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 _cum 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 mass 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 Anchoresses,” 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 “Constitutions,” 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] _Cum superstitionibus 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 Anchoress” (Early Eng. Text Society). “Wit thou well that a bodily turning to God 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 principally to God, 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 Constitution 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.

[224] Gravely.

[225] Both.

[226] Hence.

[227] Maiden.

[228] This was first ordered by Pope Honorius III. in 1217.

[229] The churchyard was frequently called the “sanctuary.”

[230] Ratified.

[231] In baptism.

[232] Locked.

[233] There are various forms on record of this “general sentence of excommunication.” Two are given at pp. 86 and 119 of the “York Manual” (Surtees Society).

[234] Upon.

[235] Go.

[236] See plate opposite.

[237] Printed by the Early English Text Society.

[238] Chasuble.

[239] Believe.

[240] Another version says, “Don’t wait for the priest to ask for the mass penny, but go up and offer, though there is no obligation; it will make your chattle increase in your coffer.”

[241] From another version of the book we extract the following sentence, which contains an expression of the doctrine of the Eucharist--

Every day thou mayest see The same body that died for thee, Tent[A] if thou wilt take, In figure and in form of bread, That Jesus dealt ere He were dead, For His disciples’ sake.

[A] Heed.

[242] Abroad.

[243] Dead.

[244] Give utterance to.

[245] Also.

[246] “The Epic of the Fall of Man” (S. H. Gurteen), 1896. The translation seems to be as close as may be, consistently with an intelligible expression of the thoughts of the original and a poetical form.

[247] “Political, Religious, and Love Poems,” Furnival (Early English Text Society), pp. 111, 151, 162.

[248] Ransom.

[249] Song of Solomon, ii. 5, 8.

[250] Whence his pain.

[251] Prosperity.

[252] It is easy to quote a long list of quasi-married bishops and dignitaries of this period. The last two bishops of Elmham, Stigand and Ethelmar, appointed by the saintly and ascetic Edward the Confessor, were married men; so was Herbert, the first bishop of the same see (removed to Norwich), appointed by the Conqueror, and perhaps the second William (1086), and Edward (1121). Robert Bloet, Bishop of Lincoln (1094), had a son Simon, whom he made Dean of that Cathedral. Roger of Salisbury (1107) was married. Robert Lymesey, of Chester (1086-1117), left a daughter settled with her husband, Noel, on the see lands near Eccleshall; and Hugh, Dean of Derby in this episcopate, was married. Roger of Lichfield (1121) was a married man; he put his son Richard into the Archdeaconry of Coventry, and he was afterwards promoted to the see (1161). Three Bishops of Durham were married men, viz. Ralph Flambard (1099), Geoffrey Rufus (1133), and the famous Hugh Puiset (1153); the wife of the latter was a lady of the Percy family. Several Archbishops of York were the sons of married clergymen.

There is an extant letter from Thomas, the first Norman Archbishop of York, in which he complains that his canons were married men. The Canons of Durham turned out by Bishop William of S. Carilef (1081) were all married men, so were some of those turned out of Rochester Cathedral by Bishop Gundulf; one of them, Ægelric, who had retired to the Benefice of Chatham, on his wife’s death obtained her burial by the monks of the Cathedral in the most honourable manner (S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 50).

[253] At a visitation of Lincoln Cathedral by Bishop Bokingham, 1363-1398, it appeared that almost all the cathedral clergy disobeyed the canons (S.P.C.K., “Lincoln,” p. 84). A statute of the Chapter of Bath and Wells, in 1323, forbade any canon who had a concubine [wife] before his appointment to meet her except in the presence of discreet witnesses. So late as 1520 the Vicar-General had occasion to admonish the dean to correct one of the canons for keeping a concubine [wife] in his house of residence. The use of the ugly word by which the canons described these persons was not indefensible; the old laws of Imperial Rome recognized a kind of marriage with an inferior wife as respectable, it went so far at one time as to require unmarried proconsuls to take such a wife with them to their province, and this was not to prevent them from making afterwards a legal marriage. For example, St. Helena was first the concubine of Constantius, and he afterwards raised her to the higher dignity of his wife, and Constantine, their son, raised her to the dignity of empress.

[254] In 1221 and the following years, the pope issued mandates to the English bishops bidding them deprive married clerks (“Papal Letters,” vol. i. pp. 79, 84, 86, 90, Rolls Series).

[255] See also Roger of Wendover under 1225, ii. 287, Rolls Series.

[256] This is an allusion to another canon which made it illegal for a man to separate from his wife in order to enter into a religious order requiring a vow of celibacy, without his wife’s consent.

[257] One explanation of the frequent repetition of these canons by successive synods is that in those early days it was not a matter of course that a law once made stood good until repealed; rather, on the contrary, that a law lapsed by desuetude, and needed to be re-enacted from time to time to keep it in vigour. The early kings renewed their predecessors’ concessions; grantees sought the confirmation of charters from the heir of the original grantor; and laws of Parliament were often passed again by subsequent Parliaments. So a new archbishop began his reign by calling the provincial synod together and issuing a set of provincial constitutions, repeating former canons, which it was still necessary to keep in active use.

[258] In the debates of the Twenty-fourth Session of the Council of Trent, in the autumn of 1563, one patriarch declared that the proposed decree annulling clandestine marriages was directly opposed to the law of God, and that he would resist it at the peril of his life (Bishop of Bristol, “On what are the Papal Claims founded?”--S.P.C.K.).

[259] Hook’s “Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury,” vi. 317.

[260] It is very significant that after the Reformation legislation had legalized clerical marriages, the wives of the bishops did not openly live in their palaces with them, but in houses of their own. It was a survival of the custom that ecclesiastics might have wives, but that their wives might not be introduced into society.

[261] “Harl.,” 862, p. 221. A more important example is that of Margaret Countess of Flanders, who married a deacon, and subsequently repudiated him and married again, with the result of a disputed succession (Matthew Paris, under 1254 A.D., v. 435, Rolls Series).

[262] “Transactions of the Gloucester Archæol. Society,” 1893. Paper on “Newnham,” by R. I. Kerr.

[263] J. Raine, Preface to “Archbishop Gray’s Register.”

[264] See other curious instances of it in the “Papal Letters,” Rolls Series, vol. i. pp. 239, 243.

[265] “Letters of Henry III.,” Rolls Series.

[266] The Bishop of Oxford doubts whether the sons of such marriages after the twelfth century would be ordained without a dispensation.

[267] MS. 5824, f. 5. British Museum.

[268] Pope Clement VI., in 1398, sent to Bishop Grandisson of Exeter at his request a dispensation for fifty priests and scholars, by name, to receive holy orders and hold benefices. Thirty are classed as illegitimate, both parents being single persons; ten as having one parent a married person; ten as born of presbyters or persons in holy orders (“Grandisson’s Register,” Hingeston-Randolph, part i. p. 147).

[269] “Papal Letters,” vol. i. p. 113.

[270] “Register of Archbishop Gray,” p. 73.

[271] “Stapledon’s Register,” p. 180.

[272] “Archbishop Gray’s Register,” J. Raine, p. 29.

[273] Ibid., p. 153.

[274] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills.”

[275] Tonsured.

