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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2012
Reginald and Savaric, bishops of Bath at the end of the twelfth century, were succeeded by Jocelin of Wells, 1206-1242.
I proceed to treat of his history, so far as it is contained in original records at Wells.
The chapter registers at Wells have lately been calendared and published in Report X. part iii. 1885, of the Historical MSS. Commission; but many of the charters there registered are undated, and they are arranged without regard to chronological sequence. It is a work requiring much patience and insight into the text to determine their place and to arrange them in their relative order.
page 281 note a Copies of Charters from the Wells Registers supplied by Archdeacon Archer occupy 176 pages in Hearne's edition of Adam of Domerham (1727), pp. 123–293Google Scholar.
page 282 note a These will be cited by their numbers as “original documents” in the chapter library. Some documents belonging to the Old Almshouse will be cited under the abbreviation A H. and numbered according to catalogue.
page 282 note b As an exception v. p. 49 of The Diocesan History of Bath and Wells, S.P.C.K. 1885, and the Genealogist, July and October, 1885.
page 283 note a I have quoted Archer's Chronicon on this subject in a former paper on bishop Reginald in the last volume of the Archaeologia, L. 305.
Since that paper was read I have seen an article in the Genealogist of 1885, in which the writer has very forcibly worked out this subject from the Hutton extracts in the Harleian Collection. I refer to this article now in order to support its conclusions, and to show that Archer, in his Chronicon Wellense of 1726, long ago exposed this error of his predecessors, Godwin and Wharton, from his more careful examination of the original records at Wells.
page 284 note a Vide letter of Honorius III. to Pandulf the legate. He bids that the register be searched, and if it be found that Wells be the ancient sedes praesulea to give permission to Jocelin to assume the title. Viterbii, iv. Kal. April, pontificatus anno quarto, 1220. Vatican Transcripts, Ep. 679. Pandulf had other things to do.
page 284 note b Jocelin's seal of dignity bears his effigy, with the marginal legend: 
. His coanterseal has Our Lady and Child sitting on a seat which is supported by St. Andrew and St. Peter; in base under a trefoiled arch is the bishop praying. The legend is: 
.
page 284 note c Pope Innocent's Lettsr, Lyons, May 12, 1245. Vide Letters in Vatican Transcripts in British Museum, Add. MSS. 15353, vol. v. p. 235. Cf. E. i, f. 93-96.
page 285 note a Walcott, , Fasti Cicestrenses; and Register of St. Osmund, i. 241. (R.S.)Google Scholar
page 287 note a Before Runnymede he had “stood ‘quasi ex parte regis’ “with Peter de Roches, Hubert de Burgh, and Marshall earl of Pembroke. Royal Letters, Henry III. (R.S.) Ed. Shirley. Pref. xviii.
page 288 note a Adam of Domerham, p. 474, thus definitely gives the date: “XVIe. Kal. Junii, Indictione. VII. Incarnacionis dominieae anno Mo.CCo. nonodecimo, Pontificates vero Domini Honorii papae. III. anno tercio.” So Archer, Chronicon. f. 109, 1218 is corrected to 1219.
page 289 note a Osm. Reg. i. 379. (R.S.)
page 289 note b Osm. Reg. ii. 39.
page 290 note a A customary appanage to a bishop's headquarters, which Wells hitherto had lacked. I cannot think that the primary and permanent object of the Hospital of St. John was other than that of similar institutions found, I believe, in every cathedral city, viz. the discharge of Christian hospitality to the wayfarer who from risk of disease and certainty of filth could not be relieved at the bishop's gate. The reception of ‘cruce signati’ was a temporary yielding to a temporary demand, and lasted only one generation.” Note by bishop Hobhouse.
page 291 note a Close Rolls, 5 Hen. III. 15 Hen. III.
page 291 note b Ibid. 19 Hen. III.
page 291 note c “Decem frusta ad domos suas de Woky reparandas.”
