ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



and East Grinstead ; another certificate U1 refers to gilds at Donnington and 

 Selsey, but the list is probably incomplete, as mediaeval wills and other docu- 

 ments contain plentiful references to these religious associations as existing 

 in even quite small country villages. At the end of the fifteenth century 

 there were in Eastbourne alone six gilds, 163 and others are mentioned in 1520 

 at Petworth, 163 Slindon, 1 " and South wick, 1 " and in 1538 at Felpham, 168 while 

 the fraternity of the Blessed Virgin of Comfort appears to have been founded 

 at West Tarring in 1528, one of its objects being the support of a priest to 

 assist the parish priest." 7 



The reduction of the clerical staff of the parish churches was followed 

 by a still more drastic reduction of their ornaments. Not only were the 

 altar-stones with their carved reredoses cast out 158 and stained-glass windows 

 defaced, 1 " images cast down and vestments converted into carpets, 160 but in 

 1553 all church plate was seized for the king, leaving only the irreducible 

 minimum of a chalice and paten for the service of God. The death of 

 Edward VI and accession of Mary checked this process of spoliation where 

 incomplete, and even in a few cases led to recovery of lost ornaments; but an 

 idea of the full extent of the injury done to the services of the Church of 

 England from the artistic point of view may be obtained by a comparison 

 of the inventories of the ' furniture ' of Rotherfield church (an exceptionally 

 well-appointed country church) in i5O9 181 and I558, 162 or the similar inven- 

 tories for St. Michael's, Lewes, in 154.0* and I59O. 164 A sharp line was 

 then set between art and religion, and a blow given to ceremonial splendour 

 from which the services of the Church of England only began to recover 

 in the middle of the nineteenth century. 



George Day, who had succeeded Sampson as bishop of Chichester in 

 1543, was no great favourer of the more advanced school of Protestant 

 reformers who obtained control of affairs upon the accession of Edward VI, 

 and was one of the five bishops who dissented from the Book of Common 

 Prayer issued in 1 549- m In the following year his preaching was regarded 

 by the Council with such ill-favour that they deemed it necessary to send 

 Dr. Cox, the king's almoner, into Sussex to counteract it and teach the 

 people aright, 1 " while the bishop himself was summoned to give an account 

 of what he had preached and defend his conduct. 187 The final break 

 between the bishop and the Council was caused by the royal mandate sent in 

 November, 1550, ordering him to cause all altars in every church and chapel 

 throughout his diocese to be removed and a table to be set up in some con- 

 venient part of the chancel to serve for the ministration of the blessed Com- 

 munion ; and further ordering that, in order to avoid unnecessary offence, 

 certain arguments which had been composed for that purpose should be set 

 forth by himself in the cathedral, and also published in the market towns 

 and other convenient places before the removal of the altars. 1 * 8 This he firmly 

 refused to do, and at length, when argument and persuasion had proved 



141 Formerly Chant. Cert. No. 49 ; this was lost in the fire at the Houses of Parliament, but an index 

 to its contents remains in the P.K.O. 



141 Suss. Arch. CoU. xlii, 104. '" Ibid, xii, 95. H Ibid. 98. 



144 Ibid. 109. "* Ibid. 90. '" Lambeth Ct. R. 1052. 



168 Saw. Arch. Coll. xlv, 51. 1M Ibid. 52. ""Ibid. 53. 



161 Ibid, ili, 27-30. 1M Ibid. 41. 1M Ibid, xlv, 45. 



164 Ibid. 60. 16i Stephens, Set of Chick. 227. 



"* Acts ofP.C. (New Ser), iii, 137. '" Ibid. 154. " Ibid. 168-9. 



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