The cathedral of Salisbury: From the foundation to the fifteenth century

1. THE CATHEDRAL OF SALISBURY

THE FOUNDATION

The foundation of Salisbury Cathedral Chapter has a special importance in English ecclesiastical history. It formed a part of the Norman reorganization of the English Church, which had far-reaching results. The decision of the Council of London to move the united sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury to Salisbury (fn. 1) gave the opportunity for a completely new start in a city where the Normans, unhampered by Anglo-Saxon precedents or vested interests, were able to work out ideas of secular cathedral government new to England. Moreover, the work was carried out with special success by the most distinguished of the Conqueror's curial bishops, St. Osmund, who alone among the Norman bishops left a written constitution for his cathedral chapter. His Institution seems to have been the main source both of the later 'foursquare' constitution of the English secular cathedrals of the Old Foundation, based on the four great dignitaries, dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer, with their stalls at the four corners of the choir, (fn. 2) and of the later prestige of Salisbury chapter. Because of the Institution other English secular chapters naturally turned to Salisbury for constitutional precedents and as the fount of their liberties. By the 14th century this had resulted in a remarkable homogeneity in their constitutions. The early constitutional prestige of Salisbury may also have been partly responsible for the overwhelming victory of the Use of Salisbury in Britain in the later Middle Ages.

The establishment of the chapter, however, took a long time. At Sherborne the cathedral had been served by Benedictine monks since about 993, (fn. 3) whilst at Ramsbury there was apparently neither an organized body of clerks nor the resources for maintaining them. (fn. 4) The building of the new cathedral was begun during the last three years of the life of Bishop Herman, (fn. 5) a foreigner from Flanders, who had ruled Ramsbury since 1045 and the united sees of Sherborne and Ramsbury since 1058. The accession of Osmund in 1078, however, marks the real beginning of the new era at Salisbury. Under him the building of the cathedral was completed. It lay in the northwest quarter of the Saxon town, later known as Old Salisbury, within the new Norman castle on the peak of the high mound. (fn. 6) The general plan of the church reflected the most common Norman practice of three apses (i.e. an apsidal east end, and north and south transepts with eastern apses) and solid walls for the choir, but it was apparently not entirely Norman in conception. Excavations have shown that it can never have had provision for a central tower, and that it may have been designed for transeptal towers, which were unknown in Normandy. (fn. 7) It was not ready for consecration until 1092, and five days later was struck by lightning and partially destroyed. (fn. 8) In the previous year, 1091, according to 15th-century tradition, Bishop Osmund had ordained 4 principal personae, 32 prebendaries, 4 archdeacons, a sub-dean, and a succentor, but these arrangements may well have been put into practice a few years before the issue of a formal foundation charter. (fn. 9)

The two most important documents in the early history of Salisbury Chapter are St. Osmund's foundation charter, which endowed it, and his Institution which laid down its constitutional arrangements. Unfortunately the original of neither has survived, and the earliest known copies of the Institution date from the early 14th and early 15th centuries. (fn. 10) There seems, however, little reason to doubt that both charters in their present form are copies, however far removed, of documents originally drawn up by St. Osmund, and, judging from the later history of the chapter's estates, the copies of the foundation charter at least are substantially accurate. The endowment comprised a generous slice of the episcopal property, unburdened by military service, and mostly within the diocese, with outlying properties in Somerset and Lincolnshire. The Dorset estates, which had originally belonged to the see of Sherborne, were formed from the 5 vills, apart from knights' fees which were retained by the bishop, of Yetminster, Alton Pancras, Charminster, Beaminster, and Netherbury, and the three churches of Sherborne, Bere Regis, and St. George, Fordington, in Dorchester. The Wiltshire property was more extensive, with land in the bishop's vill of Salisbury, in Stratford-Sub-Castle, and before the castle gate of Salisbury for the canons' houses and gardens, and 11½ churches, including both Salisbury and Ramsbury, Wilsford near Woodford, Potterne, West Lavington, Bishop's Cannings, Calne, Highworth, Marlborough, Great Bedwyn, Wanborough, with land in Wanborough, and half of Mere church. In Berkshire, which had also belonged to the see of Ramsbury, there were three churches, Great Faringdon, Sonning, and Blewbury, with 10 hides at Ruscombe; in Somerset the vill or manor of Writhlington, except for knights' lands; and, far to the north in Lincolnshire, the two churches of Grantham, which Osmund may have acquired while a royal commissary for the Domesday survey on the midland circuit. (fn. 11) In addition Osmund granted to the canons half the offerings on the high altar of the cathedral and all the offerings of the other altars. Two-thirds of a deceased canon's prebend was to be shared by the other canons during the year following his death, the remaining third going to the poor. All this property was given for the souls of King William, Queen Maud, their son William II, and Bishop Osmund. The charter was said to have been sealed in 1091. Among the many witnesses were Archbishop Thomas of York, Bishop Rémy of Lincoln, and Bishop Maurice of London, who were then reorganizing their cathedral chapters on a secular basis. (fn. 12)

The same three bishops witnessed St. Osmund's Institution Charter, also of 1091, (fn. 13) and all four may have consulted together about their plans. The Institution is a short document, generally clear and succinct, but somewhat confused in dealing with the dignitaries. First, in a preamble, Osmund claimed the advice of his fellow bishops and the assent of the king. Secondly, the rules of residence were set out. The four principal dignitaries, dean, chanter, chancellor, and treasurer, were to be resident assiduously; two archdeacons were always to be resident unless excused by a good reason; the canons might be absent only if attending the schools or in the king's service; the king might employ one canon in his chapel, the archbishop one, and the bishop three; one-third of the year might be spent by a canon on business for the benefit of the church or his prebend. Thirdly, privileges and jurisdiction were granted to the dean and canons. They were to answer to the bishop only in chapter, and obey the chapter's judgement only. They were to have their own court with archidiaconal jurisdiction in all their prebends, and the same liberties and privileges which the bishop had enjoyed in the prebends while they had been in his domain. Fourthly, the liberties and functions of dignitaries, officers, and canons were described, with a few lesser matters. The dean was superior to canons and vicars in the rule of souls and correction of behaviour. The chanter ruled the choir in singing; the treasurer kept the treasures and ornaments and provided the lights; the chancellor ruled the schools and corrected the books; the archdeacons were powerful in the care of parishes and cure of souls. The dean, chanter, treasurer, and chancellor received double commons, the other canons single commons; but only residents might share in the common fund. A canon present at a church's dedication might share the offerings with the bishop's chaplains, but if the bishop dedicated the church or chapel of a prebend the canon of the prebend received all the offerings. The sub-dean held the archdeaconry of the city and suburbs from the dean, and the sub-chanter or succentor received the appurtenances of the chantry from the chanter. The archiscola heard the lessons read, decided on their length; kept the church's seal; composed letters, charters, and wrote the readers' names on the board; and the chanter did the same for the singers. Finally, in matters of discipline, the elders were to be besought like brethren, but if they were absent too often without reasonable cause from the daily mass or canonical hours, and did not reform after correction, they were to be punished in chapter, prostrate before the dean and brethren. If guilty of disobedience, rebellion, or other notorious faults, they were to be degraded from their stalls and do penance. If they appeared incorrigible, they were to suffer more severe punishment.

This constitution may have been drawn partly from those of the cathedrals of northern France, of which Bayeux most resembled Salisbury, but probably St. Osmund relied also on experience gained from experiments at Salisbury made during the building of the cathedral, and followed no definite model, trying simply to establish the kind of chapter which he thought would work best. (fn. 14) He may also, it has been suggested, (fn. 15) have used a written source, the Tractatus de Officiis. Ecclesiasticis of Bishop John of Avranches, a liturgist and friend of Lanfranc, whose work was promulgated in the 1060's as the official Use of the province of Rouen.

The passages of the Institution dealing with the archiscola and chancellor form the main obstacle to belief in the complete accuracy of the existing text. There is no real difficulty in accounting for the use of the title chancellor in 1091. Osmund could have taken it from his own office of royal chancellor, or from Chartres Cathedral, or from the treatise of John of Avranches, while archiscola could have been a variant of magister scholarum or scholasticus, which were then the more usual tides given to the dignitary in charge of the cathedral schools. But there is a somewhat puzzling confusion in Osmund's description of their functions, which in the Salisbury Consuetudinary of about 1210 are all attributed to the chancellor. (fn. 16) The most likely explanation seems to be that they were the same person described by different titles, and that originally the title archiscola was used for the third or fourth dignitary throughout the document. (fn. 17) Later in the 12th century, as the secretarial business of the chapter increased, the title chancellor may gradually have displaced archiscola, and the Institution have been brought up to date by inserting the title, chancellor, though clumsily, since the archiscola was not effectively eliminated. This suggestion is supported by examination of the practice at Salisbury in the first half of the 12th century. Before about 1155 no chancellor has been traced, but there is definite evidence for a magister scholarum or scholiarcha (evidently a variant of archiscola) in 1107 and in 1139. (fn. 18) Most other essential provisions of the Institution apparently existed at Salisbury by the early 12th century, which suggests that the rest of the text is substantially genuine, or at least dates from a very early period in the chapter's history. The names of a dean and three archdeacons have been found in Osmund's time. (fn. 19) In 1122 the first known list of dignitaries witnessing a charter includes a dean, chanter, treasurer, a magister Ailwinus (possibly another master of the schools), an archdeacon, and a sub dean. (fn. 20) About the same time commons were being paid for attendance at the cathedral services, and the name of the first known vicar choral is found. (fn. 21) Finally, by the mid-12th century a succentor, Roger, appears. (fn. 22) There were to be many later modifications of the Institution; its merit was that it was essentially a practical document, which later generations could adapt to their needs.

A few more conclusions may be hazarded about the early chapter. The names of the deans suggest that they were Normans or Frenchmen. Gunter, one of the first known archdeacons, and Master Guy d'Étampes, the first known master of the schools, came from Le Mans (Sarthe). (fn. 23) But, in spite of continental connexions, Anglo-Saxon traditions of Christianity in Wessex do not seem to have been rejected or forgotten. St. Osmund took trouble to procure for his cathedral a relic of St. Aldhelm, his predecessor as Bishop of Sherborne 300 years before. Moreover, the list of witnesses to the charter of 1122 in Bishop Roger's time suggests that the chapter was then recruited from Anglo-Saxons as well as Normans and Frenchmen. Five of the twelve names have an obviously Anglo-Saxon origin. (fn. 24) Earlier William of Malmesbury wrote that Bishop Osmund 'not only willingly kept clerks distinguished in learning from wherever they came, but generously forced them to remain, so that the fame of the canons in song and learning (litteratura) shone forth more nobly there [at Salisbury] than elsewhere. Many books were acquired, and the bishop himself did not disdain to write and bind them'. (fn. 25) He is also said to have given many ornaments, jewels, and vestments to his cathedral. (fn. 26) His efforts to make his cathedral a centre of study and worship seem to have borne some fruit. The 'Meditations to Rainilva, a recluse' of Godwin, the chanter of 1122, who was later buried at Salisbury, show learning, tolerance, and a spirit of homely piety; other writings, now lost, of a literary and spiritual character, have been attributed to him. (fn. 27) Several of the early cathedral clergy entered religion. (fn. 28) About 65 books are thought to have survived from the scriptorium. (fn. 29) Written on poor parchment, with the simplest decoration, they are not the books of a rich community, and it is tempting to suppose that they were the work of St. Osmund and his canons. No evidence has been found for the later tradition that a Use of Salisbury was composed at this time. (fn. 30)

OLD SALISBURY

It is not known how the property given by St. Osmund was first divided or how far it was adequate, but about 28 of the later full number of 52 or 53 medieval prebends seem to have been formed mainly from it, as well as part of the deanery's estates, and a small part of the common fund; quite possibly, therefore, it originally maintained 32 or 36 prebendaries. This property was more than doubled in the 12th and early 13th centuries by gifts from kings, lay magnates, bishops, and as time went on from less important clergy and laity. The chapter became a rich and privileged corporation, and particular estates were assigned to particular purposes.

The most spectacular increases in property came in Henry I's reign, doubtless due largely to Bishop Roger's influence at court, as well as to the genuine interest of king and barons in St. Osmund's new foundation. A charter of Henry, probably granted towards the end of his reign, shows that gifts from himself and others to the chapter since 1091 in Wiltshire alone included 12½ churches (Heytesbury, Sutton Benger, Netheravon, Burbage, Britford, Combe Bissett, West Harnham, the other half of Mere, Westbury, Figheldean, Alderbury with its chapels of Farley and Pitton, and Stapleford), and land in Ratfyn, in Amesbury, and Warminster. In addition ten more churches outside the diocese had been granted to it: Godalming (Surr.), Hurstbourne, King's Somborne and Odiham (Hants), Bedminster and Redcliffe (Som.), Alveston (Glos.), Swinbrook and Shipton (Oxon.), and Brixworth (Northants.), the last three, with land at Overcott in Swindon, being given for two prebends by Arnulf the Falconer, a servant of William the Conqueror. Henry also gave the canons freedom from geld and from tolls and customs in markets and fairs throughout England, timber from royal forests for repairing their church, the right to hold an annual fair at Salisbury from 3 to 9 September, and, for their common fund, the tithes of the royal forests in Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, and Berkshire. (fn. 31) Other gifts of the reign were the tolls of Salisbury market from Henry's queen, Maud; land and rents from Croc the Huntsman, Alward, and Godus in Salisbury and Wilton; Horton manor (Glos.) from Agnes, wife of Hubert de Ria, and Henry her son; and in 1122 the four Devon churches of Kingsteignton, Harberton, Alvington, and Kenton from Serlo, royal collector in Devon. (fn. 32) Conditions attached to certain of these grants probably introduced some unwelcome influences into the chapter. The two prebends from Arnulf the Falconer had to be given in the first place to his two sons, and afterwards to clerks presented by himself or his heirs. The rich Devon prebend of Serlo was to go first to Serlo's son Richard, and afterwards to his next of kin suitable for the church; and Godalming and Heytesbury were to be held for life as a prebend by the royal servant and notorious pluralist, Ranulf Flambard, who was already Bishop of Durham. (fn. 33) Moreover, the chapter apparently did not always enjoy the rest of its property fully in Bishop Roger's lifetime. Profits from the assize of bread and ale at Stratford-Sub-Castle seem to have been withdrawn by his officers before 1120, when he ordered them to be restored. (fn. 34) In 1122 he roused the canons' resentment by giving their prebend of Sherborne, with the right to a place in choir and voice in chapter, to the Abbot of Sherborne in perpetuity. (fn. 35) Finally, however, probably on his death-bed, he restored to their church all the prebends he had been keeping in his own hand, increased the tithes of their church of West Lavington, and appropriated the prebend of Bishop's Cannings to their common fund. (fn. 36)

