ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



its archdeacon. The lands composing the nascent ' Lancashire,' as belong- 

 ing to two dioceses, were divided between two archdeacons. The district 

 ' between Ribble and Mersey ' formed with Cheshire the sphere of the 

 archdeacon of Chester. That north of the Ribble was combined with the 

 western half of the North Riding of Yorkshire and the districts of Kendal 

 and Copeland in the archdeaconry of Richmond. 



Three archdeacons of Chester — Halmar, William, and Robert — are 

 recorded without dates before Richard Peche (afterwards bishop of the see), 

 who is said to have held the office in 1 135.*' Conan ' the archdeacon,' who 

 witnessed a charter of Count Alan of Richmond in the reign of William 

 Rufus, is thought to be the earliest archdeacon of Richmond on record.'" 



The archidiaconal courts and visitations were no doubt originally held 

 in virtue of authority delegated by the bishop, but ' early in the twelfth 

 century the English archdeacons possessed themselves of a customary jurisdic- 

 tion including certain matters of importance and in particular cases, as that 

 of the archdeaconry of Richmond, augmented by recorded acts of devolu- 

 tion from the bishops.'" The archdeacon of Richmond exercised a large 

 measure of episcopal authority within the region assigned to him. He was 

 ordinary therein concurrently with and almost to the exclusion of the arch- 

 bishop of York.^^ The archbishop's right to visit the archdeaconry was some- 

 times disputed, and it was ultimately agreed that the clergy were not obliged 

 to receive or entertain him.'' The episcopal functions of confirmation, con- 

 secration,'* and ordination were of course exercised only by the archbishop ; 

 but the archdeacon instituted to all benefices,'' and to him fell the sequestra- 

 tions during their vacancy. He received the synodals and Peter's pence, paying 

 only to the Chancellor of York 20s. per annum. The archbishop could not 

 impose an aid upon the clergy of the archdeaconry nor suspend a church or 

 clerk belonging to it.'* Richmond was exceptional, but the jurisdiction of 

 the archdeacons was everywhere so aggressive that the bishops about the 

 middle of the twelfth century sought to limit it by delegating their own 

 judicial powers to episcopal officials. '^ The division of the various dioceses 

 into rural deaneries seems to have been older than that into archdeaconries 

 and prior to the Norman Conquest. Originally mere episcopal delegates, the 

 rural deans in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries had distinct rights and 

 duties. They exercised a general supervision over the clergy and — in spiri- 

 tual matters — over the laity of their deaneries whether by formal visitations 

 or otherwise ; inducted to benefices, which they took into their hands during 

 vacancies ; and enjoyed jurisdiction, which in minor matters they administered 

 in virtue of their own power, but in more serious cases in the chapters of 

 the clergy of their deaneries, which they had the right to summon, and in 

 which they presided." From the middle of the thirteenth century onwards, 

 however, they gradually became tompletely subordinate to the archdeacons. 



'^ Le Neve, Fasti, i, 565. '" Dugdale, Mon. Jngl. i, 391 ; Whitaker, Richmondshire, i, 35, 83. 



" Rep. of Eccl. Courts Com. i, 25-6 ; Richmondshire Wills (Surtees Soc), p. xx. 



" Whitaker, op. cit. i, 34. '' Ibid. ; Cal. Pap. Letters, ii, 93 ; cf. Furness Coucher, 657, 659. 



" He granted licences for graveyards ; Hist, of Lone. Church, 153, 164, 362. 



'* Including headships of religious houses ; but Cockersand seems to have had direct relations with the 

 archbishop ; see 'Religious Houses,' p. 108. 



^ Whitaker, loc. cit. " Rep. of Eccl. Courts Com. \, 26. 



'° Makower, Const. Hist, of the Church of England (Eng. tr.), 322 ; Dansey, Horae Decanicae Rurales 

 (1835)- 



292 



