A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



new archdeaconry of Bristol contained in Gloucestershire the rural deaneries 

 of Bristol, Cirencester, Fairford, and Hawkesbury. Monk exercised great 

 influence during the twenty-six years of his episcopate. He extended and 

 revived the functions of the rural deans. 1 In 1848, when the number of 

 benefices was 424, there were 301 resident incumbents, and the number of 

 curates had greatly increased. 2 A hundred parsonages were built or enlarged, 

 and fifty-four new churches were consecrated by him. 8 He himself spent 

 upwards of 8,000 on the augmentation of small livings, and the clergy and 

 laity also gave generous help to the same object. In 1864, when Bishop 

 Ellicott delivered his charge at his primary visitation, there were only twenty 

 parishes without a resident clergyman, though 114 benefices were still 

 without parsonages.* In thirty-one churches there were three full services 

 on Sundays, and twenty with only one. In 124 churches, however, the 

 Holy Communion was administered six times a year or less, and only fourteen 

 churches had weekly celebrations. During his long episcopate, which lasted 

 until 1905, the work of the Church extended and prospered greatly. 1 The 

 cathedrals of Bristol and Gloucester were restored, many new churches were 

 built, and a great number of others were restored or enlarged. In 1882 the 

 archdeaconry of Cirencester was constituted. 8 In 1884 the Bristol Bishopric 

 Act was passed, by which provision was made for a new see of Bristol when 

 the necessary endowment was secured, and the division took place in 

 1897.' 



APPENDIX 



ECCLESIASTICAL DIVISIONS OF THE COUNTT 



When the sees of Worcester and Hereford were created about 68o, 8 Gloucestershire was- 

 divided between them, the western portion beyond the Severn and the Leadon being in the diocese 

 of Hereford. 



Shortly after the Norman Conquest the archdeaconry of Gloucester was constituted to contain 

 all that part of the county which lay in the diocese of Worcester. 9 The remainder was assigned to 

 the archdeaconry of Hereford. 



In 1094 the jurisdiction of St. Oswald's, which included the priory of St. Oswald, Gloucester,, 

 and several adjacent chapels, was constituted a peculiar of the archbishopric of York. 10 



In 1291 the archdeaconry of Gloucester was divided into the eleven rural deaneries of Campden, 

 Stow, Cirencester, Fairford, Winchcombe, Stonehouse, Hawkesbury, Bitton, Bristol, Dursley, and 

 Gloucester. 11 Five parishes in the north-east of the county lay in the deanery of Blockley, in the 

 archdeaconry of Worcester. 18 The rural deanery of the Forest in the archdeaconry of Hereford 

 contained all the remaining parishes save those of Newland, English Bicknor, and Preston, which 

 were in the deanery of Ross, and Staunton in the deanery of Irchinfield. 13 



I Dansey, Horae Decanicae Rurales, 421. * Par/. Papers, 1850. 



' Charge of Bishop Baring to the clergy of the diocese of Gloucester and Bristol, 1857. 

 4 Charge to the clergy, 1864. 

 6 Ibid. 1873, Records of Diocesan Progress, passim. 



Land. Gaz. 1882, p. 6242. r Ibid. 1897, p. 3787. 



8 V. C. H. Glow. Eccl. Hist. 2. 



' Phillimore, Eccl. Law (ed. 1873), i, 240; Wharton, Angl. Sac. ii, 262. 

 10 Wharton, Angl. Sac. i, 295 ; Historians of York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 21. 



II Pope Nick. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 220-4. 



"Ibid. 217*. "Ibid. 161. 



48 