Both before and after Bishop Roger's fall and death, Stephen, and later Maud, showed themselves very ready to confirm and extend the chapter's privileges and endowments. Stephen appropriated Odiham church, given by Henry I, with the churches or chapels of Liss and Bentworth (Hants), to the magister scolae, and gave 10 librates in his own domain, possibly in Salisbury, to the common fund. (fn. 37) Westbury church was appropriated to the precentor's office. (fn. 38) Heytesbury church received gifts from Maud and others which enabled Bishop Jocelin to constitute it a collegiate church with four prebends. (fn. 39) Tithes from Earl Ranulf of Chester, and, possibly, a piece of the bishop's land in south Woodford, increased the value of Wilsford prebend, held by Roger the succentor. (fn. 40) New churches and estates were also given to the chapter: Durnford church by Walter de Tony and its other patrons; Chardstock church (Dors.) by Gerbert de Percy; Bramshaw church (Hants) and Torlton manor (Glos.) by Walter of Salisbury, Sybil, his wife, and their heir, Earl Patrick of Salisbury. (fn. 41) At the same time the chapter's property clearly suffered in the wars, as is shown by successive charters of Stephen, Eugenius III, the Empress Maud, Henry II, and others, restoring to it lands and churches unjustly seized. (fn. 42) The apparent recovery of all its property, except perhaps the church and land at Wanborough, is marked by a charter of Henry II of 1158, confirming all its lands, churches, and privileges, with the additional privilege of freedom from suits of shires and hundreds. (fn. 43)

During the last 60 years of the cathedral in the royal castle of Salisbury, as the prebends gradually rose to 52 or 53, an increasing effort was made to augment the endowments of the common fund. Bishop's Cannings church was again appropriated to it by Bishop Jocelin, as were the churches of Britford, Alton Pancras (Dors.) about 1160, and probably land at East Dean (Hants) and Upway church (Dors.), given about 1201. (fn. 44) Several gifts were made specifically for it, including 'Draycott All Saints' church (unidentified), from Ralph of St. Germain about 1170, and a small piece of land at Wilton from William de Wilton, organist, about 1200. (fn. 45) About 1220 Melksham church, the gift of King John in 1200, was granted to it by Bishop Richard Poore, and on the removal to New Salisbury the prebend of Old Salisbury was dissolved and its revenues and jurisdiction divided between the bishop and the canons' common fund. (fn. 46) A further development of this period, which increased the common fund while adding to the number of prebends, followed the ending of the long dispute with Sherborne Abbey over its tenure of Sherborne prebend. As a result of awards of about 1165 and 1191, the abbey promised to pay 10 marks to the common fund within a year after the death of an abbot, and to give land at Wimborne and the churches of Lyme and Halstock (Dors.) to the chapter, in return for its recognition of the abbot as a canon and prebendary of the cathedral. (fn. 47) From this time the chapter apparently decided that such links with religious houses were both desirable and profitable. In the following years it accepted substantial gifts of property in the diocese for its common fund from three Norman abbeys in return for receiving their abbots and convents into confraternity and allowing them to hold the property of their alien priories as cathedral prebends. About 1194-1207 Upavon was constituted a prebend for the Abbot and Convent of St. Wandrille (Seine-Inférieure) in return for the churches of Whitchurch Canonicorum (Dors.) and Sherston Magna, with land and tithes at Wilsford near Manningford Bohun. About 1200-8 Ogbourne became the prebend of the Abbot and Convent of Bec (Eure) in return for the churches of Poulshot and Brixton Deverill and land at Durrington; and in 1213 Loders (Dors.) the prebend of the Abbot and Convent of St. Mary Montébourg (Manche), in return for the churches of Powerstock and Fleet (Dors.). (fn. 48) All three foreign abbots were assigned a stall in choir and a place in chapter, but were exempted from residence and agreed to maintain vicars choral to perform their duties in the cathedral. Other prebends which first appeared about this time were Bitton (Glos.) about 1200 and Chisenbury and Yatesbury about 1208-12. (fn. 49) Finally, in 1224 Honorius III granted that the common fund might be increased from revenues of Teignton prebend on condition that the number of prebends was not reduced. (fn. 50) By this time the number was 52, (fn. 51) at which figure it remained until the Reformation, thus making Salisbury one of the three largest English secular cathedral chapters. In 1226 the first known complete list of prebends and prebendaries, with some estates of the dignitaries and of the common fund, is available, with their value as assessed for papal taxation in 1217. (fn. 52) The only property in this list unaccounted for by earlier known endowments is Preston prebend (Dors.).

This assessment gives the total annual value of the chapter's property as 1,792 marks 7s. 4d., of which the separate estates of the dignitaries and prebends accounted for 1,672 marks 7s. 4d. and those of the common fund for 120 marks. The 52 prebends varied greatly in value. Only one, Ogbourne, said to be worth £100 a year, could compare with the wealthiest York prebends of 100 to 250 marks. Two, Charminster and Teignton, the 'golden' prebends, were valued at 80 marks each, and the four poorest at less than 5 marks each. All four dignitaries had certain estates annexed to their offices, but except for the deanery, which consisted of Sonning and Mere churches, (fn. 53) these were not particularly valuable. The chantry, consisting presumably of Westbury church, was estimated at 30 marks; the chancery at 15 marks; and the treasury at 20 marks. The dean, precentor, and treasurer, who held 60-mark prebends in addition to their offices, were among the wealthiest members of the chapter, but the chancellor, with the slighter 20-mark prebend of Woodford, had a smaller income than many simple prebendaries. The assessment of the estates of the common fund at only 120 marks cannot be accepted. Only the five churches of Bishop's Cannings, Britford, Old Salisbury, Melksham, and Alton St. Pancras are mentioned. Some churches may by now have been lost or alienated, or the chapter's share in them may have been reduced, as seems to have been the case with Henry I's gifts of King's Somborne, Alveston, and Stapleford churches, and with the more recent grants of Draycott All Saints and Upway churches. (fn. 54) The chapter's possession of the churches of Sherston Magna and Whitchurch Canonicorum was apparently still disputed. (fn. 55) But revenues from both of these as well as from Sutton Benger, Bramshaw, and Powerstock churches, the land at Durrington and Wilton, and the tithes of the royal forests were included in later assessments of the common fund, (fn. 56) and some must have been in the chapter's possession at this time. Some of these sources of income may have been deliberately suppressed in 1217 or 1226, or the copy of the assessment may be incomplete.

Some slight evidence is available to illustrate the management of this property. A few leases of separate estates or tithes have survived from the late 12th and early 13th centuries, usually to clerks, sometimes for life, for a fixed annual sum to prebendary, dignitary, or chapter. (fn. 57) Other estates, however, were under direct management. A deed of about 1179 of Bishop Jocelin approved the increase of the stock of Bedwyn prebend by 60 ewes on the chapter's advice and at the prebendary's request. (fn. 58) Of five Wiltshire estates mentioned in 1208-12 only one, Overcott (a detached portion of Shipton prebend), was then leased; the revenues of the other prebends (Chisenbury, Ratfyn, Warminster, and Yatesbury) were derived from rents of assize, corn, and stock. (fn. 59) The New Constitution of 1215 evidently reflected contemporary practice in providing either for the canon tilling the land at his own charge or letting it out to farm. (fn. 60) The form of charters and deeds suggests that the bishop's control over the chapter's property gradually loosened towards the end of the 12th century. Grants in the time of Bishop Roger and in the early years of Jocelin's episcopate were usually made in the name of the bishop and whole convent of the cathedral church; (fn. 61) later, of the bishop, dean, and chapter, or of the bishop with the dean and chapter's assent; (fn. 62) finally, about 1175, Jordan, dean, and the chapter leased a piece of land on one of the prebends in their own name, merely with the bishop's assent. (fn. 63) At the same time the chapter's assent was equally necessary, and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and later, for any alienations or leases of episcopal property. Communars or canons in charge of the common fund are first found about 1191, (fn. 64) and from about this time the individual prebendaries seem to gain more control over the administration of their prebends. By the early 13th century leases or other grants, and sometimes even vicarage ordinations on a prebend, were made in the prebendary's name and simply confirmed by bishop, dean, and chapter. (fn. 65) At the same time the dean's power to supervise affairs of the prebends was emphasized. In 1215 he was given statutory authority to visit the prebends and make corrections. (fn. 66) The only records of a decanal visitation which have survived from this period, however, are for William de Wanda's visitation of the deanery and of his own prebend of Heytesbury and Godalming between 1220 and 1226, (fn. 67) which revealed many deficiencies both in the churches and in the qualifications of some vicars and chaplains.

Meanwhile the cathedral was largely rebuilt, widened, and extended eastwards, probably about 1125-38, in the days of Bishop Roger's power. (fn. 68) It was given a square-ended choir with aisles, an ambulatory, and three chapels projecting to the east, the central one being a long, axial, squareended Lady Chapel, which foreshadowed innovations of late 12th-century building. A crypt and cloisters were added, and a block of buildings with a large aisled hall to form the bishop's residence. William of Malmesbury says that the bishop gave many valuable ornaments to the cathedral, so that it was second to none in England, (fn. 69) though the author of the Gesta Stephani, who paints a less pleasing picture of Bishop Roger, says that Stephen used part of the great quantity of treasure left by the bishop for roofing the cathedral. (fn. 70) In the days of his power Bishop Roger had received from Henry I the custody of the royal castle of Salisbury, (fn. 71) and so the danger of friction between king's and bishop's men in the cramped quarters was avoided. But after the seizure of Roger's castles in 1139 no bishop of Salisbury was allowed to hold the royal castle.

Nothing like a complete list of the members of the 12th-century chapter can be compiled, but such names as have been found suggest that most elements commonly supposed to exist in 12th-century secular chapters were present at Salisbury. Examples of royal clerks holding prebends have been found in all periods, with Ranulf Flambard in the early 12th century; John of Oxford, the dean forced on the chapter in defiance of its rights of election by Henry II; Master Thomas de Esseben', whom, Peter de Blois told the chapter, it would be unreasonable to compel to reside, because he was faithful, industrious, and experienced in public business of the kingdom, and necessary to the king. (fn. 72) At the same time the bishops provided for the clerks who helped them in diocesan administration and for their kinsmen. Cathedral canons and dignitaries are frequently found witnessing episcopal acts in different parts of the diocese, while a number of men who first appear in the records as bishop's clerks or chaplains later became canons. (fn. 73) Family influences were strong. Reynold FitzJocelin, Bishop Jocelin de Bohun's son, was Archdeacon of Salisbury, and another younger kinsman of the bishop, Savaric de Bohun, was treasurer. (fn. 74) Azo, the Dean, and Roger, Archdeacon of Salisbury about 1139-42, were brothers, as were Henry de Beaumont, dean, and Walter, canon, about 1163, Canons William and Jocelin de Wemberg about 1192, and the two bishops Herbert and Richard Poore at the end of the century. (fn. 75) The chapter also maintained its continental connexions, particularly with Bayeux. Henry de Beaumont became Bishop of Bayeux in 1165, and was succeeded as Dean of Salisbury by Jordan, a canon of Bayeux, who had also been Archdeacon of Salisbury. Richard de Bohun, Dean of Bayeux and later Bishop of Coutances, was a brother of Bishop Jocelin. Robert de Novo Burgo, Dean of Rouen, and William, Dean of Sens, were both canons of Salisbury (c. 1184-8), as was Hugh Bovet, Archdeacon of Bayeux (c. 1200-10). (fn. 76) A striking feature of lists of witnesses to capitular charters of the late 12th and early 13th centuries is the increasing number of magistri, or scholars with a licence to teach, some of whom, while studying and teaching in the growing schools or universities of Europe, must, with the royal and episcopal clerks and the pluralists, have swollen the ranks of the non-residents. Other reasons for non-residence at the cathedral doubtless lay in the rival claims on the canons of their separate prebendal estates and churches, and in the expenses of residence, with its obligation to dispense hospitality, and in the difficulty of finding a house within the royal castle. The scholar and archbishop's clerk, Peter of Blois, who held a 5-mark prebend at Salisbury towards the end of the century, indignantly told the dean and chapter that his prebend was insufficient to pay for the journey to Salisbury, and that to demand residence from all canons was unreasonable, since some were necessary to the king, some to the archbishop, some were ill, some active in the schools, and some on pilgrimage. (fn. 77)

It is impossible to discover how many canons were actually resident at this time. Lists of canons witnessing deeds at Salisbury vary usually from two or three to twelve in the pontificates of Roger, Jocelin, and Hubert Walter, rising on rare occasions to as many as 21 and 24 under Bishop Hubert Walter, (fn. 78) but these are probably not reliable guides. St. Osmund had thought it reasonable for a canon to be absent for a third of the year, but it is likely that the number of absentees exceeded his expectations almost from the start. It is not until the 12th century that we have any evidence of the methods adopted by bishop and chapter to deal with the problem. One method appears in the efforts made from about 1160 onwards to divert endowments to the common fund, which was reserved for the residentiaries, in order to make residence financially more attractive. By 1198-1200 a fine of one-fifth of the value of their prebends, also payable to the common fund, was being demanded from those who refused to reside; (fn. 79) while before 1195 the chapter had apparently already taken the bold step of reducing the minimum annual period of residence from two-thirds to a quarter of the year. These new regulations are first found in 1195 in statutes of Lichfield chapter, where they had probably been adopted from Salisbury. (fn. 80) The earliest surviving Salisbury document which gives them is the Nova Constitutio of 1215, which declared that a quarter of the canons must always keep residence at their statutory terms, with the four principal dignitaries, who, according to Osmund's constitution, are bound to continuous residence. (fn. 81) A rota dating probably from this time shows that in every quarter of the year a different quarter of the 52 canons was required to come into residence. (fn. 82) Most other English secular chapters were still trying to enforce a much longer minimum period of residence of two-thirds or three-quarters of the year, (fn. 83) and the rota can hardly have been observed in practice at Salisbury, even when it was first prescribed. It would obviously sometimes be difficult and inconvenient for canons to come into residence for the precise quarter of a year required by this rota. Nevertheless it had a practical object: it avoided limiting residence to those canons who were prepared to live at Salisbury for the greater part of the year, by making it possible for others, such as scholars or canons holding prebends in other cathedrals, to come into residence for a short period each year, and so to encourage as many members of the chapter as possible to remain in touch with the cathedral.

