Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 58

[536] Ibid., p. 107.

[537] Ibid., p. 158.

[538] Gibbons, "Early Lincoln Wills," p. 185.

[539] Ibid., p. 210.

[540] Hamo, Bishop of Rochester, in 1341 endowed a chantry for himself in the cathedral, the prior and convent engaging to give the chantry priest lodging and the food of a monk and 24_s._ yearly.

[541] Archbishop Sudbury, 1378, ordered Annuellers to be content with 7 marks, and others who serve cure of souls with 8 marks, or diet and 4 marks.

[542] This is the same year as the statute quoted above; and is clearly the ecclesiastical counterpart of that civic legislation.

[543] The Black Death, in 1348.

[544] In 1391, the dean and chapter made a regulation that henceforth no beneficed person should hold a chantry in St. Paul's excepting their own minor canons.

[545] In 1323, J. de Taunton, priest and vicar in the Church of Wells, was collated by the Bishop to "annuate" in the Church of St. Mary, Wells, to celebrate for the soul of F. de Bullen (?) and all faithful souls (Rev. T.

Hugo's "Extracts," p. 88). In the register of Montacute, Bishop of Ely, 1337, licence was given to Mr. Nicho. de Canterbury, _stare in obsequiis_ of J. de Polleyne for two years, and this at the instance of Dnus. John de Polleyne. The same year licence was given to Dnus. Richard Rupel, Rector of the Church of Carlton _quod possit stare in obsequiis_ of Dni. Paris Lewen for two years.

[546] The chantry priests of London, having been summoned by the bishop in 1532, and desired to contribute towards the 100,000 demanded by King Henry VIII. of the clergy, made such a stir that the bishop dismissed them for the time, and afterwards had some arrested and imprisoned (Stow's "Chronicle," p. 559).

[547] Enough.

[548] Also at Bromley. See Whitaker's "Whalley."

[549] Page's "Yorkshire Chantries."

[550] "Lay Folks' Ma.s.s Book."

[551] "York Fabric Rolls."

[552] In the "Calendar of Chantries" there are forty-two such schools recorded.

[553] Whitaker's "History of Whalley," ii. 322.

[554] Whitaker, "Craven," p. 147.

[555] Ibid., p. 326.

[556] Whitaker, "Whalley," p. 326.

[557] Whitaker, "Whalley," p. 155.

[558] Whitaker, "Craven," p. 438.

[559] For example, the chantry chapel of Billericay, Ess.e.x, continued in this condition until Bishop Blomfield induced the trustees to surrender the chapel and the right of presentation to it to the bishop, on condition of a stipend of 120 being settled upon it from Queen Anne's Bounty Fund.

[560] The rule of the Ludlow Gild was that, "if any of the brethren or sisters be brought to such want that they have not enough to live upon, then, once, twice, thrice, but not a fourth time, as much help shall be given them, out of the goods of the gild, as the rectors and stewards, having regard to their deserts, and to the means of the gild, shall order.... If any brother or sister be wrongfully cast into prison, the gild shall do its utmost, and spend money, to get him out.... If any fall into grievous sickness, they shall be helped, both as to their bodily needs and other wants, out of the common fund of the gild, until their health is renewed as before. If any one becomes a leper, or blind, or maimed, or smitten with any incurable disorder (which G.o.d forbid), we will that the goods of the gild shall be largely bestowed on him.... If any good girl of the gild cannot have the means found her by her father, either to go into a religious house or to marry, whichever she wishes to do, friendly and right help shall be given her out of our means, and our common chest, towards enabling her do whichever of the two she wishes."

The rules of one of the gilds in Hull enact that "inasmuch as the gild was founded to cherish kindness and love, the alderman, steward, and two helpmen in case of a quarrel between two members shall deal with the matter, and shall earnestly strive to make them agree together without any suit or delay, and so that no damage either to body or goods shall in any wise happen through the quarrel." If the officials neglect to interpose their good offices, they are fined four pounds of wax among them; and if the disputants will not listen to them, they shall pay four pounds of wax; and, finally, all the members of the gild shall be summoned to meet, and the difficulty shall be referred to them for settlement.

[561] By the rules of the Lancaster Gild, "on the death of a member of the gild all the brethren then in the town shall come to placebo and dirge, if summoned by the bellman, or pay 2_d._" "All shall go to the ma.s.s held for a dead brother or sister; each brother or sister so dying shall have at the ma.s.s on the day of burial six torches and eighteen wax-lights, and at other services two torches and four wax-lights." "If any of the gild die outside Lancaster, within twenty miles, twelve brethren shall wind and deck the body at the cost of the gild, and if the brother or sister so dying wished to be buried where he died, the same twelve shall see that he has fitting burial there where he died." Some of the gilds had a hea.r.s.e and embroidered pall which were used at funerals of members of the gild, and sometimes let out to others.

[562] A return was made into Chancery, in the twelfth year of Richard II.

(1387), of the original objects, endowments, and extent of gilds generally, and the masters and wardens; the records of more than 500 exist and form the substance of Toulmin Smith's book on English gilds.

