A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



After the battle of Bosworth Field, in 1485, the aged bishop with- 

 drew to his manor house at Waltham, where he ended his days on 

 1 1 August, 1486. 



During the civil strife, the powerful family of Courtenay had been 

 zealous against Richard III., and on the death of Waynflete, Henry VII. 

 secured the bishopric of Winchester for Peter Courtenay (1487-92), 

 who had been for nine years Bishop of Exeter. 



His episcopate was uneventful, save for recrudescence of Lollardism. 

 Richard Petefyne, alias Sawyer, of Woodhay, was charged with uttering 

 heresy during the months of March, April, May, June and July, 1491, 

 against the sacraments of penance, matrimony, confirmation, extreme 

 unction and orders, and for saying that no priest ought to have more 

 than 2d. for the labour of saying mass. The bishop cited the witnesses 

 to appear in the chapel of Fromond in the college of St. Mary, Win- 

 chester. Richard Sawyer thereupon confessed to having said that ' the 

 blessed sacramente was but a pece of dowe bakyn and prentyd betwyxt 

 Irones and that I cowde make xxx 1 ' of theym w'in a owyr if I hyd such 

 prentyng Irones,' also to ' buying and conceilyng of Englyshe bokes,' 

 and to various other charges. Eventually he solemnly abjured his errors 

 and was absolved. 1 



Courtenay died in September, 1492, and was succeeded in the fol- 

 lowing year by Thomas Langton, who had been successively Bishop of 

 St. David's and Sarum. He had been Provost of Queen's, Oxford, and 

 was a thorough supporter of the new learning. Wood describes him as 

 a Maecenas of learning. He took a keen interest in the education of 

 boys, and Winchester College has more occasion to remember him 

 than the diocese at large. When Archbishop Morton died in 1500, 

 Thomas Langton was (on 22 January, 1501) elected as his successor 

 in the primacy, but he died of the plague on 27 January, before his 

 translation could be effected. 



John Morton, the aged Archbishop of Canterbury, breathed his 

 last on 12 October, 1500. His successor, Henry Dean, was not elected 

 until 26 April, 1501. During the vacancy, the prior of Christ Church, 

 Canterbury, asserted his right to hold metropolitical visitations, and as 

 Winchester was vacant at the same time, the assertion of such a right in 

 that diocese was the less likely to meet with opposition. Master Thomas 

 Hede, doctor of laws, was appointed to act as visitor by Prior Thomas 

 of Canterbury. 



All the Hampshire houses that were subject to episcopal visitation 

 were taken in turn. Dr. Hede's first visit was paid to the cathedral 

 church and priory of St. Swithun. The visitation began in the chapter 

 house on 27 February, 1501, when the prior Thomas Sylkestede was first 

 examined. He gave a good account of the order and discipline of his 

 house, and stated that the statutory number of the monks was forty, 

 and that their then number was thirty-five, there having been five 

 recent deaths. His account was confirmed and elaborated by the 



1 Winton. Epis. Reg., Courtenay, pp. 26-7. 

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