Introduction

Introduction

THE CHAPTER OF HEREFORD CATHEDRAL TO 1300

The diocese of Hereford was established in the late seventh century when a see was created for the people living west of the Severn, the Westerna (later known as the Magonsaetan). (fn. 1) However, the first references to the church of Hereford come from the turn of the eighth and ninth centuries, (fn. 2) and the earliest mention of the community serving the church can be found in a charter of Bishop Cuthwulf of Hereford, datable 840 × 852, where it is referred to as a congregatio. (fn. 3) Unfortunately this is one of only a tiny handful of pre-Conquest Hereford documents to survive; (fn. 4) nonetheless, few though the surviving charters are, they allow us to observe that there was no attempt to introduce Benedictine monasticism to Hereford, as happened at the cathedral of the neighbouring diocese of Worcester. (fn. 5) Instead, Hereford, like most pre-Conquest English cathedrals, was served by clerks.

Even though our information for the early history of the diocese and the cathedral is extremely limited, we can be fairly certain that the majority of the endowments which formed the episcopal and chapter estates of the central middle ages were bestowed on the church in the middle Saxon period. A bull of Innocent II for Bishop Robert de Béthune confirms the libertas granted by'Mereduth, Anglorum rege' to Hereford, specifying particularly the woods belonging to the church of Hereford, notably the woods of Malvern. (fn. 6) This probably represents a garbled version of the cathedral tradition that the earliest endowment of the see had been made by Mildfrith, a late seventh-century king of the Magonsaetan. (fn. 7) The core of the church's estates was formed by territories in the valley of the Lugg and the central part of the Wye valley, with another sizeable group of estates in the Malvern Hills, and, because of their compact siting and choice locations, all these territories are likely to represent early grants, quite possibly by Mildfrith. Furthermore, Hereford's early possession of Prestbury and Sevenhampton in Gloucestershire is suggested by the dispute between its bishop, Wulfheard, and Deneberht, bishop of Worcester, over rights due from the minsters of Cheltenham and Beckford in Gloucestershire in 803. (fn. 8) Gerald of Wales in his Life of St Ethelbert records a tradition that the great episcopal manor of Lydbury North in Shropshire was given by 'Egwinus quatiens caput' to the church of Hereford following the murder of King Ethelbert of East Angliaby Offa, king of Mercia (757-96) and the establishment of Ethelbert's martyr cult at Hereford. This story cannot be relied on, but the grant of Lydbury to the church of Hereford is unlikely to have been late, since the estate was a very large one, assessed at 53 hides in Domesday. (fn. 9) According to the cathedral obit book, two benefactresses, Godiva and Wulviva, granted the manors of Pyon,Norton, Woolhope (whose name, Wolvythehope in an early thirteenth-century charter, contains the name of its mistress) and Preston. (fn. 10) These grants cannot be dated but must predate the Norman Conquest, since the church of Hereford possessed these properties already in the time of Edward the Confessor. (fn. 11)

By the middle decades of the eleventh century some attempt had been made to ascribe some lands to the particular use of the clerks serving the cathedral, both individually and collectively. (fn. 12) However this slow process of splitting up episcopal and chapter estates had been overshadowed by the sack of Hereford cathedral by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn and Earl Ælfgar in October 1055, during which three canons and the four sons of one of them were killed. (fn. 13) The death of the admittedly already elderly bishop Æthelstan early in 1056 must have been hastened by this attack; his successor, Leofgar, was killed in a revenge attack on the Welsh 16 June 1056, and the see of Hereford was then held for some years by Ealdred, bishop of Worcester. (fn. 14)

