CHAPTER XXXII.

RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

The subject of the religious condition of the parish priests and their people in the Middle Ages--their belief and life--brings us into a polemical atmosphere. There are some admirers of those times who look upon them as “the Ages of Faith;” there are others who think that in those times of false doctrines and manifold superstitions priests and people were generally degraded and vicious.

The truth lies somewhere between the two. We do not propose to enter into polemical discussion. Our business, as it seems to us, is to try to put ourselves into the midst of the people, to enter into their minds, to study their lives, and to represent as fairly as we can what manner of men priests and people were, what they believed, and how they lived.

We seem to see on the whole that there were two “schools of thought” in the Middle Ages. One consisted of learned men of a speculative turn of mind, who explained and developed ancient doctrines and practices into new and erroneous meanings; followed by a crowd of devout people who adopted their views, and sometimes degraded philosophical speculations and pious opinions, which they hardly understood, into gross misapprehensions and superstitions. On the other hand, there were people of competent learning, who read the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers, and in substance adhered to their teaching; and with them remained a crowd of people whose Christian common sense kept them fairly free of extravagances. We must be careful in judging people who have been brought up in a faulty system. We must not take for granted that everybody believed in every error and in the conclusions logically involved in it, or approved of every superstitious custom. On the contrary, the soul, like the stomach, seems to discriminate what it lives on, and to have a power of assimilating what is good, and rejecting more or less what is noxious. Why should we doubt that God watches over His people, and helps the ignorant, well-intentioned Christian man unconsciously to refuse the evil and choose the good?

If we look at the general character of the centuries we have been studying, there is no denying that there was a great deal which was good in them. The people in the twelfth century had a great zeal for religion of an ascetic type, and amidst the violence and oppression of the times there was a great deal of religious feeling of an exalted character, and many a saintly life. It was the great age of the Latin hymns.

In the thirteenth century, the enthusiasm for the ascetic life had cooled down, having been to some extent disappointed; the monks were not so highly thought of, and the more sober type of religion represented by the bishop and secular clergy came to the front. It was a great century of intense vitality; the spirit of freedom was moving the middle classes of the people, and the Church was in hearty sympathy with them. It was the age of organization of civil institutions. Very few monasteries were built, but every cathedral was enlarged, and churches were rebuilt; there was never so active an architectural period. The new religious spirit of the age showed itself in that rare event, the introduction of a new style of architecture, bold engineering skill in its construction, with pointed arches soaring heavenwards, ornamentations of acanthus leaves just unfolding in the vigour of the spring-time of a new year.

In the fourteenth century, the history of the Lollard movement is enough to show the strong religious feeling of the people and its tendency towards sounder views of religion. The saying that, “Where you saw three people talking together, two of them were Lollards,” was said by a Lollard, and may be an exaggeration; but there is no question that (while some went to extremes, as always in an age of great intellectual movement and strong feeling) the mass of the people was leavened by what there was--and there was much--that was true in the new ideas.[635]

It has been suggested by ingenious critics that Chaucer, being connected by marriage and sympathy with the leader of the party which favoured the opinion of the school of Wiclif, his famous description of “a poure parson of a town” is only the ideal of what a parish priest ought to be according to the view of that school. It may be maintained, on the other hand, that Chaucer’s sketches of the clergy of all orders are conceived in a spirit of genial satire; and that if the parish priests had been generally worldly-minded and negligent of their duties, unclerical in attire and weapons, attendants on field-sports and haunters of taverns, the great artist would have put a man of that type among his inimitable gallery of contemporary character sketches. We have no fear of being mistaken when we take it that his “poure parson of a town” (which does not necessarily mean a town but quite possibly a village rector[636]) had many prototypes among the parochial clergy of the fourteenth century.

A good man there was of religioun, That was a poure parson of a toun; But riche was of holy thought and werk. He was also a lerned man, a clerk, That Christe’s Gospel treweley would preche. His parishens devoutly wolde he teche. Benigne he was, and wonder diligent, And in adversity ful patient; And such he was y proved often sithes, Ful loth were he to cursen for his tithes, But rather would he given, out of doubte, Unto his poure parishens about, Of his offering, and eke of his substance. He could in litel thing have suffisance. Wide was his parish, and houses fer asunder, But he ne left nought, for no rain ne thunder, In siknesse and in mischief to visite The farthest in his parish much and lite, Upon his fete, and in his hand a staff. This noble example to his sheep he gaf, That first he wrought and afterward he taught Out of the gospel he the wordes caught, And this figure he added yet thereto, That if gold ruste what should iron do, For if a priest be foul on whom we trust, No wonder is a leude man to rust; And shame it is if that a priest take kepe, To see a filthy shepherd and clene shepe. Well ought a priest example for to give By his clenenesse how his shepe shulde live. He sette not his benefice to hire, And left his shepe accumbered in the mire, And ran unto London unto Saint Poule’s To seeken him a chanterie for souls, Or with a brotherhede to be withold, But dwelt at home and kepte well his fold, So that the wolfe made him not miscarry. He was a shepherd and no mercenarie, And though he holy were and virtuous, He was to sinful men not despitous, Ne of his speche dangerous ne digne,[637] But in his teaching discrete and benigne. To drawen folk to heaven with fairenesse By good ensample was his businesse. But if it were any persone obstinat, What so he were of highe or low estate, Him wolde he snibben[638] sharply for the nones. A better priest I trow nowhere non is. He waited after no pomp ne reverence, Ne maked him no spiced[639] conscience, But Christes love and His apostles twelve, He taught, but first he followed it himselve.

The fifteenth century is generally believed to have been especially religiously dead. There are two ways of looking at it; we may talk, not without some reason, of the stagnation of the fag end of mediævalism, of the wealth and worldliness and neglect of the prelates, of the superstition of the people, and so forth; but one fact, which still exists all over the country, is enough by itself to work instant conviction that there is another side to the question--the church building of the century. Our forefathers in the fifteenth century had enough of life and originality to develop here in England a new variety of Gothic art distinctly different from the development of the art on the Continent of Europe; a reaction against the luxuriant beauty of the Decorated; with a masculine strength in its lines, and a practical modification of plan and elevation so as to obtain spacious, lofty interiors. Take its grand towers as a measure of its artistic power; call to mind the use of painted windows as the great means of coloured decoration; study the elaboration and richness of the roofs and chancel screens of Norfolk and Devon. Calculate the immense quantity of church architecture and art executed in the fifteenth century, not only in monasteries and cathedrals, but in parish churches; think of the magnificent parish churches of Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and Somerset, and of the rising towns in Yorkshire and Lancashire. Remember that they were not commissioned and paid for by the parochial clergy, for we have shown that they had nothing to spare; not by the nobility, for they were half ruined by the Wars of the Roses; but by the large minds of the rising middle class, and out of the wealth which trade and commerce brought them.

This one piece of evidence is enough to prove the existence of vigorous religious faith among the people. At the same time, kings and prelates were founding colleges and schools, _e.g._ Winchester and Eton, New and King’s. Country gentlemen were founding chantries and supplying themselves with domestic chaplains, and the traders of the towns were founding gilds and services in order to obtain for themselves and those belonging to them additional means of grace and closer pastoral care. It is not possible to believe in the face of such facts that there was not a great deal of very earnest religion in the fifteenth century. Abuses and false doctrines and superstitions there were in abundance, but the religious spirit of the fifteenth century was already striving earnestly for reform, and accumulating that force of public opinion which broke out in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, and compelled Rome itself, after frustrating the Councils of Constance and Basle, to make the reforms of the Council of Trent.

Contrast this with the three centuries which followed; with the cessation of all building of new churches and the neglect of the old ones, and the shameful condition of the services in many of them; with the absence of the extension of Church machinery to meet the needs of the increasing population; and it will be hard to believe that there was not much more of religious earnestness in the fifteenth century than in those which followed it. The _Italian relation of England_[640] says of the people of the later part of this century: “They all attend mass every day, and say many paternosters in public, the women carrying long rosaries in their hands, and any who can read taking the office of Our Lady with them, and, with some companion, reciting it in the church verse by verse in a low voice, after the manner of the religious. They always hear mass on Sunday in their parish church, and give liberal alms because they may not offer less than a piece of money whereof fourteen are equal to a gold ducat, nor do they omit any form incumbent upon good Christians.”

APPENDIX I.

The history of the parish of Whalley in Lancashire affords an interesting illustration of the growth of parochial organization. The original parish was a vast tract of wild hilly country, fifty miles long, covering two hundred superficial miles, in the north-west corner of Lancashire, chiefly forest and moor, with fertile pastures in the broad valleys of the Ribble, the Hodder, the Calder, and their tributaries. The Saxon rectors were also lords of the manor; they were married men, and the rectory, together with the manor, descended from father to son. These facts suggest that the lord of the manor, in early days after the Conversion, turned his house into a semi-secular monastery such as those we have described (p. 35), retaining the headship of it for himself, and handing it down to his heirs; and that in course of time, instead of developing into a monastery of a stricter kind, it changed into the parochial type of rectory. From the earliest known time, and throughout the Saxon period, however, the reverend lords of the manor rejoiced in the title of dean, the Bishop of Worcester having committed to them large ecclesiastical jurisdiction over this remote and inaccessible corner of his diocese.

After the Conquest, the lordship of this part of the country, including the Manor of Whalley, was given to Henry de Lacy, who laid claim to the advowson of the benefice of Whalley; but for a time the difficulty was got over by De Lacy presenting the hereditary claimant, De Lacy thus establishing a precedent of right of presentation, the hereditary claimant treating it as nothing more than a certificate that he was the rightful heir.

The names of the deans for several generations are given in a “Description of Blackburnshire,” which was probably written by J. Lindlay, Abbot of Whalley (A.D. 1342-1377); they are Spartlingus, Lewlphus, Cutwulph, Cudwolphus, Henry the Elder, Robert, Henry the Younger, William, Geoffry the Elder, Geoffry the Younger, and Roger.

The decree of the Lateran Council in 1215 prohibited these hereditary successions to benefices, and Roger, the last dean, resigned the benefice and surrendered the advowson to the De Lacys, and “settled at the Ville of Tunlay as the progenitor of a flourishing family yet subsisting after a lapse of six centuries, legitimate descendants of the Deans of Whalley and Lords of Blackburnshire.”[641] Thereupon De Lacy presented Peter de Cestria to the rectory,[642] and during his incumbency (in 1284) appropriated the rectory to the Monastery of Stanlaw.

Before this date--how long before is not known--there were already in the parish seven chapels of old foundation. Three of them--Clitherhow, Calne, and Burnley--are named in a charter of the time of Henry I.; a fourth--Elvethan--is named in a charter of the time of Richard I.; the rest are not named till the grant of the advowson of H. de Lacy in 1284. The probability is that the first three or four had, from time to time, been founded by the old Saxon deans, in the villages which sprang up in their extensive manor; the remainder, perhaps, at a later period between the Conquest and the last quarter of the thirteenth century. They were all endowed with glebe land of about thirty-five acres each.

