The South Saxon diocese, Selsey--Chichester

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SELSEY-CHICHESTER.

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DIOCESAN HISTORIES.

SELSEY-CHICH ESTER.

W. R. W.^TEPHENS,

PREBENDARY OF CHICHESTER AND RECTOR OF WOOLBEDING.
AUTHOR OF

'life and LETTERS OF DEAN HOOK," "CHRISTIANITY AND ISL/
"life of S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM," ETC.

WITH MAP AND PLAN.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE.

LONDON :

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,

NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, S.W. ;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, B.C. ; 48, PICCADILLY, \V. ;
AND 135, NORTH STRBET, BRIGHTON.

NEW YORK : E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO.
i88x.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

A.D. 681-1075.

The conversion of the South Saxons by Wilfrith — Foun-
dation of the See of Selsey and gradual formation of the
diocese — Architectural remains .... Page

CHAPTER II.

A.D. 1075-1288.

Removal of the See from Selsey to Chichester— Effects of
the Norman Conquest upon the diocese — The Bishops
and the Cathedral Church— Saint Richard of Wych Pagt 3

CHAPTER III.

Monastic and collegiate foundations in the diocese, A.D.
1075-1288— Architecture, A.D. 1075-1250 . . Page

vi

CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER IV.

A.D. I288-I362.

Value of Church property and number of clergy in the
diocese — Suppression of the Knights Templars — The
Bishops and the Cathedral Page 1 12

CHAPTER V.

A.D. I362-I497.

Causes of corruption in the Church — Prosecution of the
Lollards — State of the monasteries and of the Cathedral
—Episcopal visitations — Architecture, A.D. 1 250-1 500

CHAPTER VI.

A.D. I497-1536.

The approach of the Reformation — The episcopate of
Bishop Sherburne — The dissolution of the monasteries

Page 158

CHAPTER VII.

A.D. I 536-1 604.

Progress of the Reformation — Demolition of the shrine of
St. Richard — Imprisonments of Bishops Sampson and
Daye — State of the diocese during the reigns of Mary
and Elizabeth Page 177

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

A.D. 1604-1660.

State of the diocese during the reigns of James I. and
Charles I.— The Siege of Chichester and Sack of the
Cathedral— The Commonwealth . . . Page 207

CHAPTER IX.

A.D. 1660-1800.

State of diocese after the Restoration— The Noncon-
formists—The Duke of Monmouth at Chichester — The
Revolution— The Non-jurors— State of diocese in the
eighteenth century — Extracts from diaries illustrative of
the period— Wesley's work in Sussex . . . Page 230

CHAPTER X.
The diocese in the present century

Page 261

I

I

SELSEY-CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER I.

A.D. 6S1-IO75.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS AND THE
FORMATION OF THE DIOCESE.

The history of the existing Church in our island
dates from the year a.d. 597, when St. Augustine
founded the metropolitan see of Canterbury. There
is no continuity between the life of the British
Church and the life of the English Church. The
Teutonic invasion of Saxons, Jutes, and Angles, was
a wave of barbarism and heathenism which swept
away alike the civilization and the religion which
had been planted in Britain while it was a Roman
province. British Christianity was driven with the
Britons into the remote western parts of the country ;
elsewhere it survived, if at all, only in small patches,
and, so to speak, in holes and corners.

In other parts of the Roman empire the incursions
of the northern races had not been so destructive
in their effects. The Ostrogoths and Lombards in

B

2

SELSEY.

Italy, the Visigoths in Spain, the Franks in Gaul,
gradually adopted more or less the Roman language,
religion, and laws. Latin, with the infusion of a
Teutonic element, was the groundwork of the tongues,
called the Romance languages, spoken in these coun-
tries. In England, on the contrary, the language had
a Teutonic basis, with only a small infusion of Celtic,
and a large infusion of French after the Norman
Conquest.

The reason of this difference between the effects of
the Teutonic invasion in Britain, and in other parts
of the empire, was twofold.

First, the hold of the Romans upon this distant
province was less vigorous than upon the provinces
nearer home. The empire was old and decadent in
the fifth century of our era, and, as in the human
body, so in the body politic, in old age the life blood
circulated more feebly in the extremities than in the
more central regions, nearer to the heart.

Secondly, the tribes who invaded Britain had not
already come into contact, like the Goths and Franks,
with Roman power or civilization ; they had not
learned to respect the one or to emulate the other.

In no part of the island did the invaders accomplish
the work of destruction and extirpation more ruth-
lessly than in the region which was taken by the South
Saxons, and which bears the impress of their name to
the present day.

Twenty-eight years after the Jutes had settled
themselves in Kent, that is to say, in a.d. 477, " came
.^lle to Britain, and his three sons, Cymen, AMencing,
and Cissa, with three ships, at the place which is

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 3

named Cymenesora,i and there slew many Welsh,^ and
drove some into the forest, which is named Andre-
deslea." Such is the brief record, in the chronicle, of
the landing of our South Saxon forefathers.

Eight years later, a.d. 485, we read that ^Ue
fought a battle with the Welsh, near the bank of
Markredesburne (possibly Seaford).

Five years after this came the crushing blow. The
Saxons gradually fought their way eastwards from the
point at which they had landed, and at last the British
were brought to bay. The visitor to Pevensey may
see the remains of massive walls and towers of
Roman workmanship. They are the vestiges of the
fortress known in British times by the name of Andre-
desceaster, one of a chain of fortresses built by the
Romans to protect the southern coast from the attacks
of piratical adventurers. Behind these walls, then, the
British made their final stand for freedom. Later
chroniclers describe the conflict between besiegers
and besieged as long and obstinate. But the Saxon
chronicle contents itself with stating the result — the
total overthrow of the place ; the pitiless massacre of
all its inhabitants.

" In this year, a.d. 490, ^lle and Cissa besieged
Andredesceaster, and slew all that dwelt therein, so
that not even one Briton was there left. A record,
observes Gibbon, " more dreadful in its simplicity
than all the vague and tedious lamentations of the

' Near Wittering, at the mouth of the estuary now called
Chichester Harbour.

^ i.t., of course_ British. "Wealas" is merely the old
English word for " strangers."

B 2

4

SELSEY.

British Jeremiah. After inflicting this crushing de-
feat the South Saxons were left complete masters of the
long strip of country extending from Hastings, at the
eastern extremity, to Chichester, at the western.
Cissa, the youngest son of ^lle, repaired the fortifica-
tions of the old Roman city, Regnum, which came to be
called, in consequence, after his name, Cissanceaster, or
Cissa's Camp, and in time Chichester. This narrow
tract between the South Downs and the sea supplied
excellent pasturage for cattle and tillage for com.
Northwards it was shut in by the great weald or forest
of Anderida, which stretched for 120 miles, from the
borders of Kent as far as Privet, in Hampshire, and was
30 miles in breadth. A few British may have lurked
in the recesses of the forest belt after the capture of
Andredesceaster, but only as scattered remnants. The
conquering race gradually penetrated the weald, and
made settlements for themselves in those spots, of
which the names testify alike to their Saxon origin and
the sylvan character of the country.^ The waifs and
strays of the British population which may have been
lingering there, were either destroyed or expelled ;
possibly in some instances, but more rarely, absorbed
into the Teutonic stock. And with the Britons
were swept away all the Christianity and civilization
which had existed in that part of the country, of
which the heathen and barbarous invader now took
possession.

' i.e., Gildas. Gibbon, vi. 372. Milman's edit.

= The termination "hurst," and "lye" or " ley," "field " or
"fold," are of perpetual occurrence in the local nomenclature of
the Weald of Sussex.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 5

If he disdained to preserve the villas, the mosaics,
and the pottery, of which such beautiful specimens have
been dug up in our own day in the fields at Bignor,i
we may be sure that he did not treat the Christian
churches with more respect. Representing, as they
did, the religion of a people whom he despised, the
probability is that many were destroyed, while many
more gradually crumbled to decay from desertion and
neglect.

For two hundred years the kingdom of the South
Saxons remained in this benighted condition. "Dark-
ness covered the land, and gross darkness the people."
Of all the tribes which took part in the conquest of
Britain, they had the reputation of being the most
ignorant and savage, and they were the last to be
converted to the Christian faith. This latter fact, how-
ever, was due more to the force of circumstances than
to the character of the people. The men of Kent had
accepted the gospel in the year 597, and it might
have been expected that the South Saxons would
have been among the first to learn the truth from
their neighbours. But such was not the case. The
stream of missionary enterprise was drawn in a
different direction. It did not follow the course
naturally indicated by the relative geographical position
of the several kingdoms, but that which was shaped
for it by their political or social relations. Rochester
was the second see founded in England, because
Rochester was probably the capital of a small king-
dom of the West Kentings, subordinate to ^thelberht,
the first Christian king. London became the third
' Near Arundel.

6

StLSEY.

see, because Sigeberht, King of the East Saxons, was
^thelberht's nephew, and wished to adopt for himself
and his subjects the religion which his uncle had em-
braced. York became the fourth see, because the
Northumbrian king, Eadwine, married .^thelberht's
daughter, who was a Christian, and took a mission-
ary -with her to her northern home in the person of
Paulinus, her chaplain, one of the Italian companions
of St. Augustine.

No political or matrimonial ties of this kind con-
nected the South Saxon kingdom with its immediate
neighbours, Kent on the one side, and Wessex on the
other. St Augustine and his fellow missionaries
were not endowed with that indomitable spirit of
enterprise and martyrdom, which urges men into un-
known and perilous regions. Wessex was converted
by Birinus in 635, who was sent direct from Rome,
but his missionary labours, and the labours of his
immediate successors, the Bishops of Winchester and
Sherborne, naturally followed the course of West
Saxon conquest, which was being continually pushed
westwards and northwards, and consequently, further
and further from South Saxon territory.

So the South Saxons remained, in the middle of the
seventh century, wrapped in an ignorance of Christian
light and civilization, as deep and dense as their own
forest of Anderida, which was, indeed, a formidable
barrier to the approach either of friends or foes.

There was, however, one tiny spot in Sussex where,
in the middle of the seventh century, the light of Christ-
ian faith was burning, but it was a mere taper, too
feeble to illuminate the surrounding waste of Paganism.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. ^

At the head of a branch of that same estuary, near
the mouth of which ^Ue and Cissa first set foot on
British soil, one of their followers, Boso or Bosa, made
his settlement, which came to be called after him,
Bosenham or Bosham. And here, too, a Christian,
named Dicul, of Irish descent, had planted a small
monastery, where, in the words of Bede,i " surrounded
by woods and water, lived five or six brethren, serving
the Lord in humility and poverty." How they came
there neither Bede nor any other historian informs us.
Possibly they were an offshoot of the great monastery
which St. Columba had founded in Ireland, in the
sixth century, and of the missionary spirit which he
engendered there. Anyhow, Dicul and his com-
panions had not succeeded in making any impres-
sion, if they had ever attempted it, on their pagan
neighbours. "No one," says Bede, "cared to emulate
their life, or to listen to their teaching."

The Apostle of Sussex came from a distant quarter
whence no one could have foreseen or expected his
arrival. Wilfrith, Archbishop of York, was one of
those characters who are impelled by their fiery and
restless energy beyond the bounds which seem natur-
ally prescribed for their sphere of work. They are
here and there and everywhere, and have a hand in
everything which is within the possible reach of their
activity. Wilfrith's connexion with Sussex is only
one of many episodes in his chequered and tangled
career, the unravelment of which would far exceed
the limits of this history. It must suffice to mention

' iv., c. 13.

8

SELSEY.

here, that in the year 680, in consequence of an
appeal which he had made to Rome against a new
division of the Northumbrian diocese, he was banished
from his see by the decree of the Northumbrian king,
Ecgfrith, and his Witan. He could not find a secure
refuge in Mercia or Wessex, because the royal families
in these kingdoms were connected by marriage with the
Northumbrian king. And so he continued his jour-
ney southwards, until at last he entered the territory
of ^thelwealh, King of the South Saxons. He was
probably the first Englishman of learning and culture
who had pierced the mighty forest belt of Anderida,
and his arrival was destined to be the introduction
into Sussex of Christianity and civilization. King
yEthelwealh had married a Christian vnfe, of Huic-
cian birth, and had himself become a Christian
through the influence of Wulfhere, a Christian king
of Mercia, who had entered into alliance with him
against the growing power of the West Saxon king-
dom, ^thelwealh had either lacked energy or
knowledge to propagate among his people the faith
which he had himself embraced. But he was glad to
welcome the powerful and learned prelate, one of the
most renowned men of his age, who, by a strange
turn of events, was now brought to his doors in the
guise of a homeless exile. AVilfrith, then, was cour-
teously and hospitably received at the royal dwelling.
This was not at Chichester. The early English kings
and nobles, true to the habits and tastes of the
Teutonic race, as described by Tacitus,' had no liking

' " Mores Germanoram," ch. 16.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 9

for towns, and commonly resided at a distance from
them, ^thelwealh's abode at this time was on the
shore of the flat, dreary, but fertile peninsula of Selsey,
which projects into the sea about ten miles due south
of Chichester. Here the wandering prelate found a
refuge. Strangely enough, it was not the first time
that he had set foot on South Saxon soil. About
twenty years before, when returning from Gaul, where
he had gone to receive consecration at the hands of
his friend Agilberht, Bishop of Paris, he had been
driven by a tempest on the Sussex coast. The
natives were barbarous and merciless wreckers. Led
on by one of their priests, they made a ferocious
attack upon the stranded vessel. The bishop's crew
and retinue, numbering 120, offered a brave resistance,
whilst the bishop himself and his clergy knelt down
and prayed for their success. At last one of the
episcopal party, " like another David," says the bio-
grapher,! smote the heathen priest a deadly blow in
the forehead with a pebble. The enraged barbarians
only renewed the assault more furiously ; thrice they
advanced, but thrice they were repelled. They were
collecting larger forces for a fourth attack, when the
grounded vessel floated with the rising tide ; the
bishop and his party got out to sea, and landed in
safety at Sandwich, on the shores of Christian Kent.
And now, as an honoured guest at the court of
-(^^thelwealh, he took a noble revenge for the ill-
treatment which he had formerly experienced at the
hands of his barbarous people. It was a season of

Eddius, a chaplain of Wilfrith's.

lO

SELSEY.

severe distress in that part of Sussex. Owing to a
long-continued drought many of the crops had failed,
and the people were so stupid, or so timid, that they
had not learned how to catch fish in the open sea,
but only took the eels which they found in the muddy
inlets and estuaries at low tide.^ They were, indeed,
reduced to such extremities of famine, that many of
them would cast themselves into the sea, to put an
end to their miserable existence. Wilfrith and his
companions made some nets, and had the good for-
tune, on their first experiment, to capture a large
draught of fishes. One of the surest roads to people's
hearts, it has been said, is dowTi their throats, and the
grateful natives were now mlling to listen to instruc-
tion from their northern visitors upon deeper matters
than the art of catching fish. For several months
Wilfrid went about the country preaching with inde-
fatigable zeal and great success. At last a great
multitude were baptized in one day. " And on that
day," says Bede, '•' the rain, so long withheld, revisited
the thirsty land." Fresh vegetation and the new faith
burst into life together. The grateful ^thelwealh
made a grant of lands in Selsey to Wilfrith. They
contained a population of 87 families, among which
were 250 slaves of both sexes. Wilfrith immediately
baptised and enfranchised them, thus emancipating
them, as Bede remarks, from the yoke of spiritual and
temporal bondage at the same moment.

Thus the peninsula of Selsey, now little known to
any except a few resident clerg}', farmers, and peasants,

' Beda, iv., c. 13.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. II

was the original source and centre of Christianity and
civilization in Sussex. Here the king had his royal
dwelling : here Wilfrith built the church in which
stood his Episcopal cathedra or throne : " stool " or
" settle " as it is called in old English : the first
cathedral church in Sussex, which he dedicated to St.
Peter, mindful, doubtless, of his own greater cathedral
church of St. Peter at York. The church of Wilfrith
at Selsey has long been swept away by the encroach-
ments of the envious sea : no vestiges or traditions of
its character survive. Wilfrith, however, was a man
who always did with his might what his hand found to
do : and we may be sure that he who restored the
church of York, and built the churches of Ripon and
Hexham on a magnificent scale, made the best of
such resources as he could command in building the
church of Selsey. Hard by the church was the home
of Wilfrith and his followers who were sent forth by
him, or accompanied him on expeditions to preach,
teach, and baptize in the surrounding country. These
missionary excursions from the mother church were
gradually followed by the foundation of parish
churches, or of private chapels on the estates of land-
owners who had become converted to the faith.i The
parishes most likely to be first provided with churches
and resident priests were those situated on the land
originally given to the bishop. The original charters
of yEthelwealh and his successor, Ceadwalla, granting
estates to Wilfrith have been lost ; and the copies of

' The parochial boundaries coincided very commonly with
the limits of the estate ; hence the peculiar and inconvenient
shape of many of our parishes, especially in Western Sussex.

12

SELSEY.

the charter of Ceadwalla contained in the cathedral
archives are probably not earlier than the latter part
of the Fourteenth Century. Yet there is little reason
to doubt that the places there indicated, most of which
may still be identified, such as Wightring, Ichenor,
Bosham, Birdham, Sidlesham, Aldingbourne, Mund-
ham, Amberley, and Houghton were nearly, if not
quite, the earliest in which parish churches and parish
priests were planted. It is not at all improbable that
in many places the adaptation of existing heathen
temples to Christian worship obviated the necessity
of building churches. ^

About three years after the settlement of Wilfrith at
Selsey, a revolution occurred which swept away the
Kingdom of Sussex. Ceadwalla was a member of the
house of Cerdic — the royal race of Wessex — but he
had been banished by the King Kentwine as a danger-
ous aspirant to the throne. He had led a hard life as
an outlaw for some years in the forests of Chiltern and
Anderida. On the death of Kentwine in 685 he
began " to strive for the kingdom." ^ In the follow-
ing year he ravaged Kent, Sussex, and the Isle of
Wight, ^thelwealh fell in battle against the invader,
and after a short resistance by two South Saxon ealdor-
men, Sussex fell completely under the sway of Cead-
walla, who had established himself on the throne of
Wessex. Ceadwalla, however, had been befriended
by Wilfrith in the days of his exile, and he now
requited his kindness. He was converted to the

' See Mr. Kemble's remarks on this point. "Saxons in
England," vol. ii., p. 424.
^ Sax. Chron.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 1 3

Christian faith, he confirmed the possession of the
lands which had aheady been granted to the See by
^thehvealh, and when he conquered the Isle of Wight,
he committed the conversion of the inhabitants to Wil-
frith. He is a remarkable illustration of the intensely
real way in which Christianity, when once embraced,
came home to the rough, simple, but earnest, natures
of men in those days. The wild outlaw, the fierce con-
queror became a devotee. After two years he aban-
doned his kingdom to make a pilgrimage to Rome
and be baptized by the Pope. He was baptized by
Pope Sergius in 689, died a few days afterwards, and
was buried in St. Peter's.

About the same time the connexion of Wilfrith
with Sussex came to an end. Ecgfrith, the Northum-
brian king who had driven him into exile, fell in battle
in 685, and soon after this event Wilfrith was restored
to his See at York.

Among the converts to Christianity made during
the sojourn of Wilfrith in Sussex none are known to us
by name except one. This is Saint Lewinna. All
we learn about her^ is that she was a lady who
suffered martyrdom on account of her faith, at the
hands of a heathen Saxon, during the primacy of
Archbishop Theodore, who died in 690, and that her
body was buried, and her remains held in great
honour, in a monastery dedicated to St. Andrew, not
far from the sea. Three hundred and fifty years later,
in 1058, her reputation was still so high that a monk
from the monastery of Bergue, in Flanders, was

' " Acta Sanctorum," July, xxiv., p. 608. See also "Sussex
Archseol. Coll." vol i., p. 48.

14

SELSEY.

immensely gratified when he succeeded in stealing
her relics and conveyed them in triumph to his house,
where the abbot and brethren heartily congratulated
him and themselves on the acquisition of so valuable
a prize. A long and curious account of this theft has
been related by a contemporary monk, Drogo, and
his description of the coast where Balgerus, the hero
of the exploit, landed, seems to indicate that it was in
the neighbourhood of Seaford. The history, there-
fore, of Lewinna, meagre as it is, proves two things,
first, that South Saxon paganism did not give way
to Christianity without a struggle, and, secondly, that
even during the episcopate of Wilfrith the faith had
extended from Selsey to the eastern portion of the
South Saxon kingdom.

After the departure of Wilfrith from Selsey the
Bishopric of Sussex lay vacant for several years. The
Kingdom after the overthrow of ^thelwealh became
an appanage of Wessex, and as in temporal matters,
Sussex was subject to the West Saxon kings, so in
ecclesiastical matters it was subject to the bishops of
Winchester. This state of things lasted for about
twenty years. At length, in 705, King Ine, the suc-
cessor of Ceadwalla, resolved with his witan to
divide the diocese, which had grovm to an unwieldy
size, owing to the great extension of the West Saxon
Kingdom. Accordingly, a new see was erected at
Sherborne, and four years afterwards the See of
Selsey was revived. The clergy whom Wilfrith had
gathered jround him at Selsey — the original chapter, in
fact, of the cathedral church — had remained after his
departure — some possibly living as parish priests on

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 15

the lands which had been given to the see, others
residing in houses adjoining the cathedral, except
when they went out on missionary excursions ; the
church and its dependent buildings forming together
what was called the monasterium, or minster; whether
the community consisted of monks or of secular
priests. 1 Wilfrith, of course, had been the head of
the community; on his departure he probably
nominated a president, and any subsequent vacancy
would be filled up by election. Eadberht was the
president of the brotherhood in 709, and on the
revival of the see in that year he was consecrated
Bishop of Selsey.

From this time, with occasional intervals of suspen-
sion, the See of Selsey was regularly occupied by a
succession of twenty-two bishops, covering a space of
nearly 370 years, at the end of which the bishopric
was transplanted to Chichester. During this period
our materials for the history of the diocese are ex-
ceedingly meagre. Of the bishops themselves for the

' The distinction betweeen secular and regular clergy is so
commonly misunderstood, that it may be as well to remind the
reader that the seculars were either parish priests living on their
benefices, and in early English times very commonly married men,
or they were canons of cathedral or collegiate churches. They
were called seculars from their living " iti srrculo " in the world,
as distinguished from the regulars or monks who lived under
vows of obedience to a regula, or rule, in one building with a
common dormitory, common refectory, common property. The
latter were, of course, never married ; some were laymen, others
in holy orders. The common error is in imagining that all
clergy were monks, and all monks clergy. The word "monas-
terium" was often used to signify any large church.

i6

SELSEY.

most part we know little more than the names, which
we learn from their signatures to charters. These
charters, however, are the best remaining indications
of the progress which Christianity was making in
Sussex, being the legal documents by which grants
of land were made either to the See of Selsey, or to
private individuals for the purpose of erecting churches
and monasteries.

The pious preambles to these charters, and the
terrific imprecations invoked upon those who should
dare to injure the gift or defraud the persons for
whom it was intended are sometimes entertaining, and
always instructive. They exhibit an almost touching
simplicity of faith that the donor will be rewarded for
his meritorious deed, and that the spoiler will be
visited with the most severe pains and penalties, pro-
bably in this world, but certainly in the world to come.
Very often sentences and phrases are heaped together
in the most grandiloquent style which the com-
poser of the document could invent. A few extracts
translated from some of the principal charters relating
to gifts of land for church purposes in Sussex will sufBce
to mark their character, and to illustrate the way in
which Christianity gradually crept into all parts of the
diocese.

In 692, Nothelm, King of the South Saxons, for the
benefit of his soul, and knowing that whatever he
gives of his own property to members of Christ Avill
profit him in the future, willingly grants to his sister,
Nothgitha, a portion of land for building a monastery
and a church which may minister to the glor}'ofGod,
and the honour of the saints. The gift consists of

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 1 7

thirty-eight hides of land at Lidsey, Aldingboume,
Genstedegate, and Mundham. " If any one dares to
diminish aught, be it much or little, from this gift,
let him know that he will suffer the penalty of his
presumption at the strict judgment of Almighty
God." 1

In 714 and 725, Nunna, King of the South Saxons,
grants lands at Herotunum, Brakelesham, Sidlesham,
Lavington,2 and other places, to tlie monastery of
Selsey, where he wishes his body to repose.

The same Nunna, in an undated charter, grants
four hides of land at Pipering to a servant of God,
named Bertfrith, on condition that prayers are offered
there night and day on behalf of the donor. The
same document records that Bertfrith being aged and
desirous to release himself from all wordly affairs
and to serve God only, has surrendered his property
together with himself to Eolla, Bishop of Selsey. In
other words, probably he became a monk in the house
established on the land granted by Nunna and then
surrendered the house to the Bishop of Selsey. Eolla
accepts the gift with the consent of the brethren {i.e.,
the chapter at Selsy) and of the King Nunna.^

In 765, Osmund, who does not in this charter more
distinctly describe himself, but in another five years
later styles himself as King, grants twelve hides of land
at Ferring at the request of his Earl V/alhere, for the
building of a monastery thereon.''

' Kemble's " Cod. Dipl." 995.

' " Cod. Dipl.," 999, 1000, " Ilcrotunum ' i.^ harJ (0 identify
— possibly it was Harting.
* "Cod. Dipl.," looi. ■* "Cod. Dipl.,' 1008.

C

i8

SELSEY.

In 770, Osmund at the prayer of "my Count
Warbald and his wife Tidburh," grants fifteen hides
of land for the endowment of the Church of the
Blessed Apostle Peter at Hanefield. The preamble
of this charter is a good specimen.

" In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
brought nothing into this world, neither can we carry
anything out : and, therefore, eternal rewards are to
be purchased with things earthly and fleeting. 'Where-
fore I," etc.i

About 774, ^thelberht, described as King of the
South Saxons, gives eighteen hides of land " for the
benefit of his soul to a venerable man named Diozsan,
for the erection of a monastery ^ at Wystringes
(Wittering) with all things thereto pertaining —
meadows, woods, and fish stream." ^

The signatures to these charters are instructive as
illustrating the relations of Sussex ecclesiastically
and politically to the rest of the country. During the
latter part of the Seventh Century, and the first half
of the Eighth, when Sussex was under the dominion
of Wessex, the witnesses who attest the charters in
addition to the BishoiDS of Selsey are the Kings of
Wessex and the Bishops of Winchester. But during
the^atter half of the eighth century, when the might
of Offa had made Mercia the dominant kingdom, our
Sussex charters are commonly signed by the Mercian

• "Cod. Dipl.," 1009.

' It must be borne in mind that "monastery" in these
charters, as in many writings of the same period, often signified
merely a church and its adjuncts.

' "Cod. Dipl.," loio.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 1 9

kings, and by the bishops of Mercian sees — Dorches-
ter, Worcester, and Lichfield.

In 825, at the great Council of Clovesho held under
Beornvfulph, King of Mercia, a dispute of long stand-
ing between the Kings of Mercia and the Bishops of
Selsey concerning land at Denton, which the king
claimed for the monastery of Beddingham, was finally
setded in favour of the see. This marks the transi-
tion from the supremacy of Mercia to that of Wessex.
Ecgberht had given a fatal blow to Mercia in the
great battle of EUendune in 825, and from this time
the names of Mercian kings disappear from all
documents relating to South Saxon affairs.

One of the earliest (if not the earliest of all) ecclesi-
astical foundations in East Sussex was at Old Mailing.
Here, on the banks of the Ouse, about half a mile north
of Lewes, a church was planted and dedicated to S.
Michael the Archangel, by Ealdulf, one of the ealdor-
men who strove for a short time, but in vain, to maintain
the independence of the South Saxon kingdom, after
the death of Athelwealh, against the might of Cead-
walla. Whether it became a collegiate church before
the time of Archbishop Theobald, who is said to have
endowed it, is uncertain. Cead walla himself is in
some documents called the founder of the college,
and very probably after his conversion to Christianity
he became a benefactor to the Church, but in the list
of those founders and benefactors for whose souls the
members of the college were directed by their statutes
to offer daily prayers, precedence before all is given to
" The most serene highness, Ealdulf, formerly Duke
of Southsax, and first founder of this college."
c 2

20

SELSEY.

The process by which the manor of Old Mailing
became annexed to the See of Canterbury supplies
an interesting illustration of the constitutional history
of this country. It was originally granted by Baldred,
King of Kent.i But at the time he made the grant,
in the year 823, Baldred had been driven out of his
kingdom by the advancing power of Ecgberht, the
great West Saxon king, whose son, yEthelwulf, had
invaded Kent. The gift of Baldred, therefore, was
held to be invalid, because it was made without the
knowledge and consent of the Witanagemote. Conse-
quently, in 838, a gemote was held by Ecgberht, at
Kingston-on-Thames, at which the grant was formally
renewed. 2 The manor in question was a narrow belt
of land from twenty-five to thirty miles long, ex-
tending in a north-easterly direction from the town of
Lewes to the borders of Kent. The parishes which
then existed, or were afterwards formed within the
boundaries of the manor, were all under the peculiar
jurisdiction of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and so
remained until the recent abolition of peculiars.
One of them was JNIayfield, and St. Dunstan built a
wooden church there. The manor-house at Mayfield
became a favourite resort of the Archbishops of
Canterbury in the mediceval times, and the remains
of it are well worth a visit at the present day.

The record of the foundation of the church at
Steyning, by St. Cuthman, although so much mixed

' This seems clearly to indicate that after the extinction of
the South Saxon Kingdom, the Kentish kings had endeavoured
to wrest the eastern parts of Sussex from the West Saxon sub-
jection. ' Haddan and Stubb's "Conciha," vol. iii.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 21

up with legendary matter, that it is hard to disentangle
truth from fiction, rests, no doubt, upon some solid
basis of fact.i Cuthman was a West Saxon youth,
distinguished for his piety. Like David, he kept his
father's sheep. On his father's death he and his
mother were reduced to great poverty. He resolved
to seek a new abode, taking his mother with him, for
whom, being aged and infirm, he constructed a kind
of moveable couch, which, from the description of it,
must have been very like a large wheelbarrow. They
set out journeying eastwards. Cuthman had hard
work to propel the barrow with his mother. Once
the cord which passed over his shoulders broke ; but
he replaced it with pliant twigs of elder. Some hay-
makers in a field where this occurred jeered at the
contrivance : they were punished by a heavy shower,
which was said to fall ever afterwards annn.ally in the
samemeadow when the grass was beingcul. Cuthman's
elder twigs held out well for some time, but at last
they broke. This occurred at Steyning, v. liich is accu-
rately described as situated at the foot of a lofty hill
{i.e., the South Downs), and enclosed by t ,, o streams.
Cuthman regarded the second break-down of his
barrow as a divine intimation that here he was to
rest from his wanderings. He set about building a
hut to shelter himself and his mother. The country
was densely covered with thicket, and the inhabitants
were few and ignorant. Cuthman was filled with a
desire to improve their condition. After much toil
and many impediments, but supported by divers

* "Acta Sanctorum," vol. ii., p. 197. " Suss. Arch.," vol. v.

22

SELSEY.

Strange and miraculous aids, he succeeded in building
a church. At his death he was buried in the church
which he had toiled to build, and his reputation for
sanctity had become so great that pilgrims came from
afar to worship at his shrine, and thus the Church of
Cuthman became the nucleus of the little town of
Steyning. It is a specimen of the way in which, all
over the country, towns or villages grew up around
churches or monastic houses, which thus became the
starting-points and centres of Christianity and civiliza-
tion. Steyning will have to be noticed again in the
course of our history. For the present it is sufficient
to mention that, according to Asser, the secretarj' of
King Alfred, ^Ethelwulf, the father of Alfred, was
buried at Steyning,^ and that Alfred himself had an
estate here, which he bequeaths in his will to his
nephew Athelwold.

Sussex, of course, shared the general depression of
learning and religion which the whole country suf-
fered during the greater part of the 9th centur)%
owing mainly to internal revolutions and the inroads
of the Danes. The days in which Wilfrith came to
Sussex were the brightest period in the life of the
early English Church. It was the age of Baeda and
of Theodore ; the age when monastic learning and

' The Chronicle, and Florence of Worcester, say that he
was buried at Winchester. At the time of his death, however,
Wessex was possessed by his son /Ethelbald, to whom ^thel-
■wulf had given up that kingdom in order to avoid a civil war.
It is quite probable, therefore, that he was buried in the first
instance at Steyning, and after the death of his unnatural son,
was moved to Winchester.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 23

piety, ecclesiastical discipline and organization reached
their highest level. But when Alfred came to the
throne in 871, he laments that there were few monks
who could read the works with which their shelves
had been stored by the learned labours of their
predecessors.

From the death of Ecgberht, a.d. 839, till the
great victory of Alfred at Ethandun, and the peace of
Wedmore in 878, after which the Danes were confined
to the country north of Watling Street, almost all
public business except fighting was at a standstill.
The extreme paucity of charters signed by Bishops of
Selsey during this period indicates the check to the
progress of the Church in their diocese.

There is no record, however, of any special depreda-
tions committed by the Danes at Selsey or any other
ecclesiastical foundation in Sussex. In Alfred's final
struggle with the Danes we read, that in 895, a Danish
force, which had been repulsed from Exeter, "harried
on the South Saxons," near Chichester, but was put to
flight by the inhabitants, and many of the Danish
ships were taken. The establishment at Selsey may
have owed its safety partly to its smallness and
poverty, which would not allure the spoiler ; partly
to its situation on the point of a peninsula, with an
open shore in front, and a marshy, woody country
behind. The Danes, as a rule, crept up rivers and
creeks where they could leave their vessels in secu-
rity while they pillaged the surrounding country.
Such an inlet was the winding channel which opens
from the sea nearly opposite the east end of the Isle
of Wight, and parts into two branches, one of which

24

SELSEY.

ends near Bosham, the other near Chichester. Up this
channel, no doubt, the Danes worked their way when
they attacked Chichester in 895, but were driven off.

In the prosperous days of Alfred's grandson, the
"glorious y^lthelstan," the "magnificent Eadward,"
and his great grandson, the "peaceful Eadgar," the
Church recovered from her prostrate condition. Under
Archbishops Odo and Dunstan, and ^Ethelwold,
Bishop of Winchester, the monasteries were rigorously
reformed, and in many places the secular clergy were
displaced for regulars. .^Ethelgar, Bishop of Selsey
in 980, was one of the many prelates eminent for
learning and strict enforcement of monastic discipline
who had been trained at Glastonburj'. ^thelgar,
however, did not displace the secular canons at
Seise)'. We may either suppose that the condition
of the chapter was satisfactory, and, perhaps, nearly
assimilated in manner of life to a monastic body, or
that .^thelgar had been shocked by the harshness
with which ^f^thehvold had turned out the seculars
from the neighbouring Cathedral Church of Win-
chester. After occupying the See of Selsey for eight
years, ^thelgar was translated to Canterbury, as suc-
cessor to the great Archbishop Dunstan.

The Episcopates of ^thelgar, and of his two suc-
cessors in the See of Selsey, Ordberht and ^Imer,
nearly coincide with the disastrous reign of the un-
happy and "unready,"^ .^thelred, a.d. 976-1016,
when the Danesrenewed their incursions in overwhelm-
ing numbers, and aimed not only at pillage, but at con-

' i.e, lacking "rede" or counsel; "the ill-judging."

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 25

quest. The Chapter of Selsey must have trembled,
especially after the murder of Archbishop AiUheah, at
Canterbury, when they saw the " heathen men " cross
year by year from their winter quarters in the Isle of
Wight to the shores of Sussex on their way to the
inner parts of the country ; and the lands belonging
to the See must have suffered from their depredations
on their passage to and fro. The miseries of the
Danish invasions were brought to an end by the
election of Cnut the Dane to the English throne.
During his reign, loi 7-1035, the Church once more
revived, and they must have been prosperous days
for it in Sussex, for Godwine, the mighty Earl of
Wessex and friend of the king, had a residence at
Bosham, and ^thelric, the Bishop of Selsey, was the
intimate friend of the Archbishop "^thelnoth, the
Good," who had baptized Cnut, and advised and
encouraged him in all his good works for the Church.

Three more bishops occupied the See of Selsey
during the reigns of Edward the Confessor and Harold,
and then the See was transplanted from Selsey to
Chichester. As at Dunwich, in Suffolk, so at Selsey,
the site of the old cathedral and its surrounding
buildings has long been overwhelmed by the sea.
Yet a few vestiges of them remain in the local
nomenclature. A part of the water where the little
fleet of the Selsey fishermen now rides at anchor is
called the Bishop's Park ; and a strip of the shore
washed by the waves of the Bishop's Park is called
the Bishop's Coppice. North-east of the Bishop's
Coppice, on a gentle eminence, stands the little
chancel of the parish church, a forlorn, weather-

26

SELSEY.

beaten fragment, built in the simplest early English
style. The neighbourhood of the churchyard is full
of stonework beneath the soil, but whether these are
the remains of the episcopal buildings, or of the old
town, cannot be decided without further excavations
than have hitherto been made. The present village
is two miles distant from this spot, and the nave of
the parish church was therefore taken down some
years ago, and rebuilt stone for stone in the village.
The old deserted chancel, however, is still used for
burials and baptisms, and the very ancient font may
perhaps be coeval with the removal of the See to
Chichester, and so may have stood in the Cathe-
dral of Selsey. Relics and treasures were, no doubt,
removed to Chichester when the Bishop's throne
was transferred, but these have all perished. Some
rude and quaint, but forcible bits of stone sculp-
ture, representing the raising of Lazarus, which now
stand in the South Choir Aisle, were found behind
the Stalls in 1829. Not improbably they had been
placed there during the siege of Chichester, in 1643,
to conceal them from the parliamentary soldiers who
made havoc of the cathedral monuments. It has
been supposed that this carved work may have been
brought from Selsey, but, though doubtless of great
antiquity, it probably belongs to a century later than
the date of the removal of the See.

Here, then, end the annals of the South Saxon
diocese prior to the Norman Conquest. In this, as
in so many periods of history for which the materials
are scanty, it is difficult to imagine the space of time
which has been traversed. It needs an effort of mind

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 2^

to grasp the idea that there were twenty-two bishops
of the South Saxons who had their cathedral church
on the storm-beaten shore of Selsey for 350 years, as
long a period as that which parts the reign of Henry
VIII. from the reign of Queen Victoria.

The early annals of our diocese, however, brief
and fragmentary though they are, are full of instruc-
tion. They illustrate, in fact, some of the main
principles on which the constitution of our national
Church was originally based, and the differences
which marked off its character from that of other
Churches in other parts of the world.

(i.) Christianity in the Roman Empire had origi-
nally worked upwards from the lowliest and poorest
classes to the highest, but in England the process was
reversed. In England the Church started from the
courts and households of kings, and worked outwards
until it embraced all ranks. As with Wilfrith in Sussex,
so elsewhere in England, the first bishop commonly
planted his Church and the home of his missionary
staff near one of the royal dwellings. There was from
the first the closest possible alliance between Church
and State. The bishop had a place in the Witanage-
mote ; he sat side by side with the ealdorman in the
Scirgemote. The lines of the diocese followed the
lines of the kingdom. The king was the directing
spirit of the people in temporal affairs, the bishop in
spiritual matters within the same boundaries. In like
manner, as Christianity advanced, on every manor or
estate there was a church and a priest ; the owner of
the estate was the temporal, the priest the spiritual
father of the people within the lines of the property.

28

SELSEV.

Church and State were in fact throughout only two
sides of the same thing.

(2.) When Christianity was introduced into Italy,
Gaul, and Spain, Roman institutions, habits, and modes
of government prevailed in those countries, and, in the
Roman system, the city was the centre of all national
life. Naturally, therefore, the Episcopal Sees were
fixed in the chief cities, and the limits of the bishop's
spiritual authority commonly corresponded with the
limits of the temporal jurisdiction of which the city
was the centre. In England it was quite otherwise,
English ideas, habits, tastes, forms of government,
were not derived from Roman models. The English
were lovers of the country rather than of the town.
The king often dwelt, like ^^ithelwealh at Selsey, at a
considerable distance from any large town. He moved
about for the purposes of business or of sport from one
royal dwelling to another within his dominions. In
like manner, the bishop moved from one episcopal
manor house to another within his diocese. Kings
and bishops were alike regarded rather as fathers
of their people, than as rulers of so much territory.
Hence, we never read of Kings of Sussex or Bishops of
Selsey, but always of Kings and Bishops of the South
Saxons. The tribal designation is the rule in all
cases, but in Sussex, prior to the Norman Conquest,
it is the invariable rule. Sussex is a t\'pical specimen
of the general principle. The lines of the diocese
commonly corresponded with the lines of the kingdom.
Larger kingdoms, such as Wessex, often contained
small dependent kingdoms, and then fresh dioceses
were formed coinciding with these sub-kingdoms.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 29

Sussex itself was at first a small independent kingdom ;
it then became, as we have seen, a dependency of
Wessex. But Wessex gradually absorbed all the other
kingdoms. England was no longer many kingdoms,
but one, made up of counties or shires, as divisions
for administrative purposes. Thus Sussex became a
county, and the boundaries of the South Saxon
diocese have exactly coincided with the boundaries
of a region which was firs ta kingdom, then a sub-
kingdom, and finally a county.

This chapter must be closed with a few words on
the Church architecture of the period through which
we have been travelling. Examples of buildings prior
to the Norman Conquest are not very plentiful in
Sussex, though there are more in this diocese than in
many others. It must be borne in mind, also, that
such buildings or fragments of buildings are in most
cases not older than the first half of the eleventh
century. That is to say, they date from the reigns of
Cnut and Edward the Confessor ; from the time
when the ravages of the Danes had come to an end,
and men could repair and reconstruct old fabrics,
or build new ones in security and peace. The build-
ings of that age, however, were constructed in the same
style as earlier ones, of which we have undoubted
relics in such churches as Monkwearmouth and Jarrow
in the north of England, and Bradford-on-Avon in the
south. This style, of which the examples in our coun-
try are commonly called Anglo-Saxon, was in truth no
invention of our English forefathers. It was merely
the adaptation in England of that primitive Roman-
esque style which prevailed throughout the whole of

30

SELSEY.

Western Christendom, down to the middle of the
eleventh century, i The conversion of the English to
Christianity brought them into sympathy with the
rest of Christendom in architectural ideas and tastes
as in so many other things. There is a passage in
Bseda^ which illustrates this truth, and is in fact a
key to the explanation of the whole matter. He says
that when Benedict Biscop, in 675, determined to
build a minster by the Wear, he crossed the sea to
Gaul to get masons who could construct a stone
church according to the Romafi fashion which he loved,
and that he obtained the masons and brought them
over with him.

No doubt also the remains of Roman basilicas,
which must have been still standing in some places,
often served as guides for the main principles of con-
struction, and were som.etimes (as was the case at
Canterbury) repaired and adapted for Christian
worship.

Thus the main architectural features of churches
erected prior to the middle of the eleventh cen-
tury, are pretty much the same in Italy, Western
Germany, Gaul, and England. After that date, this
common style begins to be supplanted by distinct
national styles, just as the Latin or Roman language,
as it might be called, once common to all Romanized
countries, gradually broke up into distinct national
tongues. In England, as we shall see, the Romanesque

' See on this whole subject, Mr. Freeman's " Norman Con-
quest," vol. v., ch. 26.
» "Vita S. Benedict," c. 5.

THE CONVERSION OF THE SOUTH SAXONS. 3 1

Style of architecture gradually gave way to what is
now called Norman.

All that can be attempted within the compass of
this work, is to indicate the saUent features of this
primitive Romanesque, and to annex the names of
churches in Sussex where some of these features may
be traced. It must be borne in mind, that the feeling
and flavour, so to say, of this primitive style may often
be discovered in buildings erected after the date when
the style as a whole had ceased to prevail. As in
other developments of the human mind, so in archi-
tecture; it is not possible to draw a hard line and
say, all the buildings on one side of a given date
belong to this style, and all on the other side to that.

Chief characteristics of the primitive Romanesque.
The names of the churches in Sussex where they may
be traced are added in brackets.

(i.) Thick walls, composed mainly of rubble, some-
times with tiles or stones here and there laid aslant in
the fashion called herring-boning [Bosham], walls
rough cast outside without buttresses, but divided at
intervals by narrow strips of square stones like shallow
pilasters [Worth and Woolbeding],

(2.) Quoins formed of massive stones placed alter-
nately upright and flat, commonly called long and
short work [Worth and Woolbeding].

(3.) Low, round-headed arches of coarse workman-
ship, and sometimes of Roman materials (St. Olave's,
Chichester), sometimes resting on semi-detached
columns with cushioned capitals, generally plain, but
occasionally [Selham] enriched with quaint carving.
(4.) Towers, embuttressed and rather narrow in

32

SELSEY.

proportion to their height, sometimes diminishing
towards the top by stages [Bishopstone], ornamented
externally by vertical stone strips like the church
walls, and ending in gables on the four sides, with a
pyramidal roof like many of the early German churches
[Sompting, which is one of the most perfect specimens
in all England, and bears some resemblance to the
towers of St. Castor, at Coblenz].

(5.) Small openings in the belfry, sometimes with
pointed heads like an arrow head, formed of two
straight stones set on end [Bosham], sometimes round-
headed, splayed outside as well as inside, and divided
by small mid-wall shafts like balusters, encircled with
bands of simple moulding [Bishopstone, Bunvash,
and Jevington].

At Worth the base of the walls is of stonework in
two stages, the upper receding. It bears some re-
semblance to the graduated plinths of classical archi-
tecture, some specimen of which may have suggested
it. There is a similar resemblance to classicalwork
in the bases of the chancel arch of Bosham, which
has led to the supposition that the church may stand
on the site of a Roman basilica.

REMOVAL OF THE SEE TO CHICHESTER.

33

CHAPTER II.

A.D. 1075 — 1288.

Removal of the See to Chichester — Effects of the Norman Con-
quest upon the Diocese— The Bishops and the Cathedral
Church.

The history of every diocese in England during the
two centuries which extend from the coming of William
the Norman to the reign of Edward the First, should
be studied with close attention. For during that
period, the framework of our constitution in Church
and State was being formed, and the bishops and
clergy had no mean share in forming it.

Among the Bishops of Chichester, we are supplied
with good specimens of the three main types into
which the prelates of that age may be divided. We
see the pure ecclesiastic in Bishop Hilary, the states-
man and ecclesiastic blended in Bishop Ralph Neville,
and the pure saint in Bishop Richard of Wych.

Directly or indirectly also the history of our diocese
will help us to trace the main features in the growth of
the Church during this period, the division made by the
Conqueror between the secular and spiritual courts of
justice ; the relation of the bishops to the king, partly
as feudal lords, partly as state officials ; the prominence
of the clergy as the defenders of national liberty
against the tyranny alike of kings and popes ; the rise
and progress of the monastic and mendicant orders,

D

34

CHICHESTER.

and their struggles for independence ; the increasing
tendency to refer all disputes to the arbitration of the
Pope, the gradual advance of Papal exactions, the grow-
ing splendour of church architecture and ceremonial.

The first event which calls for our attention after
the Norman Conquest, is of course the removal of
the see from Selsey to Chichester. This fact is of
itself no small indication of the change wrought in
the administration of the realm after the Norman
conquest. A love of the country was eminently
characteristic of the purely English people. Not the
city but the country regulated their habits of life,
and the character of all their institutions. After the
English occupation of Britain, many of the Roman-
British cities fell into decay. As we have seen, the
kings were regarded less as lords of the soil than as
leaders of the people, and the bishops, in like manner,
more as the spiritual fathers of their flocks than as
the ecclesiastical rulers of a particular city and its
surrounding district.

