RELIGIOUS HOUSES 



Three years later the dispute in question was 

 settled by the intervention of the Archbishop of 

 York as visitor of the college, who enjoined : — 



That hereafter no publick dinner or entertain- 

 ment shall be made at the installation of any Preben- 

 dary, but, instead thereof, the sum of six pounds shall 

 be paid by the person installed, in addition to the two 

 pounds heretofore given for the benefit of the library.'' 



A resolution of chapter, made 24 October 

 1783, 'that the chanting of the service in the 

 church be performed in a monotony,' is of some 

 interest from its date, but it must be admitted 

 that the 1 8th-century canons of Southwell can 

 hardly be claimed as exempt from the lethargy 

 which characterized the Church of England as a 

 whole during this period. Here and there among 

 the resident canons may be recognized a divine 

 of superior scholarship and wider intellectual 

 interests, such as Dr. Ralph Heathcote, vicar 

 general from 1788 to 1795, who in his youth 

 had taken an active part in the theological con- 

 troversies of the middle of the century.'" Earlier 

 than this the same office had been held by 

 George Mompesson, the heroic vicar of Eyam, 

 Derbyshire, in the days of the great plague of 

 1666; and William Rastall, Heathcote's imme- 

 diate predecessor, showed commendable diligence 

 in his care for the fabric of the magnificent 

 church of which he and his colleagues were the 

 custodians. But these men were exceptions, and 

 for such a body as the chapter of Southwell in 

 its latest days there was but one possible fate in 

 the decades of radical reform which followed 

 1832. Eleven years after the death of the last 

 surviving prebendary the church of Southwell 

 became once more a centre in the ecclesiastical 

 organization of the county by its elevation to be 

 the cathedral of the see newly created in 1 884 

 for the counties of Nottingham and Derby.*" 



The constitution of this great Nottinghamshire 

 church was based on that of the cathedral church 

 of York. In the bull of Alexander III, granted 

 in 1 171, confirming the canons in all their 

 possessions, it is expressly stated that the ancient 

 customs and liberties ' which the church of York 

 is known to have had from old time and still to 

 have ' were renewed and solemnly maintained to 

 them.*^ In this bull sanction was given to the 

 ancient custom, already well established, of both 

 clergy and laity making Whitsuntide procession 

 to Southwell as the old mother church of the 

 county, and thence they were to obtain the holy 

 oils for distribution among their churches, brought 

 thither from York. The clergy, too, were ex- 

 pected to attend an annual synod at Southwell. 



'* Dickenson, Hist, of Southzvell, 278. 



" An interesting autobiography of Dr. Heathcote 

 was included by Dickenson in the second edition of 

 his Hist, of Southwell. 



^ For some information upon points of detail in- 

 cluded here vsre are indebted to Mr. W. G. Patchett 

 of Southvi^ell. " Liber Albus, fol. i. 



The special privileges that the Southwell 

 canons enjoyed in common with those of York 

 were freedom in their common lands and also in 

 their respective prebends from all ordinary juris- 

 diction, spiritual or temporal, of archbishop or 

 king. No distress, &c., could be taken by the 

 sheriff without the chapter's leave, or without 

 the individual prebend's leave in the case of 

 prebendal lands. 'The canons had civil and 

 criminal jurisdiction over all their tenants and 

 people in their liberty. The judges on circuit 

 had to hold the pleas of the Crown at the south 

 door of the church ; in criminal cases in one of 

 the canon's houses, outside the minster yard. 

 They had to make a return of their proceedings 

 to the canons, and the fines and forfeitures in- 

 flicted went to the canons and not to the king.' "^ 

 The canons also held the assize of bread and beer 

 throughout their liberty, and could fine the in- 

 fringers of this and other market regulations ; 

 but they did not possess either pillory or tumbrel. 

 They and their tenants were also free from eve y 

 form of toll and custom throughout England. 

 These extensive powers and privileges were 

 granted by charters of the first three Henrys, and 

 were fully maintained by them under the Quo 

 Warranto proceedings of the beginning of the 

 reign of Edward I.*' 



In spiritual matters the collegiate church of 

 Southwell was exempt from all archiepiscopal 

 jurisdiction, save that the diocesan had the power 

 to visit to see that they kept their statutes ; but 

 this power was seldom if ever put in force after 

 the 13th century. The chapter alone exercised 

 jurisdiction over the vicars choral and chantry 

 priests, and over their prebendal or parochial 

 vicars (whom they instituted), and also over the 

 laity throughout their peculiar.** 



In one important point the canons of South- 

 well differed from those of York. Unlike any 

 other foundation of secular canons save that of 

 Ripon, they possessed no head warden or dean. 

 Even Ripon gave a recognized supremacy, though 

 no special title, to one of their number, the pre- 

 bendary of Stanwick ; but at Southwell all were 

 of equal rights throughout their history. In 

 actual practice it is probable that the senior canon 

 in residence would preside at chapter meetings, 

 and in other ways take precedence.** 



*' Leach, Mem. xxxi. 



^ Plac. de ^0 M'ar. (Rec. Com.), 615, 636. 



** Mr. Leach, however, goes much too far when he 

 says (xxxiii) that ' they possessed all archiepiscopal 

 functions except ordination,' for of course they 

 could not confirm, nor consecrate altars or churches, 

 &c. 



" One Hugh, Dean of Southwell, occurs as a wit- 

 ness to certain deeds, c. 1225. Mr. Leach thinks 

 that possibly the chapter tried the irregular experiment 

 of having a dean for a few years about this date. But 

 we have no doubt that Hugh was but a rural dean ; 

 we have found other later instances of such Deans of 

 Southwell. 



157 



