^{page 1 note a} This and the subsequent entries seem to refer to delinquencies detected at the visitation by the chapter held in the 1469. The visitation itself is not reported.

^{page 1 note b} I translate Dominus, which is the title invariably given to the vicar choral and parochial and chantry priests, and apparently to all persons in orders, by “Sir,” which is the usual translation at that time. I shall not repeat the title, which must be understand.

^{page 1 note c} This is the only instance in the Register in which either the indiction or the year of the Pope is given.

^{page 2 note a} It is written “aut suos” but it should be “ut suos.”

^{page 4 note a} Sie for inclitæ.

^{page 5 note a} This entry was never completed.

^{page 5 note b} The year appears from one of the subsequent entries relating to Gurnell.

^{page 5 note c} For the frequent complaints of neglect of attendance at choir services and coming late thereto, I have been able to find no apter or shorter expression than the words in use at Winchester of “shirking” chapel, or coming “tarde” or “tardy.”

^{page 5 note d} “Sectam chori”=suit of the choir. Secta is a word adopted from the manorial courts; attendance at choir being regarded as “suit and service” at the Lord's court.

^{page 5 note e} “Chauntry priest.” It is not common to find the chauntry priests described thus. They are more often called shortly “cantaristæ,” and Canon Dixon in his “History of the Church of England” calls them therefore “Cantarists.” I have used the name by which they are best known.

^{page 6 note a} W. Barthorp was a chauntry priest and deputy acting grammar-school master. See post.

^{page 6 note b} Crossed out in original.

^{page 9 note a} The entry is not finished: these two entries seem to relate to the same proceedings as those already set out from p. 131.

^{page 9 note b} It is characteristic of the curiously haphazard way in which the entries in this Register are made that this, one of the earliest entries, appears on the last page of the book, and there having been a small space left between the examination of the fifteen Vicars Choral on their colleague Thomas Gurnell and the sentence delivered by the Canons Eesidentiaries, an entry was inserted sixteen years afterwards with regard to a similarly unanimous complaint, which will be found in its chronological order, of the Vicars against Thomas Cartwright, while the warning at that time given to Thomas Cartwright is thrust up into the right-hand corner of the page, just below the date of the examination as to Thomas Gurnell. In the middle of the page stand the words “In dei,” which would seem to have been written when the book was first made, with the intention of marking the end of it by the words “In dei nomine, Amen,” which are now scrawled in the right-hand margin.

^{page 10 note a} Here the entry ends, but the bottom of the page has been cut off. It probably contained the sentence to be publicly pronounced, and was perhaps cut off when Gurnell made his submission and was absolved.

^{page 11 note a} The canons in residence were expected to entertain daily their vicars choral and clerks.

^{page 11 note b} i.e. probably Master John Terold see p. 1 above. He had been collated to the prebend of Sacristan, or Segeston, or Sexton, 3 Jan. 1458. (Le Neve.)

^{page 12 note a} This is the only indication that the regular triennial visitation of the church was held in 1472.

^{page 12 note b} This is a curious indication of a fact of which we should otherwise have been ignorant, that strangers, probably laity, were admitted as “commoners” to the chauntry priests' house or college (which was separate from that of the vicars choral), occupying the site on the north-west corner of the churchyard, now the grammar school, in the same way as similar commoners were admitted to the religious houses and to the universities and other colleges. Similar “commoners” were distinctly contemplated at Winchester College by William of Wykcham in his original statutes.

^{page 13 note a} Potestatem, or some such word, seems to be omitted.

^{page 13 note b} This illustrates the wide jurisdiction of the chapter, who, as ordinaries, exercised control over all grammar schools in Nottinghamshire.

^{page 14 note a} Both these places were prebends or possessions of the minister, and within the soke of the chapter.

^{page 14 note b} There seems to be something wrong about this passage. Apparently, Lamley made some offensive joke on Alicia Row, imputing theft to her. The entry is not finished.

^{page 15 note a} The Whitsuntide procession was a great source of profit to the Minster. In recognition of its position as Mother-Church of Nottinghamshire, the clergy and laity had to attend the synod and solemnly march in procession and make offerings. The privilege was confirmed by Papal Bull, A.D. 1171.

^{page 15 note b} Probably this entry is of the same date and refers to the same vicar as the last. It would seem by the next entry but one he did resign as he promised.

^{page 15 note c} Oxton being a prebendal church, the vicar of Oxton being the parochias deputy, as the vicar choral of the stall of Oxton was the choir deputy, of the canon or prebendary of Oxton, the chapter visit Oxton triennially as they visit the Minster.

