of Bishop Dalderby records his; death there in March 1314.[1] It is impossible now to say what was the origin of the legend that he once ' conjured the devil into a boot ' ; and yet a great part of his fame rests upon this curious exploit, and in every extant representation of him he stands with a boot in one hand, from which the fiend emerges, while his other hand gives the blessing which prevents the escape of his captive. He was never formally canonized ; but a shrine was erected over his tomb, and his fame spread rapidly all over the midlands.[2] It seems well to anticipate a little at this point and to complete this notice of him by adding that his shrine was afterwards removed to St. George's Chapel at Windsor, [3]) when the church of North Marston was transferred to the patronage of the dean and canons there [4] ; but an image was set up in its place, and was the object of constant pilgrimage (being ' moch sowght for the agow,' as Foxe [5] and Dr. London [6] testified) until the Reformation.
It was during the lifetime of Master John Schorne, namely in 1291, that the 'Taxation of Pope Nicholas IV.' was compiled a record of great interest for this county and all England, as it gives a fairly complete account of the value of church property, spiritual and temporal, at this time. In the archdeaconry of Buckingham, divided into eight rural deaneries, are given the names of 170 churches, [7] and the total value of the property of the Church is placed at £2,338 8s. 8d. in spiritualities and £602 8s. in temporalities.[8] As in the case of other archdeaconries, these figures are found to be somewhat inaccurate. Eighteen churches are altogether omitted, and no account is taken of the priories of Chetwode and Ivinghoe. There were few benefices of
- ↑ Linc Epis. Reg. Inst. Dalderby, 188. His will, of which a copy is preserved in Lansd. MS. 762, f. 2, is dated 1313 : though it appears to be 1413, the extra c, seen through a magnifying glass, seems to have been put in afterwards over an initial stroke which oddly enough is also very clear and marked between m and c in the Lincoln Register. It is of some interest, as it is not quite in conventional form : he bequeathes what is God's to God (his soul) ; what is the earth's to the earth (his body) ; and his goods of this world partly to his ' orators,' and partly to be borne by the hands of the poor to heaven, that he might find them there again.
- ↑ Three churches in Norfolk (Cawston, Suffield and Gateley) and one in Suffolk (Sudbury) contain representations of Sir John Schorne the first three on the rood screen ; and five different pewter pilgrim tokens brought away from his shrine still exist in a private collection. Bishop Latimer alluded to him as an object of popular pilgrimage, coupled with Our Lady of Walsingham, in one of his sermons : so does Bishop Bale in his Image of Both Churches. See a paper in Records of Bucks, iii. 354-369.
- ↑ Lipscomb, i. 343, on the authority of Browne Willis, says the shrine was removed in 1478, a bull having been obtained from Pope Sixtus V. ; and this is confirmed by items in the accounts of Bishop Beauchamp, then dean of Windsor, dated 1481-2, ' for the enclosing of the chapel of Master John Shorn.' Browne Willis, however, further stated that the canons of Windsor, not finding the offerings so profitable as they had expected, sent the shrine back, but this is not supported by the accounts of St. George's Chapel, which in 1490-1 contain reference to the ' chapel of Master Shorn,' and in 1533-4 to the offerings made to his shrine. Moreover Dr. London only found an image in North Marston church. (The references to the accounts of St. George's Chapel were kindly supplied by Mr. St. John Hope.
- ↑ Linc. Epis. Reg. Memo. Rotherham, 1-7. It had previously belonged to Dunstable Priory.
- ↑ Acts and Monuments, iv. 243.
- ↑ Wright, Suppression of Monasteries, 218.
- ↑ The missing names are Cholesbury, Biddlesden, Foscott, Horsenden, Hedsor, Bradenham, Cold Brayfield, Dunton, Grove, Hogshaw, Hawridge, Illmer, Chetwode, Barton Hartshorn, Winslow, Grandborough, Little Horwood, Aston Abbots ; while the chapels of Tattenhoe and Evershaw are reckoned as parish churches.
- ↑ Pope Nich. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 34, 48.
289
