A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE 



churches had a sufficient portion of the tithes assigned to them for their 

 maintenance. During his episcopate forty-six vicarages at least were ordained 

 in this county, 80 and possibly one or two more. So far as can be discovered 

 the vicars' portions here were much the same as elsewhere : they averaged 

 about five marks of annual value, to be obtained from the lesser tithes and 

 oblations made at the church ; in some cases board and lodging was provided 

 for the priest at the monastery, if it happened to be in his parish, and then 

 he only received a small sum of money for clothing. This work of ordaining 

 vicarages was carried on by Bishops Grossetete, 31 Gravesend, 32 and Button 3S 

 throughout the century. 



Robert Grossetete was himself archdeacon of Leicester and prebendary 

 of St. Margaret's from 1225 to 1231." There are few records of his life 

 and work in this county, but one of his letters written during this period is 

 very interesting. The younger Simon de Montfort, as lord of Leicester, 

 had recently granted to the burghers a charter by which he promised that 

 no Jew in his time, or in the time of any of his successors in finem mundi^ 

 should live within the liberty of the town. 36 Those already in Leicester were 

 accordingly expelled, and some of them appealed to the countess of Winchester 

 for permission to settle on her lands. She was apparently inclined at first to 

 grant this favour, but Grossetete wrote a letter to dissuade her. It would be 

 unreasonable to expect of him the same spirit of religious toleration which 

 comes naturally to us in England in the twentieth century ; but his treatment 

 of this difficult question is at any rate free from the narrow bigotry so common 

 in his own day. 



He argued that the first duty of a Christian prince is to protect his own 

 subjects, not only from open enemies, but from the petty tyranny of 

 unscrupulous usurers. The Jews in this respect are real oppressors of the 

 Christians, and therefore a Christian prince who cherishes them does a wrong 

 to his own people. The Jews are intended to be a living sermon to us 

 wanderers for ever upon the face of the earth because of the sins of their 

 fathers. Nevertheless the Christian ruler must not kill or do them actual 

 hurt ; he should rather try to provide them with the means of earning an 

 honest livelihood by the labours of their hands, instead of by base gain. Such 

 is the substance of the letter ; and the archdeacon ends by exhorting the 

 countess to see that her bailiffs do not exact tithes too stiffly in the parish of 

 his prebend. 36 



In 1252 died John of Basingstoke, another archdeacon of note. Like 

 Grossetete he was a Greek scholar, a somewhat rare accomplishment in those 



M Ashby de la Zouch, Tilton, Great Dalby, Queniborough, Barkby, Loddington, Shepshed, Lockington, 

 Barrow-on-Soar, Diseworth, Breedon, Rothley, North Kilworth, Thornton, Ratcliffe-on-Wreak, Long Clawson, 

 Hose, Eaton, Stonesby, Barkestone, Theddingworth, Horninghold, Evington, King's Norton, Foxton, Welham, 

 Billesdon, Thurnby, Wymeswold, Frisby-on-Wreak, Lowesby, Tugby, Hinckley, Shackerstone, Peatling 

 Magna, Cosby, Swinford, Dunton Bassett, Bitteswell, Plungar, Ratby, Thorpe Arnold, Croxton Kerrial, 

 Somerby, Owston, Ashby Magna. 



31 Under Grossetete were ordained the vicarages of Scraptoft and Galby. 



" Under Gravesend : Saltby, Glen Magna, Packington, Belton, Claybrooke, Scalford, and St. Margaret's, 

 Leicester. 



13 Under Button : Melton Mowbray. Enderby was ordained either then or earlier. 



" Epist. Grossetete (Rolls Ser.), Introd. xxxiv-vi. 



** Nichols, Leic. i (i), App. p. 38. There is a drawing of the seal on Plate xii, and there seems no 

 reason to doubt the genuineness of the charter ; but it seems to have been lost during the last century, not 

 being mentioned in Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. viii (i) ; or in Miss Bateson's Rec. of the Borough of Leic. 



* Epist. Grossetete (Rolls Ser.), 33. 



358 



