RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



separate soke in the lands on which his revenue 

 was charged.^^ The constitution of the chapter 

 was thus a compromise between that of the 

 chapters of Beverley and York. As at Beverley, 

 no canon had a jurisdiction distinct from that of 

 the chapter ; while, as at York, each canon had a 

 prebend derived from an assignation of definitely 

 localized property, from which his stall obtained 

 its name. This arrangement, which was prob- 

 ably traditional, explains the absence from 

 Ripon of a provost,^^ whose duty was the over- 

 sight of the common property. The bulk of 

 the chapter possessions lay within the large parish 

 of Ripon, of which the Minster was the parish 

 church ; and six of the prebends, of which the 

 definite names begin to appear towards the close 

 of the 1 3th century,^' were called after berewicks 

 of the manor of Ripon, or other places within 

 the soke — Thorpe (Littlethorpe), Monkton, 

 Givendale and Skelton, Nunwick, Studley 

 Magna, and Sharow. The seventh prebend 

 was endowed by Archbishop Gray in 1230 with 

 the church of Stanwick St. John in Richmond- 

 shire. The prebendary of Stanwick was ap- 

 pointed ruler of the quire in Ripon, with the 

 duty of perpetual residence.^ His vicar naturally 

 resided at Stanwick. The remaining six pre- 

 bendaries had their vicars in the church of 

 Ripon, who were charged with the cure of 

 souls in the district of the parish attached to 

 each prebend.^' Vicars, however, were not 

 instituted until 1303. Until that time the 

 canons, who, after the usual manner of canons 

 of secular chapters, were seldom resident, had 

 been content to serve their cures by ' conducts ' 

 who undertook their duties, at Stanwick and 

 Ripon, for a small yearly payment.^' The 

 citations of Archbishops Romanus and Corbridge 

 were disregarded by the non-residents.^ Cor- 



" Mem. of Ripon (Surt. See), i, 63. 

 ^ See note 8 above ; the absence of a provost led, 

 as will be seen later, to some confusion in the alloca- 

 tion of tithes. 



" In Pope Nicb. Tax. (Rec. Com.), 308, the pre- 

 bend of ' Stanewegges ' is named ; the others are 

 called by the names of their holders. The names 

 Studley, Munewas {sk), Givendale, and Thorpe are 

 added to four of these, presumably in a later hand. 

 Archbishop Corbridge- formally ordered the applica- 

 tion of local names to the prebends in 1301 (York 

 Archiepis. Reg. Corbridge, fol. 68 ; Mem. of Ripon 

 [Surt. Soc], ii, 32). 



. " York Archiepis. Reg. Gray, rot. major, no. ccxix, 

 ccxxxix {Mem. of Ripon [Surt. Soc], ii, 2, 3). 



" The vicars were to be instituted by the chapter 

 to their cures of souls, ' et nichilominus in ecclesia 

 matrice deserviant sicut prius servire solebant ' 

 {Mem. of Ripon [Surt. Soc], ii, 44). 



^« Ibid. 25. 



'' A strong monition to non-residents occurs in 

 York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, fol. 73 d. Four canons 

 were absent from the visitation of July 1291 (ibid. 

 fol. 81 d). Three were absent without excuse in 



369 



bridge succeeded in obtaining the appointment 

 of vicars by a decree of 23 October 1303. 

 The six vicars at Ripon were to be paid stipends 

 of 6 marks a year each, and were to have a 

 common house, which became known by the 

 name of the Bedern, as at York and Beverley.^' 

 The vicars were in existence by 29 May 1304, 

 when Nicholas of Bondgate granted them two 

 messuages on which to build their dwelling- 

 house.^' 



Archbishop Greenfield proceeded, on the lines 

 followed by Corbridge, to make the canons more 

 sensible of their responsibility. Corbridge had 

 forbidden the indiscriminate farming-out of pre- 

 bends,'" and in 1307 Greenfield sequestrated 

 three of the prebends which had been let out to 

 farm.'^ After a visitation in 1308 he found it 

 necessary to forbid buying and selling within the 

 church,'^ and to order the vicars to dwell in the 

 Bedern. '' In 131 1 the prebend of Thorpe was 

 sequestrated ; its holder, an Italian, was said to 

 have obtained it surreptitiously, and to be a 

 married man. The sequestration had the de- 

 sired effect of compelling the prebendary to look 

 after his dilapidations.'* Vicars and chantry 

 priests gave the archbishop some trouble. Some 

 of them were accused of going to dances and 

 theatrical spectacles with lay-folk ; others were 

 suspected of being night-walkers, house-breakers, 

 and incontinent.'^ Of this second class was 

 William ' Pistor,' a chantry priest, who was 

 defamed for incontinency with Clemence 

 daughter of John called ' Preestes,' and was the 

 ringleader in a gambling game called ' Dynge- 

 thriftes.' William fled from Ripon before Green- 

 field's visitation in 1312, and went to live at 

 Aysgarth : the duty of discovering and correcting 

 him was deputed to the Archdeacon of Rich- 

 mond.'^ In 13 1 5 Greenfield attacked the ques- 

 tion of non-residence. None of the canons, 

 other than the prebendary of Stanwick, were 

 bound by any statutory conditions of residence ; 

 nor was there any inducement to reside in the 

 shape of an extra share in the common fund. 

 Greenfield took preparatory steps towards a 

 remedy of this defect ; " but it was left for his 

 successor. Melton, to take the matter firmly in 

 hand. A visitation of the chapter, held some 

 time before 6 February 133 1-2, was so poorly 

 attended that Melton could take no action, and 



Oct. 1 301 (ibid. Corbridge, fol. 67 d). In 1302 the 

 six non-residents disobeyed Corbridge's injunction to 

 reside (ibid. fol. 70). See Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), 

 ii, 16, &c. 



'" Mem. of Ripon (Surt. Soc), ii, 44-6. 



" Charter, ibid, i, 11 9-21. 



'» Ibid, ii, 40. 



^' Ibid. 56 et seq. Other sequestrations are re- 

 corded in subsequent years. 



'' Ibid. 59. '^ Ibid. 60. 



" Ibid. 65-6. »* Ibid. 68-9. 



" Ibid. 72. " Ibid. 77-8. 



47 



