A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



In accordance with the terms of an agreement between the prior of 

 Worcester and the archbishop of Canterbury in 1268, the prior of Worcester 

 administered the spiritualities of the diocese during voidances of the see, 

 paying two-thirds of the fees which were received to the archbishop. 1 In 

 exercising his rights of visitation the prior came into conflict with several 

 of the religious houses of Gloucestershire in the first years of the thirteenth 

 century, 8 but as he was supported by the archbishop his claims were after- 

 wards recognized. The agreement was confirmed at each voidance, but 

 after 1435 the archbishops sent commissioners to act for them. 3 



The registers of the bishops of Worcester testify to careful administration 

 of the diocese during the fourteenth century. Visitations usually occurred at 

 regular intervals, and were undertaken by the bishop's official or by a vicar- 

 general if the bishop was absent on affairs of state. During his metropolitical 

 visitation in 1301 Archbishop Winchelsey discovered that in the deanery 

 of Bristol an evil custom had arisen of charging a christening fee of twopence, 

 and he bade the rural dean proclaim that such exactions would bring on the 

 offender the penalty of the greater excommunication. 4 The parish clergy 

 bore a high character, and cases of moral delinquency were very rare. 

 Simon de Preus of Great Tew, who held the rectory of Tetbury of the 

 gift of the abbot and convent of Eynsham, incurred considerable debts, 

 presumably when he was at Oxford, for among his creditors were a mercer 

 and a grocer of that town. 6 He was summoned to appear in the king's court 

 in 1302", in 1304^ and again in I3O7- 8 In 1306 Bishop Gainsborough 

 allowed him to farm his church for five years to the rector of Swalcliffe, near 

 Banbury, who undertook to pay debts to the amount of 100.' The 

 agreement was that the rector should receive all the tithes and give Simon 

 4 marks, besides the offerings at the altar, and that Simon should find two 

 chaplains and a deacon to serve the church, and provide lights, incense, 

 bread and wine, and bell-ropes. 



There was considerable activity in the rebuilding of churches in the 

 earlier years of the century. The parish church of Cam was dedicated in 

 I3o8, 10 Badgeworth, Harescombe, Elmore, Fretherne, Frampton, Tetbury, Dry 

 Marston, Tredington, and Shipton in 1 3 1 5." Much new work was undertaken 

 in the abbey churches of Winchcombe, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Bristol, and 

 Lanthony, 13 and the religious succeeded in appropriating a number of 

 churches in aid of their building funds, for, in accordance with Cardinal 

 Ottoboni's constitution of 1268, no bishop might assign a parish church to 

 the uses of a monastery unless it was overwhelmingly burdened by poverty. 15 

 It was therefore usual for the religious to frame a petition to the bishop, 

 setting forth a most distressful tale of murrains, fires, floods, pestilences, the 

 great cost of hospitality, the burden of taxation, and often urging that the 

 fabric of their church threatened ruin and must be repaired at great expense. 



1 Reg. Epistolarum Peckham (Rolls Ser.), ii, 632 ; Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.) ; V. C. H. Worcester, ii, 

 2 1 , Eccles. Hist. 



1 V. C. H. Ghuc. Refig. Houses, Tewkesbury, Winchcombe, Cirencester, Hartley, Gloucester. 



Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Morton, fol. 170, 171 ; Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), ii, 408-46, 227. 

 4 Wore. Epis. Reg. Gainsborough, fol. 3. < Ibid. fol. 41. 



6 Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 26. ' Wore. Epis. Reg. Gainsborough, fol. 53. 



8 Reg. Sede Vac. (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 129. Wore. Epis. Reg. Gainsborough, fol. 41. 



Ibid. Reynolds, fol. 12. " Ghuc. N. and Q. ii, 13. 



" V. C. H. Ghuc. Refig. Houses. Wilkins, Concilia, ii, 10. 



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