former cases. Some of these are also obliged, by their tenure, to perform the office of Sergeant of the fief. Such persons in the old Coutumier are called prevots, receiveurs, and commandaires. In private men's fiefs, most commonly the rents are received by Prevots, but in fief le comte and some others, they are by Grangiers.

1

1 Warburton, p. 68.

R

CHAPTER IX.

1

THE historian of Jersey, 1 tells us, "That some writers not well acquainted with our affairs, have made us one with England, as to lay us within a particular county, viz. Hampshire; 2 but this is a great mistake. This misconception I suppose must have arisen from the island having been placed, with regard to its ecclesiastical government only, under the see of Winchester, on the 14th of March, A.D. 1568. The first providential step towards the conversion of these islands to Christianity, (says the same author), was the migration of holy men in great numbers, bishops and priests, and a pious laity, out of Great Britain into Armorica, (Bretagne,) flying from before the face of the prevailing heathen Saxons.

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Among these fugitives, the most conspicuous, as for the sanctity of his life, so for the eminence of his character, was St. Sampson, who had been a Metropolitan in Great Britain, but whether of York or Menevia, (now St. Davids), is so little agreed upon, that after all the pains taken by our most learned Usher, to collect and compare vouchers on both sides, the matter remains in obscurity. That he was a British archbishop, and carried the pall with him into Armorica, is certain and confessed by all; his reception there was likewise answerable to the rank he had held in his own country, the See of Dol being

1 Falle's Cæsarea, p. 31; second edition, p. 145.

2 Warburton says, "The Sheriff of Hampshire has nothing to do with Guernsey, nor can he have, for no writ out of any of the courts of law in Westminster-hall does reach to these islands." p. 6.

conferred on him, and in his favour erected into a Metropolis. "1 And because the same was but of narrow extent; unequal to the dignity to which it was now raised, great accessions were made to it by the munificence of princes. These islands were then under the kings of France, who had lately embraced Christianity; and Childebert gave some islands and lands in Normandy, Rimoul, Augie, Sargie, and Vesargie, which were islands on the coast," for so (says Falle) I find in old instruments and records, that Augie was the ancient name of Jersey, the other three must therefore be Herm, Sark, and Guernsey. Alderney is not in the grant, because too remote from Dól.

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When the islands became Christian, 2 we may presume that chapels were erected, especially by the Benedictine Monks, who founded a monastery in the Vale, in the year 966; but it does not appear that any parochial church was erected before 1110 or 1111; and if we can believe the authority, the first church was dedicated to St. Sampson, on the 22nd of May 1111, which to this day is called L'Eglise de Paroisse de St. Sampson.

"St. Sampson was a worthy prelate, famous in his time; he subscribed to the third Council of Paris, and finished his course (says Falle) about the year 565. Most of the sees in Armorica were then filled with British bishops, who had accompanied St. Sampson in his flight; but in his own diocese and metropolitan dignity, he left his nephew, St. Magloire, (a Briton likewise,) to succeed him. And this was he, whom it pleased God to make the happy instrument of bringing these islands, which sat in darkness, and the shadow of death, to the knowledge of

1 Till then the Bishop of Armorica had been suffragans of Tours. Dol maintained its new dignity above six hundred years, when it was restored to Tours. Falle's note in loco.

2 The reader is referred to page 65, for the further particulars of the introduction of Christianity into these islands.

himself. This holy man, the better to fulfil the work of an Evangelist, resolved to quit his bishoprick, and accordingly resigned it to St. Budoc, one of his disciples; then taking with him a select number of proper assistants, he sailed for the islands. Jersey lies nearest to Dol; however for that time he passed it by, and landed in Sark, which is some leagues beyond, choosing that small place for recollection and prayer, before he entered further on his ministry. And there he raised a little monastery or college of priests, for a supply to the islands in after times, by whom (says Falle) I make no doubt but the word of Salvation was carried over to Guernsey, for I do not find that he was ever himself in Guernsey in person. Having done this he sailed again, and came to Jersey, where, by his powerful preaching, his exemplary living, and the mighty works, which God wrought through his means, (if the writer of his life may be credited), he laboured so successfully, that the Governor of Jersey and all the inhabitants, renouncing idolatry, were baptized in the faith of Christ. The rest of his life he spent in Jersey, for here also he died, and was buried in a little chapel, hard by the free-school in the parish of St. Saviour, corruptly called St. Mauliere's-school."

Thus did Christianity gain entrance into these islands before the end of the sixth century; and that at a time when it was yet pure and unmixed with any hurtful errors, either in faith or practice. It was the same Christianity which the old British churches professed antecedently to Austin's mission into England by Gregory the Great. For they, who first preached it to us, were themselves ministers of those churches. Bishop Jewel, it is well known, challenged the adversaries of the Reformation to show, though but in one single point, that Popery, truly such, had any existence in the world for the first six hundred years after Christ. Our conversion falls within those years. "It was wrought within that period, which I desire (says Falle) to have well noted, lest some by confounding times, go away

with the notion that our St. Sampson and St. Magloire were belike such saints, as they whom Rome has canonized in latter ages, and with whose forged miracles the Popish legends are filled. Those deserve the honour, as much as these, or most of them are unworthy of it. And yet those good men could not have their pious labours for religion transmitted to posterity by Monkish writers, without some allay of fables and fictions.”

The religious reader, after perusing Falle's foregoing account of the planting of Christianity in these islands, will most naturally reflect on the mysterious and inscrutable ways of Providence, in having produced such beneficial effects, from so lamentable a cause as religious persecution. It may also remind him of the late dispersion of the heir to the Crown, and now monarch of France, with the French bishops and clergy, driven from their home, to seek an asylum in the bosom of Old England; and who were so hospitably received by us, as not only to cancel the debt imposed by the Saxons, above-mentioned, but to repay it with large interest. If, in the former instance, good came out of evil, may not the correction and chastisement of the Gallican church produce equally good effects? May not the late residence of the French Sovereign and his clergy among us, have taught them to revere the character of that protestant government, and of those people, who with open arms thus charitably received them in their distress? and may it not be the means of softening the animosities heretofore subsisting between the catholics and protestants; and of promoting that peace upon earth which every friend to humanity and religion so ardently desires.

It appears that the church government continued for about 350 years under the see of Dol; and that the same was then withdrawn from that diocese, and transferred to the bishopric of Coutance. 66 They placed us (says Falle) under the Bishop of Coutance, who being the nearest, was for that reason the fittest to have the superintendency over us at that period."