Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 23

Then came twenty-eight other prebends, ranging from 4 13_s._ 4_d._ to 40, making up the total income of the dignitaries and prebendaries to 706 13_s._ 4_d._

When we turn to the "Valor" (vol. i. p. 293), we find fuller details of the condition of things at the end of the fifteenth century. "The annual value of all and singular, the houses, castles, domains, manors, lands, and tenements, and other temporal possessions whatsoever, and also of the t.i.thes, oblations, pensions, portions, and other spiritual profits whatsoever, of the Reverend Father in Christ, Robert, Bishop of Chichester," amounted to spiritualities, 138 17_s._ 9_d._; temporalities,[389] 589 10_s._ 2_d._; or, after certain allowed deductions, to a clear total of 677 1_s._ 3_d._

The income of the dean and chapter has grown to 310 14_s._ 6_d._; we have no note of the way in which it was disposed of.

The income of the dean, William Fleshmonger, was 58 9_s._ 4_d._ We have no reason to doubt that he was identical with the William Fleshmonger who was Rector of Selsey,[390] worth 11 3_s._ 4_d._; with the Dr. William Fleshmonger who was Rector of Storyngton,[391] 18; and with the William Fleshmonger who was Rector of Hertfield,[392] 7.

No doubt it was the dean who was the tenant by indenture for a term of years from Battle Abbey, at a rent of 15 6_s._ 8_d._, of the Manor of Apultram[393] near Chichester, and in all probability he is identical with the William Fleshmonger who held the Prebend of Carlton c.u.m Dalby[394] of the Church of Lincoln.

The Dignity of the Precentory had endowment to the amount of 35 0_s._ 5_d._, and Charles William Horsey seems to have had no other preferment in Chichester Diocese. But among the Prebendaries of Lincoln there is also a William Horsey, Prebendary of Scamelsby,[395]

who may very possibly have been identical with our Precentor.

The Dignity of Chancellor was endowed with a clear 27 7_s._, and we find that Mr. George Croft was also Prebendary of Middleton,[396]

worth 2 3_s._ 4_d._ There was also a George Croft, Rector of Wynford,[397] 21 12_s._ 10_d._, in the diocese of Bath and Wells, who may have been our chancellor.

The treasurer, Hugho Rolfe, after paying two servants and other dues, had a clear 62 6_s._ 8_d._ from the dignity, and held besides the Prebend of Braklesham,[398] 11 17_s._ 3_d._, and apparently the vicarage of Henfield,[399] 16 9_s._ 9_d._

The dignity of the Archdeaconry of Chichester was worth 38 3_s._ 4_d._, and the Archdeacon John Worthial also held the Prebend of Huve Town,[400] 10; he seems also to have held the benefice of Sutton, 15 0_s._ 6_d._;[401] but we hesitate to identify the venerable archdeacon with the William Worthiall who held the two Chantries of Eastangmering and Fyrring,[402] though no doubt his friends would often jestingly a.s.sure him that if he had half a dozen more sinecures he would still have been "worthy all." The Archdeaconry of Lewes was worth 39 14_s._ 10_d._, and Archdeacon More was also Prebendary of Coleworth,[403] 18 13_s._ 4_d._, and is probably identical with the Edward More who was Vicar of Bexhill,[404] worth 23 10_s._ 2_d._ There were altogether thirty-one prebends ranging in value from 10 to 20; four of these were added by Bishop Sherborne a little before the Reformation, restricted to men of Winchester and New Colleges, who were required to serve in their own persons without deputies.

Residentiaries on first appointment to office were bound to attend every service without a single omission for a year, and in case of an omission to recommence their course.

There were twelve vicars choral who received 2 12_s._ 8_d._ each, and fourteen chantries which were served by the vicars choral, the profits of each ranging between 3 and 13. There were also eight choristers and four thuribulers.[405]

"Bishop Sherborne, just before the Reformation, having ruled magnificently, laid down his staff and mitre weary with the weight of ninety years and more, and left his statutes chained to his throne; begging the kindly thoughts of all sorts and conditions of men; with a bequest of crown soleil, and bread and good wine to be offered to the bishop at his 'jocund coming' on a visitation; ypocras and choice fruits for the crowned king and primate; wine to be drunk round the city cross for the young; ample doles for the aged; marriage portions out of the annual residue for poor girls; egg flip with milk and sugar, coloured with saffron, for the choristers; and a dinner to the chapter on his anniversary."[406]

There are some examples in England of that annexation of temporal rule to certain episcopal sees, of which the independent prince bishops of Germany are instances still more ill.u.s.trious, and the Bishop of Rome the most remarkable. The _Bishops of Durham_ were the temporal rulers of the district of country between the Tees and the Tyne, and almost independent of the king; while the men of "the bishopric," as it was called in a special sense, were the servants of St. Cuthbert, and subject to none but Cuthbert's successor. This privilege arose from a gift of the district to St. Cuthbert and his successors by King Guthred in the year 883. The _Bishops of Winchester_ were anciently reputed to be Earls of Southampton, and possessed a certain temporal authority, the origin of which is not known to the writer. The _Bishop of Ely_ was in ancient times supreme in the Isle, which was, if not a county palatine, at least a royal franchise, with courts and exclusive jurisdiction of its own; of which traces remain in the existing arrangements, in that it has no Lord-Lieutenant, and is in every way distinct from the rest of the county in which it is situated. It is reasonable to suppose that the bishop (created in 1108) derived this authority as the successor of the abbots, who received it as the representatives of Queen Etheldreda, the founder, in continuance of privileges conferred on the queen when King Tondbert gave the Isle to her in dower.

