Page:Calendar of the Tavistock parish records.djvu/135

 The Vicars. 1 2 1

��It is impossible now to compile a complete list of the Vicars of Tavistock. That given by Dr. Oliver in the AIo7iasticon ExoiiieusishQgins only with the year 1534. I learn from the Rev, Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph, whose valuable digest of the Register of Bishop Stafford we may hope will be but the first of a long series of similar volumes on the Registers of the Bishops of Exeter, that there were no institutions of any Vicars during the episcopates of Bishops Bronescombe and Ouivil, and that the Register of Bishop Bytton is not extant ; so that there is no record of Vicars for Tavistock earlier than the episcopate of Bishop Stapledon.

However, in all probability there was no regular succes- sion of early Vicars. The parish Church would be almost an integral part of the great Abbey which overshadowed it, served without institution as to a benefice by members of the community. There was much contention on this matter between the Bishops and the Religious Houses ; the former no doubt being moved thereto by complaints that the parishioners were neglected. Thus Bishop Brones- combe, finding that no member of the community of Pilton had been appointed to serve Ashford, near Barnstaple, which was appropriated to Pilton Priory, declared that the patronage had lapsed to himself, and collated Gilbert de Moltone chaplain Jan. 12, 1264. The Priory resisted the Bishop, and refused to recognize his clerk ; but the dispute was settled by Bronescombe, Aug. 26th, 1269, constituting Ashford a distinct vicarage. A similar occurrence took place with regard to Hartland, After giving three moni- tions to the Convent, Bronescombe, Feb. 28, 126^, declared that the vicarage had lapsed to him, and collated Henry de Hertilonde, Here also there was resistance, and settled in the same way and on the same date as Ashford, by Hartland being declared in like manner a distinct vicarage. From the absence of any extreme measures of this sort being recorded in the case of Tavistock, it may be inferred that the parish Church was faithfully served in the time of Bronescombe and Ouivil, and that the parishioners had no reason to complain.

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