Bishop Of Winchester Research Articles

Eugenics and the Approval of Birth Control at the 1930 Lambeth Conference

Following the vote in favour of birth control at the 1930 Lambeth Conference, the Church of England became the first major Christian denomination explicitly to condone the use of birth control. This paper argues that the bishop of Winchester, Theodore Woods, was the previously unheralded principal actor responsible for reversing the position of the Church. Woods was convinced that the Church needed to ‘modernise’ its position in order to secure a receptive audience for its higher-ordered teachings on marriage, sex and especially procreation. In turn, he hoped to bring about an increased birthrate amongst the eugenically ‘desirable’ English middle and upper classes.

Bishop Morley of Winchester, 1598–1684: Politician, Benefactor, Pragmatist, by Andrew Thomson

Born at the end of the Elizabethan era, George Morley played pivotal roles in the turbulent political and religious developments of the Restoration period. This book paints a detailed portrait of Morley’s life and deeds, from his early life, through his exile and subsequent career as dean of Christ Church Oxford, bishop of Worcester and bishop of Winchester, to his death and benefactions. The book’s subtitle, ‘Politician, Benefactor, Pragmatist’, encapsulates Andrew Thomson’s three main strands of inquiry. He focuses particularly on Morley’s involvement in debate about whether the re-established (Anglican) Church should pursue uniformity, comprehension or toleration. Some believed that doctrinal uniformity was the only way to regain control following the restoration of the bishops, while others felt that the best course was to compromise with, or even tolerate, other Protestant groups. Previous commentators have concluded that Morley was determined to enforce uniformity and quash dissent, whereas Thomson suggests that...

John Philpot – Archdeacon of Winchester and Martyr (1515–1555)

This is the most comprehensive account yet of the life of John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester cathedral and martyr, burned at the stake in 1555. Included is an outline of his trial from which it is shown that he was promised the position of archdeacon by the ultra conservative bishop of Winchester, Stephen Gardiner. Evidence is also provided from the trial and from his family, contrary to the opinion of Muriel St. Clare Byrne, that he was not related to Clement Philpot who was executed in 1540. A transcript translation of his father's will is provided giving a good indication of his family circumstances. This will was drawn up in 1540 at a pivotal point in English law when, in order to overcome the default position of inheritance through primogeniture, the rules of will writing were altered. This will was written to abide by the rules that existed before the new Statute of Wills was passed by Parliament, and, also, to abide by the new rules set out in the Statute. From this will and other evidence a new genealogy of the Philpot family down to the 1650s is provided. The authenticity of the so-called portrait of John Philpot held at Winchester cathedral is also discussed.

Who Lies Here? The Tomb Monument of an Early-fourteenth Century Knight in Michelmersh Church

In the chancel of Michelmersh church is to be seen the fine early fourteenth-century effigy of an unidentified knight. On the evidence of the descent of the manor of Braishfield in Michelmersh, it is suggested that the person commemorated is Sir Roger Woodlock, nephew of Henry Woodlock, bishop of Winchester. Sir Roger's entry into the ranks of Hampshire landowning society affords a good example of how medieval bishops could use their power and wealth to advance the fortunes of their relatives and provide them with material landed endowment.

Hampshire Agriculture in the Middle Ages: The Bishop of Winchester's Manor of North Waltham

The bishops of Winchester were the richest bishops in medieval England and they dominated landownership in Hampshire. Moreover, they left the fullest surviving documentation for any large estate in medieval England. This article uses a sample of the documentation to examine the agriculture of the great estate and some of the influences on it. By examining the lord's activity on a single well-documented manor it seeks to help our understanding of developments in Hampshire agriculture: its growth and contraction, its arable and pastoral farming, and the employment of its labour.

Alphege (954–1012): A Saint for His Time and for Our Time

The following has been adapted from talks given at St Alphege Church, Solihull; Our Lady and St Alphege Church, Bath; and St Joseph’s Church, Peasedown St John, and to the English Catholic History Association, Winchester Catholic History Society and Prinknash Abbey Book Club. Alphege is one of the outstanding saints from these lands, Bath’s greatest son, a gifted monastic leader, a radical bishop of Winchester and a self-sacrificing archbishop of Canterbury. He was to be revered throughout pre-Reformation England and beyond. I will make some general points about Alphege’s world, then set out what we know about the life and death of Alphege and finally suggest why he is important for us today.

