The next chapel of which anything definite is known is “Notre Dame de Pulias,” otherwise “La Chapelle de l’Epine.” The ground on which it stood lies on the sea-shore, to the northward of the promontory of Noirmont, and, though separated from the rest of the parish by an intervening strip of land belonging to the Vale, forms in reality part of St. Sampson’s. The Vale parish consists of two distinct portions, the larger of which, called “Le Clos,” was, until the beginning of the present century, entirely divided from the rest of the island by an arm of the sea, which extended from St. Sampson’s Harbour to the Grand Havre near the Vale Church, and which was only passable at low water. The inhabitants of that part of the parish attached to the mainland of Guernsey, and which is called “La Vingtaine de l’Epine,” were thus cut off at times from all access to their parish church, and appear to have made use of this building, as a chapel of ease. It stood close to “La Mare de Pulias,” and in this neighbourhood a bit of wall is still shown, which is said to have formed part of the chapel. It is probable that it was under the patronage of the Seigneurs of Anneville, for the earliest notice found of this chapel is in an “extente” of this fief, dated 1405, in which it is stated that the common lands, extending along the shore between “La Chapelle de Notre Dame de Pulayes” and the rivulet of St. Brioc at Rocquaine, belong in moieties to the Abbot of St. Michel and the Lord of Anneville. This chapel had an endowment, for we find by the report of the Royal Commissioners of 1607 that the parishioners of the Vale and St. Sampson’s petitioned that it might be restored to them, complaining—
“That whereas their predecessors, the inhabitants of the Vingtaine of the Epine, had in former times built a chapel, with a churchyard, for divine service, by reason of the sea, which doth oftentimes hinder them from going to their parish church of the Valle; and that since that time His Majesty’s Commissioners having considered how necessary that chapel was for them, it hath pleased the late Queen Elizabeth to grant unto them yearly ten or twelve quarters of wheat, for the maintenance both of the said chapel, and also of a schoolmaster to instruct their children; notwithstanding all which the said chapel, together with the churchyard, hath been utterly ruinated and the trees beaten down, and the grounds and rents belonging thereunto taken away, to the great grief and prejudice of the said parishioners, and therefore they humbly desire that the said chapel be built again by them that have thus ruinated it, and the rents belonging thereunto, for so necessary a use, be restored unto them again, with the tithes and rights concerning it.”
The answer and decision of the Commissioners was not satisfactory. They owned there was probably a chapel of ease on that spot, and they go on to state that, having examined some aged people who dwelt near the place, as well as the Lieutenant-Governor and other officers, they find that ten or twelve quarters of wheat had been given either towards the maintenance of the chapel or of a schoolmaster, and that some had heard divine service said there about the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth and long before, but they can find no evidence to prove that it was founded or built for a chapel of ease, the complainants accounting for the absence of documentary evidence in support of their claim by alleging that the Governor had taken it away with him. The Commissioners go on to say that on further examinations they have had there was a certain Popish superstitious service used therein, and that wheat rents had been given by certain inhabitants for the saying of a morrow mass upon Sundays, and for such like superstitious uses, and that about forty years previously, the chapel, with all appertaining to it, had been seized for the use of the Queen. The conclusion they arrived at was that the seizure was legal, and should be maintained.
At the north-east extremity of the Clos-du-Valle, near the estate called Paradis, and a little way beyond the cromlech called Déhus or Thus, stood La Chapelle de Saint Malière or Magloire, an early apostle of the island.
All traces of this chapel have long since disappeared, but its site is still pointed out as being that of a little thatch-covered cottage on the side of the hill.[90] The old farmhouse close by, called “St. Magloire,” is said to have been the residence of the priest attached to its service.
It is mentioned as early as the year 1155 in a Bull of Pope Adrian IV. (Breakspear), together with other churches and chapels in Guernsey, as being the property and in the patronage of Mont Saint Michel. The only other notice we have of this chapel is the tradition recorded by some of our historians that, at the time of the Reformation, the plate, ornaments, vestments, and records, belonging to the churches in this island, were secretly buried here by the Roman Catholic clergy, with a view to their removal to Normandy when a fitting opportunity should offer, but that one John Le Pelley, a schoolmaster, having by some means got information of the circumstances, dug them up some few years later, and sold them to some Normans of Coutances, who conveyed them away.
Saint Magloire was the nephew and pupil of Saint Samson, and was born in the middle of the sixth century. He succeeded his uncle, Samson, as Bishop of Dol, but after a few years resigned his charge and retreated to Sark, where he founded a sort of monastery or missionary college, and where he died. His remains were translated in the ninth century to Léhon, near Dinan, and afterwards to Paris, where they were deposited in the church which still bears the name of the saint.
Two localities in the immediate neighbourhood of St. Malière bear the singular names of “Paradis” and “Enfer.” Tradition is entirely silent as to the origin of these names, but it is possible that they may have been in some way connected with the chapel, and with some of the superstitious usages so common among the nations of Celtic origin.
The Chapel of St. Clair was named after the first Bishop of Nantes, who lived in the third century. This chapel stood on the hill a little to the eastward of the farmhouse in Saint Sampson’s parish which still bears the name. In clearing the ground for quarries of late years many human bones and a few gravestones have been discovered there.
It was situated on the “Franc-Fief Gallicien,” the tenants of which enjoy to this day an exemption from certain feudal duties, which is said to have been granted to their forefathers by King Edward IV. in acknowledgment of the services rendered by them as mariners in bringing him to this island from Exmouth, when, as Earl of March, he escaped with the famous Earl of Warwick, and their followers from England, after a victory gained by Henry VII. over the Yorkist party in October, 1459.