John Cotes, of Tevelby, Canon of Lincoln in 1433, left for a chaplain to sing every day for twenty years, “to have £4 13s.4d.per ann., and 3s.4d.for wine, wax, and candles, and to engage in no other duty, spiritual or temporal, under pain of my anathema.”Robert Astbroke, of Chepyng Wycombe, 1533, leaves money for “a priest to sing for my soul in Wicomb Church, at Ihus altar for x years, and I desire that there be no prieste admytted to the said servys but that can sing at least his playn song substancyally.”[519]Thomas Booth, in Eccles Church in Lancashire, leaves100 marks to two chaplains for ten years in two chapels—five marks a year each.[520]Robert Johnson,[520]Alderman of York, leaves, “to the exhibition of an honest prest to synge at the alter of Our Lady daily by the space of vij yeres xxxvli.And I will that what prest that shall serve it every day, when that he hath saide masse, shall stand affore my grave [which was ‘affore the mydste of the alter’] in his albe, and ther to say the psalme ofDe Profundis, with the collettes, and then caste holy water upon my grave.”[521]
John Cotes, of Tevelby, Canon of Lincoln in 1433, left for a chaplain to sing every day for twenty years, “to have £4 13s.4d.per ann., and 3s.4d.for wine, wax, and candles, and to engage in no other duty, spiritual or temporal, under pain of my anathema.”
Robert Astbroke, of Chepyng Wycombe, 1533, leaves money for “a priest to sing for my soul in Wicomb Church, at Ihus altar for x years, and I desire that there be no prieste admytted to the said servys but that can sing at least his playn song substancyally.”[519]
Thomas Booth, in Eccles Church in Lancashire, leaves100 marks to two chaplains for ten years in two chapels—five marks a year each.[520]
Robert Johnson,[520]Alderman of York, leaves, “to the exhibition of an honest prest to synge at the alter of Our Lady daily by the space of vij yeres xxxvli.And I will that what prest that shall serve it every day, when that he hath saide masse, shall stand affore my grave [which was ‘affore the mydste of the alter’] in his albe, and ther to say the psalme ofDe Profundis, with the collettes, and then caste holy water upon my grave.”[521]
So, we have bequests of money to provide one or two chaplains for two years; still more frequently one or two chaplains for one year; frequently for a trental of masses, and an obit, that is for masses for thirty days after death, and after that a mass on the anniversary of death; most frequently of all, for mass on the first, third, seventh, and thirtieth day, and on the years’ day.[522]In most cases there was a sum left for wax tapers and other funeral expenses, and for a donation to every clerk, or layman, attending the funeral mass and the obit. In the case of the poorest, the parish priest said a mass for the dead, and committed the body, with the proper prayers, to the grave.[523]
VIGILIÆ MORTUORUM.XV. CENT. MS., EGERTON, 1070, f. 54 v.
Ralph Lord Cromwell, making his will in 1457, desired that his body should be buried in Tattershall Church, which he had rebuilt and made Collegiate,[524]and that three thousand masses should be said for his soul.
John Prestecote, 1411-1412 [seems to be a clergyman], leaves stock to churchwardens of several parishes to maintain his anniversary for ever, and anniversaries of others; leaves his best silver-covered cup to the Prioress of Polslo Convent, to remain in that house for ever, and be called by his name “Prestcote” in his memory.[525]1503. Agnes Walworth leaves to the Church of St. Peter a cup of silver gilt, and to be prayed for in the Bead Roll for one whole year.[526]1508. Wm. Harcote leaves his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard, and money to purchase a cross, according to the cross of St. Nicholas in the churchyard, to stand over his grave.[527]1509. Wm. Plesyngton orders his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard; a barrel of beer, with bread,[528]to be given in the church at his cost to the poor of the parish; Sir Jeffrey, his ghostly father, to say a trental of masses for his soul in St. Peter’s Church, and to be paid 5s.[529]
John Prestecote, 1411-1412 [seems to be a clergyman], leaves stock to churchwardens of several parishes to maintain his anniversary for ever, and anniversaries of others; leaves his best silver-covered cup to the Prioress of Polslo Convent, to remain in that house for ever, and be called by his name “Prestcote” in his memory.[525]
1503. Agnes Walworth leaves to the Church of St. Peter a cup of silver gilt, and to be prayed for in the Bead Roll for one whole year.[526]
1508. Wm. Harcote leaves his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard, and money to purchase a cross, according to the cross of St. Nicholas in the churchyard, to stand over his grave.[527]
1509. Wm. Plesyngton orders his body to be buried in St. Peter’s Churchyard; a barrel of beer, with bread,[528]to be given in the church at his cost to the poor of the parish; Sir Jeffrey, his ghostly father, to say a trental of masses for his soul in St. Peter’s Church, and to be paid 5s.[529]
Here are some curiosities on the subject—
Dame Eliz. Bourchier, in 1499, leaves “xx marcs for a yearly obit, at St. Dunstan’s in the East, if the parson andparishioners will have it; if not, at some other church; and each of her servants, men and women, dwelling with her at thetime of death, to have a convenient black gownto pray for her soul.”[530]In 1452, Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, consecrated a tomb which he had made for himself, and said mass, in full pontificals, for his own soul, for the souls of his parents, and all the faithful departed, in the presence of a vast congregation.[531]The Commonalty of Oxford was required to found an anniversary for the souls of the clerks and others, about forty in number, killed in a Town and Gown riot on St. Scholastica’s Day, 1354, and to make an offering, to be distributed 1d.to each of forty poor scholars, and the rest to St. Mary’s Church. It was continued down to the Reformation.[532]Roger Wylkynson, of Swyneshead, yeoman, 1499, leaves to his godson his principal messuage and lands, “to him and his heirs in tail, they keeping my anniversary in Swyneshed Church.”[533]Thomas Normanton, of Tynwell, 1533, leaves his lands to his eldest son Richard in tail, “he and his heirs to keep my anniversary in Ketton Church for ever.”[534]The “for ever” lasted sixteen years.John Toynton, of Lincoln, chaplain, 1431, directs his anniversary to be kept ten years for the following alms:—“In the offering at mass, 6d.; in the tolling of the bells to the clerks, 2d.; in candles at the mass, 2d.; in bread at the dirge, 1s.4d.; six chaplains saying dirge and mass, 12d.—that is, to each 2d.; to poor and needy, 7d.; to the parochial chaplain saying my name in his roll on Sundaysat prayers, 4d.; to the chantry priest, Robert Dalderby, of Lincoln [chaplain], a new vestment of ruby satin, with golden letters upon it, and a new vestment of Borde to Alexander the chaplain, for masses.”[535]Robert Appulby of Lincoln leaves a bequest to the Guild of Clerks at Lincoln that his name may be recited among the names of the departed, and the antiphonAlma Redemptoris Mater.[536]
Dame Eliz. Bourchier, in 1499, leaves “xx marcs for a yearly obit, at St. Dunstan’s in the East, if the parson andparishioners will have it; if not, at some other church; and each of her servants, men and women, dwelling with her at thetime of death, to have a convenient black gownto pray for her soul.”[530]
In 1452, Thomas of Beckington, Bishop of Bath and Wells, consecrated a tomb which he had made for himself, and said mass, in full pontificals, for his own soul, for the souls of his parents, and all the faithful departed, in the presence of a vast congregation.[531]
The Commonalty of Oxford was required to found an anniversary for the souls of the clerks and others, about forty in number, killed in a Town and Gown riot on St. Scholastica’s Day, 1354, and to make an offering, to be distributed 1d.to each of forty poor scholars, and the rest to St. Mary’s Church. It was continued down to the Reformation.[532]
Roger Wylkynson, of Swyneshead, yeoman, 1499, leaves to his godson his principal messuage and lands, “to him and his heirs in tail, they keeping my anniversary in Swyneshed Church.”[533]
Thomas Normanton, of Tynwell, 1533, leaves his lands to his eldest son Richard in tail, “he and his heirs to keep my anniversary in Ketton Church for ever.”[534]The “for ever” lasted sixteen years.
