The Diocese of Durham and the Appropriated Churches of St Albans: A Lawsuit from 1327

A record of a lawsuit at Durham in 1327, preserved in the private library of the abbots of St Albans, sheds light on diocesan administration under Bishop Beaumont (1317–1333) and on the application of canon law. Beaumont had tested his authority over five parishes appropriated to the exempt abbey of St Albans (Coniscliffe, Eglingham and Hartburn) or to its dependent cell at Tynemouth (Tynemouth and Woodhorn) by summoning the abbot and convent to a diocesan synod as the nominal rector. The proceedings before the diocesan Official, William of Quickham, concluded that the perpetual vicars of the parishes, not the abbey, should attend. This was not, however, just a practical compromise: it provides an early example of the local application of a decree of the Council of Vienne (1311) in a manner which eventually became the norm.