RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



church and lands of Westbury. 1 Nothing is 

 known of the fate of the minster during the 

 Danish invasions, but it is unlikely that it escaped 

 being plundered and burnt. 1 



Soon after his consecration Oswald, bishop of 

 Worcester (961-992), determined to introduce 

 the strict observance of the Benedictine rule into 

 his diocese. He sent to Fleury for an English 

 monk named Germanus, and appointed him 

 prior of a new foundation at Westbury, which 

 became the centre of the Benedictine revival in 

 Mercia. 1 On the death of King Edgar there 

 was a revulsion of feeling in favour of the 

 secular priests who had been ousted during the 

 monastic revival ; * the monks were expelled 

 from several of the Mercian monasteries, and 

 there is no evidence that they were afterwards 

 reinstated at Westbury. The minster is not 

 even mentioned in the Domesday Survey. 



Some years later when Wulfstan, bishop of 

 Worcester, restored the foundation, he said that 

 Oswald's church had afterwards suffered great 

 damage from pirates, and that it was ruinous 

 through the neglect of its rulers.' There was but 

 a single priest, and he seldom said mass.* Wulfstan 

 recovered the church from William the Con- 

 queror, rebuilt it, and making it dependent on 

 the cathedral monastery of Worcester, he placed 

 monks there under the rule of Colman. 7 He 

 recovered by law some of the former possessions 

 of Westbury, others by purchase, and on 8 Sep- 

 tember, 1093, he granted a charter confirming 

 the endowment of 2^ hides and a virgate in 

 Westbury, part of a wood called Aescgraf and 

 12 acres of meadow, 2^ hides and 28 acres of 

 land in Henbury and in Charlton and Wick, 

 the churches of Henbury and Stoke with all 

 tithes, free from all service to king or bishop ; 

 I hides in Berwick, I virgate in Hazleton only 

 owing service to the king. His successor, 

 Samson (1096-1112) was a canon of Bayeux, 

 and he took Westbury from the monks. 8 Bishop 

 Simon (1123-51) restored the church of West- 

 bury with its dependent chapels to the prior and 

 convent of Worcester. 9 It has usually been as- 

 sumed that afterwards Westbury was merely a 

 parish church until 1288, when Bishop Giffiird 

 founded a college of canons against the will of 



1 Haddan and Stubbs, Church Councils, iii, 394 ; 

 cf. Dugdale Man. \, 591, No. xxiii. 



1 Clifton Antiq. Club Prof, iv, 28. 



1 Chronicon Abbatiae Rameieieniii (Rolls Ser.), 42 ; 

 Historians of the Church of Fork (Rolls Scr.), i, 424. 



4 Chronicon Abbatiae Rameseitnsis (Rolls Scr.), 72-73. 



* Dugdale, Mon. \, 5 91, No. ii. 



* Thorpe, Diflomatarium Angfuum aevi Saxtnici, 



447- 



' Dugdale, Mon. i, 591 ; Wharton, Angl. Sac. ii, 

 242, 262. 



* William of Malmesbury, Gtsta Pontif. (Rolls Scr.), 

 290. 



' Thomas, Survey of Cathedral Church of Worcester, 

 109, App. No. 9. 



the prior and convent. 10 However, Giffard's 

 register proves conclusively that from the earliest 

 years of his episcopate a dean and canons were in 

 possession of Westbury, 11 and, indeed, that his 

 predecessor, Walter de Cantilupe, collated his 

 clerks to the prebends of Westbury. 1 * Giffard's 

 correspondence with his agent at the papal curia 

 in 1286 revealed his object. 11 He was anxious 

 to be bishop of Westbury as well as of Worces- 

 ter, that he might have his episcopal throne in a 

 church of secular canons as well as in a Bene- 

 dictine monastery. He petitioned Honorius IV 

 that there might be granted to him and his 

 successors for ever a prebend in the church of 

 Westbury of the value of ten marks or pounds, 

 and that he might make all churches of his 

 patronage prebendal to Westbury. 14 The canons 

 of Westbury were anxious that the bishop should 

 be present in choir and chapter, and therefore 

 possess a prebend in their church. 1 * The reply to 

 his request that he might make the churches of 

 his patronage prebendal to Westbury was ap- 

 parently favourable, for he collated his clerks to 

 new prebends." The prior and convent of Wor- 

 cester complained to Nicholas IV, stating that 

 the bishop had constituted the churches of 

 Kempsey, Bredon, Wychendon, Bishop's Cleeve, 

 and Weston-upon-Avon prebendal to Westbury 

 against their wishes, and assigned them to certain 

 clerks and members of his household whom he 

 instituted as new canons of Westbury. 17 The 

 prior and convent of Worcester had always 

 possessed the right of instituting rectors to those 

 churches during a vacancy of the see, and the 

 bishop's action deprived them of their privilege. 

 Nicholas IV directed that an inquiry should be 

 made, but the judges whom" he appointed were 

 unwilling to act. 18 Although the prior and 

 convent obtained a hearing of the king they 

 gained nothing, 1 * and in 1297 the Court of 

 Arches decided in the bishop's favour.* Thus 

 the result of Gifiard's work was an increase in 

 the number of prebendaries at Westbury, and a 

 corresponding provision for them. 11 As the 

 bishops collated to the deanery and the prebends 

 their patronage was extended, though papal 

 provisions were frequent.** The collegiate 

 church was subject to the regular visitation of 



10 e.g. Tanner, Notitia Monastica (ed. 1744), p. 142. 

 CTtfton Antiq. Club Prof, iv, 33. 



11 Wore. Efis. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 20, 

 49,54,71, 123, &c. 



" Ibid. 4. " Ibid. 301-3. 



14 Ibid. 303. " Ibid. 302. 



" Ibid. 328, 336-7, &c. 



" Ibid. 362. 



" Ibid. 362-4. Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 498. 



" Ann. Mon. (Rolls Ser.), iv, 501-2, 504, 518 



" Wore. Ep'u. Reg. Giffard (Wore. Hist. Soc.), 

 492. 



" The prebends were Goodringlull, Laurenswcston, 

 Henbury, Anst and Halley. 



" Cat. Papal L. (Rolls Ser.), passim. 



I0 7 



