A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



honour of St. Peter.* In 68 1, during Wilfrid's 

 first banishment, Eadhaed was consecrated bishop 

 with his see at Ripen. This bishopric, however, 

 ceased with the restoration of Wilfrid in 686.° 

 Ripon and Hexham were the possessions left to 

 Wilfrid by the decision of the synod of Nidd in 

 705 ; ° and to Ripon his body was brought from 

 Oundle four years later.' 



Such indications as we gain of the life of 

 Wilfrid's monastery at Ripon point to the pro- 

 bability that the constitution of the collegiate 

 church in the Middle Ages was derived from it 

 with little interruption, and that the chapter of 

 seven canons was a gradual development from the 

 original foundation, involving no fundamental 

 change, apart from a slackening of the rule 

 under which Wilfrid's community seems to have 

 lived.* As at York and Beverley, Athelstan 

 was regarded as the great benefactor of the 

 church and as the donor of its privilege of 

 sanctuary, which here, as at Beverley, was valid 

 within an area of a mile in every direction from 

 the town.' The charter of Athelstan, preserved 

 in more than one form, bears a strong resem- 

 blance to the similar Beverley charter, and con- 

 tains a similar grant of liberties ' in all thyngges 

 ... as free as herte may thynk or eghe may se.' ^^ 

 No original copy of this charter exists, and it is 

 probable that this and the rimed charter of 

 Beverley were composed in the 13th century as 

 a memoria technlca of the privileges of the two 

 churches." In spite of the favour shown to 

 Ripon by Athelstan, the harrying of Northumbria 

 by his son Eadred about 948 was marked by the 

 burning of the minster, in the ruins of which 

 Wilfrid's body remained, exposed to desecration.^^ 



' Eddius, Vita S. Wilfridi, cap. xvi {Mem. of Ripon 

 [Surt. Soc], i, 10). The dedication appears to have 

 been the usual dedication to St. Peter and St. Paul ; 

 see Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), ii, 162. 



' Bede, Hist. Eccl. lib. iv, cap. 12 ; Eddius, op. cit. 

 cap. xliv {Mem. of Ripon [Surt. Soc], ii, 14, 17). 



* Eddius, op. cit. cap. Ix {Mem. of Ripon 

 Soc], i, 19). 



' Authorities printed in Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), 

 i, 19, 20. 



' It is noticeable that Wilfrid, before his last jour- 

 ney, constituted Tatbcrht ' prepositus ' of the ' ceno- 

 hium ' (Eddius, op. cit. cap. kii) ; and it is just 

 possible that such an office may have been an early 

 correspondent to that of provost, which is found 

 permanently at Beverley, and for a time at York, 

 after the Conquest. The head of Wilfrid's ' ceno- 

 bium,' however, was an abbot until the time of the 

 Danish invasions ; and no absolute identification of 

 his monastery with the later college is possible. 



' Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), i, 33, 35. 



'" The variants of the charter, with a facsimile, are 

 printed ibid. 90 et seq. 



" ^^" ^' ^' ^^"^ {Beverley Chapter Act Book 

 LSurt. Soc], 1, p. xxviii), characterizes the Beverley 

 charter as «an exceUent summary of real charters.' 



Authorities printed in Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc ) 

 1, 36-7. " 



[Surt. 



St. Oswald restored the services of the church ; " 

 but the highly probable story of his enshrinement 

 of Wilfrid's remains was combated by the tradi- 

 tion that Archbishop Oda visited the deserted 

 site about 952, and removed the relics to Canter- 

 bury." In 995 Ealdhun removed the body of 

 St. Cuthbert to Ripon from Chester-le-Street, 

 before its final translation to Durham ; " but of 

 the state of the church at this time nothing is 

 said. The foundation of certain prebendal 

 estates is ascribed to Archbishop Ealdred." 



In Domesday Book the canons are mentioned 

 as holding 14 bovates within St. Wilfrid's league, 

 which was equivalent to the archbishop's manor 

 of Ripon. ^' The limits of jurisdiction of the 

 archbishop's and canons' liberties became a fruit- 

 ful subject of discussion, and more than one 

 instance occurs of encroachment upon the 

 canons' peculiar by the sheriflF and the arch- 

 bishop's bailiff. In 1228 judgement was given 

 on behalf of the canons, after a long trial in 

 which the jurors upheld the traditional privileges 

 of the chapter and defined the boundaries which 

 separated the canons' from the archbishop's fee." 

 A list of tenants within the soke of the chapter 

 showed that several were enfeoffed of property 

 by the service of providing a man to carry the 

 shrine of St. Wilfrid in procession at Ascension- 

 tide and other feasts. Nicholas Warde of Sawley 

 did service by bearing the standard of St. Wil- 

 frid in front of the shrine, and before the towns- 

 folk of Ripon in time of war.^' The right of 

 sanctuary was shared by the canons and the 

 archbishop, each within their liberties.'"' 



The analogies of York and Beverley, and the 

 fact that the permanent number of canons at 

 Ripon was seven, indicates that this was the 

 original number of members of the chapter. 

 The jurors of 1228 presented that, although 

 rents from various tenements were assigned to 

 individual canons, tenants held their property 

 from the chapter as a whole, and no canon had 



" ' Vita S. Oswald!,' Hist. Ch. Tork (Rolls Sen), i, 

 462. 



" Authorities printed in Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), 



i, 37-41. 42-4- 



" Ibid. 44-5. 



'Mbid. ii, 182. 



" Dom. Bk. i, fol. 303^ {Mem. of Ripon [Surt. 

 Soc], i, 46-7). 



'* The plea, from a roll in the Duchy of Lancaster 

 Records, is printed in Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), i, 

 51-63. The important inquisition at York in 1 106 

 was cited as evidence on behalf of the chapter's 

 liberties ; cf. ibid. 34-5, and see the same docu- 

 ment, printed from the Southwell ' Liber Albus ' 

 in Visit, and Mem. Southteell Minster (Camd. Soc), 

 1 90 et seq. 



" Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), i, 61-2. 



" The . chapter's rights of sanctuary are defined 

 ibid, i, 51-2 ; the archbishop's rights in Plac. it Qut 

 Warr. (Rec Com.), 221 ; see Mem. of Riftn (Surt. 

 Soc), i, 70-1. 



368 