[276] There are frequent entries in the Episcopal Registers of dispensations _super defectum natalium_ to the sons of _nativi_ to take orders and hold benefices. There are several examples in which a bishop gives such a dispensation to so-and-so “_nativus meus_,” to take sacred orders and hold ecclesiastical benefices; a gracious act of kindness to one of his own serfs (see p. 130).

[277] Should feed beggars.

[278] Usually the bishop, but there were many exceptions.

[279] Page 63.

[280] “Labbe’s Councils,” vol. xxii. p. 234.

[281] There is a picture of a bishop’s visitation in the fourteenth century MS. Royal 6 E. VI., and a much better of the sixteenth century in the printed Pontifical, p. 196, and of an archdeacon’s in the MS. Royal 6 E. VI., fols. 132 and 137.

[282] Procter, “History of the Book of Common Prayer,” p. 262.

[283] I refrain from repeating the unsupported assumption that these synodsmen gave name to our modern sidesmen, for which there is no evidence. Moreover, Professor Skeat assures me, in kind reply to a question on the subject, that the principles which govern the gradual changes of our language will not admit of the idea of the derivation of the one word from the other.

[284] From the “Annales de Burton,” p. 307.

[285] When St. Hugh became Bishop of Lincoln he made several decrees, one of which was “that no layman have the celebration of masses inflicted on him as a penance” (“Dioc. Hist. Lincoln,” p. 103, S.P.C.K.). It looks as if the clergy had set up a bad practice of inflicting attendance at Holy Communion, and making an offering as an ordinary act of penance. It was prohibited again in 1378 by Archbishop Simon of Sudbury (Johnson, “Laws and Canons,” ii. 444).

[286] A vulgar game.

[287] The pope was at this time discouraging the study of civil law by the clergy (see Collier’s “Ecclesiastical History,” i. 464).

[288] The bishop appointed certain priests as confessors of the clergy.

[289] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 194.

[290] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 130.

[291] Ibid., p. 111.

[292] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 573.

[293] Prebendary Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Walter Stapledon,” p. 109.

[294] S.P.C.K., “Dioc. Hist. of Hereford,” p. 112.

[295] Quivil’s “Register” (Hingeston-Randolph), p. 337.

[296] There may be some error, since in the “Taxatio” the annual income of Bigby is given as £4 6_s._ 8_d._

[297] Stapledon’s “Register,” p. 342.

[298] S.P.C.K., “Chichester Diocese,” p. 104.

[299] “Dioc. Hist. of Hereford,” pp. 113, 114.

[300] “Papal Letters,” i. 59, Rolls Series.

[301] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 163.

[302] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 95.

[303] (Job xix. 21), A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills.”

[304] “Test. Ebor.,” p. 73.

[305] Brown, “Fasc.,” ii. 412.

[306] October, 1441, the parishioners of Ashdown, Kent, complain that their rector, Lawrence Horwood, does not provide at his own cost, as he ought to do, a clerk to officiate in the church on holy days. The suit in the bishop’s court on this matter went on for two years, and was left unsettled.

[307] This parish clerk occurs in several other of our illustrations of processions and services.

[308] V. 171, Rolls Series.

[309] “Mon. Ang.,” iii. 227.

[310] White Kennett, “Parochial Antiq., Glossary,” _sub voc._

[311] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 87.

[312] Ibid., p. 6.

[313] Robert Aphulley, of Lincoln, 1407, makes a bequest to the Gild of Clerks at Lincoln, durante dicta gilda, quando recitabitur nomen meum inter nomina defunctorum, et hanc antiphon “Alma Redemptoris Mater,” etc. (A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 108).

[314] Curled.

[315] Spread out.

[316] Hair.

[317] Complexion.

[318] Neatly.

[319] Watchet, a kind of cloth.

[320] Small twigs of trees (? May blossom).

[321] Musical instruments.

[322] Page 75.

[323] Elizabeth Darcy, 13 Henry V., in her will, desires to be buried in the church of the nuns of Heynynges, and leaves to their chapel a great missal, and her portforium and great psalter to be fastened with an iron chain. She leaves a book of romances, called “Leschell de Reson,” and two Primers, and a book called “Bybill,” and another called “Sainz Ryall,” and another called “Lanselake.” CC_s._ for masses, to be kept in a chest in some secret place in Lincoln Cathedral and distributed to the chaplains annually (A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 118). After the battle of Lincoln “Fair,” in 1221, the victors “pillaged the churches throughout the city, breaking open the chests and storerooms with axes and hammers, and seizing all the gold and silver in them, clothes of all colours, women’s ornaments, gold rings, goblets, and jewels” (“Roger of Wendover,” ii. 218, Rolls Series).

[324] See instances of it in “Roger of Wendover,” ii. 162, 165, and iii. 209, 211, Rolls Series.

[325] See Erasmus’s “Praise of Folly,” and an account of the “Sanctuaries at Durham and Beverley,” by Rev. J. Raine (Surtees Society).

[326] See “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages,” pp. 157-194, by the present writer.

[327] Lyndewood’s “Pontificale,” pp. 298, 156.

[328] J. C. Cox, in “Curious Church Gleanings,” p. 44.

[329] “York Fabric Rolls,” Surtees Society, p. 248.

[330] Wilkins, “Concilia,” ii. 170.

[331] See articles in the _Churchman’s Family Magazine_ for 1865, p. 419.

[332] S.P.C.K., “Dioc. Hist. of Lincoln.”

[333] Collier, “Eccl. Hist.,” i. 438.

[334] Peckham, for example (see Collier, “Eccl. Hist.,” i. 484).

[335] “Kingston-on-Thames,” by A. Heales, p. 25.

[336] “Dioc. Hist. of Lincoln,” p. 150, S.P.C.K.

[337] Boniface VII., in his decretal, allows a sub-deacon to take a benefice, and grants him seven years in which to qualify himself for the orders of deacon and priest, by dispensation or permission of his superior (Johnson, “Laws and Canons”).

[338] Bishop Quivil, in 1281, gave a young rector the usual licence of absence for study, and to put his benefice to farm _salva Canonica Porcione assignanda per Episcopum pauperibus ejusdem Parochiæ prout in ultimo concilio Lambethensi est statutum_ (Quivil’s “Register,” p. 321). See also pp. 32, 35, for donations to the fabric.

In 1322, the Bishop of Bath and Wells gave this licence to Emericus of Orchard, and also to Peter Pyke of Kyngeston, on condition that they each should say one hundred Psalms for the soul of the bishop, and of all the faithful departed (T. Hugo’s “Extracts,” vol. i. p. 86).

In 1312, Master William de Carreu, clerk, instituted to Holsworthy, had dispensation for non-residence for three years for study, which in 1315 was renewed for a year, and again in 1316, 1317, and 1318. Master Richard de Honemanacole, sub-deacon, instituted to Iddesleigh in 1320, had a dispensation for non-residence for three years for study, which was renewed in 1323 for a year in foreign parts, and in 1324 renewed again for two years (Bishop Stapledon’s “Register”).

[339] “Letters of Grostete” (Rolls Series), pp. 63, 68, 151.

[340] Quivil’s “Register,” p. 353.

[341] S.P.C.K., “Diocesan History of Bath and Wells.”

