A HISTORY OF SUFFOLK 



cure of those churches whose tithes had been assigned to them. Against this 

 abuse the bishops strongly protested, as it resulted in the withdrawal of such 

 parishes from episcopal control. To guard against this, the custom of 

 ordaining vicarages was established that is, making the appointment of such 

 chaplains permanent and subject to episcopal institution, together with the 

 assigning to them of a definite income, drawn mainly, as a rule, from the 

 smaller tithes, such as hay and wool, as distinct from those of grain. The 

 formal ordering of vicarages began to come into force in the second half of 

 the twelfth century, and was enjoined by the third Lateran Council of 1 179. 

 Many of the monasteries resisted these attempts to control their actions, with 

 the result that the fourth Lateran Council of 1215 insisted on vicarages in 

 cases of appropriation in more stringent terms. A few of the more powerful 

 monasteries still held out, but Bishop Hugh of Lincoln brought a test case 

 against the powerful priory of Dunstable and won, in the papal court in 1219. 

 Four years later the Council of Oxford gave further strength to this decision, 

 and from that date there were but a few isolated attempts to avoid the 

 provision of permanent endowed vicarages in all appropriated parishes. 



A return was made for the diocese of Norwich in 4 Henry V of 

 churches appropriated to the nunneries, and to some of the other minor 

 houses, with the date of the appropriation. 1 In this return, so far as Suffolk 

 is concerned, two appropriations, namely, those of the churches of Wattisham 

 and Finborough Parva to Bricett Priory, are entered as having ordained 

 vicarages ' before the Lateran Council,' meaning by that apparently the fourth 

 Lateran of 1215. Another group are entered as having their vicarages 

 formally arranged ' at the time of the Lateran Council,' or in the years 

 1215-16. In this group are the Suffolk churches of Holton to Rumburgh 

 Priory, and Ilketshall St. Andrew, Ilketshall St. Mary, Ilketshall St. Lawrence, 

 Nettingham, and Bungay St. Thomas, all pertaining to the nunnery of 

 Bungay. Amongst other appropriations with vicarages assigned, during the 

 thirteenth century, of which we are able to give the exact date, those of 

 South Elmham St. Michael, in 1241, Alnesbourne in 1246, Flitcham in 

 1251, and Bredfield in 1259 may be mentioned. 



Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, appropriations and 

 the ordination of vicarages steadily increased. Where the episcopal or papal 

 documents permitting the appropriations are preserved, it is almost if not 

 quite invariably stated that permission was granted owing to the stress of 

 circumstances that had impoverished the religious house. This was particu- 

 larly the case at the time of the Black Death (1349), when the depreciation 

 in the value of monastic and other lands was specially grievous. Among 

 the Suffolk appropriations sanctioned at that date were the churches of 

 Levington to Redlingfield Priory, of Flixton to the priory of that name, and 

 of Great Redisham to the priory of Bungay. 



This appropriation of benefices to the religious houses is sometimes 

 spoken of as an act of ' shameful spoliation ' * of the country clergy ; but it 

 is at least doubtful whether the condition of those parishes that had resident 



1 Norw. Epis. Reg. viii, 1 z 5-9. The return was probably intended to be complete, and was either 

 never finished or never entered in the register. The abbey of St. Edmunds would almost certainly decline to 

 make any such return through the diocesan. 



* Dm. Hist, ef Norwich, 144-5, & c - 



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