ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



^^132 5J. z,d. for which the ornaments and other church goods in Dorset had 

 been sold, the remaining sum being retained for the expense of conveying the 

 money and plate to London.^^^ 



Another very material change brought about in the reign of Henry VIII 

 was the removal of this county out of the see of Salisbury and its transference 

 to the new diocese of Bristol, erected by letters patent of 4 June, 1542,^"* 

 under which it remained until the year 1836, when by an order in council 

 the archdeaconry of Dorset was again united to the Salisbury diocese. During 

 the whole period of its existence under Bristol, however, those churches and 

 prebends belonging to the chapter of Salisbury continued to remain under the 

 peculiar jurisdiction of the dean by whom they were visited, and the records 

 of whose visitations are preserved among the archives of the cathedral. *^^ The 

 injunctions circulated by Bishop Shaxton throughout his diocese in 1538 give 

 some idea of the parochial ministrations of the clergy on the eve of impend- 

 ing change. They begin with provisions as to non-residents and their 

 curates, directing that no French or Irish priest that could not perfectly speak 

 the English tongue should be allowed to serve as curate. The clergy were 

 charged at high mass to read the Gospel and Epistle in English, and to set out 

 the Royal Supremacy with the usurpations of the bishop of Rome, they were 

 also bidden to preach purely, sincerely and according to the true scriptures of 

 God, and regulations were laid down for the frequent use of sermons in pro- 

 portion to the value of their livings ; as a general rule four sermons were to 

 be preached every year, one in each quarter. No friar was to be permitted 

 to perform any service in the church. The clergy were also required to read 

 a chapter of the New Testament every day, and every person having a cure 

 of souls should be able to repeat without book, the gospels of St. Matthew 

 and St. John, and the epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Corinthians, 

 with the Acts of the Apostles and the canonical epistles."'" 



Probably the first effect of the transference to another see in the midst 

 of other changes was to paralyse church effort and organization for a time ; 

 we find that the services of the chapels attached to Wimborne Minster 

 were not restored till the reign of Elizabeth, and as late as 1577 Sir John 

 Horsey and George Trenchard explained to the Council the difficulty of 

 obtaining information respecting recusants in Dorset, ' as it was uncertain 

 in whose diocese the shire was.'*'" It is also unfortunate that we have no 

 means of ascertaining definitely how far the personnel of the Dorset clergy 

 was affected by the measures introduced on the accession of Mary in 1553: "^^ 

 the queen's great Statute of Repeals abolishing the Edwardian Act of 

 I 549, and the ' Injunctions ' for the removal of all priests who had availed 

 themselves of the permission to marry granted in the last reign."^' Nor when 

 the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth set the pendulum of 

 religious opinion swinging in another direction can we find any evidence of 

 the number of clergy deprived for refusing to subscribe to the queen's 



'^' Nightingale, Church Plate of Dorset, Pref. p. 8. '" Pat. 34. Hen. VIII, pt. 10. 



'" Liber Visitationum Decani. 



■'^ Burnet, Hist, of the Reformation, iii, 245. "' Cal. S.P. Dam. 1547-80, p. 561. 



'-^ Owing to the destruction of the records at Bristol in the fire of 1 831. W. H. Frere, The Marian 

 Reaction, 32. 



"' It was, however, provided that such priests as consented to put away their wives should, after due 

 penance, be re-admitted to officiate 'so it be not in the s.ime place.' Ibid. 61. 



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