A HISTORY OF NORFOLK 



abuses to correct than certain cases of extortion on the part of officials gives a 

 favourable impression of the state of the religious houses in the county. 



In 1285 the w^rit, Circumspecte Agatis^ which was regarded afterwards 

 as a statute defining the uses of writs of prohibition, and of universal applica- 

 tion, was issued by the king with primary reference to the see of Norwich, 

 according to Blomefield, because ' the bishop was a great promoter of it, and 

 then enjoying the greatest liberties of any bishop, was thought to be the 

 properest person to be named in it.'' Cases of purely spiritual correction for 

 mortal sin or libel, sentences of excommunication for assault upon a clerk, 

 punishment inflicted for neglect of repairs of churches or churchyards, claims 

 of tithes withheld, oblations and mortuaries, were decided to belong to the 

 ecclesiastical sphere, and were not to be interfered with by lay courts. 



The Close Rolls for the succeeding years recording the names of those 

 who, in accordance with the privilege of the clergy, purged their innocence 

 before the bishop of Norwich, and had their goods restored to them by the 

 sheriff of Norfolk, give a by no means flattering testimony to the character 

 of certain of the Norfolk clergy at this time.^ 



The expulsion of the Jews from England did not take place until 1 290, 

 but there is evidence that in the years immediately preceding this date the 

 Jews of Norfolk were undergoing persecution. On 15 May, 1280,* Philip 

 de Wilegheby, receiver of the goods and chattels of condemned Jews, was 

 ordered to pay to the sheriff of Norfolk iooj. which he expended by the 

 king's order in the carriage of certain Jews of Norwich from that town to 

 the Tower of London; an inspeximus of 16 June, 1280,' deals with the 

 property of Abraham, son of Deulacres, Jew of Norwich, drawn and burned 

 for the blasphemy of which he was convicted ; and a commission of 

 10 June, 1280,^ deals with that of Isaac, a Jew of Norwich, hanged for a 

 trespass against the coinage. Numerous licences to sell houses seem to sug- 

 gest preparations for the exodus ; these, as also the deeds dealing with the 

 sale of Jewish property which escheated to the crown after 1290, give valu- 

 able indications of the position of the Jewry.' The synagogue in Norwich 

 was destroyed in 1286.' 



The last two years of the bishop's life were spent in Gascony, whither 

 he had been summoned by the king. He left Ralph de Eboraco, archdeacon 

 of Sudbury, his vicegerent.' He died shortly after his return, 31 August, 

 1288. 



His successor, Ralph de Walpole, archdeacon of Ely, a Norfolk man, 

 was unanimously elected by a committee of seven monks, 1 1 November, 

 1288. He obtained the king's assent, and was consecrated by Archbishop 



' Gee and Hardy, Doc. Illus. of Eng. Ch. Hist. 83, 84. ' iv, 548. 



' Close, 14 Edw. I, m. 6 ; m. 8 ; m. 3 ; 18 Edw. I, m. 1 1 ; m. 1 3 ; 19 Edw. I, m. 5; Pat. 27 Edw. I, 

 m. n d. ; m. 74 ; 9 Edw. I, m. 12 ; 13 Edw. I, m. 13. 



* Close, 8 Edw. I, m. 8. » Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 14. Mbid. m. 14^. 



cf. Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 2. Licence for Ursellus, son of Isaac le Evesk, Jew of Norwich, to sell his houses 

 there, situated between the houses of Genta la Neve, Jewess, and Isaac de Jernemutha, Jew, in the street of 

 Mancroft, in the parish of St. Peter. Ibid. 9 Edw. I. m. 26. Licence for Columba, a Jewish widow, 

 daughter of Isaac, of Norwich, to sell her house in that town between the houses of Thomas de Bynetre and 

 Eliseus son of Elias the Jew, abutting on the high road at its west end, and at its east on a watercourse called 

 Kolceye, in the parish of St Peter Mancroft. Also ibid. 28 Edw. I, m. 8. Grant in fee simple of a void plot 

 in the city of Nor\vich, formerly belonging to Anesterra Hagge and Vivantus Mosseus and Moppa, her 

 nephews, which became the king's escheat by the exile of the Jews. 



« Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 63. » Pat. i 5 Edw. I, m. I 5. 



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