CHAPTER XII.

Before the universities bound their graduates to a stable attire, afterwards usurped also even by the blind SirJohns, “the clergy wore garments of a light hue, as yellow, red, green, etc., with their shoes piked, their hair crisped, their girdles armed with silver, their shoes, spurs, bridles, etc., buckled with like metal, their apparel (for the most part) of silk, and richly furred, their caps laced and buttoned with gold.”[182]

FABRIC AND FURNITURE OF CHURCHES, AND OFFICIAL COSTUME OF PRIESTS.

It is not necessary to describe the churches of mediæval England, for happily they still exist of all periods and styles, from the rude Saxon church built of split oak or chestnut trunks, at Greenstead, in Essex, down to the noble perpendicular churches of the close of the fifteenth century.

We may, however, make two remarks upon them. First, the comparative magnitude and sublimity of the churches was far greater in the times when they were built. The contrast between the village church and the cots of the peasantry around it, and even the small, lowly, half-timber manor house in its neighbourhood; the contrast between the town churches and the narrow streets of timber houses; still more the contrast between the great cathedrals and monastic churches and all the habitations of men; fills us with admiration of the splendid genius of the men whodesigned them, and the large-minded devotion of the men who caused them to be built.

Saffron Walden Church, Essex.

The second remark which we have to make is that, though we have the old churches, they are, for the most part, stripped of all their ancient decorations and furnishing; and that it requires some ecclesiological knowledge and some power of imagination to realize their ancient beauty. If we want to replace before the mind’s eye the sort of church in which a fourteenth or fifteenth century rector or vicar said theDivine service continually, we shall have the advantage of finding the church still existing, perhaps with very little alteration in its general architectural outline; but we shall have to imagine the walls covered with fresco painting of Old and New Testament story; the windows filled with gem-like glass; the chancel screens and the rood loft with its sacred figures; the chantry chapels; the altar tombs with effigies of knight and lady; the lights twinkling before altar, rood and statue.

Market Harborough Church, Leicestershire.

Chapel of Edward the Confessor, Westminster Abbey.

We shall see from the Constitution of Archbishop Gray, quoted below, that the parishioners were, byancient custom, liable for the maintenance and repair of the body and tower of their church; the fifth of the “extravagants” of Stratford, Archbishop of York (1342),[183]records that this was done by means of a proportionate tax on the estates and farms of the parish. From the records of bishops’ Visitations, we learn, further, that the bishops exercised greater power in the matter of church building in old times than they do now. They had not only the power to require that the church should be kept in good repair, but that, where necessary, it should be enlarged. Thus, Bishop Stapledon (1309) orders the parishioners of Ilfracombe, since the church is not capable of holding all the parishioners, to enlarge it by lengthening the body of the church by 24 feet at least, and adding two aisles, within two years, under a penalty of £40.[184]

At a Visitation of Sturton parish church, in 1314, in the time of the same bishop, it was returned that, in addition to defects in the furniture, the church is too small (strictus) and dark; the nave of the church likewise. Therefore, “the lord bishop enjoins the rectors, vicar, and parishioners, that they cause the said defects to be made good, according to what belongs to them severally, before the next feast of St. Michael, under penalty of £20 to the fabric of the [cathedral] Church of Exeter; except the construction of the new chancel and the enlargement of the church, and they to be done before St. Michael day twelve-month.”[185]

From the thirteenth century we have full information of the furniture and utensils, vestments, and books which the canons required to be provided in every church for the performance of Divine service and the ministration of the offices of the Church. Walter Gray, Archbishop of York, c. 1250, made a constitution which we subjoin; and similar lists occur from time to time, for both provinces, in visitation inquiries, inventories and constitutions;[186]e.g.in the Constitutions of Robert of Winchelsea, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1305.

