Chapter 4

PARISH FINANCE.

Speaking generally of the average parish, Elizabethan churchwardens accounts and vestry minutes show that for the purposes of raising money amongst themselves to meet every-day parish expenditures,[201] the parishioners of the period did not commonly resort to rates, if by "rate" be understood a general assessment of all lands or all goods alike at a fixed percentage of their revenue or value above a minimum exempted.

It must not be supposed, however, that in the case of offerings or gatherings, or of levies to raise a certain sum where each man assessed himself, it was entirely optional for each to give or to refuse. What a man customarily gave, or what he had promised to give, or, again, what the parish thought he ought to give, that the ordinary might compel him to give.[202] From an offering or a voluntary assessment to a rate is often but a short step, and the two former shade off into the latter almost imperceptibly. The justices of the peace and the ecclesiastical authorities usually cast lump sums upon the parishes, leaving ways and means to the parishioners themselves. But it was, of course, optional with the justices to rate each individual separately when it seemed good to them, and for this they had the Queen's subsidy books to guide them. Here, however, we are chiefly concerned with the raising of money amongst the parishioners themselves. How manifold, how ingenious were the parochial devices for creating resources, it is the purpose of this chapter to set forth.

But before proceeding to the parish expedients, properly so called, for raising money, it will be well to say something of parish endowments, whether in lands, houses or funds. According as the revenue from these was available for general, or at least for various purposes, or, on the other hand, was impressed with a trust for some specific object, these endowments may be divided into general and special. Parishes well endowed might be able to dispense with some of the devices for money-getting which we shall have occasion to enumerate, but then, after all, endowments might come and they might go;[203] moreover, the financial policy of any one parish would, of course, differ according to the disposition or the ability of those who shaped it.

Of Loddon, Norfolk, we are told that "no complaint appears about Church Rates, for there were none, as the revenue of the Town Farm ... rendered a tax of that description unnecessary."[204]

Of St. Petrock's, Exeter, we are informed that "the parish became so well endowed by donations of land and houses as to enable the wardens to dispense almost entirely with the quarterly collections entered in the earlier accounts."[205] The editor of the Thatcham, Berks, Accounts, writes: "In the early years of these churchwardens accounts the available funds were derived chiefly from the two oldest charities, one called 'Lowndye's Almshouses,' the first account of which is for the year ... 1561 ... to 1562; the other known as 'the Church Estate,' the first account of which begins in 1566."[206] Summoned by the Bodmin, Cornwall, justices in January, 159-4/5, to make a report as to the parish stock, the representatives of Stratton certify at sessions that their stock "am[oun]ts to the now some of Sixteene poundes, some yeares it is more & some yeares lesse...." And, they continue, "the vsinge of our sayde stocke is by the two wardens & the rest of the eight men w[hi]ch for the same stande sworne, And it is bestowed aboute her ma[jes]ties service, for buyenge of armor, settinge forth of souldiers w[i]th powder & shott.... And likewise for the relievinge & mainetayning of the poore...." They thereupon give the names of the impotent and decrepit persons and orphan children "wholly relieved" by the parish, ten in number, and add that there are upwards of a hundred poor "w[h]ich are not able to liue of themselues, but haue reliefe dayly one thinge or another of the seide p[ar]ish."[207] The little parish of St. Michael's in Bedwardine, Worcestershire,[208] possessed lands and tenements in various parishes, and in 1599 invested £10 in buying two more tenements in Worcester city.[209] Its wardens accounts, we are told by their editor, disclose that there was never any lack of money for parish purposes "in spite of a rather lavish expenditure at times in the luxury of law[suits]."[210] Lapworth, Warwickshire, had many acres of parish land.[211] The churchwardens of St. John's, Glastonbury, Somerset, return in their accounts the rent of the parish lands in 1588 at £9 13s. 10d.,[212] and, as these accounts show, they occasionally received important sums for fines on changes of tenants. The various properties managed by the wardens of St. Michael's, Bath, numbered thirty-seven in 1527, yielding a revenue of £11 8s.;[213] and even in 1572 the rent amounted to £11 8s.[214]

Indeed, though parish lands and houses were generally vested as to title in trustees (often a numerous and cumbersome body),[215] the churchwardens themselves and sometimes other accountants,[216] who like the wardens were appointed from year to year, usually exercised the actual management. The feoffees existed chiefly for the purpose of making it difficult to alienate the parish properties, "and the larger the trust body the more difficult such alienation was supposed to be."[217]

Contenting ourselves with the above examples, which could easily be multiplied, we pass on under this same head of general endowments to an interesting form of personal property, viz., cattle, for not only did the wardens derive receipts from parish holdings of real estate, but also from _Endowments of Cows or Sheep_. The Pittington, Durham, Twelve Men, a sort of parish executive and administrative body, enact in 1584 "that everie iiij pounde rent[218] within this parrishe, as well of hamlets as townshippes, shall gras[219] winter and somer one shepe for the behoufe of this church;"[220] and we are told that these "Church Shepe," as they were called, were here one of the chief means of raising funds for parochial purposes.[221] It was the custom of pious donors, especially among the lowly, to leave one or more sheep or cows to their parish. In the year 1559 twelve sheep were thus given or bequeathed to Wootton Church, Hants, by ten donors.[222] These sheep, as well as the parish cows, were often hired out to parishioners, who gave security for their return. Sometimes they were given to poor men at a reduced rent, and thus they served to support the poor.[223]

That the keeping of cattle was a well-recognized source of parish income is seen by the Queen's Injunctions of 1559 in which she alludes to "the profit of cattle" among other sources of parish revenue to be devoted to the poor, "and if they be provided for, then to the reparation of highways next adjoining," or to the repair of the church.[224]

Leaving the topic of general endowments to take up those sources of revenue destined to defray particular forms of expenditure, we find that _Permanent Parish Endowments_ in lands, goods or money devoted to the defraying of _Specific Parish Administrative Burdens_ or _Utilities_ were very numerous in the local documents of the 16th century. Sometimes a land or fund was set apart by the donor, or by the parish itself, for the support of a parish servant or officer;[225] sometimes its revenue maintained this or that cripple or blind man,[226] or a number of them; sometimes it was used for feeding the poor,[227] or for buying wearing apparel for them;[228] for setting them at work in houses of correction,[229] or for parish education.[230]

In particular, lands or funds were frequently set apart as special and permanent endowments for the repair of bridges.[231] In fact, the proceeds of parish lands or other endowments might be appropriated to alleviate any tax burden whatsoever. In 1549 it was stated by the wardens of North Elmham, Norfolk, that the net proceeds of the five and thirty or forty acres which they rented out were devoted exclusively towards the paying of the fifteenths due from time to time to the king and his successors.[232]

To illustrate the variety of purposes for which parish trusts were created, I cannot do better than quote part of the preamble of the 43 Eliz. c. 4, known as the Statute of Charitable Uses: "Whereas Landes, Tenements, Rentes ... Money and Stockes of Money," it is there rehearsed, "have bene heretofore given, limitted ... and assigned ... some for Releife of aged, impotent and poore people, some for Maintenaunce of sicke and maymed Souldiers and Marriners, Schooles of Learninge ... some for Repaire of Bridges, Fortes, Havens, Causwaies, Churches, Sea-bankes and Highewaies, some for Educac[i]on and p[re]fermente of Orphans, some for or towardes Reliefe, Stocke or Maintenaunce for Howses of Correcc[i]on, some for Mariages of poore Maides, some for Supportac[i]on, Ayde and Helpe of younge Tradesmen, Handiecraftesmen and p[er]sons decayed, and others ... for aide or ease of any poore Inhabitants conc[er]ninge paymente of Fifteenes, settinge out of Souldiers and other Taxes [etc.]...."[233]

As for money and goods left by testators or given _inter vivos_ for _Temporary Expenses_ or _Special Occasions_ (as opposed to the creation of permanent trusts and endowments), we find a constant stream of such benefactions throughout the Elizabethan period.

By the Queen's Injunctions of 1559 parsons are diligently to exhort their parishioners, "and especially when men make their testaments," to give to the poor-box, the surplus of which, after provision for the needy, might be devoted to church and highway repair.[234]

Bequests made to the highways or bridges were considered as donated _in pios usus_. "I thinke," wrote a prebendary of Durham Cathedral in 1599, "it also a deade of charitie and a comendable worke before God to repaire the high-wayes, that the people may travaille saifely without daunger. I therefore will to the mending of the highwayes [etc.]...."[235]

Noblemen and wealthy men were expected to help maintain the local poor in particular. Elizabethan ballads celebrate the liberality to the destitute of an Earl of Huntingdon,[236] of an Earl of Southampton,[237] or of an Earl of Bedford.[238] At the funeral of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, in 1591, eight thousand got the dole served to them, and it was thought that at least twice that number were in waiting, but could not approach because of the tumult.[239] The churchwardens and overseers of the poor accounts, especially in London and the larger cities, abound with receipt items of gifts from great personages or wealthy merchants.[240]

Owing to the difficulty of investing money because present-day intermediaries were absent between capital seeking employment and would-be borrowers; and because the medieval stigma attaching to money loaned at interest had by no means wholly disappeared,[241] there grew up in Elizabethan parishes a system of laying out money, raised by the parish or donated by benefactors, in various trades, such as wool-spinning, linen-weaving, the buying of wood or coal to sell again at a profit,[242] etc. Sometimes well-to-do parishioners with good credit would themselves borrow parish money, returning ten per cent. for its use.[243] Usually, however, parish money was loaned gratis, the parish taking sureties for its repayment and sometimes articles of value, being, apparently, not always above doing a little pawnbroking business.[244] On the other hand, when the parish itself had occasion to borrow money it would occasionally give its own valuables as security. Thus the Mere, Wiltshire, wardens record in 1556 that they have redeemed on the repayment of 40s. to one Cowherd, "borowed of hym to thuse of the Churche," "certeyn sylver Spones of the Churche stocke."[245] Finally, parishes would now and then make some cautious speculation in real estate, such as the buying of a local market or fair with a view to profit.[246]

Leaving the subject of endowments we shall now take up in order the measures which may be called _Parish Expedients for raising money_.

Of all means ever devised for obtaining large sums of money for parish uses, the most popular, as certainly the most efficacious, was the _Church-ale_. Widespread during the first years of Elizabeth's reign, church-ales, for reasons hereafter to be mentioned, ceased to be held in many parishes towards the end of the reign. They constitute, nevertheless, at all times during the 16th century an important chapter in the history of parochial finance. In some wardens' accounts the proceeds of these ales form a yearly recurring and an ordinary receipt item; in others ales were resorted to when some unusually large sum had to be raised, or some heavy expense was to be met, such as the rebuilding of the church tower, the recasting of the bells, the raising of a stock to set the poor to work, or the buying of a silver communion cup.[247] Frequently, also, funds were raised by means of ales called clerk-ales, sexton-ales, etc., to pay the wages of clerks, sextons and other servants of the parish. "For in poore Countrey Parishes," writes an early 17th century bishop, "where the wages of the Clerke is very small, the people ... were wont to send him in Provision, and then feast with him, and give him more liberality then their quarterly payments [or offerings] would amount unto in many years." Indeed, he continues, since these ales have been abolished "some ministers have complained unto me, that they are afrayd they shall have no Parish Clerks for want of maintenance for them."[248]

Church-ales were usually held at or near Whitsuntide, hence they were also called Whitsun-ales or May-ales in the accounts. If the occasion were an extraordinary one, and it was sought to realize a large sum, notices were sent to the surrounding parishes, say to ten, fifteen, or more, to be read aloud from the pulpits of their respective churches after service, which notices contained invitations to any and all to come and spend their money in feasting and drinking for the benefit of the parish giving the ale. As the day approached for the opening of the ale, which, if it were a great one, would be kept for four or five days or more, all was bustle in the parish to prepare for a feasting which often assumed truly Gargantuan proportions. Cuckoo kings and princes were chosen, or lords and ladies of the games; ale-drawers were appointed. For the brewing of the ale the wardens bought many quarters of malt out of the church stock, but much, too, was donated by the parishioners for the occasion. Breasts of veal, quarters of fat lambs, fowls, eggs, butter, cheese, as well as fruit and spices, were also purchased. Minstrels, drum players and morris-dancers were engaged or volunteered their services. In the church-house, or church tavern, a general-utility building found in many parishes, the great brewing crocks were furbished, and the roasting spits cleaned. Church trenchers and platters, pewter or earthen cups and mugs were brought out for use; but it was the exception that a parish owned a stock of these sufficient for a great ale. Many vessels were borrowed or hired from the neighbors or from the wardens of near-by parishes, for, as will presently be seen, provident churchwardens derived some income from the hiring of the parish pewter as well as money from the loan of parish costumes and stage properties. When the opening day arrived people streamed in from far and wide. If any important personage or delegation from another village were expected, the parish went forth in a body with bag-pipes to greet them, and (with permission from the ecclesiastical authorities) the church bells were merrily rung out. At the long tables, when the ale was set abroach, "well is he," writes a contemporary, "that can get the soonest to it, and spend the most at it, for he that sitteth the closest to it, and spendes the most at it, hee is counted the godliest man of all the rest ... because it is spent uppon his Church forsooth."[249] The receipts from these ales were sometimes very large. So important were they at Chagford, Devon, that the churchwardens were sometimes called alewardens.[250] At Mere, Wilts, out of a total wardens' receipts of £21 5s. 7-1/2d. for the two years 1559-61, the two church-ales netted £17 3s. 1-1/2d.,[251] thus leaving only £5 2s. 6d. as receipts from other sources for these two years. At a later period, on the other hand, this relation of receipts was entirely reversed. For instance, in 1582-3 the wardens secured only £4 10s. 4d. from their ale, while proceeds from other sources amounted to £17 9s. 7d.[252]