At the next vacancy, the convent of Stanlaw entered upon its enjoyment of the Rectory of Whalley. How they served it is not known. In old times there is evidence that the dean had at least a chaplain and clerk to aid him in his duties. Probably the convent retained the staff of assistant clergy, whatever it might be, and added another in place of the rector.

In 1296 the abbot and convent of Stanlaw, with the leave of their founder, H. de Lacy, and with the sanction of Pope Nicholas IV., removed their house to the more healthy site afforded by their new estate at Whalley. Two years after, in 1298, Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, ordained the foundation of a perpetual vicarage with a manse, thirty acres of meadow and corn land, with rights of pasturage, etc., and the altarage of the mother church and its seven chapels.

Thirty-two years afterwards, on the petition of the abbot and convent, who represented the necessities of the house (it was in that year that the foundation of the abbey church was laid) and the immoderate endowment of the vicarage, Roger, Bishop of Lichfield, reduced the endowment of the vicarage to a manse and yard within the abbey close, with a pittance, for which he was to pay 13_s._ 4_d._ a year, hay and oats for his horse, the glebe lands of the chapels, and fifty-six marks in money, for which he was to bear the burden of the chapels, find a priest for each chapel, bread and wine for the Holy Communion, etc. The fourth vicar, William de Wolf, was required, before his presentation, to bind himself by oath never to procure an augmentation of the endowment.

So things continued till the death of the fifth vicar, John of Topcliffe, brother of the abbot, when the abbot and convent presented one of themselves to the vicarage, and so added its endowment to the revenues of the house.

The next matter of interest in the history of the parish is the beginning of new foundations to supply the spiritual needs of new centres of population. Padiham was founded in 30 Henry VI.; Whitewell, Holme, and Marsden between the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VII.; then Newchurch in Rossendale, 3 Henry VIII.; Goodshaw, 32 Henry VIII.; Newchurch in Pendle, 35 Henry VIII.; Accrington was taken out of Alvetham in 1577; and lastly, Bacup in Rossendale was founded in 1788.

To complete the story: at the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbot of Whalley was hanged on a charge of treason. The king made a compulsory exchange of the great tithes of the parish of Whalley, on which he seized as part of the abbey property, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, for some of the lands which belonged to the Kentish see. Archbishop Juxon augmented the living by surrendering to it, on the renewal of a lease which brought it within his power, the whole Easter roll and surplice fees, on condition that the curates of the chapels should receive the house, and pay to the vicar in different proportions £42, which, with £38 hitherto paid, would augment the vicarage to £80. Archbishop Sancroft, on a subsequent renewal (1685), with the fine purchased lands to provide stipends for the curates of the chapels-of-ease hitherto unprovided for.

The record of an inquisition in the time of the Commonwealth into this and neighbouring churches survives, and gives an interesting account of the parish and its chapelries. In every case the account ends with the statement that the inhabitants desire to be made a parish.

APPENDIX II.

We have in the case of two Rural Deaneries, by way of sample, tabulated the benefices as entered in the “Taxatio” and the “Valor” with one another and with the modern Clergy List; with a few notes upon them.

DIOCESE OF LONDON.--DEANERY OF BERDESTAPLE.

----------------------------------------------------------------------- From Domesday Book. | “Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas | | IV., 1292 A.D., p. 21. | -------------------------------------|--------------------------------| | £ s. d.| The Manor and Church belonged to the |Ecclīā de Thurrok pva 5 6 8| See of London. | | | | | | | | Ditto | " Oresith | | (cum Vicar) 16 0 0| Cedd the Apostle of the East Saxons | " Westillebȳ 13 16 4| founded one of his centres of | | evangelization here, A.D. 653. In | | the time of Edward the Confessor it| " Estillebȳ 14 13 4| was divided into West T. held by | | Aluric, a priest and freeman, and | | East T. held by Tedric, a freeman. | | | | | | In Saxon times these were one parish.| " Hornyngdone 12 0 0| Time of the Confessor “a certain | Vicar ejusdem 4 13 4| deacon had here 30 acres and ¼ of | | a church.” | | This church belonged to Barking | | nunnery. | | From Saxon times belonged to Barking | " Mockyng 14 13 4| nunnery. | | Probably had a church in Saxon times.| " Stanford 16 0 0| Afterwards Wm. de Septem Moles gave| | his manor with a free chapel to | | Waltham Abbey. | | In Saxon times the manor and church | " Bulephen 13 6 8| belonged to Barking N. | | After the Conquest this parish | " Coringham[644] 8 0 0| belonged to B. of London. | | | " Bures 6 13 4| | " Bourgsted[645] 13 6 8| | | The manor and church in the time of | " Burgsted | the Confessor belonged to Earl | parva[646] 4 13 4| Godwin, after the Conquest to the | | See of London. | | Manor and church given at the | " Leyndon 13 6 8| Conquest to the See of London. | | | | | | | | | " Fobbing 10 0 0| | " Chaldewell 5 6 8| Originally one parish: by the time | " Magna | of Ed. Confessor a large manor in | Benafleth 6 13 4| S. Benfleet with church belonged to| " Benefleth | Barking Abbey; a large manor in N. | parva[648] 0 0 0| Benfleet with church belonged to | | Earl Harold. | | Time of E. Confessor principal part | " Dontone 5 6 8| belonged to a priest. Wm. gave it | | to the Albini family, founders of | | Bec Abbey. They gave this manor to | | Okeburn, Wilts., a cell of Bec. | | After the Conquest, King Wm. gave | " Hoton 9 16 8| this manor and church to Battle | " Schenefeud 10 0 0| Abbey. | | At the Conquest, known as Ramsden, | " Duddyngeherst 8 0 0| subsequently divided into 2 manors | " Gingg Rad’i 6 13 4| and parishes, distinguished by | | names of their owners. | " Ramesden Cray 5 6 8| | " Ramsden | | Belhous 6 13 4| | " Dounham 5 6 8| | " Fangge (or | | Fanga) 6 13 4| | " Novendon[650] 0 0 0| | " Thunderle[650] 0 0 0| | " Wykfore[650] 0 0 0| | " Piches[650] 0 0 0|

----------------------------------------------------------------------- | “Valor Ecclesiasticus” of Hen. | Clergy List, 1895 A.D. | VIII., 1534 A.D., I 448. | |------------------------------------|--------------------------------- | £ s. d.| £ |Thurrock Parva R 3 15 0|Thurrock East (or Little) 400 | | |Thurrock Grays V per |Thurrock West, with Purfleet 170 | ear{m} Epi Lond. dal’ | | 6 Apr., 1582 5 0 8|Grays Thurrock 175 |Orsett R 29 4 8|Orsett 500 | Chantry 6 13 4| |Westilbury R 20 0 0|Tilbury West 480 | Free chapel of a hermit 1 6 8| | Chantry 10 0 0| |Estilbury V 12 17 0|Tilbury East 160 | Free Chapel which W. | | Pace lately held 3 0 0| | Another Free Chapel | | which W{m} More | | lately held 1 11 0| |Esthornden R 9 14 0|Horndon East 435 | Free chapel 0 5 0| |Westhorndon R 14 13 4|Horndon West, with | | Ingrave[643] 380 |Horndon super Montem V 14 6 8|Horndon-on-the-Hill 250 | | |Mocking V 10 0 0|Mucking 172 | | |Standeford le hope R 12 19 8|Stanford-le-Hope 600 | Free Chapel 2 0 0| | Chantry 7 18 0| | | |Bulfanne R 23 0 0|Bulphan 345 | | |Corringham R 22 3 8|Corringham 560 | | |Boures Gifford R 25 0 0|Bowers Gifford 406 |Burstede magna V 17 6 8|Burstead, Great 100 | Chantry 7 0 0|Billericay 320 |Burstede Parva R 11 10 4|Little Burstead 270 | | | | | | |Laindon R with chapel of |Laindon with Basildon 500 | Bartilsdon annexed 35 6 8| | Free Chapel 3 6 8| | Chantry 6 0 4| |Langdon R[647] 10 3 8|Laindon Hills 224 |Fobbing R 21 0 0|Fobbing 534 |Chadwell R 17 13 4|Chadwell 220 |South Benflete V 16 5 4|South Benfleet 180 | | | |North Benfleet 430 | | | | | | |Donton R 14 12 8|Dunton Waylett 320 | | | | | | | | |Hutton R 8 0 0|Hutton 230 |Shenfield R 14 18 4|Shenfield 390 | | |Duddinghurst R 10 3 8|Doddinghurst 420 |Ingraffe R 7 13 5| | | |Ramsden Cranes R 19 12 0|Ramsden Crays 380 |Ramsden Belhous R 14 0 0|Stock-Harward with | Free chapel[649] 3 0 0| Ramsden Belhous 400 |Downeham R 12 2 8| Downham 340 |Fange R 14 0 4| Vange 141 | | |Novingdon R 10 13 4| Nevendon 150 |Thundersley R 14 13 4| Thundersley 400 |Wykeford R 13 13 4| Wickford 310 |Pittesey R 10 13 4| Pitsea 300

DIOCESE OF CANTERBURY. DEANERY OF BRIGG.