Other constitutional developments of the 12th century, such as the chapter's increasing independence of its bishop, and the further definition of its system of home government, are conveniently summed up in the constitutional chapters of the Salisbury Consuetudinary of about 1210 and the Nova Constitutio of 1215. (fn. 84) These show that the dean's powers over the cathedral, its clergy, and their estates had increased at the expense of those of the bishop, which was a natural result of the growing separation of interests of bishop and chapter. During the last half of the 12th century the deans of Salisbury had generally been able men, only one of whom had failed to be promoted to a bishopric. (fn. 85) In the early 13th century the bishop still held a prebend, which entitled him to be present at chapter meetings as a prebendary, (fn. 86) if not as president, and he collated to all the other prebends except Shipton and Blewbury. (fn. 87) If he attended cathedral services he was to be treated with honour and reverence, and on certain feast days was assigned the principal part in them. He had, however, no right to celebrate out of his turn. In his frequent absences the dean took his place, and was treated with equal reverence in choir in the bishop's presence or absence. (fn. 88) The opening chapters of the Consuetudinary, which are stated to be an explanation of St. Osmund's Institution, define the dean's powers in greater detail than the Institution. It was from the dean that the canons received possession of their prebends, which he had the right to visit; he assigned their places in chapter and stalls in choir, and admitted all vicars and clerks of the second form; he heard all causes of the chapter and punished offenders; neither canons nor lesser clergy might let blood or be absent from Salisbury even for a night without his permission. (fn. 89)

The dean, however, was no more than primus inter pares among the canons, who, at least from about the mid-12th century, had the canonical right to elect both him and their bishop; (fn. 90) and the causes he heard were determined by judgement of the chapter, (fn. 91) which shared his growing independence of the bishop. Moreover, responsibility for administrative work at the cathedral was still divided between him and the other three great dignitaries. The Consuetudinary shows that the chancellor had established his precedence over the treasurer in the third place, which had been in doubt in the Institution. (fn. 92) He was also assigned all the functions attributed both to him and to the archiscola in the Institution, and had a magister scolarum to help him. (fn. 93) The Nova Constitutio, in its careful regulations for the custody and use of the chapter seals, (fn. 94) shows his increasing secretarial duties. A number of capitular deeds of the early 13th century 'given by the chancellor's hand' (fn. 95) suggest that he was doing this secretarial work in person and it is interesting to find also an isolated bishop's charter of 1222 dated at Salisbury, in which he acted as datary. (fn. 96) From about 1218 onwards, however, separate bishop's chaplains or scribes appear increasingly as dataries of the bishops' charters. (fn. 97) Unfortunately there is no evidence to show whether in earlier times the cathedral chancellor had normally acted as secretary to both bishop and chapter. (fn. 98) Further details are also given in the Consuetudinary of the treasurer's obligations to furnish lights in the cathedral, to direct and maintain the sacrists and the bellringing, to repair the church's ornaments, and to provide bread and wine for the altars. (fn. 99) The chanter is now said to be responsible for the instruction and discipline of the boy choristers, whose duties are described. (fn. 100) Some of the most illuminating work of definition in early 13thcentury documents concerns the vicars choral. Constitutions of 1214 and 1222 make it clear that every canon, resident or non-resident, was bound to have a vicar to sing and acquit him in the cathedral services; (fn. 101) and a list of names of 52 vicars choral at Salisbury survives from 1297. (fn. 102) From the first they were apparently supposed to be in the order of priest, deacon, or sub-deacon required by their master's prebend, (fn. 103) and were nominated by their masters. But they were admitted by the dean only after examination, and were on probation for a year until they knew the psalter and antiphoner by heart. (fn. 104) Their important charter or constitution of 1214 laid down that they could be removed only for some grave fault. It also granted them the right to accept legacies and other gifts of property in common, in addition to their fixed annual payment or stall wages from their masters' prebends and 1d. a day each for commons from the chapter. (fn. 105)

These statutes 'On the Condition of the Vicars', issued by Richard Poore and his chapter, seem to have given a lead to other cathedral chapters similar to that given earlier by St. Osmund's constitution. (fn. 106) The innovations of the early 13thcentury chapter, however, must not be exaggerated, for much of the work was probably based on 12th-century precedents, now lost. The grant of security of tenure to the vicars choral was not a new act of legislation in 1214, for they apparently already had it in about 1185-9 and in 1194, when vicars of the deceased bishop and canons were paid their stipends from the revenues of the vacant prebends by the keepers of the bishopric. (fn. 107)

NEW SALISBURY

The first half or three-quarters of the 13th century seems to have been the time when the prestige, influence, prosperity, independence, and corporate spirit of the chapter reached their peak. The chapter formed a remarkably distinguished body of men, including a number of able scholars and statesmen, some of European fame: Master Richard Poore, dean and later bishop; St. Edmund of Abingdon, treasurer, the saintly scholar who became Archbishop of Canterbury; his successor as treasurer, Master John of St. Albans, a pupil of Stephen Langton at Paris; Master Henry of Bishopstone, a doctor of canon law of Oxford, who ruled the school in the new city of Salisbury; Master Roger of Salisbury, who lectured in theology there; Master Robert Bingham, Richard Poore's successor as Bishop of Salisbury; Master Elias of Dereham, 'incomparabilis artifex', who supervised the building of the new cathedral; Master Thomas de Chabham, sub-dean, author of the Summa de Penitentia; William de Wanda, the chapter's historian. (fn. 108) For the first time records survive of large general chapters attended by about 17 to 39 canons, held under the presidency of Richard Poore as dean and bishop to approve his large schemes for the codification of the cathedral customs and liturgy, for the building of a new cathedral, and for the canonization of St. Osmund. At such chapters the Nova Constitutio, and, probably, the Salisbury Consuetudinary and Ordinal were published. (fn. 109) In these documents the 'four-square' constitution is found in all essentials, and the Use of Salisbury which was soon to influence other dioceses was launched. The active and statesmanlike part taken by the canons at such meetings may be illustrated from their recorded discussions at a chapter of 1226, (fn. 110) which met to debate Henry III's demand for a tax on the spiritualities of the clergy and which shows Salisbury giving leadership to the English Church. Its suggestion that proctors from all English cathedral churches should be summoned to deliberate on the grant was adopted by Archbishop Langton, and had important results on the history of Convocation. (fn. 111) Moreover, the meeting of proctors which followed unanimously accepted the proposals which Salisbury chapter had instructed its representatives to make. (fn. 112)

The most outstanding example of the initiative of bishop, dean, and chapter at this time, however, was their decision to abandon their cathedral in the royal castle of Salisbury, and to build a new one below in the Avon valley. Their reasons are set out in the chapter's account of the inconveniences of their site sent to the Pope in 1217. They were dominated and oppressed by the castellan and soldiers in the castle; they were not allowed to go in and out without leave from the castellan; the faithful were not allowed to visit the church; many cathedral clerks were deterred from residence by lack of dwellings; the continuous gusts of wind round the hill made such a noise that they could hardly hear one another sing; the place was liable to give them colds in the head (reomaticus); the church was shaken by wind and storm; the site was without trees and grass and the glare from the chalk had blinded many clerks; water was only to be got at a distance and at a high price. (fn. 113) Obviously such disadvantages had not just become apparent. Probably friction between the royal garrison and cathedral establishment did not become acute until Stephen's seizure of Bishop Roger's castles in 1139. In the time of Bishop Herbert Poore the canons frequently discussed moving their cathedral to a freer and more commodious site. Probably about 1198–9, after Richard Poore's appointment as dean and before King Richard's death, the decision was made. The bishop obtained permission from the king; a site was chosen, and a plot of land on which to build a house assigned to each canon. (fn. 114) Canon Peter of Blois wrote before 1200 apologizing for not coming to the distribution of the houses, saying, 'Let us descend joyfully to the plains, where the valley abounds in corn, where the fields are beautiful, and where there is freedom from oppression.' (fn. 115) His words are echoed in a poem of Henry of Avranches, who described the building of the new cathedral. The old site had been as the mountains of Gilboa, without rain, dew, flowers, or grass, where no nightingale sings: where there is only the castle and the wind. Of the new site, he wrote that Adam would have preferred it to Paradise. (fn. 116)

Probably the site was that of the present cathedral by the river in a meadow belonging to the bishop's group of manors which in the 12th century were known as Old Salisbury. (fn. 117) The traditional story of Bishop Richard Poore being led some 20 years later by a dream to choose this meadow called 'Myrifeld' is obviously confused and legendary. (fn. 118) However, nothing more was accomplished in Bishop Herbert's pontificate. William de Wanda, canon and later dean, who wrote the vivid contemporary chronicle of the cathedral's translation, blamed Herbert personally for the failure, but, as William acknowledged, the bishop suffered great losses during the Interdict. (fn. 119) About the time of his death in February 1217 the dean and chapter again took up the plan, petitioning the Pope for permission to move their cathedral. (fn. 120) A few months later, the appointment as bishop of Herbert's brother, Richard Poore, brought a new spirit of energy, determination, unselfishness, and spiritual power into the work. The new bishop sent his messengers to Rome to help those of the chapter, and summoned a general convocation of all the canons to discuss the move. In 1219, soon after the papal bull authorizing the removal was received, a churchyard was consecrated and a wooden chapel built. (fn. 121) The bishop had already provided himself with a residence called New Place at Old Salisbury by the river. (fn. 122) On 28 April 1220 the foundation stones of the new cathedral were laid. (fn. 123) Very soon the practice developed of referring to the new cathedral and the new bishop's city growing up round it as New Salisbury; to the royal borough on the mound as Old Salisbury. (fn. 124)

The building of the new Gothic cathedral took nearly a century, though the essential parts were completed in the first 30 years. By 1225 the east end had progressed far enough for three altars to be consecrated at an impressive ceremony at which Archbishop Stephen Langton preached to the people; and Henry III and many magnates visited it shortly afterwards. (fn. 125) The consecration of the whole church was in 1258. It was roofed with lead and completed by 1266, with a great belfry west of the cathedral. The chapter house and cloisters were begun between 1263 and 1271 and took about ten years to build; at the end of the 13th and beginning of the 14th centuries the tower was heightened and the spire added. (fn. 126) The whole is remarkable for its uniformity of design and the beauty of its external outline. At the same time the canons were planning one of the most beautiful cathedral closes in the world. The cathedral was to stand in the midst of a wide open space with the exceptionally large and lovely cloisters on its south; on the east walk, as in a monastery, was the entry to the chapter house; the bishop's palace lay to the south, and the houses of the canons and vicars choral were ranged upon the edges of the close, some, along the west walk, with gardens nearly a tenth of a mile in length, leading down to the river which formed the western boundary. (fn. 127) The effective enclosure with a crenellated stone wall on the remaining three sides, and three stone gateways, was only completed with stones from their former cathedral and houses at Old Salisbury in the 1330's, (fn. 128) but the building of the houses began in 1219. A meeting of bishop, dean, and chapter on 15 August 1219 decided that the move should be made on 1 November by those canons who wished to move and could. Both canons and vicars had to bear the expense of building their own houses, and at a further chapter meeting in August 1222 it was decreed that everyone who had a site must begin to build by next Whitsun, or the bishop would dispose of the site. In partial recompense for their initial outlay, the houses of the first builders might be sold after their death by their heirs or assigns for two-thirds of the just price, the remaining third going to the cathedral fabric fund; but only cathedral clergy might buy the houses, and the builder's successor in his canonry or vicarage was to be given preference in the purchase. (fn. 129) One of the first houses was the large stone house called Leadenhall in the West Walk built at great expense by Master Elias of Dereham as a pattern for a canon's residence. (fn. 130) The resident architect seems to have been a mason, Master Nicholas of Ely, who was provided with a messuage in the new city for himself and his heirs about 1230. (fn. 131) It is, however, clear that the burden of organization fell mainly on the dean and chapter, and particularly on their appointed deputy, Master Elias of Dereham, who held the offices of keeper of the fabric and common funds from at least 1224-5. (fn. 132) Henry III made many gifts of timber and money, (fn. 133) and in 1225, when the dean and chapter committed the offerings at the newly consecrated high altar to the bishop for seven years, the bishop at once gave them into the keeping of Elias, 'having at that time no confidence in the trustworthiness of any other person'. (fn. 134) Not all the cathedral clergy were willing to make the sacrifices in time and money demanded from them by bishop and chapter. At the beginning in 1219 it was agreed that all canons, resident and non-resident, with the vicars and chaplains should contribute a fixed portion to the fabric from their prebends and stipends for seven years. Then the bishop suggested that the vicars choral should be sent to preach and collect alms throughout the country. Some at first agreed to go, but the next day all refused, and so seven dignitaries and canons took their places, and were absent for a long time, travelling in some cases as far as Scotland and Ireland. (fn. 135) In 1222 another general chapter meeting attended by the bishop and 30 canons attempted to meet the grievances of those canons who felt themselves over-burdened by expense, by reducing the minimum annual residence for the following 3 years to 40 days for the canons and 21 days for the archdeacons (except the Archdeacon of Salisbury). (fn. 136) In 1225 it was found necessary to extend these concessions and the grant of a subsidy from the prebends for a further seven years. (fn. 137) The nonresidents then objected that they should therefore no longer be bound to pay the fifth part of the income of their prebends to the use of the residentiaries, and it was finally agreed that, for the next seven years, they should pay a tenth instead. (fn. 138) Yet, in spite of all the difficulties and the reluctance of some, money was found; indulgences were granted to those who contributed; magnificent offerings were made by Henry III, who took a very special interest in the work, as well as by Hubert de Burgh and the magnates; and there were many lesser gifts from humbler folk. (fn. 139) A severe blow came in 1228 when Bishop Richard Poore was translated to Durham, but the work went on under later bishops and deans trained in his service or as his colleagues in the chapter. Only one of his plans was not followed: that of obtaining the canonization of Bishop Osmund, the chapter's founder. One of Poore's last acts as Bishop of Salisbury was to write to the dean and chapter urging them to press on with this business, but after his translation to Durham the matter was allowed to drop. (fn. 140) Undoubtedly the plan would have required a heavy outlay, but it was farsighted, and, had it been carried through, the offerings at the saint's shrine might have amply repaid it.

