Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 18

_Brans...o...b..._--Thomas the Vicar conducts himself well in all things, and preaches willingly (_libenter_), and diligently does all things which belong to the office of a priest.

The returns from many parishes are equally satisfactory. We take more interest, perhaps, in those in which the failings of the clergy are pointed out. Here are some of them--

_Culmstock._--William the Vicar is a man of good life and honest conversation, and his clerk likewise, and well instructs his parishioners.

In the visitation of the sick and baptizing the children, and in all things which belong to his office, they know nothing to be found fault with in him, with the exception that he makes too little pause between the matins and ma.s.s on festival days.[290]

_Colyton._--Sir Robert the Vicar is a good man (_probus h.o.m.o_), and preaches to them so far as he knows (_quatenus novit_), but not _sufficienter_, as it seems to them. They say also that his predecessors were accustomed to call the friars to instruct them about their souls'

salvation, but he does not care for them; and if by chance they come he does not receive them, nor give them entertainment (_viatica_); whereof they pray that he may be admonished. Item, all the chaplains and clerks of the church live _honeste et continentes_.[291]

At a later visitation, in 1330, the synodsmen of Colyton complain that their vicar had been struck with leprosy, but continued to come to communion with the parishioners at the risk of contaminating the whole flock, which was a scandal. They report that they used to have one sufficient vicar, one fit parochial chaplain, one deacon, and two clerks serving in the said church of the alms of the parishioners, and that the vicar used to find that number, out of whom they have now only one chaplain and one clerk, and that the said vicar refuses to supply more.

They complain that the vicar chooses his parish clerk at his own pleasure, and will not _manucipere pro eodem_. They say that the clerks of the church used by custom to ring the curfew, and at the elevation of the _corpus domini_.

They complain that John Prouz (lord of the manor of Gatcombe, in the parish) is not willing to contribute with the other parishioners to the church, nor to do other things which belong to him. They say that Sir Hugo Prouz, father of the said John, knight, deceased, left 10 marks sterling to the fabric of the church of Colyton, which the heirs refuse to pay.[292]

_Colebrook._--Hugh de Coppelestone and other trustworthy men of the parish, lawfully requisitioned and examined, say that Sir William the Vicar preaches after his own fashion (_suo modo_); also he expounds to them the Gospels on the Lord's Days so far as he knows (_quatenus novit_); but concerning the Articles of the Faith, the Commandments of the Decalogue, and the mortal sins, he does not teach them much. And he does not say his matins with note on the more solemn days, and only celebrates on the week days every other day. He is defamed of incontinency with Lucia de la Stubbe, a married woman (_conjugata_). All his houses, except the hall and chamber, which were in a good state at his coming, are now falling to pieces and threatening to come down, and could not be made good for a hundred shillings. Also his gate is so far from the hall, which he has lately lengthened, that one calling without is not heard in the hall, which is dangerous for the sick parishioners.[293]

_St. Mary Church._--The parishioners have some complaints to make about business matters between themselves and the vicar, but finally testify that he preaches well and exercises his office laudably in all things when he is present; but that he is often absent, and stays at Moreton sometimes for fifteen days, sometimes for eight, so that they have not a chaplain, unless when Sir Walter, the chaplain of the archdeacon, is present, or some one can by chance be obtained from some other place.

_Dawlash._--In Bishop Stapledon's Visitation, in 1301, the _synodales_ say that the vicar, who has the reputation of being a good man, does not reside in person, but has in his place Sir Adam, a chaplain, who conducts himself _bene et honeste_, and teaches them excellently in spiritual matters. But Randulphus the chaplain has had his concubine for ten years or more, and, often corrected for it (_saepius inde correptus_), remains incorrigible. The clerk of the church is _continens et honestus_.

An important testimony to the estimation in which the clergy were generally held by their parishioners, is afforded by the fact that it was very usual for the people to seek their a.s.sistance in making their wills, and also to appoint them as executors, to see to the due carrying out of their testamentary arrangements.

CHAPTER XIX.

PROVISION FOR OLD AGE.