Meanwhile, some of the lands of the church of Hereford were taken over by Harold in his capacity as earl of Hereford. (fn. 15) Only in 1061 was a new bishop of Hereford appointed, Walter, and he was faced with new problems on the arrival of the Normans in 1066. (fn. 16) Walter's episcopate leaves few traces in the sources; even the year in which he died is not known. Probably he faced an uphill struggle in trying to restore the economic fortunes of the church of Hereford; perhaps he did not make much of an effort to do so. His successor, Robert, a fellow Lotharingian, was much more dynamic. During his episcopate (1079-95) the church's finances improved (fn. 17) and the cathedral community began to be reshaped along continental lines, with the appearance of the first archdeacons (fn. 18) and, probably, the first dean. (fn. 19) The earliest dean, Gerald, who was Robert's brother, is not termed such in the only contemporary document in which he appears, even though he is noted as the leading cleric in Robert's entourage, but he is given the title in the obit book. (fn. 20) It is possible that the obit book was attributing to him a dignity which only came into formal existence later than his time, but equally, if not more, likely that Robert was responsible for its introduction. If so, it is worth noting that he chose a dean to head the chapter rather than a provost, thus electing to follow the example of French cathedral chapters rather than that of his homeland in the Empire. It suggests that Robert was taking his cue from Norman and Norman-trained bishops in the post-Conquest English hierarchy. The significance of having a dean rather than a provost in charge was that the responsibilities of the former were chiefly disciplinary and liturgical, whereas the latter would have controlled the properties assigned to the cathedral community and paid a share of the revenues to each canon. (fn. 21) Opting for a dean made it possible for each canon to have his own prebend and also to have a say in the running of those properties which the chapter chose to maintain for its communal use.

The dates when the other dignities were established are unknown. A cantor and treasurer were in office by 1132, shortly after the start of Robert de Béthune's pontificate, but it is quite likely that a treasurer existed earlier, (fn. 22) and not impossible that there was an earlier cantor also. (fn. 23) The change of the cantor's title to precentor came with the appointment of William Foliot to the office, not long after William de Vere's consecration as bishop 10 August 1186. (fn. 24) The final dignitary to appear, the chancellor, emerged late at Hereford, for although the cathedral probably had a school at least as early as the 1130s, when a grammaticus is referred to, (fn. 25) no dignitary in charge of the schools is attested until late in the twelfth century. Nicholas divinus, otherwise attested as a theology teacher, is once given the title of chancellor, but probably did not hold the office formally: at any rate, his entry in the obit book refers to him as theologus and canon. (fn. 26) An otherwise untraceable chancellor, Ranulf, is attested in the obit book and may well have lived in the twelfth century; the earliest datable chancellor who formally held the dignity is Henry de Vere, who was appointed in the mid 1190s. (fn. 27) Robert de Béthune's episcopate has been viewed as a formative period for the cathedral hierarchy, but this may be a misleading impression, caused by the greatly improved quantity of documentation available at Hereford from 1131 onwards. Robert the Lotharingian's work was fundamental; moreover at least two of his successors appear to have left their mark on the cathedral: bishop Gerard (1096-1100), previously cantor of Rouen cathedral, is probably the person responsible for introducing the Use of Hereford, which shows links with Rouen, while his successor, bishop Reinhelm (1107-15), began the Romanesque rebuilding of the cathedral. (fn. 28) Quite possibly one of these might have established the dignities of treasurer and cantor.

