| Description | INTRODUCTION
The Sede Vacante Scrap Books are an artificial series created in the late 19th century by Joseph Brigstocke Sheppard, Keeper of the Dean and Chapter's Muniments, to bring together records of the chapter's administration of the Canterbury See during archiepiscopal vacancies. This function of the chapter's dates back to the 13th Century, when many types of jurisdiction and office in the church were in a state of development. The Canterbury sede vacante rights were only gradually secured by the chapter, and the material here assembled provides primary evidence about how they did it, what the rights consisted of and how they developed in subsequent centuries. vacancies from that of 1240-5 to the Reformation are represented, to varying degrees, together with many sede vacante periods afterwards, albeit in much less quantity. At the core of the collection are records of the principal archiepiscopal functions: presidency over the provincial and diocesan church courts; appointments of officials to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction; admissions to benefices in the diocese of Canterbury; and the consecration of the province's bishops. But there is much else besides. It is not the only series at Canterbury relating to sede vacante administration. Several others, notably the Ecclesiastical Suit Rolls and Christ Church Letters, contain broadly similar material, often from the same cases. The reader is advised to consult their catalogues, together with those of Scrapbooks A, Band C, the Chartae Antiquae and the Eastry Correspondence. Attempts to separate vacancy material from the chapter's deeds of title in the 19th Century did not achieve complete success. There are over 1,000 documents in the three Sede Vacante Scrapbooks created by Sheppard. A recent search of some unlisted records loosely classed as Chartae Antiquae revealed more vacancy material, of a similar nature to that in Vols I-III. This has been arranged and described under the title Sede Vacante Scrapbook IV. The name 'Scrapbook' for it is given for the purpose of series identification only: the records are in fact kept loose in a box.
HISTORY OF THE SERIES
Sheppard is responsible not just for the arrangement and description of the records, but for their very preservation. Before his appointment, they had been effectively lost: passed over during Bunce's cataloguing of the Chartae Antiquae in the early 19th century (his brief was limited to records of chapter properties), they were subsequently removed from the Treasury altogether, either by Bunce or by someone involved in the re-organisation of that store in 1850. They ended up in outhouses and workshops in the cathedral precincts, overlooked until a tip-off in 1863 alerted Sheppard to their presence there. His personal searches of the workshops, stables and stone-cutters shed brought the material to light in stages. Sheppard arranged them in the scrapbooks as the discoveries proceeded. The material in the first was found in the carpenters' shops in 1879; that of the second in the stable in 1893 and 1894; the third has the rest of the documents found in 1894. The earlier history of the series, however, requires a more detailed explanation. There are many records for which this is straightforward. The routine business records; the commissions to officials to exercise authority on the chapter's behalf; the letters from patrons presenting clerks for institution to benefices; the documentation of archiepiscopal election processes: all of these would have accumulated naturally at the time of each vacancy. Their preservation is fairly regular for most of the medieval vacancies, even if the proportions vary (for example, the large numbers of benefice admissions from that of 1348-9, the Great Plague years) . However, another set of records preserved in the Sede Vacante Scrapbooks series must be understood differently. These are the documents from the provincial and diocesan ecclesiastical courts, known as the Court of Canterbury and the Canterbury Consistory respectively. The chapter's vacancy powers extended to the control of these important tribunals. In the vacancy of 1240-5 they exercised it directly; later in the thirteenth century their practice was to appoint officials to preside over the Court of Canterbury and commissaries general for the diocesan consistory. The chronology of the surviving material from the chapter's court jurisdiction, compressed as it is into a very short space of time (the great bulk is from the vacancies of the second half of the thirteenth century), suggests particular reasons for its preservation. The chapter's efforts to exercise archiepiscopal powers during vacancies met with opposition, initially from the episcopacy and later, within the Canterbury diocese, from the archdeacon of Canterbury and the exempt parochial clergy. Some of the documents assembled here illustrate the difficulties caused by, for example, the chapter's protection, in the name of the Church of Canterbury, of appellants to Rome. The suffragan bishops of Canterbury Province resisted the chapter when they attempted to inhibit provincial lawsuits in answer to tuitorial appeals. They argued that the Christ Church claims were novel and usurpatious. They also claimed tuitorial appeal rights during archiepiscopal vacancies for themselves. Documents from the 1240-5 vacancy assembled in