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and from the government of the house, protesting against the same, and appealing thereon to the Supreme Pontiff.

On the two following days, namely, the fourth and fifth days of the week, there being assembled in the church of Saint Peter at York, Simon, the dean of that church, Hamo, the præcentor, William Testard, and Geoffrey de Muschamp, the archdeacons of Nottingham and Cleveland, John the chancellor, and Robert, the prior of Beverley, together with some of the canons of the said church, and nearly all the abbats, priors, officers, deans, and parsons of the churches of the diocese of York, the legate sat installed in an elevated place, and held a full synod; in which he enacted that the following statutes should be observed.

The Decrees of the Synod of York.

"Whereas, among the other Sacraments of the Church, the host of salvation is pre-eminent in importance, therefore ought the devoutness of the priesthood to pay the more earnest attention thereto, that the same may be made with humility, be received with fear, and be dispensed with reverence; and the minister at the altar ought to be certain that the bread and wine, and water, are placed ready for the sacrifice, nor should it be celebrated without a literate minister officiating thereat. Care is also to be taken, that the host is kept in a clean and fair рух, and is received on each Lord's day.'

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"As often as a communion is to be celebrated for the sick, the priest in his own person, in a clerical dress befitting a Sacrament so important, is to carry the host, a light going before him, unless the inclemency of the weather, or the difficulty of the way, or some other reason shall prevent it; because the mystery of the mass is frequently found to be corrupted, either by errors in the writing, or through the age of the books, so as not to be able to be distinctly read.

"The attention of the archdeacon is also to provide that in each church the canon of the mass is compared with all diligence, with a true and approved copy thereof.

"We do also forbid any priest through cupidity to enjoin any layman when he comes to receive absolution, to have masses performed; and we have thought proper to forbid that any priest shall make a bargain for the celebration of mass at a stated price, but he is to receive that alone which is offered at the mass.

"We do also enact, that in baptism not more than three sponsors shall receive a child from the holy font, two males and one female a male child, and two females and one male a female child.

"Also, where a child, the fact of whose previous baptism is unknown, is found exposed, whether with salt or whether without salt,36 it is to be baptized, since that is not known to be repeated which is not known to have been already done.'

"We do also decree, that, unless under the pressure of great and urgent necessity, no deacon shall baptize, or shall dispense the body of Christ to any person, or shall impose penance on one making confession; as, according to the tenor of the canons of our forefathers, antiquity determines to have these things of right to belong to the order of the priesthood.

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According to the tenor of the same institutions, we do also enact, that as often as a priest is called upon to baptize a child, or to communicate with a sick person, he shall not presume to be guilty of delay.

"Whereas, in the house of prayer, which is called 'The house of God,' there ought to be nothing unbecoming, nothing left unprepared, we do order that the parsons and vicars of churches shall make it their object to provide, in proportion to their incomes received, according as reason demands, and approved custom requires, in order that those churches which stand in need of repair may be repaired.

"Also, Divine service is to be performed with the furniture suitable to that service.

"Also, the sacrament of the Eucharist is to be celebrated with a silver chalice, where there are means for so doing; and as the time for carrying out this ordinance, we do appoint one year from the beginning of our legateship; and if, in the meantime, this ordinance shall not have been carried into execution, we do decree that before the expiration of that time our order shall, out of the revenue of the churches, be carried into effect.

"We do also enact, that clerks who have received the tonsure from the bishops, shall retain that tonsure and shorn head; and if they shall neglect to retain the same, then they are to be

36 By the decrees of the church, salt was ordered to be placed about the persons of children exposed, signifying that they had not been baptized. Judging from the present enactment, it seems to have been considered that no confidence could be put in the observance of this order; and, indeed, it was not likely that those who exposed their children, would be very particular about their welfare in another existence.

compelled so to do by deprivation of their benefices, if they have any; and as for those who have not any benefices, let them, whether they will or no, be shorn by the archdeacon or by the deans.

"We do also command that priests shall not go in hoods with long sleeves, but rather in vestments suited to their order; that in the same degree in which they excel others in dignity of station, they may more fully set the pattern and example of propriety.

"Inasmuch as the Scripture testifies that he is blessed 'who shaketh his hands from holding of bribes,' 37 attention must be paid with earnest zeal that justice is done without reward, and no one is to presume to receive any reward whatever for doing the same in causes ecclesiastical, or for withholding it, or for accelerating it, or for deferring it, that so at the fitting time the just Judge may give him the reward of justice.

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Inasmuch as tithes are the tribute of souls that stand in need, and are bound to be given in obedience to the command of God, it is not for him that pays them to diminish the same. We do therefore enact, that of those which are yearly renewed, the due and customary tithes shall be paid entirely and in full; so that in the first place tithes are to be given without any diminution to the Church, and after that, out of the remaining nine parts, the wages of the reapers and of the other servants are to be paid at discretion.

