Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 19

A story told by Matthew Paris[308] makes us acquainted with the average income thus derived. "It happened that an agent of the pope met a jolly clerk of a village carrying water in a little vessel with a sprinkler, and some bits of bread given him for having sprinkled some holy water, and to him the deceitful Roman thus addressed himself: 'How much does the profit yielded to you by this church amount to in a year?' To which the clerk, ignorant of the Roman's cunning, replied, 'To twenty shillings, I think.'

Whereupon the agent demanded the percentage the pope had just demanded on all ecclesiastical benefices. And to pay that small sum the poor man was compelled to hold school for many days, and, by selling his books in the precincts, to drag on a half-starved life."

Boniface, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his Const.i.tutions of 1260, says--

We have often heard from our elders that the benefices of holy water were originally inst.i.tuted from a motive of charity, in order that one of their proper poor clerks might have exhibitions to the schools, and so advance in learning, that they might be fit for higher preferment.

He therefore desires that in churches which are not distant more than ten miles from the cities and castles of the province of Canterbury, the rectors and vicars should endeavour to find such clerks, and appoint them to the office. And if the parishioners withhold the customary alms to them, let them be urgently admonished, and, if need be, compelled to give them.

We are not surprised to find that parish clerks of this kind often kept the village schools.

Peckham, Archbishop in 1280, ordered in the church of Bauquell and the chapels annexed to it, that there should be _duos clericos scholasticos_, carefully chosen by the parishioners, from whose alms they would have to live, who should carry holy water round in the parish and chapels on Lord's days and festivals, and minister _in divinis officiis_, and on week days should keep school.[309]

Alexander, Bishop of Coventry, 1237, ordered parish clerks who should be schoolmasters in country villages.[310]

The custom of putting young scholars into the office of parish clerk to help them to proceed to holy orders, explains some kindly bequests which we meet with in wills:

Robert de Weston, Rector of Marum, 1389, leaves "to John Penne, my clerk, a missal of the new Use of Sarum, if he wishes to be a priest, otherwise I give him 20_s._ My servant Thomas Thornawe, 20_s._ The residue of my goods to be solde as quickly as possible, _communi pretio_, so that the purchasers may be bound to pray for my soul."[311]

Giles de Gadlesmere, in 1337, left to Wm. Ockam, clerk, C_s._, unless he be promoted before my death.[312]

The parish clerks of a town or neighbourhood sometimes formed themselves into a gild, as in London, Lincoln, etc.,[313] and it would seem that these gilds in some places entertained their neighbours, and no doubt augmented their own funds, by the exhibition of miracle plays. The parish clerks of London used to exhibit, on the anniversary of their gild, on the green in the parish of St. James, Clerkenwell. In 1391, Stow says that they performed before the king and queen and the whole court for three days successively, and that, in 1409, they performed a play of the "Creation of the World," the representation of which occupied eight successive days.

Chaucer gives a portrait of a parish clerk in the Miller's Tale of his "Canterbury Pilgrims"--

Now was there of that churche a parish clerke The which that was y-cleped Absolon.

Crulle[314] was his here and as the gold it shon, And strouted[315] as a fanne large and brode; Ful streight and even lay his jolly shode.[316]

His rode[317] was red, his eyen grey as goos, With Poules windowes carved on his shoos, In hosen red he went ful fetisly[318]

Yclad he was ful smal and proprely All in a kirtle of a light wajet[319]

Ful faire and thicke ben the pointes set.

And therupon he had a gay surplise As white as is the blossome upon the rise.[320]

A mery child he was so G.o.d me save, Well could he leten blod and clippe and shave And make a charte of lond and a quitance.

In twenty manner could he trip and daunce (After the schole of Oxenforde tho) And playen songes on a smal ribible[321]

Therto he sang, sometime a loud quinible[321]

And as wel could he play on a giterne.[321]

In all the town n'as brewhouse ne taverne That he ne visited with his solas, Theras that any galliard tapstere was.

This Absolon that jolly was and gay Goth with a censor on the holy day Censing the wives of the parish faste And many a lovely loke he on hem caste.

Sometime to shew his lightness and maistrie He plaieth Herod on a skaffold hie.

CHAPTER XXI.

CUSTOMS.