[342] Matthew Paris, under 1251 and 1252 A.D., v. 256, 279.

[343] Grandisson’s “Register,” p. 520.

[344] A.D. 1338, Licence to John Hert, Rector of Croxton, to put his church to farm for four years, at the instance of Ade. Lymbergh. Leave of absence for a year to William de Colesbrok, at the instance of Dom. Thom. de Astele. Leave of absence to Dom. Wells de Gresleygh, Rector of Hildresham, for two years, at the instance of the Countess Mareschal (“Register of Bishop Grandisson, of Exeter”).

[345] “Transactions of the Essex Archæological Society,” vol. vi. part ii. (New Series), p. 110.

[346] “Anglo-Saxons,” iii. 297.

[347] Whitaker’s “Craven,” p. 164.

[348] Whitaker’s “Whalley,” p. 134.

[349] In the time of Edward I.

[350] A ground plan and elevations of some of the buildings of the palace and deanery are engraved in the Lincoln Volume of the Archæol. Institute, 1848 A.D.

[351] The vicars of the residentiaries lived at first in the residence houses in something like the capacity of chaplains (“The Cathedral,” E. W. Benson, Archbishop of Canterbury). Ralph of Shrewsbury, 1329-1361, incorporated them at Wells.

[352] Benson’s (Archbishop of Canterbury) “The Cathedral,” p. 35.

[353] Octagonal at York, Salisbury, Wells; decagonal at Old St. Paul’s, Hereford, Lichfield, and here at Lincoln.

[354] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 19.

[355] An example of a married canon.

[356] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 12.

[357] Benson, “The Cathedral,” p. 27.

[358] There is a portrait of Bishop Longland, at the beginning of a Benedictional written for him, in the Add. MS. 21974, in the British Museum Library.

[359] In the “Taxatio” of Pope Nicholas IV., A.D. 1291, p. 76, the goods spiritual and temporal of the bishop everywhere in the Diocese of Lincoln are returned at the round sum of £1000.

[360] J. Talbot was Prebendary of Cliffeton, Notts, worth £20, and had £6 13_s._ 4_d._ from the dean and chapter to find a cantarist for the chantry of Queen Eleanor at Harby, in the parish of Clifton, Notts. S. Grene or Foderby was Prebendary of Bedford Minor, worth £3 10_s._ 9_d._

[361] Probably a worker in _laton_, an alloy of brass.

[362] “Pulsan’ad organ;” it could not be the organ blower, for his stipend was twice as much as that of the carpenter and lathonius.

[363] They consisted of the impropriation of five parochial benefices.

[364] He was a very forward man in defacing the shrines of this church and delivering up the treasure thereof into King Henry VIII.’s hands (Willis’s “Survey of Cathedrals”).

[365] “Valor Eccl.,” vol. iv. p. 198.

[366] Ibid., p. 43.

[367] Ibid., p. 88.

[368] Ibid., p. 124.

[369] Ibid., p. 166.

[370] Ibid., p. 78.

[371] Ibid., p. 138.

[372] Ibid., p. 344.

[373] Ibid., p. 107.

[374] Ibid., p. 88.

[375] Ibid., p. 127.

[376] Ibid., p. 64.

[377] “Valor Eccl.,” vol. iv. p. 20.

[378] 1 Chron. ii. 5.

[379] There might be--often were--canons who had no prebends; that is the condition to which the too-sweeping reforms of recent times have reduced the great majority of the canons of all our cathedrals.

[380] Benson, “The Cathedral.”

[381] See two canons in their tippets, in Tib. E. VII. f. 27, v., an English MS. of the latter half of the fifteenth century.

[382] “P’comunis et vinis” (“Valor,” iv. pp. 8_b_ and 22).

[383] See p. 362.

[384] The archdeaconries of this diocese (except that of Oxford) had no endowment; their income was derived from fees, etc.

[385] Dr. Foxe’s Christian name is not given. A Matthew Foxe was rector of Hardwyk, £6 17_s._ 5_d._; a John Fox was vicar of East Haddon, £15; and a Thomas Fox, vicar of Lewesden, £6 17_s._ 4_d._

[386] ? founder of a Chantry, £5 6_s._ 8_d._, at Leighton Bromeswold Church (see “Valor,” vol. iv. p. 258).

[387] Up to the fifteenth century, at least, part of the cathedral nave was used as the parish church of St. Peter; at a later period, probably after Henry VIII., the north transept was used for that purpose, and so continued until 1853, when the present parish church was built.

[388] “Taxatio of Pope Nicholas,” p. 138_b_.

[389] Among the items are the rent received from the Society of Lincoln’s Inn for their Inn, £6 13_s._ 4_d._; and the rent of certain tenements in Chancery Lane (which are still called the Chichester Rents), £2 13_s._ 4_d._

[390] “Valor,” vol. i. p. 308.

[391] Ibid., p. 318.

[392] Ibid., p. 340.

[393] Ibid., p. 346.

[394] Ibid., vol. iv. p. 19.

[395] Ibid., p. 19_b_.

[396] Ibid., vol. i. p. 301.

[397] Ibid., p. 185.

[398] “Valor,” vol. i. p. 301.

[399] Ibid., p. 333.

[400] Ibid., p. 301.

[401] Ibid., p. 324.

[402] Ibid., p. 317.

[403] Ibid., p. 300.

[404] Ibid., p. 345.

[405] An antiphon was sung nightly before St. Mary’s image by the junior vicar after evensong (1459-63). The shrine of St. Richard stood as usual at the back of the high altar; a harper used to play and sing the praises of the saint (Rev. T. Hugo).

[406] Rev. Mackenzie Walcott, _Building News_, May 15, 1874.

[407] The permanent relation between a religious house and its founder is illustrated in the case of Boxgrove Cluniac Priory, Sussex. The founder, in 1120, Robert de Hara, stipulated [for himself and his descendants, we take for granted] that he should choose one of the monks to officiate in the chapel at his neighbouring manor house of Halnaker; and that if at any time the monks should fail to elect to a vacancy in the office of prior within three months, he should nominate.

The prioress and nuns of Mount Grace, c. 1250, bound themselves to present each successive Prioress for approval to John le Verdun, their patron (_advocato nostro_), and his heirs or their deputies (“Eccl. Documents,” p. 66, Camden Society. See also Cartnell Priory, “Papal Letters,” vol. i. p. 135, Rolls Series).

[408] See the case of two of the Prebendaries of Lincoln, named at p. 343; and of two parish priests, at pp. 286 and 294.

[409] Matthew of Westminster says the Franciscans dwelt “in bodies of ten or seven;” but Chaucer seems to intimate that the usual number of friars in each house was thirteen--

And bring me then twelve friars, will ye why? For thirtene is a convent as I wis. “Sompnour’s Tale.”

[410] Wert thou not.

[411] Health and strength.

[412] Seal.

[413] Neander’s “Church History,” vii. 403 and 399.

[414] Lynwoode’s “Provinciale,” p. 133.

[415] _e.g._ the valuation, in the “Valor Ecclesiasticus,” of the Carmelites of Lynn is a clear income of 35_s._ 8_d._; of the Dominicans, 18_s._; of the Austin Friars, 24_s._ 6_d._ (“Valor Eccl.,” iii. 397, 398). At Northampton the rent fetched by the whole friary, with the friar’s house and garden, is £10 10_s._; of the Franciscans, £6 17_s._ 4_d._; of the Dominicans, £5 7_s._ 10_d._ (“Valor Eccl.,” v. 318).