^{page 16 note a} I owe the translation of this to Father Gasquet, who found in Coram Rege Rolls, Mich, term, 1 Bdw. VI. m. 128, a case about detention or theft of some linen, &c. inter alia, “viginti quatuor flammolas vocatas pleyne towells.”

^{page 16 note b} Sic.

^{page 20 note a} There is an i written here, probably for iuratum which is required to complete the sense.

^{page 20 note b} Preciosa is a versicle and response (V. Preciosa in conspectu Domini. E. mors sanctorum ejus) at the end of the reading of the Martyrology after Prime, which took place in cathedral and collegiate churches in the Chapter House. Maskell, Mon. Rit. I. clxxi. quotes Lichfield consuetudinary: “Pulsata vero Prima statim dicatur hora in choro. Qua finita chorus capitulum intret et ibi legatur Martyrologium. Post sequatur Preciosa cum suis orationibus.” “quibus peractis sileant omnes donee dignior persona quæ in capitulo fuerit, dicat ‘Benedictus,’ et respondeant ‘Dominus,’ et sic negotia traotentur quæ in capitulo fuerint tractanda.” The offence was, therefore, not merely shirking a service but also the business meeting of the Chapter.

^{page 22 note a} The sacrista was one of the canons. His office was the same as that of the thesaurarius of most cathedrals. He was not bursar but sexton, and his duty was to take care of the treasures, or plate, jewels, and robes of the church. By a statute made after a visitation by John, Archbishop of York, A.D. 1293, which shows the ancient and persistent way the duty was neglected, he was ordered always to sleep (jacere) in the church, et secundum orlogium debitis pulset horis. Of course he “devilled” his duties, and equally of course the “devil” neglected them.

^{page 23 note a} Mery is the person examined who makes this charge. The numbers are in the margin of the original, showing the order in which the persons were called. They are written, except ix and x in Arabic characters, up to number 5 with “us” added.

^{page 23 note b} AS to betbank and Katbarine Bexwyk, see p. 19.

^{page 23 note c} The old legal system of establishing the innocence of an accused person by bringing “coinpurgators” or witnesses to character continued in Ecclesiastical Courts even up to the Reformation. The value of the system at this date may be judged by the fact that S. Clerk was himself convicted of his own confession, at the same visitation of, inter alia, being a frequenter of taverns (p. 253); Ledenam of the same, as well as being often drunk, while Knolles “suspecte frequentat domum Johannæ Cooke.”

^{page 23 note d} See entry as to John Bull above, p. 21, and as to Warsopp p. 18.

^{page 24 note a} Stephen was a vicar choral, and his pay was, like that of all the vicars' choral, 4l. a year, paid it would seem quarterly by the canon whose vicar he was. The vicars choral as a body had common estates of their own as well.

^{page 24 note b} The “gradale” was (Smith's Dict. Christ. Antiq.) the “Grayl,” or book containing all the “graduals” for the year, and generally all the choral parts of the mass. The graduals propers were the anthems sung after the epistle.

^{page 24 note c} The Ebdomodarius was the person whose duty it was to officiate as priest in the services for a week.

^{page 25 note a} This entry is apparently unfinished.

^{page 26 note a} The Lady Mass followed immediately after Prime.

^{page 26 note b} It is written “foiante.”

^{page 27 note a} It was one of the privileges of Southwell Minster that the Canons and Ministers of the Church should not be tried before the King's Justices elsewhere than at the South door of the Church. Apparently, therefore, the assizes were regularly held three.

^{page 29 note a} “dicentem” seems to be omitted.

^{page 31 note a} The Master of Nottingham Grammar School (see p. 13) was removed for negligence and absence from school, and a new Master was appointed by the Chapter on the nomination of John Danvers, who it appears from other entries was Canon or Prebendary of Normanton and Chancellor of the Church from before 1475 to 1495 (he resigned in that year, Register, p. 19), and as such apparently not only presented to Southwell Grammar School itself (see p. 29) but to all other grammar schools in Nottinghamshire.

^{page 32 note a} This defence was not so absurd as it looks. As the sacrist's deputy or vicar, it was his business to supply the wine for the celebration of mass.

^{page 33 note a} This word is illegible beyond “ali” with a twirl.

^{page 34 note a} It is a singular cause of suspicion to be found praying; but no doubt Bull's brethren had good grounds for the interpretation placed upon his abnormal piety.

^{page 34 note b} Gunpot in p. 54 was the lavatory in the church.