Since much altercation has arisen between some of the rectors and vicars and their parishioners about the various ecclesiastical ornaments as to what it belonged to the rectors or their vicars to provide and maintain and what to the parishioners, we ordain and appoint that the parishioners provide a chalice, missal, the principal vestment of the church, viz. a chasuble, white albe, amice, stole, maniple, zone, with three towels, a corporal, and other decent vestments for the deacon and sub-deacon, according to the means of the parishioners and of the church, together with a principal silk cope for chief festivals, and with two others for the rulers of the choir in the foresaid festivals, a processional cross and another smaller cross for the dead, and a bier for the dead, a vase for holy water, an osculatory, a candlestick for the Paschal candle, a thurible, a lantern with a bell, a Lent veil, two candlesticks for the taper bearers; of books, a Legendary, Antiphonary, Gradual, Psalter, Topiary, Ordinale, Missal, Manual; a frontal to the great altar, three surplices, a suitable pyx for the “Corpus Christi,” a banner for theRogations, great bells with their ropes, a holy font with fastening, a chrismatory, images in the church, and the principal image in the church of the person to whom the church is dedicated, the repair of books and vestments so often as they require repair; and in addition to all the aforesaid things a light in the church, the repair of the nave of the church, with its bell-tower, internally and externally, viz. with glass windows, with the enclosure of the cemetery, with other things belonging to the nave of the church, and other things which by custom belong to the parishioners. To the rectors or vicars belong all other things according to various ordinances, viz. the principal chancel with its repairs both in walls and roofs and glass windows belonging to the same, with desks and forms and other ornaments suitable, so that with the prophet they may be able to sing, “Lord, I have loved the honour of Thy house,” etc. As to the manse of the rectory and its repair, and other things which are not written in this book, let the rectors or vicars know that they may be compelled by the ordinary of the place, to do according to this constitution and others in this case provided.[187]

This is the formal catalogue of the minimum which the law required the parson and the parishioners to provide and maintain. But people were not satisfied with doing only what they were obliged to do. A considerable number of inventories exist of the treasures which had gradually accumulated as the gifts of pious benefactors to the cathedrals and churches: shrines, reliquaries, statues, crosses, mitres, pastoral staves, lamps and candlesticks, chalices, patens, pyxes, paxes, censers, processional crosses of gold and silver, often set with precious stones; altarcloths, hangings, palls,[188]vestments of the costliest fabrics, many of them embroidered, and often ornamented with precious stones. When we add the paintings of stained and sculptured marble, and carved woodwork of the fabric, and the monuments with their recumbent statues, and call to mind that the best art of the period was devoted to these works, we recognize that the churches of the country were treasures of art. Even the humblest village churches often possessed noble tombs of the local lords, and their gifts of ornaments of costly material and fine workmanship.

PROCESSION OF BISHOPS WITH CROSS BEARER, THURIFER,HOLY WATER BEARER, PRIESTS, CANONS AND BISHOPS.FROM THE XV. CENT. MS., TIBERIUS, B VIII., f. 43.

If we wish to see our priests as they ministered in church, it will be necessary to describe the vestments which were worn by them in those days.[189]

It is a little doubtful what they wore at the very beginning of our English Church history. The British bishops, no doubt, from early times down to the sixth century, wore the white tunic with long sleeves, which from its general colour was called the albe. The bishops and priests of the Celtic school who clung to the old usages were probably still wearing the pallium when Augustine came to Kent. But about that time the pallium was being superseded by a newer vestment called the planeta or chasuble, a circle of linen or other material with a hole in the middle through which the head was passed, so that the garment fell in folds all round the person. Verylikely Augustine and the Continental school of clergy wore this new garment, and it would be adopted by the Celtic school when they accepted the Continental usages. The chasuble continued to be worn at the altar down to the end of the Middle Ages with a slight modification in shape; the voluminous folds in which it was gathered over the arms, when the hands were in use, were practically inconvenient, and so the circle came to be contracted into an oval, and then the ends of the oval were shaped to a point.

The orarium, which afterwards came to be called the stole, was originally a prayer-veil worn over the head by the priests and people of heathen Rome when they attended a sacrifice. It had an embroidered border which fell round the neck and shoulders. In course of time the veil was narrowed to its embroidered border, and was lengthened into a kind of scarf, worn over the shoulders and hanging down in front. A deacon wore the stole over one shoulder.

In early times the priest and deacon bore a napkin, called the fanon or maniple, over the left arm, with which to wipe the edge of the chalice; but this also was in time reduced to a strip of embroidered material.

The amice was a linen hood worn with the chasuble, placed over the head while the chasuble was put on, and then thrown back; so that it was seen only like a loose fold of linen round the neck.

The dalmatic was another upper garment, in form like a wide short tunic slit up at the sides, with shortwide sleeves; and about the tenth century it became the distinctive upper vestment of the deacon. A little later the sub-deacon wore a tunicle, which was a scantier dalmatic.

