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and there is a portion of a cross similar in character; these have probably belonged to the tenth-century church of Odo or of Oswald, whichever it was; they cannot be of Wilfrid's time, the style of work is too late. This tenth-century church probably received St. Cuthbert's body when it was brought to Ripon in 995; it remained here for three or four months.1

The nature of the ecclesiastical establishment connected with this church is unknown. Archbishop Oswald is said to have brought back monachi of some sort. There may have been half-secular clergy as at Durham, Hexham, and elsewhere. However this may have been, we never find monks at Ripon at any subsequent period. Whether the conversion of monks into secular canons was silently effected, or whether any sort of monks were abolished and secular canons put in their place, we do not know. According to an uncertain author quoted by Leland in his Collectanea, Archbishop Ealdred (1060-1069) founded prebends in York, Beverley, and Ripon3, if so, that would seem to have been the beginning of the medieval foundation. In Domesday, we find the canons of Ripon holding fourteen bovates. Early in the next century we again find mention of canons, and Archbishop Thurstan founds the prebend of Sharow.5 The south-eastern chapel of the present Minster has been attributed to this same Archbishop Thurstan, but Mr. Bilson thinks with good reason that it has formed part of Archbishop Roger's church. I must, however, leave the architectural history of the church entirely in his hands, and proceed at once with its constitutional history.

In and after 1140, the canons and chapter are constantly mentioned, but we cannot assign any stalls until the York registers begin to give us information towards the end of the thirteenth century. In the earliest charters we find as witnesses not only canons, but chaplains and deacons. The chaplains officiated at particular altars, in connection with which chantries were afterwards founded, and the chantry priests are commonly described as "capellani," up to the time of the suppression. The deacons may sometimes. have remained in deacons' orders all their lives, discharging such duties as deacons might. The canons of Ripon, "septem personæ 8" as they were called, were, like those of the mother church of York, and the sister churches of Beverley and Southwell, not "Augustinian canons," as has been erroneously stated, but seculars, being under

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no monastic rule, and forming a chapter which, like that of Southwell, was acephalous, not having dean, provost, or other regular president under the archbishop. The senior canon present would naturally preside. The prebendary of Stanwick was ex officio precentor,1 and the prebendary of Monkton, treasurer. There was no chancellor, the chancellor of York would discharge the duties. In the later middle ages, Ripon, Beverley, and Southwell were often classed with York as the four mother churches, and were all in some sort cathedral churches of the Archbishop of York. Ripon, at least, was sometimes so styled. The archbishops of York had their throne at the eastern end of the south range of stalls up to the formation of the see of Ripon, when the bishop's throne took the place of the archbishop's. The property of the Ripon chapter was, as was usual, of two kinds, the communitas, which they held in common, and the seven prebends or endowments which the seven canons held separately, namely those of Stanwick, Monkton, Givendale, Sharow, Nunwick, Studley, and Thorpe, so named after the places from which the revenues were derived, by order of Archbishop Corbridge in 1301.4

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In 1228, Galfridus de Lardare appears as canonicus præbendæ beati Andreæ, and in the will of William Cawood, prebendary of Thorp, dated February, 1419, he speaks of his prebend as that of St. John of Beverley in Ripon. In some other churches, as at Beverley and at St. Mary's, Warwick, the prebends were named after saints up to the dissolution. Besides the common fund and the seven prebends, there were the endowments of nine chantries, held separately by the chaplains who served them." Brian Batty made provision for a chantry of St. George as late as 1515, but his intention does not appear to have been carried out, as no such chantry appears in the chantry certificates. In connexion with this chantry would seem to have been the very curious agreement between John the son of Brian Batty and William Bronflet of Ripon, carver, for "a George apon horsebak and a dragon accordyng to a Georg at Crystall (Kirkstall) Abbay, and a loft in the Minster." The George was to have two heads and three arms, the extra ones were doubtless meant to be screwed on and off for different occasions.8 There were also chaplains serving parochial chapels, some of which had their own endowments.9

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On certain great festivals these outside chaplains attended at the Minster in their copes, together with their parishioners.1 The last survival of this was the early communion on Easter Day, attended by parishioners from the outlying chapelries. There was a fund called the common of the fabric2, proceeding from certain rents, oblations, etc., and the farm of indulgences. Lastly, there were what are now called surplice-fees, and some other small receipts recorded in the treasurer's rolls.3

The hospitals of St. Mary Magdalene and of St. John the Baptist were attached to the church much in the same way as were the chapels and chantries. Both were founded in the twelfth century. It was supposed, in 13424, that St. Mary Magdalene's had been founded by Archbishop Thurstan (1114–1140).