In the thirty-one years from 1556-7 to 1587-8 in this parish the recorded wardens' expenditures had more than doubled. In the first-named year they had been but £8 I2s. 5d.;[253] in the latter year they had swelled to £18 14s 3-1/2d.[254] This characteristic is true of all Elizabethan church budgets, and the writer has seen a number of them.[255] The Wootton churchwardens enter under the year 1600 the following: "Rec. by our Kingale, all things discharged, xij li. xiiij[s]. jd. ob.," an important sum for the day.[256]

Besides the churchwardens other wardens or gilds sometimes busied themselves with the selling of ale for the benefit of the church. One of these gilds at South Tawton, Devon, records in its accounts for 1564: "We made of our alle and gathering xl l. viijs. viijd."[257]

So important a source of parish income had to be carefully looked after. A church-ale with its attendant festivities for drawing visitors was an important business matter. Accordingly we find the parishioners of St. John's, Glastonbury, making an order in 1589 "that the churchwardens shall yearly keape ale to the comodeti of the parishe upon payne of xxs. a yere."[258]

In Ashburton, Devon, in 1567 Christopher Wydecomb had to pay 20s. to the wardens "because he refused the office of the drawer of the church ale."[259] At Wing, Bucks, those refusing "to be lorde at Whitsuntyde for the behofe of the church" were fined 35. 4d. apiece.[260] In some places these masters of the revels were called Cuckoo Kings, and the office seems to have gone in rotation like other parish offices.[261]

When invitations had been sent out to surrounding parishes, interparochial courtesy seems to have required the attendance either of the churchwardens or of some other more or less official representatives of the neighboring communities. These representatives carried with them some small contribution made at the expense of their respective parishes ('ale-scot').[262]

Because of the alleged drunkenness and disorderly conduct attendant upon some of these ales, the justices of assize and the justices of the peace attempted in some shires to put them down on various occasions.[263] More effective, perhaps, in doing away with them was the gradual growth of Puritanism.

In conclusion it should be remarked that church-ales seem to have obtained only in Central and Southern England. The huge and thinly populated parishes of the North did not favor the development of an institution so essentially social in its character.

_Church Plays, Games_ and _Dances_ were allied in a measure with church-ales, partly because they were sometimes held concurrently with them, partly because they served as a substitute for the ales when these fell into disrepute. Miracle plays and other pageants were given by certain parishes from time to time, too frequently in the churches themselves, in which case the wrath of the ordinary was called down upon the parish if he heard of them.[264] Some parishes kept various costumes and stage properties, which were hired out to other parishes when not in use.[265] May games, Robin Hood plays or bowers, Hocktide sports and forfeits, morris-dances and children's dances were all turned to the profit of the church, collections being taken up at them.[266] Morris coats, caps, bells and feathers were frequently loaned out for a consideration by wardens to other parishes.[267]

_Church-house_. Here were the brewing kettles and the spits, and here was stored church grain or malt for beer making.[268] Here, too, presumably, the pewter ale pots, trenchers, spoons, etc., which figure in the accounts, were kept. These were hired out to other parishes for their ales.[269] While ale was brewed and drunk in the church-house for the benefit of the parish, and that apparently on other occasions than church-ales, it does not seem probable that the place was often allowed to degenerate into a common ale-house, even though in some parishes it may have borne the name of "church tavern."[270] When not required for parish purposes the church-house was rented out, and rooms in an upper story were used for lodging.[271]

As church-ales fell into disfavor _Offerings_ or _Gatherings_ in church or at the church door became more frequent[272] and more systematized. As time went on these collections were regularly taken up in many parishes every quarter, usually at Easter, Midsummer, Michaelmas and Christmas.[273] Hence the name quarterage.[274] When the proceeds went to general church furnishing and repairing, the gatherings wrere sometimes called in the accounts "church works."[275] As the sum given by each was often noted down in "quarter books" or "Easter books,"[276] and was, on denial, occasionally sued for before the official (together with dues for other purposes--clerk's wages, pew rents, etc., presently to be noticed), an "offering" might become virtually an assessment or rate.[277]

We come now to _Communion Dues_, or _Collections_ taken up at the time of communion.

"_Paschall money_" is defined in a vestry order of Stepney parish, London, in 1581 as a duty of 1d. paid by each communicant at Easter "toward the charge of breade and wine over and besides theyre offering mony due unto the vicar." These paschal dues, the order further informs us, had long been farmed by the vicar for 40s. yearly. But now the yield of a penny from each communicant was "thought a thing so profitable and beneficiall," that only as a special mark of favor was the vicar to continue to farm it, but at £4 thenceforth instead of at 40s.[278] "_Easter money_," an expression found not infrequently in the accounts, may have referred to the same payment, or it may have designated the offering which generally followed the celebration of communion,[279] taken up, doubtless, from all those present, whether communicating or not, the proceeds of which might go to the minister or to the parish according to agreement or custom.

Though the Second Edwardine Prayer Book (1552) provided that the elements were to be found by the curate and the wardens at the expense of the parish, which was then to be discharged of fees, or levies on each household, nevertheless, we meet with _Communion Fees_ or with house-to-house levies to defray the cost of bread and wine in many parishes during Elizabeth's reign.[280] In order to ensure payment of the communion fee, tokens (or as we would say today, tickets) were provided in some parishes which were first to be handed in before the ministrant admitted the applicant to reception.[281]

In a number of parishes a fine wine such as muscatel or malmsey was provided for the better sort, or the masters and mistresses, while the servants, or poorer folk, were served with claret.[282] Indeed where all were compelled to communicate thrice yearly the cost of wine was a very serious item.

_Collections for the Holy Loaf_, that is, blessed but not consecrated bread, which went to defray the costs of administering the Eucharist, occur in some of the earlier Elizabethan accounts.[283] Surplus communion fee money, or communion offerings were devoted to the care of the poor and other expenses.[284]

The heading _Clerk's Wages_, which is so often met with in the wardens' receipt items, frequently serves (as do several other special headings) as a mere peg on which to hang a collection for various or even for general parish expenses.[285]

_Pews_ and _Seats in Church_ were often made a source of revenue. Thus at St. Mary's, Reading, it was agreed in 1581 by the chief men of the parish, in order to augment the parish stock and to maintain the church, because "the rentes ar very smale," that those sitting in front seats in the church should pay 8d., those behind them 6d., the third row 4d., and so on.[286]

At St. Dunstan's, Stepney parish, London, a book was made by the wardens "whearein was expressed the pewes in the whole Church," distinguished by numbers. "Also there was noted against everie pewe the price that was thought reasonable it shoulde yeeld by the yeare.... The w[hi]ch rates by this vestrie is allowed and confirmed to be imploied to the use of the parish Church." When a few months later it was determined to build a gallery because the congregation needed more seats, it was also settled that the cost should be met by a year's pew rent in one payment down, over and besides the usual quarterly payments for seats.[287] Sometimes the seats were sold outright and for life only.[288]

_Mortuary Fees_ were a source of revenue in almost all parishes, and sometimes an important one.[289] Consequently tariffs of fees were drawn up in various places. So much is charged for interment within, so much for burial without the church; so much for a knell according to duration and according to size of the bell; so much for the herse--a sort of catafalque--so much for the pall, the fee varying from that charged for "the best" to that charged for "the worst cloth"; so much if the body is coffined or uncoffined, most of the dead being buried in winding sheets only, though the parish provided a coffin for the body to lie in during service in church and for removal to the graveside.[290] So, too, one fee was charged for interring a " great corse," another for a "chrisom child."[291] All, in fact, is tabulated with minute precision, the minister getting certain fees for himself alone, and sharing others with the parish; and so of the clerk and of the sexton, if any. Among other reasons alleged by the vestry of Stepney parish for dismissing their sexton in 1601 was because he made "composic[i]on with diu[er]s & sundry p[ar]ishoners for the duties of the church to the hinderannce & great damage of the bennefitt of the church & p[ar]ishoners."[292]

_Fees_ for _Weddings, Christenings_ and _Churchings_, and for the ringing of the bells (at marriages), together with the _Offerings_ taken up on these occasions, might form a source of revenue to the parish, either going directly into the parish coffers, or being paid in whole or in part to minister, clerk or sexton, who, after all, had to be supported by the parish (or otherwise), being essential officers or servants.[293]

The parish poor and the parish church derived an uncertain, but by no means negligible, income from the product of _Fines for various Delinquencies_.

In the previous chapter fines for non-attendance at church have been alluded to.[294] A contemporary, writing in 1597, refers to these as an important fund for the support of the poor if duly levied. He writes: "Whereunto [he is speaking of various means to alleviate poverty] if we adde the forfaiture of 12 pence for euerie householders absence from Church (man and woman) forenoone and after, Sunday and holiday (according to the statute without sufficient cause alledged) to be duely collected by Churchwardens and other appointed to that end, with the like regard for Wednesday suppers: there would be sufficient releefe for the poore in all places ...."[295]

Ecclesiastical courts sometimes condemned offenders to pay a fine for the use of the poor.[296] Sometimes they commuted a penance for money to go to church-repair or to the parish poor.[297] The churchwardens or overseers of the poor accounts also mention fines received for profanation of the Sabbath and for offences during service time.[298] The Star Chamber often condemned offenders, especially enclosers of cottage land and engrossers of corn, to fines for the benefit of the poor.[299] Finally, most parishes derived some income from fining men various sums for refusing parish offices; for neglect of duty when in office; and for not attending duly called vestry meetings. Sometimes a parishioner would pay down a large lump sum for exemption forever from all offices served by the parishioners.[300]

Yet another irregular but appreciable means of revenue might be classed under the heading of _Miscellaneous Receipts_.

As the parishioners were always eager to turn an honest penny for their own benefit, no possible source of receipts was neglected. If, for instance, any part of the church or the church premises might, temporarily or permanently, be rented out without drawing upon the community the censure of the ordinary, the parishioners were happy to do so. Owners of structures of any kind encroaching upon the churchyard, or other church land, were promptly made to pay for the privilege.[301] Occasionally parishes derived more or less large sums from the sale of parish valuables. The sale of costly vestments, embroideries, hangings, images, chalices, pyxes and other church furnishings and ornaments condemned as superstitious by the Anglican church, brought some income to the wardens of most parishes during the first years of Elizabeth. Examples will be found in all the accounts. Now and then, too, a parish would make a large sum from the sale of the wood or other products of parish lands.[302] A fairly common item in city parishes especially were fees paid for licences to eat flesh during Lent and on other legal fast days.[303]

When an Elizabethan parish undertook some work on a great scale, such as the rebuilding of its church, or of the church steeple; or, again, when it had suffered great losses by fire or flood, it solicited through _Begging Proctors_ the _Contributions of Outsiders_, sometimes from all parts of England.[304]

To terminate our enumeration of means of raising money, or of contributions of all sorts on which the wardens could count (as apart from rates, properly so-called), we might mention _Fixed Contributions_, of money or of labor, issuing out of certain tenements; and _Annual Payments to Mother Churches_. Certain lands or houses, generally abutting on the church grounds, had fixed upon them the obligation to repair a certain portion of the churchyard enclosure, Tenement X, so many feet of fence, Tenement Y, such a portion of brick or stone wall, and so forth.[305]

Sometimes also certain houses or lands are spoken of as yielding so much a year for the repair of the church and the support of the poor.[306] Incidentally we might mention--though hardly connected with parish finance--certain payments for church repair, etc., claimed of old by some cathedral churches from the parishes of the diocese. Originally a tax varying from a farthing to a penny for each household (hence the names "smoke farthings," "hearth penny," "smoke silver"), the payments were commuted for a small lump sum exacted yearly. Thus we find in the Elizabethan accounts mention of "St. Swithin farthings;"[307] of "Ely farthings;"[308] of "Lincoln farthings,"[309] etc., according to the _name_ of the cathedral to which they were paid; or, again, of "Whitsun farthings;" of "Pentecost farthings," etc., according to the _time_ of the year at which the payments were made.[310] These payments must not be confused with "Peter's pence," which had before the Reformation been paid by English parishes to Rome.[311]

Lastly the mother parish church, in large parishes requiring chapels of ease, would exact (when it could) contributions from those congregations who frequented for ordinary divine worship these chapels of ease within the parish. And these exactions would be made irrespective of the fact that these congregations were bound to repair their own chapels and possessed their own churchwardens.[312]

When the means or expedients we have hitherto set forth were found insufficient, or impracticable, or too tardy for an emergency, the parish was compelled to resort to _Rates_ or _Assessments_.

Assessments were levied in all sorts of ways and for all sorts of purposes. In an emergency, or if the sum to be raised was not large, a levy might be made by the principal men of the parish upon themselves only.[313] A "rate" might, however, be made to collect a very small sum, as well as a very large one.[314] All kinds of units or rules of assessment were resorted to from parish to parish, and (apparently) sometimes no fixed unit at all was taken, men's ability to pay being roughly gauged, or a man being permitted to rate himself,[315] or give his "benevolence."

