nastery. The Chapter
claimed within their sphere the rights attributed to Athelstan's grant,
and also assize of bread, ale, weights and measures; dues of fairs and
markets; certain feudal dues; power over masterless goods, and to deal
with cases of rent, wrongful detention of land, and theft; _cognitio de
falso judicio_; execution of royal writs; 'sheriff-tourn'; coroners of
their own; in fact the powers of a sheriff and of the justices-in-eyre,
with a prison and the right of gaol-delivery, and even of inflicting
capital punishment. In cases of homicide, however, a king's justice must
sit as assessor. For civil suits there was a provision against 'wager of
battle,' and the accused again cleared themselves by compurgation.
Archbishop de Gray claimed similar privileges, but wished to exercise
them over the whole Liberty, on the ground that the church and its
appurtenances were part of his manor (as indeed they very possibly were,
originally). Unlike Archbishop Gerard, who had supported the church's
privilege against the sheriff, de Gray actually joined the sheriff in
invading it. In 1228 the case came before the king's justices in the
Chapter-house at Ripon, and the decision was for the Chapter. Thus the
division of jurisdictions received from the State an undoubted sanction.
Within his sphere the Archbishop appointed his own justices, but on
arriving at the limits of that sphere, the king's justices sat with them
there on the first day, and were afterwards admitted to sit with them in
the town. The Archbishops claimed also that their commissioners should
administer the oath of obedience at the mile-limit to those who sought
sanctuary. The Archbishops are also said to have had a 'military court,'
probably a feudal institution.

The memory of de Gray was perhaps held in scant respect at Ripon. He is
accused by Matthew Paris of having refused to distribute his corn during
a famine, and it was through the erection of Bishopthorpe Palace by him
that Ripon ceased to be a favourite provincial residence of the
Archbishops. Nevertheless they still frequently visited the town, both
for sport and duty. They had a park "six miles in compass," and the
fishing in the Ure. The existence, moreover, of a prison here for
criminous clerks made the minster a convenient place for the public
degradations which the Archbishop was obliged to hold from time to time.
On these occasions the offending clerks were brought across to the
church, where