This article was downloaded by: [Northwestern University] On: 18 January 2015, At: 11:23 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Archaeological Journal Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ raij20 Some Episcopal Visitations of Lincoln Cathedral the Rev. Prebendary Perry Published online: 14 Jul 2014. To cite this article: the Rev. Prebendary Perry (1881) Some Episcopal Visitations of Lincoln Cathedral, Archaeological Journal, 38:1, 1-20, DOI: 10.1080/00665983.1881.10851973 To link to this article: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/00665983.1881.10851973 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http:// www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 11:23 18 January 2015 QLl)t archaeological journal. MARCH, 1881. SOME EPISCOPAL VISITATIONS OF LINCOLN CATHEDRAL.1 By the Rev. Prebendary PERRY. THE history of a Cathedral (like the history of a country, a city or a Church) is partly external and partly internal. The external history comprises those facts in which the institution is brought into contact with the outer world and with bodies extraneous to itself. It also includes such developments as are patent and manifest to all, as for instance the erection of new buildings or the acquisition of new property. The internal history is the record of the dealings of the members of the body one with another, the growth and exhibition of any special spirit or temper, and other matters more or less concealed from the outside world. There is very much in the external history of the great Cathedral, under whose shadow we are assembled, which is full of deep interest, but this is easily ascertainable by any from the Chronicles and other sources. I desire now to touch a few points in the internal history of the Cathedral, the conduct and proceedings of the members of its Chapter—points not so Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 11:23 18 January 2015 easily ascertainable as the other, but gathered from the MS. registers and records connected with the Church, as these are more or less mixed up with the Yisitations and enquiries of bishops. It appears that Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, was the first bishop in England who practised a regular and systematic Visitation of his Diocese. This at least may be inferred from his own words. He says, " At the commencement of my episcopate I began to make a 1 Read in the Historical Section at the Lincoln Meeting, July 28th, 1880. VOL. XXXVIII (No. 149). Β 2 VISITATIONS OF LINCOLN CATHEDRA.L. circuit of each archdeaconry, and caused the clergy of the several deaneries to be summoned by the rural deans on a certain day to a fixed place, and the people to be warned to come at the same time and place with their children to be confirmed, and to hear the Word of God and confess. In my first circuit some came to me finding fault and saying, ' My Lord, you are doing a thing new and unaccustomed.' To whom I answered, 'Every novelty which does good to a man is a blessed novelty.''" And if Grosseteste was the first Bishop who practised systematic Parochial Yisitation, he was certainly the first in England who attempted the Yisitation of a Cathedral and its dependent Churches. On the occasion of the dispute which arose between the Bishop and Chapter on this point, Matthew Paris tells us distinctly that a Bishop had never visited a Cathedral and its affiliated Churches.2 " The Bishop of Lincoln," he says, " even rose up against the Canons of his Cathedral Church who had elected him, and insisted that, putting aside the Dean of Lincoln, they should submit to be visited by the Bishop himself against the custom of that Church time out of mind."3 In the long argumentative pamphlet which Bishop Grosseteste himself wrote in support of his claim to visit the Cathedral we do not find him attempting to support the claim by quotation of precedent. On the contrary he relies on Biblical arguments, such as that* Moses exercised a visitatorial power over the elders appointed to assist him at the advice of Jethro; that Jacob had full power over the shepherds of Laban; on Samuel's circuits as Judge, &c. ; that the right to visit is implied in the Fifth Commandment, and is inherent in and inseparable from the Episcopal office. He draws a strong distinction Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 11:23 18 January 2015 between the duties of a visor and a visitor. The Dean who constantly resides in the Cathedral is properly the visor or superintendent; the Bishop coming at intervals to see if all be well, its visitor. His pamphlet is in fact an elaborate argument as to the value and use of the visitatorial power rather than an attempt to prove its legal right.4 Indeed in one part of his argument the 1 Anglia Sacra, ii, 347. 3 Matt. Par., ib. - Matt. Par. Hist. Maj., Ed. Watts, 4 Gross. Epiat., ccxxvii., Ed. Luard, p. 485. pp 357-431. 3 VISITATIONS OF LINCOLN CATHEDRA.L. Bishop plainly admits that custom was dead against him. He says, " You may not allege for a custom the fact that the bishop has never visited, nor can those subject to a bishop pretend custom because they have not been visited and corrected. For custom is not a negation, nor a privation, nor a neglect, but custom is the frequent repetition of a lawful action. But not to visit, and not to do the things belonging to the episcopal office is a negation and neglect of the bishop. This is not a custom but a corruption."' Whether however it was to be called consuetudo or corrupt eta, the fact is evidently admitted by the Bishop that the Chapter never had been episcopally visited. The defence made by the Chapter to the claim of the Bishop to visit them, in addition to their allegation of its novelty, was an unfortunate one and little creditable to that body. They produced a Chai'ter which purported to be the re-foundation of the Cathedral of Lincoln in the time of William Rufus, and which expressly gave authority to the Dean to govern all things, and only if his discipline failed was he to call in the bishop, and after him the king."2 This Charter was altogether a forgery. The matter after six years' of dispute went to the great Appeal Court of the Pope, and was finally decided by a Bull of Innocent IV., dated Lyons, August 25, 1245, in favour of the Bishop. The way in which the decision was procured it is perhaps as well not to investigate too closely, but a salutary power and privilege had thus been obtained for the See of Lincoln, and consequently for all the English Sees. Bishop Grosseteste immediately pro- ceeded to make use of the authority which he had thus acquired. He had intended to visit the Chapter first and then to pass to the Prebends, but at the earnest request Downloaded by [Northwestern University] at 11:23 18 January 2015 of the Chapter, who felt probably that some preparation and consultation were necessary before this vigorous Reformer could be welcomed among them, he changed this arrangement and visited first the Prebendal Churches.3 What his proceedings were when at length Bishop Grosseteste came to the Cathedral, I am not sure whether there is any record remaining to show/ but he would 1 Gross. Epist., p. 421. 4 There is mention of a Laudum made 2 Matt. Par., Hist. Maj., p. 571. by Bishop Grosseteste in Aluwici Laudum, 3 Gross. Epist., p. 344. p. 87. 4 VISITATIONS OF LINCOLN CATHEDRA.L. probably find plenty of matter for censure. There was, for instance, the " Feast of Fools," which Grosseteste had described in his Constitutions as an " execrable custom " and which he had strictly forbidden ; which seems however to have flourished in Lincoln Cathedral. Concerning this he wrote to the Dean and Canons of Lincoln, " Inasmuch as the House of God is, as the Son of God beareth witness, the house of prayer, it is an infamous thing to turn it into a house of joking, scurrility and trifling, and to desecrate a place dedicated to God by diabolical invention. It is an execrable thing to profane the venerable feast of the Circumcision of the Lord with the filth of libidinous pleasures.