Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 48

Acolytes 421 Sub-deacons 204, of whom 71 were regulars.

Deacons 326 " 96 "

Priests 271 " 44 "

---- -- 1222 211

In 1510-11, there were--

Acolytes 298, of whom 17 were regulars.

Sub-deacons 296 " 51 "

Deacons 248 " 41 "

Priests 265 " 173 "

---- --- 1107 282

In the first year of the episcopate of Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, viz.

from December 21, 1308, to September 20, 1309, there were ordained 539 to the first tonsure, 438 acolytes, 104 sub-deacons, 177 deacons, 169 priests.

In the year from March 22, 1314, to December 20, 1315, there were ordained 75 to the first tonsure, 71 acolytes, 44 sub-deacons, 50 deacons, 66 priests.

[142] "In 1281 the Pope dispensed an acolyte, whose left little finger had been shortened while a child by an unskilful surgeon, to hold a benefice notwithstanding the defect" ("Calendar of Papal Registers," 1491). "Jacob Lowe and Sampson Meverall, base born, and G.o.dfrey Ely, blind of one eye, were dispensed by the Pope for ordination" ("Register of Smyth, Bishop of Lichfield," p. 175).

[143] "Lichfield," p. 129. S.P.C.K. See additional examples in the chapter on Abuses.

[144]

Now hath each rich a rule To eaten by themselve, In a privy parlour For poor man sake, Or in a chamber with a chimney; And leave the chief hall, That was made for meals Men to eaten in.

The "Vision of Piers Ploughman."

[145] Of which there is a description and drawing in the Records of the Archaeological Society of that county, vol. ii. p. 251.

[146] In those days the rooms of a house were not ma.s.sed compactly together under one roof; the hall was the primitive house, and additions to it were effected by annexing distinct buildings, each of which was called a house.

[147] Newcourt's "Repertorium," ii. p. 350.

[148] "Transactions of the Ess.e.x Archaeological Society," vol. ii. part ii.

(New Series), p. 141.

[149] Alfred Heales, "Kingston-on-Thames," p. 17.

[150] Newcourt's "Repertorium," ii. p. 103.

[151] Newcourt's "Repertorium," ii. 281.

[152] Ibid., ii. 284.

[153] "Hist. of England," i. p. 41.

[154] A lawsuit gives us a glimpse of John of Bishopstone, the rector of Cliffe, at Hoo, going to church on the Sunday before Christmas, 1363, accompanied by his chaplains, clerks, and household, as if they all lived together (S.P.C.K., "Rochester," p. 188).

[155] Newcourt's "Repertorium," ii. 97.

[156] Newcourt's "Repertorium," ii. 46.

[157] Ibid., ii. 309.

[158] A statute of 3 Ed. I., A.D. 1275, says, "Abbeys have been overcharged by the resort of great men and others; none shall come to eat or lodge in any house of religion of any others' foundation than his own; this does not intend that the grace of hospitality be withdrawn from such as need."

[159] See Matthew Paris under 1240 A.D., "to receive guests, rich and poor, and show hospitality to laity and clergy according to their means, as the custom of the place requires."

[160] In the returns of a survey of the estates of the Dean and Chapter of Exeter in 1300 both the manor houses and the rectory houses are included, and their similarity is evident: "Culmstock Manor. There is a hall in the Manor, and a soler within the hall and a chamber, a kitchen without _furnum and turella_ (stove and small turret for smoke and ventilation), and a dove house; there wants a granary. Utpottery. There is in the farmhouse a sufficient hall and chamber, a new grange, and other sufficient houses, 1330. Vicar of Colyton, Richard Brondiche, is a leper.

Colyton _Domus Sanctuarii_ (house in the churchyard). There is there a competent hall with a chamber and chimney, a competent kitchen, without _turella_, however; two granges; the other houses are sufficient; the gardens are eaten up with age and badly kept. Brans...o...b.. Manor. There is a hall with two chambers and garderobes good and sufficient; a new kitchen with a good _turella_; all the other houses in good condition" ("Register of Bishop Grandisson," part i. p. 572).

[161] Clive, in the diocese of Worcester, was appropriated to Worcester Priory; formerly the rector lived in the _Aula Personae_. In the middle of the thirteenth century the rectory house was let to a tenant. The vicar lived in one of several houses in the village which belonged to the benefice; there were two chaplains, one of whom lived in another of these houses, and the second in a soler ("Register of Worcester Priory" (Camden Society), p. lx.x.xi.).

[162] "Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages," p. 133.

[163] "Ess.e.x Archaeol. Transactions," vol. vi. part iii.

[164] Hingeston-Randolph's "Register of Bishop Grandisson," pp. 349, 356.

[165] Lyndewode, "Provinciale." Compare the 74th of the Canons of 1603.

[166] "Grostete's Letters" (Rolls Series), p. 49.

[167] "York Fabric Rolls" (Surtees Society), p. 243.

[168] For picture of the basilard and purse see Royal MS., 6 Ed. VI., f.

478, p. 492, etc.

[169] Catalogus omnium qui admissi pet'runt in fraternitatis beneficium Monasterii Sti. Albani, c.u.m picturis eorum et compendiosis narrationibus.

(British Mus., Nero D., vii.)

[170] These, with the descriptions, are taken from "Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages," by the present writer.

[171] A. Gibbons, "Early Lincoln Wills," p. 57.

[172] Ibid., p. 130.

[173] The record of a suit in the Ecclesiastical Court of Durham gives us a curious little ill.u.s.trative anecdote of a quarrel in the Rectory of Walsingham, in the year 1370. The bishop, the archdeacon, and their attendants were pa.s.sing the night there, probably after a Visitation. The record tells us in full detail how, after the Bishop had gone out of the hall of the rectory into the chamber, the family remaining in the hall, Nicholas de Skelton uttered threats against John of Auckland, the servant of the archdeacon, viz. that he would break his head. One of the archdeacon's people intervened, when the angry Nicholas threatened to break his head also. The archdeacon seems to have then interfered, when a servant of Nicholas, offering to strike the archdeacon with a hawking staff, the archdeacon drew his _cultellum_; the servant broke it in two with his staff; the archdeacon hurled the half which he held, and it killed another of the company who happened to interpose. The archdeacon was summoned before the Court to answer for the homicide.

[174] Quoted from "Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages," p. 248, by the present writer.

[175] Cushion for the back and seat of the bench.

[176] "Wills and Inventories" (Surtees Society), p. 54.

[177] "Testamenta Ebor.," i. p. 371.

[178] "Testamenta Ebor.," i. p. 385.

[179] "Testamenta Ebor.," i. p. 82.