John Toynton, of Lincoln, chaplain, 1431, directs his anniversary to be kept ten years for the following alms:—“In the offering at mass, 6d.; in the tolling of the bells to the clerks, 2d.; in candles at the mass, 2d.; in bread at the dirge, 1s.4d.; six chaplains saying dirge and mass, 12d.—that is, to each 2d.; to poor and needy, 7d.; to the parochial chaplain saying my name in his roll on Sundaysat prayers, 4d.; to the chantry priest, Robert Dalderby, of Lincoln [chaplain], a new vestment of ruby satin, with golden letters upon it, and a new vestment of Borde to Alexander the chaplain, for masses.”[535]
Robert Appulby of Lincoln leaves a bequest to the Guild of Clerks at Lincoln that his name may be recited among the names of the departed, and the antiphonAlma Redemptoris Mater.[536]
We gather with some certainty the amount of remuneration which was usually given to a chantry priest for his services. John Coates, we have seen, in 1433, directs that a chaplain shall say mass for him every day for twenty years, and shall have four pounds thirteen shillings and fourpence per annum, besides three shillings and fourpence for wine and wax candles, and shall engage in no other service, spiritual or temporal, on pain of his anathema.[537]
Richard de Croxton, 1383, leaves £50 for masses for ten years; this would be at the rate of £5 a year. Thomas de Roos, lord of Hamlak and Belvoir, in 1412, leaves £400 for ten chaplains to say mass in his chapel of Belvoir, for eight years, which, again, amounts to £5 a year to each. J. de Haddon, Canon of Lincoln, 1374, leaves £21 for two chaplains for two years. Beatrix Hanlay, 1389, leaves 20 marks and a silver cup to Thornton Abbey for masses, and £30 of silver to six priests to celebrate for a year. So that it is abundantly evident that £5 a year was the usual stipend for a chantry priest. Elizabeth Davy, 1412, leaves ccl.for masses, which is to be kept in some secret place in Lincoln Cathedral, and distributed annually to the chaplains.Nicholas Sturgeon, priest in 1454, bequeaths to the Church of St. Andrew, Asperton, Herefordshire, a vestment of black for priest, deacon, and sub-deacon of the price of £10 or within; his exequies and obit day to be kept solemnly there during the term of seven years, for the expenses of which he bequeaths 46s., that is, for every year 6s.4d.
Richard de Croxton, 1383, leaves £50 for masses for ten years; this would be at the rate of £5 a year. Thomas de Roos, lord of Hamlak and Belvoir, in 1412, leaves £400 for ten chaplains to say mass in his chapel of Belvoir, for eight years, which, again, amounts to £5 a year to each. J. de Haddon, Canon of Lincoln, 1374, leaves £21 for two chaplains for two years. Beatrix Hanlay, 1389, leaves 20 marks and a silver cup to Thornton Abbey for masses, and £30 of silver to six priests to celebrate for a year. So that it is abundantly evident that £5 a year was the usual stipend for a chantry priest. Elizabeth Davy, 1412, leaves ccl.for masses, which is to be kept in some secret place in Lincoln Cathedral, and distributed annually to the chaplains.
Nicholas Sturgeon, priest in 1454, bequeaths to the Church of St. Andrew, Asperton, Herefordshire, a vestment of black for priest, deacon, and sub-deacon of the price of £10 or within; his exequies and obit day to be kept solemnly there during the term of seven years, for the expenses of which he bequeaths 46s., that is, for every year 6s.4d.
Here is a very curious example of a nun being paid to say prayers for people living and dead: John of Leek, Rector of Houghton, 1459, leaves—
to Isabella Chawelton, sister of St. Katharine’s, Lincoln, 40s.to pray for the soul of her sister Grace, and my soul.[538]
to Isabella Chawelton, sister of St. Katharine’s, Lincoln, 40s.to pray for the soul of her sister Grace, and my soul.[538]
When we refer to the returns of the “Valor,” we are confirmed in the conclusion that £5 was the normal stipend of a chantry priest; but a few, through the liberality of the endowment, received more, like the two chaplains of the Black Prince’s chantry with their £12 a year; and many received less, as may be seen in the volumes of the “Valor”passim.
William Rayne (of Coltisbroke, 1535), leaves to his nephew, if he shall be ordained “a priest, to have £5 a year to sing for me for five years, except he be at my wyf’s bording and bedding, and if he soo be, then four marks a yere.”[539]
William Rayne (of Coltisbroke, 1535), leaves to his nephew, if he shall be ordained “a priest, to have £5 a year to sing for me for five years, except he be at my wyf’s bording and bedding, and if he soo be, then four marks a yere.”[539]
So that a priest’s board and lodging was worth £5 - 4 × 13s.4d.= £2 13s.4d.The lodging with the widow would be consistent with the idea that a chantry priest or annueller was a kind of chaplain to the family. This conjecture is supported by the statute of 36 Ed. III., c. 8, which, in consequence ofthe dearth of parish priests after the Black Plague, desired to lessen the number engaged in mortuary services; it forbade any layman to pay a priest more than 5 marks, and if retained to abide at his table, that was to be reckoned as equal to 40s.[540]As part of the same policy, a constitution of Archbishop Islop, in 1362, fixed the stipend of a chantry priest at 5 marks.[541]
Archbishop Islip, 1362,[542]says, “We are certainly informed by common fame and experience that modern priests, through covetousness and love of ease, not content with reasonable salaries, demand excessive pay for their labours, and receive it; and do so despise labour and study that they wholly refuse as parish priests to serve in churches or chapels, or to attend the cure of souls, though fitting salaries are offered them, and prefer to live in a leisurely manner by celebrating annuals for the quick and dead; and so parish churches and chapels remain unofficiated, destitute of parochial chaplains, and even proper curates, to the grievous danger of souls; whereupon he goes on to decree that all unbeneficed chaplains fitted for cure of souls shall be required to put aside any private obsequies, and officiate wherever the ordinary shall appoint them, and at six marks of annualstipend, while priests without cure of souls shall be content with five marks.”
