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 30s.

[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 ½d. 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.

[112] Ibid.

[113] Eyton’s “Shropshire,” v. 28.

[114] Whitaker’s “History of Whalley,” p. 223.

[115] Whitaker’s “History of Whalley,” pp. 223-225.

[116] The great Law-book of the Mediæval Church.

[117] The king is supposed to visit his own chapels and hospitals by the Lord High Chancellor.

[118] Sir R. Phillimore.

[119] In the college at Tonge, any one of the five chaplains bringing a guest to dinner was to pay for him 3d. if at the high table, and ¼d. if at the low (S.P.C.K., “Lichfield,” p. 161).

[120] A. Heales, “History of the Free Chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, Kingston-on-Thames.”

[121] Pages 20 and 82.

[122] Page 68.

[123] When Winfrid, afterwards St. Boniface, showed a strong precocious vocation for the religious life, his father, who seems to have been the principal person of his town, forthwith sent him—at six or seven years of age—to a religious house at Exeter, to be educated for the Church.

[124] Men who had any serious personal blemish, or any defect in respect to birth, learning, or morals, were excluded by canon from ordination (Constitutions of Otho, 1237). Illegitimacy and servile origin were both defects of birth.

[125] Thorold Rogers, “Agriculture and Prices in England,” vol. ii. pp. 613, 615, 616.

[126] “Eccl. Proceedings of Courts of Durham,” Surtees Society, p. 5.

[127] John Knox said, “Every scholar is something added to the riches of the Commonwealth.”

[128] See the quotation in its entirety on p. 278.

[129] Cobbler.

[130] “The Babees Book,” Early English Text Society, p. 401.

Of Archbishops of Canterbury, the parentage of William of Corbeuil is not known; the inference is that it was humble. Thomas Becket was the son of a London citizen; Richard, of humble parents; Baldwin, of humble parents at Exeter; Richard Grant, parentage unknown; Edmund Rich, son of a merchant at Abingdon; Richard Kilwardby, a Dominican friar of unknown parentage; Robert Winchelsey, probably of humble birth; Walter Reynolds, the son of a baker at Windsor; Chichele, a shepherd-boy, picked up and educated by William of Wykham; Cranmer’s people were small squires in Notts. And so in other sees. Ralph Flambard, Bishop of Durham, the great Justiciar of Henry I., was the son of a poor Norman priest; Thomas of Rotherham, Archbishop of York, was of obscure parentage; Richard of Wych, the saintly Bishop of Chichester, was the son of a decayed farmer at Droitwich, and for several years worked on the land like a labourer; the famous Grostete was of a poor family at Stradbroke, Suffolk; Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, is said to have been the son of a weaver; John of Sheppey was taken up and educated by Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, and succeeded his benefactor in the see.

[131] By 9 Ed. II. c. 8, clerks in the king’s service were declared not bound to residence on their benefice.

[132] The custom might sometimes be misleading. Thus, a priest in the diocese of Bath and Wells with the high-sounding name of Richard de Burgh, was a villein of the bishop who had given him freedom and holy orders.

[133] See notice of the college founded by Archbishop Thomas of Rotherham, p. 517.

[134] The universal ignorance of the Greek language at that time made the great works of the Eastern Church a sealed book to the scholars of the West.

[135] At the Council of Trent, nearly three hundred years after his death, the “Summa” was placed on the secretary’s desk beside the Holy Scriptures, as containing the orthodox solution of all theological questions.

[136] Wesley published an edition of it.

[137] Peter Lombard’s “Text-book.”

[138] “Norfolk Archæology,” vol. iv. p. 342.

[139] “Lincoln,” p. 194. S.P.C.K.

[140] “The York Pontifical,” p. 370. Surtees Society.

[141] In the Diocese of York, in 1344-5, there were ordained—

Acolytes 421

Sub-deacons 204, of whom 71 were regulars.

Deacons 326 " 96 "

Priests 271 " 44 "

1222 211

In 1510-11, there were—

Acolytes 298, of whom 17 were regulars.

Sub-deacons 296 " 51 "

Deacons 248 " 41 "

Priests 265 " 173 "

1107 282

In the first year of the episcopate of Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, viz. from December 21, 1308, to September 20, 1309, there were ordained 539 to the first tonsure, 438 acolytes, 104 sub-deacons, 177 deacons, 169 priests.

In the year from March 22, 1314, to December 20, 1315, there were ordained 75 to the first tonsure, 71 acolytes, 44 sub-deacons, 50 deacons, 66 priests.

[142] “In 1281 the Pope dispensed an acolyte, whose left little finger had been shortened while a child by an unskilful surgeon, to hold a benefice notwithstanding the defect” (“Calendar of Papal Registers,” 1491). “Jacob Lowe and Sampson Meverall, base born, and Godfrey Ely, blind of one eye, were dispensed by the Pope for ordination” (“Register of Smyth, Bishop of Lichfield,” p. 175).

[143] “Lichfield,” p. 129. S.P.C.K. See additional examples in the chapter on Abuses.

[144]

[145] Of which there is a description and drawing in the Records of the Archæological Society of that county, vol. ii. p. 251.

[146] In those days the rooms of a house were not massed compactly together under one roof; the hall was the primitive house, and additions to it were effected by annexing distinct buildings, each of which was called a house.

[147] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. p. 350.

[148] “Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society,” vol. ii. part ii. (New Series), p. 141.

[149] Alfred Heales, “Kingston-on-Thames,” p. 17.

[150] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. p. 103.

[151] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 281.

[152] Ibid., ii. 284.

[153] “Hist. of England,” i. p. 41.

[154] A lawsuit gives us a glimpse of John of Bishopstone, the rector of Cliffe, at Hoo, going to church on the Sunday before Christmas, 1363, accompanied by his chaplains, clerks, and household, as if they all lived together (S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 188).

[155] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 97.

[156] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 46.

[157] Ibid., ii. 309.

[158] A statute of 3 Ed. I., A.D. 1275, says, “Abbeys have been overcharged by the resort of great men and others; none shall come to eat or lodge in any house of religion of any others’ foundation than his own; this does not intend that the grace of hospitality be withdrawn from such as need.”

[159] See Matthew Paris under 1240 A.D., “to receive guests, rich and poor, and show hospitality to laity and clergy according to their means, as the custom of the place requires.”

