Episcopal Statutes
After the full rights of the see and its revenues were returned to him in 1246, the new bishop showed much eagerness to reform the manners and morals of his clergy, and also to introduce greater order and reverence into the services of the Church. Richard overruled Henry on several occasions. Richard defrocked a priest who had seduced a nun out of her convent, turning aside a petition from the king in the priest's favour.
He was militant in protecting the clergy from abuse. The townsmen of Lewes violated the right of sanctuary by seizing a criminal in church and lynching him, and Richard made them exhume the body and give it a proper burial in consecrated ground. He also imposed severe penance on knights who attacked priests.
Richard produced a body of statutes with the aid of his chapter, for the organisation of the church in his diocese and the expected conduct of its clergy. It seems that many of the clergy still secretly married, though such alliances were not recognised by canon law, and as such their women's status was that of a mistress or concubine. The Bishop endeavoured to suppress the practice in his diocese with relentless austerity.
By Richard's statutes:
It was decreed that married clergy should be deprived of their benefices; their concubines were to be denied the privileges of the church during their lives and also after death; they were pronounced incapable of inheriting any property from their husbands, and any such bequests would be donated for the upkeep of the cathedral. A vow of chastity was to be required of candidates for ordination. Rectors were expected to reside in their parishes, to be hospitable and charitable and tithes were to be paid on all annual crops. Anyone who did not pay their tithe would not be granted penance until they did.
Vicars were to be priests and have only one freehold to live on, they were not allowed to have another parish held under an assumed name.
Deacons were not to be allowed to receive confessions or to provide penances, or to baptise except in the absence of a priest. Children had to be confirmed within a year of baptism. The Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer were to be learned in the mother tongue; priests were to celebrate mass in clean robes, to use a silver or golden chalice; thoroughly clean corporals and at least two consecrated palls were to be placed on the altar; the cross was to be planted in front of the celebrant; the bread was to be of the purest wheaten flour, the wine mixed with water. The elements were not to be kept more than seven days; when carried to a sick person to be enclosed in a pyx, and the priest to be preceded by a cross; a candle, holy water and bell.
Practices such as gambling at baptisms and marriages is strictly forbidden.
Archdeacons were to administer justice for their proper fees, not demanding more either for rushing or delaying the business. They were to visit the churches regularly, to see that the services were duly ministered, the vessels and vestments are in proper order, the canon of the mass correctly observed and distinctly read, as also the ‘'hours’’. Priests who clipped or slurred the words by rushing were to be suspended.
The clergy should wear their proper dress and not imitate what the lay people wore. They were not allowed to wear their hair long or have romantic entanglements. The names of excommunicated persons to be read out four times a year in the parish churches.
A copy of these statutes was to be kept by every priest in the diocese, and be brought by him to the Episcopal synod.
Read more about this topic: Richard Of Chichester