Introduction

'Among the churches of the whole world the church of Salisbury shines like the sun in full orb, in respect of divine service and ministries, shedding her beams on every side so as to make up the deficiencies of other churches.' (fn. 1) This clause, in bishop Giles of Bridport's residence statute of 1256, expresses the ebullient self-confidence of a chapter which saw itself as the model for others. In the middle of the thirteenth century Salisbury was pre-eminent among the English secular cathedrals - in its constitutional organization and legislation, its liturgy and ceremonial, its architectural glory, and in the intellectual standing of its canons. Looking back into its past, the thirteenthcentury chapter readily assumed that Salisbury had enjoyed this leading position from the time of the cathedral's establishment at Old Sarum in the later eleventh century. This view has coloured much of what has been written about the history of the cathedral between its foundation at Old Sarum in the 1070s and its removal to New Salisbury in the 1220s. Research on the Fasti has allowed some revision of the traditional account.

The medieval diocese of Salisbury was formed from the union of the two Anglo-Saxon bishoprics of Sherborne in Dorset and Ramsbury in Wiltshire. This union took place in 1058, under the Lotharingian bishop, Hereman, who presided over the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire and Berkshire from the monastic cathedral of Sherborne. (fn. 2) The council of London in 1075 authorized the see's removal from Sherborne to Salisbury. (fn. 3) Bishop Hereman began to build the new cathedral, but died in February 1078, (fn. 4) and it was not until 5 April 1092 that it was dedicated, by Hereman's successor, bishop Osmund (1078-99). (fn. 5) The cathedral was built within the ancient ramparts of the royal castle at Old Sarum, an important governmental centre, which overlooked the bishop's great manor of Salisbury. (fn. 1)

What kind of ecclesiastical establishment was introduced at Osmund's new cathedral? It is clear from his endowment charter of 1091 that he had set up a chapter of canons. This had probably occurred after 1086, for there is no record in Domesday Book of landholding by canons of Salisbury. The Holyrood Chronicle, probably drawing on a well-informed source for Salisbury in this period, and the annals of Lacock both give the date 1089 for the introduction of the canons, (fn. 2) and this may well be correct. Before this, Osmund was probably surrounded by a group of clerks, living without a rule; (fn. 3) it was this establishment that Goscelin of Saint-Bertin, writing in 1082-3, found distasteful. (fn. 4) Contrary to what was long believed, Osmund did not give his canons a written constitution: the Institutio, bearing the date '1091', was a later compilation, produced in three stages between c. 1150 and c. 1215. (fn. 5) The Holyrood Chronicle gives thirty-six as the number of canons introduced by Osmund, but the small size of the cathedral - it was by far the smallest of the cathedrals built in England after the Norman Conquest - suggests that this figure may be too high. (fn. 6) On the other hand, the great output of manuscripts at Salisbury in the early days indicates a fairly large community, (fn. 1) and the property which Osmund gave to his canons in 1091 was sufficient to support twenty-nine canons when, in the middle of the twelfth century, it was divided into individual prebends. (fn. 2) In Osmund's chapter there were at least two archdeacons, but there is no certain evidence of other dignitaries, apart from a possible dean in an obituary now lost, but noted by the sixteenth-century antiquary, John Leland.

Although in terms of formal institutionalization the chapter of Salisbury appears to have lagged behind those of Lincoln and York, where there were hierarchies of dignitaries in the 1090s, (fn. 3) there is an abundance of evidence for the liveliness of the intellectual life in the Salisbury community in the late eleventh and early twelfth century. The traditional picture of St Osmund, as given by William of Malmesbury in the 1120s, was of a bishop who encouraged the study and copying of manuscripts and attracted clerks from far and wide. (fn. 4) It is difficult to interpret William's use of the term clerici, rather than canonici: perhaps he pictured a relationship between the bishop and the members of the cathedral community that mirrored his own experience of abbot and monks at Malmesbury. The reality at Salisbury, however, may not have been very different. The evidence of the numerous late eleventh- and early twelfth-century manuscripts that survive as witnesses to the collaborative work of collecting, copying and annotating texts - chiefly, though not exclusively, patristic - confirms William's account and shows that the activity continued under bishop Roger le Poer (1106-39). (fn. 5) Archdeacon Hubald, probably an Italian (Ubaldo), played an important role in these learned activities in Osmund's time. (fn. 1) During this early period of the cathedral's existence at Salisbury it is likely that the canons led a common life, possibly following the rule of Amalarius's Liber Officialis, a text which was copied at Salisbury in the late 1080s or early 1090s. (fn. 2) Osmund's charter of 1091, which refers to the canons 'viventibus canonice' and to the goods of the church being possessed 'ut exigit regularis censura canonice', suggests that a rule was being followed. (fn. 3) Certainly the common-life system, like the monastic rule, was admirably suited to provide the right atmosphere and conditions for the cooperative style of manuscript production that was practised at Salisbury.

