A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



even usually, an arrangement adopted for the sake of avoiding vicarages, for 

 such cases often came down from much earlier days, when portionary 

 churches were the rule and not the exception. 



The endowments of the secular or parochial clergy were subject, in the 

 thirteenth and succeeding centuries, to the gravest abuses, among the chief 

 of which was the holding of benefices in plurality. A notable instance of 

 this evil occurs in connexion with Northamptonshire. On 23 May, 1280, 

 Bogo de Clare was presented by the earl of Gloucester to the rectory of 

 Whiston. His institution was claimed from the official of Lincoln, the see 

 being then vacant. Institution had to be granted, for a papal dispensation 

 was produced. Bogo's proctor had to declare on oath the name and value of 

 each preferment that his principal already held, the total yielding the then great 

 income of ^(^228 6^. 8^. Bogo held the widely dispersed churches of Callan 

 (diocese of Ossory), Leverington (Ely), St. Peter's, Oxford (Lincoln), Kilk- 

 hampton (Exeter), Eynsford (Canterbury), Polstead and Soham (Norwich), 

 Acaster and half Doncaster (York), Swanscombe (Rochester), Dunmow 

 (London), Rotherfield (Chichester), Simonburn (Durham), Fordingbridge and 

 half Dorking (Winchester), Llandogo (Llandaff), and Ham and ' Cheverell ' 

 (Salisbury).^ AH these rectories would be served by mere stipendiary chaplains, 

 and the parishes would probably be in a worse plight than those that had 

 duly ordained vicarages. 



Northamptonshire also supplies some striking examples of one of the 

 greatest grievances inflicted by the crown upon the Church : the application 

 of benefices in royal hands or under royal influence to the remuneration of 

 offices of civil administration, without the least regard for the needs of the 

 diocese, the archdeaconry, or the parish. 



Sometimes such benefices provided an income in this way for an official 

 of creditable life and high character, as in the case of Hugh de Pateshull. In 

 early life this official was employed in the Exchequer.^ He lost the favour of 

 John through siding with the baronial party. Henry III, however, appre- 

 ciated his merits, and in 1234 he became treasurer of the kingdom.' He was 

 a clerk in priest's orders, and was a prebendary of St. Paul's, as well as holder 

 of several livings. In 1240 Hugh was consecrated bishop of Lichfield,* and 

 discharged that office faithfully till the following year,^ when, revisiting his 

 native county of Northampton, he was taken ill and died at Potterspury.' In 

 1239, when he was nominated to the bishopric and was accepted by the 

 chapters of both Lichfield and Coventry, he had taken the then unusual step 

 of at once resigning his parochial benefices. The register of his friend. 

 Bishop Grossetete, shows that in that year he resigned the Northamptonshire 

 rectories of Brockhall, Cottingham, Elkington, and Stowe-Nine-Churches, 

 together with the half-rectory of Higham Ferrers.^ 



Bishop Grossetete, who was so justly severe and so exemplary as a 

 diocesan, would scarcely see much wrong (in spite of the better feeling 

 of the times) in such comparatively moderate plurality as served to find 

 an income for the upright Hugh de Pateshull; but in another case con- 

 nected with Northamptonshire, that of Robert Passelew, it was otherwise. 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Sutton. ' Matt. Paris, Chron. Moj. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 296. 



' Ibid, iii, 296 ; iv, 1-2. He is also mentioned as ' domini regis cancellarius,' Ibid, iii, 54.2. 

 * Ibid, iii, 542-3, iv, I, 31. ' Ibid, iv, 171. 



^ Ann. Men. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 157. ' Line. Epis. Reg. Grosseteste. 



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