A HISTORY OF DORSET 



which included a right to the reservation of benefices rendered vacant by 

 the death of holders at the Roman Court, frequently led to conflicting 

 appointments and protracted disputes. Thus in 1397 on the death of 

 Adam, cardinal priest of St. Cecilia's, who held the archdeaconry of 

 Dorset by grant of the papal court, the appointment was claimed by two 

 candidates, Nicholas Bubwith provided by the pope, Michael Cergeaux 

 nominated by letters patent of Richard 11.^" The latter prevailed, but two 

 years later Bubwith again put forward his claim to the archdeaconry, void 

 by the death of Cergeaux or Sergeaux, ' pretended ' archdeacon, and was 

 again opposed, this time by Henry Chicheley, who claimed to have obtained 

 the appointment by authority of the ordinary.^** A dispute ensued, and 

 the case being referred for trial to John, bishop of Liibeck and papal chaplain 

 and auditor, it was decided on a report that the late Michael had only held 

 the archdeaconry by despoiling Adam, cardinal priest of St. Cecilia's, that 

 neither litigants had any claim. The pope commissioned the judge if he 

 found this to be the case to collate and assign the dignity to Henry Chicheley; 

 he, however, adjudged it to Bubwith; Chicheley appealed without success, 

 but on the strength of his former collation continued to intrude himself still 

 in the archdeaconry, and the pope having imposed perpetual silence on 

 Nicholas extinguished the suit."' In 1403 Nicholas Bubwith was collated 

 to the archdeaconry of Dorset in the place of Henry Chicheley, who had 

 been appointed to the archdeaconry of Sarum the previous year,^'" and finally 

 became archbishop of Canterbury in 1408. Nicholas Bubwith was in 1406 

 elected to the see of London by the chapter of St. Paul's in ignorance 

 of the fact that the pope had already made reservation of it for him."^ 

 The papal registers throughout this period afford ample evidence of the 

 extent to which papal provision was carried in this county as elsewhere. 

 The prebends in the conventual church of Shaftesbury continually fell a prey 

 to Roman usurpation, and Fuller instances the archdeaconry of Dorset as a 

 flagrant instance of what, in a characteristic passage, he designates 'the greatest 

 grievance of the land, namely, foreigners holding ecclesiastical benefices.' *" 

 As for the kindred evil, the holding of benefices in plurality, the royal 

 college and chapel of Wimborne Minster in this county again affords a 



"' Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 82 ; Pat. 20 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 8. Both were largely beneficed, Bubwith held 

 canonries in Beverley, Lichfield, Ripon, and York, and the rectories of Brington and Naseby in the Lincoln 

 diocese ; Cergeaux besides holding the rectory of Harrow was canon of Chichester, Exeter, Howden, Lichfield, 

 and Wells. 



"' Besides the two there appears to have been a third claimant, Walter Medeford, nominated by patent 

 letters of Richard II, 20 Aug. 1397; Pat. 21 Ric. II, pt. i, m. 21. 



'" Cal. Pap. Letters, v, 206. "» Le Neve, Fasti Ecd. Angl. ii, 539. 



'" Cal. Pap. Letters, vi, 82. 



'*' For at this time [says Fuller], the church of England might say with Israel ' Our inheritance is 

 turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.' Many Italians who knew no more English than the difference 

 between a teston and a shilling, a golden noble and an angel in receiving their rents, had the fattest livings 

 in England by the pope collated upon them. Yea, many great cardinals resident at Rome (those hinges of 

 the church must be greased with English revenues) were possessed of the best prebends and parsonages in the 

 land whence many mischiefs did ensue. First they never preached in their parishes : of such shepherds it 

 could not properly be said that he leaveth the sheep and flee th, who (though taking the title of shepherd upon 

 them) never saw their flock nor set foot on English ground. Secondly, no hospitality was kept for relief of the 

 poor ; except they could fill their bellies upon the hard names of their pastors which they could not pronounce. 

 . . . Yea, the Italians generally farmed out their places to proctors, their own countr)men, who instead of 

 filling the bellies grinded the faces of poor people ; so that what betwixt the Italian hospitality which none 

 could ever see and the Latin service which none could understand the poor English were ill-fed and worse 

 taught. Church Hist, ii, 350-2. 



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