We have followed our parish priest through various phases of his life and work; there remains one more--before that last one through which all priests and people must pa.s.s--on which the records throw a considerable amount of light. Parish priests grow old--sometimes old and infirm and incapable of fulfilling the duties of their position. What to do with them, in fairness to them and in fairness to the parishioners, is a problem which perplexes us at this moment. Then, as now, if the income of the benefice, or the private income of the inc.u.mbent, enabled him to obtain the help of a competent chaplain, that was accepted as on the whole the best solution. It permitted the old pastor to end his days among his people, and still to be the friend and counsellor of those who cared to seek him. The difficulty then, as now, is in the case of a benefice which is too poor both to give a competent maintenance to the old inc.u.mbent and to engage the services of a competent _loc.u.m tenens_. We find from not infrequent records of such cases in the bishops' registers that, to begin with, the bishop sequestrated the benefice, usually appointing a neighbouring clergyman as sequestrator. Then, in the arrangement of matters, it seems to have been thought right always to leave the old inc.u.mbent to end his days among his own people and in his own house, with a sufficient maintenance out of the income of the benefice. On the other hand, in justice to the parish, a chaplain was appointed who took independent charge of the parish. It would seem that this coadjutor usually lived in the parsonage house, or part of it, not as the guest of the old inc.u.mbent, but rather as his host, except where the premises were formally divided into two tenements for the independent accommodation of both. It will be borne in mind that the celibate condition of the clergy would make the arrangement of such cases much more easy in those times than in these.

The unwillingness of an infirm vicar to be disturbed was met in the way ill.u.s.trated by this individual case: In 1322 the patron of the parish of Letton, Herefordshire, complained to the bishop that the rector, Milo by name, had, from old age and ill health, been absent from his church during many years without licence of non-residence, though often admonished to reside. The bishop issued a commission, consisting of neighbouring inc.u.mbents, to inquire. They replied that Milo had not resided for ten years, that the services had been very badly done by numerous chaplains, and the parishioners grossly neglected, and that the rectory house and buildings were falling into decay. A coadjutor was appointed by the bishop to a.s.sist him in the cure of his parish.[294]

Here are some ill.u.s.trative cases of a more satisfactory kind. Philip de Harwodelme, Rector of Bigby--it is recorded in the Register of Bishop Quivil, of Exeter,[295] in 1286--being so cast down by disease and broken by old age as to feel himself entirely unequal to the care of the souls of the parishioners, had a retiring pension a.s.signed to him of twenty marks, out of the great t.i.thes of the parish. This is a very simple solution of the difficulty, since the pension, equal to 13, was an ample one, and, it is to be a.s.sumed, the benefice large enough to spare it.[296]

In 1309, William de Tres ... Vicar of Perran Zabulo, being very old and infirm, Bishop Stapledon grants a sequestration of the living to Sir Wm.

de Mileborne, Rector of Lanhorne; and an arrangement is made by which Michael de Newroneck is appointed coadjutor to the old vicar, and is to pay him two shillings a-week for his sustenance; and out of the rest of the benefice is to live himself and maintain hospitality, and pay all charges on the living.

In 1316, the bishop appointed Thomas de Dylington, Rector of c.u.mbfflorie, as coadjutor to the Rector of Lidiard St. Lawrence, who is blind, old, and broken in health; the appointment is made subject to revocation at the bishop's pleasure.

In appointing a coadjutor to Sir Wm., Vicar of St. Colan, on account of his great infirmity, it is stated in Bishop Stapledon's Register that the coadjutor is to take charge of the goods, etc., of the vicarage. And so in the case of Sir Henry, Vicar of Constantine, a coadjutor is appointed by the same bishop, who is to take an inventory of the vicar's goods, and to have the vicar and his goods in his care, and to provide honourably for the vicar and his family.

In the Registers of Lichfield Diocese, we find the inc.u.mbents of Stoke-on-Terne, Uttoxeter, St. Peter's, Derby, etc., resigning on a pension secured by the oath of their successors; and chaplains a.s.signed to the Vicar of Lapley, who is old and blind, and the Rector of Maxstoke, because he is infirm; and so in other dioceses.

The arrangement between the vicar and his successor does not always work quite smoothly. This seems to be the explanation of the action of Bishop Stapledon, of Exeter, who, in 1326, admonishes Barthol de More, Vicar of Kynstock by the resignation of John Mon, who is decrepit, to continual residence, and to take oath to maintain the said John as long as he lives.

