1443.
10 Kal. June.
St. Peter's, Rome.
(f. 88.) |
Confirmation etc. as below. On prid. Id. Jan. anno 11
[1442, above, p. 257] the pope, motu proprio, ordered certain executors to make provision to John Delabere seu Dalabere, (fn. 5) canon of Salisbury, bachelor of canon law, of one or two benefices in the gift of the bishops and chapters etc., and the prior and deans respectively, of Winchester, Lincoln and Exeter, even if one were a canonry and prebend in Lincoln, and another were the like in Exeter or a collegiate church, with a major or principal dignity etc. in either Lincoln or Exeter or such collegiate church, or an archidiaconal dignity in Winchester, Lincoln or Exeter, etc. Afterwards, namely on the present day, for the gift of the bishop etc. of Lincoln (rectius Winchester), the pope substituted, motu proprio, and with retrospective effect, the gift of the bishop of Bath and Wells and the dean and chapter etc. of Wells. The pope has, however, learned that some assert that his said former and later letters do not and can not extend to a major dignity, even decanal, of Wells, Lincoln and Exeter, and that for the obtaining of such the said John is not such a person as the statutes of those churches require, and that moreover divers papal privileges etc. of the said church and chapter of Wells stand in the way, so that the said letters granted to the said John, and other papal letters and mandates of provision, containing whatsoever special or general clauses, cannot take effect in that church neither in regard to the deanery nor other dignities, the chapter not being bound to obey such papal mandates, nor to receive or admit any one as their dean. The pope has further learned that some assert that (because in certain letters of Martin V, dispensing the said John to hold for a certain time two incompatible benefices, he was surnamed, not ‘de labere,’ but ‘dalabere’ [see Cal. Lett. VII, pp. 470, 532]) the said letters and later letters, dispensing him to hold incompatible benefices for certain times and for life, and also the said former and later letters of the present pope and their consequences, are null. The pope therefore, with a view to secure the taking effect of the said letters, both of his predecessor and of himself, as well as of the present letters (absolving hereby the said John from any sentences of excommunication etc. which he may have incurred, rehabilitating him so far as rendered necessary by his having used the said letters of dispensation and other letters without their having been corrected in regard to the said surname, dispensing him on account of irregularity, and approving and confirming all the said dispensations and his own said letters and their consequences), declares, motu proprio, that his said first and second letters can extend to a major dignity, even that of dean, in Wells or Lincoln or Exeter, and did and do comprise the same, and that the said dispensations and his own letters, and their consequences, shall be in no wise held surreptitious or null on account of the insertion of the surname ‘de labere’ in the said first dispensation. The pope further grants to the said John that the said dispensations and his own letters shall hold good from the dates thereof, as well as their consequences, that he may continue to hold the incompatible benefices comprised in the said dispensations, and that in virtue of the present pope's said first and second letters, as also of these presents, he may accept a dignity, even decanal and major, in Wells or Lincoln or Exeter, as well as the one or two benefices comprised therein, and that the executors thereof may and shall proceed to execute them, that the chapter of Wells or
Lincoln or Exeter shall be bound to admit him to such dignity, even decanal and major, or personatus etc. and that he may receive and retain the same, as if the pope's said first and second letters had been specially made and granted with a view to a decanal and major dignity in the said churches, and as if in the said dispensations and the present pope's said letters John had been surnamed ‘dalabere seu delabere,’ and as if he were such a person as, for obtaining such dignity, even decanal and major, personatus etc., the said statutes of Wells require, and as if the aforesaid papal privileges etc. of the church and chapter of Wells had not emanated, which statutes and privileges etc. the pope hereby specially derogates from in so far as they militate against the said John in respect of the aforesaid grants. Ad fut. rei mem.Sedis apostolice providencia. (Blondus. C., Ugolinus. Coll[ata] F. Lauez[ius.], A. de Magio. pro G. Trapesuntio f[loreni] vi, pro Multedo f[loreni] ii, residuum pro Step[han]o.) [3 pp.See the preceding letter.] |