page 292 note a “Liberty,” a privileged area freed from some liabilities; in this case from those of the borough and parish. A lane called “Canons Walk,” ran from opposite the north porch of the church to the North Liberty nearly opposite the “Canons' Barn,” and on the west side of the present Vicars’ Close.
page 293 note a Vide Archaeologia, L. 337, on “Reginald and his share in the building,” for a general review of the area of the church at Jocelin's death.
page 294 note a Rot. Lit. Clans, p. 425.
page 294 note b Anno 8th Henry III. 1224. Rot. Lit. Clans, p. 593.
page 294 note c Vide words of the charter quoted, Archaeologia, L. 334.
page 294 note d Osm. Reg. ii. 39.
page 295 note a In vico qui vocatur Boneton in villa Glaston.” Appendix B.
page 295 note b Chron. Majora, iv. 418Google Scholar.
page 296 note a Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society's Proceedings, xix. part ii. 15Google Scholar. Vide a Paper on Elias de Derham in the Archaeological Journal, xliv. 365Google Scholar, by Rev. J. A. Bennett, F.S.A.
It is remarkable that Arabic numerals were found on the figures on the north side of the centre line of the west front, Roman numerals on all those south of the centre line, when a survey was made in 1874.
page 296 note b Quoted in former paper. Archaeologia, L. 338.
page 297 note a R. iii. f. 245, de nimdinis.
page 298 note a Quoted from R. i. f. 61, in Archaeologia, L. 338.
page 299 note a Orig. Doc. 773.
page 299 note b Cf. Archaeologia, L. 329, where it is quoted. R. i. f. 41, “ad emendationem Capellae B. V. M.”
page 300 note a For the last mention of this chapel, vide Ledger D. f. 30, p. 225, “Wells MS.” Dec. 14, 1535, which speaks of “missa de requiem jam vulgariter nuncupata ‘Martyn's Masse,’ daily in the chapel of S. Martin juxta fontem.”
page 300 note b Probably such as in the south aisle of choir marks bishop Bytton's grave in 1273, a moulded slab of dark Purbeck marble with incised figure.
page 303 note a The process in the election of bp. Reginald, and this of bp. Jocelin, are recorded in full in the report of the Commissioners appointed in July, 1242, to settle the dispute after bp. Roger's nomination. Vide “Original Documents in Wells Cathedral Library, No. 40.”
page 303 note b “Postulabit.” Archer quotes Gibson's Codex, vol. 1, p. 122, “Postulatio est concors capituli petitio (i.e. nemine contradicente), ut is in praelatum promoveatur sive adsumatur, qui non propter animi vel corporis vitium sed ob alium defectum propter quern non est inhabilis ad prospiciendum ecclesiae (veluti qnia est minor triginta annis aut laicus in minoribus ordinibus aut illegitimus) eligi nequit.” It was a “si quis,” giving notice of nomination, challenging objections.
page 304 note a Walter de Gray, afterwards abp. of York, is recorded by Beatson as Lord High Chancellor in 1205, between two turns of the office by Hugh de Wells.
page 307 note a Cf. Gesta abbat. Sancti Albani i., 284. Abbot William de Trumpington, 1214-1235, instituted quotidiana celebratio missoe S. Marice, “videns quod in omnibus nobilibus ecclesiis Anglise Missa de Beata Virgine ad notam solemniter cotidiana decantatur.”
page 309 note a Walter of Downhead appears in many of the documents of the time. He was a layman holding the manor of Downhead on Mendip under the abbey of Glastonbury, also holding a heritable lay fief in Wells, subject to “regale servitium,” and, though in Wells, and apparently in the episcopal manor of former times, to no other. Vide Orig. Documents, 13.
page 310 note a Note by Archer: “Ghersuma, usurpatur pro ‘fine,’ seu pecunia data in pactionem et rei emptse vel conductee compensationem.” Vox Saxonica.