----------------------------------------------------------- “Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., | 1292 A.D.[651] | ----------------------------------------------------------| £ s. d.| Ecclesia de Wyngham p. portione Prepositi et 40 0 0| Vicarii | Portio Capellæ de Esse [Ash] cum Capella [of 60 0 0| Overland] eidem annexa | | Portio de Godewynstone 46 13 4| Portio Capellæ de Nonynton cum Capella de 53 6 8| Wymelingwelde eidem annexa | | [NOTE.--Wingham was a tract of country part of | the possessions of the See of Canterbury from | the earliest Saxon times. No doubt the | churches and chapels here mentioned had been | built by successive archbishops. Archbishop | Kilwardby, 1273 A.D., designed to found a | College of secular priests in the Church of | Wingham, but, being interrupted by death, his | successor Peckham carried out the design. He | made the Vicar also the Provost; made the | chapelries (except Overland) distinct | parishes, appointed Vicarages in them, and | gave the parishes as prebends to the 5 | Canons, and appointed 2 priests, 2 deacons, | 2 sub-deacons, and a sexton to the service of | the church. At subsequent periods 2 chantries | were founded in Ash Church, one valued in the | “Valor” at £14 13_s._ 4_d._, out of which a | life pension of £5 was paid to the late | cantarist, and the other at £7 6_s._ 8_d._] | | | | | | | Ecclia de Sturmine cum penc’(40_s._ to the 12 13 4| Prior of Leeds) | Ecclia de Preston (appr’ to St. Augustine, Cant.) 20 0 0| Vicar ejusdem 4 15 4| Ecclia de Eylinston 10 0 0| Ecclia de Adesham cum capella 53 6 8| | Ecclia de Chilindene 5 6 8| Ecclia de Lyvingesburn[655] 10 0 0| Ecclia de Wytham 33 6 8| Vicarius ejusdem 5 6 8| Ecclia de Littleburne (appr’ to St. Aug., 20 0 0| Cant.) | | Ecclia de Pat’kes burne (appr’ to the Prior of 33 6 8| Merton) | | Ecclia de Kinggeston 12 0 0| Ecclia de Bisshopes burne cum capella 33 6 8| | | Ecclia de Pecham 20 0 0| Vicarius ejusdem 4 6 8| Ecclia de Waltham 11 6 8| | Ecclia de Elmestede cum penc’ (20 marks 16 0 0| to Mr. Solomon de Burn for his life) | Ecclia de Chertham 26 13 4| | Ecclia de Chileham 40 0 0| | Vicarius ejusdem 6 13 4| | Ecclia de Magna Hardres cum capella 26 13 4| | | | Ecclia de Croyndale cum penc’ (25_s._ to 11 16 8| Prior of Leeds) | Ecclia de Brok 6 13 4| Ecclia de Wy (appr’ to Battle Abbey) 43 6 8| | Vicarius ejusdem 10 13 4| | [NOTE.--I, Kempe Archbp. of York, founded the | | College of secular priests in the Church of | Wye, 1447 A.D.][656] | | | | | Ecclia de Bocton Allulphi 40 0 0| | | Ecclia de Godmsham cum capella 53 6 8| | | | Ecclia de Itham 30 0 0| |

------------------------------------------------------------------------ “Valor Ecclesiasticus,” | Clergy List, of Hen. VIII., 1534 A.D.[652] | 1895 A.D. ---------------------------------------------------|-------------------- £ s. d.| £ Wyngham cum Capellis de Asshe, Godwynston |Wingham 162 Nonyngton et Wymyngweld appr’ Preposito |Ash (Chapel of 260 et Canonicis de Wyngham | Overland | ruined) |Godenstone 200 Master Edmund de Cranmere[653] p’vost hath |Nonington 280 in the Church of Wyngham 45 6 8 |Womenswold 160 Profits of the Chapel of Overland 20 0 0 | -------- | Deduct for parish priest he is | bound to keep there 9 0 0 | And for the sexton of Wyngham 3 0 0 | And for life pension to the late | provost, Mr. Wm. Warham[654] 22 0 0 31 6 3| -------- | The 5 canons gross receipts | from the tithes of Ashe | with the chapels of | Rusheborough, Nunnington, | Goodneston, and | Wymengewelde 143 7 7½ | | The deductions including | salaries of 5 priests to | serve the 5 chapels at | about £6 each, and for | two priests doing service | in Wyngham Church £6 11_s._ | 8_d._ each, for 2 quiristers | each 13_s._ 4_d._, for | sexton’s daily service in | church £4 6_s._ 8_d._, and | for divers obits £51 5_s._ | 4_d._ 59 0 12½ 84 5 11| -------- | Stormouth 18 19 10|Stourmouth 300 | Preston appr’ to St. Augustine, Cant. 0 0 0|Preston 000 The Vicar has 9 15 0|Vicarage 150 (Not mentioned in “Valor,” or by Hasted.) | Asham with chapel of Staple annexed 28 12 0|Adisham 450 The priest at Staple has 6 13 4|Staple 450 Chelynden 4 18 8|Chillenden 120 Bekesborne[655] 5 13 8|Bekesborne 150 Wikham breux 29 11 6|Wickhambreux 603 | Lytelbourne (appr’ to St. Augustine, |Littlebourn 250 Cant.) | The Vicar has 8 0 0| Patryksborne with the chapel of Brigge 11 7 4|Patrixbourn 350 (appr’ to Merton) | The priest of the chapel has 2 13 4| Kyngston 16 0 0|Kingston 350 Bysshoppysborne with Church of Barham 35 19 9|Bishopsburne 500 annexed | Stipend to the priest of Barham 8 0 0|Barham 650 Petham (appr’ to St. Osyth Priory) 0 0 0}| The Vicar has 8 0 1}|Waltham with 575 Waltham (appr’ to St. Gregory, Cant.) 0 0 0}| Petham The Vicar has 7 15 4}| Elmeston 6 7 7|Elmstone 180 | Chartham with the chapel of Horton 41 5 10|Chartham 550 Salary of priest at Horton 1 6 8| Chelham with the chapel of Molayshe 0 0 0|Chilham 700 (appr’ to Abbess of Sion) | Vicar has 5 3 4|Molash 90 Salary of priest at chapel 6 13 4| Grete Hardres with Chapel of Stelling 19 13 0|Upper Hardres 400 annexed | with Deduction for life pension to late 0 0 0| Stelling parson (£6 13_s._ 4_d._) | Crundale with pension to Prior of Leeds, 11 10 8|Crundale 320 35_s._ | Broke 7 7 0| Church of Wye (appr’ to the monks of 0 0 0| Battle) | College of Wye Richard Walker Vicar and 0 0 0| Master of the College | Total receipts of the College, £125 93 2 0½|Wye Vicarage 270 15_s._ 4½_d._ | Deductions. Among them for 3 priests, | clerks, quiristers, scole master and | other ministers, £68; to the Provost, | £13 6_s._ 8_d._; to poor people, £3 | 6_s._ 8_d._; founder’s obit, £3 3_s._ | 4_d._; etc., £32 13_s._ 4_d._ | Bocton Aluph (appr’ to College of Wye) 0 0 0| The Vicar has 5 16 10| Godmersham cum capella de Chullok (appr’ 0 0 0|Godmersham 160 to Xt. Ch., Cant.) | Vicar, £16 0_s._ 12_d._; deduct for 9 7 8|Challock 250 priest to serve chapel, £6 13_s._ 4_d._ Ikham 25 11 8|Ickham 803 Stodmarsshe (appr’ to hospital for poor 0 0 0|Stodmarsh 135 priests, Cant.) |

APPENDIX III.

The illustrations which we have been able to give of our subject from the pictures in Mediæval MSS. are only a handful selected out of a very great number. It may be useful to some students to have references to the MSS. in the British Museum, where other illustrations of special interest may be found.

The most useful for illustrations of ecclesiastical rites, and incidentally for the vestments of all orders of the clergy, and for _instrumenta_, are the Pontificals; _e.g._--

The Pontifical of Landulph of Milan, 9th century, engraved in D’Agincourt’s _L’Art par ses monuments_; Painting, Plates XXXVII. and XXXVIII.

Tiberius B. VIII. contains two MSS. One English, of the end of the 12th or beginning of the 13th century.

The other French, date, A.D. 1365.

Egerton 931. French, of the Diocese of Sens, date, 1346-1378.

Lansdown 451. English of Diocese of Exeter, 14th century.

Egerton 1067. French, 15th century.

Add. MS. 14805. German, 15th century.

Add. 19898. French, late 15th century.

An early printed Pontifical, 471, f. 2, with engravings, Venice, A.D. 1520. There are other editions printed in other countries, but with the same engravings.

BAPTISM.--_By affusion._--16 G. VI. f. 128, 14th century. Egerton 745, f. 1, early 14th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, late 15th century.

_With aspersion._--10 E. VI. f. 230_b_, early 14th century. (Adult in temporary font, bishop sprinkling with aspersoir.)

_By immersion._--10 E. IV. f. 125, early 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. 128, 14th century. 6 E. VI. f. 171, and f. 318_b_, 14th century. Harl. 2278, f. 76, 15th century. Add. 29704, f. 18, close of 14th century. Nero A. IV. f. 81_b_, 14th century. Lansdown 451, f. 225_b_, 15th century. 20 C. VII. 190_b_, 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. 14.

CONFIRMATION.--6 E. VI. f. 372, 14th century. Egerton 1067, f. 12, late 15th century. Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, page 2, A.D. 1520.

MARRIAGE.--Nero E. II. f. 115 and f. 217, 14th century. Harl. 2278, f. 462. 6 E. VI. 257, and f. 375 and f. 414_b_, 14th century. 10 E. VI. f. 229_b_ and f. 313, 14th century. 14 E. IV. f. 30 and f. 275, 15th century. Harl. 4379, f. 6, 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. xx., 14th century. 20 C. VII. f. 10, 14th century. Nero E. II. f. 115, 14th century. Printed Sarum Primer, A.D. 1531, Paris. G. 12136, in Kalendar, June.

PREACHING.--Egerton 745, f. 46, 14th century. Add. 29433, f. 16, early 15th century. Add. 17280, f. 55, late 15th century. 6 E. VII. f. 75_b_, 14th century. 14 E. III. f. 9_b_, early 14th century.

CONFESSION.--6 E. VII. f. 500, 14th century. Add. 25698, f. 9, Flemish, c. A.D. 1492. Arundel 83, f. 12, 14th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, c. A.D. 1450. 6 E. VI. f. 357, and f. 369_b_, and f. 414_b_, 14th century. Add. 18851, f. 69_b_, end of 15th century. 6 E. VII. f. 506_b_, 14th century.

Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, p. 177, and p. 203_b_, A.D. 1523. _To a Friar_, Royal, 16 G. VI. f. 159, etc. Egerton 2019, f. 135, 15th century. _Of Clergy_, Royal, 6 E. VII.

PENANCE.--16 G. VI. f. 421, 14th century. Arundel 83, f. 12, 14th century. 6 E. VII. f. 443, 14th century.

Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, p. 155, A.D. 1520.

CELEBRATION OF MASS.--10 E. IV. f. 211, _with housel cloth_, 14th century; and 2 B. VII. f. 260_b_, late 13th century. 16 G. VI. f. 130 and f. 139, 14th century. Nero E. II. f. 129_b_, 14th century. Egerton 2125, f. 143, late 15th century. Royal 14 E. III. f. 17, early 14th century. Royal 6 E. VI. f. 24_b_.

Add. 25698, f. 2, c. A.D. 1492. Add. 29704, f. 7 (_elevation_), and 16997, f. 144, 15th century. Plut. 279, f. 12, 15th century. Add. 16997, f. 145, French, 15th century. Add. 15813, f. 155, Italian, A.D. 1525. Egerton 931, f. 78_b_ (1346-78).

_With only one candle on altar_, Nero E. II. f. 202, etc., 14th century.

PROCESSIONS.--16 G. VI. f. 30, f. 350, and f. 351. Nero E. II. f. 36, f. 73, 14th century. 10 E. IV. f. 231_b_, 14th century. P. La Croix, La Vie Militaire, etc., plate 257.

