A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



the interim, ' by negligence ' presented a secular clerk they procured a 

 renewal of the grant from Northburgh ' for the relief of their heavy 

 burdens,' '"^ and henceforth down to the Dissolution the vicar of Ormskirk 

 was always a canon of Burscough. The same expedient was adopted at 

 Whalley. Prior to 1358 the bishop had given a dispensation to three 

 monks in succession to hold the vicarage, the reason offered being that the 

 residence of secular clerks within the monastic inclosure led to disturbances, 

 and in that year Pope Innocent VI gave them a general licence to present 

 members of their community to the living,"' and this was done down to the 

 Reformation. Archbishop Thoresby in his re-ordination of the vicarage of 

 Kirkham in 1357 allowed the abbot and convent of Vale Royal to present 

 one of their own number to the benefice ; but perhaps this was restricted to 

 the next vacancy.^"" That this practice was not confined to Lancashire is 

 evident from the statute of 1402, which forbad the religious to hold vicarages 

 in any churches appropriated after that date."" The tenure of a cure of souls 

 was, no doubt, more inconsistent with the ideal of the monk than of the 

 canon. But monks had long been allowed to serve parish churches which 

 became conventual, like Lancaster, Lytham, and Penwortham ; and at Whalley 

 at all events the monastic vicars could still live with the community. The 

 position of the monk of Vale Royal at Kirkham or of the monks of Whalley, 

 who in the fifteenth century were occasionally made vicars of Blackburn 

 and Rochdale, was less easily reconciled with the observance of the common 

 life. Even in the case of canons, who were normally priests, departure 

 from the house to serve a benefice was regarded as an exceptional thing, 

 requiring dispensation and guarded by special conditions. The monastic 

 vicar of either kind had to be accompanied by one or more of his fellow 

 monks or canons,'"'^ and in some cases at least the rule forbad him to 

 administer the Sacraments personally to his parishioners.*"" The canon vicar 

 was the commoner. A canon of Conishead served Orton church in West- 

 morland as early as 1281.=°^ In addition to Ormskirk, which was only 

 three miles away, Burscough occasionally presented a canon to Huyton in 

 the fifteenth century,'"^ and Cockersand had then no less than six of its 

 canons regularly absent from the house, the vicars of Garstang and Mitton, 

 the proctors for those benefices, and the chantry priests of Middleton and 

 Tunstall.'"' At least one canon of Nostell occurs among the vicars of 

 Winwick in the fourteenth century. 



The ordination registers of the bishops of Lichfield give us the number 

 of the religious in South Lancashire who took orders. In the quarter of a 



'" Duchy of Lane. Anct. D., L. 27?. 199 r^l P-,* r .. 



- H,su of Kirkham (Chet. See), ^l Philip de Grcnhal, monk'': f vL rS ^'^'iL'muted in m6. 

 but his successors seem to have been seculars. J^o/ai, was instituted in 1362, 



"'Stat. 4 Hen. IV, cap. 12. An Act of Ijqi (ic RJc H ran fi^ 1,,^ • • j i 

 appropriation the diocesan should ordain not only the vicir'fpor il Lt a .rot T'"'"^ r'' u ^'^''"' '"^^ 

 the benefit of the poor parishioners. portion, but a proper share of the income for 



Al "/''m^^''' ^'^- N.°"^,b"^gl^ i' '"-^ (Whalley); Duchy of Lane Anct D I ,0, P 



"" "^ 1^-^-^. kr^.,.. ,rj;"'- -^ '"'- ">••■ -f--'"- -^ c..*. ,, 4s,-.. 



•* See 'Religious Houses,' 156 note +2. The churches of Ulver^tnn =r,^ r 

 were e..r established and Cockerham, until one was created towards he endo^rl' T "' ^' "° ^'""^^^ 

 sen-ed by canons with or without stipendiary priests. tnirteenth century, were 



28 