The 13th-century chapter became an increasingly powerful, independent, and wealthy body. This is seen particularly in the way it was able to elect a surprisingly large number of its bishops and deans de gremio. The period following King John's grant of freedom to the English Church and the legislation of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 was the time when free elections were given a trial in England. Cathedral reform in accordance with the Lateran decrees, as it was carried through under Richard Poore, seems to have given the chapter independence and capacity to withstand external influences of king, pope, and magnates. From 1228 until 1284 four out of five bishops were successively elected de gremio, (fn. 141) with only a short interval from 1246-56 when the see was held by a royal clerk, William of York. In the same period the chapter's prestige is shown by the choice of others of its members to be bishops of other dioceses: Master Roger of Salisbury, the precentor, went to Bath and Wells; St. Edmund of Abingdon, the treasurer, to Canterbury, and Henry of Lexington, a later treasurer, to Lincoln. Moreover, elections de gremio continued, though more intermittently, into the late 13th and early 14th centuries. In 1284 and 1287 two more deans of Salisbury were elected as bishops in quick succession, though both these, Master Walter Scammell and Master Henry de Brandeston, had also acted as royal clerks and their appointments were probably pleasing to the king. The choice of William de la Corner and of Nicholas Longespée, treasurer of Salisbury, a son of William Longespée, Earl of Salisbury, may have been due to royal or baronial influence respectively, but the elections of 1297 and 1315 resulted in the appointment of two of Salisbury's most distinguished scholar bishops, Master Simon of Ghent and Master Roger Mortival. At the same time the 13th-century deans, except perhaps Master Henry de Brandeston from 1285-7, seem normally to have been freely elected in large chapters of both resident and non-resident canons, and to have been conscientious and learned men, usually resident at the cathedral. (fn. 142) This continued until the appointment about 1297 of Peter of Savoy, the first of the non-resident foreign deans.

The ability of the chapter to increase its independence of its bishops without any noticeable conflict with them may have been partly due to the fact that many of its bishops had had experience as canons or deans of the chapter's traditions. The most remarkable event was in 1262 when Bishop Giles of Bridport declared that, from his examination of Blessed Osmund's constitution and the Salisbury customs, he had decided that none of his predecessors had exercised or demanded a visitation. He granted that all members of the cathedral church and of the canons' prebends should for the future be exempt from episcopal visitation; that visitation of the cathedral and prebends belonged only to the dean, as did the admission and institution of vicars to the prebendal churches. Correction of vicars both on the prebends and at the cathedral church was to be made only by the dean and chapter, and the only power and jurisdiction reserved to the bishop was the presentation to him of vicars of the prebendal churches on his own manors. (fn. 143) This was a surprising surrender of episcopal claims at a time when popes were urging bishops to assert their rights to visit their cathedral chapters. (fn. 144) The result was that Salisbury chapter remained exempt from episcopal visitation until nearly the end of the 14th century, although it apparently had to submit to metropolitical visitations, at least from the time of Archbishop Pecham. (fn. 145) At the same time the co-operation of the chapter with its bishops is shown both by the way in which many of its members helped the bishop in diocesan work, and in the steps it took to protect episcopal jurisdiction and property during vacancies of the see. These steps are also striking illustrations of the chapter's powers. When the archbishops of Canterbury in the 13th century asserted their exclusive claims to exercise episcopal jurisdiction in the spiritualities of vacant sees of the province, Salisbury was one of the first cathedral chapters to oppose them, and, in 1262, to negotiate a composition with Archbishop Boniface which in practice saved much of the authority for the chapter or its members. (fn. 146) The bulk of the power went to an official chosen by the archbishop from a list of three or four canons submitted by the chapter. The official had to pay one-third of the profits of the see to the dean and chapter, who retained complete control of their own affairs, and also gained the right to exercise the episcopal jurisdiction, sede vacante, over certain religious houses of the diocese. In the vacancy of 1271 they paid a fine of 3,000 marks to the king for the custody of the temporalities, including knights' fees and advowsons. (fn. 147) In 1317 such temporary arrangements were converted into a permanent agreement by which the chapter assumed responsibility for the custody of the bishop's temporalities (excluding knights' fees and advowsons, which the king refused to surrender) in all future vacancies at a rent of £1,016 a year. (fn. 148)

At the same time the chapter's own property was increasing. The Taxation of Pope Nicholas of 1291 gives its total annual value as £2,013 13s. 4d. or 3,020 marks 6s. 8d. (fn. 149) as compared with 1,792 marks 7s. 4d. in 1217. Methods of assessment were undoubtedly stricter in 1291, and an increase in the productive value of the property may also partially account for the higher total. (fn. 150) In the case of the common fund the assessment is more complete than that of 1226 (it is valued at £329 6s. 8d. or 493 marks 16s. 8d. as against 120 marks in 1226), though several smaller pieces of property, particularly temporalities, are omitted, and no notice is taken of endowments given for the vicars choral, for chantries or obits, or the cathedral fabric. A further main difficulty is that all property outside the diocese, whether belonging to the prebends, dignities, or common fund, is excluded. Thus it is extremely difficult to obtain from it a general view of the changes which had taken place. However, it seems that the flow of endowments to the cathedral continued at a fairly even rate throughout the last three-quarters of the 13th century. The rate was slower than in the 12th and early 13th centuries, but the period was still profitable in smaller gifts.

In the dignities and prebends there were few changes apart from vicarage ordinations, which increased greatly in number in the period following the Fourth Lateran Council, compositions about tithes and chapels, and a few small additions or exchanges of lands or rents. It was by now the chapter's settled policy that additional endowments should, whenever possible, be appropriated to the common fund of the residentiaries, but as this fund gradually increased it was decided to lighten certain burdens of the individual dignitaries and prebendaries. Two of the richer prebends, Calne and Brixworth, were appropriated about 1226 and 1240 to the treasurer and chancellor, whose expenses had noticeably increased as a result of the move to New Salisbury. (fn. 151) This gave them not only greater wealth but also the certainty of a voice in the chapter. In 1222 it was decided that the estates of all four dignitaries, whose expenses for hospitality were particularly heavy, should in future receive, for a full year after death, half the fruits of their dignities and all the fruits of any prebends they held. Moreover, as soon as the common fund had increased by another 100 marks a year, a deceased prebendary's estate also was to receive the fruits of his prebend for a full year after death; in the following year his successor was to have them, and the common fund was to receive nothing. (fn. 152)

All the gifts of property to the common fund were apparently in the diocese. Among the churches acquired were St. Martin's, Salisbury, with Stratford-Sub-Castle chapel; (fn. 153) Warminster, given by William Mauduit, later Earl of Warwick, in 1259; (fn. 154) Idmiston; (fn. 155) Littleton Drew, given by Walter Drew of Littleton in 1274; (fn. 156) Homington, and Chitterne St. Mary. (fn. 157) In addition, a messuage and land at Quidhampton was given by Walter Noswych, Maud, his wife, and Roger, his son, in 1273, and small pieces of property at 'Le Hurst' in West Lavington, Fisherton Anger, Salisbury, and Knighton in Figheldean were added to other lay fees of the chapter to form a fund known as 'Our Lady's Chamber' for distribution to the poor. (fn. 158) In Dorset, Fleet church was exchanged for that of Stourpaine at Bishop Bingham's request in 1245, (fn. 159) and Hilton church was probably acquired about the same time. (fn. 160) In Berkshire an annual pension of £10 was paid by Reading Abbey from 1239, (fn. 161) but the only other endowment received there, a moiety of the fruits of Chilton church given by Bishop Poore in 1233, does not seem to have been retained. (fn. 162) Few permanent endowments were given to the cathedral fabric at this time, but a beginning was made with Henry III's grant of all amercements of tenants on the lands of bishop or chapter which could belong to royal officers (except those arising from pleas of the Crown), and a few small rents mostly in and near Salisbury. (fn. 163) This period also witnessed the beginning of separate provisions for the lesser cathedral clergy. The vicars' choral most munificent benefactor was Bishop Richard Poore, whose objects were to augment their stipends and increase the services and worship in his new cathedral. In 1225 he instituted a daily sung Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and gave to the vicars, who were to act as clerks for the mass, 40 marks a year for lights. (fn. 164) Shortly afterwards, in place of this he gave Bremhill church with Highway chapel and land at Stratford-Sub-Castle to provide 1d. a day payable by the succentor to each of thirteen vicars present at the mass. (fn. 165) He is also thought to have appropriated Laverstock church to them for the same purpose. (fn. 166) In 1264 Master Robert Kareville, the cathedral treasurer, left them 100 marks in his will to purchase a rent from which each vicar might receive 1d. a day for ever, in the hope that they would attend divine service more willingly and devoutly and remember him in their prayers. (fn. 167) A pension of £20 a year payable by Hyde Abbey was probably received about the end of the century, (fn. 168) and in 1297 some lay fees or portions devised in aid of their food with small houses for their residence were taken into the king's hands for non-payment of the tenth demanded from the clergy. (fn. 169) A common seal of the vicars choral is thought to date from the 13th century, (fn. 170) and they probably administered their property themselves.

At the same time chantry masses and obits were providing further additions to the vicars' stipends and the residentiaries' common fund, while increasing the cathedral's services and adding to its clergy. Few have been traced at Old Salisbury, (fn. 171) though in 1219 it was arranged that chaplains as well as canons and vicars should contribute to the cost of building the new cathedral; and by 1222 two priests at least were being appointed annually and paid 50s. a year each to celebrate daily masses for the souls of departed bishops. (fn. 172) Between about 1219 and 1300 the foundation of eight chantries or daily masses (fn. 173) and at least nineteen obits (fn. 174) has been traced, and a messuage in Malmesbury was given by Roger de Brinkworth for a taper to burn on feast days before the altar of relics for his soul. (fn. 175) The founders of daily masses and obits were mostly bishops, deans, and other cathedral clergy, including a vicar choral, John de Hospitali; only one, Edmund, Earl of Cornwall, was an important lay magnate. Two hundred or 220 marks was sufficient to found a daily mass, and 100 marks or less to found an annual obit service. (fn. 176) In a few cases these amounts were given to local religious houses on condition that they paid from 5 to 10 marks a year to the cathedral communar to provide for the obit or chantry. (fn. 177) More often, property was given direct to the dean and chapter's common fund. (fn. 178) A favourite device of canons wishing to found an obit was to leave their canonical houses in the close to the dean and chapter, on condition that they assigned them to future residentiary canons who were to pay a small obit rent for the annual services. (fn. 179) Probably few additional cathedral clergy were provided by the chantries. No chantry was yet served by more than one chaplain, and in several cases vicars choral already at the cathedral were appointed to them. (fn. 180) The foundation deed of Sir John Dacy's chantry, however, expressly laid down that the chaplain was not to be a vicar choral. (fn. 181)

Finally, in the 13th century the chapter's prestige was enhanced by the way in which the new cathedral and city became a centre of learning and art. Probably this was largely due to the stimulus of Richard Poore and the learned group of canons whom he gathered round him, as well as to the demands of the new fabric and the influence of the skilled craftsmen who were brought from a distance to work on it. No evidence has been found that the cathedral school at Old Salisbury developed teaching in the higher faculties of law and theology or attracted students from a distance like contemporary cathedral schools elsewhere in the later 12th century. (fn. 182) This development seems at Salisbury to have taken place in the 13th century, when the existence of two English universities at Oxford and Cambridge was drawing the better students away from other cathedral schools. A cathedral school was established very early at New Salisbury, as soon as the building of the cathedral was begun. In 1220 Master Henry of Bishopstone, canon of Salisbury, who had previously lectured in canon law at Oxford, was ruling the school in the new city, while in 1225, when Henry had ceased to reside, Master Roger of Salisbury, the precentor, was lecturing in theology there. (fn. 183) By 1240 the duty of providing and paying a theologian or of giving theology lectures himself, in addition to providing a grammar-school master, definitely belonged to the chancellor. Brixworth prebend was then permanently annexed to the chancellor's office at the request of the chancellor Adam de Esseby, who already held it, to enable his successors to support their increased educational burdens. (fn. 184) About this time the cathedral schools and the chancellor's reponsibilities for their scholars were expanding in a remarkable way. In 1238 there was a migration of masters and students from Oxford to Salisbury and Northampton, (fn. 185) and some apparently continued at Salisbury and may have been reinforced by the troubles of 1264 or by one of the many disturbances of 1264-8 at Oxford. (fn. 186) An award of 1279 between the chancellor and sub-dean, who both claimed jurisdiction over the scholars, shows that most of the essentials of a studium generale or University then existed at Salisbury. (fn. 187) It was doubtless for students in this nascent university that Bishop Giles of Bridport founded his House of Valley Scholars in 1262 (fn. 188) and Bishop Walter de la Wyle his collegiate church of St. Edmund. (fn. 189) At the same time there is evidence for the intellectual interests of some residentiary canons, particularly the chancellors Master Simon de Micham, Master Ralph of York, Master William de Bosco, and Master Henry de la Wyle. Some scholastic manuscripts, histories, and theological and philosophical works, still in the cathedral library, were originally owned and given to the library by them, and a few of their theological quaestiones disputed at Oxford are extant. (fn. 190) Certain cathedral clergy seem to have encouraged the production of illuminated manuscripts of high artistic quality at Salisbury. (fn. 191)

THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

Towards the end of the 13th and in the 14th centuries there seems to have been a falling away both at the cathedral schools and in some other aspects of cathedral life. Between 1284 and 1297 the quick succession of bishops probably made it difficult to pursue any continuous policy of reform, and Bishop Ghent's register (1297-1315) suggests that he found many abuses to correct both in the diocese and at the cathedral. In 1300 he intervened to administer a sharp rebuke to Master Ralph of York for being the first chancellor since 1240 to neglect his obligation of providing a theological lecturer. (fn. 192) By this time the incipient university at Salisbury seems to have disappeared and the cathedral schools, like other English cathedral schools in the later Middle Ages, became of only local significance. Grammar-school masters and theological lecturers were apparently still appointed, (fn. 193) though on several occasions the bishop or chapter had to intervene to see that the chancellor did this. About 1350-2 there were difficulties with the aged chancellor, Elias of St. Albans, whose grammar master, Master Henry Nugge, was unsatisfactory and had eventually to be dismissed. (fn. 194) Elias also roused the opposition of some members of the chapter by appointing as his theological lecturer, at the request of the Countess of Lancaster, a friar preacher of Salisbury (fn. 195) who, doubtless because he had been trained at the Dominican schools instead of at the university, had no degree in theology. On this occasion a compromise was arranged, but eight years later the administration of the theological school was again brought up in chapter. Simon of Sudbury, the chancellor, who was then non-resident, was charged with not having provided a theological lecturer, (fn. 196) and in 1358 William de Fornesete, S.T.P., was granted a papal indult for two years' non-residence at his vicarage at Mildenhall, Norwich diocese, while lecturing in theology at Salisbury. (fn. 197) In the 14th century apparently neither the chancellors nor other residentiary canons were willing to teach in the theological school as was done in the early 13th century.

