THE CATHEDRAL.
In order to give a complete view of the position and work of the parochial
clergy in town and country, it is necessary to indicate, however briefly,
both their connection with the cathedral and their relations with the
monasteries. In this chapter we attempt the former subject; the latter in
a following chapter.
We must glance back at our history and recall the time when the cathedral
was the mother church of the diocese, and the bishop and his clergy lived
together as one family. Some of them remained always at head-quarters to
keep up the Divine service with as full a choir as their circumstances
permitted, and to carry on the schools, which formed so important a branch
of their work of Christian civilization; while others were itinerating
hither and thither through the diocese preaching the gospel to the people.
Then, we remember, came the gradual organization of the parochial system,
by which the great majority of the clergy were scattered over the
diocese, each residing permanently in his own rectory-house, and
ministering constantly to his own people.
[Illustration: CONFESSION IN LENT. LATE XV. CENT. MS., 25698, f. 9.]
The bishop, however, still retained a strong staff about him at the
cathedral, for the honour of the Divine service and for general diocesan
work; and the old tradition of an ascetic common life would naturally be
maintained there, when it was no longer practicable in the scattered
rectories. This staff would need organization. One man would be put in
general command during the absences of the bishop on his visitations of
the diocese; another would be in permanent charge of the schools; another
would have special charge of the services; another would be the treasurer
of the bishop’s common fund; and thus naturally arose the four dignities
of all the old cathedrals--the dean, the chancellor, the precentor, and
the treasurer. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, the great chancellor of Charles
Martel, organized the clergy of his cathedral into a community, adapting
the rule of St. Benedict (which was then being pressed upon all the
monasteries) to the circumstances of a body of secular clergy. After the
Norman Conquest some of our bishops attempted to introduce the same
organization into England, at Exeter, and Wells, and, with some
modifications, at York; but the innovation did not flourish here.
The development of a more settled constitution of our English cathedral
bodies of secular canons took the course of giving the cathedral clergy a
more independent corporate life. The first great step towards it was the
division of the common property into two portions, one at the disposal of
the bishop, the other the endowment of the chapter. The property allotted
to the canons was then subdivided, estates being attached to the four
great dignities; and, lastly, distinct endowments, called prebends, were
assigned to the individual members of the general corporate body; still
retaining a common dean and chapter fund divisible annually among the
canons, or some of them. The concession to the chapter of the privilege of
electing its own dean, completed the work, and made the dean and chapter
an independent ecclesiastical corporation. The chapter thus definitely
constituted soon acquired new rights and privileges. Already in the eighth
century they had obtained the right of being the bishop’s council; then
they gained the right, to the exclusion of the rest of the clergy, of
electing the bishop; then, that of representing the bishop’s authority
during a vacancy. Lastly, the dean, originally intended to represent the
bishop during his absence, asserted his independence of the bishop as
ruler of the chapter; and it cost Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, a long and
bitter contest to establish his right to “visit” the chapter of his
cathedral, a contest in which he said that he was contending for the
dropped rights of all the bishops of England.
We have been speaking of the cathedrals which were served by bodies of
secular clergy. But some of the cathedral bodies had adopted the
Benedictine rule, and were monasteries in which the bishop occupied in
some respects, the place of abbot, but the prior was the actual ruler.
These were Canterbury, Durham, Norwich, Rochester, Winchester, and
Worcester, and the two post-Norman sees, one placed in the great
Benedictine House of Ely, the other in the House of Austin Canons at
Carlisle.
The bishops soon found it desirable to secure the services of one or more
archdeacons to help them in maintaining an oversight of their scattered
clergy; soon after the Conquest, the archdeacons had their courts of
jurisdiction, in which most of the minor cases of ecclesiastical
discipline were dealt with.
The practical oversight of the parochial clergy was maintained partly by
synods, partly by visitations. The bishop held an annual synod, to which
all the clergy of the diocese were bound to come in person or by proxy.
The bishop also went the round of his diocese at intervals, usually of
three years. He could not visit every parish, but the clergy met him at
several convenient centres, with some of their chief parishioners, and the
synodsmen gave in written replies to a set of questions--with which we
have already dealt--which constituted a very searching--not to say
inquisitorial--scrutiny into the life and conduct not only of the clergy,
but of the laity also.
A Constitution of Archbishop Boniface, 1260, directed every bishop to
have in his diocese one or two prisons for confining clerics
flagitious in crime, or convicted by canonical censure, and “we decree
that any cleric who shall be incorrigible in his wickedness and
habituated to committing crime to such a degree that if he were a
layman he would, according to the secular law, suffer the extreme
penalty, such cleric shall be adjudged to perpetual imprisonment.”
The archdeacons held their visitations, making inquiry specially into the
state of the fabrics and furniture of the churches and parsonage houses;
the rural deans also played a minor part in extending this oversight into
every corner of the land.
After this general introduction, it will best serve our purpose of giving
a popular idea of the part which a cathedral took in the religious life of
the clergy and people, to select an individual example, and treat it a
little more in detail.
