CHAPTER IV. THE CHURCH. "A temple shadowy with remembrances HEMANS. WHEN a church was first founded at Ecclesfield has not been determined with certainty. The name, as was said above, may mean Churchfield, in which case the word points to the existence of a sacred building of sufficient importance to give name to the whole district before the date of any known record of the parish. It is true that Domesday, when describing "Ecclesfelt," makes no mention of either church or priest, but Sir Henry Ellis in his introduction to that record has shown that it "cannot be decisively appealed to for the non-existence of parish churches in the age in which it was compiled." The only other evidence against there being a church here in Saxon times is the utter absence of all remains of Saxon architecture, both in the present edifice, and in the priory which was built when the Saxon building,-if such ever existed, -was replaced by a Norman fabric. The earliest date that can be made out is by inference from a statement of the Prior of Ecclesfield made in 1376, as already mentioned, to the effect that it, or its priory, had been founded more than 300 years before, "de laquelle esglise mesme le priorie estoit founduz bien CCC ans passez et pluis."-This if interpreted literally would carry back the foundation to before Domesday, and making every allowance for vagueness of numerical statements, it seems to show that there was a church here at or about the end of the eleventh century. This is further confirmed by Archbishop Melton's Register, which states that Richard de Lovetoft, Lord of Halumshire, in the time of Henry I. (1100-1135) gave the church of Egglesfeld to the Abbot and Monastery of St. Wandrille, in Normandy; and again in the confirmation charter from Pope Innocent II. already quoted (p. 96) this church is mentioned as part of the said Abbey's possessions in Yorkshire. The inference usually drawn from this has been that one of the Lovetots, or perhaps De Busli himself, built a church for his tenants in these parts about the time above named, and then gave it,-with sundry lands for its maintenance,-to the powerful abbey in his fatherland with which his earliest recollections were associated. In the absence of direct evidence to the contrary, this inference, being backed by great names, must be accepted, but there is equally no direct evidence to prove that the church so given was not already on the manor when the Lovetots succeeded to it. Certainly there was a church here in the time of Henry I. of which the monks of St. Wandrille obtained early possession, and near to which they found it convenient after a while to erect the priory whose history has been given in the preceding chapter. For the next two centuries little or nothing is known about this church. Radulphus or Ralph de Ecclesfeld is described as "parson" thereof in 1200, and he seems to have been succeeded, but whether in the ownership of the church or not does not clearly appear, by Robert de Ecclesfeld, either his son or nephew, who had Thomas,1 who had Roger, who had another Thomas.2 3 Both Robert and Jeremiah the brother of Ralph, were clerks, and are mentioned in a deed of 1245, already given, by which Jeremiah is confirmed in the vicarage of the church to hold of the Abbot of St. Wandrille. But with the exception of Ruffinus, son of Manfred, who was instituted to this church, the date of which event is not known; the names of no other of its parsons for a term of more than 200 years have been brought to light. In 1235 Matilda de Lovetot and her son-and-heir acknowledge that it belongs to St. Wandrille's by the gift of their ancestors; an acknowledgement repeated by Thomas de Furnivall in 1279. In 1252 Mabilia, wife of Sir Elias de Midhope was buried within its walls, but nothing further is known of its early history, though it may be concluded that the Abbey of St. Wandrille in some way provided for the spiritual duties connected with it. Fontenelle, however, was a long way from Ecclesfield, and it was easy for the agents of the Norman Abbey to neglect the spiritual wants of the English village without incurring the censure of their superiors in France, who would have small opportunity of learning any delinquency; besides, having farmed out the temporals of the benefice they might conclude that they were no longer responsible for the spirituals. Moreover, it had early become a common practice with native, as well as alien religious houses, to take to the abbey-fund the bulk of the income of the various benefices which lords of manors from time to time bestowed upon them, and then to appoint a clerk to act as their Vicarius or representative in discharging the 1 Among the Dodsworth MSS. (fol. 31) is a charter from Thomas, son of Robert de Ecclesfeld, by which he quitclaims, for two marks of silver, to the Abbot and Convent of Roche, his right in four bovates of land, &c. in Cudworth. 2 Hallamshire, p. 256. 3 Above, p. 97. L offices of the cure of souls, giving him such an allowance as he and they might agree upon.' The pittance thus left for the Vicar was usually very small indeed in towns and populous districts, where fees and offerings would eke out a sufficient maintenance; hence so many town-livings, now that masses and dirges have ceased to be a source of income, are disproportionately poor. In country parishes, where the casual sources of income were fewer, a somewhat larger share of the fixed revenue was of necessity reserved for the Vicar, but even this depended upon the terms he might be able to make with the monastery, and might constantly vary, at least until the Acts of 15 Rich. II. (1392) and 4 Hen. IV. (1403). It is not therefore to be wondered at if the churches were frequently very ill served, and that the Bishop should from time to time be compelled to take order for securing a better state of things. This was the case at Ecclesfield; for though by deeds dated 1245, the Abbot and Convent of St. Wandrille granted the "perpetual vicarage of Ecclesfield" to Jeremiah. their clerk there (clerico nostro), in pure and perpetual alms, and had fixed his share at one-third of the tithes, obventions, &c., leasing him the other two-thirds for twenty marks a year, yet, in 1310, it came to the knowledge of Archbishop Greenfield, that although the parish was large and scattered, yet that no perpetual vicar had been instituted, nor any one else having cure of souls. Accordingly, at Cawood, on the 7th of September, 1310, (the Prior of Ecclesfield being present in person as representing the "Tithes were regarded as the property of those corporations in the church to which they had been assigned by the first donors. A monastery, or a cathedral chapter, or a clergyman in his capacity as a corporation sole, received the property as a donation, but not as a right; through charter, not through the common law. . . . . The monastery or chapter so endowed was bound to see that the duty of the parish was performed, and to make any arrangement they might please with reference to the officiating minister."-Hook's Lives of Abps. of Cant. I. 289. Abbot and Convent of St. Wandrille,) the Archbishop sanctioned a scheme by which it was ordained that there should be a perpetual Vicar in the Church of Ecclesfield, with the chapelry of Bradfield, to be presented by the Abbot and Convent of St. Wandrille, to whom it was appropriated, and that the said Vicar should have for his portion all the small tithes, viz. of wool, lambs, fowls, calves, pigs, broodgeese, eggs, pigeons, lime, hemp, and fruits growing in orchards and virgults within the said parish; and should have all the oblations and mortuaries whatsoever; the tithes of garbs [i.e. sheaves] and hay only excepted, which should belong entirely to the Monastery. He also ordained that the said Abbot, &c. should within a year's time build the Vicar a house near the church, to consist of a hall, two chambers, and one pantry, with a stable for two horses, and that they should assign him one acre of land at the least to be enclosed at their cost. They were also, when need required, to repair and rebuild the chancel both of the church and chapel, and pay procurations due to the Archdeacon; also to find two fit Chaplains to assist the Vicar in the cure, viz. one in the Church of Ecclesfield, and the other in the Chapel. The extraordinary burthens to be borne between the Abbot, &c. and the Vicar, rateably according to their respective proportions. In accordance with this arrangement, the first three Vicars, according to Torre's list, were presented by the said Abbot and Convent, the first being Dom. Robertus de Bosco, a monk of the house of St. Wandrille, who was instituted 16 April, 1311. An inquisition before given, (p. 126,) which was taken in 1342, shows that the Vicar continued to exercise the rights thus secured to him, and that his income amounted to 431. 58. 2d. besides 30 acres of meadow valued at sixty shillings per annum, which seem to have been given for the "one acre at least," which the Archbishop had stipulated |