YORK CLERGY ORDINATIONS 1520-1559 compiled by Claire Cross Borthwick List and Index 32 2002 C University of York, 2002 ISBN 0-903857-88-X CONTENTS Introduction 111 Abbreviations Alphabetical Register of Ordinands 1520-1559 Table of York Clergy Ordinations 1520-1559 227 Index 240 111 INTRODUCTION As elsewhere throughout England the break with Rome had a catastrophic effect upon the number of men entering the church in the diocese of York, an impact subsequently made all the more stark by failures in registration. The period between 1520 and 1560 falls into three quite distinct phrases: the eight years before the summoning of the Reformation Parliament in the autumn of 1529 when ordinations proceeded according to their customary routine followed by a decade beginning in 1531 of rapidly declining and poorly recorded ordinations and lastly by a interval of almost twenty years covering the latter part of the reign of Henry VIII and the entire reigns of both Edward VI and Mary when no formal entries of ordinations exist at all. Until 1528 ordinations at York differed very little from those of the previous decade with some 1,600 clerics admitted to the priesthood over eight years, producing an average of 200 priests, approximately 43 regulars and 157 seculars each year. This figure, however, cloaks considerable variations; while 278 men were ordained to the priesthood in 1522, more than in any year since 1508, and 249 in 1525, the total only reached 151 and 145 in 1520 and 1523 respectively. Similar fluctuations in the number of men coming forward for ordination have been noticed for this decade in the dioceses of London and Coventry and Lichfield, though the decline in ordinations seems to have occurred there somewhat earlier.' During this first period ordinations still normally took place at York six times a year. Well over a hundred candidates attended the major ceremonies held in rotation in the Minster, the four friaries and Holy Trinity priory on the Ember Days in the early spring, summer and autumn of each year, the numbers on occasion exceeding two hundred as on 20 February 1524 when the bishop of Meath ordained 90 acolytes, 68 subdeacons, 23 deacons and 38 priests in the Carmelite priory. As in the past the archbishop never ordained in person, delegating this responsibility to his suffragan bishops. Richard Wilson, first bishop of Negropont and then from 1523 bishop of Meath, officiated from Lent 1520 until the summer of 1524 when, apart from two sessions in the autumn and winter of 1525, he was succeeded by Richard Mackarell, bishop of Chalcedon. Ordinations continue without interruption in Archiepiscopal Register 27 until 11 April 1528 when they break off in mid session with one or more folios cut away. No lists at all survive for the period of Wolsey's disgrace and death, but begin again on 25 March 1531 some five months before Edward Lee's nomination to the see. Then with the exception of 1538 records exist of one, two, three, or on one occasion four ordination ceremonies every year until 1542. There was, however, a dramatic fall in the number of candidates: from 1531 till the end of 1536 an average of little under a hundred regular and secular priests were ordained each year, but from 1539 to 1542 only of third of this figure. A similar very sharp decline occurred in the dioceses of London, Lincoln, Exeter and Durharn.2 Until the end of 1537 ordination ceremonies were conducted in the four York friary churches and the Minster by suffragan bishops, John Bowden, bishop of Sodor and Man officiating in 1531, William Hogeson, bishop of Dara, from 1532 till the end of 1535 and T. Cooper, The Last Generation of English Catholic Clergy: Parish Priests in the Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield in the Early Sixteenth Century (Woodbridge, 1999), p. 31. M. Bowker, The Henrician Reformation: The Diocese of Lincoln under John Longland 1521-1547 (Cambridge, 1981), p. 125. William Duffield, bishop of Ascolen in 1536 and 1537. Quite exceptionally Archbishop Lee performed two ordination ceremonies in person, one at his Castle of Cawood in December 1533, the other in the Minster in February 1535. Then from 1539 to 1541 all ordinations were carried out, usually in the Minster but in the autumn of 1539 at Guisborough Priory, by Robert Pursglove, suffragan bishop of Hull. The earlier part of the decade saw an unprecedented proportion of regulars to seculars seeking ordination as priests. Whereas in the earlier part of the century seculars had greatly exceeded regulars, in 1532 and 1533 their numbers were almost equal, and probably indicating that as monasticism increasingly came under threat from the crown monks, canons and friars were attempting to maximise their chances of obtaining preferment in the secular church. Some regulars, who failed to proceed to the