RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.
The subject of the religious condition of the parish priests and their
people in the Middle Ages--their belief and life--brings us into a
polemical atmosphere. There are some admirers of those times who look upon
them as “the Ages of Faith;” there are others who think that in those
times of false doctrines and manifold superstitions priests and people
were generally degraded and vicious.
The truth lies somewhere between the two. We do not propose to enter into
polemical discussion. Our business, as it seems to us, is to try to put
ourselves into the midst of the people, to enter into their minds, to
study their lives, and to represent as fairly as we can what manner of men
priests and people were, what they believed, and how they lived.
We seem to see on the whole that there were two “schools of thought” in
the Middle Ages. One consisted of learned men of a speculative turn of
mind, who explained and developed ancient doctrines and practices into new
and erroneous meanings; followed by a crowd of devout people who adopted
their views, and sometimes degraded philosophical speculations and pious
opinions, which they hardly understood, into gross misapprehensions and
superstitions. On the other hand, there were people of competent learning,
who read the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers, and in substance adhered
to their teaching; and with them remained a crowd of people whose
Christian common sense kept them fairly free of extravagances. We must be
careful in judging people who have been brought up in a faulty system. We
must not take for granted that everybody believed in every error and in
the conclusions logically involved in it, or approved of every
superstitious custom. On the contrary, the soul, like the stomach, seems
to discriminate what it lives on, and to have a power of assimilating what
is good, and rejecting more or less what is noxious. Why should we doubt
that God watches over His people, and helps the ignorant, well-intentioned
Christian man unconsciously to refuse the evil and choose the good?
If we look at the general character of the centuries we have been
studying, there is no denying that there was a great deal which was good
in them. The people in the twelfth century had a great zeal for religion
of an ascetic type, and amidst the violence and oppression of the times
there was a great deal of religious feeling of an exalted character, and
many a saintly life. It was the great age of the Latin hymns.
[Illustration: Early English architecture. North-west transept of Beverley
Minster.]
In the thirteenth century, the enthusiasm for the ascetic life had cooled
down, having been to some extent disappointed; the monks were not so
highly thought of, and the more sober type of religion represented by the
bishop and secular clergy came to the front. It was a great century of
intense vitality; the spirit of freedom was moving the middle classes of
the people, and the Church was in hearty sympathy with them. It was the
age of organization of civil institutions. Very few monasteries were
built, but every cathedral was enlarged, and churches were rebuilt; there
was never so active an architectural period. The new religious spirit of
the age showed itself in that rare event, the introduction of a new style
of architecture, bold engineering skill in its construction, with pointed
arches soaring heavenwards, ornamentations of acanthus leaves just
unfolding in the vigour of the spring-time of a new year.
In the fourteenth century, the history of the Lollard movement is enough
to show the strong religious feeling of the people and its tendency
towards sounder views of religion. The saying that, “Where you saw three
people talking together, two of them were Lollards,” was said by a
Lollard, and may be an exaggeration; but there is no question that (while
some went to extremes, as always in an age of great intellectual movement
and strong feeling) the mass of the people was leavened by what there
was--and there was much--that was true in the new ideas.[635]
It has been suggested by ingenious critics that Chaucer, being connected
by marriage and sympathy with the leader of the party which favoured the
opinion of the school of Wiclif, his famous description of “a poure parson
of a town” is only the ideal of what a parish priest ought to be according
to the view of that school. It may be maintained, on the other hand, that
Chaucer’s sketches of the clergy of all orders are conceived in a spirit
of genial satire; and that if the parish priests had been generally
worldly-minded and negligent of their duties, unclerical in attire and
weapons, attendants on field-sports and haunters of taverns, the great
artist would have put a man of that type among his inimitable gallery of
contemporary character sketches. We have no fear of being mistaken when we
take it that his “poure parson of a town” (which does not necessarily mean
a town but quite possibly a village rector[636]) had many prototypes among
the parochial clergy of the fourteenth century.
A good man there was of religioun,
That was a poure parson of a toun;
But riche was of holy thought and werk.
He was also a lerned man, a clerk,
That Christe’s Gospel treweley would preche.
His parishens devoutly wolde he teche.
Benigne he was, and wonder diligent,
And in adversity ful patient;
And such he was y proved often sithes,
Ful loth were he to cursen for his tithes,
But rather would he given, out of doubte,
Unto his poure parishens about,
Of his offering, and eke of his substance.
He could in litel thing have suffisance.
Wide was his parish, and houses fer asunder,
But he ne left nought, for no rain ne thunder,
In siknesse and in mischief to visite
The farthest in his parish much and lite,
Upon his fete, and in his hand a staff.
This noble example to his sheep he gaf,
That first he wrought and afterward he taught
Out of the gospel he the wordes caught,
And this figure he added yet thereto,
That if gold ruste what should iron do,
For if a priest be foul on whom we trust,
No wonder is a leude man to rust;
And shame it is if that a priest take kepe,
To see a filthy shepherd and clene shepe.
Well ought a priest example for to give
By his clenenesse how his shepe shulde live.
He sette not his benefice to hire,
And left his shepe accumbered in the mire,
And ran unto London unto Saint Poule’s
To seeken him a chanterie for souls,
Or with a brotherhede to be withold,
But dwelt at home and kepte well his fold,
So that the wolfe made him not miscarry.
He was a shepherd and no mercenarie,
And though he holy were and virtuous,
He was to sinful men not despitous,
Ne of his speche dangerous ne digne,[637]
But in his teaching discrete and benigne.
To drawen folk to heaven with fairenesse
By good ensample was his businesse.
But if it were any persone obstinat,
What so he were of highe or low estate,
Him wolde he snibben[638] sharply for the nones.
A better priest I trow nowhere non is.
He waited after no pomp ne reverence,
Ne maked him no spiced[639] conscience,
But Christes love and His apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himselve.
[Illustration: King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, 15th century.]
The fifteenth century is generally believed to have been especially
religiously dead. There are two ways of looking at it; we may talk, not
without some reason, of the stagnation of the fag end of mediævalism, of
the wealth and worldliness and neglect of the prelates, of the
superstition of the people, and so forth; but one fact, which still exists
all over the country, is enough by itself to work instant conviction that
there is another side to the question--the church building of the century.
Our forefathers in the fifteenth century had enough of life and
originality to develop here in England a new variety of Gothic art
distinctly different from the development of the art on the Continent of
Europe; a reaction against the luxuriant beauty of the Decorated; with a
masculine strength in its lines, and a practical modification of plan and
elevation so as to obtain spacious, lofty interiors. Take its grand towers
as a measure of its artistic power; call to mind the use of painted
windows as the great means of coloured decoration; study the elaboration
and richness of the roofs and chancel screens of Norfolk and Devon.
Calculate the immense quantity of church architecture and art executed in
the fifteenth century, not only in monasteries and cathedrals, but in
parish churches; think of the magnificent parish churches of Norfolk,
Suffolk, Lincolnshire, and Somerset, and of the rising towns in Yorkshire
and Lancashire. Remember that they were not commissioned and paid for by
the parochial clergy, for we have shown that they had nothing to spare;
not by the nobility, for they were half ruined by the Wars of the Roses;
but by the large minds of the rising middle class, and out of the wealth
which trade and commerce brought them.
[Illustration: Magdalen College, Oxford, 15th century.]
[Illustration: St. Michael’s, Coventry, 15th century.]
This one piece of evidence is enough to prove the existence of vigorous
religious faith among the people. At the same time, kings and prelates
were founding colleges and schools, _e.g._ Winchester and Eton, New and
King’s. Country gentlemen were founding chantries and supplying themselves
with domestic chaplains, and the traders of the towns were founding gilds
and services in order to obtain for themselves and those belonging to them
additional means of grace and closer pastoral care. It is not possible to
believe in the face of such facts that there was not a great deal of very
earnest religion in the fifteenth century. Abuses and false doctrines and
superstitions there were in abundance, but the religious spirit of the
fifteenth century was already striving earnestly for reform, and
accumulating that force of public opinion which broke out in the
Reformation of the sixteenth century, and compelled Rome itself, after
frustrating the Councils of Constance and Basle, to make the reforms of
the Council of Trent.
Contrast this with the three centuries which followed; with the cessation
of all building of new churches and the neglect of the old ones, and the
shameful condition of the services in many of them; with the absence of
the extension of Church machinery to meet the needs of the increasing
population; and it will be hard to believe that there was not much more of
religious earnestness in the fifteenth century than in those which
followed it. The _Italian relation of England_[640] says of the people of
the later part of this century: “They all attend mass every day, and say
many paternosters in public, the women carrying long rosaries in their
hands, and any who can read taking the office of Our Lady with them, and,
with some companion, reciting it in the church verse by verse in a low
voice, after the manner of the religious. They always hear mass on Sunday
in their parish church, and give liberal alms because they may not offer
less than a piece of money whereof fourteen are equal to a gold ducat, nor
do they omit any form incumbent upon good Christians.”
APPENDIX I.
The history of the parish of Whalley in Lancashire affords an interesting
illustration of the growth of parochial organization. The original parish
was a vast tract of wild hilly country, fifty miles long, covering two
hundred superficial miles, in the north-west corner of Lancashire, chiefly
forest and moor, with fertile pastures in the broad valleys of the Ribble,
the Hodder, the Calder, and their tributaries. The Saxon rectors were also
lords of the manor; they were married men, and the rectory, together with
the manor, descended from father to son. These facts suggest that the lord
of the manor, in early days after the Conversion, turned his house into a
semi-secular monastery such as those we have described (p. 35), retaining
the headship of it for himself, and handing it down to his heirs; and that
in course of time, instead of developing into a monastery of a stricter
kind, it changed into the parochial type of rectory. From the earliest
known time, and throughout the Saxon period, however, the reverend lords
of the manor rejoiced in the title of dean, the Bishop of Worcester
having committed to them large ecclesiastical jurisdiction over this
remote and inaccessible corner of his diocese.
