With regard to the latter word, the meaning of which MR. JEBB inquires,
_Berefellarii_, I may suggest that he will find, on reading somewhat
further in the archbishop's _Statuta_ for Beverley, a further account of
these same _Berefellarii_; which almost precludes the likelihood of a
blunder in the original document, or at least of _Beneficiarii_ being the
correct word. For the archbishop, having occasion to mention them again,
gives the origin of their institution:
"Quos quidem Berefellarios recolendæ memoriæ Dom. Johannes de Thoresby
dudum Eborum Archiepiscopus ad honorem dictæ Ecclesiæ Beverlaci, et
majorem decentiam ministrantium in eadem provincia ordinabat."
He then proceeds:
"Sed quia eorum turpe nomen Berefellariorum, patens risui remanebat,
dictos Septem de cætero non Berefellarios sed Personas volumus
nuncupari."
And accordingly we find them called hereafter in this document by the very
indefinite appellation, _Septem Personæ_.
The word _Berefellarii_ seems obviously to be of Anglo-Saxon origin; as
well from the extract I have given above, as from the absence of the term
in works on the continental rituals, as Martene for instance. And I would
suggest, in default of a better derivation, that the word may have been
Latinised from the Anglo-Saxon _bere fellan_ or _sellan_. The office would
then be that of almoner, and the _Berefellarii_ would be the "persons" who
doled out victuals to the poor; literally, _barley-givers_. Such an
original would make the term liable to the objection to which the
archbishop alluded; and the office does not altogether disagree with what
was stated as the object of its institution, viz.:
"Ad honorem ecclesiæ Beverlaci, et majorem decentiam ministrantium in
eadem."