ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



increased, and by 1300 some twenty parish churches had passed into the 

 hands of monastic rectors." Only five of these were conventual. 



In addition to these the church of Kirkby Ireleth was appropriated 

 before 1291 to the cathedral church of York," those of Bolton-le-Moors and 

 Bolton-le-Sands were annexed to the archdeaconries of Chester and Richmond 

 respectively," while Flixton was appropriated about 1280 to a new prebendal 

 stall in Lichfield Cathedral." The extension of appropriations had its 

 dangers. It involved a great change in parochial arrangements which had 

 not been the case with monastic patronage. The mere substitution of 

 religious for lay patrons was on the whole a change for the better. 

 Monastic patrons must have helped to arrest that tendency of tithes to 

 become lay property which was so marked in the twelfth century, and they 

 did something no doubt to secure a better class of rectors. It has to be 

 confessed, however, that in Lancashire at all events they failed to get rid 

 of those half-secular and even hereditary parsons against whom the church 

 councils of the twelfth century were constantly fulminating — an abuse to 

 which a number of Lancashire benefices, owing to the great size of their 

 parishes and the rectorial manors attached to some of them, were peculiarly 

 subject.'" The rectories of Walton and Kirkham seem to have remained 

 just as hereditary under the patronage of the religious as Blackburn and 

 Whalley did under lay patrons." 



But their drafts upon parish revenues were comparatively moderate, and 

 the rectors they presented were instituted by, and owed obedience only to, 

 the bishop. When, however, religious corporations became rectors them- 

 selves they were tempted to divert an undue proportion of parish revenues to 

 their own purposes, and delegate the cure of souls to poorly paid chaplains 

 or vicars. The bishops soon became alive to this danger, and set themselves 

 to provide a remedy. Appropriations could only be effected with their 

 consent, though a great house like Furness or Whalley sometimes forced 

 their hand by a direct appeal to the pope, and they succeeded in most cases 

 in establishing their right to institute and receive the exclusive obedience of 

 the vicar to whom the cure of souls in the appropriate parish was entrusted. 

 In all the ecclesiastical affairs of the benefice the monastic rector was reduced 

 to the position of a patron, and the vicar stood on the same legal footing as 



" Appropriate to Lancaster: Lancaster {c. 1094), Poulton (one moiety before 1198, the other in 1247). 

 To Evesham (Penwortham) : Penwortham (between 1140 and 1149). To Leicester: Cockerham (between 

 1 1 53 and 1 156). To Conishead : Pennington (before 1 181) and Ulverston {c. 1200). To Cartmel : Cartmel 

 (between 1 189 and 1194). To Wyresdale : St. Michaels-on-Wyre (between 1193 and 1 198). This appro- 

 priation lasted only a few years. To Furness : Dalton and Urswick. To Burscough : Ormskirk (between 

 1215 and 1223) and Huyton (f. 1230). To Cockersand : Garstang (between 1217 and 1237). To 

 Croxton : Tunstall (before 1230). To Nostell : Winwick (in or before 1231). To Stanlaw : Rochdale 

 (1222), Blackburn (1230, 1259), Eccles (before 1277), Whalley (1283). To Vale Royal : Kirkham (between 

 1280 and 1 291). The authority for the dates assigned will be found in the case of the Lancashire houses 

 in the monastic section. 



" Advowson transferred from Furness Abbey in 1228 {Furness Coucher, 653). 



" The former between 1246 and 1256 {Not. Cestr. ii, 8) ; but Mattersey Priory retained a pension and 

 the presentation of the vicars ; the latter (whose advowson was acquired from Lancaster Priory in 1 246) 

 between 1279 and 1291 (fial. Pap. Letters, i, ^i,^). Vicarage ordained at Bolton-le-Sands in 1336; Not. 

 Cestr. ii, 548. 



'' Le Neve, Fasti Eccl. Angl. i, 602. " V.C.B.. Lams, iii, 5 ; Lanes. Pipe R. no. 



" A division between the sons of a twelfth-century rector seems to be the explanation of the two 

 medieties of Blackburn Rectory, which were transferred to Stanlaw Abbey in 1230 and 1259 respectively ; 

 Whalley Coucher, 72 sqq. The rectory of Whalley was held for generations by one family with the title of 

 dean, a state of things which was only terminated in 1234 ; ibid. 187, 293. 



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