The root of the trouble at this time seems to have been the absence of supervision by the dignitaries. Between 1297 and 1379 all six deans were non-resident foreigners. (fn. 198) The first, Peter of Savoy, was a kinsman of Edward I; the other five were French or Italian cardinals provided by the popes. (fn. 199) In the same period four foreigners were precentors and three cardinals were treasurers, all being papally provided and non-resident. Only the chancellors were English and in five cases out of seven seem to have been resident. Bishop Ghent, Bishop Mortival, and the residentiary members of the chapter made strong protests against these provisions of absentee foreigners, declaring that the dignitaries were intended to be like living cornerstones or pillars of the cathedral, and that their neglect of residence might cause the whole fabric to crash in ruin. (fn. 200) Bishop Ghent found to his dismay in 1300 that not only were the dean and precentor absent with papal dispensations, but that the chancellor and treasurer, infected perhaps by their example, were absent without leave. He sternly recalled the chancellor and treasurer, and summoned the dean into residence as soon as his papal dispensation expired. (fn. 201) Dean Peter, however, soon secured a further dispensation. (fn. 202) In 1311, when a French cardinal, Reymund de Fargis, was provided in his place, the bishop protested but finally agreed to the provision 'out of reverence for the Holy See' and because he was forced by law. (fn. 203) Later attempts by Bishop Mortival to compel Cardinal Reymund to reside were unavailing. (fn. 204) In 1331 the president and chapter, as a last resort, begged him to procure for them from the Pope a grant of free election to the deanery after his death. (fn. 205) At the same time they wrote to their absent treasurer, Cardinal Arnold, deploring the. danger to which the rich treasures of the church, the vestments, relics, and ornaments, and especially the bells of great weight and. price, were exposed during his absence through the negligence of his officers. (fn. 206)

The growth of papal provisions was thus evidently largely responsible for the alarming decrease in the residence of the great dignitaries in the 14th century; but it is more difficult to estimate their results on the residence and personnel of the chapter as a whole. The period when the flood of provisions was greatest at Salisbury was probably between about 1305 and the 1380's, although they can be traced from the time of Bishops Richard Poore and Bingham, when they roused some indignation. (fn. 207) They gradually increased throughout the 13th century, but it was not until the early 14th century that Salisbury dignities and archdeaconries, were normally given by the popes to absent cardinals, (fn. 208) or that provisions to simple prebends were made on a really large scale. Then there is no doubt of their extent and importance. In 1325 Bishop Mortival declared that 28 of the 52 members of his chapter had been provided by the popes. These were the dean, an archdeacon, and 6 prebendaries provided by Clement V, and the treasurer, precentor, an archdeacon, and 17 prebendaries provided by John XXII, with 8 more expectant canons awaiting prebends. (fn. 209) From the time of Clement V or John XXII provision became the most normal method of appointment to prebends. Fourteen Italian and 11 French cardinals were provided at Salisbury in the 14th century, as compared with only 3 Italian cardinals in the 13th century and 3 in the 15th century. (fn. 210) But provisions were no longer confined chiefly to foreigners or to the richer benefices. Increasingly, English royal clerks and university students petitioned the Pope for provisions to Salisbury prebends, and many were successful. The statutes of Provisors and Praemunire seem mainly to have given the king greater bargaining power in working out the compromise by which the popes provided large numbers of royal clerks to English benefices in return for the king's acceptance of the provisions of the cardinals. The king's clerks, like the cardinals, usually gained the richer prebends and in most cases were no more resident at the cathedral than the cardinals. (fn. 211) But a number of local clergy and university students provided to moderate or poorer prebends in the middle and later decades of the century are known to have entered residence. (fn. 212) These, with some prebendaries whom the bishops were still able to collate, formed the core of the residentiary chapter. Possibly, therefore, in this later period, papal provisions were not responsible for so great a decrease in the number of residentiary canons as has sometimes been supposed.

It cannot even be asserted with confidence that the number of residentiaries did decline in the 14th century, for this is the earliest period at which the size of the residentiary body can be estimated with any accuracy. From about 1329, except for the abnormal plague years around 1350, the new evidence of the chapter act books and a few quarterly communar account rolls shows that about twelve or fourteen canons normally made their full residence in each quarter of the year; (fn. 213) sometimes, towards the end of the century, when the dignitaries again began to enter residence, there were considerably more. Such evidence as has survived from the 13th century suggests that the rota of 1215 failed to work satisfactorily from the start (fn. 214) and by 1319 changes were urgently needed in the statutes to make them more conformable with existing custom. Therefore Bishop Mortival and his chapter made it clear that in future a canon might choose any one quarter or parts of all four quarters of the year in which to complete his three months' residence; and so long as he earned 40s. in daily commons during the year, which he could do by attending the cathedral services for twelve days less than the full three months, he was to be legally exempt from the fine of a fifth imposed on the non-residents. (fn. 215) This concession might be expected to have resulted in the presence of fewer canons in the close at all times as well as in the residence of unequal numbers at different times of the year.

In practice, however, neither of these results seems to have ensued. It appears that about eight to eleven canons were in residence nearly all the year round, attending chapter meetings at all periods of the year and usually earning more than their 40s. commons in each quarter throughout the century. The remaining two or three residentiaries might be present only for about three to six months. These were usually diocesan officials, household clerks of the Bishop of Salisbury or of other bishops, university masters or students, or men who were also residentiaries of the neighbouring cathedral of Wells. (fn. 216) A growing distinction between the two bodies of residentiary and non-residentiary canons, which the statutes of 1215 had been unable to check, was emphasized by the various conditions and obligations now imposed on those who decided to profess residence. The imposition of the fine on the non-residents had in fact made residence legally optional. It then became customary for a canon wishing to reside to be formally admitted to residence in chapter. At the same time he was required to pay 40s. as security that he would provide an entrance feast for the bishop, canons and lesser cathedral clergy at his house in the close. (fn. 217) In 1319 Bishop Mortival, alarmed at the excessive outlay on such feasts, ordered that no canon might spend on them more than the annual value of his prebend, and that any canon might pay a fine of £40 to the cathedral fabric instead of giving a feast. (fn. 218) Most canons in the early 14th century preferred to pay the fine, and in this way an entrance fee for residence was gradually substituted for feasting. The chapter's object in making these conditions was probably that it felt the need of some pledge of a canon's purpose to reside in return for admitting him to share in the increasingly valuable distributions from the common fund and to a canonical house in the close. There seems little evidence that in the 14th century the residentiaries at Salisbury were deliberately trying to restrict residence to as few canons as possible in order to keep larger shares of the common fund for themselves. It was, however, natural that a canon who went to the expense of paying his entrance fee and acquiring a house would want to settle down in it. Thus the residentiaries came gradually to form a close inner chapter, controlling the cathedral administration, while the non-residents became more detached from cathedral affairs, attending perhaps only a few general chapters. Only the occasional presence of a few residentiaries making their short statutory residence in the intervals of other work may have helped to retard this development.

A more obvious way in which the 14th century at Salisbury seems to mark a decline is in the deterioration of the relations between bishop and chapter. This was not apparent in the pontificates of Simon of Ghent and Roger Mortival, but, from 1330, all the 14th-century bishops of Salisbury were civil servants provided by the popes in collaboration with the royal government. The chapter still went through the form of obtaining a royal congé d'élire, and, in two cases at least, held an election, which was then quashed on grounds that the see had previously been reserved, and the royal nominee was provided. (fn. 219) Naturally the chapter was less ready to welcome these bishops than canons whom they themselves had chosen, while the bishops were less sympathetic to the chapter's rights and privileges than their predecessors, and more anxious to assert their own authority. All the bishops, however, gave prebends to certain of their kinsmen or members of their households and so gradually acquired influence in the chapter. Some members of the chapter continued to act as bishop's commissaries and officials in the diocese. At the time when there was friction between the chapter and Bishop Wyville, the chapter approved the bishop's plan to reunite Sherborne castle to the bishopric, and went surety with him to the Earl of Salisbury to the amount of £10,000 for it; (fn. 220) and, at the peak of the great quarrel with Bishop Waltham, certain residentiary canons continued to act as his councillors even though, as members of the chapter, they were strongly opposing his claims to jurisdiction at the cathedral. Possibly there is a certain artificiality about some of these quarrels. Many of the residentiary canons were lawyers, willing and almost eager to continue the long negotiations and lawsuits for indefinite periods. At the same time the bishops, determined though they were to assert their claims, were ready to recognize that 'a cathedral church and college could not exist unless it had privileges and customs'. (fn. 221) As a result, many outstanding disputes about jurisdiction were settled, and the age was one of definition and compromise.

The results of this definition were by no means always favourable to the chapter although in some cases they were. For example, Bishop Wyville's and Bishop Erghum's attempts to exercise jurisdiction in the vacant deanery were decisively defeated, and the chapter's victory was registered in the composition of 1392, which said that all profits and jurisdiction of the, vacant deanery were in future to belong fully to the chapter. (fn. 222) This was important, because exercise of the decanal jurisdiction in a vacancy would have made the bishop immediate ordinary of the cathedral church and of the prebendal churches and estates, which the chapter insisted were normally subject to his correction only through the dean. The chapter also objected to Bishop Wyville coming to their meetings and claiming a share in the daily distributions of the common fund when present at the cathedral. (fn. 223) The bishop had been a canon and prebendary, with the right to sit in chapter, since Osmund's time, and Bishop Wyville maintained his claims. The really big quarrel, however, arose when Bishop Erghum and Bishop Waltham revived the claims to episcopal visitation surrendered by Bishop Bridport. (fn. 224) This quarrel lasted for thirteen years, during which successive appeals were made to Canterbury and Rome and proctors were maintained at Rome at the chapter's expense, until finally the king intervened to secure peace. In the meantime many lesser disputes had inflamed the relations of bishop and chapter. Most of them were settled in the composition of 1392 confirmed by Pope Boniface, (fn. 225) and the chapter gained some concessions. But the most important clauses were those which laid down that in future bishops of Salisbury could visit their cathedral church once in seven years. The visitation was not to last longer than five days, and the bishop was tied to a certain procedure, but the settlement was a severe blow to the chapter's privileged position.

Thus in the 14th century the chapter suffered at least three major losses of privileges and independence: the loss in practice of its right to elect its bishop and dean, and the loss of its exemption from episcopal visitation. Yet the period was not solely one of loss; at the same time there were forward moves. One of these was the issue by Bishop Mortival in 1319 of the important set of statutes, which attempted to review the whole field of cathedral legislation. (fn. 226) It comprised 48 chapters grouped into eleven sections. Beginning with the canons and their residence, it continued with rules for the conduct of chapter business, the care of the common property and the cathedral fabric, and the duties of dignitaries, to the vicars choral, liturgical changes, and the choristers. The arrangement is not so logical as these headings suggest, for many things appear in unexpected places. Moreover, no subject is dealt with comprehensively in the manner of a code of statutes. Knowledge and use of St. Osmund's Institution, the Consuetudinary, and other earlier statutes were assumed. Where their rulings were still useful they were emphasized, and where obsolete revised, as in the case of canonical residence. At the same time some important new laws were made, as for example in the union of the office of penitentiary with that of sub-dean, and the imposition of obligations of continual residence on the sub-dean and succentor, whose offices were doubtless more essential now that the dean and precentor were frequently absent. The spirit of the work was that of the reformer, and Bishop Mortival tells us that he alone was not responsible. His predecessor, Simon of Ghent, had planned the work and summoned a full congregation of canons to discuss it, but had died before it could be completed. Bishop Mortival carried it out with the collaboration of the chapter, and the resulting constitutions were issued by the unanimous decision of all. The authority of these statutes is still recognized at Salisbury in so far as they do not conflict with later changes or the new statutes of 1937, (fn. 227) and until they were, with the Institution and the Consuetudinary, the most obvious and complete source of information for the chapter's constitution. They seem to have had less influence on the statutes of other English secular cathedrals than the Institution or the Consuetudinary, although some traces of their influence are found in the statutes compiled for Lincoln Cathedral in 1440. (fn. 228)

In the steady growth of the influence of the Use of Salisbury throughout Canterbury province the work of the 14th-century chapter was vital. Many additions had already been made to the Salisbury Ordinal since the early 13th century, incorporating changes of custom, new feasts and octaves, and greater accuracy in directions. (fn. 229) In 1319 Bishop Mortival in his statutes ordered further alterations, (fn. 230) and the period between 1319 and 1337 was one of especial activity when an important set of marginal additions was made to the 13th-century text. (fn. 231) These were the steppingstones to a new ordinal, the 'Ordinal Wellwyk', which was probably compiled before 1350 by Thomas de Welewick, precentor from 1341 to 1343. (fn. 232) This ordinal was largely responsible for the growing popularity and adoption of the 'new' Salisbury Use outside the diocese in the late 14th century. It formed the necessary link with the 15th-century liturgical work and made possible its startling success.