[416] Except the _trinoda necessitas_.

[417] As a consequence of the Scottish Wars, the northern province was so harried and impoverished that the clergy were unable to pay the tenths demanded, and a new taxation of part of the Province was made in 1318.

[418] St. Botolph, Colchester.

[419] See Appendix II.

[420] The Bishop of Oxford says the whole number of parish churches in the Middle Ages was not much over 8000 (“Const. Hist.,” iii. p. 396). There have been very erroneous estimates current. The Parliament of 1371 granted to the king a sum of £50,000, to be raised by contribution of 22_s._ 3_d._ from each parish, there being, according to the common opinion, 40,000 parishes in England. On this the Bishop of Oxford makes a note (“Const. Hist.,” ii. 459) that it is an illustration of the absolute untrustworthiness of mediæval figures, which, even when most circumstantially minute, cannot be accepted, except where as in the public accounts vouchers can be quoted. The returns to a writ issued by the king to the local authorities of each shire to certify the number of parishes in it, showed that there were only 8669. Stow, in his “Annals,” p. 268, gives the returns _in extenso_. The anonymous author of the famous libel, “A Supplication for Beggars,” says there are within the realm of England 52,000 parish churches. Maskell, in his “Monumenta Ritualia,” I. ccij, mentions several MSS. in the British Museum which contain memoranda on the subject, Royal 8 B xv., Royal 8 D iv., Titus D 3. In the first, in a fifteenth-century handwriting, is a note _sunt in Regno Angliæ Ecclesiæ parochiales_, 46,100.

[421] In 1371 the smaller benefices and chantries were taxed by the king (Stowe, “Annales,” p. 268).

[422] The following are the details for the several dioceses (except Durham and Chester):--

Diocese. Beneficed. Unbeneficed. Lincoln--Archdeaconry of Lincoln, Stow, Leicester, and Rutland 2,001 1,660 Lincoln--Archdeaconry of Northampton, Hunts, Bucks, Oxon, and Bedford 1,522 1,313 Canterbury 599 495 Bath and Wells--Archdeaconry of Bath 119 82 Bath and Wells--Archdeaconry of Taunton 139 72 Bath and Wells--Archdeaconry of Wells 335 336 Salisbury--Archdeaconry of Berks and Wilts 461 246 Salisbury--Archdeaconry of Dorchester and Sarum 734 467 Exeter--County of Devon 559 756 Exeter--County of Cornwall 199 487 Ely 358 658 Chichester 473 168 London--Archdeaconry of London 336 427 London--Archdeaconry of Essex, Middlesex, and Colchester 268 241 London--“et predicti Coll.” 531 526 Rochester--In the City and Diocese of Rochester 157 54 Rochester--In the Deanery of Iselham 4 9 Jurisdiction of St. Alban 106 50 Winchester--Archdeaconry of Winton 616 305 Winchester--Archdeaconry of Surrey 218 -- Winchester--In Arch. predicti -- 152 Coventry and Lichfield--Archdeaconry of Coventry 272 241 Coventry and Lichfield--Archdeaconry of Stafford 180 321 Coventry and Lichfield--Archdeaconry of Derby 175 281 Coventry and Lichfield--Archdeaconry of Cestr 162 336 Coventry and Lichfield--Archdeaconry of Salop 106 -- Worcester--Archdeaconry of Wigan 425 425 Worcester--Archdeaconry of Gloucester 414 409 York 1,790 1,481 Carlisle 135 97 Norwich 1,844 1,848 ------ ------ 15,238 13,943

[423] The preface to the “Valor,” when it was printed by the Record Office, says, “We have here presented before us in one grand conspectus the whole ecclesiastical establishment of England and Wales, as it had been built up in successive centuries, and when it was carried to its greatest height.... So that we at once see not only the ancient extent and amount of that provision which was made by the piety of the English nation for the spiritual edification of the people, by the erection of churches and chapels for the decent performance of the simple and touching ordinances of the Christian religion; but how large a proportion had been saved from private appropriation of the produce of the soil, and how much had been subsequently given, to form a public fund accessible to all, out of which might be supported an order of cultivated and more enlightened men dispersed through society, and by means of which blessings incalculable might be spread amongst the whole community. If there were spots of extravagances, yet on the whole it is a pleasing as well as a splendid spectacle, especially if we look with minute observation into any portion of the Record, and compare it with a map which shows the distribution of population in those times over the island, and then observe how religion had pursued men even to his remotest abodes, and was present among the most rugged dwellers in the hills and wildernesses of the land, softening and humanizing their hearts.”

[424]

Rectories. Vicarages. Chapels. Chantries. Canterbury 225 108 13 23 Rochester 128 56 10 13 Bath and Wells 368 126 33 53 Chichester 279 124 13 39 London 731 201 31 310 Winchester 289 95 21 14 Sarum 540 182 68 72 Oxford 167 64 8 10 Lincoln 1,310 492 30 213 Peterboro 355 92 10 30 Exeter 524 185 43 36 Gloucester 246 106 35 30 Hereford 152 84 27 57 Coventry and Lichfield 466 207 29 106 Chester 197 78 5 127 Worcester 133 47 17 31 Norwich 1,103 276 31 60 Ely 157 80 11 29 Llandaff 143 61 22 12 St. David’s 288 120 10 3 Bangor 110 27 45 4 St. Asaph 157 83 4 0 York 581 305 19 424 Carlisle 75 38 0 19 Durham 114 70 1 18 ------ ------ ---- ------ 8,838 3,307 536 1,733

[425] “Constitutional History,” iii. 366.

[426] In the Easter account-book.

[427] “Valor,” v. 32, 263, etc.

[428] “Valor,” v. 35.

[429] Ibid., p. 61.

[430] Ibid., p. 75.

[431] Ecclia de Donecaster divisa est pars que fuit Hugonis p’t’ pens’ in eadem, £43 6_s._ 8_d._; pens’ Abbis Be Marie Ebor. in eadem, £5; pars Rogers’ in eadem p’t’ pens’, £40; pens’ Abbis Be Marie Ebor. in eadem, £5 (“Taxatio,” p. 299).

[432] “Valor,” v. 45.

[433] Ibid., p. 157.

[434] The chrisom was the linen cloth, or garment, which the priest put on the recently baptized child. It was to be offered by the mother when she came to be churched. It might be used again at baptism, or for other church purposes, or it might be converted into ornaments for the good of the church, but not turned to any profane use (“Constitutions of St. Edmund of Canterbury,” 1234).

In the Visitation of Churches in the patronage of St. Paul’s (1249-1252, p. xii.), fifty-six panni chrismales are said to be at Tillingham church, and at Pelham Furneaux several chrisoms were used as _manutergia_--napkins for wiping the hands at mass.

[435] “Valor,” iii. 45.

[436] “Valor Eccl.,” iii. 45.

[437] Ibid., iii. p. 38.

[438] Ibid., v. p. 189.

[439] Denar’ Missaribz et candel’ oblat’. Porcione panis bn̄dict’ diebus dni oblat’ (see p. 236).