[160] In the returns of a survey of the estates of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter in 1300 both the manor houses and the rectory houses are included, and their similarity is evident: “Culmstock Manor. There is a hall in the Manor, and a soler within the hall and a chamber, a kitchen without furnum and turella (stove and small turret for smoke and ventilation), and a dove house; there wants a granary. Utpottery. There is in the farmhouse a sufficient hall and chamber, a new grange, and other sufficient houses, 1330. Vicar of Colyton, Richard Brondiche, is a leper. Colyton Domus Sanctuarii (house in the churchyard). There is there a competent hall with a chamber and chimney, a competent kitchen, without turella, however; two granges; the other houses are sufficient; the gardens are eaten up with age and badly kept. Branscombe Manor. There is a hall with two chambers and garderobes good and sufficient; a new kitchen with a good turella; all the other houses in good condition” (“Register of Bishop Grandisson,” part i. p. 572).

[161] Clive, in the diocese of Worcester, was appropriated to Worcester Priory; formerly the rector lived in the Aula Personæ. In the middle of the thirteenth century the rectory house was let to a tenant. The vicar lived in one of several houses in the village which belonged to the benefice; there were two chaplains, one of whom lived in another of these houses, and the second in a soler (“Register of Worcester Priory” (Camden Society), p. lxxxi.).

[162] “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” p. 133.

[163] “Essex Archæol. Transactions,” vol. vi. part iii.

[164] Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Bishop Grandisson,” pp. 349, 356.

[165] Lyndewode, “Provinciale.” Compare the 74th of the Canons of 1603.

[166] “Grostete’s Letters” (Rolls Series), p. 49.

[167] “York Fabric Rolls” (Surtees Society), p. 243.

[168] For picture of the basilard and purse see Royal MS., 6 Ed. VI., f. 478, p. 492, etc.

[169] Catalogus omnium qui admissi pet’runt in fraternitatis beneficium Monasterii Sti. Albani, cum picturis eorum et compendiosis narrationibus. (British Mus., Nero D., vii.)

[170] These, with the descriptions, are taken from “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” by the present writer.

[171] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 57.

[172] Ibid., p. 130.

[173] The record of a suit in the Ecclesiastical Court of Durham gives us a curious little illustrative anecdote of a quarrel in the Rectory of Walsingham, in the year 1370. The bishop, the archdeacon, and their attendants were passing the night there, probably after a Visitation. The record tells us in full detail how, after the Bishop had gone out of the hall of the rectory into the chamber, the family remaining in the hall, Nicholas de Skelton uttered threats against John of Auckland, the servant of the archdeacon, viz. that he would break his head. One of the archdeacon’s people intervened, when the angry Nicholas threatened to break his head also. The archdeacon seems to have then interfered, when a servant of Nicholas, offering to strike the archdeacon with a hawking staff, the archdeacon drew his cultellum; the servant broke it in two with his staff; the archdeacon hurled the half which he held, and it killed another of the company who happened to interpose. The archdeacon was summoned before the Court to answer for the homicide.

[174] Quoted from “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” p. 248, by the present writer.

[175] Cushion for the back and seat of the bench.

[176] “Wills and Inventories” (Surtees Society), p. 54.

[177] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 371.

[178] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 385.

[179] “Testamenta Ebor.,” i. p. 82.

[180] York: “Wills and Inventories,” p. 117.

[181] “Essex Archæol. Transactions,” vol. vi. part ii. (New Series), p. 123.

[182] Holinshed’s “Description of Britain,” p. 233.

[183] Johnson’s “Canons,” etc., ii. 365.

[184] Stapledon’s “Register,” p. 182.

[185] H. Randolph, p. 378.

[186] Lyndewode, “Provinciale,” p. 35.

[187] Archbishop Gray’s “Register,” p. 217.

[188] Laid on tombs, or hung on the walls as ornaments. See Matthew Paris, under 1256 (v. 574, Rolls ed.).

[189] See woodcut, p. 165.

[190] “Antiquary,” 1897, pp. 279, 298.

[191] For explanation of the meaning of the vestments in the “Book of Ceremonies,” 1539, see Mackenzie Walcott, “Parish Churches before the Reformation.”

[192] It is to be regretted that in the revived use of copes, as seen, for example, on the steps at the west end of St. Paul’s, on the day of the Queen’s Jubilee procession, the designers have taken the unwieldy and ungraceful fifteenth and sixteenth century garment as their pattern; it is shaped like a cone, it does not fit the shoulders, it imprisons the arms, its corners overlap in front, while its hood sticks up at the back of the head.

[193] Humbert de Romain, General of the Dominicans in the thirteenth century, says that “the great and the poor seldom visited the churches.” Neander’s “Church History,” vii. 439 (Bohn). The great, as we shall see in Chapter XXVII., had their domestic chapels.

[194] T. Belson and J. Fowler, c. 1570, were sentenced to do penance in church for working on a Sunday (“Ecclesiastical Proceedings of the Courts of Durham” (Surtees Society), p. 105). Again, c. 1450, several persons accused of working on Sundays and saints’ days were sentenced to precede the procession as penitents, to receive two “fustigations,” and to abstain from so offending in future under a penalty of 6s. 8d. (pp. 28-30). In 1451, Isabella Hunter and Katherine Pykering were sentenced, for washing linen on the festival of St. Mary Magdalene, to receive two fustigations cum manipulo lini (p. 30).

Francis Gray was admonished to come to church on Sunday under penalty of 4d., and on the festivals under penalty of 2d., to be applied to the fabric of the church of Durham (p. 27).

The same year Thomas Kirkham and Thomas Hunter, accused of mowing a certain meadow on the festival of St. Oswald and receiving payment for it, were sentenced to precede the procession, carrying in hand a bottle of hay, to receive four fustigations, and not to offend again under penalty of 10s. (p. 32).

[195] Lyndwode says, “It maybe gathered that mass was always preceded by matins or primes” (iii. 23).

[196] This was the normal hour in the time of Gregory of Tours and of Gregory the Great.

[197] Bishop Poore, in his “Rule for Anchoresses,” advises them not to be communicated oftener than twelve times a year. The Lateran Council of 1215 ordered that every one should communicate at least once a year at Easter, and should confess at least once a year before Easter.

[198] Common.

[199] From Whitaker’s text of “Piers Ploughman’s Vision,” part ii. p. 529.

[200] Ibid. i. 104.

[201] Early English Text Society.

[202] In the presentation of the churchwardens of Ricall, Yorkshire, in 1519, they complain that “pedlars come into the church porch on feast days, and there sell their goods.”

In 1416 the wardens and questmen of St. Michael-le-Belfry, York, presented that “a common market of vendibles is held in the churchyard on Sundays and holy days, and divers things, and goods, and rushes, are exposed for sale” (“York Fabric Rolls”).

[203] Cardwell.

[204] Procter, “Hist. of the Book of Common Prayer,” p. 227.

[205] Peckham’s “Constitutions,” 1281, bid every priest to celebrate at least once a week.

[206] “The York Manual,” by Rev. J. Raine (Surtees Society), p. 123.

