of benefices to a convent or capitular body, unless a sufficient endowment should be first settled upon a vicar, or vicars, to perform all parochial duties, and unless a part of the revenues should be allotted for the relief of the poor.-[Tierney's ed. of Dodd's Church History, vol. i, p. 158.] 3rd. THE PROPOSED FULFILMENT OF SPIRITUAL OFFICES in the RemoteR SUBDIVISIONS OF THE PARISH.-Manchester and Salford, divided from each other by the Irwell, formed a part of the north-westerly bounds of the parish. To the north of Manchester, were Cheetham, Broughton, Crumpsall, Blakeley, and Harpur Hey-On the east, were Bradford, Failsworth, Droylsden, Moston, Newton, Openshaw, Gorton, and Denton. On the south, south-west, and south-east, were Hulme, Stretford, Moss-side, Rushholme, Chorlton-row, Chorlton-with-Hardy, Didsbury, Levenshulme, Withington, Burnage, Heaton Norris, Reddish, and Haughton. The parish of Manchester, including these hamlets, was of great extent, being from seven to nine miles from east to west, and from eight and a half to nine miles from north to south. A third object, therefore, incidental to the large and populous parish of Manchester, was to be enabled to send forth, from the capitular body intended to be constituted, such active individuals as were charged with administering to the Divine services and the cure of souls in the remoter divisions of the parochial boundary. The college of Manchester was, as I have already hinted, modelled in some degree after the consti institution, and induction, who were entitled to the tithes and offerings of the local subdivisions within which they had the cure of souls. [See Hook's Church Dict. in v. Cathedral, &c.] Now, it must be confessed that the designed college of Manchester was intended to be modelled after the constitution of the primitive, rather than of the later episcopal see. A capitular body was proposed to be formed having functions not confined within the rectorial church of Manchester, after the manner of the dean and canons of a cathedral church, but extending over a large parish seven to nine miles from east to west, and about nine from north to south. In this case the master or warden of the contemplated capitular body, would, like the ancient bishop, be required to send forth the clergymen under him to such remoter districts of the parish as demanded spiritual aid, which missionaries would have no fixed cure, or titles to particular places within the parish, but would either return from or continue in the localities to which they had been sent, as the occasion might require. Their names having been registered as belonging to the college, they would act agreeably to the instructions, or mandates of the capitular body. That two or three chapels of ease subsisted at this time within the large parish of Manchester, there is some reason to suspect:-there was one at Didsbury, and another perhaps at Gorton or at Heton. No doubt, the number would be now increased. BE BESTOWED UPON THE CONTEMPLATED COLLEGE. The previous endowment of the rectory of Manchester consisted, first, of a carucate of land in Kirkman's Hulme, granted to the church of Manchester previous to the Norman conquest;—secondly, of the glebe of land in Deansgate, gifted by one of the earlier barons of Manchester, a Greslet, to the church (see page 18);-thirdly, of the tithes of the parish of Manchester, comprising those of its various hamlets. tution of a cathedral church. Originally, the cathe- § 6. AN INCREASED ENDOWMENT PROPOSED TO dral church, where the bishop had his cathedra, or seat, was the parish church of the whole diocese,which diocese was, in very ancient times, called parochia. And, down to a comparatively late period, if any one resorted to a cathedral church, he was considered, within the meaning of the statute, as resorting to a parish church. In primitive times, bishops were constantly resident at their respective cathedrals, and had several clergymen attending them, whom, whenever there was a probability of success, they sent to preach to and convert the people. These missionaries had no fixed cures, or titles, to particular places, but either returned from or continued in their places as occasion required, having been simply entered in the bishop's registry, from which they could not be discharged without the episcopal consent. Eventually, however, when Christianity triumphed, and when more churches were built, the cure of souls was limited both to places and persons. Parishes were formed and priests appointed by presentation, The present object of Thomas la Warre was, that the profits, rents, tithes, offerings, &c., of the collegiated church should reach two hundred and fifty marks and more annually, for which reason he meditated an additional bequest of land in the Baron's Hull, at Nether Aldport, at Gorton Green, and at Heaton, subject, however, to the