There were fifty-two prebendaries, whose canopied oak stalls form the most striking feature of the choir of the cathedral. A prebend was sometimes a manor, more frequently a rectory, rarely a sum of money, which formed an endowment for a canon.[379] For the most part the prebendaries were supposed to reside upon their prebends, to maintain Divine service, and a school, and hospitality there. Every prebendary was required to maintain a vicar choral at the cathedral; he himself came into residence for one week in the year, and during that week took the principal position in the cathedral services. On his Sunday of duty he was expected to entertain nineteen of the under officers at dinner, and to receive others at different meals during the week. The dean was required about thirty times a year to give an “honorificus pastus” to all the choir and vicars, “to make life and work more pleasant to them.”[380] One fact is enough to show that the prebendaries of Lincoln were a very distinguished body of men:—of the fifty-two stalls, all but one—some of them more than once—has given a bishop to Lincoln, and from among them every English see has been filled, and many of them twice.
One of the statutory duties of the prebendaries is very little known, and is so curious and interesting as to deserve mention here, even though it requires a few words of preface to make the spirit of it quite intelligible. Among other remarkable designs which entered into pious minds in those mediæval communities was that of maintaining a ceaseless service of praise—laus perennis—or a daily recitation of the whole Psalter. The former was a conventual devotion, and was done in this way: there were always two priests before the altar, night and day, relieved at regular intervals, singing the Psalms. The latter was a cathedral devotion, where it was a rule that the dean and prebendaries as a body should say the whole Psalter every day to the glory of God. The same devotion was maintained at Salisbury, Wells, and St. Paul’s. The task was not a hard one, for the Psalter was divided among them; one prebend said the first, second, third, fourth Psalms, another the fifth, sixth, seventh, and so on; the 119th Psalm was divided between several of them; each made it a matter of conscience to say the Psalms allotted to him; and thus, from the time of Bishop St. Hugh, the prebendaries of Lincoln, wherever they were scattered, were brought together in spirit by this interesting observance, and said the whole Psalter daily to the glory of God. It will perhaps surprise some of our readers to learn that they keep up the observance to this day.[381]
We shall not trouble the reader with more than a few notes on the value of the fifty-two prebends. Some of them were very valuable, e.g. Leighton Manor, Leighton Buzzard, Cropredy, and Sutton, each brought in to their fortunate holders £40, but the majority were between £5 and £10. There are several noticeable ones—the Prebend Sexaginta Solidorum, and the Prebend Centum Solidorum, and the Prebend Decem Librarum, i.e. the prebends of Sixty Shillings, a Hundred Shillings, and Ten Pounds. The custos of St. Peter’s altar received for commons and wine[382] as a canon £20 a year.
Some of these prebends, as we have seen, were held by the dignitaries; some, as we shall presently see, by the archdeacons. Some of them afforded a comfortable maintenance alone. It is to be hoped that the holders of others—especially of one whose value is returned as “nihil”—had other benefices to help out their incomes. They were not by any means all given to priests in the diocese. A prebend was a very comfortable benefice, which might be held by anybody, and they were given to all sorts of people; e.g. two of them seem to have been held by the Dean and Precentor of Chichester.[383]
To assist the bishop in the spiritual oversight of this vast diocese, which embraced 8 counties, and extended from the Humber to the Thames, the bishop had 8 archdeacons, whose incomes and the sources of them are reported in the “Valor.”[384]
The Archdeacon of Lincoln received for procurations, £171 17s. 10d., for synodals at Pentecost, £29 14s. 3d., and at Michaelmas, £16 14s. 3d., and pensions, £5 17s., making a total of £234 2s. 4d. But out of that he had to pay the Prebendary of Ten Pounds £10, and 50s. to the Prebendary of Carleton, to his Receiver-General £8 13s. 4d., and 58s. to the three vergers of the Cathedral, leaving him a net income from this source of £179 19s. Archdeacon Richard Pate was also Prebendary of Sutton and Buckingham, from which he received £110 3s. 6d.; he was also Rector of Kybworth, which was worth £39 14s. 11d.; so that his total income was £329 17s. 5d.
The Archdeaconry of Stow was worth £24 2s. 8½d., and Archdeacon Darley does not appear to have held other preferment, at least in Lincoln Diocese.
The Archdeaconry of Huntingdon was worth £57 4s. 2d., and Archdeacon Knight was also Prebendary of Farundon, worth £30 11s. 2d.
The Archdeaconry of Bedford was worth £57 2s. 3d., and Dr. Chamber the Archdeacon was Prebendary of Leighton Buzzard, worth £40, Rector of Leighton, worth £6 17s. 7¼d., and of Bowden Magna, worth £53 8s. 10½d.