LECTURE II.
[84] The Historiola and the Canon both call Godfrey simply "Teutonicus;" but it appears from the Continuator of Florence of Worcester (ii. 78) and from the Annals of Waverley (Ann. Mon. ii. 219) that he was Chancellor to Queen Adeliza. We can hardly doubt that he was one of her countrymen from the Netherlands.
[85] This account of him is given both by the Historiola and by the Canon (Angl. Sacr. i. 561), who gives as a reason for his mission to Glastonbury, "eo quod non recte eorum aratra incedebant." His birth comes from the Continuator of Florence (ii. 95), who says that he was "Flandrensis genere, sed natus in partibus Angliæ."
[86] Historiola, p. 25.
[87] See the agreement in Wharton's note, Anglia Sacra, i. 561.
[88] The Act is printed in the Monasticon, ii. 293.
[89] Historiola, p. 24: "Ipse ecclesiam Beati Petri Apostoli de Bathoniâ magnis c[=u] expensis construi fecit."
[90] Angl. Sacr. i. 561: "Complevit fabricam ecclesiæ Bathoniensis per Johannem Turonensem inchoatam." This seems to be confirmed by the words of John himself in the charter which I have already quoted (Monasticon, ii. 268), which is dated in 1116, and where he says that he sets aside the revenues of the city of Bath "ad perficiendum novum opus quod incepi."
[91] Historiola, p. 24: "Capitulum quoque et claustrum, dormitorium et refectorium et infirmatorium, nihilominus ædificari fecit."
[92] Historiola, p. 24. See above, p. 39.
[93] The Historiola (p. 25) mentions only the Deanery and Precentorship as founded by Robert. "Decanatum in ecclesiâ constituit, et Decanum et Præcentorem primos ordinavit." But the Canon (p. 561) says, "Ordinavit etiam in ecclesiâ Wellensi Decanum et Subdecanum, Præcentorem et Succentorem, Thesaurarium et Cancellarium, quem vocavit Archiscolam in statutis ecclesiæ Wellensis, quæ ipse primus edidit omnium in eâdem." (Robert, the first to make the Chapter a distinct corporation, was naturally its first lawgiver.) He adds, "Tum Decanus, Subdecanus, etc. non habebant tunc temporis illa beneficia eis annexa, quæ eorum successores nunc habent in ecclesiâ antedictâ." But in the deed by which Bishop Robert founds the Deanery and divides the estates of the church into prebends (Monasticon, ii. 293), no dignitary is mentioned except the Dean and Precentor; and the church of Wookey, which afterwards belonged to the Sub-Dean, is specially mentioned as belonging to the Dean. This certainly looks as if Robert had founded the Deanery and Precentorship only. But, if they were not founded by Robert, they were founded by Jocelin, for the Canon says (564), "Jocelinus fundavit multas præbendas in ecclesiâ Wellensi de novo, dotavit etiam omnes dignitates, personatus, et officia dictæ ecclesiæ, in formâ adhuc durante."
The duties of the different officers of the church cannot be better described than they are by Bishop Godwin (p. 294): "He also it was that first constituted a Deane to be the President of the Chapter, and a Subdeane to supply his place in absence; a Chaunter to governe the quier, and a Subchaunter under him; a Chauncellour to instruct the yoonger sort of Cannons: and lastly a Treasurer to looke to the ornaments of the church." He adds, "The Subchauntership togither with the Provostship an. 1547. were taken away and suppressed by Act of Parliament, to patch up a Deanry, the lands and revenewes of the Deanry being devoured by sacrilegious cormorants."
[94] He did what he did "consilio et auxilio illustris Regis Stephani et venerabilis Episcopi Henrici," says the Historiola, p. 24.
[95] That is, in the churches of Bangor and Saint Asaph, and now in those of Saint David's and Llandaff. But, till the late changes, there were no Deans at Saint David's and Llandaff, beyond a vague tradition that the Bishop was Dean. At Saint David's the Precentor was President of the Chapter and at Llandaff the Archdeacon. The collegiate church of Southwell had no Dean or President under any title.
[96] A sinecure is strictly an office sine curâ animarum, without cure of souls, not necessarily an office where there is nothing to do of any kind.
[97] See the quotation in note 10.