payment of certain annual pensions. The details of this endowment will be explained in a subsequent chapter. § 7. BY WHAT LAWS THE PROPOSED CAPITULAR BODY WAS INTENDED TO BE GOVERNED. In a very early period of Christianity, when an ecclesiastical division, however extensive it might be, was simply named parochia, the cathedral church being the parish church of a whole diocese [see Hook's Church Dict., 4th ed., p. 171], laws were framed to secure the presence of the presiding priest at the greater feasts, to regulate the efficient residence of the dean, master or warden, the prebendaries and canons, as well as to regulate other matters of discipline and the due management of temporalities. In like manner, Thomas la Warre intended that the college of priests, or chaplains, which he was about to form within the parish church of Manchester, should be governed by certain statutes, decrees, customs, and ordinations, obligatory upon the master, or warden, of the proposed college, the fellow-chaplains, the clerks, and the choristers. By such internal regulations there would be adjusted the holding of chapters, the mode of admitting the members of the college, the mode in which solemn offices were to be performed, the efficient residence and dwelling together of the fellows, the correction and reformation of crimes and abuses, and the penalties to be attached to a neglect of sacred duties and to other derelictions. CHAPTER VII. REPRESENTATION TO THE BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF THE EVILS WHICH HAD RESULTED IN MANCHESTER FROM RECTORS HAVING BEEN EMPLOYED IN SECULAR OFFICES. This protest of Thomas la Warre, of the bishop of Durham, and others, I shall endeavour to illustrate by a reference to Wycliffe's exposure of the abuses of church patronage,-confining myself, however, to the censures which he bestows upon lay patrons. At the same time, spiritual patrons, such, for instance, as bishops or archdeacons, fell no less under the reformer's lash ;-but as these functionaries had little or no influence in the patronage of the church of Manchester, any reference to their failures of duty would be out of place. The evils which Thomas la Warre sought to rectify were those of his predecessors and ancestors in the advowson of the church of Manchester, the Greslets and La Warres. We infer from this exposure, that the complaint against lay patrons was, that they made the emoluments of the church subservient to the remuneration of rectors, who, from their superior education, and the comparative ignorance of the laity even among the higher classes, were employed in secular capacities; secondly, that if these patrons had not their offices "done for nought" (to use the expression of Wycliffe), it was demanded that in every presentation of clerks to benefices, they should be paid in gold;-and, thirdly, that incumbents should give procuration to their patrons, that is, provision or entertainment upon each occasion of visit. In the first place, it is complained by Wycliffe, that lords would not present "a clerk able of God's law and of good life and of holy ensample to the people, but a kitchen clerk, or a penny clerk, or one wise in building castles, or other worldly doing:" also, that "they would have their offices done for nought, and their chapels holden up for vain-glory or hypocrisy."-In other words, patrons would reject priests holy of life and devout in their prayers, preferring such as could supply, by their superior education and learning, the secular offices of stewards of the household, clerks of accounts, or even architects,-the salary for which offices would be derived from their respective benefices. And if, perchance, these secular officials should ever be called upon to perform spiritual services, such services would be restricted to the lord's private chapel, in aid of the gorgeous and vain-glorious display exhibited by idle retainers of the household, when assembled at mass. In the second place, it is asserted, that patrons were not even content with having their secular offices "done for nought." When they had no very onerous office in their household to bestow upon the chaplains whom they presented to benefices, and whom they considered as remunerated from benefices alone,-"in this case," adds Wycliffe, "when lords shullen present clerks to benefices, they wolen have commonly gold in great quantity." And, thirdly, according to the great reformer, . patrons would have procurations from the priests whom they presented to benefices, "who were obliged to make great feasts to rich persons costly and gayly arrayed, at the peril of being hayned on as hounds, and each man ready to peire them in name and worldly goods." This imposition is explained in the apology for Lollardism (p. 78) after the following manner:-"It is sed to prestis, Frely ye han tan, frely gevith, and to this acordith mani decres of the kirk, and doctors, with mani peynis. But nou are found new constitucouns of procuracies and customis and other expensis, so that noither sacrament, nor benefice, nor ministry, is gevein nor tan frely after Cristis bidding; but overal goth symonie privaly or apert."