* * * * *
When Remigius, anticipating the policy of the Council of London,
transferred his see from Sidnacester (Stowe) to Lincoln, he found the
king’s new castle already occupying the south-west quarter of the area
within the Roman walls of the old Colonia; and purchased the south-east
quarter for the site of his new cathedral; a wide open space only
separated the castle-gate from the humbler gate of the cathedral close.
The old inhabitants, reinforced by the new military and ecclesiastical
populations, found the northern half of the city too strait for them, and
a new walled town sprang up at the foot of the hill, and soon stretched
out a long, narrow suburb southward, along the high-road, defended by
parallel dykes. The situation was a fine one. The long tableland to the
north here falls steeply to the level of the river Witham, and overlooks
another long level stretching southward. From the north, the castle keep
and the minster towers (when they were built) could be seen from every
yard of the twelve miles of perfectly straight Roman road which ran
northwards towards the Humber. Seen from the south, the view of the city
was a glorious one. The new buildings of the castle and minster extended
in a long line on the brow of the hill; an irregular line of steep street
connected the old city with the new town at its feet; the river, enlarged
and made navigable by the Romans, protected the approach from the south,
and wound through low ground past the monastery of Bardney, and, in later
days, the castle and collegiate church of Tatteshall, to the port of
Boston at its embouchere. Durham only of English cathedrals occupies so
advantageous a site, and, together with its palatine castle, presents as
noble an architectural effect. The church grew century after century,
after the manner of cathedrals. A portion of the west front of Remigius
still remains surrounded by the later work of Alexander; St. Hugh of
Avalon added the magnificent choir; Grostete added the central tower and
the parts adjacent; and so at last the Church attained the magnificent
proportions which still excite our admiration. The bishop’s palace was
built on a levelled space of the hillside south of the cathedral; the
ruins of the “early English” halls and towers founded by St. Hugh,
finished by Hugh of Wells, and the chapel added by Alnwick, still remain;
and the pleasant hanging gardens above and below the buildings. The
cathedral close was inclosed[349] by a wall, and its entrances at the
north-east, south-east, and west were defended by gates; the “exchequer
gate” at the west had a gate-house with a large chamber in the upper
story. The principal residentiary buildings of a monastery were grouped in
a customary order round the cloister court; but the houses of the
dignitaries of a cathedral were arranged as convenience suggested. The
deanery[350] stands north, and the sub-deanery south of the church; on
the east side of the close still remain two old stone houses with
picturesque oriels, which were--and are--the official residences of the
chancellor and the precentor; the chancery has a private chapel in it.
[Illustration: Lincoln, from the Fens.]
In the fourteenth century it became the custom, for their greater
convenience and better discipline, to incorporate the[351] vicars choral,
and to place them in a court of their own. The vicar’s court remains at
Wells, Hereford, Chichester, and York. That at Wells, for fourteen
priests, is a long inclosure with a row of seven small stone houses on
each side, a chapel, with a library over it at the further end, and a hall
over the entrance gate, from which there is a picturesque covered way over
the public road into the north transept of the church, by which the vicars
could go in comfort to their daily duties--like the pope’s covered way
from the Vatican to the Castle of St. Angelo. There are only some remains
of the vicar’s court at Lincoln, on the east side of the palace grounds,
the old Roman wall dividing them. Every cathedral had a number of
chantries, one of the very earliest was that to Bishop Hugh of Wells, in
this cathedral. The Burghersh chantry, founded by Bartholomew Burghersh,
had five priests, who, with the six choristers and their schoolmaster,
formed a corporate body, and all lived together in the chantry-house,
which still remains in very perfect condition on the south side of the
close. Among the interesting features of Lincoln, the treasurer had charge
of a dispensary, which contained his stock of medicines; walls of an
apartment in the cathedral are still surrounded by the niches.[352]
The chapter-house of a cathedral, served by seculars, was a very important
feature. In monasteries it was always quadrangular, but in secular
cathedrals, for some unknown reason, it was always polygonal.[353] It had
always a central pillar, from which the groining spread on all sides, like
the leaves of a palm-tree; externally it was covered with a tall conical
roof. Here the dean and chapter met for the transaction of their capitular
affairs, and here the bishop held his synods.
The _camera communis_ (common room) of the canons intervened between the
north transept and the chapter-house; over the vestibule was the office of
the master of the works. Near by, north-east of the chapter-house, is a
well, covered with a little stone octagonal building with conical roof.
When we call to mind that there are wells within several cathedral
churches--at York, in which King Edwin was baptized by Paulinus, at
Winchester, and elsewhere--we are led to conjecture that the water of
these wells may have been used for various ritual purposes.
