ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



of succeeding to prebends as they became void.^" For instances of this 

 particular abuse in Dorset we need go no further than the archdeaconry. 

 The papal registers record a faculty granted by Alexander IV in 1258 to the 

 bishop of Salisbury to give the archdeaconry of Dorset, held by Martin 

 Jordan, vice-chancellor of the Roman Church and notary apostolic, to 

 Simon de Bridport, canon of Salisbury, or any other person by the consent of 

 the said Jordan so soon as he shall have obtained a prebend of Salisburv to 

 the value of 150 marks.^'^ Six years later this same Jordan, cardinal of 

 Sts. Cosmos and Damian, and archdeacon of Dorset, received from Pope 

 Urban IV a grant of one of the ' fattest ' prebends of Salisbury ' if one is 

 vacant, and if not the reser\^ation of one.' '"'^ In 1300 the then archdeacon, 

 Henry de Bluntesdon, received at the king's request a dispensation to retain 

 the archdeaconry of Dorset, to which was annexed the church of Gussage 

 All Saints, with the churches of Grittleton, Wootton Bassett, Hannington, 

 Runwell, and Middleton in the dioceses of Salisbury, London, and York, 

 which he had obtained without licence since the council of Lyons, together 

 with canonries and prebends of Salisbury, Wells, Chichester, and St. Paul's 

 London.^" Bertrand d'Eux, cardinal of St. Mark's, obtained in 1 347 an 

 indult to visit his archdeaconry of ' Dorchester ' (Dorset) by deputy for five 

 years, and to receive procuration not exceeding 30 silver tournois a day.^" 

 The intrusion of these Roman ecclesiastics into English benefices was 

 anything but welcome,^'' and a brawl arose towards the close of the same 

 year on the occasion of the appointment of another cardinal to the treasurer- 

 ship of the cathedral ; Thomas Hotoft, with other citizens of Salisbur)-^ and 

 armed accomplices, upholding the claim of the then holder of the prebend, 

 John de Breydon, attacked the sub-executor and proctor of the cardinal, 

 saying they should lose their heads, and according to the report would have 

 actually killed them had they not been restrained by one of the canons and 

 one of the vicars.^^ In 1373 Robert of Geneva, cardinal of the Twelve 

 Apostles, bishop of Tironane, and afterwards anti-Pope Clement VII, 

 received as sub-dean of York and archdeacon of Dorset an indult to visit 

 his archdeaconry by deputy for five years.^** The office was held by the 

 cardinal of Naples about the year 1 379, the king in June of the following year 

 granting a licence for any of the king's lieges to become the proctors of the 

 cardinal of Naples and receive the profits of his archdeaconry of ' Dorchester,' 

 the treasurership of Salisbury Cathedral, and prebend of Erpingham in 

 Lincoln. ^*^ In 1410 John Mackworth, then in possession of the Dorset 

 archdeaconry, obtained a dispensation to hold that office with the arch- 

 deaconry of Norfolk, in respect of which he was already litigating in the 

 apostolic palace, ' if he should win it.' ^*® The claims of the apostolic see, 



'"Cited from the bishop's register in the Diocesan Hiit. of Salisbury, 119, 120. Simon of Ghent, 

 Mortival's predecessor, at fint refused to admit Reymund, a Roman cardinal to the office of the dean, to which 

 he had been provided, on the ground that election to the same belonged to the chapter, and issued monitions 

 to various of the cathedral digniuries to make residence ; ibid. 117. 



■" Cal. Pup. Letters, i, 356-7. '^ Ibid, i, 41 1. 



'" Ibid, i, 5S8. "' Ibid, iii, 255. 



'" An entr)- in the patent rolls of 1347 (21 Ed.v. Ill, pt. I, m. 35) records that letters of protection 

 were obtained from the king for Master Robert de Redynges, proctor of Bertrand, cardinal of the holy Roman 

 Church and archdeacon of Dorset, an alien, and for his fellows. 



"' Cat. Pap. Letters, iii, 255. '" Ibid, iv, 188. '" Pat. 3 Ric II, pt. 3, m. 4. 



"* Cal. Pap. Letters, vi, 211. Mackworth aftenv.irds became dean of Lincoln, where he proved a 

 veritable firebrand, and involved his chapter in almost endless dissension. See V.C.H. Lines, ii, 85-6. 



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