After the Conquest all this was changed. The
age of building set in ; the fortification of towns, the
erection of castles, and of churches as solid and
massive as fortresses in their construction. Norman
fabrics, as well as Norman institutions, betoken the
heavy hand of conquerors who had to hold down and
overawe the people whom they had subjugated. The
government of the country is worked from a number
of small centres, all subordinate to the sovereign as
the centre of the whole. The Conqueror was the
ruler of the land rather than the father or leader of
his people. King of England rather than King of the

REMOVAL OF THE SEE TO CHICHESTER. 35

English. 1 The bishops were appointed by him in his
great courts ; they were barons of the realm, subject
to feudal obligations. As long as they had been
EngUshmen appointed by the king and the witan for
the spiritual supervision of a certain region, it mattered
litde where, within the limits of that region, they fixed
their see ; but when they came to be foreigners,
nominees of a foreign king, and feudal barons of the
realm, it was natural, almost necessary, that they
should reside no longer in the secluded village or
remote manor-houses, but in one of the chief towns
of the diocese. Henceforth, too, the tribal desig-
nation disappears, and is supplanted by the urban.
We hear no more of Bishops of the West Saxons or
of the South Saxons, only of Bishops of Winchester
and Bishops of Chichester.

One of the great complaints of the patriotic party
against Edward the Confessor, was that he thrust
foreigners into English bishoprics, so that when
William came to the throne, he found many of the
sees already in the hands of the Norman prelates.
He only made three direct depositions. Stigand,
the primate, was removed to make way for Lanfranc ;
and his brother /Ethelmar, Bishop of Elmham, in
Norfolk, shared his fate. The third was ^thelric,
Bishop of Selsey. Stigand had received his pall
from the usurping Pope, Benedict the X., and
^thelric, who had been a monk at Canterbury,

' That is, in fact. William himself was usually styled " Rex
Anglorum," but " Rex AngliK " is the title generally adopted
by his successors, and by the time of John it was thoroughly
established. See Freeman's "Norman Conquest," i., 586.
D 2

36

CHICHESTER.

having been consecrated by Stigand, may have been
regarded as involved in his schismatical position.
He was deposed with the other two in 1070, and
placed in confinement at Marlborough. Another
Stigand, one of the Conqueror's chaplains, was put
into the see. ^thelric, however, re-appears soon
after in an honourable position, and on an occasion
too memorable to be passed by without notice.

When William paid his visit to Normandy after the
invasion of England, he left his half-brother, Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, and William Fitz Osbern joint
regents of the kingdom. On his return he found the
people exasperated by the tyranny and rapacity of
these two men. Churches had been ransacked, and
church lands seized. Lanfranc demanded redress.
William declared that justice should be done in con-
formity with old English law. He summoned a
scirgemot for Kent to meet on Penenden Heath, and
expressed a desire that it should be attended by those
English who were best acquainted with the laws and
customs of their country, ^thelric, the deposed Bishop
of Selsey, was recommended as a man profoundly
versed in ecclesiastical law. He was now in extreme
old_age, and by the king's order he was conveyed to
Canterbury in a kind of wagon drawn by four horses.
After a three days' trial on Penenden Heath, Odo was
forced to make restitution of the property ; and, through
the aid of JEthelric's learning, the rights of the See of
Canterbury over those lands were clearly defined, the
king's right of interference being restricted to cases of
crime committed on such parts of his highways as
ran through the land in question.

REMOVAL OF THE SEE TO CHICHESTER. 37

Five years after Stigand's elevation to the See of
Selsey, 1075, a great ecclesiastical council was held
in St. Paul's, London. Lanfranc presided; 14
bishops and 21 abbots were present. The decrees of
that council embrace a wide range of subjects. The
only one which concerns us here is that which was
passed for the removal of episcopal sees from villages
to towns. As an immediate consequence of this
decree the see of Sherborne was transplanted to old
Sarum, Lichfield (for a time) to Chester, and Selsey
to Chichester. These were the only changes effected
during the lifetime of the Conqueror, but several other
sees were shifted after his death.

It may seem rather strange that when the see was
removed from Selsey it was not fixed in a more
central town than Chichester. Lewes, where William
of Warren and his wife Gundrada soon afterwards
founded the great priory of St. Pancras, might suggest
itself as a more convenient site. Yet the advantages
of Chichester were neither few nor small. Like Bath,
Exeter, and Chester, it was an old Roman city ; the
remains of the old Roman walls could readily be
turned to account for purposes of fortification, the
Roman road called Stane Street was a direct line of
communication with London, and the winding estuary,
of which one branch ended near Bosham and another
near Chichester, was for the small craft of that period
a convenient harbour.^ Here the Bishops of
Chichester and other travellers to or from Normandy

' The first picture in the Bayeux Tapestry represents Harold
going to say his prayers in Bosham Church ; tlie second repre-
sents him embarking from Bosham for Normandy.

38

CHICHESTER.

could embark or land, and up this channel the stone
required for the new Cathedral, and perhaps for the
castle, could easily be conveyed from the quarries of
Normandy or of the Isle of Wight.

There is no documentary evidence that any part of
the present Cathedral belongs to the episcopate of
Stigand. A monastery of nuns, with a church dedi-
cated to St. Peter, existed in Chichester at the time
of the removal of the see, and the language of the
chronicler would seem to imply that just as at Exeter,
when Bishop Leofric moved his see therefrom Crediton,
the nuns were dislodged, and their church became the
germ or nucleus of the new Cathedral.^ The memory
of this monastery survives in the parish of St. Peter,
the largest in the city, and the nearest to the cathedral
precincts. Up to the 1 5th century, at least, part of the
cathedral nave was used as the Parish Church of St.
Peter ; - at a later period, probably after the reign
of Henry VIII., the north transept was adapted to
the same purpose, and continued to be so used until
1853, when the present church in West Street was built.

Nothing would be more interesting, if it were
possible, than to discover the condition of the parish
churches and of the parochial clergy as affected by
the Norman Conquest. But in the absence of evi-
dence, we are left very much to conjecture. It is
certain, however, that there was not any part of the
country, except, perhaps, Kent, where the effects of
the conquest were more severely felt in every respect
than Sussex. The country had been most extensively

^ Will. Malmesb., "Gest. Pont.," 205, ubi antiquitus et sancti
Petri Monasterium et congregatio sancti monialium.
^ See Bishop Rede's Visitation in 1403, in his Register.

PARISHES AND PARISH CHURCHES. 39

ravaged by William's army in the neighbourhood of
Hastings before the battle. The houses of the people
had in many instances been burned, and their posses-
sions plundered. They fled, we are told, everywhere
for shelter — to the churches and churchyards ; and it
is probable that, alike from policy and religious senti-
ment, of which he v n;; not destitute, William respected
these a ylums. The large tracts, however, in this
part of the country marked " waste," in the Sussex
Domesday 20 years later, prove too plainly what com-
plete devastation the invading army had wrought. If
the churches remained intact, and the pastors were
not driven from their homes, the flocks to whom they
ministered must have been woefully thinned. The
chief men of Sussex, as of Kent, were present in the
great battle in which Harold lost and William won
his throne. Large numbers of them fell in that noble
struggle for English freedom, but whether they died
or whether they survived, their lands were alike confis-
cated by William, who, assuming that the crown of
England belonged to him by right, treated all who
resisted him as rebels, regarded their land as forfeit
to the crown, and granted it out afresh. In Sussex,
as in Kent, it appears from Domesday that not a
single Englishman was allowed to keep his lands on
their old tenure. In the Domesday for Sussex we
find only one distinctly English name among the
private tenants in Capite,i and he did not hold the

' Aldred, or Eldred, who held Iping. He is joined in the
entry with Odo (" terra Odonis et Eldred"). Odo held land
in the adjoining parish of Woolbeding, and it is possible that
he too was an Englishman, Odo being equivalent to Odda.
In the index to the Survey, he is styled Odo of Winchester.

4°

CHICHESTER.

land in the time of King Edward. The other
grantees of land in Sussex were either Normans or
under direct Norman influence. They were the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Chichester, the
Abbey of Westminster, the Abbey of Fecamps; Osbern,
Bishop of Exeter; the Abbey of Winchester, and the
Abbey of Battle ; William, Count of Eu, Earl Roger of
Montgomery (who commanded the French mercenaries
at the battle of Senlac), Robert, Count of Mortain (the
Conqueror's brother), William of AVarren, and William
of Braose. These four great men held by far the largest
portion of South Saxon territor)-, including all the
chief towns and strongholds. Chichester and Arundel
fell to the share of Roger, Bramber to William of Braose,
Lewes to William of Warren, and Pevensey, the first
fruits of the conquest, to Robert of Mortain. Among
their tenants we find only a few decidedly English
names. Among the tenants of the Bishop of
Chichester we find a group of three " Clerks," Robert,
Hugh, and ^Ifweard, of whom the last must clearly
have been an Englishman. He held one hide in the
manor of Aldingbourne. And another "Clerk,"
Ealdred, whose name no less clearly marks him as
English, held three hides in the manor of Amberley.
The probability would seem to be that in Sussex, as
elsewhere, English priests were allowed to remain for
a time to minister to the common people, who only
understood their native tongue. But, as the king
took care to place Norman bishops in the sees, and
Norman abbots in the monasteries, so we cannot
doubt that the Norman earls to whom he granted land
in S.issex would aim at putting their own country-

PARISHES AND PARISH CHURCHES. 4I

men, wherever they could, in charge of the churches
of which they had the advowson. And the monastic
houses would, of course, be inclined to do the like in
those churches which came into their patronage. In
no part of the country can the Church have been
more completely Normanised than in Sussex; and for
a time, until Normans and English became fused,
nowhere can the gap which divided the chief pastors
of the Church from the mass of the people and the
native priests (where they remained) have been more
keenly felt. Domesday book affords some clue to the
relative number of churches in different parts of the
diocese, but it does not contain by any means a com-
plete catalogue of them. The main purpose of that
celebrated survey was a fiscal one, and, as a rule,
those churches only are mentioned which were
endowed with land, liable to taxation. Hence it
happens that there is no record of any churches in
some of the principal towns, such as Chichester and
Lewes, where we know that they must have existed ;
and of very few on lands belonging to ecclesiastical
bodies, their churches being served by vicars supplied
and paid (often very scantily) by the monastic house.

Bearing this in mind, it may be mentioned that the
total number of churches set down in the Domesday
of Sussex is ninety-two, of which seven are described
as ecclesiolce (little churches), probably equivalent to
the "feld cirice," or field church of the laws of Cnut
— mere chapels, as distinct from parish churches, with-
out any burial grounds attached to them.

By far the largest number of churches mentioned
in Domesday belong to the western and central divi-

42

CHICHESTER.

sions of the diocese. In the rapes of Chichester and
Arundel, which were the possessions of Earl Roger,
saving only two places which were held by the king
in demesne, and a few scattered manors of the Arch-
bishop, the Bishop of Chichester, and some monastic
houses, forty-eight churches are mentioned. In the
rape of Bramber, the territory of William of Braose,
there are thirteen.

In the rape of Lewes, the territory of William of
Warren, with possession here and there of the see of
Canterbury, there are sixteen.

On the Count of Mortain's territory, which included
most of the rape of Pevensey, there are but two
churches mentioned, a melancholy evidence of the
desolation caused in that part of the country by the
ravages of the Conqueror's army on its march to the
great battle which won him his crown. It must be
borne in mind, however, that the Abbey of Battle
owned a good deal of territory in the same rape, and
the churches on these lands would not be recorded.

In the rape of Hastings, where the Count of Eu had
most of his possessions, the number mentioned is
thirteen.

Making allowance for the churches which are not
set down in the survey, we may roughly estimate the
number in Sussex in the first twenty years after the
Norman Conquest, as about 150.

The history of the diocese during the period com-
prised in the present chapter may be most con-
veniently traced through notices (i.) of the bishops
and the cathedral church, (ii.)of the monastic houses,
and (iii.) of architectural remains.

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 43

(i.) The Bishops and tlic Cathedral Church.
Bishop Stigand (a.d., 1070-1087) had the misfortune
to incur the displeasure of the two greatest personages
in the realm, William the king and Lanfranc the
primate.

William brought a monk named Gausbert from the
Abbey of Marmoutier, by the Loire, to be the second
abbot of his great house, built in fulfilment of his
vow on the heights of Senlac, where he had won his
crown. Stigand refused to consecrate the abbot
elect unless he went to Chichester for the purpose.
William was incensed at his disobedience. Stigand
was compelled to go to the abbey and consecrate
Gausbert before the altar of St. Martin. As a further
humiliation and evidence of the abbey's complete
independence, the bishop and his retinue were not
allowed to lodge or board within the abbey walls. It
was to be as free as the king's own chapel. The
precedent thus established was not forgotten by Abbot
Gausbert's successors.

The dispute with Lanfranc turned upon the eccle-
siastical jurisdiction which the primate claimed the
right of exercising over his possessions in Sussex,
which were numerous, including the parishes of
Pagham; Tangmere; All Saints', Chichester; and East
Lavant, in the western division of the diocese ; and
in the eastern. South Mailing, Ringmer, Horsted,
Framfield, Uckfield, Buxted, Mayfield, and Wad-
hurst. Lanfranc considered that his rights had in
some way been invaded by Stigand. He wrote a
sharp letter of reproof to the bishop, warning him
not to meddle in the future with these parishes in his

44

CHICHESTER.

diocese which belonged to the see of Canterbury, and
declaring the clergy in these parishes exempt from
attendance at the diocesan synods of Stigand or his
successors, and from responsibility to them or their
officials for their conduct.

They were permitted, however, to receive the
chrism from Stigand, and to pay him certain custom-
ary fees. And thus the primate's right over his
peculiars, as they were called, was fully established,
and lasted down to the abolition of all peculiars,
which took place in our own day.

Stigand's death in 1087 nearly coincided with that
of the great king who had raised him to the see. Of
his successor, Godfrey, the solitary record is an in-
scription cut upon a leaden cross which was found in
his stone coffin when it was opened in 1829. It is the
copy of a papal absolution, conferred upon the bishop
for some offence of which we have no record. God-
frey was bishop for one year only, and after his death
in 1088 the see lay vacant for three years. Canterbury
was vacant about the same period, and rather longer.
The cause of the vacancy was the same in both cases,
the grasping avarice of the Red King, who loved to en-
rich his treasury with the temporalities of vacant sees.

Godfrey's successor, 1091, Ralph Luffa, or
Ralph I., was consecrated by Thomas, Archbishop of
York, Canterbury being still vacant. Ralph was the
real founder of the cathedral, and considerable portions
of his work may be traced at the present day. What-
ever Stigand may have erected was, if not wholly
removed, so completely recast, that Ralph is said to
have rebuilt the church. His first structure, how-

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL; 45

ever, which was consecrated in 1108, suffered severely
from a fire in 1115, which did much damage to the
whole city, but aided, it is said, by the liberality of
the king, Henry I., the cathedral was quickly repaired.

By a careful examination of the present church the
main plan of Bishop Ralph's structure can be almost
completely recovered. It was a cross church, with
a low central tower, and two towers at the west
end. The whole fabric was massive in construction,
and plain almost to sternness. No chevron or billet
moulding relieved the heavy round-headed arches of
choir and nave. No carved foliage or figures adorned
the cushion capitals of their columns. The arches
remain as they were in Ralph's time, the columns
only peep out from the later work which has encased
them. The openings to the triforium, consisting of
two thick round arches, enclosed within a bigger one,
survive unaltered. The nave and choir had aisles
which were broken through in a later age to add side
chapels, but some of the aisle windows now blocked
up, and parts of the string course, may still be traced.
The transepts have no aisles, but the eastern wall
of each is pierced by a great round arch, which
originally opened into an apsidal chapel, the common
appendage of Norman transepts. By a careful and
skilful examination of the masonry in the triforium of
the presbytery it has been proved that the church
ended eastwards in three radiating chapels, and that
from the central one of these three a fourth projected,
parts of which survive in the walls and buttresses at
the western end of the present Ladye Chapel. The
four western bays of the nave are slightly later in

46

CHICHESTER.

Style than the four eastern. The most probable
explanation of this difference is that the choir, as in
most other Norman minsters, stretched down west-
wards of the central tower, and the choir would
naturally be built first after the fire, in order that the
services might begin again with as little delay as
possible.

But Bishop Ralph did not confine his energies to
architecture. He was in all respects an energetic
prelate. Thrice a year he was wont to make a circuit
in some part of his diocese, preaching in the parish
churches, organizing work, and reforming abuses.
" He was distinguished," says William of Malmesburj',
" alike for height of stature and vigour of intellect."
"He was robust and high-spirited," says the local
mediaeval chronicler, whose brief notices of the
bishops have been preserved in our cathedral archives.
He courageously supported Anselm in his struggle
with William Rufus for the privileges of the Church,
and when the tyrannical king, in a personal interview,
menaced Ralph with punishment, the bishop offered
him his pastoral staff and ring, saying that he was
ready to resign his see, but that he would not abandon
his primate.

In the reign of Henry I., he stoutly resisted the
king's attempts to make money by extorting fines
from the clergy, maintaining that his poor diocese, of
which the cathedral had just been burned, deserved
to be enriched by gifts, not impoverished by fines.
According to WiUiam of Malmesbur)', he tried a
strange plan for moving the royal mind to mercy.
He shut up the churches throughout his diocese.

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 47

barring the doorways with thorns. The laity were
thus excluded from public worship, and the celebra-
tion of divine offices ceased except in the monastic
churches. The king relented, released the diocese
from the tax, whatever it was, aided the bishop, as
already stated, in repairing the cathedral, and, in
addition, granted him and his successors the right
of free warren in their manors of Aldingbourne,
Amberley, and Houghton, and the whole of the
Manwode,^ as well as a right to all customs levied
during an eight-day fair held yearly in the city of
Chichester.

Of Ralph's successor, Seffrid Pelochin, or d'Es-
cures (1125-1147), there are but scanty records. He
had been Abbot of Glastonbury, and was brother of
the primate Ralph d'Escures, perhaps an elder brother,
as he bore the name of his father, Seffrid, Lord of
Escures, near Seez, in Normandy. Henry I. granted
him and his successors the customs of a three days'
fair, to be held in Selsey every year, beginning on the
eve of St. Lawrence the Martyr. All merchants and
traders attending it were by royal order to be free
from all let or hindrance in going and returning.
Bishop Seffrid, however, lost the cause which his
predecessor had so manfully won in opposition to the
king. He was present in 1129,2 with the two arch-

' An extensive district of fertile land between Chichester and
the sea.

^ It is remarkable that in the list given in " Roger of I love-
den's Chronicle," Seffrid is designated by the old tribal title,
Suthsexensis, the latest instance so far as I have noticed of its
occurrence.

48

CHICHESTER.

bishops and thirteen other prelates at the Council of
London, summoned to take measures for enforcing
the celibacy of the clergy. The secular clergy were
still very commonly married, although their wives
were not recognised as lawful, and were called by
opprobrious names. The Council was held at the
instance of the Primate William of Corbeuil, who had
been made papal legate. He was a weak man, and
allowed himself and his suffragans to be outwitted by
the king. They conceded the decision to the king,
who ordained that married clergy might purchase
indulgence by the payment of a large sum of money.
Thus the royal treasury was enriched, the clergy
impoverished, and in the eyes of strict ecclesiastics
disgraced.

In 1 145 Seffrid was deposed, and retired to his
old home at Glastonbury ; but of the nature of his
offence, whether against the Church or the Cro\vn,
there is no record. Most probably, however, he
had joined the party opposed to Stephen, who
had alienated a great body of bishops and clerg}'
from his cause by his harsh treatment of Bishop
Roger, of Salisbury, and his nephew. At any
rate one recommendation of his successor, Hilary,
is said to have been his devotion to the side of
Stephen.

Hilary (1147-1169) played a part conspicuous,
though not altogether for wisdom, in the transactions
of his time. He had a reputation for eloquence and
knowledge of canon law j qualities which procured
for him the favourable notice of King Stephen's
brother, Henry of Blois, the great Bishop of Win-

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 49

Chester, and the office of advocate of the king's cause
at the papal court. Stephen also bestowed on him
and his successors the office of Confessor to the
Queen, and annexed to it in perpetuity the chaplaincy
of the royal castle of Pevensey.

Hilary placed the Church of Chichester under the
protection of the Papal See, and founded and endowed
the offices of treasurer and chancellor in the cathedral.
The precentorship was probably founded about the
same time, and the office of dean is said to have been
instituted by Ralph Luffa, so that the four dignities
which existed in all cathedrals of the Old Foundation
were now established.

Copies of the letters of Pope Eugenius and Alex-
ander III., promising the protection of the Papal See,
and confirming the Church of Chichester in all its
possessions are preserved in our cathedral archives.
These possessions included in Chichester itself a
fourth part of the whole city, from Southgate to West-
gate, being the quarter in which the cathedral, the
bishop's palace, and houses of the canons, were
situated. A free grant of this quarter had been made
by William d'Albini, Earl of Arundel, in 1147, who
married Adeliza, widow of Henry I. He states in his
charter that he makes the grant " for the welfare of
King Stephen, the souls of my ancestors, the remis-
sion of my sins, and compensation of the damages
which I once did to the same Church, the most noble
queen Adeliza, and my heir, William, confirming my
act." He also states in another charter, that in peni-
tence for wrongs done to several churches and their
lands in the diocese, he bestows on all such churcheii

E

50

CHICHESTER.

the free right of digging gravel, stone, and chalk on
his estates.

The episcopate of Hilary is chiefly remarkable for
his protracted strife with the Abbey of Battle, and
for his opposition to Becket throughout the primate's
struggle with the king.

He was bent on subjugating the abbey to his juris-
diction, demanded the attendance of the abbot at his
diocesan synods, and payment of episcopal dues ;
and further, that the abbots elect should in future go
to Chichester cathedral for consecration, and profess
obedience to the bishop. The contest was carried
on for several years wdth much bitterness, and the
history of it may be read at great length in the
" Chronicle " of Battle Abbey. It was terminated at
last, chiefly through the influence of the King and the
primate, Theobald, in favour of the abbey, which was
declared completely free from all episcopal jurisdiction.

It does not fall within the scope of this work to dwell
upon the great struggle between the king and Becket.
The part which Hilary played in it exhibits him as a
man of eager, bustling activity, not unmixed with
vanity, rather than a man of any solid ability. The
main supporters of Becket were the common people ;
the lay lords took the side of their sovereign, and the
bishops, as a body, endeavoured to mediate between
the combatants. Hilary, of Chichester, was forward,
though not particularly skilful, in this praiseworthy
attempt, but, like Ffoliott,. Bishop of London, his
personal sympathies were wholly on the side of the
king. When Becket had fled to France, Hilary was
one of the envoys sent to plead the cause of Henry

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. -5 1

before the King of France and the Pope Alexander III.
at Sens. In their audience with the pope the envoys
all spoke in turn. London was the first, Chichester
the second speaker. But Hilary cut a poor figure on
this occasion. In his haste and warmth he blundered
at the end of a sentence into bad Latin, — "Nec
oportuit, nec aliquando oportiiebat." The pope and
cardinals laughed, and one of them exclaimed, You
have got badly into port at last, my lord, "Male
in portum tandem venisti." Poor Hilary brought his
speech to an abrupt conclusion, and left his colleagues
to carry on the argument. He was not included in
the celebrated excommunications launched by the
primate from Vezelay, but the horror caused by the
discharge of this fearful weapon was so great that
even Hilary wavered in his devotion to the king's
side. It was indeed a distracting time. The excom-
munications were followed up by a command to all
the bishops in the province of Canterbury to lay the
kingdom, so far as their dioceses extended, under an
interdict ; and special injunctions to obey this order
were sent to the Bishops of Chichester, Lincoln, and
Bath. On the other hand, a royal proclamation was
issued to the effect that any one, from a bishop to a
layman, who complied with the interdict should be
punished with banishment and confiscation of all his
goods. Thus were the bishops, to borrow an expres-
sion used by Hilary in another crisis of the struggle,
" between the hammer and the anvil." They must
disobey either the king or the primate. Many of
them sought an escape from the dilemma by living in
concealment. What course Hilary adopted we have
E 2

52

CHICHESTER.

no means of knowing; but he was soon extricated
from this and all other troubles by death. Henry's
edict had been issued early in 1169, and Hilary died
in July of the same year, about twelve months before
the tragical end of the primate convulsed Christendom
with horror.

The See of Chichester, in common with several
others, lay vacant for four years after the murder of
Becket. The king was in his Continental dominions
during the greater part of this period, and his son
Henry, who was at the head of an adverse faction,
opposed his father in ecclesiastical as well as civil
affairs. In November, 11 73, the king nominated to
six sees, in spite of the prohibition of his son, after an
appeal to the pope. One of the opposed nominees was
John, Dean of Chichester, whom the king recommen-
ded to the see. In 1174, after they had done penance
for the murder before the tomb of Becket, John and
three others were consecrated bishops at Canterbury.

Beyond his presence at one or two important
councils, there is no evidence that Bishop John^
took any part in political affairs, and of his character
as a diocesan we are equally ignorant.

Passing over the six years of his episcopate we
come to Seffrid II., 1180-1204, the most im-
portant epoch in the early history of the cathedral.

Seven years after the accession of Seffrid, Bishop
Ralph's church, which had now been standing for
sixty years, narrowly escaped total destruction by fire.

' This bishop has been commonly called John Greenford,
but the surname is omitted in MSS. A and B of Roger of Hove-
den's Chronicle, and has been supplied by Sawle, but on what
authority is unknown.

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 53

Bishop Seffrid devoted all the resources at his com-
mand to setting up the ruined pile, and the restora-
tion executed in his time is an admirable specimen of
that masterly skill in grafting new work on to old, with
which mediaeval builders were so eminently gifted.

The ordinary effects of fire upon a Norman church
have been pointed out by Professor Willis with his
customary acuteness. Roofs of early Norman
churches were commonly wooden; when these caught
fire from the carelessness of plumbers in repairing the
lead work, the upper parts of the inside walls got
scorched and damaged by the burning timbers hang-
ing against them. When the beams and rafters
dropped on to the floor, and remained blazing there,
the lower parts of the columns would be injured in
like manner. The intermediate portions suffered
little, if at all, beyond the chipping of the string-
molds here and there by the fall of the timbers.
The greatest mischief would be done in the choir,
where the stalls and other wooden furniture supplied
so much fuel for the fire. The structural changes
made in the cathedral by Bishop Seffrid exactly illus-
trate this theory. The triforium, being little damaged,
was left unaltered, but the clerestory, being nearer
the roof, had to be reconstructed. It consists of a
triple arcade, supported on single shafts of Purbeck
marble : the central arch enclosing the window is
round; but the two blind arches are pointed — the
abacus of each corner shaft is square, while the
abacus of the central shafts is round — variations
which prove that this work belongs to the period of
transition between Norman and first Pointed, com-
monly called Early English. The string-molds also

54

CHICHESTER.

were renewed and the lower parts of the piers faced
with Caen stone. Stone vaulting was substituted for the
old wooden roofs of nave and aisles, and buttresses
were built outside to resist the thrust of the vaulting.

So far reparation only was needed, and it was done
with admirable completeness and economy. This
last was an important consideration, for the work was
going on during the reign of Richard I., when heavy
calls were made upon the clergy — first to support the
king's foreign wars, and then to ransom him from
captivity. And there was as yet no rich shrine at
Chichester into which devotees poured their offerings
with prodigal enthusiasm. Twenty days' relaxation
of penance was offered by Bishop Seffrid to all
persons who visited the church and aided it with
their alms during the octave of Trinity ; but this can
scarcely have brought in very much.

The eastern part of the church being far more
damaged, had to be extensively altered. The apsidal
chapels of Bishop Ralph's time were removed, and
made way for a presbytery of two bays, the arches
round-headed, but more deeply moulded than the
Norman, resting on piers consisting of a central cylin-
drical column with four detached shafts of Purbeck
marble. These were surmounted by a new triforium
of two pointed arches enclosed within a round one
with sculptured tympana, and resting on clustered
shafts of Purbeck marble. Above the triforium again
is a clerestory of three arches, all pointed, and much
loftier than in the choir and nave, resting on single
shafts of Purbeck, and combining, as in the former
instance, the round and square abacus.

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 55

The alterations of this period were completed by
the erection of the beautiful chapels which still exist
against the eastern sides of the transepts, in the place
of the apsidal chapels already mentioned as parts of
Bishop Ralph's work. Plain pointed single-light
windows also were inserted in the side aisles of nave
and choir, instead of the old round-headed and
billeted Norman windows ; and north and south
porches were added to the nave. Thus the beautiful
and loveable church as we now see it, in its delightful
blending and contrast of severe massive Norman with
the pure and graceful beginnings of Early English, is
mainly what Bishop Seffrid and his immediate suc-
cessor, Simon of Wells, made it. As Fuller says in
his own quaint way, " Bishop Seffrid bestowed the
cloth and making on the church, while Bishop
Sherborne gave the trimming and best lace thereto in
the reign of Henry VII."

The renovated church was reopened and dedicated
to the Holy Trinity in September, 1199, six bishops
assisting at the ceremony. Bishop Seffrid lived five
years more to complete yet further the details of the
work. How far the buildings were short of com-
pletion at the time of Seffrid's death we cannot tell ;
but we do know that work was going on during the
episcopate of his successor,

Simon Fitz Robert, or Simon of Wells, a.d. 1204
-1207, for there are two entries in the patent rolls of
King John — one in 1205, another in 1206 — licensing
the free carriage of Purbeck marble from the sea-
ports of Dorsetshire to Chichester, for the repair of
the cathedral; and the port-reeves are warned to

56

CHICHESTER.

take security of the bishop's carriers that none of the
marble be disposed of on the way for any other
purpose.

Simon of Wells held some office in the Exchequer,
and was Archdeacon of Wells, Provost of Beverley,
and Guardian of the Fleet Prison, when he was
raised to the see of Chichester. He seems to have
kept on good terms with King John to the end of his
life, in consequence of which John became a bene-
factor to the church at Chichester, while to the
country at large he was a curse. Soon after the
election of Bishop Simon, the king granted a charter
by which he and his successors in the see, and the
dean and chapter, were to hold their property under
the immediate protection of the king, free from every
kind of impost. They were to be exempted from
attendance at the shire and hundred courts, and from
all suits in the same, from aids and fines payable to
sheriffs and their bailiffs, and from all manner of
local customs and tolls. They were to have free
jurisdiction within the limits of their own property,
and the view of Frank Pledge was to be held in the
bishop's court in the presence of a royal official
summoned for the purpose.

Permission also was given by the king to the
chapter to build houses twelve feet into the highway
beyond the burial ground on the north side of the
cathedral. This strip continued to be occupied by
buildings down to recent times. The last remaining
houses were pulled down about twenty-five years ago ;
their site is now covered by a pleasant row of shady
limes, and the whole northern side of the cathedral

The ground plan on the other side, besides illustrating the
description of the cathedral given in the text, exhibits the
curious irregularities which mark the construction of the build-
ing. The principal deviation will be apparent to any one who
follows the dotted line A B as a standard of direction. The
inclination of the walls of the nave southwards has been con-
cealed externally by an ingenious contrivance. On the north
side a corbel table was made, which overhangs considerably
the middle of the wall, which is the most concave part, but is
thinned away gradually towards the west end, and finally dies
off completely at B in the plan. The hollow part of the wall
being thus filled, a second corbel table was placed above the
other, and projecting beyond it, resting upon it where the wall
is hollow, but resting upon the wall itself where this returns to
the right line. Thus the parapet runs straight, although the
wall is crooked, and the eye is not offended. On the south
side, where the wall is convex, a sloping set-off is introduced
under the parapet. The convexity of the wall is remedied by
varying the inclination of this sloping part here and there as
it is required. These skilful contrivances are good instances
of that fertility of resource which seems never to have been
at fault in the days of architectural genius, and enabled the
builders to surmount all difficulties with the most masterly ease.

The letters c, D, E mark the termination of the original
Norman choir mentioned on page 45, and the letter E marks
the apsidal chapel which originally projected east of the north
chapel.

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 57

has, after so many centuries, become once more
visible to the dwellers and passers-by in West Street.

Bishop Simon died in 1207, the year in which
Langton was consecrated to Canterbury by the Pope
Innocent III. in defiance of the king. The enraged
John expelled the monks from the cathedral at Can-
terbury because they preferred the pope's nominee
to his own. Then followed the Interdict, which lay
for six years like a dreary blight upon the land. The
churches were closed, the bells silenced, all religious
offices suspended, whilst the mean and selfish king,
for whose offences the innocent country was cursed,
replenished his exchequer with the property of the
clergy who obeyed the interdict, and of the vacant
sees, of which Chichester was one.

The king was absolved, and the interdict taken
off in 1 2 14, and in the following year Richard
PooRE, dean of Old Sarum, was consecrated to
Chichester. He occupied the see two years only,
when he was translated to Sarum, where he aban-
doned the old cathedral upon its arid hill, and
erected the present glorious fabric in the well-
watered plain of Meresfield.

His successor, Ranulph of WARHAAr, a.d. 1217,
enriched the see by a bequest of house property
outside Newgate, London, by the erection of a wind-
mill at Bishopstone, an episcopal manor in the east
end of the diocese, and by getting together a great
stock of cattle, to support which his successor, Ralph
Neville, obtained the grant of a large tract of undu-
lating pasture ground stretching north-west of Chi-
chester. It was called at that time the king's, and

58

CHICHESTER.

afterwards the bishop's Bruillum, a word signifying
rough coppice or thicket. The name survives, in its
English form of Broyle, to the present day. The
bishops were to have free leave to clear the wood
[assartare] and to cultivate and enclose the ground,
which was to be free from forest law.

Ralph Neville, a.d. i 224-1244, was not only a
local but a public benefactor. Of all the bishops
who occupied our see from the Conquest to the close
of the thirteenth century, he was eminently the states-
man-bishop, as Hilary was the most ecclesiastical, and
Richard of Wych the most saintly. Two years after
his consecration he became chancellor of the realm,
which high office he held for sixteen years,
proving himself, says Matthew Paris, "faithful in
many perils, and a singular pillar of truth in the
affairs of the kingdom." Just about the time that he
became bishop, the great primate Stephen Langton
retired to spend the remainder of his days on his
beautiful manor of Slindon, between Chichester and
Arundel. The aged primate and his suffragan of
Chichester became neighbours as well as friends, and
may often have paced together the sunny, breezy,
grassy slopes of Slindon, or sat beneath the shade of
its stately beech trees, discussing the affairs of Church
and State. Bishop Ralph, like Langton, was the firm
upholder of the rights of the English Church against
the exactions and encroachments of the pope, and
King Henry HI. The consequence was that the king
endeavoured to remove him from the office of chan-
cellor, and for a short time succeeded in doing so.

Owing to his duties as a high officer of the slate,

THE BISHOPS AND THE CATHEDRAL. 59

Bishop Ralph does not seem to have been very much
in his diocese, and there is little to record concerning
his administration. He obtained for the clergy tithes
of hay and of mill produce on the royal demesnes,
hitherto exempt from such payments. He rebuilt
the chancel of the church at Amberley, one of the
episcopal manors, and the chapel of St. Michael,
outside the Eastgate of Chichester. To the poor of
Chichester he bequeathed a fund for an annual dis-
tribution among them of twelve quarters of wheat,
commuted in modern times for bread money.

A series of letters, discovered in 1841, written by
Bishop Ralph's steward in Sussex to his master, bring
before us in a very vivid way many of the details of
country life in the middle of the thirteenth century,
and show how the possession of large landed property
by the bishops involved them in a great deal of
secular business. Mingled with a little information
about vacancies in livings, there is a great deal about
the steward's farming operations and other transac-
tions, the clearance of woods, the working of marl,
the building of windmills, bargains for the purchase
of timber and land, houses and horses; requests
for more seed, more hounds to keep down the foxes,
and so on.

The upper part of the original central tower of the
cathedral, from the crown of the four great Norman
arches to the corbel table just below the battlements,
was probably constructed during the episcopate of
Bishop Ralph. The " Annals of Dunstable " inform
us that two towers fell at Chichester in 12 10.
Whether they belonged to the cathedral is not stated.

6o

CHICHESTER.

but in all probability they did, and the probability is
strengthened by three memoranda preserved in the
cathedral records : first, that Ralph released from
twenty days' penance all persons who visited the
church and contributed to the fabric ; second, that
he spent 130 marks on repairs, and lastly, that his
executors paid over 140 marks in 1247 to the dean
and chapter for finishing a stone tower, which had
been long almost despaired of, but was now near
completion. This tower may well have been the
great central tower, and if we suppose that the other
tower which fell in 12 10 belonged to the cathedral,
the probability is that it was the north-western tower.
This tower fell in a.d. 1630, and when Sir Christopher
Wren was consulted, fifty years later, about its recon-
struction, he said that it had not been built at the
same time, nor in the same style as the south-western
tower. Now, that tower is Early Norman ; hence we
may conclude that the north-western tower was built
later, very probably after having fallen in 12 10. To
Ralph's time also belong most of the side chapels
added to the nave. They were chantry chapels, and
were originally divided by walls, each being complete,
with altar, piscina and credence, traces of which are
in some instances still to be seen. After the suppres-
sion of chantries, the partitions were removed, and
the two lines of chapels on either side being thrown
open, present the appearance of additional aisles to
the nave. The whole width of the nave is therefore
unusually great, ninety-one feet, though each division
taken by itself, especially the central one, is more
than commonly narrow. The multiphcation of inter-

SAINT RICHARD.

6i

secting lines and broken spaces, caused by this
peculiarity of construction, is especially pleasing to
the eye when taking a diagonal view of the nave.
With the exception of spire, bell tower, and Ladye
Chapel, the cathedral had become by the end of
Bishop Ralph's time what we see it now. Bishop
Ralph died in 1244, in the magnificent house which
he had built in London, in a street which came to be
called after him, " Chancellor's Lane," and in time,
"Chancery Lane." The house afterwards became
the hospital or inn of the Earl of Lincoln. The
ground on which it stood is still designated by the
name of its old proprietor, and that part of the
estate which alone remains to the see is still called
" The Chichester Rents."

As Bishop Ralph is a good example of the me-
diaeval bishop in whom statesman and ecclesiastic
were combined, so his successor,

Richard of Wych, 1245-1253, an ascetic devotee,
an upholder of ecclesiastical power against a tyran-
nical king, a prodigal almsgiver during life, a worker
of miracles after death, is a good representative of the
mediaeval saint.

A brief outline of his career is all which can be
attempted within the limits of this work. Richard of
Wych, as he was called, from Droitwich his native
place in Worcestershire, was the son of a farmer who
had been prosperous, if not wealthy, but after the
father's death the family fell into poverty through
the mismanagement of their property by guardians.
Richard, the younger son, laboured for several years
like a farm servant upon the land ; until, through his

62

CHICHESTER.

industry and skilful management, it yielded a comfor-
table income. Then he left his elder brother to
enjoy it, and betook himself to Oxford to gratify his
passion for learning. That University was in the full
meridian of its mediaeval renown. Thousands of
students thronged to the lectures of the saintly Ed-
mund Rich, afterwards primate, the learned Grostete,
Nicholas de Lyra, and many more. Many of them,
like Richard of Wych, were rich in nothing but in
their zeal for learning : they depended for food very
much on the hospitality of rich families, or of the
great Abbeys of Oseney, Eynsham, and Abingdon.
Fire was often an unknown luxury, and manuscripts
and pens had sometimes to be cast aside while the poor
scholar ran about to warm himself. Richard and t^vo
companions had but one warm tunic and one hooded
gown between them, in which they attended lectures
by turns. Their usual fare consisted of vegetables
and bread with a very Httle wine : fish and flesh they
could not afford, except on high festivals or when
guests were entertained.

From Oxford Richard went to Paris, and from
Paris to Boulogne, where he gained a high reputation
for knowledge of canon law, the great subject of
study in that university. In 1235 he returned to
England. The fame of his piety and learning had
preceded him. He was made Chancellor of Oxford,
and his former teachers, Edmund, now primate, and
Grostete, now Bishop of Lincoln, contended for the
honour and advantage of securing him as chancellor
for their respective dioceses. Grostete gave way to
the primate, and Richard became Chancellor of the

SAINT RICHARD.

63

See of Canterbury, and the faithful friend and com-
panion of Edmund, ahke in the day of prosperity and
adversity. When the primate, despairing of success
in his contest with the king and the pope on behalf
of the privileges of the national Church, retreated
like Becket to Pontigny, Richard went with him, and
Richard was by his side at Soissy in his mortal illness
as he lay on the bare ground, the only bed on which
the ascetic prelate would consent to die. After the
death of his patron, Richard went to Orleans and
studied theology in a Dominican House. Here also
he was ordained priest, after which he returned to
England, and in the quiet vicarage of Deal enjoyed
for a time that learned and pious leisure which was
most congenial to his taste. He was not permitted
to enjoy it long. Boniface of Savoy, the successor,
A.D. 1245, of St. Edmund in the primacy, though not
in his virtues and learning, had yet the good sense to
value a man like Richard of Wych, who was both
virtuous and learned ; and he compelled him, much
against his will, to resume the office of Chancellor of
the Diocese.

On the death of Bishop Ralph the canons of Chi-
chester had elected Robert Passelew, one of their own
body and a staunch partisan of the king. The
primate, in a provincial synod, cancelled the appoint-
ment of Passelew, on account, as was alleged, of insuffi-
cient learning and unsatisfactory character. Richard
the chancellor was recommended to the chapter,
which readily assented to the recommendation. The
king, Henry HI., was enraged, and refused to give
up the temporalities of the See. Richard had an

64

CHICHESTER.

interview with him, but in vain. He submitted his
wrongs to the pope, Innocent IV., who confirmed his
appointment and consecrated him at Lyons. On his
return to England he found the property of the See
being disgracefully wasted by the royal sequestrators.
Again he strove to move the king's conscience to a
sense of mercy and justice, but again Henry was
inexorable. Richard became a homeless wanderer
in his own diocese : he lived on the hospitality of his
clergy, but he repaid them by the assiduity with
which he discharged the duties of a chief pastor,
travelling from parish to parish across the woods and
downs of Sussex on foot after the manner of a primi-
tive apostle. His chief abode was with a poor priest
of Tarring, Simon by name, where, in the intervals
of his journeys, he would recur to the occupation of
planting, pruning and grafting, in which he had ex-
celled in the days of his youth spent amongst the
orchards of Worcestershire.

Pope Innocent did not abandon his cause, and
after two years the king was induced by threats of
excommunication to restore the temporalities of the
see. Prosperity did not blunt, but rather quickened,
the saintly virtues of the bishop. He preached in all
parts of his diocese, visited and sometimes nursed
the sick, and assisted with his own hands in preparing
the dead for burial. He relieved the poor with such
reckless bounty as to provoke the remonstrances of
his brother, who had become his steward. "Your
alms," he said, " exceed your income." " Then sell
my plate and horse," was the prompt reply. In his
private life he observed the most rigid temperance

SAINT RICHARD.

65

and frugality, keeping to the vegetable fare of his old
Oxford days. He rose at earliest dawn to say his office,
and, if the birds had already begun their matin chant,
"Shame on me," he would cry, "that these irrational
creatures should be before me in singing praise to God."

The severity with which he enforced ecclesiastical
discipline was as great as his tenderness towards the
suffering and needy. A body of statutes, which he
compiled with the aid of his Chapter, throws con-
siderable light upon the condition and character of
the clergy at this period.

Many of them were still secretly married, though
such alliances were not recognised by canon law, and
the honourable name of wife was not granted to
their domestic partners. Bishop Richard set his face
against the practice with relentless austerity. By his
statutes married clergy were to be deprived of their
benefices ; their concubines were to be denied the
privileges of the Church during life and after death ;
they were pronounced incapable of inheriting any
property from their husbands, and any such bequests
were to be applied to the fabric of the cathedral. A
vow of chastity was to be required of all candidates
for ordination.

Rectors were enjoined to reside in their benefices,
and to exercise hospitality and charity. Tithes were
to be paid on all annual crops. Detainers of tithes
after three monitions were to be anathematised, and
not even to be admitted to penance until satisfaction
had been made.

Vicars were to be in priests' orders, to hold one
cure only and to reside in it. They are warned not

F

66

CHICHESTER.

to evade this statute by taking another cure under a
feigned name. Deacons were not to receive confes-
sions, or to enjoin penances, or to baptise, except in
the absence of a priest. Children were to be con-
firmed within a year after baptism. The Creed and
the Lord's Prayer were to be learned in the vulgar
tongue. Priests were to celebrate mass in clean
vestments, thoroughly clean corporals, and at least
two consecrated palls were to be placed on the altar ;
the cross was to be set up in front of the celebrant ;
the bread to be of the purest whcaten flour, the wine
mixed with water. The elements were not to be
reserved more than seven days ; to be enclosed in a
pyx when carried to a sick person, and the priest to
be preceded by a cross, a candle, holy water, and
a bell.

Sortilegy {i.e., the custom of opening the Bible at
hazard and pretending to divine the future from the
words on which the eye first lighted) at baptisms and
marriages is strictly forbidden.

Archdeacons were to administer justice for their
proper fees, not demanding more either for the expe-
dition or delay of business. They were to visit the
churches regularly to see that the services were duly
celebrated, the vessels and vestments in proper order,
the canon of the mass correctly followed and dis-
tinctly read. Priests who clipped or slurred the
words from over-haste were to be suspended.

The clergy are admonished to wear their proper
garb, and not to imitate the dress of la}Tiien ; they
are forbidden to have long hair, or to indulge in the
pleasures of the chase. Names of excommunicated

SAINT RICHARD.

67

persons were to be read out in the parish churches
four times a year. Such were false informers, incen-
diaries, usurers, sacrilegious, and obstructors to the
execution of wills.

A copy of these statutes was to be kept by every
priest in the diocese, and exhibited by him at the
episcopal synod.

The bishop maintained the privileges of the
Church with the same vigour as he upheld disciphne.
A thief had been torn from one of the churches
in Lewes, to which he had fled for sanctuary, and
executed. The bishop compelled the violators of the
asylum to take the corpse down from the gibbet, and
carry it to burial within the church from which the
culprit had been dragged.

Incumbents of parish churches were to see that
such members of their flock as were able should
repair to the cathedral on Easter Day or Whitsun
Day and make their offering in the mother church of
the diocese. Those who lived too far off to visit
Chichester might worship at Lewes or Hastings, pro-
vided their offerings were forwarded to the cathedral.
Their annual contributions to the fabric were long
known as " St. Richard's Pence." He also induced
the Primate and the Bishops of London, Winchester,
Exeter, Bath and Wells, Norwich, Sarum, and Carlisle
to recommend visits and off"erings to Chichester, for
the repair and completion of the Cathedral, to be
rewarded by relaxation from penance varying from
twenty to forty days.

In 1253 he undertook, at the request of the Pope,
to preach on behalf of a crusade. The flame of
F 2

68

CHICHESTER.

enthusiasm for the recover)' of the Holy Land was
dying out in Europe. St. Louis of France, after long
waiting in vain for promised aid from Henry of Eng-
land, had been compelled to leave the Kingdom of
Jerusalem tottering to its fall.

Bishop Richard preached the crusade with fervour
in place after place along the south coast ; but as he
drew near Dover, where he was to consecrate a
church to be dedicated to his former patron, the now
canonised Primate, St. Edmund, he was seized by ill-
ness. He lodged in the Maison Dieu that night,
and at early mass in the chapel next morning he fell ;
the clergy carried him out and laid him on a bed,
from which he did not rise again. He grew rapidly
worse, received the viaticum, repeatedly kissed the
sacred wounds on the crucifi.x, and, often ejaculating
' Saviour, into Thy hands I commend my spirit;
Mary, Mother of Grace, receive my soul," he tran-
quilly breathed his last. When the body was stripped
the clergy gazed with admiration and awe on the
horse-hair shirt which enveloped it, clasped with iron
bands to increase the friction and make it gall. His
remains (except the entrails, which were buried in the
Church of St. Edmund at Dover) were conveyed to
Chichester, and there interred according to the direc-
tions in his will: " I commend my soul to the Most
High Trinity and the Blessed Mary, and my body to
be buried in the great Church of Chichester, in the
nave of the said church, near the altar of the blessed
Edmund the Confessor, hard by the column."

The will of Bishop Richard is an interesting docu-
ment, and throws light on the history of the testator

SAINT RICHARD.

