PROVISION FOR OLD AGE.
We have followed our parish priest through various phases of his life and
work; there remains one more--before that last one through which all
priests and people must pass--on which the records throw a considerable
amount of light. Parish priests grow old--sometimes old and infirm and
incapable of fulfilling the duties of their position. What to do with
them, in fairness to them and in fairness to the parishioners, is a
problem which perplexes us at this moment. Then, as now, if the income of
the benefice, or the private income of the incumbent, enabled him to
obtain the help of a competent chaplain, that was accepted as on the whole
the best solution. It permitted the old pastor to end his days among his
people, and still to be the friend and counsellor of those who cared to
seek him. The difficulty then, as now, is in the case of a benefice which
is too poor both to give a competent maintenance to the old incumbent and
to engage the services of a competent _locum tenens_. We find from not
infrequent records of such cases in the bishops’ registers that, to begin
with, the bishop sequestrated the benefice, usually appointing a
neighbouring clergyman as sequestrator. Then, in the arrangement of
matters, it seems to have been thought right always to leave the old
incumbent to end his days among his own people and in his own house, with
a sufficient maintenance out of the income of the benefice. On the other
hand, in justice to the parish, a chaplain was appointed who took
independent charge of the parish. It would seem that this coadjutor
usually lived in the parsonage house, or part of it, not as the guest of
the old incumbent, but rather as his host, except where the premises were
formally divided into two tenements for the independent accommodation of
both. It will be borne in mind that the celibate condition of the clergy
would make the arrangement of such cases much more easy in those times
than in these.
The unwillingness of an infirm vicar to be disturbed was met in the way
illustrated by this individual case: In 1322 the patron of the parish of
Letton, Herefordshire, complained to the bishop that the rector, Milo by
name, had, from old age and ill health, been absent from his church during
many years without licence of non-residence, though often admonished to
reside. The bishop issued a commission, consisting of neighbouring
incumbents, to inquire. They replied that Milo had not resided for ten
years, that the services had been very badly done by numerous chaplains,
and the parishioners grossly neglected, and that the rectory house and
buildings were falling into decay. A coadjutor was appointed by the bishop
to assist him in the cure of his parish.[294]
Here are some illustrative cases of a more satisfactory kind. Philip de
Harwodelme, Rector of Bigby--it is recorded in the Register of Bishop
Quivil, of Exeter,[295] in 1286--being so cast down by disease and broken
by old age as to feel himself entirely unequal to the care of the souls of
the parishioners, had a retiring pension assigned to him of twenty marks,
out of the great tithes of the parish. This is a very simple solution of
the difficulty, since the pension, equal to £13, was an ample one, and, it
is to be assumed, the benefice large enough to spare it.[296]
In 1309, William de Tres ... Vicar of Perran Zabulo, being very old and
infirm, Bishop Stapledon grants a sequestration of the living to Sir Wm.
de Mileborne, Rector of Lanhorne; and an arrangement is made by which
Michael de Newroneck is appointed coadjutor to the old vicar, and is to
pay him two shillings a-week for his sustenance; and out of the rest of
the benefice is to live himself and maintain hospitality, and pay all
charges on the living.
In 1316, the bishop appointed Thomas de Dylington, Rector of Cumbfflorie,
as coadjutor to the Rector of Lidiard St. Lawrence, who is blind, old,
and broken in health; the appointment is made subject to revocation at
the bishop’s pleasure.
In appointing a coadjutor to Sir Wm., Vicar of St. Colan, on account of
his great infirmity, it is stated in Bishop Stapledon’s Register that the
coadjutor is to take charge of the goods, etc., of the vicarage. And so in
the case of Sir Henry, Vicar of Constantine, a coadjutor is appointed by
the same bishop, who is to take an inventory of the vicar’s goods, and to
have the vicar and his goods in his care, and to provide honourably for
the vicar and his family.
In the Registers of Lichfield Diocese, we find the incumbents of
Stoke-on-Terne, Uttoxeter, St. Peter’s, Derby, etc., resigning on a
pension secured by the oath of their successors; and chaplains assigned to
the Vicar of Lapley, who is old and blind, and the Rector of Maxstoke,
because he is infirm; and so in other dioceses.
The arrangement between the vicar and his successor does not always work
quite smoothly. This seems to be the explanation of the action of Bishop
Stapledon, of Exeter, who, in 1326, admonishes Barthol de More, Vicar of
Kynstock by the resignation of John Mon, who is decrepit, to continual
residence, and to take oath to maintain the said John as long as he lives.
But soon after a more definite arrangement is made that “lest, in process
of time, to the scandal of the clergy, the said John should be compelled
miserably to beg, he shall receive a payment of six marks of silver, viz.
40_s._ at St. Michael, and 40_s._ at Easter.”
