THE PARISH OFFICIALS
If the parish priest, rector, or vicar was undoubtedly the admitted
centre of life in the district, the father of his people and the pastor
of his flock, neither on his part nor on that of the parishioners
was there any mistake about the rights and duties of the people
to the parish church and towards parish matters generally. Within
well-defined limits, the parish, which included both parson and people,
managed its own affairs. Every adult of both sexes had a voice in
this self-government, and, as Bishop Hobhouse has pointed out, in
pre-Reformation days a wise freedom in the management of the fabric
of the church and its accessories seemed to have been left to the
parish by the diocesan authorities. They--the people--encouraged by
every means in their power, and indeed frequently initiated, those
manifestations of zeal for beautifying God’s house which form so
remarkable a feature in the architectural history of the fifteenth and
early sixteenth centuries. Moreover, it is impossible to turn over the
church accounts of that period which have come down to us, without
acknowledging that the love of the people for their parish churches
was supported and intensified by the feeling that it was their work,
and that upon each of them in conscience lay the duty of assisting to
maintain the sanctuary, where, according to their strong and simple
faith, God dwelt in their midst, and of helping to keep up within this
holy place the round of prayers and praise and sacrifice.
This common purpose of all within a parish was in those days not left
to be carried out by chance or by mere individual effort; it was
highly and intelligently organised to secure the co-operation and the
continual contributions necessary for successfully carrying out the
work. For this end certain officials were chosen by popular election as
the people’s representatives, others were appointed in various ways and
others, again, were employed as their services were required.
_The Churchwardens._--The representatives of the people in all
parochial work were their wardens, or the churchwardens, as they are
generally called. Pollock and Maitland, in their _History of English
Law_, do not think that there were real churchwardens before the
thirteenth century. Previously, however, it is admitted that certain
burdens as to the support of the church had been placed upon the
parishioners as a body. “In the thirteenth century,” for example, “the
general custom of the Church of England, swerving in this from the _jus
commune_ of the Catholic Church, cast the burden of repairing the nave
of the parish church, and providing the main part of the ecclesiastical
apparatus, not upon the parson, but upon the parishioners.” Whether
this burden implied any corporate organisation of the parishioners or
any parish meeting seems doubtful. But “no doubt the occasional nature
of the charge almost compels the rector or the archdeacon to deal with
the parishioners as a body, to call them together, and endeavour to
persuade them that a wall is crumbling or a new missal is wanting.”
Still, whatever their origin, the churchwardens are already in
existence in the thirteenth century; they are then dealt with as the
legal representatives of the parishioners, and they “present themselves
as claimants for property and possession.” To the authors of the
_History of English Law_ their existence is due to the natural outcome
of the responsibility placed upon the people. “If the parishioners are
compelled to provide precious books, robes, vessels, etc., they will
naturally desire to have their say about the custody of these articles;
parsons have been known to sell the church plate.”
In the fifteenth century the churchwardens were chosen annually in
a parish meeting at which, no doubt, the rector or vicar would have
presided; all adult members of the parish having a voice in the
election. At this meeting the outgoing wardens would give an account
of their stewardship, and hand over the custody of the common funds
and common property to their successors. At the church of St. Mary
the Great, Cambridge, for instance, a special parish meeting was held
in the church, “at the altar of the doom in the south aisle,” for the
settlement of an account “between Thomas Curle, plumber, on the one
part, and the parishioners.” But this was quite out of the ordinary,
and as a rule, once the guardians or wardens were elected, all the
parish business was transacted by them. In this same church the wardens
were chosen, apparently, on Easter Monday, and the method of election
was somewhat curious. The outgoing churchwardens first each nominated
one parishioner, who conjointly chose eight persons to elect the
officers of the coming year. In this case at Cambridge, besides the two
churchwardens, there were at the same time elected for the parish two
wardens of the lights at the Sepulchre and Crucifix; two guardians of
the Jesus Mass; two parish auditors; and “two custodians of the keys of
the chest, called the chantry hutch, in which are all the charters and
deeds relating to the Chantry.”
The number of churchwardens was, apparently by the fifteenth century,
fixed to two, although for special purposes, as in the above instance,
other wardens were appointed. In the accounts of St. Edmund and St.