VISITATION OF THE SICK.--6 E. VI. f. 427_b_, 14th century. 6 E. VII. f. 70, 14th century. Add. 25698, f. 5, Flemish, c. A.D. 1492. Egerton 2019, f. 142, late 15th century. 20 C. VII. f. 78_b_, 14th century. Lansdown 451, f. 234, early 15th century. Printed Sarum Primer, A.D. 1531, in Kalendar, December, and at f. 102_b_.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.--_Enshrouding the corpse._--Egerton, 2019, f. 142, 15th century. _In church._--16 G. VI. f. 412, A.D. 1270. 2 B. VII. f. 222, f. 300, and f. 315, c. A.D. 1260. Sloane 346, f. 22_b_, 14th century. Add. 16997, f. 119_b_, and f. 171_b_, 15th century. 16 G. VI. f. 315, 14th century. Nero E. III. f. 131, 15th century. Nero E. II. f. 200_b_, 14th century. _At the church door._--Add. 10294, f. 72 and f. 89, 14th century. _Being carried into church._--Add. 12228, f. 8, early 14th century. _Funeral procession._--20 C. VII. f. 40_b_ and f. 200, 14th century. Egerton 1070, f. 54_b_, c. A.D. 1480. Add. 15813, f. 263, A.D. 1525. 6 E. VI. f. 481, 14th century. Add. 10294, f. 86 and f. 88, early 14th century. _Commendatio defunctorum._--Egerton 2125, f. 117_b_, late 14th century. Egerton 1070, f. 54_b_, A.D. 1480. 14 E. IV. f. 208_b_. 20 C. VII. f. 10, 14th century. Printed Sarum Psalter, A.D. 1531, f. 98. See also Norwich Vol. of the Archæological Institute, p. 105. _Burial._--Claudius B. IV. f. 11, f. 18, f. 44, f. 72, f. 74, and f. 85, 11th century. Egerton 2125, f. 18, early 16th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, c. A.D. 1450. _Aspersing coffin._--16 G. VI. f. 315, 14th century; and Harl. 2278, f. 22_b_, 15th century. _Tomb of a king._--20 C. VII. f. 40_b_, 14th century. Nero E. II. f. 72_b_, 14th century. _Tomb with lamp over it._--Egerton Plut. 745, f. 62_b_, 14th century. _Sword and horn over tomb._--16 G. VI. f. 180_b_, 14th century.

INDEX.

Absenteeism, 146, 326, 330

Acca’s Cross, base of, 27

Addi the Ealdorman, consecration of his church at North Burton, 48

Ælfric, homilies, 223

Aged clergy, provision for, 290-296

Aidan, apostle of Northumbria, 20; his schools, 21; preaching, 21, 22, 46

Alb, 191

Alcuin, 36

Aldhelm, 31, 49

Aldhelm’s religious poetry, 241

Ale, church, and other ales, 317

Alfred, laws of, 65, 76, 80, 82

Alfriston parsonage house, 152, 153

Amice, 192

Amyss, 195

Anglo-Saxon conquest, manner of, 3, 5

Anglo-Saxon monasteries, in France, 21; in Kent, 29; Northumbria, 29; East Anglia, 31; Wessex, 31; Mercia, 31-33; list of others, 33; life of the, 35; destruction of, by Danes, 37; restoration of, by Edgar and Dunstan, 37

Anglo-Saxons, their civil organization, 5; religion, 7; temples, 9-11; priesthood, 11; sacred places, 12

Archdeacons, 173, 533; of Lincoln, 353, 354; of Chichester, 362

Armour worn by clergy, 172, 175, 177

Assistant curates, 50, 105, 106

Athelstan, law of, encouraging landowners to build churches on their estates, 51; laws of, 66

Augustine, apostle of Kent, 15

Augustine, St., monastery of, 29, 35

Banns of marriage, 235

Baptism, within thirty days under penalty, 58, 68, 234

Bede, his description of mission work, 23; letter to Archbishop Egbert, 49

Bede Roll, 211, 311, 472, 496

Bedesmen, 449

Bell to be rung for service, 70, 447; in carrying viaticum to the sick, 239; sacring bell, 246

Benedict Biscop, 30, 36

Benefices, parochial, subdivision of, 56

Berdstaple Deanery, from “Taxatio,” 382; comparison of its parishes in the “Taxatio,” “Valor,” and Clergy List, 562

Berneston, 118

Beverley Minster, 548

Bidding Prayer, 207, 208

Birinus, apostle of Wessex, 21

Boniface (Winfrid), 22, 60

Bradfield-on-Avon, church at, 31, 32

Bridge chapels, 527

Brigg Rural Deanery, comparison of its parishes in the “Taxatio,” “Valor,” and Clergy List, 564

Bristol, 499; a Saxon burgh, its Saxon churches, 499; religious houses, 500; growth of parishes, 500; inclusion of Temple and Redcliff, 502

Britons, survivors of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, 4

Burton-on-Trent, monastery and town of, 508

Bury St. Edmunds, 510

Cædmon, his poems, 250

Canons, 73, 335; of Lincoln, 350-352; of Chichester, 360

Canterbury, King’s School at, 131; archbishops of, of humble birth, 133

Canute, 37; laws of, 52, 76, 80, 86

Career offered by the Church, 129, 134

Cathedral close, 340

Cathedral, organization of, 334; of secular canons, 335; monastic, 336; idea of, 350; description of, 357

Cealchythe, council at, 41, 78, 82

Cedd, apostle of the East Saxons, 30, 36, 39

Celibacy of the clergy, 66, 73, 258-273, 282, 283

Chadd, Bishop of Mercia, 30, 31, 36

Chantries, 212; of Burghersh, 341, 356, 447; in Lincoln Cathedral, 354; in Chichester Cathedral, 362; definition of, 438; number and distribution of, 442, 443; foundation deed of, 444, 469; of the Black Prince, 446; Richard III., 447; Henry VII., 447; nomination to, 451; dissolution of, 471

Chantry chapels, 453-456; furniture of, 445; sometimes chapels-of-ease, 467

Chantry priests, of cathedrals incorporated, London, 443; York, 503; of towns, sometimes a priest’s house provided for them, 518, 525; remuneration of, 461-464; duties of, 465, 466; sometimes schoolmasters, 469-471

Chapels, royal, 46, 123; parochial, 50, 110; free, 123, 124; domestic chantry, 421, 422, 457

Chaplains, parish, 105, 106, 111; domestic, 409-423

Chapter house, 342; use of, 357

Chasuble, 191, 244

Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” extracts from, 172, 271, 304

Choristers, of Lincoln Cathedral, 356; song schools for, 469, 471

Churches, Saxon, different status of, 52, 54; number of, 54; repair of, 66, 188; to be reserved to sacred uses, 69; burial in, 69; dilapidations, 163; their architecture, 184; furniture, 187, 189, 190

Churchyard, 69, 205, 281, 316; right of sanctuary in, 308; sports, markets, etc., in, 316, 317

Clergy, number of, in 1377, 390

Clerk, parish. _See_ Parish clerk

Clitheroe, castle church of, 120

Clovesho, councils at, 41, 60, 240

Clugny, Abbey of, 368

Clun, Shropshire, 112

Colchester Castle, domestic chapel, 410

Colleges, at universities, 140; Rotherham, 517; Wingham, 564, _note_; Wye, 566, _note_

Communion, Holy, doctrine of, 75, 237; in one kind, 235

Confession, 234, 239, 536, 543

Confirmation, 238; sponsors at, 59, 69, 234

Confraternity of a religious house, 439

Conisborough, 103, 409

Conversion of the English, 14, 21-23

Conway Castle chapel, 410

Cope, 193, 196

Costume of clergy, ordinary, 165, 169-171

Course of studies, 139

Courts, ecclesiastical, 532, 544

Coventry St. Michael’s Church, 555

Cranmer, Edmund, 564, 565 _note_

Cranmer on the education of the lower classes, 131

Creed, Apostles’, exposition of, 217; metrical version of, 238

Cross, station, 24

Cuckfield Church, 455

Customs on holy days, 311

Cuthbert, 23

Daily celebration of Holy Communion, 205, 206

Daily Psalter in cathedrals, 351

Daily service in churches and chapels, 205, 207

Dalmatic, 192

Danes destroy monasteries and churches, 37

Dean and chapter, 336; of Lincoln, 345; of Chichester, 361

Delamere, Abbot of St. Albans, 199

Denington, Chantry Chapel at, 456

Devotional books, 225; poetry, 255-257

Dilapidations, 162

Dioceses, Saxon, 20; subdivision of, 41, 42

Discipline, 531; of clergy, 533-535, 537; of laity, 535-544; defiance of, 542, 543

Dispensations, for obstacles to ordination, 146, 275; for non-residence, 146

“Dives and Pauper,” 249

Domesday Survey, mention of churches and clergy in, 54

Domestic chapels, 409; Norman, 409, 418; Edwardian, 410; later, 412-437; chantries in, 421, 457; oratories, 422; number of, 423; licences for, 424, 428; marriages in, 431; furniture of, 433; services in, 435

Domestic chaplains, in the sixth century, 408; Saxon, 409, 417; Norman, 409, 419-437; members of religious houses acting as, 418; emoluments of, 419, 420, 462

Dress, ordinary, of the clergy, 164-172, 233

Duns Scotus, 139

Dunstable Priory, 102, 324

Dunstan, 37, 66

Durham Cathedral, 87

Ecclesiastical courts, 86, 532

“Edgar, Canons of,” 66

Edmund, laws of, 66

Egbert, Archbishop of York, 49; constitutions of, 111

Elfric, canons of, 74

Endowments of parish churches, 45, 53

England, Church of, 41

Establishment of the Church among the English, 20

Ethelbert, King of Kent, laws of, 57, 58

Ethelred, laws of, 72, 82

Eucharist, rules for celebration of, 70; doctrine of, 75

Evensong, 200, 203, 204

Exchange of benefice by bishops or priests forbidden, 68

Excommunication, general, 238, 544, 545

Exeter, chapels and religious houses in, 497; parochial organization, 497

Eyam, cross at, 26

Farming benefices, 321, 324, 326, 331, 403

Fasting, 60, 71

Felix, apostle of the East Angles, 21

Fifteenth century, character of, 553; architecture of, 553

Firstfruits and tenths, 380

Folk-mote, 6

Foreign incumbents, 320

Fourteenth century, character of, 549

Free chapels, 124

Friars, at the universities, 140; origin of, 370; organization, 371; work, 373; success, 374; interference with parochial clergy, 376; poverty, 378