The breakdown of this semi-monastic life took place before the death of bishop Roger in 1139. Roger may well have looked to the cathedrals of northern France for models for the establishment at Salisbury: he invited Master Guy of Etampes to come from Le Mans to teach grammar and rhetoric in the schools of Salisbury. (fn. 4) It is in Roger's pontificate that we first hear of named dignitaries - a dean by 1111, and cantor, treasurer and subdean in the 1120s. (fn. 5) One of these men, the learned cantor Godwin, wrote a series of Meditaciones which included some cautious reflections on the permissibility of canons' individual ownership of property, allowed in Amalarius's rule. (fn. 6) Already under Osmund, at least one territorial prebend had been founded by a layman for an individual canon, although not without difficulties. (fn. 7) In Roger's time more property was gained for the cathedral from the king and from other lay lords, sufficient to account later for ten prebends. (fn. 8) At least four of these were certainly in the hands of individual prebendaries before Roger's death, (fn. 1) as were at least two prebends formed from bishop Osmund's endowment. (fn. 2) In 1139, on his deathbed, Roger restored all those prebends which he had held in his own hand, and gave the prebend of Cannings to the resident canons' communa, (fn. 3) and charters of king Stephen, given at Christmas 1139, just two weeks after bishop Roger's death, make it clear that Roger had also acquired or set aside certain churches for the dignitaries the personagie of the cathedral. (fn. 4) Thus by bishop Roger's death the framework of a prebendal system was in place: there were some individual prebends, a reserved communa, and endowed dignities.

The completion of the prebendal system and the establishment of the hierarchy of dignitaries at Salisbury belongs to the pontificate of bishop Jocelin (1142-84). Considerable advantage lay in the legislative possibilities that were opened up once each canon had an individual estate to support him. In the middle years of the century, forty-two prebends were in existence, and the Daily Psalter was divided up between them, an arrangement which greatly simplified the business of providing for this essential part of the Office. (fn. 5) Fortytwo was the number of prebends achieved at Lincoln, too, when the Psalter was divided in c. 1132. (fn. 6) At Salisbury bishop Jocelin took the opportunity - not taken by the bishop of Lincoln or any other English bishop - to assign a prebend to himself. This was Major Pars Altaris, which was ranked as the first of the prebends, carrying with it the duty to say Psalms 1-5. The possession of this prebend, which consisted of a portion of the oblations of the high altar, probably formalized and institutionalized an earlier arrangement, which may as Richard Poore later believed - have originated under Osmund. It perhaps developed out of Osmund's regular personal activity in the ministry of the high altar: certainly it served to perpetuate and underline the bishop's dominant position in his cathedral church. (fn. 7) Salisbury was alone among the English secular cathedrals in having one of its prebends held by the bishop, and the custom doubtless favoured the close co-operation between bishop and chapter which marked Salisbury's history in the later twelfth and thirteenth centuries. At Old Sarum the bishop presided at chapter meetings, and it was only after the removal to New Salisbury that the dean took over the role of president. (fn. 1)

Jocelin's control of the constitutional changes ensured the mitigation of the worst effects of the breakdown of the old semi-monastic common life. Following bishop Roger's example, Jocelin reserved and augmented certain property to be used for the communa of the resident canons. (fn. 2) In fact, the value of many of the prebends at Salisbury was low, so that the communa was a real inducement to canons to reside. (fn. 3) Jocelin strengthened the inducement in his constitutio concerning residence, whereby non-residents were to lose to the residents' communa one-fifth of their prebends' annual value. (fn. 4) In an attempt to ensure that at any one time there were enough priests, deacons and subdeacons in residence to perform divine service, Jocelin classified the prebends as priestprebends, deacon-prebends and subdeacon-prebends. This was too rigid and impracticable ever to have worked satisfactorily, but the classification was recorded and copied and survived into the modern period. (fn. 5)

Organizational changes at Salisbury also included the development of the hierarchy of senior members: the four persone or dignitaries - dean, precentor, chancellor, treasurer; the four archdeacons - Dorset, Berkshire, Salisbury, Wiltshire; and the subdean and succentor. Their duties and privileges were set out in the first version of the Institutio, compiled c. 1150, when written clarification of current practice had become necessary. Additional clauses, defining the dean's disciplinary role and canons' rights in their prebends were inserted in the 1160s. By c. 1180 the dignitaries' virtually invariable order of precedence had been worked out.