After the Conquest, the lordship of this part of the country, including
the Manor of Whalley, was given to Henry de Lacy, who laid claim to the
advowson of the benefice of Whalley; but for a time the difficulty was got
over by De Lacy presenting the hereditary claimant, De Lacy thus
establishing a precedent of right of presentation, the hereditary claimant
treating it as nothing more than a certificate that he was the rightful
heir.
The names of the deans for several generations are given in a “Description
of Blackburnshire,” which was probably written by J. Lindlay, Abbot of
Whalley (A.D. 1342-1377); they are Spartlingus, Lewlphus, Cutwulph,
Cudwolphus, Henry the Elder, Robert, Henry the Younger, William, Geoffry
the Elder, Geoffry the Younger, and Roger.
The decree of the Lateran Council in 1215 prohibited these hereditary
successions to benefices, and Roger, the last dean, resigned the benefice
and surrendered the advowson to the De Lacys, and “settled at the Ville of
Tunlay as the progenitor of a flourishing family yet subsisting after a
lapse of six centuries, legitimate descendants of the Deans of Whalley and
Lords of Blackburnshire.”[641] Thereupon De Lacy presented Peter de
Cestria to the rectory,[642] and during his incumbency (in 1284)
appropriated the rectory to the Monastery of Stanlaw.
Before this date--how long before is not known--there were already in the
parish seven chapels of old foundation. Three of them--Clitherhow, Calne,
and Burnley--are named in a charter of the time of Henry I.; a
fourth--Elvethan--is named in a charter of the time of Richard I.; the
rest are not named till the grant of the advowson of H. de Lacy in 1284.
The probability is that the first three or four had, from time to time,
been founded by the old Saxon deans, in the villages which sprang up in
their extensive manor; the remainder, perhaps, at a later period between
the Conquest and the last quarter of the thirteenth century. They were all
endowed with glebe land of about thirty-five acres each.
At the next vacancy, the convent of Stanlaw entered upon its enjoyment of
the Rectory of Whalley. How they served it is not known. In old times
there is evidence that the dean had at least a chaplain and clerk to aid
him in his duties. Probably the convent retained the staff of assistant
clergy, whatever it might be, and added another in place of the rector.
In 1296 the abbot and convent of Stanlaw, with the leave of their founder,
H. de Lacy, and with the sanction of Pope Nicholas IV., removed their
house to the more healthy site afforded by their new estate at Whalley.
Two years after, in 1298, Walter Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, ordained
the foundation of a perpetual vicarage with a manse, thirty acres of
meadow and corn land, with rights of pasturage, etc., and the altarage of
the mother church and its seven chapels.
Thirty-two years afterwards, on the petition of the abbot and convent, who
represented the necessities of the house (it was in that year that the
foundation of the abbey church was laid) and the immoderate endowment of
the vicarage, Roger, Bishop of Lichfield, reduced the endowment of the
vicarage to a manse and yard within the abbey close, with a pittance, for
which he was to pay 13_s._ 4_d._ a year, hay and oats for his horse, the
glebe lands of the chapels, and fifty-six marks in money, for which he was
to bear the burden of the chapels, find a priest for each chapel, bread
and wine for the Holy Communion, etc. The fourth vicar, William de Wolf,
was required, before his presentation, to bind himself by oath never to
procure an augmentation of the endowment.
So things continued till the death of the fifth vicar, John of Topcliffe,
brother of the abbot, when the abbot and convent presented one of
themselves to the vicarage, and so added its endowment to the revenues of
the house.
The next matter of interest in the history of the parish is the beginning
of new foundations to supply the spiritual needs of new centres of
population. Padiham was founded in 30 Henry VI.; Whitewell, Holme, and
Marsden between the reigns of Henry VI. and Henry VII.; then Newchurch in
Rossendale, 3 Henry VIII.; Goodshaw, 32 Henry VIII.; Newchurch in Pendle,
35 Henry VIII.; Accrington was taken out of Alvetham in 1577; and lastly,
Bacup in Rossendale was founded in 1788.
To complete the story: at the dissolution of the monasteries the Abbot of
Whalley was hanged on a charge of treason. The king made a compulsory
exchange of the great tithes of the parish of Whalley, on which he seized
as part of the abbey property, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, for some
of the lands which belonged to the Kentish see. Archbishop Juxon augmented
the living by surrendering to it, on the renewal of a lease which brought
it within his power, the whole Easter roll and surplice fees, on
condition that the curates of the chapels should receive the house, and
pay to the vicar in different proportions £42, which, with £38 hitherto
paid, would augment the vicarage to £80. Archbishop Sancroft, on a
subsequent renewal (1685), with the fine purchased lands to provide
stipends for the curates of the chapels-of-ease hitherto unprovided for.
The record of an inquisition in the time of the Commonwealth into this and
neighbouring churches survives, and gives an interesting account of the
parish and its chapelries. In every case the account ends with the
statement that the inhabitants desire to be made a parish.
APPENDIX II.
We have in the case of two Rural Deaneries, by way of sample, tabulated
the benefices as entered in the “Taxatio” and the “Valor” with one another
and with the modern Clergy List; with a few notes upon them.
DIOCESE OF LONDON.--DEANERY OF BERDESTAPLE.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From Domesday Book. | “Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas |
| IV., 1292 A.D., p. 21. |
-------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| £ s. d.|
The Manor and Church belonged to the |Ecclīā de Thurrok pva 5 6 8|
See of London. | |
| |
| |
| |
Ditto | " Oresith |
| (cum Vicar) 16 0 0|
Cedd the Apostle of the East Saxons | " Westillebȳ 13 16 4|
founded one of his centres of | |
evangelization here, A.D. 653. In | |
the time of Edward the Confessor it| " Estillebȳ 14 13 4|
was divided into West T. held by | |
Aluric, a priest and freeman, and | |
East T. held by Tedric, a freeman. | |
| |
| |
In Saxon times these were one parish.| " Hornyngdone 12 0 0|
Time of the Confessor “a certain | Vicar ejusdem 4 13 4|
deacon had here 30 acres and ¼ of | |
a church.” | |
This church belonged to Barking | |
nunnery. | |
From Saxon times belonged to Barking | " Mockyng 14 13 4|
nunnery. | |
Probably had a church in Saxon times.| " Stanford 16 0 0|
Afterwards Wm. de Septem Moles gave| |
his manor with a free chapel to | |
Waltham Abbey. | |
In Saxon times the manor and church | " Bulephen 13 6 8|
belonged to Barking N. | |
After the Conquest this parish | " Coringham[644] 8 0 0|
belonged to B. of London. | |
| " Bures 6 13 4|
| " Bourgsted[645] 13 6 8|
| |
The manor and church in the time of | " Burgsted |
the Confessor belonged to Earl | parva[646] 4 13 4|
Godwin, after the Conquest to the | |
See of London. | |
Manor and church given at the | " Leyndon 13 6 8|
Conquest to the See of London. | |
| |
| |
| |
| " Fobbing 10 0 0|
| " Chaldewell 5 6 8|
Originally one parish: by the time | " Magna |
of Ed. Confessor a large manor in | Benafleth 6 13 4|
S. Benfleet with church belonged to| " Benefleth |
Barking Abbey; a large manor in N. | parva[648] 0 0 0|
Benfleet with church belonged to | |
Earl Harold. | |
Time of E. Confessor principal part | " Dontone 5 6 8|
belonged to a priest. Wm. gave it | |
to the Albini family, founders of | |
Bec Abbey. They gave this manor to | |
Okeburn, Wilts., a cell of Bec. | |
After the Conquest, King Wm. gave | " Hoton 9 16 8|
this manor and church to Battle | " Schenefeud 10 0 0|
Abbey. | |
At the Conquest, known as Ramsden, | " Duddyngeherst 8 0 0|
subsequently divided into 2 manors | " Gingg Rad’i 6 13 4|
and parishes, distinguished by | |
names of their owners. | " Ramesden Cray 5 6 8|
| " Ramsden |
| Belhous 6 13 4|
| " Dounham 5 6 8|
| " Fangge (or |
| Fanga) 6 13 4|
| " Novendon[650] 0 0 0|
| " Thunderle[650] 0 0 0|
| " Wykfore[650] 0 0 0|
| " Piches[650] 0 0 0|
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
| “Valor Ecclesiasticus” of Hen. | Clergy List, 1895 A.D.
