RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



tinued on the same footing. A list of prebends, 

 drawn up early in the reign of Elizabeth, shows 

 how freely the chapter property was leased at this 

 time to laymen, who trafficked in the lands of 

 the church without restraint. A boy of fifteen 

 or sixteen, a kinsman of Archbishop Young, was 

 admitted to the prebends of Husthwaite and 

 Barnby, and enjoyed their fruits without a dis- 

 pensation, while pursuing his studies at Oxford. 

 The prebends of Osbaldwick and Grindale had 

 been leased to the archbishop's secretary, and 

 had been sold by him.'° The nepotism of Arch- 

 bishop Sandys in the matter of collations to pre- 

 bends was one chief cause of his unpopularity.'' 

 Royal injunctions in 154.7 laid special stress 

 upon preaching and the study of theology by the 

 chapter. A library was to be set up in the 

 church within a year, and four English Bibles 

 were to be provided, two in quire, and two else- 

 where for the use of lay-folk. The canonical 

 hours were fixed so as to avoid services after dark 

 as far as possible. Choral copes were forbidden ; 

 and the number of daily masses was restricted to 

 one at nine in the morning." Archbishop 

 Holgate's injunctions of 15 August 1552 

 followed out the spirit of these commands, 

 formulating a table of preaching turns, and 

 establishing lectures in divinity for the benefit 

 of the inferior clergy of the church, who were 

 to submit to a monthly examination upon their 

 subjects. The duty of constant reading of the 

 Scriptures and committing them to memory was 

 enforced on the vicars choral and deacons. The 

 church was to be cleared of all its provision for 

 images of the saints, and texts of Scripture were 

 to be painted up on the cleansed surface of the 

 walls. The organ was silenced, and singing 

 was practically confined to Sundays and festivals.'* 

 Grindal's injunctions of 10 October 1572 revised 

 Holgate's order of preaching turns. While 

 Holgate had provided for the devout and frequent 

 reception of the Blessed Sacrament, Grindal, 

 allowing the chapter some discretion with regard 

 to celebrations on Sundays and festivals, fixed 

 compulsory communion at once a month, viz., 

 on six festivals and six times on the first Sundays 

 of months in which these festivals did not fail. 

 He also took order for the revision of the statutes.'^ 

 Such archiepiscopal injunctions were rendered 

 possible by the changed conditions of the church. 

 The republic which had imposed a compromise 

 upon Romanus and Melton was fettered by new 

 regulations. The dean, its president, was no 

 longer freely elected by the chapter, but by a 

 conge (Ptlire from the Crown. At the same time, 

 Grindal's proposed alteration of the statutes 

 never came into effect. 



" Dugdale, Mm. Angl. vi, 1 1 74 n. 



" See ' Eccl. Hist.' above, p. 54. 



'" Frere, Visit, and Injunctions, ii, 153-7 



Ibid, ii, 310-12. 

 " Ibid, iii, 45-54. 



78 



381 



The injunctions concerning Holy Communion 

 seem to have produced some slackness, for cele- 

 brations were practically confined to the great 

 festivals until in 161 7 Dean Meriton established 

 a celebration once a month.*" At the Restora- 

 tion Archbishop Frewen did something to improve 

 the state of the services, and brought back the 

 organ, which, if it had not fallen into disuse as 

 the result of Holgate's strict measures, had been 

 removed during the Puritan ascendency.*^ Arch- 

 bishop Dolben's injunctions, which bear date 

 10 April 1685, provided for the more decent 

 conduct of services, and restored the weekly 

 communion which Holgate had encouraged.*^ 

 But, even during the most reverent period of the 

 17th century, the services suffered from defects, 

 on which the famous letter of Charles I to the 

 dean and chapter supplies some information.*' 



The statutes of residence were revised by royal 

 injunctions in 1698. In the i8th century the 

 resident chapter and governing body of the church 

 consisted of the dean and four residentiary preben- 

 daries, each of whom resided for a quarter of the 

 year, and drew his stipend from his prebend. The 

 remaining prebendaries received incomes from their 

 prebends, but their connexion with the church 

 was little more than nominal. The richer pre- 

 bends were leased out, and the fines paid for 

 renewal of leases amounted to a considerable sum. 

 This state of things continued until 1840-1. 

 In 1836 the list of prebendaries shows that the 

 stalls were held for the most part by wealthy 

 pluralists, whose chief benefices were in other 

 dioceses.** The Act of 3 and 4 Victoria deprived 

 succeeding prebendaries of their prebendal in- 

 comes, and thus converted the tenure of a stall 

 into a distinction for honourable service within 

 the diocese. The decanal congi d'dire was 

 abolished, and the appointment to the deanery 

 became subject to royal Letters Patent. Four 

 residentiary canonries, also in the appointment of 

 the Crown, were provided with fixed yearly 

 stipends ; these, to which a prebendal stall is not 

 necessarily attached, are now in the collation of 

 the archbishop. The dignities of precentor and 

 chancellor, to which the stalls of Driffield and 

 Laughton are still annexed, are usually, though 

 not of necessity, held by residentiaries ; while 

 the offices of treasurer and sub-treasurer since the 

 Reformation have devolved upon the dean. 



There are three seals of the chapter in the 

 British Museum collection, of the I3th,*^ 



*° Ornsby, Dioc. Hist, of York, 400. 



" Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. 94 n. 



*' Ornsby, op. cit. 399-400. 



«' See ' Eccl. Hist.' above. 



" See the official clergy list, drawn up for the Royal 

 Commission in that year. The fines from prebends 

 in the last three years are noted in the list ; those 

 from Knaresborough prebend amounted to ^2,688, 

 those from Fenton and Warthill to £2,500 each. 



" Cat. of Seals, B.M. 2370, D.C., D.43. 



