By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson. 



239 



" On the part of the Noble Lord, the Lord Walter Hungereord, 

 Lord of Haytesbury and Homet, and Patron of the Church of 

 Rowley alias Wittenham in our diocese, it hath been by his own 

 suggestion set forth unto us that the said Church of Rowley alias 

 Wittenham which was wont to be governed and ordered by secular 

 Chaplains/ successively thereunto admitted, taking and exercising 

 the charge of the said Church and the Parishioners, hath been so 

 impoverished, and the fruits, profits and emoluments thereof have 

 become so poor and scanty, that, for a long time there hath been 

 found no secular chaplain willing to undertake or to occupy the 

 church or be admitted to the Title thereof, and thus the church itself 

 and the charge of the same have long been and now continue to be 

 desolate and neglected, without any one to officiate therein : And 

 the said Lord Walter Hungereord is also, as we are informed, 

 Patron of the Parish Church of Farley Hungereord in the diocese 

 of Bath and Wells, which Church is very near the aforesaid Church 

 of Rowley alias Wittenham, the distance from the same not ex- 

 ceeding one half mile, so that Divine Service and the Offices of 

 religion may be performed at the said Church of Rowley alias 

 Wittenham by the Rector of the said Church of Farley Hunger- 

 ford and the said Parishioners of Rowley alias Wittenham may 

 conveniently go to the aforesaid Church of Farley Hungereord to 

 receive the Sacraments and Sacramentals, 2 and to attend Divine 

 Services : Therefore the aforesaid Lord, seeing the cure of the afore- 

 said Church of Rowley alias Wittenham and the charge thereof so 

 long neglected, and the parishioners deprived of the means of divine 

 worship, from the causes aforesaid, as it is alleged, hath made 

 earnest suit to us, that we weighing these circumstances would give 

 our consent and authority to carry into effect by force of law the 



x That is, Priests who lived "in seculo," in society among the people, like 

 parish clergymen: as distinguished from "Regulars" who lived within the 

 walls of their monasteries "ad regulas," according to the "Rules" of their house. 



2 " Sacramentals." — The word is used by Beza (quoted in Hooker's Eccl. 

 Polity., Lib. iv., 1, 4. Edit. Keble,) to denote " any ceremony importing sig- 

 nification of spiritual things." It is also used by H. Wharton on Burnet's 

 Hist, of Reformation : "Sacraments, Sacramentals, Dirigies." Burn, Eccl. Law, 

 1, 67, calls burials and tithes, Sacramentals. 