The date of the incorporation of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln is 1086,
and the bishop gave it statutes which seem to have been derived from
Rouen.[354] The historian, Henry of Huntingdon, gives a charming
description of the members of the original chapter, who were personally
known to him, for he was the son of one of them.[355]
“Ralph the Dean, a venerable priest. Rayner the Treasurer, full of
religion, had prepared a tomb against the day of his death, and oft
sate by it singing of psalms and praying long whiles, to use himself
to his eternal home. Hugh the Chancellor, worthy of all memory, the
mainstay and, as it were, the foundation of the Church. Osbert,
Archdeacon of Bedford, afterward Chancellor, a man wholly sweet and
loveable. William, a young Canon of great genius. Albin (my own tutor)
and Albin’s brothers, most honourable men, my dearest friends, men of
profoundest science, brightest purity, utter innocence, and yet by
God’s inscrutable judgement they were smitten with leprosy; but death
hath made them clean. Nicolas, Archdeacon of Cambridge, Huntingdon,
and Hertford--none more beautiful in person, in character beautiful no
less, ‘Stella Cleri,’ so styled in his Epitaph [Henry’s father].
Walter, prince of orators. Gislebert, elegant in prose, in verse, in
dress. With many other honoured names with which I may not tax your
patience.”[356]
One of the reasons which Bishop Alnwick gave for assigning large salaries
to the holders of stalls was the way in which they “devote themselves to
the public service, in self-imposed tasks over and above their daily
expositions and constant toils and numerous burdens.”[357]
* * * * *
With the help of the “Valor Ecclesiasticus” of Henry VIII., we are able to
people the cathedral, and palace, and residentiary houses, and vicar’s
court, and chantries, with the men who lived and served there at the time
of the Reformation, and even to pry into their account-books and tell
their several incomes, to the third part of a farthing.
The Right Rev. John Longland,[358] who was the bishop in those troublous
times, lived in St. Hugh’s stately halls and towers on the sunny slope
under the shelter of the minster; and to maintain his dignity, and
household, and hospitalities, and various expenses, the annual value of
“all the domains, manors, castles, parks, rectories, lands, tenements, and
other temporal possessions,” of this see was £Mccclxxviij, viij, vq’,
_i.e._ to say, £1378 8_s._ 5¼_d._; and “all the spiritualities of the said
Lord John” amounted, one year with another, to Diiij{xx}iiij, viij, xjq’,
_i.e._ £584 8_s._ 11¼_d._; making together an income of mdcccclxij, xvij,
iiijob, or £1962 17_s._ 4½_d._, equivalent in our money to about £23,554
8_s._ 6_d._[359]
If the reader does not know what the “spiritualities” here mentioned are,
he is not more ignorant than some great statesmen have been. For, on one
occasion, the late Earl Russell asserted that the bishops received their
spiritual authority from the Crown, on the ground that by one of the
documents issued from a Crown office to a newly-elected bishop, restored
the “spiritualities” as well as the “temporalities” to the new occupant of
the see. The “Valor” tells us of what these spiritualities consisted:
Portions and pensions from benefices, fees for procurations and synodals,
institutions and inductions, faculties, probate of wills, and such-like.
Temporalities, in short, are real property, and spiritualities are fees
and perquisites.
The dean and chapter had, as a common fund, the profits of twenty
appropriate rectories; and from these and other sources they derived an
annual income; for part of which they were only trustees, and had to pay
out of it for the maintenance of the choristers, and the stipends of
various chantry priests and others; leaving a balance of £Dvj xiij iiij
ob’q di q’, which means £506 13_s._ 4½_d._ ¼ and half ¼. This balance was
divided among the six residentiary canons, making £83 11_s._ 1_d._ to
each, with a remainder of ij ob’ di’q’, or 2½_d._ and half a farthing. The
residentiary canons in question were the dignitaries, Mr. George Hennage,
the Dean; James Mallet, the precentor; Christopher Massingberd, the
chancellor; John Pryn, the sub-dean; and the others were, John
Talbot[360] and Simon Green, _alias_ Foderby.
The dean and chapter were also trustees of a fabric fund derived from land
and rents; out of which they had first to pay the stipends of several
chantry priests, three and a chapel clerk serving the altar of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, and one each at the Welburn and Crosby Chantries; then they
had to pay certain workmen constantly retained, a carpenter,
“lathonius,”[361] plumber, glazier, smith, cleaner of brass vessels and
candelabra, surveyor of the fabric, organist[362] at the mass of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, and lastly the bailiff of lands and tenements. The
balance after these payments was £575 7_s._ 2½_d._ ¼ and half ¼; and this
balance was divided among the six residentiary canons aforesaid, giving
£95 17_s._ 10½_d._ to each; it must be borne in mind that they were liable
for occasional heavy expenditure on the repairs of fabric, which had to
come out of their purses. Each dignity had its own special endowments; the
separate estates of the deanery[363] produced an income of £196 10_s._
8_d._; of the precentory £8 2_s._ 4_d._, of the chancery £54 1_s._ 5_d._,
of the treasury £10 13_s._ 4_d._; of the sub-deanery £35 8_s._
Then, again, every dignitary held a prebend of more or less value, which
shall be set forth presently in a general statement.