[98] I here alluded to the Theological College, where the offices of Principal and Vice-Principal are held by the Sub-Dean of the cathedral and another Canon, who are therefore really resident, but who are not admitted to any share in those rights and revenues which go to those nominal Residentiaries who stay away nine months in the year.
[99] Beneficium is the word constantly used for a lay fief as well as for an ecclesiastical living. The most curious instance of this use will be found in the dispute between Pope Hadrian the Fourth and the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The Pope speaks of his coronation of the Emperor as a "beneficium" conferred on him. The German Bishops were very indignant, as if the Pope meant that the Empire was a fief of the Papacy. The Pope then explains that "beneficium" means both benefit and benefice. He thought that he had done the Emperor a benefit by crowning him, but he did not pretend to invest him with a benefice. See the History of Frederick by Otto (continued by Radevic) of Freisingen, ii. 15, 16, 22. Most likely the Pope used an ambiguous word on purpose.
[100] Compare the account in the Historiola, p. 24, with Robert's charter quoted above.
[101] See the Historiola, pp. 26, 27. The story begins in a marked way. "Quum ... deinceps, glorioso Rege Stephano decedente, Rex præpotens Henricus secundus regni gubernacula suscepisset."
[102] Domesday Book and the Codex Diplomaticus are full of such cases.
[103] His words (Monasticon, ii. 293) are: "Quum igitur ecclesiam Wellensem indebitis præposituræ oppressionibus supra modum afflictam invenimus et gravatam, communicato consilio archiepiscoporum, episcoporum, aliarumque religiosarum Angliæ personarum, exigentibus quoque ejusdem ecclesiæ canonicis, Decanum illic ordinavimus, concessis sibi dignitatibus, libertatibus, et consuetudinibus canonicis ecclesiarum Angliæ bene ordinatarum, et ne in eâdem ecclesiâ pristina tribulatio locum denuo vendicaret, possessiones et prædia quæ ad eam fidelium sunt donatione devoluta in præbendas taliter distribuimus."
"Rogerus Witene," who must, one would think, have been one of the same stock, appears in the Exeter Domesday, p. 75, as a tenant of the Church of Glastonbury.
[104] See the letter of Bishop Rowland Lee to Lord Cromwell in the Monasticon, iii. 199. He prays that it might be "browghte to a college churche as Liche [Lichfield]."
[105] On this point, and on other points touching the relations of Bishops and Chapters, there was much disputing between Robert Grosseteste, the great Bishop of Lincoln, contemporary with our Jocelin, and his Canons. See on the Chapter's side, Matthew Paris, pp. 485, 522, 572; and, on the other, Robert's own letter to his Chapter in Mr. Luard's collection of his Letters, p. 357.
[106] The words of the Historiola, p. 24, are, "Porro non est oblivioni tradendum quod ecclesia Welliæ suo consilio fabricata est et auxilio." The Canon (561) says only, "Multas ruinas ejusdem ecclesiæ destructiones ejus in locis pluribus comminantes egregie reparavit."
[107] "Ecclesiam sedis meæ perspiciens esse mediocrem," he says in the Historiola, p. 16.
[108] The consecration and the presence of the three Bishops is mentioned both in the Historiola and by the Canon.
[109] William of Malmesbury, writing not very long before Robert's time, says of the church of Eadward at Westminster (ii. 228), "Quam ipse illo compositionis genere primus in Angliâ ædificaverat quod nunc pene cuncti sumptuosis æmulantur expensis." Matthew Paris (2), evidently copying this, alters the tense, because in his day another style of architecture had come in. His words are, "Quam ipse novo compositionis genere construxerat, a quâ post multi ecclesias construentes, exemplum adepti, opus illud expensis æmulabantur sumptuosis."
[110] The Canon of Wells (Angl. Sacr. i. 562) says of him, "Multas præbendas in ecclesiâ Wellensi fundavit de novo, multaque alia bona fecit tam Bathoniensi quam Wellensi ecclesiis." He mentions also his gift of the manor of North Curry and other lands to the Chapter, and speaks of him as granting the first municipal rights to the citizens of Wells, a point which I must leave to Mr. Serel.
[111] See Mr. Stubbs' account of Savaric in the Gentleman's Magazine for November 1863, p. 621, and Mr. Green's notice in the Transactions of the Somersetshire Archæological and Natural History Society for 1863, p. 39.
