ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



pension." Pierre de Charny held the prebend of Fentpn " ; Percival of 

 Lavagna, brother of Ottobon, was sacrist of St. Sepulchre's." 



A commission appointed in i 275 was authorized to inquire into several 

 details bearing on the state of the diocese. First comes the question 

 of plurality. The commissioners were asked inter alia to report upon pen- 

 sions paid from churches, appropriated churches, to require accounts 

 from guardians of churches and commendatories, to find out absentee 

 clergy or clergy with licences to reside elsewhere for study ; to ex- 

 amine the behaviour of religious ; to return names with details of 

 irregular and excommunicate clergy, clergy with paramours, clergy ordained 

 outside the diocese, superfluous private oratories, illegitimate clergy or heads 

 of monasteries ; to report on the conduct of archdeacons ; on farmers of 

 churches, vicarages in appropriated churches, alienated church property, 

 incorrigible clerks and lay-folk, clergy guilty of fornication and simony, 

 perjurers, neglect of canonical hours, and rectors and vicars not in full orders." 

 Instances of plurality were not far to seek. Cases like that of Giffard's proctor 

 at Rome, who held the church of Heslerton with another in Lincoln 

 diocese," were probably unavoidable ; but there were flagrant examples such 

 as that of Bogo de Clare, who obstinately contended for institution to 

 Adlingfleet,^' or William Percy, who, without taking holy orders or obtaining 

 a dispensation, was rector of several churches, wasting their revenues, neglect- 

 ing the fabrics, and grieving his diocesan's conscience." Many beneficed 

 clerks remained in minor orders, or delayed submitting to be ordained even 

 when they held vicarages.^' In an ordination list for Michaelmas 1268, the 

 vicar of Rotherham is a candidate for deacon's orders." At Easter 1269, 

 the vicars of Helmsley and South Kirkby are among the deacons, and the 

 vicar of Warmfield is among the sub-deacons. ""' The synod of 1237 had 

 made priesthood obligatory on vicars of more than a year's standing :" 

 GifFard enforced its decree on the obstinate vicar of Carnaby.'^ The chapter 

 of Craven reported (1268) that the rector of a mediety of Linton was 

 said to be married. '^ The rector of West Rounton, probably a layman, was 

 found to have been married publicly at Goldsborough.^* GifFard ordained 

 vicarages in the East Riding churches which belonged to Bardney Abbey,*' 



" York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 170, 171, 224, 225. Urban IV granted the prebend of Warthill 

 to Ancherus. Ottobon asked Giffard to confer it on the precentor of Chartres. Ancherus was willing to 

 resign it, but claimed the prebend of Newbald instead, which was actually held by the chancellor, William 

 Wickwane. 



"Ibid. 26, 133, 134. When Charny became Archbishop of Sens, the prebend was given to Pierre 

 de Montbrun. He became Archbishop of Narbonne in 1273, and it was then bestowed upon an Orsini. 



" Ibid. 148, 149. " Ibid. 266 seq. " Ibid. 8. 



^ A letter to the archbishop from Orvieto (ibid. 9 seq.) gives details of the progress of this dispute at the 

 Curia. 



" Ibid. 265. Sir William Percy appears in various passages of the register as rector of Catton (ibid. 52) 

 and Seamer in Pickering Lythe (ibid. 57). He was also rector of Nafferton {Cal. Pat. 1292-1301, p. 123). 

 In the letter from Orvieto mentioned above (note 56), Adam of Filleby is said to have thirty benefices ' absque 

 dispensacione, defectum etatis habens, ordinis, et sciencie ; quod absurdum fuerat cuilibet audienti.' 



" The continuance of this irregularity forms the burden of notices of ordination given by subsequent 

 archbishops. 



'' York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 193-4. ^'' Ibid. 193. 



" Matt. Paris, op. cit. iii, 426. 



^' York Reg. Giffard (Surt. Soc. cix), 209, 210. 



" Ibid. 26. «• Ibid. 290. 



*' Ibid. 55 seq. These vicarages were Hunmanby, Reighton, Argam, Burton Fleming, Wold Newton, 

 and Muston. 



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