Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 27

In the great houses of the n.o.bles down to the end of the mediaeval period, the chapel is as universal a feature as the hall or the great chamber.[451] The chapels at Ightham Mote, Kent; at Bodiam, Suss.e.x; at the Vyne, Hampshire; and at Wolsey's Palace at Hampton Court, are fine examples. The still perfect chapel of Haddon Hall is in all respects like an ordinary village church, with font and pulpit. The College Chapels of Oxford and Cambridge, of Eton and Winchester, and of all the other mediaeval colleges and schools, the chapels of the Episcopal Palaces at Winchester, Farnham, Lambeth, etc., are all normal examples of the architectural features and furniture of the domestic chapels, and their services are examples of the manners and customs of the chapel services of the greater mediaeval houses.

The western end of the chapel is sometimes divided into two stories, both opening upon the sacrarium; the upper story was usually intended for the family, and the lower for the domestics. Sometimes the chapel on the princ.i.p.al floor has, besides its internal approaches, an external stone stair by which people from other parts of the house could enter the chapel without pa.s.sing through the house, as at the fourteenth-century houses of Inceworth (?) and Earth, both in Cornwall.

The princ.i.p.al residence of a great n.o.ble needed a chapel of considerable size to accommodate the number of people, as numerous as the population of a country parish or a small town, who were gathered into the castle during the residence of its lord:--the lord's household of knights and squires, yeomen and pages; his lady's separate household of ladies, bower-women, and women in various kinds of service; the garrison of the castle, with its commanders of knightly degree, their squires, men-at-arms, yeomen, and grooms; the several staffs which looked after the various departments of the service, the chambers, kitchens, stables, kennels, and mews; besides a constant flow of visitors, with their complex trains of guards and attendants.

In England only the chief royal houses have maintained the mediaeval dignity of their ecclesiastical domestic establishments. Windsor Castle, besides its oratory, has its n.o.ble chapel dedicated to St. George the Patron Saint of England,[452] and its establishment of dean and canons, singing men and boys, housed in a picturesque group of collegiate buildings arranged round several cloistered courts. The Tower of London, besides its chapel in the White Tower, has its church of St. Peter ad Vincula in the courtyard.

Many of the great n.o.bles, who maintained a state little inferior to that of royalty, had their chapel establishment of proportionate dignity. In the opinion of that time, a man of great rank and estate owed it to the glory of G.o.d that the worship of his household should be offered with circ.u.mstances of solemn splendour; he owed it to the well-being of the numerous people who depended upon him; and to the still more numerous people of all estates, who looked to him for an example.

The Duke of Buckingham's house at Thornbury had a chaplain, eighteen clerks of the chapel, and nine boys.[453]

The household book of Henry Algernon, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, who was born in 1477, and died in 1527, gives us very full details of the organization of the chapel staff of a great n.o.bleman, their duties, and their emoluments in money and kind. They consisted of a dean, who was to be a D.D., or LL.D., or B.D., and ten other priests, eleven gentlemen, and six children who composed the choir.[454] The secular duties which were a.s.signed to some of them will perhaps be better understood by a reference to the past. The clergy had always been the advisers of the English kings and n.o.bles in the ordinary affairs of life: the Archbishop of Canterbury was the king's official chief counsellor till long after the Norman Conquest. Every ealdorman and great thane probably had a learned clerk in his house, not only as a chaplain, but as an adviser in general affairs.

Henry II. organized his domestic religious establishment into a Department of State, and used Churchmen in the civil administration as ministers, amba.s.sadors, and judges--there were none others so capable. The n.o.bles were following on the same lines, when they made one chaplain steward, another secretary, and another tutor, in addition to their not burdensome duties in the maintenance of Divine worship. So the people resorted to their parish priest to advise them in their domestic difficulties and extraordinary matters of business, to arbitrate in their differences, and make their wills, for the simple natural reason of his wider knowledge of affairs, his greater experience of mankind, his disinterestedness, and, not least, his sacred character.

