RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



well-defined estate existed at the period in the 

 hands of any subject between the Humber and 

 the Welland. 61 



It is probable that the foundation of the col- 

 legiate church followed hard upon the arch- 

 bishop's acquisition of his great estate. Oskytel, 

 the recipient of the grant in question, is one of 

 the obscurer Archbishops of York, but he is 

 known to have been connected with the group 

 of ecclesiastical reformers of whom Dunstan 

 was by tradition the leader. It has, therefore, 

 been contended that such a man, whose personal 

 relations lay all with the monastic party in the 

 English Church, would not have been likely to 

 found an establishment of secular canons ; 62 an 

 argument which is arbitrary at the best, and 

 scarcely admits the possibility that a prelate might 

 be a zealous advocate of monasticism and yet 

 recognize the need of working by means of men 

 outside the rule. In so far as our knowledge at 

 present extends, it certainly implies that the 

 church of Southwell should pay the honours of 

 a founder to Archbishop Oskytel. 63 



The new foundation was destined for a life of 

 unexampled length, but it is more than a century 

 after the times of Eadwig and Oskytel before 

 materials sufficient for a connected narrative of 

 its fortunes begin to accumulate. By 1000, as 

 we have seen, the church contained the shrine 

 of St. Eadburh. In 1051 Archbishop JElfnc 

 Puttoc died at Southwell, an event which prob- 

 ably implies the existence of an archiepiscopal 

 residence in the vicinity of the church. 54 JE\- 

 fric's successor Cynesige (1051-60) gave bells 

 to the latter; 68 and the first phase in the history 

 of the minster comes to an end with the death 

 of Ealdred, the last native Archbishop of York, 

 who had established a common refectory for the 

 use of the canons, and had created a number of 

 prebends in the church out of certain estates 

 which he had procured for his see with his 

 private wealth." 



41 The charter recognizes exceptions to the arch- 

 bishop's ownership in Normanton, Upton, and 

 Fiskerton. 



61 We may compare the action of Remigius of 

 Lincoln, himself a monk, who founded an establish- 

 ment of secular canons in connexion with his new 

 cathedral in the latter city. 



" This statement does not imply that no earlier 

 church existed in Southwell. It is quite possible that 

 a minster upon the royal demesne there already in 

 956 contained the relics of St. Eadburh. In this 

 case, the foundation of the college of canons would 

 be paralleled by the action of Ethelred II sixty years 

 later in establishing a similar body in connexion with 

 the minster at Oxford, ' where the body of the blessed 

 Frideswide reposes.' 



M Hist, of the Ch. of York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 343. 



" Ibid. 344. 



56 Ibid. 353. The Chronicle from which these 

 pieces of information are derived was formerly ascribed 

 to the hand of Thomas Stubbs (c. 1350), and has 



There is good evidence, then, that the pre- 

 bendal system had been established at Southwell 

 before Ealdred's death in 1069. By this system 

 each canon fulfilled a double function that of a 

 parish priest in the church which gave title to 

 his prebend, combined with participation in the 

 duties of the collegiate body of which he was a 

 member. In course of time, as will appear 

 hereafter, the average prebendary discharged his 

 parochial office by means of a resident vicar ; 

 and was represented in the choir of Southwell 

 by a vicar choral the practice of non-residence 

 played havoc with the theory on which a college 

 of secular canons was founded. 67 By the middle 

 of the 1 3th century at the latest non-residence 

 was recognized as the normal condition of 

 affairs ; and the two last prebends of Eaton and 

 North Leverton were provided, at the time of 

 their creation, with a special endowment for 

 vicars parochial and choral. 



The full number of prebends attached to the 

 church was sixteen, a number completed in 

 1291 by the separation of North Leverton from 

 Beckingham. We possess information in some 

 detail about the foundation of seven of these 

 prebends ; the date at which the remainder were 

 created is a matter of inference. The evidence 

 bearing upon the latter may here be given in a 

 concise form. 



1. The Sacrists' pretend. No endowment in 

 land, but probably early, as connected with the 

 maintenance of the services of the church. 



2. Normanton. Undoubtedly early ; the pre- 

 bendary of Normanton was patron of the 

 vicarage of Southwell, and the statement in 

 Domesday Book that 2 bovates in the manor 

 of Southwell were in prebenda almost certainly 

 refers to the Normanton prebend. 68 



3. 4, 5, Norwell /, //, ///. The church 

 of Southwell had possessed a manor of Norwell 

 before the Conquest. Norwell I was the most 

 valuable of the sixteen prebends ; Norwell II 

 was also valuable ; Norwell III much less so. 

 This looks as if the latter was a later creation 

 than the two former, but as there is no record 

 of its foundation it had probably come into being 

 before the archiepiscopate of Thurstan, from 

 whose time we have complete information on 

 the subject. It seems probable that in the Nor- 

 well series we have two, possibly three, of Eal- 

 dred's prebends. 



6. Woodborougb. The prebendary of Wood- 

 borough may safely be recognized in the ' clerk ' 



been incorrectly cited as the work of Hugh the 

 Chantor of York (c. 1135) ; but it was shown by 

 Raine (Hist, ii, Pref. p. xx) that the first part of the 

 Chronicle in question belongs to an anonymous author 

 of the early part of the 1 2th century. 



67 So late as the time of Thurstan an attempt was 

 made to keep up the common refectory ; Hist, of the 

 Church of York, iii, 47. 



*V. C.H.Notts, i, 219. 



153 



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