Cases difficult to deal with sometimes occurred. Considering the
prevalence of leprosy from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, it is
not wonderful to find the vicar of a parish among the victims of the
dreadful disease. We have met with one case in the preceding chapter of a
Vicar of Colyton, in Exeter diocese, in 1330. We are not told what steps
the bishop took in that case; but in a similar case at St. Neot’s, in the
same diocese, the vicar being struck with leprosy, Bishop Stapledon
appointed Ralph de Roydene, chaplain, to be his coadjutor, and gave the
vicar and the living into the custody of the coadjutor. The bishop orders
that since the vicar cannot, without danger, have intercourse with the
whole people as he has been accustomed, the vicar shall have the better
chamber (_meliorem cameram_) with the houses adjoining it, except the
hall, to live, and eat, and drink in; and that the entrance should be
closed between the said chamber and the hall, and a new entrance made to
the said chamber externally in a suitable place, by which the vicar, when
need is, can have ingress and egress; and a _cloaca_, likewise, to the
said chamber, in a fitting place. The said Sir Ralph shall pay to the said
vicar every week for his maintenance in food, drink, and firing, and other
small necessaries, 2_s._ sterling, and yearly on the feast of St. Michael,
or thereabout, 20_s._ for his robe; also he shall keep in repair the
houses of the said vicarage, both those which the vicar inhabits, and all
the other buildings of the vicarage, and shall undertake and see after all
other burdens belonging to the said vicarage.[297]
There is a case in the Chichester Register in which the master and
brethren of the college of the Holy Trinity, Arundel, petition the bishop
to give a pension to Wm. Rateford, resigning the Vicarage of Kurdford,
lest he come to beggary, to the scandal of the clergy.
In another Chichester case, Thomas Bolle, Rector of Aldrington, Sussex,
having resigned his living in 1402, applied to the bishop, Robert Rede,
for leave to build a cell against the wall of the church, in which he
might be shut up--as a recluse--for the rest of his life. The license was
granted, and the Reclusorium remains to this day in the shape of a room 29
ft. by 25 ft., with ingress to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the
north side of the church.[298]
In 1422, Spofford, Bishop of Hereford, instituted a vicar to the parish of
Dilwyn, in the place of Walter Robins, to whom, as having discharged his
duties in a laudable manner, a pension of 40_s._ is assigned, to prevent
his falling into beggary, and so becoming a scandal to the Church. His
pension is to begin fifteen days after his resignation, and to be paid
quarterly. He is to have a chamber in the vicarage house on the ground
floor (_bassam cameram_), with a fireplace in it, and near the entrance
door (_hostium actuale_), with free ingress and egress, and power of
redress in case of failure in punctuality of payment.[299]
In the adjoining parish of Webley, a vicar retiring in 1440 is to receive
eight marks, a room on the ground floor, the use of the vicarage kitchen,
well, and garden; and the incoming incumbent is to assure these benefits
by oath.
Beneficed clergymen had a freehold in their benefices, and therefore a
legal claim for provision in old age, not so with unbeneficed men; but we
meet with a few examples of kindly care for them. For example: In 1237 the
Bishop of Durham obtained the papal licence to place certain clerks of his
diocese who have become old, weak, and blind in a house together, and
assign the tithe of his wills for their support;[300] Thomas Ricard, in
1433, leaves, “to John Wright, chaplain, because he is blind and poor, a
mark per annum for life.”[301]
William Malham, of Elslack, absentee rector--being a master in
Chancery--of the parish of Marton, Yorks, in the beginning of the reign of
Henry VIII., writes to his brother: “I will Sir W. Martindale be Parish
Priest at Marton, and to have like wages as Sir W. Hodgson had, and Sir W.
Hodgson to have six marks yearly, during his life, to tarry at Marton, and
praye for me and my mother’s and father’s sawles. They both to begin their
service at midsomer next coming.” This seems to be a kindly way of
pensioning off an old parish chaplain.[302]
* * * * *
If the reader wishes to follow our parish priest to the grave, and join
in his obsequies, he may turn to pp. 452 and 457, where he will find
sufficient suggestions to enable him to reproduce the funeral and the
funeral service, and the month’s-mind and obit. The wills of priests
sometimes give directions for their monuments; for example, in 1384,
Michael Northburgh, Canon of Chichester, and Rector of Hampstap, willed to
be buried in Chichester Cathedral, in a spot which he minutely describes:
“A marble stone to be placed over my grave with a half statue like that of
Mgr. William Blythe, with this inscription: Hic jacet Michael
Northborough, quondam Canonicus Ecclie Cicestren. et Rector Ecclie de
Hampstap, cuius Aīē P’picietur Deus. Amen. And the statue to hold a scroll
in its hands with the words, Miseremini mei, Miseremini mei, saltem bos
Amici, quia Manus Domini tetigit me.”[303]
William of Duffield, Chaplain of St. Martin’s, in Coney Street, York (A.D.
1361), left 20_s._ to buy a gravestone for himself, and 3_s._ 4_d._ for
workmanship and sculpturing a chalice thereon.[304]