PAROCHIAL FINANCE
In view of the many expenses which devolved upon the wardens in the
working of a mediæval parish, it is important to try to understand how
they were able to raise the necessary funds. In the first place, of
course, it must be understood that the churchwardens had nothing to do
with the tithes--that is, with the regular charge on the produce of the
land, which was from the first intended for the support of the clergy,
for the poor, and for the maintenance of the chancel portion of the
church’s fabric. These were received in due course, according to the
law, by the parson, or vicar, or by their agent, without any reference
to the popular representatives of the parish as such, and except for an
occasional donation from the priest to the common fund for some special
purpose, the parish exchequer took nothing whatever from the tithe due
to the clergyman.
The methods by which the people of a parish raised money for their
works were many and various, and some of them curious; some few of
them must needs be touched upon briefly in any account of the life
of a mediæval parish. In the first place, then, may be mentioned the
occasional _voluntary assessment_ of the people of a parish, according
to their possessions, sometimes called “setts,” or “cess.” This,
however, was not a very common way of raising money, and recourse
was had to it, apparently, only in the case of extraordinary repairs
upon the church becoming necessary. From the many examples that are
to be found in the extant accounts, the voluntary rate was evidently
difficult to enforce, especially when the amount claimed had, more or
less, to be proportioned to the property of individuals. Still, in some
places, it was clearly very successful as a means of raising money;
as, for instance, at Wigtoft, in Lincolnshire, where, in 1525, the
accounts show that the church was completely repaired by money obtained
by a voluntary rate. Here a list of eighty-six inhabitants is given,
who are assessed at sums varying from 1_d._ to 3_s._ 4_d._ Although
the unequal incidence of the tax was evidently admitted by all, it was
apparently held that when the parish had made the rate, its vote was
binding upon every one. At St. Dunstan’s, Canterbury, in 1485, a church
rate, or “cess,” produced £4 5_s._ 1½_d._, in sums varying from John
Roper’s 6_s._ 8_d._ to Richard Crane’s 4_d._; whilst at the same time
extra “gifts of devotion” are recorded of sums varying from ½_d._ to
4_d._ Between 1504 and 1508 another parish “cess,” in the same place,
produced nearly £6.
Closely allied to a parochial rate, although not so universal, nor,
of course, possessing the binding force of a public assessment, were
_joint voluntary gifts_ for special purposes. Something in the way of
decoration, or of a bell, a window, a vestment, or a piece of plate was
wanted, and the people, as one account expresses it, immediately “drew
themselves together” to pay for it, or to purchase it. For instance,
at Morebath, a small uplandish parish in Somerset, on the borders of
Devon, in 1538-9, some of the inhabitants bought a new cope for their
church at the cost of £3 6_s._ 8_d._ From 1528, also, in the same
place, the vicar gave up his rights over certain tithes of wool to
add to the sum then being collected to purchase a “new suit of black
vestments.” It is perhaps worth noting that these were only obtained
for £6 5_s._ in 1547, just before the alterations in religion made them
useless.
Towards the end of the fifteenth century a change is noticeable in
the accounts of the churchwardens. It evidently became more and more
common for them to possess lands, and to have houses left to them,
as trustees of the parish; the revenues of these were used only for
parochial purposes, and mainly, perhaps, for the upkeep of lights and
the celebration of anniversaries. Running through all the wills of this
period, too, is a manifestation of the same spirit of devotion to the
parochial churches, with which the donors had been connected during
life, and the same eager desire to leave something in money or in kind
to them is everywhere seen. These naturally, if not by express desire,
came into the charge and guardianship, not of the parson of the place,
but of the people’s wardens, who were responsible for the Church goods.
Instances of such gifts are so numerous that the selection of examples
is rendered almost impossible, and they are taken here almost at
haphazard. At Woodchurch, in Cheshire, in 1525, one James Godyker left
to the wardens of his parish church 20 marks to buy twenty bullocks to
be let for the purpose of bringing sufficient revenue to find an extra
priest. In Nottingham, a shop in “Shoemakers row” was left to sustain
a lamp; in other places in that county there are “divers lands to pay
an extra priest, who has also a house;” “money is bequeathed to be
distributed unto the poore yerly;” “arable land was given for a light;”
“medow land for a lamp;” a “stock of 5 sheep, valued at 2_s._ 8_d._
each, and one cow valued at 8_s._;” “two stocks of money 10_s._ and
26_s._ 8_d._ in the tenure of Robert Braunesby, Edward Dawson,” etc.,
and “20_s._ in the tenure of Richard Blank--the interest being 4_d._ on
every noble,” etc.
