medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you, Jon. This is all useful. Yes, I do know Jo Mattingly, who has
been very helpful; as has Nicholas Orme.
Glasney has indeed been much researched, and at least one of its provosts
(James Gentle) was the local agent for the Dean of St Buryan (Gentle was also
Vicar of St. Uny, Lelant, which is nearby). And I have read JH Denton on the
Royal Free Chapels: as he makes clear, Buryan was the odd one out, in that
the Crown's claim to it was late and bogus, but through force majeure it
triumphed over the claims of the Bishops of Exeter. Nor does Buryan appear to
have done particularly well out of the arrangement, probably because its Deans
never visited (or once in four hundred years or so) and the income, though
welcome, was not huge and the place not in itself wealthy enough to be worth the
effort to someone with more important things on his mind. If King's College
Cambridge had owned it for longer (as they did between 1450 and 1460), as
great and experienced estate owners, they might have ploughed more back into
the parishes.
The distinction between the prebendaries (who with the Dean were "almost
nether ther") and the canons is puzzling. I would have expected them to be one
and the same, but there are references to the latter living around the church
(all traces of those houses have gone, unless the old King's Arms, now a
B&B, is a survivor; I think it was the church-house), and there were for
example three chaplains there in 1546, when the Chantry Commissioners came by (they
do not mention canons). That is, the chaplains seem to be the canons, for
some purposes. I have not discussed the canon/chaplain muddle in what I have
written because I do not expect most purchasers of the history to be very
interested. I am, however, and would like to get to the bottom of it some day.
After the suppression of the chantry &c, the chantry priest, the
prebendaries and the Dean were pensioned off (the Dean re-emerged a few decades later)
but the chaplains stayed on, one for each parish. This was meant to be until
vicars were appointed, but at some point the Crown reasserted its rights, and
the Deanery lumbered on until 1864 (with a break during the Commonwealth).
What is intriguing, amongst much else, is how tenacious the Crown (or the
Duke of Cornwall when there was one) was of this minor holding, even after its
lands were sold off (in 1548 or so). Or perhaps what surprise there is
should simply be that they were able to get away with it for so long.
Susan
[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html
|