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Wingham

NGR: TR 244 575

A parish, formerly a market town, in the hundred of Wingham, lathe of St Augustine, county of Kent. 34 miles east from Maidstone. The living is a perpetual curacy in the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

English information from Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of England (S. Lewis & Co: London, 1831)

Welsh information taken from Samuel Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Wales(Lewis & Co: London, 1840)

The reason for the use of these works of reference is that they present the jurisdictional and ecclesiastical position as it was before the major Victorian changes. The descriptions therefore approximate to those applying in the sixteenth century, after the major changes of 1535-42. Except for the physical locations, which have not changed, the reader should not therefore take these references as being accurate in the twenty-first century.

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in vilipendium domini ac subtractionem: iurium ecclesiæ suæ Cantua. Vnde super hoc euocati coram domino, die Iouis in hebdomada Paschæ in castro suo de Statewode pro tribunali sedente personaliter comparentes, ipsius iudicio in hac parte se humiliter submiserunt, veniam & misericordiam pro commissis deuotè pertēdo. Et deinde dominus præfatus, Hugonem Pennie, Iohannem Forstal, Iohannem Boy, Iohannem Wanderton, Gulielmum Hayward, & Iohannem White, de stando mandatis ecclesiæ, & fideliter peragendo pœnam eis pro eorum demeritis iniungendam, iuratos absoluit in forma iuris, nunciata eis & eorum cuilibet, pro modo culpæ pœna salutari: videlicet, quòd die dominica tunc proximè sequente, prædicti pœnitētes nudi capita & pedes, processionem apud ecclesiam collegiatam de Wengham faciendam cum singulis saccis super humeris suis palam portantes (plenis videlicet fœno & stramine) ita quòd stramen & fœnum huiusmodi ad ora saccorum patentium intuentibus prominerent, lentis incessibus procederent humiliter & deuote.MarginaliaEx Regist. W. Courtney Archbish. Cant. In English.

IGnorance the mother of error so much hath blinded and deceiued certaine persons, to witte, Hugh Penny, Iohn Forstall, Iohn Boy, Ihon Wanderton, Will. Haywarde, and Iohn White, tenaunts of the Lord of Wengham: that against the comming of the aforesayde Archbishop to hys palace of Canterbury on Palmes Sonday euen, the yeare of our Lord 1390. where they being warned by the baillife, to conuey and cary hay, strawe, and other littour to the aforesayd palace, as they were bounde by the tenor of theyr landes, which they hold of the sea of Canterbury: MarginaliaPenance enioyned for bringing straw to Lords horse.refusing and disdaining to doe their due seruice, as they were accustomed, brought their straw and other littor, not in cartes and waines openly & sufficiently, but by peece meale, and closely in bagges or sackes, in contempt of their Lord, and derogation of the right and title of the sea of Canterbury. Wherupon they being ascited & presented before the archb. sitting in iudgement at hys manour of Statewood, yelded and submitted themselues to hys Lordshyppes pleasure, humbly crauing pardon of their trespasse. MarginaliaExcommunication and absolution abused.Then the aforesayd archbishop absolued the aboue named Hugh Penny, &c. they swearing to obey the lawes and ordinance of holy church, and to do the punishment that shuld be appoynted them for their desertes, that is: that they going laysurely before the procession, euery one of them should cary openly on hys shoulder, his bagge stuffed with hay and strawe, so that the sayd hay and strawe should appeare hanging out, the mouthes of the sackes being open.

MarginaliaNotes of this kings parliaments.To proceede now further in the raigne of this king,  

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Parliament Rolls for the reign of Henry IV

Foxe added this material on Parliamentary legislation curtailing papal jurisdiction to the 1570 edition and it remained unchanged in subsequent editions. Foxe's purpose in reproducing this material was fairly straightforward; he wished to demonstrate that papal claims to secular jurisdiction had been challenged even in the centuries before Luther. Unsurprisingly, Foxe drew much of this material from the Parliament Rolls. (See Rotuli Parliamentorum, ed. J. Strachey et al., 6 vols. {London, 1783], III, pp. 419, 594, 595 and 614-16). Foxe had access to the Rolls, which were part of the Tower Records, through his friend William Bowyer, who was effectively Keeper of the Tower Records from 1563-1570. But Foxe also drew the bill to deprive the church of its temporalities, which was advanced in the 1410 Parliament, from Robert Fabian's chronicle (see The chronicle of Fabian [London, 1555], STC 10664, pp. 386-7). Interestingly, Foxe also cites Thomas of Walsingham's chronicle as a source for the bill. Walsingham mentions the bill, claiming that it misrepresented the wealth of the Church, but he does not print it (see Thomas of Walsingham, Historia Anglicana, ed. H. T. Riley, 2 vols., Rolls Series 28 {London, 1864-5], II, pp. 282-3).

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Moreouer, forsomuch as our Catholike papistes will not beleue yet the cōtrary, but that the iurisdiction of their father the pope hath euer extended throughout all þ^e world, as well here in England as in other places: here therefore speaking of the Parliaments holden in this kings dayes concerning thys matter, I refer them to the Parliament of the sayd king Henry in his first yere holden, and to the 27. article of the same. Where they may reade in the 10. obiection laid against K. Richard in plaine words: MarginaliaThe popes iurisdiction excluded out of this realme.how that, for asmuch as the crowne of this realme of England, and the iurisdiction belonging to þ^e same, as also the whole realme it selfe, at all times lately past, hath ben at such libertie, and enioyed such prerogatiue, that neyther the Pope, nor any other out of the same kingdome ought to intrude himselfe, not intermedle therein: it was therefore obiected vnto the forenamed king Richarde the 2. for procuring the letters Apostolical from the Pope, to the confirming and coroborating of certaine statutes of hys, and that hys censures myght be prosecuted against the breakers thereof. Whyche seemed then to the Parliament, to tend against the crowne and regall dignitie, as also against the statutes & liberties of the said thys our realme of England. MarginaliaEx Anno. 1. Reg. Henrici. Act. 27.Act. parl. An. I. Reg. Henrici 4. Act 27.