Then _collections_ were made by the assent of the parish at various
times and in different ways. Thus _The Early History of the Town and
Port of Hedon_, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, shows the wardens of
St. James’ making collections in the town for church purposes three
times a year. At the feast of St. Mary Magdalene they themselves
collected both through the town and in the fair, like the wardens of
St. Augustine’s. On the feast of St. John, during Christmas week, boys
were sent round with collecting bags, and each boy received 1_d._ for
his pains. In the parish of St. Augustine’s, in the same place, there
were many receipts from these collections, such as: “collections in the
city, 5_s._;” “in the church on the feast of the Circumcision, 10_s._;”
“on St. Mary Magdalene’s day, with relics in the city, 15_s._;” “on
all Sundays with the _tabula_, 8_s._” This last form of collecting
seems to have been very popular at Hedon and elsewhere, and probably
refers to the method of carrying round some holy picture to excite the
devotion and generosity of the people. In the same way, and with the
same end, in numberless places relics of the saints were taken about by
the collectors for the reverence of the faithful. At St. Dunstan’s,
Canterbury, the outdoor collections were made by members of the various
brotherhoods, which, to the number of eight or nine, were attached to
the church. In the same way the parish cross, which may be considered
to be the corporation banner of the parishioners, was carried round the
city or district to remind the people of their duty to assist in the
corporate work and to stimulate their devotion.
The times for making regular collections naturally varied in different
places. In the church of St. Helen’s, Worcester, for instance, there
seem to have been three yearly collections for general church purposes,
namely: _Lux fulgebit_ Sunday (Christmas), Paschaltide, and the
“standing afore the church at the Fayre.” These regular days did not,
of course, interfere with other special collections in the same parish,
as “for St. Katherine’s light,” “our Lady light,” “the Clerke’s money,”
“Peter’s farthings,” etc. At St. Edmund and St. Thomas, Salisbury,
special collections were made for the fabric on every Good Friday and
Easter day. On the latter day, in one year in this parish, £2 10_s._
1½_d._ were contributed to the “font taper,” which would appear
from other accounts to be the name for the penny given by each man,
and the halfpenny given by each woman, who communicated on Easter
day--a contribution which was prohibited by some bishops, as likely
to be misunderstood. With this view, the payment was ordered to be
transferred till the Sunday following the Easter Communion.
Collections for specific objects are, perhaps, the most common in all
parochial accounts. In one, the holy water vat for the asperges and the
thurible are said to have been purchased by collections “made by boys
of the parish.” In another, that of St. Mary-at-Hill, such collections
were very constant; money for “candlesilver” was regular, and for such
objects as the new “Rood loft,” etc., frequent. At St. Petrock’s,
Exeter, in 1427, there was an agreement made as to the candle money,
which in those days was obviously a constant and a heavy expense in
every parish. It was to this effect--
“Ordinans made by the eight men for gatheryn to the waxe sylver kep
to the lighte beforr the high-cross, whyche saye is, that every man
and hys wyffe to the waxe shall paye yerely one peny, and every hired
servant that taketh wages a hallfe peny, and every other persons at
Ester, takyn no wage, a farthyng.”
Sometimes the wardens placed a collecting-box in the church to receive
general offerings towards parochial expenses. This seems to have led
at times to difficulties with the parson, and at one time it was
prohibited. Bishop Quevil, of Exeter, for example, says that the
practice introduced into some parishes of putting a box, either into
the church or outside, to gather alms, has led “to contentions between
the rector and his parishioners.” Some of the latter have further
declared that “it was a better almsdeed to put money into the common
box than to give it to the priest,” and in this way the priests do
not get their accustomed offerings. They do not, for instance, get
from the laity their donations towards the candles on the Feast of
the Purification and other feasts of the year, “according to laudable
custom,” but these gifts go into the hands of the wardens “for a light
before the great crucifix, etc.” The bishop consequently orders that
all such collecting-boxes be removed from the churches or cemeteries of
his diocese at once.
[Illustration: ALMS BOX, BLYTHBURGH, SUFFOLK]
Regular Sunday collections were made in certain places for the wants
of the parish. The Hythe churchwardens, although depending mainly
upon gifts and legacies for the money necessary to satisfy their
obligations, had public collections on twenty-six Sundays in the year.