[563] Page's "Yorkshire Chantries," p. 83.

[564] See chap. xxiv. p. 417.

[565] S.P.C.K., "Worcester Diocese," p. 138.

[566] From the "Valor Eccl.," iii. 315, we learn that at Thetford, in Norfolk, there was a Gild of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a certain chapel in the Bayly end, with a master whose income was 6 13_s._ 4_d._, two priests with 5 6_s._ 8_d._ each, and two clerks with 20_s._ each.

From the same source we learn that at Boston, Lincolnshire, there were three gilds, one of the Blessed Virgin Mary with five chaplains, whose revenues amounted to 24 a year; one of Corpus Christi with six chaplains, income 32; and one of St. Peter with two chaplains, income 10 13_s._ 4_d._

Alice Lowys, widow of Lowys of Boston, merchant, 1350, leaves bequests to the High Altar, and to the Gilds of Blessed Mary, St. Katharine, St.

George, etc. ("Early Lincoln Wills," p. 175).

Isabella Longland, widow, of Henley-upon-Thames, 1527, leaves "to the hye aulter of Henley Church 20_d._, and hye aulter of our Ladye a diapur cloth of iij elles and more. To the Fraternity of Jesus in the said church, 4_s._; to the Gilde of our blessed lady of Boston in the dioces of Lincoln, whereof I am suster, to have ma.s.ses of _Scala celi_ and _dirge_ shortly after my departing, 6_s._ 8_d._; to the Brotherhood of St. George and St. Christopher of York for ditto, 6_s._ 8_d._ To my sone my Lorde of Lincoln, a standing cup of silver and gilt with a kever, having the image of St. Migh.e.l.l, and a droigon in the toppe, and borne with iij aungells in the foote.... To my prestes for to bere me to the churche ev'y preste, 8_d._ She was the mother of John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, 1521-1547"

(Ibid., p. 208).

[567] "Valor Eccl.," iii. 237.

[568] Page 468.

[569] Thus Stamford had in All Saints' Church the Gild of All Saints, the Gild of St. John and St. Julian, the Gild of Corpus Christi, and Philip's chantry. In St. Mary's Church an endowment for stipendiaries and a chantry; in St. Stephen's Church a chapter; in St. Clement's Church a gild.

[570] Wm. Trenourth of St. Cleer, Cornwall, 1400, leaves to the store of St. Cleer, three sheep; to the store of St. Mary in St. Cleer Church, two sheep; to the store of Holy Cross therein, one sheep, and the same to the store of St. James (Hingeston-Randolph, "Stafford's Register," p. 380).

[571] W. Haselbeche, clark, 1504, leaves to the Fraternity of St. Peter, holden within the Church of Littlebury, Ess.e.x, his best bra.s.s pot and a dozen of great platters marked with C.

To the Fraternity of Our Lady's a.s.sumption in the Church of Haddestoo, in Norfolk, toward the buying and building of a hall for the Fraternity, 26_s._ 8_d._ ("Ess.e.x Arch. Trans." (New Series), vol. i. p. 174).

In an inventory of the goods at Chich St. Osyth Church, 6 Ed. VI., occurs: "There be the ymplements sometime belonging to the Trinity Gylde. In the hands of the churchwardens--bra.s.se pott, weighing 3 c. 4 li.; bra.s.s pott, weying 35 li. (much obliterated by decay), ... spitts remaining; dozen of peuter, waying 31 li. And also in the hands of Sir J. Harwy, church pryst, one garnyshe of peuter" (Ibid., p. 28).

[572] This is ill.u.s.trated in two charming pictures of the end of the fifteenth century in the Royal MS. 19 cviii. cap., folios 3 and 90, where the town with its wall, round towers, moat and bridge, and one great church dominating the houses, rises out of the park-like meadows with a castle on a neighbouring height. In the lower margin of the late fourteenth-century MS. (Royal 13 A iii.) the scribe has given a number of sketches, very neatly executed, of towns mentioned in his narrative. They are probably for the most part fancy sketches, but they serve to show that the idea of a town in the mind of a mediaeval draughtsman was a wall and gates with a grove of towers and spires soaring above. See folios 27, 32, 33, 34, etc., and especially "London," folio 56. An interesting view of a town with a great church and several smaller towers and spires appearing over the walls is in Lydgate's "Siege of Thebes," 18 D. 11, folio 148.

[573] It seems likely that sometimes the same proprietor built more than one church for his tenants, _e.g._ Abbot Ursin is said to have built three churches for his burgh of St. Alban (see p. 513). The Abbey of St. Edmund seems to have built two within a very short period (see p. 511). At Lincoln, a lay proprietor, Colsuen, shortly after the Conquest, built thirty-six houses and two churches on a piece of waste ground outside the city given to him by the king ("Domesday Book").

[574] References to the plan of NORWICH. Places within the city indicated by letters--

A. St. Leonard's.

B. Bishop's Gate.

C. The Cathedral Church.

D. St. Martin's at the Pallis Gale.

E. St. Bathold's.

F. St. Clement's.

G. St. Augustine's.