A HISTORY OF NORFOLK abuses to correct than certain cases of extortion on the part of officials gives a favourable impression of the state of the religious houses in the county. In 1285 the w^rit, Circumspecte Agatis^ which was regarded afterwards as a statute defining the uses of writs of prohibition, and of universal applica- tion, was issued by the king with primary reference to the see of Norwich, according to Blomefield, because ' the bishop was a great promoter of it, and then enjoying the greatest liberties of any bishop, was thought to be the properest person to be named in it. Cases of purely spiritual correction for mortal sin or libel, sentences of excommunication for assault upon a clerk, punishment inflicted for neglect of repairs of churches or churchyards, claims of tithes withheld, oblations and mortuaries, were decided to belong to the ecclesiastical sphere, and were not to be interfered with by lay courts. The Close Rolls for the succeeding years recording the names of those who, in accordance with the privilege of the clergy, purged their innocence before the bishop of Norwich, and had their goods restored to them by the sheriff of Norfolk, give a by no means flattering testimony to the character of certain of the Norfolk clergy at this time.^ The expulsion of the Jews from England did not take place until 1 290, but there is evidence that in the years immediately preceding this date the Jews of Norfolk were undergoing persecution. On 15 May, 1280,* Philip de Wilegheby, receiver of the goods and chattels of condemned Jews, was ordered to pay to the sheriff of Norfolk iooj. which he expended by the king's order in the carriage of certain Jews of Norwich from that town to the Tower of London; an inspeximus of 16 June, 1280,' deals with the property of Abraham, son of Deulacres, Jew of Norwich, drawn and burned for the blasphemy of which he was convicted ; and a commission of 10 June, 1280,^ deals with that of Isaac, a Jew of Norwich, hanged for a trespass against the coinage. Numerous licences to sell houses seem to sug- gest preparations for the exodus ; these, as also the deeds dealing with the sale of Jewish property which escheated to the crown after 1290, give valu- able indications of the position of the Jewry.' The synagogue in Norwich was destroyed in 1286.' The last two years of the bishop's life were spent in Gascony, whither he had been summoned by the king. He left Ralph de Eboraco, archdeacon of Sudbury, his vicegerent.' He died shortly after his return, 31 August, 1288. His successor, Ralph de Walpole, archdeacon of Ely, a Norfolk man, was unanimously elected by a committee of seven monks, 1 1 November, 1288. He obtained the king's assent, and was consecrated by Archbishop ' Gee and Hardy, Doc. Illus. of Eng. Ch. Hist. 83, 84. ' iv, 548. ' Close, 14 Edw. I, m. 6 ; m. 8 ; m. 3 ; 18 Edw. I, m. 1 1 ; m. 1 3 ; 19 Edw. I, m. 5; Pat. 27 Edw. I, m. n d. ; m. 74 ; 9 Edw. I, m. 12 ; 13 Edw. I, m. 13.
- Close, 8 Edw. I, m. 8. » Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 14. Mbid. m. 14^.
cf. Pat. 8 Edw. I, m. 2. Licence for Ursellus, son of Isaac le Evesk, Jew of Norwich, to sell his houses there, situated between the houses of Genta la Neve, Jewess, and Isaac de Jernemutha, Jew, in the street of Mancroft, in the parish of St. Peter. Ibid. 9 Edw. I. m. 26. Licence for Columba, a Jewish widow, daughter of Isaac, of Norwich, to sell her house in that town between the houses of Thomas de Bynetre and Eliseus son of Elias the Jew, abutting on the high road at its west end, and at its east on a watercourse called Kolceye, in the parish of St Peter Mancroft. Also ibid. 28 Edw. I, m. 8. Grant in fee simple of a void plot in the city of Norvich, formerly belonging to Anesterra Hagge and Vivantus Mosseus and Moppa, her nephews, which became the king's escheat by the exile of the Jews. « Blomefield, op. cit. iii, 63. » Pat. i 5 Edw. I, m. I 5. 234
