240 



Bishops of Old Sarum. 



estates over which he exercised special jurisdiction. It may not be 

 generally known, that, even to a very recent period, the Dean of 

 Sarum exercised this authority, not only delivering charges and 

 making the usual enquiries on the occasion of his visitation, but 

 examining candidates for orders who were about to take charge o£ 

 any of those parishes, and giving his certificate of their competency 

 to the Bishop in order to their ordination by him, they after- 

 wards holding their appointments with the formal license of the 

 Dean. Accordingly, on the vigil of S. Michael (1220), William de 

 Wanda commenced such a visitation at Sunning, enquiring not only 

 into the state and competency of the clergy, but also concerning 

 the " ornaments/" including under this title the various service-books 

 of the churches. An extract or two may be interesting. At Sunning 

 there was one Vitalis, as Perpetual Vicar. He presented to the Dean 

 one of his " capellani/'' by name Simon, who, asked concerning his 

 orders, stated that he was ordained a Sub-Deacon at Oxford by a 

 certain Irish Bishop named Albinus, then Suffragan (Vicario) of 

 the Bishop of Lincoln ; that he was ordained Deacon by the same ; 

 and Priest, by Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, some four years previously. 

 Examined in the gospel for the first Sunday in Advent, he was found 

 utterly wanting, not in the least understanding what he read. 

 Tested concerning the " Canon of the Mass," which commences 

 " Te igitur clementissime Pater rogamus 33 &c, he had no idea 

 whatever in what case " Te 33 was, or by what word in the sen- 

 tence it was governed. The Dean requested Simon the Chaplain 

 to look again carefully at the words, when, after a little thought, he 

 said that he supposed "Te" was governed by "Pater/'' because 

 "the Father governs all things." 1 The Dean then asked him the 

 case of " clementissime 33 and how to decline the word, and in truth 

 its simple meaning — but on all points Simon professed his ignorance. 



1 The original account is as follows — " Nescivit cuj us casus esset 'Te' nec a 

 qua parte regeretur. Et cum dictum esset ei, ut diligenter inspiceret qua? pars 

 competentius regere ' Te,' dixit, quod Pater, qui omnia regit. Requisitus quid 

 esset ' clementissime,' vel cuj us casus, vel qualiter declinaretur ; nescivit. Re- 

 quisitus super quo fuisset probatus quando ordinem presbyteratus accessit : dicit 

 quod non meminit. Sufficienter illiteratus est." Eeg. Osmund, fol. xli. 