| VIII., 1534 A.D., I 448. |
|------------------------------------|---------------------------------
| £ s. d.| £
|Thurrock Parva R 3 15 0|Thurrock East (or Little) 400
| |
|Thurrock Grays V per |Thurrock West, with Purfleet 170
| ear{m} Epi Lond. dal’ |
| 6 Apr., 1582 5 0 8|Grays Thurrock 175
|Orsett R 29 4 8|Orsett 500
| Chantry 6 13 4|
|Westilbury R 20 0 0|Tilbury West 480
| Free chapel of a hermit 1 6 8|
| Chantry 10 0 0|
|Estilbury V 12 17 0|Tilbury East 160
| Free Chapel which W. |
| Pace lately held 3 0 0|
| Another Free Chapel |
| which W{m} More |
| lately held 1 11 0|
|Esthornden R 9 14 0|Horndon East 435
| Free chapel 0 5 0|
|Westhorndon R 14 13 4|Horndon West, with
| | Ingrave[643] 380
|Horndon super Montem V 14 6 8|Horndon-on-the-Hill 250
| |
|Mocking V 10 0 0|Mucking 172
| |
|Standeford le hope R 12 19 8|Stanford-le-Hope 600
| Free Chapel 2 0 0|
| Chantry 7 18 0|
| |
|Bulfanne R 23 0 0|Bulphan 345
| |
|Corringham R 22 3 8|Corringham 560
| |
|Boures Gifford R 25 0 0|Bowers Gifford 406
|Burstede magna V 17 6 8|Burstead, Great 100
| Chantry 7 0 0|Billericay 320
|Burstede Parva R 11 10 4|Little Burstead 270
| |
| |
| |
|Laindon R with chapel of |Laindon with Basildon 500
| Bartilsdon annexed 35 6 8|
| Free Chapel 3 6 8|
| Chantry 6 0 4|
|Langdon R[647] 10 3 8|Laindon Hills 224
|Fobbing R 21 0 0|Fobbing 534
|Chadwell R 17 13 4|Chadwell 220
|South Benflete V 16 5 4|South Benfleet 180
| |
| |North Benfleet 430
| |
| |
| |
|Donton R 14 12 8|Dunton Waylett 320
| |
| |
| |
| |
|Hutton R 8 0 0|Hutton 230
|Shenfield R 14 18 4|Shenfield 390
| |
|Duddinghurst R 10 3 8|Doddinghurst 420
|Ingraffe R 7 13 5|
| |
|Ramsden Cranes R 19 12 0|Ramsden Crays 380
|Ramsden Belhous R 14 0 0|Stock-Harward with
| Free chapel[649] 3 0 0| Ramsden Belhous 400
|Downeham R 12 2 8| Downham 340
|Fange R 14 0 4| Vange 141
| |
|Novingdon R 10 13 4| Nevendon 150
|Thundersley R 14 13 4| Thundersley 400
|Wykeford R 13 13 4| Wickford 310
|Pittesey R 10 13 4| Pitsea 300
DIOCESE OF CANTERBURY. DEANERY OF BRIGG.
-----------------------------------------------------------
“Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., |
1292 A.D.[651] |
----------------------------------------------------------|
£ s. d.|
Ecclesia de Wyngham p. portione Prepositi et 40 0 0|
Vicarii |
Portio Capellæ de Esse [Ash] cum Capella [of 60 0 0|
Overland] eidem annexa |
|
Portio de Godewynstone 46 13 4|
Portio Capellæ de Nonynton cum Capella de 53 6 8|
Wymelingwelde eidem annexa |
|
[NOTE.--Wingham was a tract of country part of |
the possessions of the See of Canterbury from |
the earliest Saxon times. No doubt the |
churches and chapels here mentioned had been |
built by successive archbishops. Archbishop |
Kilwardby, 1273 A.D., designed to found a |
College of secular priests in the Church of |
Wingham, but, being interrupted by death, his |
successor Peckham carried out the design. He |
made the Vicar also the Provost; made the |
chapelries (except Overland) distinct |
parishes, appointed Vicarages in them, and |
gave the parishes as prebends to the 5 |
Canons, and appointed 2 priests, 2 deacons, |
2 sub-deacons, and a sexton to the service of |
the church. At subsequent periods 2 chantries |
were founded in Ash Church, one valued in the |
“Valor” at £14 13_s._ 4_d._, out of which a |
life pension of £5 was paid to the late |
cantarist, and the other at £7 6_s._ 8_d._] |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ecclia de Sturmine cum penc’(40_s._ to the 12 13 4|
Prior of Leeds) |
Ecclia de Preston (appr’ to St. Augustine, Cant.) 20 0 0|
Vicar ejusdem 4 15 4|
Ecclia de Eylinston 10 0 0|
Ecclia de Adesham cum capella 53 6 8|
|
Ecclia de Chilindene 5 6 8|
Ecclia de Lyvingesburn[655] 10 0 0|
Ecclia de Wytham 33 6 8|
Vicarius ejusdem 5 6 8|
Ecclia de Littleburne (appr’ to St. Aug., 20 0 0|
Cant.) |
|
Ecclia de Pat’kes burne (appr’ to the Prior of 33 6 8|
Merton) |
|
Ecclia de Kinggeston 12 0 0|
Ecclia de Bisshopes burne cum capella 33 6 8|
|
|
Ecclia de Pecham 20 0 0|
Vicarius ejusdem 4 6 8|
Ecclia de Waltham 11 6 8|
|
Ecclia de Elmestede cum penc’ (20 marks 16 0 0|
to Mr. Solomon de Burn for his life) |
Ecclia de Chertham 26 13 4|
|
Ecclia de Chileham 40 0 0|
|
Vicarius ejusdem 6 13 4|
|
Ecclia de Magna Hardres cum capella 26 13 4|
|
|
|
Ecclia de Croyndale cum penc’ (25_s._ to 11 16 8|
Prior of Leeds) |
Ecclia de Brok 6 13 4|
Ecclia de Wy (appr’ to Battle Abbey) 43 6 8|
|
Vicarius ejusdem 10 13 4|
|
[NOTE.--I, Kempe Archbp. of York, founded the |
|
College of secular priests in the Church of |
Wye, 1447 A.D.][656] |
|
|
|
|
Ecclia de Bocton Allulphi 40 0 0|
|
|
Ecclia de Godmsham cum capella 53 6 8|
|
|
|
Ecclia de Itham 30 0 0|
|
------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Valor Ecclesiasticus,” | Clergy List,
of Hen. VIII., 1534 A.D.[652] | 1895 A.D.
---------------------------------------------------|--------------------
£ s. d.| £
Wyngham cum Capellis de Asshe, Godwynston |Wingham 162
Nonyngton et Wymyngweld appr’ Preposito |Ash (Chapel of 260
et Canonicis de Wyngham | Overland
| ruined)
|Godenstone 200
Master Edmund de Cranmere[653] p’vost hath |Nonington 280
in the Church of Wyngham 45 6 8 |Womenswold 160
Profits of the Chapel of Overland 20 0 0 |
-------- |
Deduct for parish priest he is |
bound to keep there 9 0 0 |
And for the sexton of Wyngham 3 0 0 |
And for life pension to the late |
provost, Mr. Wm. Warham[654] 22 0 0 31 6 3|
-------- |
The 5 canons gross receipts |
from the tithes of Ashe |
with the chapels of |
Rusheborough, Nunnington, |
Goodneston, and |
Wymengewelde 143 7 7½ |
|
The deductions including |
salaries of 5 priests to |
serve the 5 chapels at |
about £6 each, and for |
two priests doing service |
in Wyngham Church £6 11_s._ |
8_d._ each, for 2 quiristers |
each 13_s._ 4_d._, for |
sexton’s daily service in |
church £4 6_s._ 8_d._, and |
for divers obits £51 5_s._ |
4_d._ 59 0 12½ 84 5 11|
-------- |
Stormouth 18 19 10|Stourmouth 300
|
Preston appr’ to St. Augustine, Cant. 0 0 0|Preston 000
The Vicar has 9 15 0|Vicarage 150
(Not mentioned in “Valor,” or by Hasted.) |
Asham with chapel of Staple annexed 28 12 0|Adisham 450
The priest at Staple has 6 13 4|Staple 450
Chelynden 4 18 8|Chillenden 120
Bekesborne[655] 5 13 8|Bekesborne 150
Wikham breux 29 11 6|Wickhambreux 603
|
Lytelbourne (appr’ to St. Augustine, |Littlebourn 250
Cant.) |
The Vicar has 8 0 0|
Patryksborne with the chapel of Brigge 11 7 4|Patrixbourn 350
(appr’ to Merton) |
The priest of the chapel has 2 13 4|
Kyngston 16 0 0|Kingston 350
Bysshoppysborne with Church of Barham 35 19 9|Bishopsburne 500
annexed |
Stipend to the priest of Barham 8 0 0|Barham 650
Petham (appr’ to St. Osyth Priory) 0 0 0}|
The Vicar has 8 0 1}|Waltham with 575
Waltham (appr’ to St. Gregory, Cant.) 0 0 0}| Petham
The Vicar has 7 15 4}|
Elmeston 6 7 7|Elmstone 180
|
Chartham with the chapel of Horton 41 5 10|Chartham 550
Salary of priest at Horton 1 6 8|
Chelham with the chapel of Molayshe 0 0 0|Chilham 700
(appr’ to Abbess of Sion) |
Vicar has 5 3 4|Molash 90
Salary of priest at chapel 6 13 4|
Grete Hardres with Chapel of Stelling 19 13 0|Upper Hardres 400
annexed | with
Deduction for life pension to late 0 0 0| Stelling
parson (£6 13_s._ 4_d._) |
Crundale with pension to Prior of Leeds, 11 10 8|Crundale 320
35_s._ |
Broke 7 7 0|
Church of Wye (appr’ to the monks of 0 0 0|
Battle) |
College of Wye Richard Walker Vicar and 0 0 0|
Master of the College |
Total receipts of the College, £125 93 2 0½|Wye Vicarage 270
15_s._ 4½_d._ |
Deductions. Among them for 3 priests, |
clerks, quiristers, scole master and |
other ministers, £68; to the Provost, |
£13 6_s._ 8_d._; to poor people, £3 |
6_s._ 8_d._; founder’s obit, £3 3_s._ |
4_d._; etc., £32 13_s._ 4_d._ |
Bocton Aluph (appr’ to College of Wye) 0 0 0|
The Vicar has 5 16 10|
Godmersham cum capella de Chullok (appr’ 0 0 0|Godmersham 160
to Xt. Ch., Cant.) |
Vicar, £16 0_s._ 12_d._; deduct for 9 7 8|Challock 250
priest to serve chapel, £6 13_s._ 4_d._
Ikham 25 11 8|Ickham 803
Stodmarsshe (appr’ to hospital for poor 0 0 0|Stodmarsh 135
priests, Cant.) |
APPENDIX III.