In the castles of less n.o.ble and wealthy persons it is not uncommon to find that there were several chaplains organized into a college of secular priests, as at Colchester, Exeter, Hastings, Pontefract, etc., and not infrequently endowed out of the rectories in the lord's gift. In some instances the lord of numerous estates endowed the chapel of his princ.i.p.al castle with the churches upon all his estates, as at Colchester, c.l.i.theroe, etc. The intention probably was not so much to enrich the chaplain or form an endowment for the collegiate staff of the chapel, as to make the castle chapel the mother church of the village churches on the surrounding estates; just as the seneschal of the castle was the superior officer of the bailiffs of the various manors; and so to concentrate the ecclesiastical administration of all the estates, as well as their civil administration, under the eye of the lord and his most trusted agents.

Sometimes, on the other hand, the lord gave the service of the castle chapel into the hands of some neighbouring monastery (probably of his own founding), as at Colchester to the Abbey of St. John, at Brecon to the Priory of Brecon. When Robert de Haia, in 1120, founded the Priory of Boxgrove, Suss.e.x, he stipulated that he should choose one of the canons to officiate in the chapel of his neighbouring manor house of Holnaker. So Sir Ralph de Eccleshall, _temp._ Edward I., gave his mill, etc., to the monks of Beauchief, who covenanted in return to find him a priest for his chapel at Eccleshall. They stipulated, however, that in floods or snow they shall be excused from sending one of their canons to Eccleshall, but may say the due ma.s.ses in their own church at Beauchief. So the chapel of the De Lovelot's castle at Sheffield was served by the canons of their Priory of Worksop.

The Collegiate Church of St. George within the royal castle of Windsor had, and still has, an establishment consisting of a dean, twelve canons, eight minor canons, eight vicars choral, and eight chorister boys.[455]

The Chapel of Wallingford Castle[456] was served by a dean, five prebendaries, and a deacon. Tickhill had four prebendaries;[457] three was a common number, as at Exeter, etc.; Pontefract had two. The chapel of Bridgenorth Castle had a college of secular priests, and in later times served as a parish church to the people of the borough. The castle chapels at Nottingham and Skipton were rectories. The Castle Chapel at Kirby Ravensworth had a chantry of two priests.

The chapels of Skipton, Tutbury, and Stafford Castles are called "free chapels." Of Skipton Castle Chapel certain liberties and duties of the parson or chaplain were written in two ma.s.s-books, one new, the other old, in one of which the earl granted that the said chaplain should have meat and drink sufficient within the hall of the lord of the castle for him and one garcon[458] with him. And if the lord be absent, and no house kept, he and his successors shall have for every ten weeks one quarter of wheat and vi_s._ viii_d._; and vi_d._ in money and one robe or gown yerely at ye Nativity of o'r Lord, or xiii_s._ iv_d._ in monie. An inquisition of Edward III. adds as part of the endowment one _cameram fenestratam_ (a chamber with a window) and pasture for viii oxen, vi cows, and two horses, and sufficient timber for repairing his house and chamber, and dry wood for firing. At the dissolution of chantries and free chapels, it became a question whether this was not a parsonage.[459] In other cases, the chaplain had a definite endowment, which seems to have been calculated upon the not very large income of a parish chaplain. The four chaplains of Tickhill were endowed with 5 each; the chaplain of Nottingham Castle with 5; the chaplain at Pleshey Castle, Ess.e.x, with 5;[460] the chaplain at Denbeigh with 8, the foundation of the king; at Southampton with 10, payable by Royal Letters out of the customs of that port. Probably in many cases there was no endowment; the chapel was practically a "free chapel,"

and the emoluments such as were agreed upon between the patron and his nominee; these would naturally tend to become a customary payment and perquisites; the Skipton agreement gives an instance of what was probably customary: viz. a corrody for himself and a boy, and a small sum in money.

The priest of the Chapel of Skelton Castle, Yorkshire, was, at the time of the Suppression, only partly paid by Lady Conyers, 23_s._; and his stipend was made up of payments from half a dozen other persons, from the 18_s._ of R. Robinson, down to the 3_s._ 10_d._ of John Gyll, making a total of 4 2_s._ 10_d._[461]

The domestic chapels of the n.o.bility and great men were always consecrated, and had a perpetual licence for Divine service.