A little research reveals the fact that each of the dignitaries also held
one or more parochial benefices; for example, Mr. George Hennage[364] was
Master of the Collegiate Church of Tatteshall; he was also Rector of
Gedney, Washingburghe, Howby, Benningworth, and Flyxburgh.
The precentor also held the Rectory of Longleddenham. The chancellor was
also Vicar of Byker, Rector of Highkame, and Rector of Foletby. Mr. Pryn,
the sub-dean, seems to have held nothing besides his dignity and his
prebendal stall, except the Singing Schools (under the precentor). There
were Prebendal Schools under the oversight of the prebendaries themselves,
and others “which are maintained by local managers for the instruction of
their parishioners in faith and letters.”
It may seem a little invidious, perhaps, to add these several sums
together and bring out the totals; but it is a part of the work which we
have undertaken, and we do not feel at liberty to decline it; it will, at
least, remind us that we have in modern times made some economic changes
in the administration of cathedral affairs; not altogether satisfactory
ones, for, with the usual want of moderation in the minds of reformers,
instead of judicious pruning, the cruel knife has left little beyond a
bare stem.
To sum up, then--
Mr. George Hennage, the dean, had £196 10_s._ 8_d._ of his deanery;
£83 11_s._ 1_d._ of the Dean and Chapter Fund; £95 17_s._ 10_d._ of
the Fabric Fund; £42 7_s._ 4_d._ of his Prebend of Biggleswade;[365]
£20 as Master of Tatteshall College;[366] £23 11_s._ as Rector of
Gedney;[367] £27 3_s._ 4_d._ as Rector of Washingborough;[368] £22
8_s._ 5¼_d._ as Rector of Howby;[369] £23 8_s._ 6_d._ as Rector of
Benningworth;[370] and £13 10_s._ as Rector of Flyxboro’;[371] making
a total of £548 8_s._ 3_d._
Mr. James Mallett, the precentor, had only £8 2_s._ 4_d._ of his
precentory; £83 11_s._ 1_d._ his share of the Dean and Chapter Fund;
£95 17_s._ 10_d._ of the Fabric Fund; he was Prebendary of
Empyngham,[372] which brought him £35 6_s._ 5_d._, and Rector of
Longleddenham,[373] £29 12_s._ 8_d._ Total, £252 10_s._ 4_d._
Mr. Christopher Massingberd, the chancellor, had £54 1_s._ 5_d._ of
his chancellorship; £83 11_s._ 1_d._ of the Dean and Chapter Fund; and
£95 17_s._ 10_d._ of the Fabric Fund; as Vicar of Byker,[374] £15; as
Rector of High Kame,[375] £19 16_s._ 2_d._; as Rector of Foletby,[376]
£21 2_s._ 8_d._ Total, £289 9_s._ 2_d._
The treasurership, vacant at that moment, was worth £10 13_s._ 4_d._;
with £83 11_s._ 1_d._ of the Dean and Chapter Fund, and £95 17_s._
10_d._ of the Fabric Fund. Total, £190 2_s._ 3_d._
Mr. John Pryn, the sub-dean, had £35 8_s._ of his dignity; £83 11_s._
1_d._ of the Dean and Chapter Fund; £95 17_s._ 10_d._ of the Fabric
Fund; and of his Prebend of Keton,[377] £29 10_s._ 2_d._ Total, £244
7_s._ 1_d._
It must be borne in mind that these were great dignitaries of one of the
greatest and wealthiest dioceses, and had to maintain a certain degree of
state in their household and expenditure. Each dignitary had also to find
at his own cost everything which belonged to his office; the precentor
everything which belonged to Divine services, vestments, service books,
etc. The chancellor had to maintain the divinity school of the
cathedral--at one time a very famous one, the cathedral grammar school,
and was responsible for all the schools in the city and county.
Should any reader have recognized among these dignitaries of Lincoln
Cathedral the names of well-known families of the diocese, he must not be
satisfied with a passing thought on the effect of family influence in the
distribution of Church patronage, which may be true enough; he must add
the reflection that in those times it was thought fitting not only to give
the grandest architecture, the most costly material, and the best art to
the material church, but also to dedicate the best blood of the people to
its ministry; much as in old times the greatest and proudest nobles held
domestic offices--dapifer and the like--at the court of the king, and no
one who was not of gentle birth was thought worthy to attend him.
We shall entirely fail to understand the whole spirit and meaning of a
mediæval cathedral if we have not fully grasped the idea that it was not
intended to be merely a centre of busy diocesan work; the magnificent
building and its sumptuous furniture, the numerous and complex
organization of its staff of ministers richly endowed, were all directed
to the honour and worship of Almighty God. It was the embodiment in this
dispensation of the ideal of worship which God Himself sanctioned in the
old dispensation, when His Temple at Jerusalem was “exceeding
magnifical,”[378] and the high priest wore jewels of untold price on his
mystic breastplate, and a whole tribe--a twelfth of the people--were set
apart for the ministry, and the well-endowed priests came up in the turn
of their twenty-four courses to the honour of officiating for a fortnight
in a year before the Presence in the Holy of Holies.
