A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



create perpetual vicarages in appropriated churches. 1 In accordance with 

 this decree the convent was bound to nominate a competent priest, who 

 should be instituted by the bishop, and solely responsible to him for the 

 fulfilment of his spiritual office, and to set aside a sufficient portion of the 

 revenues to provide him with a house and maintenance as a perpetual endow- 

 ment. 2 The bishops of Worcester acted promptly. A perpetual vicarage 

 had been ordained for Nympsfield in 1185,* Cerney in 1190,* Kempsford 

 in 1198,' and Coin St. Aldwyn in 1217." A number were created by 

 William of Blois (1218-36) and Walter Cantilupe (1237-66), among them 

 Frocester, 7 Hardwick, 8 Sherborne, 9 Painswick, 10 Winchcombe, 11 Beckford, 12 

 Hatherop, 13 and Berkeley. 14 In 1 240, at a synod in his cathedral church, 

 Bishop Cantilupe insisted that vicarages should be created in all churches 

 appropriated to monasteries, and that where the provision for vicars was 

 insufficient it should be augmented within two months. 1 ' If the religious 

 failed to act, the bishop's official and the archdeacon should compel them by 

 sequestrating the fruits of their churches. He also ordered that before a 

 stated time the houses should produce their title-deeds to prove their various 

 claims to tithes. Peter Aquablanca, bishop of Hereford, ordained vicarages 

 of the value of 14 marks in the churches of Newent 16 and Dymock. 17 In 1291 

 there were at least forty vicarages out of a total of about 200 benefices, 

 and there were substantial charges on a number of other churches. 18 The 

 number of vicarages, however, does not fully represent the appropriated 

 churches, for some of the convents had papal bulls enabling them, in spite of 

 ecclesiastical legislation, to serve the churches by one of their own number or 

 by a paid chaplain. In this way, in 1242, Bishop Cantilupe was prevented 

 from creating vicarages at Tewkesbury " and at St. James, Bristol. 80 From i 260 

 until 1380 the Augustinian canons from Bruton, who dwelt in the cell at 

 Horsley, served the parish churches of Horsley and Wheatenhurst. 21 Until 

 the dissolution the canons of Cirencester served the parish church M and the 

 church of Cheltenham. 23 Papal indulgences worked infinite harm in the 

 matter of appropriation. In 1191 Celestine III granted a bull to the abbot 

 and convent of Gloucester, enabling them to appropriate a number of 

 churches of which they had the advowsons when they fell vacant, notwith- 

 standing the prohibition of the recent Lateran Council or of the bishop of the 

 diocese. 24 In the same year he granted a similar bull to the abbot and convent 

 of Cirencester for the churches of Ampney and Oxenton, and four years later 

 for Cheltenham, 25 and in 1222 Honorius III confirmed the appropriation of 



1 Labbe, Sacmrum Conciliorum Co/lectio (ed. Cossart) , xxii, 398, cap. i. 



' Cutts, op. cit. 98. 5 Hist, tt Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Sen), ii, 42. 



' Ibid, i, 230, 247. Ibid. 229. Ibid. 231. 



' In 1225, ibid, iii, 31. 8 1223-8, ibid, i, 336. 



I (1218-24) Royce, op. cit. ii, 275. 10 MS. top. Glouc. C 5 fol. 644. (Bodl. Lib.). 

 1 Royce, op. cit. i, 266. Giffard made a new ordination in 1288, annulling former ordinations. 



II Before 1247 ; MS. Add. 18461, fol. 19 (B.M.). 

 u Hist, et Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), i, 328. 



14 Before 1255 ; Jeayes, Catal. ofMun. of Lord Fitzharnge, 66. " Wilkins, Concilia, i, 674. 



"MS. Add. 18461, fol. 13 (B.M.). " Ibid. fol. 14. 



18 Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 220-4. 



" Ann. Mon. i, 126. " Ibid. 



11 V. C. H. Glouc. Relig. Houses, Horsley, 92. " Fuller, Cirencester Parish Church, 81. 



21 V. C. H. Glouc. Relig. Houses, Cirencester, 82, 83. " Hist, et Cart. Glouc. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 1 1. 



* Fuller, Cirencester Parish Church, 72. 



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