A HISTORY OF LONDON received no notice."' The chapter was probably deterred from pleading in this instance the privi- lege of exemption from metropoliticai visitation, because lately, by Act of Parliament, the king had been empowered to override such liberties,"** and the visitation was by royal commission. A different course was taken when, in 1636, a visitation was proposed by Laud, as archbishop of Canterbury. The dean and chapter, in a petition to Charles I, then brought forward their ancient claim to exemption. In reply the king, after challenging them to prove not only that the coming visitation was without precedent, but further, that precedents existed against it, ordered them to submit."^ Bishop Bancroft made a visitation in 1598,^^^ and a very disorderly state of affairs was disclosed among the minor canons, the only collegiate clergy left in the cathedral ; who still ' kept commons together in their hall, dinners but not suppers, for their allowance would not maintain both.' It had been ordained by Act of Parlia- ment that the college should bear the charge of all children born within its precincts ; and to rule a number of households with means framed for the control of celibate priests was a difficult task. Between some families feuds existed so bitter and violent that the authority of the dean and chapter was openly flouted. Minor canons admitted strangers into the college as lodgers ; all but three of them had let their official houses. Secularity seems, on the whole, to have increased among them with the Reformation, while their ancient vices, the consequences of ignorance, sloth, and self-indulgence, were at least as preva- lent as ever."' During his visitation Laud attempted to deal with some of the disputes which had arisen as to the property of the cathedral,^^ and which were not settled until 1724, when Bishop Gibson visited St. Paul's, and acknowledged that digni- taries could let the estates attached to their places, but ordered the registration of all such leases.^" The nineteenth century was for cathedrals a period of legislation. The property of the deanery became vested in the Ecclesiastical Commissioners in 1840,*** that of the treasurer in 1858,"' that of the precentor in 1867,"* that of the dean and chapter in 1872.*^' The com- "' Strype, Mem. of Cranmer, i, 49.
- •" Stat, at Large, 25 Hen. VIII, cap. 21, sec. 20.
«" Add. MS. 34268, fol. 18. "' Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 272-80.
- " MSS. of D. and C. of St. Paul's, A. Bo.x 53,
no. 17 454 Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 28. <«Ibid. 313-14.
- " Stat, at Large, Act 4 & 5 Vict. cap. 39, sec. 50.
"" Stippl. to Reg. S. Pau/i (ed. W. S. Simpson), 177. "^ Loud. Gaz. 26 Feb. 1867, p. 1467. "' Ibid. 9 Aug. 1872, p. 3587. missioners were compelled to pay a yearly sum of
- ^i 8,000 to the dean and chapter until these
were in possession of such real estate as would secure to them a like income. From this in- come annual payments were to be made of j^2,000 to the dean, and of jTijOOO to each of the four resident canons : the rest was devoted to the maintenance of services, the discharge of expenses and liabilities incurred on the corporal revenue of the dean and chapter, and to repairs and improvements of the cathedral and the buildings attached to it. The profits accruing from the hall, manor, or parsonage of Tilling- ham were further set apart for repairs. All rights of patronage, the cathedral itself, the precincts, the chapter-house, the surveyor's office, the deanery house, and the canonical houses, were excepted from the scope of the several arrange- ments. It was provided, in 184 1, that a dean need not hold a canonry nor a prebend of the church ; and that no prebends were attached to the canonries in royal patronage.**" In 1840 the patronage of the three existing canonries had been given to the crown, and a fourth canonry had been created, to which the bishop presented an archdeacon of the diocese or another.**' In 1855 an order in council provided that the dean and chapter should present a dean or canon of the cathedral to any of their benefices which fell vacant ; but it reserved seventeen named benefices,**^ all of which were in the City, for the optional tenure of minor canons who had no other cure,* and, failing them, for that of per- sons who held a dignity or prebend in the cathedral, a benefice or cure in the diocese, or a position in the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dur- ham.^" The constitution of the college of minor canons was entirely recast. By the St. Paul's Cathedral Minor Canonries Act of 1875,**' the number of minor canons was reduced to six, saving the rights of such as then were living ; it was enacted that as each minor prebend fell vacant the property *** attached to it should lapse to the commissioners, who should, when the statutory number of minor prebendaries had been reached, provide each with a yearly income of ;{^400 and "" Stat, at Large, Act 4 & 5 Vict. cap. 39, sec. 5.
- " Ibid. Act 3 & 4 Vict. cap. 1 13, sec. 24, 33.
- ' Certain modifications were occasioned by unions
of parishes in 1873, 1875, 1876, 1879,1890. Su/>J>L to Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 108.
- " By Act 3 & 4 ict. cap. 113a minor canon
might hold a benefice within six miles of his cathedral. Minor canons were aho eligible for benefices other than the seventeen which were in the patronage of dean and chapter. Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 371-6. •" Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 371-6. '" Suppl. to Reg. S. Pauli (ed. W. S. Simpson), 94.
- ^ The property of the minor canons consisted of
(i) property vested in their corporation (2) property vested in dean and chapter for their benefit (3) pay- ments by dean and chapter to several minor canons. 4jO
