Page:VCH Rutland 1.djvu/202

A HISTORY OF RUTLAND by the name of Rutland. The evidence in the Survey in support of the ancient claim of the monks of Westminster, that King Edward the Confessor had granted them ' Rutland with all its appurtenances ' to hold in alms after the death of Queen Edith/ has been already dealt with, and need not, therefore, be repeated here. During the next century the value of Church property in Rutland was greatly increased. The churches of Liddington, Empingham, and Ketton furnished Lincoln Cathedral with three prebendal stalls,* and Hambleton, after some difficulties with Westminster, was also appropriated to the Dean and Chapter.' Oakham and Uppingham churches were secured by the monks of Westminster early in the 13th century,' and several others by different monasteries at home and abroad.^ Lawsuits often followed close upon such appropriations : for instance, the church of Wing, at first granted to Thorney Abbey, was awarded afterwards to the Prior of St. Neots ; * the church of Little Casterton, claimed more than once by the Prior of Newstead by Stamford, remained finally with the lords of the manor of Tolethorpe.' For nine of the churches thus appropriated, vicarages were ordained in the course of the 13th century :^° one or two also of the non- resident rectors were obliged to assign a definite portion of the tithes to the priests who served their cures for them." No details of special interest are preserved in connexion with this period of the history of the county ; though it is worth noting that Robert Grosteste held the prebend of Empingham while he was Archdeacon of Northampton, about 1221. It was some years later, when Grosteste was Bishop of Lincoln, that he had an encounter with the Sheriff of Rutland, issuing in a papal decree which Matthew Paris (no lover of Grosteste) describes as an infringement of the liberties of the Church. A clerk who had been suspended and excommu- nicated for incontinence took refuge in this county ; and the sheriff, who refused to deliver him up to the bishop, was made to share the excommuni- cation. The king took the part of his own official, and obtained from Pope Innocent IV a brief to the effect that the royal clerks should not be excom- municated for any secular offence by any bishop or prelate.^* The Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV in 1291 makes it possible to give the exact account of the number of churches in Rutland at this time. The ' Kemble, Cod. Dipl. iv, 178, 216. See ante, pp. 132, 133. ' Liddington belonged to the Bishop of Lincoln at the time of the Domesday Survey (q.v.). Empingham was the gift of Gilbert of Ghent ; and Ketton, or rather Tixover, the gift of Queen Maud, early in the 12th centur)-. Dugdale, Mon. vi (3), 1272-3. ' The rights of Lincoln in H-imbleton were more doubtful. The final agreement was apparently made in 1231 : but a pension of j^20 had to be paid to Westminster. Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Dalderby, fbl. 105-6. ^ Cal. of Chart. R., j^oi. ' Besides those mentioned above, the advowsons of the following churches were granted to religious houses : — Tinwell to Peterborough ; Glaston and Wardley to Launde ; Bisbrooke to Daventry ; Greetham to St. Sepulchre's, Warwick ; Tickencote to Owston ; Exton and Ryhall to St. Andrew's, Northampton ; Burley to Nuneaton ; Seaton to Chaucombe ; Whissendine to Lindores in Fife (passing in the 13th century to Sempring- ham) ; Edith Weston to St. George's, Bocherville ; Wing to St. Neots ; Stoke Dry and Whitwell to the Hospitallers ; and Stretton to the Templars. ' Wright, Hist, of Rut. 138, where the records are quoted. ' Blore, Hist, of Rut. 2. " Oakham, Exton, Ryhall under Bishop Wells ; Empingham and Liddington under Grosteste ; Bisbrooke, Greetham, Hambleton, and Ketton under Gravesend ; Burley before the time of Bishop Sutton. The vicarage of Whissendine was probably ordained on its appropriation to Sempringham {Cal. of Papal Letters, ii, 185) ; that of Wardley was not ordained till 1402 (Line. Epis. Reg. Inst. Beaufort, fol. 1 19). " E.g. at Ashwell, Cottesmore, and Clipsham. " Diet. Nat. Biog. s.n. " Matt. Paris, Chron. MaJ. (Rolls Ser.), v, 109. 144