It remains to mention a great variety of observances and customs, some of them superst.i.tious, some innocent enough, many of them picturesque and poetical and giving colour and variety to the popular religious life. It would need another volume as large as this to do justice to the subject which we find ourselves compelled to deal with in a single chapter.

The right of Sanctuary, the immunity from violence even of the criminal who had put himself under the protection of present Deity, which was provided for in the Levitical cities of refuge, which attached to the temples of the G.o.ds of Greece and Rome, was, when the empire became Christian, readily accorded to churches and their precincts. We have had occasion to mention its existence in Saxon times;[322] it seems desirable to say that it continued to be an important feature in the life of the times of which we are now speaking. There were special sanctuaries--cities of refuge--with special privileges, as at Durham, Ripon, Hexham, Beverley, Battle, Beaulieu, Westminster, St. Martin's le Grand, the Savoy, Whitefriars, and the Mint in London, and other places.

Every church and every churchyard shared in the privilege, and it was no very unusual incident to find it made use of.

As an ill.u.s.tration of its efficacy, we may point to the story that after the battle of Tewkesbury, King Edward IV., with some of his knights, was about to enter the church, sword in hand, in pursuit of some of the defeated Lancastrians who had taken refuge there, when the priest met them at the door bearing the consecrated host, and refused them entrance till the king had promised pardon to several of the refugees. We frequently meet with examples of people in danger to life or liberty taking refuge in the nearest church.

The church was also a sanctuary for property. It was very usual to deposit money and valuables there for safe custody. We give some examples of it in a footnote.[323] Jews were not allowed to deposit their money and valuables in churches.

The churchyard also gave a certain protection.[324] Ordericus Vitalis relates that the villagers in time of war sometimes removed themselves and their goods thither, and built themselves huts within the precincts, and were left unmolested. From a canon of the Synod of Westminster, 1142, we learn that ploughs and other agricultural implements placed in the churchyard had certain immunities, probably freedom from seizure for debt.

The canon decreed that the ploughs in the fields, with the husbandmen, should have the same immunity.[325]

A similar privilege attached to the persons of bishops; Bishop St. Hugh of Lincoln meeting the sheriff and his men taking a man to execution, claimed the criminal, and carried him off. The Abbot of Battle on one occasion claimed and exercised the same episcopal privilege.

Pilgrimage was a popular act of devotion from Saxon times downwards, and afforded a relief to the stay-at-home habits of the people. The pilgrimage to the Holy Land was the most highly esteemed, after that, to the thresholds of the apostles at Rome, and to Compostella, and great numbers went thither. The most famous native pilgrimages were to St. Thomas of Canterbury and Our Lady of Walsingham, but every cathedral had its shrine, and many monasteries and many churches their relics. It would occupy pages even to give a list of the known places of pilgrimage in every county. Let it suffice to mention the shrines of St. Cuthbert at Durham, St. William at York, and little St. William at Norwich, St. Hugh at Lincoln, St.

Edward Confessor at Westminster, St. Erkenwald at London, St. Wulstan at Worcester, St. Swithun at Winchester, St. Edmund at Bury, SS. Etheldreda and Withburga at Ely, St. Thomas at Hereford, St. Frideswide at Oxford, St. Werburgh at Chester, St. Wulfstan at Worcester, St. Wilfrid at Ripon, St. Richard at Chichester, St. Osmund at Salisbury, St. Paulinus at Rochester. There were famous roods, as that near the north door of St.

Paul's, London, and the roods of Chester and Bromholme; and statues, as that of Our Lady of Wilsden, and of Bexley, and of other places. There were scores of sacred wells; that of St. Winifred at Holywell, near Chester, with its exquisite architectural enclosure and canopy, is still almost perfect, and still resorted to for its supposed healing virtues.

Before a man went on any of the greater pilgrimages, he obtained a licence from his parish priest, and first went to church and received the Church's blessing on his pious enterprise, and her prayers for his good success and safe return, and was formally invested with his staff, scrip, and bottle (water-bottle). The office for blessing pilgrims may be found in the old service books. While he was away he was mentioned every Sunday, as we have seen, in the Bidding Prayer, in his parish church. On the road, and at the end of his journey, he found hospitals founded by pious people on purpose to entertain pilgrims, and on the exhibition of his formal licence he received kindly hospitality. At every great place of pilgrimage "signs"

were sold to the pilgrims, the palm at Jerusalem, scallop sh.e.l.ls at St.

