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 NOTARIES

122

NOTARIES

The See of Elmhatn came to an end about S70, when St. Edmund, KinR of the East Angles, and Hishop St. Hunheorh were niurdcredby the Danes). The country wa.s r:Lva};ed, the eliun-hes and nionasterie.s destroyed, and Christianity wa.f only iiraeti.-ied with dilheulty. Bishop \\ ilred ol' Dunwieh seems to have reunited the dioi'cscs, choosing lOlmham as his see. His successors at I'ihuham were: —

Husa; .Ethelweald; Eadwidf ; .Elfric I; Thcodred I; Theodred II; .Ethelstan; .Elfgar, 1001; .Elfwine, 1021 ; .Elfrie II ; .Elfrie III, 10:i!»; Stigand, 1040; Grim- cytel, 1042; Stigand (restored), 1043; iEthelmaer, 1047; llerfast, 1070. Bishop Herfast, a chaplain to William the Conqueror, removed his bishop's chair to Thctford. He died in 1084, and was succeeded by Wilham de Uellofago (de Beaufeu), also knov^Ti as Wil- liam Gal.sagu.s (10S6-91). William de Bellofago was succeeded by Herbert de I^osinga, who made a simoni- aeal gift to King William Rufus to secure his election, but being subsequently struck with remorse went to Rome, in 1094, to obtaui absolution from the pope. He foumled the priory of Norwich in expiation for his sin anil at the same time moved his see there from Thetfonl. The chapter of secular canons was dis- solved and the monks took their place. The founda- tion-stone of the new catliedral was laid in 1096, in honour of the Blessed Trinity. Before his death, in 1119, he had completed the choir, which is apsidal and encircled by a procession path, and which originally gave access to three Norman chapels. His successor, Bisho]) Eborard, completed the long Norman nave so that the cathedral is a very early twelfth-century building though modified by later additions and al- terations. The chief of these were the Lady chapel {circa 1250, destroyed by the Protestant Dean Gardi- ner 1573-89); the cloisters (circa i;300), the west window {circa 1440), the rood screen, the spire and the vault spanning the nave {circa 1450). The cathe- dral suffered much during the Reformation and the civil wars.

The list of bishops of Norwich, with the dates of their accession, is as follows: —

Herbert Losinga, consecrated in 1091, translated the see to Norwich in 1094; Eborard de Montgomery, 1121; Wilham de Turbe, 1146; .John of Oxford, 1175; John de Grey, 1200; Pandulph Masea, 1222; Thomas de Blun\-ille, 1226; Ralph de Norwich, 1236; vacancy, 1236; William de Raleigh, 1239; vacancv, 1242; Wal- ter de Suffield, 1245 ; Simon de Walton, 125S ; Roger de Skeming, 1266; Wilham de Middleton, 127S; Ralph de Walpole, 1289; John Salmon, 1299; William de Ayerminne, 1.325; Anthony Bek, 1337; William Bate- man, 1344; Thomas Percy, 1356; Henry le Despenser, 1370; Alexander de Totiiigton, 1407; Richard Courte- nay, 1413; John Wakering, 1416; Wilham Alnwick, 1426; Thomas Brown, 1436; Walter Lyhart, 1446; James Goldwell, 1472; Thomas Jane, 1499; Richard Nykke, 1501; William Rugg (schismatic), 1536; Thomas Thirleby (schismatic but reconciled in Mary's reign), 1550; John Hopton, 1554, who died in 1558, being the last Catholic Bishop of Norwich.

The diocese, which consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk with some parts of Cambridgeshire, was di- vided into four archdeaconries, Norfolk, Norwich, Suffolk, and Sudbury. At the end of the seventeenth century there were 1121 parish-churches, and this number had probably not changed much since Catho- lic times.

The chief religious houses in the diocese were: the Benedictine Abbeys of Bury St. Edmund's, Wymonilham, and St. Henet's of Hulm, the cathedral priory of Norwich, the Cistercian Abbey of Sibton, the abbeys of the Augustinian Canons at Wendling, Langley, and Laystone. The Dominicans and Fran- ciscans were both found at Lynn, Norwich, Yarmouth, Dunwieh, and Ipswich ; the Dominicans also had houses at Thetford and Sudbury ; the Franciscans at Bury St.