these scrap books record vigorous moves by the prior and chapter to oppose tuitorial appeal claims by the bishop of London among others and assert their own (SVSB II/196/2 to 204/4). The chapter eventually made their peace with the bishops in a compromise agreement in 1278 (printed, from DCc/Ch Ant S372, by Woodruff and Churchill in Calendar of Institutions sede vacante, pp144-6). By this, the monks nominated two candidates for the position of official of the Court of Canterbury; the bishops then chose one of these, through the bishop of London acting as their proxy. The Sede Vacante Scrap Books contain several appointments made by the bishop of London 'in accordance with the ancient agreement'. The 1278 agreement did not tackle another dispute, which was just then becoming serious, with the archdeacon of Canterbury. The chapter's sede vacante claims were opposed by Archdeacons Gernemue (in the vacancy of 1278-9 and afterwards) and Ferringes (in that of 1292-4 and afterwards). certain rectors of exempt parishes within the Canterbury diocese also rejected the chapter's claims. The archdeacon did not merely oppose the chapter's exercise of sede vacante jurisdiction; he claimed it for himself. The Sede Vacante Scrap Books contain a few records from lawsuits which Gernemue and Ferringes began at Rome over this matter (and there is more elsewhere, especially in Chartae Antiquae A43a-47). The disputes with the suffragan bishops and the archdeacon of Canterbury provide the overall context for the collection and preservation of sede vacante material, particularly that of the thirteenth century courts. After fulfilling the purpose for which it was created - the documentation of procedure the records would have acquired a new relevance as testimony that the monks had exercised the sede vacante powers through presidency of the provincial and diocesan courts. In his case, which went before papal auditors at Rome during 1294-1297, and later, in 1297-8, auditors in England, the archdeacon of Canterbury laid claim to sede vacante jurisdiction throughout the diocese and province of Canterbury. There is evidence that the suit was continued into the 14th century up to, and including, the vacancy of 1313 (see SVSB 11/111/2 - 115/1). But the archdeacon ultimately lost the fight and the chapter exercised the sede vacante powers unopposed for the rest of the middle ages. This development coincides with a dramatic falling-off in the preservation of sede vacante court documents. It seems clear that the monks' need of proof for their jurisdiction simply passed with the withdrawal of the archdeacon from the contest. THE
COMPOSITION OF THE SEDE VACANTE SCRAPBOOKS
t1./ Sheppard pasted the documents into three scrapbooks, as they came to light. When he felt the need to keep endorsements visible, he applied the paste to one edge only. He wrote abstracts next to each document and had indexes made (one at the end of Vol I and one at the end of III, for Vols II and III). From then until now the abstracts and indexes have been the principal finding aid. Sheppard applied a chemical, sulphide of ammonia, to enhance the text of many documents that had faded and become difficult to read. This worked for long enough to complete abstracts or transcriptions but after a time the application developed into a black smear that made further readings difficult or impossible. In a note underneath one such record [SVSB 11/192/2], Sheppard explained it as a reaction between the sulphide of ammonia and bichloride of mercury used in the sticking-down paste to prevent mildew. The scrap book as a method of keeping documents has many obvious drawbacks. But Sheppard's intellectual treatment of the records has also been criticised: notably by J P Gilson in his 1905 report on future cataloguing requirements at Canterbury. Gilson regarded Sheppard's transcriptions and abstracts as unsatisfactory and questioned the order in which he had arranged the records. He recommended a new start (should it prove possible to remove the documents safely), which aimed at a straightforward chronological order, with a separate index of place-names. However, recent scholarly work on documents in the Scrap Books, particularly the court records, tends to vindicate Sheppard rather than Gilson. It reveals a complexity of origin which Sheppard's arrangement by origin/court/subject matter goes some way to preserving. A bare chronological order, as Gilson advocated, would miss this internal meaning and betray the principle of provenance altogether, since it would not take into account the different offices that issued the documents. Sheppard's arrangement is untidy in places, certainly. But given the haphazard way in which the material came to light (thus making a comprehensive sorting impossible), it seems a creditable effort. For example, records of cases before the provincial Court of canterbury are collected in impressive numbers towards the end of Vol III, separated into the various dioceses of origin; depositions from these cases occupy another section of the same volume; and volume II is dominated by the processes of admiss ion to benef ices. Judged by the standards of today, Sheppard's palaeography and Latin are very sound. THE RECORDS ANALYSED The Sede Vacante Scrap Books contain the following categories of record: 1. Records of Ecclesiastical Courts By far the biggest proportion of these are from courts that came under the prior and chapter's control during archiepiscopal vacancies. These were as follows: 1.1. The Court of Canterbury The court of appeal for all the sees of the Canterbury Province, situated initially at Christ Church Canterbury, and from the late 13th century on at the church of st Mary of Arches [le Bow] in London (whose dean was normally commissary of the official of the court). The Official of the Court of Canterbury or his commissary presided. The archbishop appointed the Official sede plena; the monks of Christ Church, under the terms of the 1278 agreement with the bishops reported above, had this right in vacancies. 