We often find “a suit of vestments” mentioned in inventories and wills, and in several places it is defined in detail as a chasuble, two tunicles, three albes, and three amices, the vestments needed by the celebrant, his deacon, and sub-deacon; the chasuble and tunicles would be of the same material, colour, and style of ornamentation.

The cope was simply a cloak. The shape in which we first find it as an ecclesiastical vestment was an exact semicircle, usually with an ornamented border along the straight side, which, when worn, fell down in two lines of embroidery in front. It was originally a protection from the weather, as indicated by its name “Pluviale,” and by the hood, which is so integral a part of the original idea of the garment, that for centuries a flat triangular piece of ornamental work was sewn at the back of the cope, to represent this hood. It first appears as a clerical vestment about the end of the ninth century, and was worn in processions and in choir.

The surplice is the most modern of the clerical vestments. The fashion, introduced about the eleventh century, of having the tunic lined with fur, was found very comfortable by the clergy in their long services in cold churches; but the strait, girded albe looked ungraceful over it, and so the albe was enlarged into a surplice, to be worn in all minoroffices over the furred robe, as its name,superpelliceum, indicates, while the albe continued to be used in the Eucharistic Service.

Bishop and Canons, from Richard II.’s “Book of Hours,” British Museum.

The shape of the surplice differs much in different examples. We give some illustrations in which it will be seen that the surplice of a canon is long and ample, while that of a clerk is little wider than an albe, but has wide sleeves and is not girded. In an inventory of the goods of St. Peter, Cornhill, at the time of the Reformation, we find “gathered surplices” for the “curate,” and “plain surplices” for the choir.[190]

Canons in choir wore over the surplice a short furred cope or cape, called an amyss, with a fur-lined hood attached, of curious shape, as shown in several of our illustrations. Bishops wore the whole series of vestments with the addition of mitre, jewelled gloves and shoes, and carried a pastoral staff.

The furniture of the churches and the vestments of its ministers were of very different degrees of beauty and cost—from altar vessels of simple silver of rude country make up to vessels of gold fashioned by great artists and enriched with jewels; from a simple linen chasuble up to copes and chasubles of cloth of gold, enriched with embroidery of high artistic merit and adorned with gems.

After these dry technicalities, we have only to illustrate the vestments as they appeared in actual use by some pictures from illuminated manuscripts and other sources, with a few explanatory notes where they seem to be necessary. Once granted that some distinctive dress is becoming and desirable for the clergy in their ministrations, and the rest is mere matter of taste. There is nothing mysterious about the mediæval vestments. They were all at first (except the Orarium) ordinary articles of everyday apparel, worn by clergy and laity alike. But it has always been thought right that the clergy should not be in too great haste to follow new fashions, and so they went on wearing fashions till they were obsolete; moreover, some of these copes and planetas were costly vestments given by kingsand great men expressly to be worn in Divine service, and had been worn by saints, and had come to have venerable associations, and no one wished to discard them; and so they came to be distinctive and venerable.

Imaginative people soon invented a symbolical meaning for the various vestments, and other imaginative people varied the symbolism from time to time. St. Isidore of Seville, in the sixth century, saw in the white colour of the albe a symbol of the purity which becomes the clerical character, and that was so obvious and simple, that it continued to be the recognized meaning all through the ages. Of the chasuble, St. Germanus of Constantinople, in the eighth century, says it is a symbol of our Lord’s humility; Amalarius of Metz, in the ninth century, says it means good works; and Alcuin, in the tenth century, takes it to signify charity, because it covers all the other vestments as charity excels all other virtues. Later writers made the dalmatic, because it is in the shape of a cross, signify the Passion of our Lord; the stole, the yoke of Christ; and so forth.[191]

There is a fashion in clerical vestments as well as in the clothes of the laity; the forms of the cope, chasuble, etc., at different times are sufficiently shown in our illustrations to make description unnecessary. We may make the one remark, that whereas thecope and chasuble of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries are of pliant material and skilful fashion, and fall in graceful folds, the like vestments in the sixteenth century came to be made of stiff material unskilfully shaped; in the seventeenth century the chasuble has its sides entirely cut away, of necessity, because the arms were unable to act under the weight and rigidity of the material, while the back and front hang down like boards cut into the shape of a violoncello.[192]

Goodrich, Bishop of Ely.(From his monumental brass.)

