ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



the cause of the whole Church, and at the hands of his own sons. 36 Becket's 

 secretary and friend, Herbert of Bosham, himself a native of Sussex, and 

 other writers have left on record long lists of miracles done by Saint Thomas, 

 some of which relate to persons and places in Sussex, such as Sir Amfrey de 

 Ferring, Richard canon of Chichester, and dwellers at Aldrington, Ifield, 

 Pevensey, Rye, Shoreham, Warbleton, and Winchelsea ; but the tales for the 

 most part are of little interest and no historical value : the best known relates 

 how the murderers rested at the archbishop's manor of South Mailing, where 

 the table thrice threw down their armour which they had put upon it. 56 



Bishop Hilary had died in July, 1 169, but his successor, John I, dean of 

 Chichester, was not elected till 1173, being consecrated the following year. 

 Upon his death in 1180, Seffrid II, who had been archdeacon and dean, 

 became bishop of Chichester, which see he held for twenty-four years. His 

 episcopate was a period of great importance in the history of the diocese, not 

 only because he restored and added to the cathedral church after the disas- 

 trous fire of 1187, but still more because from this time we may date the 

 beginning of the ordination of vicarages, which is in some ways the most 

 important feature of English church life during the first half of the thirteenth 

 century. 



The rapid accumulation of the patronage and endowments of parish 

 churches in the hands of the monasteries led to many abuses ; the churches 

 were treated as sources of revenue, and only served perfunctorily by one of the 

 monks, or by a chaplain chosen rather for his willingness to accept a low salary 

 than for his fitness to minister, and liable to be removed at any time. To 

 remedy this state of affairs the Lateran Council of 1 179 and the Westminster 

 Council of 1200 ordered the appointment of perpetual vicarages. That the 

 need of such had already made itself evident may be seen from the fact that 

 when Bishop John I, about 1 177, allowed the priory of Boxgrove to appro- 

 priate the churches of Boxgrove, Hampnett, Walberton, Barnham, and 

 Hunston to their own uses he did so conditionally on their appointing 

 perpetual vicars with a sufficient portion for their support. 37 A similar 

 stipulation was made by Seffrid II, probably about 1190, when appropri- 

 ating the church of Hellingly to the Premonstratensian abbey of Otham. 38 



The first vicarages of whose regular ordination we have any notice are 

 those of the churches of Kingston-by-Lewes, Iford, and Rottingdean, appro- 

 priated to Lewes Priory by Seffrid II in 1 200." In the case of Rottingdean 

 the vicar was to have a specified virgate of land with all its tithes, the 

 obventions of the altar and of the chapel of Balsdean, and all small tithes 

 except those from the demesne of Earl Warenne. At Iford he had the 

 obventions of the altar and of the chapel of Swanborough, the small tithes, and 

 the fourth sheaf of the monks' tithe corn. At Kingston, besides the obventions, 

 specified lands, and measures of corn, mention is made of a manse or dwelling- 

 house. The vicarage appointed at Henfield in 120915 of a nature similar 

 to the above, but is given in greater detail ; * by it the vicar was to receive 

 all oblations made in the church and all legacies, all the tithes of certain lands 

 and of any land newly brought under cultivation in the future, and the tithes. 



55 Mat. for Hist, of Abp. Thos. Becket (Rolls Ser.), ii, 31. M Ibid. 285. 



37 Suss. Arch. Coll. xv, 92, from chartul. of Boxgrove Priory. 



K Add. MSS. 6037. "Chich. Epis. Reg. Sherborn, fol. 80. 



40 Dallaway, Hist, of West Suss, ii (2), 270 ; from copy in Chich. Epis. Reg. ' B ' fol. ult. 



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