Furthermore, in the second yeare of the saide king,MarginaliaAnno. Reg. Henr. 4. Act. 29. thys was in the Parliament required, that all such persones as shalbe arested by force of the statute made against the Lollardes, in the 2. yeare of Henry 4. may be bailed, and freely make their purgation: That they be arested by none other then by the Sheriffes or such like officers, neither that any hauocke be made of their goods. The king granted to take aduise therein.

In the 8. yeare moreouer of thys kings raigne,MarginaliaAn. 8. Reg. Henri. 4. Act. 116. it was likewise propounded in the Parliament, that all suche persons as shall procure or sue in the court of Rome any processe touching any benefice, collation, or presentation of the same, shal incurre the paine of þ^e statute of prouisors, madein the 13. yeare of Richard 2. whereunto the king graunted, that the statutes herefore prouided should be obserued.

MarginaliaAn. 8. Reg. Hen. 4. act. 114.Item, in the sayde Parliament, there it was put vp by petition, that the king might enioy halfe the profits of euery parsons benefice, who is not resident thereon. Therunto the king aunswered, that the ordinaries should do theyr duties therein, or els he would prouide further remedie, to stay their pluralities.

Item, in the sayde Parliament, it was required: MarginaliaIbidē act. 37that none do sue to the court of Rome for any benefice, but only in the kings courtes.

¶ In the next yere folowing, which was the 9. of this Kyng, an other petition of the Commons was put vp in Parliament against the court of Rome, whych I thought good here to expresse as foloweth.

MarginaliaEx Rotulo Parlamenti. an. 9. Henrici. 4.The Commons do beseeche, that forsasmuch as diuers prouisors of the benefices of holy Church, dwelling in the Court of Rome, through their singular couetousnes now newly imagined to destroy those that haue bene long time incumbents in diuers their benefics of holy church peaceably, some of them by the title of the king, some by title ordinary, and by the title of other true patrōs therof, by coulor of prouisions, collations, and other grauntes made to the sayd prouisors by the Apostoil, of the sayd benefices, do pursue processes in the said court by citation made beyond the sea, MarginaliaThe wickednes of popes prouisors in citing and depriuing beneficed men in England, their citation being not knowen in the realme.without any citations made within the Realme in deede against the same incumbents, whereby many of the said incumbents through such priuy & crafty processes and sentences of priuation and inhabilitation, haue lost theyr benefices, and others put in the places of the saide incumbents before the publication of the same sentēces, they not knowing any thing, and many are in great hassarde to lose theyr benefices through such processes, to theyr perpetuall destruction and mischiefe: and forasmuch as thys mischiefe cannot be holpen wythout an especiall remedy be had by parliament: Pleaseth it the king to consider the great mischiefe and daunger that may so come vnto diuers hys subiects without their knowledge through such citations out of the realme, and therupon to ordaine by the aduise of the Lords of this present Parliament, that none presented, be receiued by any ordinarie vnto any benefice of any such incumbent for any cause of priuation or inhabilitation wherof the processe is not founded vpon citation made wythin the realme, and also that such incumbents may remaine in all theyr benefices, vntil it be prooued by due enquest in the court of the King, that the citations whereupon such priuations & inhabilitations are graunted, where made within the Realme: and that if such Ordinaries, or such presented or others, doe pursue the contrary, that then they and theyr procurators, fautours and counsellours doe incurre the paines contained in the statute made against prouisors in the 13. yere of the raigne of the late Richard king of England the second, by processes to be made as is declared in the statute made against suche prouisors in the 27. yeare of the raigne of king Edward, prdecessour to our Lorde the king that nowe is, any royall licences or grauntes in any maner to the contrary notwithstanding, and that all other statutes made against prouisors, and not repealed before this present Parliament, be in their full force, and be firmly kept in all poyntes.

That the kings counsell haue power by authoritye of Parliament, in case that any man finde himselfe grieued in particular, that he may pursue: and that the said counsel by the aduise of the iustices do right vnto the parties. This to endure vntil the next parliament, reseruing alwayes vnto the king his prerogatiue and libertie.

MarginaliaAnn. 9. Regis Henrici. 4. act. 43.Item, that no Popes collector thenceforth should leuy any money within the realme, for first fruites of any eccleliasticall dignitie, vnder payne of incurring the statute of prouisions.

MarginaliaEx Chronic. D. Albani, Fabiano, & alijs.Besides in the sayd Parliament holden the 11. yeare of this king, is to be noted: now the commōs of the land, put vp a Bill vnto the kyng, to take the temporall landes out from spirituall mens handes or possession. The effecte of which Bill was, that the temporalities, disordinately wasted by men of the Churche, might suffice to finde to the K. xv. Earles, xv. C. Knightes, vj. M.CC. Esquires, and a C. houses of almose, to the reliefe of poore people, moe then at those dayes were wythin England: And ouer all these foresayd charges, the king might put yearely in his cofers xx. M. pounde.

Prouided, that euery Earle should haue of yerely rent iij. M. marke, and euery Knight C. marke, and iiij. plough landes: Euery Esquier xl. marke by yeare, with ij. plough landes, & euery house of almose C. marke, wyth ouersight of two true seculars vnto euery house: And also with pro-