The principle that individual members of the cathedral community should have their own territorial holdings appears to have predated the Norman Conquest at Hereford, and good evidence that each member of the community had his own holding is supplied by the cathedral's Domesday returns, which may well have been drafted by Robert the Lotharingian. (fn. 29) However, the term prebend does not occur in a Hereford context until the pontificate of bishop Geoffrey de Clive (1115-19), to whom Henry I addressed a writ allowing him to take back into episcopal control all land granted out in prebendamsince the death of bishop Robert (1095). (fn. 30) Moreover, as will emerge, it took time for the endowments of some of the prebends to be fixed. Nonetheless, of the final 28 prebends in existence by the mid thirteenth century, no fewer than 14 can be traced back to the individual holdings of cathedral clergy recorded in Domesday, (fn. 31) and it is probable that Robert the Lotharingian was the formative figure in this process. In what shape Robert found the chapter when he became bishop we do not know. We cannot tell, for example, how large it was before Robert's time. The church's Domesday returns in Herefordshire in 1086, however, show tenancies for 21 clerks, four episcopal clerks and four chaplains, a total of 29, to which we can add William, Robert's clerk with a tenancy at Lydbury North in Shropshire. This figure closely resembles the total of 28, excluding the archdeacon of Shropshire, stated in the mid thirteenth-century cathedral statutes, and the discrepancy of one can be explained by developments in the intervening period. Robert de Béthune removed the endowments of four prebends to benefit the foundation of the priory of Llanthony Secunda (Lanthony by Gloucester); (fn. 32) bishop Gilbert Foliot (1148-63) tried to counteract the effects of this by encouraging, or at least allowing, local landowners to create new prebends, endowed with parish churches. Robert de Chandos founded the prebend of Wellington in Herefordshire and Roger Parvus established another endowed with the churches of Moreton and Whaddon in Gloucestershire. (fn. 33) The final prebend to be founded had no endowments, and was funded simply with a share in the commons: this was the prebend Episcopi, set up by bishop Ralph of Maidstone (1234-9) to provide for the office of the penitentiary, which he also set up. (fn. 34)

In addition to the 14 prebends which can be traced back to individual clerical holdings in 1086, a further seven were founded on lands belonging to the church of Hereford in 1086. Most of these were on land described as church demesne, or specifically as episcopal demesne, in 1086, but one of the prebends in question, Nonnington, had in 1086 been held by 'the nuns of Hereford' (possibly survivals of the nunnery of Leominster?) from the church of Hereford. (fn. 35) Meanwhile, some of the lands occurring as individual clerical holdings in 1086 were taken into episcopal demesne. (fn. 36) Some internal reorganisation of the ecclesiastical estates must have occurred in the twelfth century, as the estates for bishop and chapter were slowly separated from each other. (fn. 37) Robert the Lotharingian, in drawing up the returns of his church in 1086, appears to have wished to create the impression to the outsider that bishop and clergy owned their land together: the lands held in Herefordshire are stated to belong to the church of Hereford, not to the bishop alone, and, after an initial section dealing with property in the city of Hereford and with waste, a subheading is inserted: 'These lands mentioned below belong to the canons of Hereford'. (fn. 38) Since the bulk of the lands listed below this heading were episcopal estates in the middle ages, this heading was probably not intended to tell the reader that the properties which followed were the sole property of the canons, but perhaps rather that the canons had some claim to be considered co-owners of the whole. Robert's successors, however, gave the chapter little toehold into the property, though Gilbert Foliot, who may have acquired Hunderton from earl Roger, evidently must have passed it on to the chapter as a prebendal endowment. (fn. 39) The process by which Bullinghope and the two Pratum prebends were endowed is unclear. Perhaps Bullinghope represented yet another establishment of a prebend by a local family. (fn. 40) The meadow which provided the rents for one, perhaps both, of the two Pratum prebends was at Marden, and may have been given to Hereford when it received the church of Marden as a grant from the abbey of Cormeilles in 1195. (fn. 41)

Most of the Hereford prebends were poorly endowed, particularly in comparison with the much more valuable prebends available at Lincoln, York and Salisbury. (fn. 42) Part of the reason for this appears to be the fact that only three of the Hereford prebends - Inkberrow, Moreton and Whaddon, and Wellington - were endowed with parish churches, whereas many of the prebends at Lincoln, York and Salisbury were. (fn. 43) Hereford was also less able than the other three, and noticeably less able than Lincoln, to acquire grants of prebendal endowment from outside. In contrast, Lincoln and Salisbury, for example, acquired numerous grants of land in prebendam from Henry I and Stephen. (fn. 44) Prebendal incomes at Hereford were mostly formed from rents. (fn. 45) In addition each canon, whether resident or not, was entitled to an equal share of the small commons, one of the three forms in which distributions were made from the common fund. The other two payments - great commons and quotidian commons - were payable only to residentiaries. (fn. 46) This was laid down in the 1240s, firstly in a separate statute confirmed by the pope at the request of bishop Peter of Aigueblanche, and then in the earliest full set of chapter statutes, drawn up by bishop Peter probably shortly after 1246. (fn. 47) However, it is not impossible that it reflected an existing state of affairs.

