There are two points of special interest in connexion with the religious houses of Lincolnshire. One is the relation of the religious themselves to the rising of 1536, which will be seen from the following pages. The other is the evidence of the episcopal registers as to the internal condition of the monasteries. The episcopal visitations are specially full and clear for this county, and a careful study of them leads to two general conclusions. First, it is evident that the religious life in the diocese had reached its low-water mark in the early part of the fifteenth century: but it is equally clear that the last eighty years or so before the suppression saw a steady improvement, and a gradual restoration of order and discipline. With only a few exceptions,[1] the reports of Bishop Atwater in 1519 are very much more satisfactory than those of Bishop Alnwick from 1437 to 1444. The lately published records of the White Cannons, kept by a visitor of their own order, point to the same conclusion.
LINCOLN CATHEDRAL
which they had
It was probably about the year 1078 that William I moved the see of Dorchester to Lincoln,' and granted to Bishop Remigius sufficient land to build the mother church of all the bishopric of Lincoln. The cathedral was com-
in early days a close connexion both personal and constitutional.' So true it is that the cathedral body was originally the council of the bishop, that for more than a century it is difficult to differentiate
who
between episcopal and capitular history. The immediate successors of Remigius were munificent benefactors. Robert Bloett doubled the number of prebends, endowing the church with rich gifts of lands and vestments, and Alexander ' the magnificent ' continued this policy, though the Lincoln historian complains that he dissipated the wealth of his church by building castles and monasteries.^" A few valuable acquisitions are also attributed to Robert de Chesney, but John de Schalby accuses him of nepotism and of alienating a prebend to the order of Sempringham.'^ His want of foresight as a ruler is proved by his decree freeing the church and prebends of Lincoln from all episcopal jurisdiction,^' a step which involved one of the greatest of his successors in what was perhaps the most serious difficulty of
'
pleted within the lifetime of the died,
The
1092.^
in
first
however, four days before charter
Remigius by William
its
bishop,
consecration
which was granted to 1090 makes no pro-
II in
vision for the constitution of the capitular body,'
but Henry of Huntingdon, writing almost at this mentions a dean, treasurer, precentor and two other important members of the chapter, one
date,
whom
was presumably the chancellor, and John de Schalby writing from extant documents in the fourteenth century states further that there were twenty-one preof
seven
archdeacons.'
bends attached to the original foundation/ The early historians of Lincoln believed that the tradition was followed in the constitution of their church,* but it seems probable that the great secular foundations of England were largely
Rouen
influenced
by the cathedral of Bayeux, with
his episcopate.
Of is little '
These are of the more value because they show
throughout the diocese and
not arise from the fact of Bishop Atwater being of an easier disposition than his
that the difference does
The
question of the date
Fasti Eccks. Angl. (ed. '
and
D.
C.
is
Hardy),
Line.
Press
discussed in ii,
7,
A,
Le Neve,
102.
note 59. Shelf
I,
box
i,
No. 61.
John de Schalby's coln,' in Giraldus
' Lives of the Bishops of LinCambrensis, Opera (Rolls Ser.), vii,
194. '
Bradshaw
Statutes, « ' '
ii
(i),
and Wordsworth,
Lincoln
Cathedral
1.
Hen. Huntingdon, Hist. John de Schalby, op. cit.
(Rolls Sen), vii,
1
—
301.
94.
—
(Rolls Ser.), vii, 196, note I.
Ibid.
80
it
is
probable that
Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. i, 32—5 and But see Missale ad usum mon. Westm. (Hen. Bradshaw Soc), iii, p. 1420, where it is argued that on the Uses at least Bayeux had no influence. '° John de Schalby, op. cit. vii, 198. " Ibid. Probably Canwick. See Bradshaw and Wordsworth, op. cit. ii (i), Ixxiii. " Wilkins, Concilia, i, 5 3 8. This decree is attributed by John de Schalby to Robert Bloett, but the names Martin the treasurer and Ralph the of the witnesses sub-dean prove that it belongs to Robert de Chesney. See Le Neve, op. cit. and Giraldus Cambrensis, Opera '
predecessor. '
the years between 1167 and 1 183 there to record. It was a period of confusion
- ↑ These are of the more value because they show that the difference does not arise from the fact of Bishop Atwater being of an easier disposition than his predecessor.
