Church & religious
Canterbury Chapter
Also called the chapter · the chapter at Canterbury · chapter of Canterbury · cathedral chapter · fabric office
The cathedral chapter of Canterbury, which holds the endowment, the precinct, the archive and the fabric, and runs two almshouses and a grammar school. Its remaining authority is that it can consecrate ground in a form the whole south accepts and certify in writing that a burial was properly done; it signed the Obedience in 3949, surrendering the island-wide ordering to Oxford.
The body of canons, a dean and officers that governs Canterbury's cathedral affairs by statutes written for a cathedral under a bishop. Its distinctive public authority is narrow: it consecrates ground in a form the whole south accepts and certifies that burials were properly done; it cannot attend, suppress or remedy troubled ground.
Named with it
- Precentor Hugh Barton
- Father Martin Vale
- Copyist Judith Harbledown
- Canon Alured Fen the Elder
- Precentor Osbern
- Dean Cuthbert Barham
- Almoner Ralph Sturry
- Roof-Warden Thomas Nackington
- Hugh Barton (walks the precinct watch
- knows which jurisdiction owns a question)
- Chancellor Godwin of Canterbury
Ties
- one of the five authorities sharing the government of Kent
- governs under the Bishop of Canterbury (See of Canterbury)
- questions of island-wide form go to Oxford
- its grounds are attended by the Brethren, with hired hands on the outer bound
- the Grey Nails have moved into the gap it cannot fill
- has never sought jurisdiction over the city corporation, which has never claimed entry to the precinct
- shares Canterbury with the city corporation, each barred from the other's ground
- lost the ordering of rite to Oxford in the Obedience War
At the table
Refuses far more than it grants and is obeyed from Kent to the Solent on the strength of that record (it declined to certify for powerful families in 4544 and 4602). Burial certificates are forged because they settle inheritance. Divisive matters are deferred rather than voted. Minutes the Four Grounds (lost Obedience War burial grounds) every year and quietly refuses all applications to break ground in a defined area outside the walls (candidate sites at Hackington and Fordwich). Keeps the best archive in the southern counties, open on written application, nobody reads alone; copyists sell knowledge of it. Asks who carried a suspect object before asking what it is. Twice refused to move the day of the crossing blessing. Has never sought jurisdiction in the city of Canterbury. Has no force outside its precinct; its authority rests on a record of being right and on refusal. Hires bands around the fabric works and for night watch in the precinct, and dismisses parties that vary its walk or keep working after something is turned up (the precentor's standing instruction). Will confirm or deny any Canterbury certificate free on any weekday. Keeps the best archive in the south, open on terms; the Grey Nails' letter to a bishop sits unfiled in it.