A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



The churchwardens' accounts of this period show that in many parishes 

 there was a tendency to convert the church ornaments into money, 1 * 9 evidently 

 in anticipation of their seizure by the crown, which must have been foreseen 

 by many. 



The great blow at the ritual side of popular worship was struck by the 

 suppression of chantries in 1 548, followed by the seizure of the treasures of 

 all parish churches in 1553. Although the primary object in the founda- 

 tion of a chantry was to maintain a priest to pray for the soul of the founder, 

 the priest thus maintained did as a rule act as an assistant to the parish 

 priest, helping him both in the celebration of divine service and in parochial 

 duties. In many counties, also, the chantry priest is found acting as school- 

 master, but this does not seem to have been the case in Sussex in any 

 instance ; indeed the injury wrought to education and the religious welfare 

 of the populace by this abolition of chantries appears to have been far less 

 serious in Sussex than in most counties. In only three cases do the Chantry 

 Commissioners uo express an opinion that the parish would suffer by the with- 

 drawal of the chantry priest. The first instance is at Horsham, where there 

 were about 900 ' housling people ' with only one priest, ' which is very 

 slender to serve so great a parish ' ; here, however, of the two chantries one 

 was held by a priest who had not been resident for the past five years, and 

 had resigned his interest to a layman, John Caryll, while the incumbent of 

 the other had not resided since 1536, and had disposed of his interest to 

 Mr. Copley, so that their suppression did not affect the parish. At East- 

 bourne ' there is 600 houslyng people and hath no more priests to serve the 

 cure but the vicar ' ; here also the only assistant mentioned, the chaplain of 

 the Brotherhood of Jesus, had left his charge some seventeen months past. 

 The third case was that of New Shoreham, where the chantry was filled by 

 the parish priest himself, and is noted as necessary for the proper serving of 

 the cure. In many cases the chantries had already ceased to exist, either 

 through the negligence of their incumbents or through their patrons antici- 

 pating the royal commissioners and dissolving them for their own benefit. 

 That of Brambletye had been dissolved by Lord Windsor some three years 

 back, and that of Treyford by Mr. Goring about 1528 ; the free chapel in 

 St. Leonard's Forest had been surrendered to the duke of Norfolk, and that 

 of Maresfield had been vacant for four years, being in the king's hands. 

 The incumbent's name was unknown in the case of the chantry of Broad- 

 hurst in Horsted Keynes, and no chantry priest had been in residence at 

 Heene for the last ten years, at West Tarring for forty years, or at Broad- 

 water within the memory of man. The chantry of Bignor was held by 

 George Vaughan, ' a serving-man and no priest,' and that of Sullington by 

 Thomas Sackville, ' being student at a grammar scole of thage of 1 3 years 

 and hath the premises towards his exhibicon.' 



With the chantries fell also the collegiate churches and gilds ; of the 

 former class the only representative in Sussex was the royal college of 

 Bosham, those of South Mailing, Arundel, and Hastings having been sur- 

 rendered before this date. Five gilds, or brotherhoods, are mentioned in 

 the commissioners' certificate, at Chichester, Steyning, Horsham, Eastbourne, 



As at Bolney, Su,,. Anh. Coll. vi, 245 ; cf. Tarring, Cartwright, Hut. of Rap, ofBramter, 14. 

 '" Chant. Cert. 50. 



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