Thomas at Salisbury, there were at first three _supervisores fabricæ_;
in 1486 two “gardiani ecclesiæ” were charged with beginning the
reparation of the church at Easter, “and not to wait till winter.” With
these were two junior wardens, “custodians of the goods and ornaments
of the church.” Apparently, in times when considerable work was going
on, one or more additional wardens were appointed to give advice and
share responsibility; and once, at least, in the time of some great
repairs to the fabric, the parish meeting stood adjourned from Friday
to Friday until the works were finished. In 1510 two wardens were
appointed, and it is curious to note that one held the purse, and the
other, who did not, became his surety. At St. Mary-at-Hill, in London,
the name for the official churchwardens was, apparently, the “Wardeyns
of the godes, rents, and werks;” or, the “Wardens of the godes,
ornaments, werkes, livelihood, and rents, etc.”
Although the wardens were usually chosen from the men of a parish,
there are examples to show that this need not necessarily be the case.
Thus the accounts of St. Petrock’s, Exeter, show that in 1428 a woman,
named Beatrice Braye, was people’s warden; and in the same way, in
1496-7, “Dame Isabel Norton” held the office at Yatton, in Somerset.
Bishop Hobhouse, in his interesting volume of _Churchwardens’
Accounts_, has well summed up the duties and functions of these parish
wardens, which were very varied. They might have both farming and
trading to do in fulfilment of their office, as well as disposing
of various gifts which were made by the parishioners in kind. They
also might have the unpleasant duty of presenting parishioners to the
archdeacon’s court for moral delinquencies. Besides this, if there
was building or decorating to be done in the church or on buildings
belonging to the parish, such as their common house, the wardens had to
find the ways and means, and to supervise the work. They had to attend
at Visitations, and if the church or the cemetery or a new chalice,
etc., had to be consecrated, they had to arrange with the bishop and
find the necessary fees. They had to see that the money due to the
common purse from all the various sources was paid, and that, in the
event of some extra work or engagement being undertaken by the parish,
some method of raising the necessary funds was projected and carried
out. At the same time, the wardens had no civil functions to perform
until late in the reign of Henry VIII. In 1349, indeed, the Statute of
Labourers names them, and tries to place upon them the duty of helping
labourers to return to their homes; but the attempt came to nothing,
and in the accounts printed by Bishop Hobhouse, the earliest entry
for anything not strictly concerned with their parochial office is in
1512-13, when the wardens of Yatton “were charged with repairing the
sluices and scouring the Yeo.”
[Illustration: HOUSELING CLOTH FOR HOLY COMMUNION]
It was frequently no light task that the churchwardens undertook
for their fellow-parishioners, for the parish possessions were
considerable, and comprised all kinds of property--lands, houses,
flocks and herds, cows, and even hives of bees. These were, what may
be termed, the capital of the parish, which was constantly being added
to by the generosity of generations of pious benefactors. Then, over
and besides the chancel, which was the freehold of the parson, the
body of the church and other buildings, together with the churchyard
and its enclosure, and generally, if not always, the common church
house, were then under the special and absolute control of the people’s
wardens. If the law forced the people of a parish to find fitting and
suitable ornaments and vestments, it equally gave them the control
of the ecclesiastical furniture, etc., of their church. Their chosen
representatives were the guardians of the jewels and plate, of the
ornaments and hangings, of the vestments and tapestries, which were
regarded, as in very truth they were, as the property of every soul in
the particular village or district in which the church was situated.
It is no exaggeration to say that the parish church was in Catholic
times the care and business of all. Its welfare was the concern of the
people at large, and it took its natural place in their daily lives.
Was there, say, building to be done, repairs to be effected, a new peal
of bells to be procured, organs to be mended, new plate to be bought,
and the like, it was the parish as a corporate body that decided the
matter, arranged the details, and provided for the payment. At times,
let us say when a new vestment was in question, the whole parish might
be called to sit in council at the church house on this matter of
common interest, and discuss the cost, the stuff, and the make.
The parish wardens had their duties, also, towards their poorer
brethren in the district. In more than one instance they were guardians
of a common chest, out of which temporary loans could be obtained by
needy parishioners to enable them to tide over pressing difficulties.
