bishop of Lincoln, a consistent supporter of the papacy at the council of Siena, was provided to the archbishopric.* The chapter of York, however, had elected Philip Morgan, bishop of Worcester, upon a congé d'elire issued on 16 November, 1423.† Flemyng was unable to obtain the execution of his bull without incurring the penalties of præmunire, and the deadlock which ensued was ended by the consent of the Crown to the re-translation of Flemyng to Lincoln and the concurrent translation of John Kempe, bishop of London, to York. The necessary bulls were issued on 20 July, 1425,+ from which date, as the internal evidence of Kempe's register proves, his pontifical years at York were reckoned. Curiously enough, however, the entry at the beginning of his register gives 1426 as the year of his translation instead of 1425. This mistake was copied, doubtless from the register, by the author of the continuation of Stubbs' chronicle, and has found its way, so far as the present writer has observed, into everything that has been written about the archbishop.

John Kempe, previously archdeacon of Durham for a short time, was consecrated bishop of Rochester in 1419, probably at Rouen on 3 December.§ He was translated to Chichester by bull, 28 Feb. 1420-1,|| and from Chichester to London on 17 Nov. 1421.¶ He remained at York for twenty-seven years from 1425, was translated to Canterbury on 21 July, 1452,** and died on 22 March, 1453-4. From 1426 to 1432, and from 1450 to 1454, he held the high office of chancellor of England, and in 1438 he received the cardinalate from pope Eugenius IV. His life belongs rather to the history of England than to that of the see of York; but it is evident from the documents which follow that he

† Cal. Pat. 1422-9, p. 138.

*Cal. Papal Letters, vii., 345-6. They are not noted in Cal. Papal Letters, but the date appears from Reg. Kempe, passim, and Linc. Epis. Reg. Flemyng. Kempe's temporalities were not restored till 22 April, 1426 (Cal. Pat., 1422-9, p. 331).

§ Stubbs, ut sup., p. 86. He was provided, 21 June, 1419 (Cal. Papal Letters, vii., 133).

Cal. Papal Letters, vii., 191.

** Le Neve, i., 110.

Ibid., vii., 161.

attempted seriously to fulfil his often interrupted duties as archbishop. The gate-house of Cawood castle is an abiding memorial of his residence in his diocese. Moreover, he surrounded himself and filled the dignities of his cathedral church with an exceptionally able staff of clerks. The activities of William Felter, John Bernyngham, and John Marchall receive illustration in these pages; while the documents printed in Testamenta Eboracensia prove the amity and mutual good-fellowship which existed between them.

The notices of Bowet's primary visitation of his diocese occur in various parts of his register, among the documents relating to the various chapters, archdeaconries, and spiritualities with which they are concerned. There are no details of his visitation of the archdeaconry of Richmond, of the chapters of Ripon and Southwell, or of his jurisdiction of Hexhamshire. Otherwise, his programme remains in full. His intention was to perform the visitation in person: the only part left to a commissary was the examination of business regarding the outlying fragment of the diocese in Gloucestershire. The earliest notice, addressed to the dean of the Christianity of York, was despatched from Cawood castle on 12 March, 1408-9. Those intended for the archdeacon of York, the religious houses in that archdeaconry which the archbishop proposed to visit, and the exempt houses from which he demanded hospitality by way of a procuration were issued on 15 March. The similar notices for the archdeaconry of Nottingham bear date 10 May, the day before the archbishop was advertised to begin his visitation of the city of York.

According to the programme, this part of the visitation occupied three days, beginning on Saturday, 11 May, and ending on Tuesday, the 14th. Nothing was done upon the intervening Sunday, and there is no indication that Bowet visited St. Mary's abbey. The clergy of the churches belonging to the peculiar of the dean and chapter were exempt from visitation, but the parishioners, at any rate, were expected to attend. After his visitation of the York

