Act of Supremacy (1559)
-- Definition: Act of Supremacy 1558 c. 1, 1 Eliz. I http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/parliament/1559-0; http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/periods/tudors/elizabethan-settlement
Archdeaconries
-- Definition: An archdeaconry is a legal and administrative unit of a diocese. Archdeaconries are held by archdeacons and are divided into smaller units of rural deaneries.
Archdioceses
-- Definition: An archdiocese is a diocese held by an archbishop.
Chapelries
-- Definition: A chapelry is a sub-division of a parish assigned to a chapel.
Deaneries
-- Definition: A deanery is a unit made up of a group of parishes governed by a rural dean. Deaneries are sub-units within an archdeaconry.
Parishes
-- Definition: A parish is an area with its own church, under the spiritual care of a priest. Parishes cover the whole of England and are grouped into dioceses. The population living within a parish are known as parishioners.
Peculiars
-- Definition: A peculiar is a unit of church jurisdiction outside the normal structure of the diocese. Many of these were created in the medieval period. Peculiar jurisdiction can include rights to: visitation, grant marriage licences and probates, to hear litigation.
Provinces
-- Definition: A province is an area made up of a number of dioceses, governed by an archbishop. In England there are two provinces, York and Canterbury.
Rectories
-- Definition: A rectory is the benefice of a rector. A rectory can also refer to the house or residence of a rector.
Vicarages
-- Definition: A vicarage is the benefice of a vicar. A vicarage can also refer to the house or residence of a vicar in a parish.
Archbishop's Chancery
-- Definition: • Archbishop's Chancery – The Archbishop’s Chancery was the personal court of the archbishop of York to which selected cases were referred from other courts, and to which certain matters were reserved for the bishop's personal attention. Such matters include heresy, perjury, usury, dilapidations, assault on nuns or clergy, and offences against the bishop's liberties and property. The court of audience was never a court which heard instance cases. (-Borthwick Cause Paper Glossary) https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/guides/research-guides/what-are-causepapers/glossary/.
Conferrals
-- Definition: By biretta (see also Vestments; Clothes and clothing); cap (see also Clothes and clothing); by glove/s or ring (see also Jewellery and personal effects)
Confirmations
-- Definition: Confirmations of office
Investitures
-- Definition: By biretta (see also Vestments; Clothes and clothing); cap (see also Clothes and clothing); by glove/s or ring (see also Jewellery and personal effects)
Non residence
-- Definition: Types found include for a period, eg during pleasure; fixed term; for a reason, eg legitimate without licence; orders; orders, 'cum ex eo'; requested or promoted; service; unlicensed
Provisions
-- Definition: Provisions of expectative graces; expectative graces, in forma pauperum; expectative graces, revoked; also provisions in forma pauperum
Residence
-- Definition: For eg: commons for; enforced; for fixed term; required
Study
-- Definition: For periods, eg: for a specific time; at different places, eg: at studium generale; at studium generale in England; other, eg: return from required; special requirements; under 'cum ex eo'; see also Benefice and office holding, Absence; Non residence; Schools, Universities, Study, Teachers and Pupils
Presentations
-- Definition: For eg: to rectories; masterships; disputed; requested; required; procedure for. See also Archives and Manuscripts for presentation deeds; Advowsons, patrons and patronage
Poverty
-- Definition: Poverty, of specific individuals or groups, A-Z, for eg: clerks; parishioners; priests; scholars; Poverty, of specific property, A-Z, for eg: benefices; religious houses; also relief of
Cemeteries
-- Definition: Churches, chantries and chapels, types, A-Z. Cemeteries, for eg: consecration of; desecration; reconciliation of; For sections of church etc., buildings, see Buildings and structures
Major Orders
-- Definition: Major Orders are higher grades of the Christian ministry which included priests, deacons, and sub-deacons.
Minor Orders
-- Definition: Major orders were lower grades of the Christian ministry. Those in minor orders were ranked below the major orders and had not been ordained. Minor orders were: acolytes, lectors, exorcists, and doorkeepers.