These services for the dead made work for a considerable number of clerics. Sometimes, no doubt, the parish priest celebrated the month’s mind and the obit, and perhaps the trental also; but when a competent provision had been made for the purpose it is probable that it was usual to employ a distinct person to fulfil the stipulated services. The beneficed clergy are indeed accused of sometimes running away from their own poor benefices to take engagements of this sort. “Piers Ploughman” says:—
Parsons and parish preistes pleyned hem to the bisshope,That hire parishes weren povere sith the pestilence tyme,[543]To have a licence and leve at London to dwelle,And syngen ther for symonie, for silver is swete.
Chaucer says of his poor parson—
He sett not his benefice to hire,And lefte his sheep accombred in the mire,And ran unto London unto Sainte Poules,[544]To seeken him a chanterie for souls,Or with a Brotherhode to be withold,But dwelt at home and kepte well his fold.
But that some poor parsons did so, and that their bishops allowed it, we have the evidence of the Episcopal Registers.[545]
One result of these occasional engagements for a month, or a year, or a few years, was that a considerable number of priests made a precarious living in this easy way, and in many cases were not very useful members of society or very respectable members of the clerical body.[546]
Chaucer has introduced into his “Shipman’s Tale” one of these priests “living in a leisurely manner by celebrating annuals for the quick and dead”:—
In London was a priest, an annueller,That therein dwelled hadde many a year,Which was so pleasant and so serviceableUnto the wife thereas he was at table,That she would suffer him no thing to payFor board ne lodging, went he never so gayAnd spending silver had he ryht ynoil.[547]
The ordinary chantry priest was under no canonical obligation to help the parish priest in his general duties; but in some cases the foundation deed of the chantry required that the cantarist should assist at Divine worship on Sundays and festivalsfor the greater honour of the service; and in some cases the priest is expressly required by his foundation deed to help the vicar in the cure of souls, as in the parish churches of Helmsley, Middleton, etc.
Our Lady’s chantry priest in Rothwell Church (1494), to celebrate mass daily in chantry and other Divine service, and be in the high quire all festival days at mattins, mass, and evensong; and to help to minister sacraments in the parish.Margaret Blade, widow, endowed the chantry of our Lady in Kildewick Parish, in 1505, for a priest to help Divine service in the quire, to help the curate in time of necessity, and also to sing mass of our Lady on Saturday and Sunday, “if he have convenient help.”[548]
Our Lady’s chantry priest in Rothwell Church (1494), to celebrate mass daily in chantry and other Divine service, and be in the high quire all festival days at mattins, mass, and evensong; and to help to minister sacraments in the parish.
Margaret Blade, widow, endowed the chantry of our Lady in Kildewick Parish, in 1505, for a priest to help Divine service in the quire, to help the curate in time of necessity, and also to sing mass of our Lady on Saturday and Sunday, “if he have convenient help.”[548]
Sometimes the chantry priest was required to say Divine service at an unusual hour for the convenience of portions of the people; thus, at St. Agnes, York, the chantry service had been between eleven and twelve, unusually late, and was altered by the advice of the parishioners to an equally abnormal early hour, viz. between four and five in the morning, as well for their accommodation as for travelling people, who desired to hear mass before setting out on their journey.[549]Many churches had such an early service, called the “Morrow Mass.”
If thou have eny wey to wende,I rede thou here a masse to ende,In the morennynge if thou may,Thou shalt not leose of thi travayle,Not half a foote of wey.[550]
Some of the chantry chapels were practically chapels-of-ease at a distance from the parish church. For parishes having once been established, the rights of the patrons, incumbents, parishioners, and others interested were so safely secured by the law that it was difficult for any one to make an alteration in the existing arrangements. Even down to the passing of the general Church Building Acts in the present century, a private Act of Parliament was necessary to legalize the subdivision of a parish. When the growth of new groups of population at a distance from the parish church made it desirable to provide the means of Divine worship and pastoral oversight there, if the incumbent desired to make the provision, he could do it by building chapels, and supplying them with chaplains at his own cost, and under his own control. If a lay proprietor desired to make the provision for the people about him, he could do it by getting the bishop’s leave to found a chantry, and the king’s licence to endow it notwithstanding the Mortmain Act. Accordingly, a number of chapels were founded, which were technically chantry chapels, but really chapels-of-ease for an outlying population;e.g.the chantries at Brentwood, in the parish of Southweald; Billericay, in the parish of Great Burstead; Foulness island, in the parish of Wakering; in the street of Great Dunmow, half a mile from the parish church, all in Essex; of Woodstock; of Quarrindon, in the parish of Barrow; of St. Giles, in the parish of Stretton, both in Notts, were all built at a distance of a mile or more from their parish churches. AtMacclesfield, the Savage Chantry, founded by the Archbishop of York of that name, who died 1506, was a chapel-of-ease two miles distant from the parish church. There were a considerable number of these outlying chantries in the extensive parishes of Yorkshire, at distances of from half a mile to two or three miles from the parish church, and in some cases divided from the parish church by waters liable to be flooded; in some parishes there were two or three such chantries; as two at Topcliff, two in Sherifholm, two in Strenshall, two in Wath, three in Northallerton, besides a chapel seven miles off served by the vicar’s chaplain; one in each of the parishes of Helmsley, Kirby Misperton, Malton, etc.
In some of these chapels there was no endowment for a priest, or it was insufficient, and the inhabitants of the villages taxed themselves voluntarily to make up a stipend; thus, at Ayton, the rate of payment was for a husbandman (? tenant farmer) 8d., a cottager with land 4d., a cottager without land 2d.a quarter.
Here is another similar case which presents us with quite a picture:—In 1472, the people of Haxby complain to the archdeacon that “they inhabit so unreasonable fer from ther parisch chirche that the substance [majority] of the said inhabitauntes for impotenseye and feblenes, farrenes of the long way, and also for grete abundance of waters and perlouse passages at small brigges for people in age and unweldye, bethurn these and ther nex parische chirche, they may not come with ese or in seasonable tyme at their saide parishe chirche, as Cristen peple should,and as they wold, so they pray for leave and help for a chaplain of their own.”[551]
A grammar school was often provided for a parish under the convenient conditions of a chantry; the schoolmaster being a priest, it was no great addition to his duties to require him to add to his mass prayer for his founders; it was very natural that the boys who profited by the foundation should also be required to join in the commemoration services for their benefactor.[552]
We quote the whole scheme of the foundation at Blackburn as an example of its kind.