^{page 35 note a} There was, as was usual in cathedral and collegiate churches, a special endowment for the maintenance of the fabric. At Southwell it was called “Our Lady's Works.”

^{page 37 note a} This passage is illegible, being scribbled in the margin at the bottom of the page.

^{page 38 note a} Baslards are large daggers worn at the girdle.

^{page 39 note a} Laurence Booth, archbishop of york, A.D. 1476–80, like his brother and predecessor, William Booth (1452–64) made the manor or palace at Southwell his favorite residence. Both were buried in the Booth chapel at the south-west of the church, which was used as the Grammar School till pulled down by the chapter in 1784, because “it destroyed the regularity of the buildings.”

^{page 41 note a} See note on p. 39.

^{page 41 note b} As usual, there appears to have been a lady in the case.

^{page 41 note c} See p. 137 of the Register, 12 Feb. 1478, p. 39 above.

^{page 44 note a} Does spera mean bowls?

^{page 44 note b} The name is left blank in the original.

^{page 47 note a} “Placebo” means the evening, and “Dirige” the morning office for the dead, so called from the first words of the antiphons with which they began. The collect beginning “Deus,” etc. was a collect in that office in commemoration of deceased bishops. Cardinal Kemp, Archbishop of York A.D. 1426–52, had no doubt left a benefaction for his own commemoration. He lived a great deal at his Palace at Southwell, and is believed to have built the Great Hall there, lately restored.

^{page 49 note a} The chief complaint at this Visitation seems to have been some new way of singing introduced by Cartwright — and specifically his singing of the Psalms and the “Faburdon.” Father Gasquet informs me that this is the equivalent of “fauxbourdon,” and this was the first attempt at harmony, or a variation on plain-song, being a sort of “drone” accompaniment. Cartwright was probably singing a second or other part: “prick song” instead of “plain song” in some new fashion.

^{page 49 note b} At Winchester the word “remedy” is still used for a holiday: and the Head Master when he grants a remedy to the “Præfect of Hall” still gives him a ring whereon is inscribed “Commendat rarior usus.” This entry explodes once for all the horrible heresy which was started at Winchester, that remedy did not mean remedium laboris, but was corrupted from “remission-day” to “remi-day.”

^{page 50 note a} The editor of the Durham and Beverley Sanctuary records (Surtees Society, 1837, vol. i.) in a note on entry clxvii. p. 64, says, “the armicudium was probably a small stithy used in making plate or other armour,” misled by some fancied derivation from arma and incude. In the preface he offers the reader the choice of an even wilder derivation as “emicudum,” an oil-bottle. There seems, however, no reason to suppose that it is anything more than diminutive of arma, meaning a small side arm, a dagger, or whinyard (gestrum).

^{page 51 note a} The antiphonary was to the daily services what the gradual was to the mass. It contained the choral parts, particularly the antiphons, or short anthems which followed, and on feast-days preceded also, each psalm.

^{page 52 note a} Whether this school was the same school attached to the parish church of Newark which Thomas Magnus, archdeacon of the East Riding, endowed in A.D. 1530, or whether his school, which still subsists and flourishes, was a new creation, does not certainly appear. This Newark School was very ancient. In the Southwell Liber Albus, p. 136, the Chapter and Prebendary of Normanton successfully asserted their jurisdiction over it in A.D. 1238 against the Prior and Convent of S. Catherine's, near Lincoln, Gilbertine Canons, to whom Newark church belonged.

^{page 53 note a} What pilia is I cannot find out.

^{page 57 note a} It thus appears that at Southwell, as in so many other collegiate or monastic churches, the collegiate establishment had been superimposed on an ordinary parish church.

^{page 57 note b} This appears to be Dr. John Keton, appointed chorister 25 March, 1479, afterwards Canon of Salisbury, who founded the Keton scholarships at St. John's, Cambridge, in 1530, for Southwell choristers. See Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, vol. iii. The deed is set out in the Southwell Register of Leases. The university commissioners have made statutes for these scholarships.

^{page 59 note a} Aliosque ludos. Ludos aliosque, MS.

^{page 59 note b} i.e. Holy Ghost.

^{page 60 note a} There is no doubt that this word is acceptura, but it is probably a mistake for accepturus.

^{page 67 note a} “Cirpis” = “scirpis,” rushes; “nattis” appears to mean a matting of reeds. (Ducange).

^{page 68 note a} This entry is undated. It appears, however, to have followed on the visitation of 1499, as frequenting Robert Vry's house is one of the complaints against him.

^{page 70 note a} Probably connected with death of Archbishop Eotherham, 26 May, 1500, and election of his successor, Thomas Savage.