[207] See pp. 460, 461, 496, and p. 472.

[208] The canons of Edgar required the clergy to preach every Sunday.

[209] It was early in the twelfth century that seven was adopted as the number of the Sacraments, vices, virtues, etc. The seven Sacraments are first mentioned by Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, in 1124 (Neander, “Church History,” vii. 465).

[210] See second footnote, p. 214.

[211] See second footnote, p. 214.

[212] Not infrequently a great preacher was sent by a bishop round his diocese, and people were invited by the offer of indulgences to all who would go to hear him.

[213] From a very early time what we reckon as the first and second commandments were taken together as the first; and what we reckon as the tenth was divided into two. So King Alfred gives them in the beginning of his Code of Law.

[214] Cum superstitionibus characterum.

[215] “Indolence, carnal security.”

[216] His writings are chiefly translations or adaptations of the works of St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, and Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. They are marked by tenderness of feeling, vigour, and eloquence in his prose style, and grace and beauty in his verse. See “Yorkshire Writers”—“Richard of Hampole and his Followers,” by C. Horstman, 1895. Here is a short example from “The Book made by Richard Hampole, Hermit, for an Anchoress” (Early Eng. Text Society). “Wit thou well that a bodily turning to God without thine heart following, is but a figure and likeness of virtue and of no soothfastness. Therefore a wretched man or woman is that who neglecteth all the inward keepings of himself, and maketh himself outwardly a form only and likeness of holiness in habit or clothing, in speech and in bodily works, beholding other men’s deeds and judging their faults, thinking himself to be something when he is nothing, and so neglecteth himself. Do thou not so, but turn thine heart with thy body principally to God, and shape thee within in His likeness, by meekness and charity and other spiritual virtues, and then art thou truly turned to Him.”

[217] See “The Parson’s Tale,” in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

[218] Also in the Stowe MS. 89, 2, there are a series of trees representing virtues and vices.

[219] Together.

[220] Other sponsors were required at the Confirmation (see p. 59).

[221] Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, 1378, made a Constitution that all should confess and communicate thrice a year, viz. Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, on pain of excommunication and refusal of burial (Johnson’s “Laws and Canons,” ii. 444).

[222] Death.

[223] In the latter part of the eleventh century, for reasons of expediency, the custom was introduced of dipping the bread into the wine, and so administering to the communicants. This was condemned by the Council of Claremont 1095, but kept its ground in England till forbidden by the Council of London in 1175. The withdrawal of the wine from the laity altogether began in the twelfth century. Anselm had prepared the way by affirming that “the whole Christ was taken under either species.” Robert Pulleyn, 1170, taught that the flesh of Christ alone should be distributed to the laity. The practice came into gradual use in the thirteenth century; the second canon of Archbishop Peckham, 1281, bids the parish priests to teach the more ignorant of the laity that the body and blood of Christ are received under the single species of the bread. It is believed not to have become general in England till it was ordered by the Council of Constance in 1415, which excommunicated all priests who should communicate the laity in both kinds. It is to be observed that in the Sarum Missal there is no recognition whatever of administration in one kind.

In some churches there was an endowment for the provision of the holy bread, as at St. Mary Magdalen, Colchester.

[224] Gravely.

[225] Both.

[226] Hence.

[227] Maiden.

[228] This was first ordered by Pope Honorius III. in 1217.

[229] The churchyard was frequently called the “sanctuary.”

[230] Ratified.

[231] In baptism.

[232] Locked.

[233] There are various forms on record of this “general sentence of excommunication.” Two are given at pp. 86 and 119 of the “York Manual” (Surtees Society).

[234] Upon.

[235] Go.

[236] See plate opposite.

[237] Printed by the Early English Text Society.

[238] Chasuble.

[239] Believe.

[240] Another version says, “Don’t wait for the priest to ask for the mass penny, but go up and offer, though there is no obligation; it will make your chattle increase in your coffer.”

[241] From another version of the book we extract the following sentence, which contains an expression of the doctrine of the Eucharist—

[242] Abroad.

[243] Dead.

[244] Give utterance to.

[245] Also.

[246] “The Epic of the Fall of Man” (S. H. Gurteen), 1896. The translation seems to be as close as may be, consistently with an intelligible expression of the thoughts of the original and a poetical form.

[247] “Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” Furnival (Early English Text Society), pp. 111, 151, 162.

[248] Ransom.

[249] Song of Solomon, ii. 5, 8.

[250] Whence his pain.

[251] Prosperity.

[252] It is easy to quote a long list of quasi-married bishops and dignitaries of this period. The last two bishops of Elmham, Stigand and Ethelmar, appointed by the saintly and ascetic Edward the Confessor, were married men; so was Herbert, the first bishop of the same see (removed to Norwich), appointed by the Conqueror, and perhaps the second William (1086), and Edward (1121). Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln (1094), had a son Simon, whom he made Dean of that Cathedral. Roger of Salisbury (1107) was married. Robert Lymesey, of Chester (1086-1117), left a daughter settled with her husband, Noel, on the see lands near Eccleshall; and Hugh, Dean of Derby in this episcopate, was married. Roger of Lichfield (1121) was a married man; he put his son Richard into the Archdeaconry of Coventry, and he was afterwards promoted to the see (1161). Three Bishops of Durham were married men, viz. Ralph Flambard (1099), Geoffrey Rufus (1133), and the famous Hugh Puiset (1153); the wife of the latter was a lady of the Percy family. Several Archbishops of York were the sons of married clergymen.

There is an extant letter from Thomas, the first Norman Archbishop of York, in which he complains that his canons were married men. The Canons of Durham turned out by Bishop William of S. Carilef (1081) were all married men, so were some of those turned out of Rochester Cathedral by Bishop Gundulf; one of them, Ægelric, who had retired to the Benefice of Chatham, on his wife’s death obtained her burial by the monks of the Cathedral in the most honourable manner (S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 50).

[253] At a visitation of Lincoln Cathedral by Bishop Bokingham, 1363-1398, it appeared that almost all the cathedral clergy disobeyed the canons (S.P.C.K., “Lincoln,” p. 84). A statute of the Chapter of Bath and Wells, in 1323, forbade any canon who had a concubine [wife] before his appointment to meet her except in the presence of discreet witnesses. So late as 1520 the Vicar-General had occasion to admonish the dean to correct one of the canons for keeping a concubine [wife] in his house of residence. The use of the ugly word by which the canons described these persons was not indefensible; the old laws of Imperial Rome recognized a kind of marriage with an inferior wife as respectable, it went so far at one time as to require unmarried proconsuls to take such a wife with them to their province, and this was not to prevent them from making afterwards a legal marriage. For example, St. Helena was first the concubine of Constantius, and he afterwards raised her to the higher dignity of his wife, and Constantine, their son, raised her to the dignity of empress.

