THE PARISH CLERK.
The parish clerk seems to have existed about as long as the parish priest,
if we are right in assuming that the man of sober life whom the parish
priest was required by the “canons of King Edgar” to bring with him to the
diocesan synods (see p. 67) was the prototype of that useful official. At
least, from a very early time every parish had its clerk to attend upon
the priest in his office, and to perform a number of useful services on
behalf of the parishioners. An Injunction of Bishop Grostete says, “In
every church which hath sufficient means there shall be a deacon and
sub-deacon, but in the rest at least a fitting and honest clerk to serve
the priest in a comely habit.”[305] A Canon of a Synod of Ely (1528)
enjoins all parish clerks to serve their priests at high mass reverently
and devoutly.
[Illustration: Coronation procession of Charles V. of France. (From MS. of
Froissart’s Chronicle.)]
The general custom was for the incumbent to choose and appoint the clerk,
and for the parishioners to pay him; but in some parishes the parishioners
had a prescriptive right to choose; and there are indications that in some
parishes it was the custom for the rector or vicar to pay him.[306] Having
been duly chosen and appointed, the clerk was licensed by the Ordinary,
and held his office as a freehold, being removable by the Ordinary, and by
him only for misconduct. His duties were to attend on the parish priest,
and assist in the services of the church; to ring the bell for services,
prepare the altar, lead the people in the responses; precede the
procession with holy water; precede the priest with bell and taper in
going to visit the sick, and such-like things.
[Illustration: Parish Clerk sprinkling Holy Water. (Early 14th cent. MS.
British Museum, Royal, 10 E. IV.)]
One curious custom of his office was to go round the parish on Sundays and
great festivals, and to enter the houses in order to asperse the people
with holy water, sometimes, perhaps on some special festivals, it would be
to cense them, for Absolon, the parish clerk in Chaucer’s “Canterbury
Tales” (Miller’s Tale)--
Goth with a censer on the holy day,
Censing the wives of the parish faste.
A MS. in the British Museum of early fourteenth century date (Royal, 10 E.
IV.) contains a story which turns on the adventures of a parish priest, as
he goes through the parish on this errand. Our illustration, taken from
f. 108 _verso_, shows how, after going into the kitchen to sprinkle the
cook, he then goes to the hall to sprinkle the lord and lady as they sit
at dinner. In the Harl. MS., 2278, f. 76, is a picture of a parish clerk
about to asperse the dead body of a child, the mother withdrawing the
winding-sheet for the purpose.[307] It was from this duty that the parish
clerk took the name of “Aquabajalus.”
His stipend was made up of customary fees, especially for his services at
marriages and burials, which differed in various parishes, and voluntary
donations. A custom of this kind is good (says Lyndwode), that every
master of a family on every Lord’s day give the clerk bearing the holy
water, somewhat according to the exigency of his condition; and that on
Christmas Day he have of every house one loaf of bread, and a certain
number of eggs at Easter, and in the autumn certain sheaves. Also that may
be called a laudable custom where such clerk every quarter of the year
receives something in certain money for his sustenance, which ought to be
collected and levied in the whole parish.
A great number of the mediæval wills contain small bequests to the parish
clerk, and to clerks attending the funeral of the testator.
A story told by Matthew Paris[308] makes us acquainted with the average
income thus derived. “It happened that an agent of the pope met a jolly
clerk of a village carrying water in a little vessel with a sprinkler, and
some bits of bread given him for having sprinkled some holy water, and to
him the deceitful Roman thus addressed himself: ‘How much does the profit
yielded to you by this church amount to in a year?’ To which the clerk,
ignorant of the Roman’s cunning, replied, ‘To twenty shillings, I think.’
Whereupon the agent demanded the percentage the pope had just demanded on
all ecclesiastical benefices. And to pay that small sum the poor man was
compelled to hold school for many days, and, by selling his books in the
precincts, to drag on a half-starved life.”
Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Constitutions of 1260, says--
We have often heard from our elders that the benefices of holy water
were originally instituted from a motive of charity, in order that one
of their proper poor clerks might have exhibitions to the schools, and
so advance in learning, that they might be fit for higher preferment.
He therefore desires that in churches which are not distant more than ten
miles from the cities and castles of the province of Canterbury, the
rectors and vicars should endeavour to find such clerks, and appoint them
to the office. And if the parishioners withhold the customary alms to
them, let them be urgently admonished, and, if need be, compelled to give
them.
We are not surprised to find that parish clerks of this kind often kept
the village schools.
Peckham, Archbishop in 1280, ordered in the church of Bauquell and the
chapels annexed to it, that there should be _duos clericos
scholasticos_, carefully chosen by the parishioners, from whose alms
they would have to live, who should carry holy water round in the
parish and chapels on Lord’s days and festivals, and minister _in
divinis officiis_, and on week days should keep school.[309]
Alexander, Bishop of Coventry, 1237, ordered parish clerks who should
be schoolmasters in country villages.[310]
The custom of putting young scholars into the office of parish clerk to
help them to proceed to holy orders, explains some kindly bequests which
we meet with in wills:
Robert de Weston, Rector of Marum, 1389, leaves “to John Penne, my
clerk, a missal of the new Use of Sarum, if he wishes to be a priest,
otherwise I give him 20_s._ My servant Thomas Thornawe, 20_s._ The
residue of my goods to be solde as quickly as possible, _communi
pretio_, so that the purchasers may be bound to pray for my
soul.”[311]
Giles de Gadlesmere, in 1337, left to Wm. Ockam, clerk, C_s._, unless
he be promoted before my death.[312]
The parish clerks of a town or neighbourhood sometimes formed themselves
into a gild, as in London, Lincoln, etc.,[313] and it would seem that
these gilds in some places entertained their neighbours, and no doubt
augmented their own funds, by the exhibition of miracle plays. The parish
clerks of London used to exhibit, on the anniversary of their gild, on the
green in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell. In 1391, Stow says that
they performed before the king and queen and the whole court for three
days successively, and that, in 1409, they performed a play of the
“Creation of the World,” the representation of which occupied eight
successive days.
Chaucer gives a portrait of a parish clerk in the Miller’s Tale of his
“Canterbury Pilgrims”--
Now was there of that churche a parish clerke
The which that was y-cleped Absolon.
Crulle[314] was his here and as the gold it shon,
And strouted[315] as a fanne large and brode;
Ful streight and even lay his jolly shode.[316]
His rode[317] was red, his eyen grey as goos,
With Poules windowes carved on his shoos,
In hosen red he went ful fetisly[318]
Yclad he was ful smal and proprely
All in a kirtle of a light wajet[319]
Ful faire and thicke ben the pointès set.
And therupon he had a gay surplise
As white as is the blossome upon the rise.[320]
A mery child he was so God me save,
Well could he leten blod and clippe and shave
And make a charte of lond and a quitance.
In twenty manner could he trip and daunce
(After the schole of Oxenfordè tho)
And playen songès on a smal ribible[321]
Therto he sang, sometime a loud quinible[321]
And as wel could he play on a giterne.[321]
In all the town n’as brewhouse ne taverne
That he ne visited with his solas,
Theras that any galliard tapstere was.
This Absolon that jolly was and gay
Goth with a censor on the holy day
Censing the wivès of the parish faste
And many a lovely loke he on hem caste.
* * * * *
Sometime to shew his lightness and maistrie
He plaieth Herod on a skaffold hie.