Very probably, where there were several chaplains, they all served their lord in various clerkly capacities. So Piers Plowman:--

Somme serven the Kyng, and the silver tellen In chequer and chauncerie, challengen his dettes Of wardes, and of wardemotes, weyes and theyves; And some serven as servants lordes and ladies, And in stede of stewardes sitten and demen.

The domestic chaplain is frequently named in wills as a witness or an executor, and not infrequently as a legatee; _e.g._ Giles de Gadlesmere, knight, 1337, leaves to Wm. Ocham, clerk, 100 shillings, unless he be promoted before my death; Wm. de Ocham is one of the witnesses to the will.[462]

We find in the "Valor Eccl." a considerable number of chantries recorded as founded in the chapels of castles. There is doubt in some cases whether these were the ordinary endowments of the chaplain, made under the name of a Chantry, for reasons of legal convenience, or whether, in addition to the ordinary chaplain, a special endowment had been made for mortuary ma.s.ses, and, if so, whether the ordinary chaplain was also the Cantarist and received the chantry endowment in addition to his normal stipend. The chaplain celebrating in the chapel of the Castle of Downhead received from the grant of King Stephen 5 a year, and chaplain for celebrating ma.s.s twice every week at Penhill, for the soul of the founder, 2 13_s._ 4_d._[463] There were chantries in the chapels of the castles of Chester, Sherifhoton, Pickering, Malton, Pontefract, Penrith, Sandall, Skelton, Whorleton, Kermerdenin in Wales, Durham, Barnard Castle, Tutbury, Stafford, Wilton, Norham, Alnwick, etc. The lord of Bridgenorth Castle arranged with the Dean and Canons of Windsor to supply a priest to celebrate three days a week for the founder and King John.

Any one might build an oratory in his house,[464] but Divine service, that is the Holy Communion, might not be celebrated in it without the bishop's permission. Towards the close of the thirteenth century, the lesser gentry began to include a chapel in the plan of their manor houses, and the custom seems to have become almost universal in the following centuries.

We may take it as an indication of a growing desire to maintain the regular daily practice of religious worship in a seemly solemn way for their families and households.

In the valuable digest of the Exeter Registers, for which historical students are much indebted to Canon Hingeston-Randolph, the licences issued during the twenty-four years of Edmund Stafford's Episcopacy (1395-1419) are arranged under the family names of the persons to whom they were granted, and there are two hundred and seventy-two names. In many cases the licence extends to all their mansions and manors in the Diocese of Exeter; which gives a rough estimate of about three hundred domestic chapels in the manor houses of the two counties of Devon and Cornwall; if we multiply that figure by twenty-six, we get a rough estimate of over seven thousand domestic chapels in England and Wales.

All these domestic chapels, except those of royal houses[465] and of some free chapels, were under the jurisdiction of the bishop, and a constant and perhaps jealous oversight was maintained lest they should detract from the general a.s.sembly of all the parishioners for united worship in the parish church, or interfere with the pastoral position and rights of the rectors of the parishes. People with interest at Rome sometimes obtain their licence direct from the pope. There is an example of the king's amba.s.sador obtaining a batch of them in 1343, but they are granted with strict limitations.

Among the Const.i.tutions of Archbishop Stratford, made at the Council of London (1342), is one which even restricts the power of the bishops to grant licences: it decrees that "all licences granted by the bishops for celebrating ma.s.s in places not consecrated other than to n.o.ble men and great men of the realm, and to persons living at a considerable distance from the church, or notoriously weak or infirm, shall be void." The decree goes on to say that "whosoever, against the prohibition of the canon, shall celebrate ma.s.s in oratories, chapels, houses, or other places, not consecrated, without having obtained the licence of the diocesan, shall be suspended from the celebration of Divine service for the s.p.a.ce of a month."[466]

Robert Fitz Aer, the second of the name (c. 1190-1195), gave to the Convent of Haughmond certain lands on condition that they would have Divine service performed in his Chapel of Withyford three days a week, when he or his wife or their heirs were resident in the manor. All festivals were excluded from the agreement, and the parishioners were not to attend these services to the injury of the mother church.[467]

Here is an early example of the foundation of a domestic chapel under the guise of a chantry:--

