Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 49

[180] York: "Wills and Inventories," p. 117.

[181] "Ess.e.x Archaeol. Transactions," vol. vi. part ii. (New Series), p.

123.

[182] Holinshed's "Description of Britain," p. 233.

[183] Johnson's "Canons," etc., ii. 365.

[184] Stapledon's "Register," p. 182.

[185] H. Randolph, p. 378.

[186] Lyndewode, "Provinciale," p. 35.

[187] Archbishop Gray's "Register," p. 217.

[188] Laid on tombs, or hung on the walls as ornaments. See Matthew Paris, under 1256 (v. 574, Rolls ed.).

[189] See woodcut, p. 165.

[190] "Antiquary," 1897, pp. 279, 298.

[191] For explanation of the meaning of the vestments in the "Book of Ceremonies," 1539, see Mackenzie Walcott, "Parish Churches before the Reformation."

[192] It is to be regretted that in the revived use of copes, as seen, for example, on the steps at the west end of St. Paul's, on the day of the Queen's Jubilee procession, the designers have taken the unwieldy and ungraceful fifteenth and sixteenth century garment as their pattern; it is shaped like a cone, it does not fit the shoulders, it imprisons the arms, its corners overlap in front, while its hood sticks up at the back of the head.

[193] Humbert de Romain, General of the Dominicans in the thirteenth century, says that "the great and the poor seldom visited the churches."

Neander's "Church History," vii. 439 (Bohn). The great, as we shall see in Chapter XXVII., had their domestic chapels.

[194] T. Belson and J. Fowler, c. 1570, were sentenced to do penance in church for working on a Sunday ("Ecclesiastical Proceedings of the Courts of Durham" (Surtees Society), p. 105). Again, c. 1450, several persons accused of working on Sundays and saints' days were sentenced to precede the procession as penitents, to receive two "fustigations," and to abstain from so offending in future under a penalty of 6_s._ 8_d._ (pp. 28-30). In 1451, Isabella Hunter and Katherine Pykering were sentenced, for washing linen on the festival of St. Mary Magdalene, to receive two fustigations _c.u.m manipulo lini_ (p. 30).

Francis Gray was admonished to come to church on Sunday under penalty of 4_d._, and on the festivals under penalty of 2_d._, to be applied to the fabric of the church of Durham (p. 27).

The same year Thomas Kirkham and Thomas Hunter, accused of mowing a certain meadow on the festival of St. Oswald and receiving payment for it, were sentenced to precede the procession, carrying in hand a bottle of hay, to receive four fustigations, and not to offend again under penalty of 10_s._ (p. 32).

[195] Lyndwode says, "It maybe gathered that ma.s.s was always preceded by matins or primes" (iii. 23).

[196] This was the normal hour in the time of Gregory of Tours and of Gregory the Great.

[197] Bishop Poore, in his "Rule for Anch.o.r.esses," advises them not to be communicated oftener than twelve times a year. The Lateran Council of 1215 ordered that every one should communicate at least once a year at Easter, and should confess at least once a year before Easter.

[198] Common.

[199] From Whitaker's text of "Piers Ploughman's Vision," part ii. p. 529.

[200] Ibid. i. 104.

[201] Early English Text Society.

[202] In the presentation of the churchwardens of Ricall, Yorkshire, in 1519, they complain that "pedlars come into the church porch on feast days, and there sell their goods."

In 1416 the wardens and questmen of St. Michael-le-Belfry, York, presented that "a common market of vendibles is held in the churchyard on Sundays and holy days, and divers things, and goods, and rushes, are exposed for sale" ("York Fabric Rolls").

[203] Cardwell.

[204] Procter, "Hist. of the Book of Common Prayer," p. 227.

[205] Peckham's "Const.i.tutions," 1281, bid every priest to celebrate at least once a week.

[206] "The York Manual," by Rev. J. Raine (Surtees Society), p. 123.

[207] See pp. 460, 461, 496, and p. 472.

[208] The canons of Edgar required the clergy to preach every Sunday.

[209] It was early in the twelfth century that seven was adopted as the number of the Sacraments, vices, virtues, etc. The seven Sacraments are first mentioned by Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, in 1124 (Neander, "Church History," vii. 465).

[210] See second footnote, p. 214.

[211] See second footnote, p. 214.

[212] Not infrequently a great preacher was sent by a bishop round his diocese, and people were invited by the offer of indulgences to all who would go to hear him.

[213] From a very early time what we reckon as the first and second commandments were taken together as the first; and what we reckon as the tenth was divided into two. So King Alfred gives them in the beginning of his Code of Law.

[214] _c.u.m superst.i.tionibus characterum._

[215] "Indolence, carnal security."

[216] His writings are chiefly translations or adaptations of the works of St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure, and Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. They are marked by tenderness of feeling, vigour, and eloquence in his prose style, and grace and beauty in his verse. See "Yorkshire Writers"--"Richard of Hampole and his Followers," by C. Horstman, 1895. Here is a short example from "The Book made by Richard Hampole, Hermit, for an Anch.o.r.ess" (Early Eng. Text Society). "Wit thou well that a bodily turning to G.o.d without thine heart following, is but a figure and likeness of virtue and of no soothfastness. Therefore a wretched man or woman is that who neglecteth all the inward keepings of himself, and maketh himself outwardly a form only and likeness of holiness in habit or clothing, in speech and in bodily works, beholding other men's deeds and judging their faults, thinking himself to be something when he is nothing, and so neglecteth himself. Do thou not so, but turn thine heart with thy body princ.i.p.ally to G.o.d, and shape thee within in His likeness, by meekness and charity and other spiritual virtues, and then art thou truly turned to Him."

[217] See "The Parson's Tale," in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales."

[218] Also in the Stowe MS. 89, 2, there are a series of trees representing virtues and vices.

[219] Together.

[220] Other sponsors were required at the Confirmation (see p. 59).

[221] Archbishop Simon of Sudbury, 1378, made a Const.i.tution that all should confess and communicate thrice a year, viz. Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas, on pain of excommunication and refusal of burial (Johnson's "Laws and Canons," ii. 444).

[222] Death.

[223] In the latter part of the eleventh century, for reasons of expediency, the custom was introduced of dipping the bread into the wine, and so administering to the communicants. This was condemned by the Council of Claremont 1095, but kept its ground in England till forbidden by the Council of London in 1175. The withdrawal of the wine from the laity altogether began in the twelfth century. Anselm had prepared the way by affirming that "the whole Christ was taken under either species."

Robert Pulleyn, 1170, taught that the flesh of Christ alone should be distributed to the laity. The practice came into gradual use in the thirteenth century; the second canon of Archbishop Peckham, 1281, bids the parish priests to teach the more ignorant of the laity that the body and blood of Christ are received under the single species of the bread. It is believed not to have become general in England till it was ordered by the Council of Constance in 1415, which excommunicated all priests who should communicate the laity in both kinds. It is to be observed that in the Sarum Missal there is no recognition whatever of administration in one kind.

In some churches there was an endowment for the provision of the holy bread, as at St. Mary Magdalen, Colchester.