[440] Ibid., v. 157.

[441] For sending his _locum tenens_ to the synods and processions? (“Valor Eccl.,” i. p. 67).

[442] “History of Agriculture and Prices in England,” J. E. T. Rogers.

[443] “Annals of St. Paul’s Cathedral,” p. 145.

[444] Matthew of Westminster, under the year 1249, says of a number of men in the country about Southampton, that they were of such rank that they were considered equal to knights, and that their estates were valued at £40, £50, or £80 a year (Rolls Series, ii. 360).

[445] Ibid., under year 1253, ii. 383.

[446] Agobarth, Archbishop of Lyons, c. 833, complains that there is scarcely one to be found who aspires to any degree of honour and temporal distinction who has not his domestic priests; and that these chaplains are constantly to be found serving tables, mixing the strained wine, leading out the dogs, managing ladies’ horses, or looking after the lands.

[447] Lib. ix. ep. lxx. (Migne 77, p. 100).

[448] Thorpe’s “Select Charters,” pp. 521 and 511.

[449] Under the year 1067.

[450] In Ludlow Castle, the great chapel in the court was built soon after the Temple Church in London, and, like it, with a circular nave and aisles, and projecting choir.

[451] A chapel at Charney, Berks, of the latter part of the thirteenth century, is described and engraved in the “Archæological Journal” for 1848, p. 311.

[452] These castle chapels were usually dedicated to some saint; as Windsor to St. George, the Tower to St. Peter, Oxford to St. George, Tattershall to St. Nicholas, Toryton to St. James, Barnard Castle to the Twelve Apostles, Alnwick to the Twelve Apostles, etc.

[453] “Archæologiæ,” xxv. pp. 320, 323.

[454] Chapel of the Earl of Northumberland--

First, a preist, a doctor of divinity, a doctor of law, or a bachelor of divinitie, to be dean of my lord’s chapel.

It. A preist for to be surveyour of my lorde’s lands.

It. A preist for to be secretary to my lorde.

It. A preist for to be amner (almoner) to my lorde.

It. A preist for to be sub-dean for ordering and keaping the quoir in my lorde’s chapell daily.

It. A preist for riding chaplein for my lorde.

It. A preist for a chaplein to my lorde’s eldest son, to wait uppon him daily.

It. A preist for my lorde’s clerk of the closet.

It. A preist for a maister of gramer in my lorde’s house.

It. A preist for reading the Gospel in the chapel daily.

It. A preist for singing of our Ladie’s Mass in the chapell daily.

The number of these persons as chapleins and priests in household are xi.

The gentlemen and children of my lord’s chappell which be not appointed to attend at no time but only in exercising of Godde’s service in the chapell daily at Matteins, Lady-Mass, Highe-Mass, Evensong, and Compeynge:--

First, a bass.

It. A second bass.

A maister of the childer, or counter-tenor.

Second and third counter-tenor.

A standing tenor.

A second, third, and fourth standing tenor.

The number of these persons as gentlemen of my lorde’s chappell xi.

Children of my lorde’s chappell--

Three trebles and three second trebles, in all vi.

* * * * *

A memorandum of all the offerings of my lorde and my lady and my lorde’s children customably used yearly at principall feasts, and other offeringe dayes of the yere--

Furst. My lorde’s offeringe accustomede upon All hallow-Day yerely, when his lordshippe is at home at the Highe Mass, if he kepe Chapell, xij_d._

Item. My lade’s offerringe accustomede upon All hallowe-Day yerely, if she offer at the Highe Masse, if my lorde kepe chapell, to be paid out of my lord’s coffures, if she be at my lorde’s fyndinge and not at her owen, viij.

And, not to repeat the formal verbiage in every entry--

On Xmasday my lord gave xij, and my lady viij.

On St. Stephen’s Day, when his lordeshipp is at home, a groit to bow at a Low Mass in his closet.

On New-Yers-Day, my lord, if he be at home and keep chapel, offers xij, and my lady viij.

On Twelfth Day my lord offers xij, and my lady viij.

On Candilmas-Day to be sett in his lordschippe’s candil to offer at the High Mass v groits for the v Joyes of our lady xx_d._, and my lady xij. And my lord useth and accustomyth yerely upon Candilmas-Day to caus to be delyveride for the offeringe of my lords son and heire the lorde Percy to be sett in his candil ij, and for every one of my yonge masters, my lords yonge sonnes to be sett in the candils affore the offeringe j for aither of them, iiij. On St. Blaye’s Day to be sett in his lordsshippe candil to offer at Hye Mass, if his lordschyp kepe chapell iiij_d._, and my lady iiij, and my lorde sone and heire j, and my lords yonger sonnes j for every of them. Upon Goode-Friday when his lorschippe crepeth the cros, iiij, my lady iiij, and my lord Percy ij, and my yonge masters, when they crepe the cross, j.

On Easter Even, when his lordshipp taketh his rights, iiij, and my lady, when her ladischipe taketh her rights, iiij, and his lordschippe’s children that be of aige to take their rights, ij, to every of them. And my lord useth yerely to caus to be delyvrede to every of his lordschippe’s wardes or Hausmen, or anny other yonge gentilmen that be at his lordschippe’s fynding, and be of aige to take their rights after ij, to every such person.

On Easter day, in the mornynge, when my lord crepeth to the cross after the Resurreccion iiij, and my lady iiij, and the lord Percy, and my yonge masters every of them j.

On Easter day at High Mass my lord offers xjj, my lady viij, and his children each j.

On St. George’s Day, when my lord is at home, and kepith St. George’s Feast, x_d._

My lorde’s offeringe accustomed at the Mas of Requiem, upon the morrow after Seyne George-Day, when his lordschip is at home, and kepith Sayn George Feast, which is accustomed yerely to be don for the soulles of all the knightes of the Order of the Garter departede to the mercy of God, iiij.

My lord useth when he is at home, and kepith Dergen over night, and Mas of Requiem upon the morrowe of my lord his Father xij month mynde, to offer at the Mas of Requiem iiij, and his sons, every of them, at the Mas of Requiem done for my lord’s father xij month mynde j.

On Ascension Day my lord offers xij, my lady viij.

On Whitsonday xjj, my lady viij, and his children j.

On Trinity Sonday xij, my lady viij.

On Mychaelmas iiij, for his lordschipe offeringe to the Holy Blode of Hailles (Hales) iiij; for his offeringe to our Lady of Walsyngeham iij; to Sayne Margarets, Lyncolinschire iiij.

My lord useth yerely to sende for the upholding of the light of waxe, which his lordschip fynds byrnynge yerely before the Holy Blode of Hailles, containing xvj lb. of wax in it after vij_d._, ob. for the fyndynge of every lb.; if redy wrought by a covenant maide by gret with the monk for the hole yere for fynding of the saide light byrnying x_s._

The same for a light at Walsingham vj_s._, viii_d._, and at St. Margaret’s x. And for a light to burne before our Lady in the Whitefrers of Doncaster of my lord’s foundation at mas-tyme daily xiij_s._ iiij_d._

Presents at Xmas to Barne Bishop [the Boy Bishop?] of Beverley and York, when he comes, as he is accustomed, yearly.