priesthood before the suppression of their houses, subsequently cited their monastic pensions as their titles. The dissolution of the monasteries, completed in Yorkshire by the beginning of 1540, materially affected the secular as well as regular clergy, since there were now no religious houses to furnish them with a title. They now had no alternative but to turn to the laity for support and in the three years between 1539 and 1542 almost a hundred northern landowners supplied the necessary financial endorsement. After April 1541 the archiepiscopal registers contain no ordinations until early in the reign of Elizabeth I. It may indeed be that separate registers of ordinations were being kept, of which Ordination Register 1 is a draft, but that these have since been lost. With the prohibition of masses for the dead in the reign of Edward VI the demand for the services of stipendiary priests virtually ceased and for a generation or more there was a reservoir of dispossessed monks, canons, friars and chantry competing for vacant livings, but a trickle of ordinations were certainly still being performed at this time. Folios 1 and 103 of Institution Act Book 1 record the ordination of 13 clergy to the diaconate or priesthood by Robert Pursglove, suffragan bishop of Hull.' The coming of Protestantism brought a marked change in the pattern of ordinations with ordinations of single individuals replacing the general ordinations on the Ember Days, a pattern which remained the norm throughout the Elizabethan period.' In 1550 John Houseman, a deacon in York Minster, complained that Holgate had refused to allow him to progress to the priesthood because of his opposition to the marriage of the clergy.5 It seems that the archbishop and his officials were scrutinising candidates for the ministry more carefully than had been the case in the past and may have been making a consciously effort to attract more graduates to the diocese; of the thirteen clergy known to have been ordained in the diocese between 1547 and 1553 five possessed degrees. In 1529 Convocation had replaced the old system of letters dirnissory summarily permitting the ordination of applicants in dioceses other than their own with more detailed letters testimonial which required from parish curates or churchwardens certificates providing details of candidates' character and learning. The little cache of letters testimonial for the reign of Mary again suggests that some ordinations were being held in the diocese during the Inst. AB 1 ff1r, 103r-v (I owe this reference to the kindness of Dr K. Fincham). C. Cross, comp., York Clergy Ordinations 1561-1642, Borthwick List andindex 24 (York, 2000), pp. 77- 86. A. G. Dickens, 'The Marriage and Character of Archbishop Holgate', English Historical Review, LII (1937), p. 438. vi archiepiscopate of Nicholas Heath. As in previous calendars the spelling of both Christian names and place names has been modernised with dubious identifications indicated by a question mark. The diocese or county in which a location is situated only appears in the text if given in the registers. Claire Cross Centre for Medieval Studies The King's Manor York December 2001 vii ABBREVIATIONS abbey Abp.Reg. Archbishop's Register (at the Borthwick Institute) acol. acolyte adcn. archdeaconry Aug. Augustinian bf benefice bp bishop Br. brother (frater curate of Cairn. Carmelite cath. cathedral church chant. chantry chap. chapel, chaplain chart. charterhouse coll. college, collegiate cn canon d. diocese den deacon Dom. Dominican esq. esquire fellow friar Fran. Franciscan fshp fellowship gent. gentleman hosp. hospital junior LL Canon and Civil Law let. dim. letters dimissory lie. licence; licenciate man. manor monk Mr magister min. minister nunnery Obs. Observant p. priory par. parson; parish pat. patrimony pr. priest preb. prebend; prebendary R. rector of schrnr schoolmaster scol. scolar sede vac. sede vacante ix Sede Vac. Reg. Sede Vacante Register (at the Borthwick Institute) Sr. senior St. student subd. subdeacon ten. tenement, tenements tie title treas. treasurer Trin. Trinitarian V. Vicar of v. chor. vicar choral ward. warden YORK CLERGY ORDINATIONS 1520-1559 ABBOT, ABBOTT ABBOT, Nicholas let. dim. 4 June 1539 (Abp.Reg. 28 f 137r) ABBOT, ABBOTT, Thomas subd. York 12 Mar. 1523/4, dcn York 26 Mar. 1524, pr. York 24 Sept. 1524; tie Monk Bretton p. (Abp.Reg. 27 if 202r, 202v,204r) ABBOT, ABBOTT, William subd. York 13 Mar. 1534/5, den York 11 Mar. 1535/6; tle Alvingham p.; pr. York 21 Feb 1539/40; tle lands of Francis Bulmer of Leavening, esq. (Abp.Reg. 28 ff.191r,195r,199r) ABLESON, Thomas ofHovingham acol. York 28 Feb. 1533/4, subd. York 21 Mar 1533/4, den York 19 Sept. 1534, pr. York 20 Feb. 1534/5; tle Keldholme n. (Abp.Reg. 28 ff188v,190v,192r,193v) ACRE, see AKAR ACRES, William of Harrogate acol. York 28 Mar.