Orders
-- Definition: Orders, incl letters of Orders, to be produced. See also Archives and manuscripts, Letters dimissory; Benefice and Office holding; Sins, correction and forgiveness, Dispensations
Boots
-- Definition: Clothes, types, A-Z; Clothing, of specific persons or groups; Fabrics, types, A-Z; see also Jewellery and personal effects; Vestments
Synods
-- Definition: Use for articular Synods, add feast/time of year as necessary, eg: Easter Synods. Incl administration of holding,etc., for eg: commission to hold; summons to; licence not to attend (for a period, eg: life); non attendance at
Corrodies
-- Definition: Use for Corrodies for specific persons or groups and circumstances. For eg: forbidden without archbishop's consent; granted; licensed; liveries of; requested; sale of
Pensions
-- Definition: Use for Pensions for specific persons (eg: former head of religious house; former incumbent) or groups and circumstances. For eg: forbidden without archbishop's consent; granted; licensed; liveries of; owed; requested; sale of; licences to grant, ordinances
Criminous Clerks
-- Definition: Use for commissions to receive; commissions to receive and seek out; escape of; release of. See also Sins, correction and forgiveness
Violence
-- Definition: incl violence by clergy/religious; towards clergy/religious
DEATH AND BURIAL
Burial
-- Definition: Use for burial in specific places, eg: in cathedral; also feigned burial. See also Cemeteries, Churchyards, Chapelyards; see Rites, Sacraments, Sacramentals, Ceremonies and equipment for Funerals
Small Tithes
-- Definition: Generally all other predial tithes than those classed as great tithes, all mixed and personal tithes, commonly payable to the vicar of the parish (TNA research guide)
Tithes
-- Definition: Tithes, by commodity or activity; see also Agriculture and Land Use; Animals, fish and birds, incl game and livestock; Farming, fishery and food production; Trade and commerce. Use for licences to farm, let or sell, incl before separation, before separation for a specific period; other subjects include delivery of; inquisitions into; payment of; stay of payment of; ordinances; confirmation of ordinances
Universities
-- Definition: Use for Studium generale (pl. Studia generalia), places of study/teaching, welcoming students from different regions/countries, that is, a term for a medieval university. Study at a 'Studium generale' in England therefore presumably refers to either Oxford or Cambridge University. See also Benefice and office holding, absence, non-residence, study; Sins, correction and forgiveness, Dispensations.
Masses
-- Definition: Masses, for specific occasions, by type, A-Z, incl masses for the day; for Saints, etc., named, A-Z, incl for the Blessed Virgin Mary; the Holy Cross; for groups, incl the living and the dead; the dead and for souls of the departed
Placebo and Dirige
-- Definition: First words of first antiphons of Vespers and Matins sung in the office of the dead (Du Boulay)
Prayers
-- Definition: Prayers, for specific persons or occasions, by type, A-Z, incl for eg: for end of plague; for end of wars (with specific people, such as the French, the Scots); for good weather; for peace; for the state of the realm; Incl for eg: for the king; the king's health; for the queen; prayers for the living and the dead; prayers for the dead; prayers for the souls of the departed; also Prayers, named, A-Z, added as sub-headings
Affinity
-- Definition: Causes relating to this subject heard in the Ecclesiastical Courts, see Courts, Ecclesiastical. See also Church Furniture, Tables of Degrees
Acolytes
-- Definition: An acolyte is a member of the minor orders who assisted priests during Mass. The role of acolytes also included lighting the candles and carrying the censer.
Archdeacons
-- Definition: An archdeacon is a priest who has administrative authority over an archdeaconry. Archdeacons are appointed by the bishop of the diocese. Their roles include helping the bishop in the pastoral care of the archdeaconry, for example holding annual visitations to the parishes in the archdeaconry.
Bishops
-- Definition: A bishop is a high-ranking priest who has jurisdiction over a diocese.