For its first hundred years, the cathedral of Old Sarum had been ruled by only three bishops - each of them long-lived, active and influential - but the personality that truly predominates is none of these, but rather the scholaradministrator who held the deanery from 1197 to 1215 and the bishopric from 1215 to 1228, playing a vital part both in codifying and reinforcing custom and in pushing chapter organization along new paths - Master Richard Poore.

It was almost certainly Richard Poore as dean who completed the composition of the Institutio, adding clauses relating to residence, attendance at divine service and discipline. (fn. 1) In 1214, soon after the lifting of the Interdict, Poore and the chapter confirmed a collection of statutes, touching the custody of seals, the residence of canons, deceased canons' and vicars' revenues, dress and conduct in choir, various regulations regarding vicars, and the dean's visitation of prebends: this composite document was known as the Nova Constitutio. (fn. 2) Around this time, Poore was also engaged in his great summary of Salisbury procedural custom, the Consuetudinarium. (fn. 3) This compilation, which was both a commentary on and an expansion of the Institutio attributed to Osmund, was mainly concerned with the definition of the duties of the cathedral staff - dignitaries, canons, vicars, choir and other participants in divine service. (fn. 4) It was complementary to the Ordinale (the 'Old Ordinal'), probably also the work of Poore, which summarized custom in the conduct of services and provided a general framework, or order, within which particular service-books - sacramentary, lectionary, psalter, breviary etc. - were used. (fn. 5) The Ordinale was anterior to the Consuetudinarium, in which it is twice mentioned. (fn. 6) Together, Consuetudinarium and Ordinale made up a general guide to the 'Use of Sarum', and were to become extremely influential in shaping constitutional and liturgical practice in the other English secular cathedrals in the thirteenth century and later. (fn. 7)

As bishop, Poore was an active legislator, issuing what are probably the earliest English diocesan statutes. (fn. 8) He was also the moving spirit behind the removal of the cathedral from Old Sarum to New Salisbury. The cathedral had not been ideally located within the ramparts, close to the royal castle. There was a serious lack of space, hampering enlargement of the church and its associated buildings and bringing the ecclesiastical staff into uncomfortably close contact with the castle garrison. Bishop Roger had custody of the castle under Henry I, but with his arrest and the seizure of his castles by king Stephen in 1139, this arrangement came to an end, and during the later twelfth century relations between the bishop and chapter and the royal officials and soldiers deteriorated. Clergy and laity alike were subject to harassment: the liturgical processions around the cathedral and city were impeded, and the faithful were prevented from attending services. The place was exposed to the winds and there was a chronic shortage of water, which had to be purchased at a high price. These were the complaints made by Poore and his chapter when seeking approval from pope Honorius III in 1217, (fn. 1) although the move had been discussed and a suitable site selected twenty years earlier, when Peter of Blois congratulated the chapter in a letter beginning '"I was glad when they said unto me" that you are planning to move the church of Salisbury'. (fn. 2) Papal approval was given in 1218, the foundation stone of the new cathedral was laid in 1220 and by 1225 the east end was dedicated. The church was consecrated in 1258 and the roof completed in 1266. This is the Gothic cathedral that survives today, surrounded by the planned town of New Salisbury. (fn. 3)

