ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



suburbs that, with the priory of Bermondsey, they practically dominated 

 most of the southern shore of the Thames, and half the population must 

 have depended upon them as landlords or employers. The Bishop of 

 Winchester dispensed justice too in the Clink liberty of Southwark. 

 To judge from the complaints made by London of the disorders of 

 Southwark, and from the undoubted public scandal tolerated there — the 

 stews on Bankside in the bishop's Uberty — the ecclesiastical rule was 

 as inefficient in secular affairs as it has often proved elsewhere. 



The ecclesiastical administration in its proper sphere went on with 

 little of moment to record in most years, but now and then it worked 

 with some friction. The office of archdeacon was notoriously unpopu- 

 lar. He was the minor ecclesiastical judge, before whom people ap- 

 peared. William Inge, the archdeacon of Surrey in Edward the Third's 

 time, was a litigious man, who went to law with the bishop. In 1 3 3 1 

 he became somehow embroiled with the inhabitants of Kingston also. 

 A mob, partly composed of fishermen, assaulted him and his servants, 

 imprisoned him, and spoiled his goods.* Probably the Archidiaconal 

 Court had failed to give satisfaction to Kingston, but such strong criti- 

 cism of the courts spiritual is uncommon. The quarrel of Archdeacon 

 Inge with his bishop was very violent. He objected to a charge of 

 20 marks a year upon the rectory of Farnham for the support of a 

 vicar. He had paid it, he said, to Bishop Stratford as a matter of private 

 bounty, but he refused to pay it to Orleton. There was much litigation. 

 The archdeacon was excommunicated, but according to a letter from the 

 bishop to the archbishop he went so far as to assault the former in Farn- 

 ham churchyard, striking him on the mouth with a roll of paper, after 

 interrupting his sermon in the church.'' The archdeacon was at length 

 compelled to pay all arrears to the bishop for the use of the vicar,' 

 and other matters were smoothed over. It is not a pleasing picture of 

 the manners of the more highly placed clergy, but it was not usual. 

 Inge was a turbulent fellow, but it is wonderful that such turbulence 

 could be condoned. As a rule the registers are much less exciting. The 

 registers of the mediaeval bishops give us institutions to Surrey benefices, 

 notices of visitations, but not very many results. As elsewhere the clergy 

 were changed from parish to parish much more often than they are now ; 

 with a celibate clergy it was easier, and leave of absence for study is 

 accorded fairly often. In the year including the first pestilence, 1 349—50, 

 the institutions are about ten times as many as usual,* probably from 

 death of clergy. In Surrey in one or other of the three great visitations 

 the abbot of Chertsey, two priors of Merton, the prior of Reigate, and all 

 the members of the hospital at Sandon, died.' Probably therefore the 

 pestilence was bad, but was not quite so destructive among the clergy as 



^ Pat. 5 Edw. III. pt. ii. m. gd. " Winton. Epis. Reg., Orleton, 26, 6. 



3 Pat. 21 Edw. III. pt. i. m. 9. 



* From a comparison of the registers of 1 349 and the preceding few years. 



^ Winton. Epis. Reg., Edyngdon, i. 49b. Within a week of appointing a new head to the 

 hospital, owing to the death of all its inmates, the bishop boldly held an ordination in the chapel of 

 Sandon hospital, 6 June, 1349. 



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