[112] The whole history is given at length by Adam of Domersham, a monk of Glastonbury, in Anglia Sacra, i. 578.
[113] See Anglia Sacra, i. 579. The Dean was Alexander, the third Dean.
[114] See the disputes about the "advocatio" or "patronatus" of the Abbey in Anglia Sacra, i. 584, and the correspondence between Bishop Beckington and Abbot Frome, translated by Mr. George Williams in the Somersetshire Proceedings, 1863, p. 17. On the terms of the composition see pp. 564, 585.
[115] See Roger of Wendover, iii. 222.
[116] Anglia Sacra, i. 564. "Capellas etiam cum cameris de Welles et Woky notabiliter construxit." In the Palace at Wells, Jocelin's chapel has been reconstructed, and many buildings added by later Bishops, but the greater part of the house is still his. In Wookey Court, now a farmhouse and alienated from the see, only a single doorway, probably that of the chapel, remains of Jocelin's work, but it is in exactly the same style as the Palace and the West Front of the Cathedral.
[117] See Matthew Paris, p. 756, ed. Wats. He describes the earthquake as happening four days before Christmas, and says that he had the account of what happened at Wells from the Bishop himself. This must be William Button the First, who however could not have been at Wells at the time, as he was consecrated at Rome on June 14 in that year and did not come back to England till the next year. His account of the damage at Wells stands thus, "Tholus quoque lapideus magnæ quantitatis et ponderis, qui per diligentiam cæmentariorum in summitate ecclesiæ de Welles ponebatur, raptus de loco suo, non sine damno, super ecclesiam cecidit, et quum ab alto ruerit, tumultum reddens horribilem audientibus timorem incussit non minimum. In quo etiam terræ motu hoc accidit mirabile; caminorum, propugnaculorum, et columnarum capitella et summitates motæ sunt, bases vero et fundamenta nequaquam, quum contrarium naturaliter debuit evenire." Yet in the repairs of the nave of Wells, a greater change seems to have been made in the bases of the pillars than in their capitals.
[118] Matthew Paris gives the list, p. 522, Abingdon, Wells, Evesham, Gloucester, Tewkesbury, Winchcomb (?), Pershore, Alcester, "et multæ aliæ per regnum Angliæ."
[119] These were various works in the church and dormitory, done in the time of Abbot William, 1214-1235. Matthew Paris, in the Gesta Abbatum (i. 280), after describing them, adds, "Quippe ista conquæstu et industriâ Ricardi de Thidenhangaer, monachi nostri conversi ac camerarii, sine obedientiæ suæ defectu vel diminutione, sunt perfecta: quæ tamen Abbati ob reverentiam sunt adscribenda. Ille enim facit, cujus auctoritate quippiam fieri dinoscitur."
[120] In the Historia Monasterii S. Petri Gloucestriæ (i. 29) we read, "Et anno Domini MCCXLII. completa est nova volta in navi ecclesiæ, non auxilio fabrorum ut primo, sed animosâ virtute monachorum item in ipso loco exsistentiam."
[121] See especially Gervase's account of the architects employed at Canterbury, William of Sens and William the Englishman; Willis, 35, 51.
[122] Mr. Serel gives me a reference to the Close Rolls of Henry the Third, October 3, 1225, in which "the King grants to the Bishop of Bath five marks towards the works in the church of Wells, the same payment to be continued for the eleven following years according to the King's gift."
[123] The extract is given in the Monasticon, ii. 278. It consists of a series of regulations touching the keeping open and shut of various doors. The door of which I speak is described as "magnum ostium ecclesiæ sub campanili versus claustrum." This must mean the door in the transept, under the great central tower, rather than the door opening into the cloister from the south-western tower. But the existence of the cloister is proved by the mention of either, and it is equally odd to call either of them "magnum ostium ecclesiæ."
Another doorway in the cloister is also spoken of in the same document; "Ostium versus capellam Beatæ Virginis in claustro propter cameram necessariam." This door, I imagine, may still be traced in the east walk of the cloister, near the remains of the Lady chapel in the cloister. This chapel must be carefully distinguished from the Lady chapel at the east end of the church. Mention is also made of "duo ostia de la Karole, ex utrâque parte chori," one of which is further described as "ostium de la Karole versus librariam." The word Karole or Carel has several meanings; but it generally implies a small recess or chamber of some kind. Were the books kept in one of the transepts?
