CHAPTER II--MEDIAEVAL GIFTS



It was considered in the Middle Ages that tithes might be applied to
any church purpose, and were not the exclusive right of the actual
parish priest, provided he obtained a sufficient maintenance, which
in those days of celibacy was not very expensive. The bishops and
other patrons thus assigned the great tithes of corn of many parishes
to religious foundations elsewhere, only leaving the incumbent the
smaller tithe from other crops--an arrangement which has resulted in
many abuses.

Thus in 1301, when Bishop Sawbridge or Points, or as it was
Latinised, de Pontissara, founded the college of St. Elizabeth, in
St. Stephen's, Merdon, by the Itchen at Winchester, for the education
of twelve poor boys by a provost and fellows, he endowed it in part
with the great tithe of Hursley. The small tithes having been found
insufficient for the maintenance of the vicar, he united to Hursley
the rectory of Otterbourne, giving the great tithes to the vicar of
Hursley; and in 1362 Bishop Edyngton confirmed the transaction.

Mr. Marsh thus relates the transaction:-

"The Living of Hursley was anciently a rectory, and, as it is
believed, wholly unconnected with any other church or parish.
Unfortunately, however, for the parishioners, as well as for the
minister, it was, about the year 1300, reduced to a vicarage, and the
great tithes appropriated to the College of St. Elizabeth in
Winchester. The small tithes which remained being inadequate to the