Furniture, of clergy houses, 174-182; of churches, 187-191

Gilds, definition of, 473; trade, 475; religious, 476-481; social, 482; at Ludlow, 473, 476; Bristol, 476; York, 476; Norwich, 478; Worcester, 478; Birmingham, 478; suppression of, 483

Glebe, size of, 55

Godparent, 59, 69, 234

Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, his monumental brass, 198

Granby, 103

Gratian’s Decretals, 121

Gray, Archbishop Walter de, his “Register,” 102, 116, 189

Greenstead Church, Essex (Saxon timber church), 52

Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, 167, 281, 327, 336; his “Castle of Love,” 242

Hampole, Richard of, 225

Harlow, 100

Heathenism, laws against, 58, 59, 68, 72

Heptarchic kingdoms, establishment of their churches, 20

Hertford, council at, 41

Hilda, St., 30

Holy days, 80

Holy loaf, 235, 403

Hood, 239

Hospitality of the clergy, 158-160

Hours, canonical, 74

Hugh of St. Victor, 138; St., Bishop of Lincoln, 281, 322; of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, 280

Humble birth, bishops of, 133

Hundred, 5

Illuminated MSS., references to, 567

Impropriation of benefices, 95-97; forbidden without consent of bishops, 98

Ine, King of the West Saxons, laws of, 57, 58

Iona, 15

Ipswich, in Domesday, 506; in the “Taxatio,” 506; convents of Austin Canons and Friars, 507; hospitals, 507

Isolation of Anglo-Saxon townships, 6

John Ball, priest, 171

Jutland, introduction of Christianity into, 17

Kellum, 117

King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, 552

Kingston-on-Thames, 115; free chapel there, 125

Kirkby Malamdale, 102

Laindon church and house, 162

Lanfranc, 88, 136

Lateran, council of, in A.D. 1179, 98

Latimer, Hugh, his education, 141

Laws, Saxon codes of, 39, 57-83

“Lay Folks’ Mass-book,” 243-249

Learning, revival of, 136

Lepers, 286, 294, 343

Lewinna, South Saxon martyr, 17

Lights for altar, 312; statues, 313, 498; purification, 314, 425; funeral, 315; meaning of, 312, 315. _See_ Tapers

Lincoln Cathedral, 338, 340; organization of its chapter, 343

Lindisfarne, 20, 29, 35

London Bridge, 529

London, parishes of, 492; subdivision of, 495; number of, 495; fees in, 496; map of, in 1570, 493

Longland, John, Bishop of Lincoln, 344

Lord’s Prayer, metrical version of, 248

Magdalen College, Oxford, 554

Manchester, parochial history of, 515

Manumission of slaves, 81, 82, 332, 333

Market Harborough Church, 186

Married clergy, 262

Mass, 200, 236, 237, 243-248

Matins, 200, 202, 204

Mediety, benefices held in, 56

“Minster,” 37

Miracle plays, 315

Mission work among the Anglo-Saxons, 21, 24

Monasteries, Saxon, 28-37; revival of, under Edgar and Canute, 37; Norman, 90-93; character, 366; social influence, 367; parochial influence, 369

Money, comparative value of, in 1292, 1534, and 1890, 404

Monks, 73, 97, 98, 108, 285

Mortuary services, 457-462

Morville, 114

Myrk John, “Instructions for Parish Priests,” 232

“Myrroure of our Ladye,” 249

Newark, 523

Newnham, Gloucestershire, 119

Non-residence, 146, 326, 330

Norman bishops, abbots, priests, costume of, 83, 91

Norman conquest, results of, 84

Normans, church building by the, 87, 88

Northumberland, Earl of, staff of domestic chapel, 413

Norway, anecdotes of its conversion, 17-19; introduction of Christianity into, 18, 19

Norwich, parishes of, 490

Oils for baptism and unction, 72, 75

Offering days, 71, 73

Offerings as source of income, 400

Offertory, 245; of the domestic chapels, 414, 426

Opinions during the Middle Ages, 546

Orarium, or stole, 192

Ordeal, 66

Ordericus Vitalis, 90, 115

Orders of the clergy, 74

Ordination, 144-146; refusal of, 327, 328

Pallium, 191

Papal supremacy, 85

Parish clerk, 67, 283, 298-305

Parishes, origin of, 44-46; extent of, 50, 110; subdivision of, 51, 53; number of, in A.D. 1292 and A.D. 1534, 385, 394; income of, 389, 396, 397-406

Parish priest, his ecclesiastical status, 50; social status, 51, 73; instructions for, 232-240

Parsonage houses, 148-158, at Weston Turville, West Dean, Alfriston, Kelvedon, Kingston-on-Thames, Bulmer, Ingrave, Ingatestone, Allington, Little Bromley, North Benfleet, Great Bentley, St. Peter’s Colchester, Radwinter, Laindon; and 161

Passion play, 304, 315

Patronage, abuse of, by the Crown, 321

Paulinus of York, 17, 21

Peckham, Archbishop, his manual of teaching, 216

Penance, 201; by proxy, 64; forbidden, 64; for sabbath-breaking, 201

Penitential system, Saxon, 532

Peter Lombard, 137

Pickering, 117

“Piers Plowman,” Vision and Creed, extracts from, 132, 133, 150, 171, 203, 207, 278

Pilgrimage, 308; places of, 309

Pilgrims, 309

Pledge breaking, punishment of, 65.

Pluralities, 323

Pocklington, 117

Poetry, devotional, 255-257

“Poor Parson of a Town,” Chaucer’s, 550

Preaching, 62, 71, 75, 214-223, 285-288; helps in, 223, 224

Prebend, 351; of Lincoln Cathedral, 353

Prebendaries of Lincoln, 351; of Chichester, 361

Presentation of offenders to the bishop, 62, 67

Priests, character of, 68, 71, 73, 233; duties of, 69, 72, 233-240

Primer, 249

Prince bishops of Durham, 363; of Winchester, 364; of Ely, 364

Privilege of clergy, 86

Procession, or Litany, 212, 311

Processions to mother church, 121; to cathedral, 121, 299

Puch the Ealdorman, consecration of his church at South Burton, 46

Recluse, 295, 527

Rectors not in holy orders, 325, 327, 328

Revenues of the bishops, deans, and chapters, etc., of Lincoln Cathedral, 344; of Chichester Cathedral, 360

Robert Pullein, 138

Roger Bacon, 139

Rotherham, parochial history of, 516; College, 517

Roundelay, 118

Royal chapels, 46, 123

Ruthwell, cross at, 25

Saffron Walden Church, 185

Saints, canonization by local synods, 63, 81

Saints’ Days, 80; appointed by synods, 63, 81

St. Alban’s, monastery and town of, 513

St. Edmund’s Bury, monastery and town of, 510

Sanctuary, 75, 306; right of, in churches, 75, 306; in churchyards, 308; in certain persons, 308

Saxon clergy, 21, 23, 38, 57-83; vestments of, 62, 83

Saxon codes of law, 39, 57

Saxon nobleman, house of, 47

Scholastic theology, 137

“Sentences” of Peter Lombard, 137

Serfs admitted to Orders, 130

Sermon helps, 223

Sermons, 215

Service books and vestments which each church was required to possess, 67, 189, 195

Services in church, 200; attendance at, on Sundays, 79, 201, 203; on week-days, 205-207

“Services,” 479

Sham priests, 143, 144

Shawbury, 112

Shoreham Church, 89

Shrine of Edward Confessor, 187

Sick, visitation of, 161, 237, 239

Sins, eight deadly, 214; seven deadly, 221, 226, 230

Slavery, 72, 81-83, 332

Slave-trade, 82, 83

Sompting Church, 55

Sons of clergy, 262, 273-278

Sponsors, at Confirmation, 55, 69, 234; at Baptism, 234

Stigand, Archbishop, 84, 86

Stokesay, 119

Stratford, John de, Archbishop, injunction on costume of clergy, 164, 188

Students, 140-144

“Summa Theologica” of Thomas Aquinas, 138

Sunday, observance of, 69, 73, 79, 205; penalty for desecration of, 201, _note_

Surnames of ecclesiastics taken from their birthplaces, 135

Surplice, 193, 194

Synodals, annual sum due from incumbent of a benefice to the bishop, 397; paid on attending the synod to procure the holy oils.

Synods, 41, 67, 337

Tapers carried at baptism (Harl. MS. 2278, f. 76); at marriage, 496; churching, 496; penance, 315; funerals, 496

“Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., 381

Teaching by priests, 63, 214, 216-223; by parents, 69

Temples, Anglo-Saxon, 9-11; Norse, 18, 19

Ten Commandments, exposition of, 218; metrical version of, 239

Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 40; holds a synod at Hertford A.D. 673, at which the Heptarchic Churches unite into the Church of England, 41; divides the Heptarchic dioceses, 41; encourages the parochial system, 45

Thirteenth century, character of, 548

Thomas Aquinas, 138

Thoresby, Archbishop of York, his manual of teaching, 222

Thornbury, staff of domestic chapel, 413

Tithe, 78; small, 99, 101

Titles for Orders, 145

Tower of London, domestic chapel, 409

Town parishes, origin of, 489

Towns, description of, 487; founded by monasteries, 507; Burton-on-Trent, 508; St. Edmund’s Bury, 510; St. Albans, 513

Township, Saxon, description of, 4, 5

Twelfth century, religious character of, 547

Types and antitypes, 231

Unction, Extreme, 237, 239

Universities, 136, 140

“Valor” of Henry VIII., 392

Vestments, clerical, 62, 98, 165, 191, 194, 195, 198, 199, 244, 299; origin of, 191; symbolism of, 196

Vicar, 99-107

Vicarages, foundation of, 98-108

Vicars choral, 341; of Lincoln, 355; of Chichester, 362

Virtues, the seven chief, 221, 229

Visitation of the sick, 162, 237, 239, 282

Visitation, the bishop’s, 279, 337; articles, 281, and replies, 285-289; by the archdeacon, 338

Wakefield bridge and chapel, 528

Wapentake, 5

Warham, William, 564, 565, _note_

Warwick Chantry Chapel, Tewkesbury, 454

Weapons carried by clergy, 167, 183

West Dean parsonage house, 151

Westminster, synod of, A.D. 1102, 98, 113

Whalley, 107, 108, 120; history of the parish of, 557

Wiclif’s Bible, 242

Wihtred, King of Kent, laws of, 57, 59, 77, 81

Wilfrid of York, apostle of the South Saxons, 40, 41, 42

Wills of clergymen, 171-183

Winchester, synod of, A.D. 1070, 86

Windsor, domestic chapels, 412

Winfrid (Boniface), 22, 60

Wingham, college of, 564, _note_

Woolrichston, 131

Wye, college of, 566, _note_

Yatton, 106

Yellow pest, seventh century, 39

York, Minster, 503, 504; St. Mary’s Abbey, 503; hospitals in, 504; parish churches, 505; of clergy, 505; income of parochial benefices in, 506; Micklegate Bar, 487

Zacharias, Bishop of Rome, 61

THE END.

PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] We gather from FitzHerbert “On Surveyinge,” chap. xl. (1470 to 1538, A.D.) that this condition of things continued general to the end of the sixteenth century.

[2] Grimm, Stallybras’s ed., i. 90.

[3] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” etc., 201.

[4] “Burnt Njal.”

[5] We know very little of the religion of these Teutonic tribes before their conversion, or of its usages. Mr. Kemble had “no hesitation in asserting” that their religion was the same as that of the Scandinavians; he thought that the Mark and system of land occupation which had existed long before in their native seats was introduced in its entirety into their new settlements, and that every Mark had its _fanum_, _delubrum_ or _sacellum_; and, further, that the priests attached to these heathen churches had lands--perhaps freewill offerings, too--for their support. Under these circumstances, he argues that nothing could be more natural than the establishment of a baptismal church in every Mark which adopted Christianity and the transference of the old endowments to the new priesthood (“The Saxons in England,” ii. 423).

[6] See a list of them at p. 63.

[7] 27th of the Council of London, 1102 A.D.

[8] Coifi asked, _Quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis quibus erant circumdata primus profanare debet ... pergebat ad idola ... mox appropinquabat ad fanum...._ In King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of Bede, _aras_ is represented by wigbed, _fana_ by heargas, _idolorum_ by deofolgild, a _septis_ in one place by hegum (hedges), and in the other by getymbro. Getymbro may mean a construction of any material, but probably here of timber (“Eccl. Hist.,” ii. c. 13).

[9] There is another notice of the existence of temples among the East Saxons, in the narrative of Bishop Jaruman’s work of reclaiming the half of those people under the rule of the sub-king Sighere, when they had relapsed to their old superstitions as the result of the great plague of 664 A.D. Bede says that the people “began to restore the temples that had been abandoned, and to adore idols”; but Jaruman “restored them to the way of righteousness; so that, either forsaking or destroying the temples and altars which they had erected, they reopened the churches.” At first sight, the narrative gives the idea of a number of temples, and a number of churches scattered over the country; but, on consideration, we call to mind that the East Saxons had been converted by Cedd only ten or twelve years before (653), and that we do not read of his building more than two churches, one at Tilbury on the Thames, the other at Bradwell, at the mouth of the Blackwater, which was probably outside the district in question; and the temples spoken of may not have been more numerous than the churches mentioned in the same vague terms; or Bede may have had in mind the open-air places of worship of the old religion and the prayer stations at which the Christian missionaries used to assemble their converts (“Eccl. Hist.,” iii. c. 30).

[10] Professor Skeat, in letters to the present writer.

[11] Anglo-Saxon nom. _hearh_; dat. _hearge_; pl. nom. _heargas_. Many English words are formed on “dative” types.

[12] In Icelandic, _hörgr_ = “a heathen place of worship, an altar of stone erected on a high place, or a sacrificial cairn built in the open air, and without images.”

[13] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 500.

[14] Saint Lewinna is said to have suffered _martyrdom_ for her faith at the hands of the heathen South Saxon, during the time of Archbishop Theodore. “Acta Sanct.,” July 24, p. 608, and “Sussex Archeol. Coll.,” vol. i. p. 45.

[15] Some stories of the introduction of Christianity among others of the rude northern peoples are well worth giving as an illustration, in likenesses, and in contrasts, of our own story, and especially because they give a quantity of details which will supply the paucity of such details in our own histories. They are later in time, but they belong to a similar phase of manners.

When Harold Klak, King of Jutland, who had received baptism on a visit to the Court of Louis le Debonaire (A.D. 820), returned home and destroyed the native shrines, proscribed the sacrifices, and abolished the priesthood, his people resented it, and drove him into exile.

Hacon of Norway had been baptized at the Court of our King Athelstan. At first he sent for a bishop and priests from England; a few of his intimate companions received baptism, and two or three churches were built in the district more immediately subject to him. Then at the Froste Thing, the winter assembly of the whole people, the king proposed to them to accept baptism. One of the bonders replied, in the name of his fellow-chiefs, “The ancient faith which our fathers and forefathers held from the oldest times, though we are not so brave men as our ancestors, has served us to the present time. If you intend to take the matter up with a high hand, and try to force us, we bonders,” he said, “have resolved among ourselves to part with you, and take some other chief, under whom we may freely and safely enjoy the faith which suits our inclinations.” The following winter four of the bonders bound themselves by oath to force the king to sacrifice to the gods, and to root out Christianity from Norway. The churches were burnt, and the priests stoned, and when the king came to the Yule Thing, he consented to taste the horseflesh of the sacrifice, and drink to the gods.

When Olaf Tryggveson gained the throne of Norway, having been baptized in England, he began by destroying the temples in his own territory, and declared that he would make all Norway Christian or die. The crisis came at the Midsummer Althing, held at Mære, where was an ancient temple; and thither all the great chiefs and bonders, and the whole strength of the heathen party, assembled. At a preliminary meeting of the bonders, Olaf proposed to them to adopt the Christian religion; they demanded, on the other hand, that he should offer sacrifice to the gods. He consented to go with them to the temple, and entered it with a great number of his own adherents; and when the sacrifice began the king suddenly struck down the image of Thor with his gold inlaid axe so that it rolled down at his feet; at this signal his men struck down the rest of the images from their seats, and then came forth and again demanded that the people should abandon their belief in gods who were so powerless. The people surrendered, and “took baptism.” Subsequently, Olaf Haraldson (1015), learning that the old sacrifices were still secretly offered at Mære, and other places, surprised a party at Mære, who were engaged in the forbidden worship, put their leader to death, and confiscated the property of the rest. Then Olaf went to the uplands, and summoned a Thing. Gudbrand, a powerful chief of the district, sent a message-token summoning the peasants far and wide to come to the Thing, and resist the king’s demand to abandon their ancient faith. Gudbrand had a temple on his own land, in which was an image of Thor, made up of wood, of great size, hollow within, covered without with ornaments of gold and silver. At the first meeting, Sigurd the Bishop, arrayed in his robes, with his mitre on his head, and his staff in his hand, preached to the assembly about the true faith and the wonderful works of God. When he had finished, one of the bonders said: “Many things are told us by this horned man, with a staff in his hand, crooked at the top like a ram’s horn; since your God, you say, is so powerful, tell him to make it clear sunshine to-morrow, and we will meet you here again, and do one of two things--either agree with you about this matter, or fight you.” Accordingly, on the morrow, before sunrise, the assembly came together again to the Thing-field, Olaf and his followers on one side, and Gudbrand and his men bringing with them into the field the great image of Thor, glittering with gold and silver, to which the heathen party did obeisance. Olaf had given instructions beforehand to one of his chiefs, Kolbein the Strong, who usually carried besides his sword a great club. “Dale Gudbrand,” said the king, “thinks to frighten us with his god, who cannot even move without being carried. You say that our God is invisible, turn your eyes to the east, and behold his splendour,” (for the sun was just rising above the horizon). And when they all turned to look, Kolbein the Strong acted upon his instructions; he struck the idol with his war-club with such force that it broke in pieces, and a number of mice ran out of it among the crowd. Olaf taunted them with the helplessness of such a god; and Gudbrand admitted the force of the argument. “Our god will not help us, so we will believe on the God thou believest in.” He and all present were baptized, and received the teachers whom King Olaf and Bishop Sigurd set over them, and Gudbrand himself built a church in the valley.

There was a great temple at Upsala, with idols of Thor, Woden, and Frigga, which was afterwards converted into a church (see Snorre Sturlusun’s “Heimskringla,” translated by S. Lang, with notes by R. B. Anderson, vol. i. pp. 103-105, 110, and vol. iv. p. 40).

Temples and sacrifices seem to imply the existence of priests; but it is remarkable that, in the collisions between Hakon and the Olafs and the heathenism of Norway, there is no mention of a single priest.

[16] Bede, “Eccles. Hist.,” ii. 14.

[17] Ibid., ii. 16.

[18] Bede, iii. 3.

[19] Ibid., iii. 5.

[20] Ibid., iii. 14.

[21] Ibid., v. 6. There are other indications that travellers sometimes took tents on their journeys through the thinly inhabited country.

[22] Pertz, ii. 334.

[23] Bede, iii. 26.

[24] Bede, iv. 27.

[25] In the life of St. Willibald, we read that “it was the ancient custom of the Saxon nation, on the estates of some of their nobles and great men, to erect not a church, but the sign of the Holy Cross, dedicated to God, beautifully and honourably adorned, and exalted on high for the common use of daily prayer” (Acta SS. Ord. Benedict, sect. iii., part 2). So it was a custom with “St. Kentigern to erect a cross in any place where he had converted the people, and where he had been staying for a time” (“Vita Kentigerni,” by Joscelin, the Monk of Furness). Adalbert, a Gallic bishop, in the time of St. Boniface, preached in fields and at wells, and set up little crosses and oratories in various places.

[26] The church at Bradfield-on-Avon, recently discovered, unaltered and uninjured, was probably the church of one of these monasteries.

[27] Of the early monasteries of the East Saxons, the East Anglians, the South Saxons, and of the Dioceses of Rochester and Hereford, little is known.

[28] “Historical Church Atlas,” E. McClure.

[29] Secular monasteries are alluded to in the fifth canon of Clovesho (A.D. 747), and eighth canon of Calchythe (816). A canon of Clovesho (803) forbad laymen to be abbots.

[30] Bishop of Oxford, “Const. Hist.,” i. 251.

[31] The Bishop of Oxford, however, says, “Occasional traces of Ecclesiastical assemblies of single kingdoms occur, but they are scarcely distinguishable from the separate Witenagemots” (“Const. Hist.,” i. 264).

[32] The 123rd of the novels.

[33] Labbe and Cossart Councils, 9. 119.

[34] Letters of Gregory the Great, lib. xii. ep. xi. (Migne 77, p. 1226).

[35] Another capitulary, dated 832, ordained that if there were an unendowed church it should be endowed with a manse and two villani by the freemen who frequented it, and if they refuse it shall be pulled down.

[36] When Willibrord, a Northumbrian educated at Ripon, was evangelizing Frankish Frisia, 692, etc., Alcuin records that he founded not only monasteries but encouraged the foundation of parish churches. Alcuin, “Opera II.,” tom. 101, p. 834. Migne.

[37] Bede, iii. 17.

[38] Ibid., v. 4, 5.

[39] At the same time, to encourage commerce, a merchant who had made three voyages in his own ship was entitled to the rank of Thane.

