ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



witness to the general estimation and respect with which they were for the 

 most part regarded. There was also in all probability another somewhat 

 mean reason for their employment when a civil affray was expected ; for 

 any kind of assault on an ecclesiastic was subject to much severer penalties 

 than the like treatment of a sheriff or his officers. When the advisers of 

 Henry III decided to prohibit the holding of a tournament at Blyth, in 

 1234 and again in 1235, the Priors of Lenton, Blyth, and Shelford, together 

 with the cellarer of Lenton, were ordered to attend personally at Blyth to 

 stop the tournament and to execute the king's mandate,'" On another 

 occasion the Abbot of Roche was associated with the Priors of Lenton and 

 Blyth in a like prohibition. 



The register of Archbishop Walter Giffard (1266-79) is another of 

 those valuable ecclesiastical documents printed by the Surtees Society which 

 throw so much light upon church administration in the 13th century.*" 

 Giffard made zealous endeavours to cope with the many abuses of the day. 

 The unsettled condition of the country towards the close of the reign of 

 Henry III gave rise to a variety of disputes as to advowsons. Sometimes 

 there were as many as three applicants for the same benefice under different 

 patrons, and in one case there were actually five different presentations to 

 a single vacant rectory. The archbishop commissioned in such cases a 

 special tribunal, composed of members of the rural deanery in which the 

 vacancy occurred, to make inquiry concerning the title of the patron and at 

 the same time as to the fitness of the presentee. Of this highly interesting 

 class of document, not to be found (so far as we are aware) in other episcopal 

 registers, there are unfortunately only a few examples. Many of the 

 presentees were in minor orders. In the case of a vacancy at West Retford, 

 one of the presentees was an acolyte, whilst the other had only received the 

 first tonsure. The inquisition in this case was held on 3 October 1267 in 

 full chapter of the deanery of Retford, in the church of St. Michael, before 

 the Archdeacon of Nottingham. The right to present was claimed by Sir 

 Henry de Almaine, nephew of the king. Robert de Sunfield, acolyte, was 

 declared to be of legitimate birth, of good manners, and a fit person, so far as 

 human frailty could determine. On the following 9 January, the same 

 chapter was convoked in the same place, when it was reported that they 

 believed the true presentation rested with Prince Edward (afterwards Edward I) 

 as the prince had recently presented to the half church of Grove, which was 

 of the same fee. The report was witnessed by the vicar of Blyth and by 

 the mcumbents of eight other parishes in the deanery, as well as by the 

 respective parochial chaplains, whereupon Prince Edward a week later wrote 

 to the archbishop explaining that a certain lady had come to him and made 

 him beheve that the patronage belonged to her, but that his relative 

 bir Henry de Almaine had now proved to him that he (the prince) had 

 granted the advowson to Sir Henry ; therefore the archbishop was asked to do 

 justice to his presentee.^'' 



In cases of minor orders it was Giffard's custom to demand the presence 

 of the presentee at the next ordination, and in the meantime conimit the 



;; Pat. 18 Hen. Ill, m. lo ; 19 Hen. Ill, m. 3 ; 20 Hen. Ill, m. 14 ; 26 Hen. Ill, pt i m . . 

 Issued in 1 904 ; edited, with introduction, by Mr. William Brown! ^ ' ^ ^' 



York Epis. Reg. GifFard, fol. 35 d., 36, 36 d. 



43 