In the wardens' accounts are frequently seen long lists of names, each being taxed at a sum varying from 1/2d. to three or four shillings. Such lists may represent an attempt to tax each man at 1/2d. or 1d. in the pound, or, likely as not, it may merely mean a crude sizing up of the ability of each to contribute.

Furthermore, a "rate" might consist in a fixed sum, the same for all, and levied by polls or by households,[316] say 1d. or 2d. each. Or, again, it might be levied by pews at varying sums.[317] Assessments to pay the parish clerk or sexton might sometimes be made in kind, and issue from households, from cottages, or from ploughlands: so much corn at Easter, so much bread, so many eggs.[318]

When it came to the more accurate basing of rates upon lands, or goods at a valuation, the inhabitants of the various communities observed no uniform ratio of taxation from parish to parish, nor even in the same parish, and disputes were always recurring.[319]

It must be borne in mind that parish financiering was largely of the hand-to-mouth variety. Indeed, it was difficult it should be otherwise, for the exigencies of the civil or the ecclesiastical authorities were constantly shifting, now a petty lump sum being required (and to be spent as soon as raised), now a great one to be disbursed in the same manner.

In conclusion, a few observations on the parish as a financial unit in connection with county government may be made. There seems to have been no general treasury at the disposal of the hundred or of the county, but merely certain treasurers charged with the disbursement of this or that special collection for this or that special purpose. A collection is made by order of the justices, for instance, in certain hundreds, or throughout the shire, for the support of the prisoners in the county gaol, and a treasurer for the fund is appointed. Or it may be that this treasurer is a more or less permanent official. And so with collections for hospitals, for houses of correction, for great bridges, etc. If the constables levied more than was sufficient for a parish, or if the contemplated disbursement turned out to be less than originally estimated, the surplus, if the justices had no immediate use for it, might be returned to that parish to go back into the pockets of the rate payers.[320] Furthermore, it seems scarcely accurate in Elizabethan times to speak of any _county rate_,[321] for there was no recognized basis of assessment common to all parishes, unless it were at any given time the then prevailing subsidy rate, and a rating according to the subsidy books by the justices would fail to reach many whom a parish rating might attain. As a matter of fact the justices, when they had a large sum to levy on the county at large, almost always apportioned it in lump sums among the hundreds, or among the parishes of their respective divisions, according to "the bygnes or smallnes of their parishes."[322] It comes, then, to all practical intents and purposes to this: that each parish is left to produce according to its own local methods, or rating, the wherewithal for carrying on county government.

While in local government itself the parishioners have practically no voice, the large measure of freedom they enjoy for the devising of ways and means to meet the demands made upon them (though they have no option whatever in granting or withholding supplies) gives to the parish a vigorous entity and a certain autonomous life of its own, which otherwise it never could have possessed over against the all-regulating and inquisitorial Tudor machinery of Church and State.

As the reign advanced the parish developed a selfish, jealous and exclusive gild life of its own, especially under the operation of the poor laws.

Non-parishioners, or "foreigners," were viewed with the strongest suspicion. Generally they were discriminated against if they happened to have dealings with the parish. Wedding or funeral fees were doubled in their cases.[323] If the parishioners could have had their will no alien poor could have gained a settlement amongst them--no, not even after twenty years' residence. In 1598 the West Riding, Yorkshire, justices were compelled to interfere in favor of divers poor persons in various parishes, where officers were seeking to expel them as vagrants born elsewhere, though they had been domiciled in their adopted communities for twenty years and upwards.[324]

Already that "organized hypocrisy," so characteristic of parish life in later reigns, shows itself in the many presentments of, and petitions against, persons supposedly immoral--especially single women. Not zeal for morality prompts these indictments, but fear that the community may have to support illegitimate children.[325] Quite typical of the times is the language held by the inhabitants of Castle Combe in appealing to the Wiltshire justices against a townwoman in 1606. They are apprehensive, they say, lest "by this licentious life of hers not only God's wrath may be powered downe uppon us ... but also hir evill example may so greatly corrupt others than great and extraordinary charge ... may be imposed uppon us."[326]

Few laws on the statute book were so frequently enforced as the 31 Eliz. c. 7, which required four acres to be laid to every cottage to be constructed, for there was a powerful local backing behind the law. When John Fletcher, "a meere stranger lately come into this Parish with his wife and children," took certain parcels of land in Severn Stoke in 1593, and was suspected of the intention to build a cottage without laying to it the requisite number of acres, the parishioners immediately complained to the Worcester justices, for they wanted to provide against the contingent liability of having to support the inmates.[327] Four acres was then the quantity considered necessary to maintain a man and his family. It was an indictable offence to sublet, for then there would be two families where only one was before. Nor could lodgers be taken, for such increase of the inmates of the house would surcharge the land.[328]

In short, that feeling of distrust and discrimination against the outside world, which, in the 18th century, led a Lancashire vestry to dub all outsiders "foreigners,"[329] is already fully developed by the end of the 16th century. But we must also recognize that this feeling engendered in the parish itself solidarity of interests, close fellowship and local spirit.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Richard Hooker, _Ecclesiastical Polity_, Bk. viii, 448-9 (ed. 1666).

[2] Coke, 4 _Inst_., 320 (ed. 1797).

[3] See 14 Eliz. c. 5, sec. 16, and 39 Eliz. c. 3.

[4] 37 Hen. VIII, c. 17, re-enacted I Eliz. c. I. "The real effect of the statute was this--that lay lawyers were substituted for the clerical canonists of pre-Reformation times." Lewis T. Dibden, _An Historical Inquiry into the Status of the Ecclesiastical Courts_ (1882), 59. By canon cxxvii of the Canons of 1604 in order to be a chancellor, a commissary, or an official in the courts Christian, a man must be "_ad minimum magister artium, aut in jure bacalareus, ac in praxi et causis forensibus laudabiliter exercitatus_." E. Cardwell, _Synodalia_ (etc.), i, 236. Cf. Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_, iii, 655-6 (Parker's report, 1563. Officials of the archdeacons not required to be in orders). E. Cardwell, _Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England_, i, 426 (Complaint in a document of circa 1584 [or later] that excommunication is executed by laymen. In the answer by the bishops it is stated [_ibid_., 428] _inter alia_, "that in later times, divines have wholly employed themselves to divinity and not to the proceedings and study of the law"). To the same effect, but for a later period, see White Kennett, _Parochial Antiquities_ (Oxon. ed. 1695), 642.

[5] Harrison, writing in 1577, says that archdeacons keep, beside two visitations or synods yearly, "their ordinarie courts which are holden within so manie or more of their several deaneries by themselues or their officials once in a moneth at the least." Harrison, _Description of England_, Bk. ii, _New Shakespeare Soc_. for 1877 (ed. Dr. Furnivall), p. 17. Between 27th Nov., 1639, and 28th Nov., 1640, there were thirty sittings in the court of the Archdeacon of London. Hale, _Crim. Prec_., introd. p. liii. Any casual inspection of the visitation act-books reveals the fact that the judge sits either in court or in chambers between visitations, for offenders are constantly ordered to appear again in a few days or in a few weeks. Compulsory presentments were, however, limited by law and custom to two courts a year. See canons 116 and 117 of the Canons of 1604. Also Gibson, _Codex_, ii, 1001.

[6] See p. 18 and p. 20 _infra_. For the duty to read the injunctions or the articles based on them see p. 32 _infra_.

[7] See 5 Eliz. c. 3. _Stats. of the Realm_, iv, Pt. i, 411. Also Visitation of Warrington Deanery in 1592 by the Bishop of Chester in _Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Soc. Trans_., n. s., x (1895), 186 _et passim_. Hereinafter cited as _Warrington Deanery Visit_. Cf. also Grindal's Injunc. for the Province of York (1571), art. 17, _Remains of Grindal, Parker Soc_., 132 ff.

[8] See Visitations of the Archdeacon of Canterbury, _Archaeologia Cantiana_, xxvi (1904), 24 (1602). Mr. Arthur Hussey has published copious extracts from the act-books of these visitations extending over a considerable period in vols. xxv-xxvii of the _Arch. Cant_. Hereinafter cited as _Canterbury Visit_., xxv (etc.). For perambulations see p. 27 _infra_.

[9] Cordy Jeaffreson, _Middlesex County Records_, i, 100-1 (Indictment reciting that John Johnson had had due notice in his parish church, yet had not sent his wain, etc., 1576). Cf. provisions of the statutes 5 Eliz. c. 13, and 18 Eliz. c. 10, _Stats. of Realm_, iv, Pt. i, 441-3, and 620-1 respectively.

[10] Brownlow v. Lambert, C.B., 41 Eliz., I _Croke Eliz. Rep., Leache's ed_. (1790), Pt. ii, 716.

[11] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 23 (1599); _ibid_., 20 (1591). W.H. Hale, _A Series of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of the Ecclesiastical Courts of London_, 1475-1640 (pub. in 1847), 190 (Schoolmaster of Stock presented in court for defacing the church "in makinge a fire for his schollers," 1587). This work hereinafter cited as Hale, _Crim. Prec_.

[12] Constables Acc'ts of Melton in _Leicester Architec. and Archaeol. Soc. Trans_., iii (1874), 72-3. Chelmsford Churchwardens Acc'ts in _Essex Archaeol. Soc. Trans_., ii (1863), 225 ff.

[13] Stratton (Cornwall) Churchwardens Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, xlvi, 200 ff. _s. a_. 1565 and editor's note.

[14] "Sir W.. A.. and I with divers other justices, being met together at Sondon church" (1582). Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_, iii, Pt. ii, 214. This meeting here may have been in the churchyard.

[15] See in the _Antiquary_, xxxii (1896), 147-8, the inquest held at St. Botolph Extra Aldgate (1590), and the coroner's judgment delivered in the church that a suicide should be buried at cross-roads with a stake through her breast.

[16] For the noisy proceedings in Bow Church and in St. Paul's, London, see _The Spiritual Courts epitomised_ [etc.], a satire printed in 1641 at London. For this and similar satires see Mr. Stephen's _Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires_ in Brit. Mus. (1870). Cf. Strype, _Life of Grindal_ (Oxon. ed. 1821), 83 ff. (Proclamation of 1561 for reverent use of churches). Also Augustus Jessop, _One Generation of a Norfolk House_, 15. Sir J.F. Stephen, _Hist. of Criminal Law_, ii. 404.

[17] In the Canons of 1571 the churchwardens are called "_aeditui_," in those of 1604 "_oeconomi_." In the older churchwardens accounts their Latin designations are "_gardiani_" and "_custodes_," sometimes "_prepositi_" (or 'reeves'). English equivalents are churchmen, highwardens, stockwardens (alewardens even), kirkmasters, church masters, proctors, etc. Sidemen are called also questmen, assistants and (apparently) sworn men or jurates. They do not always appear in small country parishes, neither are they generally found before the latter half of Elizabeth's reign. Their Latin appelation was "_fide digni_" and they were chosen from among the parishioners to the number of two, four, six or more to present offences along with the churchwardens, or offences which the wardens would not present (Gibson, _Codex_, ii, 1000). The sidemen went about the parish during service time with the wardens and warned persons to come to church (See p. 23 _infra_). For rector, etc., see p. 30 _infra_.

[18] Toulmin Smith, _The Parish_ (2d ed., 1857), 69 ff., strongly insists that churchwardens "never were ecclesiastical officers." But the authorities he cites are post-Elizabethan. The courts in Elizabeth's time held that the execution of the office "doth belong to the Spirituall jurisdiction" (See Brown v. Lother, 40 Eliz., in _J. Gouldsborough's Rep_., ed. 1653, p. 113). Lambard (_The Duties of Constables_, etc., ed. 1619, p. 70) says that wardens are taken in favor of the church to be a corporation at common law for some purposes, viz., to be trustees for the church goods and chattels.

[19] See "The Othe which the Parsons ... shall minister to the Churche Wardens," of which the text is given in Bishop Barnes' Injunctions and other Ecclesiastical Proceedings, _Surtees Soc_., xxii (1850), 26 (Hereinafter cited as _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_.). The wording of this oath is evidently very similar to, if not identical with, that of the oath administered to the wardens by the archdeacon.

[20] For a number of examples clearly illustrating this point see Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorkshire Archaeological Journal_. xviii (1905), 202, 221, 222, 224, _et passim_. Hereinafter cited as _Dean of York's Visit_. We have a number of these articles of inquiry formulated by archbishops or bishops. _E.g._, see in T. Nash, _Hist. and Antiq. of Worcestershire_, i, 472 (Wardens of Grimley make answer to the 5th and 6th articles inquired of by the bishop in 1585). Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann._, ii, 13-16 (Whitgift's Articles of 1588).

[21] _E.g., Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 12 (Birchington wardens arraigned in court "for that they have not presented divers faults Committed within the parish." 1591). Act-Books in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 118 (A warden of Long Newton detected to the official because "he refused to present faltes with his fellowe churchwardone, _et fatebatur delationem_, viz., that he wolde not present his owne wief." 1579). _Ibid_., 129 (1580). See also _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 188 ("Departing and not exhibitinge there presentments"). W.H. Hale, _Precedents in Causes of Office against Churchwardens and Others_ (1841), 81 (Wardens of Sarratt [Herts] excommunicated for not exhibiting their "_billas detectionum_." 1577). The last named work hereinafter cited as Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_.