[254] In 1221 and the following years, the pope issued mandates to the English bishops bidding them deprive married clerks (“Papal Letters,” vol. i. pp. 79, 84, 86, 90, Rolls Series).

[255] See also Roger of Wendover under 1225, ii. 287, Rolls Series.

[256] This is an allusion to another canon which made it illegal for a man to separate from his wife in order to enter into a religious order requiring a vow of celibacy, without his wife’s consent.

[257] One explanation of the frequent repetition of these canons by successive synods is that in those early days it was not a matter of course that a law once made stood good until repealed; rather, on the contrary, that a law lapsed by desuetude, and needed to be re-enacted from time to time to keep it in vigour. The early kings renewed their predecessors’ concessions; grantees sought the confirmation of charters from the heir of the original grantor; and laws of Parliament were often passed again by subsequent Parliaments. So a new archbishop began his reign by calling the provincial synod together and issuing a set of provincial constitutions, repeating former canons, which it was still necessary to keep in active use.

[258] In the debates of the Twenty-fourth Session of the Council of Trent, in the autumn of 1563, one patriarch declared that the proposed decree annulling clandestine marriages was directly opposed to the law of God, and that he would resist it at the peril of his life (Bishop of Bristol, “On what are the Papal Claims founded?”—S.P.C.K.).

[259] Hook’s “Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury,” vi. 317.

[260] It is very significant that after the Reformation legislation had legalized clerical marriages, the wives of the bishops did not openly live in their palaces with them, but in houses of their own. It was a survival of the custom that ecclesiastics might have wives, but that their wives might not be introduced into society.

[261] “Harl.,” 862, p. 221. A more important example is that of Margaret Countess of Flanders, who married a deacon, and subsequently repudiated him and married again, with the result of a disputed succession (Matthew Paris, under 1254 A.D., v. 435, Rolls Series).

[262] “Transactions of the Gloucester Archæol. Society,” 1893. Paper on “Newnham,” by R. I. Kerr.

[263] J. Raine, Preface to “Archbishop Gray’s Register.”

[264] See other curious instances of it in the “Papal Letters,” Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 239, 243.

[265] “Letters of Henry III.,” Rolls Series.

[266] The Bishop of Oxford doubts whether the sons of such marriages after the twelfth century would be ordained without a dispensation.

[267] MS. 5824, f. 5. British Museum.

[268] Pope Clement VI., in 1398, sent to Bishop Grandisson of Exeter at his request a dispensation for fifty priests and scholars, by name, to receive holy orders and hold benefices. Thirty are classed as illegitimate, both parents being single persons; ten as having one parent a married person; ten as born of presbyters or persons in holy orders (“Grandisson’s Register,” Hingeston-Randolph, part i. p. 147).

[269] “Papal Letters,” vol. i. p. 113.

[270] “Register of Archbishop Gray,” p. 73.

[271] “Stapledon’s Register,” p. 180.

[272] “Archbishop Gray’s Register,” J. Raine, p. 29.

[273] Ibid., p. 153.

[274] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills.”

[275] Tonsured.

[276] There are frequent entries in the Episcopal Registers of dispensations super defectum natalium to the sons of nativi to take orders and hold benefices. There are several examples in which a bishop gives such a dispensation to so-and-so “nativus meus,” to take sacred orders and hold ecclesiastical benefices; a gracious act of kindness to one of his own serfs (see p. 130).

[277] Should feed beggars.

[278] Usually the bishop, but there were many exceptions.

[279] Page 63.

[280] “Labbe’s Councils,” vol. xxii. p. 234.

[281] There is a picture of a bishop’s visitation in the fourteenth century MS. Royal 6 E. VI., and a much better of the sixteenth century in the printed Pontifical, p. 196, and of an archdeacon’s in the MS. Royal 6 E. VI., fols. 132 and 137.

[282] Procter, “History of the Book of Common Prayer,” p. 262.

[283] I refrain from repeating the unsupported assumption that these synodsmen gave name to our modern sidesmen, for which there is no evidence. Moreover, Professor Skeat assures me, in kind reply to a question on the subject, that the principles which govern the gradual changes of our language will not admit of the idea of the derivation of the one word from the other.

[284] From the “Annales de Burton,” p. 307.

[285] When St. Hugh became Bishop of Lincoln he made several decrees, one of which was “that no layman have the celebration of masses inflicted on him as a penance” (“Dioc. Hist. Lincoln,” p. 103, S.P.C.K.). It looks as if the clergy had set up a bad practice of inflicting attendance at Holy Communion, and making an offering as an ordinary act of penance. It was prohibited again in 1378 by Archbishop Simon of Sudbury (Johnson, “Laws and Canons,” ii. 444).

[286] A vulgar game.

[287] The pope was at this time discouraging the study of civil law by the clergy (see Collier’s “Ecclesiastical History,” i. 464).

[288] The bishop appointed certain priests as confessors of the clergy.

[289] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 194.

[290] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 130.

[291] Ibid., p. 111.

[292] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 573.

[293] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 109.

[294] S.P.C.K., “Dioc. Hist. of Hereford,” p. 112.

[295] Quivil’s “Register” (Hingeston-Randolph), p. 337.

[296] There may be some error, since in the “Taxatio” the annual income of Bigby is given as £4 6s. 8d.

[297] Stapledon’s “Register,” p. 342.

[298] S.P.C.K., “Chichester Diocese,” p. 104.

[299] “Dioc. Hist. of Hereford,” pp. 113, 114.

[300] “Papal Letters,” i. 59, Rolls Series.

[301] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 163.

[302] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 95.

[303] (Job xix. 21), A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills.”

[304] “Test. Ebor.,” p. 73.

[305] Brown, “Fasc.,” ii. 412.

[306] October, 1441, the parishioners of Ashdown, Kent, complain that their rector, Lawrence Horwood, does not provide at his own cost, as he ought to do, a clerk to officiate in the church on holy days. The suit in the bishop’s court on this matter went on for two years, and was left unsettled.

[307] This parish clerk occurs in several other of our illustrations of processions and services.

[308] V. 171, Rolls Series.

[309] “Mon. Ang.,” iii. 227.

[310] White Kennett, “Parochial Antiq., Glossary,” sub voc.

[311] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 87.

[312] Ibid., p. 6.

[313] Robert Aphulley, of Lincoln, 1407, makes a bequest to the Gild of Clerks at Lincoln, durante dicta gilda, quando recitabitur nomen meum inter nomina defunctorum, et hanc antiphon “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” etc. (A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 108).

[314] Curled.

[315] Spread out.

[316] Hair.

[317] Complexion.

