ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



But in some cases, as happens at the present day, a country vicar was 

 better off than a rector. A few of the rectories had a very low income ; thus 

 the rectories of Colwick, Nuthall, Eakring, and three or four others were only 

 worth 5- 



There was a considerable increase in the number of appropriated 

 churches before the next taxation roll of benefices was drawn up in 1535, 

 known as the Valor Ecclesiasticus. 



At that time there were 18 rectories and 14 vicarages in the deanery of 

 Nottingham ; 29 rectories and 14 vicarages in the deanery of Bingham ; 

 1 6 rectories and 27 vicarages in the deanery of Retford ; 1 5 rectories and 

 1 6 vicarages in the deanery of Newark ; and i rectory and 20 vicarages in 

 the jurisdiction of Southwell. This gives a total of 79 rectories and 

 91 vicarages. In three cases these rectories were in duplicate, for there 

 were two rectors in each of the three parishes of Cotgrave, Trowell, and 

 Treswell. 



The 1 4th century opened with the episcopate of Thomas Corbridge, who 

 was consecrated Archbishop of York at Rome by Pope Boniface VIII, on 

 28 February 1300. There are but few incidents relative to the archdeaconry 

 of Nottingham recorded during his brief rule. In 1300 the archbishop 

 licensed the construction of a south aisle to the Nottingham church of 

 St. Peter, with an altar dedicated to St. Anne." 



On 31 May 1301 Corbridge received from William de Newark, Canon 

 of Southwell, a missal after the Use of York, which he promised to restore to 

 him whenever required. 77 He died at Laneham, Nottinghamshire, on 

 22 September 1304, and was buried in the collegiate church of Southwell on 

 Michaelmas Day. 78 



After two years' vacancy, the see was filled by the appointment of 

 William Greenfield, who ruled from 1306 until his death in 1315. Arch- 

 bishop Greenfield licensed the consecration of the altar of Our Lady in 

 the church of the Carmelites, Nottingham, in 1308, and two years later he 

 licensed the Franciscan Friars of the same town to obtain consecration by any 

 Catholic bishop for their renewed church and its altars. 79 



The appropriation of the church of Saxondale and of medieties of the 

 churches of North Muskham and Shelford were sanctioned by the archbishop 

 in 1 3 1 o- 1 1 . 80 



In 1312 Greenfield granted licence to the parishioners of Newark to 

 remove their chapel within the churchyard of their parish church, constructed 

 by Archbishop Henry de Newark (1296-9). Nothing had been given 

 towards its sustentation nor for the support of a perpetual chantry therein, 

 nor had it been in any way dedicated, and it stood deserted. The space it 

 occupied was much needed for burial purposes. The archbishop ordered 

 that the timber, stone, lead, glass, and iron were to be used in the fabric of 

 the church. Special mention was to be made of Henry and all other 

 archbishops in the canon of the mass. 81 The church of Newark a little later 

 became polluted by effusion of blood, and on 7 May 1 3 1 3 a commission was 

 issued to Walter, formerly Archbishop of Armagh, to reconcile it. 8 



82 



" Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 100*. " Raine, Hist. o/Tcrk, 358. " Ibid. 360. 



" Ibid. 378. " Harl. MS. 6970, fol. 238. " Ibid. fol. 439. 



81 Ibid. Walter de Jorge held the archbishopric of Armagh from 1306 to 1311. 



55 