In 1514, fifth year of Henry VIII., Thomas, Earl of Derby, and the parishioners of Blackburn, each contributed lands, etc., to be held by certain trustees for the foundation of a chantry in the church there, in the chapel of our blessed Lady, in the south aisle there. The chantry priest was to be “an honest seculer prest, and no reguler, sufficiently lerned in gramer and playn song, yfany such can be gotten, that shall kepe continually a fre gramer schole, and maintaine and kepe the one syde of the quire, as one man may, in his surplice, every holiday throughout the year.” And if no secular priest can be found that is able and sufficiently “lerned in gramer and plain song,” then they were to find “an able secular priest, who is expert, and can sing both pricke song and plain song, and hath a sight in descant, who shall teach a free song school in Blackburn.” In all his masses he was to pray for the good estate of the then Earl and Lady of Derby, and their ancestors, and all benefactors to the chantry, quick or dead, and for all Christian souls.And every Sunday and holiday in the year, after his mass, he was to turn him to the people, and exhort them to prayer for all the said persons, and to say “the salmeDe profundis, with aPaternosterand anAve Maria, with special suffrages after, and funeral collect, as well for the quick as for the dead. And every Saturday and holiday he shall sing the masse of Our Lady to note, and every quarter day he and his scholars shall sing a solemn dirge for the souls aforesaid. And if the chantry priest shall take any money or profit to say any trental, or otherwise to pray for souls other than those specified in the present foundation, he shall give half the profit towards the reparation or ornament of the said chantry; and if he shall make default in any of his duties, he shall pay 4d.for each such default, to be bestowed on the reparation and ornamentation of the chantry.” In summer he was to say his masses at 8 a.m., and in winter at 10 a.m.[553]So, in 1468, Richard Hammerton endowed a chantry in the chapel of Our Lady and St. Anne, in the church of Long Preston, co. York, “that the incumbent should pray for the soul of the founder, help to perform divine service in the choir in time of necessity, teach a grammar and song school to the children of the parish, make a special obit yearly for the soul of the founder, distribute at the same time six shillings to the poor in bread, and make a sermon by himself or deputy once a year.”[554]There were four chantries in Burnley Church, and belonging to the Townley Chantry aparva aula, on the west side of the churchyard,[555]occupied as a grammar school till 1695, when another was erected in a more convenient situation.[556]At Giggleswick, in Yorkshire, and at Tutthill, in the samecounty, the rood chantry priest was required to be “sufficiently seen” in plain song and grammar, and therefore, no doubt, was intended to teach them.[557]The gild priest of the Jesus Gild, Prittlewell, Essex, celebrated daily at the altar of St. Mary, in the parish church, and had also charge of the education of the youth of the parish.Skipton Grammar School was founded in 1548. The appointment vested in the vicar and churchwardens, for the time being. The master was to teach certain Latin authors, to attend in the choir of the parish church on all Sundays and festivals, and when service is performed by prick song, unless hindered by some reasonable excuse; to celebrate before seven in the morning on such days, and three other days in the week; to be vested in a surplice, and sing or read as shall seem meet to the vicar.[558]In 1529 an act passed forbidding any one after Michaelmas to receive any stipend for singing masses for the dead; some of the patrons proceeded to seize upon the chantry lands and furniture. Another act on the accession of Ed. VI., put all the colleges, chantries, free chapels, and other miscellaneous “endowments for superstitious uses” into the hands of the king, and commissioners were appointed to search them out and take possession of them. Some few of the chapels which had served outlying populations continued to exist and serve their purpose, the endowments were ruthlessly confiscated, but the inhabitants purchased the building of the crown or the grantee, and subscribed among themselves to provide a scanty stipend for a curate.[559]Many of the grammar schools which were suppressed were refounded and endowed as King Edward VI. Grammar Schools.The Returns of the Commissioners are in the Record Office, and there is an index to them arranged under counties. The Harleian MS., 605, in the British Museum, is also a catalogue of gilds and chantries.Here follow some notes, from these sources, of curious endowments—Fernditch and at Ordell, Beds., for “a Lamp and a Drinking” in the church.Emberton, Bucks., “for a Drinking.”Great Horkesley, Essex; Cranfield and Steventon, Beds.; for “a Drink for the Poor.”Uppingham, Rutland, for “a Drinking on Rogation Day.”Wynge, Bucks., “for Bride Ale, Child Ale, Marriages, and Dirges, with lawful games.”Coventry, “for a preacher.”Townley, Suffolk, for “a Lamp and watching the Sepulchre.”Hempstead, Essex, “for discharging the Tax of the poor who may not have to dispend yearly above 40s.”“For the Bead Roll,” at Barford, Beds., Chulgrave, Polloxhill, Richmond, Sondon, Wichhampstead, Eston, Dorlaston.“For finding a Conduit,” at St. Mary Aldermary.“For repairing Roads and Bridges,” in several places.“For the Poor,” in several places.At Hendry and at Wingfield, Suffolk, “for setting out Soldiers.”
In 1514, fifth year of Henry VIII., Thomas, Earl of Derby, and the parishioners of Blackburn, each contributed lands, etc., to be held by certain trustees for the foundation of a chantry in the church there, in the chapel of our blessed Lady, in the south aisle there. The chantry priest was to be “an honest seculer prest, and no reguler, sufficiently lerned in gramer and playn song, yfany such can be gotten, that shall kepe continually a fre gramer schole, and maintaine and kepe the one syde of the quire, as one man may, in his surplice, every holiday throughout the year.” And if no secular priest can be found that is able and sufficiently “lerned in gramer and plain song,” then they were to find “an able secular priest, who is expert, and can sing both pricke song and plain song, and hath a sight in descant, who shall teach a free song school in Blackburn.” In all his masses he was to pray for the good estate of the then Earl and Lady of Derby, and their ancestors, and all benefactors to the chantry, quick or dead, and for all Christian souls.And every Sunday and holiday in the year, after his mass, he was to turn him to the people, and exhort them to prayer for all the said persons, and to say “the salmeDe profundis, with aPaternosterand anAve Maria, with special suffrages after, and funeral collect, as well for the quick as for the dead. And every Saturday and holiday he shall sing the masse of Our Lady to note, and every quarter day he and his scholars shall sing a solemn dirge for the souls aforesaid. And if the chantry priest shall take any money or profit to say any trental, or otherwise to pray for souls other than those specified in the present foundation, he shall give half the profit towards the reparation or ornament of the said chantry; and if he shall make default in any of his duties, he shall pay 4d.for each such default, to be bestowed on the reparation and ornamentation of the chantry.” In summer he was to say his masses at 8 a.m., and in winter at 10 a.m.[553]
So, in 1468, Richard Hammerton endowed a chantry in the chapel of Our Lady and St. Anne, in the church of Long Preston, co. York, “that the incumbent should pray for the soul of the founder, help to perform divine service in the choir in time of necessity, teach a grammar and song school to the children of the parish, make a special obit yearly for the soul of the founder, distribute at the same time six shillings to the poor in bread, and make a sermon by himself or deputy once a year.”[554]
There were four chantries in Burnley Church, and belonging to the Townley Chantry aparva aula, on the west side of the churchyard,[555]occupied as a grammar school till 1695, when another was erected in a more convenient situation.[556]
At Giggleswick, in Yorkshire, and at Tutthill, in the samecounty, the rood chantry priest was required to be “sufficiently seen” in plain song and grammar, and therefore, no doubt, was intended to teach them.[557]
The gild priest of the Jesus Gild, Prittlewell, Essex, celebrated daily at the altar of St. Mary, in the parish church, and had also charge of the education of the youth of the parish.