James of Compostella, and the like. In many places water, in which had been dipped one of the relics, was sold, to be used in case of sickness, enclosed in a leaden ampul, and was worn suspended by a cord from the neck. Fragments of the pilgrim roads may still be traced in narrow deep overgrown lanes on the hillsides between Guildford and Reigate, between Westerham and Seven Oaks, leading towards Canterbury, and in green lanes through Norfolk leading towards Walsingham. On his return the pilgrim went to church to return thanks, and hung up his signs over his bed as treasured mementoes of his adventurous journey. Sometimes the palmer's staff, or the scallop sh.e.l.ls, were, on his death, hung on the church wall, as the knight's gauntlets, sword, and helmet were.[326]

The whole body of the people had an opportunity of a short pilgrimage on the occasion of the annual procession of the parishes to the cathedral church, or if that were too far, to some other central church with special attractions, with banners waving and most likely music playing, there to meet the processions from other parishes, as has been already described at p. 121.

Very frequently at the great Festivals there was some picturesque addition to the services in church; as the grotto and cradle at Christmas, the sprinkling of ashes on Ash Wednesday, the veiling of the rood during Lent, the procession bearing palms round the churchyard on Palm Sunday, the creeping to the cross on Good Friday, the Easter sepulchre, on Whitsunday the white dresses of the baptizands, the blessing of the fields on Rogation days, the festival of the Dedication of the parish church which was held on its saint's day, and was a great day of social feasting. Every Sunday the procession (Litany) round the church, sometimes preceded by a miserable figure in white, bearing a taper, doing penance. At funerals there was a great display of mournful pageantry; and month's-minds, and obits, frequently occurring, added a feature to the service in which everybody took a personal interest; for the good people then, when the banns of a marriage were published, kindly responded with a "G.o.d speed them well"; and when the names of the departed were proclaimed, prayed "G.o.d rest their souls."

In the Middle Ages, all the services of the church, attended by the people, were celebrated by daylight, except, perhaps, the first evensong on the eves of saint days, and very early celebrations, and then the attendants probably brought a taper or a coil of wax-light for themselves, so that there was no need of provision for the lighting up of the whole interior of churches, such as is customary in these days; but lights in churches were a conspicuous part of their furniture, and the provision of them was a source of general interest to the people.

First there were the altar lights. A law of Edmund directs that the priest shall not celebrate without a light; not for use, but as a symbol. At low ma.s.s one candle on the gospel side of the altar was sufficient, _e.g._ one was habitually used in Lincoln Cathedral at low ma.s.s. In poor churches, sometimes only one was used. Myrc, in his "Instructions to Parish Priests," says--

Look that thy candle of wax it be, And set it so that thou it see, On the left half of thine altere, And look always that it burn clere.

In pictures of the celebration of the Eucharist in illuminated MSS., we sometimes find only one candle on the altar, _e.g._ in Nero E. II.

(fourteenth cent.) _pa.s.sim_. More usually in later times two wax candles were placed on the altar, which were understood to symbolize the presence in the sacrament of Christ the Light of the World, and their number to allude to the two natures in our Lord.

It was required that an oil-lamp should hang before the high altar, always alight, in honour of the reserved sacrament in its Pyx. It was an ancient custom to have a great ornamented wax-light at Easter, called the Paschal Candle, in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord. Lights were placed on the rood-loft, and tapers were burned in front of the images of the saints, here and there in the church and its chapels. "The lighting of candles is not to dispel darkness, but to show that the saints are lightened by the light of heaven from G.o.d, as when they were alive, and the light of Faith, Grace, and Doctrine shone in them in this life." "The Church Light before the rood, the relics, or images of saints burneth to the honour of G.o.d."[327]

The number of these lights before saints was sometimes considerable. For example, the churchwardens' accounts of All Saints', Derby, for 1466-67, give entries with respect to the lights in that church, which tell us the number of images of saints, the number of tapers before each image, and the way in which they were provided:--

St. Catherine's lights contained 20 serges, maintained by the collection of the Candle lighter.

St. Nicholas' light contained 12 serges, maintained by the gathering of the Parish Clerk on St. Nicholas' night.

Four other serges were burnt before St. Nicholas, which were provided by the Schoolmaster's gathering from his scholars, St. Nicholas being the patron saint of School boys.