4 Id. Nov. (10 Nov.) St. Peter's, Rome. (f. 6v.) |
To the bishop of Clonmacnois (Cluanen.), and Magonius and Donald Omollayd, (fn. 2) canons of Clonfert. Mandate, as below. Upon its being lately set forth to the pope on behalf of John de Burgo, a canon of Tuam, that the late Donatus, archbishop of Tuam, (fn. 3) considering that if the parish church of the town (oppidi) of Athnareg in the diocese of Tuam (which was situate in a populous place, (fn. 4) and the cure of souls of whose parishioners was exercised by a perpetual vicar, and in which were a rectory and a perpetual vicarage, which rectory and vicarage were of lay patronage and were by papal grant and dispensation held by the said John under one and the same roof), were erected into a collegiate church, with persons or secular clerks who should celebrate divine offices therein, should, along with the warden for the time being, make a chapter, (fn. 5) and should enjoy the privileges of other collegiate churches, the devotion of the parishioners and other faithful to the said church would be daily increased, divine worship would be augmented therein, and the said town would be greatly improved, (fn. 6) had erected to the honour of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary (under whose name the said church was founded), by his ordinary authority, the said church into a collegiate church, with a wardenship for a warden (fn. 7) who should be the head (caput) therein, and the number of eight priests as members who, with the said warden, should make the chapter, with other pre-eminences and privileges of collegiate churches, saving the rule of the said rector John, and saving the wardenship, for as long as he lived, (fn. 8) and had decreed, etc., that the said rectory and vicarage, and all the tithes within the bounds of the parish of the said parish church, and its fruits, etc., should belong in perpetuity to the said collegiate church, and had united, etc., in perpetuity the said vicarage and rectory and fruits and tithes, etc., to the wardenship and capitular mensa of the said church, so that the said John should in future be called warden, and should continue the possession of the said wardenship as he had done of the said rectory and vicarage, and that the said priests should be by the patron and by the provost, bailiff, and peers of Athnarig, or at least by the said provost and bailiff and peers, by gift of the patron, be presented to the said guardian, and should be by him and the vicar, collectively exercising the cure of souls, instituted and confirmed, and that on the cession or death of the then warden [a warden], removable every year, should, at the presentation of the said patron, provost, bailiff, and peers of the said town, or of the provost, bailiff, and peers, by the gift of the patron, if he should give them his right [of patronage], be instituted by the said wardens and vicars, and that after such institution the said warden should have power over all the vicars, and exercise above them the principal cure of souls over the parishioners, and that certain priests should collectively exercise the cure of the soul of the vicar, (fn. 9) as was contained more fully in the letters of the said archbishop, the pope erected the rectory of the said church into a collegiate church, with a wardenship for a warden [as] head and master, [and the number] of eight secular priests as members of the college, and with other collegial insignia, etc.; and confirmed all the contents of the said letters, and, pro potiori premissorum robore, himself erected the said church into a collegiate church anew, with a wardenship for a warden, who should be head therein, and with the said number of eight priests or vicars, who with the said warden should constitute the members of the chapter, with a common seal, chest, (fn. 10) mensa, and other collegial insignia, rights, etc., after the manner of other collegiate churches, to the honour (fn. 11) of Almighty God and the Blessed Virgin Mary, without prejudice to any other, and united, etc., in perpetuity to the said wardenship the said rectory and vicarage, and all tithes within the bounds of the said parish to the capitular mensa of the said college, etc., granted that the said patron (and his heirs and successors), provost, bailiff [and peers] of the said town, or the provost, bailiff, and peers, by gift of the right of patronage, should nominate and present fit persons both to the said wardenship and to the places of the said priests, as often as they became void, that the said warden should institute as perpetual vicars in the said college those thus presented, that he should be removable every year by the same patron, provost, bailiff, and peers, and a new warden be always presented to the same priests or vicars, and be deputed and instituted by them in the said church, and that the said warden, after obtaining institution, should during the year for which he was instituted exercise power over all the vicars of the said church and the cure of souls of them and its parishioners, and reserved the right of patronage and of presenting the said priests to the warden for institution as vicars, and the right of presenting a warden to the priests for institution in like manner every year, to the said patron, provost, bailiff, and peers of the said town, or to the provost, bailiff, and peers for the time being, by gift of the right of patronage, if the patron was willing to give it to them, saving always in all things the right of the parish church and any other, as is contained more fully in the [pope's] same letters. (fn. 12)
|
|
Seeing, however, that, as was contained in the recent petition of Richard de Burgo, clerk, of the diocese of Clonfert, the said erection has not been made by the said archbishop, that the consent of the chapter of Tuam has not been given, that the said archbishop did the foregoing when he was lying in bed and ill, and without the due formalities, (fn. 13) and also without the consent of the patron having been asked, that the said patron did not supplicate, as was expressed in the said letters, and that as a result of the said erection divine worship has not been augmented in accordance with the said ordinance, seeing that at no time has the number of priests increased in the said church in accordance with the said ordinance, and that the form of the said erection has not been observed; and the pope having been informed by the said Richard that the said John with a great army has caused a certain monastery of the Cistercian Order to be burned, has taken possession of certain fruits, etc., of the archiepiscopal mensa of Tuam, during voidance of that church, thereby incurring sentence of excommunication, and has, when under that sentence, (fn. 14) and publicly proclaimed excommunicate, taken part in divine offices, in contempt of the Keys, thereby contracting (fn. 15) irregularity, the pope has been petitioned by the said Richard (who alleges that he is by both parents of a great race of earls, princes, and nobles, and is in or about the thirteenth year of his age, and that the yearly values of the [said] canonry and prebend and of the said rectory and vicarage do not exceed 6 and 60 marks sterling [respectively]), to order the said letters to be declared surreptitious, and to restore the said rectory and vicarage to their pristine state, and unite them to the said canonry and prebend for as long as the said Richard shall hold the latter, if collated to him in virtue of these presents, etc. (fn. 16) The pope, therefore (who lately decreed that provisions, or grants or mandates to make provision, of canonries and prebends of cathedral churches which should emanate in any way on behalf of any persons not having completed their fourteenth year should be null and void, unless it were specially granted to them by the apostolic see that they could hold them under that age (fn. 17) ), considering that if the foregoing be true the said letters are surreptitious, and that the said rectory and vicarage ought to be restored to their pristine state, although the said John has under pretext of the said letters, without having acquired any new title, but by his temerity, detained unlawful possession of them de facto for some years, and still does so, etc., hereby orders the above three, if the said Richard will accuse the said John before them, to summon the latter and others concerned, and to summon, in regard to the said union, those interested, and, if they find the foregoing to be true, to decree that the said letters were and are surreptitious, and were and are null and invalid and without force for the said erection, restore the said rectory and vicarage to their pristine state, as they were before the said erection was made, and deprive and remove the said John from them and from the said canonry and prebend, and, in the event of their so doing, to collate and assign to the said Richard the said canonry and prebend, and, with the patrons’ consent, to unite thereto for his lifetime the said rectory and vicarage, whether they be void by the said declaration, deprivation, and removal, or be void in any other way, inducting him, etc. The pope further grants him a special indult (fn. 18) to receive and retain the said canonry and prebend, notwithstanding the said defect of age and the pope's said decree, and any other papal constitutions, etc. Apostolice sedis providentia circumspecta. [9½ pp. In the margin at the end: ‘No(vembris).’] |