[22] For numerous examples of excommunication for non-appearance, see _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 29 ff. Under the heading of each parish we see "_aegrotat_" or "_excusatur_," or "_nullo modo_" (_sc. comparuit_) placed after the name of each person cited to attend from that parish. Incumbents, wardens and sidemen were almost always in attendance. Schoolmasters usually so when there were such. Delinquent parishioners were of course cited in person, or remanded to appear at the next court day holden elsewhere. Upon non-appearance the formula usually entered by the registrar or scribe in the act-book was "_et omnes et singulos hujusmodi non comparentes [judex] pronuntiavit contumaces et eos excommunicavit in scriptis_." At Alnwick in 1578 fifteen persons were excommunicated for non-attendance. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 41. Cf. Hale, _Crim. Prec., passim_.

[23] Lists of "furniture," implements and books will be found in the metropolitan or diocesan injunctions of the time. A typical one is given in _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 25, entitled "The furnitures, implements and bookes requisite to be had in every churche, and so commaunded by publique aucthoritie" (1577). Cf. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 287 ff. ("Advertisements partly for due order in the publique administration of common prayers [etc.] ..." Jan., 1564).

[24] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184.

[25] That is, Bishop John Jewel's _Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae_, published in 1560, and his _Defence of the Apology_, published in 1567, sometimes called in the act-books and wardens accounts (where both works are frequently mentioned) _The Reply to Mr. Harding_.

[26] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 116.

[27] J.L. Glasscoek, _The Records of St. Michael's, Bishop Stortford_ (1882), 63. See also Minchinhampton (Gloucester) Acc'ts, _Archaeologia_, xxxv, 422 ff. ("Allowynge the regester booke." 1575). _Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., 2d Ser., i, Ludlow Acc'ts, _s. a_. 1585-6 (Record of the new bible and other books).

[28] Glasscock, _op. cit_., 59 (1578).

[29] Hale, _Crim. Free_., 170-1.

[30] Visitations of the Dean of York's Peculiar, _Yorkshire Archaeological Journal_, xviii (1905), 209.

[31] _Ibid_., 210.

[32] With the exception of the High Commission by the terms of its commission. See the writ of 1559 in Gee, _The Elizabethan Clergy and the Settlement of Religion_, 150. Also Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 220, for the Commission for York in 1559. As a matter of fact, as will appear from the illustrations cited, fines were virtually inflicted by way of court or absolution fees. Again, while the canons or injunctions forbade the commutation of penance for money, an exception was made for money taken _in pios usus_, such as church repair or the relief of the poor. Examples of the practice will be found in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 232 (Repair of St. Paul's, London); _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189 (Poor); Chelmsfofd Acc'ts, _Essex Arch. Soc., ii_, 212 (Paving of church). For fines inflicted for the benefit of the poor see _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122 ("For that he gave evill words" an offender was enjoined by the judge to pay 2s. to the poor and to certify); Hale, _op. cit_., 198 (An offender to pay a rate of 4d., and 12d. more _"pro negligentia_." 1589/1590) _Cf_. Canons of 1585 in Cardwell, _Synodalia_, i, 142.

[33] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 24 (1577). In the case of individuals interdiction or suspension _(i.e_., from service and sacraments) does not differ in effect from excommunication, except that the former are temporary penalties and to terminate upon compliance with the judge's order. See Burn, _Eccles. Law_ (ed. 1763), i, 616 (Interdiction) and ii, 362-3 (Suspension).

[34] Thomas North, _A Chronicle of the Church of St. Martin's in Leicester_ (1866), 116 (1568-9).

[35] _Leicester Archit. and Archaeol. Soc. Tr_., iii (1874), 192 (1567).

[36] _Ibid_., 197 (1594-5).

[37] W.F. Cobb, _Churchwardens Accounts of St. Ethelburga-within-Bishopsgate_ (1905), p. 10 (1595) and p. 12 (1604), respectively. Stanhope was chancellor to the bishop of London.

[38] See p. 46 ff. _infra_.

[39] See _infra_ p. 40, p. 48 (note 169), p. 131, etc. Also Ch. ii, _infra_. _Cf_. note 32 _supra_ (p. 19).

[40] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 155.

[41] Ordinary is that ecclesiastical magistrate who has regular jurisdiction over a district, in opposition to judges extraordinarily appointed. At common law a bishop was taken to be the ordinary in his diocese, and so he was designated in some acts of Parliament. But as a matter of fact 'ordinary' signifies any judge authorized to take cognizance of causes by virtue of his office or by custom. Such were pre-eminently the archdeacons. These officers, at first merely attendant on the bishops at public services, were gradually entrusted by the latter with their own jurisdictional powers, owing to the vast extent of dioceses, so that "the holding of General Synods or Visitations when the Bishop did not visit, came by degrees to be known and established Branches of the Archidiaconal Office, as such, which by this means attained to the dignity of Ordinary instead of delegated jurisdiction." Edmund Gibson, _Codex Juris Ecclesiastici Anglicani_, or the _Statutes, Constitutions_ (etc.) _of the Church of England_, ii (1713), 998. Cf. Richard Burn, _Eccles. Law_, ii, 101-2. As the ordinary in practice entrusted his office of judge to an official, I have used the two terms interchangeably. In some places exempted from the archdeacon's jurisdiction commissaries acted as judges, Burn, i, 391.

[42] That is, services and sacraments (except baptism) were suspended in it. The words of Burn (_Eccles. Law_, i, 616, quoting Gibson, 1047) are misleading. He says: "But this censure hath been long disused; and nothing of it appeareth in the laws of church or state since the reformation." Of course interdiction _temp_. Elizabeth was no longer the terrible punishment it used to be.

[43] At Shrewsbury.

[44] _Shrop. Arch, and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., i (1878), 62.

[45] R.W. Goulding, _Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's Charity_ (1898), Stockwardens Acc'ts, 68. For other examples of interdiction of churches or excommunication see Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 111-12 (Shoreham Vetera interdicted. 1599/1600), _et passim_.

[46] Except in the city of London and some few other places, the chancel was at the charge of the rector or other recipient of the great tithes. Sidney and Beatrice Webb, _English Local Government_ (1906), 20, _note_. Also W.G. Clark-Maxwell in _Wilts Arch_. etc. _Mag_., xxxiii (1904), 358. H.B. Wilson, _History of St. Laurence Pountney_ (London, 1831), 73.

[47] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 21.

[48] _Ibid_.

[49] _Ibid_., 32. In 1599 the wardens of this parish inform the archdeacon that both church and churchyard need repairs "which we mean shortly to do." The next year, too, they make a report in almost identical words. _Ibid_., 33.

[50] See p. 15 _supra_.

[51] _Dean of York's Visit_., 341.

[52] Numerous other presentments at visitations for failure to supply the requisites for worship besides those adduced in the text will be found in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 173 (A warden failing to supply the elements for communion, 1579-1580) _Ibid_., 154 ("The rode lofte beame, the staieres of the rode loft standinge, the churche lacketh whittinge to deface the monuments." 1572), etc. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_._, 115 ("The Degrees of Mariage" and "the Postils" lacking. 1578-1579). _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189 ("Cloth for the communion table." 1592). Visitation of Manchester Deanery in 1592 by the Bishop of Chester in _Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Soc. Tr_., xiii, 58. (Communion cup lacking). _Ibid_., 62 ("Noe fonte," and christenings in "a bason or dish"). This source hereinafter cited as _Manchester Deanery Visit_.

[53] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., _s. a_. 1587 (21st June).

[54] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 66 (1592). Cf. _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 23 (1600).

[55] Hall, _Crim. Prec_., 13 (1598).

[56] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189.

[57] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 69.

[58] _Ibid_. Then as now the ale-house was the strongest rival of the House of God. A very common class of offenders were those who would not leave their ale cups to go to service (see authorities cited, _passim_). Men were also great gossipers ("common talkers") in the churchyard, as a number of presentments show.

[59] Order of the archdeacon, Essex Archdeaconry, to the wardens of St. Peter's and of All Saints. Maldon, in 1577, Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 158. For refusing to keep her seat in church according to this order Elizabeth Harris was presented the next year, Hale, _loc. cit_., 171.

[60] The vestry of St. Alphage's (G.B. Hall, _Records of St. Alphage, London Wall_, 31) grew highly indignant in Aug., 1620, when the business of seating the parishioners came up for discussion, that a Mr. Loveday and his wife should presume to sit "togeather in one pewe and that in the Ile where men vsually doe & ere did sitt; we hould it most ynconvenyent and most vnseemely, And doe thinke it fitt that Mr Chancellor of London be made acquainted w[i]th it [etc]..."

[61] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 241-2: "_Contra Hayward, puellam. Presentatur_, for that she beinge but a yonge mayde, sat in the pewe with her mother, to the greate offence of many reverend women." The child (as the vicar who made the presentment continues should have sat at her mother's "pewe dore." 1617). Cf. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122-3 (Janet Foggard cited for that "she beinge a yonge woman, unmarried, will not sit in the stall wher she is appointed ..."). Cf. Hale, _op. cit_., 210 (One Clay and his wife "will not be ordered in church by us the church wardens [etc.]..". 1595).

[62] Examples will be found in the act-books cited _supra_.

[63] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 149 (1566). Cf. _ibid_., 163 (The divine service not "reverently, plainelye and distinctlye saide..." 1576).

[64] Hale, _op. cit_., 182 (1584). Cf. Whitgift's _Articles for Sarum diocese_ in 1588, art. viii: "Whether your ministers used to pray for the quenes majestie ... by the title and style due to her majestie." Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 14.

[65] _Dean of York's Visit_., 320 (1596).

[66] Hale, _op. cit_., 159 (1575).

[67] 3 _Rep. Hist. MSS. Com_., 275 (A vicar presented by churchwardens in the commissary's court at Poddington-apud-Ampthill for not catechising the youth, etc., though required to do so by one of the wardens. 1616). For not presenting their minister when he neglected to catechise on the Sabbath, the wardens of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw, London, had to pay divers fees to the chancellor. Brooke and Hallen, _Registers of St. Mary Woolchurch Haw_ (1886), Wardens Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1593.

[68] Accordingly, by a later entry in the book we see that the warden brought in court a certificate that the surplice had been bought and worn by the vicar. _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 59. For a precisely similar injunction see _ibid_., 62 (Wardens of Eccles).

[69] See p. 15 _supra_.

[70] For presentments of vicar's (etc.) offences see pp. 31 ff. _infra_.

[71] L.G. Bolingbroke; _The Reformation in a Norfolk Parish, Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207-8 (1593).

[72] _Dean of York's Visit_, 231 (1594).

[73] _Ibid_., 315. See also _ibid_., 225 and 229.

[74] _Ibid_., 339 (1602).

[75] See _Queen's Inj. of_ 1559, art. xviii. Also art. xviii of Archbp. (of York) Grindal's Inj. of 1571, _Parker Soc., Remains of Grindal_, 132. Also Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 337, etc. For the enforcing of the obligation by the ordinary, see numerous examples in _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 22 (1585); 32 (Controversy in 1584 between two parishes as to bounds); 37 (1594). Also _ibid_., xxvi, 24, 25, _et passim_. Other examples in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 162, where a parishioner of Burstead Parva (Essex) is cited at a visitation for ploughing up a dole (a balk or unploughed ridge), which marked the boundary line between Burstead and Dunton parishes. Cf. _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 15, where three parishioners are presented for covering up a parish procession linch (1617).

[76] See, _e.g_., A.G. Legge, _North Elmham_ (Norfolk) _Acc'ts_ (1891), 76 (1562), 82 (1566 and 1567). Melton Acc'ts in _Leicest. Archit. and Arch. Soc_., iii, 192 (1566). Ludlow Acc'ts in _Shrop. Arch. Soc_., 2nd ser., i, _s.a._ 1601-2, etc.

[77] In this year the 39 Eliz. c. 3 was enacted which instituted overseers of the poor nominated by the licence of the justices, and placed wholly under their supervision. In spite of the provisions of an earlier act (14 Eliz. c. 5) giving the justices power to appoint, or see collectors appointed, the ecclesiastical courts rather than the justices, as the act-books show, seem to have looked after the matter. See, _e.g., Manchester Deanery Visit_., 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 68, etc. Also _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184, 186, 187, 191, etc. Cf. the item in the Ludlow Acc'ts, _Shrop. Arch. Soc_., i, _s.a._ 1586-7, where is recorded an expense item for a payment to "Mr. Chauncelor" for entering a presentment for collections for the poor.

[78] See act-books above cited. Also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 165, _et passim_. _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 118, _et passim_. _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207-8 (Great Witchingham wardens).

[79] Stanford (Berks) Accounts, _Antiquary_, xvii (1888), 169 (Expenses to Oxford "to speke with [the] ... Archedyacon for caryeng a strem[e]r in Rogacion weke." 1564). Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 150 (Wearing of surplice on same occasion. 1567); 152 (_Do_. 1572). Cf. Grindal's Inj. at York, 1571, in Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 337.