Skipton Grammar School was founded in 1548. The appointment vested in the vicar and churchwardens, for the time being. The master was to teach certain Latin authors, to attend in the choir of the parish church on all Sundays and festivals, and when service is performed by prick song, unless hindered by some reasonable excuse; to celebrate before seven in the morning on such days, and three other days in the week; to be vested in a surplice, and sing or read as shall seem meet to the vicar.[558]
In 1529 an act passed forbidding any one after Michaelmas to receive any stipend for singing masses for the dead; some of the patrons proceeded to seize upon the chantry lands and furniture. Another act on the accession of Ed. VI., put all the colleges, chantries, free chapels, and other miscellaneous “endowments for superstitious uses” into the hands of the king, and commissioners were appointed to search them out and take possession of them. Some few of the chapels which had served outlying populations continued to exist and serve their purpose, the endowments were ruthlessly confiscated, but the inhabitants purchased the building of the crown or the grantee, and subscribed among themselves to provide a scanty stipend for a curate.[559]
Many of the grammar schools which were suppressed were refounded and endowed as King Edward VI. Grammar Schools.
The Returns of the Commissioners are in the Record Office, and there is an index to them arranged under counties. The Harleian MS., 605, in the British Museum, is also a catalogue of gilds and chantries.
Here follow some notes, from these sources, of curious endowments—
Fernditch and at Ordell, Beds., for “a Lamp and a Drinking” in the church.
Emberton, Bucks., “for a Drinking.”
Great Horkesley, Essex; Cranfield and Steventon, Beds.; for “a Drink for the Poor.”
Uppingham, Rutland, for “a Drinking on Rogation Day.”
Wynge, Bucks., “for Bride Ale, Child Ale, Marriages, and Dirges, with lawful games.”
Coventry, “for a preacher.”
Townley, Suffolk, for “a Lamp and watching the Sepulchre.”
Hempstead, Essex, “for discharging the Tax of the poor who may not have to dispend yearly above 40s.”
“For the Bead Roll,” at Barford, Beds., Chulgrave, Polloxhill, Richmond, Sondon, Wichhampstead, Eston, Dorlaston.
“For finding a Conduit,” at St. Mary Aldermary.
“For repairing Roads and Bridges,” in several places.
“For the Poor,” in several places.
At Hendry and at Wingfield, Suffolk, “for setting out Soldiers.”
GILDS.
The voluntary societies or fraternities called “gilds,” which were numerous all over Christian Europe in the Middle Ages, were established for mutual help and comfort in the various exigencies of life—in sickness, old age, poverty (if not the result of misconduct), in wrongful imprisonment, in losses by fire, water, or shipwreck.[560]So far it was a benefit club. But the gild had always a religious basis. It usually put itself under the name and protection of the Holy Trinity or of some saint. Once a year, at least, it took measures to have a special service held on its behalf in church, which all the members attended, habited in the livery of the gild; thence it proceeded to its hall or meeting-place for the annual business meeting; and afterwards held its annual feast. The mutual help and comfort embraced the spiritual side of life, and included mutual prayers for the living and the dead. Especially, the gild made much of the burial of its members, which was conducted with great solemnity; all the members were bound to attend the funeral; and provision was made for the continual offering of masses for the welfare of the living, and the repose of their departed brothers and sisters.[561]
The trade gilds had for their chief aim the regulation and protection of their particular trade; their laws included the regulation of freemen, apprentices, etc.; the quality, etc., of their goods; and constituted a trade monopoly. But the trade gild always embraced the usual social and religious features above mentioned.
The great trade gilds were often powerful and wealthy corporations; their members made bequests to them of lands and tenements; they used their commercial talent and ready money in making purchases of other property which added to their corporate wealth. They built handsome gild halls as the visible manifestation of their importance; all the members wore gowns of the same material, colour, and fashion; their officers, masters, and wardens were distinguished by great silver-gilt maces borne before them, and by chains and badges round their shoulders; they took pride in the splendour of their pageantry in the public processions and functions. They prided themselves also on the value of their plate, mostly gifts from their own members, or gifts from great persons; on the sumptuousness of their hospitality; and also on the useful institutions which they maintained—hospitals, schools, almshouses; on their gifts to the poor; and on their liberalcontributions on great occasions of public need. Some of them had their own chapel, or at least constant special services in church, conducted by their own chaplain or chaplains.
Some of the gilds were organizations not so much for mutual benefit or the regulation of trade as for the foundation and conduct of enterprises for the benefit of the whole community; for promoting the glory of God, and increasing the number of services and the means of grace, for the population of the town; for founding a hospital or grammar school; for building and repairing bridges and highways, and the like.The Gild at Ludlow had seven chaplains, and maintained also two deacons and four choristers to sing divine service in the parish church. It supported a grammar school, an almshouse for thirty-two poor people, and bestowed liberal gifts on the poor.The Kalendar Gild of Bristol dated from before the Norman Conquest. In answer to inquiries made in 1387, the gild stated that in the twelfth century it had founded a school for Jews and others, to be brought up in Christianity, under the care of the said fraternity, which school it still maintained.[562]At York there was a Gild of the Lord’s Prayer. It arose in this way: at some date unknown, but before the year 1387, a Miracle Play of the Lord’s Prayer had been performed in York, in which all manner of vices and sins were held up to scorn, and the virtues held up to praise. The play met with so great favour that a gild was founded forthe purpose of keeping up the annual performance of the play. The gild had the usual charitable and religious features; but, besides, the members were bound to illustrate in their lives the scorn of vice and the praise of virtue, which were the objects of the play, and to shun company and business which were unworthy. The gild maintained a candelabrum of seven lights to hang in York Minster, to be lighted on all Sundays and feast days, in token of the seven supplications of the Lord’s Prayer, to the honour and glory of Almighty God, the Maker of that Prayer. And they maintained a tablet, showing the whole meaning and use of the Lord’s Prayer, hanging against a pillar of the minster, near the aforesaid candelabrum. Whenever the play was performed in York, the gild were to ride with the players through the principal streets, clad in one suit, and to keep order during the play.The Corpus Christi Gild at York seems to have been founded by some of the clergy specially for the purpose of organizing a great annual function in honour of the Eucharist. On the day from which the gild took its name, a great procession was made through the streets of the city, headed by priests in surplices, and the six masters of the gild bearing white wands; the craft gilds of the city followed, exhibiting pageants. In 1415, ninety-six crafts took part in the procession, of which fifty-four exhibited pageants of subjects from the Bible, and ten carried torches. A great folio volume, now in the British Museum, contains the roll of its brethren and sisters, of all ranks, about 14,850 in number. The two gilds of St. Christopher and St. George, York, had a “Guylde Hall,” and maintained and repaired certain stone bridges and highways, and gave relief to certain poor people, but “had no spiritual promotion whereby the King should have firstfruits and tenths.”[563]The Earl and Countess of Northumberland were brotherand sister of this gild, and their annual payment to it was 6s.8d.each, and 6s.8d.more for their livery.[564]St. George’s Gild at Norwich, founded in 1385, in close connection with the corporation of the city, was another famous gild, numbering thousands of brethren and sisters, among them some of the East Anglian nobility. They had a stately equestrian procession, with pageants, on St. George’s Day.