[40] The Bishop of Oxford and earlier authorities are of opinion that the “burg geat settl” means the right of jurisdiction over tenants. Sharon Turner conjectures that the place in the king’s hall means a seat in the Witenagemot.

[41] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” i. 367.

[42] S.P.C.K., “Roch. Dioc. Hist.,” p. 25.

[43] Ellis’s “Introduction to Domesday Book.”

[44] Parishes with two rectors continued not infrequently throughout the Middle Ages; there are some even to the present day. The way in which the parochial duties were divided is indicated by two examples given in Whitaker’s “Craven” (p. 504). Linton has two rectors, who take the service in alternate weeks; they have their stalls on either side of the choir, and parsonage houses nearly adjoining one another. So at Bonsal each rector has his own stall and pulpit.

Sometimes each mediety had its own church. The churches of Willingale Spain and Willingale Doe, in Essex, are in the same churchyard. At Pakefield, Suffolk, there is a double church, each with its choir and nave and altar, divided only by an open arcade.

[45] Bôt = compensation.

[46] This is the earliest notice (in England at least) of the ancient custom of having a confirmation god-parent, different from the baptismal sponsors. There are other notices of it in the canons of Edgar (see p. 69) and the twenty-second of the laws of Canute; and in many canons of English Mediæval Diocesan Councils. Queen Elizabeth and Edward VI. were each baptized and confirmed at the same time, and, according to primitive custom, each had three baptismal sponsors and one confirmation god-parent. It is still enjoined by the third rubric at the end of the Church Catechism and by the twenty-ninth of the canons of 1603.

[47] _i.e._ be scourged.

[48] So it is usually stated, but the date and place of the council are very questionable.

[49] Zachary’s letters to the English inhabitants of Britain were in Latin and English. The documents are not on record, but we are told that they were read at the Council; in them he “familiariter admonebat et veraciter conveniebat et postremo amabiliter exorabat,” and to those who despise these modes of address he “anathematis sententiam procul dubio properandam insinuabat.”

[50] This prayer is as follows: “O Lord, we beseech Thee, of Thy great mercy, grant that the soul of (such a person) may be secured in a state of peace and repose, and that he may be admitted with the rest of Thy saints into the region of light and happiness.”

[51] Among the “Canons of Edgar,” the following occurs:--“A powerful man may satisfy a sentence of seven years’ fasting in three days. Let him lay aside his weapons and ornaments, and go barefoot and live hard, etc., and take to him twelve men to fast three days on bread, water, and green herbs, and get wherever he can 7 times 120 men, who shall fast for him three days, then will be fasted as many fasts as there are days in seven years.”

[52] Thorpe, i. 227.

[53] It is not known by whose authority the ecclesiastical regulations which are entitled the canons of Edgar were drawn up, but they appear to be of this date.

[54] That it might be seen that they were complete and in good order, just as the laity came to the Hundred mote or Wapentake with their weapons. For list of them see Ælfric’s Pastoral, 44.

[55] To keep a copy of the constitutions made at the synod.

[56] The time was subsequently shortened to seven days.

[57] Probably spots of ground accounted sacred.

[58] In the “vulgar tongue.”

[59] The priests had a small consecrated slab of stone which they used on missionary journeys and at other times.

[60] The Legatine Council of Cealchythe (787, 5 c.) explains this by saying he must not celebrate with naked thighs. (See Exodus xxviii. 42.)

[61] For hours of service see Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” etc., ii. 359.

[62] By laws of Alfred and Guthrum, if a priest misdirect people about a festival or fast he shall pay 30_s._

[63] Meaning obscure.

[64] The chief distinction between nuns and mynchens appears to have consisted in the superior age and strictness of life of the former (Thorpe, “Ancient Laws”).

[65] The laws of Canute say ½_d._ worth of wax for every hide on Easter Eve, All Saints, and Purification.

[66] Allusions to the Danish incursions.

[67] Fifth law of Ine.

[68] Law 16.

[69] Law 17.

[70] Mr. Kemble, as we have seen, is of opinion that the people in those days of heathendom had a temple in every township, and that the priesthood were endowed with lands as well as offerings, but we do not find sufficient evidence of this.

[71] The monks of Jumieges, in the seventh century, fitted out vessels and sailed great distances to redeem slaves. St. Eligius spent large sums in redeeming them--20, 50, 100 at a time. Christian missionaries bought slaves, and trained them as Christians.

[72] “Diplomatarium Anglicanum.”

[73] “Collier,” i. 241. The Cathedral Churches of the Continent were universally served by Canons.

[74] Bishop of Oxford’s “Select Charters,” p. 73.

[75] Robert d’Oyley, a powerful Norman noble, repaired the ruinous parochial churches in and out of Oxford in the reign of William I. (Brewer, “Endowment, etc., of the Church of England,” p. 74). Corsuen built a number of houses and two churches on a piece of land granted to him in the suburb of Lincoln. (? St. Mary le Wigford, and St. Peter at Gowts.)

[76] Eyton’s “Shropshire” mentions several cases in that county.

[77] Bohn’s edition of “Eccl. Hist, of Ordericus Vitalis,” i. 10.

[78] Nearly all the village churches of the Craven district of Yorkshire were built in the time of Henry I., and many of them enlarged in the time of Henry VIII. (Whitaker’s “Craven”).

[79] Orderic, iv. xxiv.

[80] It was stopped by Innocent III. in a decretal letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, c. 1200.

[81] See Sir H. Ellis’s “Introduction to Domesday,” i. 324, 325.

[82] The Church of Gisburn, Yorkshire, was given to the Nunnery of Stainfield, Lincolnshire, by a Percy. For fifty years the nuns simply presented to the rectory like any other patron; then in 1226 Archbishop Walter Gray assigned them _ad proprios usus_, half a carucate of the glebe land, and the tithe of corn in various places named, but without endowing a vicarage, and the convent presented six more rectors under those conditions; it was not until 1341 that a vicarage was ordained. (Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 45).

[83] This Council also forbade a vicar to hold more than one parish.

[84] Where the religious house was situated in or near the parish church, special arrangements were not infrequently made. At Tortington, near Arundel, Sussex, was a small house of Austin canons which existed before the time of King John. The vicar of the parish had a corrody in the house, consisting of a right to board and lodging for himself and a serving boy. At Sybeton, Suffolk, the vicar and curate had their lodging and food in the religious house (“Valor,” iii. 442). At Taunton, in 1308, the Priory supplied the vicar with allowances of bread and ale, and hay and corn, and two shillings a year for the shoeing of his horse (“Bath and Wells,” p. 121, S.P.C.K.). See also Lenton, p. 404.

[85] One of the constitutions of Archbishop Stratford (1333) requires religious appropriators of churches to give a benefaction to the poor yearly, according to the judgment of the bishop, on pain of sequestration.

[86] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 310. Upon making an appropriation an annual pension was usually reserved to the bishop and his successors, payable by the body benefited, for a recompense of the profits which the bishops would otherwise have received (Sir R. Phillimore, “Ecclesiastical Law”).

[87] _i.e._, which had obtained from the Court of Rome exemption from the Bishop’s ordinary jurisdiction.

[88] According to Matthew Paris, “the bishops of England at that time designed to recover from the monasteries all the appropriated churches. Grostete of Lincoln took steps to carry out the design in his diocese, but the monks appealed to Rome and defeated the bishop” (Matthew Paris, Bohn’s ed., ii. pp. 325, 326, 401, 420).

[89] Gray’s “Register,” p. 113. Surtees Society.

[90] Ibid., p. 112.

[91] Gray’s “Register,” p. 113. Surtees Society.

[92] Extracts from Lincoln Registers. Harl. MS. 6950, p. 1250.

[93] Bronscombe’s “Register,” p. 253.

[94] Ibid., p. 330.

[95] Ibid., p. 334.

[96] “Bath and Wells,” p. 122, S.P.C.K.

[97] Long Preston, in Craven, is mentioned in “Domesday.” In the reign of Stephen it was granted by Wm. de Amundeville to the church and canons of Embsay. In 1303, Archbishop Corbridge ordained that the church should be served by a fit vicar and his ministers. In 1307 there was another “taxation,” a third in 1322, and a fourth in 1455 (Whitaker, “Craven,” p. 145).

[98] In the Episcopal Register of Lincoln, under date 25th April, 1511, William, Abbot of Oseney, was admitted to the Vicarage of St. Mary Magdalen, Oxford, on the presentation of the Abbot and Convent of the same.

[99] “Lichfield,” p. 138, S.P.C.K.

[100] It was this which made a rectory so much like a small monastery in its constitution, that rectories were often called minsters, and monasteries often merged into rectories.

[101] Hopesay and Hopton, originally probably chapels parochial of Clun, were of the nature of free chapels, _i.e._ not at the disposal of the baroness or of the rector, but only of the lord of the fee (Eyton’s “Shropshire,” ix. 258).

[102] Eyton’s “Shropshire,” viii. 149.

[103] The two chapels of Rilston and Coniston--(Coniston chapel is very early Norman, or still earlier, with triangular windows)--in the parish of Burnsal, co. York, as late as the beginning of this century had had no chaplains or separate endowment, but were still served in the primitive mode by the Rector of Burnsal; both have cylindrical fonts of high antiquity, and therefore must always have had the sacramentalia. Chapels with these rights were always presentable, and served by chaplains who took an oath of obedience to the rector, and were not removable at pleasure; whereas mere chapels-of-ease were served by stipendiaries removable, or by the parish priest himself (Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 528).

[104] The probable explanation is that the lord of the ville of Billingley had made some arrangement with the mother church for the payment of half his tithe to his own chapel; the small payments from the other chapels were acknowledgments of subjection.

[105] The original deed is in possession of Mr. G. Morris, of Shrewsbury. “Know all men, both now and hereafter, on the day of the dedication of the cemetery of Eston that I, Robert, son of Aher, gave to God and to the chapel of the same vill of Eston one virgate of land, containing sixty acres, and all tithe of my demesne of the same vill, and one mansion, for the health of my soul and of all my predecessors and successors. And that my gift may be free and quit of all reclaim by me or my heirs and may ever remain firm and stable I have fortified it with this present writing, and with the impression of my seal.--There being witnesses Robert, Bishop of Hereford, Reinald, Prior of Wenlock, Peter the archdeacon, and many others” (Eyton’s “Shropshire,” i. p. 207).

[106] See p. 90.

[107] There were more monasteries founded in the reign of Stephen than in any other period of similar duration.

[108] A. Heales, “History of Kingston-upon-Thames.”

[109] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 168.

[110] Ibid., p. 211.

[111] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 45.

[112] Ibid.

[113] Eyton’s “Shropshire,” v. 28.

[114] Whitaker’s “History of Whalley,” p. 223.

[115] Whitaker’s “History of Whalley,” pp. 223-225.

[116] The great Law-book of the Mediæval Church.