These loans were secured by pledges and the additional surety of other
parishioners. No interest, however, was charged for the use of the
money, and in cases where the pledge had to be sold to recover the
original sum, anything over and above was returned to the borrower. In
other ways, too, the poorer parishioners were assisted by the corporate
property of the parish. The stock managed by the wardens “were,” says
one of the early English reformers, “in some towns (_i.e._ townships
and villages) six, some eight, and some a dozen kine, given unto the
stock for the relief of the poor, and used in some such wise that the
poor ‘cottingers,’ which could make any provision for fodder, had the
milk for a very small hire; and then the number of the stock reserved
(that is, of course, the original number being maintained), all manner
of vailes (or profits), besides both the hire of the milk and the
prices of the young veals and old fat wares, was disposed to the relief
of the poor.”[A]
To take one or two specific instances. The churchwardens’ accounts
for St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, show how the funds required for the
repair of the parish church and other parish work were obtained. The
people of the district were banded together in brotherhoods; those that
were authorised to beg wore “scutchons,” or badges, and the special
fraternity was called the “schaft.” They received anything that was
given to them, in kind as well as in money; and the record speaks of
malt, barley, wheat, cows, and sheep belonging to the parish. One
Nicholas Reugge left, by will, four cows to be let at a rent, the
proceeds to pay for the “paschal light,” which the parishioners had to
find, and for which they were to be freed from all further obligation.
These cows, valued at 10_s._ each, were leased out at 2_s._ apiece.
In 1521 a farmer, John Richardson, hired from the wardens twenty-five
sheep, and at the same time the people’s representatives accounted
for receipts from lambs, wool, etc. Everything goes to show, says
Mr. Cowper, the sympathetic editor of these accounts, “what life and
activity there was in the little parish, which never wanted willing
men to devote their time and influence to the management of their own
affairs.” The churchwardens’ accounts generally, it may be added,
tell the same story, and show, as one writer has well said, “the
simple-mindedness of the population, their cheerful contentment,
the general absence of fraud, their religious feelings, and general
goodwill towards each other.”
According to early legislation, the churchwardens had to present their
settlement in writing to a committee of the parishioners, who were to
be appointed by the parsons for the purpose, and these accounts were
to be handed to the archdeacons at the time of their visitations.
Thus Bishop Quevil, in the Synod of Exeter, in 1287, declares that
the inventories of all that belonged to the church should be made
yearly by the wardens and produced before the rectors, vicars, or, at
any rate, the parish chaplains, and that such property should on no
account be used for other purposes. Also, that whatever was given for a
definite purpose, such as a light in the church, etc., must not be used
for anything else.
Property, in greater or lesser amounts, houses, lands, cattle, and
rich hangings, etc., were constantly being left by will, or otherwise
given to the churchwardens as trustees for the parish. The Yarmouth
wills of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries contain bequests to
particular altars and lights in St. Nicholas’s Church. Jeffery Wyth,
for example, in 1302 gave 5_s._ “for maintaining a lamp continually
burning before the great crucifix.” Richard Fastalfe, by his will made
in 1356, gave a tenement to St. Mary’s light in the same church. In
1490 Thomas Pound directed his executors “to supply a lamp with oil
burning day and night,” and five wax candles standing “about the lamp
before the Most Holy, or High Altar, to the honour of the Sacrament in
the time of Divine Service, as the said Thomas in his lifetime had used
to do, to continue for ever.” In the same way, in 1486, Rose Wrytell,
a parishioner of St. Mary-at-Hill, left to the churchwardens, as
trustees, certain houses to find the stipend for a chantry priest, who
was to be appointed by the parishioners, and who was to assist at all
the services.
The churchwardens frequently had considerable responsibility in regard
to their office, and if they did not get more frequently into serious
financial difficulties than they apparently did, it was owing to the
cordial way in which the parish generally supported their endeavours
to serve them. In St. Peter Cheap, in London, the churchwardens held
a good deal of property as trustees. They embarked on “making and
finishing our vestry” in 1475, and the names of those contributing to
the work cover a whole page. We find them repairing and decorating
chantries; employing a priest to serve; making the priests’ chambers in
Cock Alley, where, apparently, the parson and the chantry priests dwelt
in common; engaging in organ making and paying for a player and for
“the readers of the Passion” on Palm Sunday. The “Morrow Mass” priest,
whose duty it was to say Mass every day at six o’clock, was paid for by
the wardens on behalf of the parish, as well as a clerk to serve his
Mass.
