Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch — John Shaqi
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical SketchDimock, Arthur
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of Saint Paul: An Account of the Old and New Buildings with a Short Historical Sketch
Dimock, Arthur
St. Paul's Cathedral (London, England)
We have now come to a time when Domesday gives us some interesting
information. A commencement had been made of endowing separate stalls.
Certain of the estates were parcelled out in this way, partly because
they may have been safer from alienation, partly that the canons might
be responsible, if necessary, for the services of religion in the
manors and townships in which their endowments, technically known
afterwards as _corpses_, were situated. In Domesday, St. Pancras,
Rugmere (in St. Pancras), and Twyford, in Willesden, appear, and may
fairly be set down as the three original _prebends_, although the term
"prebend" does not yet appear, neither do the distinctive names of the
stalls. To these three some would add Consumpta-per-Mare in the Essex
Walton, so called because the glebe was _consumed_ by the
encroachments of the sea. We will dismiss this obscure subject by
anticipating a little, and stating that, what with parts of the old
endowments and what with additions, by the end of the twelfth century
the thirty prebends were complete. The names and inscriptions will be
found in the account of the interior of the present Choir.
The two Caddingtons were a gift in Bedfordshire in the diocese of
Lincoln; the remaining twenty-eight were in Middlesex and Essex. The
corporate property of the Chapter by the same date must have reached
24,000 acres.[7]
The Conquest brought other changes in its train. Originally the bishop
was head of the Chapter, and the canons his assistants. But, beginning
not later than with Maurice, who held high office under the Crown, the
bishops became more and more immersed in politics, and found no time
to preside, while the Chapter would naturally raise no objection to
greater independence. What our French neighbours now call a _doyen_, a
senior from among the canons, took the bishop's vacant place, and
became dean.
John de Appleby, so late as 1364, dean by virtue of papal proviso, was
only allowed to summon the Chapter, and could not preside until he had
obtained a prebend by exchange. A hundred and fifty years later Colet
was a prebendary. I find no traces of archdeacons--London, Essex,
Middlesex, or Colchester--prior to the Conquest, but these eyes of the
bishop soon appear afterwards; and the Chanter becomes Precentor; the
Sacrist, or keeper of the plate, vestments, and other valuables,
becomes Treasurer; and the Master of the Schools, Chancellor. For the
sake of convenience looking forward a little, these changes, begun in
Norman times, were completed not long after.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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