ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



obtained, for King Edward happened to be in Leicester Abbey at the time : 

 he gave the required charter, and Henry Knighton, who was standing by, 

 heard him speak words worthy of one to whom, with all his faults, the ideal 

 of Christian knighthood was always dear ' Deus tibi dedit vitam, et nos 

 dabimus cartam.' 69 Poor Peter King, who met with a like fate ten years 

 later, was less fortunate. He revived as he lay before the altar of the chapel, 

 and claimed the right of sanctuary ; but a few days after some of ' Satan's 

 satellites' broke in, dragged him out, and hanged him again more thoroughly. 70 



The total effect of the pestilence was, as all acknowledge, not to draw 

 men together, but to widen existing breaches between rich and poor, between 

 higher and lower ranks of the clergy. The town of Leicester was threatened 

 with an invasion of the same rioters who had done so much mischief at 

 St. Albans, and the abbot of St. Mary de Pre was even afraid to shelter the 

 jewels and furniture of John of Gaunt for fear of bringing trouble to his own 

 house. But the whole affair seems to have been only an alarm ; there was no 

 actual attack. 71 



One definite result of the depreciation of landed property after the 

 pestilence was the decay of some of the parochial chapels. Those which 

 had always been scantily endowed could no longer maintain a priest; they 

 were first disused and then fell into ruins. Of the chapels of Hameldon, 

 Bescaby, Whellesborough, Whatborough, Baggrave, Mirabel, Altfleetford, 

 North and South Marefield, Newbold Saucey, Odstone, and Othorpe nothing 

 is known after the fourteenth century. On the other hand a few were 

 freshly endowed with chantries, and some were built to suit the needs of 

 shifting population. Mowsley, Knighton, Thorpe Acre, Golte, and the 

 chapel of our Lady on the bridge of Leicester are not mentioned in a list 

 of churches and chapels for the year 1344," and must have been built after 

 the pestilence. 



The foundation of chantries and gilds may perhaps be appro- 

 priately dealt with at this point ; most of them date from the fourteenth 

 century, and their importance and number increase gradually through the 

 fifteenth. In this county the earliest chantry using the word in its 

 narrower and later sense, as a foundation intended mainly for the benefit of 

 one man's soul, or the souls of his family and friends was that founded in 

 the parish church of Stathern in 1292 by Richard de Bosco Roardi ; 73 it was 



K Chron. H. Knighton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 119. This was in 1363. 



70 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Buckingham, 123. The proper way of dealing with such a case was to call 

 for the coroner and require the prisoner formally to abjure the realm. There is a case on record of a thief 

 who came to life in the same way in the chapel of St. John's Hospital (1313), and was called upon to abjure 

 the realm. The hangmen of Leicester in the fourteenth century would seem to have been unskilful craftsmen. 

 Rec. of Bon. of Leic. i, 373, 357 (note). 



71 Chron. H. Knighton (Rolls Ser.), ii, 142. 



" This record is printed in Nichols' Leic. i, p. kiii, from Harl. MS. 6700. It is not a mere copy of 

 the old Matriculus, as it mentions several new chapels which had apparently been built since the time of 

 Bishop Lexington. These are Busby (Thurnby parish), Sysonby in Melton Mowbray, Baggrave and Quenby in 

 Hungerton, Woodhouse in Barrow-on-Soar, and the two chapels of Mountsorrel, Leesthorpe in Pickwell, 

 Woodcote in Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Tonge and Anderchurch in Breedon-on-the-Hill, Naneby in Market 

 Bosworth, Stonnsworth in Swinford, Ullesthorpe in Claybrooke, Botcheston in Ratby. Nearly all those 

 mentioned in 1220 are still found, but Burton-on-the- Wolds, East Langton, and the Mythe have disappeared. 

 Osgathorpe has become a parish church. The compiler of the record gives a total of 206 churches and 117 

 chapels; but as a matter of fact he has counted his own lists carelessly, and there are really 205 churches and 

 1 1 6 chapels. St. Margaret's, Leicester, is for some reason omitted. 



73 Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Sutton, 72 d. 



363 