parishes, the archbishop waited for two days, until the feast of the Ascension was past. On the morrow of that festival, he entered upon his visitation of the deanery of Ainsty at Aberford. The various stages of his progress may be traced in the text, and need not be detailed here. Its western limit for the time being was Kirkstall abbey, where he spent the Sunday after Ascension day with his whole household. From Drax he returned to spend Whitsuntide at Cawood, and during this interval issued his notices to the guardians of the spiritualities of Howden and Howdenshire, Snaith, and Selby. On Monday, 3 June, he resumed his progress at Selby abbey. Journeying through the deanery of Pontefract, he reached his peculiar jurisdiction of Otley on the 7th, and from the 8th to the 11th occupied himself with the deanery of Craven. His most westerly point was Skipton, and he appears to have made no arrangement which included the remote parishes of Bolton-by-Bowland-although to this there is a doubtful reference-and Slaidburn, on the borders of Lancashire. Between the 12th and 15th he concluded his visitation of Pontefract deanery, spending the 14th and 15th at St. Oswald's priory. On the 16th he visited Monkbretton priory, and began the visitation of the deanery of Doncaster on the 17th. This was finished at Hatfield on the 25th. Sunday, the 23rd, was a day of rest, spent in the exempt monastery of Roche: otherwise, every day was occupied with the business in hand. The work was somewhat lightened by making Rotherham and Doncaster centres of visitation for two days respectively. The last three days, however, in view of the archbishop's subsequent movements, were awkwardly arranged. From Roche he visited Tickhill on the 24th. The Nottingham visitations were timed to begin at Scrooby on the 26th, so that, to hold the concluding session at Hatfield on the 25th, a deviation from the direct route was necessary. Moreover, the Hatfield arrangements were inconvenient for some of the parishes concerned. Doncaster would have been a more appropriate centre for the clergy and lay representatives of Hemsworth and Kirk Smeaton. The same inconvenience, however, is noticeable

in the case of the parishes visited at Tickhill; and it is probable that the clerks who mapped out the scheme consulted the apportionment of the daily procurations due to the archbishop, without much regard to the geographical fitness of their plan.

On the 26th the archbishop proceeded to visit the deanery of Retford. His stay at the exempt house of Mattersey on

27 June was made the occasion for a visitation of the vicarages in those parts which belonged to the chapter of St. Sepulchre's chapel at York; but on the 29th and 30th he rested for entertainment at the abbeys of Welbeck and Rufford. On 2 July he finished with Retford deanery. From the 3rd to the 5th he visited the parishes of Newark deanery, spending the 4th and 5th at Newark. The next two days were spent in visiting Thurgarton priory; and the deanery of Bingham occupied the inside of the following week, two days being devoted to Bingham and two to Ruddington. On Sunday, 14 July, the archbishop was at Lenton priory. He began his visitation of Nottingham deanery in St. Mary's at Nottingham on the 15th, where he also summoned the clergy and layfolk of certain parishes, hitherto omitted, of Bingham deanery. On the 18th he visited Newstead priory with some of the adjacent parishes, and, on the 19th, Felley priory; and, on 20 July, he concluded his visitation of the archdeaconry at Worksop priory. From this point he probably returned to Scrooby or Cawood for the following Sunday. On Tuesday, 23 July, he visited the spirituality of Snaith. Next day he was at Howden, and spent the rest of the week in visiting that spirituality at three other centres. A round of visitations which had lasted almost continuously for eight weeks was concluded with the spirituality of Selby on Monday, 29 July.

A long and systematic visitation of the East Riding, for which the notices were sent out on 3 August, was begun, after an interval of eight weeks, at Kirkham priory, on Monday, 23 September. This visitation lasted over six weeks, till 5 November, and the average number of parishes summoned to the daily sessions was small compared with the

average for the archdeaconries of York and Nottingham. The parishes of the small deanery of Buckrose occupied four days, from 24 to 27 September. Dickering deanery was spread over ten days, from 28 September to 7 October, one day each being allotted to the churches and vicarages of Scarborough, Hunmanby, and Bridlington, two days to Bridlington priory, while Hunmanby was made a centre for two days. Ten more days, from 8 to 17 October, were spent in the deanery of Holderness. Of these, however, Sunday, the 13th, was a day of repose at Meaux abbey. On Friday, the 18th, the visitation of Harthill deanery was begun at Hull. The archbishop was at Cottingham on the 19th: on Sunday, the 20th, he was enthroned in Beverley minster, which he visited next day. On the 22nd he visited the Beverley parishes. The parishes of the provostry were not visited at any special centre, but were included at various centres with the other parishes of the deaneries of Harthill and Holderness. After leaving Beverley the archbishop visited Haltemprice and Ferriby priories. On the 25th he continued his parochial visitations at Ferriby, and on the 26th made his manor of Bishop Burton his centre. He then travelled through the north-eastern part of Harthill deanery, spending the feast of St. Simon and St. Jude at Watton. From Kirkburn, on 30 October, he turned westwards. All Saints' day and All Souls' day were spent in visitations at Warter. On 3 November he drew near York at Catton, from which he turned southward to Sutton-on-Derwent and, after receiving his procuration at Ellerton priory on 5 November, left the archdeaconry, apparently for Cawood.

It was not until the following 14 May, in 1410, that Bowet sent out notices to the archdeaconry of Cleveland and the spirituality of Northallerton and Allertonshire. The visitation was opened at Stillingfleet on 30 June, after which the archbishop journeyed northward through the deanery of Bulmer. Two days were allowed for Marton priory and three days for Newburgh. Another day was allotted to resting at Byland abbey, and Thirsk, the most northerly point of the deanery, was reached on 10 July. From the