ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



Winchester, Lincoln and Canterbury, he left 4 to poor prisoners, 

 2,000 marks to his poor tenants (to be distributed by men of good con- 

 science who were to be paid for their trouble), 2,000 to his servants, 

 100 and plate to his acknowledged daughter, Joan Stralkyng, and the 

 residue to poor religious houses, to marriage portions for poor maidens, 

 and for the general succour of the poor and needy. 



To forty-three years of Beaufort's episcopate there followed forty 

 years under his successor, Bishop William Waynflete (1447-87). 

 Waynflete had been educated at Wykeham's colleges at Winchester and 

 Oxford, and had been appointed headmaster of the former in 1479. 

 Afterwards he was successively master of St. Mary Magdalen's Hospital, 

 Winchester, and headmaster and then provost of Eton. He was a 

 staunch adherent of the House of Lancaster, but conducted himself so 

 circumspectly as to win the favour of Edward IV. 



Although, like his predecessor, Waynflete gave more time to the 

 affairs of the State than to those of the Church, he held his own ordi- 

 nations from time to time and personally visited the religious houses of 

 his diocese. The canons of Selborne, who had been seriously rebuked 

 by Wykeham and other of his predecessors for laxity, maintained their 

 reputation for idleness ; and after many vain remonstrances Waynflete at 

 last secured, in 1486, a papal bull conveying their revenues to the 

 Oxford college of St. Mary Magdalen of which this bishop was the 

 munificent founder. 1 It is most interesting to note that Waynflete 

 placed his foundation of Magdalen College within his own diocese, 

 wherein it still remains. The Bishop of Winchester is not only visitor 

 but ordinary of the college. 



It is much to the credit of Waynflete that he took active steps 

 against non-residence and plurality. Several incumbents who failed to 

 obey monitions or to answer citation were deprived. 2 



The custom of granting indulgences for various corporal works of 

 mercy was considerably extended during this episcopate. They were 

 granted in aid of one intending to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, 

 for the relief of Sir Robert Molineux captured by the Saracens, for one 

 whose goods were burnt, and for the repair of the important Hampshire 

 bridges of Bedhampton and Stockbridge. 3 



In 1475, when Edward IV. made an important expedition into 

 France, which resulted in the treaty of Pecquigny and the betrothal of 

 his daughter Elizabeth to the dauphin, the bishop issued a mandate 

 enjoining public prayers and litanies throughout his diocese for the good 

 estate of the Church, for a happy issue to the king's expedition, for the 

 tranquillity of the kingdom, for suitable weather, and for a blessing on 

 the fruits of the earth and the flocks of the field. 4 



1 Charters and Documents relative to Selborne Priory, 2 vols., 1891 and 1894, by Rev. W. Dunn 

 Macray, F.S.A., Hants Record Society. 



* Winton. Epis. Reg., Waynflete, I., ff. 250, 28, 90. 3 Ibid, passim. 



* Ibid. ii. 140 : Pro statu et fermitate ecclesie, prosp et felici expeditione Regis et tranqutlitate Regni, 

 aeris congrua temperie et serenitate, ac fructuum et pecorum ubertate tncremento et coniervatione. 



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