[318] Neatly.

[319] Watchet, a kind of cloth.

[320] Small twigs of trees (? May blossom).

[321] Musical instruments.

[322] Page 75.

[323] Elizabeth Darcy, 13 Henry V., in her will, desires to be buried in the church of the nuns of Heynynges, and leaves to their chapel a great missal, and her portforium and great psalter to be fastened with an iron chain. She leaves a book of romances, called “Leschell de Reson,” and two Primers, and a book called “Bybill,” and another called “Sainz Ryall,” and another called “Lanselake.” CCs. for masses, to be kept in a chest in some secret place in Lincoln Cathedral and distributed to the chaplains annually (A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 118). After the battle of Lincoln “Fair,” in 1221, the victors “pillaged the churches throughout the city, breaking open the chests and storerooms with axes and hammers, and seizing all the gold and silver in them, clothes of all colours, women’s ornaments, gold rings, goblets, and jewels” (“Roger of Wendover,” ii. 218, Rolls Series).

[324] See instances of it in “Roger of Wendover,” ii. 162, 165, and iii. 209, 211, Rolls Series.

[325] See Erasmus’s “Praise of Folly,” and an account of the “Sanctuaries at Durham and Beverley,” by Rev. J. Raine (Surtees Society).

[326] See “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” pp. 157-194, by the present writer.

[327] Lyndewood’s “Pontificale,” pp. 298, 156.

[328] J. C. Cox, in “Curious Church Gleanings,” p. 44.

[329] “York Fabric Rolls,” Surtees Society, p. 248.

[330] Wilkins, “Concilia,” ii. 170.

[331] See articles in the Churchman’s Family Magazine for 1865, p. 419.

[332] S.P.C.K., “Dioc. Hist. of Lincoln.”

[333] Collier, “Eccl. Hist.,” i. 438.

[334] Peckham, for example (see Collier, “Eccl. Hist.,” i. 484).

[335] “Kingston-on-Thames,” by A. Heales, p. 25.

[336] “Dioc. Hist. of Lincoln,” p. 150, S.P.C.K.

[337] Boniface VII., in his decretal, allows a sub-deacon to take a benefice, and grants him seven years in which to qualify himself for the orders of deacon and priest, by dispensation or permission of his superior (Johnson, “Laws and Canons”).

[338] Bishop Quivil, in 1281, gave a young rector the usual licence of absence for study, and to put his benefice to farm salva Canonica Porcione assignanda per Episcopum pauperibus ejusdem Parochiæ prout in ultimo concilio Lambethensi est statutum (Quivil’s “Register,” p. 321). See also pp. 32, 35, for donations to the fabric.

In 1322, the Bishop of Bath and Wells gave this licence to Emericus of Orchard, and also to Peter Pyke of Kyngeston, on condition that they each should say one hundred Psalms for the soul of the bishop, and of all the faithful departed (T. Hugo’s “Extracts,” vol. i. p. 86).

In 1312, Master William de Carreu, clerk, instituted to Holsworthy, had dispensation for non-residence for three years for study, which in 1315 was renewed for a year, and again in 1316, 1317, and 1318. Master Richard de Honemanacole, sub-deacon, instituted to Iddesleigh in 1320, had a dispensation for non-residence for three years for study, which was renewed in 1323 for a year in foreign parts, and in 1324 renewed again for two years (Bishop Stapledon’s “Register”).

[339] “Letters of Grostete” (Rolls Series), pp. 63, 68, 151.

[340] Quivil’s “Register,” p. 353.

[341] S.P.C.K., “Diocesan History of Bath and Wells.”

[342] Matthew Paris, under 1251 and 1252 A.D., v. 256, 279.

[343] Grandisson’s “Register,” p. 520.

[344] A.D. 1338, Licence to John Hert, Rector of Croxton, to put his church to farm for four years, at the instance of Ade. Lymbergh. Leave of absence for a year to William de Colesbrok, at the instance of Dom. Thom. de Astele. Leave of absence to Dom. Wells de Gresleygh, Rector of Hildresham, for two years, at the instance of the Countess Mareschal (“Register of Bishop Grandisson, of Exeter”).

[345] “Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society,” vol. vi. part ii. (New Series), p. 110.

[346] “Anglo-Saxons,” iii. 297.

[347] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 164.

[348] Whitaker’s “Whalley,” p. 134.

[349] In the time of Edward I.

[350] A ground plan and elevations of some of the buildings of the palace and deanery are engraved in the Lincoln Volume of the Archæol. Institute, 1848 A.D.

[351] The vicars of the residentiaries lived at first in the residence houses in something like the capacity of chaplains (“The Cathedral,” E. W. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury). Ralph of Shrewsbury, 1329-1361, incorporated them at Wells.

[352] Benson’s (Archbishop of Canterbury) “The Cathedral,” p. 35.

[353] Octagonal at York, Salisbury, Wells; decagonal at Old St. Paul’s, Hereford, Lichfield, and here at Lincoln.

[354] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 19.

[355] An example of a married canon.

[356] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 12.

[357] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 27.

[358] There is a portrait of Bishop Longland, at the beginning of a Benedictional written for him, in the Add. MS. 21974, in the British Museum Library.

[359] In the “Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., A.D. 1291, p. 76, the goods spiritual and temporal of the bishop everywhere in the Diocese of Lincoln are returned at the round sum of £1000.

[360] J. Talbot was Prebendary of Cliffeton, Notts, worth £20, and had £6 13s. 4d. from the dean and chapter to find a cantarist for the chantry of Queen Eleanor at Harby, in the parish of Clifton, Notts. S. Grene or Foderby was Prebendary of Bedford Minor, worth £3 10s. 9d.

[361] Probably a worker in laton, an alloy of brass.

[362] “Pulsan’ad organ;” it could not be the organ blower, for his stipend was twice as much as that of the carpenter and lathonius.

[363] They consisted of the impropriation of five parochial benefices.

[364] He was a very forward man in defacing the shrines of this church and delivering up the treasure thereof into King Henry VIII.’s hands (Willis’s “Survey of Cathedrals”).

[365] “Valor Eccl.,” vol. iv. p. 198.

[366] Ibid., p. 43.

[367] Ibid., p. 88.

[368] Ibid., p. 124.

[369] Ibid., p. 166.

[370] Ibid., p. 78.

[371] Ibid., p. 138.

[372] Ibid., p. 344.

[373] Ibid., p. 107.

[374] Ibid., p. 88.

[375] Ibid., p. 127.

[376] Ibid., p. 64.

[377] “Valor Eccl.,” vol. iv. p. 20.

[378] 1 Chron. ii. 5.