The illustrations which we have been able to give of our subject from the
pictures in Mediæval MSS. are only a handful selected out of a very great
number. It may be useful to some students to have references to the MSS.
in the British Museum, where other illustrations of special interest may
be found.
The most useful for illustrations of ecclesiastical rites, and
incidentally for the vestments of all orders of the clergy, and for
_instrumenta_, are the Pontificals; _e.g._--
The Pontifical of Landulph of Milan, 9th century, engraved in
D’Agincourt’s _L’Art par ses monuments_; Painting, Plates XXXVII. and
XXXVIII.
Tiberius B. VIII. contains two MSS. One English, of the end of the 12th or
beginning of the 13th century.
The other French, date, A.D. 1365.
Egerton 931. French, of the Diocese of Sens, date, 1346-1378.
Lansdown 451. English of Diocese of Exeter, 14th century.
Egerton 1067. French, 15th century.
Add. MS. 14805. German, 15th century.
Add. 19898. French, late 15th century.
An early printed Pontifical, 471, f. 2, with engravings, Venice, A.D.
1520. There are other editions printed in other countries, but with the
same engravings.
BAPTISM.--_By affusion._--16 G. VI. f. 128, 14th century. Egerton 745, f.
1, early 14th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, late 15th century.
_With aspersion._--10 E. VI. f. 230_b_, early 14th century. (Adult in
temporary font, bishop sprinkling with aspersoir.)
_By immersion._--10 E. IV. f. 125, early 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. 128,
14th century. 6 E. VI. f. 171, and f. 318_b_, 14th century. Harl. 2278, f.
76, 15th century. Add. 29704, f. 18, close of 14th century. Nero A. IV. f.
81_b_, 14th century. Lansdown 451, f. 225_b_, 15th century. 20 C. VII.
190_b_, 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. 14.
CONFIRMATION.--6 E. VI. f. 372, 14th century. Egerton 1067, f. 12, late
15th century. Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, page 2, A.D. 1520.
MARRIAGE.--Nero E. II. f. 115 and f. 217, 14th century. Harl. 2278, f.
462. 6 E. VI. 257, and f. 375 and f. 414_b_, 14th century. 10 E. VI. f.
229_b_ and f. 313, 14th century. 14 E. IV. f. 30 and f. 275, 15th century.
Harl. 4379, f. 6, 14th century. 16 G. VI. f. xx., 14th century. 20 C. VII.
f. 10, 14th century. Nero E. II. f. 115, 14th century. Printed Sarum
Primer, A.D. 1531, Paris. G. 12136, in Kalendar, June.
PREACHING.--Egerton 745, f. 46, 14th century. Add. 29433, f. 16, early
15th century. Add. 17280, f. 55, late 15th century. 6 E. VII. f. 75_b_,
14th century. 14 E. III. f. 9_b_, early 14th century.
CONFESSION.--6 E. VII. f. 500, 14th century. Add. 25698, f. 9, Flemish, c.
A.D. 1492. Arundel 83, f. 12, 14th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, c. A.D.
1450. 6 E. VI. f. 357, and f. 369_b_, and f. 414_b_, 14th century. Add.
18851, f. 69_b_, end of 15th century. 6 E. VII. f. 506_b_, 14th century.
Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, p. 177, and p. 203_b_, A.D. 1523. _To a
Friar_, Royal, 16 G. VI. f. 159, etc. Egerton 2019, f. 135, 15th
century. _Of Clergy_, Royal, 6 E. VII.
PENANCE.--16 G. VI. f. 421, 14th century. Arundel 83, f. 12, 14th century.
6 E. VII. f. 443, 14th century.
Printed Pontifical 471, f. 2, p. 155, A.D. 1520.
CELEBRATION OF MASS.--10 E. IV. f. 211, _with housel cloth_, 14th century;
and 2 B. VII. f. 260_b_, late 13th century. 16 G. VI. f. 130 and f. 139,
14th century. Nero E. II. f. 129_b_, 14th century. Egerton 2125, f. 143,
late 15th century. Royal 14 E. III. f. 17, early 14th century. Royal 6 E.
VI. f. 24_b_.
Add. 25698, f. 2, c. A.D. 1492. Add. 29704, f. 7 (_elevation_), and
16997, f. 144, 15th century. Plut. 279, f. 12, 15th century. Add.
16997, f. 145, French, 15th century. Add. 15813, f. 155, Italian, A.D.
1525. Egerton 931, f. 78_b_ (1346-78).
_With only one candle on altar_, Nero E. II. f. 202, etc., 14th
century.
PROCESSIONS.--16 G. VI. f. 30, f. 350, and f. 351. Nero E. II. f. 36, f.
73, 14th century. 10 E. IV. f. 231_b_, 14th century. P. La Croix, La Vie
Militaire, etc., plate 257.
VISITATION OF THE SICK.--6 E. VI. f. 427_b_, 14th century. 6 E. VII. f.
70, 14th century. Add. 25698, f. 5, Flemish, c. A.D. 1492. Egerton 2019,
f. 142, late 15th century. 20 C. VII. f. 78_b_, 14th century. Lansdown
451, f. 234, early 15th century. Printed Sarum Primer, A.D. 1531, in
Kalendar, December, and at f. 102_b_.
FUNERAL CEREMONIES.--_Enshrouding the corpse._--Egerton, 2019, f. 142,
15th century. _In church._--16 G. VI. f. 412, A.D. 1270. 2 B. VII. f. 222,
f. 300, and f. 315, c. A.D. 1260. Sloane 346, f. 22_b_, 14th century. Add.
16997, f. 119_b_, and f. 171_b_, 15th century. 16 G. VI. f. 315, 14th
century. Nero E. III. f. 131, 15th century. Nero E. II. f. 200_b_, 14th
century. _At the church door._--Add. 10294, f. 72 and f. 89, 14th century.
_Being carried into church._--Add. 12228, f. 8, early 14th century.
_Funeral procession._--20 C. VII. f. 40_b_ and f. 200, 14th century.
Egerton 1070, f. 54_b_, c. A.D. 1480. Add. 15813, f. 263, A.D. 1525. 6 E.
VI. f. 481, 14th century. Add. 10294, f. 86 and f. 88, early 14th century.
_Commendatio defunctorum._--Egerton 2125, f. 117_b_, late 14th century.
Egerton 1070, f. 54_b_, A.D. 1480. 14 E. IV. f. 208_b_. 20 C. VII. f. 10,
14th century. Printed Sarum Psalter, A.D. 1531, f. 98. See also Norwich
Vol. of the Archæological Institute, p. 105. _Burial._--Claudius B. IV. f.
11, f. 18, f. 44, f. 72, f. 74, and f. 85, 11th century. Egerton 2125, f.
18, early 16th century. Egerton 2019, f. 135, c. A.D. 1450. _Aspersing
coffin._--16 G. VI. f. 315, 14th century; and Harl. 2278, f. 22_b_, 15th
century. _Tomb of a king._--20 C. VII. f. 40_b_, 14th century. Nero E. II.
f. 72_b_, 14th century. _Tomb with lamp over it._--Egerton Plut. 745, f.
62_b_, 14th century. _Sword and horn over tomb._--16 G. VI. f. 180_b_,
14th century.
INDEX.