There were fifty-two prebendaries, whose canopied oak stalls form the most
striking feature of the choir of the cathedral. A prebend was sometimes a
manor, more frequently a rectory, rarely a sum of money, which formed an
endowment for a canon.[379] For the most part the prebendaries were
supposed to reside upon their prebends, to maintain Divine service, and a
school, and hospitality there. Every prebendary was required to maintain a
vicar choral at the cathedral; he himself came into residence for one
week in the year, and during that week took the principal position in the
cathedral services. On his Sunday of duty he was expected to entertain
nineteen of the under officers at dinner, and to receive others at
different meals during the week. The dean was required about thirty times
a year to give an “honorificus pastus” to all the choir and vicars, “to
make life and work more pleasant to them.”[380] One fact is enough to show
that the prebendaries of Lincoln were a very distinguished body of
men:--of the fifty-two stalls, all but one--some of them more than
once--has given a bishop to Lincoln, and from among them every English see
has been filled, and many of them twice.
One of the statutory duties of the prebendaries is very little known, and
is so curious and interesting as to deserve mention here, even though it
requires a few words of preface to make the spirit of it quite
intelligible. Among other remarkable designs which entered into pious
minds in those mediæval communities was that of maintaining a ceaseless
service of praise--_laus perennis_--or a daily recitation of the whole
Psalter. The former was a conventual devotion, and was done in this way:
there were always two priests before the altar, night and day, relieved at
regular intervals, singing the Psalms. The latter was a cathedral
devotion, where it was a rule that the dean and prebendaries as a body
should say the whole Psalter every day to the glory of God. The same
devotion was maintained at Salisbury, Wells, and St. Paul’s. The task was
not a hard one, for the Psalter was divided among them; one prebend said
the first, second, third, fourth Psalms, another the fifth, sixth,
seventh, and so on; the 119th Psalm was divided between several of them;
each made it a matter of conscience to say the Psalms allotted to him; and
thus, from the time of Bishop St. Hugh, the prebendaries of Lincoln,
wherever they were scattered, were brought together in spirit by this
interesting observance, and said the whole Psalter daily to the glory of
God. It will perhaps surprise some of our readers to learn that they keep
up the observance to this day.[381]
We shall not trouble the reader with more than a few notes on the
value of the fifty-two prebends. Some of them were very valuable,
_e.g._ Leighton Manor, Leighton Buzzard, Cropredy, and Sutton, each
brought in to their fortunate holders £40, but the majority were
between £5 and £10. There are several noticeable ones--the Prebend
Sexaginta Solidorum, and the Prebend Centum Solidorum, and the Prebend
Decem Librarum, _i.e._ the prebends of Sixty Shillings, a Hundred
Shillings, and Ten Pounds. The custos of St. Peter’s altar received
for commons and wine[382] as a canon £20 a year.
Some of these prebends, as we have seen, were held by the dignitaries;
some, as we shall presently see, by the archdeacons. Some of them afforded
a comfortable maintenance alone. It is to be hoped that the holders of
others--especially of one whose value is returned as “nihil”--had other
benefices to help out their incomes. They were not by any means all given
to priests in the diocese. A prebend was a very comfortable benefice,
which might be held by anybody, and they were given to all sorts of
people; _e.g._ two of them seem to have been held by the Dean and
Precentor of Chichester.[383]
* * * * *
To assist the bishop in the spiritual oversight of this vast diocese,
which embraced 8 counties, and extended from the Humber to the Thames, the
bishop had 8 archdeacons, whose incomes and the sources of them are
reported in the “Valor.”[384]
The Archdeacon of Lincoln received for procurations, £171 17_s._
10_d._, for synodals at Pentecost, £29 14_s._ 3_d._, and at
Michaelmas, £16 14_s._ 3_d._, and pensions, £5 17_s._, making a total
of £234 2_s._ 4_d._ But out of that he had to pay the Prebendary of
Ten Pounds £10, and 50_s._ to the Prebendary of Carleton, to his
Receiver-General £8 13_s._ 4_d._, and 58_s._ to the three vergers of
the Cathedral, leaving him a net income from this source of £179
19_s._ Archdeacon Richard Pate was also Prebendary of Sutton and
Buckingham, from which he received £110 3_s._ 6_d._; he was also
Rector of Kybworth, which was worth £39 14_s._ 11_d._; so that his
total income was £329 17_s._ 5_d._
The Archdeaconry of Stow was worth £24 2_s._ 8½_d._, and Archdeacon
Darley does not appear to have held other preferment, at least in
Lincoln Diocese.
The Archdeaconry of Huntingdon was worth £57 4_s._ 2_d._, and
Archdeacon Knight was also Prebendary of Farundon, worth £30 11_s._
2_d._
The Archdeaconry of Bedford was worth £57 2_s._ 3_d._, and Dr. Chamber
the Archdeacon was Prebendary of Leighton Buzzard, worth £40, Rector
of Leighton, worth £6 17_s._ 7¼_d._, and of Bowden Magna, worth £53
8_s._ 10½_d._
The Archdeaconry of Leicester was worth £80 12_s._ 4_d._ Dr. Foxe[385]
was the archdeacon.