[379] There might be—often were—canons who had no prebends; that is the condition to which the too-sweeping reforms of recent times have reduced the great majority of the canons of all our cathedrals.

[380] Benson, “The Cathedral.”

[381] See two canons in their tippets, in Tib. E. VII. f. 27, v., an English MS. of the latter half of the fifteenth century.

[382] “P’comunis et vinis” (“Valor,” iv. pp. 8b and 22).

[383] See p. 362.

[384] The archdeaconries of this diocese (except that of Oxford) had no endowment; their income was derived from fees, etc.

[385] Dr. Foxe’s Christian name is not given. A Matthew Foxe was rector of Hardwyk, £6 17s. 5d.; a John Fox was vicar of East Haddon, £15; and a Thomas Fox, vicar of Lewesden, £6 17s. 4d.

[386] ? founder of a Chantry, £5 6s. 8d., at Leighton Bromeswold Church (see “Valor,” vol. iv. p. 258).

[387] Up to the fifteenth century, at least, part of the cathedral nave was used as the parish church of St. Peter; at a later period, probably after Henry VIII., the north transept was used for that purpose, and so continued until 1853, when the present parish church was built.

[388] “Taxatio of Pope Nicholas,” p. 138b.

[389] Among the items are the rent received from the Society of Lincoln’s Inn for their Inn, £6 13s. 4d.; and the rent of certain tenements in Chancery Lane (which are still called the Chichester Rents), £2 13s. 4d.

[390] “Valor,” vol. i. p. 308.

[391] Ibid., p. 318.

[392] Ibid., p. 340.

[393] Ibid., p. 346.

[394] Ibid., vol. iv. p. 19.

[395] Ibid., p. 19b.

[396] Ibid., vol. i. p. 301.

[397] Ibid., p. 185.

[398] “Valor,” vol. i. p. 301.

[399] Ibid., p. 333.

[400] Ibid., p. 301.

[401] Ibid., p. 324.

[402] Ibid., p. 317.

[403] Ibid., p. 300.

[404] Ibid., p. 345.

[405] An antiphon was sung nightly before St. Mary’s image by the junior vicar after evensong (1459-63). The shrine of St. Richard stood as usual at the back of the high altar; a harper used to play and sing the praises of the saint (Rev. T. Hugo).

[406] Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, Building News, May 15, 1874.

[407] The permanent relation between a religious house and its founder is illustrated in the case of Boxgrove Cluniac Priory, Sussex. The founder, in 1120, Robert de Hara, stipulated [for himself and his descendants, we take for granted] that he should choose one of the monks to officiate in the chapel at his neighbouring manor house of Halnaker; and that if at any time the monks should fail to elect to a vacancy in the office of prior within three months, he should nominate.

The prioress and nuns of Mount Grace, c. 1250, bound themselves to present each successive Prioress for approval to John le Verdun, their patron (advocato nostro), and his heirs or their deputies (“Eccl. Documents,” p. 66, Camden Society. See also Cartnell Priory, “Papal Letters,” vol. i. p. 135, Rolls Series).

[408] See the case of two of the Prebendaries of Lincoln, named at p. 343; and of two parish priests, at pp. 286 and 294.

[409] Matthew of Westminster says the Franciscans dwelt “in bodies of ten or seven;” but Chaucer seems to intimate that the usual number of friars in each house was thirteen—

[410] Wert thou not.

[411] Health and strength.

[412] Seal.

[413] Neander’s “Church History,” vii. 403 and 399.

[414] Lynwoode’s “Provinciale,” p. 133.

[415] e.g. the valuation, in the “Valor Ecclesiasticus,” of the Carmelites of Lynn is a clear income of 35s. 8d.; of the Dominicans, 18s.; of the Austin Friars, 24s. 6d. (“Valor Eccl.,” iii. 397, 398). At Northampton the rent fetched by the whole friary, with the friar’s house and garden, is £10 10s.; of the Franciscans, £6 17s. 4d.; of the Dominicans, £5 7s. 10d. (“Valor Eccl.,” v. 318).

[416] Except the trinoda necessitas.

[417] As a consequence of the Scottish Wars, the northern province was so harried and impoverished that the clergy were unable to pay the tenths demanded, and a new taxation of part of the Province was made in 1318.

[418] St. Botolph, Colchester.

[419] See Appendix II.

[420] The Bishop of Oxford says the whole number of parish churches in the Middle Ages was not much over 8000 (“Const. Hist.,” iii. p. 396). There have been very erroneous estimates current. The Parliament of 1371 granted to the king a sum of £50,000, to be raised by contribution of 22s. 3d. from each parish, there being, according to the common opinion, 40,000 parishes in England. On this the Bishop of Oxford makes a note (“Const. Hist.,” ii. 459) that it is an illustration of the absolute untrustworthiness of mediæval figures, which, even when most circumstantially minute, cannot be accepted, except where as in the public accounts vouchers can be quoted. The returns to a writ issued by the king to the local authorities of each shire to certify the number of parishes in it, showed that there were only 8669. Stow, in his “Annals,” p. 268, gives the returns in extenso. The anonymous author of the famous libel, “A Supplication for Beggars,” says there are within the realm of England 52,000 parish churches. Maskell, in his “Monumenta Ritualia,” I. ccij, mentions several MSS. in the British Museum which contain memoranda on the subject, Royal 8 B xv., Royal 8 D iv., Titus D 3. In the first, in a fifteenth-century handwriting, is a note sunt in Regno Angliæ Ecclesiæ parochiales, 46,100.

[421] In 1371 the smaller benefices and chantries were taxed by the king (Stowe, “Annales,” p. 268).

[422] The following are the details for the several dioceses (except Durham and Chester):—

Diocese. Beneficed. Unbeneficed.