Absenteeism, 146, 326, 330
Acca’s Cross, base of, 27
Addi the Ealdorman, consecration of his church at North Burton, 48
Ælfric, homilies, 223
Aged clergy, provision for, 290-296
Aidan, apostle of Northumbria, 20;
his schools, 21;
preaching, 21, 22, 46
Alb, 191
Alcuin, 36
Aldhelm, 31, 49
Aldhelm’s religious poetry, 241
Ale, church, and other ales, 317
Alfred, laws of, 65, 76, 80, 82
Alfriston parsonage house, 152, 153
Amice, 192
Amyss, 195
Anglo-Saxon conquest, manner of, 3, 5
Anglo-Saxon monasteries, in France, 21;
in Kent, 29;
Northumbria, 29;
East Anglia, 31;
Wessex, 31;
Mercia, 31-33;
list of others, 33;
life of the, 35;
destruction of, by Danes, 37;
restoration of, by Edgar and Dunstan, 37
Anglo-Saxons, their civil organization, 5;
religion, 7;
temples, 9-11;
priesthood, 11;
sacred places, 12
Archdeacons, 173, 533;
of Lincoln, 353, 354;
of Chichester, 362
Armour worn by clergy, 172, 175, 177
Assistant curates, 50, 105, 106
Athelstan, law of, encouraging landowners to build churches on their
estates, 51;
laws of, 66
Augustine, apostle of Kent, 15
Augustine, St., monastery of, 29, 35
Banns of marriage, 235
Baptism, within thirty days under penalty, 58, 68, 234
Bede, his description of mission work, 23;
letter to Archbishop Egbert, 49
Bede Roll, 211, 311, 472, 496
Bedesmen, 449
Bell to be rung for service, 70, 447;
in carrying viaticum to the sick, 239;
sacring bell, 246
Benedict Biscop, 30, 36
Benefices, parochial, subdivision of, 56
Berdstaple Deanery, from “Taxatio,” 382;
comparison of its parishes in the “Taxatio,” “Valor,” and Clergy List,
562
Berneston, 118
Beverley Minster, 548
Bidding Prayer, 207, 208
Birinus, apostle of Wessex, 21
Boniface (Winfrid), 22, 60
Bradfield-on-Avon, church at, 31, 32
Bridge chapels, 527
Brigg Rural Deanery, comparison of its parishes in the “Taxatio,”
“Valor,” and Clergy List, 564
Bristol, 499;
a Saxon burgh, its Saxon churches, 499;
religious houses, 500;
growth of parishes, 500;
inclusion of Temple and Redcliff, 502
Britons, survivors of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, 4
Burton-on-Trent, monastery and town of, 508
Bury St. Edmunds, 510
Cædmon, his poems, 250
Canons, 73, 335;
of Lincoln, 350-352;
of Chichester, 360
Canterbury, King’s School at, 131;
archbishops of, of humble birth, 133
Canute, 37;
laws of, 52, 76, 80, 86
Career offered by the Church, 129, 134
Cathedral close, 340
Cathedral, organization of, 334;
of secular canons, 335;
monastic, 336;
idea of, 350;
description of, 357
Cealchythe, council at, 41, 78, 82
Cedd, apostle of the East Saxons, 30, 36, 39
Celibacy of the clergy, 66, 73, 258-273, 282, 283
Chadd, Bishop of Mercia, 30, 31, 36
Chantries, 212;
of Burghersh, 341, 356, 447;
in Lincoln Cathedral, 354;
in Chichester Cathedral, 362;
definition of, 438;
number and distribution of, 442, 443;
foundation deed of, 444, 469;
of the Black Prince, 446;
Richard III., 447;
Henry VII., 447;
nomination to, 451;
dissolution of, 471
Chantry chapels, 453-456;
furniture of, 445;
sometimes chapels-of-ease, 467
Chantry priests, of cathedrals incorporated, London, 443;
York, 503;
of towns, sometimes a priest’s house provided for them, 518, 525;
remuneration of, 461-464;
duties of, 465, 466;
sometimes schoolmasters, 469-471
Chapels, royal, 46, 123;
parochial, 50, 110;
free, 123, 124;
domestic chantry, 421, 422, 457
Chaplains, parish, 105, 106, 111;
domestic, 409-423
Chapter house, 342;
use of, 357
Chasuble, 191, 244
Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” extracts from, 172, 271, 304
Choristers, of Lincoln Cathedral, 356;
song schools for, 469, 471
Churches, Saxon, different status of, 52, 54;
number of, 54;
repair of, 66, 188;
to be reserved to sacred uses, 69;
burial in, 69;
dilapidations, 163;
their architecture, 184;
furniture, 187, 189, 190
Churchyard, 69, 205, 281, 316;
right of sanctuary in, 308;
sports, markets, etc., in, 316, 317
Clergy, number of, in 1377, 390
Clerk, parish. _See_ Parish clerk
Clitheroe, castle church of, 120
Clovesho, councils at, 41, 60, 240
Clugny, Abbey of, 368
Clun, Shropshire, 112
Colchester Castle, domestic chapel, 410
Colleges, at universities, 140;
Rotherham, 517;
Wingham, 564, _note_;
Wye, 566, _note_
Communion, Holy, doctrine of, 75, 237;
in one kind, 235
Confession, 234, 239, 536, 543
Confirmation, 238;
sponsors at, 59, 69, 234
Confraternity of a religious house, 439
Conisborough, 103, 409
Conversion of the English, 14, 21-23
Conway Castle chapel, 410
Cope, 193, 196
Costume of clergy, ordinary, 165, 169-171
Course of studies, 139
Courts, ecclesiastical, 532, 544
Coventry St. Michael’s Church, 555
Cranmer, Edmund, 564, 565 _note_
Cranmer on the education of the lower classes, 131
Creed, Apostles’, exposition of, 217;
metrical version of, 238
Cross, station, 24
Cuckfield Church, 455
Customs on holy days, 311
Cuthbert, 23
Daily celebration of Holy Communion, 205, 206
Daily Psalter in cathedrals, 351
Daily service in churches and chapels, 205, 207
Dalmatic, 192
Danes destroy monasteries and churches, 37
Dean and chapter, 336;
of Lincoln, 345;
of Chichester, 361
Delamere, Abbot of St. Albans, 199
Denington, Chantry Chapel at, 456
Devotional books, 225;
poetry, 255-257
Dilapidations, 162
Dioceses, Saxon, 20;
subdivision of, 41, 42
Discipline, 531;
of clergy, 533-535, 537;
of laity, 535-544;
defiance of, 542, 543
Dispensations, for obstacles to ordination, 146, 275;
for non-residence, 146
“Dives and Pauper,” 249
Domesday Survey, mention of churches and clergy in, 54
Domestic chapels, 409;
Norman, 409, 418;
Edwardian, 410;
later, 412-437;
chantries in, 421, 457;
oratories, 422;
number of, 423;
licences for, 424, 428;
marriages in, 431;
furniture of, 433;
services in, 435
Domestic chaplains, in the sixth century, 408;
Saxon, 409, 417;
Norman, 409, 419-437;
members of religious houses acting as, 418;
emoluments of, 419, 420, 462
Dress, ordinary, of the clergy, 164-172, 233
Duns Scotus, 139
Dunstable Priory, 102, 324
Dunstan, 37, 66
Durham Cathedral, 87
Ecclesiastical courts, 86, 532
“Edgar, Canons of,” 66
Edmund, laws of, 66
Egbert, Archbishop of York, 49;
constitutions of, 111
Elfric, canons of, 74
Endowments of parish churches, 45, 53
England, Church of, 41
Establishment of the Church among the English, 20
Ethelbert, King of Kent, laws of, 57, 58
Ethelred, laws of, 72, 82
Eucharist, rules for celebration of, 70;
doctrine of, 75
Evensong, 200, 203, 204
Exchange of benefice by bishops or priests forbidden, 68
Excommunication, general, 238, 544, 545
Exeter, chapels and religious houses in, 497;
parochial organization, 497
Eyam, cross at, 26
Farming benefices, 321, 324, 326, 331, 403
Fasting, 60, 71
Felix, apostle of the East Angles, 21
Fifteenth century, character of, 553;
architecture of, 553
Firstfruits and tenths, 380
Folk-mote, 6
Foreign incumbents, 320
Fourteenth century, character of, 549
Free chapels, 124
Friars, at the universities, 140;
origin of, 370;
organization, 371;
work, 373;
success, 374;
interference with parochial clergy, 376;
poverty, 378
Furniture, of clergy houses, 174-182;
of churches, 187-191
Gilds, definition of, 473;
trade, 475;
religious, 476-481;
social, 482;
at Ludlow, 473, 476;
Bristol, 476;
York, 476;
Norwich, 478;
Worcester, 478;
Birmingham, 478;
suppression of, 483
Glebe, size of, 55
Godparent, 59, 69, 234
Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, his monumental brass, 198
Granby, 103
Gratian’s Decretals, 121
Gray, Archbishop Walter de, his “Register,” 102, 116, 189
Greenstead Church, Essex (Saxon timber church), 52
Grostete, Bishop of Lincoln, 167, 281, 327, 336;
his “Castle of Love,” 242
Hampole, Richard of, 225
Harlow, 100
Heathenism, laws against, 58, 59, 68, 72
Heptarchic kingdoms, establishment of their churches, 20
Hertford, council at, 41
Hilda, St., 30
Holy days, 80
Holy loaf, 235, 403
Hood, 239
Hospitality of the clergy, 158-160
Hours, canonical, 74
Hugh of St. Victor, 138;
St., Bishop of Lincoln, 281, 322;
of Wells, Bishop of Lincoln, 280
Humble birth, bishops of, 133
Hundred, 5
Illuminated MSS., references to, 567
Impropriation of benefices, 95-97;
forbidden without consent of bishops, 98
Ine, King of the West Saxons, laws of, 57, 58
Iona, 15
Ipswich, in Domesday, 506;
in the “Taxatio,” 506;
convents of Austin Canons and Friars, 507;
hospitals, 507
Isolation of Anglo-Saxon townships, 6
John Ball, priest, 171
Jutland, introduction of Christianity into, 17
Kellum, 117
King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, 552
Kingston-on-Thames, 115;
free chapel there, 125
Kirkby Malamdale, 102
Laindon church and house, 162
Lanfranc, 88, 136
Lateran, council of, in A.D. 1179, 98
Latimer, Hugh, his education, 141
Laws, Saxon codes of, 39, 57-83
“Lay Folks’ Mass-book,” 243-249
Learning, revival of, 136
Lepers, 286, 294, 343
Lewinna, South Saxon martyr, 17
Lights for altar, 312;
statues, 313, 498;
purification, 314, 425;
funeral, 315;
meaning of, 312, 315.
_See_ Tapers
Lincoln Cathedral, 338, 340;
organization of its chapter, 343
Lindisfarne, 20, 29, 35
London Bridge, 529
London, parishes of, 492;
subdivision of, 495;
number of, 495;
fees in, 496;
map of, in 1570, 493
Longland, John, Bishop of Lincoln, 344
Lord’s Prayer, metrical version of, 248
Magdalen College, Oxford, 554
Manchester, parochial history of, 515
Manumission of slaves, 81, 82, 332, 333
Market Harborough Church, 186
Married clergy, 262
Mass, 200, 236, 237, 243-248
Matins, 200, 202, 204
Mediety, benefices held in, 56
“Minster,” 37
Miracle plays, 315
Mission work among the Anglo-Saxons, 21, 24
Monasteries, Saxon, 28-37;
revival of, under Edgar and Canute, 37;
Norman, 90-93;
character, 366;
social influence, 367;
parochial influence, 369
Money, comparative value of, in 1292, 1534, and 1890, 404
Monks, 73, 97, 98, 108, 285
Mortuary services, 457-462
Morville, 114
Myrk John, “Instructions for Parish Priests,” 232
“Myrroure of our Ladye,” 249
Newark, 523
Newnham, Gloucestershire, 119
Non-residence, 146, 326, 330
Norman bishops, abbots, priests, costume of, 83, 91
Norman conquest, results of, 84
Normans, church building by the, 87, 88
Northumberland, Earl of, staff of domestic chapel, 413
Norway, anecdotes of its conversion, 17-19;
introduction of Christianity into, 18, 19
Norwich, parishes of, 490
Oils for baptism and unction, 72, 75
Offering days, 71, 73
Offerings as source of income, 400
Offertory, 245;
of the domestic chapels, 414, 426
Opinions during the Middle Ages, 546
Orarium, or stole, 192
Ordeal, 66
Ordericus Vitalis, 90, 115
Orders of the clergy, 74
Ordination, 144-146;
refusal of, 327, 328
Pallium, 191
Papal supremacy, 85
Parish clerk, 67, 283, 298-305
Parishes, origin of, 44-46;
extent of, 50, 110;
subdivision of, 51, 53;
number of, in A.D. 1292 and A.D. 1534, 385, 394;
income of, 389, 396, 397-406
Parish priest, his ecclesiastical status, 50;
social status, 51, 73;
instructions for, 232-240
Parsonage houses, 148-158, at Weston Turville, West Dean, Alfriston,
Kelvedon, Kingston-on-Thames, Bulmer, Ingrave, Ingatestone,
Allington, Little Bromley, North Benfleet, Great Bentley, St.
