ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY on sufficiently good terms to be appointed by him in that year ambassador with the earl of Lancaster to negotiate a truce between France and England. He was absent in France (conducting peace negotiations) in the spring of 1349, and returned to find the pestilence raging in Norfolk. It had appeared there in 1348, though only to a small extent, but its ravages in 1349 are testified by the enormous number of institutions to benefices in the county during that year.' After his return to England the bishop stayed manfully in his diocese, moving from place to place, instituting to vacant benefices as speedily as possible ; and in October he obtained licence from the pope to dispense sixty clerks of his city and diocese, aged twenty-one, to hold parish churches void by reason of the pestilence.^ It is impossible to compute the number of deaths of unbeneficed clergy in this year, but this must also have been extremely large ; it is recorded that all the canons but one of the abbey of HickUng died ; ' and every one of the Dominican Friars of Norwich died, so that their houses were left empty and deserted.* The plague in some cases swept away parishes as well as incumbents, and the result must have been a very serious falling off in the offerings of the clergy, and later on caused the union of several churches and moieties of churches. It will be seen that in many ways it materially affected the history of the church in Norfolk. The bishop's stalwart defence of his episcopal rights led him to procure for his see a restitution of the firstfruits which had been lost to his predecessors, though Anthony de Bek had endeavoured to regain them.^ And he forced Robert, Lord Morley, in spite of the threats and entreaties of the king and nobles, to do penance through the streets of Norwich to the cathedral, for having poached on the episcopal manors." He was successful in a suit against the corporation of Lynn, relative to his rights there. ^ The last years of his strenuous life were occupied in repeated foreign missions,* and he died at Avignon 1353. He was buried before the high ' Although the institution of a new incumbent at that time does not invariably prove that a benefice was void by the death of his predecessor, it may be assumed that this was generally the case, and, judging by this method, the death roll in Norfolk was heavy indeed. In the deanery of Brook the institutions for the years 1345-7 were six ; in 1349 they were thirty-three ; and in the same deanery three incumbents were instituted in succession to the church of All Saints, Chealegrave, in 1350. In the deanery of Brisley we find in the years 1345-7 °"s institution ; in 1349 we find twenty-four ; of these, five parishes had two institutions each in this year, and one parish had three ; in four cases the institution was followed by another in 1350. In the deanery of Burnham there were three institutions for the years 1345-7 ; in 1349 there were twenty-five, of which one parish had two, and another three in the year. The deanery of Depwade had four institutions for the years 1345-7, sixteen in 1349. '^'^^ deanery of Fyncham had three institutions in i 345-7, and seventeen in 1349. The deanery of Flegg had six institutions in 1345-7, and eighteen in 1349, of which four parishes had two each in the year, and one had three. The deanery of Holt had one institution in the years 1 345-7, and in 1349 it had twenty-three, followed by four in 1350. The deanery of Ingworth had five institutions for 1 345-7, and twenty-eight in 1 349, of which five parishes had two each in the year, and one parish had four, while the same deanery shows seven institutions for 1350, two parishes having two institutions each in that year. The deanery of Walsingham shows one institution in 1345-7, in 1349 it had eleven, followed by two in I 350. In the deanery of Hecham, with twenty-two parishes, there were fourteen institutions in I 349; and in the fifteen parishes of Redenhall deanery there were eleven institutions in 1349, ^"'^ °"^ ^•"^'^ y^-"" '" 1348, 1350, and 1351. ' Cal. Papal Letters, iii, 331. ' Chronka Minora St. BeneJkti de Hulm (Rolls Ser.), 437.
- Tanner, Notitia Monastica, li. No. 16. * Cal. Papal Petitions, i, 104.
- Wharton, j4ngl. Sacr. i, 415.
' Hist. MSS. Com. King's Lynn. Eleventh Rep. App. iii, 149. Indenture, dated 1352.
- Rymer, Foedera, iii, 275, 283, 289.
2 241 31
