york00orns

146 YORK.
area of many of the parishes was very wide, rendering
the attendance of the parishioners at their church
in many cases practically impossible, whilst the
ministrations of religion to the sick and dying were
for the same reason oftentimes unsought, or very
inefficiently discharged. The Archbishop pointed
these things out to Gregory IX., who cordially
responded to his suggestions and gave all the
weight of his authority to the multiplication of these
houses of prayer in the outlying hamlets of scattered
parishes. The priests appointed to serve them were
to reside in the places where they were built, and
pensions were to be assigned for their maintenance.
Many of these are now distinct and separate
benefices.
We do not find that Gray bestowed much upon
the monasteries. His chief munificence was displayed
in the gifts he bestowed upon the Church of
York. To him succeeding Archbishops have been
indebted for the stately dwelling which is now the
only residence attached to the see. The walls of
Bishopthorpe still show some trace of his hand in
their architecture, indicating that he was the "builder
of a mansion as well as the buyer of the estate."
He
provided also a town house at Westminster, but it
has long passed out of the hands of his successors.
At Ripon the western front of the minster is in all
probability due to his munificence, and the stall of
Stanwick in that church was endowed by him. In
the Minster of York the sub-deanery and the subchantorship
of the canons were founded in his time ;
the stall of Wistow established and that of Weighton