page 313 note a In this last will, made at Stow Park June 1,1233 (Vide Qiraldus Cambrensis, vol. 7, Appendix G, ed. Dimock, and Pref. xc. xciii.), bequests to the diocese of Bath are chiefly (a) to the hospital at Wells “profits from wardships and marriages of certain estates held of the see of Lincoln by military tenure, the heirs of which were under age,” (b) to his poor kinsfolk round Wells and Pilton, (c) to a few private individuals, servants, &c. His brother Jocelin is appointed executor, together with others from the Lincoln diocese. His will is confirmed by anticipation in a charter of Henry III. dated May 27, 1227, and another dated May 15, 1229.
page 314 note ab Archer corrects M. Paris as to dates of both these transactions.
page 315 note a Under this year Archer quotes from R. i. f. 29, a group of charters purporting to be letters from the church of Sarum of earlier date addressed to Ivo the dean, and R. the bishop. Cf. p. 35, anno 1137. He discredits the authenticity and the early date of these documents, and considers that they were drawn up with a controvei'sial purpose in the contention between bishop Drokensford and the chapter. “Conscriptse sunt istse literse ad quas Sarisburienses respondent primo die Octobris anno ut conjecturam facio 1319 cum Johannes de Drokensford episcopus visitationem decano et canonicis niinitaretur.” Cf. R. i. f. 249. But lie admits the ordinance as to the “annus post mortem “into the annals of this year.
page 316 note a Bp. Jocelin's “style ” is variously found in the documents of the time; in attestations to charters he signs sometimes, as “Jocelinus Bathoniensis.”
At other times with the title “Bathon et Glaston.”
Before his consecration he was styled “J. Bathon. electo,” (Rot. Cart. p. 63, anno 1206, March 3) and he was consecrated as “Episcopus Bathoniensis.”
He is styled “Bathon. et Glaston.” in the grant of MagnaCharta 1215, and in the reissue of the charter 1216.
page 317 note a Note by Archer, quoting Du Fresne: “A knight's fee,” as much land of the value of 20l. as was held by a knight who was bound to military service of forty days with the king. “Half a knight's fee” equal to land of 10l. value, and held by a knight bound to twenty days’ service.
page 317 note b “Ut omnes homines absoluti essent de sectis hundredorum istorum scil. de servitio quo f eudatarii ad frequentanda comitia hundredariorum tenebantur.” Archer.
page 317 note c N. B. Erratum in Hardy's index of Pat. Rolls where the charter is entered under the heading “de unione Bath et Well. Eccles.”
page 318 note a “Temporalia quse regalia appellarentur si ad nos pertineret patronatus.” The bishop stood in the place of the crown. But the bishop had to find the knight's service due from the abbey barony.
page 321 note a Indiction vii. corresponds with the year 1219. Nicolas, Chronology of History, p. 58.
page 321 note b This bull, not quoted by Archer, is here inserted to complete the history of the transactions.
page 322 note a The feast was kept on July 6th. Stanley's Mem. of Canterbury, p. 209.
page 323 note a Cf. R. iii. f. 248 in dors. Bishop Hugh in the draft of his will in 1211 had set apart 500 marcs “ad construendum hospitale apud Welles.” At ftrst a hostel for wayfarers—no mention of monastic brethren—and almshouse for poor and needy—those especially in the first instance out of employment by their vow of joining the crusade.
There were ten priests and brethren in 1350.
In 26 Henry VIII. the yearly revenues of master and brethren amounted to 40Z. (Dugdale) or 411. 3s. 6d (Speed).
page 325 note 1 So I understand “Biestwalles.”
page 326 note a Archer says, “Sub hoc tempus aut annum insequentem.” This should be put under the following year, 1226-7. William Longsword died suddenly March 7, 1226-7. Vide Osm. Reg. ii. 48.
page 339 note a Erratum in transcript in Adam of Domerham—“mense Octobri.”
page 346 note a Vide a paper on Elias de Derham, read at the meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute at Salisbury, 1887, by Rev. J. A. Bennett, F.S.A.—Archaeological Journal xliv. 365.