Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 13

The pictorial representation of type and ant.i.type seems to have had an interest for them. So early as the seventh century, Benedict Biscop brought pictures from Gaul and Italy to adorn his monasteries on the Tyne, and among them were one pair of Isaac bearing the wood for the sacrifice, and our Lord carrying His cross; another pair the brazen serpent and our Lord upon the cross. In the King's MS. 5 are a series of pictures arranged in three columns; in the middle a subject from the history of our Lord, and on each side two Old Testament types. The "Biblia Pauperum" of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries consisted of a similar arrangement of gospel histories, with Old Testament types.

CHAPTER XV.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARISH PRIESTS.

A flood of light is thrown upon the subject of a priest's duties in his parish by the handbooks which seem to have been as common in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries as they are in the nineteenth; instructing, advising, exhorting the clergy as to their duties, and the best way of fulfilling them. The Early English Text Society has printed one of these ent.i.tled, "Instructions for Parish Priests," written by John Myrk, a canon of Lilleshall, in Shropshire, not the same man who wrote the "Liber Festivalis." The oldest MS. of it belongs to the first half of the fifteenth century. It will answer our purpose to give a rather complete a.n.a.lysis of the book, spelling some words in modern fashion, in order to make it more intelligible, without much altering the substance.

It begins:--

Whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde, Into the dyche they fallen both.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BAPTISM BY AFFUSION. FROM THE XV. CENT. MS. EGERTON, 2019 f. 135.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BAPTISM BY IMMERSION. FROM THE XIV. CENT. MS., ROYAL 6 E.

VI., f. 171.]

So, our author says, ignorant priests lead their people into sin; therefore, if you are not a great clerk, you will do well to read this book, where you will find--

How thou schalt thy parische teche And what thou must thyself be.

For lytel is worth thy prechynge, If thou be of evil lyvynge.

Which is certainly a very wholesome exordium.

Then he begins his instructions--

Preste; thy self thou moste be chaste, And say thy service withouten haste, That mouthe and heart accord i fere,[219]

If thou wilt that G.o.d thee hear.

And so he goes on: He must be true in heart and hand, eschew oaths, be mild to all, put away drunkenness, gluttony, pride, sloth, and envy. He must not frequent taverns, or make merchandise, or indulge in wrestling, shooting, hawking, hunting, dancing; wear cutted (slashed) clothes, or piked shoes; not frequent markets or fairs. He must wear proper clothes, must not wear basilard or baldrick, must keep his beard and crown shaven; be free of meat and drink to rich and poor; forsake women, avoid foolish jesting, despise the world, and cultivate virtue. We recognize that the author is giving a summary of all the canons on the subject of the life of the clergy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Confession. (From Chaucer's "Romaunt of the Rose," Harl.

4425, f. 143.)]

He goes on to the priest's duties. He is not to let men go on in sin, but urge them to speedy confession lest they forget before Lent. He is to bid women with child to come to confession and holy communion,

For dread of peril that may befall In their travailing that come shall.

If a child is in danger of death, the midwife or the father or mother is to baptize it; and he is to teach people what is the proper form, "I folowe (baptize) thee, or, I christen thee, in the name of, etc." All children born within eight days of Easter or of Whitsunday, are to be brought to baptism at those seasons, unless they are in danger of death.

He is to instruct G.o.dparents to teach their G.o.d-children the Our Father and Creed; and to bring them to be bishoped within their fifth year; but the sponsors at the baptism are not to hold the child at the confirming.[220] Relatives by spiritual ties as well as by blood, are not to marry, and he defines these spiritual relationships. Irregular marriages are cursed. Banns are to be asked on three holy days, and then the parties are to be openly wedded at the church door. He is to bid all who are of years of discretion to come to church to confession, and to receive communion on Easter Day all together:[221]

Teach them then with good intent To beleve in that sacrament What they receive in form of bread It is G.o.d's body that suffered dead[222]

Upon the holy rood tree, To buy our sins and make us free.