Some of the gilds were organizations not so much for mutual benefit or the regulation of trade as for the foundation and conduct of enterprises for the benefit of the whole community; for promoting the glory of God, and increasing the number of services and the means of grace, for the population of the town; for founding a hospital or grammar school; for building and repairing bridges and highways, and the like.
The Gild at Ludlow had seven chaplains, and maintained also two deacons and four choristers to sing divine service in the parish church. It supported a grammar school, an almshouse for thirty-two poor people, and bestowed liberal gifts on the poor.
The Kalendar Gild of Bristol dated from before the Norman Conquest. In answer to inquiries made in 1387, the gild stated that in the twelfth century it had founded a school for Jews and others, to be brought up in Christianity, under the care of the said fraternity, which school it still maintained.[562]
At York there was a Gild of the Lord’s Prayer. It arose in this way: at some date unknown, but before the year 1387, a Miracle Play of the Lord’s Prayer had been performed in York, in which all manner of vices and sins were held up to scorn, and the virtues held up to praise. The play met with so great favour that a gild was founded forthe purpose of keeping up the annual performance of the play. The gild had the usual charitable and religious features; but, besides, the members were bound to illustrate in their lives the scorn of vice and the praise of virtue, which were the objects of the play, and to shun company and business which were unworthy. The gild maintained a candelabrum of seven lights to hang in York Minster, to be lighted on all Sundays and feast days, in token of the seven supplications of the Lord’s Prayer, to the honour and glory of Almighty God, the Maker of that Prayer. And they maintained a tablet, showing the whole meaning and use of the Lord’s Prayer, hanging against a pillar of the minster, near the aforesaid candelabrum. Whenever the play was performed in York, the gild were to ride with the players through the principal streets, clad in one suit, and to keep order during the play.
The Corpus Christi Gild at York seems to have been founded by some of the clergy specially for the purpose of organizing a great annual function in honour of the Eucharist. On the day from which the gild took its name, a great procession was made through the streets of the city, headed by priests in surplices, and the six masters of the gild bearing white wands; the craft gilds of the city followed, exhibiting pageants. In 1415, ninety-six crafts took part in the procession, of which fifty-four exhibited pageants of subjects from the Bible, and ten carried torches. A great folio volume, now in the British Museum, contains the roll of its brethren and sisters, of all ranks, about 14,850 in number. The two gilds of St. Christopher and St. George, York, had a “Guylde Hall,” and maintained and repaired certain stone bridges and highways, and gave relief to certain poor people, but “had no spiritual promotion whereby the King should have firstfruits and tenths.”[563]The Earl and Countess of Northumberland were brotherand sister of this gild, and their annual payment to it was 6s.8d.each, and 6s.8d.more for their livery.[564]
St. George’s Gild at Norwich, founded in 1385, in close connection with the corporation of the city, was another famous gild, numbering thousands of brethren and sisters, among them some of the East Anglian nobility. They had a stately equestrian procession, with pageants, on St. George’s Day.
Chaucer has not overlooked this feature of the social life of his period. Among the “Canterbury Pilgrims”—
An Haberdasher and a Carpenter,A Webber, a Dyer, and a Tapeser,Were all yclothed in o liverieOf a solempne, and grete fraternity.
In 1404 the Gild of the Holy Trinity was established in Worcester by Henry IV. The chantry which had been founded in the reign of Edward III. was slightly altered from its original purpose; a perpetual chantry of three monks was appointed to sing masses for the soul of Henry, while the priest of the original foundation was required to assist the parson and curator of the parish church, “because it doth abound in houseling people,” as well as to sing mass at his own altar.[565]The bailiffs and commonalty of Birmingham in 1392, on the basis of a chantry originally founded in the time of Henry II., founded the Gild of the Holy Cross, with chaplains to celebrate Divine service in the Church of St. Martin, for the town contained two thousand houseling people; to keep in repair two great stone bridges and divers foul and dangerous ways; to maintain almshousesfor twelve poor persons, and other charities. It built a great public hall, which was called indifferently the Town Hall or the Gild Hall.[566]
In 1404 the Gild of the Holy Trinity was established in Worcester by Henry IV. The chantry which had been founded in the reign of Edward III. was slightly altered from its original purpose; a perpetual chantry of three monks was appointed to sing masses for the soul of Henry, while the priest of the original foundation was required to assist the parson and curator of the parish church, “because it doth abound in houseling people,” as well as to sing mass at his own altar.[565]
The bailiffs and commonalty of Birmingham in 1392, on the basis of a chantry originally founded in the time of Henry II., founded the Gild of the Holy Cross, with chaplains to celebrate Divine service in the Church of St. Martin, for the town contained two thousand houseling people; to keep in repair two great stone bridges and divers foul and dangerous ways; to maintain almshousesfor twelve poor persons, and other charities. It built a great public hall, which was called indifferently the Town Hall or the Gild Hall.[566]
We find in the “Calendar of Chantries,” etc., and also in the “Valor Ecclesiasticus,” a number of endowed “services,” under the same kind of saintly designation as the chantries,e.g.our Lady’s Service, St. Anne’s, St. Catherine’s, St. John’s, the Rood, Trinity, etc.; sometimes, also, like some of the chantries, they are recorded under a surname, which it seems probable was that of the founder, ase.g.at Bristol, William’s Service, Foster’s, Pollard’s, Jones’s, Henry’s, Forthey’s.
The payment for these services seems usually tohave come through the hands of a warden or of feoffees, and we suppose that they were usually maintained by a gild or fraternity.
