RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



ragging a sanctuary-man from the house of one 

 E the canons, and was ordered by the king to 

 ;t right one or two high-handed acts of which 

 is predecessors had been guilty.^* 



At a visitation held by Archbishop Corbridge 

 1 1302 it was decreed that one canon at least 

 lust be found in residence to hold chapters, 

 Ithough leave was given to appoint a deputy, in 

 ase of unavoidable absence. Of Corbridge's 

 smaining statutes, the most interesting relates 

 3 the candles which the vicars procured at matins 

 nd vespers from the sacrist. These were to be 

 equired only when necessary, and the vicars 

 /ere to return the unused candle-ends to the 

 icrist.^' 



Archbishop Greenfield's visitation in 1306 led 

 a new ordinance as to residence. The arch- 

 lishop found that the vicars and clerks were 

 hanging the conditions of life in the Bedern, 

 10 doubt to their own advantage, and ordered 

 he canons to keep a watch on what was done 

 here, until his decree was issued.^* The decree 

 1 7 April 1 307) reduced the statutory residence 

 if each of the seven primary canons to twelve 

 veeks in the year, after the manner of the lesser 

 esidence at York. The corrodies of the seven 

 :anons were now permanently united to the pre- 

 )ends ; but for his share in the oblations of the 

 ligh altar and other daily distributions, each 

 :anon had to qualify by residence.*' 



Throughout these years the work of the fabric 

 )f the nave was advancing. A new shrine was 

 nade for the body of St. John, and on 2 1 June 

 [ 308 Greenfield dedicated the new high altar in 

 lonour of St. John of Beverley.** His fee was 

 aised by levying a tenth on each prebend.*^ 

 Archbishop Melton, formerly provost and canon, 

 n 1325 blamed non-residents for exacting their 

 uU shares in the daily distributions and for leav- 

 ng the parochial cures attached to their prebends 

 vithout sufficient vicars. He complained of the 

 nroads made on tithe by the exactions of thraves, 

 md of the spiritual jurisdiction claimed by the 

 :hapter over their tenants and parishioners. The 

 :hapter returned clear answers to Melton's 

 :harges. The question of the thraves was re- 

 erved for further discussion ; but the spiritual 

 nd temporal jurisdiction of the chapter was 

 loldly asserted, Greenfield's ordinance as to 

 esidence was held to cover the archbishop's 

 omplaint against non-resident canons.'" 



In 1329 the rectors of the deanery of Hart- 

 lill protested against the encroachment made 

 ipon their tithes, owing to the inability of poor 

 iroprietors to pay both tithe and thraves. Ac- 

 ording to custom, each canon claimed one 

 hrave of wheat, one of barley, and two of oats 



" Chapter Act Bk. (Surt. Soc), ii, 23. 

 »'Ibid. 181-4. ««Ibid. i, 170-1. 



"Ibid. 192-4. ^Ibid. Z18-19. 



' Ibid. 222. 



' Ibid, ii, 56-9. 



from each plough ; but the rectors asserted that 

 now the canons tried to get two of wheat and 

 two of barley in lieu of the customary four, so 

 that the payers, in order to satisfy these demands, 

 were forced to buy. The canons were also ac- 

 cused of defending recusant tithe-payers against 

 their rectors, and of exacting thraves on an 

 artificial assessment of the number of ploughs.'^ 

 The rectors were apparently instigated by a 

 foreign pluralist who held the benefice of Kirk 

 Ella.'^ The canons acted promptly against the 

 'conspiracy.' Provost Huggate in 1 331 made 

 a special journey to London at the expense of 

 the chapter,'' and laid the case before the king. 

 The dispute however, did not end till I334) 

 when Archbishop Melton obtained a monition 

 from the king on behalf of the chapter.'* 



A curious controversy concerned the status of 

 the lay officers of the Bedern. In 1304 the two 

 cooks obtained a royal mandate to stop a suit 

 against them in the court of the chapter, by 

 which their offices were defined as lay fees.'' 

 The official of the provostry supported the cooks 

 in their defiance of the chapter, and the Bedern 

 kitchen became for the time being a cave of 

 Adullam, where the cooks and sanctuary-men 

 did what they pleased, holding banquets in the 

 hall, and burning large fires, which smoked out 

 the vicars." The dispute ended with the with- 

 drawal of excommunication from the cooks in 

 1306." Such quarrels tended to the relaxation 

 of discipline in the Bedern. Notes of corrections 

 made by the chapter show that the morality of 

 the vicars was not above suspicion ; '* and, during 

 the same period, the chancellor, Robert of 

 Bytham, and William of Lincoln, one of the 

 resident canons, became notorious for their gal- 

 lantries." 



From the death of Provost Huggate in 1338 

 the internal history of the church is scantily 

 recorded, with the exception of one event. This 

 was the quarrel of Archbishop Alexander Nevill 

 with the canons in 1381.*" For some time before 

 he had endeavoured to usurp the extraordinary 

 privileges of the chapter, interfering with the 

 administration of probate, sitting to try causes in 

 the chapel of the chapter altar behind the quire, 

 and excommunicating those who did not appear.'^ 

 Nevill's claims rested solely upon the assumption 

 that the archbishop, by virtue of his corrody, was 

 a prebendary of the church and could exercise 

 the chapter's jurisdiction as its head. On 



" Chapter Act Bk. (Surt. Soc), ii, 87-9. 

 " Ibid, ii, 92-3. 



" Ibid. 99-100. His bill of expenses is preserved 

 in the Act Book. 



"Ibid. 109-H. "Ibid, i, 25-6. 



"Ibid. 60-1. 



" Ibid. 168. '* e.g. ibid. 149-50, 152. 



" Ibid. 313-14, 94-6. 



™ Ibid, ii, 202-65 ; -^rch. Iv, l et seq. 



*' Chapter AcfBk. (Surt. Soc), ii, 224-5. 



357 



