A HISTORY OF DORSET 



of a sufficiency of candidates who had attained the requisite orders. Bishop 

 Wyville in a letter to the archdeacon in 1366 refers to a report of the 

 number of absent rectors and vicars in the diocese and particularly in 

 Dorset who let their churches to laymen, religious men "- being specially 

 mentioned in this connexion."' Erghum, six years later, noting the neglect 

 of divine service and hospitality and the danger to the souls of parishioners 

 resulting from the practice of absentee incumbents making over their churches 

 to laymen and unfit persons, desired to be certified as to their number in the 

 archdeaconry, the period of absence and the names of those to whom bene- 

 fices had been let."* Waltham, early in his episcopate, issued an order to his 

 vicar-general in spirituals to enforce residence on the clergy, and punish those 

 who did not comply."" The deaneries of Shaftesbury and Pimperne were 

 visited by the bishop in 1393—4, the chief offences recorded in the list of 

 presentments for the Shaftesbury deanery, visited in the church of Holy 

 Trinity, Shaftesbury, appear to have consisted of moral lapses and the detention 

 of tithes."* Many rural districts never fully recovered from the effect of the 

 pestilence. There was a general fall in parochial endowments, and from 

 the registers we learn of a number of churches, or moieties of churches, 

 united on account of the insufficiency of the stipend to support an incumbent."'^ 

 At the same time we find the bishops striving to restrain the ' insatiable 

 rapacity ' of the clergy much in the same way as Parliament was endeavour- 

 ing to put down the demands of the labourers."* Bishop Hallam in a 

 monition (undated) addressed to his sons in general respecting a report of 

 John Rygges, rector of Holy Trinity, Dorchester, that the church of 

 St. Peter in the same town remains unserved denounces the refusal of any 

 chaplain to accept a cure for a competent wage."^ Hallam's register 

 contains frequent entries of licences for private oratories, and confronted by 

 the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of well-educated men to meet 

 the growing demand it is evident that the bishops of that period turned for 

 assistance to the use of licensed preachers.^ 



180 



'" i.e. men of the religious orders. '" Sarum Epis. Reg. Wyville, ii, fol. 225. 



'"' Ibid. Erghum, ii, fol. 8. 



'" Ibid. Waltham, fol. 15. '"« Ibid. fol. 72-7. 



''' These include the union of All Saints and St. James, Shaftesbury, in 1424, the church of All Saints 

 being very much reduced (ibid. Chandler, fol. 41 <2'.) ; the two moieties of Child Okeford on account of 

 poverty (ibid. Neville, ii, fol. 2 </.); the church of Winterborne Clenston to Winterbome Nicholas in 1436, 

 the issues being insufficient to maintain two priests (ibid, ii, fol. 42 d.) ; the rectory of Chaldon Boys to 

 Chaldon Herring in 1446, the issues of Chaldon Boys being insufficient to sustain a rector and the church 

 consequently remaining vacant (ibid. Ayscough, fol. 57) ; the union of the vicarage of Spettisbury to the 

 rector}' at the request of the rector, Robert Wade, the revenues being insufficient to maintain a vicar, 

 Oct. 1439 (ibid. fol. 69 </.); the church of Puncknowle to that of Bexington in 1431 (ibid. Beauchamp, ii, 

 fol. 1 1). The chaplain of the chantry in the church of Whitchurch was in 1454 licensed to accept a cure on 

 account of the decay in the issues of the chantry (ibid. fol. 43) the churches of Ringstead and Osmington 

 were united in 1488 (ibid. Langton, fol. 29 a'.); the church of Wraxall was on account of its poverty united 

 to the church of Chilfrome in 1503 (ibid. BIyth, fol. 11); the churches of Durweston and Knighton were by 

 the request of the patron, Robert de Fitzhaye, united in 1 38 1 (ibid. Erghum, fol. 44 </.). 



'" Wilkins, Concil. iii, 30, 50, 135. 



'" Sarum Epis. Reg. Hallam, fol. 52. The clerg)' were denounced by the people for their supposed 

 greed and rapacity, but it should be remembered that they shared the gener.il agricultural distress, and 

 were ground down by the increasing demands of the papal curia and the abuse of papal provision and 

 reservation. 



"° In 1409, John Yo%%t\\, prefositus of Oriel College, Oxford, Richard Stabull, vicar of St. Peter in the 

 East, Oxford, John Luke, bachelor of theology, were licensed to preach throughout the city and diocese of 

 Salisbury ; the following year the bishop granted a similar licence to Walter Bexhampton of Bridport, chaplain; 

 Ibid. pt. ii (Inst.), fol. 4, 5, 46. 



22 