The removal of the cathedral to its new site did not break the link with the past - rather the reverse. Interest was intensified in the history of the earlier foundation at Old Sarum, and especially in the life and work of Osmund. Already in the middle of the twelfth century, the first version of the Institutio had been drawn up in Osmund's name, and he had been described in a charter of bishop Jocelin, c. 1150, as 'of sweet memory'. (fn. 4) Before 1220, Richard Poore began his Consuetudinarium by announcing that his tract would explain the way 'the cathedral is ordered and ruled, according to the Institutio of Osmund, of happy memory, its founder and bishop', (fn. 5) and in c. 1219 he issued a charter in which Osmund is described as 'of holy memory'. (fn. 1) Osmund's tomb had always occupied a place of honour at Old Sarum, and had been a popular shrine since at least the middle of the twelfth century. In the second half of the century it had been translated into the extended east end of the cathedral and adorned with a Purbeck marble effigy. (fn. 2) Bishop Herbert Poore (1194-1217) gave a pall for the tomb, which in the treasurer's inventory of 1214 was referred to as the tomb of 'Saint' Osmund. (fn. 3) Among the cathedral treasures also listed in the inventory were a chasuble with twenty-four stones, thought to have belonged to Osmund, and his broken staff. (fn. 4) In 1226 the bodies of the first three bishops - Osmund, Roger and Jocelin - were translated from Old Sarum to the Lady Chapel of the new cathedral: Osmund was distinguished from the others as 'beatus'. (fn. 5)

In the early decades of the thirteenth century, several English cathedrals Worcester, Canterbury, Lincoln and York - were developing the cults of their post-Conquest saints. Osmund's translation and the movement to have him formally canonized must be seen against a contemporary background of enthusiasm for recent local saints. At the time of Osmund's translation, two similar events at which Richard Poore had recently been present would have been fresh in his mind. The first was the translation of St Wulfstan from the old to the new cathedral at Worcester in 1218. (fn. 6) The second took place in 1220: the translation of St Thomas Becket to the elevated shrine in Canterbury cathedral. This was one of the most notable ceremonial occasions of the age, witnessed by a great company of high-ranking clergy and laity. The Salisbury connection was strong. One of the canons of Salisbury, Master Elias of Dereham, (fn. 7) played a major role in the organization of the event and perhaps in the design of the Becket shrine itself. (fn. 8) Present at the translation was at least one other member of the Salisbury chapter, William de Waude, then precentor and soon to become dean. (fn. 1) At the secret inspection of Becket's body that preceded the public translation, bishop Richard Poore was archbishop Langton's sole episcopal assistant. (fn. 2) These experiences, at Worcester and Canterbury, surely influenced subsequent events at Salisbury. It seems likely that the opportunity would have been taken, on the occasion of the translation of Osmund in 1226, to inspect the remains: it was an essential pre-requisite of canonization that the saint's body should be incorrupt. Bishop and chapter petitioned the pope for Osmund's canonization shortly after the translation. The text of their letter does not survive, but Gregory IX's commission to the bishops of Bath and Coventry and the abbot of Stanley to enquire into Osmund's life and miracles, dated 30 May 1228, reveals much of Salisbury's case. Osmund was described as founder and lavish benefactor of the cathedral, who set up the canons' prebends and the dignities. In his time, it was claimed, the church of Salisbury had been ahead of all others in England in discipline, morality, wisdom, authority and gravity. His instituta, it was said, were followed by the greater part of the English church. Further, it was stated that he had led a pious, saintly and virtuous life, and that after his death there had been numerous miracles. (fn. 3) In pursuance of the papal commission, the enquiring bishops examined twenty-nine witnesses, from whose testimony they put together a dossier of nineteen miracles, the earliest of which had taken place in dean Henry's time, between 1155 and 1165. (fn. 4) Although this attempt to have Osmund formally canonized was unsuccessful, he continued to be venerated at Salisbury, by both clergy and people. The tomb was a centre of popular devotion, and in chapter documents Osmund continued to be referred to as 'beatus', (fn. 5) and 'of holy recollection'. (fn. 6) By the early fourteenth century, if not before, he was held to have been the author not only of the Institutio, but also of the Nova Constitutio, (fn. 7) the Consuetudinarium (fn. 8) and the Ordinale. (fn. 9) Thus he was regarded as the originator of the 'Use of Sarum' itself, which by that time was in general use throughout the English church. In the second and third decades of the fifteenth century, a new attempt was made to secure his canonization: the old files of 1228 were copied out, and with the addition of new miracles and documents, the case was finally successful in 1457, when pope Calixtus III declared Osmund to be a saint. (fn. 1)

