A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



acting as penitentiaries. 1 It may be of interest 

 to note that the episcopal registers show that 

 during the episcopacy of Bishop Asserio 

 (13203) three acolytes, two sub-deacons, six 

 deacons and six priests were ordained from 

 this convent ; that during Wykeham's rule of 

 the diocese (1367-1404) two acolytes, one 

 deacon and ten priests were ordained ; and 

 that from 1511 to 1527 thirty-six received 

 orders from this house. 



Various friars of the Winchester convent 

 were distinguished in their Order. Brother 

 Matthew was prior or warden of Winchester 

 in 1 242, and also English provincial. Brother 

 William of Southampton, who died about 

 1278, was head of the Winchester house, 

 and elected provincial in 1272. He was a 

 distinguished theological writer. 2 Robert de 

 Bromyard, who was licensed to preach in the 

 diocese in 1300, was doubtless prior of the 

 Winchester convent, for he was elected 

 provincial in 1304 ; he was also penitentiary 

 of the diocese from 1307 until his death in 

 1310. Nicholas de Stratton, D.D., who was 

 provincial from 1306 to 1311, and also 

 diocesan penitentiary, was a Winchester prior. 

 William de Horleye was prior in 1326. 

 Thomas de Lisle, who was ordained in St. 

 Elizabeth's chapel in 1322, was the next 

 prior. He was employed in an embassy to 

 the papal court in 13401, and was conse- 

 crated Bishop of Ely on 24 July, 1345, at 

 Avignon, where he died in exile in 1361. 

 William Alton, born at Alton, Hants, a 

 renowned preacher and writer, a doctor of 

 Paris University who flourished about 1350, 

 was probably of the Winchester convent. 

 John Payne was prior in 1373. The Court 

 Rolls of Winchester name as prior John Derle, 

 1377 and 1387 ; Nicholas Monk, 1404 to 

 1426; and Walter Alton, 1455. 



James Cosyn, B.D., who was prior in the 

 time of Henry VIII., adopted the most extreme 

 tenets of the reformers. He preached a 

 sermon from St. John xvi. 23, in the parish 

 church of 'Chusel' on 27 February, 1536, of 

 which the following are passages : ' If thou 

 put an whole stoup of holy water upon thy 

 head, and another stoup of other water upon 

 thy head, the one shall do thee as much good 

 as the other in avoiding of any sin. As much 

 other bread of thine own blessing shall do 

 thee as much good as so much holy bread. 



1 Supra, p. 1 6. 



2 His works were : Postilla in Isaiam, In mor- 

 aKa Gregttrii, Sermones de Sanctis, Sermonei de tempore, 

 Super IV. nbns sententiarum, and Questions Theo- 

 logictf (Serif tares Ordinis Preedicatorum [1719], 

 i. 602 b). 



And as for confession, I will not counsel thee 

 to go to any priest to be confessed, for thou 

 mayest as well confess thyself to a layman, 

 thy Christian brother, as to a priest, for no 

 bishop or priest have any power to assoil any 

 man of any sin. And I myself have shriven 

 a woman this day here in this church, but I 

 did not assoil her, no, I will never assoil 

 none.' 



Whereupon this ' soul-murderer,' as the vicar 

 of Stoke styled him, was arrested and indicted 

 for heresy, and committed by the sheriff to 

 the custody of Dr. Edmund Steward, the 

 chancellor of Winchester. But on 3 1 March 

 William Basing, prior of St. Swithun, wrote to 

 Cromwell beseeching his favour ' to a friar 

 named Cosyn, wrongfully vexed in these 

 parts.' Soon after a testimonial in Cosyn's 

 favour was forwarded to the same quarter by 

 certain gentlemen and yeomen of Winchester. 

 The result was that on 24 April, Hilsey, the 

 ex-friar who had just been made Bishop of 

 Rochester, wrote to Dr. Steward informing 

 him that ' Mr. Secretary ' had discharged 

 Prior Cosyn, and allowed him ' to use his 

 licence to preach by the authority granted to 

 him by the king, our supreme head next to 

 Christ.' 3 



Cosyn appears to have resigned the prior- 

 ship, and was succeeded by Richard Chessam, 

 D.D., who was prior when the convent was 

 suppressed in 1538, as already set forth in 

 detail. 4 



Richard Ingworth, the suffragan bishop of 

 Dover, as commissioner for suppressing the 

 friars, forwarded to Cromwell an inventory of 

 all the goods of the Winchester Dominicans, 

 with their value as appraised by Alderman 

 Burkyn and Master Knight, chosen by the 

 mayor. The inventory, as might be expected 

 of a convent of friars, is a singularly poor and 

 simple one and therefore does them much 

 credit. So few friars' inventories remain that 

 it is well to give it in extenso ; it is somewhat 

 surprising to find a pair of organs in a church 

 so sparsely furnished. The church goods 

 were : 



Viij corporas caasys wythout the corporas, xxd. ; 

 iiij surpelys, ij/. ; v Coopys for men and ij for 

 chyldren, xij/. ; a sute of dune sylke wythout 

 albys, amycis, or stoolys, iij/. ; Item, deakyn and 

 subdeakyn of whyet branchyd sylke, without albys, 

 amycis, or stoolys, njs. \\\}d. ; a sewte of Whyet 

 chamlet lacking deakyn, xiij/. iiijV. ; a syngle 

 vestyment of the same, iiij/. ; a complet sute of 



3 Cott. MSS. Cleop. E. iv. 127; Cleop. E. 

 vi. 257 ; Letters and Papers, Hen. Fill. x. 512, 

 513, 588. 



* Supra, p. 58. 



190 



