ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Lilford, the parish church of Weldon, and the Lady chapel of Moulton ; and 

 for the repair of the church of Harlestone, and of the south aisle of the 

 church of Fotheringhay. The high altar of the newly-built church of Roth- 

 well was dedicated in 1310, and in the same year the altar of Our Lady at 

 Kingsthorpe church ; the bishop also dedicated three altars in St. Michael's, 

 Northampton, the high altar of the church of Preston, and an altar in the 

 church of UfFord. In 13 17 he instructed the archdeacon of Northampton 

 to make collections for the fabric of the mother church of Lincoln. 



The zeal of this prelate was also shown in other directions. Hearing 

 that the vicar of All Saints',' Northampton, was incapable of doing duty 

 through age and infirmity, he appointed a commission to inquire and report 

 as to this case and others that might resemble it. The rector of Thorpe 

 Malsor was cited to make residence. Irregular superstition was curbed, and 

 the bishop inhibited the veneration of a well of St. Thomas the Martyr, in 

 the field of Hackleton, in Piddington parish. A mandate was issued to all 

 deans, rectors, vicars, and chaplains to bring children to be confirmed. 



The bishop showed himself a strong upholder of the mendicant orders. 

 In 13 18, he licensed 104 Dominicans, sixty-two Franciscans, and sixteen 

 Austin friars to hear confessions throughout the diocese ; but at the same 

 time he inhibited unlicensed friars from either hearing confessions or 

 preaching.' 



Another entry in Dalderby's register tells of what seems, at first sight, 

 an outbreak of iconoclastic rage. In Whitsun week, 13 13, the parishioners 

 of Tansor were making their customary Whitsuntide procession to Oundle, 

 preceded by their cross and candles. They had just entered the churchyard 

 when some of the inhabitants of Oundle rushed upon them, attacked both 

 priests and people, broke up the staff of the cross into three or four pieces, 

 and trod the cross under their feet 'in an heretical and diabolical manner.' 

 The bishop in consequence excommunicated the offenders.* The real reason 

 for this attack was certainly mere local jealousy, and no anger against the 

 symbol of Christianity. Probably it was customary, and was considered 

 courteous, for the crosses of surrounding parishes to be lowered on entering 

 the town or the churchyard of Oundle.* At any rate the entry is of interest 

 as showing that Oundle, an early centre of Christianity, was regarded as the 

 mother church or minster of some of the surrounding parishes, who came at 

 Whitsuntide to make their Pentecostal offerings. 



It was in the episcopate of Dalderby's third successor. Bishop John 

 Gynwell, that the diocese was visited by the Black Death. That terrible 

 scourge which swept over Europe in the fourteenth century, reached 

 these shores in 1348, probably in the month of August, and quickly spread 

 from the coast of Dorset, where it first appeared, over all the west of 

 England. On 17 August the bishop of Bath and Wells ordered his clergy 

 to hold special services every Friday in their churches to avert God's wrath. 

 In the following month, the prior of Canterbury (the see being vacant) 



' An interesting inhibition addressed to the dean of Northampton with respect to trading within the 

 church and churchyard of this parish will be found printed in Dinscy, Horae Decanicae Rutales (1844), ii, 436. 



' Line. Epis. Reg. Dalderbv, 368, 370, 383. 



» Ibid. f. 2453. 



* The crosses of Alrewas and Longton had to be delivered up on entering, at Whitsuntide, the close of 

 Lichfield. Quarrels like that at Oundle were by no means infrequent. 



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