At Our Lady’s altar in Rotherham Church, “divers well-disposed persons” founded a chaplaincy to sing “mass of Our Lady every Saturday at eight o’clock.” The Rood Chantry in Skipton Church was founded for a priest to say mass “every day when he is disposed” (does not that mean when he is not, as we say, indisposed,i.e.when he is not hindered by sickness?), “at six in summer and seven in winter, for the purpose that as well the inhabitants of the town as Kendal men and strangers should hear the same.”The mayor and his brethren at Pontefract provided a chaplain to survey the amending of the highways, and to say the “morrow mass,” which was over by 5 a.m. Also a chaplain of Our Lady to say mass at 8 a.m., and another in the chantry of Our Lady in St. Giles’s Chapel-of-ease there, to sing mass daily “for the ease of the inhabitants.” There was also a “Rushworth chaplain” at St. Thomas’s Chantry, in the parish church.In Wakefield Church the parishioners ordained a “morrow mass” at 5 a.m. for all servants and labourers in the parish.
At Our Lady’s altar in Rotherham Church, “divers well-disposed persons” founded a chaplaincy to sing “mass of Our Lady every Saturday at eight o’clock.” The Rood Chantry in Skipton Church was founded for a priest to say mass “every day when he is disposed” (does not that mean when he is not, as we say, indisposed,i.e.when he is not hindered by sickness?), “at six in summer and seven in winter, for the purpose that as well the inhabitants of the town as Kendal men and strangers should hear the same.”
The mayor and his brethren at Pontefract provided a chaplain to survey the amending of the highways, and to say the “morrow mass,” which was over by 5 a.m. Also a chaplain of Our Lady to say mass at 8 a.m., and another in the chantry of Our Lady in St. Giles’s Chapel-of-ease there, to sing mass daily “for the ease of the inhabitants.” There was also a “Rushworth chaplain” at St. Thomas’s Chantry, in the parish church.
In Wakefield Church the parishioners ordained a “morrow mass” at 5 a.m. for all servants and labourers in the parish.
There was a strong likeness between chantries and services; but while the chief object of a chantry was to obtain prayers for the departed, and it was only incidentally that it supplied additional opportunities of Divine worship, the service seems to have been intended specially to maintain an additional and probably a grander public service for the glory of God and the help of the spiritual life of the inhabitants of a parish or town, while prayers for the foundersand benefactors were only a minor incident of the foundation. Here are a few notes on the stipends of the chaplains, the hire of chapels for the services, etc.
In the “Calendar of Chantries,” etc., there are recorded 107 services, of which 64 are in Gloucestershire, 12 in Herefordshire, 7 in Chester, 5 in Yorkshire, 4 in Shropshire, 3 in Derbyshire, 2 in Staffordshire, and 2 in Somerset, 1 each in Dorset, Durham, Essex, and Wilts, and 4 in Wales. There are a few entries of “Stipendiaries of our Lady,” who were probably priests serving “Services of our Lady.”
There was a service in the parish church of St. Ellen, Worcester; the chaplain “exercens” the “servicium” of the Blessed Virgin there received by the hands of the wardens of the said “servicium,” 45s., and he received 75s.more from the benevolence and charity of the parishioners there. In the same church was a Service of St. Katharine, for “exercens” which the chaplain received from the wardens a clear stipend of £5 1s.11½d.[567]
The Vicar of Cirencester received payments from the Feoffees of the service of the Name of Jesus for the use of a chapel, £6; from the wardens of the service of St. Christopher, for the use of a chapel, £6 0s.5d.; from the Feoffees of the Fraternity of St. Katharine, 9s.9d.; and from the Feoffees of the Fraternity of St. John Baptist, 17s.We have already seen in the chapter on Chantries,[568]that in villages the people sometimes provided services for themselves, which might be classed with these.
In the fifteenth century every market town had one or more gilds,[569]not necessarily with the costly adjuncts of a hall for their meetings, and a chaplain and services of their own in church, but each with its charities, and social customs, and always with its annual service and festival. Even in many villages and rural parishes a gild helped to draw neighbours together into friendly association, organized their charities, and stimulated their village festivities. Even the humblest of them had its little fund, formed by the annual subscriptions of the members, and perhaps a little “stock”[570]of a few cows or sheep fed on the common pasture, the profit of which swelled the common fund of the gild, out of which they helped a member in a strait, and gave alms to their poor. They made much of the funerals of their departed members, following them in a long procession. The humblest had a few cooking utensils, and pots, and pans, and pewter dishes and plates[571]for their convivial meetings, and perhaps a mazer with a silver rim as the loving cup, out of which they drank to one another’s health and prosperity; and on their annualfeast day the vicar said a special mass for them, and preached them a sermon.
The suppression of all these gilds on the pretext of their prayers for their deceased members, and the confiscation of their property (except in London, whose great Trading Gilds were too powerful to be meddled with), was the very meanest and most inexcusable of the plunderings which threw discredit upon the Reformation.
We have some general reflections to make on these three chapters on Domestic Chaplains, Chantries, and Gilds.
The appropriation of so many parochial benefices to the religious houses in the twelfth century had greatly reduced the provision for the parochial clergy on whom the burden of the parochial care of the people rested. The institution during the thirteenth century of vicars in the appropriated parishes, with perpetuity of tenure, fixed endowment, and responsibility to the bishop, had done something to alleviate the evil. The institution of the ordersof friars in the same thirteenth century had effected a great revival of religion; and when the work of the new order had settled down to its normal level it still supplied a valuable auxiliary of religion among the lower classes of the population. By the end of the thirteenth century things had settled down. Very few new monasteries were founded after the twelfth century; very few friaries after the thirteenth century.
Of the rural benefices many were in the hands of rectors in minor orders who employed chaplains at such stipends as they could agree with them to accept. Many in the hands of absentee and pluralist rectors were similarly served by parish chaplains. The remainder were served by vicars whose endowments we have seen were small. The natural result of such a state of things must have been that a great proportion of the rural parishes were taught and tended by vicars and parish chaplains who might be good men, doing their duty to the best of their ability, but not always men of the breeding and learning which would make them very suitable pastors for the country gentry and their families. It seems probable that, in the fashion which sprung up among the country gentry at the close of the thirteenth century, and continued through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, of founding chantries, and entertaining domestic chaplains, the gentry were seeking to provide for themselves and their families additional and sometimes more acceptable spiritual teachers and guides. A wealthy lord sometimes met the difficulty by converting the parishchurch into a collegiate church, with a considerable clerical staff adequately endowed.
In the ancient towns, we have seen the parishes were small and their endowments miserable. In the more modern towns, which had grown into great towns, with the general increase of the population and its tendency then, as now, to gravitate into the towns, the one vicar of the one parish church was often quite unable to cope with the spiritual needs of a large and difficult flock; and the townspeople themselves sometimes made better provision for their own spiritual needs. The gilds, which provided two or three or half a dozen chaplains with singing boys to conduct service in the parish church, were clearly providing for a more dignified service for the honour of God than the vicar and his clerk could offer; theServiciacalled by the name of this and that saint, seem to have been intended to multiply the number of services for the greater convenience of the people. The gild chaplains would certainly be expected to undertake special personal ministrations—without infringing on the legal rights of the vicar—to the brothers and sisters of their gild. It is very interesting to see that the people thus set themselves to supplement the deficiencies of the ecclesiastical organization, by providing for their own spiritual needs. It reminds us of the way in which, in more modern times, earnest people supplied the deficiencies in the supply of their spiritual cravings by holding “prophecyings” in the time of Elizabeth, and by the foundation of lectureships in the parish churches in the time of the Georges.