“Gods by Office”: The ruler in <i>Measure for Measure</i>

King James I’s Basilikon Doron and The Trewe Law of Free Monarchies, originally published in Edinburgh, were reprinted in London in the year of his coronation there (1603). This essay explores the relationship between these two treatises on government and the ruler in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, the first of his ‘Jacobean’ plays. Maintaining the absolutist principle of divine right, James emphasised that “Monarchie is the trew paterne of Diuinitie”. At his coronation, the Bishop of Winchester examined this view in his sermon: “Princes cannot be Gods by nature, being framed of the same metal, and in the same moulde, that others are; It folweth directly, they are gods by Office...” Comparing Nature to the striker of coins in the mint – a traditional image – the Bishop asserted that however god-like the secular power of a prince, by nature he is merely a fallible creature of flesh and blood. Basilikon Doron designates “False coine” an “unpardonable” crime. The processes involved in reproducing a coin appear repeatedly in the imagery of Measure for Measure. “Coining” – Nature’s plenitude – is linked to the concept of “temperance” or “moderation”, the “measure” of the play’s title. James declares this his “cardinal rule” for kingship in Basilikon Doron. In Measure for Measure Shakespeare has constructed its exact opposite, pitting the extreme ascetic zeal of Isabella against that falsely professed by Angelo. Subverting the notion of absolute authority, Shakespeare’s final synthesis suggests that the good ruler will understand human frailty and treat it with compassion.

Landscapes of devotion: the settings of St Swithun's early uitae

AbstractAlthough post-Conquest uitae of St Swithun narrate the saint's earthly life, the original tenth-century accounts relate only his post-mortem miracles, professing ignorance of his life as bishop of Winchester. Most of the miracles in these pre-Conquest uitae take place in or in some way revolve around the site of the saint's relics at the Old Minster, Winchester. Late-tenth-century Winchester, along with the Benedictine Reformers who had taken up residence there, thus figures prominently in these miracle stories; indeed, Winchester comes to be the true protagonist of Swithun's pre-Conquest uitae. Moreover, each of Swithun's three pre-Conquest hagiographers – Lantfred, Wulfstan the Precentor and Ælfric – writes a different Winchester according to his relationship to that place. This phenomenon illuminates these writers’ differing relationships to the Benedictine Reform, as well as how the Reformers sought to write their own histories.

Two Unpublished Letters of Stephen Gardiner, August–September 1547 (Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms Eng. th. b. 2)

This note is a transcription of two hitherto unknown letters of Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester (c.1497–1555), found in an early seventeenth-century Catholic commonplace book (Bodleian Library, Oxford, ms Eng. th. b. 2). Composed in late August or early September 1547 and addressed to several of the royal Visitors of Winchester, the letters are a delaying tactic in Gardiner's ongoing resistance to the Edwardian Injunctions and the ‘Book of homilies’, an attempt to win time until the calling of the parliamentary session. The strongly theological content of the letters challenges traditional characterisations of Gardiner as primarily a legalist.