The 14th-century residentiary chapter also seems to have devoted much time and thought to keeping administrative records. The series of chapter act books recording the minutes of chapter meetings dates from 1329 and probably resulted from an order in Bishop Mortival's statutes in 1319 that for the future a faithful record of all chapter business was to be kept by a sworn notary appointed by the chapter, since 'when there are no written minutes, people make contradictory assertions about matters discussed in their presence'. (fn. 233) A system of chronological entries was soon adopted, and the minutes were fully and carefully written. (fn. 234) At the same time it was decided to elect annually a residentiary canon as Custos Munimentorum, to be responsible for the safe keeping of all the chapter's muniments. (fn. 235) As a result many more documents have survived from this period than from earlier times. The general impression gained from study of these records is one of careful and efficient administration. There were some father petty quarrels among the residentiaries, and the chapter, in the absence of the dean and most of the other dignitaries, had a difficult task in disciplining the lesser clergy, yet it was very persistent, painstaking, and anxious to settle disputes and enforce discipline in strict accordance with law and precedent. Vicars choral and chantry chaplains were constantly summoned before the dean's locum tenens or the president and chapter to answer for neglect of their duties; for coming late to cathedral services and leaving early; for chattering in choir; for playing ball in the close; for wearing a belt of marvellous size, a cape of many colours, or boots of red and green squares, unsuitable to clerks in holy orders; for going off to Southampton for the day in a striped costume, carrying arms; for quarrelling, brawling, and frequenting city taverns; for entertaining strangers and lay people, especially women, in their houses in the close, and for incontinence. (fn. 236) Normally they were rebuked, fined, and warned; some, found incorrigible after many warnings, were dismissed and deprived of their benefices.

The vicars choral were undoubtedly a turbulent element in the 14th-century close. They outnumbered the residentiary canons by about four or five to one, and they included priests holding responsible offices at the cathedral, such as clerk of the fabric, sub-communar, and sub-treasurer, as well as young men who were still supposed to be attending the chancellor's grammar school. A demand for greater corporate independence seems to have developed among them, especially in the early 14th century. In 1319 Bishop Mortival and the chapter told the vicars roundly that 'the servant is not greater than his lord', and ordered all statutes which suggested equality between canons and vicars to be utterly revoked. (fn. 237) In spite of this Bishop Mortival was a generous benefactor to the vicars. On his death in 1330 he left instructions that any residue from his estate was to be used to purchase some permanent endowment to give each vicar ½d. a day more than his customary payment from the church. (fn. 238) Already in 1317 the vicars had themselves obtained a general licence from the king to acquire property in mortmain to the value of £40 a year, so that each might receive an additional ½d. a day, (fn. 239) but so far their only acquisition under this licence had been a small estate in Boscombe, valued at 40s. a year. (fn. 240) With £500 eventually paid over by Bishop Mortival's executors, the dean and chapter bought the patronage of West Hanney church (Berks.), valued at £40 a year, and arranged for its appropriation to the vicars' maintenance. (fn. 241) In 1392 licence was granted for the alienation in mortmain to the dean and chapter for the vicars of six shops in Salisbury and the reversion of Stotton Manor in Upway (Dors.), valued together at £20 a year. (fn. 242)

By this time the flow of gifts to the chapter had practically dried up, apart from endowments given for the foundation of chantries and obits. The last important addition to the common fund was Winkfield church (Berks.), acquired from Abingdon Abbey in 1308. (fn. 243) For the rest of the century there were some very small annual pensions granted by religious houses in return for the chapter's consent to the appropriation of churches to them. (fn. 244) In the 14th century there was probably little need to increase the endowments of the common fund or of the dignities and prebends, but the fabric and its revenues caused more anxiety. Storms and floods in the early 14th century raised fears for the cathedral's foundations, which the chapter's desire for water had caused to be laid in marshy ground. Bishop Mortival appealed for help to the laity, but their devotion to the cathedral was said to be growing cold, and they preferred to found private oratories. (fn. 245) By 1363 the walls and belfry were cracked and falling, and the bishop and chapter petitioned the Pope for permission to appropriate St. Thomas's Church, Salisbury, in the bishop's collation, to the fabric fund. This was allowed for six years only. (fn. 246) In 1366 the dean and chapter purchased a general licence to acquire in mortmain further property to the value of £20 a year for the fabric. (fn. 247) By the end of the century they had obtained lands in Erlestoke and Boreham by Bishopstrow; rents in Salisbury given by the treasurer, John Chandler, and the permanent appropriation of St. Thomas's Church. (fn. 248)

Throughout the century the residentiary canons took an active part in the administration of the chapter's property. No such general change can be traced from direct management of the common estates to leasing as happened at monasteries in the later Middle Ages, for the chapter as a corporation lived on rents payable by its own members from an early period. Existing custom was set out in Bishop Mortival's statutes of 1319. Farms of the chapter's common estates and churches were granted as 'options' to the residentiary canons according to their seniority in residence, for oldestablished and settled quarterly rents, (fn. 249) which were probably then well below the actual value of the property. Chapter farms were an important part of the profits of residence, and there was much competition for them. Eight days after a residentiary's death, his farm was offered in chapter as an 'option' to the remaining residentiaries. (fn. 250) If it were a profitable farm desired by a senior residentiary, this would lead to a general post in farms, each residentiary in turn resigning his farm in order to accept one resigned by his senior in residence. When estates lay very near the cathedral, as in the case of Britford, a residentiary may have managed them himself, through bailiffs or members of his household; (fn. 251) in other cases he may have leased them to a sub-farmer, who doubtless paid him a higher rent than that which went to the chapter. A clerk sub-farmer, who acted under two successive canon farmers, has been found at Hilton in 1348, and a layman at Melksham in 1358. (fn. 252)

The residentiaries as a body assumed responsibility for the general supervision of both the common property and the prebends. Once in three years two or three canons were appointed by the residentiary chapter to visit all the common property at the common expense to survey defects and estimate the cost of repairs. (fn. 253) Such surveys might also be requested for particular estates at other times by in-going or out-going canon-farmers or prebendaries in order to settle their responsibility for repairs, but in these cases were made at their expense. (fn. 254) The individual canons were normally responsible for repairs on their farms as on their prebends, though, if. new buildings were needed, the cost was borne by the chapter. (fn. 255) In the 14th century some prebends, particularly of the nonresident aliens, were also leased for sums considerably greater than their assessed verus valor. (fn. 256) Some residentiary canons were apparently ready to accept leases of the Wiltshire and Dorset prebends and to profit from them. John Gough, for example, a king's clerk and residentiary about the middle of the century, obtained a lease of the estates of an alien dignitary, of some common property needing special supervision, and of his own chapter farm. (fn. 257) The many civil and canon lawyers among the residentiaries would doubtless have knowledge of the laws of property and estate management. They, with the chapter notaries and other cathedral clergy, were able to conduct most of the chapter's legal business without the help of outside lawyers, such as the religious houses now usually employed. In fact, residentiary canons of Salisbury are often found in the 14th century acting in this capacity for religious houses or for lay and ecclesiastical magnates of the diocese. (fn. 258)

In the 14th century more chantry masses were founded in the cathedral than in any other period. Fourteen chantry foundations have been traced (fn. 259) in addition to the nine or ten dating from the late 12th and 13th centuries, while lists of obit distributions suggest that between 40 and 50 obits were also being celebrated annually. (fn. 260) As in the earlier period, most of the founders were bishops or canons of Salisbury, with a few city clergy and laity. Roger Clone, Archdeacon of Dorset, provided his chantry chaplain with a small house in the close annexed to his office, (fn. 261) and three chantries, those of Bishop Ghent and of two canons, Henry Blunsdon, Edward I's almoner, and John Gough, were for two chaplains each. Some chantries were intended to support perpetual chaplains appointed for life; others, usually the less adequately endowed, were for stipendiary priests or vicars choral appointed annually. In 1319 Bishop Mortival and his chapter discouraged the granting of the perpetual chantries to vicars choral, (fn. 262) but the small stipends of both chaplains and vicars probably made his order impracticable. In 1390 there were apparently only seven chantry chaplains at the cathedral who were not also vicars choral. (fn. 263) The chapter drew up an annual table of missae currentes, arranging that those chaplains who were not also vicars choral should celebrate their daily masses successively at the different cathedral altars, so that there should always be a mass which workmen, travellers, or other passers-by could attend from dawn until 10 or 11 a.m. (fn. 264) If one chaplain did not begin his mass immediately the preceding chaplain had finished, he was cited before the chapter for neglect of duty. Thus the chantry masses formed an important addition to the cathedral services. Moreover, the chaplains were expected to take part in the main cathedral services, especially on feasts of nine lessons, and were subject to the dean and chapter's direction and discipline in much the same way as the vicars choral. (fn. 265) Several of them held cathedral offices, such as clerk of the works, sub-communar, or master of the choristers.

Another group of cathedral clergy made necessary by the chantries were the altarists, who served the cathedral altars, helping the chantry priests, and being responsible for the altars' furniture. By the late 14th century there were six senior altarists, known as altaristae intrinseci or altaristae antiqui, who were apparently attached to altars in the inner choir, while three altaristae extrtnseci were probably attached to altars in the outer choir or nave. (fn. 266) They were supposed to report to the chapter any chaplain or vicar choral who failed to say his mass at the proper time; they served as acolytes at the high altar for the high mass, and two or three altaristae extrtnseci were also known as the sacrists' boys and had to help in cleaning the church and in the bell-ringing. (fn. 267) Their salaries might extend to 36s. 4d. a year, (fn. 268) some of it deriving from the chantry endowments, supplemented by payments from the treasurer and the common fund, and by invitation to meals from the residentiary canons. Apparently they were normally chosen from former choristers whose voices had broken. (fn. 269)

One of the most interesting developments at the 14th-century cathedral was the provision made for housing and teaching the choristers. Here there was a very definite advance on the arrangements of earlier times, when the choristers had been subject only to the precentor's general supervision and discipline. They had had no certain food or lodging, and were said to have gone from door to door of the canons' houses, begging bread; and had no master to keep them out of mischief. (fn. 270) The solution of Bishop Ghent and Bishop Mortival was to endow a boarding house for them, administered by the dean and chapter. In 1314 Bishop Ghent gave rents in Salisbury for the support of fourteen choristers and a master to teach them grammar, (fn. 271) and in 1322 Bishop Mortival gave Preshute church (and later 100s. annual pension from West Hanney church (Berks.)), and arranged for the boys to live together in a house in the close. (fn. 272) There was to be no more begging and the boys were to devote themselves to the cathedral services and study under the supervision of a submaster. A residentiary canon was to be elected by the chapter as their warden to administer their revenues and to appoint the sub-master, who might be a vicar choral or chantry chaplain. The boys were to be formally admitted by the dean and chapter and their appointment was not left entirely to the precentor. The boy bishop and his attendants were no longer to be allowed their visitation and feasting on Holy Innocents Day, though they might execute their offices in the church and go to dinner at a canon's house afterwards provided that they returned to school and church the next day. (fn. 273) In 1346 complaints were made about their food by three vicars acting as spokesmen for the boys: two loaves were brought as samples to the chapter house, where the canons pronounced them 'good enough'. (fn. 274) In 1395 Bishop Waltham left the boys 6s. 8d. a year and their submaster 2s. a year for chanting a daily antiphon of the Virgin before the high altar after compline for his soul. (fn. 275)

THE END OF THE MIDDLE AGES

Towards the end of the 14th and in the early 15th centuries there was a remarkable revival of cathedral life. Among the immediate causes and signs of it were the return of the great dignitaries to residence, and the end of the long dispute between bishop and chapter by the award of 1392. The change in the dignitaries resulted from the papal schism and the attitude to it of the English government. When Parliament took the side of Urban VI all the Salisbury dignities and prebends of the French cardinals supporting Clement VII were confiscated. In 1380 and 1381 Urban repeopled the College of Cardinals and provided them to rich English benefices: but there was much opposition from Parliament. The treasury of Salisbury and the archdeaconries of Dorset and Berkshire were given to cardinals, (fn. 276) but all provisions to the deanery were refused. The last foreign Dean of Salisbury, James of Orsini, an Italian cardinal, died in 1379, and the chapter was allowed to exercise its right of election. (fn. 277) In 1381, after the provision of Dean Robert Braybrook to the bishopric of London, the Pope again reserved the deanery and provided to it two Italian cardinals in succession. Neither, however, gained posession, and the deanery was held without difficulty by Thomas Montagu, a kinsman of the Earl of Salisbury, regularly elected by the chapter. (fn. 278) The protests of Parliament against the other cardinals became stronger, and by 1384-5 they also had been replaced by Englishmen. (fn. 279) In the 1390's an increasing number of civil servants, generosi, and bishops' kinsmen drew their incomes from Salisbury dignities and prebends. (fn. 280) By the end of the century all four principal dignitaries were in residence together and the residentiaries numbered about fifteen. (fn. 281) The formal entry of Dean Montagu into residence took place in 1390, (fn. 282) when the chapter's quarrel with Bishop Waltham was at its height. This dean had already been active in summoning general chapters of both residentiary and non-resident canons to take counsel and to grant taxes from their prebends to pay for the chapter's lawsuits and for the repair of the tower and spire. (fn. 283) Then, after the award of 1392, as the first episcopal visitation approached, a great overhaul of the cathedral's administration began under his direction. The vicars choral, chantry chaplains, and choristers were rebuked, corrected, and reminded of their duties; surveys were made of the chapter's farms and prebends; inventories were drawn up of the library and muniments; the statutes were viewed and in some cases revised; the ornaments and furniture of the altars were inspected. (fn. 284) When Bishop Waltham finally came in 1394 he claimed to have found some faults, but only minor ones were specified in his formal letters to the chapter. (fn. 285)