Canons (Ecclesiastical)
-- Definition: A canon is a member of clergy attached to a cathedral chapter or collegiate church. They share the church revenues and live communally.
Chancellors (Ecclesiastical)
-- Definition: A chancellor in terms of the church was the chief administrative representative of a bishop who aided with secular affairs.
Chantry Chaplains
-- Definition: A chantry chaplain was a priest who had charge over a chantry chapel.
Chaplains
-- Definition: A chaplain is a priest who has charge over a chapel. Chaplains are ordinary clerics with non-parochial duties.
Clergy
-- Definition: The clergy, or clerics, is a term to describe all those who have joined the ministry of Christian Church.
Clerks (Ecclesiastical)
-- Definition: A 'clerk' was a male person who was in principle literate, and usually (but by the later fourteenth century not necessarily), in at least minor orders. – P. H. Cullum, 'Boy/Man into Clerk/Priest: The Making of the Late Medieval Clergy,' in Rites of Passage: Cultures of Transition in the Fourteenth Century, eds. Nicola F. McDonald and W. M. Ormrod (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2004), 51-65.
Clerks of the Closet
-- Definition: The clerk of the closet presided over the Royal College of Chaplains. One responsibility of the clerk of the closet was the presentation of bishops to the Sovereign after they are consecrated.
Coadjutors
-- Definition: A coadjutor was an assistant to someone holding an office who was old and infirm, for example to a bishop or abbot. Coadjutors could also function as successors to the position they assisted.
Commissaries
-- Definition: A commissary was a clerical official who exercised church jurisdiction as a representative of an archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon.
Confessors
-- Definition: A confessor was a priest who heard private confessions.
Curates
-- Definition: A curate is a priest who assists a priest in ministering a parish. Curates are appointed to a parish in the absence of a vicar.
Curators
-- Definition: A curator had the position of guardianship over young persons who were under twenty-one, therefore considered minors, but generally older than fourteen for male and twelve for female minors.
Deacons
-- Definition: A deacon is a member of the major orders, below bishops and priests. Deacons have the role of assisting priests in church services, for example celebrating Mass or visiting the sick.
Deans (Cathedral)
-- Definition: A dean (Cathedral), as opposed to a dean (rural), is the head of a cathedral chapter or collegiate church.
Deans (Rural)
-- Definition: A dean is a priest appointed to supervise a group of parishes known as a deanery. Rural deaneries were grouped together to form archdeaconries.
Deans of Christianity
-- Definition: A dean of Christianity was an official who ‘presided over synods of the clergy of a designated sub-division of a diocese and who represented them at diocesan level’ - Richard Oram, Dominion and Lordship: Scotland 1070-1230 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 347. • The dean of Christianity in York was commissioned to: deal with administration of testators and their executors, receive and relay money owed to the Archbishop, and investigate crimes committed all within the Deanery of the Christianity of York. – Carson I. A. Richie, The Eccleisatical Courts of York (Arbroath: Herald Press, 1956), 235.
Executors
-- Definition: An executor is someone appointed by a testator of a will to ensure the directions of the will are carried out.
Executrixes
-- Definition: An executrix is a female executor.
Keepers of Spiritualities
-- Definition: The keeper of spiritualities took over the spiritual role, or cure of souls, for a bishopric during a vacancy.
Lecturers
-- Definition: After the Reformation lecturers were ministers, often deacons, who were appointed by parishes or towns to preach regularly. These positions were not beneficed.
Ministers
-- Definition: A minister is a term for someone charged to perform a liturgical duty or service of the Church. Minister for example could apply to a deacon or acolyte.
Minor Canons
-- Definition: A canon is a member of clergy attached to a cathedral chapter or collegiate church. The role of minor canons was primarily singing the services and had no role in decision making.
Notaries Public
-- Definition: A notary public was an officer, appointed by the Pope or papal delegates, to certify legal transactions and record memoranda. For example, notaries wrote the documents produced during a bishop’s visitation.