At a visitation of this Hospital held in 13175, it was found that whereas according to the foundation there should be two chaplains, the master had been having one only, that hospitality had been neglected, and alms withheld from the poor, who had been put off with a saucer of beans or of flour, that the master seldom resided, and that everything had "gone to the dogs," as we say; they said, "omnia subtrahuntur et adnichilantur." At another visitation, held in 13416, the jurors swore that a certain Archbishop of York, whose name they did not know, had founded the hospital, and that the archbishops were the patrons, but that the patronage rested with the king during a vacancy in the see. The site was called Dunscewith, and was surrounded by ditches. The hospital was to have fuel and pasture in Northscogh, and was to find a chaplain, and sustain lepers born in Riponshire. Each leper was to have a garment called Bak, two pairs of shoes a year, a loaf of bread, half a gallon of ale, and a piece of flesh on flesh days, or three herrings on fish days. The jury did not know whether the chapel had been dedicated, but there had been burials there. The then master was only in acolyte's orders, the charity was not duly administered. The archbishop had robbed the hospital of lands, common rights, and fuel rights. The master said that there were no brothers or sisters in the hospital at that time, and maintained that he was not bound to have more than one chaplain. In 13427, another visitation was held, at which the jurors swore that Archbishop Thurstan founded the hospital for secular brothers and sisters, and one chaplain. It was to receive blind priests and lepers.

1 M. R.,iii, 164, 258; see also, i, 196-202.

2 M.R., iii, 2, 23, and Fabric Rolls

in iii, 88, etc.

3 M.R., iii, 207, etc.

M.R., i, 228.

5 M.R., i, 211.

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M.R., i, 223.

7 M.R., i, 228.

One William Homell had afterwards provided for a second chaplain, and then another archbishop had annulled the old foundation, and made new provisions for the duties of the two chaplains, the distribution of alms by the master on St. Mary Magdalen's Day, and for the residence of the master. Yet there was only one chaplain, who did not reside. Alms were not properly distributed, though some had been given to blind priests. A long dispute followed, ending in John of Bridlington being confirmed in his mastership, although he was only in minor orders. There is a great deal more about this ancient but long mismanaged hospital, in "Memorials of Ripon," to which collection I beg to refer any who are interested in the subject.

Archbishop Thurstan was the reputed founder also of the hospital of St. John the Baptist, but he only confirmed an earlier foundation by his predecessor, Thomas II2 (1109-19). We have a long account of proceedings in the King's Bench in 1341, reciting proceedings in Chancery, with a Royal Visitation enquiring into abuses in this hospital, affording much curious information respecting it. There is also a short inventory of its goods in 1277,1 For the revenues and property of both hospitals in the sixteenth century see M.R., iii, 5, 8, 29-32. A chantry of two priests in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalene's was founded in 1334.5 Both hospitals still exist, and the ancient chapel of St. Mary Magdalene's, with its stone altar in situ, will be visited. St. John's has been rebuilt.

The hospital of St. Anne, which is to be visited, was not connected with the church, and I know nothing about it beyond what is to be seen in the large edition of Walbran's Guide to Ripon, where we find extracts from a short account published by the late Mr. Lukis in 1872, the historical part of which is based on a "document" found after Mr. Walbran's time, but to which no

reference is given. It appears that this hospital was founded for four men, four women, and one priest, and that there were two beds for wayfarers. There was no endowment, the hospital was supported by the alms of the public, solicited from time to time in archbishops' letters, on application. On one occasion the applicants were Seth Snawsell, of Ripon, and Robert Stokes, of Bykerton, who stated that the chapel and massendew were founded by their ancestor, who is not named. It must have been before 1438, in which year a sum of

1 M.R., i, 217.

2 M.R., 1, 323.

3 M.R., i, 212-223.

4 M. R., i, 205.
5 M.R., iii, 30.

money was bequeathed for a mass in the chapel called "le masendieu." Mr. Bilson thinks that the half-columns of the chapelarch are of the twelfth century, the date of the foundation of the other hospitals. Maison Dieu, God's House, was a common name for a hospital. In Ripon the term has been corrupted into "Maiden's due," as if it were thought that the hospital had been founded for single ladies, who looked upon it as their right. Mr Bilson will no doubt show you how the architecture corresponds with the probable dates of foundation and reconstruction, and whatever traces there are, or have been, of the original arrangements. The ruined chapel is all that is left now, the hospital itself, adjoining on the west, was most unfortunately pulled down in 1869, when indications of four fire-places were found.

I have not yet mentioned the seven vicars. Their office and status, in Ripon as elsewhere, arose out of non-residence and other neglect of duty on the part of the canons, who were sometimes Italian ecclesiastics, whom the archbishops were compelled to appoint under the corrupt system of papal provisions. And when they were not foreigners, they were not always averse to the performance of their duties by deputy. At first, they employed men to do their work who, like the unbeneficed and unlicensed clergy of our own time, had no statutory position or income. It was much the same everywhere, and the bishops, despairing of reforming the canons, made provisions for the perpetuity and maintenance of their deputies, who were called vicarii, or vicars, from their vicarious discharge of the duties of the canons. The history of ordinary parochial vicars is very similar. All parishes were originally rectories, but the principal endowments and tithes of many of them were given to monasteries, and the abbots and convents appointed vicars to do the work that had been done by rectors. In Ripon the canons were quasi-rectors, but as they could not be made to discharge their duties in a proper manner, or in their own persons, nor yet to make adequate provision for deputies, Archbishop Corbridge made a decree for the perpetuity of vicars in Ripon in 1303.1 Each canon was to have a perpetual vicar, and each vicar was to have six marks a year, paid by the canon whose work he did. The canon of Stanwick, who was ruler of the choir in Ripon, was to have a vicar who should reside at Stanwick, and have cure of souls in that parish. Thenceforward, the seven vicars, to whom was assigned that cure of souls in the parishes of Ripon and Stanwick for which the canons had been

1 M.R., ii, 44, 45.

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