[80] Melton Acc'ts, _ubi supra_, 192 ("Beyng somonyd ffor Ryngng off all Hallodaye att nyght." 1566). Halesowen Acc'ts in T.R. Nash, _History and Antiq. of Worcestershire_, ii, App., p. xxx (1578). Stanford Acc'ts, _ubi supra_, 169 (1566). _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 64 (Wardens of Manchester "ringe more than is necessarie at Burialls..."). Cf. Canons of 1571, Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 124 (Ordained that wardens must not suffer "_campanas superstitiose pulsari, vel in vigilia Animarum, vel postridie Omnium Sanctorum_...").

[81] Accordingly some seven weeks later the wardens (or rather their successors) appeared again and reported that the rate had been laid, but not gathered. The court granted them a further space to buy the implements. Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 2-3 (1583/1584). Similar examples abound in Archdeacon Hale's work, just cited, which covers the period 1557 to 1736.

[82] _Ibid_., 4 (1584). For other cases see _passim_.

[83] Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 98 (1601). Burn, _Eccles. Law_, i, 268 (citing Gibson, _Codex_, 196, and 1 Bacon, _Abridg_., 373), says that if no parishioners appear at a meeting duly called for the purpose of assessment," the churchwardens alone may make the rate, because they and not the parishioners are to be cited and punished in defect of repairs." To these words should be added the qualification that the parishioners _were_ sometimes collectively punished, viz., by interdiction of their church. Thus in St. Alban's archdeaconry the parishioners of Redbourn were directed through the wardens to make a rate to levy £60 "_sub pena interdictionis eccl[es]ie sue a divinoru[m] celebratione et sacramentaru[m] et sacramentaliu[m]_...[etc]." Hale, _op. cit_., 89 (1599). In Jan., 1599/1600; we find Shoreham Vetera in Lewes archdeaconry interdicted, and one of its wardens appearing, "_humil[ite]r petijt interdicc[i]o[n]em ... emissam pro defect[u] eccle[s]ie ruinos[e] ... revocari ..._" in order that time might be given him to call together the tenants and owners of land in the parish and outlying districts as well as "strangers" who held lands in the parish. _Ibid_., 111-12. In 1603 the wardens of Northawe are to see a levy made "_sub pena interdicti_." _Ibid_., 90. Cf. pp. 36-7.

[84] Examples are: Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 189 (Mucking, Essex, wardens. 157-6/7). _Ibid_.,199 (East Horndon, Essex, wardens confess they have not accounted "by reason the parishioners will not come to recken with them." They are warned to make their account and if the parishioners will not audit it, to exhibit it at the next court. 1590). _Ibid_., 222 (Several parishioners presented for "not receiving" a warden's account. They plead that he was not chosen to be warden by their parson. 1600). See also _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 20, 21, also _Ibid_., xxvii, 220, _et passim. Dean of York's Visit_., 335.

[85] "The cases in which the advowson of the parish belonged to the inhabitants, though more numerous than is often supposed, were distinctly exceptional." Beatrice and Sidney Webb, _Local Government, the County and the Parish_ (1906), 34 _note_.

[86] On the distinction between rector, vicar, curate, etc., see Felix Makower, _The Constitutional History and Constitution of the Church of England_ (Engl. trans. 1895), 334-7. Also Rev. W.G. Clark-Maxwell in _Wilts Arch_., (etc.) _Mag_., xxxiii (1904), 358-9.

[87] _E.g._, the Canons of 1571, sec. _De Episcopis_, required that the bishops ordain no one except such as had a good education and were versed in Latin and the Holy Scriptures. Nor was a candidate to be admitted to orders "_si in agricultura vel in vili aliquo et sedentario artificio fuerit educatus_."

[88] Of some 8,800 parish churches in England in 1601 only 600, it was computed, afforded a competent living for a minister. Dr. James in debate in Parliament November 16th, 1601. Heywood Townshend, _Historical Collections or Proceedings in the last Four Parliaments of Elisabeth_ (ed. 1680), 218-19. Sir S. D'Ewes, _The Journals of all the Parliaments during the Reign of Elizabeth_ (ed. 1682), 640. How this came about see White Kennett, _Parochial Antiquities_ (ed. 1695), 433-45.

[89] Examples will be found in the churchwardens' accounts of the period, the _Morebath_, (Devon) _Acc'ts_ for instance, which have been transcribed _in extenso_ up to 1573 by Rev. J. Erskine Binney (Exeter, 1904). The garrulous old vicar here, Christopher Trychay, who wrote the parish accounts himself for more than a generation, and always punctiliously styled himself "Sir," is a fascinating figure. Thanks to his chatty explanations on all subjects, bits of the daily life of this little Devonshire parish from Henry VIII's, from Edward VI's, from Mary's, and from Elizabeth's reigns are brought down to us with great vividness. Cf. James Stockdale, _Annals of Cartmel_ (1872), 58-9 (Custom of addressing minister as "Sir" lingering down to nineteenth century in Lancashire).

[90] Lambard, _Duties of Constables, Borsholders_, etc. (ed. 1619 frequently made an appendix to his _Eirenarcha_), 67, says: "The ... Lawes, hauing imployment of many to make, hath borrowed some use in a few easie matters of spirituall Ministers, chiefly for the helpe and readinesse of their pen, which in many Parishes few, or none (besides they) can serue withall."

[91] _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 22 (1590); 23 (1593). _Dean of York's Visit_., 231 (1594); 315 (1595).

[92] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 184 (Farmer of advowson not repairing chancel); 186 ("Wm. Brereton of Hareford, Esquire," _ditto_); 188 (Executors of will of the late rector, _ditto_); 191 (Rector of Warrington); 192 (Rector of Wigan). _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 32 (Dean and Chapter of Christ Church. 1583); 26 ("Mr. John Smyth, Esquire"). For not keeping in repair vicarages, barns, dove-houses, etc., see _ibid_., xxvi, 20, 32. Also _ibid_., xxvii, 222, etc.

[93] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 160 ("_Dominus injunxit dicto_ Simpson [rector of Pitsea, Essex] that he shall procure iiijor sermons in the yeare ..." 1575-6). _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 44 (Wardens present "they have no quarter sermons"). _Ibid_., 213 (1569); 214 (1574); 222 (1600). _Dean of York's Visit_., 222 (Wardens present "Mr. Deane for want of the quarter sermons." 1592). _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 43 ("Sir Wm. Baldock our Vicar, himself unlicenced to preach, doth not provide a preacher for the sermons appointed by her Majesty's Injunctions." 1593). The _Queen's Injunctions of_ 1559, art. iv, provided that parsons should preach in their own persons at least one sermon in every quarter of the year.

[94] _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 22, 23 (two examples). _Ibid_., vol. xxvi, 31, 44, 222, 319, etc. See _Queen's Injunc_. of 1559, art. xi.

[95] See authorities above cited. Whether the incumbent kept hospitality was a standing article of inquiry in the visitations of the period; _e.g_., Grindal's Metrop. Visit. Art of 1576, _Remains of Grindal, Parker Soc_., 157 ff.

[96] _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 63 ("They [ministers of Manchester] be nott dutifull in visitinge the sicke").

[97] "And if the churchwardens and swornmen be negligent, or shall refuse to do their duty ... ye shall present to the ordinary both them and all such others of your parish as shall offend...." Archbp. Grindal's Inj. at York, 1571, _Remains of Grindal, Parker Soc_., 129.

[98] Or judge acting by delegation from the ordinary.

[99] "Against the Reader [of Denton Chapel] ... doth not Reade the Injunctions...." _Manchester Deanery Visit_., 60. "_Qui_ [wardens of Belby] _dicunt_, the Articles being diligentlie redd unto them [etc.]..." _Dean of York's Visit_., 221 (1591). _Ibid_., 341. Cf. _Queen's Inj. of_ 1559, Art. xiv.

[100] Hale; _Crim. Prec_., 193. Cf. Grindal's Inj. at York, 1571: "Ye [the ministers] shall openly every Sunday ... monish ... the churchwardens and sworn men of your parish to look to their oaths [etc.] ..." _Remains of Grindal_, 129. Also Whitgift's _Articles_ of 1583, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 406 (Ministers to warn parishioners once a month to repair to church).

[101] _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 36.

[102] Cf. Canons of 1597: "_De recusantibus et aliis excommunicatis publice denunciandis_." Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 156. Also _Croke's Eliz. Rep_., Leache's ed. (1790), i, Pt. ii, 838, where a plaintiff sues for damages because defendant, a curate, maliciously erased the original name in an instrument of excommunication and inserted plaintiff's name, "and read it in the church, whereupon he was inforced to be absent from divine service, and to be at the expence to procure a discharge for himself" (1599). _Canterbury Visit_., xxvii, 219 (Rector of Swalecliffe presented for keeping back and not announcing excommunications "sent out of this court." 1596).

[103] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvii, 219 (Rector suffering excommunicates to come to his church during service). See also _infra_, p. 47.

[104] Canons of 1585 and 1597, Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 144 and 155-6 respectively.

[105] See in Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 206-7, the elaborate formula of confession prescribed for Wm. Peacock of Leighton, Essex, in 1592. He was to "publiquely after the minister ... confesse [etc.] ..."

[106] Hale, _op. cit_., 160 (Margaret Orton's penance for adultery. "And ther was redd the firste parte of the homilie againste whoredome & adulterie, the people ther present exorted to refraine from soche wickedness...").

[107] See pp. 12-13, and p. _27, supra_.

[108] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 114 (Parishioner in a Durham parish presented for absenting himself "twice at morning prayer, and verrey often at eveninge prayer." 1579). Houghton-le-Spring Acc'ts, _s.a._, 1596, _Surtees Soc_., lxxxiv (1888), 271 (Giving in a bill of presentment for those absent from morning and from evening prayer).

[109] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvii, 221 (Four persons cited "for that they dwell so far from their own Church come now to the Parish Church of Westbere." 1569). _Ibid_., xxv, 21 (Two men presented for not attending their parish church "being two miles off, but go to the next Parish Church." 1569). _Ibid_., 23 (1600). _Op. cit_., xxvi, 46 (Presentment of one who had often to be absent from his parish on business. 1593). _Dean of York's Visit_., 227 (Attending another church for fear of arrest for debt in his own. 1594).

[110] See in Daniel Neal, _History of the Puritans_ (J. Toulmin's ed., Bath, 1793-7), i. 413-17, contemporary (1585-6) statistics for the licenced preachers of nine counties. See also J.C. Cox, _Three Centuries of Derbyshire Annals_, i, 245 (Only 82 clergymen licenced to preach out of a total in the diocese of Lichfield of 433, according to a document _circa_ 1602).

[111] For such a permit to hear preaching elsewhere, see Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 189 (Six parishioners of Shopland (Essex) authorized by the archdeacon to repair to a neighboring church for a sermon when there is no preaching in their own, but only two permitted to leave their own services at any one time. 1586-7).

[112] Hale, _ibid_., 187-8.

[113] 1 Eliz., c. 2, sec. iii, _ad finem_.

[114] See 23 Eliz. c. i, sec. iv (Forfeiture of £20 for every month's forbearance from church attendance). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 406 (Whitgift's _Articles of 1583_; minister and wardens to diligently observe those absenting themselves for the space of a month, according to 23 Eliz. [_supra_] in order that they may be presented as recusants to the justices at quarter sessions). See also in _Roxburghe Ballads_ (1871), i, 118, a ballad written _circa 1620_ which tells us: "There be diuers Papists, That to saue their Fine, Come to Church once a moneth, To heare Seruice Diuine. The Pope giues them power, As they say, to doe so; They saue money by't too, But I know what I know." Cf. _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 27 (Presentment "that he is a negligent comer to our Parish Church, being not able to pay the forfeiture." 1597). _Ibid_., xxvii, 223 ("John Wilkins be slothful in coming to the Church, and because he is a poor man we cannot take the fine of twelve pence." 1578). Also _ibid_., xxvi, 46 (Humphrey Watts coming sometimes but once a month to church).

[115] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 18 (One Deal presented for keeping a schoolmaster, "and also being a victualler, suffereth him to remain in his house and not frequent Divine Service on the Sabbath Day." 1580).

[116] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 191 (One Motley "married not known where"). See other visitations, _passim_.

[117] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 192 (Four persons presented from Wigan for marrying without banns); 189, _et passim_.

[118] _Ibid_. 184 (A child not baptized at the parish church); 189 ("A child christened, and not known where"); 190 (Same). Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 216 ("Keeping her child unbaptized a whole moneth." 1597). _Ibid_., 183 (Curate of Blackmore, Essex, suspended from the celebration of the rites because "there was tow children... which died unchristened by his necligence." 1584).

[119] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 189; 190 ("His wife churched not known where"). Hale, _ubi sup_., 167.

[120] _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 185 (Office of judge against James Woswall: "His children come not to bee catechised"). See Canons of 1571 (Parents and masters to be presented for not regularly sending children or apprentices to learn the catechism), Cardwell, _Syn_. i, 120.

[121] See _Queen's Visit. Art. of_ 1559 in Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 211. Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 226 (One Robinson presented for not going to his minister to be examined in the principles of religion of which he was ignorant). _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 122-3 (An offender "lackeinge the catechism dyde thrust in amongest others and receyvid ..." Another was "repulsed from the Communion because he coulde not saye the 10 commaundements, in whome we can perceyve no towardnes to learne them"). Also Hale, _ubi supra_, 146, 159, etc.