The people were apparently few, and the collections did not produce
much; the total being only 34_s._ 4_d._ for the six months, and the
individual collection varying from 6_d._ to 1_s._ 6_d._; except on
Easter Sunday, when the collectors seem to have gathered 10_s._ 6_d._
In 1498 the parochial needs at Leverton, in Lincolnshire, became so
great that the two wardens, Christopher Pyckyll and Robert Tayler, made
an appeal at “ye gathering of the townschyp and in the kyrke,” with the
result that they collected the sum of £4 13_s._ 10_d._ for the building
of the steeple.
One of the most regular sources of parochial receipt was the fee for
burial in the church or churchyard. To judge from several entries
in various accounts, the cost of opening a grave in the nave of the
church was 6_s._ 8_d._, which belonged to the parish. Thus at St.
Mary’s, Cambridge, in 1515, in the churchwardens’ receipts there are
two such items, one for the burial of Calo Fremeston, and the other
for that of a “Mr. Wise.” In London, as we might perhaps expect,
the fee was greater; in fact, in the accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill,
in 1522-3, among the “Casuell Resceites” are entered those “for the
buryall of John Colers in the chirche, 13_s._; for the buryall of
William Holyngworthi’s child, 2_s._; for the buryall of a stranger
in the great churchyard, 12_d._; for the buryall of a priest in the
pardon churchyard, 2_s._; for the buryall of Robert Hikman in St.
Ann’s Chapel, 13_s._ 4_d._” This same year a regular table of “fees
to be paid” to the parish for burials in the church, churchyard, or
pardon-churchyard attached to the church of St. Mary’s was drawn up.
From this we learn that for every grave opened, in either of the two
chapels of St. Stephen and St. Katherine, 13_s._ 4_d._ was to be paid:
for every man, woman, and child buried “without the choir door of any
of the said chapels ... unto the west door of the aisle going south
or north,” 10_s._ was to be paid; and for any burial “from the cross
aisle to the west end of the church,” 6_s._ 8_d._ The price of the
ground thus varied according to the position, and similarly the clerk’s
fee varied for breaking the ground: it was 3_s._ 8_d._ in the first
case, 2_s._ 6_d._ in the second, and 1_s._ 8_d._ in the third. These
payments, of course, had nothing to do with the fee of the clergyman:
this was fixed at 1_d._ as a minimum, but generally more was given
according to the means of the family. The smallness of the fee may
perhaps be explained by the English custom of “mortuaries,” that is,
the gift of the best or second best possession of the deceased to the
church.
“In some places (says Bracton) the church has the best beast, or the
second or the third best, and in some places nothing; and therefore
the custom of the place is to be considered ... and although no one is
bound to give anything to the church for burial, nevertheless, where
the laudable custom exists the Lord the Pope does not wish to break
through it.”
Immediately connected with the subject of burials were two practices,
which brought some additions to the parochial exchequer. The first was
the custom of special payments made for the use of the best cross,
etc., if the parish was possessed of one. It would seem that generally,
besides the processional cross, every parish had a second cross used
at funerals, but occasionally they had either purchased or in some way
become possessed of a more magnificent and elaborate crucifix. For the
use of this last the wardens as a rule made a charge, and this payment
brought some money into the common purse. Thus the churchwardens’
accounts of St. Ewen’s, Bristol, show that, about the middle of the
fifteenth century, the parish made a precious crucifix of this kind.
People contributed all manner of broken silver and jewels for the work,
and all sorts and conditions of men and women gave of their riches or
their poverty to it. Alice Sylkwoman, for instance, gave a ring, and
Thomas Fisher an old spoon, etc. When the work of art was finished it
was weighed before the parson and the parishioners, and, not counting
the bar of iron in its centre, it was found to be 116 ounces of “clere
sylver and gold.” No sooner was it made than it was arranged to charge
a special fee for its use, and in 1459-60 one of the parishioners,
“Thomas Phelyp, barber,” paid the fee “for the best cross at his Wyf’s
buryeng.”
In the same way the churchwardens appear to have let out the bier and
lights to be used at funerals for the payment of a fee. The parish
lights especially are very frequently named in the accounts of the
churchwardens; although not infrequently the torches were furnished
by the various guilds, the members of which had sometimes the right
of hiring them for the burials of friends. In this way, to take but
one example, the wardens of the parish of Ashburton in 1523-24 let
out “the best cross and parish tapers” to a neighbouring parish, and
received 21_s._ 8_d._ for the transaction; a very notable addition to
the parochial income. Parishioners also paid for the use of the parish
cross and candlesticks at funerals in their own church. In the same
way, the vestments and plate and hangings were lent for a payment to
other parishes for a great funeral or festival. In the accounts of St.
