A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



hospital were at a very low ebb, Cecily, duchess of York, took its possessions 

 for the endowment of a chantry of the Virgin for three chaplains in the parish 

 church in 1473,' and three years later John Twyning of Cirencester founded 

 the chantry of St. Blaise.* In 1475, by agreement with the abbot and 

 convent of St. Peter's, the archdeacon of Gloucester gave up his official 

 residence in Gloucester in exchange for the rectory of Dursley, 8 a benefice 

 which was held by his successors for more than 400 years. 4 



For the space of sixty years after the death of Carpenter, the see of 

 Worcester was filled by bishops who were occupied with affairs of state and 

 left the administration of their diocese to suffragan bishops and vicars-general. 6 

 Visitations took place at regular intervals, and fees were collected. The 

 condition of the monasteries called forth no comment, the larger houses were 

 prosperous, the religious were occupied with the suitable maintenance of their 

 services, with much new building, and with the management of their pro- 

 perty. A case of heresy here and there is noted in the registers ; in 1514 

 Avice Dedwood of Bisley abjured her opinions about the Eucharist when 

 brought to trial before the vicar-general at Gloucester.* In 1509 Thomas 

 Higons, a labourer of Mitcheldean, who was suspected of heresy and of 

 favouring heretics, was condemned to do penance in Hereford Cathedral and 

 in his parish church. 7 It is probable that opinions hostile to the teaching of 

 the Church were disseminated from Bristol, for in 1498 it is said that many 

 arrests were made, some persons were burnt, others abjured their errors and 

 bore faggots on their backs in open penance. 8 Yet as the vicars-general were 

 mainly occupied in the formal discharge of their duties, the reformers usually 

 preached without molestation. About 1520 William Tyndale was a tutor in 

 the house of Sir John Welsh at Little Sodbury, and on Sundays he preached 

 there or in neighbouring parishes, and often at Bristol.' In 1531 the will of 

 a Gloucestershire knight, William Tracy of Dodington, was brought before 

 the notice of convocation on account of the manifest heresies which it con- 

 tained. 10 Tracy had been one of Tyndale's friends, and convocation ordered 

 that his body should be dug up and burned. The prolocutor gave notice at 

 the same time of heresies in the will of Thomas Brown of Bristol. 11 In 1533 

 Bristol was much stirred by the Lenten sermons of Latimer in the churches 

 of St. Nicholas, St. Thomas, and at the Black Friars." A priest complained 

 to convocation that by decrying the worship of the Virgin and the saints, and 

 mocking at pilgrimages, Latimer had ' very sore infect ' the town. 18 The 

 mayor had invited him to Bristol again at Easter, but he was forbidden to 

 preach anywhere within the diocese of Worcester without the bishop's licence. 14 

 His opponents Edgeworth, Hubbardin, and others delivered sermons against 

 his opinions, but they attacked the divorce of Henry and Katherine, and 

 commissioners were appointed by Cromwell to investigate the cause of the 

 disturbances. The upshot of the matter was that some of Latimer's opponents 

 were imprisoned, others fled, and Cranmer licensed him to preach anywhere 



1 Ibid. joj. ; Dugdale, Man. vii, 683. ' Dugdale, Man. vii, 683. 



3 Wore. Epis. Reg. Carpenter, 77. * Blunt, Chapters of Parochial Hist. 33. 



5 Creighton, Historical Essays and Reviews, 227-32. "Wore. Epis. Reg. Silvester de Giglis, fol. 107^. 



7 Heref. Epis. Reg. Mayhew, fol. 52 d. * Seyer, Memcin of Bristol, ii, 215. 



' Ibid. Diet. Nat. Biog. Ivii, 424. 10 Wilkins, ConciRa, iii, 746. " Ibid. 



12 Demaus, Hugh Latimer, 162. " Strype, Eccl. Memorials, i, 248. 

 14 Demaus, op. cit. 163-74 L - dP. Hen. Fill, vi, No. 247. 



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