RELIGIOUS HOUSES in Tolleshunt and lOj. in Hoddesdon made an estate for another canon,^' and land worth looj. within and without London for the eighth ; the land assigned for the support of the ninth lay in Norton and ' Selga,' and appears to have been the prebend called Norton-Newerks.^^ The rest of their lands in and without London, the church of Witham, the chapel of Bonhunt," the tithes of Tolleshunt, and anything in future accruing, were settled on the community of canons residing in the church. The canons resident might be absent on their business four times a year, if they were not away more than fifteen days. If they should be absent constantly, clerks must be appointed as substitutes. The canons, moreover, who did not frequent the church had to find suitable vicars, paying to them 2 marks a year, to the community of canons a mark, or half a mark if their absence were for study, and to the work of the church half a mark. The issues of the church of Maldon were to be devoted to the lights of St. Martin's, and the tithe of Good Easter to the work of that church. A further readjustment was found necessary a few years later, and in the time of Godfrey de Lucy'* some land which had belonged to the prebend of the dean and that of Master Ivo de Cornwall was assigned to the holder of the London prebend, the dean receiving in exchange the chapel of Bonhunt and land in London valued at 15^., and Master Ivo land there worth 12s. dd. The thirteenth century is an important period in the history of St. Martin's ; it is a time of disputes and settlements of titles to possessions, of internal development, and of the establishment of its rights and immunities as a royal free chapel. Up to about 1250 there is a continual succession of agreements and suits : Innocent III in 1203 confirmed a composition made between St. Martin's and the House of the Holy Spirit at Writtle over tithes ; in 1235 Roger bishop of London, by command of the pope, settled a dis- pute between the dean and chapter of St. Martin's and the chaplain of St. Nicholas Shambles, about a pension ; ^ the vicar of St. Botolph's Alders- " A prebend cilled Chrishall figures in a list temp. Hen. VII. Doc. of D. and C. of Westm. No. 13324. '* Ibid. No. I 3 3 1 4. " Wicken Bonhunt. " Henry bishop of Winchester claimed the chapel of ' Bonant ' as belonging to his church of Newport. Cartul. of St. Martin's, item 1 18. The dispute of the canons with the bishop over this chapel may have occasioned the letter of Thomas archbishop of Canterbury to them. In this he stated that he had received the mandate of the pope to protect anything belonging to the jurisdiction of the bishop, and commanded the canons to obey him as their dean. Reg. fol. 17 ; Kempe, op. cit. 68. »' Doc. of D. and C of Westm. St. Martin le Grand, parcel 2. *" Ibid. Lond. C. gate seems to have refused to pay the pension owing from his church at intervals between 1225 and 1349, and as a result there were constant legal proceedings against him ; ^^ in 1236 the college was engaged in a suit against the priory of Brissant ; *^ an agreement was made at the same date by Herbert, canon of St. Martin's, and the rector of Old Ongar about some property ; *' in 1238 Pope Gregory XI ordered an inquiry into the complaints of the dean and chapter against the abbot and convent of Walden, the master of the Temple, and other persons for injuries done to them in the matter of tithes, possessions, and legacies ; " and in 1253 ^ case was begun be- tween St. Martin's and St. John's, Colchester.^^ The most striking change, perhaps, in the college itself, was the foundation, about 1240, of a new prebend *^ for two additional canons.^' It was called Newland, and was formed out of pro- perty in Good Easter,^' acquired for this purpose by Herbert, the canon mentioned above, who was chamberlain of St. Martin's," and altogether an important member of that church.'" It may be inferred that perpetual vicars were established in 1 1 58 by the article ordaining that every non- resident canon was to appoint a vicar. They undoubtedly formed part of the college in 1228, for canon Richard de Elmham left by will in 1228 to each vicar I2d., and to their refectory a cloth and a towel.*^ As in 1 304 there were only two resident canons" there should then have been eight perpetual vicars, or ten if the prebend of Newland be considered. Some statutes that date from the late fifteenth century, but are prob- ably a recapitulation of earlier rules,^' declare
- ' Ibid. Lond. B. box z (l) ; ibid. Lond. B. box 3.
- ' Ibid. St. Martin le Grand, parcel 4, No. 13245.
" Ibid, parcel 4, No. 13253. " Ibid, parcel 2. " Ibid, parcel 2 and parcel 4, No. 13246. " The dean and chapter in that year leased to Herbert for his life a tenement in Newland which they had of his gift. Ibid, parcel 4, No. 13269. " There is in the Cartulary of St. Martin's a bull of Pope Innocent confirming the grant of the prebend to two canons. It was also held by two canons at the time of the appropriation of St. Martin's to Westminster Abbey. Ibid, parcel 4, No. 13301- '^Ibid.parcel 3, No. 13215. "Ibid. '° There are many notices of him scattered among the documents relating to St. Martin's, especially in the Cartulary and in No. 1 32 1 5. He was acting as procurator of the college in 1 238. Cal. of Pat. 1232-47, p. 2 I 8. " Doc. of D. and C. of Westm. St. Martin le Grand, parcel 4, No. I 3262. " Ibid, parcel 4, No. 13272. " Ibid, parcel 2. Statutes of the college of St. Martin's and oaths to be taken by the vicars perpetual and canons resident. The rule that a canon might bequeath a year's fruits of his prebend by will is older than the time of Geoffrey de Boclande, who allowed a canon to do the same when he left to join a stricter community. Ibid, parcel 2. 557
