A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



spiritual necessities. The bishop specifically alleged this as the reason 

 for his appointing on 14 January, 1349, to the vicarage of Wandsworth, 

 which was appropriated to the abbey of Westminster. 



In short, almost every catholic usage and canonical rule had to 

 be set aside owing to the stress of circumstances. This was specially 

 the case with regard to ordinations. The Quatuor Tempora of the Ember 

 seasons had to be quite disregarded. Bishop Edendon held six large 

 ordinations in 1349, and the like number in 1350. In addition there 

 were many quasi-private ordinations of one or two candidates without 

 any papal or other dispensation, as well as numerous instances of 

 cumulative ordinations on the same day. Thus on 5 March, 1349, 

 a single candidate was ordained from first tonsure to the priesthood per 

 saltum ; on 6 March four were admitted to the first tonsure, and two 

 were ordained sub-deacons; on 10 March a sub-deacon was ordained 

 deacon and priest, and the same was repeated for another candidate on 

 20 March. 



The numbers at the usual ordinations leapt up after an astonishing 

 fashion. The following are the figures that Bishop Edendon's registers 

 supply for his March ordinations in 1347, 1348 and 1349, and they 

 may serve as a sample of the contrasts : 



Year 



March, 1347 

 1348 

 '349 



With regard to the religious houses of Hampshire much may be 

 gleaned from the episcopal registers as to the effect of the great pesti- 

 lence. In the city of Winchester the prior of St. Swithun's and the 

 abbess of St. Mary's both died, and it is safe to assume that the death- 

 rate in these communities would be very large. Up to 1349 the 

 average number of the monks of the cathedral church of St. Swithun 

 was sixty ; after the great pestilence until the dissolution the average 

 was about thirty-five. The monks of the neighbouring abbey of Hyde 

 were reduced by the same cause from about thirty-five to twenty. The 

 financial distress of the nuns of St. Mary's Abbey not only reduced their 

 numbers by half, but threatened the destruction of the convent. Bishop 

 Edendon came so generously to their rescue that they described him 

 as their second founder. The appointed rents of their slender endow- 

 ments remained unpaid or were considerably diminished through the 

 dearth of tenants owing to this unheard-of and unwonted pestilence. 1 

 The bishop rendered like assistance to the nuns of Romsey in July, 1351, 

 saving them also from collapse. 2 At the election in the year 1333 of 

 the abbess of Romsey (who fell a victim to the plague in May, 1 349) 

 there were ninety nuns present to record their votes, but from the date 



1 Iiuo/ita et Inaudita pestilentia, Close, 28 Edw. III. m. 3. 



34 



Ibid. m. 6. 



