ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



oratories, notwithstanding the abundant supply of churches and chapels 

 in proportion to the population, are interesting proofs of the reality of 

 the faith of the laity of the times. 



Henry Woodlock, prior of St. Swithun's, was raised to the episcopate 

 of Winchester in 1305, just about the time when the quarrel between the 

 king and Archbishop Robert of Winchelsey was at its height. Espousing 

 the cause of the archbishop, who had been his consecrator at Canterbury, 

 Woodlock was outlawed with the primate. On the death of Edward I. 

 in 1307 the two prelates were recalled by the young king. The arch- 

 bishop was too ill to hasten home for the coronation, and issued a com- 

 mission authorizing any one of three of his suffragans to act in his 

 behalf. Of the three named, Edward II. selected the Bishop of 

 Winchester, and Henry Woodlock had the honour of crowning Edward 

 and Isabel at the magnificent ceremonial at Westminster, when the 

 favourite Gaveston carried the crown of England before the monarch. 

 Woodlock, on his return to Winchester, caused his registrar to enter 

 various documents pertaining to the coronation in his register, including 

 the copy of the bishop's formal protest that no prejudice is intended to 

 the church of Canterbury by his officiating on that occasion. 1 



Woodlock's register presents several points of interest. His careful 

 rule over the religious houses under his' sway is shown in their subse- 

 quent outline history. In the first year of his episcopate there is the 

 confirmation and strengthening of a former ordination of the vicarage of 

 Andover, which was granted by Bishop Ralegh in 1 246, and which 

 is, we believe, the earliest ordering of a vicarage of this diocese now 

 extant. 2 There was also an ordination of the vicarage of Alton in 1312. 

 In 1310 the rural dean of Basingstoke was ordered to cite the parish- 

 ioners and vicar of Basing to appear, on the third day after the feast of 

 St. James, about a dispute between them as to two chalices and a pyx of 

 silver. 8 



The register of this episcopate affords proof of considerable laxity 

 of patronage in various directions. Pope Clement, in 1313, granted 

 the bishop a dispensation for appointing six clerks under the canonical 

 age to benefices, a power that Woodlock made haste to exercise in 

 favour of youthful relatives. 4 



It was for a long time the custom of the Bishops of Winchester to 

 hold their ordinations at various centres, frequently in the chapels of 

 their numerous castles and manor houses. During his episcopate 

 Woodlock held ordinations in Hampshire at his manors of Marwell 

 (his birthplace), Waltham, Esher, Highclere, Hursley, and Bishop's 

 Sutton, as well as in the conventual church of Breamore, in the chapel 

 of St. Cross, Winchester, and in the parish churches of Bitterne, 

 Micheldever, Alresford, Basingstoke, and St. Mary's, Southampton. 



The short episcopate of John Sandale (131620) is not memor- 

 able so far as Hampshire or his diocese was concerned. His career, 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Woodlock, ff. 77-9. * Ibid. ff. 38b, 39. 



Ibid. f. 88. * Ibid. f. 167. 



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