69

and of the times. Forty pounds were bequeathed for
the fabric of the cathedral, and a great many legacies
in money were left to religious houses, relations,
friends, and domestics, proving that he had not parted
with his possessions to the extent which biographers
would lead us to suppose, unless, indeed, most of the
bequests were contingent on the king's repayment of
the emoluments which he had kept back from the
See. Directions, also, are given concerning the dis-
posal of many articles of value, such as rings, seals,
and goblets. Manuscript copies of several books of
Holy Scripture with commentaries are bequeathed to
the Dominicans and Franciscans settled in Chichester,
Lewes, Winchelsea, Arundel, Canterbury, Winchester,
and London, an illustration of the wide diffusion of
these two orders since their entrance into England
about thirty years before.

His executors are instructed to demand from " my
Lord the King, for the fulfilment of the foregoing
bequests, the emoluments of the See which he, during
two years, most unjustly reaped, and which of right
belong to me, whereof I will require payment even in
the presence of the Most High, unless the king shall
satisfy my executors as herein desired." Henry had
promised before Parliament, in 1248, to compensate
the bishop in money for all rights withheld or wrongs
inflicted. The promise, however, had not been made
good, nor was the claim, made in the will, discharged
until the canonisation of the bishop and the transla-
tion of his remains in 1276, when Edward I. declares,
in the deed then drawn up, " that the debt of £200,
which had been lent by the bishop (so the transaction

70

CHICHESTER.

is delicately described) to King Henr>', had been
fully paid to the executors of the bishop for the un-
burdening of the soul of my said father, as was right
to do."

During the episcopate of John of Clymping, 1253
-1262, Bishop Richard's successor, reports began to
prevail that his work had not ceased at his death.
Stories of wonderful cures wrought at his tomb grew
common. In a short time crowds of sick folk re-
sorted to it, and the healing wonders were multipHed.
Men began to say, too, that miracles had been per-
formed in his lifetime. He had satisfied the hunger of
3,000 poor people, during a famine, on beans sufficient
for but a third of so vast a multitude ; he had cured
a man of the gout by giving him boots taken from his
own holy feet. And so the ball of marvellous tales
rolled easily along, gathering ever new material in its
progress. At length, in 1262, the first year of Bishop
John's successor, Stephen of Burghsted, a deputa-
tion was sent to Rome to urge upon Pope Urban IV.
the claims of Richard to canonisation. The petition
was backed up by a letter from the Lord Edward (after-
wards Edward I.), who had paid a visit to the wonder-
working tomb. Urban assented, and at Viterbo, on
St. Vincent's Day, in the church of the Cordeliers,
on January 22nd, 1262, he made the hearts of the
deputies glad by declaring Richard to be fonnally
enrolled in the catalogue.

The expenses of the deputation amounted to 1,000
marks, but that mattered little when the cause was
gained. Happy was the cathedral which could boast of
containing the remains of a canonised saint, for the

SAINT RICHARD.

71

glory conferred upon the church was matched by the
wealth derived from the offerings of pilgrims to the
shrine.

Bishop Stephen, of Burghsted, took part with the
barons in the civil war, and after the battle of
Lewes, in 1264, was made by Parliament one of the
three electors who were to nominate the Council
of Nine, under whose direction the king was to
act. For this he was excommunicated by the Papal
Legate Ottobuone, in 1266, but he went to Rome
and succeeded in getting the excommunication
taken off. When Edward came to the throne, in
1272, ho seized the temporalities of Stephen's See,
A complete reconciliation, however, must have taken
place, when, on June 16, 1276, the translation of St.
Richard's relics from his lowly tomb to an elevated
shrine at the back of the high altar, was celebrated
by the Primate Kilwardby, assisted by Stephen and
several other bishops, in the presence of the king and
a vast rejoicing multitude.

King Edward was a liberal contributor, and, on
several occasions, a visitor to the shrine, which con-
tinued to be a favourite resort of pilgrims until the
demolition of all shrines in the reign of Henry VIIL
The greatest concourse of pilgrims naturally occurred
on the Saint's day, and in 1478 Bishop Storey found
it necessary to draw up some rules respecting the
order in which the people from the surrounding
parishes should move up to the shrine. The pilgrims
had been accustomed to carry long painted wands,
and in their struggles for precedence had freely used
these wands on each other's heads and shoulders.

72

CHICHESTER.

Bishop Storey therefore directed that the pilgrims
should carry banners and crosses instead of wands,
and that members of the several parishes should
march up reverently from the west door in a pre-
scribed order, of which notice was to be given by the
incumbents in their churches on the Sunday pre-
ceding the festival.

St. Richard's Day, April 3rd, still retains its place
in the calendar prefixed to our Prayer-books, together
with the festivals of Archbishops Dunstan and
Alphege (^If heah), St. Chad of Lichfield, St. Swithin
of Winchester, and St. Hugh of Lincoln.

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS.

73

CHAPTER III.

The Monastic and Collegiate Foundations, a.d. 1075-1288 —
Architecture, A.D. 1075-1250.

I PROCEED to give some account of the foundation
and character of the monastic houses during the first
two centuries after the Norman conquest. Foremost
alike in point of importance and of time stands, of
course, the great abbey planted by the Conqueror
himself as a monument of his victory on the very spot
where it had been won. It was on the hill of Telham
where William first beheld the English ranks closely
drawn up round Harold's standard on the opposite
heights of Senlac, that he vowed if God should
grant him the victory he would build a mighty
minster to his honour on the spot where that
standard was then fixed. A certain monk, William,
surnamed Faber, or the smith, from his skill in
forging arrows, had followed the invading army from
his quiet cell in the Abbey of Marmoutier, by the
Loire. He overheard the vow : he stepped forward
and besought the great Duke that if God suffered him
to execute it, the minster might be dedicated to St.
Martin, the renowned apostle of the Gauls. The
request was granted : the victory was won : but for
four years, at least, the execution of the vow was
delayed. According to the chronicle of the Abbey

74

CHICHESTER.

it was one of the many things which William intended
to do more speedily, but was prevented by the many
pressing affairs connected with the subjugation of the
kingdom. At length, however, probably about 1070,
when the last struggle for independence had been
crushed in the north of England with merciless
severity, and William might fairly consider himself
master of the country from the Channel to the Tyne,
the order was given to his monkish namesake to set
about the work. William the Faber went over to
Marmoutier, and brought back four inmates of his
old home to form the nucleus of the new brother-
hood on the hill of Senlac. The king had deter-
mined that the abbey church should crown the ridge
where the final struggle had raged round the English
standard, and that the high altar should be set up on
the very spot where that standard had been pitched,
and had fallen on that memorable day. But the site
was little pleasing to the foreign monks. It was
bleak : it was arid : it was far from supplies of good
stone for building. They begged for a more con-
venient site. But William was inflexible. His abbey
should not be built on any spot but that which he
had chosen ; and no other spot would he choose, but
that where, by the Grace of God, his kingdom had
been won. He made light of their difficulties. As
for the want of water, wine should flow more plenti-
fully in his abbey than did water in any other house
in England ; and as for the lack of stone his ships
should bring it in abundance from the quarries near
to Calais. And so the house began to rise, and the
monks made themselves as comfortable as they might

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 7$

in temporary dwellings. But the work lagged. The
king, hampered by manifold affairs, was unable to
speed it on by personal visits. The workmen were
dishonest, though skilful ; the foreign monks were not
so zealous as they ought to have been. The first
abbot, on his return from a voyage to Normandy, was
drowned. Altogether, things went badly at the outset
with the new abbey. Under the second abbot the
number of the monks was increased, and the
building made more progress ; but still it was not
rapid, and William did not live to see it completed.
Not till 1094, or twenty-eight years after the great battle,
twenty years after the laying of the foundation, and
seven after the death of the founder, was the church
ready for consecration, and the other buildings suffi-
ciently advanced to admit about fifty monks, or little
more than one-third of the number originally con-
templated. But still it was a great abbey, alike in
dignity and interest, in its privileges and possessions.
It was an abiding and a stately monument of William's
great victory ; it was a house of prayer, from which,
day by day, according to the founder's desire, peti-
tions were offered up for the welfare alike of the
English and Normans who had fallen in that mighty
contest.

King William bythoute him eke of the vole that was verlore,

And aslawe eke thoru hym in batayle byvore,

There as the batayle was an Abbey he let rere

Of Seyn Martyn vor ther soules, that ther aslawe were.

And the monckes wel y now feffede wythoute fayle

That ys y duped in Engelond, Abbey of the Batayle."

Robert of Gloucester, II. 3, 68.
As indicated in these lines, the abbey was called

76

CHICHESTER.

not only after the saint to whom it was dedicated, but,
like the town which grew up around it, after the great
event which it commemorated. Its full title was the
Abbey of St. Martin of the Place of Battle, ealesia
Sancti Martini de Bello, but in Domesday it is com-
monly called, ecclesia de Labatailge. Of the orginal
Norman buildings but few vestiges remain save the
foundations of the eastern apse and the bases of mas-
sive columns. The spot where Harold's standard fell,
and which for centuries was covered by the high altar,
is now as bare and open to the winds of heaven as it
was on the day when that standard, long so stubbornly
defended, at last went down in the hurly burly of
the battle. The vaults still remaining on the southern
slope of the hill are alike a monument of the resolute
character of the Conqueror, and of the ingenuity
which distinguished the wise master builders of old
time. The church being situated on the crest of the
hill, in obedience to William's decision, the great
dormitory had to be built on the slope, and was sup-
ported on underlying vaults, increasing in height with
the depth of the descent.

The contest of the abbey with the bishops of
Chichester has been noticed in the previous chapter.
It furnishes one of the earliest and most notable in-
stances, in England, of that struggle for independence
on the part of all corporate bodies, ecclesiastical and
civil, which is so marked a feature of mediaeval life.
The successful efforts of so important a house as
Battle Abbey must have been a great encouragement
to others to follow in the same course. But besides
exemption from episcopal jurisdiction the Abbots of

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 77

Battle enjoyed many remarkable privileges. Within
a circuit of about three miles from the abbey, which
constituted what was called the Leuga, the Abbot was
supreme. No one within this limit could follow any
business, or hunt, or implead, without his permission.
The abbot and monks had free warren on all the
lands of all their manors; they and their tenants
were exempted from tolls in any market they might
attend in the kingdom ; and they had the right of
holding a market at Battle every Sunday, for which
they were declared responsible to God alone. They
had the right of free passage, when travelling, on all
roads passing through the king's lands ; of taking
venison for the use of the abbey from any of his lands
in the rape of Hastings ; and, generally, when passing
through any royal forest, of capturing any animals. they
might meet, without let or hindrance from the king's
officers. From the territory of the Count of Eu, which
lay in the neighbourhood of the abbey, they
had the right of taking fire-wood, and timber for the
repairs of the house. The abbey church, in common
with others, had the privilege of sanctuary, but the
abbots had further the most extraordinary privi-
lege of pardoning any condemned criminal whom
they might meet on his way to execution in any part
of the kingdom. An instance is recorded in which
this curious prerogative was exercised in 1364. The
Abbot, on his journey to London, met a felon con-
demned to the gallows, within the Liberty of the King's
Marshalsea, and absolved him from the penalty of
death. The king, Edward IIL, disputed the Abbot's
right; the case was tried, the charter granting the

78

CHICHESTER.

privilege was produced, and the right was con-
firmed.

Nearly simultaneous with the building of the Con-
queror's Abbey, " at the Place of Battle," was the
foundation of the great Cluniac Priory of St. Pancras,
at Lewes. William of Warren, to whom Lewes, with
many other possessions, had been granted, was the
husband of Gundrada, the daughter of Matilda by
her marriage with Gerbod, of Flanders, before she
became the wife of the Conqueror.i William and
Gundrada are good examples of the piety of the age.
Below the castle stood a wooden church, dedicated to
St. Pancras. This, after the Norman fashion, William
and his wife removed and replaced by a church of
stone. But their religious zeal was not content.
They desired to found a religious house, and Lan-
franc, the Primate, encouraged their pious inclination.
In this frame of mind they started on a pilgrimage to
Rome, but the war between the Pope (Hildebrand)
and the Emperor was going on, and the roads to Italy
were dangerous for travellers ; so they halted at the
great monastery of reformed Benedictines, at Clugny,
in Burgundy. Clugny was considered a pattern of
monastic houses ; the abbot, Hugh, was eminent for
piety and learning. William and Gundrada resolved
to make their religious house at Lewes an offshoot of
Clugny, and they prayed the abbot to send three or

' An attempt has recently been made ("Suss. Archaol.
CoUec," vol xxviii. p. 114) to upset this theon-, but a perusal
of Sir G. Duckett's paper has only confirmed me in the proba-
bility of the theory which he tries to confute. The documents
on which he mainly relies seem to tell precisely the other way.

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 79

four of his monks to make a beginning. But they
did not easily obtain so many. Abbot Hugh was
unwilHng to part with any of his best men. At length
he was persuaded to send one able and pious monk,
named Lanzo, as prior, accompanied by three others.
They arrived at Lewes in 1077; but soon after this
Abbot Hugh recalled Lanzo, and detained him a
whole year at Clugny, to the great vexation of William
and Gundrada. The fact is, the rule of Clugny was
what might be termed the fashionable rule of the day,
and the Cluniac monks were in great demand. King
William himself was a rival suitor for them with
William of Warren, and offered high preferment and
rich stipends to the monks if Abbot Hugh would send
him over half a dozen ; but the abbot turned a deaf
ear to his offers. The English were considered a
barbarous people, and the foreign monks were shy of
settling amongst them ; but, on the other hand, the
Normans were all the more anxious to introduce the
civilizing influence of monks from foreign houses
most renowned for discipline and learning. William
and Gundrada, therefore, were considered fortunate
to have secured a colony of Cluniac monks for their
house at Lewes. And hence the remarkable boast
inscribed on Gundrada's tomb, that she introduced
the balm of good manners to the English churches.

" Intulit ecclesiis Anglorum balsama morum,"

The great Castle of Lewes, with its twin keeps,
upon the double-crested hill which overhangs the
town, and the great Cluniac priory in the plain below,
were, indeed, a vivid illustration of the two forces

8o

CHICHESTER.

which the Normans brought to bear on the people
whom they had conquered ; the strong arm by which
they were overawed, the foreign learning and civiliza-
tion by which they were educated and moulded,
until they became fused into one body with their con-
querors, and fitted to take their place among the
other great nations of Western Christendom.

All vestiges of the Priory Church at Lewes have
been swept away, and of the conventual buildings only
a few fragments remain, so that it is impossible to
describe with any completeness the plan of the original
priory. William and Gundrada did not prepare at
the outset for more than twelve monks ; and the first
church, which was, probably, of moderate size, was
consecrated about 1094. Gundrada had died in
1085. Her husband, in his will, directed that his
bones and the bones of his descendants should be
laid beside hers in the Church of the Priory, and
expressed a hope that the growth of the monaster)-
would keep pace with the growth of his own faniil)-.
" Sicut ego cresco crescant et res monachorum." His
heirs did not neglect these injunctions, for such large
additions were made to the priory and church after
his death that in 1147 a second dedication took place.
On this occasion the Bishop of Winchester cut off the
hair of the Earl of Warren and his brother Ralph
before the altar as a form of giving seizin. It was
probably at this time that the bodies of the founders
were taken up, and the remains, being dimin-
ished by decay, were transferred to small leaden
cists. These cists were discovered in 1845, when
a railway cutting was being made which passed right

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 8 1

through the site of the Priory Church, and they now
rest in a little chapel built on purpose to contain
them attached to the Church of Southover, hard
by the ruins of the priory. The names
William and Gundrada are plainly legible upon
the lids. The tombstone which originally covered
the grave of Gundrada was taken away after the
dissolution of the Priory. It bears the inscription
to which reference has been made, and having,
after strange vicissitudes, found its way to Southover
Church in 1775, now lies in the centre of the
chapel where the cists are placed; so that by a
curious coincidence the tombstone and the relics which
it covered, after being separated for more than 300
years, have been brought together again not far from,
the spot where they originally lay. The Priory of
Lewes, as it was the first, so it became the largest and
richest Cluniac establishment in England. " And
none," says William of Malmesbury, excelled it in
the piety of its monks, in its hospitality to strangers,
and in charity towards all." It was exempt from
episcopal jurisdiction, and completely dependent on
the parent house of Clugny, whose abbots had the
right of appointing the prior, admitting new monks,
and holding visitations. Novices who desired to take
the full vows had to wait for the visits of the abbot,
which were necessarily rather rare and uncertain.
This inconvenience became a cause of general com-
plaint among the Cluniac houses in England, and in
1330 a petition was presented to Parliament on the
subject. In this petition it was stated that Parliament
had decreed, but seemingly without effect, that the

CHICHESTZR.

Prior of Lewes should become an abbot, so far as to
make professed monks within his own house. The
petition, however, seems to have been barren of
results. The rules imposed on novices in Cluniac
houses were so severe, a strict and constant sOence
being one of them, that it is net surprising they were
anxious to pass out of the probationary state as
speedily as possible. The whole brotherhood, however,
was subjected to severe discipline and to an unpleasant
system of spying. In the Chronicle of Lewes the
death is recorded, in 1297, of an official called the
"circuitor." His duty was to ramble about the
monastery '■ in so religious and stately a manner as to
inspire terror into the beholders," and whilst main-
taining a profound silence to take note of any
misconduct. He was to observe and report any
instances of indolence, laughter, or gossip, and was
diligently to explore what the monks were about by
applying his ear to each cell as he went his rounds.
During the night offices in church he was to go round
the choir with a lanthorn in his hand, and if he
detected any brother dozing he was to hold the
lanthorn so as to shine full in his face and startle him
from his nap, whereupon the offender had to beg
pardon on his knees, and then to take the lanthorn
and continue the search himself for other offenders.

The record of the death of the first prior Lanzo, in
1 107, is such a charming picture of the pure childlike
obedience and piety of a monastic saint that it may be
introduced here as a close to this brief sketch of the
early days of the prior}'. " While preparing for mass
on Holy Thursday he was taken so suddenly ill in the

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 83

vestry as he was putting on the chasuble that he left it
as it fell from him, not folded up, and after retiring
from the chapel he was unable to sleep for two days.
When pressed by his friends to speak to them at
night he refused, explaining that since he first took
the monastic vow he had never uttered after the
hour of compline until prime next day. On Saturday
after kissing all the brethren, which in his zealous
love he would do standing, in spite of his feebleness,
he was at daybreak led into the chapter-house, and
from his seat there he gave his paternal benediction to
all the brethren, begging their prayers in return, and
teaching them what to do if he should die. On
Monday, perceiving symptoms of imminent death, he
went with his hands washed and his hair combed to
hear mass, and then returned to his bed. After again
blessing every member of the house he clasped a
cross, and, with his head and body bent reverently
down, was carried by the monks into the choir, and
placed before the altar of St. Pancras, and there after
a little while, with a glowing countenance, about to be
released for ever from all evil, his pure soul took
its journey to Christ."

It seemed proper to record at some length the
foundation and early history of the two chief monastic
houses in Sussex.

A large number of smaller houses must be much
more briefly noticed.

One consequence of Sussex being so completely
handed over to Norman proprietors was the establish-
ment of many small priories dependent upon monastic
houses in Normandy. The amount of dependence of

G 2

84

CHICHESTER.

these " alien priories," as they were called, on the
mother house, varied in different cases. Some of
them became so far independent as to elect their own
priors and to manage their own estates, only remitting
a certain fixed sum annually to the parent house.
Others continued wholly dependent, the/oreign house
appointing and removing the priors at will, and
receiving the entire revenues, out of which they pro-
vided for the maintenance of the priory in England.
From a secular point of view we might say that the
inmates of such alien priories were only stewards to
look after the English possessions of foreign houses.

The earliest of this latter class founded in Sussex
was at Wilmington, a few miles north-west of Beachey
Head. Wilmington was one of the 54 manors granted
in Sussex to Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of
the Conqueror, and was by him granted to the Abbey
of Grestein, near Honfleur, in the diocese of Lisieux.
This abbey had been founded in 1056 by Herluin
of Conteville, who married Herleva or Harlotta, the
mother (before wedlock) of the Conqueror, and by
her became the father of Odo, afterivards Bishop of
Bayeux, and Robert, Count of Mortain, who were thus
half-brothers to the Conquerer. Robert was such a
bountiful benefactor to his father's abbey that by
William of Jumieges he is called its founder. Out
of his Sussex estates he granted, together with
Wilmington, six hides of land in Firle, a house in
Pevensey, and in his forest of Pevense}', pannage,
herbage, and wood for fuel and building. His wife
Matilda gave the church in Beddingham with two
hides of land, and their son William several detached

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUND iTIONS. 85

parcels of land, beside the churches of East Dean,
West Dean, and West Firle, with all their appurten-
ances. The parish church of Wilmington is on the
site of that which the Abbey of Grestein built for
their priory, and the narrow round-headed window
of Caen stone on the north side of the chancel, and
the string course below, with its zig-zag moulding,
may be regarded as relics of the original structure.

William of Braose, whose possessions included the
fortress hill of Bramber and forty-one manors, nearly co-
extensive with the rape of Bramber, had planted a cell
to the Abbey of St. Florentius of Saumur, at Briouz,
in Normandy, the place from which he took his name.
To the same abbey he gave, in 1075, ^'^^^ churches on
his Sussex territory — St. Peter at Sele, near Bramber ;
St. Nicholas, at Old Shoreham ; St. Nicholas, at
Bramber ; and St. Peter de Veteri Ponte. The
abbey, in return, was to found a priory at Sele, near
his castle of Bramber. From a document amongst
the cathedral records we learn that these grants were
confirmed in 1151 by Hilary, Bishop of Chichester,
and Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury ; and in
addition to the four churches already mentioned, St.
Mary of the Port is included in the grant. This is one
of the earliest notices of the Church of New Shore-
ham, the seaport town which grew up at the mouth
of the river Adur, as the sea gradually receded, and
left Old Shoreham high and dry inland.

The Domesday Survey mentions two churches at
Sele which were probably the Priory Church and St.
Peter de Veteri Ponte. ' The parishioners of Sele

' Remains of an old medioeval bridge, from which this church

86

CHICHESTER.

worshipped in the same church as the monks, though
not of course in the same part of it This arrange-
ment was a very common one. A dispute arose in the
thirteenth century between the monks and parishioners
about their respective obligations for repairs. The
case was referred to arbitrators, who decided that the
parishioners were to be answerable under a penalty of
forty shiUings for the immediate repair, when needed,
of the nave, the belfry, the bells, the bell ropes, and
the clock ; the monks of course were sole owners of
the chancel, and were alone responsible for keeping
it in repair.

One of the earliest and most important alien priories
was at Boxgrove, near the foot of the Downs, about
four miles north-east from Chichester. It was founded
about 1 1 20 by Robert de Haia, who is called in one
document a kinsman of the king. All that we know
for certain about the de la Haies is that they were a
Norman family, of which one branch settled near
Battle, and another, early in the twelfth century, became
possessed of the manor of Halnaker, near Boxgrove.
Robert de Haia made his priory at Boxgrove a cell
to the Abbey of L'Essaie, in Normandy, of which he
was patron. Three monks only were brought over at
first. Robert's grandson, William St. John, raised
the number to thirteen, and William's brother,
Robert, added three more.

Several churches in the neighbourhood, with various

probably took its name, were discovered near Beeding (or Sele)
in 1839, and of the chapel of St. Marj-, situated on the bridge.
The Priory was probably o\vner of the bridge, and took toll
from the passengers.

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 87

portions of land, were given by the founder and his
grandsons to the priory — Boxgrove, West Hampnett,
Walberton, Birdham, Barnham, and Ichenor. John
Bishop of Chichester, ii 74-11 80, confirms the ap-
propriation of these churches to the priory, but re-
serves the right of visitation, and stipulates that the
monks should not appoint any vicar to these churches
who did not undertake to officiate in them in person.
The founder also attached certain conditions to his
grants. When a vacancy occurred in the priory the
monks were to fill it up within three months, other-
wise the appointment lapsed to the Lord of Halnaker.
He also reserved the right of choosing one monk to
officiate in his chapel at Halnaker when he and his
family were residing there, engaging during that time
to give him the same board which he would have
received in the priory. He also secured to the abbot
and monks of L'Essaie the right of removing to their
house from Boxgrove any monk they might choose to
have except the sub-prior and cellarer. On the other
hand, by an annual payment of three marks to
L'Essaie, the monks of Boxgrove obtained the privi-
lege of electing their own prior.

The Cistercian order, although so numerous in many
parts of the kingdom after the middle of the twelfth
century, had only one house in Sussex. This was
founded in 11 76, at Robertsbridge, in the parish of
Salehurst, at the eastern end of the diocese, by Robert
de St. Martin. One of the earliest and principal
benefactors was Alicia, daughter of Adeliza, widow of
Henry L, by her second husband, William Earl of
Arundel. Alicia was married first to John Count of

CHICHESTER.

Eu, in Normandy, and secondly to Alured de St.
Martin, who is sometimes called the founder of the
abbey as Alicia herself is called the foundress, on
account of their great benefactions. The lands
bestowed by Alicia are said in the deed of gift to be
granted for the soul's health of her father and mother,
her first husband, brothers, and sisters. The number
of monks does not appear ever to have been large,
probably not more than eight or twelve at the most,
and there is a curious proof that in 1327 the very
existence of the house was unkno\TO to a Bishop of
Exeter. In the Bodleian Library is a MS. volume
bearing the inscription : " This book belongs to St.
Mary of Robertsbridge : whoever shall steal it or sell it,
or in any way alienate it from this house or mutilate
it, let him be anathema-maranatha." The Bishop of
Exeter, who had become possessed of it, deprecates
the consequences of this terrible curse by inserting —
" I, John, Bishop of Exeter, know not where the afore-
said house is, nor did I steal this book, but acquired
it in a lawful way." In the twelfth and thirteenth cen-
turies, however, the Abbey of Robertsbridge must have
been well known, for the abbots were several times
employed in public business of importance. When it
was reported that King Richard I. had been made a
prisoner on his return from the Holy Land, the abbots
of Robertsbridge and Boxley were sent to Germany
to discover the place of his detention. The same two
went to Rome on behalf of Archbishop Hubert to
solicit the Pope's settlement of the dispute between
him and the monks of Canterbury. The Abbot of
Robertsbridge also was twice employed on the king's

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 89

business in the reign of Henry III., in 1222, when
he was sent to Poitou, and in 1224, when he was
despatched to the Papal Court.

The curious and partly legendary tale of the intro-
duction of Christianity to Steyning, and of the founda-
tion of the first Church there, has been related in a
former chapter. The subsequent ecclesiastical history
of the place, also, is too remarkable to be passed by
without notice.

Edward the Confessor granted the Lordship of
Steyning to the monks of Fecamp, in Normandy ;
but before the grant could take effect. Earl Godwine,
the head of the patriotic party in England, had
recovered his influence, and the Normans were
expelled from the kingdom.

At the time of the Conquest the Lordship of Steyn-
ing was in the hands of Harold ; but William, con-
firmed the grant of Edward to the Abbey of Fecamp.
According to the usual method the abbey proceeded
to establish a priory upon its foreign possession. To
superintend both the secular and spiritual interests of
the property, six monks were sent over from the
parent house, and early in the twelfth century a church
had been erected, of which the nave, a most stately
fragment of rich Romanesque, still survives. Of the
remainder of the church, and of the conventual build-
ings, there are no traces above ground ; but in digging
graves parts of the foundations have often been laid
bare. The present vicarage is traditionally believed
to stand on the site of the prior's house, and traces
of the priory fish-ponds were discovered in making
foundations for a wall in the vicarage gardens in

9°

CHICHESTER.

1848. "Domesday Book " mentions two churches in
Steyning : one of these was probably the original
Church of St. Cuthman, and the other the new priory
church, of which the choir, no longer in existence,
was probably completed at that time.

The Abbot of Fecamp had the right of holding a
market at Steyning two days in the week, and a fair
twice in the year. Ralph Neville, Bishop of Chichester,
had a protracted dispute with the abbey touching the
reverence and obedience due to him from their monks
at Steyning. It was at last decided that the priory
should be free from all episcopal jurisdiction.

There were two houses for Augustinian canons of
the new order of Premonstre, at opposite extremities
of the diocese — Dureford at the west end, and Bayham
at the east. Dureford was founded early in the reign
of Henry II., by Henry of Hoese, or, as he came to
be called, Henry Hussey, Lord of the Manor of
Hastings, within which the monastery was situated.
It was pleasantly placed on elevated ground, sloping
gently to a small stream which flows into the Western
Arun, or Little Rother, near the market town of Peters-
field. There was a mill near at hand, and gardens and
fish-ponds within the precincts of the house. Nine
Premonstratensian houses had already been built in
England before Henry Hussey planted his small house
at Dureford. Of these, Welbeck, in Nottinghamshire,
was one of the earliest, and had become the head of
the order in this country. The building and estab-
lishment of his house at Dureford was given by Henry
Hussey to Berenger, Abbot of Welbeck, who very
probably came from Le Hoese Berenger, near le

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 9 1

Hoese in Normandy, the possession from which Henry
Hussey (Henry de Hoese, as he is called in several
documents) derived his name.

The Premonstratensian Abbey of Bayham was on
the borders of Kent, as the Abbey of Dureford was on
the borders of Hampshire. It was founded about
1200, by Sir Robert of Turnham, Lord of the Manor
of Bayham, who had served with distinction in the
wars of Richard the First, and had for some time
been Governor of Cyprus. Bayham was a union of
two small houses of Augustinian canons at Brockley
and Otteham in Kent, which had fallen into decay
from poverty. Sir Robert richly endowed his abbey
with lands, which he gave " for the soul of the good
King Richard, the salvation also of my Lord King
John and his children, for my own salvation, and for
the souls of all my predecessors and successors."
Dureford Abbey and its surrounding buildings have
totally perished. The remains of Bayham, on the
other hand, are considerable, and some notice will be
taken of them in the remarks on the architecture of
this period, at the close of the chapter.

For Augustinian canons, not of the Premonstraten-
sian order, there were several houses in the diocese, but
none of them large. The most important of them was
Michelham, near Hailsham, founded about 1225, by
Gilbert of I'Aigle. The family had obtained the lord-
ship of the manor of Pevensey when the possessions of
William, Count of Mortain, were escheated on account
of his rebellion. Gilbert was third of his name, and
the last of his race who was Lord of Pevensey, his
lands and honours being forfeited in 1235 upon

92

CHICHESTER.

his going to Normandy without the king's license.
Gilbert conveyed to the canons all his lordship of
Michelham, and his park of Pevensey, with the men,
rents, escheats, and other appurtenances, besides
parcels of land on other parts of his property, timber
for constructing and repairing their church and other
buildings, wood for fuel and fences, and bushes to
make their hedges. He also granted the advowsons
of the churches of Hailsham and Laughton ; and
afterwards, by a separate deed, the manor of Chintinges,
in the parish of Seaford. By another charter he
granted to the canons for their manors of Michelham
and Chintinges freedom from shires and hundreds,
suits of shires and hundreds, and from sheriffs' aid ;
and exempted the house from all claims for cor-
rodies.^

The other houses for Austin canons were quite
small. They were : —

(i.) Pynham, or de Calceto, near Arundel, founded
by Adeliza, widow of Henry the First, and wife of
WiUiam of Albini, first Earl of Arundel, for two canons
who were to pray for the soul of her late husband,
and officiate in the Chapel of St. Martin, in the keep
of Arundel Castle. The number was afterwards
increased to six, and to them was committed the
custody of Arundel Bridge and the causeway (pro-
bably of chalk, whence the name calcetum), which
was the means of communication across the river
Arun and the low meadows — at that time flooded

■ Corrodies were the rights of founders or benefactors to
board and lodging for themselves or their families in the
monastery.

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 93

at every tide — which divide the lofty hill of Arundel
from the high ground rising eastwards.

(ii.) At Tortiiigton, about a mile and a-half south
of Arundel, there was another small house for four or
five canons. There is evidence that it existed before
the time of King John ; but the name of the founder
and the exact date of foundation are uncertain. The
Vicar of Tortington had a corrody in the house, con-
sisting of a right to board and lodging for himself
and a servant boy.

(iii.) At Hardham, near Pulborough, there was a
small house of uncertain foundation ; but probably
established by some member of the Norman family
of Dawtrey, which had large property in the neigh-
bourhood.

(iv.) At Shulbrede, a secluded valley in the parish
of Lynchmere, about six miles north of Midhnrst,
there was a house of obscure origin, for four or five
canons.

(v.) At Hastings, the Priory of Holy Trinity,
founded in the reign of Richard the First, afterwards
transplanted to Warbleton, and called the New Priory
of Hastings.

There were three Benedictine nunneries in
Sussex : —

(i.) Ly minster y about one mile south-east of Arundel.
Some kind of religious house existed here before the
Norman Conquest, but had fallen to decay. It was
rebuilt by Roger of Montgomery, and made a cell to
the Abbey of Almanesches in Normandy, which sent
over three or four nuns. By the reign of Henry II.
the number had risen to twenty-six, who were, most

94

CHICHESTER.

of them ladies of rank, and paid 200 marcs for the
privilege of admission. Six lay sisters were kept to
do all the menial work of the house ; but the rule
was austere, no fires being allowed in the cells, and
no meat for meals.

(ii.) Rusper, near Horsham, of uncertain origin,
but probably founded by some member of the De
Braose family, which had large property in the neigh-
bourhood. It was in existence before the end of the
twelfth century, as Bishop Seffrid the Second confirmed
the nuns in the possession of the churches of Rusper,
Warham, Ifield, Selham, and other bits of propert)'.
In 1 23 1 the Church of Horsham was bestowed on the
priory by John de Braose. According to the terms
of the gift, the priory was to receive all the tithes of
corn, reserving small tithes and offerings at the altar
for the vicar.

(iii.) EseSorne, near Midhurst, probably founded
about the middle of the thirteenth centur)' by John de
Bohun, who had the lordship of Midhurst ; it was a
small house for five or six nuns, mostly of gentle
birth.

Besides these monastic houses, there were several
collegiate churches : —

(i.) South Malli?!g, near Lewes : a peculiar of the
Archbishops of Canterburj'. Archbishop Theobald,
in 1150, rebuilt the church and conferred large privi-
leges on the college, which consisted of a dean, three
prebendaries, three priest vicars, a penitentiary, and
a sacrist. The manor of South Mailing was a large
one, and all the churches upon it were under the
peculiar jurisdiction of the primate. The deanery of

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 95

South Mailing included the churches of Buxted, with
the chapel of Uckfield, Mailing, with the chapels of
Cliffe and Southeham, Lewes, Edburton, Framfield,
Glynde, Isfield, Mayfield, Ringmere, Stanmere, and
Wadhurst. It was the business of the dean to visit
these churches once a year, to see that they were
kept in good order, and to punish any irregularities
in the incumbents or their parishioners.

(ii.) Bos/iam, near Chichester. Warlewaste, Bishop
of Exeter, in the reign of Henry I., dissolved a
monastery at Plympton in Devonshire, on account
of the irregular lives of the inmates, and with the pro-
ceeds of the property established a college for a dean
and five prebendaries at Bosham. There were con-
siderable disputes on several occasions between the
bishops of Chichester and Exeter, as to their respec-
tive rights over this college, which were finally settled
in the fourteenth century, when it was decided that the
patronage should be vested in the bishops of Exeter,
but that the bishops of Chichester should have the
right of visitation, and exercise the same authority
over the parochial prebendary as over any other
incumbent in his diocese.

(iii.) St. Mary in the Castle, at Hastings, enlarged,
if not founded, soon after the Conquest, by the Count
of Eu, for a dean and ten prebendaries. It was made
a free chapel, and in spite of repeated attempts by
the bishops of Chichester to assert their rights, its
claim to exemption from all episcopal jurisdiction
was fully established until the fifteenth century.

(iv.) Arundel. During the period comprised by
the present chapter, Arundel was a priory church ;

96

CHICHESTER.

but it became collegiate in the following century.
Roger of Montgomery founded a priory in Arundel,
affiliated to the Abbey of St. Martin at Seez, of
which he was the restorer and benefactor. In 1178,
the rectory of the parish church of St. Nicholas being
vacant, William of Albini, second Earl of Arundel,
gave the church to the priory. The parochial and
conventual church thus became united, the former
priory church being abandoned, and the rectorial
dwelling, hard by the church, being enlarged into a
residence for the prior and his monks. This state of
things continued for two centuries : the church, as in
so many other cases, being partly parochial, partly
conventual — that is to say, the monks had their
services in the choir ; the parishioners worshipped in
the nave. At length, after some of the varieties of
good and ill fortune, which alien priories generally
experienced, Richard, Earl of Arundel, in 1380,
obtained license ftom the king, with the consent of
the Abbey of Seez, to dissolve the Priory of St.
Nicholas and to found a collegiate church for a master
and twelve fellows or chaplains, to whom all the
property of the monks should be transferred. The |
present church was then erected. The eastern limb,
dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was the chapel of the
college ; the nave and aisles, of which the south aisle
served as chancel, formed the parish church, which
retained the old dedication to St. Nicholas. The
central tower was common to the college and the
parish, and the cost of repairing it was divided be-
tween them. Otherwise, each was responsible for I
the repairs of its own property — the college for the

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 97

eastern limb and the parochial chancel, the parish for
the nave and north aisle.

It would far exceed the limits of the present work
to give a particular account of all the hospitals founded
in the diocese during the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. They were an outcome of religious life
as characteristic of the period as the foundation of
monastic houses. A large number of them were
intended for the reception of persons afflicted with
leprosy, a disease which was probably brought into
Western Europe from the East by the Crusaders.
Before the close of the thirteenth century, there had
been established in Sussex two hospitals at Chichester,
St. Mary and St. James ; two at Lewes, St. James
and St. Nicholas ; one at Hastings, one at Bramber,
at Buxted, at Pevensey, at Pleyden, at Seaford, at
Shoreham, and at Rye ; and probably there were
many more of which no memorial has been preserved.

The bare enumeration of the monastic houses in
our diocese is no small indication of their power and
influence. The cultivation of the soil, and the cure
of souls, were to a large extent in their hands. And
this was not without its advantages. The monks
were continually resident ; they were not, like the lay
proprietors or the bishops, perpetually being called
away on public affairs, and so hindered from looking
after the interests of the people entrusted to their
charge. In a county like Sussex, where the towns
were few and small, the monastic houses, planted
at intervals of no great distance from each other,
mijst have been inestimable boons. There the weary
traveller could get food and shelter, and the needy

98

CHICHESTER.

obtain relief. The condition of the people in many
of the secluded villages and hamlets of Sussex would
probably have been barbarous and wretched in the
extreme but for the neighbourhood, of some monastic
house which had the means of encouraging and
rewarding skilled labour and of relieving distress.
And although there were disadvantages in the appro-
priation of parish churches to the monasteries, their
vicars being often underpaid, and only occasional
visitors of the parish instead of constant residents in it,
yet, on the other hand, the parish priest, living in soli-
tude on a remote country cure, was more apt to sink
into a state of ignorance, indolence, if not vice, than the
member of a brotherhood who was responsible to the
community for his conduct, and occasionally refreshed
his mind by a visit to the parent house. The worst
evil was the appropriation of parish churches to a
monastic house, in order to prop up its revenue when
it had fallen into povert}'. We find the bishops of
Chichester, in confirming such appropriations, usually
stipulating that a sufficient stipend should be allowed
for a resident vicar, and a certain annual sum set
apart for the relief of the poor. But the records of
disputes between the vicars and their monasteries
about the proportion of tithes and ofterings which
they were to receive, prove that, in spite of these
precautions, the churches were often irregularly served
by ill-paid vicars, and the interests of the parishioners
must have suffered in proportion.

Even a slight study of the annals of the monastic
houses in Sussex helps to throw light upon the religious
thought and sentiment of the age. The highest form

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 99

of Christianity was supposed to be a life of ascetic re-
tirement and devotion, and the most meritorious action
on the part of those who could not lead this life them-
selves was to provide for those that could. The founder
or benefactor of a monastery not only enjoyed the
pleasant sense of performing an act to the honour
and glory of God, but believed that he was providing
for the spiritual welfare of himself, his family, and his
friends — past, present, and to come. The founding
of a monastic house was no mere sentimental act ;
it was a piece of solid, serious business. The idea
being firmly held that gifts to religious houses meant
so much security to the giver and his family in the
world to come, it is easy to understand why men and
women should have lavished so much of this world's
goods upon them. A spiritual advantage was always
expected in return for the gift, whatever it was, and
generally in some proportion to it. Thus, when
Sir Robert Turnham endows the abbey of Bayham
with a considerable property in land, he states that
he does it " for the soul of good King Richard, the
salvation also of my Lord King John and his children,
for my own salvation, and for the souls of all my
predecessors and successors." So large a gift might
command large results : it could look backwards and
forwards, and extend its benefits to a large circle in
the past and the future. On the other hand, Emma
de Falere gives one hide of her land in Hastings to
the Priory at Boxgrove for the supply of one candle
to be kept continually before the altar ; William de
Wildbrugge gives the same priory two acres for the
supply of two wax candles to be kept always burning

100

CHICHESTER.

at the mass of St. Mary ; William Bernehuse, of Coke-
ham, grants a right to all inmates of the priory of
Lewes to cross the passage of Shoreham beyond the
harbour toll-free, on condition that an anniversary is
observed for his benefit at the priory for ever.
Geoffrey of Cotes gives the church of Cotes to the
same priory, " for which donation," he says, " they
have received me and my heirs to all the advantages
of the prayers which they shall offer in the said
church for ever." Thus there was always a quid pro
quo ; some earthly possession was parted with, and a
spiritual benefit given in exchange ; the donor was so
much poorer in this world, so much richer in the
world to come. And so, as the men and women,
both gentle and simple, mingled in the strife, or
violence or licentiousness of those fierce, rugged,
turbulent times, they thought with comfort, often,
perhaps, too complacently, of their pious gifts, whether
it were the broad lands which endowed a whole
religious house, or whether it were the single candle
burning before some particular altar : — each gift pro-
cured so much prayer on their behalf, each one was
in its measure an anchor of hope cast forward upon
the shore of the world beyond the grave.

The object of a donor was sometimes partly a
spiritual, partly a secular benefit. Thus, John of Arun-
del, in A.D. 1 2 20, for the love of God and the salvation
of his soul, gives some houses and gardens in East
Street, Chichester, to the priory and monks of Box-
grove, for which J:hey agree to pay him eight marcs of
silver towards the e.xpenses of his journey to Jerusalem.

Other bargains, however, are of a purely secular

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 10 1

character, and afford a curious insight into the con-
dition of the monasteries, and their relations to the
outside world. Richard, the Parson of EUstede, gives
the abbey of Dureford tithes of some land on condition
that the house presents annually to his church half a
pound of incense ; Richard of Pevensey grants to
the priory of Lewes a free passage through his marsh
to their priory mill at Langeney for an annual rent of
twelvepence, and states that at the time of making
the grant " the prior gave me one mark in silver and
three marcs of gold to my wife, and the privilege that
whenever my corn was taken to the mill it should be
ground immediately after that which may be in the mill
at the time."

Margaret, daughter and heir of Solomon de Hoth-
legh, and widow of Robert de Glj-ndele, gives up all
her dower to the priory of Lewes, on condition that
the house finds her in food, clothing, and lodging for
the rest of her life. " Every day a loaf of currant
bread, and a loaf of Knight's bread, and a gallon of
the best beer, and one dish from the guests' kitchen ;
and every year, on the feast of St. Pancras, the said
prior and convent shall give me half a marc for my
clothing ; and ever>' second year one fur dress ; and
they shall provide me with a sufficient house in
Southover (the quarter of Lewes nearest to the
priory) for the rest of my life."

John Cook, of Hewkley, makes a very similar con-
tract with the abbey of Dureford. In fact, under
the head of corrodies were included many varieties
of singular rights and privileges claimed by the
founders or benefactors of a religious house. The

102

CHICHESTER.

following is a very curious instance of the surrender
of a corrody for a pecuniary compensation. A law-
suit had arisen in the thirteenth century respecting
the customs and services due from the priory of
Lewes to the manor of Langeney. The lord of the
manor, William of Echingham, in agreeing to a
compromise, enumerates his former claims : " The
priory was bound to receive me, with my wife and all
family and horses, four times a year, to be blooded,
and to dwell there at the expense of the priory each
time for three days (and on the fourth day to the
hearing and singing of the mass), either in the halls
of the convent or in other competent houses, and to
supply with food and drink, and all other things
necessary, at my stay and arrival. And, moreover,
they were bound to keep at their expense in the said
priory one charger or one palfrey, and one youth
through the whole year; and that the said youth
should receive all necessaries, and a robe of the same
fashion as the prior's youths ; and they w^ere also to
support one youth in the kitchen of the prior in order
to learn the business of the cook for the hall ; he was
to have his allowance, robe, and shoes with the men
in the service of the prior. Further, they were bound
to keep two puppy greyhounds, or beagles, until they
were a year old, and I was entitled to remove, whenever
I pleased, the horse, the youths, and the puppies,
and to substitute others in their stead." All these
claims he now surrenders for the sum of £100.

The very frequent allusions to corrodies, or to con-
tracts of that nature, in the monastic annals of Sussex,
prove that in this diocese, as elsewhere, the religious

MONASTIC AND COLLEGIATE FOUNDATIONS. 103

houses were, to a great extent, not only inns for the
reception of travellers, but the great bakeries, brew-
houses, kitchens, and surgeries of the neighbour-
hood ; places of general education, and schools of
training for various crafts. It is easy to see that in
all these ways they must for a time have been great
blessings to the countrj'. They were centres of
civilization and humanity as well as of religion, in
the midst of barbarism and ferocity. On the other
hand, the amount of secular business in which they
were involved by the management of their landed
property, a.id by the transactions of which specimens
have just been given, undoubtedly tended to lower
their religious tone, and so to bring about that moral
corruption which in the end proved their ruin.

It was the low, ignorant condition of the parochial
clergy', and the ever-increasing secularity of the
monasteries, which caused the arrival of the friars in
England to be everywhere hailed with enthusiasm by
the people. By the middle of the thirteenth century
the Dominicans and Franciscans had spread them-
selves over the whole country. Their houses were
in the towns, whence they went forth as itinerant
preachers, or devoted themselves to the care of the
sick, either in the lazar-houses or the miserable hovels
of the poor in the large towns, which were hotbeds
of fever and disease in those days when the conditions
of health were unknown or neglected. From the
will of St. Richard of Wych, in 1245, who made
bequests to both orders, we learn that there were
Franciscans in Chichester, in Lewes, and Winchelsea,
and Dominicans in Arundel. From other sources we

I04 CHICHESTER.

learn that there were settlements of Dominicans also
in Chichester, Lewes, and Winchelsea.

In the same will bequests of small sums, about half
a marc, are made by St. Richard to Friar Humphr)-,
the recluse at Pagham ; to the female recluse at
Houghton ; to the female recluse at Stopham ; and
to the recluse at Hardham. These recluses are de-
signated in the Latin as " inclusi," included, or closed
up ; such solitar}' ascetics being, in fact, locked up,
and very commonly walled up in their cell for hfe,
the only opening being a small window, sometimes
higher than the head, just sufficient for the admission
of air, light, and food. It was the strangest and most
fanatical extreme to which monastic life was carried ;
yet the practice was not uncommon in all parts of
Christendom, from the sixth century, if not earlier,
down to the fifteenth. This self-dedication, however,
to a kind of living death was not permitted without
the special license of the bishop of the diocese, who,
after the performance of a religious ceremony, which
included extreme unction, and a commendatory prayer
for the soul of the devotee, placed him in his cell,
and put his seal upon it. An instance of this form
of fanaticism in our diocese is recorded so late as
1402, when Thomas Bolle, Rector of Aldrington,
having resigned his living, applied to the Bishop of
Chichester, Robert Rede, for leave to build a cell
against the wall of the church, in which he might be
shut up for the rest of his life. The license was
granted. The cell of Thomas Bolle, however, was
an apartment of very comfortable size, twenty-four
feet in width, and twenty-nine in length, with free

ARCHITECTURE.

ingress to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin, on the
north side of the church.