All the Hereford prebends were in the gift of the bishop. It is clear from the litigation pursued by Hugh Parvus over Moreton and Whaddon that the Parvus family felt that they had a right to decide who the prebendary holding Moreton and Whaddon should be, but Hugh lost the dispute and the family's claim was not raised again. (fn. 48) Recruitment into the chapter therefore reflected, by and large, the views of individual bishops, and of course the people who influenced them. Unsurprisingly quite a few prebends were bestowed on episcopal relatives: the numerous Foliot canons, William de Vere's nephew Henry de Vere the chancellor, Peter of Aigueblanche's four nephews and a noticeable contingent of Swinfields are all examples. (fn. 49) However, usually many more prebends would fall vacant in a given pontificate than the number of episcopal relatives able and willing to accept them, and the most significant group of clergy seeking rewards consisted of the clerical members of the episcopal households. (fn. 50) Moreover, bishops might well be persuaded by the king, colleagues and acquaintances to bestow prebends on certain clerics. There is documentary evidence that Peter of Savoy and Nicholas de Geneville acquired their prebends at Hereford through royal influence; (fn. 51) royal pressure was applied, but unsuccessfully, in the case of a clerk of Edward I called M. Giles, (fn. 52) and it is likely that royal influence led to the collation of Elias of Bristol, John of Scarborough, Mathias de Cigogné, Ralph de Hengham, Richard Barre, Robert Burnell and Thomas the king's chaplain. (fn. 53) Kings would have opportunities to exercise their will directly in episcopal vacancies, and we have information about several royal appointments sede vacante in the thirteenth century and even one in the twelfth (M. Geoffrey of Winchester). (fn. 54) Occasionally, written evidence about the operation of the job market survives: Gerald of Wales, himself a protégé of William de Vere, wrote a letter recommending his patron to employ the young Robert Grosseteste, and William took him into his household, but died before he was able to promote him further. (fn. 55) By the middle of the thirteenth century papal provision was beginning to make an impact, though Hereford seems not to have held much interest for thirteenth-century popes, probably because its prebends were not valuable. (fn. 56) Overall, the canons who owed their appointment to direct or indirect royal or papal pressure formed only a small minority.

The proportion of canons who were normally resident cannot be ascertained until late in the thirteenth century, when it was about half. (fn. 57) Nonetheless it is possible, by assembling evidence for offices and activities in which canons engaged outside Hereford, to guess at the likely proportion of non-residentiaries in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries, when it seems to have been about a quarter or a third. (fn. 58) In any case, Hereford's residence rules were quite generous about the amount of time which could be spent away from the cathedral; moreover a list of commons payments surviving from the year 1273 suggests that even canons who were non-residentiaries might attend the cathedral for some of the year. (fn. 59) Already by the very early thirteenth century, if not before, deceased canons had the right to a year's prebendal income after their deaths, to be used by their executors as they saw fit, for Hugh Foliot extended this right, which he said had been granted to the canons by his predecessors (i.e. at least Hugh de Mapenore, 1216-19, andGiles de Braose, 1200-15), to the dignitaries. (fn. 60)

