ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



joint commission was issued for the counties of Nottingham and Derby dated 

 1 3 February 1 545-6, addressed to Sir John Markham, kt., WilHam Cowper 

 and Nicholas Powell, esqs., and John Wyseman, gent/™ The broad reasons 

 alleged for the suppression of chantries were that they were superstitious 

 and their possessions were wrongfully used ; and yet, save perchance in the 

 multitudinous chantries of the collegiate establishments of Southwell and 

 Newark, there does not seem to have been a single case in Nottinghamshire 

 where the presence of these chantry priests could reasonably be said to be 

 superfluous if religious worship was to be duly maintained. It is to the credit 

 of the commissioners to note that, although they must have been well aware of 

 the intentions of the Crown, they had the courage in several instances to ex- 

 ceed their instructions and with laudable honesty to make plain the good 

 service that was being done by the priests supported by chantry endowments. 

 The commissioners were to survey and report on ' All Chauntries, 

 Hospitalles, Collegies, Free Chappelles, Fraternities, Brotherhodes, Guyldes 

 and Salaries of stipendarie Pristes.' Their reports on colleges and hospitals 

 are cited under the subsequent account of religious houses. With regard to 

 free chapels, the term is strictly applicable to chapels founded by the king 

 and free from the jurisdiction of the ordinary, but it was also sometimes 

 used of chapels under no obligations to the priest of the parish church. In 

 the case of Nottinghamshire the two or three that are thus styled by the 

 commissioners of Henry VIII and his successors are scarcely distinguishable 

 from chantry chapels or chapels of ease at more or less distance from the 

 parish church. 



The stipendiary priest differed from the chantry priest inasmuch as he 

 had no perpetual endowment, but usually one for a given number of years ; 

 moreover, his position was occasionally unfettered by any stipulation for 

 masses for particular individuals. Thus as to the great parish of Blyth, with 

 its 400 communicants, the commissioners say : — ' The Stipendare of Blyth 

 ordayned by diverse men in consideration that the parisshe is large and other 

 foundacyon the incumbente hathe nott butt that he prayethe for all cristian 

 soules and helpethe the vicare to serve there.' 



At Rampton the parishioners in 1493 gave lands worth £^ i6s. yd. to 

 find a (stipendiary) priest for a hundred years, and as though foreseeing a 

 change, stipulated that at the end of a century the income was to be used in 

 marriage portions for poor maidens, in the relief of poor householders, or in 

 making of highways. At East Markham, where there were 400 communi- 

 cants, lands purchased by the parishioners sufficed to find an income of 

 j^3 lys. 6d. for a stipendiary priest to help the vicar of this great parish. 

 At Walkeringham the commissioners found lands producing £^ a year, 

 which sum they were told was sometimes used to obtain the services of a 

 stipendiary priest and at other times for the repair of the church or the 

 *mendynge of the Trente bankes.' Mailing had a stipendiary priest (£^ 6s. 8d.), 

 whose duties were to help the vicar and to teach the children. The 

 stipendiary priest of Lound in Sutton parish (^^3 iSs. ^d.) was neither 

 instituted nor inducted, but appointed by the parishioners there to serve God 

 ' and to mynystre Sacramentes when nede requirethe bycause the parishe is 



'°'' Chant. Cert. no. 13 ; Cert. no. 14 is a paper book which is for the most part an abstract 

 of no. 13. 



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