CHAPTER XXIV.

MONKS AND FRIARS.

We have only to deal here with the relations of the religious houses with the clergy, and their influence upon the general religious life of clergy and people.

First of all, the monasteries kept before the minds both of parish priests and of their people the ideal of an unambitious, self-denying, studious, meditative, religious life. No doubt many of the monks and nuns fell short of their own ideal, and there were occasional scandals; we find notices in the registers of the bishops of their intervention in such cases. But the lives of the majority were sufficiently respectable to maintain the credit of the inst.i.tution, and there were always some whose lives were exemplary.

We may produce an evidence of the general feeling on the subject from the report of the commissioners of Henry VIII., who were sent to inquire into the state of the smaller monasteries, with a view to their suppression.

The report stated that there were all sorts of abuses and scandals in the smaller houses, and recommended that they should be suppressed, and that their inhabitants should be transferred to "the great solemn monasteries of this realm, wherein--thanks be to G.o.d--religion is right well kept and observed." As to their report against the smaller houses; they had been employed on purpose to make out a case against them, and the world has long since come to the conclusion that their adverse testimony is not to be believed.

If we are right in these enlightened days in thinking that fine public buildings for the housing of parliaments, munic.i.p.al corporations, and the like civil inst.i.tutions of the nation tend to give dignity to the national life; and that galleries of sculpture and painting, and museums of art, exercise an elevating influence on the popular mind; it can hardly be denied that the religious houses, with their stately groups of buildings, their sublime churches, and the numerous beautiful works of sculpture, painting, embroidery, and goldsmiths' work which they contained, must have had a similar influence upon the religious sentiment and the aesthetic education of the people. A mediaeval town was greatly the richer, religiously and intellectually, for having a great monastery in its suburb. The half-dozen religious houses--great and small--in a rural county had a religious, civilizing, elevating influence over the whole country-side. Even their empty ruins have not lost all their influence.

The stately relics of the Yorkshire abbeys give added interest and dignity to the great northern county. What would the Isle of Ely be without the solemn grandeur of its cathedral church?

There is not enough left of any one of our own monasteries to enable the visitor to its mournful ruins to realize how each was a little town, protected by its walls and gate towers; with the roofs and chimneys of its numerous domestic buildings, and the trees of its gardens and orchards appearing over the walls; and the towers of its great church forming the centre of the architectural group, as it was the centre of the life of the inhabitants. We have, therefore, borrowed an ill.u.s.tration from Clugny, the parent and prototype of the houses of the Reformed Benedictine Orders.

The "Religious" and the upper cla.s.ses of society were more in touch than at first sight appears. The great families kept up friendly relations[407]

with the houses which their ancestors had founded, of which they were still the patrons, and from time to time benefactors. People of the upper cla.s.ses, in travelling, usually sought hospitality at the religious houses, and were entertained by the abbot, while their people were cared for in the guest house. The monks and nuns were largely taken from these cla.s.ses.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Abbey of Cluny, as it was.]

Throughout the Middle Ages the monks--especially the Benedictines--continued to cultivate learning, both secular and religious.

The chroniclers of the greater monasteries were the only historians of the time, and their collections of books were the libraries of the nation.

Some of the great monasteries served the purpose of the great public schools of modern times, and the nunneries especially were--as they are still in Continental countries--the schools of the daughters of the gentry.

Long after they had ceased to be the pioneers leading the way in reducing the waste lands under cultivation, the monks continued to set an example to the lay gentry and landowners in enterprising scientific agriculture and horticulture; and in the refinement of domestic economy they were ages ahead of the rest of the community; they utilized streams for water power, for irrigation, and for sanitation; they sought out pure water for domestic use, and brought it long distances by conduits. The Church, regular and secular, was a liberal landlord. Not a few of its tenants, seated generation after generation on its manors, grew into knightly and n.o.ble families.

The monasteries exercised a most important direct influence upon the parochial clergy and their people owing to the fact that they were the patrons of a large proportion of the parishes; and nominated the vicars who were to teach and minister to the people of those parishes. In many cases where a monastery adjoined a town, the convent had the patronage of all the vicarages in the town in its hands; and their bias would lead them to appoint men of a "religious" tone of character.