The twin campaigns to raise money and organize the building of the new cathedral and to promote the canonization cause heightened the self-awareness of an active and cohesive chapter. In 1217 or 1218 the precentor William de Waude began to keep a record of events in chapter, which he continued after his election as dean in 1220 and carried down to 1229. (fn. 2) This record, which documents the stages of preparation and the removal of the cathedral to its new site, is in some respects a fore-runner of chapter act books, a type of archive that does not appear until the fourteenth century. (fn. 3) It may be linked to the requirement in the Nova Constitutio of 1214, that a copy of every document sealed with the chapter's great seal was to be kept 'in registro ecclesie Sar". (fn. 4) It consists of two large gatherings placed in a composite register which was clearly much used and to which additions were made in the period just before and after the transfer of the cathedral. Waude's inventory of his decanal visitation of the prebends in 1220, and the inventory of the treasury, carried out by the treasurer Master Abraham of Winchester during his term of office, 1214-22, are also included in the register. A collection of charters and statutes, beginning with the carta Osmundi, forms another section of the volume, and at the beginning is placed a copy of Poore's Consuetudinarium. In the sixteenth century this register was known as the Vetus Registrum, though by the nineteenth century it had come to be called the Registrum Sancti Osmundi. (fn. 5)

By 1226, when a list of valuations and assessments for the subsidy of onesixteenth was drawn up, there were fifty-two prebends at Salisbury, placing it among the three largest cathedral establishments in England. (fn. 6) Four of the prebends at Salisbury were held by the abbots of Benedictine monasteries: the prebend of Sherborne by the abbot of Sherborne, that of Ogbourne by the abbot of Le Bec-Hellouin, that of Loders by the abbot of Montebourg, and that of Upavon by the abbot of Saint-Wandrille. (fn. 7) Although there were monastic prebends also at Wells and York, such prebends were exceptional in the English cathedrals. (fn. 1) In the case of Sherborne, the arrangement had originated early in the twelfth century, probably in 1122, but the three prebends for the Norman abbots were created much later, in the early years of the thirteenth century, after king John's loss of Normandy to the French king in 1204. In all cases, however, because prebends were subject only to the dean, the establishment of a monastic prebend offered a means of securing a measure of control, through the procedures of the Salisbury chapter, while legitimizing exemption from episcopal visitation. The abbots were excused residence, but were obliged to provide vicars to perform the statutory choir duties. The abbot of Sherborne, however, had a house in the close, (fn. 2) and on special occasions participated in person in chapter and in services. He was present in chapter on 7 January 1213/14 to witness the Nova Constitutio, which confirmed the dean's rights of visitation in the prebends, (fn. 3) and around the same time (1211 x 1217), he issued a charter undertaking that future abbots would be enthroned only by the bishops of Salisbury. (fn. 4) He was one of the thirty chapter witnesses to the residence statute of 15 August 1222, (fn. 5) was present at the first service to be celebrated in the new cathedral in September 1225, (fn. 6) and attended the chapter meeting called in August 1226 to discuss the royal subsidy. (fn. 7) On this last occasion, the proctors of the French abbeys sent excusatory letters. (fn. 8) The French abbots were not called, however, to the election of bishop Robert de Bingham, on 9 September 1228, when Henry abbot of Sherborne, along with nearly forty other canons, subscribed the election document. (fn. 9) It may be that the French abbots, like other foreign absentee canons, were not summoned to any but the most important gatherings of the Salisbury chapter: clearly the expense involved in serving such summonses must have dictated considerable selectivity. But the financing of the building works was a matter of such urgency that all members were called 'ad tractandum de promotione nove fabrice', and proctors of the French houses were recorded as present at the meeting on 19 October 1233, as well as the abbot of Sherborne in person. (fn. 10) There is no other thirteenth-century record of the summoning of the French abbots, and by 1284 the chapter seems to have had out-of-date information about their identity: the chapter list of May-June 1284 gives the names of abbots who were long since dead. (fn. 1) The abbot of Sherborne, however, was certainly summoned and attended the episcopal elections of 1284 and 1288. (fn. 2)

The earliest surviving written statute concerning residence at Salisbury, enshrined in the third version of the Institutio, compiled between 1195 and 1215, (fn. 3) requires dignitaries to reside 'assidue', 'remota omni excusationis specie', but allows canons to be absent in certain circumstances for study at the schools or for service to the king, the archbishop or the bishop, and to be away on the essential business of the cathedral or their prebends for a third of the year. (fn. 4) Richard Poore's Nova Constitutio of 7 January 1213/14 took over from bishop Jocelin's constitutio the penalty for non-residents of the loss to the residents' communa of one-fifth of their prebends' annual value, and required canons to be resident for a quarter of the year, the aim being to secure the residence of at least a quarter of the canons at any one time. (fn. 5)