THE MEDIÆVAL TOWNS.
Atypical mediæval town must have been wonderfully picturesque. As the traveller came in sight of it at a little distance its grey embattled walls, rising sheer out of the surrounding green meadows, were diversified in elevation and sky-line by projecting wall towers; and numerous spires and towers of churches appeared over the walls.[572]
As he rode nearer, the great gate tower, with itsoutwork the barbican, formed a picturesque architectural group, and spoke of the strength of the defences of the town and the security of its inhabitants. He entered over sounding drawbridge, through the echoing vault of the gate; and so into narrow streets of gabled timber houses, with overhanging upper stories, interlacing beams, and quaint carvings and finials; past frequent churches, hospitals, gild-halls; to the cross in the middle of the market-place.
Micklegate Bar, York.
The people he saw in the streets were in picturesque costumes of all colours and fashions: a cavalcade of a knight, in flashing armour, with a squire carrying his helm and spear and two or three yeomen in buff-coats and helmets behind him; a monk in his flowing black benedictine robe; a couple of Franciscan Friars in their grey gowns rope-girdled; a parish priest or cantarist returning from his service; the citizens in dress which indicated their quality—some in their burgess gowns, others in the livery of their gild; the shopmen at their open booths at work at their craft and soliciting the passers-by, “What d’ye lack? What d’ye lack? Buy, buy, buy, buy!” In the central market-place the traveller found crowds of the country-people grouped round the market cross with their panniers of country produce, and the housekeepers of the town busily cheapening their goods.
When we apply ourselves to the consideration of the ecclesiastical history of the towns, we have to bear in mind their various origins. Nearly all the towns which the Romans left when they evacuated the Province of Britain were stormed and sacked by the Teutonic invaders, and left ruined and empty. But as the Saxon settlers grew in numbers, wealth, and civilization, the force of circumstances must have led to the reoccupation of a number of these towns; for some were at the natural harbours, some at convenient points on the lines of internal traffic; and sonew towns of timber houses arose within the old Roman walls. Other towns of later origin grew up about the chief residence of a Saxon king, or, later still, of a Norman noble; or about a cathedral or great monastery; later still, at the convenient centre of the trade of a fertile district, or where natural advantages encouraged the growth of a manufacture.
The parochial history of the towns is very obscure. The facts point to the conclusion that the origin of parishes here was the same as in the country. There the lord of an estate built a church and provided a maintenance for a priest to minister to his family and dependents; and the priest’s spiritual authority was conterminous with the area of his patron’s civil jurisdiction;i.e.the estates were the parishes. The ancient towns, it is found, were frequently divided between several principal proprietors, who had rights of jurisdiction over their own land and the people living on it. The facts seem to indicate that the lords of these sokes, or peculiar jurisdictions, usually—like a country thane in his manor—built a church, and provided a maintenance for a priest to minister to his own family and people; and that these sokes became the parishes of the town.
The great landowners of Saxon or Norman times very frequently had a residence in the chief town of the county in which their principal estates were situated; a custom which continued so long that it is not yet forgotten how the great county families used to have their houses in their county town. But the residence of a great Saxon or Normanlord was the home of a numerous household, and the lord’s dignity required that he should have a chapel and a priest of his own. This perhaps is the explanation of the fact that there were numerous chapels in many of the oldest towns.
In borough towns the community of burgesses, it is probable, usually made provision for the religious wants of that part of the population which was not in any of the peculiar jurisdictions above mentioned, or within the walls of the residences of the nobles; and we find groups of burgesses, and individual burgesses, possessing a church, in the sense of having the rights and responsibilities of patrons. The result of this origin of town parishes was that many of the older towns had a number of parish churches which seems to us out of all proportion to the number of their population; it was never a question of how many churches were needed for a town of such-and-such a population; the question was how many lords there were who felt bound, in their own opinion and that of the time, to provide for Divine worship and pastoral care for their own people.[573]
A few actual examples will illustrate these general observations.
Norwich, at the end of the Saxon period, was oneof the greatest towns in the kingdom, containing 1320 burgesses. The king, Archbishop Stigand in private property, and Earl Harold were the principal lords. The king’s burgesses had two churches in the burgh and one-sixth of a third church; the earl’s tenants had the Church of All Saints; and Stigand had two churches, St. Michael’s and St. Martin’s. The burgesses held fifteen churches; and twelve burgesses held Holy Trinity Church (the Conqueror afterwards gave it to the Bishop of the Diocese); the Abbot of St. Edmund had a house and the mediety of the Church of St. Lawrence. The Church of SS. Simon and Jude was held successively by Aylmer, the last Saxon bishop, and by Herbert, the first Norman bishop, and by Bishop William, who came after him, and must therefore have belonged to the see. The Domesday Survey also enters forty-three chapels as belonging to the burgesses at the time of the Survey, of the existence of which, in King Edward’s time, there is no mention; and yet Norwich had suffered much in the political changes of the time, the number of its burgesses being reduced to half their number in the time of King Edward.
It seems clear that each owner of a separate jurisdiction or soke, king, earl, Stigand, bishop, and abbot, had a church for his own people; that the burgesses as a community had provided fifteen other churches in the town, that another church was held by a group of twelve burgesses, associated, perhaps, in a gild, and making provision for their own spiritualneeds. There were, thus, at least twenty-five churches in Saxon times; in the Conqueror’s time Domesday Book enumerates fifty-four churches and chapels; at the end of the thirteenth century, the “Taxatio” records forty-five; and just before the Reformation, the “Valor” names the cathedral, the collegiate church of St. Mary in the Fields, the two hospitals of St. Giles, Tombland, the rectory of SS. Edward, Julian, and Clement, thirty-seven vicarages, and one free chapel of St. Katharine.[574]
Of the parochial history ofLondonvery little is known. At the end of the Saxon period the Church of St. Paul seems to have been surrounded by a few chapels under the jurisdiction of the Cathedral body, and served by Chaplains. St. Peter, Cornhill, seems to have been the church of the bishop’s soke. A number of churches seem to have been built in the twelfth century by owners of property, of whom several were priests:—“There can be little doubt that St. Martin Orgars, and St. Botolph, Bishopsgate,were built by Orgar, a wealthy alderman; and that St. John Zachary, St. Andrew Hubbard, St. Katharine Colman, St. Benet Fink, St. Lawrence Pountney, and other names affixed to churches, commemorate founders, builders, or restorers, chiefly of the early part of the twelfth century. In the time of Henry I., the chapter assigned a parish to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street, of which one Geoffrey, a priest, was the owner, and his son Bartholomew his successor.”