It will be convenient to introduce here, from the monumental brass of Bishop Goodrich, 1554A.D., an example of late date, in which the vestments are very clearly drawn, and briefly to enumerate them. The albe reaches to the feet, the piece of embroidery upon it being one of five such pieces, in front and back at the feet, on the wrists, and on the breast, symbolizing the “five wounds” of our Lord. Over that may be seen the lower part of the sub-deacon’s tunicle; over that the ends of the stole; then the dalmatic; and over all the chasuble. The embroidered vestment round the shoulders is probably the “rationale,” an ornament rich with gold and jewels, worn by some bishops in this country. The plain fillet round the neck is the linen amice. The jewelled mitre andthe pastoral staff need no description. The hands are covered with gloves of gauntlet shape, and the tassel with which the wrist terminates will be evident to careful observation. The maniple will be seen hanging over the left wrist. The book held in the right hand is probably the Bible, and the seal dependent from the same hand is the badge of this bishop’s civil office of Lord Chancellor.

Abbot Delamere.St. Albans.

THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN CHURCH.

The public services on Sunday in a parish church were Matins, Mass, and Evensong. We do not propose more than to take an outside view of them; the reader who cares to do so may without difficulty obtain a missal and breviary, and study their contents. We may, however, make two remarks bearing upon the important general question of the popular religion of these Middle Ages. The first is that there is a widespread error on the subject of the “Mass” in the minds of those who have never opened a missal. It is taken for granted that it was the most corrupt and idolatrous feature of all the Roman corruptions; on the contrary, the Eucharistic service of the Mediæval English Church was very little altered in substance from that of the sixth century, and is so sound that it is inconsistent with some of the modern Roman corruptions in doctrine and practice. The Matins and Evensong of those times consisted of an accumulationof several of the “Hour” offices; and the Morning and Evening Prayer of our Prayer-book consists of a condensation of those same “Hours;” so that the regular popular services were far more free from corruptions and superstitions than is commonly supposed. These were to be found chiefly in glosses on the services, and additions to them.

It is probable that the Sunday services were attended with fair regularity by the majority of the people.[193]Not only did the clergy exercise more authoritative oversight over their people than they do in these times, but it was the duty of churchwardens to present people who were flagrantly negligent of their religious duties, and of the Ecclesiastical Courts to punish them.[194]

The times of service varied in different times andplaces, but they were earlier than our present usage.

It is certain that matins always preceded the Divine service,[195]and it is probable that the normal time for the latter was nine o’clock;[196]it was not considered right to celebrate it after twelve o’clock.

If not every Sunday, at least at certain times a sermon was preached, about which we shall have to speak more at large presently. All the people who were of age and not excommunicate were communicants, but the vast majority only communicated once a year, at Easter, some pious people a little more frequently, but the most devout not oftener than twelve times a year.[197]But at every celebration a loaf of bread, the “holy loaf,” was blessed, and broken or cut in pieces, and given to the people. Here comes in a question whether the laity attended mass fasting. It would seem that it was not necessary, since they did not communicate, but that they may have done so out of reverence is suggested by a note in Blunt’s Annotated Prayer-book, that those who had not come fasting to the service, did not eat their portion of the “holy loaf,” but gave it to another, or reserved it for futureconsumption. People dined no doubt immediately they reached their homes after service.

Probably the evensong at about three in the afternoon was not so well attended as the morning service; people who have some distance to go in all weathers from their homes to the church do not usually go twice a day. It was probably the general custom to catechize the children in the afternoon.

All this is illustrated by some extracts from the author of “Piers Plowman”:—

For holy church exhorteth All manner of peopleUnder obedience to be, And buxom to the Law.First religious of Religion their Rule to hold,And under obedience to be by days and by nights;Lewd[198]men to labour, lords to huntIn friths and forests for fox and other beasts,That in wild woods be, And in waste places,As wolves that worry men, Women and children;And upon Sunday to cease, God’s service to hear,Both Matins and Masse, And after meat in churchesTo hear their Evensong Every man ought.Thus it belongeth to Lord, to learned, and to lewd,Each holy day to hear Wholly the service,Vigils and fasting days Further to know.[199]

Sloth said, in a fit of repentance—

Shall no Sunday be this seven years, Except sickness hinder,That I shall not go before day To the dear church,And hear Matins and Masse, As if I a monk were;Shall no ale after meat Hold me thenceTill I have Evensong heard, I swear to the Rood.[200]

This confirms our statement that on Sundays people generally went to matins and mass, and afterwards to dinner; and in the afternoon to evensong. Sloth is boasting when he says that in future he will go to church before day like a monk; ordinary lay people did not do so; and he admits the fault of sitting over the ale after dinner, instead of going to evensong.

