A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



however, affords a favourable example of a zealous civil servant of the 

 crown, whose large stipend was mainly drawn from ecclesiastical bene- 

 fices, an absolute perversion of the tithe system. Clerks in the king's 

 service, by ' ancient prescription,' a vague term usually employed to 

 cloak an abuse, were permitted to hold almost any number of benefices 

 in plurality, and were exempt from residence or service provided they 

 appointed substitutes to do their duty. The worst of this scandal was 

 that the proxies in these benefices were not duly appointed perpetual 

 vicars with stipulated salaries, but were mere clerical hacks or chaplains 

 removable at will. In September, 1314, when the king made Sandale 

 chancellor of the kingdom, he held ' no fewer than two dignities, eight 

 prebendal stalls and ten rectories, the taxed annual value of which 

 amounted in the aggregate to close upon 850.'* Nor was there the 

 excuse of this high office being unsalaried, as the salary of the chancellor 

 was 5' so tnat Sandale's income at the then value of money was 

 enormous. 



When the vacancy occurred at Winchester the monks at once 

 obtained the royal conge (Felire, but the king's persuasions frequently 

 prevailed in such elections. On this occasion Edward II. was deter- 

 mined to win. He wrote, though not in the dictatorial shape of a 

 modern ' letter missive,' to the chapter, entreating them to elect his 

 chancellor, and persuaded the queen and other magnates of the realm to 

 write in a similar sense. Edward also wrote two letters to his cousin 

 Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke, urging him to proceed at once 

 to Winchester, and to use his utmost exertions with the monks to secure 

 Sandale's appointment. The chapter of St. Swithun's complied with 

 these earnest solicitations and elected the chancellor. He was conse- 

 crated at Canterbury by the archbishop on 31 October, 1316. Not- 

 withstanding the other calls upon his time he was exceptionally diligent 

 in the work of his diocese, employing no suffragan, and holding all his 

 ordinations personally. 2 Although he did not make use of the services 

 of a suffragan, an interesting case occurred of another bishop officiating 

 in his diocese. On 4 February, 1317, Bishop Sandale granted a special 

 license to John Drokensford, Bishop of Bath and Wells, to consecrate 

 the high altar and other altars of the parish church of Droxford (which 

 had been removed and re-erected on the reconstruction of the church), 

 in consequence of the latter bishop's particular affection for the church 

 in which he had been baptized. 3 In the following April, Sandale granted 

 his brother bishop letters dimissory for ordination on behalf of five of 

 his relatives, Philip, Andrew, Nicholas, Richard and Thomas de 

 Droxford, who were all subjects of the diocese of Winchester. 4 The 



Baigent's Introduction to Sandale's Register, p. xxxii. These benefices were : the chancellorship 

 of St. Patrick's, Dublin ; the treasurership of Lichfield ; prebends at Dublin, Wells, Beverley, Lincoln, 

 London, York, Glasgow and another ; and the rectories of Chalk, Dunbar, North Creake, Ratcliffe- 

 on-Soar, Simonburn, Solihull, Stillingfleet, Stoke-upon-Trent, and Wimbledon. 



8 Tbt Dioceian History of Winchester, p. 119, gives a very brief and strangely wrong notice of 

 Sandale s episcopate, stating that there is hardly anything recorded except that he neglected his diocese ' 



5 Winton. Epis. Reg., Sandale, f. yb. * Ibid. f. 54. 



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