York Clergy Ordinations 1400-1424
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York Clergy Ordinations 1400-1424 Edited by David M. Smith 2020 www.york.ac.uk/borthwick archbishopsregisters.york.ac.uk Online images of the Archbishops’ Registers cited in this edition can be found on the York’s Archbishops’ Registers Revealed website. The conservation, imaging and technical development work behind the digitisation project was delivered thanks to funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Register of Archbishop Richard Scrope (1400-1405) Register of Archbishop Henry Bowet 1407-1423 Sede Vacante Register (1423-1424) YORK CLERGY ORDINATIONS 1400-1424 Edited by DAVID M. SMITH 2020 CONTENTS Introduction v Ordinations held 1400-1424 vii Editorial notes xix Abbreviations xxi York Clergy Ordinations 1400-1424 1 Appendix I: Letters Dimissory issued 1400-1424 225 Appendix II Letters of Orders 229 Index of Ordinands 231 Index of Religious 335 Index of Titles 345 Index of Places 361 INTRODUCTION This fourth volume of medieval clerical ordinations at York concludes the lists for the fifteenth century and covers the years 1400 to 1424. It is hoped that further volumes covering the fourteenth-century ordinations at York will appear shortly. This present volume includes the later years of Archbishop Richard Scrope’s ordinations (for 1400-5), the sede vacante ordinations lists 1405-8, the whole of those ordinations recorded in Archbishop Henry Bowet’s register (1408-23), and the first part (for 1423-4) of the subsequent sede vacante ordinations.1 As was the case with Archbishop Kemp’s register2 the lists of ordinations in the two archiepiscopal registers covered by this present volume are registered in two separate sections, those undertaken ‘by authority of the archbishop’ and those ‘by authority of the vicar-general’. In Scrope’s case, the bulk of the ordinations 1400-5 were celebrated by the archbishop’s authority (Reg. 16, fos. 154v-167v, nos. 1-28 of this edition), whereas in this period only two ordinations are to be found in the vicar-general’s register (Reg. 16, fos. 174r- v, 176v-177r, nos. 29-30). In the case of Henry Bowet’s register, the section by authority of the vicar-general covers the years 1408-16 (Reg. 18, fos. 39r-39Ir, nos. 48-65), and the section containing ordinations by authority of the archbishop extends from 1408 to 1413, and then from 1417 to 1423 (Reg. 18, fos. 389r-416v, nos. 66-123). Unfortunately a quire is missing between the present folios 396 and 397 which would have included ordinations between 1413 and 1417. The ordinations for the lengthy 1405-8 vacancy form one continuous section of the sede vacante register (Reg. 5A, fos. 317r-326v, nos. 31-47) but the lists for the 1423-6 vacancy are not kept separate but are included in the general chronological sequence of register entries (those for 1423-4 are Reg. 5A, fos. 354r-356r, 367v-368v, 375v-376r, 382v-383r, and 394r-v, in this edition nos. 124-130). These registers also record some 62 letters dimissory granted in this period to York diocesan clergy enabling them to be ordained by other bishops, and this forms the first appendix to the volume. A shorter second appendix contains letters of orders transcribed in the registers. Apart from ten occasions when Archbishop Henry Bowet is found ordaining clergy (nos. 66- 71, 75-8), eight times in the prebendal chapel of Cawood (now Cawood parish church) and twice in the chapel of the archiepiscopal castle at Cawood, all the remaining ordinations in this period were celebrated by suffragan bishops, namely: William Norburgh (or Northbrugge), O.P., bishop Pharensis, celebrated all of Scrope’s ordinations betweeen 1400 and 1405, all the sede vacante ordinations 1405-8, and was still active in the early years of Bowet’s pontificate, until 1411 (nos. 1-53, 72-4), the year his death is recorded as rector of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York.3 1 The ordinations in the time of Richard Scrope are previously recorded in Reg. Scrope, II, pp. 54-143, and those celebrated during the vacancies of 1405-8 and 1423-6 are also in York Sede Vacante Register 1405-08, pp. 66-93; and York Sede Vacante Register 1423-26, pp. 99-130. 