Reform in 1215: Magna Carta and the Fourth Lateran Council

Reform in 1215: Magna Carta and the Fourth Lateran Council Ken Pennington 800 years ago, in June and November of 1215, two great events took place that have shaped our imaginations about law, reform, and constitutional and individual rights to the present day: The meeting of King John of England with the magnates of his realm on the fields of Runnymede and the great church council in which the prelates of the Church gathered around Pope Innocent III in the papal basilica San Giovanni in Laterano were focused on the the great issues of the time. Both meeting produced documents that have been interpreted by scholars, read by students, and debated by everyone. By 1215 King John had lost almost all of his northern continental possessions. The core of the Angevin empire, Normandy, was lost. Anglo-French barons who still held lands in Normandy owed their primary allegiance to King Phillip Augustus, not to King John. The barons and churchmen who remained under his sovereignty chaffed under his rule. It is clear from the document that the barons forced John to sign when they met with John on Runnymede in 15 July 2015, they intended to impose reform on the king. We might sum up their objectives as being the administration of justice and defending their customary rights in what remained of the John’s kingdom. Magna Carta was a major event in King John’s reign. Because the archbishop of Canterbury, Stephen Langton, played such a significant role in the affair that took place on Runnymede, scholars have wondered about the connections canon law and its jurisprudence embedded in the Ius commune might have had in the minds of those who drafted the document.1 [End Page 97] A larger question is the relationship of the Ius commune to English common law in the early stages of its development. Charles Donahue wanted to have a word to illustrate the relationship. He chose ‘influence’. Twenty-five years ago he wrote:2 We need a word to tie the ius commune to the common law of England. The standard word is ‘influence’, and the standard meaning of the word is direct borrowing of rules and sometimes broader principles. That may seem as if it would be a statement that would evoke little controversy in the world of legal history. Nevertheless, it has. Scholarly attempts to explore the ‘influences’ that the jurisprudence of the Ius commune might have had on English common law and Magna Carta have been met with criticism, some of it rather pointed.3 In this essay I will examine possible ‘influences’ that the Ius commune may have had on Magna Carta and the relationship and possible connections between the two most significant reform assemblies in the early thirteenth century: the king, prelates, and barons who gathered at Runnymede and the pope, cardinals, bishops, abbots, and clergy who congregated in San Giovanni in Laterano. I begin at a strange place, neither in England nor in Rome, but in Rouen, France. A manuscript resides there that dates to the early thirteenth century and belonged to the lepers’ hospital of Saint Gilles in the Norman city of Pont-Audemer. It contains documents related to the hospital and its founding but also contains the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council and cheek by jowl a French translation of Magna Carta.4 James Clarke [End Page 98] Holt had examined the cartulary and published an edition of the French text in 1974.5 Holt tried to explain why Magna Carta was translated into French and why a copy of it found its way into a cartulary of a small foundation in Normandy. He noted that the manuscript copy of Magna Carta had the text of a writ addressed to the sheriff of Hampshire appended to it.6 The writ instructed the sheriff to compel people to obey the twenty five barons who had been designated by the charter to enforce its provisions.7 Bishop of Winchester, Peter des Roches was appointed the sheriff of Hamsphire in 1216.8 Bishop Peter had an unusually interesting career. Born in Touraine he rose from being the archdeacon in the diocese of Poitiers to become Lord Chamberlain...

The Medieval Art, Architecture and History of Bristol Cathedral: An Enigma Explored Edited by Jon Cannon and Beth Williamson (review)

Medieval Art, Architecture and History of Cathedral: An Enigma Explored. Edited by Jon Cannon and Beth Williamson. [Bristol Studies in Medieval Cultures.] (Rochester, NY: Boydell 8c Brewer. 2011. Pp. xviii, 350. $95.00. ISBN 978-1-84383-680-3.)The ten essays in this beautifully produced book evolve from a conference held at Cathedral (the medieval St. Augustine's Abbey) in September 2008. approach is interdisciplinary and provides important new insights on the topic, not least in the last essays in the volume that address The Monastic Community in the Late Middle Ages; The Conversion of St Augustine's, Bristol, to a Cathedral; and Secreta mea mihi: Wall Paintings from the Old Deanery of Cathedral. Yet not everything is covered; ideally, the book should be read alongside 1Almost the Richest City: in the Middle Ages, ed. Laurence Keen (Leeds, 1997). Beth Williamson and Jon Cannon articulate the enigma in the introduction, and Williamson returns with some new observations and questions in the epilogue. Roger Leech examines the early-medieval landscape setting of St. Augustine's, whereas John McNeill in The Romanesque Fabric provides the most complete study of the twelfth-century work to date. He presents unequivocal evidence for a high rib vault in the south transept and concludes that the presbytery must have been vaulted. He associates aspects of design variety with the work of Roger, bishop of Salisbury (1102-39), and Henry of Blois, abbot of Glastonbury (1126- 71) and bishop of Winchester (1129-71). Such analogues could have been taken further. For instance, the Romanesque nave aisle vault responds, with their paired half shafts to carry the transverse arch flanked by recessed nook shafts for the diagonal ribs, are paralleled in the chancels of the churches of St. John and St. Mary, Devizes (Wiltshire). Both of these may be products of Bishop Roger's patronage. Discussion of the place of the work in the so-called West School would have been welcome, with reference to such works as Worcester Cathedral chapter house for the segmental backs to the dado arcades, a feature also recorded at St. Philip and St. James, Bristol. Ideally, the influence of St. Augustine's on the nave doorways at Llandaff Cathedral and aspects of local parish churches should have been included. In Sarah Jane Foot's essay, she explores Marian symbolism of the Elder Lady Chapel and the documentation associated with it.A large part of the volume is devoted to Christopher Wilson's examination of the eastern arm of St. Augustine's. Wilson's essay is better read after the contributions by Paul Crossley and Jon Cannon. Crossley's Bristol Cathedral and Nikolaus Pevsner: Sondergotik in the West Country provides a concise historiography of the place of the eastern arm of St. Augustine's, Bristol, in the context of European architecture. In Berkeley Patronage and the Fourteenth-Century Choir, Cannon presents a carefully researched and even-handed assessment of the documentation associated with the building. …