Mary-at-Hill, for instance, 4_s._ 8_d._ were paid by “the churchwardens
of All Hallows in Lombard Street for hyryng of the church stuffe.”
A further source of income was found towards the beginning of the
sixteenth century when the letting of pews or seats in the church
became a custom. The revenue from this was always successfully claimed
by the wardens in behalf of the parishioners, on the ground, no doubt,
that the nave of the church where these seats had been erected was
their property, and that the fee for the exclusive right of any special
portion belonged to them, on the same principle as the money for the
sale of any particular part for a grave. This practice of letting pews
for the use of individuals has already been sufficiently illustrated by
examples.
The practice of leaving sums of money by will to the wardens for
definite purposes was almost universal in the last half of the
fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth. In the
accounts of St. Mary-at-Hill, in London, are to be found such entries
as: “Received of William Blase, Barbowrez (_i.e._ the barber’s) wife,
for painting of an image of Our Lady within the Church--20_d._,”
and many other examples have previously been given of sums left by
deceased parishioners for special work in their parish churches, such
as the erection or adornment of the rood or its loft. Bishop Hobhouse
has noticed in the Somerset churchwardens’ accounts that there was
hardly any conceivable kind of property that was not handed over to
the wardens for church purposes, either to produce income by being
leased out, or to be sold for the benefit of the common exchequer. Live
stock of every sort is represented--cows, oxen for ploughing, rams,
sheep, lambs, bees, cocks and hens, geese, and even pigs are named.
At Morebath almost every altar had its endowment of sheep, and at St.
Mary’s, in the city of Bath, there was a little flock managed by the
wardens. In the former small parish there were no fewer than eight
different accounts kept, and “a supernumerary body” of from three to
nine parishioners were added to the wardens “as controllers of the
parish stock.” At Bromley, Margaret White, widow, who died in June,
1538, by her will gave to the church one hive of bees to support the
light of All Hallows, one hive to support the light of the Sepulchre,
and a third to the light of St. Anthony. Also to the keeping of her
obit she gave two kine, and directed that the obit should be kept
“out of the increase of the said kine,” and her name placed on the
bede-roll, and that Mass be said and bread and cheese and drink given
to four poor people.
In other places gifts in kind appropriate to the locality, such
as malt, barley, wheat, etc., appear on the roll of accounts. At
Walberswick, in Suffolk, in 1451, one Thomas Comber handed over to the
people’s wardens 2500 herrings; another gave a set of fishing-nets.
At Wigtoft, a village near Boston, “a long-ladder” was given to the
church; whilst in the same place a parishioner, named Peter Saltweller,
paid a yearly rent of 1_s._ 4_d._ for a “salt pan,” or pit for making
salt, which had been given to the church.
Many of the gifts in kind were, of course, sold. Thus, for the
Walberswick herrings the wardens obtained 1_s._, and the set of
fishing-nets brought in no less than 8_s._ 6_d._ In the same parish, in
1500, one John Almyngham left by will, dated October 7, a sum, large
in those days, of £20 to his parish church. Ten pounds were to be
expended by the wardens in purchasing “a peyer of organys.” “Item with
the residue,” he says, “I will a canopy over the High Auter well done
with Our Lady and four angels, and the Holy Ghost (probably a dove to
contain the Blessed Sacrament) going up and down with a chain.”
In 1483-4 the parishioners of St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’s, Salisbury,
contributed all kinds of articles to be the common goods of the
parish, or else to be sold for what they would fetch. From the wife of
a barber in the city there is recorded the present of “a brass dish
and a plate.” At another time, “for writing the names in the book,”
or bede-roll, one William Dyngyn gave to the wardens “a red girdle”
ornamented “with silver and gold.” One of the favourite gifts at this
time for people to make to their churches was “a set of beads,” or, to
call it by the modern name, “a rosary.” Again and again this kind of
gift is recorded, and so also is the sale of the same for the benefit
of the common purse. For example, in the accounts of St. Mary the
Great, Cambridge, may be seen numerous instances of this. In 1540, for
example, there is entered the following--“_memorandum_: that at the
feast of St. John the Baptist ... a pair of silver beads and two other
pair of corall, gauded with silver, were sold by the churchwardens to
James, goldsmith of Saint Benet’s parish ... by the consent of most
part of the parishioners.” “Item the collar of baudryk of gold, having
9 links enamelled of gold, with the ouche of St. Nicholas and little
monstre or Relic of St. Nicholas’ oil, is taken from the custody of the
churchwardens to be sold at Stourbridge fair by agreement and consent
also of the parishioners.” At Walberswick, to turn again to that parish
for an example, in 1498 the wardens acknowledge the receipt of 4_s._
4_d._ for “a pair of beads that were Margaret Middleton’s.” So, too,
at Pilton, in Somerset, in 1515, one of the parishioners paid the
churchwardens 10_d._ for a set of beads, which had been given them to
dispose of; and at Yatton another pair “of amber” were sold for 7_d._,
which was credited to the common stock.
