download

394
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
of opinion ever arose between the two, and the quarrel of
papacy and empire had as yet no echo in England. One great
innovation, however, of permanent significance, was made by
the king, almost certainly at the demand of his primate, and
perhaps as an enforcement of a conciliar decree of 1076. In the
last century, at least, of the Old English Church the bishops,
sitting with lay magnates in the hundred court, had given
on canonical as well as on secular causes. In 1080 or
judgement
thereabouts, by a general writ to his sheriffs, the king estabx
lished separate episcopal courts in each diocese with full
powers, and guaranteed the support of the secular arm in
bringing those accused to justice. The aim ofthis decision was
to leave the decision in spiritual
cases to those holding spiritual
authority and acquainted with the canon law; it was not
directed towards the protection of clerical offenders as such; it
was an elementary and necessary unravelling ofa tangled skein;
but it was to have weighty consequences.
Along with this major reform went a number ofsmaller ad'
ministrative changes, all tending to bring England into line
with continental practice, which was in most cases the ancient
traditional discipline of the Church. Foremost among these
was the establishment of a disciplined body of clergy at the
cathedral church ofeach diocese. Save at the existing monastic
cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester, and Canterbury there
was little that could be called organization of worship or
administration. Gradually the Norman bishops introduced
a system of prebends and officials such as already functioned
at Rouen, Bayeux, and elsewhere. The cathedral chapter so
formed, with duties of performing the liturgy and overseeing
the revenues attached to the cathedral, gradually acquired a
standard form with a rota of attendance under the 'quadri'
lateral' ofofficials dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer
and a norm of liturgical observance, its taking name from the
cathedral where Osmund, one of the Conqueror's bishops,
had been an influential reformer, was gradually adopted all
over England and became the Sarum rite. A body thus came
into being which soon found itself invested with the right of