Another mention of the Lady chapel in the cloister is found in Anglia Sacra, i. 566, when Bishop William Button the First, who died in 1264, is said to have buried "in novâ capellâ B. Mariæ Virginis." On this Professor Willis (Somersetshire Proceedings, 1863, p. 21) remarks: "As his chantry was in the 'Capella B. Virginis infra claustrum' (Liber B, p. 62), the above passage does not apply to any Lady chapel at the east of the cathedral, but to the building of the other Lady chapel, which was in the east walk of the cloister in the position usually given to a chapter-house." By "usually" the Professor must mean in monastic foundations. "Liber B" is one of the books in possession of the Chapter.
[124] See the extract in note 10.
[125] The whole passage (pp. 65, 66) is most remarkable. The writer is inveighing against Hugh, Bishop of Chester (or Lichfield), who had removed the monks from the church of Coventry, and put in secular canons. "Ædificaverant certatim etiam absentes canonici circa ecclesiam ampla et excelsa diversoria, ad usus forte proprios, si vel semel in vitâ locum visitandi caussam casus offerret. Nullus ibi ex præbendariis, sicut nec alibi faciunt, religiose resedit, sed pauperibus vicariis ad insultandum Deo modicâ mercede conductis, pro foribus palatiorum facientes magnalia, sanctum eis chorum victosque Penates et nudos ecclesiæ parietes crediderunt. Hæc est vere vera religio, hanc omnis imitari et æmulari deberet ecclesia. Canonico sæculari ab ecclesiâ suâ, quamdiu libuerit, licebit abesse, et patrimonium Christi ubi, et quando, et in quascumque voluerit voluptates absumere. Id tantum provideant, ut audiatur vociferatio frequens in domo Domini. Si ad fores talium pulsaverit advena, si pauper clamaverit, respondebit qui pro foribus habitat, (et ipse satis pauper vicarius,) 'Transite, et alibi alimoniam quærite, quia dominus domûs domi non est.' Hæc est illa gloriosa clericorum religio, cujus gratiâ Cestrensis episcopus monachos suos de Coventreiâ expulit, primus hominum tantum nefas ausus admittere. Caussâ clericorum irregulariter regularium, scilicet canonicorum, ad placitum monachos eliminavit; monachos, qui non vicario, sed ore proprio laudabant Dominum, qui habitabant et ambulabant in domo Domini cum consensu omnibus diebus vitæ suæ, qui præter victum et vestitum nihil terrenum noverant, quorum panis semper præsto fuit pauperi, quorum porta cuilibet viatori quolibet tempore patuit: nec tamen taliter placuerunt episcopo, qui numquam dilexit monachos vel monachatum."
[126] The account is given by William Fitz-Stephen, Giles, i. 257. The officiating priest is described as "quidam vicarius, Vitalis nomine, homo timoratus et honestus sacerdos." Berengar, the Archbishop's emissary, addresses him, "Non est his hujus sedis Episcopus, sed neque Decanus: video te hic ministrum Jesu Christi."
[127] Angl. Sac. i. 564: "Vicarios in ecclesiâ singulis Præbendariis ordinavit, tribus exceptis quibus non provisit morte præventus."
Mr. Haddan, in the new collection of Councils and Ecclesiastical Documents (i. 393), prints an account of the Church of Llandaff, 1193-1218. Bishop Henry of Abergavenny founded fourteen prebends, the duties of eight of which were to be discharged ("defungi debent") by Priest Vicars ("Vicarii Sacerdotes"), four by Deacons, and two by Subdeacons. The fourteen Vicars have now dwindled to two.
[128] Ang. Sacr. i. 563. "Hic erexit ecclesias parochiales de Ilmestre et Longe-Sutton in præbendas ecclesiæ Wellensis; quarum primam Abbati de Muchelney, secundam Abbati de Athelney et eorum successoribus contulit in perpetuam possidendas." These prebends no longer exist, having vanished along with the monasteries by whose Abbots they were held.
