128 AN EXCUKSION. 



1st. — It contains a reference to Havre de Grace, which 

 name was not given to the great seaport at the mouth of the 

 Seine until 1517. 



2nd. — The book was written by a Protestant, who had 

 no idea of Roman Catholic services generally ; he did not 

 know that there is a special form of service proper for 

 ceremonies like these. He describes the Bishop as making a 

 long extempore prayer. 



3rd. — He gives the Bishop's name as Basset ; there never 

 was a prelate of Coutance of that name, and the one at the 

 date given was Algar. 



4th. — There never was such a person as Sieur de Cornet. 

 Names of old Guernsey families and estates are cleverly 

 introduced for the purpose of pleasing their descendants ; but 

 at that period scarcely an individual had more than one 

 name, family names were not assumed till later. 



So all dates mentioned in that book must be put aside ; 

 they are quite apocryphal. 



As a fact, many of the parishes were defined before the 

 Conquest, St. Pierre-du-Bois among them. The earliest 

 document giving them by name is of about the year 1048 ; it 

 is a charter by Robert, Duke of Normandy, confirming a 

 gift made by his father, William, of half of the island to the 

 great Benedictine monastery of Mont St. Michel in France. 

 The church is named again in a deed by Pope Adrian, 

 Nicholas Brakespear (the only Englishman who ever occupied 

 the papal chair) in 1155, confirming the former deed ; it and 

 a quarter of the island are there declared to belong to the 

 Fief le Comte. The four churches named are : St. Michel 

 (Vale), St. Sauveur, Ste. Marie (Catel) and St. Pierre-du-Bois. 

 The chapels of St. Mary, of Lihou, St. Magloire (perhaps 

 of the Vale, perhaps of Sark) and St. George are also 

 mentioned.* 



The value of the living is given in 1251 as 60 livres 

 tournois ; that is of two-thirds of the tithes and other dues, 



# Note by G-. T. D. — Tupper in his history of Guernsey also proves 

 the existence of this church in 1028, quoting the list of Fiefs existing at 

 the accession of Robert I. (Duke of Normandy in 1028), at which time 

 Guernsey was divided into two great fiefs : the fief of Neel, vicomte de 

 St. Sauveur (Cotentin), comprised the six parishes of St. Samson, St. 

 Peter-Port, St. Andrew, St. Martin, the Forest and Torteval, including 

 the Chateau d'Orgueil The remaining four parishes : the Yale, Catel, 

 St. Sauveur and St. Peter-in-the-Wood, formed the fief of Ansquetil, 

 vicomte de Bessin (Bayeux), part of which is known as " Fief du 

 Comte ! " 