There seems to have been a certain laxity of practice in those days as in these. We all know that it was the custom in many country churches in modern times—and very likely still is so in some—not to begin the service until the squire came; we are shocked to find that it was so in those earlier times, and that the squire was sometimes very late. This is illustrated by two of the very curious stories in the “Book of the Knight of La Tour Landry.”[201]

I have herde of a knight and of a lady that in her (their) youthe delited hem to rise late. And so they used longe tille many tymes that thei lost her masse, and made other of her paryshe to lese it, for the knight was lord and patron of the churche, and therefor the priest durst not disobeye hym. And so it happed that the knight sent unto the chirche that thei shulde abide hym. And whane he come it was passed none, wherefor thei might not that day have no masse, for every man saide it was passed tyme of the day, and therefore thei durst not singe.

The other story is of

a ladi that dwelled faste by the chirche, that toke every day so long time to make her redy, that it made everySunday the parson of the chirche and the parisseners to abide after her. And she happed to abide so longe on a Sunday that it was fer dayes, and every man said to other, “This day we trow shall not this lady be kemed and arraied.”

ELEVATION AT MASS.FROM THE LATE XV. CENT. MS. 25698, f. 2.

We read also of instances on fast days, when men might not eat till after evensong, of evensong being said at noon.

After mass on Sunday, it was not very uncommon for a pedlar to take the opportunity of the assembling of the people to display his wares in the churchyard, in spite of injunctions to the contrary. And after evensong, the young people took advantage of their holiday to play at games, sometimes in the churchyard.[202]

An inquiry[203]by Cardinal Pole, in 1557, whether taverns and ale houses opened their doors on Sundays and holy days in time of mass, matins, and evensong, indicates that the law required them to be closed at those times, but permitted them to be open at other times on Sundays and holy days.

The churchgoing habits of clergy and people on other days than Sundays and holy days are not so easily arrived at. There is no proof that a daily celebration was ordered in the Saxon Church;after the Norman Conquest, a weekly celebration was ordered.[204]There is no canon of the English Church which imposes a daily celebration on the clergy; by a Constitution of Peckham,[205]they are required to say mass once a week, and that, if possible, on a Sunday; at a later period it became the general practice for a priest to say his daily mass. Where the services of the church were regularly performed, it is probable that the parish priest said the Divine service every day, either in the parish church or in one of its chapels, if it had any; and that he also said matins and evensong; but it is not unlikely that in many country parishes there was an amount of laxity. We have seen that the inhabitants of hamlets who were solicitous about the services in their chapel were content with it on three days a week, viz. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday; and we should not be surprised to be told that in many of the rural parish churches it was not said more frequently, or indeed more frequently than on Sundays and holy days.

As for the attendance of the laity on daily service, we have given reasons in the chapter on domestic chapels for believing that it was the custom of the nobility and those of the higher classes who had domestic chapels and chaplains to have a daily celebration of mass, matins, and evensong.

There is a passage in the “Vision of PiersPlowman” (Passus V.) which seems to indicate that this was the case in churches also—

The king and his knights to the church wenten,To hear matins and mass, and to the meal after.

But the services were likely to be duly performed in any church which “the king and his knights” were likely to attend, and in the principal churches in towns, and in well-served churches everywhere; we only doubt it in many of the churches and chapels in rustic parishes where devotion was cold and discipline slack, or the number of the clergy insufficient.

At the ordinary daily services in parish churches it is very likely that there was some congregation; for attendance on the Divine service was highly regarded as a pious exercise, and pious people who had the leisure—women especially—would be likely to attend it; the custom of gathering poor people into almshouses in which they formed a kind of religious community with their chaplain, chapel, and daily prayers, would be likely to have its counterpart in the attendance of the pensioners of the parish church at the daily service in it; but it is unlikely that it was ever customary for the middle class, still less the lower class of laymen, engaged in the active business of life, to attend daily mass, or matins, or evensong, as a habit of their religious life.

