230 PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



Among the records of the Archdeaconry Court there exists 

 documents reaching down, I think, to the present century, shew- 

 ing that the church still exercised discipline for the correction of 

 morals by public penance and absolution. 



Before I leave spiritual questions, there is one other matter 

 of a spiritual nature about which I must not omit to say a few 

 words. I allude to the collation and institution of Clerks to 

 benefices. When I commenced the study of local history in this 

 county, some 30 years ago, the succession of the Incumbents of 

 Parishes was one of the first matters that attracted my attention. 

 I found there were few advowsons of Parish Churches that were 

 held in what is called in gross, that is independent of the manors 

 in which they were situated, but that, generally, the advowson 

 was appurtenant to the manor, so that the lord of the manor 

 possessed also the patronage, and presented to the church. This 

 gave me a clue to the devolution of the manor also. But the 

 task of obtaining information upon this subject at that time was 

 a work of great drudgery. The Bishop's Registers, in which 

 admissions to benefices were recorded, consist of many great 

 Leger Books, of considerable weight, extending from 1257 down 

 to the time of Henry viij. Besides the institutions, &c., of Clerks, 

 there are many other things recorded in these volumes, e.g., 

 many original charters, some of them pre-Norman, copies of Bulls, 

 Inquisitions, Interdictions, Sequestrations, Licenses for Chapels 

 or Oratories in manor houses, Marriage Licenses, Dispensations 

 of various kinds, &c., &c., and not a few ancient Wills. But after 

 the time of Henry viij these registers were limited to admissions 

 to benefices. The drudgery of wading through these enormous 

 volumes, page by page, some parts written in a small cursive 

 hand, much and variously contracted, some badly indexed and 

 some not indexed at aU, may be conceived. A flood of light, 

 however, within a few years past, has been thrown upon this 

 apparent chaos by my learned and esteemed friend the Eev. 

 Prebendary Hingeston-Pandolph. He has commenced the 

 gigantic task of making an analytical index to each of these 

 stupendous volumes, and has completed the registers of Bishop 

 Bronescombe, from 1257, and Bishops Britton, Quivil, and 

 Stapledon, and also of Bishoj) Stafford, so that all the information 

 contained in those bulky volumes is ready at the student's hand, 