But soon after a more definite arrangement is made that "lest, in process of time, to the scandal of the clergy, the said John should be compelled miserably to beg, he shall receive a payment of six marks of silver, viz.

40_s._ at St. Michael, and 40_s._ at Easter."

Cases difficult to deal with sometimes occurred. Considering the prevalence of leprosy from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries, it is not wonderful to find the vicar of a parish among the victims of the dreadful disease. We have met with one case in the preceding chapter of a Vicar of Colyton, in Exeter diocese, in 1330. We are not told what steps the bishop took in that case; but in a similar case at St. Neot's, in the same diocese, the vicar being struck with leprosy, Bishop Stapledon appointed Ralph de Roydene, chaplain, to be his coadjutor, and gave the vicar and the living into the custody of the coadjutor. The bishop orders that since the vicar cannot, without danger, have intercourse with the whole people as he has been accustomed, the vicar shall have the better chamber (_meliorem cameram_) with the houses adjoining it, except the hall, to live, and eat, and drink in; and that the entrance should be closed between the said chamber and the hall, and a new entrance made to the said chamber externally in a suitable place, by which the vicar, when need is, can have ingress and egress; and a _cloaca_, likewise, to the said chamber, in a fitting place. The said Sir Ralph shall pay to the said vicar every week for his maintenance in food, drink, and firing, and other small necessaries, 2_s._ sterling, and yearly on the feast of St. Michael, or thereabout, 20_s._ for his robe; also he shall keep in repair the houses of the said vicarage, both those which the vicar inhabits, and all the other buildings of the vicarage, and shall undertake and see after all other burdens belonging to the said vicarage.[297]

There is a case in the Chichester Register in which the master and brethren of the college of the Holy Trinity, Arundel, pet.i.tion the bishop to give a pension to Wm. Rateford, resigning the Vicarage of Kurdford, lest he come to beggary, to the scandal of the clergy.

In another Chichester case, Thomas Bolle, Rector of Aldrington, Suss.e.x, having resigned his living in 1402, applied to the bishop, Robert Rede, for leave to build a cell against the wall of the church, in which he might be shut up--as a recluse--for the rest of his life. The license was granted, and the Reclusorium remains to this day in the shape of a room 29 ft. by 25 ft., with ingress to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin on the north side of the church.[298]

In 1422, Spofford, Bishop of Hereford, inst.i.tuted a vicar to the parish of Dilwyn, in the place of Walter Robins, to whom, as having discharged his duties in a laudable manner, a pension of 40_s._ is a.s.signed, to prevent his falling into beggary, and so becoming a scandal to the Church. His pension is to begin fifteen days after his resignation, and to be paid quarterly. He is to have a chamber in the vicarage house on the ground floor (_ba.s.sam cameram_), with a fireplace in it, and near the entrance door (_hostium actuale_), with free ingress and egress, and power of redress in case of failure in punctuality of payment.[299]

In the adjoining parish of Webley, a vicar retiring in 1440 is to receive eight marks, a room on the ground floor, the use of the vicarage kitchen, well, and garden; and the incoming inc.u.mbent is to a.s.sure these benefits by oath.

Beneficed clergymen had a freehold in their benefices, and therefore a legal claim for provision in old age, not so with unbeneficed men; but we meet with a few examples of kindly care for them. For example: In 1237 the Bishop of Durham obtained the papal licence to place certain clerks of his diocese who have become old, weak, and blind in a house together, and a.s.sign the t.i.the of his wills for their support;[300] Thomas Ricard, in 1433, leaves, "to John Wright, chaplain, because he is blind and poor, a mark per annum for life."[301]

William Malham, of Elslack, absentee rector--being a master in Chancery--of the parish of Marton, Yorks, in the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII., writes to his brother: "I will Sir W. Martindale be Parish Priest at Marton, and to have like wages as Sir W. Hodgson had, and Sir W.