Rewards to the children of his chapell when they do sing the responde called _Exaudivi_ at the mattynstime for xi in vespers upon Allhallow Day, 6_s._ 8_d._

On St. Nicholas Eve, 6_s._ 8_d._

To them of his lordshipe’s chappell if they doe play the play of the Nativitie upon Xmas Day in the mornynge in my lorde’s chappell before his lordship xx_s._

For singing _Gloria in Excelsis_ at the mattens time upon Xmas Day in the mornyng.

To the Abbot of Miserewle [Misrule] on Xmas (?)

To the yeoman or groom of the vestry for bringing him the hallowed taper on Candlemas Day?

To his lordship’s chaplains and other servts. that play the play before his lordship on Shrofetewsday at night xx_s._

That play the play of Resurrection upon Estur Daye in the mg. in y lorde’s chappell before his lordship.

To the yeoman or groom of the vestry on Allhallows Day for syngnge for all christynne soles the saide nygthe so it be past mydnight 3_s._ 4_d._

* * * * *

The Earl and Lady were brother and sister of St. Christopher Gilde Yorke, and pd. 6_s._ 8_d._ each yearly; and when the Master of the Gild brought my lord and my lady for their lyverays a yard of narrow violette clothe and a yard of narrow rayed cloth, 13_s._ 4_d._ (_i.e._ a yard of each to each).

And to Proctor of St. Robert’s, Knasbruge, when my lorde and my lady were brother and sister, 6_s._ 8_d._ each.

* * * * *

At pp. 272-278 is an elaborate programme of the ordering of my lord’s chapel for the various services.

At p. 292 is an order about the washing of the linen of the chapel for a year. Eighteen surplices for men, and six for children, and seven albes, and five altar cloths for covering of the altars, sixteen times a year against the great feasts.

At p. 285 is an order that the vestry stuff shall have at every removal [for it was carried about from one to another of my lord’s houses] one cart for the carrying of the nine antiphoners, the four grailles, the hangings of the three altars in my lord’s closet and my ladie’s, and the sort [suit] of vestments and single vestments and copes “accopeed” daily, and all other my lord’s chappell stuff to be sent afore my lord’s chariot before his lordship remove (“Antiq. Repertory,” iv. 242).

[455] Whose emoluments at the beginning of the sixteenth century are all given in the “Valor” of Henry VIII., vol. ii. p. 317.

[456] “Valor,” ii. p. 153.

[457] “Taxatio,” p. 298.

[458] Where there was a single chaplain, he probably always had a boy who “served” him at mass, and also acted as his personal attendant.

[459] Whitaker’s “Craven.”

[460] “Taxatio,” p. 18.

[461] Page’s “Yorkshire Chantries.”

[462] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 6.

[463] “Valor Eccl.,” ii. 403.

[464] An oratory differs from a church; a church is appointed for public worship, and has an endowment for the minister and others; an oratory is not built for saying mass, nor endowed, but ordained for a family to perform its household worship in. A bell might not be put up in an oratory, because it was not a place of public worship.

[465] The exemption from the jurisdiction of the ordinary of royal chapels is recognized by a bull of Innocent IV. (“Annales de Burton,” p. 275).

[466] Grostete summoned Earl Warren and his chaplain for having Divine service celebrated in his hall at Grantham, being an unconsecrated place (“Letters of Grostete,” Rolls Series, p. 171).

[467] Eyton’s “Shropshire,” ix. 326.

[468] There are similar conditions in a licence in 1310, to Dame Matilda de Hywys for her chapel of Tremetherecke, in the parish of Duloc (Register of Bishop Stapledon of Exeter, “Hingeston-Randolph,” p. 300).

[469] Newcourt’s “Repertorium,” ii. 434.

[470] See “Description of the Vyne,” by the late Mr. Chute, the proprietor.

[471] The clerk whose duty it was to keep the bishop’s register sometimes grew weary of writing the so-frequent record in full, and simply noted that licence was granted to so-and-so, _in formâ communi_, or _in formâ consueta_ (“Grandisson’s Register,” pp. 492, 509, etc.).

[472] Canon Hingeston-Randolph’s “Register of Edmund Stafford,” p. 271.

[473] Edit. J. Raine, p. 58.

[474] Edit. J. Raine, p. 271.

[475] “Register of Bath and Wells” (Rev. T. Hugo’s “Extracts”), p. 158. There are other instances, at Maystoke, Hoddesdon, Atthorpe, in the “Papal Letters,” vol. i. pp. 192, 522.

[476] Edited by Mr. George Nichols for the Camden Society.

[477] “Sussex Archæol. Coll.,” iii. 112.

[478] G. Offor, “Life of Tyndale.”

[479] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 136.

[480] “Richmondshire Wills,” p. 34.

[481] “Test. Ebor.,” p. 220.

[482] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 57.

[483] Ibid., p. 111.

[484] “Lichfield,” p. 168, S.P.C.K.

[485] “Eccl. Proceedings of Courts of Durham,” p. 44.

[486] “Register” of Bishop Gray of Lincoln.

[487] In 1348 the Convent of St. Augustine, Canterbury, and in 1365 the Convent of Westminster, petitioned the pope to have Divine offices celebrated in the chapels of their manors and churches, _i.e._ rectories (“Papal Letters,” vol. i. pp. 139, 506).

[488] “Hingeston-Randolph,” p. 319.

[489] Ibid., p. 378.

[490] Walcott’s “Chichester Registers.”

[491] Alternate vertical stripes of white and red (?).

[492] “Fifty Earliest English Wills,” etc., E. E. Text S., p. 5.

[493] The longest time allowed for saying a mass is an hour; those who say it in less than half an hour are reproved (J. H. Dickenson, “The Sarum Missal”).

[494] Mallory’s “History of Prince Arthur.”

[495] “Autobiography of Anne Murray,” in the time of James I. (Camden Society).

[496] In Saxon times the priest and brethren of Bath admitted Sæwi and Theodgefu his wife to brotherhood and bedrœdenne (prayer) for life and death (Thorpe’s “Diplomatarium,” p. 436). Gilbert Tyson, _temp._ William I. or II., gave land to Selby “for the soul of my lord King William, and for my soul and the souls of my wife and children, ... on condition that I be _plenarius frater_ in the said church.” Sir Roger Tromyn and Dame Joan his wife were admitted, in 1307, to share in the prayers of the Abbey of Wymore, and to have their obsequies celebrated when they deceased as for a brother of the house (“Eccl. Documents,” Camden Society, pp. 49, 72).

[497] Osborn, Abbot of St. Evroult (1063), instituted an anniversary, on the 26th June, for the fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters of all the monks of St. Evroult. The names of all the brethren were registered in a long roll when professed. This roll was kept near the altar throughout the year, and an especial commemoration was made before God of the persons inscribed, when the priest says in celebrating mass, “Animas famulorum famularum que tuorum,” etc. “Vouchsafe to join to the society of Thine elect, the souls of Thy servants, both men and women, whose names are written in the roll presented before Thy holy altar.” At the anniversary, on 26th June, the roll of the deceased was spread open on the altar, and prayers were offered, first for the dead and afterwards for living relations and benefactors and all the faithful in Christ (“Orderic Vitalis,” i. 447).