The Archdeaconry of Northampton was worth £107 7_s._ Gilbert Smith,
the Archdeacon, was Prebendary of Leighton Bromeswold, worth £57
15_s._ 1_d._[386]
The Archdeaconry of Buckingham was worth £82 14_s._ 5_d._, and Richard
Leighton the archdeacon seems to have had no other preferment in the
Diocese of Lincoln.
The Archdeaconry of Oxford was worth £71 6_s._ Richard Coren, the
archdeacon, held also the Prebendary of Welton Paynshall, worth £5
11_s._ 11_d._
There were--or should have been--twenty-five _Vicars Choral_, who were
paid a stipend, each by his own Prebendary, of £2. The Corporate Body of
Vicars also had property which yielded a net annual income of £145 11_s._
2_d._, which divided between the twenty-five vicars gave to each £5 16_s._
5_d._, “leaving a remainder of 9_d._ to be divided into twenty-five
parts;” and fifteen of them had chantries assigned to them.
* * * * *
At the time of the “Taxatio” there appears to have been only one chantry
in the cathedral, for the soul of Bishop Hugh of Wells; by the time of
the “Valor” the chantries had grown in number to thirty-six.
One vicar was cantarist of the Chantry of William Winchcome, which,
after giving 20_s._ to the poor and other payments, was worth £6 5_s._
4_d._ The same vicar received £2 for playing the organ at the Mass of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and also £1 6_s._ 8_d._ for playing at the
Jesus Mass. Other vicars served the following chantries: of Hervey de
Luda, worth 9_s._ 4_d._; of Simon Barton, 9_s._; of William Thornake,
£4. 2_s._ 4_d._; of Henry Benyngworth, 8_s._ 8_d._; of Robert and John
Lacy, 8_s._; of William Hemyngburge and others, 8_s._; of William
FitzFulke, £4; of King Edward II., 12_s._, and the same clerk filled
the office of succentor, for which he received from the precentor
50_s._, and 6_s._ 6_d._ for wines at the Feast of the Assumption of
the Blessed Virgin Mary, and from the Chapter, 7_s._ 6_d._; for wines
at the end of the year _p’pastu chori_, 18_s._ 9_d._; making £4 12_s._
9_d._ The cantarist of Roger Benetson received £5 12_s._; of Walter
Stanreth, £4; of Oliver Sutton, 8_s._; of Geoffrey Pollard and others,
9_s._ 4_d._; of Gilbert Umfraville, £4 6_s._ 8_d._, the same clerk
occupied the office called Clerk of the Hospital, for which he
received from the Prior and Convent of St. Katharine juxta Lincoln,
24_s._ 2_d._; and from the Chapter for a gown, 9_s._, and other sums
amounting to £1 14_s._ 10_d._; of Hugh of Wells, after paying for 2
vicar chaplains, and to the vicars of the second form, and to the
servants of the Church, and in alms at the obit of the founder,
received £6, the same clerk filled the office of sacrist, for which he
received from the Treasurer and in perquisites, £6 17_s._ 6_d._ The 6
clerks who said the daily mass at the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary
received each 13_s._ 5_d._ There were 4 vacancies in the body of
vicars choral, and the 4 shares were divided among the remaining 21
vicars.
Besides the chantries in the presentation of the dean and chapter, and
divided by them among the vicars choral, there were other chantries,
of which a separate account is given. Some of them with more than one
chaplain. The chantry of Nicholas de Cantelupe had 2 cantarists, who
received £19 10_s._ 2_d._ between them; that of Bishop Henry Lexington
had 2 cantarists, each of whom received 8_s._ 8_d._; 14 other
chantries were worth various sums, from 8_s._ 4_d._ to £13. The
chantry of Bartholomew Burghersh had 5 chaplains, who received £7
9_s._ 0½¼_d._ each, it also maintained 6 poor boys and their master at
a cost of £12 7_s._ 4_d._
The choristers had a special fund in the trusteeship of the dean and
chapter, out of which were entirely maintained twelve boys and the master
who instructed them in singing, playing the organ, and grammar, at an
annual cost of £34 13_s._ 5½_d._
* * * * *
To these ministers of the church must be added a number of officials of
another kind, the bailiffs, receivers, and auditors of the various
properties; the inferior servants of the church; the constable of the
close; the porters of the gates of the close; the searchers of the church
or night watch, who had a timber chamber in the choir transept; and the
domestic servants of the residents.