Lincoln—Archdeaconry of Lincoln, Stow, Leicester, and Rutland 2,001 1,660

Lincoln—Archdeaconry of Northampton, Hunts, Bucks, Oxon, and Bedford 1,522 1,313

Canterbury 599 495

Bath and Wells—Archdeaconry of Bath 119 82

Bath and Wells—Archdeaconry of Taunton 139 72

Bath and Wells—Archdeaconry of Wells 335 336

Salisbury—Archdeaconry of Berks and Wilts 461 246

Salisbury—Archdeaconry of Dorchester and Sarum 734 467

Exeter—County of Devon 559 756

Exeter—County of Cornwall 199 487

Ely 358 658

Chichester 473 168

London—Archdeaconry of London 336 427

London—Archdeaconry of Essex, Middlesex, and Colchester 268 241

London—“et predicti Coll.” 531 526

Rochester—In the City and Diocese of Rochester 157 54

Rochester—In the Deanery of Iselham 4 9

Jurisdiction of St. Alban 106 50

Winchester—Archdeaconry of Winton 616 305

Winchester—Archdeaconry of Surrey 218 —

Winchester—In Arch. predicti — 152

Coventry and Lichfield—Archdeaconry of Coventry 272 241

Coventry and Lichfield—Archdeaconry of Stafford 180 321

Coventry and Lichfield—Archdeaconry of Derby 175 281

Coventry and Lichfield—Archdeaconry of Cestr 162 336

Coventry and Lichfield—Archdeaconry of Salop 106 —

Worcester—Archdeaconry of Wigan 425 425

Worcester—Archdeaconry of Gloucester 414 409

York 1,790 1,481

Carlisle 135 97

Norwich 1,844 1,848

15,238 13,943

[423] The preface to the “Valor,” when it was printed by the Record Office, says, “We have here presented before us in one grand conspectus the whole ecclesiastical establishment of England and Wales, as it had been built up in successive centuries, and when it was carried to its greatest height.... So that we at once see not only the ancient extent and amount of that provision which was made by the piety of the English nation for the spiritual edification of the people, by the erection of churches and chapels for the decent performance of the simple and touching ordinances of the Christian religion; but how large a proportion had been saved from private appropriation of the produce of the soil, and how much had been subsequently given, to form a public fund accessible to all, out of which might be supported an order of cultivated and more enlightened men dispersed through society, and by means of which blessings incalculable might be spread amongst the whole community. If there were spots of extravagances, yet on the whole it is a pleasing as well as a splendid spectacle, especially if we look with minute observation into any portion of the Record, and compare it with a map which shows the distribution of population in those times over the island, and then observe how religion had pursued men even to his remotest abodes, and was present among the most rugged dwellers in the hills and wildernesses of the land, softening and humanizing their hearts.”

[424]

Rectories. Vicarages. Chapels. Chantries.

Canterbury 225 108 13 23

Rochester 128 56 10 13

Bath and Wells 368 126 33 53

Chichester 279 124 13 39

London 731 201 31 310

Winchester 289 95 21 14

Sarum 540 182 68 72

Oxford 167 64 8 10

Lincoln 1,310 492 30 213

Peterboro 355 92 10 30

Exeter 524 185 43 36

Gloucester 246 106 35 30

Hereford 152 84 27 57

Coventry and Lichfield 466 207 29 106

Chester 197 78 5 127

Worcester 133 47 17 31

Norwich 1,103 276 31 60

Ely 157 80 11 29

Llandaff 143 61 22 12

St. David’s 288 120 10 3

Bangor 110 27 45 4

St. Asaph 157 83 4 0

York 581 305 19 424

Carlisle 75 38 0 19

Durham 114 70 1 18

8,838 3,307 536 1,733

[425] “Constitutional History,” iii. 366.

[426] In the Easter account-book.

[427] “Valor,” v. 32, 263, etc.

[428] “Valor,” v. 35.

[429] Ibid., p. 61.

[430] Ibid., p. 75.

[431] Ecclia de Donecaster divisa est pars que fuit Hugonis p’t’ pens’ in eadem, £43 6s. 8d.; pens’ Abbis Be Marie Ebor. in eadem, £5; pars Rogers’ in eadem p’t’ pens’, £40; pens’ Abbis Be Marie Ebor. in eadem, £5 (“Taxatio,” p. 299).

[432] “Valor,” v. 45.

[433] Ibid., p. 157.

[434] The chrisom was the linen cloth, or garment, which the priest put on the recently baptized child. It was to be offered by the mother when she came to be churched. It might be used again at baptism, or for other church purposes, or it might be converted into ornaments for the good of the church, but not turned to any profane use (“Constitutions of St. Edmund of Canterbury,” 1234).

In the Visitation of Churches in the patronage of St. Paul’s (1249-1252, p. xii.), fifty-six panni chrismales are said to be at Tillingham church, and at Pelham Furneaux several chrisoms were used as manutergia—napkins for wiping the hands at mass.

[435] “Valor,” iii. 45.

[436] “Valor Eccl.,” iii. 45.

[437] Ibid., iii. p. 38.

[438] Ibid., v. p. 189.

[439] Denar’ Missaribz et candel’ oblat’. Porcione panis bn̄dict’ diebus dni oblat’ (see p. 236).

[440] Ibid., v. 157.

[441] For sending his locum tenens to the synods and processions? (“Valor Eccl.,” i. p. 67).

[442] “History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” J. E. T. Rogers.

[443] “Annals of St. Paul’s Cathedral,” p. 145.

[444] Matthew of Westminster, under the year 1249, says of a number of men in the country about Southampton, that they were of such rank that they were considered equal to knights, and that their estates were valued at £40, £50, or £80 a year (Rolls Series, ii. 360).

[445] Ibid., under year 1253, ii. 383.

[446] Agobarth, Archbishop of Lyons, c. 833, complains that there is scarcely one to be found who aspires to any degree of honour and temporal distinction who has not his domestic priests; and that these chaplains are constantly to be found serving tables, mixing the strained wine, leading out the dogs, managing ladies’ horses, or looking after the lands.

[447] Lib. ix. ep. lxx. (Migne 77, p. 100).

[448] Thorpe’s “Select Charters,” pp. 521 and 511.

[449] Under the year 1067.

[450] In Ludlow Castle, the great chapel in the court was built soon after the Temple Church in London, and, like it, with a circular nave and aisles, and projecting choir.

[451] A chapel at Charney, Berks, of the latter part of the thirteenth century, is described and engraved in the “Archæological Journal” for 1848, p. 311.

[452] These castle chapels were usually dedicated to some saint; as Windsor to St. George, the Tower to St. Peter, Oxford to St. George, Tattershall to St. Nicholas, Toryton to St. James, Barnard Castle to the Twelve Apostles, Alnwick to the Twelve Apostles, etc.

[453] “Archæologiæ,” xxv. pp. 320, 323.

[454] Chapel of the Earl of Northumberland—

First, a preist, a doctor of divinity, a doctor of law, or a bachelor of divinitie, to be dean of my lord’s chapel.

It. A preist for to be surveyour of my lorde’s lands.

It. A preist for to be secretary to my lorde.

It. A preist for to be amner (almoner) to my lorde.

It. A preist for to be sub-dean for ordering and keaping the quoir in my lorde’s chapell daily.

It. A preist for riding chaplein for my lorde.

It. A preist for a chaplein to my lorde’s eldest son, to wait uppon him daily.

It. A preist for my lorde’s clerk of the closet.

It. A preist for a maister of gramer in my lorde’s house.

It. A preist for reading the Gospel in the chapel daily.

It. A preist for singing of our Ladie’s Mass in the chapell daily.

The number of these persons as chapleins and priests in household are xi.

