Page:VCH London 1.djvu/516

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A HISTORY OF LONDON Lisieux,*'" order that they consist of deacons and sub-deacons in equal proportion, that their number be increased, that they be persons of moral life able to sing in the choir. In 1332 an injunction exhorted them to seemliness of conduct and habit.*" They gained some addi- tional independence in this period. In 131 3 they were declared to be themselves responsible for their absences from the cathedral."^ Dean Geoffrey de Lucy granted that each vicar should, while he was duly present at hours, receive from the church a penny a day ; *" and the sum was increased by Dean Henry Borham.'*" With the consent of the chapter Bishop Bray- brook appropriated to them the church of Bunstead, and fix e marks from the revenues of the church of Finchingfield."' The vicars never formed a technical corporation : in later times they used the seal of the dean and chapter, or severally signed with their individual seals.**' They had a common hall in which they were compelled to take their food, unless they were invited elsewhere.*" The tendency to uniformity brought a dispo- sition to follow the Sarum Use in the churches of St. Paul's, an innovation which was jealously resisted by the dean and chapter. In 1375 the dean did his utmost that the ancient rite of his cathedral might be preserved in the church of St. Giles Cripplegate.*** Yet by the beginning of the fifteenth century the more universal form was generally used in the chan- tries of St. Paul.*'^ In 1414 Bishop Clifford ordered that the Use of Sarum should be followed in the choir.*-" The movement towards reform from within continued in the fifteenth century. The practice of diverting the property of the cathedral to the private uses of the resident canons was well estab- lished, and hence there were remedial ordinances of Bishops Savage,*^' Warham,*-2and Fitz James.*-' Warham's statute, which Fitz James confirmed, annulled all allocations of land, rents, and profits, and instituted a new officer in the general receiver. Bishop Warham also ruled that four major canons must be present in the chapter*"* when arduous business was in treaty ; that the bishop and any two major canons could settle disputes between

  • '° Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 67, 84.

"' Ibid. 103. *'Mbid. 67. "'Ibid. 186.

  • " MS.of D.andC.ofSt. Paul's, W. D. 2, fol. 91.
  • " Lend Epis. Reg. Braybrook, fol. 395.
  • '* MS. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Box 11, 1 100.
  • " Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 67.
  • '* Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 52.
  • " Cal. Pap. Let. iv, 226.

""• Hist MSS. Com. Rep. ix, App. i, 52. "' Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 260.

  • " Ibid. 213. *" Ibid. 206.
  • '* In I 502 it was ruled that no man who was

not of English birth on both sides and born in Eng- land might hold a prebend or dignity in St. Paul's, or treat of secret business in the chapter. Ibid. 210. the dean and the canons; that the dean must be a prebendary or dignitary of the cathedral,*"' who should begin his residence within a year of his appointment ; that all resident and non-resi- dent canons must be present in the cathedral on feast days.*-* But the greatest reformer of St. Paul's was John Colet. After he had made an epitome*-' of the statutes of the cathedral,*"* he showed to Wolsey, in 1 5 1 8, a series of regulations which were chiefly enlargements of Warham's statutes. These, in a further amplified form, were eventu- ally enacted by Wolsey, as papal legate.*^' Such unusual procedure was due to the enmity which existed between Colet and Bishop Fitz James.*'** At the same time the dean was at contention with the residents, who had no sympathy with his frugal mode of life, and who accused him of a desire to treat them like monks.*" His statutes seem to have arisen from his single initiative enforced by legatine authority, and it appears that neither they nor those of Warham were ever obeyed.*'- In his lifetime, however, Colet must have wrought much improvement, for he was consist- ently supported by the king and by Archbishop Warham. A confirmation, obtained from Leo X, of the neglected bull, by which Martin V had limited the compulsory expenses of residence, may have secured a reform.* Colet made separate compilations of the statutes which bound the chantry priests ; and possibly included new enactments among them. An oath of faith- ful service to the church, the dean, and the chapter, and of obedience to the ordinances by which their chantries had been founded, was henceforth compulsory for all chaplains, and they were forbidden to leave the City without leave from the dean and chapter.*'* In one respect the measures of Colet are particularly consonant with the spirit of his age. He made a practice of preaching in the cathedral on every feast day, and his sermons were not dialectical exercises, but expositions of Scripture. His congregations were large, and included most leading men of the court and City.*" The chancellor had for

  • " The manor and rector}' of Sutton and the advow-

son of Chiswick were at this time appropriated to the deanery. Ibid. 211.

  • " Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 210-11.

'" Colet's epitome differs from its predecessors in an assertion that the portion of the dean is double that of other residents. "^ Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 2 1 7. «" Ibid. 237. "" Erasmus, Li/e of Co/et (transl. J. H. Lupton), 39. ^■^ Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 418-19; Erasmus, Life of Co/et (transl. J. H. Lupton), 24 et seq. "' Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 418-19.

  • " Ibid. 200. "* Arc/i. HI, 163-4.

'" Erasmus, Life of Co/et (transl. J. H. Lupton), 24 et seq. 128