The Bidding Prayer, being in English, was a popular part of the service. It was usually, from the eleventh century onward, said from the pulpit before thesermon. It differed somewhat in various places and at different periods; but the following example, taken from “The York Manual,” is a fair example of the class:

Prayers to be used on Sundays.[206]To God Almighty and the glorious Virgin Mother, our lady S. Mary, and all the glorious company of heaven.For the Pope and his Cardinals, for the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and for the holy cross, that God bring it out of the heathen men’s hands into Christian men’s keeping.For the Archbishop of this see, and the Bishops, etc.For the Parson of this church [and others] that hath the cure of men’s souls, that God give them grace well to teach their subjects, and the subjects well to work after heleful teaching, that both the teachers and subjects may come to everlasting bliss.For all priests and clerks who sing in this church, and any other, etc.For the King and Queen, the peers and lords, and all the good Commoners of this land, and especially for those that hath the good council of the land to govern, that God give them grace such counsel to take and ordain, and so for to work thereafter that it may be loving to God Almighty, and profit and welfare to the royalme, and gainsaying and reproving of our enemy’s power and malice.For all that worship in this church, or any other, with book, bell, vestment, chalice, altar-cloth, or towell, or any other ornament, etc.For all that give or leave in testament any good to the right maintenance and upholding of the work of this Church, and for all them that find any Light in thisChurch as in torch, taper, land, in worshipping of God or of our Lady or of any of His Saints.For all our good parishioners wheresoever they be, on water or on land, that God of His goodness save them from all manner of perils, and bring them safe where they would be in health of body and soul and also of goods.For all that are in debt or deadly sin, that God for His great mercy bring them soon thereof; and for all those that are in good living, that God maintain them and give them good perseverance in their goodness; and that these prayers may be heard and sped the sooner through your prayers, every man and woman that here is, help them heartily with aPater Nosterand anAve Maria, etc.Deus misereatur [the whole Psalm].Gloria Patri.Kyrie Eleyson, etc.Pater noster ... et ne nos ... sed libera.Sacerdotes tui induantur justitia.Et sancti tui exultent, etc.Et clamor meus ad te veniat.Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.Oremus [three Latin prayers].Ye shall kneel down devoutly and pray for the brethren and sisters of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, St. Wilfred of Ripon, and St. Mary of Southwell; and specially for all those that be sick in this parish or any other, that God in His goodness release them from their pains in their sickness, and turn them to the way that is most to God’s pleasure and welfare of their souls.We shall pray for all those that duly pay their tendes [tithes] and their offerings to God and to the holy Church, that God do them meed in the bliss of heaven that ever shall last, and they that do not so that God of His mercy bring them soon to amendment.We shall pray for all true pilgrims and palmerswheresoever they be, on water or on land, that God of His goodness grant them part of our good prayers and us part of their good pilgrimages.We shall also pray for all land tylland [under cultivation], that God for His goodness and for His grace and through our good prayers maintain them that they may be saved from all evil winds and wethers and from all dreadful storms, that God send us corn and cattle for to live upon to God’s pleasure and the welfare of our souls.We shall pray also for all women that be with child in this parish or any other, that God comfort them, and send the child Christendom, and the mother Purification of holy Church, and releasing of pain in her travailing.We shall pray specially for them that this day gave bread to this Church for to be made holy bread of; for them that it begun and longest uphold, for them and for us and for all them that need hath of good prayers.In worship of our lady Saint Mary and her v joys, every man and woman say in the honor of her v timesAve Maria.Antiphona.—Ave, regina cælorum,Mater regis angelorum;O Maria flos virginum,Velut rosa vel lilium,Funde preces ad FiliumPro salute fidelium.V. Post partum virgo inviolata.Gratiam tuam, etc.Oremus.—We beseech thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts, that we who have known Thy Incarnation by the message of an angel, by His Cross and Passion may come to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.Ye shall make a special prayer for your fathers’ souls and for your mothers’ souls, godfathers’ souls andgodmothers’ souls, brothers’ souls and sisters’ souls, and for all your elders’ souls, and for all the souls that you and I be bound to pray for, and specially for all the souls whose bones are buried in this church or in this churchyard or in any other holy place; and in especial for all the souls that bide the great mercy of Almighty God in the bitter pains of Purgatory, that God for His great mercy release them of their pain if it be His blessed will. And that our prayers may somewhat stand them in stead, every man and woman of your church help them with aPater nosterand anAve Maria.Psalmus: De profundis.Kyrie Eleyson, etc.Pater noster ... et ne nos ...Requiem eternam.Credo vivere.A porta inferi.Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.Oremus.Fidelium Deus omnium Conditor, etc.Fidelium animæ per misericordiam Dei in pace requiescant. Amen.