Hodgson to have six marks yearly, during his life, to tarry at Marton, and praye for me and my mother's and father's sawles. They both to begin their service at midsomer next coming." This seems to be a kindly way of pensioning off an old parish chaplain.[302]

If the reader wishes to follow our parish priest to the grave, and join in his obsequies, he may turn to pp. 452 and 457, where he will find sufficient suggestions to enable him to reproduce the funeral and the funeral service, and the month's-mind and obit. The wills of priests sometimes give directions for their monuments; for example, in 1384, Michael Northburgh, Canon of Chichester, and Rector of Hampstap, willed to be buried in Chichester Cathedral, in a spot which he minutely describes: "A marble stone to be placed over my grave with a half statue like that of Mgr. William Blythe, with this inscription: Hic jacet Michael Northborough, quondam Canonicus Ecclie Cicestren. et Rector Ecclie de Hampstap, cuius Aie P'picietur Deus. Amen. And the statue to hold a scroll in its hands with the words, Miseremini mei, Miseremini mei, saltem bos Amici, quia Ma.n.u.s Domini tetigit me."[303]

William of Duffield, Chaplain of St. Martin's, in Coney Street, York (A.D.

1361), left 20_s._ to buy a gravestone for himself, and 3_s._ 4_d._ for workmanship and sculpturing a chalice thereon.[304]

CHAPTER XX.

THE PARISH CLERK.

The parish clerk seems to have existed about as long as the parish priest, if we are right in a.s.suming that the man of sober life whom the parish priest was required by the "canons of King Edgar" to bring with him to the diocesan synods (see p. 67) was the prototype of that useful official. At least, from a very early time every parish had its clerk to attend upon the priest in his office, and to perform a number of useful services on behalf of the parishioners. An Injunction of Bishop Grostete says, "In every church which hath sufficient means there shall be a deacon and sub-deacon, but in the rest at least a fitting and honest clerk to serve the priest in a comely habit."[305] A Canon of a Synod of Ely (1528) enjoins all parish clerks to serve their priests at high ma.s.s reverently and devoutly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coronation procession of Charles V. of France. (From MS. of Froissart's Chronicle.)]

The general custom was for the inc.u.mbent to choose and appoint the clerk, and for the parishioners to pay him; but in some parishes the parishioners had a prescriptive right to choose; and there are indications that in some parishes it was the custom for the rector or vicar to pay him.[306] Having been duly chosen and appointed, the clerk was licensed by the Ordinary, and held his office as a freehold, being removable by the Ordinary, and by him only for misconduct. His duties were to attend on the parish priest, and a.s.sist in the services of the church; to ring the bell for services, prepare the altar, lead the people in the responses; precede the procession with holy water; precede the priest with bell and taper in going to visit the sick, and such-like things.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Parish Clerk sprinkling Holy Water. (Early 14th cent. MS.

British Museum, Royal, 10 E. IV.)]

One curious custom of his office was to go round the parish on Sundays and great festivals, and to enter the houses in order to asperse the people with holy water, sometimes, perhaps on some special festivals, it would be to cense them, for Absolon, the parish clerk in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (Miller's Tale)--

Goth with a censer on the holy day, Censing the wives of the parish faste.

A MS. in the British Museum of early fourteenth century date (Royal, 10 E.

IV.) contains a story which turns on the adventures of a parish priest, as he goes through the parish on this errand. Our ill.u.s.tration, taken from f. 108 _verso_, shows how, after going into the kitchen to sprinkle the cook, he then goes to the hall to sprinkle the lord and lady as they sit at dinner. In the Harl. MS., 2278, f. 76, is a picture of a parish clerk about to asperse the dead body of a child, the mother withdrawing the winding-sheet for the purpose.[307] It was from this duty that the parish clerk took the name of "Aquabajalus."

His stipend was made up of customary fees, especially for his services at marriages and burials, which differed in various parishes, and voluntary donations. A custom of this kind is good (says Lyndwode), that every master of a family on every Lord's day give the clerk bearing the holy water, somewhat according to the exigency of his condition; and that on Christmas Day he have of every house one loaf of bread, and a certain number of eggs at Easter, and in the autumn certain sheaves. Also that may be called a laudable custom where such clerk every quarter of the year receives something in certain money for his sustenance, which ought to be collected and levied in the whole parish.

A great number of the mediaeval wills contain small bequests to the parish clerk, and to clerks attending the funeral of the testator.