In practice, the attendance of canons at Salisbury in the thirteenth century, when it can be measured in the attestation clauses of chapter documents, was remarkably good. Thirty-eight of the maximum of fifty-one (excluding the bishop), witnessed the Nova Constitutio of 1214 and thirty were present on 15 August 1222, when, among other enactments, the residence requirement was relaxed for archdeacons. (fn. 6) At the first service in the new cathedral, on Michaelmas Day 1225, thirty-seven, including the bishop, obeyed the dean's summons to be present. (fn. 7) The same number answered the summons to the chapter meeting to discuss the taxation of 1226: of the thirty-seven, nine sent excusatory letters. (fn. 8) At the election of Robert de Bingham to succeed Richard Poore as bishop, on 9 September 1228, there were thirty-eight canons present, with three others being represented by proctors. (fn. 9) The record of these occasions, kept in dean William de Waude's register, gives arithmetical totals of canons present, and makes careful notes of absences, proxies and excusatory letters.

This custom of record-keeping was maintained after William's death, for the agreement concerning prebendal contributions to the cathedral building fund, made on 19 October 1233, lists the names of twenty-four canons present in person, nine proctors, three reasonable excusatory letters, four unsatisfactory letters and eight absences without letters. (fn. 1) Charters and statutes of the midthirteenth century tend to be witnessed by rather fewer canons than those of the 1220s, though the numbers are still respectably high: for example, nineteen in 1244, thirteen in 1262, twelve in 1279. (fn. 2) At the episcopal election on 10 May 1288, thirty-three prebends were represented - twenty-three in person and ten by proxy. (fn. 3)

All canons, whether resident or not, were required to contribute towards the building fund for the new cathedral. The scheme ran for seven years from 1218 to 1225, but when it came to be renewed in 1225 for a further seven years, there was a lively debate in chapter over the penalty clause whereby absent canons had to pay one-fifth of their prebends into the communa. For the following seven years there was a relaxation of half this amount. (fn. 4) A record in William de Waude's register demonstrates the operation of this penalty: in Lent 1227 seventeen absentee canons were required to pay to the resident canons' communa a half of the fifth of their prebends' annual value. (fn. 5) Of the seventeen, five were Italians, of whom, four were probably abroad for most or all of the time, while the fifth may have been in attendance at York. (fn. 6) Another five were pluralists, of whom at least four were in the royal service. (fn. 7) At least one other canon was abroad on the king's business. (fn. 8) Two other canons may have been at the schools. (fn. 9) Another, a Scot, had been sent to Scotland to collect alms for the new cathedral, (fn. 10) and another, a Lincolnshire man, held the prebend of Grantham Borealis, in his native county. (fn. 11) The remaining two canons occurred at Salisbury frequently in other years, so were not habitual absentees. (fn. 12) At two points in the thirteenth century, in 1226 and 1284, we have a complete list of canons with their prebends. (fn. 1) These reveal a remarkable stability in the social composition of the chapter: in 1226 there were six Italians and four career royal servants; in 1284 seven Italians and three royal officers. The number of pluralists, so far as we can tell, was ten in 1226 and eleven or twelve in 1284. The proportion of papal nominees and royal servants is rather lower than in the chapters of London, Lincoln and York in the same period. Although the explanation for this is probably not unconnected with the comparatively low value of the Salisbury prebends, (fn. 2) it is noticeable that papal and royal nominees only occasionally gained the better prebends: more often they held prebends of medium or low value. (fn. 3) The valuations in the 1220s, 1226, c. 1284 and 1291, given at the head of each list of prebendaries below, show that many of the prebends were worth little: in 1226, for example, only twelve of the fifty-two prebends were valued at 50 marks or more, and eleven were worth ten marks or less. As Peter of Blois wrote, in a well-known passage in a letter of the late 1190s, his five-mark prebend was insufficient to pay his travelling expenses to Salisbury. (fn. 4) Resident canons, of course, received additional revenue from the communa, which was a substantial estate consisting of several churches, lands and tithes: (fn. 5) in c. 1284 dignitaries were allowed about £5 for each quarter of the year's residence and canons about 50s. (fn. 6)