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"The profession of religious sanctity demands that monks and canons regular and nuns should be kept religiously and in obedience to rules. To the end, therefore, that all opportunity of going astray may be taken away from them, we do forbid that they shall hold those revenues to farm which go under the name of obediences, or shall go upon distant pilgrimages, or beyond the monasteries, without a certain and reasonable cause, and they are not to go without the society of other persons whose character is assured and beyond all doubt. Also, as to nuns, we do especially add, that they are not, without the society of the abbess or prioress, to go beyond the precincts of the monastery.

"We do also, in addition, forbid any layman to take any church

37 Isaiah xxxiii. 15.

38"Obedientiæ" was the name given to cells, farms, and granges that paid certain rentals to abbeys, and were often presided over by monks delegated for that purpose from the abbey.

or tithes to farm, whether solely, or whether in partnership with a clerk.

"That the dishonesty of calumniators, and the wickedness of rash swearers may be checked, through fear of the Divine judgment, we do order that, for the future, every priest, three times in the year, with candles lighted and bells ringing, shall solemnly excommunicate those who, in recognizances and other matters of testimony, shall have knowingly and wilfully been guilty of perjury, and those who shall wickedly cause others to be guilty of perjury, and shall on every Lord's day denounce them as excommunicated; to the end that the frequent repetition of the malediction may withdraw those from their iniquity, whom the accusation of their own conscience does not deter therefrom. But if they repent of their perjury, let them be sent before the archbishop or bishop, or, in the absence of the archbishop or bishop, general confessor of the diocese, for the purpose of receiving absolution from him. But in cases where persons are in the last extremity, penance is to be suggested, and not to be enforced; and they are to be strictly enjoined, if they shall survive, to go before the archbishop or bishop, or, in the absence of the archbishop or bishop, the general confessor of the diocese, to the end that due penance may be imposed on them.

"Because it is the word of the Lord, 'If any priest shall sin, he will make my people to sin,'39 and 'A wicked priest is the ruin of the people,' the excellence of so high an order requires that priests should abstain from public drinkings, and from taverns, and that those who are bound by a vow of chastity, should by no means give way to acts of uncleanness. We do, therefore, forbid them to have harlots in their houses, or, when expelled therefrom, in fraud of our enactments, to have access to them in the houses of others. But if they shall persist in their uncleanness, and the superiors, concealing it, shall not bring the same to the notice of their prelates, they shall be suspended from their duties; but those who, inflamed by zeal for God, have told the prelates of their excesses, shall obtain the favour of the Divine blessing.

"Also, the punishment of those who publicly keep harlots, shall be as follows: as being infamous, they shall be disabled from making accusation against others, and from bearing

39 These words do not appear in Scripture; though, of course, the meaning of them is to be found there.

witness: but if, not even through a fear of this punishment they shall come to a sense of their duty, then let them know that they shall be suspended from their offices and benefices.

"A person who is suspected of a crime by common report, or by probable tokens, is to be admonished in a friendly manner by the superior of the place, a first, second, and third time, to amend his life; and if he shall not do so, then the superior, taking with him two or three others, to whom the common report in his disfavour is known, shall rebuke him for the same; and if even then he shall not seem to be changed for the better, let it be told unto the Church, that is to say, let him be accused in the chapter, in order that, being convicted, or having confessed, he may be canonically punished. But if he cannot be convicted, then let him be called upon to make canonical purgation of himself; so however, that the number of his witnesses may not exceed twelve, within which number, more or less may be received according to the condition of the person, and the nature and extent of the infamy, according to the opinion of those giving judgment. And forthwith, on the first day on which he, who is under the stigma of infamy, shall be in a condition to exculpate himself, let the purgation take place, that, through fear of vexation arising from delay, money may not be extorted. This and the above enactments we have made, saving in all things the authority and dignity of the Holy See."

At this synod, also, Master Peter De Dinant demanded full restitution to be made to him of the archdeaconry of the West Riding, which Geoffrey, archbishop of York, had given him, instructing the chapter of York, by his letters, to receive and instal him; on which Simon, the dean, and the chapter of York, made answer, that the archbishop could not give that archdeaconry to any one, because he had delayed to present to it beyond the time appointed by the statute of the council of the Lateran, in which council pope Alexander the Third enacted that when it shall happen that prebends, livings, or any offices shall be vacant in any church, they shall not remain too long in a state of suspense, but shall, within six months, be conferred on persons who shall be able worthily to discharge the duties of the same. And if the bishop, when the presentation shall belong to him, shall delay to present, then be it performed by the chapter; and if the election belongs to the chapter, and, within the time prescribed, it shall not so do, then let the bishop, with the aid of the Lord, and with the counsel of religious men,

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