ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The general distress and discontent of the period did much to foster that 

 form of religious activity which marks the later fourteenth and earlier 

 fifteenth centuries. But with signs of a loosened hold on the part of the 

 Church on other rural districts, so far as this county is concerned there is little 

 evidence of any active sympathy with the movement identified with the name 

 of John Wycliff. Prevalent as was LoUardy in other parts of the diocese, at 

 Devizes, Reading, and along the valley of the Thames, it never seems to have 

 taken strong hold of Dorset, and the instances recorded are very few and 

 unimportant. The first that occurs is that of William Ramsbury, whose trial 

 in June, 1389, was presided over by Robert Regenhill, archdeacon of Dorset ; 

 having been found guilty of heretical views and opinions respecting the sacra- 

 ments, and confessed that he had openly affirmed and published the same in 

 different parts of the diocese, Blandford, Sturminster, &c., as well as in secret, 

 he was condemned to make public recantation of his errors in the cathedral of 

 Salisbury."^ The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, so prolific else- 

 where in religious persecution, only produce two further examples in Dorset. 

 On 6 May, 1414, the official of the dean of Salisbury certified the bishop that 

 in obedience to his commission he had cited Thomas Turle, vicar of the pre- 

 bendal church of Bere, to appear before the bishop on the iith inst., in 

 the church of Potterne, to answer the charge of holding heretical opinions 

 requiring correction. ^*^ The register of Bishop Blyth in i 5 1 6, amidst various 

 trials for heretical opinion in Wiltshire and Berkshire, records the 

 abjuration of one Michael Gamare, of the parish of Wimborne St. Giles who, 

 ' being easely and lightly suspecte of heresye to you myne ordinarye by the 

 depositions and sayings of certayn witnesses deposying agenst me,' first that 

 he had said 



it is a lewde thyng and a madde condition or use occupyed in this contree or paryshe that 

 women will come and sette their candles afore a tree, the image of Saynt Gylys, and that it 

 were as good and as myche remedy . . . and they myght as well sette their candles in their 

 pewys setys or upon a chymney and as grete devocion the oon as the other ... for the very 

 saynte is in hevyn or where it pleasith God and the image of Saynt Gylys is but a stocke or 

 a stone and if the saide image fell doune it wold breke their hedes 



confessed the above saying to be ' blassemose sclanderose and heresie and he 

 does forsake and abjure ye same.' "' 



The suppression of alien houses in England by decree of the Parliament 

 of Leicester in 141 4 brings again to our notice those alien dependencies whose 

 erection here was the feature of the monastic revival in the twelfth century. 

 Their career and the presence of foreign beneficed clergy in Dorset deserves a 

 passing notice. With the loss of Normandy in the succeeding century the 

 prospects of these foreign settlements darkened considerably, and John's action 

 in seizing their possessions among the estates of Norman landowners in 

 England in retaliation for his loss of the duchy "* was but an earnest of their 

 fate during the greater part of the remainder of their existence. In truth the 

 position of these alien communities was but a thankless one ; placed on 

 the basis of the native clergy and expected to contribute towards royal 

 subsidies and national expenses in times of peace ; '*^ in war time they were 



»> Sarum Epis. Reg. Waltham, ii, fol. 31. '»' Ibid. Hallam, ii, fol. 16. 



'»' Ibid. Blyth, fol. 158. "' Rot. Norman, (ed. Hardy), i, 122-4. 



•'^ Close 3 Edw. II, m. 5 d. ced. ; 5 Edw. Ill, pt. \,xa.6d. 



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