  172,  189 
Hales,  Alex,  of,  97 
Hanbury  Monastery,    30  ;  de- 
stroyed, 42,  47 
Haughmond  Abbey,  59,  170 
Head  of  the  Church,  182 
Hermitages,  65,  162 
Hkyworth,  Bishop,  157 
Hobbes,  260 
Hospitals,  73 
Hough,  Bishop,  255 
HuRD,  Bishop,  268 

iMAGE-making,  153 
Indulgences,  168 
Ingestre,  207,  252 

Kings  :  {see  Mercia)  Wil- 
liam I,,  50;  John,  81,  84, 
91 ;  Richard  I.,  80,  82,  87  ; 
Richard  H.,  156;  Edward 
I.,    HI.,    145  ;  Edward  H., 


128;  Henry  HI.,  1 12,  113; 

Henry  VHI.,  181,  182,  192; 

James   I.,    230;    H,,    256; 

William  HI.,  252 
Knights  :     of  St.    John,  66  ; 

Templars,  66,  108,  128 
Knights  of  the  Garter,  142 

Langton,  Bishop,  127 

Lapley,  47,  161 

Lee,  Bishop,  184 

Leofric,  Earl,  48 

Lichfield  :  British,  7 ;  le- 
gend of,  7,  nofe ;  dead  at,  1 1  ; 
first  bishop  of,  20 ;  diocese 
of,  20 ;  cathedral  founded, 
34  ;  archbishop,  35  ;  Nor- 
mans at,  50  ;  fortified,  63  ; 
St.  John's,  64,  174;  king 
at,  91  ;  made  a  county,  209  ; 
seized,  237  ;  poets  in,  272 
{see  Deans  of,  298)  ;  Lichfield 
House,  120  ;  churchyard  of 
close,  176  ;  Hastiludes  at, 
142  ;  palace  of,  132,  166, 
246,  250,  289 

Lightfoot,  John,  234 

Lilleshall  Abbey,  42,  59,  72 

Liverpool,  159 

Livings  bought  and  sold,  71, 
180,  185 

Llewellyn,  Prince,  in 

Lloyd,  Bishop,  253 

Lollards,  149,  169,  177 

Lonsdale,  Bishop,  287 

Lymesey,  Robert  De,  Bishop, 
S3,  57  ;  daughter  of,  57 

Maclagan,  Bishop,  295 
Manchester,     159,     180,     197, 

225,  259 
Manor-houses,  168 
Marchers,  lords,  175 
Markets,  105 
Marriage,  214 
Married  bishops  and  clergy,  57 


300 


LICHFIELD. 


Martyrs,  214 

Mercia,  kings  of :  Penda,  13  ; 
Oswiu,  14;  Peada,  16  {see 
Wulfhere) ;  Ethelbald,  32  ; 
Kenred,  29 ;  legend  of,  29  ; 
Ceolred,  32;  Offa,  34;  Ken- 
wulf,  38  ;  Bertulf,  40 

Mercia,  bishops  of :  Diuma, 
16  ;  CeoUach,  17  ;  Trum- 
here,  17  ;  Jaruman,  18 

Mercia  :  founded,  13  ;  Pagan, 
13;  extent  of,  16;  conver- 
sion of,  14;  church  of,  14-20 

Methodists,  262,  275 

MOLEND,  JBishop,  117 

Monasteries  :  Saxon,  16,  46  ; 
rise  of  Norman,  58,  67  ; 
poverty,  155  ;  decline  of, 
157,  191  ;  debts  of,  193; 
destruction  of,  197;  sales  of, 
204 ;  in  Staffordshire,  1 09 
(see  Visitations  and  Appro- 
priations) 

Monks :  old  and  new,  46;  Nor- 
naan,  56  ;  orders  of,  58 ;  aims 
of,  56,  58,  66,  67  ;  farm  and 
trade,    95,    105,    191  ;   bad, 

140,  158,  170,  187;  igno- 
rant, 140,  180;  poor,  155; 
turned  out  of  Coventry,  78  ; 
restored,  83  ;  turned  out  of 
Lichfield,  174  ;  influence  on 
parishes,  95,  106,   118,  1 26, 

141,  159  ;  Coventry,  monks 
of,  78,  104,  112;  contribute 
to  king's  need,  109 

Morton,  Bishop,  233,  241 
MuscHAMP,  Geoffry  de,  84 


Neill,  Bishop,  230 
Nepotism,  267 
Nonconformists,  244 
NoRBURY,  Bishop,  134 
North,  Bishop,  268 
NuNANT,  Bishop,  53,  78 


