A HISTORY OF YORKSHIRE 



Later statutes provided for the maintenance of 

 the prebendal houses. Arrangements were made 

 by which a non-resident might let his house to a 

 residentiary who had no house assigned to his 

 prebend. New prebendaries were required to 

 set on foot an inquisition into the dilapidations 

 of their houses, within six weeks after induction. 

 A prebend might be exchanged or resigned after 

 three years' enjoyment of the fruits. Every pre- 

 bendary, on vacating his prebend, was bound to 

 give a choral cope or its value, 20 marks, and 

 his palfrey or lo marks, to the church.'^ 



Residence was too expensive to be popular. 

 The statutes of 1291 were passed by eight 

 canons who were present, in addition to Dean 

 Newark. The clergy who composed this chap- 

 ter were all intimately connected with the 

 business of the church of York.'^ 



At the chapter of 16 August 1325, which 

 passed the statutes relating to prebendal houses, 

 nine canons, including the Prior of Hexham, 

 were present, and nine others appeared by proxy.^ 

 The number of residentiaries, however, was 

 much smaller than that of the minority which 

 came to York for chapter meetings. Thus in 

 1304-5 John of Nassington, writing from York 

 to the auditor of the chapter of Beverley, said 

 that only two canons were in residence." In 

 1310 three canons only met in chapter to 

 arrange a date for the election of a new dean.'' 

 On all these occasions the chancellor was one of 

 the canons present. The duty of continual 

 residence was certainly not regarded as binding 

 by the other dignitaries. Bogo de Clare, who 

 held the office of treasurer, and died in 1295, 

 was seldom, if ever, in York ; his many benefices 

 were widely scattered over England, and the 

 complaints made against him and his deputies at 

 York probably found an echo elsewhere.'' The 

 Holy See, on the election of Newark to the arch- 

 bishopric, attempted to provide Cardinal Francesco 

 Gaetani to the deanery. William of Hamble- 

 ton succeeded in obtaining possession, but on his 

 death Clement V provided his own brother 

 Raymond de Goth,'^ who also held the prebend 

 of Wetwang, and was Dean of Lincoln and 

 precentor of Lichfield.'^ The intrusion of papal 



'* Bradshaw and Wordsworth, i, 127—9. 



" Of their number, in addition to the dean him- 

 self, Thomas of Corbridge and William Greenfield 

 became Archbishops of York. William of Hambleton, 

 Archdeacon lOf York, succeeded Newark as dean, and 

 William of Pickering, Archdeacon of Nottingham, 

 became dean later on. 



" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. 126. 



" Beverley Chapter Act Book (Surt. Soc), i, 62. 



" Hist. Ch. of Tori (Rolls Ser.), iii, 227. 



" SteJrchbp. Wlckwane's Reg. (Surt. Soc), 286-7. 

 In 1280 Bogo de Clare held nineteen benefices in 

 fourteen dioceses (Line. Inst. R. Sutton [Northants], 

 m. i). 



" Le Neve, Fasti (ed. Hardy), iii, 121. 



" C<j/. Pat. 1307-13, p. 14.7. 



provisors into the major prebends and the arch- 

 deaconries during the reigns of Edward I and 

 Edward II was constant, while the Savoyard rela- 

 tions of the royal family swelled the number of non- 

 residents in the chapter. At Archbishop Romanus' 

 death in 1295-6 at least a third of the chapter 

 was composed of foreigners.*" In Archbishop 

 Corbridge's time, eleven admissions of foreigners 

 to canonries and prebends are recorded, as against 

 three of Englishmen.*' Of fifty-one admissions 

 in Melton's register, twenty-six are of foreigners." 

 Not all these succeeded in obtaining installation ; 

 and Cardinal Gaetani, Hambleton's rival in the 

 deanery, failed to oust Walter of Bedwin, the 

 nominee of Edward I, from the treasurership.^' 

 The Englishmen who held office were for the 

 most part royal clerks, who held their benefices 

 by grant or by the influence of the king and 

 were also members at the same time of other 

 chapters, such as Lincoln and Salisbury." But 

 Robert Burnell, chancellor of Edward I, during 

 his tenure of the archdeaconry of York seems 

 to have discovered the most prominent recruits 

 for the chancery in young Yorkshiremen, who, 

 as time went on, held their chief preferments in 

 the church of York. V/llliam of Hambleton, of 

 whom Edward I in 1299 ^^''^ ^^^^ there was 

 ' no one else in his realm so expert in its laws 

 and customs,' " was Burnell's right-hand man." 

 Of the younger generation which worked under 

 Burnell and Hambleton, Adam of Osgodby and 

 Robert of Barlby were Yorkshiremen and canons 

 of the cathedral church.*' 



Apart from the claims of pope and king upon 

 the obedience of the chapter, its independence 

 was seriously harassed by the archbishops. The 

 struggle with Geoffrey Plantagenet has already 

 been told elsewhere : ** it ended in a drawn battle, 

 with little advantage to either side. Archbishop 

 Gray strengthened the hands of the chapter by 

 enlarging its possessions and attaching the digni- 

 taries to his personal service ; *' and, under himself 



" York Archiepis. Reg. Romanus, Capitula. 



" Ibid. Corbridge (fol. 1 89 d. et seq.). The prebend 

 of Stillington, vacated by Corbridge, was given to 

 Francesco Gaetani. " Ibid. Melton, fol. 68d-i22. 



" See Cal. Pat. 1 3 24-7, p. 1 5 1 . Cf. ibid. 1 330-4, 

 p. 186. Corbridge issued a mandate to the dean and 

 chapter to admit Gaetani 21 July 1303 (York Archi- 

 epis. Reg. Corbridge, fol. 196 d.). 



" Such as William Ayermin, afterwards Bishop of 

 Norwich (C<7/. Pat. 1321-4, pp. 134, 275, 337,&c.). 



*^ Cal. Close, 1 296-1 302, p. 309. 



" He was one of Burnell's executors {Cal. Pat. 

 1292-1301, p. 264, &c.). 



" Osgodby was prebendary of UUeskelf, Barlby of 

 Dunnington {Cal. Pat. 131 3-17, pp. 343, 554). 

 Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, John de Kirkby, 

 Bishop of Ely, and William Ayermin, Bishop of 

 Norwich, were closely connected with York by kin- 

 dred or birth, and held prebends there. 



" See 'Eccl. Hist.' above. 



" Hist. Ch. of York (Rolls Ser.), iii, 136-7. 



378 



