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.