This same Bishop Almar, although having no objection to marriage himself, appears to have been very careful that others

benefice descended as a military benefice would have done. This custom, by which church property was considered as heritable, and belonging to particular families, had subsisted of old time. In Ireland, the usage was already very ancient, and long established before the eleventh century. The archbishoprick of Armah, previous to the election of St. Malachi, continued hereditary in one sept during fifteen generations. And so entirely was the archiepiscopal endowment converted into a lay fee, that the eight last bishops had not even received holy orders. Such being the usage with respect to the Primate of the Irish Church, it cannot be doubted that the inferior members of the hierarchy enjoyed the same privilege. Amongst the Armorican Bretons an hereditary succession in the church equally prevailed. Theobald, the son of a priest, having obtained the archbishoprick of Rennes, married the daughter of the Archdeacon of Nantes. When he grew old he retired to the Abbey of St. Melanins, and gave the bishoprick to his son Walter, and Walter to his son Warine. These are, perhaps, instances rather of a right of alienation than of inheritance; but Duke Conan expressly states that a parochial church had been granted by his predecessors, by homage, to married clerks, and their sons, 'jure hereditario.'

"In Italy, during the tenth century, Ratherius, Bishop of Verona, after vainly attempting to enforce the rule of celibacy, earnestly exhorted his clergy that they would at least allow their sons to continue laymen, and marry their daughters unto laymen only, for the church had become the dowry of the female, who, on espousing a clerk, received her portion from the possessions of the altar; so that the evil might not become perpetual.

"The efforts of the Prelate had more immediate effects beyond the Alps than in England. Pope Pascal (1107), whilst using his utmost endeavours to prohibit the marriage of the priesthood, was compelled to allow that the sons of the clergy should be instituted to ecclesiastical benefices. He makes this concession on account of the great number of individuals thus circumstanced; and the indulgence was not to prejudice the discipline of the church in future. But the Dunston pleadings show that the reservation was of little effect.

"It must be observed, that the facts disclosed by the Dunston plea, go much farther than the deeds and charters transcribed by Fox the Martyrologist, for the purpose of establishing the position, that priests with wives continued in England after Anselme. These instruments only prove that the children of priests had inheritable blood. That such issue should be considered as legitimate, is in conformity to the doctrines of the Church of Rome, the marriage of clerks being only voidable, and not ipso facto void; whereas the plea shows the ecclesiastical benefice devolving from ancestor to heir. The clergy of England might, therefore, like the priests of the Greek Church in Russia, have become a sacerdotal tribe or caste, to the incalculable detriment of the

should not enter into the holy estate, at least not prematurely; for, a little farther on, we find this recorded of him :Terra Epi Tedfordensis de Feudo. Hundret. de Blafelda. In plummesteda, &c. . . . & postquam rex. W. venit in hanc terrā invasit Almarus eps p foris factura. quia mulier que tenuit nupsit intra annu post mortē viri." (Tom. ii. 199.) However, in thus depriving the widow of her dower, the Bishop had certainly the right on his side, for by the civil law, the woman was forbidden to marry again, within the year of mourning, by reason of the uncertainty to which husband the issue might belong, and because a reverential mourning, and pious regard to the memory of the deceased husband, is in decency expected. And Lord Coke says, 'for the avoiding of such-like inconveniences, this was the law before the Conquest-Let every widow continue unmarried for twelve months; and, if she shall marry, let her lose her dower.'”1

For some centuries, so high an opinion was entertained of the sanctity of the monks, and so great a reverence for their manner of living, that it was no unusual thing for the highest classes of the nobility, and sometimes even for kings and queens, to renounce the world, and take upon them the habit of the religious. We are told in Speed's History of Great Britain, that eight kings and two queens had thus sought the retirement of the cloister. And we elsewhere learn that thirty English Saxon kings and queens had done the same within the space of two hundred years. "Their admission to such asylums, however, could seldom be effected but by contributions to the conventual treasury, or by grants of land, by

country; and this, without doubt, was one of the reasons why their marriage was so strongly opposed. In the course of our Reformation, a reason not entirely dissimilar was strongly urged, though upon one of the most favoured grounds of modern political economy. It was apprehended that if the clergy were released from the moral restraint of celibacy, their families would multiply so rapidly as to absorb the means of subsistence in the land, and thus starve out the descendants of the lay community."—Introduc. Rot. Cur. Regis. 1 See Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, art. "Marriage."

way of benefactions to the community they were desirous to join. We observe repeated instances, within the diocese of Norwich, of bequests made to a monastery, upon condition that the particular individual should be admitted a member thereof." To this passage is added a note of several noblemen, and others, who had made these bequests posterior to the Conquest.