Ordericus  Vitalis,  the 
Shrewsbury  Monk,  56,  60 

Ordinations,  129,  131,  135, 
178,  297 

Overall,  Bishop,  231 

Overton,  Bishop,  229 

Pagets  enriched  at  Church's 
cost,  209 

Palace,  the  [see  Lichfield) 

Papists  :  rise  of,  226  ;  their 
wonders,  233 ;  their  num- 
bers, 251 

Parochial  system,  44 

Parsonages,  281 

Passulano,  113 

Patteshull,    Bishop,     no, 

113 

Pec  HE,     Robert,     57  ;      and 

Richard,  57,  74 
Penitentiary,  138 
Penkridge,  43,  67,  12$ 
Peter,  51,  56 
Plague,  146,  248 
Population,  278 
Processions,  121 
PuELLA,  Bishop,  76 
Purgation,  171 
Puritans,  230,  23 

Quakers,  241,  255 

Ranton  Priory,   57,  59,  139, 

180 
Reformation,  151 
Repton:  town,  15  ;  monastery, 

30.   33>   40,   47 ;  destroyed, 

41  ;    persons    buried    there, 

42  ;  priory,  1 74  ;  school,  223 
Restoration,  the,  244 
Retirement  of  clergy,  167,  176 
Rocester  Priory,  59,  136,  139 
Romans  at  Haddon ,  3 ;  Glossop, 

3 ;    Shropshire,    3  ;    Darley 

Dale,  8  (see  Papists) 
Roman  cemetery,  6 
Roman  exactions,  125,  149 


INDEX. 


301 


Roman  towns,  4;Uriconium,  5 
Royal  free  chapels,  43,  208 
Ryder,  Bishop,  277 

Sacheverell,  Dr.,  257 
Sampson,  Bishop,  208,  218 
Sanctuary,  123 
Sandwell,  65 
Saunders,  Lawrence,  215 
Saxon  :  churches,  45  ;  bishops, 
49  ;  forts,  12,  13  ;  monks,  46 
SCROPE,  Bishop,  156 
Selwyn,  Bishop,  28,  49,  288 
Seward,  Canon,  270 
Sexwulf,  Bishop,  28 
Shrewsbury  :  origin  of,   8  ; 
abbey  of,  60  ;  royal  chapels 
at,   43,   59,   67,   80 ;  school 
of,   60,  223,  277  ;  friary  at, 
204  ;   bishop   of,    200,   202  ; 
riots  at,   258  ;  bishopric  of, 
200 ;  gaol,  122 
Simon  the  Sage,  75 
Skirlaw,  Bishop,  148,  156 
Smallbroke,  Bishop,  261 
Smythe,  Bishop,  174,  177 
Spalatro,  Archbishop  of,  235 
Stafford  :   31,   12  ;    college  of, 
44,    50,    118,  128,  209,  224; 
St.  Chad's  at,  68,  123  ;  priory 
at,   74,  108,  191,   192  ;   hos- 
pitals at,  73 ;  gaol  at,  122  ; 
friary  at,  204 
Staffordshire,  woods  of,  51 
St  a  yen  BY,  Bishop,  92;  friars, 

96,  125 
Stoke:    on-Trent,    155;   on- 

Teme,  239 
Stone  :  28  ;  legend  of,  21,  42  ; 
college   of,    43 ;    priory   of, 
59,  72;  market,    109;  epis- 
copal prior,  174,  271 
Stretton,  Bishop,  155,  715 
Suffragan    bishops,     76,     174, 
178,  179,  186 


Sunday  sports,  225 
Synods,  179  {see  Councils) 

Tamworth,  40,  143,  159 
Tatenhill,  255,  290 
Templars  [see  Knights) 
Test  Acts,  257 
Thorpe,  W.,  150 
Tonge,  161 
Tory  riots,  257 
Translation,  179 
Trentham,  30,  42  ;  priory,  59 
Twigg,  R..  2S8 

Uttoxeter,  141,  142 

Vestries  robbed,  212 
Visitations,  114,  130,  139,  158, 
169,  295 

Walks,  Presidents  of,  175, 184, 

Walsall,  155,  255,  266 
Walton,  Izaak,  241 
Wenlock,  59,  200 
Werburga,  St.,  30 
Weseham,  Bishop,  113 
Wesley,  263 
Wesleyans,  264,  265 
Whalley,  57 
Whig  riots,  257 
White  ladies,  138 
Widows,  veiled,  169 
Wightman  burnt,  231 
Wilfrid  of  York,  20,  34 
WiNFRiD,  Bishop,  26,  27 
Wolverhampton  {see  Collegiate 

and  free  churches),  242,  284, 

286 
Wood,  Bishop,  250 
Woods,  124 
Working  class,  27 1 
Wright,  Bishop,  235 
WuLFHERE,  King,  21,  24,  27 


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