Edmund's and Walsingham, where the great shrine of Our Lady was; the Carmelites were at Lynn, Nor- wich, Yarmouth, and Blakeney; and the Augustinian friars at Norwich, Lynn, and Orford. There were no Carthusians in the diocese. The arms of the see were azure, three mitres with their labels, or.

Bbitton, Hint, of the See and Cath. of Norwich (London, 1816); Cotton, UiH. Angticarm necnon Lihrr fie nrrhiepifrojns el e-piscO' pis Angliu: (London, 18.W': ,li«s,,,.,., /■„.,■ //,./ ,.f A',.r„',rl, (Lon- don, 1884): QUENNELL, A' ' f), / ..// < ^. ,, I ,,,.,!,, n, IS! IS):

Visitations of the Diocesi:' \ ,,: i, ,. m ,!,.:ii-

don, 1888) ; Winkle, Cuf/", • / , II -./.s. II

(London, 1851); Goululi^.. a.-.u S\ ;.i..nl..,. L,j,, /,;,,,... uhU :sc}- mons of Herbert de Losinga (LonUuu, 1878) ; ANHTUuTutii, Eliis- tola Herberti de Losinga (London. 1846) ; Hist. MSS. Commission, First Report (giving a list of principal records in the bishop's registry); Searle, Anglo-Saxon Bishops, Kings, and Nobles (Cam- bridge, 1899).

Edwin Burton.

Notaries (Lat. notarius), persons appointed by competent authority to draw up official or authentic documents. These dooiments are issued chiefly from the official adininislrative bureaux, the chanceries; secondly, from triliunals; lastly, others are drawn up at the request of individuals to authenticate their contracts or other acts. The public officials appointed to draw up these three classes of papers have been usually called notaries.

Etymologically, a notary is one who takes notes. Notes are signs or cursory abbreviations to record the words uttered, so that they may be reproduced later in ordinary writing. Notaries were at first private secretaries, attached to the service of jjensons in posi- tions of importance. It was natural for the science of notes to be in high esteem among those employed in recording the transactions of public boards, and for the name notary to be applied to these officials; so that before long the word was used to signify their occupa- tion.

The title and office existed at the Imperial Court (cf. Cod. Theod., VI, 16, "De primicerio et notariis"), whence they passed into all the royal chanceries, though in the course of time the term no- tary ceased to be used. This was the case also with the chanceries of the pope, the great episcopal sees, and even every bishopric. There are grounds for doubting whether the seven regional notaries of the Roman Church, one for each ecclesiastical district of the Holy City, were instituted by St. Clement and appointed by him to record the Acts of the martyrs, as is said in the "Liber Pontificalis" ("Vita Clementis", ed. Duchesne, I, 123); they date back, however, to an early age. Not only were there notaries as soon as a bureau for ecclesiastical documents was establislied, but in very ancient days we find these notaries form- ing a kind of college presided over by a primicerius; the notice of Julius I in the "Liber Pontificalis" re- lates that this pope ordered an account of the property of the Church, intended as an authentic document, to be drawn up before the -primicerius of the nota- ries.

The latter were in the ranks of the clergy and must have received one of the minor orders; for the notariate is an oflttce and not an order. At intervals the popes entrusted the notaries of their curia with various mis- sions. Their chief, the primicerius, with whom a secundicerius is sometimes found later, was a very im- portant personage, in fact, the head of the pontifical chancery; during the vacancy of the papal chair, he formed part of the interim Government, and a letter in 640 (Jaff6, "Regesta", n. 2040) is signed (the pope being elected but not yet consecrated) by one "Joannes primicerius et servans locum s. sedis apos- tolicK".

There were of course many notaries in the service of the pontifical chancery; the seven regional notaries

E reserved a certain pre-eminence over the others and ecame the prothonotaries, whose name and office