Qualla: Dartmouth Friary https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:11 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Dartmouth Friary https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary Dartmouth Friary: Introduction https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. In 1329 the vicar of Townstal, the parish church on the hill above Dartmouth, was said to have drowned himself. The Bishop of Exeter responded by placing the church under interdict for two years, forbidding any religious services in it. For the ordinary people of Dartmouth, this was awkward in an unusual way. To attend the Eucharist they had to climb a steep hill in all weathers to reach a church that was now closed. The bishop made provisions for a wealthy burgess to hold services in his house, but the general public got nothing. Out of that small bureaucratic cruelty grew one of medieval England's stranger short-lived institutions: a riverside Augustinian friary that lasted just sixteen years, was excommunicated, papally rescued by an apparently fraudulent bishop, and finally demolished by order of an ecclesiastical court in Avignon.

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Dartmouth Friary: The Hill Problem https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dartmouth is built on the steep western bank of the River Dart, with the historic parish church of Townstal high above the water. From about 1198 the church had belonged to Torre Abbey, granted shortly after the abbey's founding by the Premonstratensian order. When the bishop of ...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-the-hill-problem.mp3 0:06 2 full Dartmouth Friary: Bacon's Friars https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Dissatisfied with the impasse, William Bacon took a different route. Early in 1331 he negotiated to give the same acre of land in Clifton to two Augustinian Hermits, on which they were to build an "oratory and dwelling houses." They built promptly. By the end of 1331, Bishop Gran...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-bacons-friars.mp3 0:06 3 full Dartmouth Friary: The Bishop of Damascus https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Before the final decision came back from the appeal at Avignon, the friars' fortunes briefly and dramatically turned. In March 1344, a Bishop Hugo of Damascus OSA arrived in Dartmouth. He was a suffragan bishop "in partibus," meaning he held the title of a see in non-Christian te...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-the-bishop-of-damascus.mp3 0:06 4 full Dartmouth Friary: The Other Side of the Dispute https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Beneath the comedy and the canon-law detail, there are real people. The widow Elena Cove deserves a moment. She held property at Clifton near the river, and the burgesses and friars effectively dispossessed her in the rush to build the new chapel. She went to court, fought her ca...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-the-other-side-of-the-dispute.mp3 0:06 5 full Dartmouth Friary: Resolution, and a Church That Stayed https://qualla.com/dartmouth-friary/ Photo credit John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0. The dispute over a parish church at the waterside was not settled until 1372. A charter dated 4 and 5 October that year recorded the assent of the Abbot of Torre and the vicar of Townstal to consecrate the chapel, provided that the parishioners themselves bore the cost of service...

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]]> Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/b/v/q/dartmouth-friary-wp/gbvq-dartmouth-friary-resolution-and-a-church-that-stayed.mp3 0:06 6 full