Pardoners
-- Definition: A pardoner was someone licenced to sell papal indulgences or pardons.
Penitencers
-- Definition: A penitencer was a priest appointed to hear confession, administer penance and give absolution. – Oxford English Dictionary, penitencer, n.
Penitentiaries
-- Definition: A penitentiary was a priest in a cathedral or conventual church to aid the bishop in hearing confessions and administering penance.
Perpetual Curates
-- Definition: A perpetual curate is a priest licenced by a bishop to officiate in a parish on behalf of a lay rector or the impropriator of the benefice, but without the status of a vicar.
Prebendaries
-- Definition: A prebendary is a member of a chapter who provides clerical services.
Precentors
-- Definition: A precentor is a member of a cathedral who is responsible for the organisation of music there.
Priests
-- Definition: A priest is an official minister of the Christian faith who has been ordained by a bishop. Priests are authorised to: celebrate Mass and administer the other sacraments, hear confession, and maintain the rights of the church.
Proctors
-- Definition: A proctor is someone appointed to manage the affairs, for example legal or financial, of someone on their behalf. In a legal context a proctor was a professional representative for a party in a court, for example a bishop’s consistory courts.
Provosts
-- Definition: A provost was an office in a secular cathedral related to financial matters. The provost presided if the dean of a cathedral was absent. A provost is a term also given to the head of a college.
Rectors
-- Definition: A rector is a priest who had charge of a parish. The rector held rights over the dues of the parish and received great tithes.
Regular Canons
-- Definition: A canon is a member of clergy attached to a cathedral chapter or collegiate church. Regular canons are those living under a monastic rule.
Sacrists
-- Definition: A sacrist was a monastic or cathedral office responsible for maintaining the altar, vestments and internal repair and decoration of the church.
Sequestrators
-- Definition: A sequestrator was an official appointed by a bishop to make sequestrations within the diocese.
Songmen
-- Definition: A songman was someone who was a singer in a cathedral choir.
Suffragans
-- Definition: A suffragan is an assistant bishop who is delegated episcopal duties within a particular diocese.
Supervisors
-- Definition: A supervisor is someone appointed by a testator to ensure the terms of their will are correctly carried out by the executors.
Testators
-- Definition: A testator is a term for a person who has died, leaving a will.
Treasurers (Ecclesiastical)
-- Definition: A treasurer was an office in a religious house or cathedral who was responsible for the relics, liturgical vessels. Treasurers could also take on a financial role, for example in the context of a religious house.
Tutors
-- Definition: A tutor had the position of guardianship of young persons who were under twenty-one, therefore considered minors, but under the ages of curation, fourteen for male and twelve for female minors.
Vicars
-- Definition: A vicar is a priest appointed to undertake the clerical duties of a parish when the parish tithes were appropriated to a religious house or individual such as an absentee rector. Vicars received smaller tithes or a stipend.
Vicars Choral
-- Definition: Vicars choral are minor order clergy attached to a secular cathedral. The role of vicars choral was to sing the services.
Vicars General
-- Definition: Vicars general are clerics appointed to assist a bishop or archbishop in exercising their jurisdiction. Before the fifteenth century vicars general were responsible for business which did not require the rank of bishop, but were appointed temporarily to this role in the absence of the bishop from the diocese. By the fifteenth century the vicar general developed into a more permanent office, one that often continued even during periods of vacancy in the diocese. - J. S. Purvis, Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Terms (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1962), 200-201.
Vice Chancellors
-- Definition: A vice chancellor was the deputy office for the chancellor.
Wardens
-- Definition: A warden is a term given to the head of an ecclesiastical institution such as a chantry college.
