A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



explain, a horseload of grain at Martinmas from each hide held by a free 

 man, though he was not liable to pay on more hides than one (fo. 175). 

 If the grain should not be paid on the day appointed, a twelvefold pay- 

 ment was due, said the county, and a penalty {forisfacturd) in addition for 

 the default. These provisions applied both to Worcester ' and to Pershore, 

 but in the case of the latter this penalty was only payable to the Abbot 

 on his own 100 hides, Westminster abbey receiving it, if due, within its 

 own 200 hides. Domesday goes on to explain that the abbot of Eves- 

 ham had the same right in the case of ' his own land, and all the others 

 the same in the case of their lands.'* There was one other right belong- 

 ing to the bishop of Worcester which is mentioned in the valuable 

 Bishampton entry among his recognised dues : this was ' sepultura ' (fo. 

 173). We find it again in the documents relating to his strife with 

 Evesham, where it is coupled with the circset as due to him from 

 Hampton by Evesham.^ The one other passage in Domesday which 

 should be here compared is that which describes the rights of the bishop 

 of Winchester in his great liberty of Taunton (fo. 87*^). Like the bishop 

 of Worcester in Oswaldslow, he possessed, not only special jurisdiction 

 within the bounds of that liberty, but the privilege of sending to the host 

 his own separate contingent ; * and like him he had ' circieti ' and 

 ' sepultura ' as his right. For after mentioning those of its members in 

 which he had not ' sepultura,' Domesday observes of the others : ' when 

 the lords of these lands die, they are buried in Taunton.' The burial 

 fees and profits were, of course, what was thus obtained.® 



This is, perhaps, the fitting point at which to discuss that great 

 dispute between the churches of Worcester and of Evesham, which is so 

 closely connected with the Domesday Survey of the County. The bitter- 

 ness of the feeling it aroused is shown by the delightful story told by the 

 monks of Worcester and preserved in Heming's Cartulary.* According 

 to them the saintly Wulfstan, on the death of the despoiler of their house, 

 ^thelwig abbot of Evesham, was rash enough, in his infinite compassion, 

 to offer special and urgent prayers for the soul of his dead adversary. A 

 sudden attack of gout in his legs and feet was the penalty. It was only 



* ' Circset ' is not mentioned eo nomine in the Worcester entry, but the payment is the 

 same ; and, indeed, under Bishampton (fo. 173) 'circset' is found among the dues payable to 

 the Bishop. And one of bishop Oswald's charters, granting two hides at Bentley, reserves the 

 payment ' aecclesiastici censi, id est duos modios de mundo grano ' (Heming's Cartulary, 

 I. 145). 



* Peter de Stodley {alias Corbizon) gave the 'chirset' of a Worcestershire manor among 

 his endowments of Studley Priory. 



^ The bishop of Coutances, in his certificate, states that the Bishop had proved his right 

 to ' ciricsceat et sepulturam ' from Hampton as due to his vill of Cropthorne, and the Con- 

 queror's writ recognises his right to such * ciricescot et sepulturam ' (Heming's Cartulary, 

 1.77,78). 



* ' profectio in exercitu cum hominibus episcopi.' The Exon Domesday, for * exercitu ' 

 has * expeditione.' 



' Mr. Eyton observes in his Shropshire that ' sepultura ' was a right belonging to the 

 mother churches which they were loth to part with. 



^ De conflictu Wlstani episcopi et Agelwii abbatis' (I. 270-272), 

 252 