* * * * *
Let the reader, who has perhaps wandered through the empty cathedral to
admire its wonderful proportions and beautiful architecture, and who has,
while so doing, felt the moral chill of its emptiness, try to refurnish it
with the shrines, chapels, and tombs, the loft for the nightly watchers of
the shrine, the cell of the recluse priest, all inclosed within the vast
ground plan and towering height of the main building, reminding us of the
many mansions in the House of the Heavenly Father. Or let him place
himself in imagination in the choir on the day on which the mediæval
bishop was holding his synod. The stalls at the west end are occupied by
the dean and the four dignitaries in their copes, who face eastward and
overlook the whole assembly. The canopied stalls on the sides are filled
by their prebendaries in surplice and furred cope; the vicars choral and
the choristers are in their places in the subsellæ on each side; the long
rows of benches in front of the stalls are filled by the clergy of the
diocese, so many as can find room; the bishop in cope and mitre occupies
his lofty canopied throne at the east end of the south line of stalls; the
great nave beyond is crowded with the rest of the clergy and their
synodsmen, and the citizens, and the people from the country round,
attracted to the imposing spectacle. It is the whole people of a diocese
stretching from the Humber to the Thames, which by representation has
assembled in the mother church to listen to their bishop’s fatherly
exhortations, and to join with him in a united service of worship of
Almighty God.
Let us adjourn to the chapter-house, which seems so empty and so useless
to the modern visitor. See it filled now, with the bishop on the stone
throne opposite the entrance, and the dignitaries of the cathedral and the
archdeacons seated to right and left of him, and the whole area crowded
with the clergy and synodsmen; it is the people of his diocese--the
clergy in person, the laity by their representatives--come to report
themselves to their bishop, to submit themselves to his jurisdiction, to
receive his admonitions and counsels. The House of Lords is a rather
depressing spectacle to the visitor who gazes on its empty grandeur; but
see it filled on some great day, _e.g._ when the Sovereign opens
Parliament in person, and it is not too grand for the meeting-place of the
Sovereign and Peers of Britain and for the transaction of the business of
an Empire. In the chapter-house it was the spiritual business of the King
of kings which was transacted--business which concerned the eternal
interests of those present; so the grand and beautiful building, with its
soaring central pillar and its overshadowing groining, was not too grand
for the spiritual significance of the multitude which its walls encircled.
So the broad lawns which surround the building were not left only to
enable the spectator to obtain a good view of the building. Their use was
seen on St. Hugh’s Day, when the people of the town and villages came
trooping in at every gate, with crosses and banners and painted wands, and
needed space in which to arrange the long procession which wound slowly
round the close and entered by the western door.
* * * * *
The magnitude and importance of the dioceses differed greatly, and so did
the emoluments of the bishops and of the cathedral establishments. We
have given Lincoln as an example of the greater dioceses; we may take the
Diocese of the South Saxons, with its See at Chichester, as an example of
the smaller.
When the bishop-stool of the South Saxons was removed after the Norman
Conquest from Selsey to Chichester, Earl Roger of Montgomery gave the
south-west quarter of the city, including a portion of the old Roman walls
which protected it, for a site for the cathedral. A nunnery with a church
dedicated to St. Peter already existed on the site; the nuns were
transferred elsewhere, and the church used as the germ of the cathedral
church.[387] Bishop Stigand built a new church of timber, which was soon
replaced. The able and energetic Bishop Ralph Luffa was the real founder
of the present cathedral. His church was of the normal Norman plan, a
cross church with a low central tower and two west towers, all of massive
construction, plain almost to sternness. It was in the thirteenth century
that, among other great additions to the church, the central tower was
raised by the addition of another story; and not till the fifteenth
century that the lofty and graceful spire was added which was the peculiar
glory of Chichester.
The constitution of the cathedral was in the main the same as at Lincoln,
the bishop, dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer, with twenty-eight
prebendaries, twelve vicars choral, etc., and two archdeacons.
The information given us in the “Taxatio” of the finances of the diocese
in 1291 is scanty:--
The temporalities[388] of the bishop were valued at £462 4_s._ 6¾_d._
The dean and chapter had estates, appropriate rectories, portions,
pensions, etc., which brought in a clear income of £310 14_s._ 6½_d._
The dignities of the cathedral are given as follows:--
The deanery with a prebend, £53 6_s._ 8_d._
The chantry, £53 6_s._ 8_d._
The chancellor with the Rectory of Chiddingly, £53 6_s._ 8_d._
The treasurer, _per se_ £46 13_s._ 4_d._
Then came twenty-eight other prebends, ranging from £4 13_s._ 4_d._ to
£40, making up the total income of the dignitaries and prebendaries to
£706 13_s._ 4_d._
When we turn to the “Valor” (vol. i. p. 293), we find fuller details of
the condition of things at the end of the fifteenth century. “The annual
value of all and singular, the houses, castles, domains, manors, lands,
and tenements, and other temporal possessions whatsoever, and also of the
tithes, oblations, pensions, portions, and other spiritual profits
whatsoever, of the Reverend Father in Christ, Robert, Bishop of
Chichester,” amounted to spiritualities, £138 17_s._ 9_d._;
temporalities,[389] £589 10_s._ 2_d._; or, after certain allowed
deductions, to a clear total of £677 1_s._ 3_d._
The income of the dean and chapter has grown to £310 14_s._ 6½_d._; we
have no note of the way in which it was disposed of.
