Saved by the Bull

Many local people probably know that the ancient

stone tower of our village church of St Peter dates

back to the period following the Norman Conquest

of 1066 when there would have been a tiny chapel

attached which was probably about half the size of

the present building. What is perhaps lesser known

is the remarkable act of religious protest which was

planned there by the parishioners of our tiny rural

community during the early part of the 15th century.

The tiny hamlet of Needham or ‘Nedham’ was originally part of the Parish of Mendham and therefore the small chapel here was under the authority of Mendham Priory. But in 1329 an agreement was made with the Prior of Mendham which allowed the Needham congregation to use their Chapel as a fully functioning Parish Church instead of having to drag all the way over to Mendham for services, as they had been for centuries past. For this privilege they agreed to pay 18 pence per year (7.5p in today’s money) on Easter Day towards the repairs of Mendham Church and presumably for the provision of a Priest to administer the essential religious rites.  

Almost a century later this arrangement appears to have broken down and in 1411 the parishioners of Needham were up in arms because, according to Francis Blomefield’s History of the County of Norfolk (1805), “their chapel was not well served, though the Prior of Mendham was well paid his tithes.” Since religion was the defining issue in the lives of every Medieval person, especially the fate of their immortal souls after death, the lack of proper spiritual provision was a matter of huge importance.

Remarkably the residents of this small hamlet were not prepared to let this situation continue and having, presumably, complained to the Prior at Mendham and his superior the Bishop of Norwich it appears they were getting nowhere. So they decided to take their righteous protest all the way to the top and ask the Pope himself to help them.

To risk annoying your local highest ranking religious official was an exceedingly risky strategy at the time when the church was second only to the Crown in power and wealth. Then there was the additional issue of paying for a carefully worded letter written on expensive parchment by a professional scribe in Latin and then being able to afford to have it sent half way across Europe by courier.  

We can assume that a rich and influential local aristocrat or the Lord of one of the five Manors covering the village must have been backing this extraordinary altercation - possibly as part of an ongoing power struggle between a noble family and the local senior clergy.

There was, however, one major flaw in this bold plan – which Pope should be approached, as there were currently three men vying for the title? This was the period known as “the Western Schism” which had begun in 1378 when two competing popes emerged: ‘Antipope’ Benedict XIII in Avignon supported by France and Spain, and Pope Gregory XII in Rome supported by Italy, Germany and England.  In an attempt to resolve this intolerable situation, seven Cardinals convened the Council of Pisa in 1408 where they deposed both incumbents and a new Pope, Alexander V, was then elected in 1409. But Gregory and Benedict ignored this decision, so that there were now three simultaneous claimants to the Papacy.  Alexander V died soon after, and in 1410 Cardinal Cossa was consecrated as Pope John XXIII having become an ordained priest only one day earlier. And so it was to the newest appointee that the good folk of Needham sent their plea for help.

Under normal circumstances a letter from a bunch of whingeing nobodies in some obscure place called ‘Nedham’ in faraway England would probably have ended up at the bottom of the papal In-Box. But, obviously keen to show the world he was the only legitimate representative of Christ on Earth when he read this heart-rending complaint, Pope John sprang into action and issued a Papal Decree – known as a Bull. This was duly dispatched to Alexander De Totington, Bishop of Norwich. According to Blomefield’s book, the Bishop was instructed “to oblige the Prior of Mendham to find, and give security to him, that that convent would always find a parochial Chaplain resident in Nedham, well and duly to serve the chapel there.”

We can only imagine being a fly on the wall and seeing the look on the Bishop Totington’s face fall a mile as he read through this unexpected piece of correspondence from the Holy Father. I find it inspirational that even 500 years ago our ancestors in this small community didn’t just sit around moaning to each other, but were prepared take on the inertia of an entrenched bureaucracy only to be finally rewarded for all the risk and effort involved.

As part of the current Needham & Brockdish Community Heritage Project I’m hoping we can track down the original Papal Bull and get it transcribed into modern English by an expert. So watch this space…