A.D. MCCCXXX. SUPPOSED CONSTITUTIONS OF ARCHBISHOP MEPHAM. SIR H. Spelman, p. 497, has ten constitutions attributed to Simon Mepham, of which a man may justly doubt whether he was any wise concerned with them: they bear no date, and therefore the year which I have prefixed is only to distinguish these from the former: three of them I have translated; because I find them no where else: the six foremost are the constitutions of Archbishop Reynold. 1. The first is the fifth constitution of Reynold. 2. The second is the eighth of Reynold. 3. The third is the ninth and tenth of Reynold. 4. The fourth is the third of Reynold. 5. The fifth is the seventh of Reynold. 6. The sixth is the first of Reynold*. 7. Let no layman pawn or sell the sacred vessels or vestments, either to Jews or Christians; nor let out, infeoff, or otherwise alienate the possessions of the Church; unless urgent necessity and manifest utility require it, and the consent of the diocesan bishop be thereunto given. If any act contrary to this, let him revoke what he has done at his own cost. Let him who thus accepts and detains any ecclesiastical benefices be smitten with sentence of excommunication, and not be absolved till he makes restitution*. • The laymen affected by this canon were probably the patrons of monasteries, or religious houses, and perhaps of parish churches, or such noblemen as had the guardianship of the temporalities of any bishopric or abbey granted them by the king: this was the reason why no sentence is here passed, but barely that of revocation. Archbishops were now grown more modest than in the reign of Henry the Third. [See last note from Wilkins; above, A.D. 1322; and Wilkins, vol. ii. p. 512.] 8. Many presume to build houses on a lay fee not only for their sons and nephews, but even for their concubines, and lay out their ecclesiastical revenues upon them; and so treasure up unto themselves the wrath of God and eternal damnation by hoarding up the goods of the Church for their kindred. We strictly forbid this to be done for the future; and ordain that he or they who do it without licence of the diocesan, be suspended for a year at least from receiving the fruits of their benefice; unless they make satisfaction upon the admonition of the bishop or archdeacon. And let no clerk farm out an ecclesiastical benefice to a layman, nor sell his tithes before they are separated. If any clerk in an allowed case will commit his benefice to another, we ordain that it be committed to such an one who is able and willing to uphold the buildings belonging to the church, and to bear other episcopal and archidiaconal burdens. And let him who accepts of another man's benefice be presented to the archdeacon and chapter of the place, and be fully instituted as general procurator to that benefice for the time there agreed between them*. Procurations, pentecostals, and perhaps pensions. The clergy of the archdeaconry quarterly assembled were the archdeacon's chapter. 9. Part of the thirty-first of Edmund, beginning at, "Farther we strictly forbid," &c. 10. We charge that three or four times in every year, sorcerers, and such as have sworn falsely on holy [books or relics], incendiaries, usurers, atrocious thieves, robbers, falsaries, such as maliciously oppose the execution of reasonable testaments, and detainers of tithes, be solemnly excommunicated in general, and not absolved, nor enjoined penance by any one inferior to a bishop or his vicar-general, except at the point of death, and then let them be enjoined to go to the bishop to receive penance from him or by his authority, if they recover. [This and the preceding constitution are attributed to Archbishop Langton. See Wilkins, vol. i. p. 590. Conc. Oxon., A.D. 1222. c. 29, 30, also p. 596. Stat. legenda in Conc. Oxon."] 66 [Wilkins, A.D. MCCCXXXII. SUPPOSED CONSTITUTIONS OF ARCHBISHOP MEPHAM. THERE are three more and very long constitutions attributed to this archbishop in Sir H. Spelman, p. 500, &c. But, 1. The first is clearly the last of Simon Islip. This is dated from Mayhfield in Sussex, sixteenth calends of August, that of Archbishop Islip the seventeenth of the same calends, this A.D. 1332, that 1362, both of them run in the "thirteenth year of our consecration," whereas Mepham sat not half so long. But their having both the same name (Simon) caused this confusion. 2. The second is the fifth of Archbishop Winchelsey*. 3. The third is the sixth of Archbishop Winchelsey. I have been willing to suppose that these constitutions were several times re-inforced, and so bear the names of the several archbishops who gave them a new sanction; but the fraud or the blunder is so visible in the first of these three, that I can say nothing with probability. * [See above, A.D. 1305, 5; Wilkins, vol. ii. p. 280.] A.D. MCCCXXXVI. SETTLEMENT OF PROCURATIONS. Spelman, p. 503. p. 578.] I JUDGE it seasonable here to intimate to my reader, that LATIN. about the year 1336, Pope Benedict the XIIth. published a [Sir H. bull for the settling of procurations, or a composition in vol. ii. money for them. Sir H. Spelman hath given us a very de- Wilkins, fective corrupted copy of it; that in Extrav. Com. lib. iii. tit. vol. ii. 10+ is more perfect and correct. I have, to avoid prolixity, given my reader a table of such compositions only, as were to be paid to the several visitors, in the several countries subject at that time to the pope, for any religious house that had fewer than twelve persons belonging to it, or for any parochial church. By which the reader will see how disproportionable these compositions were. The sums taxed were the utmost that the visitors were to demand; the visitors are charged to accept less from poor churches, and not to exceed any stated composition already fixed by ancient custom. And it was farther provided by this bull that the charitative subsidies then often demanded by prelates of their clergy, should not exceed that composition for procuration, which was to be paid by the incumbent when the prelate visited by deputies therefore I have set before my reader the sums to be paid to such deputies here in England. The turons were twelve to the floren, as the pope tells us by his bull, and he adds, that he meant the golden floren coined in Florence. I am not sure what this was, but Spelman from Caius informs us that twelve turons made four shillings and four pencet; and this seems to have been the true value of the English floren, till Edward the Third, now ["Constitutio super procurationibus visitantium per Benedictum papam xii. edita circa annum Dom. MCCCXXXV. Ex MS. Cott. Vitellius, A. 2. fol. 95 b, et Extrav. com., lib. iii. cap. de censib. exaction. et procurat."] ↑ [p. 304, ap. Corp. Jur. Can., tom. iii.] [Johnson is here misled by Spelman, who misquotes from Kaye; the words of the latter are, "Turonensis nummi 12. faciebant 3. sol. 4. denarios."-J. Caii Hist. Cantab. Acad., lib. ii. p. 123. ed. London. 1574. Cf. Spelmanni Glossarium, art. Turonensis nummus.] reigning, coined new ones of six shillings value, about the year 1344. But at this rate the archdeacon's full procuration in England would have been 178. 4d. Whereas Lyndwood lays a full procuration at 7s. 6d. in his gloss on constitution the seventh of Stratford, 1342*. The greatest French floren was not above two shillings English; after this computation, the archdeacon's procuration would be 8s. 4d., and supposing the Italian to have been somewhat less than the French, it might make the English sum of 7s. 6d., which was the archdeacon's full procuration in Lyndwood's time. Archdeacons have often more than this. In such cases we must suppose that the personal visitation was continued, till a night and day's entertainment for seven horses and as many men came to the sum now paid by way of composition for the procuration. Where less than 7s. 6d. is paid, which is the more common case, it must be taken as the quota laid upon that church, with two or three others hard by, which might be visited on the same day. *[See below, p. 368, seq., and Lyndwood, Provinciale, p. 224, gl. Solet solvi.] |