[117] The king is supposed to visit his own chapels and hospitals by the Lord High Chancellor.

[118] Sir R. Phillimore.

[119] In the college at Tonge, any one of the five chaplains bringing a guest to dinner was to pay for him 3_d._ if at the high table, and ¼_d._ if at the low (S.P.C.K., “Lichfield,” p. 161).

[120] A. Heales, “History of the Free Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, Kingston-on-Thames.”

[121] Pages 20 and 82.

[122] Page 68.

[123] When Winfrid, afterwards St. Boniface, showed a strong precocious vocation for the religious life, his father, who seems to have been the principal person of his town, forthwith sent him--at six or seven years of age--to a religious house at Exeter, to be educated for the Church.

[124] Men who had any serious personal blemish, or any defect in respect to birth, learning, or morals, were excluded by canon from ordination (Constitutions of Otho, 1237). Illegitimacy and servile origin were both defects of birth.

[125] Thorold Rogers, “Agriculture and Prices in England,” vol. ii. pp. 613, 615, 616.

[126] “Eccl. Proceedings of Courts of Durham,” Surtees Society, p. 5.

[127] John Knox said, “Every scholar is something added to the riches of the Commonwealth.”

[128] See the quotation in its entirety on p. 278.

[129] Cobbler.

[130] “The Babees Book,” Early English Text Society, p. 401.

Of Archbishops of Canterbury, the parentage of William of Corbeuil is not known; the inference is that it was humble. Thomas Becket was the son of a London citizen; Richard, of humble parents; Baldwin, of humble parents at Exeter; Richard Grant, parentage unknown; Edmund Rich, son of a merchant at Abingdon; Richard Kilwardby, a Dominican friar of unknown parentage; Robert Winchelsey, probably of humble birth; Walter Reynolds, the son of a baker at Windsor; Chichele, a shepherd-boy, picked up and educated by William of Wykham; Cranmer’s people were small squires in Notts. And so in other sees. Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the great Justiciar of Henry I., was the son of a poor Norman priest; Thomas of Rotherham, Archbishop of York, was of obscure parentage; Richard of Wych, the saintly Bishop of Chichester, was the son of a decayed farmer at Droitwich, and for several years worked on the land like a labourer; the famous Grostete was of a poor family at Stradbroke, Suffolk; Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have been the son of a weaver; John of Sheppey was taken up and educated by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, and succeeded his benefactor in the see.

[131] By 9 Ed. II. c. 8, clerks in the king’s service were declared not bound to residence on their benefice.

[132] The custom might sometimes be misleading. Thus, a priest in the diocese of Bath and Wells with the high-sounding name of Richard de Burgh, was a villein of the bishop who had given him freedom and holy orders.

[133] See notice of the college founded by Archbishop Thomas of Rotherham, p. 517.

[134] The universal ignorance of the Greek language at that time made the great works of the Eastern Church a sealed book to the scholars of the West.

[135] At the Council of Trent, nearly three hundred years after his death, the “Summa” was placed on the secretary’s desk beside the Holy Scriptures, as containing the orthodox solution of all theological questions.

[136] Wesley published an edition of it.

[137] Peter Lombard’s “Text-book.”

[138] “Norfolk Archæology,” vol. iv. p. 342.

[139] “Lincoln,” p. 194. S.P.C.K.

[140] “The York Pontifical,” p. 370. Surtees Society.

[141] In the Diocese of York, in 1344-5, there were ordained--

Acolytes 421 Sub-deacons 204, of whom 71 were regulars. Deacons 326 " 96 " Priests 271 " 44 " ---- -- 1222 211

In 1510-11, there were--

Acolytes 298, of whom 17 were regulars. Sub-deacons 296 " 51 " Deacons 248 " 41 " Priests 265 " 173 " ---- --- 1107 282

In the first year of the episcopate of Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, viz. from December 21, 1308, to September 20, 1309, there were ordained 539 to the first tonsure, 438 acolytes, 104 sub-deacons, 177 deacons, 169 priests.

In the year from March 22, 1314, to December 20, 1315, there were ordained 75 to the first tonsure, 71 acolytes, 44 sub-deacons, 50 deacons, 66 priests.

[142] “In 1281 the Pope dispensed an acolyte, whose left little finger had been shortened while a child by an unskilful surgeon, to hold a benefice notwithstanding the defect” (“Calendar of Papal Registers,” 1491). “Jacob Lowe and Sampson Meverall, base born, and Godfrey Ely, blind of one eye, were dispensed by the Pope for ordination” (“Register of Smyth, Bishop of Lichfield,” p. 175).

[143] “Lichfield,” p. 129. S.P.C.K. See additional examples in the chapter on Abuses.

[144]

Now hath each rich a rule To eaten by themselve, In a privy parlour For poor man sake, Or in a chamber with a chimney; And leave the chief hall, That was made for meals Men to eaten in. The “Vision of Piers Ploughman.”

[145] Of which there is a description and drawing in the Records of the Archæological Society of that county, vol. ii. p. 251.

[146] In those days the rooms of a house were not massed compactly together under one roof; the hall was the primitive house, and additions to it were effected by annexing distinct buildings, each of which was called a house.

[147] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. p. 350.

[148] “Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society,” vol. ii. part ii. (New Series), p. 141.

[149] Alfred Heales, “Kingston-on-Thames,” p. 17.

[150] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. p. 103.

[151] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 281.

[152] Ibid., ii. 284.

[153] “Hist. of England,” i. p. 41.

[154] A lawsuit gives us a glimpse of John of Bishopstone, the rector of Cliffe, at Hoo, going to church on the Sunday before Christmas, 1363, accompanied by his chaplains, clerks, and household, as if they all lived together (S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 188).

[155] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 97.

[156] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 46.

[157] Ibid., ii. 309.

[158] A statute of 3 Ed. I., A.D. 1275, says, “Abbeys have been overcharged by the resort of great men and others; none shall come to eat or lodge in any house of religion of any others’ foundation than his own; this does not intend that the grace of hospitality be withdrawn from such as need.”

[159] See Matthew Paris under 1240 A.D., “to receive guests, rich and poor, and show hospitality to laity and clergy according to their means, as the custom of the place requires.”

[160] In the returns of a survey of the estates of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter in 1300 both the manor houses and the rectory houses are included, and their similarity is evident: “Culmstock Manor. There is a hall in the Manor, and a soler within the hall and a chamber, a kitchen without _furnum and turella_ (stove and small turret for smoke and ventilation), and a dove house; there wants a granary. Utpottery. There is in the farmhouse a sufficient hall and chamber, a new grange, and other sufficient houses, 1330. Vicar of Colyton, Richard Brondiche, is a leper. Colyton _Domus Sanctuarii_ (house in the churchyard). There is there a competent hall with a chamber and chimney, a competent kitchen, without _turella_, however; two granges; the other houses are sufficient; the gardens are eaten up with age and badly kept. Branscombe Manor. There is a hall with two chambers and garderobes good and sufficient; a new kitchen with a good _turella_; all the other houses in good condition” (“Register of Bishop Grandisson,” part i. p. 572).

[161] Clive, in the diocese of Worcester, was appropriated to Worcester Priory; formerly the rector lived in the _Aula Personæ_. In the middle of the thirteenth century the rectory house was let to a tenant. The vicar lived in one of several houses in the village which belonged to the benefice; there were two chaplains, one of whom lived in another of these houses, and the second in a soler (“Register of Worcester Priory” (Camden Society), p. lxxxi.).

[162] “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” p. 133.

[163] “Essex Archæol. Transactions,” vol. vi. part iii.

[164] Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Bishop Grandisson,” pp. 349, 356.

[165] Lyndewode, “Provinciale.” Compare the 74th of the Canons of 1603.

[166] “Grostete’s Letters” (Rolls Series), p. 49.

[167] “York Fabric Rolls” (Surtees Society), p. 243.

[168] For picture of the basilard and purse see Royal MS., 6 Ed. VI., f. 478, p. 492, etc.

[169] Catalogus omnium qui admissi pet’runt in fraternitatis beneficium Monasterii Sti. Albani, cum picturis eorum et compendiosis narrationibus. (British Mus., Nero D., vii.)

[170] These, with the descriptions, are taken from “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” by the present writer.

[171] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 57.

[172] Ibid., p. 130.

[173] The record of a suit in the Ecclesiastical Court of Durham gives us a curious little illustrative anecdote of a quarrel in the Rectory of Walsingham, in the year 1370. The bishop, the archdeacon, and their attendants were passing the night there, probably after a Visitation. The record tells us in full detail how, after the Bishop had gone out of the hall of the rectory into the chamber, the family remaining in the hall, Nicholas de Skelton uttered threats against John of Auckland, the servant of the archdeacon, viz. that he would break his head. One of the archdeacon’s people intervened, when the angry Nicholas threatened to break his head also. The archdeacon seems to have then interfered, when a servant of Nicholas, offering to strike the archdeacon with a hawking staff, the archdeacon drew his _cultellum_; the servant broke it in two with his staff; the archdeacon hurled the half which he held, and it killed another of the company who happened to interpose. The archdeacon was summoned before the Court to answer for the homicide.

[174] Quoted from “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” p. 248, by the present writer.

[175] Cushion for the back and seat of the bench.

[176] “Wills and Inventories” (Surtees Society), p. 54.

[177] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 371.

[178] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 385.

[179] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 82.

[180] York: “Wills and Inventories,” p. 117.

[181] “Essex Archæol. Transactions,” vol. vi. part ii. (New Series), p. 123.

[182] Holinshed’s “Description of Britain,” p. 233.

[183] Johnson’s “Canons,” etc., ii. 365.

[184] Stapledon’s “Register,” p. 182.

[185] H. Randolph, p. 378.

[186] Lyndewode, “Provinciale,” p. 35.

[187] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 217.

[188] Laid on tombs, or hung on the walls as ornaments. See Matthew Paris, under 1256 (v. 574, Rolls ed.).

[189] See woodcut, p. 165.

[190] “Antiquary,” 1897, pp. 279, 298.

[191] For explanation of the meaning of the vestments in the “Book of Ceremonies,” 1539, see Mackenzie Walcott, “Parish Churches before the Reformation.”

[192] It is to be regretted that in the revived use of copes, as seen, for example, on the steps at the west end of St. Paul’s, on the day of the Queen’s Jubilee procession, the designers have taken the unwieldy and ungraceful fifteenth and sixteenth century garment as their pattern; it is shaped like a cone, it does not fit the shoulders, it imprisons the arms, its corners overlap in front, while its hood sticks up at the back of the head.

[193] Humbert de Romain, General of the Dominicans in the thirteenth century, says that “the great and the poor seldom visited the churches.” Neander’s “Church History,” vii. 439 (Bohn). The great, as we shall see in