A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



payments varying from 2s. to 2os. In the deanery of Bingham four priests 

 each paid 2J., and four laymen 5-r. each. 



John de Neumarche, a layman of the parish of Bingham, was crucesfgnatus, 

 and fined 6s. %d. for laying violent hands on a certain priest. In the deanery 

 of Newark there were three fines of 2J., and one of 2os. ; the last of these was 

 imposed on a knight. There was an exceptional case at Southwell : Nicholas 

 de Cnoville, one of the canons, promised the archbishop out of his great 

 devotion, in order to merit the wearing of the sign of the cross, to pay 20 

 as the expenses of a suitable man to join the crusades, or to go to the Holy 

 Land with the general concourse of Crusaders in person. This undertaking 

 was committed to writing and substantiated by the diocesan seal. 8 * 



The well-arranged register of William Wickwane, archbishop from 

 1279 to 1286, affords many particulars as to the methodical execution of 

 episcopal functions in the archdeaconry of Nottingham. 



Wickwane's official mandate was issued to the archdeacon in November 

 1279, instructing him to seek out and receive any Nottinghamshire clerks who 

 had been imprisoned by the justices, and to transfer them to canonical custody. 3 * 

 An interesting mandate was served on the archdeacon in December 1280, 

 wherein the archbishop ordered him to demand the release of two of the 

 conversi or lay brothers of the monastery of Rufford who were in prison 

 at Nottingham, inasmuch as they wore the habit and insignia of religion, and 

 therefore were entitled to the immunity and privileges of clerks. The arch- 

 deacon was ordered to retain them in canonical custody until the archbishop 

 made known his further pleasure concerning them. 34 



The episcopal mandate in March 12801 was addressed to the Dean of 

 Nottingham and the rector of St. Peter's, instructing them to excommunicate 

 in all the churches of Nottingham on Sundays and festivals those who had 

 committed a violent assault on one Geoffrey Scathelockes, who bore the 

 distinct signs of being a clerk, and to do their best to ascertain the names of the 

 offenders. 35 



A curious case with regard to the ecclesiastical penalties for lay incontin- 

 ence was decided by the archbishop in 1279. Thomas de Gateford, a smith, 

 was convicted of adultery before the official of the archbishop at Southwell, 

 and was sentenced to a heavy fine and to public penance. Thereupon Thomas 

 protested that his poverty was such, as he could testify by his own oath and 

 by those of his neighbours, that it was impossible to pay any considerable fine, 

 but that he was prepared to accept the severest form of corporal punishment. 

 He also submitted that it was not just to impose the two-fold penalty, and 

 appealed to the archbishop. Wickwane decided in the man's favour, and 

 ordered the Archdeacon of Nottingham, his official, and the Dean of Retford 

 on no account to exact money from Thomas ; for ecclesiastical discipline was 

 never intended for the extortion of fees, but for the correction of life; but they' 

 were to see that public penance was duly carried out in the market-place and 

 the churches. 36 



The references to the holding of plurality of benefices are not numerous in 

 Wickwane's registers so far as Nottinghamshire is concerned. In June 1280 

 two commissaries of the archbishop sanctioned the holding of the churche? 



" York Epis. Reg. Giffard, fol. 122 d., 135 d., 140 d. * Ibid. Wickwane, fol. 120. 



14 Ibid. fol. 178 d. M Ibid. fol. 179. " 6 Ibid. fol. 120. 



46 



