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Procurations and the English Church
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 July 2008
Extract
The procuratio was originally the hospitality necessarily provided for an ecclesiastical ordinary and his retinue when engaged in a visitation of the churches and spiritual places of his jurisdiction: ‘per procurationes … intelligitur necessariorum sumptuum exhibitio, que ratione visitationis debetur. …’ By this means the provision of food, drink, and accommodation for the visitor as he perambulated his territory was placed on a formal footing, so that most of the expenses of visitation might be met, and the visitor with his attendants assured of somewhere to spend each night in reasonable comfort.
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References
1 i.e. one who possesses an ecclesiastical jurisdiction in his own right by virtue of office and is not dependent on the grant of another: Hostiensis, , Henrici a Segusio Cardinalis Hostiensis Aurea Summa (ed. Coloniae, , 1612), lib. i, de Offic. Ord., para. 1. col. 281Google Scholar; Coke, , Institutes of the Laws of England, 1 (Commentary upon Littleton), ed. Hargrave, (19th ed., London, 1832). p, 96aGoogle Scholar; Godolphin, , Repertorium Canonicum: or an Abridgment of the Ecclesiastical Laws of this Realm (3rd ed., London, 1687), p. 23Google Scholar; Burn, Richard, Ecclesiastical Law (9th ed., London, 1842), III, 39.Google Scholar
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8 Extra, 3, 39, 21.
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18 Suppression of Religious Houses Act, 1539 (31 Hen. VIII, c. 13), ss. 15, 17; Payment of Pensions and Portions Act, 1543 (34 & 35 Hen. VIII, c. 19), s. 4; Le Case de Proxies, supra; Saunderson v. Clagget (1721) 1 P. Wms. 657, sub nom. Sanderson v. Clagget, 1 Stra. 421.
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26 c. 4, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Tanner, Norman P. (Georgetown U.P., 1990). I. 213.Google Scholar
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28 c. 33: A. Garcia y Garcia, ed., Constitutiones Concilii quarti Lateranensis una cum Commentariis glossatorum. Monumenta iuris canonici. Ser. A: Corpus Glossatorum II (Città del Vaticano, 1981). p. 77; Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. I. 250 {Extra. 3. 39. 23). See: Winchelsey, Memoriale sive registrum Henrici Prioris Monasterii Cantuariensis. ‘Articuli super quibus inquirendum est in visitacionibus prelatorum’. BL Cotton MS. Galba E IV. f. 61. Querend. a person, episc. (11), at f. 61v.; Hostiensis. Aurea Summa, lib. iii. de Censib., paras. 13 & 14. col. 1037; Stephens, , Hist, of Procurations, pp. 16–22Google Scholar; Lyndwood. Provinciale. lib. i. tit. 12. c. 2. Quoniam autem. gl. ad v. una tantum. p. 67. See also Extra. 3. 39. 27.
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36 Extra. 3. 39. 21 & 23. Le Case de Proxies {1604) Davis 1. at 3: ‘ove measure et temperance’.
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38 c. 4 (Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. I. 213: Extra. 3. 39. 6): Council of London. 1200. c. 5. Cum inter ea (Councils & Synods. I. pt. ii. 1062–3): repeated in the Fourth Council of Lateran, c. 33. Constitutiones Concilii quarti Lateranensis. p. 77 (Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. I, 250) (Extra. 3. 39. 23) and in the judgment Romana ecclesia. Sext. 3. 20. 1. § 5. Possibly referring to Philippians ii. 21.
39 Mansi, Sacr. Conc. IX. 839.
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53 Ibid.
