medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Dear Cate
I think there are two issues here:
1) religious houses appropriating rectories and thus becoming the 'rectors'
and gaining the rectorial income, while appointing 'vicars' (usually
non-religious priests) to serve the cure of souls. I think it is probably
this that Grosseteste was objecting to. Incidentally, after the Dissolution
in England, when lay people bought or were given the estates of religious
houses, some of the rights came with them and that is why we have(had) the
'lay impropriators' that I didn't understand when studying early modern
history - no doubt Gordon could pick me up on this one.
2) religious men serving cures themselves. I think you are correct that
this was increasing in England in the fifteenth century. I think Martin
Heale (Liverpool U) may have done some work on this. Do you know him?
As it happens, I have been re-reading my thesis on Bishop Alnwick (Norwich
1426-37, Lincoln 1437-49) and found the following (pp 274-6):
Among religious seeking licences from the bishop was Brother Richard Burgh,
canon of Thornham, who was granted leave in March 1442 to celebrate an
annual for the dead, in his priory. Eighteen months later he was licensed
to absent himself from the priory for three years and celebrate an annual in
the archdeaconries of Lincoln and Stow [Alnwick Lincoln Ref, ff 53v, 76v]
Canon Burgh was, perhaps, in danger of losing his religious identity, as
were those many <might have been overstating it here!> religious who served
the cure of souls in Bishop Alnwick's dioceses. Altogether, 36 religious
are known to have received benefices in the two dioceses <in this 25 year
period>. the 19 instituted in the Norwich diocese included 15 Augustinian
canons and one Premonstratensian canon. [The order of two is not known
(Alnwick Norwich Reg, ff 6, 17v, 23, 27v, 33, 42v, 45, 54, 56, 58v, 60,
61-2, 64v, 66, 68v, 70v, 87, 90, 94v)] the most unusual case was perhaps
that of Robert Aldeby, abbot of the Cistercian Sibton Abbey, who was
presented by his own house to a vicarage in 1427 on the strength of a papal
licence [ibid f 23]. the 17 men instituted in the diocese of Lincoln
included 3 Gilbertine, 5 Austin and 2 Premonstratensian canons, 5 friars
(one graduate Franciscan, 2 Austin, one Dominican and one unknown) and two
of unknown obedience. [Alnwick Lincoln Reg, ff 37, 44v, 87, 87v, 97v, 98,
101v, 102, 105v-6, 113, 115, 139v, 152, 157v, 159v, 182v, 183, 183v, 185v,
187, 189] again, the most surprising figures, the friars, had apostolic
licences to hold benefices. [ibid, ff 113, 139v, 157v]
Some of these benefices, such as the parish church of Ingham, were clearly
very close to the house and so could be served without too much damage to
religious life. In other cases, the institution to a benefice may have
removed a troublesome brother from the house. [Robert Felbrigg, who had
resigned as abbot of North Creake, was presented by his house to the parish
church of St Andrew's Ringstead 31 December 1430 (Alnwick Norwich Reg, f
94v] On 7 occasions, Alnwick himself collated the benefices, in all cases
because of lapse of time. it may be that the poverty of benefices prevented
their supporting a secular priest, making it necessary to provide a curate
with some other means of support, as those belonging to religious houses
would have had. [Alnwick Norwich Reg, ff 54, 56, 64v,; Linc Reg ff 87v, 187]
Nevertheless, 24 May 1444, Alnwick indicated he was not always content to
allow religious to serve cures, by instructing Henry Sutton, abbot of
Wellow, to remove John Alesby from Clee church and replace him with a
secular vicar within 20 days. [Linc Reg, f 44v. Alesby had complained of
being forced to serve the vicarage during Alnwick's visitation in 1440
(visitations, II, 392), so perhaps the bishop's sense of urgency was less
than it appeared]
Just to put this in perspective, if my figures are to be believed, during
his episcopates, Alnwick instituted on 1031 occasions in the Norwich diocese
and on 1400 occasions in the Lincoln diocese and instituted religious
priests on only 19 and 17 occasions respectively. So it was still a
relatively rare occurrence, particularly among the true monks like yours.
Hope this is some help.
Best wishes,
Rosemary
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cate Gunn" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, April 13, 2015 5:35 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] monk as rector
medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Thank you everyone - this is all very interesting. I was beginning to
suspect that the use of monks as parish priests became more common in the
later middle ages, but Nesli’s evidence contradicts this. If you could let
me have the reference for Grosseteste I would be very grateful.
thanks again
Cate
Cate Gunn
[log in to unmask]
> On 13 Apr 2015, at 17:27, Neslihan Senocak <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> Hi,
>
> I am writing a book on the care of souls in medieval Italy with a separate
> chapter dedicated to monks. In fact, the purpose of that chapter is to
> reveal the extent to which monks had patronage rights over parochial
> churches and often assigned one of their own to these churches as rector.
> This is a time-honored tradition for most of the Middle Ages, but from
> 12th century onwards, there is an increasing opposition from bishops like
> Burchard of Worms or Robert Grosseteste against monks presenting clergy to
> churches (since that means diminished number of benefices subject to
> episcopal control) or actively working as parish priests (there are also
> theological disputes claiming that monks belong to the cloister and cannot
> do parish ministry, though of course hardly anyone objected to monks being
> bishops or popes, which are also pastoral positions. ) There are clauses
> against monks serving as parish priests in Gratian's Decretum. Since many
> big monasteries in Italy (and in England) had papal privileges for
> exemption from episcopal control, and confirmations of rights they
> acquired --often for the patronage of churches on the monastic lands--
> during their foundation or with later land donations, they nevertheless
> did remain in charge of parish churches in the face of the episcopal
> objections.
>
> I am not familiar with the particular case of the Colne priory, but it is
> not at all uncommon. If there is any charters containing its privileges at
> the foundation, that might contain relevant information.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nesli
> Neslihan Senocak
> Associate Professor of History (Medieval Europe)
> Columbia University
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 13, 2015, at 9:41 AM, Cate Gunn <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>> Dear colleagues
>>
>> my local church (Colne Engaine in north Essex) had as Rector in 1497 a
>> monk of Colne priory, a daughter house of the Benedictine abbey of
>> Abingdon founded by an earl of Oxford who owned land in this area. This
>> monk Rector was dispensed to hold a second benefice or office (this is
>> from the Victoria County History for Essex, the relevant information
>> taken from Cal. Papal Reg).
>> How common was it for Benedictine monks to hold benefices and,
>> presumably, carry out parochial duties?
>> I’ve assumed that Augustinian canons took on such duties and generally
>> were involved in pastoral care (and if anyone knows anything specific
>> about the pastoral duties of canons of the priory of Holy Trinity at
>> Aldgate, London, please let me know!) but didn’t realise this was the
>> case for monks.
>>
>> many thanks in advance for your knowledge and advice
>> Cate
>>
>>
>> Cate Gunn
>> [log in to unmask]
>>
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