2 York Clergy Ordinations 1425-1449, p. vi. 3 L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58; Emden, Survey of Dominicans, p. 413, where his see is identified as the Faroe Islands; York, Reg. 18, f. 98v. v John Greenlaw, O.F.M., bishop Soltoniensis (provided 1400), was active holding ordinations in the diocese between 1411 and 1420 (nos. 54-64, 79-83, 85-93, 96-100).4 John Britt, O.F.M., bishop of Annaghdown (provided 1402), occurs holding ordinations on a handful of occasions between 1416 and 1420 (nos. 65, 84, 95, 101-2).5 John, bishop Loviciensis, ordained in the diocese at a ceremony in March 1418/19 and is mentioned in an undated entry as ordaining 5 acolytes at various times (nos. 94, 106).6 Nicholas Wartre, O.F.M., bishop of Dromore (provided 1419). He first held ordinations at York in February 1420/1 and thereafter held every ordination in the diocese until 1424 (nos. 107-130) and in fact continued to perform these functions at York until 1445. He died in 1448.7 The ordinations section of these registers, following York practice, is concerned with the four orders of acolyte, subdeacon, deacon and priest and the ordinations are recorded in this sequence within each ceremony, with the distinction between secular and regular clergy being almost universally maintained in the recording of the lists.8 The acolytes’ lists in the vacancy registers of 1405-8 and from 1423 onwards contain no territorial descriptions against the names of candidates and this registrational practice is also found in the time of Richard Scrope and in early years of Bowet’s archiepiscopate. Another potential problem with the acolytes’ lists in the fifteenth century registers is that they are often entered in two (and on occasion three) parallel columns, and it is often unclear whether the lists were intended to be read horizontally or vertically. Normally this does not present a problem in the transcription and editing of the lists but on rare occasions the use of de eadem in respect of a placename does need clarifying. Sometimes it is easy to confirm the correct placename by comparison with later ordinations of that individual (see note to no. 106a) but the occasional one-off entry is much more difficult (see note to no. 91a). Those clergy fortunate enough to have benefices are ordained to the title of their particular benefice and ordinations to the title of patrimony or linked with an annual rent or pension are found, but again there are just a handful of cases at this date. Also found at this time are a few ordinations with no title provided but at the archbishop’s grace. Clergy from other dioceses having letters dimissory and being ordained by the York suffragan are also noted in the main sequence. 4 L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58; Robson, Biog. Reg. York Franciscans, pp. 157-8. 5 L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58; Robson, Biog. Reg. York Franciscans, pp. 114-15. 6 L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58. 7 L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58; Borthwick Institute, Prob. Reg. 2, fos. 268v-269r; Reg. 20, f. 381r; M.J.P. Robson, ‘Nicholas Warter, the Franciscan Bishop of Dromore’, Collectanea Hibernica, XLII (2000), 7-26; Robson, Biog. Reg. of York Franciscans, pp. 260-1, which corrects the date of his death. 8 For a general discussion see J.A. Hoeppner Moran, ‘Clerical Recruitment in the Diocese of York, 1340-1530: Data and Commentary’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 34 (1983), 19-54. For a discussion of titles for orders in English dioceses see R.N. Swanson, ‘Titles to orders in medieval English episcopal registers’ in H. Mayr- Harting and R.I. Moore eds., Studies in medieval history presented to R.H.C. Davis, (London, 1985), 233-45, and D. Robinson, ‘Titles for Orders in England, 1268-1348’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 65 (2014), 522- 50. vi Also in this period we see a considerable number of regular clergy noted without their order or their house identified, and while it is not too difficult to identify some candidates through the cross-checking of information contained in other ordination lists there is still a significant number in the early 15th-century lists who remain unidentified.9 These have been collected together at the end of the Index of Religious. Understandably in large registers where the names of thousands of ordinands are noted in this twenty-five-year period scribal errors creep in, and the type of errors found in the three preceding volumes are replicated here. Names are mistranscribed or misheard – Adam Babyngton is once called Rabyngton (no. 1a); William Flawbergh is once named as Fawbergh (no. 37s); the Austin friar, br. John Hymmesworth, occurs once as Kymesworth (no. 20p), and so on. The dioceses of candidates ordained with letters dimissory are either not always noted, or sometimes confused: the benefice of John Menston, rector of Fyfield, is twice described correctly as being in London diocese and once as in Lincoln diocese (nos.