A HISTORY OF RUTLAND of time : of the latter, there existed certainly three at Oakham — the gilds of St. Mary, St. Michael, and the Holy Trinity ; ^^ one at Belmesthorpe under the invocation of St. John ; " one at Little Casterton,^' and one at Egleton.'* These are mentioned incidentally in wills and other records ; there were doubt- less more. Very little is known of the general course of Church life in this county during the 1 5th century. Doubtless here as elsewhere there were faithful priests who did their duty according to their lights, as well as others who shared the general laxity of the times. Richard Stoneham, vicar of Oakham in 1409, was evidently one who loved his church, for he left to it generous gifts of plate, books, and vellum, making bequests also to Liddington Church and to Merton Hall, Oxford. ^^ One of his successors gave his parishioners cause for very serious complaint in 1488. They alleged that he did not provide assist- ant clergy for the service of the parochial chapels, as he was bound to do : that he sat in the choir without a surplice, did not have the church strawed at Easter, did not say mass more than twice a week, and went about more like a layman than a priest. Bishop Rotherham, to whom the complaint was made, ordered all these grievances to be redressed.^* Before the new valuation of ecclesiastical property in 1534 some of the parochial chapels of Rutland had fallen into ruins : either through the de- preciation of their revenues, or through the depopulation of the hamlets in which they stood. Among these were the chapels of Woodhead, Ingthorpe, Awsthorpe, Belmesthorpe, and Gunthorpe ;" none of which are mentioned in any record later than the 15 th century. The church of Horn is described in the Valor Ecclesiasticus as olim eccksia modo devastata : -* and it is probable that the church of Pickworth, which was in ruins a century later, was at this time fast falling into decay. There were so few religious foundations in this county that it was probably very little affected by the disturbances attendant upon the dissolution of monasteries. But it had its full share of loss under the Chantry Act of i 547, The suppression of the college at Manton left one parish church without any provision at all for services in future. At Barrowden, Whitwell, Burley, and Clipsham the incumbent of the parish was deprived of an assistant who had cost him nothing. The total value of Church land confiscated at this time was ^91 i8j. od. clear; forty ounces of plate were delivered to the jewel-house : other ornaments and goods that went into the royal treasury amounted to £^2j ^s. ^d. The chantry priests dismissed or pensioned at this time were all well spoken of by the Commissioners : they were of' good and honest conversa- tion,' and honoured by their neighbours ; only one of them, the warden of Manton College, had any other living besides his chantry. Sir Robert Suckling, cantarist of Whitwell, had been ' always exercised in the education of youth in learning,' though, being purblind, he could not undertake to serve a cure.*' " Gibbons, Early Lincoln WtUs, 1 1 6. '* Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Repingdon, fol. 133d. " Blore, Hist, of Rut. 199. This gild was of unusually early date, if the deed quoted by Blore is genuine. The witnesses and other names which occur cannot be later than the end of the 13th century. "This gild is mentioned in the Chantr}' Certificate : the only one which held lands in 1547. "Gibbons, Early Lincoln Wills, 138. "Line. Epis. Reg. Memo. Rotherham, fol. 54. "The last mention of Ingthorpe in the Lincoln Registers is in 1366 : of Belmesthorpe in 1417. Blore quotes a deed mentioning the chapel of Woodhead in 1393 {Hist, of Rut. 191). "^Falor Eal. (Rec. Com.), iv, 343. " Chant. Cert. 39. 146
