Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 61

[627] "Durham Eccl. Proceedings," Surtees Society, p. 107.

[628] S.P.C.K., "Rochester," p. 224.

[629] S.P.C.K., "Diocesan Histories: Bath and Wells," p. 128. We are reminded of the story told by Sismondi (chap. xlix.), that when Pope Urban V., in 1369, sent two legates with a bull of excommunication to Bernabo Visconti, Duke of Milan, that strong-willed prince compelled the legates to eat the doc.u.ments, parchment, leaden seals, silk cord, and all. So Walter de Clifford, in 1250, compelled a royal messenger to eat the letters he brought, with the seal (Matthew Paris, ii. 324). The writ of summons was sometimes a small slip of parchment, or perhaps paper, and the seal a thin layer of beeswax covered with paper, so that the story is not impossible. There are other instances on record in which the summoner was compelled by violence to destroy his writ--in what manner is not stated--instead of serving it ("Calendar of Entries in Papal Registers,"

A.D. 1247-48, pp. 239, 243).

[630] The castigation by the schoolmaster of a scholar hoisted on a man's back after the hardly obsolete fashion of our public schools is depicted in the same MS., 6 E. VI., at f. 214, under the heading "_Castigatio_;"

and again in the second volume of the work (6 E. VII.), at f. 444, under the heading "_Master_;" as if the word "castigatio" naturally suggested "schoolboy," and the primary function of a "master" were to use the rod.

[631] "Ecclesiastical Proceedings from the Courts of Durham," p. 20.

[632] Ibid., p. 21.

[633] S.P.C.K., "Diocese of Lichfield," p. 171. See other examples in "Diocesan Histories of Bath and Wells," p. 130.

[634] There are forms of it in "The York Manual," Rev. J. Raine, Surtees Society, pp. 86, 119.

[635] See "The Repression of Overmuch Blaming of the Clergy," by Reginald Pec.o.c.k, Bishop of Chichester. Rolls Series.

[636] The host asks him--

"Sire preest, quod he, art thou a vicary, Or art thou a parson? say soth by thy fay,"

but the poet does not, by answering the question, narrow the cla.s.s represented.

[637] Sparing nor proud.

[638] Rebuke.

[639] Scrupulous.

[640] "Camden Society," p. 23.

[641] Whitaker's "Whalley," p. 58.

[642] It appears, by a subsequent doc.u.ment, that he had a domestic oratory in his Hall, which stood at the east end of the churchyard.

[643] United by Act of Parliament. c. 1734.

[644] Morant says that a chantry was founded here in 1328.

[645] Appropriated to Abbey of Stratford Langthorne.

[646] The chantry was founded at and for the little town of Billericay, 1 miles from the parish church.

[647] The advowson belonged to Bilegh Abbey. Morant says (i. p. 247) West Leigh was a parish held at the Conquest by the canons of St. Paul's adjoining this. In 1432 the abbey and the canons agreed to unite the two parishes, the abbey taking two turns of presentation and the canons one.

[648] Among the smaller benefices (p. 24); the greater part of their income having been apportioned to the Religious Houses.

[649] Built by the family of Barringtone Barnton on their estate here.

[650] Rectory belonged to Prittlewell Priory.

[651] "Taxatio," pp. 1, 2.

[652] "Valor," i. pp 36, 92.

[653] Elder brother of the Archbishop, Archdeacon of Canterbury, "Valor,"

i. p. 32.

[654] William Warham, nephew of Archbishop Warham, late Archdeacon of Canterbury, "Valor," i. p. 32.

[655] In Saxon times the manor belonged to a family named Liveing; soon after the Conquest it was in the possession of a family named Beke.

[656] "Revolving in his mind G.o.d's wonderful and great mercies to him in leading him and preferring him to such riches and eminence in Church and State, and in preserving him from danger both by sea and land, and out of grat.i.tude to the memory of his parents and friends, at whose charge he was educated and brought to that pitch of honour, he thought he could not pay a more grateful acknowledgment than to set apart a very considerable part of his estate in this manner."--Preface to his Statutes for his College, Hasted's "Kent," iii. 173.