Peter’s Colchester, Radwinter, Laindon; and 161
Passion play, 304, 315
Patronage, abuse of, by the Crown, 321
Paulinus of York, 17, 21
Peckham, Archbishop, his manual of teaching, 216
Penance, 201;
by proxy, 64;
forbidden, 64;
for sabbath-breaking, 201
Penitential system, Saxon, 532
Peter Lombard, 137
Pickering, 117
“Piers Plowman,” Vision and Creed, extracts from, 132, 133, 150, 171,
203, 207, 278
Pilgrimage, 308;
places of, 309
Pilgrims, 309
Pledge breaking, punishment of, 65.
Pluralities, 323
Pocklington, 117
Poetry, devotional, 255-257
“Poor Parson of a Town,” Chaucer’s, 550
Preaching, 62, 71, 75, 214-223, 285-288;
helps in, 223, 224
Prebend, 351;
of Lincoln Cathedral, 353
Prebendaries of Lincoln, 351;
of Chichester, 361
Presentation of offenders to the bishop, 62, 67
Priests, character of, 68, 71, 73, 233;
duties of, 69, 72, 233-240
Primer, 249
Prince bishops of Durham, 363;
of Winchester, 364;
of Ely, 364
Privilege of clergy, 86
Procession, or Litany, 212, 311
Processions to mother church, 121;
to cathedral, 121, 299
Puch the Ealdorman, consecration of his church at South Burton, 46
Recluse, 295, 527
Rectors not in holy orders, 325, 327, 328
Revenues of the bishops, deans, and chapters, etc., of Lincoln
Cathedral, 344;
of Chichester Cathedral, 360
Robert Pullein, 138
Roger Bacon, 139
Rotherham, parochial history of, 516;
College, 517
Roundelay, 118
Royal chapels, 46, 123
Ruthwell, cross at, 25
Saffron Walden Church, 185
Saints, canonization by local synods, 63, 81
Saints’ Days, 80;
appointed by synods, 63, 81
St. Alban’s, monastery and town of, 513
St. Edmund’s Bury, monastery and town of, 510
Sanctuary, 75, 306;
right of, in churches, 75, 306;
in churchyards, 308;
in certain persons, 308
Saxon clergy, 21, 23, 38, 57-83;
vestments of, 62, 83
Saxon codes of law, 39, 57
Saxon nobleman, house of, 47
Scholastic theology, 137
“Sentences” of Peter Lombard, 137
Serfs admitted to Orders, 130
Sermon helps, 223
Sermons, 215
Service books and vestments which each church was required to possess,
67, 189, 195
Services in church, 200;
attendance at, on Sundays, 79, 201, 203;
on week-days, 205-207
“Services,” 479
Sham priests, 143, 144
Shawbury, 112
Shoreham Church, 89
Shrine of Edward Confessor, 187
Sick, visitation of, 161, 237, 239
Sins, eight deadly, 214;
seven deadly, 221, 226, 230
Slavery, 72, 81-83, 332
Slave-trade, 82, 83
Sompting Church, 55
Sons of clergy, 262, 273-278
Sponsors, at Confirmation, 55, 69, 234;
at Baptism, 234
Stigand, Archbishop, 84, 86
Stokesay, 119
Stratford, John de, Archbishop, injunction on costume of clergy, 164, 188
Students, 140-144
“Summa Theologica” of Thomas Aquinas, 138
Sunday, observance of, 69, 73, 79, 205;
penalty for desecration of, 201, _note_
Surnames of ecclesiastics taken from their birthplaces, 135
Surplice, 193, 194
Synodals, annual sum due from incumbent of a benefice to the bishop, 397;
paid on attending the synod to procure the holy oils.
Synods, 41, 67, 337
Tapers carried at baptism (Harl. MS. 2278, f. 76);
at marriage, 496;
churching, 496;
penance, 315;
funerals, 496
“Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., 381
Teaching by priests, 63, 214, 216-223;
by parents, 69
Temples, Anglo-Saxon, 9-11;
Norse, 18, 19
Ten Commandments, exposition of, 218;
metrical version of, 239
Theodore of Tarsus, Archbishop of Canterbury, 40;
holds a synod at Hertford A.D. 673, at which the Heptarchic Churches
unite into the Church of England, 41;
divides the Heptarchic dioceses, 41;
encourages the parochial system, 45
Thirteenth century, character of, 548
Thomas Aquinas, 138
Thoresby, Archbishop of York, his manual of teaching, 222
Thornbury, staff of domestic chapel, 413
Tithe, 78;
small, 99, 101
Titles for Orders, 145
Tower of London, domestic chapel, 409
Town parishes, origin of, 489
Towns, description of, 487;
founded by monasteries, 507;
Burton-on-Trent, 508;
St. Edmund’s Bury, 510;
St. Albans, 513
Township, Saxon, description of, 4, 5
Twelfth century, religious character of, 547
Types and antitypes, 231
Unction, Extreme, 237, 239
Universities, 136, 140
“Valor” of Henry VIII., 392
Vestments, clerical, 62, 98, 165, 191, 194, 195, 198, 199, 244, 299;
origin of, 191;
symbolism of, 196
Vicar, 99-107
Vicarages, foundation of, 98-108
Vicars choral, 341;
of Lincoln, 355;
of Chichester, 362
Virtues, the seven chief, 221, 229
Visitation of the sick, 162, 237, 239, 282
Visitation, the bishop’s, 279, 337;
articles, 281, and replies, 285-289;
by the archdeacon, 338
Wakefield bridge and chapel, 528
Wapentake, 5
Warham, William, 564, 565, _note_
Warwick Chantry Chapel, Tewkesbury, 454
Weapons carried by clergy, 167, 183
West Dean parsonage house, 151
Westminster, synod of, A.D. 1102, 98, 113
Whalley, 107, 108, 120;
history of the parish of, 557
Wiclif’s Bible, 242
Wihtred, King of Kent, laws of, 57, 59, 77, 81
Wilfrid of York, apostle of the South Saxons, 40, 41, 42
Wills of clergymen, 171-183
Winchester, synod of, A.D. 1070, 86
Windsor, domestic chapels, 412
Winfrid (Boniface), 22, 60
Wingham, college of, 564, _note_
Woolrichston, 131
Wye, college of, 566, _note_
Yatton, 106
Yellow pest, seventh century, 39
York, Minster, 503, 504;
St. Mary’s Abbey, 503;
hospitals in, 504;
parish churches, 505;
of clergy, 505;
income of parochial benefices in, 506;
Micklegate Bar, 487
Zacharias, Bishop of Rome, 61
THE END.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] We gather from FitzHerbert “On Surveyinge,” chap. xl. (1470 to 1538,
A.D.) that this condition of things continued general to the end of the
sixteenth century.
[2] Grimm, Stallybras’s ed., i. 90.
[3] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” etc., 201.
[4] “Burnt Njal.”
[5] We know very little of the religion of these Teutonic tribes before
their conversion, or of its usages. Mr. Kemble had “no hesitation in
asserting” that their religion was the same as that of the Scandinavians;
he thought that the Mark and system of land occupation which had existed
long before in their native seats was introduced in its entirety into
their new settlements, and that every Mark had its _fanum_, _delubrum_ or
_sacellum_; and, further, that the priests attached to these heathen
churches had lands--perhaps freewill offerings, too--for their support.
Under these circumstances, he argues that nothing could be more natural
than the establishment of a baptismal church in every Mark which adopted
Christianity and the transference of the old endowments to the new
priesthood (“The Saxons in England,” ii. 423).
[6] See a list of them at p. 63.
[7] 27th of the Council of London, 1102 A.D.
[8] Coifi asked, _Quis aras et fana idolorum cum septis quibus erant
circumdata primus profanare debet ... pergebat ad idola ... mox
appropinquabat ad fanum...._ In King Alfred’s Anglo-Saxon version of Bede,
_aras_ is represented by wigbed, _fana_ by heargas, _idolorum_ by
deofolgild, a _septis_ in one place by hegum (hedges), and in the other by
getymbro. Getymbro may mean a construction of any material, but probably
here of timber (“Eccl. Hist.,” ii. c. 13).
[9] There is another notice of the existence of temples among the East
Saxons, in the narrative of Bishop Jaruman’s work of reclaiming the half
of those people under the rule of the sub-king Sighere, when they had
relapsed to their old superstitions as the result of the great plague of
664 A.D. Bede says that the people “began to restore the temples that had
been abandoned, and to adore idols”; but Jaruman “restored them to the way
of righteousness; so that, either forsaking or destroying the temples and
altars which they had erected, they reopened the churches.” At first
sight, the narrative gives the idea of a number of temples, and a number
of churches scattered over the country; but, on consideration, we call to
mind that the East Saxons had been converted by Cedd only ten or twelve
years before (653), and that we do not read of his building more than two
churches, one at Tilbury on the Thames, the other at Bradwell, at the
mouth of the Blackwater, which was probably outside the district in
question; and the temples spoken of may not have been more numerous than
the churches mentioned in the same vague terms; or Bede may have had in
mind the open-air places of worship of the old religion and the prayer
stations at which the Christian missionaries used to assemble their
converts (“Eccl. Hist.,” iii. c. 30).