An important charge on canons, whether resident or not, was to provide vicars to undertake the statutory choir duties. Canons whose prebends included parish churches needed also to provide stipends for their prebendal vicars. Both types of vicars are found in the Salisbury statutes of 1214. (fn. 7) By that date custom relating to the choir vicars' commons of one penny a day (and double on feast days) was codified in the Nova Constitutio, (fn. 8) and regulations regarding their appointment and duties were included in Richard Poore's residence statute of 15 August 1222. (fn. 9)

The two complete lists of canons in 1226 and 1284 allow us to estimate the intellectual strength of the chapter at Salisbury. In 1226, of forty-one prebends (all, that is, excluding the bishop's, the monastic prebends and prebends in the hands of Italians), twenty-one were held by men accorded the title 'Master', and in 1284, of forty prebends (all, that is, with the same exceptions), twentythree were held by Masters, of whom five are known to have held doctorates. At least fifteen members of the thirteenth-century chapter were doctors: seven in theology, three in canon law, two in civil law and three in both laws. The earliest was also one of the four bishops who held higher degrees, Master Robert de Bingham (1229-46), but most of the dignitaries and canons with doctorates occur towards the end of the century.

After the flurry of intellectual activity at Salisbury in the later eleventh and early twelfth centuries, there is little to suggest that the cathedral had any further importance as a centre of learning until the early years of the thirteenth century. There was certainly a grammar school, ruled by a master, for whose use three churches were set aside before 1139. (fn. 1) In the first version of the Institutio, compiled around 1150, the master, called the archiscola, ruled the schools and corrected the books, which were probably manuscripts for liturgical use. By the 1160s the chancellor had taken over these responsibilities. (fn. 2) But there was in the middle of the twelfth century no provision for higher learning in the arts, still less in theology. John of Salisbury, who from his exile in 1165 mourned his separation from his 'mother, the church of Salisbury', (fn. 3) had gone to Paris for his education and almost his whole career was spent away from his birthplace. (fn. 4) The 'Masters' who appear in increasing numbers in the later twelfth century among the canons of Salisbury and of other English cathedrals had trained at Paris or Oxford. (fn. 5) Study at the schools as an acceptable reason for non-residence is found first in legislation at London and Salisbury: it appears in Diceto's statute of residence for St Paul's in 1192 (fn. 6) and in the final version of the Institutio, drawn up between 1195 and 1215. At Salisbury it passed into Poore's Consuetudinarium and thence was adopted by most other English cathedrals.

In the Consuetudinarium of c. 1215, the master of the schools occupied a fairly lowly position, under the chancellor. (fn. 7) At some time between c. 1180 and 1214 the office was held by M. Peter, a priest, about whom nothing more is known. (fn. 8) But in 1220 the school at New Salisbury was ruled by the canonist M. Henry of Bishopstone, who had taught canon law at Oxford, (fn. 1) and in 1225 we learn that M. Roger of Salisbury, called 'Theologus', an Oxford and possibly also a Paris Master, was teaching theology at Salisbury. (fn. 2) These references suggest that higher education was now available at Salisbury. The personal connections between members of the chapter and the universities of Oxford and Paris were remarkably strong in this period. Both M. Richard Poore and his predecessor as dean, M. Eustace, had studied at Paris, (fn. 3) and among the learned canons of Poore's time as dean and bishop were Master Edmund of Abingdon, M. Thomas of Chobham, M. Geoffrey de Moritona, M. Geoffrey of Rouen, M. Henry Tessun, M. Peter Malesmains, M. Richard Grosseteste, M. Robert de Bingham (D. Th.), M. Robert de Hertford and M. Robert Scot. (fn. 4) When in 1238 the university of Oxford was temporarily dispersed, some of the students moved to the schools of Northampton and some to New Salisbury, (fn. 5) and two years later bishop Robert de Bingham, an Oxford Doctor of Theology, annexed the prebend of Brixworth to the chancellorship to provide for the teaching of theology by worthy teachers. (fn. 6) Rashdall was probably correct to suggest that the refugees from Oxford stayed on at Salisbury and that Salisbury was to all intents and purposes a university in the mid thirteenth century, and Dr Edwards demonstrated the importance of the foundation, in 1262, of De Vaux college (domus de Valle Scholarum), (fn. 7) Bishop Giles of Bridport seems to have had a Parisian model in mind when he established this college for a warden, two chaplains and twenty poor scholars who were to study 'in divina pagina et liberalibus artibus'. (fn. 8) The foundation of De Vaux predates that of the earliest Oxford college, Merton, by two years, and seems to have been one of the influences in the mind of Merton's founder, Walter of Merton, who was a canon of Salisbury. (fn. 9) In the words of Dr Edwards, 'At this time Salisbury was practically a university city'. (fn. 10) The 'scole theologie' are referred to in the foundation deed of the house of priests, established in 1269 to serve the parish of St Edmund: the priests were to attend the schools every day. (fn. 1)

