ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



He was consecrated at Rome in 1285-6 ;'" and his journey home was the 

 subject of the usual inhibitions from his fellow archbishop.*" His relations 

 with Durham were at first friendly ; and Bishop Bek brought about an 

 agreement by which the archbishop was recognized as exercising jurisdiction 

 during a vacancy of the see.^" However, in 1292 Romanus ordered his 

 vicar-general to excommunicate Bek. for disregarding his mandates and 

 imprisoning his clerks"; but Edward I, who valued Bek's services in the 

 Scottish disputes, upheld his actions and fined Romanus 4,000 marks for 

 acting ultra viresp At York, Romanus had to contend with opposition 

 from the dean and chapter over the matter of visitation. A compromise 

 conceded to the archbishop the right of visitation once in five years, but 

 under conditions that limited his power of correction.'' In October 1293 

 he presented a rector to the church of Adel, alleging the inabiUty of the 

 excommunicated priory of Holy Trinity to present ;'* and in the following 

 January he laid the prior under the greater excommunication for contumacy.''' 



Most creditable to Romanus, considering his own origin, was his 

 opposition to the attempt made by Cardinal Matteo Rubeo Orsini to annex 

 the prebend of Fenton to his hospital in Rome.'" He brought to an end the 

 dispute over Bogo de Clare's claim to the church of Adlingfleet.'^ Pluralism 

 was impossible to check. Apart from the intrusion of foreign nominees,'* 

 native dignitaries held several benefices together. Thus John Clarell, canon 

 of Southwell, and provost of the chapel in Tickhill Castle, held fourteen 

 churches in Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire." John of Craucumbe, Arch- 

 deacon of the East Riding, held churches in addition to those appropriated to 

 his office and stall.*" Bogo de Clare, beneficed in many dioceses, was rector 

 of Tickhill, Settrington, Hemingbrough, Acaster Malbis, and a mediety of 

 Doncaster." As Treasurer of York, Bogo left the vestments unrepaired, the 

 censers broken ; the bells were ill-hung, and the clock was out of order. 

 The deputy-treasurer used the best silken altar cushions for his bed. His 

 people did not guard the church properly at night, and a quarrel among 

 them, one Easter eve, had led to a riot in the city. Dean Newark ordered 

 Bogo to set these things right, or they would be revealed to the king.*^ 



After the assessment of livings in the diocese, made in September 1293, 

 Romanus states that several clergy complained that their benefices were taxed 

 beyond their true value.*' In 1292 he allowed Bolton Priory to appropriate 



^ Stubbs, Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Ser.), ii, 408, 409. The date was 10 Feb. 



"^Lett.N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 82 seq. 



'" Hist. a. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 212 seq. The agreement bears date 2 Nov. 1286. 



" Lett. N. Reg. (Rolls Ser.), 97 seq. 



" Cal. Close, 1288-96, pp. 330-4. The story of the imprisonment of the archbishop (Dixon and Raine, 

 op. cit. 346) is not borne out by the internal evidence of his register, and may be doubted. 



" 21 Nov. 1290; Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 216 seq. 



" York Epis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 44. " Ibid. fol. 45. 



** Ibid. fol. 104, 109, 109 d. : 'altare nudatur Ebor. ecdesie et circumamictitur Sancti Spiritus hospitale 

 (fol. 109). 



" Ibid. fol. 34, 34 d., 36. '» Ibid. fol. 91-109 d. 



'' Cal. Fat. 1292-1301, p. 120. See also Dixon and Raine, op. cit. 324, 325 n. 



" Cal. Vat. 1292-1301, p. 213. On the dorse of Bishop Sutton's Institution Rolls for Lincoln Arch- 

 deaconry, m. 18, is a memorandum of a dispensation from Honorius IV to John of Craucumbe, allowing 

 him to hold the living of Burton-on-Trent (Burton Joyce, Notts.) and another with his archdeaconry. 



" Ibid. ; York Epis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 103 d. 



" York Reg. Wickwane (Surt. Soc. cxiv), 286. 



" York Epis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 44 d. 



3 33 S 