Even this strange form of ascetism, which might be
called, itself, an abuse of the monastic system, seems
to have been liable to abuses. From some ordinances
framed by Bishop Richard of Wych, on the subject,
it would appear that the recluses were not always
quite true to their vows of seclusion ; for he enjoins
them not to receive or entertain any person in their
anchorages, and to have the windows of their cells as
narrow as possible, that no intercourse may take place
through them. He further warns them not to hold
communication with suspicious characters, and directs
that the custody of church vestments is not to be en-
trusted to female recluses, except in cases of necessity.
Becon,! witing in the sixteenth century, speaks of
them with disgust and contempt, and implies that
most of them at that period had become mere surly
and sordid beggars. " Who knoweth not," he says,
" that our recluses have grates of yron in their spel-
unches and dennes, out of which they looke as owles
out of an yvye todde when they will vouchsafe to
speake with any man, at whose hand they hope for
advantage?"

Architecture, a.d. 1075-1250. Sussex is rich in
churches built during these two centuries. Three
styles succeeded each other within this period, (i.)
The Norman, which gradually superseded the primitive
Romanesque, and lasted down to about 1145. (ii.) The
Transitional, which ranges from 1145 to about 1190,

' " Reliques of Rome." Becon became chaplain to Arch-
bishop Cranmer.

CHICHESTER.

and partakes partly of the character of Norman, partly
of the third style, into which it ultimately developed,
commonly called (iii.) The First Pointed, or Early
English, which lasted down to about 1250. The great
majority of ecclesiastical buildings in Sussex belong
wholly or mainly to the period during which these
three styles prevailed.

One of the purest bits of simple, Early Norman, is
the east end of Newhaven Church, consisting of a
low, thick tower, capped with pyramidal spire and a
small apse, to serve as the chancel, protruding from
the eastern side of the tower. This construction may
often be seen in Normandy, and a very close parallel
to Newhaven exists in the Church of Yainville. But
in this country Newhaven is a rare specimen, though
it is probably only the last survivor of many framed
on the same model. Sussex having passed so com-
pletely into the hands of Norman owners, we may be
pretty sure that there was a close resemblance between
many churches which they built here and those which
they left behind them in the land of their birth.

The cathedra], as has been already pointed out, is
an interesting example, in its main features, of plain,
severe Norman, with transitional work of a very
pure type. But by far the finest specimens in the
diocese of these first two styles are to be seen in
the churches of Broadwater and Old Shoreham, and
the noble fragments of churches at Steyning and
New Shoreham.

Broadwater and Old Shoreham are both cross
churches ; the former on a much larger scale than
the latter, with central towers resting on low arches,

ARCHITECTURE.

107

richly ornamented with zigzag and other Norman
mouldings.

At New Shoreham only the choir and central
tower and transepts remain complete ; but there are
traces of the nave and aisles to the west end, and
fragments of the massive round columns which sup-
ported them. Originally it was a grand cross church,
with a low, massive, central tower. Traces of apsidal
chapels, annexed to the eastern walls of the two tran-
septs, still remain, and the original choir was probably
apsidal, and afterwards made way for the present
building, which is a superb specimen, in its lower
portions, of late Norman or early Transitional work.
The five arches on either side are pointed, and have
deep and rich mouldings. On the north side they
rest on single columns, alternately round and octa-
gonal. On the south they rest on compound piers of
large, semi-detached shafts, with a square abacus. In
the arcading, which runs round the walls inside, the
arches are round-headed, with a very large and pe-
culiar chevron moulding, and rest on single shafts,
with a foliated capital and a square abacus. By the
time the builders had finished the ground story the
first pointed or Early English was established, and the
triforium, clerestory, and vaulting are finished in that
style ; the openings are lancet-headed, and the abacus
of the shafts is no longer square but round. The size
and grandeur of this church would certainly suggest
that it was originally a conventual church. Yet there
is no evidence, documentary or otherwise, that it ever
actually was anything more than a parish church. It
is mentioned for the first time in a deed of 1103, by

io8

CHICHESTER.

which Philip de Braose bestows it upon the Abbey of
St. Florentius, at Saumur, while confirming his father's
gift to the same house of two churches at Sale, of S.
Nicolas at Bramber, and S. Nicolas at Old Shoreham.
The Abbey of Saumur established a cell at Sele or
Seeding. In the Taxatio of Pope Nicholas IV. the
Church of New Shoreham is mentioned among the
possessions of the priory at Beeding. In the Inquisitio
Nonarum, and in the episcopal registers, there are re-
ferences to the parish church and the vicars of New
Shoreham. In the reign of Edward III. a house of
Carmelite friars was established at Shoreham ; but
there is no evidence that they had anything to do
with the church, nor are there any vestiges of conven-
tual buildings in its precincts. It must therefore be
regarded as having been one of the most splendid
parish churches in the kingdom, worthy of Shoreham
in the days when it was an opulent seaport, and could
furnish more ships of war for the public service than
London itself. The town and the church, we may
presume, fell into decay together.

As the nave has disappeared at New Shoreham, so
the original choir is lacking at StejTiing. Here we
have pure Norman work of two periods. The earlier
is in the eastern portion, where the four plain, lofty
arches, supported by massive piers, seem intended
to bear a heavy central power. The eastern arch of
these four resembles the chancel arch of Graville in
Normandy, which, like Steyning, was built by the
monks of Fdcamp. The arches of the nave are
round-headed, and enriched with Norman mouldings
and sculpture of the most varied and beautiful cha-

ARCHITECTURE. IO9

racter. The clerestory, also, which is uncommonly
lofty, exhibits rich Norman work of rather a later period.

The condition of Boxgrove Church is somewhat
analogous to that of New Shoreham. Nearly the
whole of the nave is gone. The oldest work is to be
seen in the eastern arches of the transepts, which are
of the simplest, round-headed kind, without mouldings,
the spring of the arch only being marked by a plain
and heavy string. A small bit of the nave, imme-
diately west of the central tower, remains ; and here
the pier arches are round, but have a slight chamfer ;
and in one of them the chevron ornament has been
begun but abandoned. The arch rests upon a large
and plain column or pier with a round abacus, the
neck ornamented, as at New Shoreham, with a series
of inverted cones. The demolished nave was pro-
bably, as at Arundel and so many other places, the
parish church, and there are some indications that
the western wall of the present building once served
as the eastern wall of a church.

As at New Shoreham, so, probably, at Boxgrove,
the earliest Norman choir was removed for the larger
building, which still remains, a beautiful example of
Early English of a very pure type, with just a lingering
flavour of the Transitional type, such as we see in the
choir and presbytery of Chichester, to which in parts
it bears a very close resemblance. The abacus of
the capitals, however, at Boxgrove is never square,
whereas at Chichester there is a mixture of the round
and square ; consequently Boxgrove is, probably, a
little later than the presbytery at Chichester and may
have been suggested by it.

no

CHICHESTER.

Of the monastic churches belonging to this period,
and now in ruins, almost the only one of which any
extensive remains exist is that of Bayham Abbey.
Standing in the midst of meadows of the richest
green, beside a rushing stream, in a wide but winding
valley, bounded by woodclad hills, it is a perfect
picture of monastic seclusion and repose. The church
is a good specimen of the plan on which the churches
of Augustinian canons were usually constructed. It
consists of a long, narrow nave, without aisles ; very
short transepts, and an apsidal choir. The eastern
limb is so short that there can be little doubt that the
canons' choir extended westwards of the cross. The
whole church, judging from the present remains, ap-
pears to have been built at one time, and in its main
features it belongs unquestionably to the Early English
style, though many of the details are peculiar. Some
of the mouldings are shallow flutings, almost hke those
which mark the perpendicular style; the dog tooth
ornament is very sparsely employed, and the palm
leaf is introduced as it is at NeAV Shoreliam and
Broadwater ; but this, as well as the other foliated
carving, is much rougher and coarser in execution
than it is in those churches.

It would far exceed the scope of this work to enter
into a detailed description of the smaller churches
throughout the diocese, and it is in the details that
their interest and charm mainly consist. It must
suffice to say that scarcely any county in England is
richer than Sussex in examples of small village churches
of the purest, simplest, most graceful Early English
type. No one can ramble far through the county

ARCHITECTURE.

Ill

without noticing the prevailing characteristics of these
churches, from the larger kind, such as Bosham, down
to the very smallest churches of the little parishes,
which nestle in the hollows of the Downs, — the
shingle spire, single lancet windows, steeply pitched
roofs, coved inside, with massive, rugged oaken tie
beams, bespeaking rustic workmanship, and abund-
ance of material in the neighbouring or surrounding
forest. We may observe that, as a rule, the spires are
most numerous in the weald or forest district, as if to
mark the position of the church by catching the eye
above the tree tops. Out of a crowd of churches, all
belonging, more or less, to the type just described,
we may select, as the most perfect whole specimens,
Climping, Appledram, Wisborough Green, and West
Tarring ; and in parts, Bosham, Fletching, and Ditch-
ling, South Harting, and Rogate. The ruined chapel
of the Franciscans, in Chichester, has five beautiful
lancet lights of the purest Early English type at the
east end.

112

CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER IV.

A.D. 1288-1362.

Value of Church Property in the Diocese — Suppression of the
Knights Templars — The Bishops and the Cathedral.

The present chapter and the next cover a period
during which the Church appeared outwardly to reach
the highest point of prosperity and power. The
clergy became possessed of great wealth : they had
large privileges and immunities, a majority in the
House of Lords, two provincial convocations for pur
poses of taxation and legislation, and a power of in-
quisition, through their spiritual courts, into almost
every department and relation of human life. But
beneath this fair surface the seeds of corruption were
at work.

The proportion of taxation borne by the clergy was,
of course, very large.

In 1380, when the national exchequer was at a low
ebb, and a subsidy of ^160,000 was asked from Par-
liament, the Commons asserted that the clergy pos-
sessed one-third of the land, and that, consequently,
they must raise a third of the sum. The clergy
assented on this occasion, and, generally speaking,
during the period now under consideration, we should
not be far i\Tong in estimating their share of direct
taxation as equal to nearly a third of the whole direc
taxation of the country.

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. II3

It will be interesting to note the amount raised on
several occasions from the diocese of Chichester,
which was far from being one of the richest.

In i29r, Pope Nicholas IV. made a grant to
Edward I., in aid of a crusade for six years, of the
tenths of the spiritualities and temporalities of eccle-
siastical property which were usually paid to Rome.
A careful valuation was made of such property
throughout the kingdom and remained the basis of
all later valuations down to the reign of Henry VIII.

Benefices not exceeding ten marks in annual value
and held by persons not otherwise beneficed were
exempted from the tax.

The subjoined table exhibits a condensed summary
of the valuation for the Diocese of Chichester.

Archdeaconry of Chichester.^
Spiritualities.
Deanery of Slorriiis:lon. Deanoy of Boxgrove.

£. s. d. £. s. d.

27 parishes 478 6 8 38 parishes 478 o o

Less 14 par. under 19 under 10 marks 102 13 4

10 marks 80 6 8

^398 o o
Dcanc7y of Midhttrst.

£. s. d.

29 parishes 317 16 8

13 ,, under

10 marks 72 o o

£^A^ 16 8

£zn 6 8
Deanery of Arimdcl.

£. s. d.

34 parishes 337 6 8

18 ,, under

10 marks 1 03 6 8

;^234 o o

' In the original, the Deaneries of Storrington, Midhurst,
and Boxgrove, which stand first, are not marked as included in
any archdeaconiy. The Abbey of Dureford near Halting is.

114

CHICHESTER.

Archdeaconry of Lewes.

Dea7iay of Lewes. Deanery of Hastings,

£. s. d. £. s. d.

62 parishes 754 6816 parishes 140 o o

25 ,, under 9 ,, under

10 marks 135 6 8 10 marks 48 o o

£61') O o £^2 o o

Deanery of Pevensey. Deanery of Dallington.

£. s. d. £. s. d.

44 parishes 469 6 8 38 parishes 397 13 4

20 ,, under 18 ,, under

10 marks 114 13 4 10 marks 92 13 4

;C354 13 4 ;^305 o o

Spiritualities of

The Cathedral Chapter, consisting of the Dean, Precentor,
Chancellor, Treasurer, and 28 prebendaries, £706. 13s. 4d.,
or less one prebend under 10 marks, £700.

Four Churches within the borough of Chichester — Fishbome,
St. Peter the Great, St. Pancras, and Wyke — were under ten
marks, and were therefore exempted.

The Archuishop of Canterbury's Peculiars.

I. Deanery of South Mallyng. 2. Deanery of Pagham.

£. s. d. £. s. d.

Collegiate Church 6 parishes 184 6 8

of Soutli ]Mal- 3 ,, under

lyng and 12 pa- 10 marks 14 6 S

rishes 364 o O

4 parishes under

10 marks 10 o o

;^354 o o £170 O o

however (see above), placed in the Archdeaconry of Lewes,
which would indicate that the Deanery of Midhurst was in that
archdeaconry ; a strange arrangement.

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 1 15

Temporalities.

1. Episcopal Manors. — Bcxiey, Bishopstone, Preston, Henfield,

Ferring, Amberley, Aldingbourne, Siddlesham, Selsey,
Cakeham. Profits from the town and court of Chichester,
and from the manor of the Broyle and garden in Chiches-
ter, ;f462. 4S. 7|d.

2. Monastic Houses and other Proprietors ' in Archdeaconry of

Chichester.

£. s. d.

Normandy j Abbey of Fecamp 201 14 iij

^ ( ,, Seez 63 18 4

,, Westminster 50 o o

,, Tewkesbury 25 15 4

£. s. d. £. s. d.

Priory of Boxgrove 23 16 5 Abbey of Hyde ... 69 2 o

„ Shulbrede 10 15 o Bishop of Exeter 26 O 4

,, Arundel . 14 10 6 Arclibisliopof Can-

,, Eseborne. 41 00 terbury 150 o o

,, Torting-

ton 26 8 o

Archdeaconry of Lewes.

£. s. d. £. s. d.

Abbey of Battle... 200 7 o Priory of Lewes .. . 183 3 8

,, Bayham 37 2 4 ,, Michel-

,, Grestein 24 15 o ham 80 o o

(Normandy) Priory of Rusper . 13 I I

„ Roberts- ,, Mortain 20 o O

bridge 80 13 4 (Normandy)

,, Dureford 23 16 lo Archbishopof Can-

terbui7 203 n o

£. s. d.

Total value of spiritualities in the diocese 2,131 4 i\

Total value of temporalities in the diocese 4,70816 8

£(>Mo o 9i

have only spaceTor the principal names under this head.
I 2

ii6

CHICHESTER.

Various small parcels of land and sums of money payable to
the monastic houses brought up the total to /^6,930. os. g^d.,
of ivhich the tenth was £693. os. id.

In the year 1340, the fourteenth of Edward III., the
prelates, barons, and knights of shires, granted a subsidy
consisting of the ninth lamb, the ninth sheaf, and the
ninth fleece, the towns granted a ninth of goods, and a
fifteenth was to be levied on the goods of all traders
who did not live in cities or boroughs.

Commissioners were appointed to assess this tax
in every county. The principle adopted was to con-
sider the ninth of corn, wool, and lambs in 1340 as
equivalent to the tenths of all tytheable commodities
in the year 1291, and the course pursued by the com-
missioners was this : — they held their sittings at
certain centres ; representatives from every parish
appeared before them and stated on oath the true
value of the ninth of corn, wool, and lambs ; this was
compared with the valuation of the tenth made in
1291, and if the ninth fell below that valuation the
causes were assigned by the parishioners, whether
arising from a decrease in the value of land and cattle,
or from the fact that other articles besides corn, wool,
and lambs, such as glebe, tithe of hay, etc., had been
included in the valuation of 1291.

Four assessors, of whom Henry Hussey was chief,
were appointed for Sussex. Henry Garland, Dean of
Chichester, was receiver of the subsidy until August 8,
when the Abbot of Battle was appointed in his place.

There were very few instances in which the ninth
did not fall below the tenth of Pope Nicholas's valua-
tion. The chief reasons assigned for the deficiency

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY.

"7

are (i.) the injury or destruction of land by irruptions
of the sea. The total quantity of land thus destroyed
was 5,500 acres, of which the largest portion was at
Pagham, where 2,700 acres had been laid waste.

(ii.) The poverty of the cultivators and their in-
ability to get seed. This applied to a large number of
parishes, especially in the neighbourhood of Brighton,
Lewes, and Shoreham. (iii.) A murrain amongst
cattle, and severity of weather injuring the corn, (iv.)
Destruction of crops by rabbits, (v.) Ravages of the
French — this last complaint comes from Friston,
East Dean, Seaford, and Patcham.

Only five parishes return their value in 1341 as
exceeding the valuation of 1291 — .South Mallyng,
Framfield, Stanmere, Patching, and Isfield, and in
these the increase is but trifling.

In 1377, a poll tax of one shilling was levied on
every beneficed priest and every regular, except the
mendicant orders, and fourpence on every unbene-
ficed priest, subdeacon, acolyte, or other tonsured
person above the age of fourteen. In Sussex this tax
produced ;^26. 7s. 6d., collected from 473 persons
of the former class, and 168 of the latter.

In 1380, when the clergy were required to raise
one- third of the sum of ^160,000 demanded of Par-
liament, the tax of a tenth was levied on spirituali-
ties and temporalities, and a poll tax of two shillings
on every unbeneficed priest. The return for Sussex
is very complete, in the Archdeaconry of Chichester ;
in the Archdeaconry of Lewes the return of the poll
tax only has been preserved. This, however, is the
more interesting of the two since the valuation of the

ii8

CHICHESTER.

tenth corresponds very nearly with the taxation of Pope
Nicholas in 1291, whereas the return for the poll tax
shows us the number of unbeneficed priests in the
diocese. They formed a very large class during the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, consisting of sti-
pendiary chaplains, or chantry priests, who were paid
small salaries for'officiating in private chapels, or say-
ing masses for the dead. Of these, there were in
Chichester alone, according to the return of 1380,
twenty-six ; in the rest of the Archdeaconry, forty-two;
and in the Archdeaconry of Lewes, fifty-one. The
reason why poll taxes on the stipendiary clergy were
levied seems to have been the gradual diminution in
the amount produced by the ecclesiastical tenth.
From many causes, varying in different places, but
some of them common to all — the ravages of war, of
pestilence, of floods, the suppression of the alien
priories, and the growing corruption of the other
monastic houses, -leading to wasteful and unskilful
administration of their property — the value of eccle-
siastical property appears to have steadily declined
during the fifteenth century. The number of livings
exempted from payment of the tenth as being under
the annual value of ten marks continually increases.
When a tenth was voted by Convocation in 1440,
exemptions were allowed under three heads. (i.)
Livings vacant owing to failure of income. Of these
there were ten in the Archdeaconrj- of Chichester, and
three in the Archdeaconry of Lewes, (ii.) Parishes
injured by flood or fire. Of such there was one in
the Archdeaconry of Chichester, and seven in the
Archdeaconry of Lewes, (iii.) Livings under twelve

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 1 19

marks in annual value. Of such there were nearly a
hundred in the Archdeaconry of Chichester, and
seventy in the Archdeaconry of Lewes. A complaint
had been made by the Universities to Convocation
that few graduates were appointed by patrons to bene-
fices. The bishops were requested by Convocation
to make an exact return of all graduate incumbents.
The Bishop of Chichester [Praty] in sending his list,
appends the remark that in his diocese the chief
reason why graduates were not appointed was, that
owing to the extreme poverty of many of the livings
graduates did not care to accept them. ■

Finally, from a letter addressed by Henry VII., in
1497, to Storey, Bishop of Chichester, chiding him for
slackness in collecting from his diocese for a subsidy
of ;^4o,ooo voted by Convocation, we learn that the
product of an ecclesiastical tenth at that time was no
more than 10,000, or little more than half what it
was under the valuation of a.d. 1291.

A careful attention to these records of the financial
condition of the Church is a great help to forming a
just estimate of the position and influence of the
clergy politically, socially, and morally in the country.
To take the case of our own diocese, we find the great
bulk of ecclesiastical wealth in the hands (i.) of two
powerful personages, the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Bishop of the Diocese, and (ii.) of corporate
bodies, of which the principal were the Dean and
Chapter of the Cathedral Church, and the two great
monastic houses at Battle and Lewes. ^luch of this
wealth was well expended upon the building or adorn-
ment of churches, monasteries, and hospitals, rarely

I20

CHICHESTER.

surpassed for beauty of design, and skilfulness of
execution ; much also was spent in almsgiving and
employment of labour in crafts, in the cultivation of
the soil, and, possibly, in the working of iron, though
I have failed to find any evidence that the monasteries
did much to promote this manufacture for which
Sussex became famous. On the other hand, the paro-
chial clergy were for the most part very poor j the
rectories were so ill endowed that, as we have seen,
few graduates would accept them ; the consequence
was that incumbents became pluralists, or non-resi-
dents seeking secular employment ; the vicars put in
by them and by the monastic houses were scantily
paid and frequently irregular residents. Below these
was the large body already noticed of unbeneficed
stipendiary chaplains and chantry priests.^

It is easy to see how detrimental such a condition
of things was to the moral and spiritual influence of
the clerical order. In the Episcopal ranks were men
of conspicuous ability, who held office in the State as
well as the Church. Such among our own bishops
were John Langton and Robert Stratford, who became
Chancellors of the realm. A few, like Bishop Gilbert
de Sancto Leofardo, were energetic administrators of
their diocese. Others, such as Bishop William Rede,
were skilled in architecture and learned in the science

' The records of ordinations in the bishop's registers prove
what a large number of clergy there were in the mediaeval
times in proportion to the population, e.g., in a.d. 1407 Bishop
Rede ordained 45, and in a.d. 1444 Bishop Praty ordained 53.
These were of all orders from acolites to priests, some monastic,
some secular.

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTV.

of the day. But the instances are rare indeed of
bishops whose time and energies were concentrated
on episcopal work. It was the fault of the age, not
of the men. Preferments in the church were heaped
upon men of ability, to enable them to discharge the
duties of high official positions in the State, or about
the Court. Thus they were chancellors, councillors,
treasurers, architects, large landed proprietors, as well
as bishops, and often rather than bishops.

The tendency of the monks was to degenerate
into easy-going country gentlemen — of the friars, into
indolent, sturdy beggars. In our diocese, the letter
of Bishop Praty, mentioned above, proves that the
parochial clergy were not drawn from a high class,
and it is easy to conceive that though there may have
been saints among them here and there, and a fair
number of respectable, conscientious men, yet a large
proportion of them, living under a rule of celibacy in
secluded places, and possessed of little wealth and
less learning, must have lapsed into low habits and
exercised little, if any, elevating influence on their
flocks. Stipendiary chaplains, again, whose duty was
confined to saying masses for the dead, formed a
class, often very numerous in towns, of idlers, whose
presence was far from conducive to the edification of
the people.

A series of ordinances for the regulation of the
clergy, published at a Diocesan Synod, held under
Bishop Gilbert, in the cathedral, in 1289, indicates
very clearly some of the evils which beset the Church
at that time.

The clergy are enjoined to be diligent in pra)-er

122

CHICHESTER.

and study, peaceable, humble, and modest. They
are forbidden to frequent tournaments or any public
spectacle where bloodshed is likely to occur ; to keep
concubines, or to hold intercourse with such as kept
them ; and rectors who entrusted their parishes to
such priests were to be liable to a penalty of sixty
shillings, to be expended on the fabric of the cathedral.
They are admonished to be careful in selecting as
vicars men who had been properly ordained and were
of honest conversation, active, and eloquent ; and they
were to take care that they secured the services of
able men by providing sufficient stipends for them,
which were never to be less than five marks a year
{£z 6s. 8d.), and more in rich parishes. They were
not to appoint any one who had not been presented
to the Archdeacons and approved by them after
examination ; and were to be diligent in searching
out offenders and bringing them before the proper
tribunal.

The clergy are forbidden to wear cloaks with sleeves
or any other kind of dress which savoured of luxury
and worldly vanit)'. Parish priests were admonished
to be diligent in performing the divine offices at the
appointed hours : to read slowly, distinctly, and
reverently, so as to quicken the minds of the con-
gregation to devotion. They were to visit the sick on
Sundays and festivals, and to be ready to minister to
them at whatever hour they might be summoned.
They are warned against counterfeit friars, who had
crept into several parts of the diocese, and were
making a traffic of preaching and hearing confessions.

Persons convicted of disturbing the public peace or

VALUE OF CHURCH PROPERTY. 1 23

infringing the liberties of the Church, especially the
Church in Chichester, intruders into benefices, incen-
diaries, church breakers, witches, and sorcerers, were to
be excommunicated, and their excommunication was
to be published four times a year in the vulgar tongue
by the parish priests in the churches of the parishes
to which they belonged.

Bishop Gilbert was the last Bishop of Chichester
during the medieval period, whose undivided atten-
tion seems to have been given to his diocese, and who
reflected some of that pastoral energy and simple
personal piety of which Richard of Wych was an ideal
model. He is described in the rather rapturous
language of a chronicler as " the father of orphans,
the comforter of mourning widows, the generous
reliever of the poor, the pious and humble visitor of
the sick who lay in coarse beds in mean hovels."

There is one passage in his life which to modern
minds might seem inconsistent with the mild and
spiritual disposition for which he is said to have been
remarkable. But no difficulty will be felt by those
who can throw themselves back into the spirit of the
age when Bishop Gilbert lived.

In the summer of 1292, Richard Fitz Alan, Earl
of Arundel, was twice detected hunting within the
boundaries of the bishop's chase at Houghton. On
hearing of the trespass the bishop sent a deputation,
the treasurer and three canons of Chichester, with
two other clerics, to remonstrate with the earl at
Arundel. The earl replied that it was quite true that
he had hunted in that chase, and there he would
hunt again. The bishop pronounced the greater ex-

1-24

CHICHESTER.

communication on the earl, but the punishment was
disregarded. He then placed the whole of the earl's
estate under an interdict. This blow was effectual.
The earl was keeping Christmas in his manor of East
Dean ; he sent to the bishop, who was staying at
Amberley, and signified his earnest desire to be par-
doned. The bishop willingly assented, and at the
request of the earl's messenger, his seneschal, Lucas
de la Garc, the bishop met the earl in the chapel of
Houghton on Christmas eve, and there gave him
absolution, which he humbly and thankfully accepted,
promising to do three days' penance, and to make a
pilgrimage to the shrine of S. Richard, at Chichester,
on the first possible opportunity.

John Langton (a.d. 1305-1337), the successor of
Bishop Gilbert, belonged to that class of prelates who
were statesmen rather than diocesans. He had been
chancellor before he was made bishop, and, after a
temporary resignation of the office, resumed it, though
only for a few years. Two incidents, only, in his dio-
cesan administration are recorded, but these two prove
him to have been a man of vigour and determination.
He excommunicated Earl Warren for an adulterous
connexion : the earl came to Chichester and endea-
voured to seize the bishop, but Langton and his
servants not only repelled the attack but captured the
earl and his retinue, and put them all in prison. The
other incident had an important bearing upon the
relations of the bishop to the chapter. The dean and
chapter made some statutes, affecting more especially
the priest vicars of the cathedral, without consulting
or obtaining the approval of the bishop. Two of the

SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 1 25

vicars appealed to the bishop against the statutes : the
dean and chapter suspended the vicars. The bishop
peremptorily commanded the dean to absolve and
restore the vicars, declared the statutes null and void,
as having been framed without his consent, and en-
joined the dean, by virtue of his canonical obedience
to publish this declaration in the cathedral church
and in all the city churches.

Bishop Langton was concerned in one transaction
which convulsed not only all England, but all Christen-
dom with amazement and horror; — the suppression
of the celebrated order of the Knights Templars ;
and as there were some branches of the order in
Sussex, the subject cannot be passed by without some
notice in these pages.

The great order of the Knights Templars, half
military, half monastic, had existed for nearly 200
years. It was wealthy, powerful, independent. Sud-
denly, in 1307, the French King, Philip the Fair, and
the French Pope, Clement V., issued a mandate for
the arrest of all members of the order to be brought
to trial on charges of the most horrible and revolting
nature. Philip informed his son-in-law, Edward II.
of England, of the suspected guilt of the Templars,
and desired him to take steps for their apprehension.
Edward and his barons were amazed and incredulous.
They tried at first to form an alliance with the Kings
of Portugal, Castille, and Arragon for the protection
of the Templars. But the message of Philip was
followed by a peremptory bull from the Pope com-
manding Edward to arrest the Templars throughout
liis dominions, and to sequestrate their property.

126

CHICHESTER.

The weak king was either convinced or overawed.
Orders were issued to the sheriffs in December 1307
for the arrest of the Templars in England, Wales, Scot-
land, and Ireland, and the order was simultaneously
executed on Wednesday after Epiphany, in January
1308.

The Bishop of Chichester was one of the inquisitors
appointed to try the prisoners. He and the Bishop
of London held their court at St. Martin's, Ludgate.
The trials in England were on the whole conducted
much more fairly and less severely than in France
and the Papal States, where horrible tortures were
employed to wring confessions from the accused,
and the flimsiest and wildest tales were accepted
as evidence of guilt. By the express desire of the
Pope, however, recourse was sometimes had to
torture in England, when other means failed to
elicit confessions of the idolatry and foul vices of
which the unhappy Templars were accused.

There were two Preceptories, as they were called,^
of Knights Templars in Sussex ; one at Sadelescombe,
near Brighton, the other at Shipley, in the rape of
Bramber. Both were considerable manors, which
were held, like all the property of the Templars, free
of taxes and claims of every kind, ecclesiastical and
civil. The manor of Sadelescombe was given to the
Templars about 1225, by Geoffrey de Say, who held
it under the Earl of Warren. The privileges claimed
by the Templars on this estate were so extensive, that,

' Because the letters of the grand masters to the stewards of
these country estates began with the word "precipimus," the
steward was called preceptor.

SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. I27

in 1279, an assize held in Chichester, a jury of
knights was sworn to determine on.their claims. The
verdict of the jury, was that, with some few specified
exceptions, the Templars were entitled to their privi-
leges, but they stated that they received men under their
protection who were not their tenants, and accepted
annual payment from them for such protection ;
that these persons wore the cross of the Templars on
their tabards, and so passed free from tolls through
the kingdom ; also that they erected templar crosses
in their tenements, and claimed exemption from
obligations to the capital lords of the fees. This evil
became so serious that an Act was passed by Parlia-
ment in 1285, declaring all tenements of this kind to
be forfeited to the capital lord or the king.

The other possession of the Templars in Sussex was
a much earlier gift than Sadelescombe. About the
year 1225, Philip of Harcourt, Dean of Lincoln, gave
them his manor of Shipley, near Horsham. William
of Braose, the capital lord, ratified the grant. In
1 156, the same Philip of Harcourt, who had become
Bishop of Bayeux, gave the Church of Sompting to
the Templars of Shipley, who engaged to Seffrid H.,
Bishop of Chichester, that the Vicar of Sompting
should have all the offerings made at the altar and
the tithes of a mill and two acres on which the brothers
undertook to build for his use, " two fair houses," and
to pay him two marks a year.

When the Templars were arrested in 1308 avaluation
was made of their property and an inventory of their
goods. The lists of their effects in the preceptories of
Sadelescombe and Shipley consist almost wholly of

128

CHICHESTER.

such implements of husbandry as indicate that the
knights Avere industrious farmers ; and the furniture of
their churches seems to have been simple, though suffi-
cient. At Sadelescombe it consisted of i chalice, value
2S.; 2 pair of vestments, 6s. 8d. ; i missal, 20s. ; one
temporal and sanctorum, los. ; 2 handwipers and i
tin vial, 6d. ; i Salter (sic), is. ; i tin bracket for holy
water, id. At Shipley the candlesticks were of
pewter. The only articles which betoken the gentle
blood of the knights are 20 silver spoons, 3 rings of
gold, and three silk purses. The total value of the
manor at Sadelescombe was assessed at ;^20. is. 3d.,
the value of the goods at ios. id. At Shipley

the manor was valued at ;£i. i8s. id., the church at
;^i3. 6s. 8d., the goods at £Ti- 12s. 3d. One
precious memorial of the Templars has been preserved
in the Church of Shipley — a reliquary, 7 inches long
by 6 inches high, with gilt plates, ornamented with
enamel, bearing representations of the crucifixion.

The Preceptor of Sadelescombe probably evaded
capture, as his name does not appear among the list
of prisoners. The Preceptor of Shipley, William de
Egendon, was arrested by the sheriff, and kept, with
others, twenty months in confinement, before exa-
mination in the Bishop of London's Palace, October
1309.

The accusations made against the Templars that
they spat on the cross, that they disbelieved the sacra-
ments, that they worshipped a cat, and idols with two
or more faces, that admissions to their order were
made clandestinely, and accompanied by obscene
rites — all these and many other preposterous charges

SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. 1 29

were solemnly and indignantly denied by the
prisoners ; but witnesses were allowed to repeat as
evidence all manner of strange and disgusting gossip
of this kind.

This miserable work went on for two years till all
parties had grown sick of it and were ready for a com-
promise. On the 29th of April, 131 1, the Preceptor of
Shipley and twenty-seven otherTemplars were brought
before the inquisitors in Barking Church, and there
tended a paper which was accepted as a kind of con-
fession. In this paper the unhappy knights stated that
though they were sincere Christians they were in such
evil repute that they were unable to prove themselves
innocent, and therefore submitted themselves to the
discipline of the Church, and implored its pardon.

The Bishops of London and Chichester were
empowered to grant absolution. This they did . with
much pomp, seated at the west door of St. Paul's,
surrounded by clergy and people, while the poor
Templars, kneeling before ihem, publicly abjured all
heresies. It is noticeable that the prisoners were
allowed to make their abjuration in Latin, English, or
French, according to their capacity and taste : the Pre-
ceptor of Shipley made his abjuration in French. The
absolved knights were released from their prisons, but
only to do penance for the rest of their lives, in
various monastic houses, an exchange in some
instances of doubtful advantage. Their property
generally was transferred to the rival order of the
Knights Hospitallers. A house and chapel belonging
to the preceptory of Shipley at New Shoreham were
granted to the Carmelite friars in that town.

K

CHICHESTER.

The successor of Langton, Robert of Stratford
(1337-1362), was even more of the statesman and
less of the diocesan than his predecessor. He was
the Chancellor, and his brother John the Primate of
England, during a very trying period of Edward III.'s
war with France. The tax on the ninth fleece, lamb,
and sheaf, in 1340, is said to have been suggested
by him, which may account for the fact that the returns
of the valuations for this levy from the diocese of
Chichester are more full and exact than from any
other in the kingdom.

It was probably during the long absences of prelates
who were engaged in secular rather than ecclesiastical
business that cathedral chapters endeavoured to
shake themselves free of episcopal control. The
bishops, however, as a rule, were vigilant of their
rights. We have seen how Langton asserted his
authority, and his successor was equally tenacious.
The dean claimed the right, as dating from times
beyond the memory of man, to institute incumbents
to all the city parishes, including the suburbs of Fish-
bourne and Wyke : also the cognisance of matri-
monial causes, and the probate of wills, and all other
rights pertaining to ecclesiastical jurisdiction \rithin
those limits. The subject was referred by Bishop
Stratford to his brother, the primate, who decided that
when the bishop held a visitation of the city all the
above-mentioned rights should for the time be trans-
ferred to him, but that at all other times the dean
should freely exercise them. Walter de Segrave, the
dean, accused the bishop of taking advantage of this
judgment to advance an unfair claim to prove the

THE BISHOP AND THE DEAN.

will of a canon who was also chancellor of the
cathedral. An appeal was made to the Pope, and
after a protracted suit in the time of Walter de
Segrave's successor, a decision was given in favour of
the dean.i

' See Dr. Swainson's "History and Constilution of a Cathe-
dral of the Old Foundation," p. 64.

K 2

132

CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER V.

A.D. 1362-I497.

Causes of Corruption in the Church— Prosecution of the Lol-
lards—State of the Monasteries — Episcopal Visitations —
Architecture, A.D. 1250-1500.

For the next thirty-five years, 1362-1397, the annals
of our diocese are almost a blank, and with the excep-
tion of William Rede,i 1369-1385, who is said to have
been a distinguished theologian, mathematician, and
astronomer, none of the bishops were men of mark.
As a rule, they were court favourites recommended by
the king, and appointed to the see by Papal provision.

We have seen what were the principal internal
causes of the corruption of the Church, and in the
practice of Papal provision we have one of the most
mischievous evils to which it was subject from without.
The Statute of Provisions, which was enacted and
re-enacted against it, was continually being evaded.
Unworthy and mercenary men, very often foreigners,
were repeatedly thrust by Papal nomination into
wealthy English benefices. During the episcopate of

' Bishop Rede founded the library of Merton College, Oxford ;
and we are indebted to him for arranging and transcribing many
of the ancient records of the see of Chichester. In 1379 he
obtained licence to " crenellate," i.e., to fortify, the episcopal
manor-house at Amberley. Some picturesque remains of the
entrance-gate and walls may be seen at the present day.

CAUSES OF CORRUPTION IN THE CHURCH. 1 33

Richard of Wych, Pope Innocent IV. had demanded
a canonry in Chichester Cathedral, but the claim had
been resisted by the chapter. He also granted per-
mission to Robert de Passelew, archdeacon of Lewes,
who held a prebendal stall in the cathedral, but was
non-resident, to receive his share of the commune as
if he resided. The chapter stoutly resisted this
interference with their ancient constitution, and
declared that if the Pope continued to grant privileges
of this kind to all manner of persons there would not
be enough left to pay the resident canons and vicars,
and otherwise to maintain the services of the Church.
But however successful the chapter may have been
in their resistance to aggressions of this kind, they
were powerless to prevent the appointment of bishops
whom the King and the Pope conspired to place in the
sec. Nearly all the Bishops of Chichester during the
reigns of Richard II. and Henry VI. were appointed
through Papal provision at the recommendation of the
king. The see was regarded as a stepping-stone in
the promotion of court favourites to higher positions.
Out of four bishops who occupied the see during the
reign of Richard, three were personal friends of the
king — Thomas Rushoke, a.d. 1385-1389, who was
banished to Ireland on the downfall of the king ;
Richard Metford, 1389-1395, who was royal con-
fessor : and Robert Rede, appointed in 1397, who
held the see through the reign of Henry IV., and
part of the reign of Henry V. Robert Waldby, who
held it for one year, 1396, when he was translated to
York, was a friend of the Black Prince. All of them,
with the exception of Metford, were friars.

134

CHICHESTER.

On the whole, the bishops appointed by Papal
provision to the see of Chichester during the fourteenth
and fifteenth centuries were respectable, and some of
them diligent and zealous prelates. But the character
of individuals could not blind men to the viciousness
of the system. The increasing exactions of Rome,
the continual violation of the statutes of provisions
and praemunire, combined with the manifold internal
causes of corruption to lower the influence and esti-
mation of the Church. The whole picture of mingled
abuses is vividly set before us alike in the gay satire
of Chaucer, the grim sarcasms and lamentations of
Piers the ploughman, and the vehement denunciations
of Wyclifife and his disciples.

Duringthelast twentyyears of the fourteenth century,
and the first twenty years of the fifteenth, Wyclififism or
Lollardy was at its height. The whole machinery of
Church and State was employed to stamp it out, but
in vain ; the fire was smothered, but not extinguished,
until, at the close of the fifteenth century, the smoulder-
ing embers were fanned into a mightier and purer
flame by the breath of the " New Learning." Wyclifife
himself had for a time sought shelter from persecution
on John of Gaunt's property at Maresfield, in Sussex,
and officiated in the free chapel there. His preachers,
the " simple priests," as they were called, clad in their
long russet gowns, propagated his doctrine in every
corner of the country, and probably preached their
homely sermons in many a little town and quiet
secluded village in this diocese.

Bishop Robert Rede is the first Bishop of Chi-
chester whose register has been preserved. After his

THE LOLLARDS.

episcopate the series of registers, with occasional
breaks, is tolerably complete ; and they form, of
course, the most valuable sources of information con-
cerning the history of the diocese. Two facts are
most clearly revealed by these official records during
the fifteenth century, — the decay of the monastic
system, and the growth of Lollardy.

The episcopate of Robert Rede almost exactly
tallies with that of the primate Arundel, and lasted
through the whole reign of Henry IV. — a period when
the most vigorous efforts were made to put down the
Lollards. The Lollards might be called the political
dissenters of that age, for they not only taught what
was considered heresy, but proclaimed revolutionary
pohtical opinions. Henry IV. was not so securely
seated on the throne that he could afford to despise
the influence of such teaching on the minds of the
people ; and by prosecuting the heretics he hoped to
win the wealth and interest of the clergy to his side.
Treason and heresy were in those days regarded as
two sides of the same crime. The Lollards were
thus two-fold rebels, and the statute, " de heretico
comburendo," passed in 1401, which empowered
bishops to hand over obstinate Lollards to the sheriff,
bailiff, or mayor, to be burned to death, was the pro-
duct of an alliance between the ecclesiastical and
civil powers to crush an enemy equally dangerous to
both.

One of the first victims to suffer under this new
statute was John Badby, a tailor of Evesham, who was
tried before Archbishop Arundel at St. Paul's,
London. The primate was supported by a mixed

136

CHICHESTER.

body of assessors, lay and clerical, one of whom was
the Bishop of Chichester. The most notorious Lol-
lard of the day was Sir John Oldcastle. His ability and
position rendered him a formidable leader of the sect,
and, as such, it was determined to make an example of
him. A minute record of his several appearances and
declarations of belief in the archbishop's court, and
the final sentence of condemnation passed upon him,
is contained in Bishop Rede's register, and was appa-
rently circulated for transcription into the registers of
all bishops of the southern province ; probably as a
guide to them in dealing with smaller offenders, as it
contains a very full list of the Lollard opinions, and
the case was considered as a kind of typical case.

There are, however, no records of prosecutions for
Lollardy in the diocese of Chichester before the
episcopate of Bishop Praty, 30 years later, though we
cannot doubt that Bishop Rede was diligent in
searching out offenders ; for he was not only an active
diocesan, but also a Dominican friar, and the friars
were the most energetic adversaries of the Wycliffites.

There was always great jealousy also between the
friars and secular clergy, and this may partly account
for some symptoms of resentment by the cathedral
chapter to Bishop Rede's authority, which appear in
the records of his first visitation. This occurred in
1397, and it may be worth while to give some account
of it as a specimen of mediaeval ceremonial. The
bishop slept on the night of June 3 at his Manor-
house of Aldingbourne, and, after having heard prime
in his chapel there next morning, rode to his palace at
Chichester. Having rested there awhile and put on

VISITATION OF THE CATHEDRAL. 1 37

his robes, he walked to the west door, where he was
met by the dean, the treasurer, the canons in resi-
dence (seven in number), and all the ministers of the
church. Having been solemnly censed by the dean
and treasurer, he was " honorifically " conducted up
the nave, the whole body chanting as they went to the
high altar, before which he prostrated himself, while
a prayer was offered over him by the dean. The
bishop then gave the kiss of peace to the dean and
canons, after which an admirable discourse (" egregia
collatio ") was preached by Father Peter, vicar of
Eastbourne, on the theme, " Pastor visitat gregem."
At the conclusion of the address the whole cathedral
body, including the vicars, accompanied the bishop
to the chapter-house. Here they were required to
exhibit their letters of orders, to declare the names
and titles of their several cures and offices, and to
make profession of obedience to the bishop. This
demand was resisted, principally, it would seem, by
the dean, the treasurer, and the Archdeacon of Lewes;
but after some altercation, it was conceded. The
visitation was continued another day by the Arch-
deacon of Carmarthen, who seems to have acted as
chaplain and commissary of the bishop. All the
canons who had not been present before were required
to make their profession of obedience. A contention
again arose, the canons maintaining that it had not
been exacted by former bishops, and they asked time
to consider their decision. Finally, on July 9, after
much altercation, they consented to make their pro-
fession before the dean, acting as the commissary of
the bishop for the purpose.

138

CHICHESTER.

The results of the inquiry made at this and two
subsequent visitations — one 1402, another 1409 —
into grievances and abuses, prove that it was high
time for the authority of the visitor to be exercised.
Chapters were not regularly held, nor, when held, were
the proper penalties for offences enforced. Con-
fusion and irregularity were in the services, the "use"
not being committed to writing. Many of the canons
did not attend at the appointed hours, and some of
them were in the habit of leaving before the service
was over. One of them was convicted of abstracting
three pounds from the treasury chest, carrying off for
his own use some building materials intended for the
repair of the cathedral, and habitually making a short
cut from the cathedral to his house through the chapel
of St. Faith at the south-eastern corner of the cloisters.
The chancellor was not diligent in teaching the
choristers grammar, or in mending the cathedral books,
which were grievously out of repair. The vicars were
very negligent of their duties ; many of them talked
during service, others left before it was over. The
dean had accepted 100 shillings from one of them as
a fine for hving in concubinage, instead of trying him
in the ecclesiastical court. Another kept several
hounds, and was addicted to hunting and rambling
idly about.

In fact, scarcely any one connected with the cathe-
dral seems to have been doing his duty. And if this
was the case in a large establishment of secular
clergy living in a town, and more or less under the
eye both of the public and of the bishop, we may easily
imagine what was the condition of the monastic

SPIRITUAL DESTITUTION.

^39

houses, especially the small ones in secluded places.
More of these by-and-by. Meanwhile, one entry in
Bishop Rede's register tells a sad tale of the destitute
condition of some of the country parishes. Com-
plaints were commonly made that rectors did not
reside on their benefices, but were occupied in secular
affairs, and left their cures to the charge of ill-paid
vicars. Sometimes they let their own livings, and
went about the country acting as stipendiary curates
for' other non-resident rectors. The bishop addresses
a letter to the sequestrator for the Archdeaconry of
Lewes, a.d. 1399, instructing him to cite all such
rectors to appear before the bishop, to give an
account of their conduct and to receive what was due
for their deeds to the good of their souls, the welfare
of the Church, and the avoiding of scandal ; and
meanwhile the sequestrator is to collect and hold the
proceeds of their livings, sufficient provision being
made for their needs.

After the death of Bishop Rede, which occurred in
141 5 (the year of the battle of Agincourt) the see lay
vacant for two years. Six prelates then occupied it in
rapid succession — Stephen Patryngton, Henry Ware,
Thomas Poldon, John Rickingale, and Simon Syden-
ham. Of these all except one were appointed by Papal
provision, and only occupied the see as a halting-place
on their road to higher preferment. Their united
episcopates cover a space of twenty years, but as their
registers have been lost we are left in ignorance of the
state of the diocese during this period. With the
accession of Richard Praty, a.d. 1438-1446, the veil
is lifted again. His register has been preserved, and

CHICHESTER.

contains a minute record of all his official acts. He
appears to have been diligent in visiting his diocese,
and in prosecuting persons accused of Lollardy. One
example of the latter proves that under the head of
Lollardy was included a curious mixture of Wycliffite
tenets and vulgar superstitious practices, common, no
doubt, everywhere, but especially perhaps in such
remote rural parishes as abounded in Sussex.

In the course of the bishop's first progress through
his diocese he was informed that John Boreham, who
had been parish priest of Salehurst for twenty years,
held and taught publicly and privately divers heresies,
errors, and pestiferous tenets of the accursed John
Wycliffe ; also that he had and hath divers books and
tracts of accursed reading in the vulgar tongue.
Boreham appeared before the bishop in the parish
church and craved leave to purge himself of all the
charges. The bishop assented, and bade him appear
that day week for this purpose in the parish church of
Eastbourne. Boreham, however, did not appear, and
was pronounced contumacious. About a month later,
on October 27, he was captured in London and sent
down to the bishop, then at Amberley Castle. The
bishop, sitting in front of the altar in his chapel, asked
him why he had not appeared on the appointed day
at Eastbourne. Poor Boreham replied that he dreaded
his sentence, and had therefore fled to London. The
bishop ordered him to be kept in custody and brought
before him for a final hearing in the cathedral on
November 4. On that day the bishop's gaoler brought
Boreham to the cathedral where the bishop sat with
his assessors, the Archdeacon of Lewes and a licentiate

TRIAL OF A LOLLARD.

in law. The charges were cited in Latin and English.
Boreham swore on the Gospels that he would return a
true answer to each. The principal were as follow : —
(i.) He had used exorcism to expel demons.
Confessed.

