A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



chancellor of the new order. It was also ordained that this honour 

 should be passed on to his successors in the see of Winchester for ever ; 

 and to this day the Bishop of Winchester is prelate of the order. 



Edendon seems to have been not indisposed to take his full share 

 in the pageantry of the times. The utter defeat of France at Cressy in 

 1346, and the taking of Calais in the following year, had intoxicated 

 England and England's king with a fervour of extravagant patriotism. 

 When the triumphant Edward landed at Sandwich on 14 October, 1347, 

 the country went wild with joy. Of this national excitement Hamp- 

 shire had by far the largest share. The king and queen, instead of 

 proceeding to London, made a triumphal progress through the county, 

 visiting the castles of Porchester, Southampton and Winchester. 



Chroniclers tell us that at this time there was hardly an English 

 household of the upper or trading classes to be found which was not 

 decked with the costly spoils of Caen, Calais and other French towns 

 from across the seas. Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, with their 

 wide seaboard, felt the effects of this incursion of riches far more than 

 most parts of the kingdom. It was the same wide seaboard that 

 rendered them specially liable to the attacks of the seeds of pestilence 

 that now swept over the same waters. Close upon the heels of this 

 outbreak of martial magnificence and extravagant pomp came an awful 

 avenger, which was nowhere more direful in its devastating force than 

 within the limits of Hampshire. 



Towards the end of August, 1348, this terrible visitor reached our 

 shores, first effecting a landing at the port of Melcombe Regis (Wey- 

 mouth). It soon began to spread throughout the west and south of 

 England. On 24 October Bishop Edendon issued from Southwark 

 Mandatum ad orandum pro Pestilentia to the prior and chapter of Win- 

 chester, speedily followed by others to the archdeacon of Winchester 

 and to the archdeacon of Surrey. 1 This mandate to his clergy, made 

 through the archdeacons, is no mere official direction, but the excep- 

 tional and pathetic vigour of its language shows that the terrible news 

 of the havoc wrought by the Black Death on the continent had stamped 

 itself on the bishop's mind. 



The mandate for the archdeaconry of Winchester is addressed to 

 the whole of the abbots, priors, chaplains of chantries and colleges, 

 rectors of parishes, vicars and parochial chaplains. The bishop charges 

 them to see that all are exhorted to frequent the sacrament of penance, 

 ' and on all Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays to join in the saying of the 

 seven penitential psalms and the fifteen gradual psalms devoutly kneel- 

 ing, and also to take part, barefoot, in procession, reciting the greater 

 litany in towns through the market places, and in villages in the 

 churchyards round about the churches. 



As the plague crept nearer and nearer to his diocese, Bishop 

 Edendon made further spiritual provision against its approach. On 

 17 November the bishop, who was then at Esher, granted facilities to 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Edingdon, No. n, p. 17. 

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