St. Hugh of Lincoln is said to have settled the vicarage of Swynford, Lincolnshire, in 1200, an early example. His successor, William of Blois (1203-1209), as one of the earliest acts of his episcopate, required the Canons of Dunstable to endow a vicarage for their church of Pullokeshull with the altar dues, ten acres of land, and a third of the tithes. From the register of his successor, Hugh of Wells (1209-1235), it appears that three hundred vicarages were ordained in his long episcopate. In 1220 he made a visitation of Dunstable Priory, and made the monks settle vicarages in five of their churches. The Pope gave his successor, Bishop Grostete (1235-1254), authority to visit the exempt[87] orders, and to make them endow vicarages for their churches.
And what the Bishops of Lincoln were doing in their vast diocese, other bishops were also doing all up and down the country; the episcopal registers abound in records of these "taxations," as they were called.[88] We take two or three examples from the register of Walter de Gray, Archbishop of York, 1215-1256.
The name of Kirkby Malamdale shows that it was an ancient parish. A charter of King John confirmed the gift of it by Adam Fitz Adam to the canons of West Dereham in Norfolk, _quod suos in usus convertant proprios, salvâ tamen decenti et honorifica administratione ejus ecclesiæ_. The abbot and canons appear, however, to have failed to fulfil the provisions stipulated for in the charter, for Archbishop Walter de Gray, in 1250, peremptorily summoned them "to appear before him on the morrow of the Lord's Day on which is sung _Lætare Jerusalem_ (fourth in Lent), wherever in his diocese he should happen to be, to show how the vicarage was endowed and under what authority, taking notice that whether they were present or not, if it should appear to be insufficient, he should proceed to augment it both by the apostolic authority (_i.e._ of the Apostolic See) and by his own."[89]
These arrangements were (as has been said) universally subject to future modification. For example, in settling the Vicarage of Gerneby (Granby), which was in the presentation of the Prior and Convent of Thurgarton, Notts, the archbishop describes what the vicar is to have, and concludes that the Prior and Convent are to have the residue, "unless it should appear that an augmentation is needed."[90] Appeals from vicars for an augmentation are not infrequent; for example, "Magister Orlandus, the perpetual vicar of Cunigbur (Conisborough), having urged against the prior and Convent of Lewes that his vicarage be taxed (= surveyed and valued and dealt with), we do so. The corn tithe, demesne lands and meadow of the church, and the tenants' rents to belong to the prior and convent; the lesser tithes, etc., with two tofts, which we have assigned for a manse, to belong to the vicar."[91]