(2.) Declared that he could cast out evil spirits
better than many priests by the aid of baptism could
do it. Denied.

(3.) Believed that by incantations and abjurations
made over willow wands he could cure fever as long
as the ends of such rods were hung round the necks
of the sufferers. Confessed.

(4.) Had disparaged the sacrament of the altar and
of confession as unnecessary to salvation. Denied.

(5.) Had consorted with and aided heretics instead
of discovering them to the ordinary. Denied.

(6.) Had books of Wycliffe and of Holy Scripture
in English, and knew others who had such books,
yet had not informed against them within 40 days.
Confessed that he had the four Gospels in English
and also some books of incantations.

The examination being ended, Boreham knelt
down in the humblest manner before the bishop and
craved to be absolved from the penalty of the greater
excommunication. His petition was granted, he
again swearing on the Gospels that he would never
henceforth teach or cause to be taught or defend any
of the above-mentioned errors, or any other errors
contrary to the teaching of holy Church.

The bishop held his first visitation of the cathedral
in 1 44 1. The dean was absent ; seven resident
canons appeared. Twenty-four non-residents and

142

CHICHESTER.

twenty-five vicars were cited. No difficulty was made
this time about the profession of obedience to the
bishop, but otherwise the state of discipline does not
seem to have mended much since the time of Bishop
Rede. The vicars were very irregular in their
attendance at matins ; the younger vicars especially
being apt to lie in bed too late. Several of the
chantry chapels were not served as they ought to be.
The succentor was idle and suspected of incontinent
living.

The canons often went to dine outside the city, not
leaving enough in their houses to feed their vicars,
who were obliged to go and beg a meal where they
could, to the great scandal of the Church. Some of
the houses and chancels of churches belonging to the
chapter were in a ruinous state. Traffic and sports
were carried on in the grave-yard and precincts of the
cathedral, giving rise to unseemly language and
quarrelling, and occasionally worse offences. There
had been great negligence as to the custody of the
common seal, so that sometimes business had been
transacted by two or three members only, for which
the consent of all the canons in residence ought to
have been asked.

The visitation of the religious houses discloses an
unpleasant picture of monastic life. A few were well
reported of in every respect, but by far the larger
number were in a very corrupt state. The Abbey of
Battle, the Priory of Lewes, and the Premonstratensian
Abbeys of Dureford and Bayham were exempt from
episcopal jurisdiction, so that we have no means of
ascertaining their condition, though the election of

VISITATION OF THE DIOCESE. 1 43

abbots for the two latter houses was subject to the
bishop's confirmation. As a general rule, however,
the larger houses were in a far better condition morally
and otherwise than the small ones, especially those
in secluded country places. Most of these, when
Bishop Praty made his visitation, had lapsed into a
very rotten state indeed. A few examples must suffice.

Boxgrove was one of those which now and later
maintained a fair measure of respectability.

The Benedictine Nunnery of Eseborne, near Mid-
hurst, was -^40 in debt, owing to the personal
extravagance of the prioress. She dressed in costly
garments; her fur mantle had cost loo shillings. She
made the sisters work and gave them nothing for it,
but took all the proceeds for herself. The bishop
suspended the prioress from administration of the
temporalities, which were to be put in charge of
trustees until the priory was out of debt. She was
forbidden to force the sisters to work ; she was to
dress as became her order, and to reduce all her
household and personal expenses. These injunctions
were to be obeyed on pain of deposition.

At Rusper the sisters stated that the prioress never
rendered any account to them of her administration
of the property.

The Priory of Sele (Beeding) was poor and in debt.
There were only four inmates. The prior was accused
of dreadful immorality. The Bishop's Commissary
suspended him, but he afterwards did penance, and
was restored.

New Hastings, Shulbrede, and Michelham were all
in debt. The latter was the most deeply involved.

144

CHICHESTER.

The prior sold everything for his own profit — oak
timber, mill-stones, mill-gear, horses, books, and
documents. He never reckoned with the chapter
for anything. " Solus recipit, solus solvit."

It is clear from such records that most of the small
monasteries were as ripe for suppression then as they
were a hundred years later. The bishops could only
patch the evils a little here and there ; a complete cure
was in the nature of things impossible. The insti-
tutions were corrupt because they had done their
work, and a pure and genuine love of monastic life had
passed away together with the causes which first called
it into existence. All honour, however, is due to
Bishop Praty, and other prelates Hke him who did
their best to detect and reform abuses.

Adam Moleyns or Molyneux, a.d. 1446-1450,
Bishop Praty's successor, is the only Bishop of Chi-
chester who came to a violent end. He had
accompanied the Earl of Suffolk to France in 1443 to
arrange the marriage of our Henry VI. with Margaret
of Anjou. His shar^ in the introduction of that
unhappy princess into England, the "outlandish
woman," as she was vulgarly called, and his connexion
with the party of Suffolk, which was generally in
favour of peace with France, was the main cause of his
excessive unpopularity. The country sighed over the
loss of the French territory won by Henry V., and
regarded a departure from his aggressive policy as
an evidence of pusillanimity, if not of treasonable
sympathy with " our adversary of France."

Bishop Moleyns must have been a favourite with
the king, for he obtained grants of extraordinary

MURDER OF BISHOP MOLEYNS. 1 45

privileges — exemption of all coast land belonging to
the see from the jurisdiction of the Court of Admiralty,
licence to "impark" 10,000 acres of land in different
parts of his diocese, and to case with stone and fortify
twelve out of his fifteen manor-houses. But before
these grants could take effect the bishop was no
more. In 1449 received permission to retire from
all secular employment, and to travel on either side of
the Channel for the benefit of his soul, taking with him
a sum of 500 marks for his maintenance. On the
9th of January, 1450, he was at Portsmouth preparing
to sail for France when he was assassinated by some
sailors, but the particulars of the murder have not been
recorded. The sailors probably hoped to get a reward
for their foul deed from the Yorkist party, though
there is no proof that they were bribed to do it. The
Earl of Suffolk was executed or rather murdered a few
monthslater, at sea, by the adverse faction; and Aiscough,
bishop of Salisbury, was barbarously murdered by the
mob at Edington, in Wiltshire, about the same
time.i The insurrection of Cade broke out about a
month after the execution of Suffolk. A large number
of people in Sussex took part in it. The great
majority belonged to the working class, but they only
followed the lead of several families of position in the
county. The only clergy who joined the movement
were the Chaplain of May field, the Vicars of Dallington
and Wartling, the Abbot of Battle, and the Prior of
Lewes, with all the inmates of their houses, and
probably most of the tenants and labourers on their

' See " Annals of Salisbury," in this series, p. 141.
L

146

CHICHESTER.

estates. The insurrection was soon quelled, and a
general pardon granted to all who had been con-
cerned in it. The names of the Sussex insurgents
may be read in the list of pardons contained in the
Patent Roll of 28 Henry VI.

The strange career of Reginald Pecock, the suc-
cessor of Bishop Moleyns, a.d. 1450-1459, could not
be traced in detail within the limits of this work, nor
indeed has it any close connexion with the history of
the diocese. His register has not been preserved, and
the only notice of him amongst the cathedral records
occurs in a list of the bishops, where the brief state-
ment is placed against his name that " being accused
and convicted of heresy, he resigned his bishopric."

Without being a great man he became, partly from
peculiarity of character, partly from the course of
circumstances, one of the most notorious and con-
spicuous men of the day. The middle position which
he took up, adverse to Lollardism, yet not heartily
papal, and occasionally almost verging upon ration-
alism, coupled with the inordinate vanity of his
disposition, left him at last almost destitute of friends,
and the course of political events precipitated his
ruin. But the long story of his numerous exami-
nations, ending in his pusillanimous recantation, the
destruction of his books, his deposition from the
bishopric, and his imprisonment for the rest of his
days in the Abbey of Thorney, in Cambridgeshire,
must be read elsewhere. ^

' See Mr. Babington's preface to the "Repressor of Over-
much Learning" (Master of the Rolls' series), and "Memorials
of the See of Chichester," by the present writer, pp. 151-163.

BISHOP STOREY.

Bishop Pecock's successor, John Arundel, 1459-
1478, seems to have been a quiet and submissive
court favourite, as strong a contrast to the restless
Pecock as it was possible to find. His register, too,
is lost. So passing over the 20 years of his episcopate,
those fearful years of bloodshed through which the
house of York fought its way to the throne, we
come to

Bishop Edward Storey, who occupied the see to
the end of the century. His register is an interesting
fund of information concerning the state of the
diocese.

It begins with an account of his enthronisation,
which is a curious illustration of the splendour with
which bishops were surrounded in those days, and
the taste of the age for pageantry and display. On
Saturday, June 25, he slept at Midhurst, on Sunday
attended mass and preached in the chapel. Very
early on Monday (summo mane) he started on horse-
back, with his retinue, for Chichester. On the crest
of the hill, commonly called Bishoppeston HilP (super
cacumine montis vulgariter ntmcupati Bishoppeston), he
was met by the Prior of Lewes, Lord Dakyngs, Lord
John Ffynes, and several others, knights and gentle-
men, with attendants to the number of 200. Outside
the north gate of the city, " near the grove of the
Bruyll," the company was joined by Lord de la Warr
and other noblemen, with their retinue, 300 in all,
who conducted the bishop into the city with much

' A point on the South Downs about four miles from Chiches-
ter, which was formerly crossed by the high-road from Midhurst
to Chichester.

L 2

148

CHICHESTER.

reverence and joy. He was met near the cathedral
by the Abbot of Battle, with mitre and staff, the dean,
John Waynfleete, the precentor, the Archdeacon of
Lewes, ten canons, and the choir arrayed in silken
copes. Here he was censed, kissed the cross, and
took an oath to observe the statutes, and to preserve,
or recover (if alienated) the possessions of the Church.
Then he was conducted by the cathedral body round
the south side of the church to the west door, where
he entered, preceded by the choir singing "Honour,
virtue," etc. At the high altar the bishop kneeled
down while he was censed by the dean and the
canons, after which he made the customary offering
of a gold noble. Then he received the dean and
canons to the kiss of peace, and repeatedly blessed
the people, after which he was enthroned, the choir
singing the Te Deian. From his throne he proceeded
to the chapter-house, and thence to the pulpit, from
which he preached on the text, " I will build up my
Church." After this he celebrated the Mass of the
Holy Spirit at the high altar (z« poiitificalibics), assisted
by the Abbot of Battle and several other priests.
The ceremonies in church being ended, he repaired
to the palace, where a sumptuous entertainment was
provided for 1,500 people of both sexes.

Bishop Storey held a visitation of the cathedral soon
after his enthronisation. The number of residentiaries
was remarkably small— the dean, John Waynfleete, the
precentor, the Archdeacon of Lewes, and two pre-
bendaries. The absentees were the chancellor, the
treasurer, twenty-four prebendaries, and seventeen
vicars.

BISHOP STOREY.

149

Many of the old grievances were still complained
of, and some new ones.

The full number of canons had not been maintained,
and the prebend of Woodhorn was annexed to the
chancellorship. There was a vicar for every pre-
bendar}', but owing to the greater cost of living in
"these modern days," the vicars could not be properly
sustained out of the revenues of the Church. Being
scantily and irregularly paid, they became slack in
the discharge of their duties. Often there were not
more than three or four present at the chief services.
Instead of being in church at the proper time, they
were to be seen wandering about the streets. The
vicar, whose business it was to rise at midnight for
matins, was not paid the bread which he ought to
receive for it. The Prebendary of Wittering neglected
to deliver the lectures, on condition of which he held
his prebend. The dean was an offender in a variety
of ways. He did not summon chapters at proper
times ; he was accustomed to take a vicar-choral with
him when he went out riding; he had sold imple-
ments and stock on several of the manors without
the consent of the chapter ; and had signed deeds and
conferred offices in the Church with the knowledge
and consent of only two of the canons. He kept
several of the muniments of the Church in his own
hands, especially one which declared the rights of the
chapter, and he had shifted images of saints from
one chapel to another, contrary to the customs of the
Church, and to the great detriment of the offerings
which had been made in honour of these saints.

Under a lax head laxity seems to have pervaded

15°

CHICHESTER.

all departments. The boys did not cense properly,
the sacrists rang the bells badly and at irregular
hours : sometimes they left the doors of the cathedral
oi)en all night.

There was a chest called Elsted Box, in which a
fund was kept for lending money to necessitous
members of the cathedral body. This box is men-
tioned in every visitation during the mediaeval period.
It never seems to have contained as much as ought
to have been in it ; but we have no explanation of
the principle on which the fund was maintained. At
the time of Bishop Storey's visitation there were only
^8 in it, whereas there ought to have been ;^so.

The bishop visited every parish and every monastic
house in his diocese, either in person or through his
commissary. Unfortunately there is only a list of the
parishes visited ; but of the visitation of monasteries
there is a fairly complete record. Very much the
same tales are repeated as those with which we are
already familiar : priors and prioresses squandering
the revenues of the house for their own profit and
amusement, buildings in a state of ruinous dilapida-
tion, the sacred offices performed with slovenly
irreverence, many of the monks addicted to drinking,
hunting, and other unseemly sports, corrodies let at
various rates to all sorts of people, utterly secularising
the character of the house, and leading to scandals of
the grossest kind.

The city of Chichester contains two lasting monu-
ments of Bishop Storey's munificence. One is the
beautiful market-cross which stands at the central
junction of the four main streets. It is an octagon

BISHOP STOREY.

building supported by a central column, and present-
ing outwards alternate arches and buttresses, with
well-carved finials and panelled surfaces in the spaces
between. Over the centre of each arch is a niche
which once contained a figure of the founder or one
of the other bishops.

In the indenture of agreement made between the
bishop and the Mayor of Chichester, it is stated that
the former having made, "as well in the love of God
as to the worschyp of the sayd city, and in especiall to
the soocure and comforte of the poore people here, a
crosse sett and founded in the middes of the said
cite upon the ground of the said mayor and burgesses,
for the which the said by shop hath gevyn ;^io of
lawful money of England for discharging of them,"
etc.; the mayor and burgesses, on their side, "granten
that neither they nor theyre successors shall from
henceforth claim, ne vexe, int'rupt, nor trouble any
of the pore people that shall hereafter stand or sell
any chaffre with in the said crosse." They also
undertake not to allow houses to be built against the
cross, or so near as to interfere with the free access
to it, and not to take any toll or other duty of " noo
persone that shall stand or sell any chaffre within
the said crosse."

The other good work of Bishop Storey for the
benefit of the city and diocese, was the foundation of
a free grammar school in Chichester, commonly called
the Prebendal School, because the headmastership
was annexed in perpetuity to the Prebend of Highley.
The school was intended to be a nursery of learned
clerks, of which the bishop observes in the preamble

CHICHESTER.

to the Statutes, there had been a lamentable scarcity
in the diocese. The dean and chapter were to
appoint the master, and the bishop to collate him to
the prebend. He was to teach grammar gratis, and
not to hold any other benefice ; but this latter restric-
tion was afterwards repealed. Master and scholars
were to attend mass, or at least to be present at the
elevation of the Host in St. George's Chapel in the
cathedral, at five o'clock in the morning in summer,
and six in winter. i

Architecture. — The two centuries which we have
been traversing are the period in which architectural
genius matured and finally exhausted its powers. The
simple and graceful Early English or First-Pointed
style, in specimens of which the diocese is eminently
rich, was succeeded, about the middle of the thirteenth
century, by what has been called the Geometrical
style, which lasted till about 13 15. The main charac-
teristic of this style is the circular tracery introduced
into the heads of windows or arcades, by piercing the
spandrels between the lancet-shaped lights or openings.
In the latter part of the period also, carved capitals
begin to be common. It is obvious that this plan
once adopted would afford scope for an almost
endless play of fancy ; and thus the Geometrical st)'le
grew into the Decorated, which lasted till about the
middle of the fourteenth century, distinguished by its
large windows of flowing tracery, the rich ornamental

' One of the first men educated at this school, who rose to
great eminence, was John Selden, who was bom at West Tar-
ring, near Worthing, in 1585.

ARCHITECTURE.

153

sculpture of capitals and doorways, canopied tombs,
and screens.

Parts of Buxted and Pevensey churches belong to
the earlier portion of the Geometrical period ; but the
most important example of the style as a whole in
the diocese is the Church of St. Thomas at Winchel-
sea, which is full of beauty and interest, both in its
general structural lines and in its details, especially the
carved foliage on the corbel-heads at the spring of
the arches.

The Ladye Chapel of the cathedra! was built by
Bishop Gilbert de Sancto Leofardo, about the same
date, 1288 — 1305, and the chapel of the Bishop's
Palace was recast probably a little later. The windows
of the Ladye Chapel are beautiful specimens of the
simple and graceful tracery of this period, and the
foliated corbels of the vaulting ribs, alike in this and
in the Bishop's Chapel, can hardly be surpassed in
elegance.

Passing on to the fully-developed Decorated, which
lasted from about 13 15 to 1360, incomparably the
finest and most perfect example in the diocese is the
Church of Etchingham, between Tunbridge and
Hastings. The whole church was built at one time
by Sir William of Etchingham, who died in 1387.
The chancel is of unusual length : the tower is placed
in the centre, between chancel and nave, an un-
common arrangement in Sussex when there are no
transepts. The east window is flamboyant, and the
windows of the nave are peculiar, both in tracery
and shape. The cruciform Church of Alfriston is
nearly of the same date as Etchingham, though a

154

CHICHESTER.

little later, and in parts verging to the Perpen-
dicular.

Of more detailed examples of this style, imdoubtedly
the foremost place must be assigned to the noble
window in the south transept of the cathedral, built
by Bishop Langton, and justly called by Leland the
"great sumptuous south window." And of the
canopied tombs, for which the Decorated period is so
famous, it would be hard to find more beautiful
specimens than the tombs in St. Thomas, Winchelsea,
of Gervase Alard, and Stephen Alard, his grandson,
both admirals of the Cinque Ports in the first half of
the 14th century. One parsonage -house of the 14th
century has survived almost intact at West Dean,
near Seaford. It is built of stone and oak. One
mark of great antiquity is the staircase, of which the
walls project outside one end of the house. They are
externally square, and semi-cylindrical within, con-
taining a spiral flight of stone steps which lead to the
upper story ; the floor consists of massive oak beams
and joists, the doorways are pointed, and the doors
themselves of oak, with very old fittings. The Church
of West Dean belonged to the priory of Wilmington,
and the probability is that the parsonage-house was
built for the monks by their vicar. If so, the house
must have been built in the fourteenth century, or very
early in the fifteenth, since Wilmington, which was an
alien priory, was suppressed in the reign of Henry IV.,
who died in 1413. The hall and chapel of St. Mary's
Hospital, Chichester, and the screen dividing them,
are extremely curious and interesting specimens of
Decorated work.

ARCHITECTURE.

The Decorated style gradually passed in this
country into the Rectilinear or Perpendicular, which
lingered on till the decadence of ecclesiastical architec-
ture in the latter half of the sixteenth century. The cha-
racteristics of this style are strongly marked ; in place
of the gracefully-flowing lines of the Decorated tracery,
straight mullions carried right up into the head of the
window, windows increasing in width as the style ad-
vances, flat surfaces covered with panelling, doorways
consistingof adepressed arch within a square frame, and
over this a label often filled with foliage, richly-groined
vaults with fan-like tracery, especially in porches and
cloisters, wide open timber roofs very slightly arched,
massive towers with ornamental battlements, crocketed
pinnacles and turrets at the angles. The beauty of
the style consists in the rich decoration of flat surfaces,
and of projecting parts of the structure, such as finials,
pinnacles, and cornices ; its grandeur, in the bold
sweep of wide arches, broad spanning arches, and
high massive towers ; its poverty, in the shallowness of
mouldings, and, as time goes, the coarseness of much
of the ornamental work.

The examples of this style in our diocese are com-
paratively rare, and none of them first-rate. The
traveller will search in vain for the grand, lofty, and
richly ornamented towers which abound in Somerset-
shire and many other counties. By far the best pro-
ductions of this style in Sussex are the market-cross
in Chichester already described ; the detached bell-
tower of the cathedral, which, though plain, is not
wanting in a certain stern and massive grandeur ; and,
lastly, the old cathedral spire. The original central

156

CHICHESTER.

Norman tower was low and thick ; about the middle of
the thirteenth century an addition had been made with
lancet-headed openings, and on the top of this again
was built the fifteenth-century spire. It was a graceful
piece of work, flanked at each angle by a small octa-
gon turret and pyramid, and presenting in the centre
of each face an ornamented porch-like projection.
But it was a fatal addition ; the Norman piers upon
which the whole of this vast weight was thrown (the
height from the base of the tower to the top of the
spire being 277 feet) were composed of rubble with
an outward casing only of stone, and had never been
intended to bear the heavy load which was piled
upon them. How at last they gave way,^ bringing
down tower and spire in one appalling crash, is still
fresh within the memory of all who saw or heard of
the catastrophe. Within less than seven years,^ how-
ever, tower and spire again soared into the sky, and
the new structure is a model of both solidity and
strength.

The only churches in Sussex deserving much notice,
which are built throughout in the Perpendicular style,
are Mayfield, Poynings, Arundel, and Pulborough. In
these last, and in parts of several other churches in
Sussex, the windows are enclosed in a depressed arch,
over which is the usual square label of the Rectilinear
style, a peculiarity which would seem to indicate that
these buildings belong to the time when Decorated
forms were just passing into the Perpendicular.

^ February 21, 186 1.

' The cathedral was reopened for divine service November
14, 1S67.

ARCHITECTURE.

All the architectural styles which we have been
considering are represented in various parts of the
noble cruciform Church of Rye, one of the largest
parish churches in the kingdom : massive Norman
in its central portions ; Early English in the beautiful
Chapel of St. Clare ; Decorated in the west window ;
and rich Perpendicular in the east.

CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER VI.

A.D. 1497-1536.

The Approach of the Reformation — The Episcopate of Bishop
Sherburne, and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

We have reached the close of the fifteenth century,
and stand on the threshold of a new era in the his-
tory of the Church. But the men of that time could
not foresee what mighty and upheaving changes were
at hand. The wealth of the Church was great, her
political influence was powerful, her buildings magni-
ficent, her ceremonial splendid. The heresy of the
Lollards seemed to have been well-nigh stamped out;
the fate of Pecock warned all churchmen in high
position not to be tempted by ability or learning to
stray beyond the boundaries of a rigid orthodoxy.
But the internal cankers of the Church were growing
in proportion to the outward semblance of strength.
With the increase of worldly wealth and pomp, and
the suppression of free thought, she had been losing
more and more of that power over men's hearts and
minds which nothing but pre-eminence in spiritual
zeal and in intellectual ability and learning can give.
And, meanwhile, the forces were in preparation which
were destined to strike to its foundation and ulti-
mately to transform the fabric which, to a superficial

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 159

view, might have seemed so stately and solid. After
the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, in 1452,
the literature, the science, and the art, partly Oriental,
partly Greek, of which that city had been the centre,
moved westwards. The treasure-houses of Greek
philosophy and poetry were unlocked to the western
mind, which had long been ignorant of their contents.
Alike in philosophy and theology the mediaeval fetters
were burst asunder, and the intellect took a new
departure. The discovery of printing facilitated
indulgence of the passionate enthusiasm which took
possession of scholars for the study of what was called
the " New Learning." Italy was the great receptacle
of the Greek exiles, and of the learning which they
brought with them. Scholars flocked from all parts
of Europe to sit at their feet. Grocyn, Linacre, and
John Colet were amongst the first Oxford students to
cross the Alps for this purpose, and, on their return
to England, their lectures on Greek literature and
science, and on the study of the Bible, opened the
way for a great revolution in intellectual and religious
thought.

What they began, Erasmus, during his long sojourn
in England, carried on, and Archbishop Warham fos-
tered. From this point a reformation of some sort in
the Church of England became inevitable. The
peculiar circumstances of Henry VIII. 's reign only
precipitated and shaped the change which sooner or
later must have come.

A quiet rural diocese, like Chichester, would be
slow to feel the effect of forces which were gradually
leavening the Church. A few men, however, here

i6o

CHICHESTER.

and there, in the retirement even of country parson-
ages, may have read some of the works of Erasmus
and Colet. And if more read, some must have heard
something about the character and aims of those
writings. They must have heard, some, no doubt,
with simple horror and amazement, but others with
secret sympathy and satisfaction, of their bold attacks
upon established customs and modes of thought, their
exposure of the absurdities of the old scholasticism
and ancient methods of Biblical interpretation, their
indignant invectives against the scandals of the
Church, their sarcastic criticisms on monks, pilgri-
mages, and relics.

We, of the present day, are often apt to imagine
change, especially in matters which concern the
Church, to be nearer than it really is ; but in that age
events moved slowly, and, notwithstanding the distur-
bing forces which were at work, probably few men at the
beginning of the sixteenth century anticipated the ap-
proach of any great alteration in the old existing order
of things until they were startled by the suppression
of the monasteries and the demolition of the shrines.
The episcopate of Robert Sherburne lasted from
1508 to 1536 ; it began when the "New Learning"
was reaching the height of its influence in England ;
it ended when some momentous changes had been
made in the condition of the Church, and others were
in contemplation. Vet he does not seem, up to the
middle at any rate of his career, to have been
troubled by presentiments of impending danger. In
his Book of Donations, dated 1523, which is a record
of his gifts and benefactions to the Church and City

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. l6l

of Chichester, it is touching to read the minute and
careful instructions of the poor old man respect-
ing the celebration of masses and the repetition of
pater nosters and ave marias, especially on the anni-
versary of his death, for the benefit of his own soul and
the souls of his predecessors and successors, made on
the very eve of a revolution in religion which was to
sweep them all away. Almost more touching is it to
read his provision, slight and vain, against days of
spoliation and poverty, which he deemed as possible,
though improbable and remote. If, he says, at
any future time the revenues and possessions con-
ferred by him on the Dean and Chapter should be
dissipated or disturbed, the Dean and Chapter were
strenuously to resist the injury, and were to draw for
their expenses in defending their rights upon a
reserve sum bequeathed by him for that purpose.
And if (which Heaven forbid) they were despoiled of
all the property, they were to consult with the bishop
and implore him to interpose on their behalf, as it
could not be supposed that any bishop would be so
iron-hearted " as not to be softened by such an
appeal. "And because," he concludes, "as the
world verges to its decadence, human nature, poi-
soned at its root, daily increases in all evil, we there-
fore wishing so far as our frailty permits, to meet it
shield to shield, ordain and will that £,20 sterling be
kept in our chest- for accidental cases, to be used in
repelling injuries at the discretion of the Dean and
Chapter."

Sherburne was a well-educated Wyketamist, kindly
disposed towards men of genius and learning, yet

M

l62

CHICHESTER.

belonging himself essentially to the old school. Pre-
ferments had been heaped upon him with a lavish
hand, and unlike his contemporary and friend, Arch-
bishop Warham, he was remarkably fond of pageantry
and ceremonial, and surrounded himself in his office
with all possible dignity and state.

The elaborate directions contained in the book
already referred to respecting the ceremonies to be
performed in the cathedral on the anniversary of his
obsequies, the dress and style of living to be observed
by the holders of the four prebends and the four lay
clerkships which he founded, and by the priest vicars,
all bespeak a man who was fond of external display,
and found a pleasure in regulating the most minute
details of it. On the other hand, sympathy with the
more intellectual spirit of the age is manifested in his
foundation of a Free Grammar School at Rolleston,
his native place in Staffordshire. The wise and sens-
ible rules which he draws up for the mental and
moral training of the boys are such as might have
been approved by Colet himself ; and it is significant
that Sherburne's friend, Tailour, archdeacon of
Buckingham, whom he consulted respecting the
government of the school, closes a long correspond-
ence on the subject by suggesting that passages from
Latin divines should be translated into English, and
copied into a large book to be given to the master of
the school and churchwardens, and by them attached
by iron chains to a wall for passers-by to read. By
the bearer of this letter also he sends the bishop a
most elegant little book containing the " familiar
colloquies " of the " most learned Erasmus," which he

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 1 63

hopes the master of the school will gradually instill
into the minds of young beginners, and train them
by means of the same instead of the themes which in
old days were called " Latinities."

There is in the bishop's register a deed for the
manumission of a bondman, which is drawn up in
terms of an uncommon character, suggestive of one
who had imbibed that generous love of freedom in
all ways which breathes throughout the writings of
Erasmus, Colet, and Sir Thomas More. The deed
begins with a quotation from the Institutes of
Justinian : — "Whereas at the beginning nature brought
forth all men free, and afterwards the law of nations
placed certain of them under the yoke of servitude,
we believe that it is pious and meritorious towards
God to manumit them and to restore them to the
benefit of pristine liberty." And on this principle the
bishop emancipates Nicholas Holden, a " native and
serf," who for many years had served him on his
Manor of Woodmancote and elsewhere, from every
chain, servitude, and servile condition by which he
was bound to the bishop and his cathedral, and, " so
far as we can, we make him a freeman."

Many instances occur throughout the medieval
period of such manumission, especially by the
monasteries, of bondmen attached to manors ; the
act of Bishop Sherburne, however, which bears the
date of 1536, the last year of his life, is interesting
as an illustration of the late period at which villenage
of so degraded a kind still survived on ecclesiastical
property, and of the enlightened and generous spirit
in which freedom was sometimes conferred.

M 2

i64

CHICHESTER.

Bishop Sherburne's visitations of the monastic
houses are the last which took place before their dis-
solution. The records of them prove, that some
houses, which had hitherto mamtained a respect-
able character, were becoming infected with the
general corruption. The account of Boxgrove, for
example, in 1518, is far less satisfactory than on any
former occasion. The prior was too notorious for his
skill in archery, and other vain sports, outside the
precincts. Henceforth neither he nor any of the
brethren are to indulge in such amusements. Bad
characters having been admitted as brethren, no ad-
missions were to be made in future without the
bishop's knowledge and consent. The common seal
was to be kept under three keys belonging to the
prior, sub-prior, and senior brother, and nothing
was to be sealed without the consent of a majority of
the chapter. An audit of accounts was to be held
once a year, and recorded in a parchment book. The
bell for matins was to ring at one o'clock, when the
brethren were to enter the church two and two, and
go out in like manner. No talking or drinking was
to go on in church : when the brethren were eating,
listening to reading, going to bed, or getting up, they
were to keep silence ; they were to clean out their
cells with their own hands ; and, that the devil might
never find them idle, they were to have gardens in
which they might work, the ground having been first
cleared of thorns and weeds, and brought into such a
conditionastomakelabourupon ita pleasant recreation.
They were to dine at eleven, and sup at five, in the
refectory, according to the rule of St. Benedict, and

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 1 65

were not to wander outside the precincts of the house
without the licence of the prior or sub-prior.

That such injunctions should have been considered
necessary by the bishop, proves how seriously the
rules of the order had been neglected. They were to
be written into a large parchment book, and read over
in chapter once a month.

The increasing poverty of all the smaller houses is
shown by the remarkably large list of those which
were exempted on this account from the payment of a
tenth in 1527. These were the college of Arundel,
and the monasteries of Boxgrove, Dureford, Ese-
borne, Hardham, Rusper, Shulbrede, and Tortington,
in the archdeaconry of Chichester ; and Bayham,
Hastings, and Mychelham, in the archdeaconry of
Lewes.

In 1535, the visitation of the monasteries by Crom-
well, in his capacity of vicar-general, took place ; and
in the following year the Act was passed which de-
creed the dissolution of all which were under the
annual value of £,200. Most of the houses in Sussex
fell under this Act, and the insight into their condi-
tion afforded by the episcopal visitations which have
been already noticed, renders it impossible to deny
that most of them had become nuisances, which it
was high time to remove. The misfortune was, that
the property which might have been turned to pur-
poses of religion, charity, or education, — purposes
which the monasteries had originally served, was, for
the most part conferred on individuals, often none of
the worthiest, and lost to the public benefit. The re-
moval of houses which, with all their faults, had been

i66

CHICHESTER.

in many instances conducive to the comfort and
advantage of the poor, occasionally provoked violent
resentment and opposition. Thus, at Bayham,^ four
months after its suppression, a "riotous compagnie,
disguysed and unknowen, with painted faces and
visures, came to the said monasterie, and brought
with them the chanons, and put them in their place
again, and promised them that whensoever they rang
the bell they would come with a great power and
defend them."^ From a letter of Mr. Edward Guide-
ford, to his brother. Sir Harry, comptroller of the
king's household, we learn that the "riotous com-
pagnie " amounted to 200 persons, and that the
people in the neigbourhood were all prepared to a
man to support the canons. The resistance, however,
was, of course, overpowered ; the canons were dis-
lodged, and " confessed their capitanes, which were
emprisoned and sore punished."

Intercession, however, of a temperate and reasonable
kind, was, in another instance, equally unavailing to
avert suppression. Lord de la Warr had become by
marriage possessed of the lordship of Halnaker,
within which stood the priory of Boxgrove. At the
last visitation of which there is any record, that of
1527, probably the last which ever took place, the
priory was well reported of in every respect ; it was
out of debt ; the buildings were in repair ; and the
inmates, consisting of six monks and five novices,

' Bayham was not suppressed under the Act of 1536, but ten
years before, being one of those which were appropriated for
the endowment of Wolsey's colleges at Ipswich and Oxford.

' " Hall's Chronicle. "

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION.

167

were said by the prior to be virtuous and obedient to
him and to the rules of their order.

In 1535, on Ladye Day, Lord de la Warr wrote to
Cromwell, stating that he had heard an Act had been
passed for the suppression of the smaller monasteries,
and he proceeds to say, "So hyt is that I have a
power house callyd Boxgrove, very near to my power
house callyd Halnaker, whereof I am founder and
there lyethe many of my anncystorys, and also my
wyffy's mother : and for by cause hyt ys of my founda-
cion, and that my paryshe church ys under the roofe
of the churche of the said monastery, and I have a
power chappell to be buryed yn,^ wherefor yf yt
myght stande with the kynge's grace's pleasure, for
the power servyce that I have doyn his highnes to
forebere the subpressyng of the same, or else to
translate hyt ynto a college of such nombre as the
landes wyll bere. And yf hyt may not so stand
with his grace's pleasure, then I would lowly beseeche
hys grace to have the preferment of the farme, with
all such other things as the pryor had in hys tyme for
the provysyon of hys house." The priory was not
spared, but its possessions were granted to Lord de la
Warr ; and, in order to prevent his ever restoring it
to the monks, he was compelled, in 1540, to exchange
the property of the priory with the crown for the
Abbey of Wherwell, in Hampshire, a transaction to
which he submitted unwillingly, and his reluctance
nearly got him into serious trouble with the council.

' I.e., more strictly speaking, patron.

" Really a very beautiful sacellum, with an altar in it, on the
south side of the nave, made of Caen stone, and richly carved.

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CHICHESTER.

One of the most active of Cromwell's commissioners
for the visitation and suppression of the monasteries
was Richard Layton, a man of low origin, but re-
warded for this and other services to the State, with
liigh preferment in the Church, becoming ultimately
Dean of York. From his letters to Cromwell, and
other friends, we learn some particulars respecting the
suppression of one of the smallest houses in the
diocese, Shulbrede Priory, and the greatest of all,
Battle Abbey. He states that the Bishop of Chichester
(Sherburne) had, ten years before, " put oute all the
canons of Shulbrede, and purposed to have suppressed
the house for their wyckedness." It must be owned
the bishop seems to have made so free with their
property, that there was very little left to suppress
when Layton visited the house. According to his
account, the bishop " took from the house iii hun-
dredth shepe, Ix oxen, kyen and swyne xx, and barnes
full of corn xx." He had pulled down large portions
of the buildings, and taken away the furniture, leaving
only bare walls, so that I.ayton advises the king to
finish the job, and make a clean sweep of the whole
ruinous place.

Layton and his fellow commissioner, Sir John
Gage, visited Battle Abbey in 1538, by which year
the suppression of the larger houses had been de-
creed. Their report of the condition in which they
found the vestments and other furniture of this cele-
brated house is not complimentary. " The imple-
ments off householde," writes one, "be the worste
that ever I se in abbaye or priorye : the vestyments
so old and so bayrre worne, raggede and torne, as

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 169

youre lordeshyppes wolde not thynke : so that very
small money can be made of the vestrye." They
think that the church and house plate together would
amount to 400 marks {^266. 13s. 4d). Layton ex-
presses himself in yet stronger terms. " So beggery
a house I never se, nor so fylthe stuffe. I assure
you I wil not xxs. for all manner hangyngs in this
house, as this bringer can tell you." He is writing to
a friend for whom he had evidently hoped to get
some handsome pickings, in the way of vestments,
out of this rich house, and he is bitterly chagrined to
find them all so worthless. " The best vestment," he
says, " that I can fynde complete ye shall have ; but
I assure you so many evill I never see, the stuffe is
like the persons." The revenues of the abbey at the
time of suppression were nearly 10,000, according
to the present value of money, and the only way of
accounting for the miserable state of the furniture and
effects is, that the monks, foreseeing their impending
fate, had disposed of all their most valuable posses-
sions before the commissioners came. This was the
plan adopted by the Abbot of Dureford, who seems
to have sold most of the cattle and farm stock be-
longing to the abbey, as well as the furniture of the
church, before the commissioners arrived. Layton
calls it a filthy place, and says DurtioxA would have
been a more fitting name for it than Dureford.

The fate of one more house must be mentioned
before closing these notices of the suppression of
monasteries in Sussex. The Priory of Lewes had
been spared through the intercession of the descend-
ants of the founder, when so many of the alien

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CHICHESTER.

priories were suppressed in the reigns of Edward
III. and Henry V., and its annual revenue in the
time of Henry VI H. was larger than that of Battle
Abbey, amounting to about 6,000. Richard
Layton, in a letter to Cromwell, tells the usual tale
concerning the depravity of the monks, and then de-
scribes his interview with the prior. The abject
terror of the poor prior is depicted in lively colours,
and the whole scene is, no doubt, a fair specimen of
what frequently occurred when the commissioner paid
his dreaded visit. " The subprior hath confessede
unto me treason in his preaching. I have causede
hym to subscribe his name to the same, submittyng
hymself to the kynges mercy and grace. I have also
made hym confesse that the prior knew the same and
consilede hit. ... I called hym (the prior) ' Haynose
tratur ' with the worst words I coulde deliver, he all
the tyme knelyng upon hys knes making intercession
unto me, not to utter to you the principal for his un-
doyng, whos words I finally regarded, but comaundit
him to appere before you at the court on Alhalow
day, .... and to bring with hym hys supprior. At
my cumming unto you, wiche I truste shal be shortly,
I shall declar unto you all at large, and the tragedie
thereof, so that it shall be in your power to do vnth
hymn what you like." It is consoling to learn that
the terrified prior was pardoned, and ended his days
tranquilly as a prebendary of Lincoln. The house
was surrendered, Nov. 16, 1537. The beautiful
church and most of the conventual buildings were
ruthlessly destroyed, but the prior's house was reserved
as a residence for Cromwell's son, Gregory', who, in a

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 171

letter written to his father soon after his arrival, de-
clares that " it doth undoubtedly right moche please
and content both me and my wife, and is unto hir so
commodious that she thinketh hirself to be here right
well settylled." Not long afterwards the king pro-
posed to lodge there during a progress, but Gregory
did not relish the prospect of a royal visit, and recom-
mends his father to deter the king from his purpose,
by making the most of a little outbreak of the plague
in Lewes.

Bishop Sherburne died in extreme old age just
before the dissolution of the monasteries, but he
survived to witness some of the most tragical and
heartshaking events in the reign of Henry VIII., the
fall of Wolsey, the divorce of Katharine, the rapid
rise of Cromwell, and the beginning of his measures
of oppression, the coronation of Ann Boleyn and her
death, the execution of Fisher, bishop of Rochester,
and of Sir Thomas More. His own feelings respect-
ing the promulgation of the royal supremacy are ap-
parent from the following letter to Cromwell, in 1534,
which prepares us for the resignation of his bishopric,
which occurred soon afterwards. " Pleaseth it you to
be advertised, that upon Sunday, the 13th day of this
instant month of June, after such smal talent as God
hath lent me, I preached the word of God openly in
my cathedral church of Chichester, and also published
there the king's most dreadful commandment con-
cerning (with other things) the uniting of the supreme
head of the Church of England with the Imperial
Crowne of this realm ; and also the abolishing and
secluding out of this realm the enormities and abuses

172

CHICHESTER.

of the Bishop of Rome's authority, usurped within
the same. And Hkewise have sent forth my suffragan
to preach and publish most speedily the same in the
most populous townes within my dioces. And further,
have proceeded that by this day, at the furthest, there
is neither abbot, prior, dean, archdeacon, provost,
parson, vicar, nor curate, within my dioces, but they
have commandment to publish the same in their
churches every Sunday and solemne feast accordingly,
and as much as in me is, I shal see and cause them
to continue in doing of their duty in this behalf, most
heartily desiring you, the king's highness, that it may
please his grace, considering my age and impotency,
that the further doing of these promises by other
sufficient persons, may be sufficient for my discharge
in this behalf. And if it shall please you to particu-
larly advertise me of the king's plesure herein, ye
shall bind me to do you any plesure that lyeth in
my litel power. And thus fare ye most heartily well.
From Selsey, 28th June. Your bounden orator, Robt.

CiCESTER."

This is the letter of a man who was too loyal a
subject to disobey his sovereign, yet had small relish
for the duty imposed upon him. He might have
been content to see papal jurisdiction in England
repudiated. He might have sympathised with a
reformation brought about by the natural progress
of piety and learning, under the influence of large-
minded and large-hearted men like Erasmus, Colet,
and More ; but to accept a system of doctrine and
ceremonial, manufactured under the direction of a
man like Cromwell, was more than he could bear.

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. 173

He resigned his bishopric shortly before Convocation
met on June 6, 1536, — that convocation in which
Cromwell sat as vicar-general in the Upper House,
and was practically almost supreme. A pension of
;^40o was assigned to him for the rest of his life, but
he did not live long to enjoy it. His successor,
Richard Sampson, was consecrated on June 11; but
Sherburne sat in the earlier meetings of Convocation
and supported the Archbishop of York, and the
Bishops of London and Lincoln, in their defence of
the seven sacraments, when Cranmer and his party
maintained that two only were divinely instituted.
The articles finally agreed upon in this Convocation,
prohibiting some of the worst abuses of mediaevalism,
— the adoration of saints and relics, the traffic in
pardons, and the practice of singing masses for the
dead, were signed by Sampson as Bishop of Chi-
chester, with seventeen other bishops. But before
they were published Sherburne was no more. He
died August 20, 1536, aged 85. His will is dated
August 2. It is touching to read the clause in
which, as with a presentiment of impending days of
spoliation, he attempts to propitiate the spoiler, "and
to my singular goode Lorde Cromwell one cup of
silver gilt with a cover of xx ounces, desyring him to
be goode Lorde to my executors for performing my
last will."

The death of Bishop Sherburne coincides with the
termination of the mediaeval state of things ; of the
days when bishops had been statesmen and lawyers
as well as prelates, and had rivalled or surpassed the
greatest of the aristocracy in the vastness of their

174

CHICHESTER.

wealth, and splendour of their style of living. The
days, also, of mediaeval superstition, — of pilgrimages
to shrines, of wonder-working images and relics, and
of gorgeous ceremonial, — are almost ended. And it
must be owned with sorrow that architectural genius
also had almost run its course. Few, if any, ecclesi-
astical buildings of sufficient importance to be noticed
were erected in Sussex during the episcopate of
Bishop Sherburne, save those which owe their origin
to the bishop himself. And even these, with the
exception of his tomb in the cathedral, were domestic
rather than ecclesiastical. The tomb, which is often,
referred to in his documents, was prepared under his
own direction ; and in his will he desires his body
to be buried in his cathedral church, in " a poore
remembrance that I have made there in the south
side of the same church." This "poore remem-
brance," like Lord de la Warr's " power chappell " at
Boxgrove, is really a very handsome piece of work.
It is a recess in the wall, enclosed by a carved
canopy, beneath which is an alabaster effig}', painted
and gilded, of the bishop in his robes. The back-
ground is blue, spangled with stars, in the midst of
which are the figures of two angels bearing the mitre
of the bishop over his coat of arms, and the motto,
" Operibus credite." Below the figure is the text,
"Non intres in judicium cum servo tuo, Domine,
Roberto Sherburne."

Fuller, after his quaint manner, says that Bishop
Sherburne "decorated the cathedral church with many
ornaments," and that if " Bishop Seffrid II. bestowed
the cloth and making on the church. Bishop Sherburne,

APPROACH OF THE REFORMATION. I 75

gave the trimming and best lace thereto." The lace
and trimming consisted merely of the upper portion
of the choir stalls, eighteen on either side, and two
large oil paintings on wood, now in the south transept.
They were executed by Bernardi, an Italian artist,
who, with his two sons, seems to have been much
patronised by the bishop. The first picture represents
Wilfrith and his companions supplicating King Cead-
walla for a grant of land on which to build their
church and clergy-house at Selsey. The second
depicts Bishop Sherburne approaching Henry VIII.
with a petition that he will protect the Church of
Chichester as Ceadwalla had protected the Church
of Selsey.

The episcopal palace is indebted to Bishop Sher-
burne for the entrance gateway at the west end of
Canon Lane, and the beautiful panelled and painted
ceiling of the dining-hall. But a more striking memo-
rial of him is the quaint, picturesque lofty tower of
red brick which he added to the episcopal manor-
house at Cakeham, near West Wittering.

The view from the top is not only beautiful, but
in some sort historically interesting. With an easy
sweep of the eye the spectator can take in the shore
where the South Saxon invader first set his foot, and
the extremity of the Selsey peninsula, where the
posterity of that invader first learned to worship in
Wilfrith's cathedral church ; south-westwards, the view
of the Channel is broken by the Isle of Wight, from
which the Danes so often crossed to the mouth of
the harbour near Cakeham, and then went up the
country on their errand of plunder and destruction.

.76

CHICHESTER.

Turning northwards, the grey spire of Chichester
cathedral may be discerned, standing out against
the soft green background of the Downs ; while the
tower itself, on which the spectator stands, is in its
peculiar character a fitting emblem of an age which,
alike in architecture, literature, and religion, was a
time of transition from old forms to new.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 77

CHAPTER VII.

.^.D. I 536-1 604.

Progress of the Reformation — Demolition of the .Shrine of
St. Richard — The Diocese during the reigns of Mary
and Elizabeth.

On July the 29th, just four days before the death of
Bishop Sherburne, the chancellor of the diocese read
in the presence of a large number of the clergy
assembled in the cathedral, a mandatory letter from
the king to Sherburne's successor, Bishop Sampson.
The letter stated that Convocation had been engaged
in drawing up certain articles with a view to the
suppression of error, and calming of controversies
lately arisen, and lest any seditious persons should
attempt to expound the same before they were
thoroughly divulged, "after theyr own fantasticall
appetite in anywise defacid or slandrid," it is ordered
" that no sarmons shall be made or preached between
this and Michaelmas next, in any churche, chappell,
monastery, etc., withyn this our realme, unless it be
our byshops in youre owne persones, or in your pre-
sence, or in youre cathedral churches." and in this
case the bishop was to appoint the preacher, and to
be answerable for his teaching. Meanwhile, the
bishop is charged to withdraw all licences from
preachers in his diocese, and enjoin all incumbents

N

178

CHICHESTER.

" to pass over the time with a secrete silence till ye
shall eftsoons other advertise them by your com-
mandment." The letter ends by prescribing the
form of Bidding Prayer which is to be adopted from
that time forward, to the intent "that all diversitie
in the manner of teaching and preaching may be
avoyded." In this prayer the people are instructed to
pray first for the Church and for "the Kynge's most
excellent majestic, supreme hed immediately under
God of the spiritualtie and temporalitie of the same
Churche"; for the Lords and Commons; and for the
souls of the departed. Finally, the clergy are warned
that after the 29th September, when preaching would
be again permitted, they must not add to or diminish
from anything contained in the articles as they will
answer for it at their peril, unless they have a special
licence from the bishop to "expHcate the same at
more length."