In some documents connected with Exeter diocese in the fifteenth
century, some of the personal difficulties in which the wardens might
be involved are set out. In one case, where a good deal of repair to
the fabric of the church was necessary, the churchwardens excused
themselves on the plea that the tenants of certain houses belonging
to the parish, upon the rents of which they had relied, had not paid
for some time; in a second case, the excuse made was that parishioners
who had promised help had not given it; in a third, the parishioners
had agreed to a rate to repair the church and bell-tower, and many had
not paid according to their promises. In every case the bishop, whilst
warning the people to keep their obligations, pointed out that the
“guardians,” or churchwardens, were personally responsible.
Again, there are many examples, in the accounts of the various
parishes, which show that the people considered the parochial goods
held by the churchwardens, even when they were in the shape of
vestments and plate, as their own property. They exchanged them, lent
them, and sold them--always, of course, for the benefit of the church.
In the wardens’ accounts of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, there are
several examples of this open dealing with church goods. One instance
of this kind of dealing is worth recording. In the parish of Yatton,
Somerset, on the eve of the Reformation--about 1520, say--a difficulty,
to which reference has already been made, arose as to the repair of
certain sluices to keep back the winter floods. To make a long story
short--in the end, the parishioners were ordered to make good the
defect. It meant money; and the wardens’ accounts show that they had
been spending money generously on the church. It was consequently
decided that to raise the necessary cash they should sell a piece of
silver church plate, which had been purchased some years before by the
common contributions of the faithful. The instance furnishes a supreme
example of the way in which the people of a mediæval parish regarded
the property of God’s house as their own.
_Parish Clerk, or Holy-water Bearer (Aquæbajularius)._--Second only in
importance to the churchwardens was the _parish clerk_, or, as he was
frequently called from one of his chief duties, the “water-bearer.”
Originally, as the name “clerk” implies, he was a cleric, and his
office was considered to be a regular ecclesiastical benefice. In the
fourteenth century the clerk was married, but one such was fined for
the offence in a visitation in that century in the Salisbury diocese.
In process of time, however, owing to the scarcity of clerics, the
office was often held by a married layman.
The English law as to this official was laid down in the Constitution
of Archbishop Boniface of Savoy, in the thirteenth century. The
benefice was, according to this, to be bestowed “upon poor clerks.”
And as there had been many disputes about the bestowal of the office,
the archbishop decreed that henceforward “the rectors and vicars (of
parish churches), who know better than parishioners those that are fit
for the office, shall institute such clerics in these benefices as
they know in their hearts can and will properly serve in the Divine
offices (of the church) and will obey their directions.” Upon which law
Lyndwood remarks, that it is always the privilege of the Ecclesiastical
Superior to appoint his inferiors in his own church, and that it is no
part of the right of any patron; which, in this instance, may be taken
to include the parishioners, who were supposed to find the salary. In
the manuscript accounts of the wardens of St. Botulph’s, Aldersgate
Street, a payment of £4 a year was made to the clerk, and this sum was
specially collected for the purpose.
[Illustration: HOLY WATER CLERK]
A note “of clerke wage owing” in the accounts of St. Michael’s in
Bedwardine, Worcestershire, makes it appear that there, ordinarily,
each householder paid 1_d._ a quarter for the clerk, although one
person, to whom is prefixed the title of “Mr.”, evidently pointing
to a man of “class,” paid a shilling each time. St. Mary-at-Hill, in
London, paid its clerk at the rate of £6 13_s._ 4_d._ a year, and he
also received certain offerings at obits, etc., kept in the church.
The regular wage was specially, although apparently not very regularly,
collected by the wardens.
[Illustration: BLESSING OF FOOD BY HOLY WATER CLERK]
The actual payment of the clerk was sometimes a difficulty; and
Archbishop Boniface anticipates this possibility by asserting the
English custom of the parish paying for his services. It was in
consequence of this, he says, that parishioners had asserted their
right to make the appointment. He directs that, should there be
objection made to this payment by any parish, the people should be
compelled to do their plain duty by ecclesiastical censures. On the
other hand, Archbishop Peckham seems to have thought it reasonable that
those who paid the money should elect to the office, and held that the
parishioners ought to appoint the parish clerks to their offices.
