A HISTORY OF SUSSEX 



William Warelwast, bishop of Exeter, who 

 established there a college of six secular canons 

 with prebends, their dean being the bishop of 

 Exeter. This arrangement held good until the 

 occupant of the western see angered Henry II by 

 taking the part of Archbishop Becket, when the 

 king deprived him of the chapelry and bestowed 

 it upon the bishop of Lisieux, who retained it 

 till 1177, when it came once more to the 

 bishop of Exeter, 26 whose successors held it till 

 its dissolution. 



King John in 1200 confirmed the grant of 

 the chapelry to the church of Exeter, 26 but the 

 bishop of Chichester evidently disputed their 

 claims, and was so far successful that in 1205 

 the king ordered that the chapel should be subject 

 to the jurisdiction of the local see. 27 During this 

 dispute the bishop of Chichester appears to have 

 ' suspended ' the church of Bosham, as a priest 

 called Roger was several times excommunicated 

 for ministering there. 28 This was only the begin- 

 ning of a long series of quarrels between the 

 bishops of Exeter and Chichester. The question 

 was complicated by the fact that the nave of the 

 collegiate church was the parish church, the vicar 

 of which was vicar of the canon of the parochial 

 prebend; and over this vicar and the parish church 

 the see of Chichester had undoubted jurisdiction 

 arising, according to an inquest of 1294, from 

 the fact that the parochial vicar, during the time 

 that the chapel was in Henry II's hands, had 

 submitted himself to the bishop's jurisdiction 

 but the claims of the bishops and archdeacons of 

 Chichester to visit and control the collegiate 

 choir and its canons, though constantly asserted, 

 were always defeated. 29 



The college 30 consisted of six prebendaries of 

 Bosham Parochial, Walton, Appledram, Funting- 

 ton, Chidham, and Westbrooke, one of whom 

 was sacrist and head of the college under the 

 dean (i.e. the bishop of Exeter). The sacrist, 

 who received 4. yearly from each of the other 

 canons, as well as the offerings of wax and other 

 perquisites, was bound to be resident, and to 

 be in priest's orders either when appointed or 

 immediately afterwards ; he had to see to the 

 conduct of the services, to control the canons 

 and vicars, and to hear their confessions ; he had 

 also to find a clerk to ring the bells and open and 

 shut the doors, of which the keys were to be 

 given to the sacrist after curfew ; to him also it 

 fell to provide the elements and wax and other 

 lights, except the tapers lit at the elevation of 

 the Host, the provision of which as also of 



" Gesta Htnrici (Rolls Ser.), i, 181. 



M Chart R. I John, m. 20, no. 3. 



" Pat. 6 John, m. 10. 



K Ann. Man. (Rolls Ser.), ii, 255. 



" See Exeter Epis. Reg. passim. 



30 For the loan of a transcript of the statutes of the 

 college, drawn up in 1398, I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Canon Dalton, C.M.G., of Windsor. 



books and ornaments and repairs to the chapel 

 lay at the charge of the other five canons. The 

 canons were forbidden to farm their prebends, 

 and were compelled to provide vicars, who 

 received two marks in addition to six marks 

 composition for tithes except the parochial 

 vicar, who had special tithes assigned to him. 

 The vicars, with the exception of the parochial 

 vicar, were removable at will, and before admis- 

 sion were examined by the sacrist and the other 

 vicars as to voice and skill in reading and chant- 

 ing. The services were to be according to the 

 Sarum Use, and were to commence with mattins 

 at daybreak during the winter, and about two 

 hours after sunrise in summer. Immediately after 

 mattins came the mass of the Blessed Virgin 

 with music or not, according to the discretion 

 of the vicar celebrating. During this and the 

 customary subsequent hours the parochial vicar 

 was to visit the poor and perform the other duties 

 of his cure, taking care to be back in time to take 

 part in the procession and high mass in the choir 

 about the third hour, under penalty of a fine. On 

 Sundays and festivals the procession, after prime 

 and the other hours had been sung, was to go so 

 that on its return a halt was made in the nave 

 before the Rood, where the parochial vicar or his 

 deputy was to offer the customary prayers and to 

 expound sermons and other matters touching 

 his cure in English. After this the procession 

 was to go on to the choir, where the high mass 

 was at once to begin, at which the parochial vicar 

 was to take his part until after the offertory, 

 when, provided there were enough to finish 

 singing the mass as solemnly as it had been 

 begun, he might take one of the parish clerks 

 with him leaving the other to minister in the 

 choir and begin mass without music at the 

 parishioners' altar ; but this he should do by 

 deputy if it were his turn to celebrate high mass 

 or the mass of the Blessed Virgin in the chapel, 

 which turn must be observed, no excuse being 

 allowed of celebrating ' the so-called parish mass 

 . . . since without doubt that is the parochial 

 mass which is celebrated at the high altar in the 

 choir.' Infringement of these rules involved 

 fines, which were levied in the chapter held on 

 Saturdays in the choir, when excuses might be 

 made, which were to be accredited on the 

 speaker's word without further proof. It was 

 further ordered in 1399 that all the vicars were 

 to live in a house which was to be built for 

 them, 40 having been left for that purpose by 

 Bishop Thomas de Brentingham, and the rest of 

 the money promised by the canons. This house 

 was to have one common entrance, but the 

 parochial vicar was to have a room adjoining the 

 cemetery, where his parishioners could find him 

 whenever required. 



The earliest recorded visitation of Bosham 

 appears to be that of Bishop Wyville in 1282, 

 when it was found that the church was in bad 



HO 