[10] Professor Skeat, in letters to the present writer.
[11] Anglo-Saxon nom. _hearh_; dat. _hearge_; pl. nom. _heargas_. Many
English words are formed on “dative” types.
[12] In Icelandic, _hörgr_ = “a heathen place of worship, an altar of
stone erected on a high place, or a sacrificial cairn built in the open
air, and without images.”
[13] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 500.
[14] Saint Lewinna is said to have suffered _martyrdom_ for her faith at
the hands of the heathen South Saxon, during the time of Archbishop
Theodore. “Acta Sanct.,” July 24, p. 608, and “Sussex Archeol. Coll.,”
vol. i. p. 45.
[15] Some stories of the introduction of Christianity among others of the
rude northern peoples are well worth giving as an illustration, in
likenesses, and in contrasts, of our own story, and especially because
they give a quantity of details which will supply the paucity of such
details in our own histories. They are later in time, but they belong to a
similar phase of manners.
When Harold Klak, King of Jutland, who had received baptism on a visit to
the Court of Louis le Debonaire (A.D. 820), returned home and destroyed
the native shrines, proscribed the sacrifices, and abolished the
priesthood, his people resented it, and drove him into exile.
Hacon of Norway had been baptized at the Court of our King Athelstan. At
first he sent for a bishop and priests from England; a few of his intimate
companions received baptism, and two or three churches were built in the
district more immediately subject to him. Then at the Froste Thing, the
winter assembly of the whole people, the king proposed to them to accept
baptism. One of the bonders replied, in the name of his fellow-chiefs,
“The ancient faith which our fathers and forefathers held from the oldest
times, though we are not so brave men as our ancestors, has served us to
the present time. If you intend to take the matter up with a high hand,
and try to force us, we bonders,” he said, “have resolved among ourselves
to part with you, and take some other chief, under whom we may freely and
safely enjoy the faith which suits our inclinations.” The following winter
four of the bonders bound themselves by oath to force the king to
sacrifice to the gods, and to root out Christianity from Norway. The
churches were burnt, and the priests stoned, and when the king came to the
Yule Thing, he consented to taste the horseflesh of the sacrifice, and
drink to the gods.
When Olaf Tryggveson gained the throne of Norway, having been baptized in
England, he began by destroying the temples in his own territory, and
declared that he would make all Norway Christian or die. The crisis came
at the Midsummer Althing, held at Mære, where was an ancient temple; and
thither all the great chiefs and bonders, and the whole strength of the
heathen party, assembled. At a preliminary meeting of the bonders, Olaf
proposed to them to adopt the Christian religion; they demanded, on the
other hand, that he should offer sacrifice to the gods. He consented to go
with them to the temple, and entered it with a great number of his own
adherents; and when the sacrifice began the king suddenly struck down the
image of Thor with his gold inlaid axe so that it rolled down at his feet;
at this signal his men struck down the rest of the images from their
seats, and then came forth and again demanded that the people should
abandon their belief in gods who were so powerless. The people
surrendered, and “took baptism.” Subsequently, Olaf Haraldson (1015),
learning that the old sacrifices were still secretly offered at Mære, and
other places, surprised a party at Mære, who were engaged in the forbidden
worship, put their leader to death, and confiscated the property of the
rest. Then Olaf went to the uplands, and summoned a Thing. Gudbrand, a
powerful chief of the district, sent a message-token summoning the
peasants far and wide to come to the Thing, and resist the king’s demand
to abandon their ancient faith. Gudbrand had a temple on his own land, in
which was an image of Thor, made up of wood, of great size, hollow within,
covered without with ornaments of gold and silver. At the first meeting,
Sigurd the Bishop, arrayed in his robes, with his mitre on his head, and
his staff in his hand, preached to the assembly about the true faith and
the wonderful works of God. When he had finished, one of the bonders said:
“Many things are told us by this horned man, with a staff in his hand,
crooked at the top like a ram’s horn; since your God, you say, is so
powerful, tell him to make it clear sunshine to-morrow, and we will meet
you here again, and do one of two things--either agree with you about this
matter, or fight you.” Accordingly, on the morrow, before sunrise, the
assembly came together again to the Thing-field, Olaf and his followers on
one side, and Gudbrand and his men bringing with them into the field the
great image of Thor, glittering with gold and silver, to which the heathen
party did obeisance. Olaf had given instructions beforehand to one of his
chiefs, Kolbein the Strong, who usually carried besides his sword a great
club. “Dale Gudbrand,” said the king, “thinks to frighten us with his god,
who cannot even move without being carried. You say that our God is
invisible, turn your eyes to the east, and behold his splendour,” (for the
sun was just rising above the horizon). And when they all turned to look,
Kolbein the Strong acted upon his instructions; he struck the idol with
his war-club with such force that it broke in pieces, and a number of mice
ran out of it among the crowd. Olaf taunted them with the helplessness of
such a god; and Gudbrand admitted the force of the argument. “Our god will
not help us, so we will believe on the God thou believest in.” He and all
present were baptized, and received the teachers whom King Olaf and Bishop
Sigurd set over them, and Gudbrand himself built a church in the valley.
There was a great temple at Upsala, with idols of Thor, Woden, and Frigga,
which was afterwards converted into a church (see Snorre Sturlusun’s
“Heimskringla,” translated by S. Lang, with notes by R. B. Anderson, vol.
i. pp. 103-105, 110, and vol. iv. p. 40).
Temples and sacrifices seem to imply the existence of priests; but it is
remarkable that, in the collisions between Hakon and the Olafs and the
heathenism of Norway, there is no mention of a single priest.
[16] Bede, “Eccles. Hist.,” ii. 14.
[17] Ibid., ii. 16.
[18] Bede, iii. 3.
[19] Ibid., iii. 5.
[20] Ibid., iii. 14.
[21] Ibid., v. 6. There are other indications that travellers sometimes
took tents on their journeys through the thinly inhabited country.
[22] Pertz, ii. 334.
[23] Bede, iii. 26.
[24] Bede, iv. 27.
[25] In the life of St. Willibald, we read that “it was the ancient custom
of the Saxon nation, on the estates of some of their nobles and great men,
to erect not a church, but the sign of the Holy Cross, dedicated to God,
beautifully and honourably adorned, and exalted on high for the common use
of daily prayer” (Acta SS. Ord. Benedict, sect. iii., part 2). So it was a
custom with “St. Kentigern to erect a cross in any place where he had
converted the people, and where he had been staying for a time” (“Vita
Kentigerni,” by Joscelin, the Monk of Furness). Adalbert, a Gallic bishop,
in the time of St. Boniface, preached in fields and at wells, and set up
little crosses and oratories in various places.
[26] The church at Bradfield-on-Avon, recently discovered, unaltered and
uninjured, was probably the church of one of these monasteries.
[27] Of the early monasteries of the East Saxons, the East Anglians, the
South Saxons, and of the Dioceses of Rochester and Hereford, little is
known.
[28] “Historical Church Atlas,” E. McClure.
[29] Secular monasteries are alluded to in the fifth canon of Clovesho
(A.D. 747), and eighth canon of Calchythe (816). A canon of Clovesho (803)
forbad laymen to be abbots.
[30] Bishop of Oxford, “Const. Hist.,” i. 251.
[31] The Bishop of Oxford, however, says, “Occasional traces of
Ecclesiastical assemblies of single kingdoms occur, but they are scarcely
distinguishable from the separate Witenagemots” (“Const. Hist.,” i. 264).
[32] The 123rd of the novels.
[33] Labbe and Cossart Councils, 9. 119.
[34] Letters of Gregory the Great, lib. xii. ep. xi. (Migne 77, p. 1226).
[35] Another capitulary, dated 832, ordained that if there were an
unendowed church it should be endowed with a manse and two villani by the
freemen who frequented it, and if they refuse it shall be pulled down.
[36] When Willibrord, a Northumbrian educated at Ripon, was evangelizing
Frankish Frisia, 692, etc., Alcuin records that he founded not only
monasteries but encouraged the foundation of parish churches. Alcuin,
“Opera II.,” tom. 101, p. 834. Migne.
[37] Bede, iii. 17.
[38] Ibid., v. 4, 5.
[39] At the same time, to encourage commerce, a merchant who had made
three voyages in his own ship was entitled to the rank of Thane.
[40] The Bishop of Oxford and earlier authorities are of opinion that the
“burg geat settl” means the right of jurisdiction over tenants. Sharon
Turner conjectures that the place in the king’s hall means a seat in the
Witenagemot.
[41] Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” i. 367.
[42] S.P.C.K., “Roch. Dioc. Hist.,” p. 25.
[43] Ellis’s “Introduction to Domesday Book.”
[44] Parishes with two rectors continued not infrequently throughout the
Middle Ages; there are some even to the present day. The way in which the
parochial duties were divided is indicated by two examples given in
Whitaker’s “Craven” (p. 504). Linton has two rectors, who take the service
in alternate weeks; they have their stalls on either side of the choir,
and parsonage houses nearly adjoining one another. So at Bonsal each
rector has his own stall and pulpit.
Sometimes each mediety had its own church. The churches of Willingale
Spain and Willingale Doe, in Essex, are in the same churchyard. At
Pakefield, Suffolk, there is a double church, each with its choir and nave
and altar, divided only by an open arcade.
[45] Bôt = compensation.