-[From "An Apology for Lollard Doctrines, attributed to Wycliffe," and printed for the Camden Society from a manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.-Edited by James Henthorn Todd, D.D., V.P.R.I.A.:-1842.] In the preamble to the Manchester charter of foundation, we are made acquainted with the substance of a most remarkable conference held by Thomas, Lord la Warre, in concurrence with the bishop of Durham and his four co-trustees, wherein the bishop of the diocese was made convinced of the spiritual destitution under which the large and populous parish of Manchester had long suffered from an abused benefice. This representation is so strange, that a literal translation of the same, extracted from the charter of foundation, may be given at length: * "A venerable man, a beloved son in Christ, Thomas la Warre, clerk, now rector of the church of Manchester aforesaid, and late lord of the manor and advowson of the aforesaid, by whose gift and infeftment the said Lord Thomas, the Bishop [of Durham] and the others named with him have held and do hold the manor with the advowson aforesaid, they, piously considering, that the aforesaid church of Manchester having a large and ample parish and very populous, had been accustomed to be ruled and governed in by-gone times [temporibus retrocitatis] by rectors, some of whom never [and] some very seldom cared to personally reside in the same, but that to the same church, over which a great and grand cure of souls did and doth hang, they [the rectors] caused the adminicle [aid, or ministry] to be served by remotive, stipendiary chaplains, converting for their pleasure the profits and revenues of the same church to their own uses, from whose long absence followed a neglect of the cure of souls, a diminution of Divine worship, a defrauding of hospitality and of the support of the poor, and a great danger of souls."-[From the Charter of Foundation, which will appear in a subsequent chapter.] This is one of the most remarkable protests against the degradation of church discipline which is extant, expressed in language almost as strong as Wycliffe himself would have used. In comparing, also, the evils complained of, with those which the reformer had exposed in his reproachful treatise, "Why many priests have no benefices," as well as in his other writings, it will be evident that they are identical, and that they severally originated from the same cause, namely, from the abuses of church patronage:-"Such benefices comen not freely as Christ commandeth, but rather for worldly winning, or flattering of mighty men, and not for cunning of the gospel, and ensample of holy life." The abuses denounced by Thomas la Warre and § 1. THE NON-RESIDENCE OF RECTORS REPRE SENTED AND COMPLAINED OF. It is said, in the Manchester charter of foundation, that the large, ample, and very populous parish of Manchester had been accustomed to be ruled and governed in by-gone days by rectors, of whom some never, and others very rarely, cared to personally reside in the same. This non-residence, as I have shewed, was mainly attributable to the rectors of Manchester having been required by their patrons to fill secular offices, a practice which everywhere prevailed. In the apology for Lollard doctrines, attributed to Wycliffe, we understand as follows:-The apostle saith, no man holding by knighthood to God, employeth him to worldly business, and doctors acordyn [agree] as is put in the law. BUT NOW ALMOST IS NO WORLDLY BUSINESS THAT MINISTERS OF THE ALTAR ARE NOT EMPLOYED IN, as is open in their deeds, whereof it followeth, that they live contrary to holy writ and to the decrees of old fathers.[Wycliffe's Apology, p. 77.] In fact, this very general employment of priests in worldly business was causing in the church a lamentable dearth of able and efficient ministers, which had this signal disadvantage, that such clerks as had restricted themselves to spiritual vocations, were tempted to undertake the duties of a plurality of livings, or other ecclesiastical dignities. Hence we explain one reason why, in the time of Wycliffe, little or no censure was passed against very extensive pluralists, among whom Thomas, Lord la Warre, may be assuredly ranked. He was not only rector of Manchester, but likewise parson of the church of Sleaford, S canon of the church of the Blessed Mary in Lincoln, prebendary of Southwell, &c. &c. In the absence of any other explanation, it might, after all, be no easy task to satisfy ourselves with the exact position maintained by Thomas, Lord la Warre, or with his consistency, when he, a pluralist, took