This letter was to be read in every deanery through-
out the diocese. The order for silencing the pulpits
was soon followed by another, in which we can
imagine the people were not quite so willing to
acquiesce. It is entitled a "Charte concerning the
abrogacion of the holy days," and, after stating that
" the nombre of holy days is so excessyvely growen "
as to be the occasion of much "slouth and idleness";
that work is neglected under pretence of religious
devotion, whereas, in fact, "more express riot and
superfluitie" is practised on those days than any
other ; it declares the decree of Convocation under
the king, as supreme head on earth of the Church, —
(i.) that the feast of the dedication of churches shall

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. I 79

everywhere be kept on the first Sunday in October,
and on no other day ; (ii.) that it shall be lawful for
all people to pursue their usual occupations on the
feast-day of the patron saint of their church, the same
as on other days. This stroke at the observance of
holy days affected the whole kingdom ; but it was
followed up by another, which told more severely
upon certain places, one of which was Chichester.
In 1538, the order was issued for the destruction of
shrines ; and Sir AV. Goring and Richard Ernley were
appointed commissioners to superintend the demo-
lition of St. Richard's shrine in the cathedral church.
The shrine of St. Richard was not, indeed, like the
shrine in some other places, the very heart and life-
blood of the place, nor did the cathedral and the city
owe their origin to it, as at Durham and Ely, where
the minsters had been originally raised to shelter the
remains of their patron saints, and the towns had
grown up round them as if in humble adoration.
For nearly 300 years, however, St. Richard had been
one of the great saints, his shrine one of the great
shrines of southern England. The existence of the
shrine enhanced the dignity and importance of the
place in which it was situated, and surrounded it in
the eyes of the world with a kind of halo of sanctity.
It was also a source of no small prosperity, attracting,
as it did, large numbers of pilgrims, who visited it for
the benefit of soul or body. And although many
even of the less learned were beginning to look upon
saint-worship as a vain and foolish superstition, yet
the deliberate and cold-blooded destruction of the
shrine which had so long been the pride of the
N 2

i8o

CHICHESTER.

cathedral and the city must have been painful to
most men, and to a few old-fashioned and devout
believers positively heart-rending. The order for
demolition is addressed to the commissioners in the
name of the king, who is styled, " Henry VIII., by
the grace of God king of England and of France,
defender of the faith, lord of Ireland, and in earth
immediately under Christ supreme Head of the
Church of England."

The document proceeds, that "having been in-
formed that in our cathedral church at Chichester
there hath been used long heretofore and yet at this
day is used much superstition and a certain resorte
there of the [common people] ^ which being men of
simplicity [are seduced] by the instigacion of some of
the clergy who take advantage of [their credulity to
ascribe miracles of healing and other virtues] to the
said shrine and bones that God only hath power to
grant ; wee .... have assigned unto you to repa}T
unto the said cathedral church, and to take away the
shrine and bones of that bishop called St. Richard
within the same, with all the ornaments to the said
shrine belonging, and all other relicks, sylver, gold,
and all jewels belonging to the said shrine ; and that
yee shall see them safely and surely conveyed unto
oure Tower of London : and yee shall see that both
the shryne and the place where it was kept be
destroyed even to the ground : and all such other
images of that church whereabout any notable super-
sticion [is used to be carried] and conveyed away, so

' The words in brackets are supplied conjecturally by Wilkins,
in his " ConciHa."

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. l8l

that our said subjetts shal by them in no wise be
deceived hereafter, but that they paye unto Almighty
God, and to no earthly creature, such high honour as
is due unto Him the Creator."

The document ends with an admonition to "the
clergie and officers of the said churche and citye to
aid and assist in the demolition as they under our
pleasure will answer for the contrary at theyr extreme
perill."

This must have been a trying time of perplexity
and suspense to bishops and clergy and zealous
churchmen. It was impossible to forecast from day
to day the proceedings of an arbitrary king and an
unscrupulous minister. At any moment the loyalty
of the most loyal might be strained by some eccle-
siastical measure to the very verge of breaking.
Bishop Sampson was a reformer, but a reformer of
the most conservative type. He had written a book
in defence of the royal supremacy, which had called
forth a vituperative reply from Cardinal Pole. In
his " brief instruction " to the clergy of his diocese,
circulated soon after his appointment, he enlarges on
the duty of . . . " following and humbly obeying the
high commandments, injunctions, and godly intents of
the king's majesty our sovereign, high governor under
God, and supreme head of the Church of England. .
.... not so much for fear of the corporal paines
appointed in the same orders and commandments as
for the fear of the displeasure of God." He requires
and exhorts every good Christian man and woman
to endeavour " themselfs to accomplish the spiritual
pleasure and goodnes that the K. M. with his godly

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CHICHESTER.

intents desireth above all things to have among
his people." These he signifies as being charity
and concord with one another, and a dutiful sub-
mission to the royal authority. And he ends by
requiring and charging every priest within his "diocese
as at other times so especially in his mass to
say a special collect for the prosperous health of his
majesty."

The force of loyal language could not go further
than this, yet Bishop Sampson had the misfortune to
incur the suspicion and displeasure of Cromwell and
the king. In doctrine, he could scarcely be called a
reformer, for he gave a hearty support to the Six
Articles, passed by Parliament in June 1539, during
a temporary depression of the party of Cranmer and
Cromwell. These articles affirmed the doctrine of
transubstantiation, approved the denial of the cup to
the laity, the celibacy of priests, private masses, and
auricular confession. About the same time the Vicar
of Rye had a controversy with his parishioners, who
desired, contrary to his wishes, to have parts of the
divine offices sung or said in English. He consulted
the bishop on the subject, who encouraged him not
to yield, or to make any alterations " till it should
please the king's majesty to declare his pleasure."
Cromwell, therefore, was not averse to making the
most of a sinister report brought to him by some
enemies of the bishop, that in a sermon preached in
the cathedral he had not only advocated Romish
doctrines, but Papal authority. Sampson was alarmed,
and wrote an earnest vindication to Cromwell of his
fidelity alike to the authority of the king, and to the

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 83

doctrines of the Church of England as he understood
them. ... "Os concerning mine own preaching,"
he says " I will not otherwise teach, God willing, than
may be to the health of the hearers, and pleasure first,
I should have said, of God. If there have been
ony sinister report of the little sermon that I had
at Chichester, upon our Ladle's Day. the Assumption,
I shall gladly answer to it. I suppose in my littel
mind I spoke nothing but that, if ye had been present,
ye would have been very wel content with it. And
OS concerning ony other man's preaching that is of
my dioces, if I shal know his evil preaching, I shal
endeavour me to reform him, or else to bring forth
his fault that it may be corrected in example of others.
My good Lord, I shal use no fawning or dissimula-
tion, I assure you, in these things." He acknowledges
some slackness in visiting his diocese, and promises
amendment in that respect ; confesses that he is not
" very friendly to novelties, except necessity or a
great expedient cause require it. But os touching the
worshipping of images, setting up of candles before
them, or kneeling, I assure you I trust ye shal hear
shortly in my poor dioces that they shal know their
former fault and leave it. It was one part of my sermon
at Chichester upon the Feast of the Assumption, and
I shal also now send one to Rye and those parties."
Notwithstanding this spirited defence, however,
Sampson was sent to the Tower at the close of the
year 1539, and there remained until the downfall and
execution of Cromwell in the summer of the following
year. This event was a complete check for a time
to the advanced reformers, and Cranmer himself was

i84

CHICHESTER.

considered to be in great jeopardy. Bishop Sampson
was released, and after occupying the See of Chi-
chester for two years more, was translated to Lichfield
and Coventry.

His successor, George Daye,i who was bishop for
nine years, 1543-1552, proved even less pliable than
Sampson to the secular authority. To the royal
supremacy as limited by the clauses, " under God," or
" after Christ upon earth." he may have been favour-
able, but in doctrine his sympathies were mainly
Roman, so that, like many others of his time, he was
a papist only without the Pope. Together with Heath,
bishop of Worcester, however, he approved of the letter
which Cranmer addressed to the king in Januar)'i545,
praying him to issue a royal prohibition of the super-
stitious customs of ringing bells during All Hallow
night, the veiling of images in Lent, unveiling of the
cross on Palm Sunday, " and creeping to the same
on bare knees." And this probably represents the
length to which men like Daye and Heath were pre-
pared to go. Uoctrinally, they adhered in the main
to Rome, though they were willing to pare away some
excrescences in the shape of superstitious customs
and extravagant ceremonial.

But after the death of Henry VIH. difficult times
set in for men of this stamp. The Regent, the Earl
of Hertford, afterwards Duke of Somerset, was
prompted alike by his sympathies and his political
interests to put himself at the head of the more pro-

' For more detailed accounts of Bishops Sampson and Daye,
see my "Memorials of the See of Chichester," pp. 215-239.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 185

nounced Protestants. Sweeping measures of reform
followed thick and fast, and against nearly all of them
Bishop Daye protested — the Acts for repealing the
severe laws against heretics, for repealing the Six
Articles, for the reception of the Holy Communion in
both kinds, for giving the Chantries to the King, for
allowing the marriage of priests, for enjoining the use
of the Book of Common Prayer, January 15, 1549,
and for the destruction of the old Service Books,
December, 1550.

He does not appear, however, to have resisted
(openly at least) the orders in council forwarded' to
all bishops in February, 1547, directing that all images
remaining in any church or chapel be removed and
taken away. In the autumn of the same year royal
commissioners were sent to every diocese in England
to inquire into the condition of the church and to
deliver certain injunctions and articles. The whole
cathedral body at Chichester was cited to appear
before them between eight and nine o'clock in the
morning of September 30, in the chapter-house.
Provosts of colleges, rectors, schoolmasters, curates,
and four or six laymen from each parish were to pre-
sent themselves, at such places and times as should
be afterwards specified. During the visitation the
jurisdiction of the bishop was suspended, and he was
prohibited from ])reaching anywhere but in his cathe-
dral church, so that his hands were completely, and
his tongue very nearly, tied. The principal injunctions
delivered by the commissioners were that all images
known to be abused by pilgrimages and offerings
should be taken down, that at high mass the epistle

i86

CHICHESTER.

and gospel should be read in English, and every
Sunday and Holy Day a chapter from the Old and
New Testament. Holy Days were to be kept as
Holy, not spent in licentious festivity : the people
were to be taught, not to despise any ceremonies still
retained, but to beware of such superstitions as
sprinkling their beds with holy water, ringing of bells,
or using blessed candles to drive away devils. The
homilies were to be read and the primer of King
Henry to be used.

One consequence of discouraging the old cere-
monial was that the needy or avaricious clergy sold
many of the vessels and ornaments of the Church.
This kind of traffic, however, was forbidden by the
council (who reserved it for themselves), with some
show of virtuous indignation. Their letter, dated
October 17, 1547, addressed to the bishop, may be
read in Daye's register. It instructs him to cause
" dew sirche to be made what hath byn takyn awaye,
solde, or alienatyd out of any church or chapel of yr'
dioces, and to what uses the moneye comyng there-
upon hath been employed, and by whom used."

When the Act was passed for the confirmation of
the new liturgy, January 15, 1549, Daye and five
other bishops dissented from it. On the whole, the
prayer book was well received by the clergy, but it
was not relished by large numbers of the people, who
clung to the forms to which they had been accus-
tomed from their youth. The Bishop of Chichester
probably connived readily enough at departures from
it in his diocese, and after the imprisonment of the
Duke of Somerset in October, the dissentient party in

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 87

the country seems to have waxed bolder. Their con-
duct drew forth an order from the council to the
bishops, a copy of which is contained in Daye's
register. He is enjoined to teach the people " to put
such vain expectations " (as the recovery of the old
ceremonial) " out of their heads," and to command
the clergy and churchwardens of every parish to
deliver to him or his deputy all the old Service Books
which he is so " to deface and abolyshe that they
never after may serve to any suche use as they were
fyrst provyded for."

This order in council was followed up by an Act of
Parliament to the same effect, only expressed in yet
more stringent terms. Daye opposed the Act, and it
is more than probable that he was, to say the least,
slow and slack in enforcing its distasteful requisitions.
It appears, however to have been the policy of Daye
and his party, after making their protest, however
vain, to comply, as far as they conscientiously could,
with unpalatable orders. In the spring of 1550 Daye
even attempted to preach acceptable doctrine before
the court. King Edward, in his journal, under date
April 4, writes, " The Bishop of Chichestre, before a
vehement affirmer of transubstantiation, did preach
against it at Westminster, in the preachinge place."

But whatever may have been thought of his preach-
ing at Westminster, the council was very ill-pleased
with the tidings which reached them of his preaching
in his own diocese. His sermons were considered
calculated to excite animosity against the reformation
in the minds of his people, and on October 7 the
king's almoner. Dr. Cox, was ordered to go into

i88

CHICHESTER.

Sussex to calm the popular discontent, and counteract
the disturbing effects of the bishop's discourses. On
November 8, in the words of the council book, " the
Bishop of Chichester appeared to answer to the things
objected against him for preaching ; and because he
denied the words of his accusation, therefore he was
commanded within two days to bring in writing what
he preached." On November ii the archbishop was
sent for by the council to examine the said discourses.
The bishop felt that he was now being hunted down ;
his powers of compliance had been strained to their
utmost limit, and one more act of the council brought
him to bay.

Towards the end of November, to cite the king's
journal again, "there were letters sent to every
bishop to pluck down the altars," and, in the words
of the letter itself, " in the lieu of them to set up
a table in some convenient place of the chancel
within every church or chapel to serve for the mini-
stration of the blessed communion." Here Daye
made a final stand. He declared " he could not
conform his conscience to do what he was by the said
letter commanded." In a letter to Secretary Cecil,
written some time later, he says that he "stycked
not att the form, situation, or matter (as stone or
wode) whereof the altar was made, but I then toke,
as I now take, those things to be indifferent. . . But
the commandment which was gyven to me to take
downe all altars within my diocese, and in the lieu of
them to ^ sett up a tabled implying in itselffe (as I
take it) a playne abolyshment of the altare (bothe the
name and the thinge) from the use and ministration

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 89

of the Holy Communion, I cowlde not with my con-
science then execute." He was repeatedly summoned
before the council, and maintained his view as being
consistent with the teaching of Scripture, and of the
Fathers of the Church. The council were very un-
willing to proceed to extremities, and gave him time
for deliberation, and for conference with the Primate
Cranmer ; Ridley, bishop of London ; and Goodrich,
bishop of Ely.

Daye, however, was inflexible and at the close of
December, 1550, he was committed to the Fleet
prison in company with Heath, bishop of Worcester :
but they were not tried and formally deposed till
September, 1551.

Meanwhile the clergy of Sussex seem to have shared
tlieir bishop's reluctance to execute the order of the
council, and a letter contained in Daye's register
was sent to the chancellor of the diocese directing
him to enforce obedience. The letter states that " it
is of late comyd to oure knowledge that their do yett
remayne (in whomsoever the faulte may bee) aulters
standyng in sondraye churches withyn that diocese of
Chichester whereof like as we cannot but mervayle,
considerynge our former orders as y^ aforesaid
grounded upon good and godlye consideracions, and
do thynke you not altogether faultless : so have wee
thought good by thys to requyre you ... to take
such substantiall ordre throughout all the diocise as all
manner aulters be with dylygence takeyn downe, and
yn their places tables sett upp, according to our former
commandment and as is already executed in all partes
throughout our realme."

190

CHICHESTER.

A severe outbreak of the sweating sickness in the
summer of 1551 afforded the council an opportunity
for urging the use of the Prayer Book on the clergy
and their flocks. A letter in Daye's register, dated
July 18, addressed to the chancellor requires him to
take means " through the whole diocise to persuade
the people to resorte more dilygently to the boke of
Commyn Prayer than they have done," and " to
pacyfie God's furie and recover hys mercy" not only by
prayer, but "amendment of lyves." There seems to
be an allusion to the delinquencies of the bishop in
the concluding words of the letter. " As the bodye
and members of a dull or syke head cannot be lustie
or apt to do well, so the chiefest mjnisters as well as
the smallest have been so dull and feeble in discharg-
ing of their duties that it ys no mervaille tho' theyr
flocke wander." . . .

The accession of Queen Mary, two years afterwards,
1553, relieved the recalcitrants for a time from their
embarrassment. Bishop Daye was, of course, released
and received into favour. John Scory, who had been
put into the See, was a married man and thought it
prudent to retire with his wife to Wesel in Friesland.
Daye preached at the coronation of the Queen, was
reinstated in his See, and in March, 1554, served on
two Commissions of inquiry into doctrine and discip-
line, the result of which was that three bishops were
deprived for erroneous teaching, and four for contract-
ing marriages. In fact, in the words of Str)-pe, he
became " a mighty busy man." In his own diocese the
altars were replaced, the old services were restored, and
obstinate Protestants were tried and burned ; one at

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 191

Brighton in 1555, four in 1556 at the same place, and
three at East Grinstead.

It must be borne in mind that such acts do not
imply any cruelty in the individual bishop who
ordered them. He might personally be as amiable
and humane as the judge who in the present day
passes sentence of death on a murderer. There was
no conception in that age of the justice or expediency
of religious toleration. Papist and Protestant alike
agreed that heresy was a crime, and to be punished
as a crime. The heretic was a disturber of the public
peace, if not a destroj'er of the everlasting peace of
the soul : as such he was to be put to death. In this
Papist and Protestant were agreed : only each thought
that the other was the obnoxious offender who ought
to be put out of the way.

John Christopherson, who succeeded Daye in
1557, was an uncompromising Romanist. Vehement
and uncritical writers indeed, on the Protestant side,
have represented him as a monster of cruelty. " He
had not so much mercy," says Fuller, " as Nero to
begin courteously, having no sooner put on his epis-
copal ring than presently he washed his hands in the
blood of poor martyrs. Had he sat long in this See
there had needed no iron-mills to rarify the woods of
the countr}'. Though he carried so much of Christ in
his name, he did bear nothing of him in his nature."
After this fierce invective it is consoling to find that
the extent to which the woods of Sussex were thinned
to supply fuel for burning heretics was for ten burned
at Lewes in one fire, and seventeen others at several
times and in sundry places. Horrible enough with-

192

CHICHESTER.

out doubt 1 ; but not more horrible than the executions
of Romanists by the Protestant party when it was
dominant, nor more horrible than the executions
common during the last century, and even at the
beginning of this, for forgery and theft.

Queen Mary exercised her supremacy as Head of
the Church with thorough Tudor vigour, although some
semblance of liberty was granted where her wishes were
not likely to be seriously thwarted. The Dean of
Chichester, Thomas Sampson, resigned in 1552. In
the Queen's conge (Telire for filling up the vacancy she
desires the election to be made by the chapter accord-
ing to " your ancient rights and liberties which j-ou
used to have untill the same of laat daies hath been
interrupted." The chapter, very probably under the
influence of fear, and of the bishop [Daye], elected
William Pye, a staunch opponent of the doctrines of
the Reformation, who helped to worr)' and puzzle
poor Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester, when he
spoke against transubstantiation in the Convocation
of IS53-

The accession of Elizabeth to the throne was a
crisis of anxious suspense for all members of the
Church of England. What shape was that Church to

' The burnings at Lewes took place in front of the Star Inn.
The most notable of the ten who were burned in one fire was
Richard Woodman, an iron-worker, of Warbleton. The vicar
of Warbleton had conformed to all the changes in the reign of
Henry VIII. and Edward VI., but veered round to Romanism
in the reign of Mary, and was the informant against Woodman.
The trials of the Sussex Martyrs may be read in Foxe, making
allowance for his notorious inaccuracies and Protestant pre-
judices.

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 93

take ? How were the conflicting elements within it to
be adjusted? The queen was an inscrutable person,
and men could but vaguely guess what attitude she
would adopt. But they soon learned. A strange
mortality thinned the ranks of the bishops who were
appointed during Mary's reign, brief though it was.
The queen and the primate, Pole, died nearly at the
same time. Several bishops died either just before,
or just afterwards. Among the latter was Christo-
pherson. Bishop of Chichester. The way in which
these vacancies were filled up proved that, whatever
the ultimate balance of parties might be, neither the
popish nor the puritan element could hope imme-
diately to obtain a decisive predominance.

William Barlow, a.d. 1559, the new Bishop of
Chichester, had been a consistent Reformer during
the reign of Henry VHI. and Edward VI., first as
Bishop of St. David's, and afterwards as Bishop of
Bath and Wells. He had been deprived soon after
the accession of Mary ; and of the prelates whom she
deposed, he and two others — Scory, who had been
Bishop of Chichester during the suspension of Bishop
Daye, and Miles Coverdale of Exeter — were the only
survivors. As in her foreign, so in her domestic
policy, and especially in the ecclesiastical department
of it, Elizabeth held the balance between opposing
forces. With her councillors Cecil, and Parker, the
primate, she was the great originator of that middle
course in doctrine and practice which found its most
forcible and eloquent expression in the great work of
the "judicious Hooker." Passionless herself, she
partly scorned and partly dreaded the intemperate
o

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CHICHESTER.

zeal of partisans. The excesses of puritanism were
utterly abhorrent to her, for she loved splendour ; but
the puritans were too powerful to be despised, while
the papists were dangerous owing to their political
intrigues. Neither element was to be encouraged but
neither was to be exasperated into rebellion. The
course which she and her councillors deemed the
safest to pursue was to enforce the existing law where
that law was clearly disobeyed.

There is a copy in Barlow's register of a circular
letter sent by the primate, Parker, to his suffragans in
1564, which illustrates this policy. The diversities in
the mode of conducting public worship had become
manifold and glaring. According to a letter of Cecil
to the queen, some of the clergy performed the service
in the chancel, others in the body of the church, in
some places the altar stood in the body of the
church, in others in the chancel; in some it was
placed altarwise, in others tablewise ; in some it
was covered with a carpet, in others it had none.
Some of the people received kneeling, others sitting ;
some clergy baptized in a font, others in a basin ;
some marked the child with the sign of the cross,
others omitted it, and so on. What was to be
dreaded was an excess of puritanical slovenliness,
passing into positive irreverence in the performance
of sacred functions. The letter of Parker addressed
to Barlow and his other suffragans contains the sub-
stance of a letter which he had received from the
queen expressing her great displeasure at the diversity
in opinions, usages, and rites, and in the behaviour
of the clergy observable in different parts of the

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 95

realm, which "caused foreigners to slander the
countrye." The primate proceeds to say that he is
determined to suppress all such varieties, and " reduce
all to a Godly uniformitie," and, consequently, he
desires all the bishops and others having jurisdiction
to search diligently into such diversities as were
against the established laws, usages, and order of the
Church, and to send in a faithful return of the persons
by whom, and the places in which, these irregularities
were practised. No one was to be instituted hence-
forth to a benefice, who would not solemnly swear to
conform to the prescribed order ; and offenders were
to be visited with ecclesiastical censures. If these
failed, a further remedy was to be provided by some
" sharpe proceeding."

I have not discovered in Bishop Barlow's register,
or in Archbishop Parker's, any return of the places
in which the irregularities complained of were prac-
tised in the Diocese of Chichester. But how great
the diversities must have been it is easy to conceive.
In the small secluded country parishes it is probable
that many of the clergy followed their own inclina-
tions with considerable independence. And, in truth,
the vicissitudes in the Church at large, and the
variations of character in the bishops who had pre-
sided over the diocese during the past twenty-eight
years, must have been very perplexing, not to say
bewildering to the more simple-minded of the clergy
and their flocks. During that period the diocese had
been administered by Sampson and Daye, who were
somewhere between complete Romanists and re-
formers, then by Scory, a thorough-going reformer,
o 2

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CHICHESTER.

then by Daye again, then by Christopherson, a staunch
papist, and lastly by Barlow, a consistent reformer.
The letter of Parker, however, left no room to doubt
that gross and glaring diversities would no longer be
tolerated. Bishop Barlow died in 1568, but the see
was not filled up for two years, and it was probably
at this time that the queen made a considerable
spoliation of the episcopal property. The exchequer
had been much impoverished by the mismanagement
and disasters of Mary's reign, and the queen and
Cecil resolved to replenish it out of the Church lands.
It was safer to vex the Church than to irritate the
whole country by taxation. In spite of the remon-
strances of the primate and other bishops an Act was
passed enabling the queen on the avoidance of a
bishopric to take into her hands any of the landed
property of the see in exchange for a certain number
of impropriate parsonages. Thus the bishop was
nominally, though not really, compensated at the
expense of the clerg)'. In the reign of Charles I.
Bishop Montagu made an unsuccessful attempt to
recover the manor of Selsey, and from the statement
of his case we learn the precise extent to which the
bishopric was despoiled under Elizabeth's Act.
" She took away," he says, " from this poor bishoprick
eight manours out of thirteen, and gave in recompense,
of her special grace, as the phrase runneth, four par-
sonages impropriate, and the reste in dead rente of
tenths, ;^2 29. 2s. 6d. Dead rentes in tythes," the
bishop stated, "are noways improvable, and to be
collected in a hundred parcels, whereas the manors
were worth at least ;^2,5oo per annum."

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 1 97

The evil practice of swelling the income of the
bishoprics by annexing other preferments to it, dates
from this act of spoliation. Barlow's successor,
Richard Curteys, a.d. 1570-1583, held a prebendal
stall in Canterbury Cathedral, but, in spite of this, such
was the diminution of the episcopal revenues that
they were insufficient to support the hospitality and
beneficence which the bishop thought proper to ex-
ercise, and after occupying the see for thirteen years,
he died in poverty and debt. He was an energetic
bishop of the reformed Anglican type, who did his
best to secure sound teaching, and promote uni-
formity of practice throughout his diocese. We learn
from the testimony of a contemporary writer,^ that
"over and beside his ordinary preaching upon Sun-
days and holidays, he hath gone three times through
this whole diocese of Chichester, preaching himself
at the greatest towns, and many learned preachers
with him in other places. He hath been received of
the whole shire exceeding well, and in such sorte
as the like hath not been seen in the memory of man.
And whereas it was a rare thing before his time to
have a learned sermon in Sussex, now the pulpittes
in most places sound continually with the voyce of
learned and godly preachers, he himself as dux gregis,
giving good example unto the rest in so grave and
learned a manner that the people with ardent zeale,
wonderful rejoicinge, and in great number, take farre

' Preface to Bishop Curteys's " Exposition of certain Wordes
of St. Paula to the Romaynes," in note book of White Kennett
among the Lansdowne MSS.

198

CHICHESTER.

and long journeys to be partakers of his good and
godly lessons."

Bishop Curteys, however, was not one of those
who overvalued preaching to the neglect of other
ordinances. He was a member of the commission
under Parker, in 157 1, which issued instructions to
churchwardens in no wise to suffer any incumbent to
minister any sacrament, or to say any public prayer,
except as prescribed by the book of common prayer
and the queen's laws ; or any person publicly or
privately to teach, read, or preach in any public place
of worship, or private house, unless licensed by the
queen, the primate, or bishop of the diocese. The
■writer already quoted dilates upon the vigour with
which the bishop "suppressed Machiavels, Papistes,
Lilestines, and Atheists, charitably maintained orphans
and widows, and punished immoralities of all kinds,
for the which good deeds (such is the maUce of
Sathan and his lims) most bitter and bad speeches
are thrown out against him ; yea, and certain h}Ted
and suborned to go from nobleman to nobleman
from justiciaries to justiciaries, from common table
to common table, to carry such tales and surmises as
the informer knowith to be false."

After the death of Bishop Curteys, the see lay
vacant again for two years. His successor, Thomas
BiCKLEY, 1585-1596, had been, like Curteys, a
chaplain to the late primate, Parker, and was a
diligent, painstaking prelate of the same moderate
type. Some of the returns made to articles of en-
quiry at his primary visitation, in 1586, have been
preserved among the episcopal records, and much

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 199

curious information may be gleaned from them,
touching the condition of the churches and the
character of the clergy and their flocks. No
church appears to have been reckoned in a satis-
factory state unless the walls were "whyted, and
beautyfied with sentences from Holy Scripture."
The altars had, as a rule, been moved from the east
end, for complaints are made in several instances that
" the floor is not paved where the altar stode." The
names of persons in each parish who did not attend
church, or receive the holy communion, or who went
to religious meetings at private houses, are presented,
as well as of scolders and brawlers. One man is
represented as being slanderous, not only " of our
mynister but of the bishop, in saying that he made
very blynde and unskilful mynisters." A quarterly
sermon from the incumbent was considered a suf-
ficient allowance ; but in many cases it was not
regularly delivered, and in some parishes it is stated
that there had not been any sermon for a year or
more. At Boxgrove there had not been any for
three years. One of the commonest complaints
made by the parochial witnesses is that "oure mynister
is not dyligent in catechizing the children and ser-
vants upon holydays," and that the Wednesday and
Friday prayers are omitted. Amongst the delin-
quencies of the vicar of the subdeanery church,
Chichester, it is stated that he administered the holy
communion only once a year, and that he frequently
married people without administering the holy com-
munion to them. This was a breach of the rubric,
which at that time directed that " the new-married

200

CHICHESTER.

persons the same day of their marriage must receive
the holy communion."

On the whole the returns to these articles of en-
quiry indicate the prevalence of much slovenliness in
the manner of performing the di\ane services, and
especially in the administration of the holy com-
munion ; and many of the churches were in a dis-
graceful state of untidiness or positive dilapidation.

Such defects were, no doubt, sometimes due to
mere carelessness and laziness on the part of incum-
bents, but sometimes also to puritanical objections to
the teaching and ritual prescribed by the book of
common prayer. In the interval between the epis-
copates of Curteys and Bickley, Archbishop Whitgift
suspended eight of the Sussex clergy who declined to
subscribe to the prayer book. These were the vicar
of Salehurst, the rector of Hamsey, the vicar of
Lyminster, the rector of St. Mary's, Lewes, the vicar
of Burpham, the vicar of Amberley, the preacher of
Hodeleigh, the preacher of Warbleton. After their
suspension they were brought before the primate
Whitgift, the bishops of London, Sarum, and Ro-
chester, and the dean of Westminster, and being
required to subscribe to the book of common prayer,
alleged that there were certain rubrics wherein was
some doubt which moved them to enquire of the
bishops the interpretation of the said rubrics. The
rubrics in question were (i.) at the end of the pre-
face to the catechism — "And that no man shall
think that any detriment shall come to children by
deferring of their confirmation, it is certain by God's
word that children being baptized have all things

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 201

necessary for their salvation, and be undoubtedly
saved." Question — Did these words imply that bap-
tism conferred grace ex opere opei-ato, so that the
baptized were undoubtedly saved ? Atisivered by the
bishops — No; it only dissuaded from the popish
opinion of confirmation called " bishopping," which
they believe to be necessary to salvation, and do
think that children are not properly baptized till
they be also bishopped, and so make confirmation a
sacrament.

(ii.) Did the rubric as to the crossing of children
mean that it was a part of the Sacrament, as though
baptism were improper without it ? Answer — No ;
it was only a significant ceremony and profitable cir-
cumstance.

(iii.) Did the words in the ordination service,
" Receive the Holy Ghost " signify that the bishop
had authority to give the Holy Ghost ? Anszcer : No,
only instnimentaliter ; even as he is not the author
and giver of baptism, but only the administrator of it.

(iv.) Was baptism by women lawful ? Answer: The
book did not name women in connexion with private
baptism, and their subscription was not required to
anything not contained in the book.

This last question was not an unnatural one, for it
appears from the episcopal articles of inquiry that at
this time, and long afterwards, children were com-
monly baptized two or three days after birth by the
mother's nurse. Midwives were not permitted to
pursue their calling without being certificated, and at
the bishop's visitation they were required to produce
these certificates, and to declare that they used tiie

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CHICHESTER.

service prescribed in the prayer-book, and did not
practise any Romish rites or magical arts.

The eight clergymen expressed themselves satisfied
with the replies of the primate and his assessors to
their inquiries, and consented to subscribe to the
prayer-book.

But if some of the clergy entertained puritanical
objections to the reformed liturg>', there were not
a few of the lay people who clung to Roman doc-
trine and practice. From the great majority of
parishes in Sussex during the reign of Elizabeth in
the returns made to the bishop's " Articles of Inquiry "
there is mention made of popish recusants ; some of
them harboured, or were suspected of harbouring,
Roman priests in their houses ; such were the Poles,
of Lordington, in the parish of Racton, who were
connexions of the late primate, Cardinal Pole. For
the most part, they seem to have conducted them-
selves very quietly, and were probably glad, if they
could, to escape observation, but some, of less discreet
and more vehement temperament, openly insulted
and derided the clergy and their flocks, and profaned
the churches. Thus we have an account of the out-
rageous conduct of one Walter Cushman, of Bux-
sted, — "Whereas, Walter Cushman hath these three
years last past been presented divers tymes by the
churchwardens and swornemen, being honest men
that favoured the laws of God and the Queen's
Majesty's proceedings, and also by Henry Monuques,
minister of Buchstedde, and a preacher, for divers
sundry causes touched in her Majesty's injunctions ;
viz., that the said Walter Cushman, ma)Titayned

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION. 203

divers popish errors, as of the corporal presence in
the sacrament, images, and other popish opinions;
that he carried about a popish book touching the
corporal presence in the sacrament, which he con-
fessed ; also that he carried letters between papist
and papist in the tyme of the Queen's Majesty's
danger, by treason by the 14 notorious trayters : that
he led his horse up and down in the church and about
the communion-table in the chancel : that he was
a contemner and abuser of ministers, and especially
now of late of Mr. Monuques by sundry malicious
and opprobrious words against him; that he was a
disturber of divine service by talking and laughinge
in the church, and specially in the time of the
sermon : that he paid not the poor, nor to the repara-
tion of the^churche, nor to the clerke's wages as he
ought, that he hath not receaved these three years at
Buchsted, and hath taken his oath lately that he
durst not receave for fear of poysoning." The end
of it all was that Walter Cushman " submitted and
humbled himselfe to the Queen's Majesty's pro-
ceedings," and, at the request of some of the Queen's
officers, upon his reconciliation, " was receaved and
admitted to the Lord's supper, June 2, 1588, being
Trinity Sundaye."

From a report made to the Crown in 1587
respecting the numbers and qualifications of the
justices of the peace for Sussex, it appears that several
of them were not hearty supporters of the reformed
church, or at least were considered to live on terms
of perilous intimacy with recusants. Thus, of some
it is reported, " theas be counted cold professors oi

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CHICHESTER

religion." Of one that he has "lett his house to a
notable recusant;" another, that "he hath his wyff's
mother in his howsse a recusant ; " of another, that he
had been a recusant, and put out of commission in
consequence, " but now syns his last marryadg he
dooth dilygently come to the church, and publykly
receaveth the sacrament, wherefor yf he was restored
to the justys office, it might encourage hym to pro-
ceed, and to allure other recusants for to do their
dughty to God and their prinse." The commissioner
ends his report by recommending that " their be
moor justiciaries in Sussex than in other countys, for
that it bordereth south on the sea and north on the
^vyld [weald], in which towe places comminly the
people be geven mutch to rvvednes and wyllfulnes."

The fluctuating and doubtful attitude of many of
the people towards the reformed Church is indicated
by a letter from the deputy-lieutenants of Sussex to
" my lords of the Council," asking for directions how
to proceed in dealing with the different classes of
recusants. They represent that some refuse to come
to church once a month, will not take the oath (of
the queen's supremacy), nor have their children
christened, except in secret corners, and besides are
known to favour papists, entertaining them and fre-
quenting their houses. Ansu'er: " Being so proved,
then to be restrained."

Others scrupled about the oath, yet came to church ;
others conformed in all respects, yet were well known
to be in sympathy with papists ; others took the oath,
and came to church, yet would not communicate.
Anstcer: "Not to be dealt withall." Some lay

PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.

205

hidden in corners, or were not known, before proof
made. Ansiuer: "Being taken, and proved recusants,
then to be committed."

The tenacity with which many persons in Sussex,
especially among the higher ranks, clung to the
usages and the creed of the unreformed church, is
amply illustrated by the phraseology of wills made
in the sixteenth century. Throughout the reign of
Henry VIII., many of these wills contain no hint
that any changes had been made in the arrangements
of the churches, or that the testators supposed any
great alterations to be impending. From 1530 right
on to 1548 we find people directing their bodies to
be buried in front of particular images, or altars, or
pictures of " Oure Ladye," and bequeathing sums of
money to priests to sing masses for their souls, and
the souls of their relations, either for ever or for
periods ranging from ten to twenty years. Lord
Dacre, whose will was proved in 1534, directs his body
to be buried in the parish church of Hurstmonceaux,
on the north side of the high altar j also, "that a
tombe be there made for placing the sepulchre of our
Lord, with all fitting furniture thereto, in honour of
the most blessed sacrament : that ;^ioo be employed
toward the lights about the said sepulchre, in wax
tapers of 10 pounds weight, each to burn about it. . .
Also, that an honest priest shall sing there for my
soul by the space of seven years, taking annually for
his salary, and to find bread, wine, and wax, xii marks
sterling."

Parish registers and churchwardens' accounts supply
evidence that in some churches the furniture and

206

CHICHESTER.

goods which pertained to the unreformed ritual
remained undisturbed, although the need and the
significance of them had passed away. In Lindfield
Church, for instance, the roodloft was not taken down
till 1583. In some parishes, on the other hand, the
goods seem to have been sold very freely, to any one
who was disposed to purchase them, and the proceeds
put to the credit of the churchwardens' accounts. In
the churchwardens' accounts of the parish of Bolney,
in the reign of Henry VIII., there are entries of
profits arising from the sale to various purchasers of
altar-cloths, a sacring bell, call bell, broken candle-
stick, old vestment, cope, pyx, and two tabernacles.

In fact, there can be little doubt that throughout
the reign of Elizabeth, in spite of the efforts of the
bishops to secure uniformity, the varieties in the
details of ritual, furniture, and general arrangement
in the churches must have been very considerable.

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 20 7

CHAPTER VIII.

A.D. 1604-1660.

The Diocese during the reigns of James I. and Charles I. —
The Siege of Chichester and Sack of the Cathedral — The
Commonwealth.

AViTH the accession of the Stuarts to the throne
began that close intimacy between the Church and
the Crown which seemed destined to promote the
welfare of both, but in the end precipitated their fall.
The secret of Elizabeth's power was that she knew
how to distribute both her frowns and her favours.
She was the mistress of all her subjects, and would
not place herself at the head of any one party to
depress the rest. James and Charles courted the
Church, and the Church fell into the snare. It
became the church of the monarchy rather than the
church of the whole nation. The close connexion
between the Church and the Throne led to an
equally close connexion between political rebellion
and religious dissent. These two combined forces
gained the upper hand, and so for a time mitre and
crown were laid low together in the dust.

When James I. began his reign the puritan party
were very sanguine that more indulgence would be
extended to them than they had enjoyed under
Elizabeth. The strict uniformity which Archbishop

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CHICHESTER.

Whitgift endeavoured to exact had been very galling
to many of the clergy, who were infected with the
teaching of the foreign reformers, and not a few had
resigned their livings. The views of this party were
embodied in the well-known millenary petition, signed
by 750 ministers, and presented to the king in the
first year of his reign ; and their cause was pleaded in
the Hampton Court Conference.

Two petitions presented to James in March, 1603,
immediately after his accession, from the inhabitants
of Sussex, one by the nobility and gentry, the other
by the commonalty, manifest, although cautiously
worded, an unquestionable leaning in the puritan
direction. The first petition is signed by Thomas,
Lord de la Warre and twenty-six other gentlemen of
Sussex. After a long preamble, deprecating the dis-
pleasure of the king, who, they fear, is rather over-
whelmed by the "multiplicity and indiscretion of
petitioners," they say that they have " received strength
and boldness to come before his Majesty's presence
as the woman of Samaria did in a great famine
(2 Kings vi. 26), before the Kinge and crye ' Helpe, my
Lord, O King.' They pray that every parishe or congre-
gation may have a godly and learned pastor to instruct
the people, provided with sufficient maintenance : and
that pluralities, non-residence, unpreachinge, ignorant,

and ungodly ministers bee removed that the

preaching of subscription, otherwise than to your
Majesty's supremacy, and those articles which concern
the true faith, doctrine, and sacraments commanded
in the thirteenth year of her late Majestj^'s reign, and
the hot urging of ceremonies not approved of in the

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 209

judgment (as we are persuaded) of many godly and
learned ministers within this your realm, which greatly
hindered the growth of true religion and piety (whilst
many learned and zealous preachers have been
deprived, silenced, and secluded from their flocks,
and many learned and well- qualified men discouraged
from entering into the ministry, whereby Atheism,
Popery, and Ignorance, have taken root and spread
themselves over the lande) may now quite cease, or be
accounted indifferent for the ministers to retain or
omit without trouble, or being reputed obstinate for
not submitting themselves unto them." . . .

The petition of the commons is much to the same
effect, though rather less explicit.

How grievously the hopes of the puritan party were
disappointed by the ecclesiastical policy of James is
well known. The petitioners from Sussex and else-
where must have been rather crestfallen when they
read the king's proclamation, issued in October, 1603.
" Concerning such as seditiously seek reformation in
Church matters." In this document he declares his
persuasion that " both the constitution and doctrine
of the English Church is agreeable to God's word,
and near to the condition of the Primitive Church."
He admits that some imperfections may have crept
into this as into all institutions administered by fallible
men, and that he designs to hold a conference with a
view to their redress ; but meanwhile he reprobates
" those restless spirits whose heat tendeth rather to
combustion than reformation : some using public in-
vectives against the state ecclesiastical here estabHshed,
some contemning their authority and the processes of
p

210

CHICHESTER.

their courts, some gathering subscriptions of multitudes
of vulgar persons to supplications to us to crave that
reformation, which if there be cause to make is more
in our heart than in theirs." In short he warns all
his subjects to abstain at their peril from presenting
any more petitions, or infringing in the smallest de-
gree the existing ecclesiastical order.

Archbishop Whitgift meanwhile was indefatigable
in his efforts to enforce religious uniformity throughout
the kingdom. He addressed a letter to Watson,
Bishop of Chichester, desiring him to ascertain —
I St. The certaine number of those who do receive
the communion in everie several parishe. 2nd. The
certaine number of every man . . . and every woman
recusant in every several parishe. The returns to
Bishop Watson's enquiry have not been preserved
except in a few instances, and if these may be taken
as samples of the general condition of the diocese,
the amount of outward nonconformity was very small.
In Eastbourne there was only one recusant, a widow.
With the exception of this person and a Scotchman
who had been excommunicated four years since, the
vicar states that all the adults, numbering about 500,
were habitual communicants. At Poynings there
were not any recusants, and all the adults were com-
municants. In Bexhill the number of communicants
was 225 ; in Brightling, 195 ; and in neither were
there any recusants. At West Firle there were eight
men and nine women who would not receive the holy
communion : these were either members of the family
of Gage, who were Roman Catholics, or persons
under their influence. At All Saints, Hastings, the

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 211

number of communicants was 247 ; at Ditchling, 200.
Archbishop Bancroft was no less vigorous than his
predecessor in exacting uniformity ; and in the dio-
cese of Chichester we cannot doubt that his efforts
were well seconded by the successor of Bishop
Watson for this successor was no less a person than
Lancelot Andrewes. He only occupied the see,
however, for four years, 1605 to 1609, when he was
translated to Ely, and his register is a bare record of
official acts. The number of clergy actually deprived
at this period for nonconformity in all England does
not appear to have exceeded fifty. In Sussex the
Vicar of East Grinstead was deprived by the primate
during his Metropolitan visitation, and nine other
puritan preachers are said to have been deprived at
the same time, but whether they all belonged to
Sussex I have not discovered.

Bishop Harsneti- who succeeded Andrewes, and
occupied the see ten years, 1609-16 19, must have

' There are a few notices in Archbishop Bancroft's register
of acts done by him in Sussex, during the vacancy of the See,
before the appointment of Andrewes. He institutes new ■\ncars
to the parishes of East Hoathley and of Kingston-by-Sea, both
of which were vacant by the deprivation of the former incum-
bents.

The vicar of Wartling, Thomas Lyllie, had been deprived
by Bishop Watson for contumacious nonconformity to the book
of common prayer, and a new vicar had been instituted ; but
his predecessor continued to reside in the parish and molested
his ministrations in every possible way, inteiTupting di\Tne
service, and endeavouring to prevent his recei\ing the full fruits
of his benefice. The archbishop directs the living to be seques-
trated until such time as the deprived vicar should desist from
his aimoying behanour.

P 2

212

CHICHESTER.

been very unfavourable to puritan teachers and Cal-
vinistic teaching in his diocese, for he had originally
attracted public attention by a powerful sermon
against Calvinism, preached at Paul's Cross in 1584.
We have not any record of Bishop Harsnett's diocesan
administration, but some orders which he drew up
for the better regulation of the cathedral estab-
lishment have been preser\'ed ; and it is time now
to direct our attention to the mother church of the
diocese.

The right of residence originally enjoyed freely and
equally by all the canons had been checked at
Chichester, as in most other cathedrals of the " old
foundation," about the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury, by a custom of imposing costly outlays in hospi-
tality and other ways on those who came to reside
during the first year of their residence. Thus many
were deterred from coming to reside at all, and the
executive power, as well as the divisible fund of the
corporate body gradually fell more and more into
the hands of a small section of the chapter. In the
records of episcopal visitations in the fifteenth cen-
tury we rarely find more than seven canons in resi-
dence, and often not so many. As the cost of living
increased with the decrease in the value of money, as
the Church became impoverished by the pressure of
frequent and heavy taxation in the fifteenth century,
and distracted by the religious dissensions of the
sixteenth, the number of canons who were able or
willing to reside diminished yet more. IMost of them,
especially after the marriage of the clergy became
lawful, preferred to live in peaceful and frugal retire-

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 213

ment with their famihes on their prebends. Or if at
any time an unusual number did come into residence,
discontent and difficulties arose, because, when the
attenuated common fund was divided among many,
the share of each was too small to meet the expenses
of his residence. In the reign of Elizabeth the in-
convenience arising from this state of things was so
serious, that at Chichester (as in most of the other
cathedrals of the old foundation) steps were taken to
put an end to it. Accordingly in 1573-4, during the
episcopate of Bishop Curteys, statutes were passed
which remodelled or rather revolutionized the old con-
stitution. " Whereas," it is stated, " the revenues of
the cathedral are very small, and by reason of a mul-
titude of residentiaries, the profits being divided and
dispersed into many hands, the old laudable hospi-
tality is not, nor can be, kept up of any, whereby is
grown a contempt of this state : it is agreed that
henceforth there shall be no more residentiaries but
four beside the dean." It was also enacted that no
canon should be admitted to reside without first ob-
taining the consent of the dean, and the more part of
the residentiaries ; that is to say, they were constituted
electors to a vacancy in their own body, on the prin-
ciple of what is called co-optation : and further, that
every residentiary should keep residence, per se ant
per alium, by the space of three months every year,
to be settled by common consent of the dean and
chapter.

Thus the ancient cathedral body was reduced to a
mere skeleton of its former self, and the original pur-
poses of its creation were as nearly as possible frus-

214

CHICHESTER.

trated. The connexion of the great mother church
with the diocese, through the medium of a large body
of canons, resident, sometimes on their prebends,
sometimes within the precints of the cathedral, was
broken down : the maintenance by a large staff of
clergy of frequent divine services, bearing some pro-
portion in their variety to the size of the building,
came to an end. The services were reduced to two
daily, the residentiary body to five, and residence was
defined as being not inconsistent with nine months
absence out of twelve. What the condition of the
cathedral was thirty-five years after these changes had
been made, may be gathered from the enquiries made
and the orders given by Bishop Harsnett at his visita-
tions. The articles of enquiry at his third visitation
allude to negligence of his injunctions, issued on a
former occasion. " Have not many of the vicars and
lay vicars," he asks, " been absent for months to-
gether ? Is the choir sufficiently furnished, and are
the boys properly instructed ? What has become of
the copes and vestments ? Who is responsible for
the custody of them and of the books ? Who is the
principle cause of the defects that do appear in those
things ? Are there not ale houses in the close ?
And have not laymen keys to open doors ? Why are
boys and hogs allowed to beastly defile the walls ?
Why are all these things not amended since the last
visitation ? "

These articles seem to have stirred up the chapter
to issue some rules " for the better ordering of their
church and churchmen," which bear date September
27th, 16 16. The bells are to be rung more regularly,

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 215

and the bell ringers are to keep order all sermon
time, each in his proper quarter or beat : the vest-
ments are to be carefully put away in presses. Bishop
Sherburne's bedesman was to be more diligent in his
duties, and " to purge the churchyard of hogs and
dogs, and lewd persons that play or do worse." The
verger was to keep the cloisters clean, and " to scourge
out the ungracious boys, with their tops, or at least to
present them to the old man of the vestry." The
principal of the vicars was to see the " outdoors of
their cloisters locked up and fast barred by nine
o'clock at night, to keep the keys himself," and to
repress all seditious brawlers and other enormities
there, or if they flame out so fast that he cannot,
" then he was to report them to the dean or president
of the chapter."