The Waller Tomb at Stoke Charity, Hampshire: Conservative Monument or a Late Pre-Renaissance, Perpendicular Work?

This paper focuses on the Waller tomb monument that has an inscription which ostensibly dates it to 1525. The exceptional quality of the work, and its architectural sophistication, suggests close connections to work created in Winchester cathedral, through the patronage of bishop Richard Fox. Through comparative work, this paper proposes the attribution of the Waller monument to Thomas Bertie, the bishop of Winchester’s master mason from c. 1515, and makes a case for a revision of the dating of this tomb and the tomb’s place in the development of decorative architectural styles in the region.

Prices and production: agricultural supply response in fourteenth‐century England

This article challenges the growing consensus in the literature that medieval manorial managers were price responsive in their production decisions. Using prices of and acreages planted with wheat, barley, and oats on manors held by the bishop of Winchester from 1325 to 1370, price elasticities of supply are estimated for each grain in aggregate and on each particular manor. Aggregate price elasticities of supply for wheat, barley, and oats were rarely statistically significant and when significant were very low compared with elasticities estimated for developing and developed countries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The low levels of agricultural supply response in fourteenth‐century England suggest that commercialization was not as dominant in the medieval economy as has been argued. Thus, structural changes in the economy, such as the leasing of demesnes, the growth of wage labour, and the end of villeinage, may have been more important than price fluctuations in driving long‐run economic change after the Black Death. Likewise, a shift from low price responsiveness to higher price responsiveness could have been an important part of the capitalist transformation of agriculture in the early modern period.

GREECE AND ROME IN AMERICA

The classics appear conspicuously in the pamphlet wars of the American Revolution, though in the opinion of Bernard Bailyn (written many years ago), their presence is “window-dressing” and their influence “superficial.” They are “everywhereillustrative, not determinative, of thought” (my italics). Up the scale in influence comes Enlightenment rationalism, also “superficial” but only “at times”—that removes the foreigners, ancient and modern. Then, further up the scale are English common-law writers, “powerfully influential” though still insufficiently “determinative”; above them, a “major source,” New England Puritan thought and culture; and finally, at the top, seventeenth-century British “heroes of liberty” and the “early eighteenth-century transmitters of this tradition,” e.g. Commonwealth men, Bishop Hoadly. Who would have thought that the bishop of Winchester weighed in the balance more heavily than Plato and Aristotle? Only once in passing does Bailyn even mention Machiavelli, to whom J. G. A. Pocock, Quentin Skinner, and Harvey C. Mansfield would grant large prominence in the development of Revolutionary thought.

