The following list of benefactors is a mix of bishops, deans, canons and noblemen who gave in some way to the early cathedrals. Much information comes from the Victorian County History.
According to the Lichfield Chronicle, 20 canons
comprising 11 priests and 9 deacons, led the cathedral for the first time. Perhaps,
the Rules of Bishop Chrodegang of Metz were introduced.[1] This
history is a deduction and unreliable. There is no evidence of a Chapter. A
late 16th-century history of the cathedral wrongly ascribed to Æthelwold the
foundation of prebends to support his canons.
A 13th-century Prior of Coventry said the bishop introduced
canons at Lichfield. This is false since the Domesday Book, 1086, had earlier stated
on the bishop's manor five canons held three ploughs of land. Furthermore, it
is possible five prebends existed by 1086 and were held by the five canons. It
is also possible these positions were in place before the Conquest. The
Lichfield Chronicle stated Clinton increased the number of prebends, but again
this source of history is suspect. It is probable the new prebends were
attached to the Coventry Priory.
Clinton
reconstituted the cathedral chapter in the 1130s, forming a collegium
canonicorum along the same lines as those founded at Lincoln,
Salisbury, and York.[2] It
contained four dignitaries. It has been suggested that his motive in setting up
a secular chapter at Lichfield was to obtain support against the
monastic chapter at Coventry.[3] Why
Clinton would have favoured Lichfield over richer and larger Coventry monastic
priory has not been explained. His uncle Geoffrey nurtured Kenilworth priory
and Roger could have done the same at Coventry.
Ordered the institutions of the cathedral, choir and
chapter, and clergy should, like its model at Rouen church, be strictly
observed. The precentorship, first endowed in 1155, was further endowed in 1177
with the precentor called Matthew. A subdean was mentioned in 1165. The deanery
was endowed c. 1176.
The duties and privileges of the four dignitaries were
described in the first statutes of the cathedral. These were the earliest
surviving statutes of any English cathedral, and probably drawn up by the dean
and chapter for the bishop in 1191. The duties of the treasurer were
described in comprehensive detail. A Chancellor was the legal and literary
officer and kept the seals. He wrote the letters of the chapter and
was expected to run a school.
Gifts of land and endowments to the cathedral were given
from 1180, but the most important donations to the common fund did not begin
until the 1190s. It is thought the rebuilding of the choir occurred in
this episcopate and would have required new stone and timber. Prebends were
arranged which brought endowments to the cathedral and this continued until
1255. From then on, few changes were made, apart from the lapse of some
prebendal arrangements.
Possibly the first Dean appointed in the interdict, 1208–1215,
enforced by the pope against King John. Ralph Nevill followed, appointed by
King John.
Probably the first Dean appointed by the Chapter, 1222, and who
then raised the position as second to the bishop. He probably redrafted the
statutes. He must have oversaw the early stages of the building of the
cathedral and become involved with the rancorous dispute with the monks of
Coventry cathedral regarding who had the right to elect a bishop. During his
time many chantries appeared within the cathedral.
It is thought he secured a clean water supply to the Close, c.1263.
Rewrote the statutes and included a clerk to record
meetings. He reordered services, enlarged endowments to the canons and priests,
oversaw much of the rebuilding of the cathedral including obtaining grants for
stone and timber and gave regulations on how farmed estates should be organised.
During his episcopate there was much disagreement on the ownership of lands
especially those in the Peak District. He enforced the practice of every canon
having a vicar and the appointed vicar had to be tested in reading and singing.
More chantry chapels were added to the cathedral.
A former sacrist appointed to look after the treasury. He
formed a scriptorium composed of scriveners and vicars with literary and legal
ability. One vicar, Alan of Ashbourne (Assheborn), wrote the Lichfield
Chronicle begun c.1323 and continued until his death in 1334. Another
vicar, John of Aston, also wrote a chronicle of which only fragments survive in
a 16th-century copy. Savage[4]
considered the many possible sources of information for Ashbourne’s book, most
being second-hand and derived. Between 1317 and 1328 the Magnum
Registrum Album, or Great Register, was written and contains information on
the cathedral's privileges and property.
Installed 98 canons, 94 selected by the pope. Many were
related to the pope and never visited Lichfield. The Chapter contained mainly
men who had retired to Lichfield after active careers in the service of the
Crown or the Church or in the universities.
Became the first dean to be permanently resident in the Close.
Bishop William Heyworth, 1420‑47.
Milley’s hospital.
Canon Thomas Chesterfield, c. 1447.
A canon who arranged repairs of the vicars' houses and built
for them a common hall. He also wrote a history of the cathedral.
[1]
Around 755–6 Chrodegang, bishop of Metz,
northeast France, compiled a rule for canons of his own church. His rule
contained protocols for living in a quasi-monastic, celibate community.
[2]
W. Dugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum,
1673, (London: 1817–1830 ed.), 3,
1242. Also K. Edwards, The English secular cathedrals in the Middle Ages: a
constitutional study with special reference to the fourteenth century, (Abingdon:
1967), 141. Also H. E. Savage, Lichfield Chapter in the twelfth century. Unpub.
article in the Cathedral Library, (1917), 11.
[3]
H. E. Savage (1917), 13.
[4]
H. E. Savage, The Book of Alan de Assheborn, Unpub article in Cathedral
Library. (1922).
No comments:
Post a Comment