ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



and everything else tithable of right or according to the custom of the 

 parish ; but the tithes of wool, lambs and apples were reserved for the 

 bishop and his successors, save the tithes of wool of the chapelry of 

 Westbury, which pertained to the vicar. 1 



The bishop, as visitor, also found time to supervise with boldness 

 the religious as well as the secular clergy of Hampshire. On 29 March, 

 1318, he wrote a formal letter to the Abbot of Hyde, complaining in 

 strong but dignified language of his negligence in the rule of his monas- 

 tery, and of the frequent breaches of the rule committed by the monks. 

 The bishop did not hesitate to say that the continuous insubordination 

 of the monks was chiefly owing to their superior's lukewarmness (ob 

 tepiditatem vesfri regiminis), and warned him that if matters were not 

 remedied severe proceedings would be taken. 2 On 20 July, 1319,^6 

 bishop sent a letter of citation to the prior and convent of St. Swithun, 

 announcing his intention to hold a visitation of their monastery on 

 30 August, requesting that all who were absent should be recalled, so as 

 to be present in chapter on that day. Similar citations for visitations to 

 be held in the month of August were also dispatched to the priories of 

 Christchurch and Breamore, and to the abbey of Wherwell ; but these 

 visitations had to be postponed through the bishop's ill-health. 3 The 

 last act noted in Sandale's register is a letter of October to the prior 

 and convent of Christchurch, requiring them, on the authority of a bull 

 of the previous December, to receive into their community as a clerk 

 Stephen de Stapelbrugge, brother of the late order of Knights Templars, 

 who had only received the first tonsure. 4 



On 2 November Bishop Sandale, who, much indisposed during the 

 previous two months, had been sojourning at Wolvesey, Farnham and 

 Esher, died at Southwark. On the day of his burial at the conventual 

 church of St. Mary, Southwark, there was an immense concourse. The 

 household expenses (in addition to the great dole to the poor) included 

 the cost of 14 carcasses of beef, 78 sheep, 24 pigs, 22 calves, 8 swans, 

 140 geese, 240 fowls, 19 partridges, 206 pigeons, 1,300 eggs, and large 

 quantities of pike, conger eels and herrings. The drink included 320 

 gallons of wine, 695 gallons of ale at \\d. and 448 gallons at id. 



It may seem that more space has here been assigned to the acts of 

 Bishop Sandale than is justified by so short an episcopate, but his register 

 gives in a brief compass a remarkable and exceptional insight into the 

 working of an English mediaeval diocese by a zealous prelate. 6 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Sandale, ff. zjb, 31. 



* Ibid. f. 27. This was Abbot William de Odiham ; he had only been appointed abbot in 1317 

 and he died in 1319. 



3 Ibid. ff. 33b, 34. 



4 Ibid. f. 34b. This is followed by a copy of the bull of John XXII. (17 December, 1318) 

 addressed to the bishops to prevent the scandal of brothers of the suppressed order going back into the 

 world and behaving like laymen, enjoining them to place them in religious houses, the house to receive 

 the pension that had been assigned. 



6 The writer of this section knows well all the episcopal registers of Lichfield and York, and has a 

 fair knowledge of those of Lincoln and Canterbury. He has no hesitation in saying that he is not 

 aware of any other two or three years of an English pre- Reformation episcopate that can compare in 



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