[122] Presentments for not receiving are numerous in the act-books. A few references are, _Dean of York's Visit_., 219 ff. _E.g._, at Goathland 20 persons are presented by name. See also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 163, 171, 176, etc., and the other act-books heretofore cited. Also canons, injunctions and visitation articles of the time, _e.g_., Canons of 1571 (Vicars, etc., to present all over fourteen who have not received) in Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 120. Grindal's Inj. for York, 1571 (All above fourteen to receive in their own churches at least three times a year), Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 336.

[123] See Heywood Townshend, _Proc. in the Last Four Parl. of Eliz_., Debates, _passim_.

[124] J.E. Foster: _Ch'wd'ns Acc'ts of St. Mary the Great_, Cambridge (1905), 225 (Item for paper book to write in all names of the parish at Easter. 1590-1). _Ibid_., 202 (Item to a scribe for writing names of communicants). Thos. North, _Chronicle of St. Martin, Leicester, Ch'ivd'us Acc'ts_, 171 (Item same as above. 1568-9).

[125] E. Freshfield, _Vestry Minutes of St. Christopher-le-Stocks_, Append., 71.

[126] _Ibid_., 7. For similar vestry orders see _Vestry Minutes of St. Margaret, Lothbury_, London (also edited by Dr. Freshfield), pp. 1 (1571) and 15 (1583). Also G.W. Hill and W.F. Frere, _Memorials of Stepney Parish_, 43 (1602), and 51 (1605/6).

[127] Burn, _Eccles. Law_, i (ed. 1763), 274, _sub voce_ Church, says: "And if any of the parishioners refuse to pay their rates, being demanded by the churchwardens, they are to be sued for, and to be recovered in, the ecclesiastical courts, and not elsewhere."

[128] _Memorials of Stepney_, 51. Cf. _Acts of the Privy Council_ (ed. Dasent), xxii, 482-3 (A tenant refusing a customary payment for church repair, presented by "the generall consent" of the parishioners of Lewesham to the commissary's court. He removes the cause to Star Chamber "to the extreame chardgis, trouble and hinderance" of one of the wardens, to the encouragement of like offenders, and to the "utter ruin and decaie" of the church. 1592). The source last quoted hereinafter cited as A.P.C., xxii (etc.).

[129] Besides the order just mentioned, the Stepney vestry had three years before ordained concerning their wardens that these were "to shew how they haue p[re]sented them [old dues in their books], Otherwise the said churchwardens shalbe charged to pay those Arrearages as shall remayne so vnpaid and not p[re]sented by them." _Op. cit_., 43.

[130] Art. xxi, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 326.

[131] _Leicest. Archit_. (etc.) _Soc_., iii, 204.

[132] J.H. Butcher, _The Parish of Ashburton in the 15th and 16th Centuries_ (1870), 42. See also _ibid_., 40 and 49. Also H.J.F. Swayne, _Acc'ts of St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Sarum_ (Wilts Rec. Soc. 1896), introd., p. xxv, and p. 317.

[133] Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 4-10, 5th to 8th March, 1607-8. Cf. _ibid_., 16.

[134] Hale, _op. cit_., 109-110.

[135] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvii, 218. Authorization to tax the land is not asked for in express terms, but seems to be implied. In other cases it is clear that a warrant was given for the assessment of lands, _e.g_., Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 4 (A warden of Chelmsford, Essex, to appear in court "for a warrant for seassment of the landes." 1584). Sometimes the rates made were offered in court to be confirmed, Hale, _ibid_., 8 (A rate "offered" to the judge at Stratford at Bow. 1607). _Canterbury Visit_., xxv, 14 (A rate, subscribed by the boards of the parishioners, "and certified under Mr. Doctor Newman's own hand." 1613).

[136] _Canterbury Visit., ubi supra_.

[137] Hale, _Churchwardens' Prec_., 90-1 (1603).

[138] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvii, 223 (1569). Cf. _ibid_., 214. Also _ibid_., xxvi, 18 (Three persons presented who will not "pay to the poor mens' box." 1574).

[139] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 149 (1566). Cf. _ibid_., 176 ("Detected for beinge an uncharitable person & for not gevenge to the poore & impotent..." 1583). _Ibid_., 208 (One Crisp detected for not paying his accustomed "offering" for himself and wife to the minister at Easter. 1593).

[140] _Dean of York's Visit_., 229 (1595). _Ibid_., 214 (Similar presentment, 1570). _Ibid_., 335 (_Same_. 1600). _Ibid_., 223 (Bellman's wages).

[141] _Canterbury Visit_., xxvi, 22 (1598).

[142] _Ibid_., 20 (1592).

[143] _Ibid_., 21 (1596), 44. _Op. cit_., xxv. 32 ("We do suppose that [name] ... doth keep back from us a certain sum ... given by will to the use of the Church ... and we know not how we may come by the same, unless your Worship's aid be ministered unto us in that behalf." 1581). _Ibid_., 22, 23, 26 etc.

[144] _Op. cit_., xxvii, 219 (1569). _Op. cit_., xxv, 14 (Keeping church ewes and not paying rent for them. 1613).

[145] _Op. cit_., xxvi, 33 (1605).

[146] _Ibid_., 39 (1600). _Ibid_., 31.

[147] _Op. cit_., xxvii, 224 (1584).

[148] _Op. cit_., xxv, 13 (1600).

[149] _E.g._, Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 221 (1599).

[150] _Dean of York's Visit_., 333 (Church house. 1601). _Ibid_., 214 (Churchyard fence. 1570).

[151] The higher nobility excepted.

[152] Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 128.

[153] _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 19.

[154] See, _e.g., op. cit_., 42-45 (5 schoolmasters mentioned by name at Allhallows, Newcastle; 4 at St. Nicholas). In Durham city "_sub-pedagogi_" are also spoken of in the various wards.

[155] _Op. cit., passim_. Other examples will be found in _Dean of York's Visit_., 225, 229 etc. Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 154, 184-8 (John Leache's case. 1584-6), 190, 198 (One Dawe's wife teaches without a licence. Warned not to teach any "man child above the age of x yeres, untyll she shall be lawfully licenced." 15-89/90). _Canterbury_ Visit., xxvi, 20, 21, 25, 31, etc.

[156] See J. Cordy Jeaffreson, _A Book about the Clergy_, ii, 58.

[157] Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 176 and 182.

[158] See also Archbishop Parker's and other commissioners' precept to churchwardens and others in June, 1571 ("And that in no wise ye suffer any person publicly, or privately to teach, read or preach ... unless such be licenced [etc.] ... as you and every one of you will answer to the contrary"). _Corresp. of Archbp. Parker, Parker Soc_., 382-3. Cf. also Archbp. Whitgift's 'Commission' to the ministers and churchwardens of London, Aug., 1587, forbidding "that they ... do suffer any to preach in their churches or to read any lectures [etc.] ..." Neal, _History of the Puritans_, (Toulmin's ed. 1793), i, 428.

[159] _E.g._, Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 188 ff. (Leach, a schoolmaster, was cited for catechizing and preaching, being unlicenced. He was strictly warned by the judge not to "use any private lecture or expositions of Scripture or catechisinge of his schollers in the presence of anye ... not ... of his owne howse-hold [etc.]." 1586-7). Ibid., 202 (A curate detected for preaching without a licence. He confessed "that he hathe expounded" a little on the text, "but wold that Mr Archdeacon would appoint some time that he might preache before his wor[ship], and yf he should accepte of him, he would request his wor[ship] to be meanes unto my Lord of London that he may be licenced to preache." 1591). W.H. Overall and A.J. Waterlow, _St. Michael's, Cornhill_, (London) _Acc'ts_ (1869), 176 ("Paide to Mr. Sadlor for avoidinge one excommunication for suffering a Preacher to preache in o[u]r Churche, being unlycenced, iij s. viij d." 1587-8).

[160] In 1585 the wardens of Pittington (Durham) are "commanded to bye for everie person in our parish a booke ..." _Surlees Soc_., lxxxiv, 19. Examples taken promiscuously from the wardens accounts of the day are: "paid for three prayer books for the good successe of the French Kinge;" "paid for a prayer of thankes gevinge for ye over throwe of the Rebelles in the North." In many accounts occur items for books of prayers "for the Earthquake," or "against the Turke," or "Omelies against the rebells," or "in plague tyme," etc.

[161] A number of ballads dating from the reigns of Elizabeth and James have been very recently (Oxon. 1907) published by Mr. Andrew Clark under the title of _Shirburn Ballads_.

[162] One of the earliest orders of the High Commissioners preserved dates from 1560 and directs the Wardens of the Stationers to stay certain persons from the printing of primers and psalters in English and Latin, for which printing one Seres had obtained a monopoly. C.R. Rivington, _The Records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers_ in _London and Middlesex Archæol. Soc. Tr_., vi, 302.

[163] "_A writing of the bishops in answer to the book of articles offered the last session of parliament anno reginæ_ xxvii [etc.]." So called by Strype, but assigned by Dr. Cardwell to a date later than 1584. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 426. "Excommunication" in the act-books and elsewhere almost invariably refers to the lesser excommunication.

[164] Thus he could not receive communion, be married, stand as godfather, etc. Burn, _Eccles. Law_, i, 252-3. Compare _Antiquary_, xxxii (1896), 143 (Penance and heavy costs for a man who "being excominecated ... ded preseume to marye before ... he was absolved." 1583). Also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 223 (Presentment of an excommunicate for marrying. 1600).

[165] See Hale., _op. cit_., 198 (Archdeacon's instructions to a curate in 1589). _Ibid_., 200 (Minister stopping service as an excommunicate would not leave. 1590). _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. Var. Coll_. (1901), 78 (Complaint by a vicar to Wilts quarter sessions that an excommunicate tried to remain at service. 1606). _Associated Architectural Soc. Rep_., (etc.), xxxiii, Pt. ii (1897), 373-4 (Device of procuring an excommunicate to enter church and interrupt service so certain youths could continue their morris-dancing, 1617). Chelmsford Acc'ts, _Essex Arch. Soc_., ii, 213 (Item for "carrying Roger Price out of the Church, he being exc[mmunicated]..." 1632).

[166] See Canons of 1597, Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 156. Burn, _op. cit_., 457-8. For such a sentence see E.H. Chadwyck Healey, _Hist. of West Somerset_ (1901), 184 (Archdeacon of Taunton requiring a minister to denounce solemnly three obstinate excommunicates, and to warn all good Christians not to eat or drink, buy or sell, or otherwise communicate with them under the pains of being themselves excommunicated. 1628).

[167] Thus those who talked with him, ate at the same table with him, saluted him, or gave anything to him were themselves _ipso facto_ excommunicate. See Reeve, _Hist. of English Law_ (Finlayson's ed.), iii, 68. If such an excommunicate brought an action at law, the defendant could plead in bar the excommunication. The testimony of such a man was not admissible in court. Finally, he could not be buried in the parish churchyard nor could services be performed over his body. Burn, _loc. cit., supra_.

[168] See the case of Kenton v. Wallinger, 41 Eliz., _Croke's Eliz. Rep., Leache's ed_., Pt. ii, 838. This has already been mentioned on p. 33, note 102. In the Leverton, Lincoln, Overseers for the Poor Acc'ts, there occurs, _s. a_. 1574 an item of 7s. given to John Towtynge "for the discharge of ... his excomynacion," and the next year a sum of 2s. 6d. given to a woman for a like discharge. _Archæologia_, xli, 369-70.

[169] Whereby any but a perjured man would be forced to incriminate himself.

[170] Cf. Maitland, _Canon Law in the Church of England_, chapter, "The Pope the Universal Ordinary." For proceedings by High Commissioners see Stubbs in _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_. to Parliament (1883), i, Hist. Append., 50.

[171] As to the expense in suing out the writ, and also the slackness of bailiffs, etc., in executing it, see [R. Cosen], _An Apologie of and for Sundrie proceedings by Jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall_ (1st ed., London, 1591), 64-5. Speaking of the great charges incurred in suing out the writ Cosen writes: "So that I dare auowe in Sundrie Diocesses in the Realme, the whole yeerly reuenue of the seuerall Bishops there woulde not reach to the iustifying of all contemnours ... by the course of this writte." That temporal judges sometimes set prisoners under the writ free at their own discretion without notice to the spiritual judges, see Bancroft's _Petition to the Privy Council_ in 1605, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_. ii, 100. For hostility of temporal judges for ecclesiastical jurisdiction, see Bancroft, _op. cit_., 85. He counts up 488 prohibitions during Elizabeth's reign, many of them awarded without good cause and "upon frivolous suggestions" of defendants (_Op. cit_., 89).

