RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



thereby forfeit his place in the church. The 

 sacrist, into whose hands all oblations must 

 come in the first place, should be at once removed 

 if found unfit ; also the offerings collected by 

 the proper officers should be kept in safety in 

 locked coffers, and the collectors should swear to 

 collect faithfully and to keep nothing back. At 

 the beginning of each quarter the canons should 

 pay down the full amount due to their vicars for 

 the ensuing quarter, at id. a day, and two of the 

 vicars sworn for that purpose should distribute 

 their commons to the vicars every week accord- 

 ing to their merits ; if by reason of their de- 

 faults anything remained over it should be divided 

 between the vicars and canons in residence at the 

 discretion of the dean. Canons in residence 

 should reside six weeks in each quarter, attending 

 at least one mass or one of the hours every day, 

 and should keep up their houses. In future every 

 canon, resident or not, should receive his share 

 of the common revenues by the hands of his 

 vicar to the amount which he formerly paid 

 from his prebend to the vicar, to whose use the 

 said money should remain. Any money left 

 over after paying stipends and other expenses was 

 to be divided amongst the dean and canons in 

 residence every quarter, but if any failed to reside 

 during the Michaelmas and Christmas quarters 

 they should lose their shares for the year. Direc- 

 tions were also given about the letting of the 

 houses belonging to the college. 



The dean, being examined, said that there was 

 a fund of 20 set aside for repairs and that the 

 ornaments of the church were in good condition 

 except that two antiphonaries and two graduals 

 were wanting, and he at once presented an anti- 

 phonary of the Sarum Use to the church and 

 appointed one of the vicars to write the other 

 books. Of the spiritual condition of the chapel 

 he had a worse report to make. Six of the vicars 

 were quarrelsome and dissolute and frequently 

 left the chapel unserved, and though often pun- 

 ished were incorrigible. They had also stolen , 

 a coffer fastened to the foot of the cross, from 

 which the expenses of the church were paid, 

 with a large sum of money : moreover they 

 caused the constable's deputies to eject the vicars 

 from their houses in the castle and the sacrists 

 from their rooms in the chapel, where they used 

 to be night and day to receive pilgrims to the 

 Blessed Virgin and the Holy Cross, 108 and took 

 from them the keys of the chapel, chambers, 

 treasury, chapter and bell tower so that they 

 might dispose as they pleased of the money ; 

 they also forcibly resisted the entrance of car- 

 penters sent to repair the chapel and belfry, 

 wherefore many defects still remain. In their 



IOS In the will of Richard, Lord Poynings, made in 

 1387, the 'crucifix of Hastings' is the object of a 

 bequest with the better known miraculous roods of 

 Boxley, Bromholm, and the north door of St. Paul's : 

 Cant. Archiepis. Reg. Courtenay, fol. 223. 



defence the vicars alleged that they took the 

 coffer by order of their masters, the non-resident 

 canons, but could produce no evidence thereof ; 

 they also accused other vicars of stealing money 

 from another coffer, but the latter asserted that 

 they themselves stole the second coffer from the 

 high altar by night. To ascertain the truth a 

 jury was sworn who found that the charges were 

 true as far as five of the vicars were concerned. 

 They also made certain statements about several 

 of the vicars, the details of which resemble the 

 charges brought against the monks by Layton 

 and his followers at the time of the dissolution. 

 As a result four vicars were ejected, the fifth not 

 having been convicted three times was allowed 

 to remain. 



The jury also found that the houses on the 

 west of the chapel in the castle were built with 

 the money of the chapel for the use of the clergy, 

 and that two sacrists had always dwelt in the 

 chapel day and night to receive pilgrims and had 

 two rooms in the same chapel, one on the ground 

 floor by the door for their meals, and an upper 

 chamber at the west of the chapel for their 

 beds. 



Two years later, in 1321, the king issued a 

 commission for another visitation, 109 stating that 

 the ministers of the chapel were neglecting their 

 duties, although receiving their stipends, that 

 some of them were leading dissolute lives, and 

 that the oblations of the Holy Rood which ought 

 to be devoted to the repairs of the chapel and the 

 payment of the ministers were being otherwise 

 disposed of by the dean. Similar commissions 

 were issued in 1328 no and I334 111 and also in 

 I 335 112 ar >d I336, 113 the visitors at the latter date 

 being the abbots of Battle and Robertsbridge. 

 An endeavour to effect some improvement in the 

 condition of the chapel was also made by the 

 canons themselves in 1335, when they assembled 

 at Bermondsey Priory, where the prebendary of 

 Thurrock, William de Cusancia probably a 

 brother of the prior was staying, and passed 

 certain regulations, the most important being 

 that the dean should be always resident except 

 for three months in the year, when he might be 

 absent provided he left a sufficient deputy. It 

 was also recorded that every canon upon his 

 institution ought to present to the church a cope, 

 or IDS. for the use of the choir and ornaments of 

 the church. 114 



Misfortune now befell the college. In 1331 

 the dean and chapter had petitioned 115 the king 

 to cause the castle of Hastings to be inclosed 

 with walls and gates and houses to be built for 



109 Pat. 1 5 Edw. I, pt. i, m. 15 d. 



110 Ibid. 2 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 12 d. 



111 Ibid. 8 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 25 d. 

 111 Close, 9 Edw. Ill, m. 1 2 d. 



1IS Pat. 10 Edw. Ill, pt. ii, m. 13 </. 



114 Chan. Misc. R. ,. 



lu Inq. a.q.d. ccxi, i ; Anct. Pet. 1 1944, 