William de Ros, clerk of Bayeux, gave £40 sterling to the monks of St. Evroult.... His name was inscribed in the register by the monks of St. Evroult for the many benefits he conferred on the abbey, and masses, prayers, and alms were appointed for him as if he had been a brother there professed (i. 269).

Some of the monks of St. Evroult contributed largely to the monastery, and procured from their relations, acquaintances, and friends donations of tithes and churches, and ecclesiastical ornaments for the use of the brethren.

[498] Surtees Society, the “Liber Vitæ of Durham.”

[499] There were, in fact, a few others; _e.g._ the Domestic Chapel at the Vyne, Hampshire, had been founded as a chantry.

[500] In Yorkshire, less than a dozen are recorded before the fourteenth century, about a quarter of the whole number were founded between 1300 and 1350, the greatest number from 1450 to 1500 (Page’s “Yorkshire Chantries,” Surtees Society).

[501] If groups of united chantries be reckoned as one, or 53 if each be counted separately; served by 52 priests, with an average income of £7 9_s._ 6_d._ The chantry priests lived in a mansion founded for them called Priest’s House, or in the chambers of their respective chantries (“St. Paul’s and Old City Life,” p. 100, W. S. Simpson).

[502] For another example of a foundation deed of a chantry, see that of Thomas, Earl of Derby (p. 469), in Blackburn parish church, 1514 (Whitaker’s “Whalley,” ii. 322)

[503] Dan John Raventhorpe leaves a wooden side altar with a cupboard beneath the said altar (almariolum subtus idem altare) to keep the books and vestments. So also in the will of Richard Russell, citizen of York, 1435 (“Test. Ebor.,” ii. 53).

[504] Wodderspoon, “Memorials of Ipswich,” p. 352.

[505] Chantry Certificates, Co. York, Roll 70, No. 6.

[506] “York Fabric Rolls,” p. 87.

[507] “Register” of Bishop Buckingham, p. 282.

[508] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 91.

[509] S.P.C.K., “Diocese of Lichfield,” p. 161. So at the Free Chapel at Kingston (see p. 125).

[510] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 29.

[511] Ibid., p. 60.

[512] Ibid., p. 150.

[513] Newcourt’s “Repertorium.”

[514] “Diocesan Hist. of Hereford,” S.P.C.K.

[515] “Lichfield Diocese,” p. 115, S.P.C.K.

[516] Here are a few examples from Lincoln Diocese only, within fifty years. William Aghton, Archdeacon of Bedford, 1422, left a bequest for masses for his soul. Richard of Ravenser, Archdeacon of Lincoln, 1385, leaves 2_s._ to every nun of the Order of Sempringham and every anchorite or recluse in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, and numerous other bequests to religious houses, besides a manor and certain tenements to be sold in aid of a chaplain of the vicars [choral] of Lincoln, to celebrate at St. Giles’s Without, Lincoln, for him, etc. William Wintringham, Canon of Lincoln, 1415, left 200 marks for mortuary masses. Richard Croxton, Canon of Lincoln, 1383, left £50 for masses for ten years. John of Haddon, Canon of Lincoln, 1374, left £21 to find two chaplains for two years. Robert of Austhorpe, Doctor of Laws and Licentiate in Arts, 1372, left 20_s._ for masses. Stephen of Hoghton, Rector of the Mediety of Lesyngham, 1390, left 20_s._ and two books to the Prior and Convent of Nocton for a perpetual anniversary. Robert of Lottryngton, Rector of Gosberkyrk, 1391, left £10 and his portiforium and psalterium to his church, and a bequest for two chaplains to celebrate for him for a year. Richard Morys, Rector of Bryngton, 1396, leaves £4 to Mr. William Ynflet, to celebrate for him (A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills”).

[517] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 158.

[518] There are chantry chapels in two stories at Hereford and Gloucester Cathedrals, and Tewkesbury, and two at East Horndon, Essex.

[519] A. Gibbons, “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 201.

[520] Baines’s “Manchester” (Harland’s edition), p. 45.

[521] “Test. Ebor.,” iv. 121.

[522] See calendar of perpetual obits in St. Paul’s Cathedral in appendix to Milman’s “Annals of St. Paul’s.”

[523] In the “Sarum Manual” the rules which follow death began with a _Commendatio Animarum_ [Exequiis] consisting of psalms and prayers for the dead. The body was then washed and laid on a bier; vespers for the day were said, followed by the _Vigiliæ Mortuorum_, divided into several parts, the special vespers and special matins known from their respective antiphons as the _Placebo_ and _Dirige_. The body was then carried in procession to church. There the _Missa Mortuorum_ was said, and after it came the _Inhumatio defuncti_.

[524] See p. 348.

[525] Hingeston-Randolph, “Stafford’s Register,” p. 399.

[526] Wodderspoon, “Ipswich,” p. 392.

[527] Ibid., p. 399.

[528] It was a very humble imitation of the primitive custom of giving a funeral feast.

[529] Ibid., p. 393.

[530] “Essex Arch. Trans.,” vol. i. part iii. p. 150 (New Series).

[531] “Diocese of Bath and Wells,” p. 136, S.P.C.K.

[532] “Diocesan Histories, Lincoln,” p. 81, S.P.C.K.

[533] Ibid., p. 197.

[534] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 209.

[535] “Early Lincoln Wills,” p. 164.

[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’ Mass 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, Essex, 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 God 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 mass held for a dead brother or sister; each brother or sister so dying shall have at the mass 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 hearse 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 masses 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. Mighell, 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, Essex, his best brass pot and a dozen of great platters marked with C.

To the Fraternity of Our Lady’s Assumption in the Church of Haddestoo, in Norfolk, toward the buying and building of a hall for the Fraternity, 26_s._ 8_d._ (“Essex 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--brasse pott, weighing 3 c. 4 li.; brass 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 illustrated 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 mediæval 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. H. St. Martin’s at the Oke. I. The Castle. K. St. Peter’s Permantigate. L. St. Martin’s on the Hill. M. St. John’s on the Hill. N. St. Michael’s. O. St. John’s at the Gate. P. St. Stephen’s. Q. The Market Place. R. St. Gyles’s Gate. S. Hell Gate. T. St. Benet’s Gate. V. St. Stephen’s Gate. W. Pockethorpe Gate. X. The New Milles. Y. Chapell in the Field. Z. St. Martin’s Gate.

[575] “Historic Towns: London.” Rev. W. I. Loftie.

[576] “Stowe’s Survey of London,” vol. ii. p. 26 (by Strype, A.D. 1720).

[577] “It may be that the parochial system was not fully organized in Exeter till the time of the Ordinance (of 1222), and that while some of the chapels were suppressed, others were now raised to the rank of parish churches” (E. A. Freeman, “Historic Towns”: Exeter).