^{page 71 note a} See 15 Sept. 1495, 17 July, 1498, and second pledge there.

^{page 72 note a} A trental was 30 masses for the soul of a dead person and the payment for saying them.

^{page 72 note b} The canon is the part of the mass in which the consecration of the elements takes place. It extends from after the Preface up to the Communion, and is done in a low tone.

^{page 73 note a} Pronuba Juno dat signum, when Æneas and Dido are sheltering in the cave. æn. iv. 166. Pronuba, according to Ducange=baudetrot, i.e. femme de trottoir: applied to a man, a pandar, or even walxes. See above, p. 55.

^{page 73 note b} The Ordinal was the book which contained the “order,” of the hours and other services: what psalms, antiphons, lessons, &c, were to be used on certain days, and in what order; and when to stand, sit, &c. Whether this or the “Directorinm” mentioned on the next page is the “rule of the Pie,” mentioned in the preface to the Book of Common Prayer, is doubtful. Maskell, in his Monumenta Eccl. Angl., appears to have confused them. Probably it was the Directory, which was a kind of guide to a guide, giving rules founded on the Sunday Letters for ascertaining when there was a “conflict of feasts,” &e., and what you did in such case. Neither contained the prayers, &c. themselves, which had to be sought in psalters, lectionaries, antiphonaries, breviaries, &c, &c.

^{page 74 note a} The feasts of 9 lessons were the great feasts, when at matins three lessons were sung at each “nocturn.” On ordinary days there were only three lessons.

^{page 75 note a} Spirulas. Is it tops, or marbles: and if tops, is it some form of teetotum gambling?

^{page 77 note a} See above, March 1496.

^{page 77 note b} Sic. But I suppose it means alearum or dice.

^{page 77 note c} This entry is explained by an interesting entry under date 3rd Dec. 1504, p. 54, of the Register, from which it appears that Babyngton was Barre&s assistant in the Grammar School, and the sum of £1 a year was, in part, his pay, hut he was admitted to his chauntry on condition of teaching in the Grammar School. In 1484 (see p. 52 sup.) complaint had been made by the previous assistant, Babyngton's predecessor in the same chauntry, that Barre paid him nothing for his services.

^{page 80 note a} “O God make speed to save us,” was on ordinary days the beginning of prime and the other hours, after the psalter, ave, and credo had been said “secrete” by the priest. “Preces” are technically certain short verses and responses, which occur always in prime, nearly at the end. The “capitulum” or little chapter is a very short lesson from the Bible. Except in prime, there is only a “responsio brevis” and “collect of the day,” after it. Bekyrke therefore gave himself a pretty easy time of it.

^{page 80 note b} Prick song is opposed to plain song, and means harmony as distinguished from “Gregorians.”

^{page 83 note a} It is written “exequuti.”

^{page 83 note b} In a different hand, apparently N. Walton's own.

^{page 84 note a} See entry 20 July, 1510, last page.

^{page 86 note a} “Aut” is repeated by mistake in the original.

^{page 88 note a} This is somewhat obscure. The words would imply that they had paid some one probably the vicar of Edyngley, for the ash trees and that they were to pay the chapter over again; but it would seem more likely that they were to pay the chapter what they got for the trees.

^{page 90 note a} Emmote is written; though it probably refers to Thomas Benson.

^{page 95 note a} It does not appear in this Register what became of Collen's case; and there is a blank of several years before the next Register, which begins in 1560, in Elizabeth's reign. The wonder is, indeed, that the blank does not begin earlier, as in August, 1540, the Archbishop of York, as head, the Chapter of Southwell, the individual Canons or Prebendaries, the Vicars Choral, and the Chauntry Priests, surrendered the church and their possessions, rights, and privileges to Henry VIII., and it was not till 1543 that it was re-established, by Act of Parliament. In 1547 the collegiate church was again suppressed under the Chauntries Act of Edward VI., and though the Grammar School was restored by certificate of Edward VI.'s Endowed Schools Commission in 1548, the Church was not re-established till 1558, when, on a (probably collusive) information in the Exchequer by the Attorney-General against the chapter, it was held that the college had never been legally dissolved under the Chauntries Act. The decision was recited in an Inspeximus charter of Philip and Mary, 20 June, 1558, and the collegiate church was thus a second time re-established; but even as late as 1565 the chapter was still engaged in legal proceedings to recover its possessions.

The fact that these proceedings took place seems to show that the college was never actually dissolved from 1540–3: but was allowed to go on as before, pending its legal re-establishment.