The minor clergy of Hereford cathedral begin to be referred to in charters from the episcopate of Robert Foliot. (fn. 61) Their numbers and conditions of service are uncertain in the late twelfth century, though it is possible that they were not numerous and likely that most of them would have been employed on an ad hocbasis by individual absentee canons. From the 1170s onwards, however, it is possible to ascertain the names of several dean's chaplains, increasingly referred to as subdeans: M. Aldred, Roger, W. and Peter. (fn. 62) The subdean at Hereford did not deputise for the dean in choir but was in charge of jurisdiction in the dean's peculiar, which covered the city of Hereford. (fn. 63) In 1195 another cathedral vicarage was secured on a permanent basis for Hereford cathedral through a confraternity arrangement with the Norman abbey of Cormeilles, according to which the abbot of Cormeilles was made an honorary prebendary of the cathedral, his prebend to consist of the churches held by Cormeilles in the diocese of Hereford (Dymock,Newent and Kingsland, together with the chapel of Pauntley), and his duties in choir to be supplied by a vicar. (fn. 64) Between 1216 and 1219 a similar arrangement was made between Hereford cathedral and another Norman abbey, Lire, (fn. 65) and by the mid thirteenth century both agreements had been adapted to make the twoNorman abbeys supply two vicars each. (fn. 66) Canon Philip Rufus, who died in or before c. 1220, established a perpetual vicar to say mass for his soul and the souls of the faithful departed. (fn. 67) Bishop Ralph of Maidstone persuaded a further French abbey, St Martin of Sées, to give its church at Diddlebury in Shropshire to him in1236, and in the following year he proceeded to appropriate it to the dean and chapter to provide two chaplains and two deacons to serve the church of Hereford on a permanent basis, with a plan to add two subdeacons when the then rector and vicar of the church of Diddlebury should die. (fn. 68) By the mid thirteenth century all six vicars on bishop Ralph's foundation were in post; (fn. 69) two decades and two appointments later, on 3 June 1269, his arrangements were slightly revised by bishop John le Breton, to ensure that the vicars would promise to serve the cathedral continuously at the hours and matins, and would be required to learn the antiphoner and psalter by heart within a year of appointment. (fn. 70) The earliest comprehensive set of cathedral statutes, drawn up under bishop Peter ofAigueblanche (1240-68) at some point after, but probably not long after, December1246, (fn. 71) also specifies that the precentor, treasurer and chancellor each had to appoint a deputy, who had to serve the cathedral as vicar. (fn. 72) M. John Bacon, canon, set up a perpetual vicarage in January 1248/9. (fn. 73) The cathedral obit book records several foundations of vicarages which cannot be closely dated but which must have been set up in the mid or late thirteenth century by: canon Roger deCalkeberge, who died after 24 June 1249; M. Philip of Hay, canon, who also died after 24 June 1249; William, clerk of Holme Lacy; Rannulf, chaplain of Brocton',who died after 1253; canon Stephen Banastre, who died after 12 June 1264, and whose vicar was expected to serve daily at the altar of St Nicholas; M. AlexanderSecular, who died after May 1273; Absolon the clerk, probably identifiable with the Absolon, clerk of the sheriff of Hereford who occurs in a document of 9 October1285, and whose perpetual vicarage was set up to serve the altar of Holy Trinity in the cathedral; and M. William of Hay II, canon, who died on or by 31 May1290 and whose vicar was expected to serve the altar of St Francis. (fn. 74) In comparison with the richer English cathedrals, Hereford thus had only a relatively small group of permanently endowed posts for minor clergy by the late thirteenth century: atSalisbury, by contrast, every canon, whether absentee or resident, had to provide vicar from the early thirteenth century onwards. (fn. 75) However, it is clear from the twelfth- and thirteenth-century charters and the obit book that the cathedral attracted quite a few minor clergy, many of them perhaps in a freelance capacity: for example, the obit book mentions three sacrists and a clerk of the organs. (fn. 76)

SOURCES

The principal sources for the chapter of Hereford cathedral 1066-1300 are the charters, some of them collected into cartularies, associated with the cathedral, and, from 1275 onwards (though also including copies of some earlier material),the episcopal registers. The cathedral obit book records the names of dignitaries and canons dying in post between the middle of the eleventh and the late thirteenth centuries, and sometimes also ones who resigned their posts, if they made a bequest to pay for post-obit prayers. In addition, as for other cathedrals, royal and papal records are very valuable for the thirteenth century. Estate records for Hereford do not survive in any quantity until the late middle ages.

