A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



the custom of hereditary succession in the rectories of the diocese.'* 

 Married clergy and their sons, who had succeeded to their fathers' 

 livings, were to be deprived and replaced by suitable persons. Thus, 

 William, rector of Rowley, who had succeeded his father, was deprived 

 and received in compensation the tithes of a chapelry in the parish." 

 Peter, rector of Weaverthorpe, appealed to the pope against the efforts 

 of Gray to eject him (1226). The pope ordered the archbishop to let 

 him stay there till another benefice should be forthcoming ; " but Gray 

 deprived Peter about 1228." Hereditary succession is not one of the 

 abuses mentioned by Alexander IV to Gray in 1255; clerical immorality 

 is censured, but no reference is made to marriage.'" Non-residence is 

 the subject of a letter from Gregory IX (1231), requiring personal 

 residence, or the appointment of a vicar. Persons holding several 

 benefices were to reside in one, and appoint vicars to the rest : in case 

 of neglect, the archbishop was to present, and, if necessary, institute 

 vicars." Alexander IV gave the Chapter of York permission to withhold 

 the prebendal incomes of non-resident canons.'^ 



Instances of appointments of foreigners to benefices occur at Stanwick 

 (1226)," Lastingham (1229),'* Adlingfleet (1234),*' and Birkby (iz^S).'' 

 John, known as Roman us, was Canon and Sub-dean of York, Archdeacon of 

 Richmond (1241-56), and afterwards Treasurer of York. His name is 

 connected with the building of the north transept and the central tower of 

 the minster"; and his son became archbishop. In 1220 Honorius III 

 decreed that, on the death of papal clerks provided to English benefices, the 

 right of presentation should revert to the original patrons.** This did not 

 check the abuse. In 1232 Robert Thweng revenged the collation of his 

 church of Kirkleatham to a foreign clerk without his consent by heading, 

 under the assumed name of William Wither, a band of marauders, who 

 sold the corn of the Roman clergy in England." His case was taken to 

 Rome, and supported by the English barons, and in 1239 Gregory IX 

 revoked the collation, and ordered the institution of Thweng's presentee. 

 It was ordained that henceforth no presentations to foreigners were to be 



" reri Reg. Gray (Surt. Soc), App. no. xv (pp. 140-141) : thoHist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 115. 



" Ibid. pt. i, no. Iii, cxxiii, cxxxvii (pp. 15, 26, 28). 



" Ibid. App. no. xxviii (p. 153). 



"Ibid. pt. i, no. civiii (p.32). On 18 Sept. 1228, however, a Peter de Wiveretorp was instituted 

 to the church of Rowley (no. cxxiii, p. 26), which looks like strict obedience to the pope's commands. 



•^ Ibid. App. no. Ixxix (pp. 215, 216) : 'pro manifesta concubinarum cohabitatione ' is the phrase 

 used. It does not necessarily imply that no marriage ceremony had been gone through. 



"Ibid. App.no. xli (pp. 165, 166). 



"Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 173: 'his exceptis, qui nostris vel fratrum nostrorum immorantur 

 obsequiis.' 



" Ibid. pt. i, no. xxxv (p. 9), ' Master Lawrence, canon of Aquileia.' 



" Ibid. no. cxxxv (p. 28), ' Cozoni, scriptor of the pope ' 



"Ibid. no. cckxxix (p. 67), ' Cinchinus Romanus, dericus.' 



" Ibid. no. ccclix(p. 82), 'Master Greg' de Monte Longo, notary of the pope.' 



" Stubbs, Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 409. 



"Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 113, 114. York Reg. Gray (Surt, Soc.), App. no. xii (pp. I37» 

 138 n). 



^ Roger Wendover (Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. [Rolls Ser.], iii, 217, 218). Thweng's rising was appar- 

 ently part and parcel of a rising mentioned in the previous year, when Cincius, a Roman clerk, and canon 

 of St. Paul's, was seized by armed men between St. Albans and London. Cincius was probably the person 

 mentioned above, note 85. The pope made John Romanus one of the commissioners to inquire into the 

 rising in the north. 



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