By the early 15th century the chapter had become one of the most distinguished ecclesiastical bodies of the later Middle Ages, comparable in the learning, statesmanship, and administrative ability of its members to the chapter of the early 13th century. This cannot be attributed solely to the wise appointments of canons by its outstanding bishops, Robert Hallam and John Chandler, for the revival had begun earlier in Dean Montagu's time, and many of the leading members of the early 15th-century chapter had been appointed before 1400. Master John Chandler, the Wykehamist, a leading spirit in the reform movement from the first, was a king's clerk, who obtained his first prebend at Salisbury by 1388 and the treasurership by papal provision in 1394. (fn. 286) Hallam became a prebendary in 1395. (fn. 287) The chancellor, Master Walter Metford, later Dean of Wells, and Master Henry Chichele, the future Archbishop of Canterbury, owed their promotion to Bishop Metford, Richard II's secretary. (fn. 288) Master William Loring, a brother of the Black Prince's steward Sir Niel Loring, both a lawyer and a theologian, a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and a benefactor of both Merton College and Cambridge University Libraries, was already a senior residentiary in 1395. (fn. 289) Master Adam Mottram, the archbishop's chancellor and Archdeacon of Canterbury, entered residence as precentor in 1397. (fn. 290) Master Simon Sydenham, the future dean, and Master Robert Brown were members of the chapter by 1404-5. (fn. 291) The appointment of Master Richard Ullerston, Chancellor of Oxford University and author of a treatise petitioning for reforms at the General Council of Pisa, was, however, due to Bishop Hallam, as were those of Master John Fyton, Master Roger Basset, Master William Clynt, John Luke, and others who had taken part under his leadership in the Councils of Pisa and Constance. (fn. 292) After Hallam's death in 1417, Bishop Chandler seems to have continued collating men with conciliar experience to Salisbury prebends. (fn. 293)

The interest and share of members of Salisbury chapter in these great councils of Christendom are remarkable. Probably they were greater than anywhere else in England except the universities. In 1414 the chapter appointed four of its canons (two residentiaries and two non-residents) to attend the Council of Constance as its special proctors, (fn. 294) and is the only English chapter known to have done this. About a quarter of the whole English delegation to Constance was in some way connected with the chapter, either as canons or as members of its confraternity. (fn. 295) In the debates at the Council the chief figures of Salisbury, Bishop Hallam, Bishop Bubwith, Thomas Polton, and Henry Chichele, stood out. The sermons and leadership of Bishop Hallam gave firmness and moral purpose to their proposals for reform and unity. (fn. 296) Moreover, the chapter at home apparently shared its bishop's conciliar enthusiasm. A sermon preached by Master Richard of Ullerston before a general chapter of residentiary and non-resident canons in 1416 began with a special bidding prayer for the happy issue of the Council, for their bishop absent there, for his contribution to the unity of the universal church, and for the Emperor Sigismund and Henry V. (fn. 297)

Doubtless the position of Bishop Hallam as leader of the English nation at Constance had much to do with this interest at Salisbury. The chapter was also alive to any opportunity for urging the canonization of St. Osmund in the counsels of the universal church. The plan for the canonization was put forward as early as 1387 in a sermon by Master Thomas Southam to a general chapter summoned by Dean Montagu. (fn. 298) Bishop Erghum had not welcomed it, (fn. 299) but John Chandler was appointed to take letters from the chapter to king and Pope urging the canonization, (fn. 300) and in 1389 a group of distinguished and influential laymen and women, including John of Gaunt, Constance his wife, Henry, Earl of Derby, his son, with Sir Thomas Percy, Bigot, Blount, and many other knights, ladies, and clerks of their households were admitted to the chapter's confraternity. (fn. 301) In return for sharing in the spiritual benefits of the chapter's prayers, these confratres and sorores might be able to promote the canonization at the papal court. (fn. 302) Moreover, a distinguished confraternity increased the chapter's prestige and influence. A second determined effort to secure the canonization was made in Bishop Hallam's pontificate. The bishop and chapter petitioned the Pope, while Dean Chandler held another general chapter at which the entrance fees of the residentiaries and a tax of a tenth on the incomes of all prebends for seven years were voted for the expenses of the canonization and of the cathedral fabric. (fn. 303) At this chapter the object of popularizing the Salisbury liturgy was clearly linked with the canonization in Richard of Ullerston's sermon, which claimed that Osmund's composition of the Use of Salisbury, 'incomparable in the world', was, with his saintly life, his miracles, and his foundation of the chapter, a main reason for his canonization. (fn. 304) Doubtless the chapter also hoped that the offerings at a saint's shrine would help to repair the cathedral fabric, particularly the tower and spire, which had long been in a precarious state, and was now declared to be ruinous. (fn. 305) For the time being, however, the expenses of the canonization put a heavy burden on the chapter. In 1428 the entrance fee for residentiaries was raised from £40 to £100 and 100s. for dignitaries, and 100 marks and 100s. for simple canons, from which one-fifth was to be applied to St. Osmund's bursa and one-fifth to the fabric. (fn. 306) Altogether the canonization cost the chapter £731 13s., of which £419 13s. was raised by taxation, £312 advanced on loan; (fn. 307) and successive residentiary canons and chapter clerks spent weary years at the papal court pressing on the negotiations. The busiest periods were about 1424, when the papal judges-delegate began to examine the evidence for Osmund's miracles, life, and work; about 1442-4, when Master Andrew Holies, the chancellor, and Master Nicholas Upton, the precentor, were active in Rome with Master Simon Houchyns, the chapter clerk and former fellow of de Vaux college; and from 1452, when the new bishop, Richard Beauchamp, entered with vigour into the scheme. The canonization was finally granted in 1457. (fn. 308) It was the chapter's most impressive achievement in the 15th century, representing 60 years of sustained effort and consistent planning by a changing group of men. At the same time the popularization of the Use of Salisbury had gone steadily forward. There had been much liturgical advance. The new Ordinal of the 14th century had begun to get out of date; fresh replies were required from the authorities at Salisbury to the dubia of perplexed inquirers; provisions were made for the local peculiarities of other dioceses. The Directorium Sacerdotum of Clement Maydeston provided a detailed directory, interpreting the general rules of the Ordinal, and illustrating and commenting on the Salisbury rite. The rapid diffusion of the Use is seen in its adoption at St. Paul's cathedral in 1415, where it was introduced by Bishop Richard Clifford, a former canon of Salisbury, and at a steadily increasing number of other cathedral and parish churches, chantries, colleges, and religious houses throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. With the introduction of printing, many editions of Salisbury service books were issued. Finally, in 1542, the Convocation of Canterbury ordered all clergy of the province to follow the Salisbury Use. (fn. 309)

Other evidence for the chapter's prestige and distinction in the early 15th century is its surprisingly successful, though temporary, resumption of electing its bishop de gremio in 1417. Conditions were exceptional, because the election took place in the vacancy of the papacy before the election of Martin V. Eighteen canons, including three dignitaries, were present in person and 23 by proxy, and they chose unanimously by way of inspiration their dean, Master John Chandler, who, although a king's clerk, had been connected with the chapter for the greater part of his life. Archbishop Chichele, himself a former member of the chapter, welcomed the opportunity of recovering the archiepiscopal right of confirming elections; the king agreed, and eventually Martin V gave the papal confirmation. (fn. 310) Bishop Chandler's episcopate was a time of active and successful co-operation between bishop and chapter. On his death in 1425 the chapter attempted once more to elect its bishop de gremio. This time, however, Martin V obediently provided Robert Neville, the royal nominee, and quashed the election. (fn. 311) During the same period the chapter had been able to hold free elections to the deanery also. Its choice of Chandler in 1404 and of Sydenham in 1418 (fn. 312) had resulted in resident, conscientious, and reforming deans. On Sydenham's provision to Chichester in 1431, however, external influences probably intervened, and Master Thomas Brown, a non-resident canon, who had only been appointed to a Salisbury prebend a few months before the election, in order to qualify him, was chosen. (fn. 313) After this few elections seem to have been entirely free.

The chapter continued to be a distinguished body until well after the mid-15th century, and some new enterprises were undertaken, including the building of a new theological lecture room and a library over the west side of the cloister. Four canons were put in charge of this work: (fn. 314) Master Gilbert Kymer, the treasurer and future dean, Chancellor of Oxford University, and physician to Henry VI and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester; Master Nicholas Upton, the precentor, a Wykehamist and author of the De Studio militari; Master William Ingram, and Master Thomas Cyrceter, who on his death left many theological and historical manuscripts and sermons to the new library, some apparently in his own handwriting. (fn. 315) Shortly afterwards the chancellor, Master Andrew Holies, another Wykehamist and former clerk of Archbishop Chichele, came into residence, and in 1454 agreed that theological lectures should be given in the new lecture room at least once a fortnight at his expense. (fn. 316) Possibly there was a minor scholastic and artistic renaissance in Salisbury about this time. The mural painting of the Last Judgement on the chancel arch of the chapter's church of St. Thomas, Salisbury, contains an almost life-size picture of St. Osmund, obviously inspired by his recent canonization, and the work suggests that Salisbury artists were in touch with Flemish glaziers. (fn. 317) More manuscripts were given to the cathedral library, (fn. 318) and the Valley scholars were also active. In 1468 it was suggested that they should be given opportunities of preaching in the cathedral. (fn. 319) At the chancellor's grammar school in Exeter Street masters seem always to have been appointed eventually, in spite of occasional difficulties, and by this time were teaching the older choristers and altarists as well as the younger vicars and boys of the city, while the choristers' sub-master in the close apparently taught only the younger choristers. (fn. 320) In the 15th century, too, the choristers had a special singing instructor, who was distinct both from their sub-master and from the succentor, and who was frequently the cathedral organist. (fn. 321) No additions were made to their property, which was valued at only £35 17s. 8d. (fn. 322) a year in 1535, but they were allowed 13s. 4d. from the entrance fees of residentiary canons from 1407, and the boy bishop was usually granted the offerings at the high altar on Holy Innocents' Day. (fn. 323) An attempt by the masterful precentor, Nicholas Upton, to abolish their free election of their boy bishop was defeated in 1448, though the chapter then passed a statute 'restraining the insolence of the choristers', whose unruly conduct had caused the death of the bishop's vicar choral in a brawl in the close on Holy Innocents' night. (fn. 324)

One of the most interesting constitutional changes of the 15th century was made in the organization of the vicars choral. In 1409 they received a formal charter of incorporation from Henry IV, giving them the right to elect their own proctor or head from among themselves as often as and when they pleased; to be called as a body 'The Proctor and Community of the Vicars Choral of Salisbury Cathedral'; to use a common seal; to acquire and hold property in common; to implead and be impleaded, and to prosecute causes. They were, however, still to be appointed by the dean and chapter and obedient to their correction. (fn. 325) Perhaps the incorporation did not involve any very startling changes, but the vicars' greater legal independence was shown in royal and episcopal mortmain licences, which allowed the proctor and community of the vicars to acquire an inn and shops in Salisbury valued at £5 a year. (fn. 326) Before this such licences had usually been granted to the dean and chapter for the vicars' maintenance, not to the vicars directly. Various other small grants were made to their common fund or common chest. (fn. 327) In 1442 they held the rectory of Broad Windsor (Dors.) and by 1535 were drawing 10s. annual rent from Orcheston St. George. (fn. 328) Their net corporate income as given in the Valor Ecclesiasticus amounted to £236 11s. 6½d. a year. (fn. 329) It included £54 17s. 6d. paid to them as commons by the dean and chapter; £72 13s. 4d. in stall wages from the individual prebendaries; about £97 from the farms of their churches, and £24 7s. in rents.

Important changes in the vicars' daily lives were also made by the institution of a common hall of residence for them in the north walk of the close. The first known reference to it is in 1409. (fn. 330) By this time all other English secular cathedrals had colleges or common halls for their vicars. (fn. 331) As a result they gradually came to govern themselves in many matters of their daily life, although the dean and chapter always exercised a general supervision. In 1442 an important set of statutes drawn up by the proctor and community of the vicars for the management of their common hall was confirmed by the chapter. (fn. 332) These statutes imposed fines for unruly or violent behaviour and language; described the duties of the hall's officers, and made careful provisions for the payment of daily or weekly commons and for entertaining visitors to meals. Not all the vicars were forced to live in hall. The sub-dean and succentor, who were sometimes vicars, were given separate houses annexed to their offices, but the chapter insisted that all vicars of non-resident canons must live there. (fn. 333) In addition to the proctor, two senior vicars were appointed annually to be dispensers or supervisors of the common expenses; they drew up a rota of juniors to act as stewards under their direction; the stewards did the catering, but had to be accompanied by a supervisor whenever they went to buy food in the city. (fn. 334) There were also a communar of the vicars, with his office modelled on the chapter's communar, and eight senior vicars, who, with the proctor, presented the community's annual accounts to the chapter for audit. (fn. 335) In 1443 the dean and chapter agreed that six senior vicars with the succentor might in future be present at the examination and admission of new vicars by the chapter, (fn. 336) when they could presumably raise objections to unsuitable candidates.

