The inn-keeper of former times seems to have been a person of less
humble station than now--he shared his calling with the monastery and
with the village-pastor. Travellers had to choose (as they still have in
Roman Catholic countries) between the refectory of the monk, the
parsonage of the minister, and the tavern of mine host--payment for the
night's lodging, where he was in a condition to pay, being expected of
him, in one shape or other, at all. The keeper of the Tabard in the
Canterbury Tales appears to be upon a level with his guests, both in
rank and information, and to play the part of one who felt that he was
receiving his equals, and no more, under his roof; yet his company was
not of the lowest; and in those times it seems to have been usual for
the landlord to preside at the common board, and act in every respect as
the hospitable master of the house, save only in exacting the shot; as
indeed is the custom in many parts of Germany at the present day. When
the system of lay impropriations had begun to take effect, it was by no
means an uncommon thing for the minister himself to be also the
tavern-keeper, a circumstance, however, which, it must be confessed, may
be thought to argue the extreme impoverishment of the church, which
drove the clergy to such expedients for a living, rather than the
respectability of the calling to which they thus betook
themselves.--_Quarterly Review._
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