Papal Constitutions
-- Definition: Constitutions, named, A-Z, incl: Ad compescendas; Ad tutelam; Amoris proprii; Cum ex eo; De multa; Decimas; Excommunicamus; Execrabilis; Licet canon; Quia regulares; Quum secundum apostolum qui; Sacrorum canonum; Si beneficia; Super cathedram
Papal Curia
-- Definition: Curia, Papal, departments, A-Z; Curia, Papal, events at, A-Z, incl for eg: visits to; appeals to; consecrations at; deaths at; exchanges at; law suit at; resignation at; obligatory visits to by bishops (Limina Apostolorum)
Property
-- Definition: Property, transactions, A-Z, for eg: alienation of; exchanges of; farming of; leasing of; Property, types, A-Z; also oversight of; inquiries into. See also Liberties, franchises and regalities; see also Archives, manuscripts and documents
Religious Houses
-- Definition: Religious houses, general (Abbeys, Priories, Friaries, Commanderies, Preceptories, Nunneries), incl archbishop's relationship with; dispersal of; laity accommodated in; recruitment to; relocation of; supervision of. To be dealt with under places/institutions, with list of houses, by type, A-Z; see also Poverty; see also under place-names; use Buildings and structures for fabric; Property and tenure for lands, etc., see also Religious Orders
Dispensations
-- Definition: For specific reasons, eg: absence; absence 'cum ex eo'; bastardy; canonical hours; non residence; not to obtain orders higher than sub deacon; study 'cum ex eo'. See also Benefice and Office holders, Absence, Non-residence; Clergy, ordinations; Courts, Ecclesiastical, Matrimony
Appointments of collectors
-- Definition: Use for archbishop's certification of collectors to Exchequer; other documents may include monitions for speedy collection
Assessments
-- Definition: See also Dues and Offerings; Papacy
Clerical Poll Taxes
-- Definition: Give specific subsidy using details from E 179 database
Clerical Subsidies
-- Definition: Lay taxation; give specific subsidy using details from E 179 database
Clerical Tenths
-- Definition: Clerical taxation; give specific grant using details from E 179 database
Archbishops' Visitations
-- Definition: Archbishops who had newly been installed had customary rights to visitation within their province. Archbishop’s visitations could sometimes be considered as intruding on a bishop’s authority within their diocese.
Archdeacons' Visitations
-- Definition: Archdeacons undertook visitations to parishes with their archdeaconry and were aided by deans (rural).
Citations
-- Definition: A citation was the act of summons to an ecclesiastical court, in this context the visitation.
Comperta and detecta
-- Definition: Detecta were the written depositions of those being investigated, such as the monks or nuns of a religious house, which included issues presented to the bishop during the visitation. The comperta was a record of what had been discovered by the bishop as a result of the visitation and were essentially a collated summary of the detecta.
Dissolutions
-- Definition: The dissolution was the formal ending of a visitation which followed the presentation of the injunctions. Formal dissolution was sometimes prolonged if, at the end of the visitation, there remained issues or business to resolve.
Inhibitions
-- Definition: An inhibition was the suspension of all subordinate jurisdictions under the authority undertaking the visitation for its duration. – J. S. Purvis, An Introduction to Ecclesiastical Records (London: St Anthony’s Press, 1953), 46. An inhibition also referred to an order by a bishop, or another ordinary, to suspend a clergy in office from undertaking the office because of irregular of scandalous acts. - Borthwick Cause Paper Glossary. https://www.york.ac.uk/borthwick/holdings/guides/research-guides/what-are-causepapers/glossary/.
Injunctions
-- Definition: Injunctions were the list of corrections that were presented to the institution being visited based on the contents of the comperta. These were given first verbally at the end of the visitation proceedings, and later sent as a written document.
Monitions
-- Definition: A monition is a warning, in this case to observe the injunctions produced from a visitation which was included at the end of the injunctions. The verbal presentation of injunctions was sometimes referred to as monitions.
Prorogations
-- Definition: Prorogation was the act of prolonging the visitation without dissolution. This was practiced if there were outstanding issues or business which needed resolving.
Visitations
-- Definition: Visitations were the formal inspection of an ecclesiastical institution or area by either an archdeacon, bishop, or archbishop. The purpose of a visitation was to inspect the monetary and spiritual condition of the institution or area and correct any wrongdoing.