Every Sunday a "holy loaf"[223] provided by the charity of some one of the laity was cut in pieces, and a piece given to all who came up to receive it: the authority for this practice was no doubt the primitive love-feast. But when it was not the custom for the laity to communicate, this was given as a sort of representation of and subst.i.tute for the consecrated bread, and it was attended by a good deal of superst.i.tion. A question in the "Lay Folks' Ma.s.s-book" seems to indicate that it was required that people should receive it and eat it, fasting, every Sunday--

Hast thou eaten any Sonday Withouten holy bred? Say yea or nay;

and a return by the vicar of Leominster of the sources of his income, seems to indicate that a payment for this holy bread was customary in some places (see p. 404).

He is to teach that, after receiving the Consecrated Bread at Easter, what is given them afterwards in the chalice is only wine and water to a.s.sist in the swallowing it completely:

But teach them all to 'lieve sudde[224]

That it which is on the altar made It is very G.o.d's blood That He shed on the rood.

Teach the people when they go to church to leave behind idle speech and jests, and light behaviour, and say their paternoster and creed. Not to stand or lean against pillar or wall, but set themselves on their knees on the floor, and pray to G.o.d with meek heart to give them grace and mercy.

When the gospel is read, they are to stand and bless Him as well as they can, and when _gloria tibi_ is done, they are to kneel down again; and when the sacring-bell rings, they are to hold both hands up and say softly, without noise--

Jesu, Lord, welcome thou be, In forme of bred as I Thee see; Jesu for thy holy name Shield me to-day from sin and shame.

Shrift and housel, Lord, thou grant me bo[225]

Ere that I shall hennes[226] go, And true contrycion of my sin That I Lord never die therein.

And as thou wert of a may[227] y'bore, Suffer me never to be forelore; But when that I shall hennes wend Graunt me thi blysse withouten ende. Amen.

Teche them thus or some othere thynge, To say at the holy sakerynge.

[In the "Lay Folks' Ma.s.s-book" the following short verse is given to be said in this place--

Welcome, Lord, in form of bread, For me thou suffered hard deed?

As thou didst bear the crown of thorn Suffer me not to be forlorn.]

He is to teach them when they walk in the way, and see the priest bearing "G.o.d's body" to the sick, to kneel down, whether the way be fair or foul.[228] And then comes a gross bit of superst.i.tion which he fathers on St. Augustine:

So mickle good doth that syht, As Saint Austen teacheth wryht,

that on that day the devout beholder shall have meat and drink, G.o.d will forgive idle oaths and words, and he need not fear sudden death nor loss of sight. Within the church and "seyntuary"[229] people are not to sing or cry; not to cast the axtre or stone, or play bull and bears in the churchyard. Courts and such-like contentions are not to be held in church.

Teach them duly to pay their t.i.the--but, he breaks off jestingly, it is not necessary to teach a priest how to ask for his t.i.the. Witchcraft and usury are forbidden, and so is selling at too high a price.

Next he gives metrical paraphrases of the Lord's Prayer, Ave and Creed, with a brief explanation of the Creed, and a curious ill.u.s.tration of the doctrine of the Trinity:--

Water and ice and eke snowe, Here be thre things as ye may see, And yet the three all water be.

Then he gives a long instruction on the right administration of baptism, and on confirmation:--

Which in lewde men's menyng, Is y-called the bishoping.

The bishop confirmeth and maketh sad[230]

That that the priest before hath made,[231]

Wherefore the name that is then y-spoke Must stand firm as it were loke,[232]

which is an interesting allusion to the right of altering the Christian name at Confirmation.

Then comes a general sentence of excommunication[233] to be said two or three times a year when the parish is met together, with cross and candle and bell tolling. It declares that all persons are accursed who break the peace of the church, or rob it, or withhold t.i.thes; all slanderers, fire raisers, thieves, heretics, usurers, etc., etc. Then the candle is to be thrown down, and the priest is to spit on the ground, and the bells to ring. This general sentence of excommunication is clearly the origin of the form of Commination still said on Ash Wednesday.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CONFIRMATION. FROM A PRINTED PONTIFICAL, A.D. 1520 (471, f.

2).]