Sir G. de Breaute, in right of Joane his wife, had liberty given him by Robert Dean of St. Paul's, with the consent of Walter Niger, Vicar of Navestock, Ess.e.x, to found a chapel and chantry in his court at Navestock, provided he and his heirs maintained a chaplain at his own charge, sworn to preserve the liberty of the mother church, and to pay the vicar all the profits he should receive there, and admit none of the parishioners to confession or other offices there under pain of being suspended by the vicar. The founder also and the heirs of the said Joane his wife, and whoever else had the said chapel in his lordship, were also to be sworn to preserve the rights of the mother church under like pain. In which chapel the chaplain was to administer the ma.s.s only with Bread and Holy Water, forbearing all other holy offices, saving that at Easter the founder and his wife and heirs, together with his free servants and guests, were to be admitted to the sacrament of the altar; but all his servants were to go to the mother church throughout the year.[468] And for this grant the founder and his wife and heirs were to give to the mother church two wax candles, each weighing a pound, to be offered, one at the Purification, the other at the a.s.sumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, before vespers.[469]

Another similar example is the chapel at the Vyne, Hampshire.

In the twelfth century, Robert, Dean of Sherburn, granted to William FitzAdam and his heirs to build a chapel in the parish of St. Andrew, Sherborne, for the use of himself, his wife, and his household. The said Robert to provide the chaplain, who shall eat at William's table, and receive a stipend for his services from Robert; saving the rights of the mother church; and William FitzAdam and his wife to attend worship, and receive communion at the parish church on Christmas, Easter, Purification, Whitsunday, and St. Andrew's Day.

The present chapel at the Vyne is a late perpendicular building, in a perfect state of repair; with its ancient screens and stalls. It has an anti-chapel over which was my lord's oratory; the two chambers for the chaplain on the south side have been converted into mortuary chapels of the time of Charles II.[470]

From the time that the Bishop's Registers began, _i.e._ from the close of the thirteenth century, down to the time of the Reformation, they abound in entries of the granting of licences for oratories in private houses.

They run in a customary form,[471] setting forth that the licence is given to a particular person by name, his wife and children, servants, and guests, to have Divine offices said in the oratory of his house of so-and-so; there is usually a clause that on Sundays and other festivals, they shall go to their parish church, there to hear the Divine service; and a further clause requiring that all fees and offerings shall be paid to the priest. A licence was not given once for all; very much to the contrary. Sometimes it was given during the pleasure of the bishop; sometimes for one year; for two years; for three years; renewable from time to time; sometimes for the period of the grantee's life. In the Episcopal Registers of Exeter, a number of licences are registered to the family of Bottreaux, which, when put together, give a glimpse of family history, and ill.u.s.trate the principles on which the licences were granted.

Licence to hold service in the chapel of St. Mary Magdalen, at Boswithguy (the oratories are frequently named under the invocation of some saint), appears in the second year of Bishop Stafford's Register, 1396, to Elizabeth Bottreaux; and is renewed in 1398. In 1399, a general licence is given to William, son of Sir William Bottreaux, Knight, and to Sir Ralph Bottreaux, Knight, and to John and Anna, children of the said Sir William.

Again, in 1410, a general licence is given to William, "lord of Bottreaux," his wife, and their sons and daughters. We conjecture that this William died in the following year, and was succeeded by his son John, for again, in 1411, a licence is given to John Bottreaux, and Elizabeth his wife, for all their manors and mansions in the diocese.[472]

Sometimes, perhaps it was when the manor house was at very inconvenient distance from the parish church, the licence was given "omissa clausula Volumus, etc.," _i.e._ without the restricting clause about Sundays and other festivals.

The Registry of Archbishop Walter Gray records grants in 1229 to Alberic de Percy, to have a chaplain to celebrate Divine offices in the chapel of Sutton so long as he lives; to Alexander de Vilers and his heirs to have Divine offices in his chapel of Newbottle for his family and guests for ever;[473] to Robert le Vavasour and his heirs, at his chapel of Hindishal; in 1254, to S. de Heddon and his heirs in the chapel of his court of Headdon.[474]

In 1343, Thomas de Peckam obtained a bull from Pope Alexander, licensing him, since in winter he cannot get to his parish church because of the floods, that he may have Divine service in his chapel at Wyke.[475]

Temporary licences were sometimes granted in special cases of temporary sickness or chronic infirmity; Bishop Stapledon, in 1312, permits Dame Isabella de Fishacre to have Divine service at home, not only on week days but also on festivals when, through the inclemency of the weather or bodily infirmity, she cannot conveniently attend the parish church. In 1317, in consideration of Sir Peter Fishacre's impotency, he is allowed to have Divine service celebrated in his own chamber in his house of Lupton.