Lyndwood speaks of a praiseworthy English custom, according to which
every father of a family made an offering on the Sundays to the cleric
who brought the holy water to him; and that at Christmas the officer
should have from each household a loaf, at Easter a certain number
of eggs, and in the autumn so much of the harvesting. It may also be
taken as an established custom that each quarter of the year the clerk
received a sum of money for his support levied upon the entire parish.
A curious entry in the accounts of the church of St. Mary the Great at
Cambridge, shows a payment made by the parish “in reward to a yong man
that should have bene parish clerk,” suggesting that the churchwardens
wanted him, but the rector made another appointment.
The Synod of Exeter, in 1287, so frequently referred to in regard to
the laws and customs of the English Church, declares that, according to
tradition, “the benefice of the Blessed Water” was at first instituted
to help poor clerks, whilst they were studying and thus fitting
themselves for higher dignities. To this end Bishop Quevil directs,
as already pointed out, that in all churches not more than ten miles
distant from any school of a city or town, this purpose should be borne
in mind, and the office given to a poor scholar to help him whilst
at his studies. For this reason, no doubt, there are instances in
which the bishop insisted upon the removal of a parish clerk who had
married, and upon the appointment of another, whose intention it was to
proceed to the reception of Holy Orders. At the same time it is quite
clear that the bishop did not lightly interfere in the appointment
or removal of any parish clerk. In one case, on November 13, 1386,
Bishop Brantyngham refused to take cognisance of the appeal of the
parishioners of Pont, in Cornwall, who, not being content with the
appointment made by their rector, had caused the churchwardens to elect
another. This the bishop altogether condemned, declaring that by law
the appointment was in the hands of the rector.
Besides attending to carry the Holy Water on the Sundays, the clerk,
according to the directions given in the tract called “Cilium Oculi
Sacerdotis,” was to assist the priest at the altar, and to read the
Epistle at Mass, when there was no deacon or subdeacon. He might be
vested in an alb when he performed this service. It was part of his
duty also to teach the children of the parish, not only their prayers,
creed, and religion, but also their letters and “whatever singing they
ought to know.”
A curious document relating to the “Offesse of dekyn” in Trinity
Church, Coventry, in 1462, has been printed more than once, and lately
for the _Henry Bradshaw Society_, by Dr. Wickham Legg. Some of the
duties there set forth for the “deacon” show that in this case he acted
as parish clerk, and his duties are most minutely described. He was to
open the door of the church at six o’clock, and have the chalice and
missal ready for the priest who said “the Trinity Mass:” on all feasts
he was to ring for Matins, and bring in the books for the south side
of the choir: he was to ring for the High Mass, and then sing in the
choir, and again at three o’clock for Evensong. He shall be rector in
the choir on the south side: he is to see that there is a deacon to
read the Gospel at every High Mass.
Beside this he has the general care of the church: to see that the
floor be swept when it needs it, and that the snow is taken off the
roof and from out the gutters: that the font be ready for the blessing
on Holy Saturday, and palms before Palm Sunday, and that palms be
burned for ashes before Ash Wednesday. For the blessing of the font he
is to provide three copies “for the priests to sing _Rex Sanctorum_.”
Every Sunday “he shall bear holy water to every house in his ward, and
he to have his due of every man, after his degree, quarterly.” In the
same way he must see that the holy cake is ready every Sunday according
to every man’s degree, “and he shall bear the holy bread to serve
the people in the north syde of the church, and he to go to them on
‘twelfth day’ for his offering to the repair of his surplice. On Shere
Thursday (the Thursday in Holy Week) and Holy Saturday he is to get
ready a barrell for the blessed water, and on the former he is to have
the ‘birch besom for the priest that washes the altar’ and the three
discipling rods.”
Moreover, at “every principal feast” he is to help the churchwardens
“to array the High Altar with clothes necessary for it,” being ready
for them “at the third peal of the first Evensong.” He is to help “the
churchwardens to cover the altar and the rood in lent with lenten
cloths, and to hang the veil in the choir.” He and “his fellow” is
to look to the bells and provide ropes and grease, and they are to
divide the ringing fees between them. He is “to cover the pulpit with a
pall when any doctor preaches.” He is to go vested in his surplice to
accompany the parson when he goes to take the Blessed Sacrament to the
sick, and “to fetch any corpse to the church.”