[46] This is the earliest notice (in England at least) of the ancient
custom of having a confirmation god-parent, different from the baptismal
sponsors. There are other notices of it in the canons of Edgar (see p. 69)
and the twenty-second of the laws of Canute; and in many canons of English
Mediæval Diocesan Councils. Queen Elizabeth and Edward VI. were each
baptized and confirmed at the same time, and, according to primitive
custom, each had three baptismal sponsors and one confirmation god-parent.
It is still enjoined by the third rubric at the end of the Church
Catechism and by the twenty-ninth of the canons of 1603.
[47] _i.e._ be scourged.
[48] So it is usually stated, but the date and place of the council are
very questionable.
[49] Zachary’s letters to the English inhabitants of Britain were in Latin
and English. The documents are not on record, but we are told that they
were read at the Council; in them he “familiariter admonebat et veraciter
conveniebat et postremo amabiliter exorabat,” and to those who despise
these modes of address he “anathematis sententiam procul dubio properandam
insinuabat.”
[50] This prayer is as follows: “O Lord, we beseech Thee, of Thy great
mercy, grant that the soul of (such a person) may be secured in a state of
peace and repose, and that he may be admitted with the rest of Thy saints
into the region of light and happiness.”
[51] Among the “Canons of Edgar,” the following occurs:--“A powerful man
may satisfy a sentence of seven years’ fasting in three days. Let him lay
aside his weapons and ornaments, and go barefoot and live hard, etc., and
take to him twelve men to fast three days on bread, water, and green
herbs, and get wherever he can 7 times 120 men, who shall fast for him
three days, then will be fasted as many fasts as there are days in seven
years.”
[52] Thorpe, i. 227.
[53] It is not known by whose authority the ecclesiastical regulations
which are entitled the canons of Edgar were drawn up, but they appear to
be of this date.
[54] That it might be seen that they were complete and in good order, just
as the laity came to the Hundred mote or Wapentake with their weapons. For
list of them see Ælfric’s Pastoral, 44.
[55] To keep a copy of the constitutions made at the synod.
[56] The time was subsequently shortened to seven days.
[57] Probably spots of ground accounted sacred.
[58] In the “vulgar tongue.”
[59] The priests had a small consecrated slab of stone which they used on
missionary journeys and at other times.
[60] The Legatine Council of Cealchythe (787, 5 c.) explains this by
saying he must not celebrate with naked thighs. (See Exodus xxviii. 42.)
[61] For hours of service see Thorpe, “Ancient Laws,” etc., ii. 359.
[62] By laws of Alfred and Guthrum, if a priest misdirect people about a
festival or fast he shall pay 30_s._
[63] Meaning obscure.
[64] The chief distinction between nuns and mynchens appears to have
consisted in the superior age and strictness of life of the former
(Thorpe, “Ancient Laws”).
[65] The laws of Canute say ½_d._ worth of wax for every hide on Easter
Eve, All Saints, and Purification.
[66] Allusions to the Danish incursions.
[67] Fifth law of Ine.
[68] Law 16.
[69] Law 17.
[70] Mr. Kemble, as we have seen, is of opinion that the people in those
days of heathendom had a temple in every township, and that the priesthood
were endowed with lands as well as offerings, but we do not find
sufficient evidence of this.
[71] The monks of Jumieges, in the seventh century, fitted out vessels and
sailed great distances to redeem slaves. St. Eligius spent large sums in
redeeming them--20, 50, 100 at a time. Christian missionaries bought
slaves, and trained them as Christians.
[72] “Diplomatarium Anglicanum.”
[73] “Collier,” i. 241. The Cathedral Churches of the Continent were
universally served by Canons.
[74] Bishop of Oxford’s “Select Charters,” p. 73.
[75] Robert d’Oyley, a powerful Norman noble, repaired the ruinous
parochial churches in and out of Oxford in the reign of William I.
(Brewer, “Endowment, etc., of the Church of England,” p. 74). Corsuen
built a number of houses and two churches on a piece of land granted to
him in the suburb of Lincoln. (? St. Mary le Wigford, and St. Peter at
Gowts.)
[76] Eyton’s “Shropshire” mentions several cases in that county.
[77] Bohn’s edition of “Eccl. Hist, of Ordericus Vitalis,” i. 10.
[78] Nearly all the village churches of the Craven district of Yorkshire
were built in the time of Henry I., and many of them enlarged in the time
of Henry VIII. (Whitaker’s “Craven”).
[79] Orderic, iv. xxiv.
[80] It was stopped by Innocent III. in a decretal letter to the
Archbishop of Canterbury, c. 1200.
[81] See Sir H. Ellis’s “Introduction to Domesday,” i. 324, 325.
[82] The Church of Gisburn, Yorkshire, was given to the Nunnery of
Stainfield, Lincolnshire, by a Percy. For fifty years the nuns simply
presented to the rectory like any other patron; then in 1226 Archbishop
Walter Gray assigned them _ad proprios usus_, half a carucate of the glebe
land, and the tithe of corn in various places named, but without endowing
a vicarage, and the convent presented six more rectors under those
conditions; it was not until 1341 that a vicarage was ordained.
(Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 45).
[83] This Council also forbade a vicar to hold more than one parish.
[84] Where the religious house was situated in or near the parish church,
special arrangements were not infrequently made. At Tortington, near
Arundel, Sussex, was a small house of Austin canons which existed before
the time of King John. The vicar of the parish had a corrody in the house,
consisting of a right to board and lodging for himself and a serving boy.
At Sybeton, Suffolk, the vicar and curate had their lodging and food in
the religious house (“Valor,” iii. 442). At Taunton, in 1308, the Priory
supplied the vicar with allowances of bread and ale, and hay and corn, and
two shillings a year for the shoeing of his horse (“Bath and Wells,” p.
121, S.P.C.K.). See also Lenton, p. 404.
[85] One of the constitutions of Archbishop Stratford (1333) requires
religious appropriators of churches to give a benefaction to the poor
yearly, according to the judgment of the bishop, on pain of sequestration.
[86] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 310. Upon making an appropriation an
annual pension was usually reserved to the bishop and his successors,
payable by the body benefited, for a recompense of the profits which the
bishops would otherwise have received (Sir R. Phillimore, “Ecclesiastical
Law”).
[87] _i.e._, which had obtained from the Court of Rome exemption from the
Bishop’s ordinary jurisdiction.
[88] According to Matthew Paris, “the bishops of England at that time
designed to recover from the monasteries all the appropriated churches.
Grostete of Lincoln took steps to carry out the design in his diocese, but
the monks appealed to Rome and defeated the bishop” (Matthew Paris, Bohn’s
ed., ii. pp. 325, 326, 401, 420).
[89] Gray’s “Register,” p. 113. Surtees Society.
[90] Ibid., p. 112.
[91] Gray’s “Register,” p. 113. Surtees Society.
[92] Extracts from Lincoln Registers. Harl. MS. 6950, p. 1250.
[93] Bronscombe’s “Register,” p. 253.
[94] Ibid., p. 330.
[95] Ibid., p. 334.
[96] “Bath and Wells,” p. 122, S.P.C.K.
[97] Long Preston, in Craven, is mentioned in “Domesday.” In the reign of
Stephen it was granted by Wm. de Amundeville to the church and canons of
Embsay. In 1303, Archbishop Corbridge ordained that the church should be
served by a fit vicar and his ministers. In 1307 there was another
“taxation,” a third in 1322, and a fourth in 1455 (Whitaker, “Craven,” p.
145).
[98] In the Episcopal Register of Lincoln, under date 25th April, 1511,
William, Abbot of Oseney, was admitted to the Vicarage of St. Mary
Magdalen, Oxford, on the presentation of the Abbot and Convent of the
same.
[99] “Lichfield,” p. 138, S.P.C.K.
[100] It was this which made a rectory so much like a small monastery in
its constitution, that rectories were often called minsters, and
monasteries often merged into rectories.
[101] Hopesay and Hopton, originally probably chapels parochial of Clun,
were of the nature of free chapels, _i.e._ not at the disposal of the
baroness or of the rector, but only of the lord of the fee (Eyton’s
“Shropshire,” ix. 258).
[102] Eyton’s “Shropshire,” viii. 149.
[103] The two chapels of Rilston and Coniston--(Coniston chapel is very
early Norman, or still earlier, with triangular windows)--in the parish of
Burnsal, co. York, as late as the beginning of this century had had no
chaplains or separate endowment, but were still served in the primitive
mode by the Rector of Burnsal; both have cylindrical fonts of high
antiquity, and therefore must always have had the sacramentalia. Chapels
with these rights were always presentable, and served by chaplains who
took an oath of obedience to the rector, and were not removable at
pleasure; whereas mere chapels-of-ease were served by stipendiaries
removable, or by the parish priest himself (Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 528).
[104] The probable explanation is that the lord of the ville of Billingley
had made some arrangement with the mother church for the payment of half
his tithe to his own chapel; the small payments from the other chapels
were acknowledgments of subjection.
[105] The original deed is in possession of Mr. G. Morris, of Shrewsbury.
“Know all men, both now and hereafter, on the day of the dedication of the
cemetery of Eston that I, Robert, son of Aher, gave to God and to the
chapel of the same vill of Eston one virgate of land, containing sixty
acres, and all tithe of my demesne of the same vill, and one mansion, for
the health of my soul and of all my predecessors and successors. And that
my gift may be free and quit of all reclaim by me or my heirs and may ever
remain firm and stable I have fortified it with this present writing, and
with the impression of my seal.--There being witnesses Robert, Bishop of
Hereford, Reinald, Prior of Wenlock, Peter the archdeacon, and many
others” (Eyton’s “Shropshire,” i. p. 207).
[106] See p. 90.
[107] There were more monasteries founded in the reign of Stephen than in
any other period of similar duration.
[108] A. Heales, “History of Kingston-upon-Thames.”
[109] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 168.
[110] Ibid., p. 211.
[111] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 45.