A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



to Alexander IV, deprecating the partiality which had been shown to his 

 opponents.'' About a week before his death he ordained vicarages in the 

 prebendal churches of the chapel of St. Sepulchre. Six of these, Thorp 

 Arch, CoUingham, Bardsey, Otley, Calverley, and Hooton Pagnell, were in 

 Yorkshire ; the rest were in the deanery of Retford in Nottinghamshire." 



Godfrey of Ludham (1258-64) also left the deanery for the arch- 

 bishopric. He was consecrated at Rome," and on his way home passed 

 through London with his cross erect.*' In 1260 the citizens of York 

 incurred excommunication for hanging a woman who was a tenant of the 

 chapter, in face of an inhibition.*" Godfrey also found the men of Beverley 

 a thorn in his side, and excommunicated them for breaking his parks." The 

 registers of Sewall and Ludham unfortunately no longer exist. With Walter 

 Giffard, translated by papal provision from Wells (1265) after the abortive 

 election by the chapter of their dean John Langton, the registers again 

 begin." Giffard continued the dispute with Canterbury, appealing to the curia 

 on the subject of the use of the cross, and sending his proctor to Boniface 

 of Savoy with a formal notice of appeal." His chief anxiety was caused 

 by the constant exactions of the Holy See, as he was often short of money, and 

 was forced to borrow at heavy interest from Italian money-lenders.*^ In 

 1270 he writes to excuse himself from coming to Rome, pleading the 

 troubled state of the kingdom, and his duty of staying at home and making 

 peace. He cannot remain in his own diocese : his debts are heavy, and he 

 has to meet a debt of ,^3,000 which Ludham had contracted. ' I am worn 

 out with work ; I am continually weary ; I am obliged to consume the 

 whole of my substance, not only my spiritual but my temporal inheritance ; 

 and I have been so harassed by overwhelming vexations ever since my 

 appointment, that now I may scarcely hope for power to breathe.'" Giffard 

 was hardly able to afford the sums which he sent to Rome for the cardinals 

 whose help he needed.*' When Cardinal Ottobon asked him to confer a 

 prebend on one of his clerks, Giffard answered that he could barely provide 

 for his own clerks and had nothing to give.^" Ancherus, cardinal-deacon of 

 Santa Prassede, claiming a prebend at York, was pacified only by an annual 



" Matt. Paris, op. cit. 692-3. " Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Sen), iii, 175 seq. 



" Stubbs {Hist. Ch. York [Rolls Ser.], ii, 405) gives the date of his consecration as 23 Sept. 1258, but gives 

 the name of his consecrator wrongly as Urban IV (not Alexander). 22 Sept. is the right date. (Dixon and 

 Raine, op. cit. 300.) 



" Matt. Paris, op. cit. v, 725. 



" See mandate from Alexander IV, dated Anagni, 23 Dec. 1260 {Hist. Ch. J^or/J [Rolls Ser.], iii, 183 seq.). 

 Stubbs says that Ludham laid the city under interdict from Ash Wednesday to 3 May, in his third year, which, 

 reckoning from his consecration, would be 1261. The date and contents of the papal letter show that the 

 interdict was probably pronounced by the Bishop of Lincoln as commissioner in 1 26 1. 



*^ York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 151. This excommunication was confirmed by Archbishop 

 Giffiird. 



" GifFard's register has been printed by Mr. William Brown for the Surtees Society, 1904. Mr. Brown 

 kindly allowed the present writer to make use of the proofs of his edition (since published) of Wickwane's, and 

 of his transcript of Romanus' registers. 



" York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 140 seq. 



" See e.g. ibid. 1 10, 1 15, where payments of money to Florentine, Sienese, and Lucchese merchants are 

 noted. 



'8 Lett. N.Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 35, 36. The letter is dated 25 March 1270, from Hampton Episcopi (now 

 Hampton Lucy), a manor of his brother, the Bishop ofWorcester, near Stratford-on-Avon. 



" See the letter, e.g. written from London, 31 July 1272, to the cardinal of Sta Prassede (Lett. N. Reg. 

 [Rolls Ser.], pp. 44, 45). 



" York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 245. 