Prayers to be used on Sundays.[206]

To God Almighty and the glorious Virgin Mother, our lady S. Mary, and all the glorious company of heaven.

For the Pope and his Cardinals, for the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and for the holy cross, that God bring it out of the heathen men’s hands into Christian men’s keeping.

For the Archbishop of this see, and the Bishops, etc.

For the Parson of this church [and others] that hath the cure of men’s souls, that God give them grace well to teach their subjects, and the subjects well to work after heleful teaching, that both the teachers and subjects may come to everlasting bliss.

For all priests and clerks who sing in this church, and any other, etc.

For the King and Queen, the peers and lords, and all the good Commoners of this land, and especially for those that hath the good council of the land to govern, that God give them grace such counsel to take and ordain, and so for to work thereafter that it may be loving to God Almighty, and profit and welfare to the royalme, and gainsaying and reproving of our enemy’s power and malice.

For all that worship in this church, or any other, with book, bell, vestment, chalice, altar-cloth, or towell, or any other ornament, etc.

For all that give or leave in testament any good to the right maintenance and upholding of the work of this Church, and for all them that find any Light in thisChurch as in torch, taper, land, in worshipping of God or of our Lady or of any of His Saints.

For all our good parishioners wheresoever they be, on water or on land, that God of His goodness save them from all manner of perils, and bring them safe where they would be in health of body and soul and also of goods.

For all that are in debt or deadly sin, that God for His great mercy bring them soon thereof; and for all those that are in good living, that God maintain them and give them good perseverance in their goodness; and that these prayers may be heard and sped the sooner through your prayers, every man and woman that here is, help them heartily with aPater Nosterand anAve Maria, etc.

Deus misereatur [the whole Psalm].Gloria Patri.Kyrie Eleyson, etc.Pater noster ... et ne nos ... sed libera.Sacerdotes tui induantur justitia.Et sancti tui exultent, etc.Et clamor meus ad te veniat.Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.Oremus [three Latin prayers].

Ye shall kneel down devoutly and pray for the brethren and sisters of St. Peter of York, St. John of Beverley, St. Wilfred of Ripon, and St. Mary of Southwell; and specially for all those that be sick in this parish or any other, that God in His goodness release them from their pains in their sickness, and turn them to the way that is most to God’s pleasure and welfare of their souls.

We shall pray for all those that duly pay their tendes [tithes] and their offerings to God and to the holy Church, that God do them meed in the bliss of heaven that ever shall last, and they that do not so that God of His mercy bring them soon to amendment.

We shall pray for all true pilgrims and palmerswheresoever they be, on water or on land, that God of His goodness grant them part of our good prayers and us part of their good pilgrimages.

We shall also pray for all land tylland [under cultivation], that God for His goodness and for His grace and through our good prayers maintain them that they may be saved from all evil winds and wethers and from all dreadful storms, that God send us corn and cattle for to live upon to God’s pleasure and the welfare of our souls.

We shall pray also for all women that be with child in this parish or any other, that God comfort them, and send the child Christendom, and the mother Purification of holy Church, and releasing of pain in her travailing.

We shall pray specially for them that this day gave bread to this Church for to be made holy bread of; for them that it begun and longest uphold, for them and for us and for all them that need hath of good prayers.

In worship of our lady Saint Mary and her v joys, every man and woman say in the honor of her v timesAve Maria.

Antiphona.—Ave, regina cælorum,Mater regis angelorum;O Maria flos virginum,Velut rosa vel lilium,Funde preces ad FiliumPro salute fidelium.V. Post partum virgo inviolata.Gratiam tuam, etc.

Oremus.—We beseech thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts, that we who have known Thy Incarnation by the message of an angel, by His Cross and Passion may come to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ye shall make a special prayer for your fathers’ souls and for your mothers’ souls, godfathers’ souls andgodmothers’ souls, brothers’ souls and sisters’ souls, and for all your elders’ souls, and for all the souls that you and I be bound to pray for, and specially for all the souls whose bones are buried in this church or in this churchyard or in any other holy place; and in especial for all the souls that bide the great mercy of Almighty God in the bitter pains of Purgatory, that God for His great mercy release them of their pain if it be His blessed will. And that our prayers may somewhat stand them in stead, every man and woman of your church help them with aPater nosterand anAve Maria.

Psalmus: De profundis.Kyrie Eleyson, etc.Pater noster ... et ne nos ...Requiem eternam.Credo vivere.A porta inferi.Dominus vobiscum. Et cum spiritu tuo.Oremus.Fidelium Deus omnium Conditor, etc.Fidelium animæ per misericordiam Dei in pace requiescant. Amen.