The second “deacon” or clerk, commonly called “the fellow” of the first
in this document, has also his special duties assigned. Every week-day
he is to ring the second peal for Matins at half-past six. He is to see
to the books on the north side of the choir, and sing on that side as
the first “deacon” does for the south. At Evensong he shall do in like
manner, but “he shall be subdeacon every Sunday and Holy-day at the
procession and Mass, and read the Epistle.” Generally he is to assist
the “deacon” with the choir books and processionals, and help to fold
up the vestments and albs, etc.
Beyond the above-named parish officials there were obviously, many
others whose services were occasionally required. Amongst others are:
The _Sexton_, whose office was what it remains at the present day. Such
an official is named, in 1490, in the parish accounts of Cratfield; but
the extremely rare mention of the name seems to show that in a mediæval
parish each individual family interested saw to the preparation of the
last resting-place of any of their dead relations.
The _Schoolmaster_, or, at any rate, one who occupied the place of a
teacher of the young, is more frequently named in connection with the
parish than many people would be inclined to believe. An examination
of the records of parish life contained in the invaluable _Valor
Ecclesiasticus_ will reveal the fact of the existence of both grammar
and song schools in many places in the sixteenth century. At Preston,
in Amounderness, for instance, a chantry priest was bound to keep a
“free grammar school” for the parish, and at the suppression of the
chantry, the lands left to support this were seized by the Crown. The
official returns by the Commissioners for suppressing the chantries
afford many examples of these schools taught by priests and by clerks.
These generally, no doubt, existed by reason of special foundations
made by generous benefactors for the purpose; but in one case at
least, at Lavenham, “the alderman of St. Peter’s Guild” finds a priest
who “teaches the children of the said town and acts as secondary to the
curate, who, without help of another priest, is not able to serve the
cure there.”
The _Bell-ringer_ was an important official in every parish. His first
duty was to ring for the services in the church, and to toll the bell
for deaths, funerals, obits, or anniversary services. If his wages were
paid by the parish, his labours were in most places one of the sources
of income by which the parish chest was replenished, as the fees
charged brought in more than the amount paid to him. In some places,
besides his duty in regard to the bells, he was appointed to look after
various lamps or lights. Thus at Swaffham, in Norfolk, one Simon Blake
appoints “a lamp to burn by his grave on all holidays and Lord’s days,
from Matins to Compline, and the bellman of the town of Swaffham to
take care of it.”
At times, too, the bellman was employed in making collections for some
church purpose. Thus at Sutherton, in 1485, the bellman, named Saunder,
was engaged in soliciting money for keeping two lights at the High
Altar, and he was paid by the churchwardens for going to Lincoln “to
bring home the waxe,” for the making of candles for the consecration
of the church. At St. Nicholas’s Church, Great Yarmouth, in 1511, the
bellman was paid for covering the images in Lent-time. But, so far as
the parish was concerned, the most important function of this official
was his proclamation of deaths and anniversaries. In one of the York
wills there is a bequest of 6_d._ to the bellman for announcing the
funeral of the testator. Sir Adam Outlaw, priest, bequeaths a tenement
to the West Lynn town bellman on condition of his “going with his bell
about the town” on his “year-day” to ask the people to “pray for the
souls of Thomas of Acre and Muriel his wife, his (Sir Adam’s) soul, and
the souls of his benefactors.”
In like manner, the Guild of St. Botulph’s Church at Boston employed
the bellman to announce the anniversaries of its brethren. Thus, in
January the Sacrist was to remember to send him round about the city to
proclaim the obit day of Richard Chapman, and proclaim each year his
will. At each street he was to ring his bell and say: “For the sowles
of Richard Chapeman and Alys his wyf, brother and syster of Corpus
Christi Gylde to-morne (_i.e._ to-morrow) shall be theyre yere day,”
for which service he was to receive a penny. This crier was constantly
being sent round on similar errands for other guilds, and from these
same records the names of some eight such societies, besides the Corpus
Christi Guild, are known: that is, St. Mary’s Guild, that of the
Trinity, and those of St. George, St. Peter, the “Felichyp of Heven,”
Seven Martyrs, St. Katherine, and the Apostles. The object of these
constant proclamations was, of course, to call the various members
of fraternities and societies to attend at funerals and anniversary
masses and pray for the souls of the brethren and sisters who had gone
before them to that future life, which in those days of simple faith
was hardly less a reality to all Christian folk than the present world
which their senses told them about.