The voice of the king in ‘King Edgar's Establishment of Monasteries’

AbstractThe Old English text by Æthelwold, bishop of Winchester, known as ‘King Edgar's Establishment of Monasteries’ (EEM) is here viewed as an expression of royal ideology. The article argues that the final section of EEM, in the first person, should be interpreted as words attributed to Edgar himself. This re-reading strengthens the case for dating EEM to the period 966 x c. 970, and for suspecting a female audience. It is argued that EEM accompanied an early, feminized version of Æthelwold's translation of the Rule of St Benedict. This model of religious life related to the responsibility of Edgar's queen, Ælfthryth, for female houses, and reflected her alliance with Æthelwold. EEM offered a distinctive view of English ecclesiastical history subtly tailored to these purposes. The final section of EEM presented a sophisticated defence of female monastic endowment. Ælfthryth's role provides an important context for understanding the politics and representation of Æthelred's kingship in the 990s.

Gender, the State, and Episcopal Authority: Hernando de Talavera and Richard Fox on Female Monastic Reform

This article compares the work of two late medieval bishops and the guidelines each produced for convents. In the late fifteenth century, Talavera (1430–1507), bishop of Avila in Spain, wrote a treatise addressed to the Cistercian nuns of the city that touched on the core elements of female cloistered life. In 1517, Fox (1448–1528), then bishop of Winchester in England, chose to rewrite the Benedictine Rule in a format specifically addressed to women, adapting its principles more directly to the needs of female religious. A comparison of these two texts, their authors, and the environments in which each wrote facilitates a deeper understanding of the campaigns to manage and reform female monasticism in Spain and England. But it also invites a consideration of what a transnational examination of these questions might add to our understanding of female monasticism that has, until recently, been bound by strict geographies.

The Commemorative Foundations of William of Wykeham

The commemorative provision of William of Wykeham (d. 1404), the long-serving royal councillor and bishop of Winchester, was unparalleled in its scope, planning and ambition. As well as establishing chantries at Southwick priory, St George's Windsor, and Winchester cathedral, he founded colleges in Oxford and Winchester. His colleges, extraordinary in their scale, physical magnificence, and liturgical elaboration, should be seen in the context of the highest status foundations of the day, including the royal colleges at Windsor and Westminster.

Netley Abbey: Patronage, Preservation and Remains

Netley Abbey began to attract visitors in the 18th century, of whom John Milner was amongst the first to leave an account of the ruins. Certain carvings he saw in the south transept led him to suppose that Richard Fox, bishop of Winchester (1501–28), had been a benefactor to the abbey church. Subsequent historians then followed Milner's supposition. This paper refutes Fox's patronage and reveals the true identity of the patron of Netley. It discusses the nature of the patron's gift to the abbey church and how his friendship with William Paulet, who was granted Netley after the Dissolution, preserved it. The article concludes by presenting details of some of the carved imagery from Netley that survives and other remains recorded in the 19th century which may have formed part of the final phase of building and ornamentation of the abbey church prior to its dissolution.

The Life and Career of William Paulet (c.1475-1572), Lord Treasurer and First Marquis of Winchester

Paulet is a frustrating subject. There is not the evidential base for a meaningful biography. We have appointments to commissions, mention of Paulet doing this and that, but nothing with which to get below the surface. Although he lived to a great age (in harness), we do not know his date of birth; Professor Loades makes a good case for c.1475, thus making him 97 or so in 1572. Even the most conservative estimate would make him 86. A lawyer from an upper-gentry family, he did not attain significant government office until 1526, when he became joint Master of the King's Wards. He served Richard Fox and Thomas Wolsey, bishops of Winchester, and, like Thomas Cromwell, survived Wolsey's fall in 1529. For a couple of years he seems to have been considered the more significant of the two. He was especially prominent on unsuccessful missions to persuade Queen Catherine and Princess Mary to accept their diminished status following the Boleyn marriage. (I find it difficult to accept Loades's put-down of Mary's refusal to accept her bastardisation as ‘adolescent intransigence’.) Paulet famously survived the various changes of political and religious regimes, occupying offices in the royal household and becoming Lord Treasurer in 1550 (surrendering the Wards in 1554). Loades seems to be mistaken in suggesting that he voted against the introduction of the 1549 Prayer Book in the Lords, although he did record dissent from religious legislation in 1559. He accumulated, naturally, a considerable estate and built a magnificent house (according to ODNB the ‘largest in Britain’) on his inherited property at Basing. He rose through the peerage to the unusual and exalted rank of marquis in 1551, so promoted only a year after becoming an earl, presumably as reward for his key role in securing John Dudley's rule and thwarting the expectations of those who believed the fall of Protector Somerset would lead to a more conservative religious policy. For a time in Mary's reign, when the only duke (Norfolk) was still a minor, he was the premier peer of the realm. But, for all this, Loades can do little more than tell again the familiar political narrative, inserting Paulet's name where appropriate. The core of the book lies in two useful appendices, on land grants and forfeitures, and on offices, commissions and the like.

