give us a glimpse of the archdeacon of Bath summoning the clergy to some central place of meeting three or even four times in the year to transact the business of an archidiaconal chapter.[1]
The kindly relation between Salisbury and Bath, and the desire of the clergy to escape from archidiaconal jurisdiction, both find illustration in a correspondence between the dean and chapter of Wells and the dean and chapter of Salisbury, which took place a few years earlier. In order to understand its bearings something must be said as to the constitution of the cathedral chapter and its relation to the archdeacons of the diocese. A new cathedral system was brought into England by some of the Norman bishops after the Conquest. Almost simultaneously (1090–1) Thomas of Bayeux, Remigius of Fecamp, and Osmund of Seez established chapters after the Norman model at York, Lincoln, and Salisbury. These were bodies of secular canons, consisting of four principal 'persons' or 'dignities'—dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer; next to whom ranked the three or more archdeacons, then the subdean and succentor, and after these the ordinary canons. At Lincoln and Salisbury the change coincided with the removal of the see and the building of a new church in the grand style. In Somerset there was indeed a removal of the see from Wells to Bath; but this removal, so far from producing a similar result, was the very reason why the formation of a secular chapter on the new lines was delayed for half a century.[2] It was to Bishop Robert in the middle of K. Stephen's reign, that the honour fell of reconstituting Wells after the fashion, as he said, of 'the well-ordered churches of England'. It was natural that Bishop Robert should look to the neighbouring diocese for guidance. The fame of Osmund's constitution was in all men's mouths, and we have documentary evidence that two or three times in Robert's episcopate the dean and chapter of Salisbury were consulted on points of order.
The first matter of enquiry directly concerns us here. It was probably in the early part of 1155 that Reginald the precentor and Master Martin were sent to Salisbury on behalf of Dean Ivo and the chapter of Wells to enquire what was the 'dignity' and privilege of the dean
- ↑ For the archidiaconal chapter compare a later document, R. i. 35 b (1238): 'And further that the rector and parishioners of Suthbarwe shall attend the chapters of the archdeacon of Wells like the other rectors and parishioners of that archdeaconry, and be subject to that archdeacon, and the church shall answer to that archdeacon touching the cathedraticum and every other right of the archdeacon.' South Barrow church had been given to the common fund, but was not a prebend.
- ↑ See above, pp. 54 f.
