ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY Ey worth, 1 Felmersham, 2 Elstow 3 and Harlington. The Bishops of Lin- coln during the fourteenth century were not men of such a high type as their predecessors of the thirteenth, but there is no evidence that they were neglectful of their duty : the religious houses were still visited ; no grave scandals among the clergy were allowed to pass unnoticed ; 4 care was taken that the parish churches should be regularly served, even when they were in the hands of absentee or pluralist rectors. Clergy who wished, as many did at this time, to devote themselves for some time to study of canon law were obliged to appoint chaplains to do their parish work, 6 and it seems probable that the pluralists were obliged to do the same for their additional churches. There is no doubt however that pluralities were at this time very seriously on the increase, and that the results of leaving the cure of souls to chaplains, whose scanty stipends were apt to make them unsettled, and naturally led them to look out for preferment, could not have been satisfactory. The worst cases of plurality in Bedfordshire, as in the previous cen- tury, were connected with the richest benefices — Leighton Buzzard, for instance, and Shillington. It will be enough to mention a few : Simon de Northwood," chaplain and confessor to Queen Philippa, rector of Colmworth, a moiety of Houghton Conquest and two other benefices, besides a prebend of Hereford, and a canonry and prebend of Shaftes- bury ; Gilbert de Roubury, 7 king's clerk and canon of Auckland, the holder of eight benefices including Shillington, and Matthew de Asshe- ton, 8 a successor of his somewhat later, who held Shillington in plurality and was clerk of the privy seal. A good instance of how Italians were still provided for in England may be found in the case of John de Podio Barsaco, 9 canon of Lincoln, prebendary of Leighton Buzzard and arch- deacon of Stow ; and afterwards, resigning Stow, archdeacon of Alava in the diocese of Calahorra, and also of Winchester at the same time. Earlier popes had condemned the practice, and more than one legate 1 Line. Epis. Reg., Inst. Burghersh, 310c! (1334). 2 Ibid. Memo. Gynwell, 48. 3 Ibid. Inst. Bek, 102 (1345). This ordination seems to have been revoked at once. In petition to the pope under 1345 the Prince of Wales states that the appropriation was of little avail, on account of the small value, and the reservation of a vicar's portion ; wherefore the bishop ordered the cure of souls to be performed by a priest paid by the religious, and the parish church to be transferred to the chapel of St. Helen in the churchyard. The pope was asked to confirm this arrange- ment ; and as no vicars' names occur in the registers, it seems that the church was served by the chap- lains of the monastery and the chantry priests until the dissolution. Harlington was ordained 13 10 (Line. Epis. Reg., Inst, of Bp. Dalderby, 266).
- W. de St. Neot's, vicar of Luton, was deprived and imprisoned, and a substitute appointed in
his place, for non-residence and immorality, 1358 (Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Gynwell, l2od). In 1315a coadjutor was appointed to an earlier vicar, who had become infirm. The parishioners of Souldrop complained in 1356 of their rector, who was evidently quite mad ('he overthrows the barns and buildings of the rectory, and daily sets it on fire ! '), and a coadjutor was appointed within a year (Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Gynwell, 63d, 87). 6 The rector of Potton {Cal. of Pap. Letters, ii. 311), absent for five years ; the vicar of Bletsoe absented himself twelve years for study (Line. Epis. Reg., Memo. Dalderby, ccxlv. [13 I 3]). 6 Cal. of Pap. Letters, iii. 96, 1344, and under ii. 276, 292, 521. 7 Ibid. ii. 3, 25. 8 Ibid. iii. 430. 9 Ibid. ii. 124, 185, 232, 268 ; Plac. de £>uo Warr. (Rec. Com.), 22. His brother, Pontius de Podio Barsaco, had a somewhat similar career. 327
