

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



had his famous encounter with the Devil, and seized him by the nose with 

 his tongs, which tongs are still shown for the convincing of the sceptic. 



The building of churches was not, however, confined to saints. A 

 number of charters of the eighth century refer to the foundation of ' minsters ' 

 at Ferring, 9 Bexhill, 10 and Wittering, 11 and mention the church of St. Peter at 

 Henfield 12 and the 'minster' of ' Bedinghommes,' to which land in 'Deanton' 

 was said to belong ; ls these two places may be Beddingham and Denton in the 

 Ouse valley, or Beeding and the ' Dentun ' of Domesday, which lay between 

 Coombes and Sompting. These charters are almost, if not quite, all forgeries, 

 but may well be founded on facts. Another certainly forged charter records 

 the gift of Bertuald, duke of the South Saxons, to the abbey of St. Denis of 

 the vill of Rotherfield, and the use of the ports of Hastings and Pevensey. 

 This appears to record an actual transaction, and the church of Rotherfield, 

 which is still dedicated to St. Denis, was probably founded about the time 

 of this grant, which is dated jgo. 1 * 



As far as the ecclesiastical history of Sussex is concerned, the most 

 important grants made during this period were those to the see of Canterbury. 

 St. Wilfrid's gift of Pagham has already been mentioned ; at the council of 

 Kingston in 838 the archbishop made good his claim to the great manor of 

 South Mailing, 16 where, apparently, there was already a monastery dedicated 

 to St. Michael which Aldwulf, duke of the South Saxons, had founded, or at 

 least endowed with lands in Stanmer, Lindfield, and Burleigh, about 760. 16 

 Further grants were made of land at West Tarring by King Ethelstan in 94O, 17 

 and of land at Patching by Wulfric, a thegn, in 947." As a result of these 

 gifts the church of Canterbury possessed extensive peculiars in Sussex, forming 

 in later times the three deaneries of South Mailing, Tarring, and Pagham. 



When Edward the Confessor came to the throne the bishopric of Selsey 

 was held by Grimketel, who had formerly obtained the East Anglian see by 

 simony, but being ejected therefrom had bought his appointment to the 

 southern see. 1 ' On his death in 1048 the king's chaplain Hecca succeeded, 

 dying about the end of 1057 ; Ethelric the next bishop appears to have 

 been irregularly appointed, as he was deposed in 1070, at the same time as 

 Archbishop Stigand and Ethelmaer, bishop of Elmham, and imprisoned at 

 Marlborough. He was, however, recognized as one of the leading experts in 

 English law, and was accordingly brought to the council on Penenden Heath 

 in 1076 to give the assembly the benefit of his learning. 20 



The Confessor was liberal of Sussex lands to his ecclesiastical friends ; 

 the richly endowed collegiate church which had sprung up where Dicul had 

 first lit the lamp of Christianity at Bosham was granted to the Norman 

 chaplain Osbern, and the valuable manors and ports of Steyning and Hastings 

 with Rye and Winchelsea fell to the share of the Norman abbey of Fecamp, 

 while on his own foundation of Westminster he bestowed the manor of 

 Parham. To the church of ' St. John,' possibly in Lewes, Queen Edith gave 

 lands in Frog-Firle and elsewhere, some of which Harold took away and kept 

 in his own hand. Harold also seized the manor of Steyning towards the end 



Birch, Cart. Sax. 198. 10 Ibid. 207. " Ibid. 211. 



" Ibid. 206. " Ibid. 302, 387. " Arch. Journal, Hi, 355-70 ; Suss. Arch. Coll. xli, 49. 



15 Birch, Cart. Sax. 421. " Ibid. 197. " Ibid. 766. 



Ibid. 821. '" Will. Malmes. Gesta Pontif. (Rolls Ser.), 205. * Suss. Arch. Coll. xxix, 37-8. 



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