Charters and cartularies

Hereford cathedral's fine collection of charters, Hereford Dean and ChapterMuniments, is largely unpublished. B. G. Charles and H. D. Emanuel prepared an inventory of the collection shortly after the Second World War while the charters were still in the temporary keeping of the National Library of Wales atAberystwyth, to which they had been removed in 1943. (fn. 77) Charles's and Emanuel's inventory, giving detailed summaries of the contents of about 5,000 charters, was never published but a limited number of copies was circulated by the NationalRegister of Archives. (fn. 78) A guide to the cathedral archives was produced by F. C. and P. E. Morgan, and a short history has recently been written by Brian Smith. (fn. 79) The muniments which survive from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries fall into several separate categories: firstly, a very large number of charters concerning the hospital of St Ethelbert in Hereford, founded by canon Elias of Bristol c. 1225and placed under the control of the dean and chapter from its foundation; (fn. 80) secondly, a small number of charters and a cartulary concerning the hospital of StKatherine in Ledbury, founded not long after St Ethelbert's hospital by bishopHugh Foliot and similarly placed in the hands of the dean and chapter; (fn. 81) thirdly, charters concerning the dean and chapter themselves, in particular the chapter commons, many of which were published by Canon William Capes in 1908; (fn. 82) and finally, a collection of charters from Gloucester abbey, which may have been given to Hereford cathedral as early as the mid sixteenth century. (fn. 83)

By the end of the thirteenth century, the dean and chapter had commissioned their first cartulary, now Bodleian MS Jones 23; (fn. 84) it was soon afterwards followed by a larger one, compiled at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, now the second item in Bodleian MS Rawlinson B.329, which preserves many charters of which the originals are no longer extant. One of the aims behind its compilation seems to have been to copy charters recording, or otherwise associated with, disputed settlements. (fn. 85) In the fifteenth century a third cartulary was compiled, principally to preserve charters associated with the funding of obit payments, and it was later bound up with the second cartulary and forms the first item in Bodleian MS RawlinsonB.329. (fn. 86) Most of the charters in Rawlinson B.329 have never been published. (fn. 87)

The cartulary of St Guthlac's priory, Hereford, also hitherto largely unpublished, survives as Oxford, Balliol College, MS 271, (fn. 88) and contains frequent references to canons of Hereford cathedral. Some references are also to be found in several other cartularies from the Welsh Marches and the West Midlands, notably those of the abbeys of Shrewsbury, Haughmond and Gloucester. (fn. 89)

The charters of the bishops of Hereford 1079-1234, many of which contain references to members of the cathedral chapter, have been published in the BritishAcademy's English Episcopal Acta series, and a further volume, to cover the years1234-75, is projected. (fn. 90)

Registers

Hereford's series of episcopal registers begins with that of bishop Thomas deCantilupe (1275-82); it is likely that Cantilupe was the earliest bishop of Hereford to keep a register. (fn. 91) The registers were published by the Cantilupe Society and simultaneously, or nearly simultaneously, in the same editions, by the Canterbury and York Society. The originals are now housed in the Herefordshire CountyRecord Office in Hereford (previously in the Diocesan Registry in Hereford). A useful overview is provided by David M. Smith in his Guide to Bishops'Registers of England and Wales. (fn. 92) The Hereford registers most often used in this volume are those of Thomas de Cantilupe and Richard de Swinfield(1283-1317). (fn. 93)

