ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



This license was extended to William de Horseleye, prior of the Domini- 

 cans of Winchester, and nine of his brethren, one of them being 

 Nicholas de Stratton, doctor of theology ; to William de Sutton, warden 

 of the Franciscans of Winchester, and six of the friars ; to five of the 

 Franciscans of Southampton ; to Simon de Scaleby, prior of the Austin 

 friars of Winchester, and six others of that convent ; and to Thomas de 

 Gnosham, prior of the Carmelites of Winchester, and six of his convent. 

 As a proof that this was no rash licensing of every friar as a matter of 

 course, it may be noted that in this register several of the names have 

 been erased and others interpolated at a later date in Bishop Stratford's 

 episcopate. 



The bishop issued a monition just before Lent, 1325, to the dean 

 (rural) of Winchester, enjoining that all the parishioners of the city 

 should be urged to attend the preaching of the friars on Ash Wednesday 

 in the cathedral church. 1 



William of Wykeham, amidst all his other duties, found time to 

 hold the office of conservator of both the Dominican and Franciscan 

 friars throughout England and Wales. Although he was not called 

 upon to exercise the duties of this position in his own diocese, it was by 

 no means a sinecure. His registers afford proof that on various occasions 

 he had to interfere for the protection of friars and their interests in other 

 dioceses. 2 The custom of using friars as the chief diocesan confessors 

 had waned in most English dioceses in Wykeham's times. In 1393 the 

 bishop appointed John Cole, a Dominican, to hear confessions throughout 

 the diocese and to act even in reserved cases, but with him he associated 

 Thomas Nevyle, a monk of St. Swithun's who was afterwards prior. 3 

 Their treatment at the dissolution obtains later mention. 



To return to the episcopal history. On the death of Peter, 

 Henry III., who had recently wedded Eleanor of Provence, tried to 

 secure the rich bishopric of Winchester for his wife's uncle, William 

 of Valence. The monks of St. Swithun stoutly resisted the king ; 

 they did not desire to have another soldier-bishop and termed 

 William of Valence a man of blood. Their choice fell upon William 

 of Raleigh, Bishop of Norwich, and afterwards on Ralph Nevill, 

 Bishop of Chichester, both of whom were favourite royal chaplains. 

 The king resisted, and the diocese was bishopless for five years. 

 At last William of Valence died, and the monks re-elected Raleigh, 

 notwithstanding the outrageous and continued violence of the king, 

 who actually on one occasion manacled the monks of Raleigh's party 

 in pairs and imprisoned them in a squalid den outside the city. The 

 monks of St. Swithun, on appealing to Rome, obtained from the pope 

 a confirmation of their right of free election ; they were not at the 

 king's bidding to elect any foreigner or person odious to England, but 

 to choose freely for bishop the man they deemed best for the post. 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Stratford, f. 15. 



* Wykeham's Registers (Hants Record Society), pt. iii. pp. 266, 271, 318, 347, 384, 534. 

 8 Ibid. pt. i. f. 157. 

 II 17 3 