[129] This most important statute is printed in the Monasticon, ii. pp. 291, 292. Its date is 1242, the thirty-seventh year of Jocelin's episcopate. He records what he had done for the fabric of the church, which he found dangerous by reason of age ("periculum ruinæ patiebatur pro suâ vetustate." See above, p. 67). He had built, enlarged, and consecrated it ("ædificare cœpimus et ampliare, in quâ ... adeo profecimus, quod ipsam ... consecravimus"). Then he goes on to say that the common ("communa") revenues of the ministers of the church had hitherto been scanty ("tenuis et insufficiens"), and that he had done much to enlarge it. It would seem then that the greater part of the estates of the church had been cut up into separate prebends, and that, before Jocelin's gift, the Chapter as a body kept but little. He then recites the consent of the Dean and Chapter to his ordinance in words which mark a very different relation between the Bishop and his Chapter from what had been in the days of Gisa and John of Tours. The change is made "consensu Johannis Sarraceni, Decani, et Capituli nostri Wellensis, qui pure et simpliciter et absolute, de merâ et spontaneâ voluntate suâ, nostræ super hoc se supposuerunt ordinationi et statuto." Then come the rules by which the Bishop, the Dean and the other dignitaries, the other Canons, and the Vicars, were on each day of residence to receive certain sums of money. They had hitherto received their daily portion, partly in money, partly in bread. The amount was now raised, and it was paid wholly in money. The Bishop had thirteen pence, the Dean and other dignitaries twelve pence, each simple Canon sixpence, each Vicar a penny, for each day of residence. At the end of the year the overplus was to be divided among those Canons who had kept the prescribed residence, which is thus defined: "Residentes autem interpretamur quoad participationem residui in fine anni omnes illos Canonicos qui per medium annum, sive continue sive interpolatim, fecerint in villam [sic] residentiam, præter Decanum, Præcentorem, Cancellarium, et Thesaurarium, quos interpretamur residentes si per duas partes anni fecerint residentiam sive continue sive interpolatim."
Each Canon had thus three available sources of income, his own prebend, the daily distribution, and the distribution at the end of the year. The first was irrespective of residence, the latter two depended on residence.
[130] I have to thank Mr. Serel for a manuscript extract containing some details of this strange practice, as it stood at Wells. In the fourteenth century the custom was that each Canon, at the beginning of his residence, should feast the Bishop, Dean, Canons, Vicars, and all other officers of the church ("quoscumque alios dictæ ecclesiæ ministros"), at a cost which often reached two hundred marks (133l. 6s. 8d.), or even a hundred and fifty pounds; sums which, at the then value of money, must have been enormous, and which contrast strikingly with the pence and loaves of the older daily distribution. In a bull of Pope Boniface the Ninth, in the year 1400, this custom is condemned; it is pronounced to be "consuetudo quæ corruptela potius est dicenda," and he speaks of the cost as "inutiles sumptus ac expensæ." Instead of this waste upon eating and drinking, each simple Canon, on his admission to residence, is to pay a hundred marks, and each dignitary a hundred and fifty, to the maintenance of the fabric, and the support of the other burthens of the church ("in subsidium sustentationis fabricæ et relevamen supportationis aliorum onerum"). This was a very heavy tax, and might hinder many from residing; still, at least, the money went to a good end. This was presently so interpreted that the Dean and Residentiaries gave out of each sum so paid ten marks to the fabric, ten to the Vicars, and divided the rest among themselves. This practice was confirmed by a second bull of Pope Nicolas the Fifth, in 1433; and these regulations were confirmed by Henry the Eighth in 1539, at the advice of Lord Cromwell, who, it is not to be forgotten, would, as Dean (see p. 148), receive a share of the spoil.
Notwithstanding the commutation of the burthen from a feast to a fixed sum of money, it appears that it again became usual, "not only to pay these sums of money upon admission to a Canonry [that is, on admission to residence], but also to make a prodigious entertainment for the Bishop, Dean and Chapter [meaning the Dean and Residentiaries], the Prebendaries in town, Vicars, Proctors of the Court, and Officers of the church, and their wives, and also for the Mayor and Corporation, and other principal inhabitants of the Liberty and City."
The Canons' and Vicars' wives were certainly not contemplated either by Pope Boniface or by King Harry.
[131] This and all other points in the constitution of the Chapter of Saint David's has been treated of by Archdeacon Jones, in our History of Saint David's, p. 310, et seqq. The Saint David's history is throughout worth comparing with the Wells' history.
