(Vol. vii., p. 207.)
P. C. S. S. has ascertained that all the barbarous terms mediævally applied
to certain classes of the inferior clergy, and referred to by MR. JEBB
(_antè_, p. 207.), are explained in the _Glossarium_ of Ducange. They are
identical in meaning and derivation, though slightly differing in point of
spelling, with "Marigmerii" and "Melinglerii" (cited by MR. JEBB),
"Marellarii," "Meragalarii," and "Malingrerii," and are all to be found in
the learned work to which reference is now made. Of the last of these
words, Pirri himself (who is quoted by MR. JEBB) gives the explanation,
which is equally applicable to them all. He says (in _Archiepisc. Messan._,
sub an. 1347):
"_Malingrerium_, olim dictum qui hodie _Sacrista_ est."
Ducange also thus explains the cognate word _Marrellarius_:
"Ædituus, custos ædis sacræ, vulgo _Marguillier_," &c.
MR. JEBB is therefore undoubtedly right in identifying the signification of
these terms with that of the French "Marguillier," the Latin phrase for
which is _Matricularius_, so called because those officers were selected
from the paupers who were admitted into the _Matricula_, or _hospice_
adjoining the church or convent:
"Ex Matriculariis pauperibus quidam seligebantur ad viliora Ecclesiarum
adjacentium munia, _v.g._ qui {265} campanas pulsarent, ecclesiarum
custodiæ invigilarent [_church-wardens_ in the true sense of the word],
eas scoparent ac mundarent. Atque inde Matriculariorum (nostris
_Marguillier_) in ecclesiis parochialibus origo."
Of another singular word, _Berefellarii_, and of the adoption of _Personæ_
instead of it, the history is very amusing, though, perhaps, scarcely fit
for the pages of "N. & Q." It would seem that these inferior servitors of
the church were not very cleanly in their person or habits. The English
populace, by a not very delicate pun on their name, were wont to call them
_bewrayed fellows_, the meaning of which it is not necessary farther to
explain. In a letter of Thomas, Archbishop of York (preserved in Dugdale's
_Monasticon_, tom. III. p. ii. p. 5.), the good prelate says:
"Scilicet Præcentoris, Cancellarii, et Sacristæ, ac Septem Personarum
qui olim _Berefellarii_ fuerunt nuncupati.... Sed quia eorum turpe
nomen _Berefellariorum_, patens risui remanebat, dictos Septem de
cætero non _Berefellarios_ sed _Personas_ volumus nuncupari."
The glossarist adds, with some _naïveté_:
"Cur autem ita obscæna hujusmodi iis indita appellatio, dicant Angli
ipsi!"