he Bishop was Abbot of the Monastery of St. Swithun, was placed
under a Dean and Canons, as was the great Monastery of Christchurch,
Canterbury. The last Prior of Winchester became the first Dean. It is
clear, therefore, that the Dean of Winchester stands on a somewhat
different historical footing from the Dean of St. Paul's, and it
becomes necessary to say something about the latter.

The word Dean belongs to the ancient Roman law, _Decanus_, lit. one
who has authority over ten, as a centurion was one who had authority
over a hundred. The Deans seem originally to have been especially
concerned with the management of funerals. Presently the name became
adopted to Christian use, and was applied in monasteries to those who
had charge of the discipline of every ten monks. When the Abbot was
absent the senior Dean undertook the government; and thus it was that
in cathedral churches which were monastic it gradually became the
custom to have one who acted as Dean, and this system was gradually
adopted in secular cathedrals, like St. Paul's. In monasteries,
however, the Dean was so far subordinate to the Prior that he had
charge of the music and ritual, while the Prior had a general
superintendence.

The clergy of St. Paul's then were seculars. There were thirty of
them, called Canons, as being entered on the list ([Greek: kanon]) of
ecclesiastics serving the church. Each man was entitled to a portion
of the income of the cathedral, and therefore was a "Prebendary," the
name being derived from the daily rations (praebenda) served out to
soldiers. There were thirty Canons or Prebendaries attached to St.
Paul's, and these with the Bishop and Dean formed the Great Chapter.
To them in theory belonged the right of electing the Bishop; but it
was only theory, as it is still. The real nominator was the Pope or
the King, whichever happened at the crisis to be in the ascendant.

In early days the Bishop was the ruling power inside the cathedral. At
its first foundation, as we have seen, it was the Bishops who exerted
themselves to raise the money for the building. But as time went on
the Bishops, finding their hands full of affairs of state, stood aside
in great measure, retired to their pleasant home at Fulham, and left
to the Dean greater power. And thus it was that, as we have already
told, Dean Ralph de Diceto built the Deanery. And thus gradually the
Dean became practical ruler of the cathedral--the Bishop had no voice
in affai