54 For examples of inclusion in contemporary English chronicles, see: Benedict, Abbot of Peterborough. Gesta regis Henrici secundi Benedict abbatis … ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 49, London, 1867). I. 222–38. at p. 224Google Scholar; Gervase, of Canterbury, The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 73. London, 1879). I. 278–92. at p. 291Google Scholar; William, of Newburgh, Chronicles of the Reigns of Stephen, Henry II, and Richard I. ed. Howlett, R. (Rolls Series 82, London, 1884). I. 206–23. at p. 216Google Scholar; Roger, of Hoveden, Chronica mogistri Rogeri de Hovedene. ed. Stubbs, W. (Rolls Series 51, London, 1869). II. 173–89. at pp. 173–4Google Scholar. Also in the Cartulary of Rievaulx, Cartularium abbathiae de Rievalle ordinis Cisterciensis (Surtees Society, 83, Durham, 1889). pp. 362–76. at p. 371Google Scholar. See also Duggan, C., ‘English Canonists and the “Appendix Concilii Lateranensis” with an analysis of the St. John's College, Cambridge. MS, 148’. Traditio. XVIII (1962). pp. 459–68. at p. 465CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For English MS collections of the canons of the Council, see Kutner, Stephan, Repertorium der Kanonistick (1140–1234). Prodromus Corpus Glossarum (Studi e Testi. LXXI. Città del Vaticano, 1937). I. 281. 282. 298.Google Scholar
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57 e.g. Innocent III. Regestorum sive Epistolarum, XIII (1210). ep. 42 to the archbishop of Larissa. Migne, Patrolog. Lat., CCXVI. 230. See Berliére, U., ‘Le droit de procuration ou de gîte. Papes et légats’. Acadèmie Royale de Belgique. Bulletins de la classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques (Brussels, 1919). pp. 509–38, at p. 513.Google Scholar
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61 c. 27 [22], Ut singula (Powicke & Cheney. Councils, p. 114). The reference here is to Lateran III, c. 4. Notwithstanding c. 33 of the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215, the constitution still speaks in terms of the ‘evectionis numerum’ derived from the earlier council.
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64 Potthast, I. 779, no. 9089. See also ibid., I. 898. no. 10601 and for a later date (1300). II. 1996. no. 24964.
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73 Sext. 3.20. 1.§5.
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78 Ibid.
79 Matthew Paris. Chronica Maj., VI. 231–2. The archdeacons were not to receive procurations in excess of 7s. 6d. and less from minor churches with little property. He valued his own procurations at 31s. 10d.
80 i.e. Sext. 3. 20. I. §5.
81 ‘vel pro visitatione habeat quatuor marcas …’
82 Ann. Mon. (Dunstable). III. 186.
83 Reg. Innocent IV. III. 377. no. 7314: Potthast. II. 1255. no. 15259. See also Reg. Innocent IV. III. 420. no. 7556.
84 e.g. Archbishop Boniface in his visitation of 1253 (Ann. Mon. (Dunstable. III. 190) and at Worcester in 1260 (Ann. Mon. (Worcester). IV. 446). Archbishop Peckham took four marks at Peterborough in 1284; Chronicon Petroburgense. ed. Stapleton, Thomas (Camden Soc., O.S., XLVII. London, 1849). p. 100.Google Scholar
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88 Constit. I. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. I, 310.
89 Instructions issued by Gregory X for assessing clerical income for the levy of the tenth imposed by the Council of Lyons. 1274; Lunt, W. E., Papal Revenues in ihe Middle Ages (Columbia University Press, 1934, repr. New York, 1965), II, 163.Google Scholar
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96 e.g. Bishop Giffard taking money from the prior of Stanley Monachorum without visiting the house: Reg. Giffatd (Worcester). II. 434: Cheney. Episc Vistn. of Mons.. 109.
97 Sext., 3, 20, 3. Archbishop Winchelsey, c. 1300. Articles, f. 61. de visit. (1). at f. 62v., inquires whether the bishop receives his procurations ratione visitationis in money and whether he receives procurations from a place that he does not personally visit. See Lyndwood. Proxinciale. lib. i. tit. 12. c. 2. Quoniam autem. gl. ad v. una tantum. p. 67.
98 Sext., 1, 16. 6; Lyndwood. Provinciale, lib. i. tit. 10. c. 1. Ut archidiaconi. gl. ad v. videant. p. 50; Godolphin, , Repertorium., p. 69Google Scholar. This appears to have been observed by Archbishop Arundel when visiting the diocese of St. David's by commissary in 1397: Register of Thomas Arundel. Lambeth Palace Library, f. 456v.
99 Sext.. 3. 20. 3.
100 Brühl. ‘Zur Geschichte der Procuratio canonica vornehmlich in 11. und 12 Jh.’. p. 422. suggests that the abuse was at its worst in the fourteenth century.
101 c. 20. Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 1, 377 (Clem., 3, 13, 2).
102 Extravag. Comm., 3, 10, 1.
103 Twelve silver Tours were to be reckoned as being worth one gold Florentine florin: Extravag. Comm. 3, 10, 1. At this date, a Florentine florin was valued in sterling at between about 3s. and 4s.; Spufford, P., Handbook of Medieval Exchange (London, 1986), pp. 198–201.Google Scholar
104 Sext., 3, 20, 3; Extravag. Comm., 3, 10, 1; Constits. Provinc. Stratford, c. 7. Quamvis lex naturae (Wilkins, Concilia, II, 698–9): Lyndwood, Provinciale, lib. i, tit. 12. c. 2, Quoniam autem, gl. ad v. procurari, p. 67; ibid., lib. iii. tit. 22, c. Quamvis lex naturae, gl. ad vv. vel pecunia & visitans. p. 223.
