THE exceptional wealth of the benefice of Reculver
was a disturbing factor in the history of the parish. The Archbishops of
Canterbury had been in possession of the manor and the advowson of the
church since the gift by King Edred in 949. The Saxon abbey had then
ceased to exist, but the building continued in use as a parish church.
In the late thirteenth century it was the mother church of four
dependent chapels which had come into existence for the service of the
inhabitants of the manor who numbered over a thousand. The chapels were
at Hoath, St. Nicholas in Thanet, All Saints, no longer in existence,
between St. Nicholas and Birchington, and Herne.
On several occasions the Crown and the Papacy claimed the
presentation to Reculver for their nominees. From 1295 until 1308 there
were rival rectors, and violent seizures of tithes for four summers. In
the space of twelve years three rectors were notable men, John de
Langton, Edward I's chancellor, afterwards Bishop of Chichester
(1305-1337), |
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Simon of Faversham, who had served the University of
Oxford as chancellor of the University, and Nicholas of Tingwick, Edward
I's most trusted physician, a Balliol man and a benefactor of his
University. Archbishop Winchelsey, the most outstanding Oxford scholar
of his generation in church and state, made a fresh arrangement to
promote the spiritual welfare of the parishioners on his manor of
Reculver.
The parishioners suffered a grievous wrong when in 1276
Archbishop Kilwardby (1273-1278), a Dominican Friar, appropriated the
church of Reculver to two hospitals, the leper hospital of Harbledown
and the hospital of Northgate, Canterbury.1
They were founded by Archbishop Lanfranc (1070-1089) who charged the
revenues of the see of Canterbury with an annual payment of two hundred
and forty marks (£160) a year for their maintenance. Archbishop
Kilwardby intended
1 Calendar of Papal Letters,
I, p. 511; Gervase of Canterbury, Historical Works, II, p. 284
(Rolls Series). |