484
NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vm. DEC. 20, 1913.
through which the faithful had to come to
their church,
" containing that in a number of high and woody places situate within the bounds of the parish of the church, which is parochial, of the said monas- tery and church, very many storms of rain and wind rage at divers times of the year, by reason of whose severity and the greatness of the said distance the parishioners who live in the said places cannot
conveniently go to the said church and that for
the like causes the priest whom the abbot and con- vent have deputed for the cure of the souls of the said parishioners cannot conveniently betake him- self to the said places, so that the children of the said parishioners die without baptism, and other weak and sick persons without confession." To whom, accordingly the Pope grants a licence to build a cha.pel at Cottle. upon land belonging to the monastery.
In 1444 we have William and John Prest heading the petition of the inhabitants of the villages " Willestourne, Gabelcote, Mershe and Sterthuntishend," in the parish of Trynge, in the diocese of Lincoln, setting forth that these villages are an English mile distant from their parish church, " to which it is very often burdensome for the said inhabitants to go for mass and other divine offices, for baptisms and other sacraments and sacramen- tals, especially in winter, on account of floods, the dangerous crossing of wooden bridges, perils of the roads, frequent tempests, and divers other impediments,"
and representing that at Willestourne there was already founded a chapel of the Exalta- tion of Holy Cross. To these, too, the Pope grants the required licence, mentioning in this case that, among other usual and necessary things, it shall be lawful for a fit priest there to bless the Easter candle and palms.
The fifth instance is one of greater hard- ship. It is the difficulty of the inhabitants of Eskdale, who plead that the houses and farms which they inhabit are ten miles of those parts or more distant from St. Bee's in Coupland, their parish church, and that in their way thither they have to cross two broad waters and three streams, which rise in winter and rainy weather. They are permitted to use the Chapel of St. Catherine in their valley, the same to be erected into a parish church, with cemetery, font, bell- tower and bells, and other parochial insignia.
There is an interesting mandate to the Dean of Exeter which illustrates the diffi- culties attending the erection of chapels. At " Ilferdecombe," in the cemetery of the parish church, a chapel had been built under the invocation of St. Mary the Virgin de Thorn, " wherein the Most High worked many miracles by the merits of the said
Virgin," and the parishioners, afraid that
the rector might convert to his own use the
many oblations and alms offered there,
obtained from the Pope a grant of a fourth
part of all offerings (provided the parishioners
would contribute a like amount), to be used
for the adornment and repair of the chapel.
Against this John Morton, the rector,
mindful of his pocket, has strenuously
appealed to the Apostolic See, and the
Pope's mandate requires the Exeter authori-
ties to summon the parishioners before them
and inquire into the matter annulling the
grant if the rector is justified.
William Leyghton, Perpetual Vicar of Barton Stacey, had a dispute with his parishioners which shows the matter in another aspect. The church which he served was the parish church for a number of small towns, whose inhabitants came duti- fully to hear mass and the other divine offices all except those of the town of Newton, a paltry place of only nine inhabit- able houses, which had a chapel in it with a font, though without a burial-yard. These people refused to go to church at Barton Stacey, though it was only an Italian mile away and there was nothing to hinder their going, and tried to compel William Leyghton to celebrate in their chapel for them an impossible matter unless the fruits, &c., of the church had been enough to keep a chaplain, which they were not. The official of Winchester was ordered by the Pope, upon William's petition, if he should find the facts as stated, to declare that the Vicar was not bound to celebrate, nor cause to be celebrated, masses at the chapel at Newton ; and that the inhabitants of Newton were bound to go to chrch atu Barton Stacey, like the inhabitants of the other towns.
At Glapthorne the inhabitants obtain leave to use their chapel of St. Leonard and its cemetery ; not, indeed, for all eccle- siastical purposes, but for the burial of their dead whom it is burdensome to carry to the distant parish church of Cotterstock, on account of the floods.
In the diocese of Llandaff the permission iven asked for by both priest and people is to change from one chapel to another. He was at Mynyddislwyn, and his flock at Bedwelty, and what with floods and the breaking of bridges it was no easy matter for him to get to them, or them to him. So the bishop duly confirmed therein by the Pope extended to Bedwelty Chapel the privileges belonging to that of My- nyddislwyn. PEBEGRINUS.