One of the features connected with this part of the service, which must have had a striking effect, was the Bede Roll, the reading out the names of those who had recently died in the parish, and the commendation of them to the prayers of the congregation. There are examples of the payment of a fee for placing a name on the list, and of people leaving money to the priest for naming them from year to year on their anniversary, and of endowments for the maintenance of the Bede Roll.[207]

The Procession, or Litany, was also a very popular service; its petitions and responses, though in Latin, were intelligible enough to the people; and the procession of priest and clerks round the church with cross and censer, while the petitions were chanted by a single voice,Sancte Katherine; etc.,ora pro nobis, and the responses sung in chorus, “Ora, ora, ora pro nobis!” made up a very picturesque and solemn service. It was probably usually said in the afternoon. A painful, but no doubt very attractive, addition was sometimes made to it, when a miserable penitent condemned to the penance preceded the procession in white sheet, bearing a taper.

In churches in which there were one or more chantries the private masses would be said at the convenience of the cantarists, with this one regulation: that they might not on Sundays and festivals begin till after the gospel of the principal service. People might attend these chantry services if they pleased, and perhaps the relatives of persons commemorated usually or frequently did so; and, if said at a different hour from the principal service, they would practically add to the number of services, and meet the convenience of some of the people.

We shall see hereafter that chantry and special services were often provided in towns by the corporation, or one of the gilds, or by some group of persons, expressly to add to the number of services, first for the greater honour of Almighty God, and secondly to meet the wishes and circumstances of different people.

In most great churches, with the normal services, and the chantry services besides, services must have been going on all the morning long; sometimes the great celebration at the high altar, and, at the same time, chantry celebrations at a dozen altars besides in the surrounding chapels.

PREACHING AND TEACHING.

There is a chain of evidences that the rulers of the Church not only enjoined the diligent teaching of the people by their parish priests in sermon[208]and otherwise, but also gave the clergy the assistance of manuals of teaching and sermon helps; and, further, took pains at their visitations to ascertain that the duty was efficiently performed.

So early as the beginning of the eighth century, Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, published a poem in four hundred and fifty-eight Latin hexameters, “De Octo[209]Principalibus Vitiis.”

Ælfric’s address to the clergy (c. 1030) at the distribution of the chrism seems to have been written for his Bishop Wulfsine to deliver to a synodicalassembly of the clergy of the Diocese of Sherborne. It is an instruction to the clergy on the duties of their office; dealing first minutely with their duty in baptism, unction, the eucharist, etc.; then it bids them to know by heart and explain to the people the Ten Commandments, and gives a brief explanation of each; then it goes on to explain the eight[210]capital vices. It is the first which has been preserved to us of a long series of synodal instructions.

PREACHING. FROM THE XIII. CENT. MS., EGERTON, p. 745, f. 46.

The Synod of Oxford, in 1223, enjoins the clergy “not to be dumb dogs, but with salutary bark to drive away the disease of spiritual wolves from the flock.” A canon of Alexander of Stavenby, Bishop of Coventry (1224-1240), requires all clergy to address to their people assembled on the Lord’s Day or other festival the following words:—the words constitute a rhetorical sermon on the seven deadly sins. Another canon gives directions as to the mode of receiving penitents, and dealing with souls. Grostete (1235-1254) gave directions to his clergy to preach on Sundays, and gave them the heads of their teaching. In Exeter, Bishop Quivil (1280-1292) drew up a similar book for the clergy, of which he required every parish to have a copy under penalty of a fine. Bishop Brentingham, of Exeter (1370-1395), issued a mandate against intruding priests who would say low masses in parish churches on Sundays and holy days, which parishioners attended instead of theMagna Missa, and so lost the benefit of the sermon: this assumes that a sermon is preached in all parishchurches on Sundays and holy days. Other diocesan bishops adopted similar methods.

Archbishop Peckham, in the Constitutions of 1281, put forth a manual of teaching on the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Seven[211]Deadly Sins, the Seven Principal Virtues, and the Seven Sacraments, so fully and ably done that it continued to form a standard of teaching, and is constantly referred to in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It seems worth while to give itin extensoas an authentic record of the teaching of the Mediæval Church. It appears as Canon X. of the Provincial Synod of Lambeth, 1281, and begins with this preamble—

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