The income of the dean, William Fleshmonger, was £58 9_s._ 4_d._ We
have no reason to doubt that he was identical with the William
Fleshmonger who was Rector of Selsey,[390] worth £11 3_s._ 4_d._; with
the Dr. William Fleshmonger who was Rector of Storyngton,[391] £18;
and with the William Fleshmonger who was Rector of Hertfield,[392] £7.
No doubt it was the dean who was the tenant by indenture for a term of
years from Battle Abbey, at a rent of £15 6_s._ 8_d._, of the Manor of
Apultram[393] near Chichester, and in all probability he is identical
with the William Fleshmonger who held the Prebend of Carlton cum
Dalby[394] of the Church of Lincoln.
The Dignity of the Precentory had endowment to the amount of £35 0_s._
5½_d._, and Charles William Horsey seems to have had no other
preferment in Chichester Diocese. But among the Prebendaries of
Lincoln there is also a William Horsey, Prebendary of Scamelsby,[395]
who may very possibly have been identical with our Precentor.
The Dignity of Chancellor was endowed with a clear £27 7_s._, and we
find that Mr. George Croft was also Prebendary of Middleton,[396]
worth £2 3_s._ 4_d._ There was also a George Croft, Rector of
Wynford,[397] £21 12_s._ 10_d._, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, who
may have been our chancellor.
The treasurer, Hugho Rolfe, after paying two servants and other dues,
had a clear £62 6_s._ 8_d._ from the dignity, and held besides the
Prebend of Braklesham,[398] £11 17_s._ 3½_d._, and apparently the
vicarage of Henfield,[399] £16 9_s._ 9½_d._
* * * * *
The dignity of the Archdeaconry of Chichester was worth £38 3_s._
4_d._, and the Archdeacon John Worthial also held the Prebend of Huve
Town,[400] £10; he seems also to have held the benefice of Sutton, £15
0_s._ 6_d._;[401] but we hesitate to identify the venerable archdeacon
with the William Worthiall who held the two Chantries of Eastangmering
and Fyrring,[402] though no doubt his friends would often jestingly
assure him that if he had half a dozen more sinecures he would still
have been “worthy all.” The Archdeaconry of Lewes was worth £39 14_s._
10_d._, and Archdeacon More was also Prebendary of Coleworth,[403] £18
13_s._ 4_d._, and is probably identical with the Edward More who was
Vicar of Bexhill,[404] worth £23 10_s._ 2_d._ There were altogether
thirty-one prebends ranging in value from £10 to £20; four of these
were added by Bishop Sherborne a little before the Reformation,
restricted to men of Winchester and New Colleges, who were required to
serve in their own persons without deputies.
Residentiaries on first appointment to office were bound to attend every
service without a single omission for a year, and in case of an omission
to recommence their course.
There were twelve vicars choral who received £2 12_s._ 8_d._ each, and
fourteen chantries which were served by the vicars choral, the profits
of each ranging between £3 and £13. There were also eight choristers
and four thuribulers.[405]
“Bishop Sherborne, just before the Reformation, having ruled
magnificently, laid down his staff and mitre weary with the weight of
ninety years and more, and left his statutes chained to his throne;
begging the kindly thoughts of all sorts and conditions of men; with a
bequest of crown soleil, and bread and good wine to be offered to the
bishop at his ‘jocund coming’ on a visitation; ypocras and choice fruits
for the crowned king and primate; wine to be drunk round the city cross
for the young; ample doles for the aged; marriage portions out of the
annual residue for poor girls; egg flip with milk and sugar, coloured with
saffron, for the choristers; and a dinner to the chapter on his
anniversary.”[406]
* * * * *
There are some examples in England of that annexation of temporal rule to
certain episcopal sees, of which the independent prince bishops of Germany
are instances still more illustrious, and the Bishop of Rome the most
remarkable. The _Bishops of Durham_ were the temporal rulers of the
district of country between the Tees and the Tyne, and almost independent
of the king; while the men of “the bishopric,” as it was called in a
special sense, were the servants of St. Cuthbert, and subject to none but
Cuthbert’s successor. This privilege arose from a gift of the district to
St. Cuthbert and his successors by King Guthred in the year 883. The
_Bishops of Winchester_ were anciently reputed to be Earls of Southampton,
and possessed a certain temporal authority, the origin of which is not
known to the writer. The _Bishop of Ely_ was in ancient times supreme in
the Isle, which was, if not a county palatine, at least a royal franchise,
with courts and exclusive jurisdiction of its own; of which traces remain
in the existing arrangements, in that it has no Lord-Lieutenant, and is in
every way distinct from the rest of the county in which it is situated. It
is reasonable to suppose that the bishop (created in 1108) derived this
authority as the successor of the abbots, who received it as the
representatives of Queen Etheldreda, the founder, in continuance of
privileges conferred on the queen when King Tondbert gave the Isle to her
in dower.