Nevertheless, the state of the vicars in the last half of the 15th and in the early 16th century was unsatisfactory. Much can be learnt of their discipline and observance from the episcopal visitations, which were made regularly every seven years from 1394 until at least 1475, when there is a gap in the records. The detecta at Bishop Chandler's and Bishop Neville's visitations were mainly concerned with the faults of the vicars. (fn. 337) In 1440 and 1447 the records of Bishop Aiscough's visitations suggest a more serious situation. (fn. 338) There were complaints about vicars who were frequently absent from choir, were noisy and irreverent when present, neglected their masses, and caused scandals in the close and city by their relations with women. A particularly interesting case was that of John Wallope, who, in addition to quarrelling with his fellow vicars and committing adultery with three women, was accused of heresy at discussions among the vicars in their common hall. (fn. 339) This is one of the few surviving references to heresy among the cathedral clergy before the Reformation, but it suggests that debates in the close may have been lively and vigorous. The bishop ordered some deprivations of benefices, a stricter observance of duties, and bible reading at table in the vicars' common hall. The evidence of later visitations and the many cases of delinquent vicars brought before the dean and chapter show, however, that there was no improvement. (fn. 340) Moreover, by 1468 the number of vicars at the cathedral had begun to fall. Until then 48 or 49 of the full number of 52 vicars had appeared regularly at visitations, but in 1468 there were only 31. (fn. 341) In 1475 Bishop Beauchamp investigated at length the insufficiency in the vicars' numbers. The dean and chapter claimed that suitable persons, especially for the priest vicarages, could not be found, and that such vicars as remained at the cathedral were burdened with too many masses a day. (fn. 342) In the 16th century all attempts to maintain the vicars' numbers were abandoned and the canons paid the stall wages of unappointed vicars to the vicars' common fund for the use of the small body which remained. (fn. 343)

Other ominous changes in the later 15th century were in the practice of canonical residence. There were normally about ten to twelve residentiaries, including at least two and usually three of the four chief dignitaries, until the end of Gilbert Kymer's deanery in 1463. (fn. 344) In the 1440's, however, there were some suggestions of slackness among them. At Bishop Aiscough's first visitation in 1440 some residentiaries were said to go out of town at dawn and return at night of the following day, and still receive their commons for both days. This was forbidden. (fn. 345) Then in 1448 the residentiaries, by a temporary ordinance, granted themselves an extra fourteen days' absence for recreation because of the exceptionally bad weather. (fn. 346) They were also accused of neglecting their obligations to dispense hospitality. (fn. 347) About the same time bishop and chapter agreed that thirteen canonical houses (including the deanery) were to be kept in good repair for residentiary canons, while other houses in the close might be let 'to honourable persons'. (fn. 348) This is the first time that the letting of such houses to persons other than cathedral clergy is known to have received official approval, and the decision suggests that the chapter did not expect the number of residentiaries to rise above thirteen in future. In fact it soon began to fall. In 1470-1 there were only nine residentiaries at Salisbury, in 1488 seven, and in 1524 eight. By 1534 only one dignitary, the precentor, was included among the seven residentiaries. (fn. 349)

During the same period king and bishop renewed their assaults on the chapter's independence. From the time of Bishop Neville, the chapter still received royal licences to elect its bishops, but had little influence on appointments. A succession of English magnate bishops and civil servants was nominated by the king and provided by the Pope until the eve of the Reformation, when Wolsey and Henry VIII gave the see to Salisbury's only foreign bishop, Lorenzo Campeggio, the papal legate. The chapter continued to elect its dean in general chapters attended at first by large numbers of resident and non-resident canons, (fn. 350) but increasingly pressure was put on it to choose the royal candidate. The bishops regularly attended the elections either by proxy or in person, and in some cases persuaded the chapter to appoint them as compromissaries to nominate the elect. The chapter, worried by this procedure, which usually resulted in the appointment of a non-resident civil servant, began to exact an oath and a bond of £1,000 from all possible nominees that, if elected, they would reside continuously 'as a vicar in his vicarage', or at least pay £100 a year to the residentiaries in compensation. (fn. 351) Occasionally it was still able to elect a learned and distinguished resident dean, such as Master Gilbert Kymer, its treasurer, in 1449. (fn. 352) On Gilbert's death in 1463 it attempted to exclude Bishop Beauchamp from the election, but was speedily rebuked. (fn. 353) The bishop attended the opening of the election, but left early, apparently after ensuring that the Abbot of Sherborne would be chosen as compromissary to nominate Master James Goldwell, a non-resident clerk of Edward IV. (fn. 354) In 1473 Bishop Beauchamp himself was able as sole compromissary to nominate John Davyson. (fn. 355) In 1486 only 12 canons, 6 resident and 6 non-resident, with 27 proxies of non-residents, were present at the election of another king's clerk, Master Edward Cheyne. (fn. 356) In 1502 there was a further fall in attendances. Only five residentiaries were present at the election at which the bishop's proctor simply nominated Master Thomas Ruthall, the king's secretary. (fn. 357) The remaining deans of the early 16th century and Reformation period were distinguished men, but non-resident. Several, William Atwater, John Longland, Cuthbert Tunstall, rose to be bishops; several, Longland, Tunstall, Richard Pace, and Peter Vannes, were leaders of the new learning; all enjoyed the royal favour. In other ways also the bishops were attempting to control the chapter more rigorously, though here the chapter had more success in defending its rights. It maintained its right to visit the prebends in the vacancy of the deanery. (fn. 358) In 1451 it sent a deputation to Bishop Beauchamp to explain that it adhered to its privilege of not answering him except in chapter. (fn. 359) In 1480 a new claim was advanced by Bishop Beauchamp to exercise the sub-dean's archidiaconal jurisdiction in Salisbury city in place of the dean in a vacancy of the sub-deanery. Eventually in the early 16th century the dean's right was acknowledged after an appeal to the king. (fn. 360)

More magnificent chantries were also characteristic of the late Middle Ages, as were complaints of an increasing neglect of the founders' ordinances. About nine more chantries or daily masses have been traced to the period before the Reformation, (fn. 361) bringing the total to about 33, though probably others have disappeared without any record. Four had special chantry chapels built for them, (fn. 362) of which those of Robert, Lord Hungerford, and Bishop Beauchamp, on the outside of the cathedral against the walls of the Lady Chapel, were especially beautiful. All these were more richly endowed than the foundations of earlier centuries. The second Hungerford chapel for Robert, Lord Hungerford, built at a cost of £497, was given ornaments and furniture valued at £250, a house in the close for its two priests, and extensive endowments at Imber, Homanton, in Maddington, and Folke (Dors.). (fn. 363) Bishop Beauchamp's chantry, founded in 1481, was for four chaplains, with property valued at £50 a year. (fn. 364) The executors of both Dean Kymer in 1475 and of Bishop Beauchamp granted the endowments of their chantries direct to the chantry chaplains instead of to the dean and chapter or some outside college or religious house. This policy was carried a step farther by Bishop Audley, whose executors arranged in 1516 that the chaplain of his chantry should be a body corporate with a common seal capable of defending his right to his property in a court of law. (fn. 365) Possibly the founders hoped by these means to prevent a decline in the value of their endowments such as had already taken place in property given for other chantries. The arrangement, however, at least in the case of Bishop Beauchamp's chantry, proved even less satisfactory than the earlier methods. In 1505 one of its chaplains was cited before the bishop to answer for the state of the chantry buildings, which were dilapidated and a scandal. (fn. 366) By 1535 the annual value of its property had fallen to £12 10s. and there was only one chaplain. (fn. 367) Altogether the Valor Ecclesiasticus named only ten perpetual chantries served by thirteen chaplains, whose total incomes are estimated at £98 5s. 11d. a year. (fn. 368) Of these, only one, that of Bishop Bridport, had survived from the 13th century; his chaplain was the poorest, with £3 6s. 8d. a year. Two, the Blunsdon and Clone chantries, had continued from the 14th century, and the remaining seven were 15th- or early 16th-century foundations. In addition, allowances were made to the chapter for the maintenance of fifteen daily masses from property belonging to the common or fabric funds, and for the celebration of 62 obits. (fn. 369) Possibly the Valor is incomplete, or some chantries and obits may have been combined, but even so it seems likely that a number of chantries and obits had disappeared through neglect or failure of their endowments.

The chapter made efforts, particularly in the early 15th century, to increase its fabric fund by buying small pieces of property in and near Salisbury. City property to the value of £5 a year was acquired for the fabric in 1424. (fn. 370) This exhausted the chapter's general licence of 1366 to acquire property in mortmain. In 1423 it purchased a further general licence, authorizing it to accept property to the value of another £50 a year for the repair of the tower and spire. (fn. 371) The church and manor of Cricklade, given in 1427 partly for Walter, Lord Hungerford's chantry, accounted for most of the property obtained under this licence; the remainder consisted of land and rents to the annual value of 44s. in Stratford and Woodford in 1429. (fn. 372) The only further common property traced after this was city property purchased for 100 marks in 1467 from a former chapter clerk and Valley scholar, Master William Harding. (fn. 373) A few more minor changes took place in the endowments or tenure of the offices and prebends in the period before the Reformation. By 1490 Ebbesborne Wake church had been annexed to the succentor's office, (fn. 374) while the three prebends of Upavon, Loders, and Ogbourne, appropriated to Norman abbeys, were transferred by royal orders to the English houses of Ivychurch Priory, Sion Abbey, and the Dean and Chapter of Windsor respectively. (fn. 375) The English houses were ordered to pay all customary dues from their prebends, including the stall wages of their vicars choral.

Neither the surviving quarterly account rolls of the communars nor the Valor Ecclesiasticus gives a true picture of the income of the canons. The Valor gives the first apparently complete list of the chapter's property. (fn. 376) In addition to the further property acquired since 1291, it includes lay fees, portions, and pensions from tithes, as well as property outside the diocese, which had been omitted from the Taxation of Pope Nicholas. It estimates the annual value of the common fund at £601 12s. net or £771 18s. 1d. gross as against £329 6s. 8d. in 1291, and of the fabric fund, which was omitted altogether in 1291, at £75 16s. 9½d. net or £84 16s. 9½d. gross. (fn. 377) Roughly six-sevenths of the common property was derived from the farms of its 21 churches and from tithes; only about oneseventh from lay fees and city property. The total suggests that Salisbury's common fund was fairly rich compared with those of other English secular cathedrals, (fn. 378) which ranged from about £275 net or £436 gross a year at Lichfield to £725 net or £773 gross at St. Paul's. No total is given for the value of the dignities and prebends, but it is clear that, although few changes had been made in the extent of the prebends since 1226 or in the dignities since 1291, their assessment had in most cases risen considerably. The treasurership is given as £101 3s. as against £86 13s. 4d., and the precentorship at £69 6s. 8d. as against £33 6s. 8d. (fn. 379) Thus the chapter appears to be a much richer body both in its common property and in its separate estates than in 1291. A main difficulty in dealing with the earlier assessments was to know what relation they bore to the canons' actual income. The Valor is generally supposed to give the minimum annual rental value of the property, (fn. 380) and this is evidently true for Salisbury, for the valuation of sixteen churches appropriated to the common fund is in every case the same or slightly less than the annual farms paid from them by their canon-farmers to the chapter, as given in the communar account rolls for 1534. (fn. 381) Thus the Valor is the first taxation to give an assessment corresponding to the rental income received by the chapter. These farms, however, had mostly been fixed well before Bishop Mortival's time at a low rate in order to allow a fair profit to the residentiaries who accepted them, and the quarterly communars' account rolls show that they had varied little between 1343 and 1534. Only in a few cases was the ancient farm permanently raised or lowered.

For the greater part of the 14th century the competition for chapter farms among the residentiaries suggests that they were very profitable. The practice of sub-leasing to clerical or lay subfarmers had, however, apparently become normal by 1402, and the profits from it may have been falling. In that year a change of policy was carried through the chapter by Dean Montagu and Canon Richard Pitts. They asked the chapter to grant seven-year leases to their sub-farmers at Britford and Stourpaine, because sub-farmers who held only annual appointments took all they could from the land and did not trouble to make improvements. The chapter agreed to issue these leases and to allow their renewal for a further seven years after the end of the first. (fn. 382) The frequent general posts in chapter farms among the residentiaries continued throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, but the administration of the estates and collection of tithes were in the hands of subfarmers with security of tenure for a definite term of years. These sub-farmers were often yeomen or husbandmen of the parishes in which the estates lay, or vicars of the churches from which the tithes were due. In the first three quarters of the 15th century the terms of their leases usually ranged from three to twelve years, though in 1422 and 1447 two leases at least were granted for as long as 22 and 20 years. (fn. 383) In a few cases the rents payable are known and are very interesting. When the lease was granted at the instance of a canon-farmer the rent was considerably more than the ancient farm; for example in 1419 the sub-farmer of Kenton and Alvington agreed to pay £133 6s. 8d. a year or £40 more than the ancient farm, while in 1422 the rent payable from the sub-farmer of Cannings was fixed at £113 6s. 8d. or £28 more than that due from the canon-farmer. (fn. 384) At the same time other farms were leased directly to outside farmers, sometimes, as at Bramshaw in 1404, for the ancient farm, sometimes, as at Homington in 1462, for £2 10s. a year less than the ancient farm of £8. (fn. 385) Apparently, therefore, the residentiaries were only willing to accept the profitable farms, and when an estate fell into a bad state of repair or was affected by the agricultural depression of the period, it lapsed to the communar, who leased it for whatever he could get. Later, as the number of residentiaries fell, more farms came into the communar's hands. In 1465 it was agreed that dignitaries should be limited to farms worth 80 marks a year according to the old rents, and simple canons to farms worth 40 marks a year. (fn. 386) Naturally the farms which included a church were always more popular as canons' options, and their patronage was never leased to sub-farmers.

The chapter's change of economic policy in the early 15th century, and the gradual withdrawal of the canon-farmers from direct administration of their farms, suggests comparisons with parallel changes in the administration of the property of religious houses. There the change was from direct administration to leasing of the demesne or of tithes to outside farmers for terms of years. The reasons were usually a marked decline of income from the property from about 1350; the expenses of administration had to be cut down, and it was found that collecting rents was less expensive than direct cultivation. The agricultural depression may have had the same effect at Salisbury. Details of incomes from chapter farms are not available, but there are general indications that all was not well with the estates. The many suits for dilapidation resulted in very large estimates for repairs; in several cases farms were taken into the communar's hands because they were not fit to be offered to a canon; neglect of the property of the common and fabric funds and of the prebends was alleged at episcopal visitations throughout the 15th century. (fn. 387) Moreover, in 1402, when the change of policy was proposed, expenses in promoting the canonization of St. Osmund and for the repair of the fabric were particularly heavy. In 1428 the entrance fee for residentiaries was raised, not only because of these expenses, but also because of 'the decrease in the profits of farms, prebends and other revenues and the tyrannous burdens on the church'. (fn. 388) It therefore seems that the policy of leasing the farms for terms of years was, as Dean Montagu's words suggest, a considered attempt to improve them by encouraging the sub-farmers to take more trouble over their administration. The fact that the policy became increasingly popular suggests that it was in time successful. In the early 16th century leases were being granted for much longer terms of 60 and 66 years. (fn. 389) The rents charged to sub-farmers rose little, but fines compensated the chapter for the fall in the value of money. In 1539 the cathedral chancellor was said to have been offered a fine of £50 for a lease of Odiham, and in 1541 a £60 fine was received for Folke manor in return for a 60-year lease. (fn. 390) In the late 15th and 16th centuries the residentiaries were playing less part in the supervision of their property than they had done in the 14th century. In 1467 the dean and chapter appointed Roger Holies, a citizen of Salisbury, probably a kinsman of their chancellor, Andrew Holies, to be special solicitor of all their business in the royal courts and elsewhere in England for an annual fee of 26s. 8d. a year. (fn. 391) In 1535 a salary of £4 a year was being paid to a John Acton, steward of their lands, a post which in 1536 they offered to Cromwell. (fn. 392) The communar, however, continued to be a canon, elected annually from among the residentiaries. In 1516 it was agreed that no residentiary who was also a residentiary at another cathedral could be eligible for election, since the office required the personal presence of its holder all the year round. (fn. 393)