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XLVI. An Account of the Ancient Constitution, Discipline, and Usages of the Cathedral Church of Exeter: by John Jones, Esq. F.S.A. in a Letter to Charles Baratty, Esq. F.S.A.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 July 2012
Extract
I send you my papers relating to the Ancient Constitution, Discipline, and Usages of the Cathedral Church of Exeter; requesting you to submit them to the Society of Antiquaries: and, as I am not aware that the public is possessed of any information on such a subject, except the meagre account in Dugdale's History of St. Paul's, and some few passages in Archdeacon Reynolds's Tract on Church Government, and in Archdeacon Churton's Life of Dean Nowell, I think it probable that the Society may find them not undeserving their notice.
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References
page 386 note a The episcopal registers of this see begin with the death of bishop Blondy, which happened on the feast of St. Stephen the Protomartyr, A. D. 1257. Bishop Bytton's, from the year 1292 to 1306, is unfortunately lost; but the acts of the other bishops of this diocese, until the Reformation, are, for the most part, complete and in the highest state of preservation. Happily they have escaped the fate deplored by Wharton—“Horum (sc. Scriptoram rerum ecclesiasticaram) autem pars minima ad nos transmissa est; baud ita temporis injuria tamen quám sacriiegio intercepta. Perierunt pars maxima, quando avara saeculi superioris iniquitate monasteria eversa sunt. Ecclesise collegiatæ demolitæ, bibliothecæ utrarumque direptae, laceratae, yilissimis usibus vel etiam flammis damnatae. Atque utinam Ecclesise Cathedrales Sacrilegorum Kapinam effugere potuissent! Harum etiam aliquot archiva homines nequissimi mutilarunt, distraxerunt, fœdarunt. Id in plurimis avaritia et impietas, in nonnullis superstitia effecit. Comperi enim episcopum quendam ante centum et quod excurrit annos, avitae superstitionis delendæ pretextu, omnia ecclesiæ suæ monumenta et registra igni tradidisse” Præ in Angliam Sacrarn, p. 10.
page 388 note a The phrases “cum regimine chori,”—“diebus quibus chorus regkur,” frequently occurring in my authorities, must, I think, have some technical meaning which I have been unable to ascertain, although I have made enquiry of many ecclesiastics of the Roman church in this country and on the continent. In bishop Lyndwood's Provincial, fo. 104. (edit. Oxon. 1679), I find the following passage:—“Episcopus namque Sarum in Collegio Episcoporum est Precentor, et temporihrus, quibus Archiepiscopus Cantuarien. solenniter celebrat divina præsente collegio episcoporum, Chorum in divinis officiis regere debet de observantia et consuetudine antiqua.” Upon enquiry of a reverend and learned Gentleman, a Doctor of Sorbonne, formerly a Canon of the cathedral of Sens, and now the Abbot of La Trappe, be writes,—“Je ne vois rien, Monsieur, dans notre ordre, qui me présente le sens de ces mots, cum regimine chorij—dietus quibus chorus regitur. Mais il y avoit a Sens un Préchantre, Precentor; c'etoit une des dignités. Il avoit en tout temps la surintendance du chant et des ceremonies, étoit le superieur des chantres, et avoit sous lui, comme lieutenant, un souschantre, qui etoit un demi-prébendé non capitulaire, et conduisoit les chantres. Mais, outre ceia, les jours de grande fete ou deux chanoines etoient chantres, les jours seulement on les chanoines portoient la soutane rouge, il étoit en chappe et en rocher, un baton pastoral à la main, avec des gants et un anneau, marchoit apres les chantres, et regloit l'office. Il est possible que ce soit la le sens des Mots, diebus quibus chorus regitur; d'autant que cette eglise, étant tres ancienne, on y avoit conservé avec grand soin, tous les vieux usages.”
page 391 note a “Collatio penitentiariae sive subdecanatus in ecclesia Exon. Item 5° die Nov. 1350, Dominus contulit auctoritate ordinaria Magistro Henrico Pyke, presbytero canonico Exon. officium penitentiariae sive subdecanatus vacans in dicta ecclesia Exon.” Regist. Grandisson, vol. iii. fo. 94. Thomas Pesemer, who was stibdean and penitentiary, resigned in 1370, and was succeeded in both offices by Thomas Draper. Kegist. Brantyngham, vol. ii. fo. 9.
page 391 note b Plympton Priory enjoyed the perquisite of six marks sterling from every prebend of the cathedral church of Exeter, on the death of each prebendary canon, or in the event of such canon's entering irito the religious state. This, in the time of Bishop Grandisson, was an ancient custom. See Grandisson's Register, vol. ii. fo. 12. A. D. 1334.
page 396 note a i. e. Weekly allowances, or portions of provisions or diet. In French, the canon is still called “Semainier;” his duty, “sa semaine,” So there was “une semaine de vin, de bled, de sel,” &c.
page 401 note a John Cheyne, a canon, having neglected to provide a vicar; and (he Dean having also omitted to exercise his right, the Bishop appointed Thomus Parle, in priests orders, lo be vicar to the above mentioned canon, 25th November, 1388.
page 403 note a The word “Annuellere,” occurs in Chaucer's Chanones Yemannes Tale.”
“In London was a Freest, an Annuellere,”
Upon which Mr. Tyrrwhitt has the following note:—“They were called Annuelleres, not from their receiving a yearly stipend, as the Gloss, explains it, but from their being employed solely in singing annuals, or anniversary masses, for the dead, without any cure of souls. See the Stat. 36 Edw. III. c. viii. where the Chapelleins Parochiels are distinguished from others chantanz anuales, et a cure des almes nient entendanx. They were both to receive yfarly stipends, but the former was allowed to take sis marks, and the latter only five. Compare Stnt. 2 Hen. V. st, 2. c. ii. where the stipend of the Chapellein Parochiel is raised to eight marks, and that of the Chapellein Annueler (he is so namedin the Statute,) to seven.” Tyrrwhit‘s Canterbury Tales of Chaucer, vol. ii. pp. 244, 506. edit. Oxf, 1796.
page 404 note a This altar stood in the nave, on the south side of the entrance to the choir, and under the roodloft, now the organloft. This Henry de Bratton, or Bracton, had been Archdeacon of Barum to which archdeaconry he was collated 21st January, 1263, and resigned the next year.
page 409 note a Antiphonar. from αντι, contra, and φωνη, sonus. So called from the alternate repetition, by the two parts of the choir, of the Psalm; one part of it being sung by one part of the choir, the other by the other. It contained, not only the Antiphonœ as the word barely signifies, but also the invitatories, hymns, responses, verses, collects, chapters, and other things which belonged to the singing of the canonical hours, as well for matins, as prime, tierce, sext, nones, vespers, and compline. Bp. Lyndwood's Provinciale, fo. 251.
page 409 note b Grail—Gradale; strictly taken, signifies that which was sung gradatim after the Episle; but it is also to be understood of the entire book in which were contained the office of the aspersion of holy water, the introits of mass or offices Kyrie, with the verses Gloria in Excelsis, Grails, Hallelujah, and Tracts, Sequences, the Creed to be sung in mass, the Offertories, Sanctus, Agnus, Communion, &c. which pertain to the choir in the singing of solemn mass. Ib.
page 410 note a Tropar—contained the Sequences only; which were not in all Grails. Ib. The Sequences were devotions used after the Epistle, immediately before the Gospel.
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