ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



really nine at this time ;* 8 and no chapels are mentioned except that of 

 St. Giles, Blaston, which had become free, and the two chapels of Staunton 

 Harold and Worthington, appendent to Breedon on the Hill. Peckleton had 

 become an independent parish since 1220. 



The total value of spiritualia in the archdeaconry, as given in the Taxatio* 

 was 3,166 i2j. There were very few rich benefices. Only thirty-five were 

 worth more than 20 a year ; only twelve more than 3- Melton Mow- 

 bray, appropriated to the priory of Lewes, stood highest, being valued at 

 110; Market Bosworth came next, at 58 131. \d. ; no other rose 

 above ^6. M 



It might seem that in this archdeaconry the temptation to hold benefices 

 in plurality was greater than elsewhere, as the churches were so poor. This 

 excuse might serve for the eighteenth century, when two or three small 

 curacies strung together barely made a living for one priest, but in the four- 

 teenth century it was the richer benefices which were usually held in plurality 

 by non-resident and alien rectors. So in 1 308 Bertrand de Verdun held 

 Lutterworth and Bosworth, and had licence to accept another. 50 Aylestone 

 (33 6j. 8d.) was held by Stephen, dean of Glasgow, in 1310, with Stow, 

 and a canonry and prebend of Dunkeld. 61 Walter of Maidstone, not yet a 

 priest in i 306, had Nailstone with four other benefices, a hospital, and pre- 

 bends in six cathedrals. 62 John of Edingdon, nephew of the bishop of 

 Winchester, at seventeen years old was prebendary of St. Margaret's, 

 archdeacon of Surrey, and warden of the hospital of the Holy Cross at 

 Winchester. 63 The archdeacons were some of the worst offenders in this 

 respect ; not only foreigners like Raymond 61 and James Orsini 65 and Poncel 

 d'Urbini, but Englishmen like Henry of Chaddesdon 60 and William de 

 Doune, 67 who should have known better. There is not one of the arch- 

 deacons of the fourteenth century fit to stand beside Grossetete and John of 

 Basingstoke. 



The fourteenth is the century also of the great pestilence, which was 

 certainly felt very heavily in Leicestershire. The statistics given by Henry 

 Knighton, a canon of Leicester who lived within memory of the first great 

 plague-year, if not actually through it, have long passed unchallenged. It is 

 he who tells us how in the little parish of St. Leonard there died as many as 

 380, in the parish of St. Martin more than 400, in the parish of St. Mar- 

 garet 700. It was hard work, he says, for the clergy to perform their 

 ordinary duties and give the help which was needed by so many sick and 

 dying. The bishop gave licence to all priests, regular and secular, to hear 



" The Leicester churches named in the Matriculus and Lexington Roll are St. Mary de Castro, St. 

 Nicholas, St. Clement, St. Leonard, All Saints, St. Michael, St. Peter, St. Martin, St. Margaret, and the chapel 

 of St. Sepulchre. There is a tradition of another church dedicated to St. Augustine and St. Columban, on 

 the east side of St. Nicholas' Church, not parochial, but a chapel to Cosby. It is said to have been destroyed 

 at the Conquest. The authority for its existence is Charyte, of Leicester Abbey. Nichols, Leic. i, 6, and 

 App. p. 66. 



49 Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), iv. 189 seq. M Cat. of Papal Lett, ii, 41, 104, 399. 



51 Ibid. 68, 71. 5I Ibid. 12. ' ss Ibid, iii, 269, 274, 357, 461. M Ibid. 236. 



65 James Orsini was archdeacon of Durham and Leicester, and dean of Salisbury, and had benefices with 

 and without cure of souls in the dioceses of Lincoln, Wells, Chichester, London, Rochester, and Carlisle. 

 Ibid, iv, 168, 196, 227, 403. 



66 He was, in 1349, dispensed to hold his archdeaconry with canonries and prebends of Lincoln, London, 

 and Derby, and a benefice besides. Ibid, iii, 305, 317. 



57 He was allowed, in 1354, to keep nine benefices. Ibid, iii, 112, 345, 427, 517, 524. 



i 3 61 46 