In 1279 so great was the number of scholars in Salisbury that a document was drawn up to settle the respective areas of jurisdiction belonging to the chancellor and the subdean: this reveals that there was more than one faculty and a number of masters, and that not only were there many scholars in the city formally accredited to particular teachers, but there was also an underclass of scholars in residence not formally attached. (fn. 2) Although Salisbury continued to be an important centre of learning, it did not develop into a fully fledged university and the range and level of its courses were limited. When bishop Nicholas Longespee prepared his will in February 1295, he left 40s to the scholars of De Vaux, but this document reveals that at the time he was supporting four boys at the schools of Oxford, who were to continue to be supported for a year after his death. (fn. 3)

The three men who were chancellors of Salisbury during the second half of the thirteenth century all owned manuscripts which later came to the cathedral. (fn. 4) Two of these chancellors - M. Ralph de Hecham and M. Simon de Michamwere Oxford Doctors of Theology. M. Ralph de Hecham served as chancellor of Oxford university in 1241-2. M. Ralph of York, however, was negligent in appointing worthy teachers at the school of theology in Salisbury, and was reproved for this in 1300 by bishop Simon de Gandavo, himself an Oxford D.Th. and former chancellor of the university. (fn. 5)

The chapter of Salisbury in the thirteenth century was able to provide itself with several of its bishops from its own ranks, and a number of its members were elected to other sees. (fn. 6) In 1262 bishop Giles of Bridport found that none of his predecessors had carried out a visitation, and he therefore granted the cathedral and the prebendal churches exemption from episcopal visitation in the future: this was not challenged until the end of the fourteenth century. (fn. 7)

The arrangement of the lists

After the list of bishops, the dignitaries are arranged in the order of precedence given in the Consuetudinarium. The minor dignitaries - subdean and succentor - are included because they were full members of chapter. (fn. 1) The prebends appear in alphabetical order, as adopted in the revised Fasti for 1300- 1541. Within these lists the names of the holders are arranged chronologically.

The canons whose prebends cannot be identified are given in two alphabetical lists: those who held a dignity but whose prebend is unknown, and those who occur as canon without note of prebend. Where a canon seems to have held an unidentified prebend at one point in his career, and an identified prebend at another, this is recorded under his identified prebend.

Since the identification of prebends may be assisted by references to prebendaries as landowners or patrons, some notes are given on the endowments of prebend or dignity at the head of each list. These notes also give the status of the prebend (priest, deacon or subdeacon), whether the prebendal stall was on decani or cantoris side and the term of residence, as recorded in c. 1270; for the source, C. 461, see below, p. xliii. For the valuations given at the head of the lists, see below, pp. xlii-xliii.

Editorial conventions

The same style and conventions have been used as in volumes I-III of 1 Fasti. (fn. 2) The details in the entries are reduced to a minimum in order to focus on matters of chronology. Biographical information and notes of posts in other dioceses are not intended to be exhaustive, but to assist the reader in anticipation of further volumes in the series.

The first names of individuals are normally anglicized. Surnames are given in the most usual Latin form found in the sources, except in the case of identifiable place-names, such as cities or major towns, or where there is documentary evidence to support the identification of a place in the case of a particular individual. A footnote referring to such evidence is given only at the individual's first entry in the volume. The title 'M.' is given in the entry headings for men who regularly appear as magistri, and references are given to A. B. Emden's biographical registers of the universities of Cambridge and Oxford. Wherever identifications of archdeaconries or prebends held by individuals are conjectural, the entries are placed in square brackets.

The conventions used for dates are as follows. Two dates linked by a dash, as 1238-42, indicate a term of years, from 1238 to 1242. Two dates linked by a cross, as 1154 × 65, indicate a particular but undetermined date between the outer limits, thus a date somewhere between 1154 and 1165. An oblique stroke, as 1239/40, is used for old style/new style: a document dated '1239' may actually belong to any date up to 24 March 1240. When the date is approximate, c. for circa is used, but whenever possible it is avoided except to indicate a date within a year or two.

Footnotes