TAUNTON PRIORY. 43 



On the 18tli of October, William Esch was presented to 

 Nygenhuyde, on the resignation of John Crjspyn.* 



On the 27th of January, 1350-1, Symon de Cherde 

 was presented to the vicarage of Pypminstr.f 



The year following Avitnessed a procedure very charac- 

 teristic of the times. In order to enforce the Performance of 

 the essential duties of Christianity on every individual, the 

 Church, recognizing alike her power and her responsibility 

 towards those who were entrusted to her care, made it com- 

 pulsory on all persons to attend their parish church, and to 

 refrain from wandering to other churches to the consequent 

 neglect of and absence from their own. Certain parishion- 

 ers of Monketon rendered themselves liable to ecclesiastical 

 censure on this account. It is probable that the distance 

 at which they resided from their church had not a little to 

 do with the matter. Portions of the parish of Monkton are 

 but a few minutes' walk from the church of S. Mary 

 Magdalene ; while the parish church of Monkton lies at a 

 distance of several miles, and the road, as we shall see by 

 other evidences presently, was not in the very best con- 

 dition. A mandate, however, bearing date the 2 Ist of 

 September, 1351, is directed by the Bishop to the vicar of 

 Taunton, commanding him to check this presumption of 

 the Monkton parishioners, by making strict search before 

 the celebration of mass whether there were any from other 

 parishes among the congregation, and, if so, to drive them 

 from his church, and compel them to return to their own 

 on pain of canonical censures.:}: 



On the 20th of October of the same year, Simon de 

 Fareweye, parson of the church of Lidiard S. Laurence, 



* MS. Harl. G965, p. 230. 

 t MS. Harl. 69G5, p. 233. 

 t MS. Harl. C9G5, p. 239. 



