ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



were favourite places of abode.'*' Durham indeed was, with its multiple 

 jurisdictions, increasingly the city of prior and convent, so that now the 

 Old Borough and Framwellgate were the sum total of the bishop's pos- 

 sessions in the immediate neighbourhood of the castle and precincts. 

 A papal 'document of 1372 proves the growing magnificence attained 

 by the monastery under this little-checked expansion, and it indicates 

 incidentally how severely other northern houses of less enviable character 

 and attraction had suffered from the Black Death, or from the decay of 

 monasticism. The pope in declining to facilitate a new appropriation by the 

 king to the prior and convent says : 



As there had been appropriated to the said prior and chapter four abbeys of religious in 

 which only priors are now instituted, in each of which were twenty-four monks and now 

 no more than fifteen in all four ; as likewise two other monasteries in each of which fifteen 

 persons dwelt, in both of which there are now ten ; as moreover thirteen parish churches 

 were appropriated and many other things conferred on them, it is probable that if the king 

 were sufficiently informed of this, he would not petition for the said appropriation seeing 

 further that in Durham there are now only fifty-six resident monks who when they go out 

 travel with three or four horses and spend more on food and clothing than befits the modesty 

 of their religion.'" 



A few years later under Bishop Fordham the prior and convent made petition 

 to Urban VI for the coveted distinction of wearing the full pontifical 

 insignia of mitre, staff, &c. The monastery pleaded in justification of the 

 concession that their annual income exceeded 5,000 marks, and that less 

 important houses possessed the desired privilege."^ 



If, as the registers show, Hatfield was rarely at Durham and often out 

 of the diocese altogether, he was certainly not neglectful of that part of the 

 city which was peculiarly the bishop's. It is probable that in his absence 

 the castle became more and more a garrison of soldiers. It was doubtless in 

 connexion with this use of the buildings that Hatfield lengthened the hall, 

 made alterations in the Constable's Hall, and built the lofty mediaeval keep, 

 which was in constant use for the next 100 years. '*^ The bishop's throne in 

 the cathedral is an apt symbol of the magnificence of Hatfield's episcopate. 

 He also built Durham House in the Strand for his residence when attending 

 at Parliament, and arranged a sumptuous appointment of chaplains in it.'*' 

 The register and rolls connected with Hatfield bear witness to the enormous 

 amount of business with which he and his officials had to deal.'** The 

 number of the latter and the variety of their offices, however, suggest that the 

 work was distributed. Moreover, suffragan bishops were commissioned for 

 intervals longer or shorter.'*' There is little evidence by which to test the 

 condition of intellectual and spiritual enlightenment, but we must bear in 

 mind the negative evidence of Hatfield's ordinances of 1353 alluded to above, 



'" A brief renewal of the dispute with the bishop is alluded to in 1 353 when a deed was enrolled (cf. 

 Cursitor Rolls, Hatf. i, D. m. 9) concerning criminal matters and the right to various dues. 



'" Cal. Papal Let. iv, 117. '" Low, Dioc. Hist. Dur. 196. 



'"The original authority is Chambre's Tres Scriptores, 138. See the forthcoming monograph of 

 C. C. Hodges on Durham Castle. 



'*' Tres Scriptores, loc. cit. See, too, Surtees Soc. vol. 52, xi ; Cal. Pat. 1377-81, p. 61 1. Later entries, 

 1387, Stowe MS. 1055 and 1475, Cursitor Roll 2, Booth, H. m. 6. 



'*' Described in Lapsley, op. cit. 99-103. 



"' In Hatfield's Register the bishops of Besanyon (also under de Bury), Langonen (Lango m the Cyclades) 

 [Eubel, Hierarchia Cathol. i, 304], Dimi(ta)cen (Domokos in Greece) [Ibid, i, 233], Le(i)ghli(n)en (Leighlin 

 in Ireland) [Ibid, i, 312-13] are mentioned as holding longer or shorter commissions. 



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