[172] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 145 ("_Dominus decrevit scribendum fore regie majestate pro corporis capcione_ [etc.]." The threat subdued the excommunicate, for 15 days later "_solutis_ xxxiiis.... _pro expensis contumacie_," absolution was given, and penance enjoined. 1562). _Ibid_., 172 (Similar threat, we do not hear of the outcome). Cf. R.W. Merriam, _Extracts from Wilts Quarter Sess_. In _Wilts Arch. and Nat. Hist. Mag_., xxii (1885), 20 (Affray because of an arrest under the writ. 1604). See also Whitgift's note to his bishops in 1583, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 404-6 ("If the ordinarie shall perceave that, either by slackness of the justices or waywardness of juries," recusants cannot be indicated at quarter sessions, then the ordinary shall, after first trying persuasion, excommunicate the culprits, and after forty days procure the writ against them). Bancroft writes, March, 1605, that he will use his "uttermost endeavour" to aid his suffragans in procuring the writ, and in having it faithfully and speedily served. Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 80. Cf. also the satirical single-sheet, published June, 1641, entitled _The Pimpes Prerogative ... a Dialogue between Pimp-Major Pig and Ancient Whiskin_, in Brit. Mus. _Coll. of Polit. and Personal Satires_. Pig: "Tush, their Excommunications fright not us; but our Land-ladies (poore soules) lie in most danger; for them they serve after with _Excommunicato capiendo_, and then our Forts are beleaguer'd with Under-Sheriffs, Bum-Bayliffs, Shoulder-clappers, etc., whom we sometimes beat back by violence."

[173] Cardwell, _loc. cit_., 100. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction derived also much temporal strength from the fact that practically every bishop was also a justice of the peace. For proof of this see Strype, _Annals of the Reformation_ (Oxon. ed.), iii, Pt. ii, 451 (Bishop of Peterboro' complaining that he alone was left out of the commission. 1587). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, 80 (Bancroft's letter, 1605: "We that are bishops, being all of us (as is supposed) justices of the peace"). When commissioning justices Burghley referred to the bishops for lists of orthodox men. See such lists in Strype, _op. cit_., 453-60. Also in Strype, _Life of Whitgift_, i, 187-8. _Victoria County History of Cumberland_, ii, 73-4. _Sussex Arch. Soc. Coll_., ii (1849), 58-62. Mary Bateson, _Letters from the Bishops to the Privy Council_, 1564, _with Returns of the Justices of the Peace_, etc., in _Camden Miscellany_, ix (1895). By 1 Eliz. c. 2, bishops could at pleasure associate themselves to justices of _oyer and terminer_ or of assize. Cf. Strype, _Whitgift_, 329.

[174] Presentments on this score are frequent. Take only a single jurisdiction, that of the Dean of York's Peculiar, between the years 1592-1601, and a number will be found. See _Dean of York's Visit_., 222 (5 persons); 226, 229, 315, 326, 329 (Remaining excommunicate for a month); 334 (Over 40 days. Also a person presented for harboring an excommunicate); 335 (Over a year); 341 (14 days).

[175] Cosen, _An Apologie_, etc., 64. As has been above stated, an excommunicate could not attend service. P. 47 _supra_.

[176] According to 23 Eliz. c. i, sec. 4 and sec. 6.

[177] See _A.P.C_., xiii, 271-2 (1581). Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 406 (Whitgift alludes to the "waywardnes" of juries).

[178] Not suspension from office (as might be supposed) but from service and sacraments.

[179] P. 19, note 33, _supra_.

[180] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 150 ("_Contra_ ... Because he will not be churchwarden accordinge to the archdeacon's judgment." Excommunicated. 1566). Ibid., 162 ("_Contra ... Detectum_ that he obstinately refuseth to be churchwarden, notwithstanding he was chosen by the consent of the parson and parishioners." Excommunicated. 1576). Cf. ibid., 183 (Presentment for refusing to be sideman), and ibid., 207 (Refusing churchwardenship).

[181] In equity specific performance is nothing more than the giving of an instrument transferring title after all has previously been done on both sides, but this, to complete the transaction.

[182] Denunciation "in many poyntes resembleth a Presentment," Cosen, _An Apologie_ (etc.), 70. See his book for the modes of proceeding. Cf. also Hale, _Crim. Prec_., Introd., p. lviii. In commenting on Archdeacon Hale's book, which we have so often here cited (_A Series of Precedents in Criminal Causes from the Act Books of Ecclesiastical Courts of London_, 1475-1640 [pub. in 1847]), Sir J.F. Stephen in his _History of Crim. Law in England_, ii, 413, makes these observations: "It is difficult even to imagine a state of society in which, on the bare suggestion of some miserable domestic spy, any man or woman whatever might be convened before an archdeacon or his surrogate and put upon his or her oath as to all the most private affairs of life; as to relations between husband and wife; as to relations between either and any woman or man with whom the name of either might be associated by scandal; as to contracts to marry, as to idle words, as to personal habits, and, in fact, as to anything whatever which happened to strike the ecclesiastical lawyer as immoral or irreligious."

[183] The case of John Johnson in the official's court in Durham city forms an excellent commentary on the whole system. He was presented as suspected of incontinency. After repeated citations and a threat of excommunication, he appeared, denying the charge and alleging that a churchwarden with others had falsely concocted it. At the petition of an apparitor, who acted as public prosecutor, seven of Johnson's fellow-parishioners were cited to swear not to the _fact_ of his guilt, but to the general _belief_ in it. Articles were then drawn up upon which depositions were taken and published. The case was adjourned repeatedly so that the many formalities of procedure might drag out their weary length. The oath _ex officio_ was forced on Johnson, but he denied all guilt. Finally, he was enjoined to procure three compurgators. These swore that they believed _"in animis suis"_ that Johnson had sworn to the truth. Though pronounced innocent, Johnson was condemned to pay the costs of all the formalities that the apparitor had set in motion against him, and a last time was dragged into court in order to be admonished under pain of excommunication to pay these fees, amounting to £1. 3s. 4d., within a month! The case had extended from 11th June, 1600, to 22nd May, 1601. _Surtees Soc_., lxxxiv (1888), 359-362. Cf. also the following: "payed for annswerynge dyuerse faulse vntrothes suggested by [five names] to the sayd Commyssyoneres vj s. viij d." Minchinhampton, Gloucester, Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1576 (archbishop's visitation), _Archaeologia_, xxxv. "pd. for our charges to lycoln when we were p[re]sented by the apparytor unjustly for that our church should by [be] mysvsed vs. vjd." Leverton, Lincoln, Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1579, _Archaeologia_, xli, 365. Under 1595 the Leverton wardens have the entries: "pd. to the apparitor for fallts in the churche ijs. viijd.," and: "for playing in the churche iijs. viijd." The last is explained by a third entry: "to the apparator for suffering a plaie in the church." (_Op. cit_., 367.) This looks like bribery, or blackmail, or both. For examples of bribery see Wing Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1561, _Archaeologia_, xxxvi ("to ye S[um]m[o]ner to kepe us ffrom Lincoln for slacknes of o[u]r auters"). Abbey Parish Acc'ts, _s.a._ 1600, _Shrop. Arch. Soc_., i. 65 ("paid to Cleaton, the Chauncelor's man for keeping us from Lichfield"). Great Witchingham Acc'ts, _Norfolk and Norwich Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207 ("Simp the sumner for his fees for excusing us from Norwich"). _St. Mary Woolchurch Haw_, London, _Acc'ts, s.a_. 1594 ("more unto the paratour and Doctor Stanhopes man for their favours"). Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 202 ("_Fassus est_ that he gave xs. to ... the apparitor to thend that he might not be called into this corte." 1590). For examples of fees paid for absolution from an unjust excommunication see _Minchinhampton Acc'ts, s.a_. 1606 ("layd out [at] Gloucester when we wer excommunicated for our not appearinge when wee were not warned to appeere, vj s. viij d"). St. Clement's, Ipswich, Acc'ts, _East Anglian_, in (1890), 304 ("Payed for owr Absolution to the Commissary, being reprimanded for that we did not give in our Verdict, where as we nether had warning nor notice given us of his Corte houlden, ij[s.] x[d.]:" and: "Payed more ffor the discharg of his boocke, viijd." 1610). Churchwardens accounts are pretty reliable evidence, for they were subject to the scrutiny of those who had to foot the bills.

[184] See Mr. Andrew Clark's _Shirburn Ballads_ (Oxon. 1907), 306 ff. Mr. Clark's notes and illustrations drawn from other contemporary sources are most valuable.

[185] A number of broadsides and pamphlets were published in 1641 upon the abolition of the spiritual courts. Consult Mr. Stephen's _Catalogue_ (1870) for those in the British Museum. One of them is entitled _The Proctor and Parator their Mourning ... Beinge a true Dialogue, Relating the fearfull abuses and exorbitances of those spirituall Courts, under the names of Sponge the Proctor and Hunter the Parator_. In the spirited dialogue between the two _Hunter_ tells of his ways of extorting money from recusants, seminary priests and neophytes, "whose starting holes I knew as well as themselves"; also, he adds, "I got no small trading by the Brownists, Anabaptists and Familists who love a Barne better than a Church." "Poor Curates, Lecturers and Schoolmasters ... that have been willing to officiate their places without licences" are also his special prey. As for minor offenders "against our terrible Canons and Jurisdiction ... had I but given them a severe looke, I could ... have made them draw their purses ..." "I tell you," he concludes, "the name of Doctors Commons was as terrible to these as Argier [Algiers] is to Gally-slaves." _Sponge_ admits that he has made many a fat fee by _Hunter's_ procurement. For more serious documents in corroboration see Whitgift's circular to his suffragans in May, 1601, and also his address to his bishops a few months later in Strype, _Whitgift_, ii, 447 ff. Among many other and grave abuses he refers to "the infinite number" of apparitors and "petty Sumners" hanging upon every court, "two or three of them at once most commonly seizing upon the subject for every trifling offence to make work to their courts." Cf. Canons of 1597, can. xi (Multitude of apparitors and their excesses) in Cardwell, _Syn_., i, 159. Also Canons of 1603/4, _ibid_. Most of the Elizabethan and Stuart metropolitan and diocesan injunctions call for the presentment of the abuse of apparitors and other court officials. See Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., ii, _passim_. Also _Appendix to 2nd Rep. of the Com. on Ritual_ to Parliament (1870), where a large number of injunctions from Parker to Juxon (1640) are gathered together.

[186] By this system, if the accused could get together a certain number of his neighbors (3, 4, 6 or more) to act as oath-helpers, _i.e._, who would swear that they believed him on oath, he was acquitted. It seems to have been no concern of the judge to weigh the evidence on the facts themselves.

[187] The churchwardens accounts are full of items for horse hire and other expenses for long journeys, for ecclesiastical courts were held at all kinds of places at the pleasure of the judges. See Mr. Bruce's remarks on the Minchinhampton Acc'ts, _Archæologia_, xxxv, 419 ff. Cf. the Ludlow Acc'ts, _Shrop. Arch. Soc. 2nd. ser_., i, 235 ff.--in fact any of the accounts of the period that have been printed in detail.

[188] Archdeacon Hale in _Crim. Prec_., introd., p. lx.

[189] Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 205 (1591). In Warrington deanery, at the bishop's visitation in 1592, one Grimsford is cited for not living with his wife. On a later occasion he appeared and affirmed that his wife had run away with another man, "whereupon the Judge, having regard to the poverty of the man," absolved him. _Warrington Deanery Visit_., 190. An ecclesiastical judge in Durham city made this decree in 1580: "_Dominus ... decrevit scribendum fore Aldermanno_ ... to whip and cart the said Rowle and Tuggell in all open places within the city of Durham, for that they faled in their purgacion, and therefore convicted of the crime detected." _Barnes' Eccles. Proc_., 126.

[190] A most important piece of evidence--because coming from such a source--is Whitgift's circular and (later) his address to his bishops, already alluded to (note 185) given in Strype's life of him. Whitgift mentions the frequent keeping of officials' or commissaries' courts and the multitude of apparitors serving under them, so that "the subject was almost vexed weekly with attendance on their several courts." He adds that "what with Churchwardens' continual attendance in these courts, which in many places came to more than was by a whole parish for any one cessment made to her Majesty, the poor men who were chosen Church wardens ... were in their estates hindered greatly in leaving their day labor for attendance there." These and like complaints, the metropolitan continued, were daily brought to him "with a general exclamation against Commissaries' and Officials' courts." In prophetic language he warned his suffragans that if they were not more zealous for reform all their courts might be swept away. We have further the unceasing complaints and the numberless petitions that were presented in every Elizabethan parliament from 1572 onwards. Some of these are given in Strype, _Annals_, etc., some in his _Whitgift_. Mr. Prothero has conveniently gathered some, with references to others, in his _Statutes and Constitutional Documents_ (1st ed.), pp. 209, 210, 215 and 221. See also Heywood Townshend, 110, _et passim_; D'Ewes, 302, _et passim_, and the canons and injunctions of the time. Peculiars were doubtless most subject to abuses, as being often exempt from the oversight and corrective discipline of the diocesan. Offenders sometimes fled to these for protection. See Strype, _Ann_., iii, Pt. ii, 211-12 (Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield complaining in 1582 of peculiars, some of which belonged to laymen, as holders of abbey lands, in the matter of recusants). Cf. Blomefield, _Hist. of Norfolk_, iii, 557. _Camden Miscellany_, ix (1895), 41 (Letters from bishops to Privy Council in 1564. Recusants flying to exempt places). On the scandalous neglect of duty of some holders of peculiars see _Dean of York's Visit_., 199, 201 ff., 324, _et passim_. See also Mr. W.E.B. Whittaker's article "_On Peculiars with special reference to the Peculiar of Hawarden_," in _Archit. Arch. and Hist. Soc. for Chester and N. Wales_, n.s. xi (1905), 66 ff. and records there given. See also _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_., 1830-2, printed as appendix to Vol. i of _Eccles. Courts Com. Rep_. of 1883, p. 198. Lists of peculiars will be found in the above authorities.

