^64 Potterne. 



From some of their bishops in this century the good folks resident 

 on this manor could have had but scant attention. Bishop Hallam, 

 afterwards advanced to the high rank of Cardinal, died whilst at- 

 tending the Council of Constance in 1417. Judging from the 

 number of Suffragans employed by them^ during their short tenure 

 of the see of Salisbury, Bishops Chandler and Neville both pre- 

 ferred to do their episcopal work in Wiltshire by deputy } And 

 their successor, Wiluam Aiscough, paid a terrible penalty for being 

 so constant an absentee from his diocese. For in the year 14-50, 

 when at Edington, he was suddenly attacked, and killed " a suis 

 diocesa7iis, eo quod non residebat in episcopatu suo, ut diceiatur," i.e., 

 " by men of his diocese, because, as it was alleged, he was a non-resi- 

 dent bishop." A more detailed account of this murder (for such it was) 

 is given to us in the following words: " Some of the bishop's tenants 

 of the meaner sort that lived in his farms came to Edendon, where 

 the bishop was, when they found him at the service of God. They 

 took him out in his bishop's vestments, and, dragging him from the 

 altar, carried him by force to a neighbouring hill, and while he was 

 kneeling struck out his brains, leaving his body naked, stript of all 

 his clothing. This was done on June 29th, 1450, before which day 

 they had rifled his baggage at Salisbury, and taken away 10,000 

 marks of ready money.'' Magna Brit. (Wiltshire) p. 173. It is to 

 be hoped that the bishop's tenants in Worton and Marston, who 

 must have been within two or three miles of the scene of this oc- 

 currence, were not in that fray — anyhow they could not have re- 

 garded with unconcern so terrible a deed, committed so near their 

 own borders. For their credit, it may be added, that the ringleader 

 was not from Potterne, but, as was reported, a brewer from Salisbury. 



There was no great temptation after this for a bishop to venture 



* Within some fifty or sixty years from 1407-1466 we meet with the names 

 of some fourteen sufi'ragan bishops engaged in the diocese of Sarum. Amongst 

 them were not only several beariug titles taken from foreign countries, but also 

 some Welsh and Irish Bishops. Amongst the latter were Nicholas Ashby, 

 Bishop of Llandafi", and the Bishops, for the time being, of Tuam, Enaghdun, 

 Achonry, Connor, and Ardagh. The^osona/ services rendered by the Bishops of 

 Sarum must have been but small. 



