g hereditary. In this manner the deanery of Whalley was
continued until the Lateran Council, in the year 1215, which, by
finally prohibiting the marriage of ecclesiastics, put an end to this
order of hereditary succession, and occasioned a resignation of the
patronage to the chief lord of the fee, after which the church of
Whalley sunk, by two successive appropriations, into an impoverished
vicarage.

Long before the Conquest the advowson had become far more valuable than
the manor, and the lords, who were also patrons, saw the advantage and
convenience of qualifying themselves by inferior orders for holding so
rich a benefice; and thus the manor itself in time ceased to be
considered as a lay fee, and became confounded with the glebe of the
church.[50]

The office of dean, at the period in which our history commences, had
for centuries been considered as a dignity rather secular than
ecclesiastical, and the pursuits of the incumbent had doubtless
assimilated generally with those of his lay associates. Indeed, it is
recorded that Dean Liulphus, in the reign of Canute, had the name of
Cutwulph, from having cut off a wolf's tail whilst hunting in the
forest of Rossendale, at a place called Ledmesgreve, or more properly
Deansgreve. Like many other ancient and dignified ecclesiastics, they
were mighty hunters, enjoying their privileges unmolested through a vast
region of forest land then unenclosed, and were only inferior in
jurisdiction to the feudal lords of these domains. "On the whole, then,
it appears," says Dr Whitaker, "that the Dean of Whalley was compounded
of patron, incumbent, ordinary, and lord of the manor; an assemblage
which may possibly have met in later times, and in some places of exempt
jurisdiction, but at that time probably an _unique_ in the history of
the English church."

Robert de Whalley, the incumbent before named, was not a whit behind his
progenitors in that laudable exercise of worldly wisdom and forethought,
as it regarded matters of a temporal and transitory nature. His bearing
was proud, and his aspect keen; his form was muscular, and more fitted
for some hardy and rigorous exercise than for the generally self-denying
and peaceful offices of the Catholic Church. In his youth he had the
reputation of being much disposed to gallantry; and the same proneness
to intrigue was yet manifest, though employed in pursuits of a less
transitory nature. His disappointment was, in consequence, greatly