ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



century between 1360 and 1385 the monks of Whalley head the list, with 

 the Austin Friars of Warrington a good second ; about a third as many were 

 contributed by Burscough and Holland respectively. There is no instance of 

 a monk of Penwortham being ordained, unless some of the monks of Evesham, 

 who were occasionally ordained, resided in that cell. The titles offered by 

 secular candidates for ordination reveal in a striking way the concentration 

 of church patronage and employment in the hands of the three important 

 monasteries of this district. From 1325 to the end of the century the titles 

 given by them vastly outnumber all others. Between 1 360 and 1385 Whalley 

 gave more than four times as many as those presented by beneficed clergy, 

 and the Holland titles are some 40 per cent, more numerous than those of 

 the great Cistercian house. Burscough, however, gave very few. As 

 Holland had only one appropriate church in the county, while Burscough 

 had two and Whalley four, with many chapels,^"'' these proportions are not a 

 little perplexing. In any case it is obvious that, besides those for whom the 

 religious houses could at once find places, many of those to whom they gave 

 titles must have been maintained by them for years. It was chiefly to the 

 monasteries that the Church of England owed its supply of clergy.'"" 



The increase in the number of ordinations during the second half of 

 the century must have been largely due to the necessity of filling up the 

 gaps caused by the Black Death. In 1349, the year of the first and most 

 fatal visitation of the pestilence, there were seven deaths among the beneficed 

 clergy of that part of the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield which comprised 

 South Lancashire as against one or two in ordinary years. The benefices 

 vacated by death were the rectory of Walton and the vicarages of Childwall, 

 Huyton, Winwick, Whalley, Eccles, and Rochdale.'"'^ As these were less 

 than a third of the whole number the mortality here was not so great as in 

 Derbyshire and Yorkshire, where upwards of fifty per cent, of the beneficed 

 clergy died.*^"' Of the number of deaths among the unbeneficed clergy and 

 the religious we have no means of forming a precise estimate, but no doubt 

 it was large. The disorganization caused by the ravages of the plague is 

 illustrated by the fact that the bishop had to collate to the vicarage of 

 Eccles per lapsum^ and that the vicarage of Rochdale remained vacant for 

 eight months,"" 



The mortality among the beneficed clergy of the deanery of Amounder- 

 ness was even greater. Between 8 September, 1349, and 11 January, 1350, 

 the churches of Lytham, Poulton, Lancaster, Kirkham, and Garstang, half 

 the benefices of the deanery, were all vacated by death, the last two twice.'" 

 In addition to these the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen at Preston was 

 vacant for eight weeks. We owe this information and an obviously 



'" These would account for a considerable proportion of the fifty-five chaplains without benefices, who 

 towards the end of Edward Ill's reign were resident in the deanery of Blackburn ; Gasquet, The Great 

 Pestilence, 155. 



"'^ Collect, for Hist, of Staffordshire (Salt Soc), viii (New Ser.), p. xii. 



"" Lich. Epis. Reg. Northburgh, vol. i, fol. 123^-27. ™ Gasquet, op. cit. 147, 151. 



""' Lich. Epis. Reg. Northburgh, vol. i, fol. 1251J, 127. 



"' In the case of Lytham it was the prior who died, and this, though not stated, must have been the 

 case at Lancaster, which was served by chaplains paid by the priory. The coupling with Lancaster, Poulton, 

 and Kirkham of their respective chapels Stalmine, Bispham, and Goosnargh has led to a mistaken statement 

 that nine benefices were vacant (including the Preston chapel). The reference is only to the death of the 

 incumbent of the mother church. 



29 



