ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



general chapter ; which they were forbidden to attend in consequence." 

 The secular foundations of the diocese flourished under Gray."" For Ripon 

 he secured the church of Stanwick, by composition with the canons of 

 Easby,'^ and in 1241 he gave the chapter the church of Nidd."* When he 

 travelled he was allowed by Honorius III to have the four dignitaries of the 

 church of York in attendance, when necessary, and thus he was able to 

 keep in touch with diocesan business.^' He conveyed the manor of Bishop- 

 thorpe in trust to the chapter of York."* 



The works of the transept of York," the quires of Beverley ^^ and 

 Southwell,"' and the west front of Ripon,*" were furthered by him ; while the 

 older portions of Bishopthorpe and the chapel of the palace at York '^ belong 

 to his rule. In 1224 he translated the body of St, Wilfrid to a new shrine 

 at Ripon*" ; in 1226, he procured the canonization of St. William, whose 

 shrine at York henceforward became a centre of devotion.'* 



Gray died i May 1255 at Fulham.** Henry III seized the opportunity 

 of appropriating the revenues of the archbishopric. The chapter elected 

 their dean, Sewall de Bovill, the friend and disciple of Edmund Rich ; but 

 Henry objected to Sewall's illegitimate birth." Sewall was eventually 

 consecrated *° ; but his short pontificate was a heart-breaking struggle with 

 the foreigners who were intruded into the benefices of the diocese. A 

 foreigner, armed with a papal provision, came into York Minster one day 

 at an hour when no one was about, and was installed dean by two companions. 

 Sewall was interdicted for resisting the intrusion, and had to buy off the 

 intruder with an annual pension." Further resistance to papal demands led 

 to his excommunication.** On his death bed (1258) he addressed a letter 



" Matt. Paris, op. cit. iv, 234-5. 



" Among his benefactions to York should also be mentioned the appropriation of Knaresborough Church 

 to the prebend of Bickhill (fori Reg. Gray, no. ccxviii, 51) in 1230, and Thockrington Church, North- 

 umberland, to the stall held by Master Laurence of St. Nicholas (ibid. App. no. xxii (4), p. 148) in 1222. 

 See also App. no. xxx (p. 154 seq.). 



"' Ibid. pt. i, no. cxix (p. 24 seq.) ; ccxix (pp. 51, 52); ccxl (p. 57). 



" Ibid. no. ccccv (p. 91). 



" Ibid. App. no. xxxii (p. 1 57 seq.) ; also Hist. Ch. Tori (Rolls Ser.), iii, 136, I 37. 



'^ Ibid. App. no. Ixi (p. 192 seq.) ; also Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 155 seq. The date is 22 March 

 1 240-1. 



'" Ibid. pt. i, no. xl (p. 10), App. no. Ix (pp. 190, 191) ; also Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), iii, 135, 136, 

 153 seq. The date of the first document is 18 July 1226 ; of the second document that mentioned in the 

 preceding note. See also Stubbs, Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), ii, 402. 



^ Tork Reg. Gray (Surt. Soc), pt. i, no. ccxxxv (pp. 55, 56) : 16 July 1232. 



"Ibid. no. cclxxvii (pp. 64,65): 23 Nov. 1233. 



'° Ibid. no. cclxxviii (p. 65) : 27 Nov. 1233. 



'* Now the chapter library. 



" Tork Reg. Gray. (Surt. Soc), App. no. xxiii. The translation took place on Christmas Day. See note 

 60, 61 above (p. 7) ; also Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), iii, 124, 125. 



'' See Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), iii, 127 seq.; 133, 134 ; 138 seq. 



^* Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), pp. 495, 496. Stories of Gray's avarice are told by Wendover, 

 ibid, iii, 299, 300. 



" Matt. Paris, Chron. Maj. (Rolls Ser.), v, 516. Romanus the elder died in 1256 ; the king seized on 

 his prebend and other possessions. 



" He was consecrated at York by his suffragans, 23 July 1256 (Stubbs, Hist. Ch. Tork [Rolls Ser.], ii, 404). 

 See Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), iii, 174, 175, for a document [Tork Reg. Giffard [Surt. Soc. cix], 251), by which 

 the chapter, on l Oct. 1255, bound themselves to pay 200 marks to the subchanter for his prosecution of 

 the candidature of Sewall at Rome, and pledged the church of South Burton, and the manor and church of 

 Brotherton, as security for payment. 



'' Matt. Paris, op. cit. v, 586, 624. The foreign intruder was Cardinal Giordano Orsini (d. 1287) : he 

 was probably represented by a proxy at the fraudulent installation. 



^ Ibid. op. cit. v, 653. 



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