York Clergy Ordinations 1374-1399
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York Clergy Ordinations 1374-1399 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 Alexander Neville 1374-1388 Register of Thomas Arundel 1388-1396 Sede Vacante Register 1397 Register of Robert Waldby 1397 Sede Vacante Register 1398 Register of Richard Scrope 1398-1405 YORK CLERGY ORDINATIONS 1374-1399 Edited by DAVID M. SMITH 2020 CONTENTS Introduction v Ordinations held 1374-1399 vii Editorial notes xiv Abbreviations xvi York Clergy Ordinations 1374-1399 1 Index of Ordinands 169 Index of Religious 249 Index of Titles 259 Index of Places 275 INTRODUCTION This fifth volume of medieval clerical ordinations at York covers the years 1374 to 1399, spanning the archiepiscopates of Alexander Neville, Thomas Arundel, Robert Waldby and the earlier years of Richard Scrope, and also including sede vacante ordinations lists for 1397 and 1398, each of which latter survive in duplicate copies. There have, not unexpectedly, been considerable archival losses too, as some later vacancy inventories at York make clear: the Durham sede vacante register of Alexander Neville (1381) and accompanying visitation records; the York sede vacante register after Neville’s own translation in 1388; the register of Thomas Arundel (only the register of his vicars-general survives today), and the register of Robert Waldby (likewise only his vicar-general’s register is now extant) have all long disappeared.1 Some of these would also have included records of ordinations, now missing from the chronological sequence. Furthermore, there are gaps in the surviving registers. The ordinations section of Alexander Neville’s register ends in 1384 (lacking his last four years), and there are also folios missing in the same ordination register between the present fos. 132 and 133 and between fos. 138 and 139. The Arundel register also reveals gaps in the sequence of ordinations and presumably the record of the missing ordinations were entered in the archbishop’s own register, now lost. Alexander Neville is found celebrating ordinations in person between 1374 and 13792 and Thomas Arundel once in 1395,3 but as usual the majority of ordination ceremonies were conducted by suffragans, four of whom feature in these lists: Richard, titular bishop Serviensis, is found acting as suffragan for Archbishop Thoresby from 1370 onwards,4 and in this present period served Neville, Arundel and Waldby (nos. 4, 6-7, 10-14, 16-23, 26-31, 37, 41, 55, 57, 62-3, 71). He has been very tentatively identified with Richard de Casterton, mistakenly called bishop of Salisbury, and whose memorial window was once at Wigtoft church in Lincolnshire (W. Stubbs, Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, (2nd edn, Oxford, 1897), p. 197; R.E.G. Cole ed., Lincolnshire Church Notes made by Gervase Holles A.D. 1634 to A.D. 1642 (Lincoln Record Society, 1, 1911), p. 168). Robert Derling, bishop of Dunkeld. The bull of provision of Pope Urban VI, dated 26 October 1379, is entered in Neville’s register, together with (incomplete) letters testimonial regarding his consecration.5 Unable to take possession of his see, he acted as a suffragan at York between 1380 and 1384 (nos. 32-35, 38-40). Oswald, bishop of Whithorn, a Cistercian, who was consecrated before 26 March 1379 but was never able to gain possession of his see and spent his career performing suffragan duties 1 See D.M. Smith, ‘Lost archiepiscopal registers of York: the evidence of five medieval inventories’ in Borthwick Institute Bulletin, 1 (1975-78), 31-37, at 34-5. 2 Nos. 1-3, 5, 8, 9, 15, 25, and a solitary record among the suffragan’s lists in nos. 27 and 28. 3 No. 61. 4 York, Reg. 11, fo. 379r et seq. 5 York, Reg. 12, fo. 106r-v. See also R.N. Swanson, ‘Papal letters among the ecclesiastical archives of York, 1378-1415’ in Borthwick Institute Bulletin, I (1975-78), 165-93, at 171, no. 8. v in England. He acted for Arundel and Waldby and during the 1397 and 1398 vacancies (nos. 42-54, 56, 58-60, 64-70, 72-74).6 William Norburgh (or Northbrugge), O.P., bishop Pharensis, celebrated all of Scrope’s ordinations betweeen 1398 and 1405, all the sede vacante ordinations 1405-8, and was still active in the early years of Bowet’s pontificate, until 1411, the year his death is recorded as rector of Holy Trinity, Goodramgate, York.7 The ordinations section of these registers, following usual 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 