In 1310, Oliver de Halap, who is broken with age, and has lost the sight of his eyes, _senio fractus et luminibus occulorum privatus_, is compa.s.sionately allowed by the same considerate bishop to have Divine service celebrated in his manor house of Hertleghe.

The custom of having a domestic chaplain extended, in the latter part of the period with which we have to do, not only to the majority of the country gentry, but to wealthy yeomen and well-to-do citizens. Mere country gentlemen sometimes maintained a considerable chapel establishment. Henry Machyn, in his diary,[476] says, in noticing the death, in 1552, of Sir Thomas Jarmyn, of Rushbrook Hall, that "he was the best housekeeper in the county of Suffolk, and kept a goodly chapel of singing men."

Richard Burre, a wealthy yeoman and farmer of the parsonage of Souwntyng, in 1529, directs in his will that "Sir Robert Beckton," my chaplain, syng ffor my sowle by the s.p.a.ce of ix. yers.[477]

When Alderman Monmouth took Tyndale into his house, and "did promys him x pounds sterling to praye for his father, mother, their soules and all christen soules,"[478] he clearly engaged that greatest of the translators of the Bible as his domestic chaplain. It was very natural, and no doubt usual, that special services for the deceased members of the family should be celebrated in the chapel of the house, and by the chaplain of the family. Not infrequently a chantry was founded in domestic chapels; _e.g._ "Thomas de Ross, lord of Hamelak and Belvoir, 1412, leaves 400{li} for ten chaplains to say ma.s.s, etc., in his chapel of Belvoir for eight years."[479]

Some further examples of it will be found in the chapter on chantries and chantry-priests.

Mr. Christopher Pickering, in his will, dated 1542, leaves "to my sarvands John Dobson and Frances, xx_s._ a-piece, besydes ther wages; allso I give unto Sir James Edwarde, my sarvand," etc.[480] One of the witnesses to the will is "Sir James Edwarde, preste," so that the person whom Mr. Pickering describes as his servant seems to have been his domestic chaplain. Sir Thomas More says "every man has a priest to wait upon his wife;" so Nicholas Blackburn, a wealthy citizen of York, and twice Lord Mayor, leaves in 1431-2 a special bequest to his wife, "to find her a gentlewoman, and a priest, and a servant."[481]

We have seen that the lord of the house usually selected his own chaplain, and made his own arrangements with him on the subject of remuneration, which most likely consisted of his lodging in the chaplain's chamber and his board at the lord's table, and a fixed sum of money, as at Skipton.

But there were cases in which the chaplain was nominated by some outside authority, as the rector or vicar of the parish, as in the case of the Vyne, as if to lessen the likelihood of friction between the parish priest and the chaplain of the manor house.

The frequent occurrence of licences to solemnize the marriage of specified persons in the chapel of the bride's home shows that then, as now, a special licence was required for such occasions.

7 Sep., 1363. Licence for a marriage between Sir Andrew Lutterel, Knt., and Hawise Despencer, to be solemnized by Thos. Abbot of Bourne and the Vicar of Bourne, in the chapel of Lady Blanche Wake of Lidell, within her castle of Bourne.[482]

4 Aug., 1417. Licence to Eliz. de Beaumont, for marriage between Wm.

Lord Deyncourt and Elizabeth, daughter of the said Elizabeth, to be celebrated in the chapel of Beaumanoir, in the parish of Barowe.[483]

1457. Henry, son of Humphrey Duke of Buckingham, was licensed, by the Bishop of Lichfield, to be married in the chapel of Maxstoke Castle to his cousin Margaret, Countess of Richmond.[484]

A licence to solemnize a marriage in the chapel of the manor house of Homesid House, Durham, was given in 1500, on account of bad weather and the infirmity of the parents of the bride.[485]