A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



Prior Aldwyn set out with two deacons of Evesham to revive monastic life in 

 Northumbria, and with the help of Walcher, bishop of Durham, they 

 rebuilt the monasteries of Jarrow and Wearmouth. 1 Norman lords granted 

 lands to Benedictine monasteries in Normandy, and alien priories were 

 established at Newent, 3 Horsley, 3 and Brimpsfield. 4 



A number of new houses were founded before the middle of the twelfth 

 century. Henry I was the great patron of the Augustinian canons who first 

 came into England in 1108, and soon had several houses in Gloucestershire. 

 In 1117 the king began to build a church and monastery for them at Ciren- 

 cester, and fourteen years later they entered into possession, taking the place 

 of the secular canons of the collegiate church. 6 Beckford was established as 

 a cell to the Augustinian house of St. Barbe-en-Auge about 1135.' Lanthony- 

 by-Gloucester was founded in H36, 7 St. Augustine, Bristol, in 1148.* 

 About 1150 they were installed in the collegiate church of St. Oswald at 

 Gloucester by Henry Murdac, archbishop of York. 9 Although the Cister- 

 cians had fifty houses in England in 1152, and the general chapter of the 

 order decreed that no more should be founded, 10 they had then only just gained 

 a footing in Gloucestershire by a grant of lands in the Forest of Dean. 11 The 

 Benedictine houses were steadily increasing their possessions, and two more 

 priories were founded, Stanley St. Leonard, 12 and St. James, Bristol. 13 



There is evidence that in Gloucestershire, as elsewhere, 14 the troubles of 

 Stephen's reign were favourable to the erection of parish churches. Moved 

 by the tears and prayers of his tenants, William de Solers built the chapel of 

 St. James in Postlip, that they might have a refuge from the attack of rob- 

 bers. 15 He gave his tithes to Winchcombe, and the abbot and convent 

 undertook to provide a chaplain to perform service daily in the presence of 

 William de Solers and his heirs, and three times a week in their absence ; half 

 a virgate of land and a house were granted for the priest's residence. 16 Ralph 

 of Worcester built a castle and a church at Hayles, and summoned Simon, 

 bishop of Worcester, to dedicate the church, 17 but as the manor lay within 

 the parish of Winchcombe the abbot and convent protested. However, 

 Ralph cut off their supplies of food, and starved them into submission ; 

 Hayles was dedicated and became a mother-church with full rights of 

 baptism and burial, charged only with the payment of js. a year to the 

 sacrist of Winchcombe. 18 The whole question of church extension turned on 

 the maintenance of the rights of the mother-church, which were safeguarded 

 at the synod of Westminster in iioa, 19 when it was provided that no more 

 chapels should be erected without the leave of the bishop of the diocese, and 

 it was usual for the monasteries to petition the pope to confirm their rights. 80 

 A composition was generally made. In 1185 the abbot and convent of 



1 Simeon of Durham, Opera Omnia (Rolls Ser.), i, 108 ; ii, 201. 



' y. C.H. Glouc. Relig. Houses, Nezvent, 105. 3 Ibid. Horsley, 91. 4 Ibid. Brimpsfield, 102. 



'Ibid. Cirencester, 80. 6 Ibid. Beckford, 102. ' Ibid. Lanthony-by-Gloucester, 87. 



8 Ibid. St. Augustine, Bristol, 75. 9 Ibid. St. Oswald, Gloucester, 84. 



10 Guignard, Monuments primitifs de la regie Cistercienne, 273, cap. 86. 



11 y.C.H. Glouc. Re/ig. Houses, Flaxley, 93. Kingswood was founded in 1139, but until recently it lay 

 in Wiltshire. 



" y. C. H. Glouc. Relig. Houses, Stanley St. Leonard, 73. u Ibid. St. James, Bristol, 74. 



14 Cutts, Parish Priests and their People in the Middle Ages in England, \ \ 5. 

 14 Royce, Landboc sive registrum monasterii de Winchekumba, i, 8 1 . 



" I bi| i. " Ibid. 65. 18 Ibid. 67. 



19 Cutts, op. cit. 113. Hist, et Cart. Mon. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 3 ; i, 245. 



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