The cathedral, indeed, and the adjacent buildings
must have been now and long afterwards a somewhat
melancholy spectacle of untidiness and decay. Bishop
Watson obtained a licence from the archbishop to
remove a " noysome house on the east side of the
palace gatehouse, twenty feet long and ten feet
broade." And inside the same gate, " a deformed
house, used heretofore for a prison, and a low de-
formed house thereto adjoining, used now for a
stable." But if some unsightly and noisome buildings
in the vicinity of the cathedral were removed, the
canons' houses which remained appear from the
notices of them in episcopal visitations to have been
often in an extremely dilapidated, almost ruinous con-
dition, during the greater part of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries : the immediate precincts of the

2l6

CHICHESTER.

cathedral are commonly described as being in a dis-
graceful state of neglect, while the interior of the
church became gradually encumbered and disfigured
by pews and lofts which were let to the congregation.
The articles of enquiry addressed to incumbents
of parishes by Bishop Montagu, and his successor,
Brian Duppa, both high churchmen of the school of
Laud, whose episcopates extend from 1628 to 1642,1
reveal what tendencies to irreverence and irregularities
of various kinds prevailed in parish churches. Bishop
iVIontagu enquires whether communicants " meekly
kneel," or whether they stand or sit at the time of
reception : whether the holy table is profaned at any
time by persons sitting upon it, casting hats or cloaks
upon it, writing or casting up accounts, or any other
indecent usage.

The necessity of putting such questions proves to
what lengths irreverence was carried in regard to the
Holy Table, and accounts for the determination of
Laud to have it set back again, altar-wise, at the east
end of the church in all parishes. This order of the
primate is referred to in Bishop Brian Duppa's articles
of inquiry at his primary visitation in 1638. "Is
your communion-table," he asks, " or altar, strong,
fair, and decent ? Is it set according to the practice
of the ancient church, — upon an ascent at the east end
of the chancel, with the ends of it north and south ?

' For a sketch of the personal history and character of Bishop
Montagu I may refer the reader to my " Memorials of the See
of Chichester," 269-274. Bishop Duppa was translated to
Salisbury : see the account of him in " Annals of the Church
of Salisbury," pp. 208, 209.

THE REIGNS OF JAMES I. AND CHARLES I. 21 7

Is it compassed in with a handsome rail to keep it
from profanation according to an order made in the
metropolical visitation?" Bishop Duppa also asks,
" What galleries and scaffolds have you in your
church ? Is there not conveniency of room for the
parishioners without them? Have there been kept
in the church, chappie, or churchyard, any plays,
feasts, suppers. Church ales, temporal courts, or Leet
day juries, musters or meetings for rates and taxa-
tions, especially at the communion-table ? "

The questions respecting the character, conduct,
and dress of the clergy are instructive and enter-
taining. " Doth your minister use such comely and
decent apparel as becometh the gravity of his calling,
and may distinguish him from the laity ? or doth he
wear long hair and deep ruffles, falling bands down
to his shoulders, or any other unseemly garments not
proper to his ministry ? If a parson or vicar, doth
he reside? or, if a curate, hath he an honest and
sufficient salary ? Doth he idly vague up and down,
or in any way else so entangle himself in secular
affairs as to neglect the duties of his calling? Does
he diligently labour for the reclaiming of recusants,
whether they be such as with peril of their souls
superstitiously adhere to the Church of Rome, or
such, in the other extreme, who, having perversely
relinquished our communion, find nothing to adhere
to but their own private fancies ? Doth he use the
prescribed form of prayer before his sermon to prevent
the indiscreet flying out of some in their extemporary
prayers? Doth he preach in a gown and cassock,
not in a riding or ambulatory cloak ? Doth he deliver

2l8

CHICHESTER.

the Holy Communion to any standing, or sitting, or
in any other posture than on the knee ? Doth he-
first receive it himself, and after, deliver it to the
communicants, not in gross, but one by one, using
all the words enjoined severally to each of them?

Bishop Duppa, having been translated to Sarum in
1641, was succeeded by the pious, amiable, and ac-
complished Henry King. The storm-clouds were
now gathering thick and fast around the monarchy
and the church. The Act had been passed which
deprived bishops of their votes in the upper house.
Strafford had fallen. Laud was in prison, waiting his
doom, and twelve other prelates had just been im-
prisoned for protesting against the loss of their rights
as peers in Parliament. Down to the year 1642
Sussex was, on the whole, favourable to the royal
cause. In 1640 the county had sent 640 foot and
80 horse to the king's army against the Scotch ; and
the clergy had contributed ;^985. i6s. for the support
of the army. But in February, 1642, Sussex swelled
the general cry of discontent by a petition to Parlia-
ment, praying for a thorough reformation in religion.
AVhen the war broke out in the autumn of that year,
Arundel was in the hands of royalists, Chichester
and Lewes in the hands of parliamentarians. The
cathedral city, however, was seized, on November 22,
by a body of royalists, of whom the chief leaders
were. Sir Edward Bishop, of Parham ; Sir ^V. Morley,
of Halnaker; Sir Edward Ford, of Up Park, and
others. The Parliament now became alarmed, and
bestirred itself in earnest to assert its power in the
western part of Sussex.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

219

By the middle of December the Parliamentary
general, Sir W. Waller, having captured Farnham and
Winchester, moved upon Sussex. He took Arundel
by a surprise, and then turned upon Chichester, which
surrendered, after an eight days' siege, on December
29, 1642. The victors first released those whom the
royalists had imprisoned, and then arrested the bishop,
the clergy, the royalist leaders and their followers, to
the number of eighty. The bishop is called by a
fanatical writer of the day, " as proud a prelate as all
the rest are, and a most pragmatical malignant against
the Parliament, as all his catercapt companions also
are." But such language is utterly at variance with
trustworthy accounts of the bishop's character, and
indeed the terms papist and malignant were so
freely dealt out by Parliamentary fanatics at this
period that they are no clue whatever to the real
character of the individuals to whom they were
applied.

The Dean of Chichester, Bruno Ryves, was fined
;^i2o, and of course deprived of his emoluments.
He lived to become Dean of Windsor after the
Restoration, and employed some of his leisure during
the Commonwealth in writing an account of the war,
to which we are indebted for a curious description of
the sack of the cathedral by Waller's troops. "Their
first business," he writes, " after the surrender was to
plunder the cathedral church. They left not so much
as a cushion for the pulpit, nor a chalice for the

blessed Sacrament As the soldiers broke

down the organ, and dashed the pipes with their
poleaxes, they cried out in scoff, ' Harke how the

220

CHICHESTER.

organs goe ! ' The altar and the rails were demo-
lished, and the table of commandments broken into
' small shivers.' The leaves of the books were
torn out and scattered about; the surplices were
taken for secular purposes ; Bishop Sherburne's pic-
tures of the bishops and kings were defaced. A
solemn thanksgiving for the victory was offered in the
cathedral, and after the sermon the soldiers 'ran
up and down the church with their swords dra\vn,
defacing the monuments, hacking and hewing the
seats and stalls, scratching and scraping the painted
walls, Sir W. Waller and the rest of the commanders
standing by as spectators and approvers of these
impious barbarities. ' In the north transept, then
used as the parish church of St. Peter, ' the chalice
was broken into bits for division of spoil, and the
Bible marked in divers places with a black coaL'
One of the soldiers picked out the eyes from an
image of Edward VI., saying that he and his prayer-
book were the cause of all this mischief Meanwhile,
Sir Arthur Hazelrigg having learned, through the
treachery of one of the officers of the church, where
more of the plate was concealed, brought some of his
men up with ' crowes of iron ' into the chapter-house,
and directed them to break down the wainscot about
the room. As the work went on he cried out,
'There, boys! there, boys ! hearke, hearke ! it rattles!
it rattles.' His tongue was not enough to express his
joy; it was operative at his verj' heels by dancing
and skipping. ' Marke what music it is lawful for a
puritan to dance to ! "'

From the same writer, and from Walker in his

THE COMMONWEALTH.

" Sufferings of the Clerg}'," we learn the fate of some
of the principal members of the chapter. The pre-
centor was seized at Exeter by the Earl of Stamford,
whose naturally violent temper was inflamed by an
" after dinner," and the poor precentor almost died
of the barbarous treatment he received. The chan-
cellor, Dr. Marsh, managed to escape to the king at
Oxford ; his living of Cuckfield was of course seques-
trated. John Gregory, Prebendary of Bracklesham,
a prodigy of multifarious learning and a friend of
Selden, retired to the village of Kidlington, near
Oxford, where he spent the remainder of his days in
great poverty, and died in an alehouse. Dr. Oughtred,
Prebendary of Heathfield, a first-rate mathematician,
had good offers of a home and emolument in Italy,
France, and Holland, but preferred living in poverty
in England in hope of better times ; and when they
came the shock was too much for him. On hearing
of the vote passed for the restoration of the king he
died in a transport of joy, in the 86th year of his age.

The estates of the bishop were sequestrated, and
it would appear from a passage in his will that he was
deprived of some of his personal effects ; he bequeaths
his books to his son being a " small remainder of a
large library, taken from me at Chichester, contrary
to the condition and contracte of the general and
counsell of warre at the taking of that citie." Most
of his time during the Commonwealth was spent in
retirement at Richkings, near Langley, and not far
from Eton, in the house of Lady Salter, a sister of
Bishop Duppa. Several members of Bishop King's
family also found a hospitable refuge here as well as

222

CHICHESTER.

John Hales, one of the greatest scholars in Europe,
who had been turned out of his fellowship at Eton
because he refused to sign the engagement required
of all who held office, to be faithful to the established
government.'^

In December, 1643, Arundel was recaptured by
the royalists under Lord Hopton. Their occupation
of the town, however, was very short-lived, as it was
recovered by the parliamentary forces under Waller
in the following month, after a siege of seventeen
days. One of the prisoners of war on this occasion
was a person too remarkable to be passed by without
notice in these pages. William Chillingworth was
skilled in material as well as theological warfare;
especially in the engineering department. In the
beginning of the war, he was, as we are informed by
Calamy, with the Earl of Essex, and showed himself
a person of great strength and undaunted courage.
At the siege of Gloucester he invented some ingenious
machines for the use of the besiegers. The excessive
cold, which facilitated the rapid march of Hopton
upon Arundel by hardening the roads in Sussex,
then, as long aftenvards, notorious for depth of mire,
had, combined with the other hardships of the cam-
paign, made Chilling^vorth so ill that he could not
be taken to London with the other prisoners. He
was conveyed to Chichester, and comfortably lodged

' All that can be made out respecting the life of Bishop
King has been brought together in a very agreeable form in
the preface to a collection of his poems edited in 1843 by
Dr. Hannah, the present Archdeacon of Lewes and Vicar
of Brighton.

THE COMMONWEALTH.

223

in the palace (then deserted by the bishop) a favour
which he owed to one of his bitterest theological
opponents, Francis Cheynell, a presbyterian minister,
who had been installed in the living of Petworth,
formerly held by Bishop King. Chillingworth died
about a month after he was brought to Chichester,
and was buried in the south walk of the cloisters,
where a tablet is attached to the wall over his grave,
inscribed with his name and the motto, " Nec sensit
damna sepulchri."

Cheynell, who had frequently visited Chillingworth
during his illness, rewarded himself for his charitable
care of his opponent by delivering a virulent invective
upon him at his funeral ; at the same time flinging
into his grave a copy of his celebrated work, " The
Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation,"
with expressions of contempt and detestation.

There must have been many among the inhabitants
of Petworth who groaned over the substitution of
such a stern narrow-minded puritan as Cheynell for
their former rector, the gentle, amiable, and scholarly
Bishop King. There can have been few parishes in
the whole diocese where the change occasioned a
harsher, or more unpleasant contrast. No doubt in
many of the secluded country parishes the incum-
bents remained undisturbed ; but their tenure was very
insecure, and if any man of property and influence
in the neighbourhood was a zealous partisan of the
Parliament, they were probably either ejected or sub-
jected to much harshness and violence. The rector
of Beckley, Thomas Sharpe, WTOte a lamentable and
minute account, which has been preserved, of the

224

CHICHESTER.

rough treatment he experienced. He was an old
man who had held the living for many years. At a
meeting of freeholders summoned at Battel in 1643,
he had expressed his dissent from some propositions
sent down by the Parliament respecting the levying
of troops for the defence of the country. He was, in
consequence, cited to appear before Colonel Morley,
of Glynde, an active organizer of the Parliamentary
forces in Sussex. The poor old rector set out in very
inclement weather, to go before Colonel Morley on
the appointed day, at Lewes ; but hearing on the
way that the colonel had been called off to Arundel,
he returned home. Some months after this, a party
of troopers came to his parsonage, accused him of
breaking his engagement, fired bullets into his house,
broke in the doors, plundered many of his effects,
terrified his aged wife and servants by their threats
and blows, and ended by carrj'ing him off to Rye,
where he was compelled, under a warrant from
Colonel Morley, to give security for the payment of
;^2 2o to the Parliament ; an extortion which reduced
him to a condition of extreme povertj'. The same
Colonel Morley entered Hastings one Sunday even-
ing in July, 1643, and demanded the deliver)- of all
the arms in the town. Divine service was going on
in All Saints' Church when the news of the Colonel's
approach arrived ; the service was broken off; the
curate fled for refuge to a wood near the town ; the
soldiers were quartered in the church for the night —
one of them preached to his comrades from the
pulpit, and either he or one of his audience stole the
surplice. Poor Mr. Hinson, the curate, was caught

THE COMMONWEALTH.

225

the next day, and after being imprisoned for three
weeks in Rye gaol, in the same cell with a tinker,
was sent to London, whence he escaped to the king
at Oxford.

In 1653 a measure was passed in Parliament to
ensure the appointment of such ministers to all bene-
fices vacant by deprivation or otherwise as should be
acceptable to the Government. The preamble to the
measure stated that for some time past no certain
course had been established for supplying vacant
parishes with able and fit ministers, whereby many
weak, scandalous, popish, and ill-affected persons had
intruded themselves. Consequently a body of ex-
aminers, called triers, was appointed, thirty-eight in
number, and without a certificate of approval from
this body no one was to be deemed lawfully possessed
of any benefice, while by virtue of such certificate he
was to be put into full possession as much as if he
had been admitted by institution and induction. The
low and coarse type of men sometimes admitted by the
" triers," may be gathered from some of the contem-
porary local records. Thus in the parish register of East
Lavant, we read, under the date of October 29, 1653,
"Richard Batsworth was approved of and sworn to
be parish minister for the said parish according to an
Act of Parliament in the case made and provided.
He was a man of low stature, very violent for the
rebels, and a plunderer of the royalists. He had
some learning, and a great deal of chicanery, though
seldom more than one coat, which for some time
he wore the wrong side out (its right side was seen
only on Sundays) till it was almost worn out, and
Q

226

CHICHESTER.

then he had a new one, which he used in the same
manner."

In the parish of Wivelsfield the tithes belonged to
a Mr. More, of Morehouse, to whose ancestors they
had been appropriated on the dissolution of Lewes
Priory. A long correspondence has been preserved
which passed between Mr. More and Bishop King,
in the first year after the Restoration, and it affords a
curious insight into the condition of the parish during
the Commonwealth. The parishioners had com-
plained that Mr. More had recently made no allow-
ance for a minister, according to the custom of him-
self and his ancestors for many years. The bishop
requires Mr. More to " settle an orthodox minister
with a competent maintenance." To this Mr. More
replies that he and his grandfather before him, " out
of the natural addiction we had to a scholar's com-
pany, and the respect we bore to a divine function,
did uninterruptedly entertayne some student as com-
panion, to whom we did not only show the civiHty of
a gentleman, but in consideration of his office in the
parish we allowed some salary, not out of necessity,
but as we hoped out of charity, till the late sad
times." During the commonwealth Mr. More's
scholarly chaplains had been silenced in the church,
and their place supplied, first by a presbyterian jack-
maker and then by a drummer, while at the time of
the correspondence with the bishop, it was occupied
by an " unlearned and unordayned maltman." The
people had endeavoured, Mr. More says, "to force
me to mayntayn the maultman by giving him over
all the tithes, whom I judged worthy of none;"

THE COMMONWEALTH.

227

and in conclusion he states that he is ready to
"entertayn a minister as formerly, allowing him a
noble salary, on condition that he be of my own
election without stint or limitation, subject to the
approval of yr lordship."

On the other hand, despite the ordinance of the
triers, not only good men, but fairly good church-
men were sometimes admitted to vacant benefices.
The diary of the Rev. Giles Moore, rector of Horstead
Keynes from 1655 to 1679, has been preserved, and
is a curious and interesting illustration of the times.
In the first entry he states : " I, Giles Moore, was
admitted rector of Horsted Keynes by the com-
missioners for the approbation of publique preachers,
sitting at Whitehall, on Feb. i, 165 5-6. The parsonage
was left to mee in so ruinous a state that it cost me
;^24o before I could make it fit to dwell in. Should I
leave a widow behind me, let my successor, whoever
he may bee, deal alike kindly by her as I have done
by Mistress Pell [the widow of his predecessor]. Mrs.
Pell had the whole year's tythes ending at Ladye Day,
1656, though her husband dyed at the beginning of
the harvest."

The diary of the rector consists, in a great measure,
of notices of household expenditure ; but mingled
with these are bits of interesting information about
church matters. From these we may infer that the
rector, although approved by the triers and acquiesc-
ing in the existing form of ecclesiastical polity, was at
heart a moderately sound churchman, and was more
than contented when the Commonwealth came to an
end and the Church was re-established. He enters
Q 2

228

CHICHESTER.

in his diary the number of communicants in his
church on Easter Day, year by year. The number
ranges from 156, which he seems to have thought very
small, to 184, which would be reckoned a large pro-
portion in the present day out of a population rather
less than 700. He buys the Short Catechism, drawn
up by the Assembly of Divines in 1646, for distribu-
tion among his people ; but he gets Pearson on the
Creed at the same time, and after the Restoration we
find him buying along with prayer-books, such works as
Heylin on the Creed, Pearson on the Epistles of St.
Ignatius, and Cosin on the Canon of Scripture. On
the day of Thanksgiving for the Restoration (May 24,
1660), he gives three shillings to the singers, three
pounds of powder to the parishioners, and ninepence
to the boys towards their buying a drum wherewith
to celebrate their joy.

There can be little doubt indeed that if we could
recover exact records of all the parishes during the
Commonwealth, the strangest varieties in doctrine
and practice would be brought to light ; in some
places there was as little departure as possible from
the ancient lines of the Church's teaching, while in
others the most gloomy and severe type of Calvinistic
doctrine in the pulpit was coupled with the most
rigid exclusion of all ceremonial from worship. The
registers in not a few parishes record marriages per-
formed by laymen, and the numerous entries of births
without any mention of baptism, encourage the sus-
picion that the administration of this sacrament was
often delayed, if not omitted. On the other hand,
fines for profane language and Sabbath-breaking seem

THE COMMONWEALTH.

229

to have been exacted with considerable 'strictness.
In an old churchwarden's account book for the parish
of Cowden, there is a Hst of fines levied for offences
of this kind in the year 1656, amounting to
^2. IIS. lod.

It is needless to say that during the period treated
of in this chapter, there is nothing to record in the
department of church architecture, and it does not
fall within the scope of this work to notice such
matters of detail as the carved pulpits and screens
which date froni the reigns of Elizabeth and James I.
These were the last efforts of artistic feeling in the
internal fittings of our churches, and about the same
time begin the dismal records, in parish registers,
of the erection of pews and galleries, with which,
throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,
our churches were increasingly encumbered and dis-
figured, which were partly a consequence, partly a
cause, of the loss of the idea of public worship, and
which have been almost to the present day fertile
sources of malice and all uncharitableness.

Neither are there any religious foundations of im-
portance to be mentioned within this period, with
the solitary exception of Sackville College at East
Grinstead, and a hospital or almshouse founded in
1608 by Robert, the second Earl of Dorset, for a
warden and 31 inmates — 21 unmarried men and 10
unmarried women. The name, at least, of the college
has become familiar to many far beyond the bound-
aries of the diocese through the literary reputation of
Ur. J. Mason Neale, who held the wardenship from
1846 to 1867.

23° CHICHESTER.

CHAPTER IX.

A.D. 1660 1800.

State of the Diocese after the Restoration, and in the Eighteenth
Century.

If the rector of Horstead Keynes was fairly contented
with the restoration of the inonarchy, some of his
clerical neighbours were transported with joy. In
the parish register of Newick the rector writes :
" Charles II., by the Grace of God, King of Great
Britain, France, and Ireland : after having been
expelled from his kingdom by the violence of fanatics,
and spent twelve years in most unjust exile, he
returned to his own people to London amidst the
greatest joy of all, on the 29th of May, 1660, his own
birthday ; " and further on the enthusiastic rector
writes : " God grant that after a long and happy old
age he may be blessed with life eternal ! "

The total number of ministers ejected in the king-
dom for refusing to comply with the Act of Uniformity,
was about 2,000. Calamy, in his " Nonconformists'
Memorial," gives a list and a brief account of 67
ministers ejected in the diocese of Chichester. Of
these the great majority continued to reside in or
near the parishes where they had ministered ; many
of them set up schools, and notwithstanding the Five
Mile Act, either by the connivance of friendly justices

STATE OF DIOCESE AFTER THE RESTORATION. 23I

of the peace, or by evading the ofificers of the law,
preached on Sundays to people of their own persua-
sion. No doubt some must have been reduced to
poverty; Calamy, however, does not record any
instances of severe distress in Sussex, as he does in
the case of many other counties.^ The rector of
Horstead Keynes, however, mentions In his diary in
1668, that he gave fourpence to Mr. Salisbury, "a
begging minister " — no doubt a nonconformist.

Bishop King survived the Restoration nine years ;
but beyond a memorandum that he repaired the
cathedral nnd the palace, I have not discovered any
record of his administration.

Calamy states that he endeavoured to persuade
many of the nonconforming ministers to take the
oath, and even promised preferment to some if they
would conform, but without success in any instance.

Peter Gunning, the successor of Bishop King,
A.D. 1670-1675, had been a consistent, though not
extreme high churchman and royalist throughout his
career. He had been turned out of his fellowship at
Clare College, Cambridge, for refusing to take " the
engagement," and after some wanderings settled in
London. Here, in the chapel of Exeter House,

' It would not be possible without a searching e.\aminatioii
of parish registers and other records, which I have not been
able to attempt, to arrive at the exact number of the clergy who
were ejected in 1643, and the ministers ejected in 1662. Walker
(" Sufferings of Clergy,") gives a list of 40 ejected at the time
of the Rebellion. If this is correct, and if, as Calamy states,
67 ministers were ejected in 1662, many vacancies must have
occurred in the interval.

232

CHICHESTER.

Strand, he read the Liturgy of the Church on Sundays,
administered the Sacraments, and preached to all who
had the courage to attend. He was often reproved by
Cromwell, but seemingly not otherwise restrained, and
he also ventured on other days to carry on public
disputations with the leaders of various sects —
Presbyterian, Independent, Anabaptist, Quaker, and
Brownist. At the Savoy Conference he was selected
as the divine best qualified to dispute with Richard
Baxter. Their contest was considered a miracle of
subtle dialectical fencing ; but like many theological
combats it was barren of any practical results. Burnett
informs us that Gunning was " for conforming in all
things to the rules of the Primitive Church," including
among these "praying for the dead, the use of oil
with many other rituals " which made many suspect
him as inclining to go over to the Church of Rome,
but Burnett adds " he was far from it and was a very
honest, sincere man, but of no sound judgment, and
of no prudence in affairs." How far Burnett's estimate
of him may have been justified in the administration
of his diocese it is impossible from the lack of con-
temporary local records to determine. No doubt since
Burnett also calls him " an unweariedly active man "
he did his best to re-establish the authority of the
Church in Sussex, and probably encountered a good
deal of resistance ; for there was a large and powerful
Puritan and Calvinistic element in the diocese. A
large number of the Parliamentary troops had been
quartered in the county, especially the eastern end of it,
during the Commonwealth, and were not disbanded
till 1659 ; several families of good position, such as the

STATE OF DIOCF.SE AFTER THE RESTORATION. 233

Springetts, the Morleys of Glynde, and Stapleys of
Hickstead,\vere thoroughly Puritan in theirsympathies;
and in the east end of the county, more especially at
Rye, there was a considerable infusion of French Pro-
testant refugees who had settled there in the reign of
Elizabeth. This foreign element was augmented soon
after the time we have now reached by another immi-
gration which set in after the Revocation of the Edict
of Nantes in 1685. All these influences concurred to
give Puritan sentiment and Calvinistic doctrine a hold
upon the people in this diocese which has not even
yet been wholly lost, and if Bishop Gunning was more
zealous than judicious in his endeavours to re-establish
the teaching and practice of the Church we can easily
imagine that he strengthened rather than weakened
these elements of dissent. Gunning's successor

Ralph Bridecake, 1675-1678, seems to have
been a much more pliable man, for he prospered alike
under the Commonwealth and the Monarchy. He
had been Chaplain to Speaker Lenthall who gave him
the rich living of AVhitney, near Oxford, where we are
told he " preached twice every Lord's day, and in
the evening catechised the youth in his own house ;
outvying in labour and vigilancy any of the godly
brethren in those parts." In 1659 he was made one
of the " triers," yet immediately after the Restoration
he was rapidly promoted to a canonry at Windsor, to
the Deanery of Salisbury, and finally to the Bishopric
of Chichester.

In the parish register of Wadhurst is a notice under
the year 1677-78 of an act of ecclesiastical discipline
which is the latest example of the kind that I have

234

CHICHESTER.

discovered recorded in this diocese. It seems less
suitable to the easy character of Bishop Brideoake,
if indeed, he had anything to do with enforcing it,
than to that of his stiffer predecessor Gunning.
The entries are July 1 6, Eleonora Woodgate et Sarah
Moore in ecclesia parochial! inter divinorum solemnia
palam, public^, et solemniter, denunciatse et declaratae
fuerunt pro excommunicatis.

April 5. Eleonora AVoodgate et Sarah Moore in
ecclesia parochiali inter divinorum solemnia palam,
publice, et solemniter, paenitentiam agebant. As to
the nature of the offence and of the penance, we are
unfortunately left \vithout any means of gratifying our
curiosity.

The memorandum of a visitation of the cathedral,
held by Bishop Brideoake in the first year of his
episcopate, reveals the extent of the damage caused
partly by the siege thirty years before, partly by the
subsequent neglect during the Commonwealth, and
proves how little poor Bishop King had been able
to effect in the way of repair. The report speaks of
"dilapsas turres, laceratas fenestras, convulsa funda-
menta, ruinam minitantia claustra, multaque praeterea
mala et incommoda quae gliscente bello ecclesia sus-
tinuerat." The deanery and the chancellor's house
are described as being in a ruinous state. The
bishop and the chapter solicited subscriptions to aid
them in repairing these lamentable dilapidations, and
contributed what they could themselves ; the bishop
;^ioo, the dean ^40, the precentor ^30, and so on.

If Bishop Brideoake prospered by his facile con-
formity to each order of government in its turn, his

STATE OF DIOCESE AFTER THE RESTORATION. 235

successor rose through his ardent and inflexible devo-
tion to the monarchy.

Guy Carleton, 1678-1 685, a native of Cumberland,
was a sturdy cavalier alike in the literal and the political
sense ; for he was an excellent horseman and a staunch
adherent to the royal cause. He was ejected from two
livings by the " triers," was at one time imprisoned at
Lambeth, escaped by dropping from a window into a
boat, and after suffering considerable hardships escaped
to the exiled king. He was eighty-two years of age
when he was translated from Bristol to our see, which,
however, he occupied for seven years. The only
record of his episcopate which I have discovered is a
long letter to Sancroft, the primate, describing with
much indignation a reception given at Chichester to
the Duke of Monmouth, natural son of Charles II.,
at a time when he was trying to put himself at the
head of a party disaffected to the king and the Duke
of York. Much to the horror of the loyal old bishop,
the cathedral chapter paid great court to the duke.
They probably shared the popular alarm caused by
the report of the Titus Oates conspiracy, and of other
Roman Catholic plots against the Church ; appre-
hensions which Monmouth and his party were careful
to foster. "The great men of our cathedrall," says
the bishop, "welcomed him with belles and bonfires,
made by wood had from their houses to flare before

his lodgings " Dr. Edes (one of the canons),

that night officiated as his chaplain, supped with him
and herded himself there with such company as no
man that had a loyal heart towards the king, or been
really a cordial son of the Church of England, would

236

CHICHESTER.

have been amongst. The next day, Dr. Edes went
to his lodging, caused the way to be swept, though
the weather was dry enough, and conducted him to

the church He was ushered into the dean's

seat, with a voluntary upon the organ. Before sermon
a part of the ist Psalm was ordered to be sung,
" He shall be like the tree that growes fast by river
syde," &c. The anthem at evening prayer was "The
slaughter of King Saul and his people upon the
Mountains of Gilboa," but not a word, I warrant you,
of the " Kinge's enimies to perish," or that upon his
head his crown might long flourish : these were
apocryphal anthems "when the Commonwealth saints
appeared amongst us." He then proceeds to relate
how he was reviled because he would not join in
these " bell and bonfire solemnities," or " bow the
knee to the people's idol and how after dark a
rabble came to his house and demanded wood for
bonfires, and when it was refused shouted that the
bishop was an old popish rogue, shot three times into
the house, and followed up their shots with a volley
of stones.

The bishop says that neither the mayor of Chi-
chester nor any of the gentlemen in the neighbour-
hood took part in the reception of the duke ; so that
the cathedral clergy were more sympathetic with the
popular movement than the laity of the upper rank.

The episcopacy of Bishop Lake, 1685-1689,
brings us to the time of the Revolution. The name of
John Lake must be dear to all who love their church
and their country, and who are thankful that the
liberty of both were preserved by the intrepid resist-

STATE OF DIOCESE AFTER THE RESTORATION. 237

ance of this prelate and six other bishops to the
crafty designs of an unconstitutional, unscrupulous
king. The whole story of the petition of the seven
bishops against James II. 's Declaration of Indulgence,
their imprisonment, their trial, their acquittal by a
patriotic jury, the tumultuous joy with which they
were received after their release is too well known,
and has been too amply and brilliantly described
in the pages of Macaulay, to need any repetition here.
Lake was a thorough cavalier, and had actually fought
for Charles I. before entering holy orders, but his
devotion to the House of Stuart did not blind him to
the interests of his country and his Church, which he
honoured and loved still better. Though inflexible
in his principles, he is described by his biographer as
"of an extraordinary courteous and generous temper,
always affable and easy of access, free and cheerful in
his conversation, full of meekness and condescension.
.... He was so prudent and so successful in all the
wise and kind methods of gaining upon obstinate
men, that the worst enemies of episcopacy were
oftentimes reconciled to the order for his sake. . . .
He was e xceedingly dear to the gentlemen of Sussex,
who met him in several parts of his diocese with that
respect which was wont to be paid to the primitive
bishops, and they were no less dear to him ; but his
coming to them after his release from his trial was
like the return from banishment of St. Athanasius, or
St. Chrysostom."

The only memorials of Lake's Diocesan adminis-
tration are some of the returns made to the Commis-
sioners appointed by him in 1686 to enquire into the

CHICHESTER.

condition of the parish churches and of their furniture.
A few examples will suffice to show to what a deplor-
able state of squalor and disorder many of them were
reduced by the combined operation of Puritan
fanaticism, poverty, and neglect. The Church and
Chancel of Poynings were in good repair, but the
chancel " very indecent by reason of the pigeons
dunging there and the communion table very bad."
At Portslade the " communion cup was battered and
cracked." At Old Shoreham the pulpit was "very
weak, the steeple-floor decayed, an out chapel utterly
ruinate, the cup cracked, no book for strange
preachers' name,i the Church wall decayed and the
Vicarage house and barns wholly ruinate." At Oving-
dean there had not been any Communion within the
memory of man : the steeple was good but there was
no bell in it — the small bell that belonged to it lying
without a clapper in a private house. At Fairlight
the steeple was ruinous and dangerous, one bell on
the ground, and the other knocked to pieces. At
Winchelsea the bells were all sold but one, there was
no linen cloth and napkin for "the administ ation of
the most blessed Sacrament " and no surplice : swine
were kept in the churchyard — the parsonage house
had been pulled down and the materials all sold.

Lake and his brethren disobeyed King James in
obedience to the higher mandates of their conscience
and their God, and on the same principle they re-
fused to take the oaths of allegiance to William of

' This was a point of importance as a check upon the admis -
sion of unordained preachers, representatives of the numerous
sects which were beginning to abound in the country.

STATE OF DIOCESE AFTER THE RESTORATION. 239

Orange because they had sworn allegiance to James,
and had been appointed to their bishoprics under
his government. We may think their judgment was
misled, but none can fail to honour them for obey-
ing the dictates of their conscience.^ They were
suspended, and afterwards deprived. Lake retired
to London after his suspension, and died, aged 66,
before his deprivation. He was buried in the Church
of St. Botolph's, Bishopsgate, of which he had once
been rector. Three days before his death he dictated
to his chaplain, Mr. Jenkins, a declaration of his
unswerving conviction of the truth of his principles.
" Being called by a sick, and, I think, a dying bed,
and the good hand of my God upon me in it, to take
the last and best viaticum, the Sacrament of my dear
Lord's body and blood, I take upon me to make this
short recognition and confession. That whereas I
was baptised into the Church of England, and sucked
it in with my milk, I have constantly adhered to it
through the whole course of my life, and now, if
so be the will of God, shall die in it, and I had re-
solved, through God's grace assisting me, to have
died though at a stake. And whereas that religion
taught me the doctrine of passive obedience and non-
remittance, I adhere no less steadily and firmly to
that. ... I find in so doing much satisfaction, and
if the oath had been tendered at the peril of my life I
could only have obeyed by suffering." . . ,

In the Ufe of Kettlewell there is a list of the non-

' With two exceptions the non-juring bishops in 1689 were
identical with the seven petitioners in 1687.

240 CHICHESTER.

juring clergy in the several dioceses. Eleven are
mentioned in Sussex : — Jenkyns, the Precentor of the
Cathedral, who was chaplain and biographer of Bishop
Lake ; the Vicar of Cuckfield, the Vicar of Sompting,
the Rector of Blatchington, the Vicar of West Firle,
the Rector of Tarring Neville with South Heighten,
the Vicar of Seaford, the Rector of West Dean, the
Rector of Jevington, the Vicar of Icklesham, and
the Vicar of Chiddingly. The latter survived his
deprivation about thirty years, dying in 17 17. He
was buried in the Church of Chiddingly, where his
epitaph records that

" He was suspended in the Dutchman's days
Because he would not walk in their strange ways."

The secession of the non-jurors undoubtedly de-
prived the Church of some of the soundest and most
earnest members of her communion, both clerical and
lay. The depression and persecution of the Church
during the Commonwealth had been mercilessly re-
taliated after the Restoration upon Nonconformists of
every description. In Sussex the Quakers, and more
especially at Lewes, seemed to have been pursued
with the most relentless animosity, which, however,
was by no means confined to the Church. Side by
side with this intolerance of Nonconformity, which
embittered the relations between the Church and
the sects, a flood of worldliness and profligacy had
overspread the country, the unnatural restraints of
a Puritanical Government being removed, and had
lowered the religious tone of the whole people. The
Toleration Act, passed in 1689, softened the relations

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 24I

between the Church and Nonconformity ; but while
the cessation of strife was a blessing, the zeal and energy
which are partly the causes, partly the effects of strife,
began to die out. The result of these combined influ-
ences was the suspension of activity, the relaxation
of discipline, the low and feeble standard of faith and
morality which from the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and more especially after the accession of the
Hanoverian dynasty, paralyzed the religious spirit of
the people until it was kindled into life again, first by
the Wesleyan and then by the Evangelical movement.

Six bishops — Simon Patrick, Robert Grove, John
Williams, Thomas Manningham, Thomas Bowers, and
Edward Waddington — occupied the See of Chichester
in rapid succession after the suspension of Bishop
Lake. Their episcopates cover a period of forty years,
and with the exception of Simon Patrick, whose com-
mentary on the Bible was once a standard book of
reference, none of them had much pretension to
eminence. We have seen what was the condition of
several of our country parish churches in the time of
Bishop Lake. From some returns to articles of en-
quiry made by Bishop Bowers in 1724, and Bishop
Waddington, his successor, in the same year, we gather
that the state of the fabrics and of their fittings was in
many places just as bad then as it had been forty years
before. One service and sermon on Sundays and the
administration of the Holy Communion four times a
year seems to have been the normal provision of
spiritual food in most of the country parishes. The
bishops were probably well content if they could
secure as much as this. In one small place, Houghton
R

242

CHICHESTER.

it was reported that there had not been any Com-
munion within the memory of man. The altar stood
against the north-wall without any rail.

It is curious to compare the returns made to Bishop
Waddington's enquiries in 17 24, respecting the number
of communicants, with the returns made to Bishop
Watson's enquiries in 1603 : —

In Eastbourne, in a.d. 1603, the number of communicants
was 500 ; in A.D. 1 724, 100.

In Poynings, in A.D. 1 603, all the adults were communicants ;
in A.D. 1724, 25.

\vl Bex hill, in A.D. 1603, the number of communicants was
225 ; in A.D. 1724, 30.

In Brightling, in A.D. 1603, the number of communicants
was 195 ; in A.D. 1724, 40.

In Hastings All Saints, in A.D. 1603, the number of com-
municants was 247 ; in A.D. 1724, 40.

Francis Hare, 1731-1740, the successor of Bishop
Waddington, is too remarkable a personage to be
passed over without some notice. Yet it is not neces-
sary to dwell upon his character or career at any length,
partly because they have been already described by
one of his own descendants in a book which is in
almost every library ,1 partly because, though he was
a man of acute intellect and considerable though not
profound learning, it cannot be said that he greatly
edified the Church by these gifts or left any deep

' "Memorials of a Quiet Life," by Augustus J. C. Hare.
The bishop had been chaplain to the Duke of Marlborough. He
was made Dean of St. Paul's in 1726, Bishop of St. Asaph in
1727, and translated to Chichester in 1731. He held hisdeanery
in connexion with both bishoprics.

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 243

impress on the diocese. Few can derive pleasure or
instruction from his controversial writings directed
against Bishop Hoadley, fewer still from his sermons
preached on days of thanksgiving for the Duke of
Marlborough's victories, filled with descriptions of the
Duke's military operations and eulogies on his genius.
His tract, published anonymously, on " The Diffi-
culties and Discouragements which Attend the Study
of Holy Scripture in the way of Private Judgment," is
his most powerful production. He describes in the
most vivid manner the various ways in which the
student may and probably will be led to form heretical
opinions, and the perils and difficulties which will in
consequence beset his course if he be a clergyman.
And his advice therefore is to abstain from hazardous
enterprises in the field of Biblical criticism, and to
accept and to teach received opinions without scrutiny.
"Whatever you do," he says, "be orthodox. Ortho-
doxy will cover a multitude of sins, but a cloud of
virtues cannot cover the want of the minutest point of
orthodoxy." A subtle vein of sarcasm runs through
the whole performance, and a suspicion is awakened
in the reader's mind that the bishop's inward con-
victions were very much in the direction of those
heretical opinions against which he warns the student.

Three years before Hare was translated from the
See of St. Asaph to Chichester, Thomas Sherlock
was elevated from the Deanery of Chichester, which
he had held for thirteen years, to the Bishopric of
Bangor, whence he was translated to Sarum, and
ultimately to London. He was one of the most
powerful writers — perhaps the most powerful after

R 2

244

CHICHESTER.

William Law — who took part in the celebrated Ban-
gorian controversy, and an equally formidable oppo-
nent of the Deists — Collins, Tindal, and the unhappy
AVoolston. His sermons were long considered to be
models of eloquence. By readers in the present day
they may be allowed the merit of sustained argument-
ative force ; but that such sermons should have been
considered eloquent only proves how completely the
religion of Sherlock's age was made a matter of hard
reasoning rather than of deep feeling. In the total
absence of any appeal to the emotions, the passions,
the imagination, the sermons of Sherlock are an
illustration of the words of Bishop Butler at the
beginning of his noble sermon on the Love of God,
where he remarks, after alluding to the "extrava-
gances which have been vented under the pretence
or endeavour of explaining the love of God," that
"manifestly we are got into the contrary extreme
under the notion of a reasonable religion ; so very
reaso7iable as to have nothing to do with the heart
and affections."

Sherlock built the present deanery at Chichester,
a massive square structure in red brick, with a roof
shaped very much like the hats worn by the footguards
in the eighteenth century, as one sees them in the
pictures of Hogarth. In its solidity and plainness,
destitute of any play of fancy or artistic ornament,
it is quite in keeping with the discourses of the dean
who built it, some of Avhich he probably penned
inside its walls.

Two more episcopates after Bishop Hare's nearly
cover the remainder of the century. Matthias Maw-

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 245

son, held the see from 1740 to 1754, and Sir William
Ashburnham from 1754 to 1799. He died in his
eighty-eighth year, having been bishop forty-five
years, the longest episcopate since the foundation of
the see.

It is needless to say that during this period there is
nothing to record which can fairly be called progress
in Church work. Scarcely any new churches were
built, and when one looks at such a church as
Glynde, which was erected in 1764, one is thankful
that the lack of religious zeal at least saved the
diocese from the infliction of many such hideous
piles. The churches in Sussex, as elsewhere, suffered
indeed much mutilation and disfigurement ; their
beauty internally was overlaid or concealed behind
paint and whitewash, and every conceivable and
inconceivable form of gallery and pew, but as a rule
the churches themselves have been preserved to us.

Amongst the clergy there were here and there
some men of learning and ability, others who dis-
charged their pastoral duties with zeal and love.
The presence of such men must have been of incal-
culable value, especially in the country parishes, of
which many in Sussex were extremely secluded and
isolated from the outer world, partly by their situa-
tion; partly, during the winter season at least, by the
wretched condition of the roads, which were proverbial
for their abysmal depth of mire.

Too often, however, there can be little doubt that the
clergy themselves, especially in these isolated places,
fell into the gross and apathetic habits which were
characteristic of the age. A very curious insight into

246

CHICHESTER.

the habits and condition, social and religious, of the
inhabitants of a. Sussex village and the neighbourhood,
in the middle of last century, is afforded us by the
diary of Mr. Thomas Turner, a mercer and general
shopkeeper, in the parish of East Hoathley. Turner
himself was a strange character ; he appears to have
been an industrious tradesman, and a voluminous
reader, religiously minded, and attentive to religious
observances, but an inveterate drunkard — continually
deploring his infirmity, and perpetually yielding to it.
His diary records on the one hand an amount of
reading, and a warmth of religious feeling, not com-
mon in a young man of business — he was only
twenty-eight years of age when his diary begins in
1754 — and on the other hand indulgence in such gross
and drunken revels as few in his position of life at the
present day would consent to take a part in. Yet
the vicar of his own parish, and other neighbouring
clergy, frequently assisted at these disgraceful orgies.
In the course of two years Mr. Turner's diary records
his i^erusal of Gay's " Poems," Milton's " Paradise
Lost and Regained," twice over, Stewart " On the
Supreme Being," " Othello," Thomson's " Seasons,"
Young's " Night Thoughts," Sherlock's " Sermons,"
Tillotson's " Sermons," of which he reads five aloud
one Sunday ! Burnett's "History," "Peregrine Pickle,"
" Clarissa Harlowe," parts of the " Spectator," and
several smaller miscellaneous works. When he has
not got too drunk on Saturday evenings he goes to
church on Sunday. He always makes some criticism
on the sermon, and sometimes expresses great admira-
tion, but complains of " the idle, lazy way of preaching

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 247

many of our clergy have got into." On Easter day,
and other great festivals, he and his wife and servant
receive the holy communion. At such times he is
filled with remorse for his follies and excesses, and
makes all manner of good resolutions and vows of
amendment, which he generally breaks the next day.
Bad as he was, however, in regard to intemperance,
he does not seem to have been much worse than
most of his neighbours. Whether they met for busi-
ness or for pleasure the final result seems to have
been generally the same. With rare exceptions the
company broke up in a state of intoxication. A few
examples must suffice. "April 21, 1756. Went to
the audit, and came home drunk ; but I think never
to exceed the bounds of moderation more." [If they
did not get drunk at public meetings, they made up
for it by a plentiful amount of swearing, e.g., "We
had several warm arguments at our vestry to-day,
and several voUies of execrable oaths oftentimes
redounded from almost all parts of the room."]

" Nov. 25. The Curate of Laughton came to the
shop, and he having bought some things of me (and
I wish he had paid for them) dined with me, and
also staid in the afternoon till he got in liquor, and
being so complaisant as to keep him company I
was quite drunk. How do I detest myself for being
so foolish."

On February 22, 1757, he records what may be
called one of his greater orgies. A party of fifteen
people, including the vicar of the parish, Mr. Porter,
and his wife, meet at four in the afternoon. They
play at bragg till ten, when they go to supper. After

CHICHESTER,

supper he says, " our diversion was dancing or jumping
about without a violin or any musick, singing of
foolish healths, and drinking all the time as fast as it
could be well poured down." About three o'clock in
the morning he manages to get home, " without even
tumbling." His wife is brought back two hours later.
At six o'clock they are roused by Mrs. Porter, the
vicar's wife, on pretence of being wanted in the shop.
Mrs. Turner goes down and finds " Mr. Porter, Mr.
Fuller, and his wife, with a lighted candle, part of a
bottle of wine, and a glass." The party then go up
stairs, drag poor Mr. Turner out of bed, and bring him
down, dressed partly in his own clothes, partly in his
wife's, " and in this manner they made me dance
without shoes or stockings, until they had emptied
the bottle of wine, and also a bottle of beer." About
three o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Porter and his
companions were able to go home. The diarist con-
cludes his account of these extraordinary proceedings
by remarking. " Now let any one call in reason to his
assistance and seriously reflect on what I have recited,
and they will join with me in thinking that the pre-
cepts delivered from the pulpit on Sunday, though
delivered with the greatest ardour, must lose a great
deal of their efficacy by such examples." We shall
certainly find no diflnculty in agreeing with this sage
judgment of Mr. Turner's, but his observations only
make the entry against the following Sunday sound
more wonderful. " We had as good a sermon as I ever
heard Mr. Porter preach, it being against swearing."
Whether Mr. Porter ever ventured to preach against
drunkenness, Mr. Turner does not inform us ; but he

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 249

tells US how, only a few days afterwards, the same
party of people met one night at Mr. Fuller's, another
at Mr. Porter's, where similar scenes were repeated.
" We continued," he says, " drinking like horses, and
singing till many of us were very drunk, and then we
went to dancing, and pulling of wigs, caps, and hats,
and thus we continued in this frantic manner, behaving
more like mad people than they that possess the name
of Christians." The last specimen which I shall extract
is not one of the least remarkable. On June 29, 1758,
he is invited to meet a party the following day at the
house of Mr. Coates, the Duke of Newcastle's steward,
to celebrate the news of a victory over the French.
He is unwilling to decline, but groans over the inevit-
able prospect of getting drunk. " Oh ! a melancholy
thing it is to deprive one's self of reason, and even to
render ourselves beasts ! But what can I do ? If I
go I must drink just as they please, or otherwise I shall
be called a poor, singular fellow. If I stay at home I
shall be stigmatized with the name of being a poor,
proud, ill-natured wretch, and perhaps disoblige Mr.
Coates." So he resolves to go. The party consists
of twenty, including the vicar and another clergyman,
Mr. Fletcher. Toast after toast is drunk ; about ten
o'clock, our friend the diarist " deserted and came
safe home," but it is almost needless to say, " very
much in liquor," and he adds, " before I came away
I think I may say there was not one sober person in
the company."

