132 president's address. 



of 894, or nine times the former number. Taking the presenta- 

 tions of the King, it would appear that the deaths followed the 

 rivers. In one case, at Grimsby, a second presentation was made 

 in three days. The country, it is said, took 150 years to 

 recover its population. The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Ralph 

 de Salopia, wrote to his clergy, January, 1 349, concerning the 

 mortality as follows : "it has left many parish churches and 

 other cures, and consequently the people of our diocese, destitute 

 of curates and priests." The Bishops authorised confession to 

 laymen in case of necessity, and also, in extreme cases, to 

 women, but provided in cases of recovery, a confession to the 

 priest. Turning to the Diocese of Exeter, between January to 

 September inclusive, 345 presentations were made as against an 

 average of less than 40 per year. 



BISHOP GRANDISSOn's REGISTER 



is said by Prebendary Hingeston-Eandolph to have been wonder- 

 fully well kept, and full of particulars, before the fatal time, but, 

 after that, "entries were made hurriedly and roughly, in striking 

 contrast with the neatness and regularity of the rest of the 

 register." Some incumbencies lasted only a few weeks. Fowey 

 for instance, and St. Winnow soon after, Bodmin following. 

 The Prior of Minster died April 26th, 1349, and the " house was 

 so impoverished by the deaths of tenants and labourers, that it 

 could not support both its members and the chaplain they were 

 bound to find, to do the parish work, (as neither the Prior nor his 

 brethren spoke English)." At Bodmin, it is said, 1,500 died, 

 only two being left alive at the priory. Now, what must have 

 been the results of this depopulation of the county, as shown by 

 the difficulty of supplying priests to take the services of the 

 church ? The first would be the failure to repair the churches, 

 and the neglect of many of the usual services. We are told that 

 the country went out of cultivation, and that many years were 

 required to bring back the country to the state it had reached in 

 1348. When the revival took place, the first parts to feel its 

 effect would naturally be those churches near the larger monas- 

 tic institutions, and some of these show better work in their 

 window tracery than most of the others. I think the extracts 

 given will fully account for 



