A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



defaced' the chapel of Caversham; others disappeared at the dissolution 

 of the monasteries where they were kept ; but the general order for the 

 removal of all images whatsoever was not issued till the second year of 

 King Edward the Sixth. 1 



The Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 is another landmark in the history 

 of the Church. Most of the changes it records in Buckinghamshire 

 since 1291 (e.g. the loss and gain of a few parish churches and chapels) 

 have been noticed as they occurred. 2 The stipends of the lesser clergy 

 were still very small for the most part ; more than sixty benefices were 

 of less than 10 value, more than fifty were between 10 and 15 ; 

 while the average stipend of a curate or chantry priest seems to have 



been 5 or - 



It does not appear that there was any special disturbance in this 

 county on account of the Supremacy Act or the fall of the monasteries. 

 In February 1538 one Thomas Bright of Boarstall was executed for high 

 treason at Aylesbury for words spoken against the king 3 ; and in the 

 same year a priest, Sir John Man of Westbury, was accused of ' knavish 

 sayings ' and ' lewd living ' * ; both these cases may be connected with 

 the troubles of the time, but they are not matters of much consequence. 

 So also in this county, at Bockmore near Medmenham, dangerous words 

 were spoken by Lord Montague and his chaplain, John Colyns, about 

 the dissolution of the monasteries and the king's conduct generally ; 

 but they were said privately and could have made no stir in theneigb)- 

 bourhood, though they were thought sufficient evidence to support a 

 charge of verbal treason. The vicar of Medmenham, to whom Colyns 

 entrusted some of his papers, with instructions to burn them if he were 

 apprehended, may not even have known what was in the coffer, and his 

 sympathy with the cause of the Pole family was not enough to bring 

 him under suspicion. 5 



One more case of heresy, not mentioned by Foxe, was brought 

 before the bishop in the parish church of Little Missenden in Novem- 

 ber 1535 a tailor called Ralph Clerk, who denied the Real Presence. 

 He was accused of having spoken profane and heretical words after a 

 sermon in which the bishop had been setting forth reasons to prove the 

 ordinary doctrine of the Church as to the Blessed Sacrament ' ; and this 



1 Gairdner, History of the English Church, iv. 108. 



2 The chapel of Owlswick in Princes Risborough, mentioned in the inventories of 1552 (Exch. 

 Q. R. Church Goods -fa), and still in use in 1629 (S.P., Dom. Chas. I. ccvi. i), is not mentioned in the 

 Valor (though it must have been in existence in 1534), and the date of its erection has not yet been traced. 

 ' A chapel builded by Mr. Bulstrode ' is also mentioned as part of the property of Wyrardisbury church 

 in 1552, in the inventory then taken ; this also is not named in the Valor. Perhaps it is the same as 

 the ' Hedgerley Bulstrode Chapel ' named in the Visitation of 1637 (S.P., Dom. Chas. I. ccclxix. 59). 



3 L. and P. Henry VIII. xiii. (i) 306, 333, 358. 

 Ibid. 194. 



e Ibid. xiii. (2) 771, 830, 875, 979. It would appear that one of the Cheyneys of Chesham Bois 

 was at this time unfavourable to the new learning, as one of his tenants wrote to complain to Cromwell 

 that he had been evicted for reading the New Testament and other books set forth by the king's authority. 

 Ibid, (i) 253. The complaint was not noticed, and may of course have been without proper foundation. 



8 Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Longland, 199. His talk recalls that of many of Foxe's martyrs. The 

 bishop had said ' Pray for me, and I will pray for you.' Clerk said to a friend standing by, ' The devil 



304 