NICHOLAS OF GUILDFORD AND "THE OWL AND THE NIGHTINGALE"

'Maister Nichole of Guldeforde' appears as a personality in two passages of the Middle English poem known as The Owl and the Nightingale^- In the first of these (lines 187-214), the poem's eponymous protagonists agree that this 'Maister Nicole' is well qualified to act as arbiter of the dispute between the two of them, on the grounds that 'he is wise and careful with his words' ('he is wis an war of worde', line 192). In expressing her approval of him, the Owl remarks that, although he was once a little wild ('breme', line 202) and thus fond of nightingales and Other pretty little things' ('oper wi3te gente & smale', line 204), he has now calmed down and is these days too mature and judicious ('ripe and fastrede', line 211) to be swayed in the Nightingale's favour. In the second passage (lines 1745-80), the Wren tells the other two birds precisely where Nicholas is to be found - at home in 'Porteshom' (line 1752), which is, as she explains with almost pedantic exactitude, a 'village in Dorset next to the sea where there's an estuary' (At one tune ine Dorsete, / Bi J?are see in ore flete', lines 175 3 f.).2 The Wren is clearly determined to make sure that there can be no confusion about his address, especially when (as she also points out) he only has one 'woning' (line 1761) - that is, only one 'abode', or, more specifically, only one 'living' (in the sense of a clerical benefice). In her view, it is scandalous that a man of such signal abilities should have been treated so ungenerously; and she thinks it a disgrace, in particular, to Nicholas's bishops. They ought to ensure that he is enabled to display his talents more widely by providing him with the income from multiple livings ('rente a uale stude', line 1767). Indeed, 'J?eos riche men' (line 1770) do wrong to pass over so capable an individual in making such indiscriminate use of their powers of patronage - by which she presumably means their control of advowsons (the right to make appointments to benefices). Her emphasis on the unfairness with which such livings were distributed and, more specifically, her allegation of widespread nepotism (line 1775) - to the extent that even 'litle childre' (line 1776) could receive such rents - could be taken to imply criticism of the practice of clerical pluralism (the simultaneous occupation of multiple benefices);3 but in fact the Wren seems to have nothing against pluralism per se. What she objects to, specifically, is that her friend Nicholas has never been able to profit from it himself.The birds' lively partisanship for Nicholas is perhaps most elegantly explained as a witty piece of metafictional self-advertisement - he himself being the author of the poem.4 Even if he was not actually the author, he was presumably at least well enough known to the people who made up its intended authence for the references to him to have some point. Overall, the birds supply a remarkably large amount of information about him - including not just relatively factual details like his tide, surname, and address, but also various clues to his attitudes, capacities, and expectations. From that point of view, it is perhaps surprising that Nicholas has never been conclusively identified with any historically documented individual. Several candidates have been proposed - a Nicholas who was Archdeacon of London in the middle of the twelfth century; a 'Magister Nicholaus' employed by the Bishop of Winchester; a judge called 'Nicholas filius Thuroldi'; a canon lawyer called 'Nicholas de Aquila'; a chaplain called 'Nicholaus' recorded in 1209; a Nicholas who was 'submonitor capituli de Gudeford' in 1220; and a priest called Nicholas mentioned in the 1 220S.5 None of these men is actually called 'Nicholas of Guildford'; and indeed all of these identifications make very selective use of the evidence provided. In consequence, none of them has ever achieved any general acceptance among critics of the poem; and it now seems to be tacitly agreed that the hunt for the author of The Owl and the Nightingale (if that is what Nicholas was) is never going to be anything more than a wild goose chase. …