ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



minster buried his body next day with maimed rites." The Yorkshire 

 commons saw in Scrope, as in Thomas of Lancaster, the champion of liberty 

 against royal exactions." Tradition smote his judge with leprosy."' Miracles 

 were reported from his tomb, and a cult came into existence which royal 

 commissioners found hard to suppress." 



The 15th century is nearly covered by the episcopates of Henry 

 Bowet, translated from Wells (1407), John Kemp, translated from London 

 (1426) and to Canterbury, William Booth, translated from Coventry and 

 Lichfield (1452), George Nevill, translated from Exeter (1465), and Law- 

 rence Booth, translated from Durham (1476). Kemp and Nevill held the 

 chancellorship of England for a time with the archbishopric ; while Kemp 

 became a cardinal-priest in 1439, and a cardinal-bishop after his final trans- 

 lation. Nevill suffered by the Wars of the Roses, in which he played an 

 adroit but not very successful part. 



Evidence of the active church-life of this century in Yorkshire, as 

 elsewhere, is present in the number of parish churches built and enlarged 

 during its course. The churches of Tickhill, Rotherham, Harewood, and 

 Thirsk were almost entirely rebuilt. Large additions were made to impor- 

 tant parish churches like Wakefield, Halifax, and Silkstone. The nave and 

 tower of Holy Trinity at Hull were completed. In 1404 Bishop Skirlaw of 

 Durham founded the chapel of Skirlaugh in Swine parish.*' Contracts 

 for the building of Catterick Church (141 2) and the south aisle of Hornby 

 Church (14 10) still exist.*' In 1424 the Bishop of Dromore, Bowet's 

 suffragan, consecrated the rebuilt church of Bolton Percy." The east 

 window was filled about fifty years later with stained glass : in the lower 

 lights are full-length figures of Archbishop George Nevill and his pre- 

 decessors Scrope, Bowet, Kemp, and William Booth. In 1458 John, 

 Bishop of Philippi, consecrated a church at Cowthorpe, built by Sir 

 Brian Rocliffe on a new site.™ Side by side with the work of rebuilding 

 and enlargement went on the foundation of chantries. The chantry had 

 taken the place of the monastery as an object of popular bequest. The 

 stipend of the chantry-priest served not only to commemorate the founder, 

 but to provide the parish priest with much-needed help. Pious parishioners 

 often united in applying land and goods to the maintenance of a chantry- 

 priest where the parish was large and services many. At Rotherham the 

 chantry-priest at the altar of the Holy Cross, whose stipend was founded by 

 John and Isabel Palden (1421), aided the parochial clergy in their Lenten 

 task of hearing confessions and houseling the penitent. Parishioners founded 

 stipends for priests to say the eight o'clock mass every Saturday at the Lady 



^ Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), ii, 433. 



^^ See the list of seven reasons for his execution in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.'), ii, 304, 305. 

 _ Narrative quoted in note 62 above. The author of the 'Martyrium ' of Scrope {Hist. Ch. York [Rolls Ser 1 



n, 306 seq. : see note above), following Stubbs (ibid. 433), says that the king himself was struck with leprosy 

 on his way to Ripon from Bishopthorpe, and passed a wretched night at Hammerton. Both stories are prob- 

 ably apocryphal. '^ 



" Three letters from the Chapter Acts, 1410-29, fol. 43, are printed in Hist. Ch. York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 

 291 seq. Offerings intended for Scrope were to be laid at St. William's tomb. The Duke of Bedford 

 \ T' ■''^°^^ ordered the ' clausure de charpenterie ' erected round the tomb of Scrope to be taken down 

 and a^^barner to be made ' pour fare estoppoiU a les faux foles que y veignent par colour de devoclon.' 



^ Lawton, Coll. 418. ^ Printed by H. B. McCall, Richmondshire Churches (i 909). 



l^awton, op. cit. 55. The person responsible for the rebuilding was Thomas Parker, rector, who died 

 H23- ™ Ibid. 60. 



3 41 6 



