ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The vicar admitted it, and was ordered to act upon it. The archdeacon of 

 Gloucester resented Giffard's activity in the matter of defects of chancels, and 

 made a formal complaint in 1301, to which the bishop replied that he only 

 intermeddled at the time of his visitation. 1 



In dealing with pluralism, of which scarcely any instances occur, he was 

 strongly supported by Archbishop Peckham, who wrote to the precentor of 

 Wells in 1283, insisting that he should resign the church of Welford-on- 

 Avon.' Some livings were so poor that licences to hold more than one were 

 occasionally granted ; in 1 298 Giffard allowed Walter of Cheltenham to hold 

 the rectory of Sapperton with those of Ampney St. Mary and Withington on 

 account of their poverty. 8 A bad case of pluralism came to the notice of 

 Archbishop Winchelsey in the course of his metropolitical visitation in 1301.* 

 Thomas of Stoke, incumbent of Kempsey in Worcestershire, had the care of 

 the church of Duntisbourne Abbots, was vicar of Standish, and rector of Cam; 

 but as during the voidance of the see the archbishop proceeded against him, he 

 resigned Kempsey in 1302. 



Some relaxation of discipline and extravagance of living in the religious 

 houses, especially among the Augustinian canons, were reformed by Giffard,' 

 and at the close of his episcopate the condition of the monasteries of 

 Gloucestershire satisfied him and also Archbishop Winchelsey 8 when he came 

 on his metropolitical visitation in 1301. The bishop was a warm supporter 

 of the friars, and in his will remembered all their houses in his diocese. 7 The 

 Carmelites established themselves at Gloucester and Bristol about 12 67,* and 

 in 1275 Giffard sent a mandate to all the clergy to admit the Franciscans to 

 preach the crusade in their churches and grant indulgences.' After a bitter 

 controversy with the chapter of his cathedral church, he increased the endow- 

 ment and importance of the collegiate church of Westbury-on-Trym, which 

 had probably been refounded by Bishop Cantilupe, but he did not succeed in 

 reserving a prebendal stall for his successors. 10 



In 1290 the steadily increasing national hostility to the Jews led to their 

 banishment from England. Through the influence of his mother, Eleanor of 

 Provence, Edward I had ordered the Jews of Gloucester to be deported to 

 Bristol with their chirograph chests and all their goods in 1275," and in the 

 same year an incident at Bristol showed how they drew upon themselves the 

 hatred of their Christian neighbours. Bishop Giffard issued a mandate to the 

 deans of Westbury and Bristol to excommunicate certain Jews of Bristol and 

 to forbid all traffic with them because they were guilty of iniquitous insults, 

 blasphemies, and injuries, and of an assault on the chaplain of St. Peter's, when 

 he administered the Holy Eucharist to a sick person in the Jewry. 18 



I (Ton. Ef'u. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 551. * Ibid. 191. * Ibid. 494. 



' Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 28. Kempsey wa in the bishop's gift ; the abbot and convent of 

 Gloucester were patrons of the three other livings. 



4 V. C. H. Gloucester, pott, ReKg. Houiei, Ctrenceiter, Lantbony, Bristol, Horsley, Teiekesbury, Gaunt' t Hospital, 

 Lee blade, Longbridge-bj-Berkeley. 



* Winchelsey'i injunctions to Gloucester were in great part a confirmation of ordinances drawn up by the 

 abbot and convent. Ibid. ReKg. Houses, Gloucester, Gaunfi Hospital. 



' Brist. and Glouc. Arch. Sot. xx, 152. * Y. C. H. Glauc. ReKg. Houiei, CarmeKtei, no, 112. 



* Wore. Epis. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 83. 

 '* V. C. H. Glouc. ReKg. Houiei, Westbury, 107. 



II Select Pleas, Stam and Records of the "Jewish Exchequer (Selden Soc.), 85. 

 " H'trc. Epls. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 71. 



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