RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



repair, rain falling even on the high altar ; the 

 vestments were very bad, as was all the church 

 furniture, the supply of books was inadequate, 

 and neither the church nor any altar was dedi- 

 cated. As a result of this visitation the profits of 

 all the prebends were sequestrated. 31 When 

 Bishop Thomas visited the chapel in July, 1294, 

 the fabric was still in bad repair, the chancel 

 especially ; altar-fronts, copes and other things 

 were lacking, and books required binding. 

 Orders were ^iven that the canons should be 

 more liberal in almsgiving and should be content 

 with their prebends, not encroaching on those of 

 others ; moreover, lest there should be a tempta- 

 tion to provide unsuitable persons as vicars 

 because they would take lower stipends, each 

 canon was to pay his vicar two marks in addition 

 to what he received from the church in right of 

 his vicarage, and they were also ordered to be 

 more punctual in paying the sacrist his dues, and 

 further to collect certain tithes which had fallen 

 into arrears. To the vicars the only order given 

 was that they should not be absent from service 

 without the sacrist's leave, under a penalty of a 

 halfpenny for every hour which they missed. 32 

 The next visitation was that by Bishop Walter 

 Stapleton in 1 309. The church furniture was still 

 deficient, and an order was made that the books, 

 vestments, and ornaments of the chapel, being 

 provided by the canons, were not in future 

 to be used by the priests celebrating for the 

 parishioners in the nave of the church. At this 

 time the five vicars refused to take the oath of 

 obedience to the bishop, though they could not 

 justify their refusal ; they were also accused of 

 quarrelling in the choir, and of being absent 

 without leave ; the canons gave nothing to the 

 poor, one of them had bought his prebend, and 

 two others were farming theirs to laymen ; the 

 parochial prebendary was a non-resident pluralist 

 who neglected his cure, and .-mother canon had 

 gone abroad without licence. The sacrist was ac- 

 cused of incontinence, but pleaded that he had 

 already been punished and had not since sinned. 33 

 Bishop Stapleton was again at Bosham in March, 

 1 32 1, 34 and his successor, Bishop Grandison, 

 dedicated the high altar in the choir in I354, 35 

 and made a visitation of the chapel in 1363 by 

 command of the king, who had heard a bad 

 report of its condition, both spiritual and 

 material a report not without foundation, as 

 the vicars were found to be deficient in number, 

 often absent from services, and when present 

 slovenly and ill-behaved, even disturbing service 

 by quarrels and arguments. 36 The prebend of 

 Appledram at this time was held by the illustrious 

 William of Wykeham. Bishop Grandison was 

 to some extent a benefactor of the college, as an 



" Stus.Arcb. Coll. xlv, 216. 



" Exeter Epis. Reg. Stapleton, 58. 



11 Ibid. 



" Ibid. Graadisoa, i, 174. 



inventory a of goods drawn up by the sacrist in 

 1371 shows that he had given them at least 

 three service books, as well as a set of vestments 

 worked with his arms. The most interesting 

 of the other items in this long inventory is a copy 

 of a ' Life of St. Richard.' 



The state of the college at the end of the 

 fourteenth century could not be called satisfac- 

 tory. In 1375 Bishop Thomas de Brentingham 

 wrote to the sacrist, appointing a date for visita- 

 tion, 38 saying 



we have heard with grief by the report of many that 

 the canons, though they draw their full salaries, retain 

 them for their own use and do not appoint vicars or 

 ministers in their places ; also they desert the 

 chapelry and live corrupt lives in houses outside. 



Again in 1380 the bishop stated that he had 

 heard an evil report of the clergy at Bosham and 

 had intended to visit them himself, but being too 

 busy had deputed others to do so. 29 In 1384 

 special notice was made of one of the vicars 

 choral, Robert Dygby, who for two years had 

 neglected his duties and frequented taverns and 

 gambling-houses in Chichester, leading a dissolute 

 life and making strife between the laity and the 

 clergy of Bosham, to whom he had made himself 

 so obnoxious that his brother ministers used to 

 take to flight whenever they met him. 40 Next 

 year the bishop appointed his official to inquire 

 whether the canons and vicars were treating his 

 orders with contempt, as it was reported; especi- 

 ally Robert Dygby, who had now gone so far as 

 even to live openly with a certain widow at 

 Bosham, and Peter Carsfelde, a vicar, who had 

 assaulted the sacrist and tried to murder him. 41 

 This same year, 1385, the vicar of Bosham 

 complained that the sacrist and one of the vicars 

 had usurped his parochial rights, baptizing infants 

 and hearing confessions without his leave, and 

 that the sacrist had deprived him of his canonical 

 habit and his share in certain emoluments. 42 At 

 last, in January, 1386, the bishop issued a strict 

 command for all the canons to appear before him 

 as he was determined to enforce obedience. 43 In 

 April of the same year orders were issued for the 

 prevention of strangers from entering the choir, 

 where they were in the habit of coming and 

 causing disputes and quarrels even during the 

 services, 44 and in June penance was enjoined 

 upon one of the vicars who had been guilty of 

 incontinence. 46 



The college of Bosham survived until 1548, 

 when the ' sexton,' and the other four prebend- 

 aries were pensioned off, and two of the priest 

 vicars dismissed, a third being left to assist the 

 vicar by the commissioners, who also recom- 

 mended that the curate found by the prebend of 



" Ibid. 80. 

 * Ibid, i, 50. 



17 Ibid. BrentingAam, 256. 

 "Ibid. 424. 40 Ibid. 161. 

 "Ibid. 1 66. "Ibid. 1 68. 

 44 Ibid. 614. 



M Ibid. 149. 

 41 Ibid. 164. 

 44 Ibid. 6 10. 



in 