105 Constits. Provinc. Stratford, c. 7, Quamvis lex naturae (Wilkins, Concilia, II, 698–9).
106 Thompson, Hamilton, English Clergy and their Organisation in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1947). pp. 61–2Google Scholar, suggests that this was happening sometime in the course of the fourteenth century. The preamble in Archbishop Stratford's constitution of 1342 (supra) suggests that by this date archdeacons frequently were not going personally to the churches to be visited.
107 See e.g. Register of Warham. Lambeth Palace Library, 1, ff. 88–91v., 213v., 239. 247–48, 271v., 278v.–280v., 285v.–286, 289v.–291, 310 (references throughout are to the original foliation (Roman numerals), not the archival renumbering).
108 Lyndwood. Provinciale, lib. iii, tit. 22, c. 5, Quamvis lex naturae, gl. ad v. solet soivi, p. 224.
109 The Noble, which was the principle English coin after its introduction in 1344, and until 1464 was worth 6s 8d (one-third of a pound or half a mark): Spufford, Handbook of Medieval Exchange, p. 198.
110 e.g. see the visitation of the churches of St. Paul's in 1458 (by the dean and a named canon residentiary): Simpson, W. Sparrow, Visitations of Churches belonging to St. Paul's Cathedral (Camden Soc., 2nd series, 55, 1895), pp. 75, 80, 88, 97, 108.Google Scholar
111 In Archbishop Warham's visitation of the diocese of Canterbury in 1512, wide variations in the procurations payable by parish churches and vicarages are apparent: Reg. Warham, I, ff. 88–91v. The smallest appears to have been 20d for both churches and vicarages, rising to 66s. 8d., e.g. Minster-in-Thanet, Deanery of Westbere: ibid., f. 89. For the visitation of the diocese of Exeter sede vacante in 1503–4, procurations are recorded for the religious houses and the totals for each rural deanery: Reg. Warham, I, f. 213v. So too for the visitation of the diocese of Ely (1505–6): Reg. Warham, II, ff. 247–48. The sum of 66s. 8d. again figures in the visitation of the diocese of Lincoln sede vacante in 1513–14 where it was taken from virtually everyone, whether rural deanery, monastic house, priory, or college (Reg. Warham, II, ff. 285v.–286), except the college at Eton which paid only 40s. (Ibid., f. 286). Likewise the sum of 66s. 8d. was consistently taken in Warham's visitation of the diocese of Lincoln sede vacante in 1520–1 (Reg. Warham, II, ff. 289v.–291) and of Salisbury sede vacante (Reg. Warham, II, f. 310). The sum of 53s. 4d. was received from each of eighty named churches except two in the course of the visitation of Hereford sede vacante in 1516: Reg. Warham, II, f. 271 v. The enduring nature of the sums taken by way of procuration is apparent from the eighteenth century account books of the bishop of Exeter's visitations, e.g. that of 1724, Devon Record Office MS Chanter 221. Most common is the sum of 6s. 8d., but with numerous exceptions, e.g. East Budleigh rated at 10s. (penultimate fo., v.). For this parish, see also: Valor Ecclesiaslicus (see n. 113, infra), II, 310; Archdeacon of Exeter v. Green [1913] P 21.Google Scholar
112 First Fruits and Tenths Act, 1534, s. 10.
113 This is evident throughout the Valor Ecclesiasticus Temp. Henr. VIII. Auctoritate Regia (Record Commission, London, ed. 1810–34). which was a survey of ecclesiastical revenues compiled to put the provisions of the above act into effect.
114 Payment of Pensions and Portions Act, 1543.
115 (R. v. Sir Ambrose Forth)(1604) Davis 1.
116 Suppression of Religious Houses Act. 1539.
117 ss. 15. 17.
118 Sub nom. Capell v. Aprice (1511) Moo. K.B. 1.
119 [1913] P. 21.
120 Godolphin, Repertorium, p. 69; Gibson. Codex, II, 976.
121 Gibson, Codex, II, 1546.
122 (1680) Raym. Sir T.
123 (1721) 1 P. Wms. 657.
124 Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction Measure 1963, s. 83(3).