Other sources

Hereford cathedral produced no historians in the 1066-1300 period, but some local historical works, notably John of Worcester's Chronicon ex Chronicis and the annals of Worcester and of Tewkesbury, contain information about Hereford bishops and a few members of the cathedral community. (fn. 94) William of Wycombe, who had been a canon of Llanthony while Robert de Béthune was prior there, and who had later become prior of Llanthony himself, wrote a Life of Robert whose composition can be dated to the period between 1148 and the mid 1150s, the date of the death of prior Reginald of Wenlock, one of the dedicatees. (fn. 95) Several of the canons of Hereford were authors, above all Gerald of Wales, whose letters throw valuable light on the chapter at Hereford at the turn of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, (fn. 96) and Walter Map, whose De Nugis Curialium preserves someHerefordshire and Shropshire traditions. (fn. 97) Simon de Freine was a capable versifier in Anglo-Norman and Latin, and one of his poems describes the subjects taught at Hereford c. 1200. (fn. 98)

An extremely valuable source for the prosopography of the cathedral chapter is the cathedral obit book, now Bodleian MS Rawlinson B.328, fos. 1-54r. (fn. 99) Although the main hand of the MS is fourteenth-century, the compilation transcribed by this hand was made in the late thirteenth century, essentially in the1270s with only a few later additional names up to 1299. Further additions were inserted in the fourteenth century and later in different hands. (fn. 100) The obit book contains hundreds of names, including those of most of the canons and dignitaries of the cathedral from the late eleventh to the late thirteenth century and a large number of burgesses of Hereford and members of local landowning families, chiefly of the late twelfth and the first half of the thirteenth centuries.

Previous work on Hereford Fasti

In the eighteenth century attempts to compile lists of Hereford canons were made by John Le Neve as part of his compilation of all English cathedral clergy, byRichard Rawlinson as part of his history of the city and cathedral of Hereford and by Browne Willis as part of his Survey of Cathedrals; Le Neve's work was reedited in 1854 by T. Duffus Hardy with (in the case of Hereford) information added from Rawlinson, and in 1869, F. T. Havergal, compiling a list of Hereford clergy, essentially followed Hardy for the central middle ages. (fn. 101) The inaccuracy of these compilations has been long recognised. In the mid 1940s Z. N. and C. N. L. Brooke made a fresh start, working out the dates of the twelfth-century dignitaries from first principles; (fn. 102) later, C. N. L. Brooke with Adrian Morey collected material about canons of Hereford during the pontificate of Gilbert Foliot. (fn. 103) The compiler of the current volume began in about 1980 to work on the Fasti of Hereford dignitaries and canons to help date episcopal acta of the period 1163-1219 for her doctoral thesis; (fn. 104) this list was then gradually corrected and expanded to cover the whole period 1066-1300, and in advance of the publication of this volume some brief notes on the datings of particular dignitaries and canons were made in an appendix to EEA VII. (fn. 105) Simultaneously Diana Greenway made notes on Hereford canons, particularly in the thirteenth century, which she kindly made available to the compiler.

EDITORIAL CONVENTIONS

The editorial conventions are those used in the earlier volumes in this series. The intention is not to provide full biographical information about each member of the chapter, but the minimum necessary to establish correct chronology. Cross references to other volumes in this series are made where relevant.

The given names of individuals are anglicized as far as possible. Surnames are given in the form most often found in the sources, except where the name is an identifiable place-name, in which case the modern form is given. Men normally appearing as magistri in the sources are given the title 'M.'. Where possible, references are supplied to A. B. Emden's biographical registers of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge. In cases where the identity of a member of the chapter can only be conjectured, or where an appointment did not take effect, the entry misplaced in square brackets.

Dates are governed by the following conventions. Two dates linked by a rule, as 1186-98, indicate a term of years from 1186 to 1198. Two dates linked by a multiplication sign, as 1186 × 1198, indicate a specific but unknown date between the opening and closing limits, thus a point between 1186 and 1198. C. for circais used for approximate dates, but only where these can be pinpointed between two or three years.