It is well to note, however, that gifts made for some special purpose,
for a particular altar, or statue, etc., were not disposed of in the
way described above, but were preserved, and the names of the donors
were kept alive by means of the bede-rolls, which will be subsequently
spoken about. What apparently the parishioners held that they had a
right to sell for the common good of the parish, were gifts made with
the donor’s expressed or implied intention that this should be done;
and goods, plate, or vestments, which had been previously purchased
by the parish, and which, as was held in those days, certainly could
be sold to purchase other goods or ornaments, or to carry out some
necessary parochial work.
Goods of all kinds, given for a special purpose and held by the
churchwardens as trustees, were protected by ecclesiastical
legislation. The Synod of Exeter, for example, in 1287, orders the
wardens to keep all such presents in careful custody, to produce them
when called upon by authority, and not to turn them to any other use
than that for which they were originally given. This applies, the
Constitution declares, to the revenues of chantries and altars, and
even to the lights provided for them, and this property may never be
alienated, except in case of some great necessity, when the leave of
the archdeacon, or at any rate of the rector, must be first obtained.
The names of some few other parish collections may here be usefully
recorded. _Dowelling_, or dwelling-house money, was a tax or rate
levied for parochial purposes on each household--a church rate,
in fact. This assessment was sometimes known as _smoke-money_, or
_smoke-farthing_, meaning the contribution made from each family hearth
or house. Sometimes this was evidently known as _Pentecostal_, and it
then referred to the offerings made by the parishioners at Whitsuntide
to the parish priest. “Pentecostal oblations,” varying in amount from
1_s._ to 1_s._ 4_d._, are entered for many years in the churchwardens’
accounts of Aldworth, Berks. “Smoke-money,” or “smoke-silver,” is said
also to have been a money payment made to the parson in lieu of a
tithe of wood; but the name certainly appears in some churchwardens’
accounts as a contribution to the parish, and not to the priest. For
instance, at Bromley, in 1527-8, “smoke-farthings” produced 14_s._
for the common parochial purse, and “dowelling-money” 9_s._ 3_d._ At
Laverton, in Lincolnshire, each householder apparently gave 1½_d._
as his share of “smoke-money;” and at St. Edmund’s and St. Thomas’s,
Salisbury, the tax was known as “smoke-silver,” or “smoke-farthings.”
At Easter time the churchwardens had to collect “Peter’s pence,” “Rome
fardynges,” “Rome’s scot,” or “Peter farthings,” the contribution from
each household to the Pope. It is well to remark, however, that it
is obvious, from the accounts of this contribution to be found, that
not more than 50 per cent. of the amount collected ever found its way
into the papal coffers. The wardens collected the money and paid it
to the archdeacon at the time of visitation. At St. Mary the Great,
Cambridge, for example, they paid “at ye visytacion, for Rome Fardynges
22½_d._” Great care was taken to secure the punctual payment of
these dues to the Holy See, and warnings were issued when the parish
was in arrears. For continual neglect to pay it was punished with
interdict.
Lastly, there was another very general form of collection made by the
churchwardens, called variously “wax-silver,” “candle-silver,” “Easter
money,” or “Paschal money.” These were payments made in many parishes
towards the annual expenses of the parish in finding candles and
lamps to burn in the churches. In some places the amount paid by each
parishioner was ½_d._ Besides the above, there were various forms of
contribution in different places; as, for example, special payments for
“the holy loaf,” or blessed bread. An examination of the various extant
churchwardens’ accounts will show that these officials were never at a
loss to obtain money from their fellow-parishioners when they needed
it for any special purpose. One great resource, which apparently never
failed them, took the form of social meetings at the Church House, or
elsewhere; but as to these gatherings more will have to be said in a
subsequent chapter.