ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



The remaining deanery, that of Hitchin, was composed of the fourteen parishes of Chelsfield, 

 Graveley, Hitchin, Ickleford, Kimpton, Knebworth, Letchworth, Lilley, Offley, Pirton, Stevenage, 

 King's Walden and Great and Little Wymondley. 



The extensive liberties enjoyed by the Abbots of St. Albans secured freedom from the ordinary 

 archidiaconal jurisdiction for the parishes in the possession of their house. These were accordingly 

 organized at least as early as iigo^^ under the archdeaconry of St. Albans, which later comprised 

 the parishes of Bushey, Codicote, East Barnet, Chipping Barnet, Elstree, Hexton, Abbot's Langley, 

 Northaw, Norton, Redbourn, Rickmansworth, Ridge, St. Albans, St. Michael's, St. Paul's Walden, 

 St. Peter's, St. Stephen's, Sandridge, Sarratt, Shephall, and Watford, and also the Buckingham- 

 shire parishes of Abbot's Aston, Grandborough, Little Horwood and Winslow. 



The abbey was surrendered to the Crown in December 1539. The event had, of course, 

 been anticipated, and at the beginning of the year St. Albans had been included by Henry VHI 

 in a Ust of dissolved houses which were to become the seats of his proposed new bishoprics. ' For 

 as muche,' the king wrote, ' as it is not unknowne the slowthful and ungodly lyf which hath been 

 usid amonst all thos sort whyche have borne the name of religius folke, and to the intente that 

 hens forthe meny of them myght be tornyd to better use, as heraflter shall show werby Gode's 

 worde myght be better sett forthe, chyldron brought up in lernyng, clerces nuryshyd in the 

 universites and servantes decayed to have lyfynges, almes housys for pour folke to be sustaynyd, 

 and leders of grece, ebrew and latyne to have payd stypende, dayly almes to be mynystrate, mend- 

 yng of hyght wayse, exhybissun for mynysters of the chyrche. It is thowght therfore unto 

 the kynges hyghtnes most expedient and necessary that mo bysshopprycys, colegyall and cathe- 

 dralle chyrchys shube establyshyd insted of thes forsayd relygyus housys w' in the fondacion 

 werof thes other tytylles affore rehersyd shalbe stablysyd.' ^^ The Act to which this was the 

 preamble was passed in May 1539 ; it empowered Henry to create under the great seal such new 

 bishoprics as might seem good to him." Under this Act a scheme was prepared for the foundation 

 of twenty-one new sees,^^ including Hertfordshire, with the abbey church of St. Albans as its 

 cathedrai.^^ Essex was to form a separate diocese with its administrative centre at Waltham 

 Abbey. 



Unfortunately * the best part of the scheme died under thought,' ^' and nothing came of it 

 in regard to St. AJbans. A later Act of the same year provided that such places ' as were before 

 exempted from the visitation and jurisdiction of the ordinary ' within whose diocese they were 

 situated should henceforth be included within the jurisdiction of such ordinary .^^ But the arch- 

 deaconry continued as a royal liberty outside episcopal jurisdiction until 1551, when Edward VI 

 by Letters Patent reconstituted it and annexed it to the diocese of London."^^ This arrangement 

 was confirmed by Queen Mary in 1554.^° 



No further changes were made in the ecclesiastical divisions of Hertfordshire until 1845, 

 when under the provisions of an Order in Council of 8 August ^^ the diocese of Rochester was 

 reconstituted to include the archdeaconry of St. Albans ; the Hertfordshire parishes of the dioceses 

 of London and Lincoln were added to this archdeaconry, while the four Buckinghamshire parishes 

 were removed to the archdeaconry of Buckinghamshire and diocese of Oxford. At the same time 

 all peculiars were abolished.^ In 1863 the jairisdiction of the archdeaconry of St. Albans was 

 extended to include the city and deanery of Rochester, and its title became ' the Archdeaconry 

 of Rochester and St. Albans ' ; ^ this arrangement was brought to an end by an Act passed in 1875, 

 and separate archdeaconries were again constituted.^* 



This rearrangement was, however, only part of a much larger change, for the same Act 

 founded a new diocese of St. Albans, which came into being on 4 May 1877.^^ By an Order in 

 Council of 30 April 1877 the new see was given jurisdiction over Hertfordshire, Essex and the 

 portion of Kent north of the Thames. The abbey church of St. Albans was assigned as the 

 cathedral, subject to the rights of the incumbent ; the bishop was constituted a body corporate, 



^ Add. Chart. 35537. " Cott. MS. Cleop. E iv, fol. 366. " Stat. 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 9. 



" See Geoffrey Hill, EngL Dioceses, 388-9. 



1^ The establishment was to include a president of the college, ten prebendaries, a reader both of divinity 

 and humanity, eight minor canons ' to singe in the quyer,' eight laymen to sing, eight choristers, a master 

 of the children, a gospeller, an epistoler ; provision was also made for an auditor, and a sum of ^^66 1 3/. J^d. 

 was to be spent annually on repairs (Aug. Off. Misc. Bks. xxiv, fol. 15-16). 



1'' Collier, Eccl. Hist. (ed. Lathbury), v, 50. ^^ Stat. 31 Hen. VIII, cap. 13. 



^' Aug. Bk. 236, fol. 19; Newcourt, Refert. i, 94. These Letters were issued under Stat. 31 

 Hen. VIII, cap. 13. 



20 Newcourt, Repert. i, 94. ^^ Under Stat. 6^.7 Will. IV, cap. 77. 



22 Lond. Gaz. 20 Aug. 1845, p. 2541. ^3 stat. 26 & 27 Vict. cap. 36. 



^ Ibid. 38 & 39 Vict. cap. 34, § 9 (2). The arrangement was not completed until 1882 (Lond. 

 Gaz. 14 Feb. 1882, p. 598). ""^ Lond. Gaz. 4 May 1877, p. 2943. 



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