The gentlemen and children of my lord’s chappell which be not appointed to attend at no time but only in exercising of Godde’s service in the chapell daily at Matteins, Lady-Mass, Highe-Mass, Evensong, and Compeynge:—

First, a bass.

It. A second bass.

A maister of the childer, or counter-tenor.

Second and third counter-tenor.

A standing tenor.

A second, third, and fourth standing tenor.

The number of these persons as gentlemen of my lorde’s chappell xi.

Children of my lorde’s chappell—

Three trebles and three second trebles, in all vi.

A memorandum of all the offerings of my lorde and my lady and my lorde’s children customably used yearly at principall feasts, and other offeringe dayes of the yere—

Furst. My lorde’s offeringe accustomede upon All hallow-Day yerely, when his lordshippe is at home at the Highe Mass, if he kepe Chapell, xijd.

Item. My lade’s offerringe accustomede upon All hallowe-Day yerely, if she offer at the Highe Masse, if my lorde kepe chapell, to be paid out of my lord’s coffures, if she be at my lorde’s fyndinge and not at her owen, viij.

And, not to repeat the formal verbiage in every entry—

On Xmasday my lord gave xij, and my lady viij.

On St. Stephen’s Day, when his lordeshipp is at home, a groit to bow at a Low Mass in his closet.

On New-Yers-Day, my lord, if he be at home and keep chapel, offers xij, and my lady viij.

On Twelfth Day my lord offers xij, and my lady viij.

On Candilmas-Day to be sett in his lordschippe’s candil to offer at the High Mass v groits for the v Joyes of our lady xxd., and my lady xij. And my lord useth and accustomyth yerely upon Candilmas-Day to caus to be delyveride for the offeringe of my lords son and heire the lorde Percy to be sett in his candil ij, and for every one of my yonge masters, my lords yonge sonnes to be sett in the candils affore the offeringe j for aither of them, iiij. On St. Blaye’s Day to be sett in his lordsshippe candil to offer at Hye Mass, if his lordschyp kepe chapell iiijd., and my lady iiij, and my lorde sone and heire j, and my lords yonger sonnes j for every of them. Upon Goode-Friday when his lorschippe crepeth the cros, iiij, my lady iiij, and my lord Percy ij, and my yonge masters, when they crepe the cross, j.

On Easter Even, when his lordshipp taketh his rights, iiij, and my lady, when her ladischipe taketh her rights, iiij, and his lordschippe’s children that be of aige to take their rights, ij, to every of them. And my lord useth yerely to caus to be delyvrede to every of his lordschippe’s wardes or Hausmen, or anny other yonge gentilmen that be at his lordschippe’s fynding, and be of aige to take their rights after ij, to every such person.

On Easter day, in the mornynge, when my lord crepeth to the cross after the Resurreccion iiij, and my lady iiij, and the lord Percy, and my yonge masters every of them j.

On Easter day at High Mass my lord offers xjj, my lady viij, and his children each j.

On St. George’s Day, when my lord is at home, and kepith St. George’s Feast, xd.

My lorde’s offeringe accustomed at the Mas of Requiem, upon the morrow after Seyne George-Day, when his lordschip is at home, and kepith Sayn George Feast, which is accustomed yerely to be don for the soulles of all the knightes of the Order of the Garter departede to the mercy of God, iiij.

My lord useth when he is at home, and kepith Dergen over night, and Mas of Requiem upon the morrowe of my lord his Father xij month mynde, to offer at the Mas of Requiem iiij, and his sons, every of them, at the Mas of Requiem done for my lord’s father xij month mynde j.

On Ascension Day my lord offers xij, my lady viij.

On Whitsonday xjj, my lady viij, and his children j.

On Trinity Sonday xij, my lady viij.

On Mychaelmas iiij, for his lordschipe offeringe to the Holy Blode of Hailles (Hales) iiij; for his offeringe to our Lady of Walsyngeham iij; to Sayne Margarets, Lyncolinschire iiij.

My lord useth yerely to sende for the upholding of the light of waxe, which his lordschip fynds byrnynge yerely before the Holy Blode of Hailles, containing xvj lb. of wax in it after vijd., ob. for the fyndynge of every lb.; if redy wrought by a covenant maide by gret with the monk for the hole yere for fynding of the saide light byrnying xs.

The same for a light at Walsingham vjs., viiid., and at St. Margaret’s x. And for a light to burne before our Lady in the Whitefrers of Doncaster of my lord’s foundation at mas-tyme daily xiijs. iiijd.

Presents at Xmas to Barne Bishop [the Boy Bishop?] of Beverley and York, when he comes, as he is accustomed, yearly.

Rewards to the children of his chapell when they do sing the responde called Exaudivi at the mattynstime for xi in vespers upon Allhallow Day, 6s. 8d.

On St. Nicholas Eve, 6s. 8d.

To them of his lordshipe’s chappell if they doe play the play of the Nativitie upon Xmas Day in the mornynge in my lorde’s chappell before his lordship xxs.

For singing Gloria in Excelsis at the mattens time upon Xmas Day in the mornyng.

To the Abbot of Miserewle [Misrule] on Xmas (?)

To the yeoman or groom of the vestry for bringing him the hallowed taper on Candlemas Day?

To his lordship’s chaplains and other servts. that play the play before his lordship on Shrofetewsday at night xxs.

That play the play of Resurrection upon Estur Daye in the mg. in y lorde’s chappell before his lordship.

To the yeoman or groom of the vestry on Allhallows Day for syngnge for all christynne soles the saide nygthe so it be past mydnight 3s. 4d.

The Earl and Lady were brother and sister of St. Christopher Gilde Yorke, and pd. 6s. 8d. each yearly; and when the Master of the Gild brought my lord and my lady for their lyverays a yard of narrow violette clothe and a yard of narrow rayed cloth, 13s. 4d. (i.e. a yard of each to each).

And to Proctor of St. Robert’s, Knasbruge, when my lorde and my lady were brother and sister, 6s. 8d. each.

At pp. 272-278 is an elaborate programme of the ordering of my lord’s chapel for the various services.

At p. 292 is an order about the washing of the linen of the chapel for a year. Eighteen surplices for men, and six for children, and seven albes, and five altar cloths for covering of the altars, sixteen times a year against the great feasts.

At p. 285 is an order that the vestry stuff shall have at every removal [for it was carried about from one to another of my lord’s houses] one cart for the carrying of the nine antiphoners, the four grailles, the hangings of the three altars in my lord’s closet and my ladie’s, and the sort [suit] of vestments and single vestments and copes “accopeed” daily, and all other my lord’s chappell stuff to be sent afore my lord’s chariot before his lordship remove (“Antiq. Repertory,” iv. 242).