often but by no means universally being maintained in the recording of the lists.8 In addition in a few of lists (notably nos. 42 63, 69, and 70) there is a separate section for the Richmond archdeaconry ordinands. Clergy from other dioceses having letters dimissory and being ordained by the York suffragan are also noted in the main sequence. The registers of Thomas Arundel and Richard Scrope display the twofold division in the recording of ordinations already found in the York registers of the first half of the 15th century, namely those undertaken ‘by authority of the archbishop’ and those ‘by authority of the vicar-general’. If not actually lackadaisical, there seems to have been a tendency towards certain omissions in the recording of ordinands. Quite a few titles are omitted, although on only one occasion is there a specific note that no title was actually exhibited (no. 1d). The regular noting whether the title provided was for all orders (ad omnes ordines or merely ad omnes) or for one specific stage (ad istum ordinem tantum) is found as a recurring feature of these fourteenth-century York lists. In this volume the repetition of this phrase in certain entries relating to ‘foreign’ clergy with letters dimissory can be explained. As for example, no. 5p: William de Otteby of Lincoln diocese, by letters dimissory for all orders, to the title of Holy Trinity priory, York, for all orders. This is not needless repetition – it is merely indicating that the bishop of Lincoln’s letters dimissory specifically covered the candidate’s ordination to all three stages of major orders and likewise the title provided by Holy Trinity priory also extended to the subdiaconate, diaconate and priesthood. In other cases the impression is given that the registry clerks did not always have the exact information to hand at the time of registration, leading to blanks and omissions and the sort of vague entry such as that found referring to a title provided by an Augustinian house in the diocese of Ely, without being more specific as to its identity (nos. 14s, 18p). In the May 1399 ceremony only one acolyte is recorded but the scribe left a considerable gap on the folio, so 6 See L.A.S. Butler, ‘Suffragan Bishops in the medieval Diocese of York’, Northern History, XXXVII (2000), pp. 49-60, at 58. 7 In this present volume nos. 75-82 (for 1398-99). For Norburgh, see 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. 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 presumably more names were expected to be entered, but never were (no. 80a). These omissions are also noticeable in the lists of regular clergy who can be entered without any description of their house or order. In some cases it is not too difficult to identify them as they progress through the various stages of ordination, but even so there are still almost 50 candidates in this period who remain unidentified (their names are collected together at the end of the Index of Religious).9 The problem already found in the fifteenth-century registers of carelessness particular in the recording of mendicant friars is also evident here. Walter Selby and John Stanbergh are described at one point as Carmelites, at another as Franciscans (nos. 27a, 30s, 33d, 34s); likewise Thomas Mitford and William Whallay occur both as Dominicans and Franciscans (nos. 58a, 59s, 62d, 70s, 72d, 76p), and even more confusing Simon de Aquisgrani (Aachen) is described as a monk of Whitby and in the next ordination as a Franciscan (nos. 49s, 50d). ORDINATIONS HELD 1374-1399 The details of the ordination ceremonies in this period are set out below, with the venue of the ceremony and the total number of candidates: Archbishop Alexander Neville 1 23 December 1374 Bishopthorpe manor chapel 125 candidates [acolytes 22; subdeacons 34; deacons 38; priests 31] 2 17 March 1374/5 Cawood manor chapel 194 candidates [acolytes 46; subdeacons 47; deacons 50; priests 51] 3 7 April 1375 Cawood manor chapel 26 candidates: [subdeacons 4; deacons 15; priests 7] 4 21 April 1375 St Michael le Belfrey parish church, York 7 candidates: [subdeacons 1; deacons 2; priests 4] 5 16 June 1375 Cawood manor chapel 200 candidates: [acolytes 50; subdeacons 60; deacons 37; priests 53] 6 22 September 1375 Carmelite friary, York 182 candidates: [acolytes 25; subdeacons 50; deacons 59; priests 48] 7 22 December 1375 All Saints chapel, Cawood 161 candidates: [acolytes 30; subdeacons 48; deacons 35; priests 48] 9 See also D.E.