Patronage and the church : a study in the social structure of the secular clergy in the Diocese of Durham (1311-1540)

To some extent the subject of this thesis was suggested by remarks made "by Professor Geoffrey BarradLough in his "book, Papal provisions (Oxford, 1935). Working mainly from conclusions "based upon evidence for certain Rhenish and Netherlands dioceses, Ir. Barraclough showed that the appointment of clerks to "benefices in these areas during the later middle ages was probably influenced more by the pressure of local aristocratic families than by the provisions policy of the papal curia. His book was both a survey and interpretation of the availablematerial and a plea for further local investigations into the nature of the beneficed clergy in the later middle ages; into their social and occupational back¬ ground and the systems of patronage which obtained for them their benefices. For English dioceses, as for those in other parts of Western Europe, he would have us ask how far were the ancient Germanic conceptions of founders' rights in the provision for the cure of souls in their churches (the "Eigenkirchenwesen") valid during the later middle ages, and how far had they been replaced by the Romanistic view of church government exemplified by the canon law and by the administrative development of the church which culminated in papal claims of ultimate control over all clerical appointments. "What proportion of these (papal) provisions took effect? To what class did the providees belong? ... Do certain family connexions maintain a position of dominance, notwithstanding papal intervention? What proportion of foreigners are found in possession of beneficia ourata? ... Before these and other parallel questions can be answered a long series of detailed, independent studies of individual churches and smaller ecclesiastical districts ... will be necessary ..."While it is true that many books touch on various aspects of the problem; modern scholarship has tended to concentrate upon the administrative and constitutional aspects of the mediaeval English, church rather than upon the individual clergymen, and few attempts have been made to discuss Professor Barraclough's questions on the basis of statistical evidence from individual dioceses or other local areas. The present thesis is such an attempt, based upon the evidence obtainable for the churches and beneficed clergy of the diocese of Durham. This evidence consists chiefly of the records preserved in the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Durham, notably the registers and files of the mediaeval Benedictine priory and convent which provide very full information on the many churches appropriated to the cathedral church. To some extent these re¬ cords compensate for the lack of a complete set of mediaeval episcopal registers; only six of these have survived: Kellawe's (1311-1316), parts of Bury's (1333-1343), Hatfield's (1345-1381), Langley's (1406-1437), Fox's (imperfect, 1494-1501) and Tunstall's (1529-1559)