ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the Imperial Library at Vienna, was transcribed by two Bohemians at 

 Kemerton about 1407, it is possible that the rector sympathized with the 

 Lollards. 1 



It was perhaps with the object of checking the spread of heresy through 

 the circulation of Wycliffite books that Bishop Carpenter rebuilt the library 

 of the Calendars of Bristol.' This gild ' of the commonalty, clergy, and 

 people' of Bristol was reputed in 1318 to have been founded before the end 

 of the tenth century. 8 In 1 340 Bishop Wulstan de Bransford ordained that 

 the college should consist of one priest-prior and eight chaplains to celebrate 

 daily for the souls of the brethren and benefactors. All members of the gild 

 were bound to be present at mass in the church of All Saints on the first 

 Monday of each month.* In 1464 Carpenter decreed that the prior should 

 be a bachelor of theology or a master of arts, with a good knowledge of the 

 Old and New Testaments, and sufficiently instructed to preach the Word of 

 God. He gave him the custody of the library, providing that it should be 

 open on feast days for two hours both before and after nine to any who cared 

 to enter, and that the prior should expound any difficult passages to the 

 readers to the best of his ability.' The prior was also bound to preach four 

 sermons a year, one in the church of the canons of St. Augustine, one in 

 St. Mary Redcliffe, and two at Keynsham, in memory of a benefactor.* 

 Carpenter may also have desired to give opportunities of study to the numerous 

 parish and chantry priests of Bristol and the neighbourhood, for lack of 

 learning among the clergy was notorious. An attempt to find a remedy was 

 made at the meeting of convocation of the province of Canterbury in 1438, 

 when it was provided that no priest should be presented to a benefice unless 

 he had the degree of doctor of theology or law, or master of arts, or bachelor 

 in some faculty. 7 Carpenter showed his anxiety to promote education by 

 stipulating when he appropriated the parish church of Clifton to the dean and 

 chapter of Westbury-on-Trym that they should maintain a grammar-school- 

 master to teach all who came to him without charging any fees. 8 He rebuilt 

 the college of Westbury, and revised the statutes and ordinances with the 

 object of extending its sphere of usefulness.' Throughout his long episcopate 

 of thirty-two years (144476) Bishop Carpenter ruled his diocese with great 

 vigour, and even during the Wars of the Roses there was much rebuilding of 

 churches by prosperous wool merchants and other traders. The chancel of 

 the great parish church at Winchcombe was built by Abbot William Winch- 

 combe, the parishioners found 200 for the nave, and Ralph Boteler, lord of 

 Sudeley, helped them to finish the work. 10 In 1470 Conrad Nye, vicar of 

 Lechlade, appeared before the bishop at Cirencester, and stated that he and 

 his parishioners, with the aid of other good Christians, had rebuilt the nave. 11 

 The obligation of rebuilding the chancel rested on the vicar and on the prior 

 of the hospital of St. John the Baptist, but with the help of some friends he 

 intended to bear the whole cost of the work, provided that his successors were 

 not thereby made liable for the whole of the repairs. As the fortunes of the 



1 Briit. and Gkue. jlrck. Soc. Tram, xix, 34. ' Wore. Epis. Reg. Carpenter, i, fol. 197. 



1 Toulmin Smith, EagRih G'tldt (Camd. Soc.), 287. 



4 Barrett, Hist, of Bristol, 449-58. * Wore. Epis. Reg. Carpenter, i, fol. 197. 



* Ibid. 206 </. ' Wore. Epis. Reg. Bourchier, fol. 37. 



1 Ibid. Carpenter, i, fol. 183 d. ' Y. C. H. Gktu. Reftg. Houses, Wettbur)-on-Trym,\o1. 



* Dugdale, Man. ii, 298-9. " Wore. Epis. Reg. Carpenter, li, 9. 



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