A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



There is no regular body of statutes of an 

 early date defining the duties of the various 

 members of the chapter ; but Mr. Leach is able 

 to show by numerous references that the neces- 

 sary functions of precentor, of sacrist or treasurer, 

 and of chancellor were duly discharged by par- 

 ticular prebendaries. 86 From quite early times 

 Southwell suffered from the invariable abuse of 

 all establishments of secular canons, the non- 

 residence of its highly-paid members. Owing 

 to the illicit sanction of pluralities and non- 

 residence, it came about that each canon had two 

 deputies, the one to act as parish vicar in his 

 prebendal or village church, and the other to 

 take his singing place in quire as vicar choral. 

 The non-residence of many of the Southwell 

 prebendaries must have been well established at 

 a fairly early date, for the bull of Alexander III 

 (1170) definitely assigns to the canons the right 

 to institute fit vicars, whom they please, in their 

 prebendal churches without anyone's interfer- 

 ence. 



The oldest ordinances of this church are those 

 of Archbishop Gray, dated 20 April I225. 87 

 These ordinances (sealed by the Southwell chap- 

 ter as well as by the archbishop) clearly endeav- 

 oured to secure better residence by a system of 

 rewards for attendance. By these ordinances, it 

 was provided that every canon attending mattins 

 on ordinary feasts was to receive 3^. from the 

 common fund, and bd. on double feasts. The 

 old common fund had been increased in 1221 

 by the appropriation to it of the rectory of 

 Rolleston Church, and the surplus of the whole 

 fund was to be divided equally among the 

 resident canons at Whitsuntide. To be a 

 resident canon and entitled to this portion the 

 canon had to reside three months at one time, or 

 in two halves, but the study of theology else- 

 where might count as residence. 



When this statute or ordinance of 1225 was 

 reconsidered by a convocation of the canons in 

 1260, it was decided, with the assent of Arch- 

 bishop GifFard, that the study of theology was 

 only to count as residence if the student followed 

 the regular course at Paris and Oxford or Cam- 

 bridge at least for two terms of the year. 88 Mr. 

 Leach concludes, with much probability, that 

 this explanatory ordinance was aimed at Italian 

 canons thrust upon the chapter by papal pro- 

 vision. 89 At the same time it was decided that 

 the absence of a canon at his prebend for the 

 purpose of preaching, hearing confessions, or the 

 fulfilment of like duties in his prebendal church, 

 provided he did not sleep more than three 

 nights out of Southwell, and had asked leave of 



M Mem. xxxviii-xlii. 



97 They were confirmed by Archbishop GifFard in 

 1 260, and have several times been wrongly cited as of 

 this latter date. York Epis. Reg. GifFard, fol. 3. 



88 Liber Albus, fol. 45. 



"Mem. xlvi. 



the other canons resident, was not to count as 

 absence. 



Non-residence was, however, so fully re- 

 cognized as the usual custom, that Archbishop 

 Romayne, when founding two new prebends in 

 1291, made provision at the same time for the 

 due appointment of prebendal and choral vicars 

 in each case. 90 At a visitation in 1293 the same 

 archbishop ordained that each canon was to have 

 a duly authorized proxy, that vicarages were to 

 be established in all the prebendal churches, and 

 that the prebendaries were to pay their vicars 

 choral 60;. a year. Thomas de Corbridge, the l 

 next archbishop, after visitation, provided in 1 302 

 that at all times three or at least two canons 

 were to be resident in the church, to hold chap- 

 ter, and personally in consultation direct and 

 handle business. 91 Henceforth this minimum of 

 canons residentiary was treated as if it was the 

 maximum. 



At a later period even this minimum was set 

 aside from time to time. Mr. Leach cites an 

 instance in 1361 of a single canon residentiary 

 ' making and holding a chapter,' whilst in the 

 1 5th and i6th centuries a single residentiary 

 constantly sat as a tribunal, described in the 

 official entries as ' making a chapter.' 92 



The later mediaeval Archbishops of York, in- 

 stead of trying like their predecessors to do some- 

 what to stay the plague of the Church's tithes 

 being squandered on sinecure pluralists, vied 

 with popes 93 and kings in its extravagant promo- 

 tion. 



An exceptional reason was given by Henry IV 

 in 1405 for permitting papal provisions for one 

 Brian de Willoughby, a Nottinghamshire clerk. 



90 Liber Albus, fol. 24. 



91 Ibid, fol 51, 52. 

 91 Mem. xlviii. 



13 The following are three papal examples of this- 

 pernicious practice. Dispensation was granted in 

 1259 by Alexander IV to John Clarel, canon of 

 Southwell, to hold one additional benefice, although 

 in addition to his prebend of Nonvell in Southwell 

 Church he already held the rectories of Overton,. 

 Hemingford, Bridgeford, Houghton, Elton, and 

 'Babworth' (Cat. of Papal Letters, i, 363). In July 

 1308 William Melthon, rector of Hornsea, Yorkshire, 

 was dispensed by Pope Clement V to hold a canonry 

 and prebend of Southwell, although he already held 

 canonries and prebends of Dublin, Bangor, and Wor- 

 cester, and two more rectories in the dioceses of 

 York and Lincoln. Two years later the same canon 

 of Southwell was further holding prebends in Lincoln 

 and York, the provostship of St. John's, Beverley, and 

 the deanery of St. Martin's le Grand, London (Cal. 

 of Papal Letters, ii, 42, 72). Master Robert de 

 Beverley, doctor of canon and civil law, obtained 

 papal dispensation in 1352 to hold a prebend of 

 Southwell, notwithstanding that he was then canon 

 of Beverley, sub-treasurer of York, rector of North 

 Burton, and expecting a benefice in the gift of the 

 provost of St. John's, Beverley ; Cal. cf Papal Letters f 

 iii, 425. 



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