[191] Though they were reestablished in 1660 they were forever shorn of their ancient glory.

[192] The names of some of these broadsides, pamphlets, etc., have already been given. To these may be added, _The Spiritual Courts epitomised in a Dialogue betwixt two Proctors, Busie Body and Scrape-all, and their discourse of the want of their former imployment_. Others will be found in Mr. Stephen's _Catalogue_.

[193] That is, a portable stone altar which had been consecrated and could be set up anywhere for mass.

[194] See order of the Wilts justices issued against such offenders, Oct., 1577. _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. on MSS. in Var. Coll_., i (1901), 68.

[195] See indictment of an Essex jury at quarter sessions in 1585 against one Glasscock who spoke lightly of the ceremony of baptism, and rent out of a prayer book certain leaves where the ministration of baptism was set forth. _Hist MSS. Com. Rep_., x, Pt. iv, 480.

[196] Presentment to the Wilts justices, _loc. cit. supra_, 69 (1588), For excessive zeal of the justices of assize in Suffolk see _State Papers Dom. Eliz_., 1591-4, P. 275 (Address of Suffolk gentry to Privy Council in 1592. They complain of indictments against ministers on very trivial pretexts). For the answer of the Council to this petition see Strype, _Ann_., ii, Pt. i, 268-9 (Lords write to judges to consult the spirit not the letter of law, and add their own suspicions that informers are mainly to be blamed if justice has miscarried).

[197] _State Pap., loc. cit_.

[198] Indictment of Essex jury, _Hist. MSS. Rep., loc. cit. supra_.

[199] _Ibid_.

[200] Information of the Wilts justices against one Dearling, parson of Upton Lowell, _loc. cit. supra_, 68 (1585). Cf. Chelmsford Acc'ts, _Essex Arch. Soc_., ii, 212 (An item paid the clerk of assizes for framing the indictment of Chelmsford Hundred "against Puritisme." 1592).

[201] These would be--to cite the principal--the ordinary upkeep of the church with its services and all its appurtenances whatsoever (see previous chapter); the finding of clerk and sexton; the care of the poor; maintaining of the local roads and bridges; purchasing and repair of parish armor, and mustering of parish contingents; contributions for prisoners and maimed soldiers; the keeping of the parish butts and the stocks; the destruction of frugivorous birds and animals (the statutory "vermin"), etc.

[202] The act-books are full of "detections" for being an "uncharitable person," for "not giving to the poor," etc. See pp. 41 ff., _supra_.

[203] Reference is here made to the occasional seizure of parish lands or funds by the Queen's commissioners for concealed lands. See Strype's strong language in his _Ann. of the Ref_. (Oxon. ed.), ii, Pt. i, 310. He speaks of the unjust oppressions of courtiers and other griping men, 'harpies' and 'hell-hounds,' who, under the pretense of commissions, "did intermeddle and challenge land of long times possessed by churchwardens, and such like, upon the charitable gifts of predecessors ... yea and certain stocks of money, plate, cattle and the like. They made pretence to bells, lead [etc.] ..." Strype's words are none too strong, being amply confirmed by much evidence _aliunde_. See, _e.g_., the determined attacks in 1567 and subsequently on the Melton Mowbray school lands in _Leicest. Archit_. (etc.) _Soc_., iii (1874), 406 ff. Thanks to powerful neighbors the Meltonians won their case. Less fortunate were the parishioners of St. Mary's, Shrewsbury, the revenue from whose lands supported church fabric, the poor, etc. For proceedings against them, and the vain appeal by the parish to the lord chief justice in 1572 ff., see Owen and Blakeway's _Hist. of Shrewsbury_, ii, 350-2. For confiscation of parish gild property and parish lands on a large scale, see examples given in _Cambridge and Hunts Arch. Soc_., i (1904), 330 ff. We are here told that during Elizabeth's reign at least twelve commissions for concealed lands were sent down into Cambridgeshire (p. 332). See also _ibid_., 370 ff. for a sale of forfeited lands to Jones and Grey in 1569. The list of lands is very long and only a sample of many such. For attacks (1587) on All Saints, Derby, lands, whose revenues went to church repairs, etc., see J.C. Cox and W.H. St. J. Hope, _Chronicles of All Saints, Derby_ (1881). For informers involving Lapworth, Warwick, in a suit about its parish lands see Robt. Hudson, _Memorials of a Warwickshire Parish_ (1904), 104. The churchwardens acc'ts occasionally allude to the Queen's commissioners, _e.g_., the Great Witchingham Acc'ts, where they are dubbed by the right name: "for my expenses when I was before the quenes inquisitors for lands and goods" (1559). _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207.

[204] Jas. Copeman in _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., ii (1849), 64. The Loddon Acc'ts cover the period 1554-1847, some of the donations, or endowments, being made in the 16th and some in the 17th centuries.

[205] Robt. Dymond in _Devon Assoc. for Advanc. of Science_ (etc.) _Tr_., xiv (1882), 407. These acc'ts run from 1425-1590. For a list of parish properties in 1565, see pp. 460-1. Their yearly rent then amounted to £9 14s. 2d.

[206] Sam'l Barfield, _Thatcham, Berks, and its Manors_ (1901), i. 121.

[207] R.W. Goulding, _Records of the Charity known as Blanchminster's Charity, Stratton_ (1898), 64-5.

[208] In 1562 it is said to have contained only 48 families. John Amphlett, _Churchwardens Acc'ts of St. Michael's in Bedwardine_ (ed. for _Worcester Hist. Soc_., 1898), introd., p. iii.

[209] _Op. cit_., 142-3. See _ibid_., and for the year named, the receipts from these properties. Thus £4 is paid for one and a half years' rental of parish land lying in Severn Stoke parish; 44s. for two years' rent of parish houses in St. Peter's parish, Worcester city, etc.

[210] _Op. cit_., pp. xxx-i.

[211] Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 85 ff. Consult Mr. Hudson's map of the parish lands.

[212] _Notes and Queries for Somer. and Dorset_, v (1897), 94.

[213] _Somerset Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Tr_., xxiii, Mr. Pearson's introd., p. iii, and _op. cit_., vol. xxvi, 106-9. Cf. A.G. Legge, _North Elmham_, Norfolk, _Acc'ts_ (1891), 5-6 (Long list of lands managed by wardens in 1549). Also J.H. Butcher, _The Parish of Ashburton_ (Devon), 49 (1580). Owen and Blakeway, _Hist. of Shrewsbury_, ii, 342 (St. Mary's parish lands with 32 tenants and rental of £6. 7s. 8d. in 1544. The churchwardens were here called "Lady Wardens" as managing the "Rentall of our Lady").

[214] _St. Michael's Acc'ts, op. cit_., vol. xxvi, 129. The wardens of this parish record among their expenditures many items for the repair of the parish tenements and other property. In early times they received 12d. as a salary for management. Later this was changed into an honorarium of varying amount "_pro bono servicio suo." Op. cit_., vol. xxiii, intro., p. ii.

[215] Thus at Lapworth, Warwickshire, a trust of parish lands was re-created in 1563 with twenty-two feoffees; and one Collet in 1567 enfeoffed seventeen men of a field of only three acres, fourteen perches, to parish uses. Hudson, _Memorials_ (etc.), 85-6.

[216] _E.g._, the Grasswardens of St. Giles, Durham, who managed the common lands of the parish, and accounted yearly for them. They made disbursements for many parish expenses which elsewhere churchwardens usually paid out (_e.g_., for bridges, houses of correction, poor prisoners, armor and musters), yet were themselves distinct from the churchwardens. See _Surtees Soc_., xcv, I ff. Cf. the bridge wardens of Loughborough, Leicester (W.G.D. Fletcher, _Hist. of L_., 1883, pp. 40 ff). Also the townwardens of Melton Mowbray, _Leicester Archit_. (etc.) _Soc_., iii, 61-2, _note_.

[217] Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 88.

[218] That is (apparently) holdings returning £4 of rent annually.

[219] Pasture.

[220] _Surtees Soc_., lxxxiv, 15.

[221] Editor's (Mr. Barmby's) introd., _ibid_., 4.

[222] (Dean) G.W. Kitchen, The Manor of Manydown, _Hants Rec. Soc_., 1895, 171. For other examples both of parish cows and sheep: see Hale, _Crim. Prec_., 221 (40 parish sheep of Billericay, Essex, for the relief of the poor. 1599). Littleton, Worcestersh. Acc'ts, _Midland Antiquary_, i (1883), 107 (Purchase of cow for parish in 1556). _Ibid_., 108 (Wintering of a church heifer). Morton, Derbysh., Acc'ts, _The Reliquary_, xxv, 17 (Same as above. 1593). Owen & Blakeway, _Hist. of Shrewsbury_, ii, 342 (St. Mary's had in 1544 ten cows and three sheep renting for £1 1s. 8d. yearly). Rotherfield Acc'ts, _Sussex Arch. Coll_., xli, 26, 46. St. Michael's, Bath, Acc'ts, _Somerset Arch_. (etc.) _Soc_., xxiii, introd., _et passim_. Great Witchingham, _Norf. and Norw. Arch. Soc_., xiii, 207 (Cows in 1604). Hartland, Devon, Acc'ts, _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep_., v, Pt. i (1876), 573a (Custom _circa_ 1601 for poor to leave sheep to church by will). Hudson, _Memorials_, etc., 106-10 (Parish meeting about renting out of cows. Surety bonds given by hirers in 1580 ff.). Many other examples will be found in the wardens acc'ts and elsewhere.

[223] See Hudson, _op. cit., supra_, 106. In 1595 two cows were bequeathed to Lapworth to be rented out at 20 d. yearly. The proceeds of one to mend a certain parish road, of the other to support the poor (_ibid_., 109).

[224] Art. xxv, Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 189 ff. So in the Visitation Articles of the same year (_ibid_., 213) we read: "Item, whether the money coming and rising of any cattle or other movable stocks of the church [etc.] ... have not been employed to the poor men's chest."

[225] In North Elmham the term "office land" seems to have been used for lands set apart for the remuneration of parish servants. See A.G. Legge, _North Elmham Acc'ts_, 81, _s.a._ 1566: "It[e]m for office Land of the ten[emen]te fost[er] ... vij d." Cf. Mr. Legge's _note_ (p. 129). He cites other examples in Norfolk parishes, viz., "Constable Acre" in Stuston, "Constable Pasture" in Fralingham, "Dog Whipper's Land" in Barton Turf. Cf. J.L. Glasscock, _Records of Bishop Stortford_, 55 ("sexten's meade," 1563). In an early year _temp_. Henry VIII one Jesop left two tenements to Mendlesham, Suffolk, "to ye fyndyng of a clarke to pley att ye organys for a p[er]petuite." _Hist. MSS. Com. Rep_., v, Pt. i (1876), 596a. See also _Shrop. Arch. and Nat. Hist. Soc_., iii, 3rd ser. (1903), 315 (26s. and 8d. and 12 bushels of rye issuing annually out of Idsal rectory for the poor and the maintenance of a clerk). E. Freshfield, _St. Christopher-le-Stocks' Acc'ts_, 38 (Bequest of a perpetuity of 20s. annually for clerk and sexton. 1602).

[226] Swyre, Dorset, Parish Acc't Book in _Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset_, iii (1893), 293 (Lands allotted by parish for support of a blind man).

[227] _E.g., St. Christopher-le-Stocks' Acc'ts_, 38 (Yearly perpetuity of £3 4s. in bread and money to poor. 1602). _St. Michael's in Bedwardine Acc'ts_, 99 (House left to parish, 12s. of whose rental to go to poor, and 1s. to the churchwardens. 1590).

[228] Butcher, _Parish of Ashburton_, 46 (Land given to buy shirts and smocks for the poor. 1575).

[229] T.P. Wadley, _Notes on Bristol Wills_ (1886), 230 (£20 for a stock of money to remain for ever "in the howse of correction" for the maintenance and "settinge on work of such people as shalbe therevnto co[m]mitted for their mysdemeanors." _Thos. Kelke's will_. 1583).

[230] _Wills and Inventories_, Pt. ii, _Surtees Soc_., xxxviii, 83 (Keyper school of Houghton and its endowment of £240. 1582).

[231] Examples among many are the Edenbridge, Kent, lands. These bridgewardens held lands in three parishes. _Arch. Cant_., xxi (1895), 110 ff. Also Burton's Charity lands at Loughborough. The "bridgmasteres" here in 1570 collected £33 18s. 6d., and disbursed £16 12s. 11d. Fletcher, _Hist. of Loughborough_, 41-2. Also Hayward bridge lands, _Notes and Quer. for Somer. and Dorset_, iv (1895), 205-7.

[232] Legge, _North Elmham Acc'ts_, 87-90. So too at Eltham, Kent, where the "Fifetene peny Lands" have special wardens who account for their revenue. _Archaeologia_, xxxiv, 51 ff.

[233] _Statutes of the Realm_, iv, Pt. ii, 968-9.

[234] Cardwell, _Doc. Ann_., i, 189 ff.

[235] Dr. Pilkington's will, _Surtees Soc_., xxii, Append., p.