This is, indeed, a melancholy picture of the country
life of the middle classes a hundred and twenty years
since. And although it is to be hoped that most of

250

CHICHESTER.

the clergy abstained from joining in such excesses as
those which are described by our diarist, and many,
no doubt, reprobated them, yet it is clear from- the
way in which he speaks of his vicar, Mr. Porter, and
his other clerical acquaintance, that their conduct was
not regarded as anything very exceptional.

A contemporary of the general dealer of East
Hoathley was Mr. Walter Gale, a schoolmaster at
Mayfield. He also kept a diary, which is a not less
curious and instructive picture of the moral and
religious condition of the people than the journal of
our friend the general dealer of East Hoathley.
Walter Gale was appointed, on June 29, 1750, master
of a free school recently founded at Mayfield. The
trustees and managers were the vicar and six of the
principal inhabitants. The master was to be a
member of the Church of England, understandjng
the grounds and principles of the Christian religion,
of sober life and conversation, of a meek and humble
behaviour ... a frequenter of the holy communion,
possessing a genius for teaching . . . careful of the
manners and behaviour of the poor children com-
mitted to his care. These rules are subscribed by
the vicar and the six principal inhabitants, of whom
the first makes his mark, being unable to sign his
name. How far the new schoolmaster fulfilled them
a glance at his diary will shew. He does not seem to
have got drunk quite so often as poor Mr. Thomas
Turner, the dealer ; or if he did he does not record
it, but he certainly spent a great deal of his time in
rambling about, on visits to friends, jaunts to fairs,
cricket matches, and other convivial gatherings, at

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 25 X

which an amazing quantity of beer, milk punch, gin,
brandy, cherry brandy, etc., as the case may be, was
consumed. The twenty-one scholars to whom he
undertakes to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic,
are seldom mentioned except when he has disputes
with the trustees as to which of the children should
be taught gratis, or when he mentions that " having
heard the spellers and readers a lesson a-piece," he
breaks off school at two o'clock to attend a cricket
match. He ekes out his wretched salary of ;^i6 a
year by picking up fees for all manner of odd jobs.
He " paints the commandments" for the church, and
signs for public houses, engraves tombstones, draws
last wills and testaments, and patterns for needle
work. He seems to have been as regular as Mr.
Turner in attendance at church, and in making notes
of the sermon when there, and curiously enough the
first to which he refers is at East Hoathley,
where " divine service was performed by the Rev.
Richard Porter. Text, S. Matthew, 5 th chap. 19th
verse. " The subject of his discourse kept very close
to the sense and words of the text ... to show that
those who by their live's example, precepts, and
commands, should teach others to break the com-
mandments of God, should be called the least in the
kingdom of Heaven, viz., be excluded for ever there-
from, it being a more heinous offence to corrupt
others than to live loosely ourselves." Knowing a
we do from Mr. Turner's " Diary " what the example
of poor Mr. Porter's life was, the line of his discourse
seems rather wonderful.

Walter Gale entertained many of the superstitious

252

CHICHESTER.

notions which were still very prevalent, especially
among the country folk in that age, although there is
no trace of them in the diary of his contemporary,
Thomas Turner. Soon after his appointment to the
school at Mayfield he dreams that he will "be advan-
tageously married, be blessed with a fine offspring, and
live to the age of eighty-one, of which time I should
preach the Gospel forty-one years." This he con-
siders a divine intimation of his future career, and
fervently prays that it may be accomplished ; but he
was destined to be disappointed. A kind of astrolo-
ger or conjuror, as he calls him, pays him a visit at
his school, and he entertains him at an inn with great
respect. He goes to see his sister, who was very ill,
and informs the family that the town clock had been
heard to strike three in the afternoon, twice : " the
strikes at the second striking seemed to sound very
dull and mournfully ; this, together with the crickets
coming to the house at Laughton just at our coming
away, I look upon to be sure presages of my sister's
death." The sister died. On another occasion he
"recieved a testimony" as he calls it, whatever it may
have been, of a death within a tAvelvemonth in his
family. He believed that it pointed to himself. His
mother, however, dies within the twelvemonth,
"agreeable," as he says, "to the testimony I had
of a death in our family." As she was eightj--
three years of age the fulfilment of the testimony
in this manner does not seem surprising. Neither
his superstitious apprehensions however, of death,
nor his more rational religious feelings, saved poor
Walter Gale from his besetting weakness of drinking,

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 253

and in 1771 he was dismissed by the trustees for
neglect of his duties.

The special interest of these curious diaries con-
sists, I think, in the fact that they reflect the working
of three elements, the influence of which upon society
and upon the Church may be traced more or less
through the last century. We discern a tinge of the
old serious puritanical vein in a reverence for the
sanctity of Sunday, in the idea of the importance of
hearing and reading sermons on that day, coupled
with some real religious feeling and a certain taste
for theological study. Then a remnant of old high
church feeling and practice is observable in the habit,
regularly maintained on the whole, of receiving the
Holy Communion on certain days after some amount
of careful preparation. And, lastly, there is the
coarse sensual element, only too prominent, which
got the upper hand in the national character in that
rebound from puritanical austerity to unbridled license
which accompanied the Restoration.

In Sussex, and probably elsewhere, the main back-
bone of morality and religion during the whole period
from the Restoration to the Wesleyan movement was
to be found in those persons who, whether they con-
formed outwardly or not to the Church, belonged to
the Puritan school in their disposition and habits. A
father and son, who were excellent specimens of this
type in Sussex, especially in the union of a firm reli-
gious faith with a great deal of worldly shrewdness,
industry, and thrift, left behind them some interesting
autobiographical memoirs.

Leonard Gale, the elder, drew up a memorandum

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CHICHESTER.

for the future guidance of his two sons, and enforces
his counsel by a reference to his own career. Thus
he begins : " The advice of me, Leonard Gale, to my
two sons Leonard and Henry, being in the sixty-
seventh year of my age, a.d. 1687. My sons,
hearken to the words of your loving father, who
earnestly desireth your welfare and increasing of
grace, learning, and riches. I have thought good to
leave these few lines for your directions and going on
in this miserable world, a world of fraud and deceit,
a world of all manner of wickedness in all sorts of
people — therefore I will first give you a short breviate
of my birth and living since." He then relates that
he was the son of a blacksmith at Sevenoaks, in
Kent. When he was about sixteen, the whole family
was swept off by the plague, with the exception of
himself and one brother. The brother quarrelled
with him about money, went to sea, and died soon
after. Thus, at the age of seventeen, Leonard was
left alone in the world. He toiled hard at his trade,
but "bad servants and trusting" almost ruined him.
Then he lived " starke alone " for a month, but at
the end of it found "he was not worth ^50 if he had
sold himself to his shirt." " Then I was in a great
strait and knew not which way to steer, but I cried
unto the Lord with my whole heart and with tears,
and He heard my cry, and put into my mind to try
one year more to see what I could do, for I resolved
to spend nothing but mine own, and I resolved
always to keep a conscience void of offence towards
God and towards man." By dint of great industry
and frugality he extricated himself from his diffi-

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 255

culties, made money, migrated into Sussex, where he
took St. Leonard's forge, and soon after entered into
partnership with a prosperous ironmaster, Mr. Walter
Burrell. From this point he steadily throve, became
in fifteen years sole proprietor of the forge, acquired
a considerable fortune, and married at the age of
forty-six. The retrospect of his career fills him with
wonder and thankfulness, and "enforces" him "to
extol the Name of the Great God, for He was always
my director in all good ways, and when I was in dis-
tress I called upon Him, and He heard me, and gave
me more than ever my heart desired, for I had no
man in the world that would stand by me, either for
advice or for money, when I wanted, which enforced
me to be careful not to run beyond my own substance,
and always resolved to keep a good conscience to-
wards God and towards man ; and not to do to
others that which I would not have them do to me.
. . . Thus, my sons, I have set down a short breviate
of my life unto this day, and what the Almighty hath
bestowed on me in all which time I hated idleness
and vain-gloriousness. ... I always held the Scrip-
tures for the rule of life to walk by, and I always
counted it to be a deadly sin to be in any man's debt
longer than they were willing to trust me." Then,
after solemn cautions not to be too familiar with
" vile neighbours," nor to allow certain grasping per-
sons to build houses, enclose ground, or stop up
footways on certain specified bits of land, he proceeds :
" Next, I advise you to have a great care of ill and
debauched company, especially wicked and depraved
priests such as are at this present time about me, as

256

CHICHESTER.

Lee and Troughton, of Worth; never give any of them
any entertainment, nor none of their companions,
for they are most vile and wicked men to my know-
ledge. Next, my advice is, that whatever estates
either of you ever attain to, yet, follow some employ-
ment which will keep you from abundance of expenses
and charges, and take you off from evil thoughts and
wicked actions ; and obsen-e the mechanic priests,
which have nothing to do but to come to church one
hour or two on a Sunday, and all the week besides
they will eat and drink at such men's houses as you
are : but avoid them : but love and cherish every
honest godly priest wherever you find them ; and,
above all, hold fast the ancient Protestant religion,
for a better religion cannot be found out than that is,
only I could wish the abuses were taken away, and
wicked men found out and punished, or turned out.
Above all things avoid swearing, lying, drunkenness,
whoring, and gaming, which are the ruin of all men's
estates that are ruined in this nation ; and pride in
apparell, which is a great consumer of men's estates
in this kingdom."

Leonard Gale, the father, died in 1690. His
eldest son Leonard, then 1 7 years old, inherited his
father's property, as well as his prudence and piety,
with the additional advantage of a good education.
He went after his father's death as a gentleman com-
moner to University College, Oxford ; and, after four
years there, studied for the bar, and was called to it
in 1697, but never practised, and spent the rest of his
life in the management of his property in Sussex, and
in adding to it. He bought an estate near Worth in

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 257

1698, married in 1703, and in 1710 became M.P. for
East Grinstead. He also drew up a memorandum
of advice for his children, based very much on the
model of his father's, whose wisdom and virtue he
extols, and says that, " considering the meanness of
his birth and education, he was indeed the wonder of
the age and country in which he lived." Leonard
Gale, the younger, died in 1750, having survived his
wife and the only son who grew up to manhood. They
were all interred in Worth Church, where the epitaph
states that husband and wife

Natura duce et ralione vixerunt,
Unde venerunt, quo abituri, memoies,
In Xti meritis confidentes.
Disce.'

The glances which we have taken, hasty and imper-
fect though they have been, at the moral and religious I
condition of the diocese in the eighteenth century, are
enough to prove that there was abundant scope for
the evangelistic labours of Wesley and his disciples.
Sussex, however, was not one of his most frequented
or most fruitful fields of missionary toil. His journal
records visits at intervals of two or three years to a
certain round of places at the eastern end of the
county — Rye, Winchelsea (" that poor skeleton," as
he calls it, " of ancient Winchelsea"), Robertsbridge,

' " Tliey lived with Nature, and Reason for their guide," [a
sentence typical of the teaching of Bishop Butler.]
Mindful of whence ihey came, and whither they were to depart,
Trusting in the merits of Christ.

Learn thou ! " (from their example).
S

CHICHESTER.

Northianm, and Ewhurst. Shoreham seems to
have been the furthest point which he was accus-
tomed to visit westwards. But he does not seem to
have achieved a briUiant success in any of these
places. There were various hindrances to it. One
was the inveterate attachment of the people on the
south coast to smuggling. The Sussex smugglers
were notorious for the dogged resolution with which
they pursued their trade, and the ferocious cruelty
with which they treated the revenue officers or any
one else who interfered with it. The inhabitants gene-
rally connived at the smuggling, and this, of course,
depraved their moral sense. In his journal Wesley
remarks that the people of Rye " will do many things
gladly, but they will not part with the accursed
thing ; " and in another entry he says, " How large a
congregation we should have here could we but spare
them in one thing !" The strong infusion of Calvinism
again, which had been brought by the foreign Pro-
testant refugees, was very adverse to his teaching.
Even as late as the year 1790 he writes as if the con-
gregation at Rye had but recently shaken itself free
of this influence. " While our people," he says,
" mixed with the Calvinists here we were always per-
plexed and gained no ground ; but since they kept to
themselves, they have continually increased in grace
as well as in number."

A third obstacle to Wesley's work in Sussex was
presented by the character of the people. The bulk
of the population was agricultural, and was remark-
able then as now for a certain mingled sluggishness,
shyness, and caution of disposition, which is slow to

THE DIOCESE IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 259

receive new ideas, not readily kindled to enthusiasm,
and firmly tenacious of old habits. Wesley owns
that there was no class upon which, as a whole, he
made less impression than the farmers. He mentions
in his journal how, on one of his rides from Shoreham
to Sevenoaks, he meditated "on the huge encomiums
which have been for many ages bestowed on a
country life," and records his conviction that they
were in flat contradiction to universal experience.
He then draws a picture of the dreary monotonous
round of daily toil pursued by the occupants of many
a farm-house which he passed in the course of his
ride, and concludes by remarking, " Our eyes and
ears may convince us there is not a less happy body
of men in all England than the country farmers.
In general, their life is supremely dull ; and it is
usually unhappy too. For of all people in the king-
dom they are most discontented ; seldom satisfied
either with God or man." And, lastly, a literal
physical impediment to the progress of Wesley's
labour in Sussex consisted in the miserable state of
the roads, Avhich in winter were often nearly, if not
quite, impassable from depth of mire. He states in
his journal for January 19, 1778, that after preaching
at Rye in the evening he set out in a chaise for Car-
borough, a place two miles distant, where he was to
spend the night. It was pitchy dark, a heavy tempest
of wind and rain was raging, and the road was so
deep in mud and ruts that it was with the greatest
difficulty the horses could drag the vehicle along. It
took an hour to accomplish the journey, the roughest,
he says, he had ever made in his life. On another
S 2

26o

CHICHESTER.

occasion he records that in traveHing from Rye to
Sevenoaks, with two pair of good horses, he managed,
but "with great difficulty," to get through fifteen
miles in five hours. 'J'he most active and successful
Wesleyan missionary in Sussex was undoubtedly
George Gilbert, a native of Rotherfield, who had
been a cavalry soldier. After a campaign on the
continent, where he had led a reckless immoral life, he
was converted to Methodism at Northampton, settled
at Heathfield about 1770, where his former com-
mander, General Elliott, had purchased the property
of Heathfield-park ; and for more than forty years he
was an indefatigable preacher and evangelist, encoun-
tering at first the most violent and barbarous opposi-
tion, but ultimately reclaiming many from vice, and
winning the respect of all.

It must not be forgotten, too, that in many a parish
at the very time that poor Mr. Porter, of East
Hoathley, and such as he, were living in a manner of
which the record fills the reader with horror and
amazement, the clergy of the evangelical school were
multiplying in the diocese, and they, by their per-
sonal holiness of life and pastoral zeal, wTought a
great moral and religious reformation amongst their
flocks. No more eminent example of this class could
be found than Richard Cecil, who, for a few years,
had two small livings in Lewes.

CHICHESTER.

261

CHAPTER X.

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRKSENT CENTURY.

The history of our diocese during the present century
must be compressed into a very narrow compass — not
because there is little to relate, but, on the contrary,
because there is so much that anything like a complete
record would far exceed the limits of this work. More-
over, much of the work which has been done, and many
of the actors concerned in it are so fresh in the recol-
lection of persons still living that it would be unneces-
sary to do more than briefly recall them to mind, and
unseemly to make them the subjects of lengthened
criticism. It is no disparagement to the immediate
predecessors of Bishop Otter to say that his episco-
pate, A.D. 1836 to 1840, marks an epoch when the
Church began to make the most decided visible
advance in the diocese. Before his time indeed there
were men in the diocese who have never been sur-
passed for holiness of life, ability, and learning, com-
bined with pastoral zeal. Such in the ranks of the
evangelical school was the Rev. John Sargent, the
friend and biographer of Henry Martyn, and the
father-in-law of the late Bishop Wilberforce ; for thirty
years Rector of Graffham and Lavington, where his
saintly example and untiring ministration are by no
means forgotten. Such amongst High Churchmen

262

CHICHESTER.

was Hugh James Rose, a native of Sussex, where he
spent the beginning of his clerical life, first as curate
of Uckfield and afterwards as vicar of Horsham.
He was a power not only in the diocese but in the
Church at large, in which he seemed destined by his
high attainments and great virtues to occupy an
eminent place had he been permitted to reach the full
term of middle age. Partly contemporary with him
was the Rev. H. M. AVagner, who devoted a large
measure of his worldly wealth, as well as time,
thought, and energy, to providing for the welfare of
the rapidly increasing population in Brighton. The
humblest classes were not forgotten, and the evening
schools which he started in 1835 for chimney sweep-
ing lads were probably amongst the earliest efforts of
the Church, since become so common, to extend the
hand of kindliness and help to the lowest and most
neglected sections of society.

Notwithstanding these, however, and other bright
examples of individual excellence which might be
adduced amongst clergy and laity in the diocese
during the first 35 years of this century, it is true to
say that the first great manifestation of activity in the
Church as a body dates from the episcopate of Bishop
Otter. This was not solely due to the character of
the man : the Church of England as a whole was
waking up to a sense of her duties ; but Bishop Otter
was well qualified to guide this spirit of revived
activity in the diocese over which it was his lot to
preside ; and as a matter-of-fact the work of church
building, enlargement, and restoration, the erection of
schools, the increase in the number of clergy and

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 263

Other outward signs of activity mainly began in his
day, from which they have gone on in one continuous
stream of progress to the present time.

The Diocesan Association was instituted in 1838
to promote the building, restoration, or enlargement of
churches and schools, the augmentation of poor livings,
and the increase and maintenance of curates. At
the inaugural meeting held on January 12, the bishop
stated that between 1801 and 1831 the population
of the diocese had increased 80 per cent., chiefly of
course through the rapid growth of the towns on the
sea coast. There was a pressing need of additional
churches in most of the towns, and of a larger num-
ber of free sittings in churches which already existed.
In Chichester, for instance, with a population of
7,996, only 1,262 sittings were free. In Lewes, with a
population of 9,297, the free sittings were only 732.

The Association was launched on its career of /
usefulness with the modest sum of ^£1,28$ in dona-
tions for the increase of church accommodation, and
;^64 promised in annual subscriptions for the same :
for the additional curates fund the donations were
;!^65i, the annual subscriptions ;^224. At the first
quarterly meeting in the following June the sums
promised, exclusive of special donations, amounted to
;^4,92i, and there were promises of special donations
to the amount of ;^i,382.

Since its institution the society has expended upon
the several objects which it embraces upwards of
;^88,ooo.

The year following the establishment of this useful
society saw the foundation of the Theological

264

CHICHIiSTER.

College at Chichester, by the joint exertions of
Bishop Otter and Dean Chandler. The Rev. Charles
Marriott, fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, whose
learning, ability, and goodness it would be superfluous
to praise, was the first Principal of the College.

The weekly celebration of Holy Communion in the
Cathedral was begun in the same year a.d. 1839.

In 1840 the Archdeaconries of Chichester and
Lewes became vacant and were filled up by two men
equally eminent for ability and zeal, though widely
different in character and cast of thought — Henry
Edward Manning, Rector of Graffham and Lavington,
and Julius Charles Hare, Rector of Hurstmonceaux.

The rex ival of the rural deaneries completed the
framework of diocesan machinery which, under the
administrative skill and energy of Bishop Otter's
successors, has been continually e.xtended, and adapted
to meet the ever increasing needs of the diocese.

As a memorial of the gratitude of the diocese to
Bishop Otter, a training college for schoolmasters
was established at Chichester, in the episcopate of
his successor, Bishop Shuttleworth. After a period of
success, followed by a time of depression, the insti-
tution has been revived under the auspices of our
present zealous and energetic bishop, and reopened
as a college for training ladies to become mistresses
in elementary schools.

Sussex has been the first and principal scene of one
of the most successful efforts ever made in modern
times to provide a good liberal education combined
with sound church principles, at an exceedingly cheap
rate, for the children of the middle and lower middle

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRESENT CENTURV. 265

class. It is probably quite unprecedented in history
that the same man should have founded and lived
to watch the prosperous growth of so many schools
as the munificence, the energy, and the faith of Mr.
Woodard have enabled him to found and to foster.
There are four of them in Sussex — St. Nicholas, at
Lancing ; St. John's, at Hurstpierpoint ; St. Saviour's,
at Ardingly ; and St. Michael's (for girls) at Bognor.
Mr. Woodard encountered a great deal of opposition,
obloquy, and suspicion at one time, on account of
his reputation for being what is called an advanced
High Churchman, but the support which he received
from the wise, brave, and deeply respected bishop.
Dr. Gilbert, combined with his own unflagging perse-
verance and invincible faith, enabled him to triumph
over all hindrances.

It would be quite beyond the scope of this volume
to attempt any description of the work of church
building, restoration, and enlargement which has been
and is still going on in the diocese ; but the fall and
restoration of the tower and spire of the cathedral
church are events too remarkable to be passed over
without notice.

The central tower and spire had continually been a
source of expense. In 1563 the dean and chapter
made a sale of their plate to meet the cost of repairs,
507 ounces were sold at 5s. id. the ounce, realising
about ^128. A certain William Phillips, of Salisbury,
was paid 13s. 4d. to examine the steeple, and after-
wards ;i^2 2 were paid to the said William for pointing
the whole of it. The work of repairing tower and
spire lasted from May 8 to July 31, and the total

266

CHICHESTER.

expense of labour and materials, and of getting a
license for the sale of plate, amounted to 12 6. 19s. 8d.
No uneasiness, however, seems to have been felt either
then or for long afterwards respecting the actual sta-
bility of the tower. The mind of the chapter after the
restoration seems to have been mainly exercised by
the condition of the north-western tower, which was
in ruins. Sir Christopher Wren was consulted about
it in 1684 and proposed to clear it away, to pull down
the corresponding tower at the south-western angle,
to shorten the nave by one arch, and substitute a
" fair built west end " of his own design. We may
be well content that the proposal of Wren was not
accepted j the chapter raised about ;£'loo with a
view to rebuilding the ruined tower, but their attention
was soon diverted to a more pressing question. Early in
the eighteenth century some setdements in the central
tower began to excite alann. The arch into the north
transept was repaired in 1707, being considered in a
dangerous condition. During the eighteenth century
about ^15,000 were spentupon the church, a great part
of which went to the repairs of tower and spire. The
real cause of weakness, however, was not discovered
till the year a.d. i860. Dean Chandler, who died in
1859, had bequeathed ^^2,000 for the restoration of
the choir. When the work was begun in the following
year, one of the first operations was to take down the
vaulted stone passage commonly called the Arundel
Shrine, having been erected by Bishop Arundel, which
stood between the western piers of the central tower,
supporting the organ, and dividing the nave from the
choir. When this screen was removed the rotten

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 267

condition of the piers against which it rested was
revealed. The piers were not constructed of soHd
stone, but consisted of a core of rubble cased with
ashlar ; and, in addition to this source of weakness, to
make room for some of the stall work of the choir,
and for the stair-case to the organ, the bases and
plinths of the piers had been partly cut away. Fissures
of alarming breadth and depth were now disclosed in
the responds of both the western piers. The rest of
the story had best be told in the words partly of
Professor Willis, and partly of the "Builder" for
March 2, 1861. " Centres and shores were put up
and men employed instantly to restore the ruined
portions of the piers. Bond stones were inserted as
far as practicable considering the loose and rotten
state of the core. . . . These works were carried on
during the summer and autumn of i860, but in
November it was observed that settlements began in
the new work. Old fissures extended themselves into
the fresh masonry and new ones made their appearance.
A system of centering, to stiffen the arches which
connected the western piers with the nave and tran-
septs, was now commenced, but before it could be
carried out the symptoms of approaching ruin in-
creased and multiplied so fast that there was no time
to construct and apply the contemplated framing.
Shores were therefore resorted to. But in the next
place the walling began to bulge towards the end of
Jan. 7, 1861, first in the north west pier and after-
wards in the south cracks and fissures, some opening
and others closing, and the gradual deformation of
the arches in the transept walls and elsewhere indicated

268

CHICHESTER.

that fearful movements were taking place throughout
the walls connected with the western piers, and it was
then determined that the bulging of the piers should
be checked by the application of a jacketting of solid
timber, powerfully hooped together with iron bolts and
balks of timber. The preparation for this work began
on Saturday, February i6, and the afternoon service
was performed in the nave as usual on the following
day, but was interrupted by the urgent necessity for
shoring up a part of the facing of the south-west pier
which had exhibited new symptoms of giving way.
The workmen were now employed early and late in
desperate attempts to avert the impending ruin, which
was continually heralded by new evidences of weak-
ness. Still the men went on diligently applying shores,
struts, and braces, while the piers were bulging and
cracking and fissures increasing around them. On
Wednesday crushed mortar began to pour from the
old fissures, flakes of the facing stone fell, and the
braces began to bend. Yet the workmen continued
to add shoring until half-past 3 o'clock in the morning,
notwithstanding the violent storm of wind which arose
in the evening and beat first on the north-east side of
the church but as night advanced came with unabated
force from the south-west.

On Thursday, the 21st, before daylight, the work
was resumed. Seventy men, working with most com-
mendable enthusiasm and courage, under great
personal risk made strenuous efforts to increase the
number of shores under and around the tower ; for
those applied only the night before were bent, and
the danger became more and more imminent. The

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 269

workmen were only induced to quit the building by
the inevitable dinner-hour of noon. But by this time
the continued failing of the shores showed too plainly
that the fall was inevitable. Warning was given to
the inhabitants near the building on the south-west,
and the workmen returning at one o'clock were pre-
vented from re-entering it. Anxious groups outside
the cathedral enclosure stood gazing at the tower,
and in less than half an hour the spire was seen to
inchne slightly to the south-west, and then to descend
perpendicularly into the church, as one telescope
tube slides into another, the mass of the tower crum-
bling beneath it The stones and dust from

the base of the tower rushed into the nave, choir,
and transepts, and rapidly crumbling at the bottom
as it descended, the mass subsided in the centre of
the church, and the top of the spire falling at last to
the south-west, threw the capstone against the abut-
ment of one of the flying buttresses of the nave, and
broke itself across another of them intervening. The
fall was the affair of a few seconds, and was complete
at half-past one. No person was injured in life or
limb, nor was tlie property of anyone damaged in
the least. The ruin presented a compact mass of
detached materials huddled together in the form of a
rounded hill, which rose at the summit nearly to the
level of the triforium capitals, and sloped gradually
downwards into the four arms of the cross." In con-
clusion. Professor Willis says, " I beg to record my
opinion that the internal disintegration of the piers of
this noble tower had gradually and silently increased
to such a degree that no human power could have

270

CHICHESTER.

arrested its fall, and that the evidence of its utter
rottenness was developed only when it became too
late to apply the remedies that had been found
efficient in the middle ages and in our own time
to sustain such structures. Yet, as the measures
adopted in the first instance for the repair were those
that have been found effectual at Hereford and else-
where, no blame can be imputed to the authorities
or to any of the architects, engineers, or other persons
connected with the work."

In six years more, a new tower and spire, erected
at a cost of about ^60,000, the latter a close copy
of the original, the former a few feet higher, glad-
dened the eyes of the inhabitants of Chichester and
the neighbourhood. I'he homeward-bound sailor,
and the shepherd on the Downs, again beheld the
old familiar landmark. In the autumn of 1867, the
cathedral was re-opened for public worship. The
event was celebrated by an octave of services, which
were attended by a vast concourse of people from all
parts of the country. Sermons were preached by the
Bishop of Oxford (Dr. Wilberforce), the Bishop of
Worcester (Dr. Philpot, a native of Chichester), the
Bishop of Illinois, and the Bishop of St. Andrews.

Within the last ten years, the Ladye Chapel, ori-
ginally built by the Bishop Gilbert of the thirteenth
century, has been restored to its pristine beauty in
memory of his beloved and honoured namesake, the
Bishop Gilbert of our own day ; while the bell-tower
has been repaired and a clock and chimes placed in
it as a memorial to Dean Hook.

And here we bring our annals of the Church in

THE DIOCESE IN THE PRESENT CENTURY. 27 1

this diocese to a close. The retrospect will not have
been in vain if it helps to increase our faith in the
Church as a divine institution, and, on the other
hand, to make us more contented with the age in
which we live. We see that Christ has never forsaken
His Church, nor suffered its lamp to go out in this
our land. In ages of barbarism, ignorance, fanaticism,
or worldliness, still the true succession of Christ's
ministers has been preserved, His sacraments have
been administered. His word, however feebly, has been
preached. His example, however imperfectly, held up.
But when we look back, either upon the supersti-
tions of the mediaeval period, the distractions which
accompanied the Reformation, the confusions of the
Commonwealth, or the coldness and worldliness of
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, who would
exchange his present lot for any of those times?
Without underrating any of the grave trials and
anxious difficulties which beset us we may surely say,
— passi graviora — thank God ! and take courage.

LIST OF BISHOPS, WITH THE DATES OF
THEIR ACCESSION.

Bishops ok Selsey.

Eadberht'

About 1

About

... 709 !

Beinege

... 909

EoUa

... 714 ,

Wulfhun

•■■ 93<

Sigga

■•• 733

.-Elfred

■■■ 944

Aluberht

Eadhelm

... 963

Osa

••• 76s

iEthelgar

... 980

Gislehere

... 780 1

Ordberht

... 989

Totta

- 785 ;

yElmer ...

... 1009

Wiohtun

■•• 789 :

... 8u ,

i4;thelric I.

... 1032

^thelwulf

Grimketel

... 1039

Cenred ..

... 824 1

Hecca

... 1047

GuthearJ

... 860 1 ^thelric II. ...

... 1058

Bishops or Chichester.

Stigand

Godfrey

Ralph Liififa
Seffrid d'Escures

Hilary

John [Grecnford ?]
Seffrid II.
Simon of Wells
Richard Poore ...
Ranulf of Warham
Ralph Neville ...
St. Richard of \\'ych
John of Climping
Stephen of Durghstedc
Gilbert de Sancto Leo
fardo

A.I).

A.D.

1070

John of Langton

•• 1305

I0S7

Robert of Stratford

■• 1337

109 I

William of Lynn

.. 1362

II2S

William Rede ...

.. 1368

1147

Thomas Rushook

•• 138s

II74

Richard Metford

■• 1390

I180

Robert Waldby

.. 1390

1204

Robert Rede ...

•■ 1397

I215

.Stephen Patryngton

.. 1417

I21S

Henry Ware

.. 1418

1224

John Kemp

.. 1421

1245

Thomas Poldon

.. 1421

1254

John Rickinirale

.. 1426

1262

Simon Sydenham

■ 1431

Richard Praty ...

• 1438

I2S8

Adam Moleyns...

■■ 1446

274

CHICHESTER.

Reginald Pecock

• '45°

Pet r

1670

John Arundel

Ralph Brideoake

167s

Edward Storey

• 1478

Guy Carleton

1678

Richard Fitz James ..

• 1503

John Lake

1685

Robert Sherburne

1508

Simon Patrick

1689

Richard Sampson

Robert Grove

1 69 1

George Daye ...

• 1543

T^omas'ManniDgham

1696

John Scory

• 1552

1709

George Daye, restored

1554

Thomas Bowers

1722

John Christopherson .

I cr^

Edward ^Vaddington

1724

William Barlow

• 1559

1731

Richard Curteys

' 1586

IVIathias Alawson

1740

Thomas Bickley

William Ashbumham

I7S4
1798

Antony Watson

11:06

T h B k r

Lancelot Andrewes

Robert James Carr

1824

Samuel Harsnett

1609

Edward Maltby

1831

George Carleton

. i6j9

William Otter ..

1836

Richard ^lontagu

. 1628

Philip N. Shuttleworth

1840

Brian Duppa ...

. 1638

Ashurst Turner Gilbert

1842

Henry King

. 1642

Richard Durnford

1870

INDEX.

[The Names of the Diocesan Bishops aie printed in Capitals.]

yElfheah, Archbishop, murder of, 25 ; his day, 72

Ailfred, King, his lament over decay of learning, 23 ; his

struggle with the Danes,
y^lle, his conquests in Britain, 2, 3

yEthelberht, a South Saxon King, grants lands for monastery,
18

.(Ethelgar, Bishop of Selsey, translated to Canterbury, 24

Aithelmer, Bishop of Elmham, deposed, 35

/Ethelric, Bishop of Selsey, deposed, 35 ; attends Council on

Penenden Heath, 36
^thelwealh. King of South Saxons, receives Wilfrith, 8 ;

killed in battle, 12
Alard, Gervase and Stephen, their tombs at Winchelsea, 154
Altars, order for removing, 188; various positions of, 194, 199
Amberley, Episcopal Manor-house at, 132, itoU
Andredesceastcr, or Anderida, destruction of, 3
Andredeslea forest, 2, 4, 6, 8
Andrewes, Lancelot, Bishop, 211
Appledram, Church of. III

Architecture in Sussex, notices of, 29-32, 105-111, 152-157 ;

decline of, 174, 229
Atricles of enquiry, 214, 216, 217, 24I

Arundel, Earl of, his dispute with Bishop of Chichester, 123
Arundel, John, Bishop, 147 ; his screen or shrine, 226
Arundel, town of, taken and retaken in civil war, 219, 222 ;
Priory of, 96 ; Collegiate Church of, 96, 156

ASHBURNHAM, StR W., Bishop, 245

Augustine, St., 1,6

Austin Canons, houses of, in Sussex, 92, 94
Barlow, W., Bishop, 193, 196

Battle Abbey, foundation of, 72-75 ; its disputes with the
Bishops of Chichester, 43, 50, 76 ; privileges of, 77 ; dis-
solution of, 168

276

CHICHESTER.

Bay ham Abbey, 91, 110, 165, 166
Beckley, Vicar of, maltreated, 224
Bexhill, number of communicants in, 210
BicKLEY, Thomas, Bishop, 198
Bignor, Roman remains at, 5
Bishopitone, Church of, 32

Bosham, Monastery at, 7; Churcli of, 31 ; harbour o', 37;

College at, 95
Bowers, Thos., Bishop, 241

Boxgrove, Priory at, noticed, 86, 164, 165, 167 ; Church of,
109, 199

Brideoake, Ralph, Bishop, 233, 234
Brightling, number of communicants at, 210
Brighton, Protestants burned at, 191
British Church, referred to, 1
Broadwater, Church of, noticed, 106
Broyle, meaning of the, 58
Burwash, Church of, noticed, 32
Butler, Bishop, references to, 244, 257, note
Biixtcd, curious proceedings at, 202

Cade, part taken by Sussex in his insurrection, J 45
Cakeham, Bishop Sherburne's tower at, 175
Calamy, his notices of Nonconformists, 230
Cari.eton, Guy, Bishop, his letter to Archbishop Sancroft,
235

Carmelites, settlement of, at Shoreham, 129

Cathedral at Selsey, 11 ; destroyed, 25 ; at Chichester begun,

44, 45 ; nearly destroyed by fire, 52 ; renewed, 53, 55 ;

Ladye Chapel built, 153 ; south transept window, 154 ;

bell tower and spire of, 156 ; visitations of, 137, 141, 214,

233 ; sack of, 219 ; reception of Duke of Monmouth in,

235 ; constitution of Chapter, 212-214
Ceaiiwalla conquers Sussex, 12 ; goes to Rome and dies there,

13

Cecil, Rev. Richard, notice of, 260
Cheynell, Francis, 223

Chichester, derivation of the name, 4 ; attacked by Danes, 23 ;

■why chosen for Episcopal See, 37 ; siege of, 219
Chilling-worth, William, 222, 223
CHRiSTorHERSON, JoHN, Bishop, 191, 193, 196
Churchwardens' accounts, notices of, 205, 2c6, 22)
Cissa, son of jElIe, 2, 3, 4
Cistercians, only one house of, in Sussex, 87
Clergy, character of the mediaeval, 120, 121
Climping, Church of, noticed, 1 1 1

INDEX.

277

Climping, John of, Bishop, 70
Clovesho, Council at, noticed, 19
Cmit, King, prosperity of the Church under, 25
Colet,John, referred to, 159, 160, 162, 163, 172
Cominunicanls, comparative number of, at different p.-riods,
210, 242

Corrody, meaning of a, 92 ; instances of a, loi, 102

Cranmer, letter of, 1 84

CuRTEYS, Richard, Bishop, 197, 213

Cuthman, St., legend of, 21

Cymeiusora, South Saxons land at, 3

Dacrc, Lord, his will, 205

Danes attack Chichester, 23

Daye, George, Bishop, 1S4-190, 195

Dt la Warre, Lord, intercedes for Boxgrove Prioiy, 167

Diciil, his monastery at Bosham, 7 •

Ditchling, notices of, III, 210

Domesday Book, references to, 39-42

Dominicans, houses of, in Sussex, 104

Dorset, Earl of, founds Sackville College, 229

Dunstan, Archbishop, 24

DUPPA, Brian, Bishop, 216, and note

Dureford Abbey, notices of, 90, 169

DuRNFORD, Richard, Bishop, 264

Eadberht, first Bishop of Selsey, 15
Ea'.ditlf, South Saxon ealdoman, 19
Easehourne, Benedictine nunnery at, 94, 143
Eastbourne, number of communicants at, 210
Edes, Dr., Canon of Chichester, his reception of the Duke of
Monmouth, 235

Elizabeth, Queen, her policy, 193, 207, ; her spoliation of the

Church, 196
Erasmus, references to, 159, 160, 162, 163, 172
Etchingham, Church of, 153

Evangelical SichooX, clergy of the, in Sussex, 260, 261

Eairlight, Church of, 238

Fecamp, Abbey of, Steyning granted to, 89

Eirle, West, communicants at, 210

Five Mile Act, the, 230

Fletching, Church of, 1 1 1

Franciscans, houses of, in Sussex, 104 ; chapel of, in Chiches-
ter, III

278

CHICHESTER.

Gale, Leonard, autobiography of, 254-256

Gale, Walter, extracts from diary of, 250

Gausbcrt, Abbot of Battle, 43

Gilbert Ashurst Turner, Bishop, 265

GiLHERT DE Sancto Leofardo, Bishop, 121, 123, 153

Cilbei-t of r Aigle founds Priory of Michelham, 91

Glyndc, Church of, 245

Godfrey, Bishop, 44

Grestein, Abbey of, founds Priory of Wilmington, 84
Grinstead, East, Vicar of, deprived, 211 ; Sackville College

founded at, 229
Gundrada, wife of William of Warren, 78-81
Gunning, Peter, Bishop, 231-233

Hardham, Priory of, 93
Hare, Francis, Bishop, 242, 243
Hare, Jiditts Charles, 264
Harsnett, Bishop, 211
Harting, South, Church of, in
Hastings, Priory of, 93
Hilary, Bishop, 48-51

Hoathlcy, East, journal of a tradesman at, 246

Holy days, suppression of, 1 78

Horstead Keynes, diary of Vicar of, 227, 231

Hospitals, mediaeval, in Sussex, 97

Houghton, no communion at, 241

Hussey Henry, founds Dureford Abbey, 90

Ine, King, founds See of Sherburne, 14

Innocent IV., Pope, his disputes with the Chapter of Chichester

Cathedral, 133
Iping, mention of, in Domesday Book, 39, tiote

James I., his Church policy, 207 ; petition to, from Sussex,
208

James II., his declaration of indulgence, 237

Jevington, Church of, 32

John of CLiMriNG, Bishop, 70

John [Greenford], Bishop, 52

John King, his benefactions to Chichester, 56

King Henry, Bishop, 218, 221, 226, 231

Lake John, Bishop, 237-239
Lanfranc, Archbishop, 36, 37, 43

INDEX.

279

Langton, Archbishop, 58
Langton, John, Bishop, 124-126
Lanzo, Prior of Lewes, 82, 83
Laud, Archbishop, 216, 218

Lavant, East, parish of, 43 ; extract from Parish Register of,
225

Lay ton, Richard, letters of, 168-170

Lewes, Priory of, founded, 78-81 ; dissolved, 170, 171

Lruies, Protestants burned at, 191

Lewinna, St., legend of, 13, 14

Lollards, trials of, 134-136

London, See of, founded, 5 ; councils of, 37, 47

Lyminster, nunnery at, 93

Mailing, Old, College founded at, ig ; re-founded, 94 ; iiianor

of, given to the See of Canterbury, 20
Manning, Henry Edward, 264
Manumission, instances of, 163
Mary, Queen, 190, 192

Marmoutier, monks brought from Abbey of to Battle, 43, 74
May field. Church of, 156

Michelham, Priory of, founded, 91 ; visited, 143
MOLEYNS, Adam, Bishop, 144 ; murdered, 145
Monasteries, uses and influences of, 97-102 ; causes of their

corruption, 103 ; visitation of, 143, 164
Monmouth, reception of the Duke of, at Chichester, 235
Montague, Bishop, 196, 216, and Jiote
More, Mr., correspondence of, with Bishop King, 226
Moore, Rev. Giles, extracts from diary of, 227

Nantes, revocation of the Edict of, 233

Neale, Dr. J. Mason, 229

Newhaven, Church of, 106

Newick, extract from Parish Register of, 230

Nicholas IV., Pope, his valuation of Church property, 113-116

Nonarum Inquisitio, notice of the, I16

Nonconformists, notices of, in Sussex, 230, 231, and note ; their

sufferings, 240
Non-jurors, list of, in Sussex, 240 •

Norman Conquest, effects of the on English Church, 34, 35
Nothelm, a South Saxon king, 16
Nunna, a South Saxon king, 17

Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, his rapacity, 36

Olave, St., Church of, 31

Osmund, a South Saxon Ealdoman, 1 7

28o

CHICHESTER.

Otter, William, Bishop, 261 ; his diocesan work, 262, 264
Ovitigdean, Church of, 238

Papa! Provision, Bishops appointed by, 133
Parker, Archbishop, letter of, 194
Patrick, Simon, Bishop, 241
Pecock, Reginald, Bishop, 146
Peculiars, Archiepiscopal, in Sussex, 43
Penendeii Heath, Council on, 36

Petitions from Sussex to James I., 208 ; to Parliament, 218

Pevensey, Roman remains at, 3

Poles, family of the, 202

Poll-tax, produce of from Sussex clergy, 1 1 7

PoORE, Richard, Bishop, 57

Popish Recusants in Sussex, 202

Portslade, Churcli of, 238

Poynings, Church of, 156, 238; number of communicants in,
210

Praty, Richard, Bishop, his letter on poverty of Sussex
livings, 119; his trial of Lollards, 140; his visitation of

the diocese, 142
/Vrar/;;;/^'- forbidden, 177

Property, Church, value of, in Sussex at different times, I13-

Pulborough, Church of, 156

Pye, IViltiam, Dean of Chichester, 192

Pyuham, Priory of, 92

Quakers, persecution of, in Sussex, 240

Rcuton, parish of, 202
Ralph I., or Luffa, Bishop, 44-47
Ralph II., or Neville, Bishop, 58-61
Ranulph ofWarham, Bishop, 57
Recluses, notices of, in Sussex, 104
Rede, Robert, Bishop, 133-139
Rede, William, Bishop, 132
Reformation, beginnings of the, 158, 159

Richard OF Wych, Bishop, 61-69; canonised, 70; visits to
his shrine, 71 ; shrine of, demolished, 179, 180; his day,
72

Robert, Count of Morlain, his lands in Sussex, 40, 42 ; his bene-
factions to the Church, 84
Robert of Stratford, Bisho]>, 130
Robertsbridge, Abbey of, 87, 88
Rochester, See of, founded, 5

INDEX.

281

Rogate, Church of, 1 1 1

Roger of Montgomery, his lands in Sussex, 40, 42
Rollestoti, free school at, founded by Bishop Sherburne, 162
Romanesque Architecture, remarks on, 29, 30 ; specimens of the

primitive, in Sussex, 31, 32
Rose, Rev. Hunk James, 262
Rusper, Benedictine nunnery of, 94

Rye, Church of, 157 ; vicar of, 182 ; French refugees at, 233 ;

Wesley's vi>its to, 258
Ryves, Bruno, Dean of Chichester, his account of the sack of

the Cathedral, 2 19

Sadelescomhe, property of Knights Templars in, 126, 128
Sampson, Richard, Bishop, 173, 181-184, 195
Sargettt, Rev. John, 261

Saumur, Abbey of, founds Priory of Sele, 82
ScoRY, John, Bishop, 190, 193, 195
Seffrid I., Bishop, 47 ; deposed, 48
Seffrid II., Bishop, 52-55
Sele, Priory of, 85
Selham, Church of, 31

Selsey visited by Wilfrith, 9, 10 ; church built there, II ; See
fixed at, 15 ; cathedral of, destroyed, 25 ; bishop of, de-
posed, 35 ; See removed from, to Chichester, 34, 37

Sherburne, .See of, founded, 14 ; removed, 37

Sherburne, Robert, Bishop, 160, 173; his tomb, 174

Sherlock, Thomas, Dean of Chichester, 243

Shipley, possessions of Knights Templars at, 126, 128

Shoreham, New, mention of, 85 ; Church of, described, 107, 108

Shorcham, Old, 85, 106, 238

Shulbrede, Priory of, 93, 168

Sigeberht, King of the East Saxons, 5

Simon of Wells, Bishop, 55-57

Slindon, Archiepiscopal Manor of, 58

Sompting, Church of, 32 ; given to the Knights Templars, 127

Statute de herelico comhurendo, 1 35

Stephen of Burghstede, Bishop, 70

Steyning, 21, 89, 108

Stigand, Archbishop, deposed, 35

Stigand, Bishop, 36 ; his dispute with Battle Abbey, 43 ; with
Lanfranc, ib.

Storey, Edward, Bishop, his regulations about St. Richard's
shrine, 71 ; letter to from Henry VII., 119; enthronisa-
tion of, 147; builds market cross, 151 ; founds prebendal
school, ib.

Stuarts, the, their Church policy, 207
U

282

CHICHESTER.

Templars, the Knights, suppression of, in Sussex, 1 26- 1 29
Teutonic races, effects of the conquest of Britain by, I -3
Toleration Act, the, 240
Toriington, Priory of, 93
Triers, the, 225, 227, 233, 235

Turner, Mr. Thomas, extracts from diary of, 246-249
Turnham, Robert of, founds Abbey of Baybam, 91

Wagner, Rev. H. M., 262

Waller, Sir W., siege of Chichester by, 219

Watson, Antony, Bishop, 210, 211, 215

Wedmore, the peace of, 23

Wesley, John, his work in Sussex, 258, 259

West Dean, old parsonage house at, 154

West Tarring, Church of. III

Whitgift, Archbishop, suspends some Sussex clergy, 200 ; letter

of, to Bishop Watson, 210
Wilfrith, conversion of Sussex by, 8-13

William of Braose, his lands in Sussex, 40, 42 ; his gifts to the
Church, 85

William the Conqueror, his Church policy, 35 ; his confiscation
of land, 39 ; his vow at Senlac, 73 ; founds Abbey of
Battle, 74

William, Count of Eu, his lands in Sussex, 40, 42

William of Warren, his lands in Sussex, 40, 42 , founds

Priory at Lewes, 78
Wills, extracts from, 205
Wilmington, Pricry at, 84

Winchelsea, Church of St. Thomas at, 153, 154, 238
Wivelsfield, appointment to living of, 226
Wisboroiigh Green, Church of, III
Woodard, Mr., his schools in Sussex, 265

Woolbeding, Church of, 31 ; mention of in Domesday Book,

39, note
Worth, Church of, 31, 32

Wren, Sir Christopher, his proposed alterations in Chichester
Cathedral, 266

York, See of, founded, 6

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