Page:VCH Leicestershire 1.djvu/432

 A HISTORY OF LEICESTERSHIRE churches had a sufficient portion of the tithes assigned to them for their maintenance. During his episcopate forty-six vicarages at least were ordained in this county, 80 and possibly one or two more. So far as can be discovered the vicars' portions here were much the same as elsewhere : they averaged about five marks of annual value, to be obtained from the lesser tithes and oblations made at the church ; in some cases board and lodging was provided for the priest at the monastery, if it happened to be in his parish, and then he only received a small sum of money for clothing. This work of ordaining vicarages was carried on by Bishops Grossetete, 31 Gravesend, 32 and Button 3S throughout the century. Robert Grossetete was himself archdeacon of Leicester and prebendary of St. Margaret's from 1225 to 1231." There are few records of his life and work in this county, but one of his letters written during this period is very interesting. The younger Simon de Montfort, as lord of Leicester, had recently granted to the burghers a charter by which he promised that no Jew in his time, or in the time of any of his successors in finem mundi^ should live within the liberty of the town. 36 Those already in Leicester were accordingly expelled, and some of them appealed to the countess of Winchester for permission to settle on her lands. She was apparently inclined at first to grant this favour, but Grossetete wrote a letter to dissuade her. It would be unreasonable to expect of him the same spirit of religious toleration which comes naturally to us in England in the twentieth century ; but his treatment of this difficult question is at any rate free from the narrow bigotry so common in his own day. He argued that the first duty of a Christian prince is to protect his own subjects, not only from open enemies, but from the petty tyranny of unscrupulous usurers. The Jews in this respect are real oppressors of the Christians, and therefore a Christian prince who cherishes them does a wrong to his own people. The Jews are intended to be a living sermon to us wanderers for ever upon the face of the earth because of the sins of their fathers. Nevertheless the Christian ruler must not kill or do them actual hurt ; he should rather try to provide them with the means of earning an honest livelihood by the labours of their hands, instead of by base gain. Such is the substance of the letter ; and the archdeacon ends by exhorting the countess to see that her bailiffs do not exact tithes too stiffly in the parish of his prebend. 36 In 1252 died John of Basingstoke, another archdeacon of note. Like Grossetete he was a Greek scholar, a somewhat rare accomplishment in those M Ashby de la Zouch, Tilton, Great Dalby, Queniborough, Barkby, Loddington, Shepshed, Lockington, Barrow-on-Soar, Diseworth, Breedon, Rothley, North Kilworth, Thornton, Ratcliffe-on-Wreak, Long Clawson, Hose, Eaton, Stonesby, Barkestone, Theddingworth, Horninghold, Evington, King's Norton, Foxton, Welham, Billesdon, Thurnby, Wymeswold, Frisby-on-Wreak, Lowesby, Tugby, Hinckley, Shackerstone, Peatling Magna, Cosby, Swinford, Dunton Bassett, Bitteswell, Plungar, Ratby, Thorpe Arnold, Croxton Kerrial, Somerby, Owston, Ashby Magna. 31 Under Grossetete were ordained the vicarages of Scraptoft and Galby. " Under Gravesend : Saltby, Glen Magna, Packington, Belton, Claybrooke, Scalford, and St. Margaret's, Leicester. 13 Under Button : Melton Mowbray. Enderby was ordained either then or earlier. " Epist. Grossetete (Rolls Ser.), Introd. xxxiv-vi. reason to doubt the genuineness of the charter ; but it seems to have been lost during the last century, not being mentioned in Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. viii (i) ; or in Miss Bateson's Rec. of the Borough of Leic. 358
 * Nichols, Leic. i (i), App. p. 38. There is a drawing of the seal on Plate xii, and there seems no
 * Epist. Grossetete (Rolls Ser.), 33.