upon himself to represent to the bishop of Lichfield the evils flowing from nonresidence. But, as a learned churchman,-which, in judging from his high rank, and his means of education, no doubt he was,-there was another extenuating circumstance to be taken into consideration, as flowing from the custom of papal provisions: So much, in fact, had the possession of benefices by foreigners discouraged the English youth, that they were taking no care to qualify themselves as divines, and thus, alas! the studies of the universities were beginning to languish. Considering, then, this want,-less of clerks in general, who were ever numerous enough,-than of able or learned clerks, it can excite little or no surprise, that, even in the scrutinizing age of Wycliffe, priests who happened to be versed "in the cunning of God's law," should be allowed, by virtue of their plurality of livings, "to go among the people whom they should in turns profit, without challenge." Even Wycliffe himself, in conjunction with his rectory at Lutterworth, had a professor's chair in Oxford. In short, the non-residence complained of in the rectory of Manchester was that which originated with clerks holding secular offices, generally in the household of their patrons, for which they were remunerated by the temporalities of the benefices thus conditionally given to them. In all these cases the neglect of Divine worship, and of the cure of souls, became the source of the deepest regret and complaint. In the extensive and populous parish of Manchester, the obvious remedy for such an evil, being that which suggested itself to so munificent a patron as Thomas, Lord la Warre proved himself to have been,-consisted in increasing the number of efficient labourers. In the place of a single rector, he proposed a warden, who should preside over a guild, consisting of eight fellows, four clerks, and six choristers, dwelling together and severally bound to residence by stringent laws, and fulfilling their parochial duties "capitulariter," or chapter-wise, to the profit of many souls. So that, in the language of Wycliffe, "priests might live like to angels, as they ben angels of office, not turnen agen to their former sins for abundance of worldly goods and idleness in their ghostly office, and over much business about this wretched life;" "that they might live in clenness and sikerness [sureness of conscience, for to be mo like to Christ's life and his apostles, and for to profit mo to their own souls and other mens." 2. THE COMPLAINT THAT THE PARISHIONERS OF MANCHESTER WERE ABANDONED TO THE CARE OF REMOTIVE, STIPENDIARY CHAPLAINS. The expression of the charge is, that seeing a vast care of souls attached itself to the extensive and populous parish of Manchester, the non-resident rectors had allowed the ministry to be served by remotive, stipendiary chaplains. This charge, made by Thomas la Warre, I had long felt the greatest difficulty in comprehending. But, after a perusal of "the apology for the Lollards," printed for the Camden Society, in connexion with the notes of the truly learned editor, Dr. Todd, of Trinity College, Dublin, the accusation is no longer mysterious. By stipendiary chaplains, was meant chaplains who "hired out work." Thus, in the petition of the House of Lords to the king, A.D. 1382, it was a favourite position of the Lollards, that "it is not lawful for a presbyter to hire out his work." Also, in Wycliffe's apology for the Lollards (p. 52), we find the following passage:-" And eft Hostiensis seith of hem that geven a peney, or peyneyes to prestis for to do aniversaries, or to syng a messe of the Holi ghost, or swilk maner, or for to sing trentaylis [thirty days' masses for the dead] in alle swilk casis, to tak or gef temporal thing for goostly thing, of forthword [bargain beforehand], or certeyn covenaunt, it is symonye." And in the reply to a conclusion objected against W. Swinderby in 1389 (which Dr. Todd, in illustration, quotes from Fox), it is said, "that no priest ows [ought] to sell by bargaining and covenant his ghostly travel, ne his masses, ne his prayers, ne God's word, ne hallowings, baptism, ne confirming, order giving, for weddings, for shrift [confession], housel [the blessed Eucharist], or for ennointing; -any worldly men's to ask or take for these, or for any of these, or for any ghostly thing, he errs and doth simony." From these remarkably interesting extracts, in connexion with a clause in the remonstrance of Thomas, Lord la Warre, we have every possible information of the mode in which the services of the church of Manchester were performed, during the absence of rectors employed in the secular offices of their patrons. It is evident that chaplains of this stipendiary character had been required by the non-resident rectors of Manchester, or, perhaps occasionally, by the neglected parishioners them selves, to "hire out their work," after the manner described, and to covenant for singing so many masses, or for hallowings, prayers, baptism, shrift, &c. &c. This practise was highly censured by the Lollards, who declared that "prestis to sing may not first mak covenaunt without symonie." now, by new laws, clerks appropriate to themselves temporal things as seclereis [seculars] and not only to livelihood and hyling [clothing] but to lust and worldly highness. Wherefore it followeth, that either these saints bear false witness, or that such laws by which this manner of having is defended, are contrary to them and to holy writ; or else that clerks now are false witness against their laws, and thieves, and refars [plunderers], and false intruders."-[Wycliffe's Apology, p. 76-7.] Quotations of similar import to the foregoing might be greatly multiplied. The remedy proposed, namely, the subjection of the parish church of Manchester to a capitular body, would be calculated to afford a sufficient remedy for the abuse complained of :-there would be no expenditure except under the control of a chapter, and, consequently, mal-appropriations would be less likely to ensue. But these stipendiary chaplains exercised their craft in another mode:-As they travelled about the country seeking "to hire out their work" in such parishes as might have been left destitute by non-resident rectors, they were termed by Thomas, Lord la Warre, "remotive;"-that is, they removed from parish to parish, engaging themselves, like labourers at a statute fair, to do the spiritual work of a parish for a given time, whether for a year or a day. This is shewn in Wycliffe's apology (p. 52), when in remarking, that "a prest may astreyn himself a yer to dwell with a man to serve him, as writ [write] or teche children," it is urged, "of this mater thus seyn feithful doctors of divinitie and doctors in lawe of the kirk thus: A prest wether he be beneficid or not, he howith [ought] § 4. THE REPRESENTATION OF THE NEGLECT of not to sett to hire his gostly warks; nor is it leful to him to reseyue any thing of covenaunt to a day or yere for Goddis seruyce to be seid." Such was the character of the remotive and stipendiary chaplains stigmatized in the Manchester charter of foundation, who, in the absence of the non-resident rectors of Manchester, hired out their work as journeymen by the day or by the year, or even "for job work," engaging "for a penny, or pennies, to do anniversaries, or to sing a mass of the Holy ghost, or to sing trentals, or to take aud give temporal things for ghostly things." The practical remedy of this parochial evil was sufficiently evident;-it was, that the neglected parish of Manchester should be placed under the spiritual guidance of a warden and a large staff of subordinate functionaries, severally bound, under heavy penalties, to residence. By so salutary a check, the visits of the spiritual journeymen "who hired out work" would soon cease. § 3. THE REPRESENTATION THAT THE NON RESIDENT RECTORS APPLIED THE FRUITS This charge against chaplains brought in by lords, who, in holding them in their worldly office, did not purvey true curates to the people, is a very frequent one in the writings of Wycliffe:-"The apostle saith, we having food and hyling [raiment] hold us paid, and by the saws [sayings] of Jerome, Ambrose, and Bernard, clerks ought to be content of livelihood, and have all things in common. But THE CURE OF SOULS. This, also, was a frequent subject of complaint with Wycliffe, who, in speaking of the poor priests who were instructed by him, remarks, that "they dreden sore that by singular cure ordeyned of sinful men, they shulden be letted [prevented] fro better occupation, and fro more profit of holy church. And this is the most dread of all, for they have cure and charge at the full of God to help their brethren to heavenward, both by teaching, praying and ensample giving." The reformer likewise lamented that, "in appointing secular men to divine offices, an idiot was often called to be a vicar or parish priest, who could not do, and might not have leave to do the office of a good curate."[See Gilpin's Life of Wycliffe, p. 97, and Vaughan's Wycliffe, vol. ii, p. 283.] In the collegiating of the parish church of Manchester, it is evident, that the neglect of the cure of souls would be provided for by the enforcement of penalties at the discretion of the chapter, as well as by the expulsion which would be demanded in case habitually careless chaplains were introduced among the parishioners. § 5. THE CHARGE OF A DIMINUTION OF DIVINE WORSHIP. This complaint is of frequent occurrence in the writings of Wycliffe. It is recommended that priests should study holy writt and be devout in their prayers, and not be carried astray with new [that is secular] offices; "then," he adds, "shulde priests be busy to seke God's worship and saving of |