The bells used by the bellmen seem, from some inventories, to have been
the property of the parish. They are called “Rogation bells,” from
their use in calling people to the church, and they were rung in the
funeral procession from the house of the deceased parishioner to the
church. In 1463, John Baret, of Bury St. Edmunds, directs that the two
bellmen, who go about the town on his death announcing his funeral,
are to have gowns given them. And at “my yeer-day,” he adds, they are
to have each 4_d._ for going about the town to call on the inhabitants
“to pray for my soul, and for my faderis and modrys,” and the same for
ringing on the “month’s mind.”
Another remarkable custom, which seems to have been no novelty in the
middle of the fifteenth century, was the use of a chime barrel set
with the tune of the _Requiem æternam_, the Introit of the Mass for
the dead. This, as it only ranged over five notes, was easily managed,
and the instrument was wheeled throughout the town, grinding out this
lament for some departed inhabitant. The John Baret named above makes
special arrangements for this to be done at Bury on his decease, for
thirty days after, and during the following Lent-time.
Of people employed at various times and for diverse purposes by the
parish, there were a great many about whom very little need be said.
Over and above masons and carpenters and women to wash surplices and
albs and repair vestments, who may be called regular employees, the
accounts of the churchwardens show that many others were, from time to
time, paid by the parish funds. One of the most regular, naturally,
when lights were so much used, was the _Candlemaker_, who apparently
travelled about from place to place exercising his art. At Cowfield, in
Sussex, for instance, in the years 1471-85, the churchwardens’ payments
for candlemaking were at regular intervals, and besides finding the
wax and the wages, the wardens supplied also the board and lodging
for the master workman. At Great St. Mary’s, Cambridge, the wardens,
in 1537, bought 35 lbs. of wax, at 7_d._ a pound, “for the Sepulchre
and Roode lyghtes;” they paid 5_s._ for making it up, and 2_s._
3½_d._ “for a dinner at the making.” At St. Mary-at-Hill, London,
“Roger Middelton, wax channdeler,” was paid “for makyng of the said
ryeve loen (92 lbs.) and olde wax, made in tapris for the Bemelight
and other tapris, prickettes, and tenebre candilles, for every lb. a
half-penny--11 shilling 9_d._”
In the same way parishes employed travelling bookmakers, that is,
scribes and bookbinders and illuminators. Thus, as an instance, at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, the wardens of St. Augustine’s
Church, at Hedon, in the East Riding, paid 10_s._ 8_d._ for parchment
to make a book; to Adam Skelton, a scribe, for writing it, 4_d._; to
“John Payntor for a picture, 10_s._,” and 6_d._ for the breakfasts of
the scribes. There is evidence that sometimes the curate of a parish
acted as a scribe, and received a fee for so doing; sometimes clerics
at other places were employed, as a clerk at the Almonry at Canterbury,
who wrote a book for the church of St. Dunstan in that city.
The same applies also to the _Bookbinder_, who used to ply his trade
from place to place, repairing the old and making new bindings for new
and old manuscript service and music books. So too the same evidence of
the accounts of churchwardens shows the _Painter_, the _Carver_, the
_Silversmith_, the _Gilder_, and the _Tinker_ constantly at work in
various places, according to the needs and means and enterprise of the
English parochial authorities.
In all cases it was the work of the people. Through their wardens they
arranged, superintended, and finally settled the accounts of these
various travelling workmen and artists. How they raised the money
required for all the work that was carried out during the last half of
the fifteenth century must always remain a mystery. Some account of
their ways of collecting funds for parochial purposes will appear in
the next chapter; but when all is said, the mystery remains.
FOOTNOTES:
[A] Lever, _Sermon before the King_, 1550 (Arber’s Reprint, p. 82).