1.2. The Canterbury consistory Court The ordinary tribunal for spiritual cases within the diocese of Canterbury, this was held at the cathedral, under the presidency of a commissary general appointed by the archbishop sede plena, and by the prior and convent of Christ Church sede vacante. 1.3. The Archbishop's Audience The tribunal traditionally presided over by the prelate in person, and following him on his travels around diocese and province. During the 14th Century the prior and chapter added it to the other Canterbury courts they controlled during vacancies. 1.4. There are also records of courts of other ecclesiastical jurisdictions, beyond the diocese of canterbury and The Arches, that came to Canterbury indirectly, by way of appeal to the Court of Canterbury. These may be listed as follows: Consistory courts of dioceses in the Southern Province; Courts of archdeacons in the said dioceses; Courts of peculiar jurisdictions. 1.5. Another collection of court records in the Sede Vacante Scrap Books, perhaps the most noteworthy there, has no connection with vacancies at all but dates from late in the pontificate of Archbishop Hubert Walter (around 1200 AD) (SVSB I, II, III). Some records of this group seem to be from cases presided over by Walter himself. The collection of Walter documents extends also to the ES Rolls and Christ Church Letters. 1.6. Courts in which the prior and chapter were parties to cases themselves. Records from the chapter's own lawsuits are preserved in the Sede Vacante Scrap Books. Some of these suits were connected with the claim to archiepiscopal jurisdiction sede vacante (most notably that against the archdeacon of Canterbury, in SVSB III 72-85); others concern more local issues, such as monastic obedience (against st Martin's Dover) or tithes (against Anselm, rector of Eastry, in SVSB 11/205-17). One may also remark on the content and geographical origin of these records. The cases they describe concern all manner of spiritual subjects: tithes, obventions and pensions; marriage, divorce and ex officio cases to correct morals; defamation; and the rights of churches and monastic houses. The records, particularly those of cases concerning human relationships (marriage, defamation and correction) give much information about society and the position of the church within it; particularly, as R H Helmholz has remarked, its role, through the tendency of its court system to foster compromise and diffuse disputes, as a healer of divisions. The cases to do with tithes and parish boundaries are often a rich source of topographical detail, when they contain libels or depositions describing the lands in dispute and naming their fields and features. Then there is the history of church courts themselves. The Sede Vacante Scrapbooks contain some of the earliest records of the procedure of such courts in existence (the Hubert Walter group described earlier). And for the 13th Century in general - the crucial period for the development of procedure in ecclesiastical tribunals - they are extremely rich. 2. Records of the Administration by the Prior and Chapter of canterbury of the Diocese of Canterbury, during vacancies of the Canterbury see These include the records of the succession to benefices and related material: patrons' presentations, mandates and citations to local clergy to inquire into vacancies, and letters of institution; records of visitation of parishes and monastic houses within the diocese, and university colleges without; the probate of wills by the Canterbury consistory; and appointments of the various diocesan officials. 3. Records of the Chapter's Administration, during Vacancies of the Canterbury See, of Vacant Sees in the Province of Canterbury The chapter exercised spiritual jurisdiction in vacant sees through specially-appointed officials. Records of some of the commissions survive here (in SVSB I); and, for certain dioceses, administrative records of the officials (e.g. Bath and Wells, in SVSB II). There are also records of the election and consecration of bishops, another archiepiscopal function that the chapter took on during vacancies (Bath and Wells 1292-4 and London 1313: both in Vol II). 4. Records of Sede Vacante Administration by the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, 1540-1900 Includes material concerning the elections of archbishops: forms and summaries of procedure used in the 17th and 18th centuries (SVSB 11/76-100); and a sequence of royal letters commendatory indicating to the chapter the monarch's preference (Sheldon to Howley, 1663-1878, in SVSB 1/157-168). General administration of the Canterbury diocese during vacancies.
A BIBLIOGRAPHY OF WORKS REFERRED TO IN THE CATALOGUE
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