In the Domesday Book of Norfolk three instances occur of grants made to St. Benet's Abbey, at Hulme, with the wife of the grantor; this was, perhaps, at the time of her burial; for to be buried within the sacred walls of so eminent an abbey, was considered a privilege only second to that of being professed there. Blomefield says this was the case in the last instance quoted in the note. But, although the abbey was for monks only, the ladies might have been admitted by letters of fraternization, as others were at a later period; and, from the brevity of the record, there is nothing to show whether they were dead or alive, at the time the grant was made.

3

As an instance of the lawless claims that were not unfrequently made on the property of the church, Blomefield 5 adduces the case of "Ulchetel, a man or vassal of Hermer de Ferrariis, lord of Wirmegay, who claimed Photestorp (Foston)

1 Taylor's Index Monasticus, p. v.; Tanner's Notitia Monastica, p. iv. It has been already mentioned that Hugh Earl of Chester, having founded the Abbey of St. Werberg, in that city, just prior to his death, there assumed the monastic habit, and there died.-See p. 16, ante.

2 "Terra Sci Benedicti de Holmo ad victū monacor' Erpincham Nord. Hund'. In Estuna ten'. Rad. stalra. t. r. e. 1. car. træ. 7. dedit eam t. r. Willi. cũ uxore sua ad abbatiam concessione regis," &c.-Tom. ii. fol. 217 6. "Terre que fuer Rog'. pictaviensis. Tonesteda. H. Tunesteda. ten' idē Alfere tegn' heroldi, &c. 1. car' trē que jacebat. In Houetuna. t. r. e. qua. Rob'. comes dedit scō benedicto cù uxore sua," &c.-Tom. ii. fol. 244. "Træ Will' de Warenna. Erpincham Sud. H. In Hobuist 1. soc. Rad'. stalra. CLX. ac. et jacet in houetuna quam Rad'. comes dedit scō benedicto cũ uxore sua c'cedente Rege. ut dicit abbas," &c.-Tom. ii. fol. 158 6.

3 Blom. vol. vi. p. 299.

4. Taylor's Index Monast. p. v. note.

5 Blom. vol. vii.

p.

364.

as free to be seized on, not being church lands, and was ready to prove it by battle, ordeal, or any other legal manner; and there was another ready to prove, in the same manner, that it belonged to the church on the day that King Edward died; the whole hundred also witnessed, that it belonged to the church in King Edward's time."1 "From this outrageous claim," continues the historian, "we may perceive with what violence and oppression the Conqueror and his adherents behaved on the Conquest, being not contented with the lands of the laity that they seized on, but made such notorious false claims on the lands of the religious, so that they were by no means secure in their possessions. However, the church maintained her right. In the 9th of Edward II. the prior of Ely was lord, and so continued till the dissolution, and it was granted afterwards to the Dean and Chapter of Ely."

In the following Table we have given the names of the Tenants in Capite, on whose lordships the several churches were situated; it is, however, to be observed, that the advowson did not always attend the manor, although very numerous instances occur of its having done so. The descent of the several advowsons in Norfolk may be seen in our county historians, Blomefield, and his continuator, Parkin.

1 "Terra Sce Adeldredæ Hund'. Dim'. de Clakeslosa. In Photestorp, &c. hanc trà calūpniat' esse liberam Ulchetel hō hermeri. q°cq' mō judicet'. vel bello vel juditio. 7 ali' ē p'sto probare eo modo qd. jacuit ad eccliam die qa rex. E. obiit. S.; totus hund. testat'. eam fuisse t. r. e. ad sc'am adeld."-Tom. ii. fol. 213.

TABLE OF THE CHURCHES IN NORFOLK, Compiled from Domesday Book, with the Ancient and Modern Names of the Lordships on which they were situated; the Quantities and Value of the Glebe Lands to the respective Lords, where given, and the Names of the Tenants in Capite who held the several Manors.

1 There were seven churches in Blofield hundred, which now contains 19 parishes. The lands held by the Bishop of Thetford in this hundred were held "De Feodo"; the seven acres at North Burlingham were pasture, and of the church at South Burlingham he held half.

2 Tom. ii. fol. 1996.-Letha, or Leta, as it is written in the next folio. Where this place was is now unknown. Blomefield makes no mention of it; and Martin, in his History of Thetford (Appendix, 22, 23), is not able to identify it.

3 There were two churches in Brothercross hundred, which now contains nine parishes; but it must be observed, that in the Survey, several lordships now in Brothercross were comprehended in Gallow, and vice versa.