106 Passages in the History of Downton. ; 
reform into Dorsetshire and Wiltshire, where he was told that one 
Sir Osburn Giffard had carried off two nuns from the monastery of 
Wilton. Sir Osburn was excommunicated and made to perform 
severe penance, of which one of the least rigorous parts was that 
he was to be stripped to the waist on three following Sundays in 
Wilton Parish Church and beaten with rods.! 
The next few notices of Downton are chiefly concerned with the 
holders of the benefice, of whom a list is given below; but there 
is a curious instance of the disputes between the Pope, the King, 
and the lawful patrons—the Bishops of Winchester—as to the 
rights of patronage, in the presentation of William Burnell. 
In 1290 Pope Nicholas IV., then at Orvieto, issued an Indulgence 
to William “ Burnell,’ who, being aged 21, had already, at the 
request of Odo de Grandison, received a papal dispensation to retain 
the Provostship of Wells, the Rectory of Westerham, Canonries 
and Prebends of Lichfield, Salisbury, Llandaff, St. David’s, and S. 
Omer. A further licence was given to him by this Indulgence to 
accept the Church of Downton, on his resignation of Westerham, and 
to retain also a Canonry and Prebend of York.? This appointment to 
Downton seems to have been disputed by the authorities in England 
on the technical ground of the invalidity of the papal document 
because the name of the beneficiary was spelt “ Brunell,” instead of 
“ Burnell,” and his age had been stated as twenty-two, instead of 
twenty-one, in the quotation of the former dispensation. In the 
following March, therefore, the Pope wrote again to confirm the 
Indulgence, notwithstanding these mistakes, and further allowed 
that Burnell might hold the Rectory of Downton for five years 
without residing or being ordained priest, while engaged in his 
studies.2 In 1292 William Burnell was elected Dean of Wells, but 
retained the Rectory of Downton by dispensation from Robert 
Burnell, Bishop of Bath and Wells, probably a near relative. The 
Bishop of Winchester, however, on the ground that Burnell’s 
1 Collier’s Eccl. Hist. 
2 Papal Letters. 
3 Papal Letters. 
ees 
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