[132] In the Charter of Elizabeth, of which I shall have to speak again, each of eight Residentiaries is required to reside three months in the year; and, if a Dignitary, four. This arrangement would always give two Canons at least in residence at once.
[133] The round, rather than polygonal, chapter-house at Worcester, where the style is still Romanesque, is probably the earliest example, and that at Howden the latest. Lincoln, Westminster, Salisbury, Lichfield, and Margam, are also examples. The earlier and later chapter-houses, as at Canterbury, Durham, Bristol, and Exeter, are oblong, sometimes with an apsidal end.
[134] The grandest example of these undercrofts that I know of is under the dormitory of Battle Abbey. The arrangements of the church were ruled by the position of the high altar, which marked the site of the English standard. The result was that the dormitory was driven over the side of the hill, and had therefore to be supported by an undercroft, which at the extreme southern end rises to a prodigious height.
The undercroft of the Wells chapter-house is no more a crypt than the undercroft of the palace, or than the chapter-house at Llandaff, which simply consists of four bays of vaulting, with a central pillar, just like many undercrofts of this kind.
The undercroft of the palace at Wells has its parallel at an earlier time in the magnificent example of Romanesque date in the Bishop's palace at Angers.
[135] I must here quote Professor Willis, as reported in the Bristol Volume, p. xxviii. "The first thing to be noticed is under date 1286, when a Chapter was called together, and there was laid before them the urgent necessity which appeared from the state of the church, not only that the new structure, which had been a long time begun, should be finished, but that the whole fabric might be repaired and sustained, and such new constructions as were requisite be carried out. In 1286, however, comparing the probable date of the building which I suppose to be called the new structure, it can only be the chapter-house; and the lower part of it, commonly called the crypt, was, as I conclude, then completed.... The structure of the chapter-house consists of two parts, and it is quite evident that the crypt was separated from the upper part by a very considerable interval. I conceive, therefore, that in 1286 the portion of the chapter-house called the crypt was completed." In the Somersetshire Transactions, xii. 19, the Professor adds that "it was agreed that each Canon should pay a tenth of his prebend yearly for five years."
Bishop Godwin says (p. 300) of Bishop William of March, "In this mans time [1293-1302] the chapter-house was built, by the contribution of well-disposed people; a stately and sumptuous worke." Godwin wrote, I suppose, from local tradition, as there is nothing like it in the Canon's history in Anglia Sacra. His date quite falls in with the Professor's extracts.
[136] The Early English fragments which have been built up in the chapel in the Vicars' Close, as well as those which are lying about in the undercroft of the chapter-house, can hardly fail to belong to the destroyed east end. Yet the fragments in the Vicars' chapel agree rather with the style of the west front than with that of the other parts of the church; and they agree with the fragments built into the rectory-house at Wookey (now called, without any reason, Mellifont Abbey), which can hardly fail to have been parts of Jocelin's house there. The fragments in the undercroft have the tooth-moulding, which, I think, is not found anywhere else in the church, though it is in the undercroft of the chapter-house.
As for the actual form of the east end, it is plain that it was not an apse, nor yet a square east end of the full height, like York, Ely, and Southwell. It will be seen on the ground-plan that the aisles of Jocelin's work run a bay to the east of the site of his high altar. This shows that there was a procession-path and most likely a chapel beyond it on the site of the present presbytery, though it is possible that it ended in a mere retrochoir, like that at Abbey Dore, or that carried round the northern apse at Peterborough.
[137] The church of Glastonbury is, I need not say, of far more ancient foundation than that of Wells; it was its junior simply as a cathedral church. Bath is immeasurably older than Wells as a city, and as a church also, if we accept the foundation of Osric in 676. Even the foundation of Offa in 775 comes before Wells had gained any importance. See Monasticon, ii. 256, though it is hard to understand how a monastery could be destroyed by Danes before the time of Offa.
[138] Angl. Sacra, i. 564. "Hic sibi similem anteriorem non habuit, nec hucusque visus est habere sequentem."
[139] Ib. "Tandem defunctus, in medio chori Welliæ honorifice sepelitur." Godwin adds, "He was buried in the middle of the Quier that he had built, under a Marble tombe of late yeeres monsterously defaced."