ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



was the superior of the alien priory of Wareham to whom the king 

 appointed a successor on 4 November,'^^ and by the i8th the churches of 

 Bridport, Tyneham in Purbeck, Lulworth, and Cerne were all vacant by 

 death of their incumbents."* A table of the institutions for Dorset during this 

 period shows that the mortality, beginning in October, was highest during 

 the months of November, December, January, and February."* From 

 8 October, 1348, to January, 1349, the crown, it is said, presented to no less 

 than thirty livings in the diocese of Salisbury, the greater number of which 

 belonged to this county. "'^ In all probability, the regulars suffered no less 

 than the secular clergy, though it is impossible to calculate in the same 

 manner the number swept away. Following the prior of Wareham, the 

 abbot of Abbotsbury was dead before 3 December for on that date the 

 presentation to the vicarage, vacant also by death of the vicar, was in the 

 king's hands by reason of the voidance of the abbey."' The warden of the 

 hospital of St. John, Shaftesbury, fell a victim about the same time ; "^ on 

 7 February, 1349, John Firth received confirmation of his appointment as 

 abbot of Sherborne."' The second visitation of the plague in 1361 was 

 hardly less severe, the list of institutions for the last six months of that year 

 being especially heavy."' 



The effect of these terrible scourges, accompanied by mortality among 

 the cattle and followed by a scarcity of labour owing to the number of 

 agricultural labourers who died, pressed very heavily on all landowning 

 classes, and especially on the monks, whose difficulties, in the case of those 

 living near the sea, and whose lands adjoined the coast, were much increased 

 by a position which exposed them to inroads from sea marauders and foreign 

 invaders, while their stores were eaten up by defenders sent to repel 

 invasion."" The temporal decline of the monasteries, dating from the great 

 pestilence, reached a climax towards the close of the century, when they sank 

 to a spiritual level from which in a measure they appear to have been rescued 

 before their final disappearance. As regards the local clergy the effect of the 

 loss in their ranks was to accentuate many existing abuses ; in the scarcity of 

 priests to fill the places of those swept away scruples as to fitness and capacity 

 had perforce to go by the board.*" Licences to study increased in the absence 



"' Orig. R. 22 Edw. Ill, m. 4. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, fol. 90-191. 



'" Dr. Gasquet, from whom these figures are taken, estimates the number of institutions as follows : — 

 Oct. 5, Nov. 15, Dec. 17, Jan. 16, Feb. 14, Mar. 10, Apr. 4 {The Great Pestilence, yg). He reckons the 

 whole number of collations by the bishop in the diocese consisting of the three counties of Dorset, Wilts, and 

 Berks, for the year beginning 25 Mar. 1348, and ending 25 Mar. 1349, at no less than 202, and at 243 for 

 a like period the succeeding year. Ibid. 162. In Dorset it is reckoned that about half the number of 

 benefices became vacant during the whole course of the visitation. 



'" Ibid. 78. Among other collations the patent rolls record the presentation to Blandford (Pat. 22 

 Edw. Ill, pt. 3, m. 23), and to Spettisbury on 7 and 10 Dec. 1348, and on 4 Jan. 1349 (Ibid. m. 1 1, 16, 17). 



'^ Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, Inst. fol. 192. 



"'Ibid. fol. 193. ""Ibid. fol. 199. 



""' The cause of vacancy is not always stated in the institutions of 1 36 1, and as exchanges were at that 

 time becoming very general it prevents such an accurate return being given of the number of deaths in that year. 



"" In 1397 Pope Urban VI ordered the church of Tolpuddle to be appropriated to the abbey of Abbots- 

 bury on this account. Ca/. Pap. Letters, v, 77. 



'" So great, [says Knighton] was the scarcity of priests that many churches were desolate, being without 

 divine offices. Hardly could a chaplain be got under j^io or 10 marks to minister in any church, and where 

 before a chaplain could be had for 4 or 5 marks, or 2 marks with board, so numerous were priests before the 

 pestilence, now scarce any would accept a vicarage of ^20 or 20 marks. But in a short time there came 

 crowding into orders a multitude of those whose wives had died in the plague, of whom many were illiterate, 

 only able to read after a fashion, and not able to understand what they read. Lek. Chron. (Rolls Ser.), 63. 



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