[578] References to the Plan of EXETER. Places of the city indicated by figures--

1. East Gates. 2. St. Lawrence. 3. The Castle. 4. Corrylane. 5. St. Ione Cross. 6. St. Stephen’s. 7. Bedford House. 8. St. Peter’s. 9. Bishop’s Pallace. 10. Palace Gate. 11. Trinity. 12. Bear Gate. 13. St. Marye’s. 14. Churchyard. 15. St. Petroke’s. 16. High Stret. 17. Guild Hall. 18. Alhallowes. 19. Goldsmith Stret. 20. St. Paule. 21. Paule Stret. 22. St. Pancres. 23. Waterbury Stret. 24. North Gate. 25. Northgate Stret. 26. St. Keran’s. 27. Cooke Row. 28. Bell Hill. 29. Southgate Stret. 30. South Gate. 31. Grenny Stret. 32. St. Gregorie’s. 33. Milk Lane. 34. The Shambles. 35. St. Olaves. 36. St. Mary Arche. 37. Archer Lane. 38. St. Nicholas. 39. St. John’s. 40. Friar Waye. 41. Little Britaine. 42. Alhallowes. 43. St. Marie’s Steps. 44. West Gate. 45. Smithen Stret. 46. Idle Lane. 47. Postern Stret. 48. Racke Lane.

[579] Its thirteenth century hall and fourteenth century dormitory still exist.

[580] The existing fabric was built early in the second half of the fifteenth century, at the joint cost of the Abbot of Glastonbury, to whom the benefice belonged, and of the parishioners; John Shipward, the mayor, adding the handsome tower.

[581] On the suppression of the religious houses, the fine church of the Austin Canons supplied the Cathedral Church of the new diocese of Bristol--now happily restored to the dignity and usefulness of a separate see.

[582] References to the plan of BRISTOL. Places of the city indicated by letters--

A. Great St. Augustine. B. Little St. Augustine. C. The Gaunt. D. St. Michael. E. St. James. F. Froom Gate. G. St. John’s. H. St. Lawrence. I. St. Stephen’s. K. St. Leonard. L. St. Warburg’s. M. Christ Church. N. Allhallowes. O. St. Mary Port. P. St. Peter’s. Q. St. Phillip. R. The Castle. S. St. Nicholas. T. St. Thomas. V. The Temple. W. Ratcliff Gate. X. Temple Gate. Y. Newgate.

[583] J. Raine, “Historic Towns”: York.

[584] Ellis’s “Introd. to Domesday Book,” ii. p. 491.

[585] Ellis’s “Introd. to Domesday Book,” ii. p. 491.

[586] A very complete inventory of the possessions of this Priory taken room by room, at the time of the suppression, is printed in J. Wodderspoon’s “Ipswich,” p. 314.

[587] See an account of this chantry at p. 444.

[588] There is a diagram of it, with the chapel at the west end, in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for 1751, p. 296.

[589] Vol. iii. p. 147. At p. 145 the sum is given as £23.

[590] In 1233 the convent obtained a prohibition from the pope to erect an oratory or chapel within a Roman mile of their altar (“Papal Letters,” vol. i. p. 137, Rolls Series).

[591] When the Countess of Clare, the lady of one of the manors at Walsingham, gave the Franciscans a site for a house here, in 21 Henry II., the prior and convent petitioned her against the foundation, but without success.

[592] See Wingham and Wye in Appendix III., pp. 564, 566.

[593] Ecclia de Roderham divisa est, Pars Abbis de Clervall, £16 13_s._ 4_d._; vicar ejusdem ptis, £5; pars Rogeri cum vicar ejusdem partis, £21 13_s._ 4_d._; Pens’ Prioris de Lewes in eadem eccles de Roderham, £1 6_s._ 8_d._ (“Taxatio,” p. 300).

[594] The example set by the cathedrals for gathering the cantarists into a college, was followed by private benefactors in several towns, _e.g._ Newark, p. 525.

[595] At the time of the “Taxatio,” the portion of the prior of Worksop in the Church of Sheffield was worth £10 (“Taxatio,” p. 299).

[596] The Augmentation Commissioners of Ed. VI. return that the Parish of Newnham, Gloucestershire, where are houselying people, ciijx, has certain lands, tenements, and rents given to the parishioners to bestow the profits according to their discretion, “in reparying the p̄m̄isses, sometyme in mendyng of high weyes and bridgs within the same p̄s̄he; and sometymes, and of late, in findinge a prieste ther to serve for the soles of the givers and founders, and for c̄t̄en Xtn works, worth £14 0_s._ 1_d._ Ornament, plate, and juellry to the same, none, r value x_s._” (Notes on the Borough and Manor of Newnham.--R. I. Kerr, Gloucester, “Transactions,” 1893).

[597] The castle chapel, dedicated to St. Philip and James, “was anciently given to the mother church” of Newark.

[598] A suburb outside the borough, called the North End, had a Hospital of St. Leonard, and was a separate parish.

[599] Dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen.

[600] p. 403.

[601] It was probable that he was the chaplain of the Castle Chapel.

[602] An effigy of Alan Fleming, merchant, who died in 1361, engraved, with canopy and ornamental work, on a great sheet of brass, is one of the finest of the “Flemish brasses,” and one of the treasures of the church. It is engraved in Waller’s and in Boutell’s “Monumental Brasses.”

[603] Thoroton records the epitaph of R. Browne, armiger, late Alderman of the Gild of Holy Trinity of this church, and Constable of the Castle, and principal seneschal of the liberty of the town and receiver for Thomas Wolsey, Cardinal of York, and for the Lord John Longland, Bishop of Lincoln, and for the vice-count of the Counties of Notts and Derby, who died 1532.

[604] See p. 519.

[605] See p. 125.

[606] Thoroton gives the inscription on the tomb of Robert Kirkclaye, the first master of the Long School for forty-two years, who died in 1570 (?).

[607] See an account of them in “Scenes and Characters of the Middle Ages.” Virtue and Co.

[608] “Valor,” v. p. 157.

[609] Ibid., ii. p. 54.

[610] Matthew Paris (under 1250 A.D.) relates a case in which Bishop Grostete deprived a clerk accused of incontinency; the clerk refused to give up his benefice; the bishop excommunicated him; at the end of forty days of grace, the clerk still refusing to submit, the bishop sent word to the sheriff to take and imprison him as contumacious; the sheriff, being a great friend of the clerk and no friend of the bishop, delayed or refused; the bishop thereupon excommunicated the sheriff; he complained to the king; the king applied to the pope, and obtained an order restraining the bishop (M. Paris, v. 109).

[611] “Greenfield’s Register,” quoted in _Church Times_, March 11, 1898.

[612] “Grostete’s Letters,” Rolls Series, p. 48.

[613] S.P.C.K., “Lichfield,” p. 178.

[614] “Durham Ecclesiastical Proceedings,” p. 47.

[615] There is a picture of the confession of clerics in the MS. 6 E. VII. f. 506 _verso_.

[616] S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 224.

[617] Matthew Paris, v. 223.

[618] S.P.C.K., “Hereford,” p. 87.

[619] “Papal Letters,” vol. iii. p. 142, Rolls Series.

[620] “Gray’s Register,” York, p. 269.

[621] S.P.C.K., “Diocesan Histories: Bath and Wells,” p. 129.

[622] Whitaker, “Craven,” p. 149.

[623] S.P.C.K., “Diocesan History of Rochester,” p. 189.

[624] Ibid., p. 231.

[625] S.P.C.K., “Rochester,” p. 231.

[626] “Durham Eccl. Proceedings,” p. 64.

[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 documents, 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 Pecock, 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 class 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 document, 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, 1½ 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 God’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 gratitude 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.