That the monks were not unpopular is proved by two facts. First, that the House of Commons only pa.s.sed the first Act of Suppression of the smaller houses under the coercion of the king's personal threats; and, secondly, that the suppression was so resented by the people that in several parts of the country the people rose in armed rebellion against it.

But we must be content to indicate thus briefly that the monastic inst.i.tution in many ways exercised a powerful influence upon the national life and religion.

The Mendicant Orders require a more lengthened consideration, for they were founded as an auxiliary to the ancient diocesan and parochial inst.i.tution, in direct pastoral ministrations to the people, and played an important part in the religious life of the nation.

In the thirteenth century--as again in our day--the increasing population had grown too great for the agricultural needs of the country, and the surplus population had flocked into the towns. The result then, as now, was overcrowding, the building of unhealthy houses in the suburbs, poverty, dirt, and disease; and, as a consequence, ignorance and irreligion. Leprosy, brought probably from the East by the returning Crusaders, had become permanent and widely spread among all ranks and cla.s.ses.[408] At the same time a wave of wild opinions, political and religious, was sweeping across Europe which reached this island almost a century later under the name of Lollardism, and created disaffection in Church and State.

The intellectual disorder excited the zeal of the Spanish canon, Dominic, who organized an order of preaching friars, to go about teaching the truth and contending against dangerous error. About the same time the heart of Francis, a citizen of Amalfi, was fired with compa.s.sion for the misery of the poor and sick, and he organized an order of brothers, whose duty it was to minister to suffering humanity. Both orders speedily became very popular, and spread over Europe. The Dominicans introduced themselves into England at Oxford, in 1221, and were patronized by Archbishop Stephen Langton. The first Franciscans came three years afterwards to Canterbury; and both orders spread as rapidly here as in the other countries of Europe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A Semi-choir of Franciscan Friars. (Fourteenth century MS.

in British Museum. Domitian, A. 17.)]

The organization of both orders ran on the same lines. Each was an ecclesiastical army. Each had a general of the order residing in Rome, under the special protection and correction of one of the cardinals. Under the general was a provincial in each country into which the order extended. The houses of the order in each country were gathered into groups, called by the Dominicans, "Visitations," and by the Franciscans, "Custodies." The English province of the Franciscans was divided into seven custodies or wardenships, each including eight or nine convents,[409] and comprising most of the great towns. The Dominicans had fifty-eight convents here; the Franciscans 75. The officers were all elected at a chapter, were required to resign at the ensuing chapter, and might be removed at any time for insufficiency or misconduct.

The Carmelite Friars had their origin in the East, and were introduced into England by Sir John de Vesey, on his return from the Crusade in the early part of the thirteenth century. It had ultimately about five houses in England. The Austin Friars, founded about the middle of the century, had about forty-five houses here. These make up the four orders, Black, Grey, White, and Austin. All smaller foundations were suppressed or included in the Austins, by the Council of Lyons, in 1370.

The great difference between the monks and the friars was that the ideal of the monastic life was seclusion from the world for prayer and meditation with a view to the cultivation of one's own soul; that of the friar's life was devotion to active work. The great economical difference was that the monks were individually vowed to poverty, but as communities they were wealthy, while the friars were vowed to have no property individually or collectively, and to live of the alms of the people.

At first the friars were very successful in England, as elsewhere. Bishops like Stephen Langton and Grostete patronized them. Before long members of the mendicant orders became themselves bishops and archbishops. They sent their young men to the universities, and cultivated learning so successfully that they soon became the most famous teachers in the universities of Europe. Among the people generally they effected a great revival of religion, which Sir J. Stephen compares with the revival in more modern times effected by the preaching of Wesley and Whitefield.

The friaries were always founded in, or in the suburbs of, the larger towns, for their mission was to the ma.s.ses of the people. But they had a system of itineration, which seems to have divided the country into districts, and sent the friars two and two, visiting not only the villages but the houses of the gentry and farmers. This brought the friars into rivalry with the parish priests. In the towns the Dominicans often built a large church, planned so as to form an auditorium, and attracted large congregations by their popular preaching. The friars laid themselves out also for special services, which would attract the sluggish and popularize religion, such as miracle plays and the observance of special festivals.

In the villages the itinerant friar preached in the church or churchyard, and heard the confessions of those who chose to come to him; and there were many who preferred to confess their misdoings to a comparative stranger, who did not live among them, rather than to their parish priest.

So says Chaucer--

He had power of confession, As said himself, more than a curate, For of his order he was licentiate.

Full sweetly heard he confession, And pleasant was his absolution.

He was an easy man to give penance There as he wist to have a good pittance, For unto a poor order for to give Is sign that a man is well yshrive.

"Prologue to the Canterbury Tales."

Both in town and country they offered the fraternity of their convent to benefactors, with its prayers for their good estate while living, and sought to have ma.s.ses for the dead entrusted to them on the ground that a convent of friars would pray them out of purgatory ten times as soon as a single parish priest.