RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



The most important addition to their property 

 was the royal grant in 1484 of the ad- 

 vowson of the church of Cottingham with 

 licence to appropriate.^*' A visitation in 1472 

 shows that the non-resident canons left the entire 

 control of the minster to the vicars, and that the 

 vicars were not careful of their trust. Some of 

 them came into church as late and went out as 

 early as possible. Quire services did not begin 

 until some time after the last peal had sounded. 

 The sub-chanter and three vicars were incontinent. 

 Frequent absence from church was common ; 

 and, while the statutes required twelve vicars to 

 be present daily on each side of the quire, as many 

 as four were rarely to be found in their places. 

 The Bedern gate was often left open and without 

 a light until ten o'clock at night. Among the 

 vicars, John Fell was conspicuous for his misdeeds. 

 He said mass hardly once a fortnight ; he was a 

 nightwalker, seldom returning home by ten 

 o'clock ; he talked and laughed in quire, and 

 excited some envy and strife by the messages 

 which were brought to him in the common hall 

 from ' temporal lords.' When the Bible was 

 read in hall. Fell and others would sit by the fire 

 and talk.21 



Carelessness of this kind was probably respon- 

 sible for the neglected state of the minster in 

 1519.^' At the visitation of 1544-5 there were 

 very few vicars, and several were in ill-health, 

 while those who could attend to their duties took 

 their full period of leave, as they had done when 

 the college was full.^' In 1546-7 their property 

 was valued with that of other colleges, and was 

 sold ; it amounted to a yearly revenue of 

 j^255 7 J. 8^.^* It was subsequently restored to 

 them ; but the number of vicars was reduced, 

 and the college, as it exists to-day, consists of a 

 sub-chanter and four vicars, the revenues of whose 

 estates have been commuted for fixed stipends. 



209. ST. MARY AND THE HOLY 

 ANGELS, YORK, alias ST. SEPULCHRE'S 



The college of St. Mary and the Holy 

 Angels, York, was founded some time between 

 the years 11 54 and 1161 by Archbishop Roger 

 de Pont I'Ev^que,^ who endowed it with ten 

 churches and their revenues, of which Otley 

 (a moiety), Everton, Sutton, Hay ton, Bardsey and 

 the chapel of Scrooby were the archbishop's 

 own gift ; the other four were Calverley of the 

 gift of William de Scoty, a moiety of Hooton 

 Pagnell of the gift of William Paynell, Hare- 



'» Cal. Pat. 1476-85, p. 507. 



" Tork Fabric Rolls (Surt. Soc), 2 5 1 seq. 



" Ibid. 267 seq. 



" Ibid. 273-4 



" rorks. Chant. Surv. (Surt. Soc), 28. 



Walbran, Guide to Ripon, 25. 



wood of the gift of Avice de Rumilly, and 

 Thorp Arch of the gift of Adam de Bruys and 

 Ivetta his wife.^ 



The college was to consist of thirteen mem- 

 bers. They were not called canons or preben- 

 daries in the charter, but clerici. One of them 

 was to be the sacrist, four were to be priests, 

 four deacons, and four sub-deacons. Each priest 

 was to have an annual stipend of 10 marks, 

 each deacon was to have ^^5, and each sub- 

 deacon 6 marks. The sacrist was to administer 

 the college finance, his own stipend to be at 

 least 10 marks. If the revenue arising from the 

 college properties were not at any time sufficient 

 to pay the stipends of the staff, amounts pro rata 

 were to be deducted from the various stipends, so 

 as to leave a clear net income of 10 marks for 

 the sacrist ; but if there were more than suffi- 

 cient for the stipends, then the surplus was to 

 go to augment the stipend of the sacrist. The 

 witnesses to the document were Robert the 

 dean, Hamo the precentor. Master Guy, Ralph 

 and John the archdeacons.' 



The collegiate society continued under this 

 constitution until May 1258, when Archbishop 

 Sewall de Bovill added to the original number 

 two priests, who should say 'mass for the dead 

 every day,' together with two deacons and two 

 sub-deacons, making a total membership of the 

 society, with the sacrist, of seventeen.* With 

 regard to the twelve existing canons, it was 

 enacted that each of them residing in the city, 

 near the chapel, should attend the various offices, 

 and for each attendance at matins should receive 

 id., at high mass id., and at vespers id., — 3<3?. 

 daily. If absent id. was to be deducted for each 

 ' hour,' a like deduction to be made even when 

 present if they were quarrelsome or insolent. 

 The new members of the college were to be 

 present at the hours and high mass with the 

 other ministers of the chapel, and were to say 

 Placebo, Dirige, and other offices for the dead. 

 And when the canons and ministers, through 

 neglect or any other cause, should omit to say the 

 office for the dead, the duty was to devolve upon 

 the new members of the college. Each of the 

 two priests was to receive 5 marks, each deacon 

 3 marks, and each sub-deacon 2^ marks yearly 

 from the sacrist. For absence a priest was to 

 forfeit id., and a deacon or sub-deacon ^d. 



This ordination of 1258 confirmed the 

 patronage of the prebends and sacristy to the 

 archbishops, whilst the appointment and re- 

 moval ' of the six additional members pertained 

 to the sacrist. It also made provision that the 

 services at the churches ° appropriated to the 



* Dugdale, Mon. Angl. vi, 1182. 



' Ibid. <■ Ibid. 



' The six could be dismissed at will by the sacrist. 



' These churches were Thorp Arch, Collingham, 

 Bardsey, Otley, Calverley, Hooton Pagnell, Sutton, 

 Everton, Hayton, Clarborough, Retford. 



383 



