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when more exact information fails, tell us the succession of lords, 
for the patronage was most usually united to the lordship. From 
the knowledge of the early patrons moreover we are guided to a 
reasonable conjecture as to the founder, for the right of present- 
ation followed the founding, the bishop consenting to the good 
old rule that when a lord built a sufficient church, the tithe of his 
manor should be devoted to its support. In a great deal too 
many of the parishes of England (fully one-half) the tithe of the 
rector was diverted to a monastery, often distant and sometimes 
foreign. The rectorial office disappeared and a priest was supplied 
by the monastery, and was called a vicar, who was to serve the 
church and subsist on a stipend aided by tithes on small produce. 
For a record of this transaction, certainly one of the greatest 
events in the history of a parish, diocesan registers must be 
searched. The consent of the bishop was necessary and the 
conditions are usually recorded. Besides these diocesan records 
references to MSS. authorities on this part of topography are to 
be found in the great Monasticon and other similar works. 
Another great event in the church history of a parish was the 
foundation of a chantry, an act of zeal sometimes intended as 
monumental of a person or event, and sometimes as a means of 
edification by preaching or the exhibition of pictures. Chantries 
were often the work of clubs or guilds whose existence is a 
curious phenomenon by no means to be neglected in a good local 
history. The practice of assigning the tithe of a manor to a new 
church, or in other words the creation of new parishes ceased 
about the reign of Henry I.; subsequent buildings were called 
chapels ; and although districts called chapelrics were assigned to 
them they had no tithe. Of these the bishops’ records give but a 
scanty account. 
Beside the records of the dioceses and charters of the abbeys 
we possess a few lists or returns, as we should now say, of the 
value of livings, of which Pope Nicholas’ Taxation of 1291 and 
King Henry’s Valor of 1535 are the most important, and being 
printed are easy of access, 
