A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



made the parish church, but Up Marden retaining its rights of baptism and 

 burial."' East Itchenor was joined to Bridham in 1441,"* Lordington to Racton 

 in 1445,"* and Treyford to Elsted in 1485. m Another instance that may be 

 given occurred in 1465 when the vicar of Bersted complained that the 

 living was so impoverished as to be worth scarce 5 marks ; this was enough 

 when he had the chapel of Bognor as well, * but then he sange twyse uppon 

 the day, which was ageynst conscience,' and now the dean of Pagham had 

 divided the chapel between him and the chantry priest of Pagham ; he there- 

 fore appealed for an increase of the living of Bersted that he might ' leave 

 the laboure to Bognor.' The chapter of Canterbury, the patrons, decided to 

 unite the vicarage of Bognor with that of Bersted to be served by one priest. 126 



A natural result of this widespread poverty was that the better class of 

 men would not take Holy Orders. The episcopal visitations of Sussex during 

 the fifteenth century show that the smaller monasteries were in a deplorable 

 state ; the great houses of Battle, Lewes, and Robertsbridge being exempt 

 from episcopal visitation may be given the benefit of the doubt and be 

 assumed to have been in good order. The condition of the secular clergy 

 may be gathered from the foundation by Bishop Story of the prebendal 

 school ' on account of the ignorance of the priests and the scarcity of minis- 

 ters in our diocese.' w That the general depression was greatly felt by the 

 smaller religious establishments is evident from the suppression in 1526 of 

 the decayed hospitals of Windham and Seaford, and the free chapel of 

 Bargham, and their absorption into the new prebends founded in that year by 

 Bishop Sherborn. 188 



The long episcopate of Robert Sherborn (150836) covers an impor- 

 tant period, and brings us to the critical era of the Reformation. He was 

 a good example of the less prominent bishops of this time, doing his duty 

 quietly and conscientiously, content to leave the ' making of history ' to 

 others more ambitious ; a man of considerable learning, kindly, generous, 

 and fond of elaborate ritual, very solicitous of his own soul's welfare, but 

 not forgetful of the souls or bodies of his flock. He adorned the fabric 

 of his cathedral with carved stalls and paintings by the Italian Bernardi, and 

 its services by founding four additional prebends and four lay clerks, one 

 of whom was to have a bass voice, and all were to be good singers. 1 " Under 

 his care the spiritual condition of the diocese appears to have improved, 

 and although the injunctions issued in 1518 to the priors of Boxgrove and 

 other houses show that things were far from satisfactory, later visitations 

 present a pleasing contrast to those of the fifteenth century, to which reference 

 has already been made. 



Bishop Sherborn appears to have been on friendly terms with Cardinal 

 Wolsey, and when the latter, at the zenith of his power, in 1525, founded 

 his great college at Oxford, to which were appropriated the revenues of the 

 two Sussex monasteries of Bayham and Pynham, suppressed with others for 

 that purpose by papal permission, Sherborn visited the cardinal's magnificent 

 building, and on his return to Chichester wrote thanking Wolsey for showing 

 it to him and saying that he had looked out some books which he hoped 



'" Chich. Epis. Reg. Praty, fol. 87. m Ibid. fol. 97. '" Ibid. fol. 104. 



" Ibid. Story, fol. 76. ' Lift. Cantuar. (Rolls Ser.), iii. 240-2. 



" Stephens, See of Chicbester, 182. '* Ibid. 194. 



" For details of these and his other benefactions, see Stephens, See of Chichester, 188-202. 



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