ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



It was indeed a time of general lawlessness even in things ecclesiastical, 

 as is well shown in the case of the great dispute between the priory of Michel- 

 ham and the abbey of Bayham, over the church of Hailsham, when each party 

 alternately seized the church by force and violently ejected the other, while 

 bishop and primate thundered unregarded decrees of excommunication. 10 * In 

 this instance the question in dispute was whether Hailsham was a parish 

 church or, as was eventually decided, a chapel to the church of Hellingly. 

 That many parish churches originated in this way from dependent chapels 

 is clear, and there is occasionally documentary record of the formation of 

 new parishes in this way, as in the case of the severance of Patching from 

 Tarring in laS/. 106 The number of chapels that existed at this time was 

 very large. Of these some were manorial, some were attached to religious 

 houses, and many served as chapels of ease to scattered parishes. Of the 

 last class a good example is found in 1292, when the rector of Buxted 

 complained that his parishioners living in the hamlet of Gilderigge were 

 unable in winter to come to the mother church of Buxted, and conse- 

 quently often went to that of Withyham, whereby he lost the benefit of 

 their alms ; the archbishop accordingly gave him leave to erect a chapel at 

 Gilderigge. 108 The privileges of these chapels were usually sharply defined 

 to prevent their encroaching upon the rights of the parish church, the 

 use of a font or bell being sometimes noted as not permitted, and the 

 privilege of burial, with the attendant fees and perquisites, being most 

 jealously reserved. 



Another class of chapel consists of those built expressly for the use of a 

 chantry priest. These were not numerous, but one example is mentioned in 

 1400 as having been built by the late Walter Burgess, in the churchyard of 

 Horsham, 107 and possibly other chapels in churchyards at Arlington, Glynde. 

 and elsewhere may have had a similar origin. As a rule, however, the 

 numerous chantries which were founded after the passing of the Act of Mort- 

 main in 1 279 were established in churches, either parochial or monastic, and 

 chapels that were already in existence. 



In Gilbert de Sancto Leofardo, who was bishop of Chichester from 1288 

 to 1 305, the see appears to have had a worthy successor to the saintly Richard ; 

 his synodal constitutions of 1289 closely resemble those of his beatified pre- 

 decessor, and he himself was described by Matthew of Westminster as ' the 

 father of orphans, the comforter of mourning widows, the pious visitor of the 

 sick, and the generous benefactor of the poor.' From 1305 to 1362 the see 

 was held by John Langton and Robert Stratford, who each resembled Bishop 

 Ralph de Neville in holding the chancellorship of the realm and fulfilling the 

 duties of that office with honesty and ability. Of their diocesan administration 

 we know little or nothing, but Bishop Stratford contrived to come into collision 

 with his cathedral clergy by ignoring the jurisdictionary rights of the dean 

 within the city of Chichester. Accordingly, in 1 342, when he sent messengers 

 to the chapter and also to the city authorities ordering them to celebrate 

 masses and hold processions for the safety and success of the king and his army 

 in France, eighteen of the cathedral clergy, with four of the city rectors, the 

 chaplain of St. Mary's Hospital, and many laymen, combined to destroy the 



101 See below, s.v. Bayham. 



108 Reg. Epist. Peckham (Rolls Ser.), iii, 984-7. 



"* Hist. AfSS. Com. Rep. iv (i), 73. 

 107 Cal. Pap. Let. v, 171. 



