PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE

IN THE MIDDLE AGES IN ENGLAND.

BY THE REV. EDWARD L. CUTTS, D.D.,

AUTHOR OF “TURNING POINTS OF ENGLISH CHURCH HISTORY,”

“A DICTIONARY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,”

“A HANDY BOOK OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,” ETC.

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OE THE TRACT COMMITTEE.

LONDON:

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.

NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, W.C.

43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.

BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.

NEW YORK: E & J. B. YOUNG AND CO.

1898.

PREFACE.

A great mass of material has of late years been brought within reach of the student, bearing upon the history of the religious life and customs of the English people during the period from their conversion, in the sixth and seventh centuries, down to the Reformation of the Church of England in the sixteenth century; but this material is still to be found only in great libraries, and is therefore hardly within reach of the general reader.

The following chapters contain the results of some study of the subject among the treasures of the library of the British Museum; much of those results, it is believed, will be new, and all, it is hoped, useful, to the large number of general readers who happily, in these days, take an intelligent interest in English Church history.

The book might have been made shorter and lighter by giving fewer extracts from the original documents; but much of the history is new, and it seemed desirable to support it by sufficient evidence. The extracts have been, as far as possible, so chosen that each shall give some additional incidental touch to the filling up of the general picture.

The photographic reproductions of illuminations from MSS. of various dates, illustrating ecclesiastical ceremonies and clerical costumes, are enough in themselves to give a certain value to the book which contains and describes them.

The writer is bound to make grateful acknowledgment of his obligations to the Bishop of Oxford, who, amidst his incessant occupations, was so kind to an old friend as to read through the rough proof of the book, pointing out some _corrigenda_, making some suggestions, and indicating some additional sources of information; all which, while it leaves the book the better for what the bishop has done for it, does not make him responsible for its remaining imperfections.

The writer has also to express his thanks to the Rev. Professor Skeat, Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Cambridge, and to the Rev. Dr. Cunningham, formerly Professor of Economic Science, K.C.L., for their kind replies to inquiries on matters on which they are authorities; and to some others who kindly looked over portions of the book dealing with matters of which they have special knowledge.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. OUR HEATHEN FOREFATHERS.

The land only partially reclaimed, 1--The Anglo-Saxon conquest, 2--Civil constitution, 4--Religion, 7--Structural temples, 8--Priests, 11.

CHAPTER II. THE CONVERSION OF THE ENGLISH.

Conversion of the heptarchic kingdoms, 14--Its method, 16--Illustrations from the history of Jutland, Norway, etc., 17--The cathedral centres, 20--Details of mission work, 21--Mission stations, 24.

CHAPTER III. THE MONASTIC PHASE OF THE CHURCH.

Multiplication of monasteries, 28: in Kent, 29; Northumbria, 29; East Anglia, 31; Wessex, 31; Mercia, 31--List of other Saxon monasteries, 33--Constitution of the religious houses, 35--Their destruction by the Danes, 37--Rebuilding in the reigns of Edgar and Canute, 37.

CHAPTER IV. DIOCESAN AND PAROCHIAL ORGANIZATION.

Character of the new converts, 38--Coming of Archbishop Theodore, 40--Union of the Heptarchic Churches, 41--Subdivision of dioceses, 41--Introduction of the parochial system, 43--Northumbria made a second province, 49--Multiplication of parishes, 50--Different classes of churches, 53--Number of parishes at the Norman Conquest, 54.

CHAPTER V. THE SAXON CLERGY.

Laws of the heptarchic kingdoms: of Ethelbert, 57; of Ine, 57; of Wihtred, 57--Council of Clovesho, 60--Laws of Alfred, 65; of Athelstan, 66--Canons of Edgar, 66--Laws of Ethelred, 72--Canons of Elfric, 74--Privilege of sanctuary, 75--Tithe and other payments, 78--Observance of Sunday and holy days, 79--Slavery, 81--Manumission, 81.

CHAPTER VI. THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

Foreign bishops and abbots introduced, 84--Parochial clergy undisturbed, 85--Papal supremacy, 85--Separation of civil and ecclesiastical Courts, 86--Norman cathedrals and churches, 87--Revival of monasticism, 90--Appropriation of parochial benefices, 91.

CHAPTER VII. THE FOUNDATION OF VICARAGES.

Mode of appropriation of parishes, 95--Evil results, 97--Ordination of vicarages, 98--Its conditions, 99--Not always fulfilled, 108--Abuses, 109.

CHAPTER VIII. PAROCHIAL CHAPELS.

Chapels-of-ease for hamlets, 110--Some of them elevated into churches, 110--Rights of mother churches safeguarded, 121--Free chapels, 123.

CHAPTER IX. THE PARISH PRIEST--HIS BIRTH AND EDUCATION.

Saxon clergy largely taken from the higher classes, 127--The career opened up by the Church to all classes, 129; even to serfs, 130--Education of the clergy, 131--The Universities, 136--Schools of thought, 136--The scholastic theology, 137--The contemplative, 138--Oxford: its colleges, 140--The students, 141--Ordination, 144--Institution, 146.

CHAPTER X. PARSONAGE HOUSES.

Like lay houses, 149--Examples at West Dean and Alfriston, Sussex, 152--Descriptions of: at Kelvedon, 154; Kingston-on-Thames, Bulmer, Ingrave, 155; Ingatestone, 156; Little Bromley, North Benfleet, 157; West Hanningfield, 158--Hospitality, 158--Smaller houses, 160--Dilapidations, 162.

CHAPTER XI. FURNITURE AND DRESS.

Sumptuary laws, 164--Disregard of them, 167--Contemporary pictures, 169--Extracts from wills, 172--Introduction of sober colours,

CHAPTER XII. FABRIC AND FURNITURE OF CHURCHES, AND OFFICIAL VESTMENTS.

Grandeur of the churches compared with domestic buildings, 184--Furniture of churches, 187, 190--List of necessary things, 189--Clerical vestments: pallium, chasuble, 191; stole, maniple, amice, dalmatic, 192; cope, surplice, 193; amyss, 194--Fanciful symbolism, 196; a bishop in “full canonicals,” 198.

CHAPTER XIII. THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN CHURCH.

Matins, mass, and evensong, 200--Sunday attendance, 201--Communion, 200--Laxity of practice, 204--Week-day services, 205--The Bidding Prayer, 207--Bede Roll, 211--Chantry services, 212.

CHAPTER XIV. PREACHING AND TEACHING.

Not neglected, 214--Manuals of teaching, 214; Archbishop Peckham’s, 216--Helps for preachers, 223--Analysis of sin, 226; _Arbor Virtutum_, 229; _Arbor Viciorum_, 230--Types and antitypes, 231.

CHAPTER XV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PARISH PRIESTS.

Analysis of a book of that title by John Myrk, 232--The personal character and conduct which befit a priest, 233--A parish priest’s duties, 234--Non-communicating attendance at Holy Communion, 235, _note_--The “holy loaf,” 235--Behaviour of the people in church, 236--The people’s way of joining in the mass, 236--Behaviour in churchyard, 238--Visitation of the sick, 239.

CHAPTER XVI. POPULAR RELIGION.

Education more common than is supposed, 241--Books for the laity in French and English, 242--Creed and Vision of “Piers Plowman,” the tracts of Richard of Hampole and Wiclif, 242--“Lay Folks’ Mass-book,” 243--Primers, 249--Religious poetry: Caedmon, 250; “The Love of Christ for Man’s Soul,” 255; “The Complaint of Christ,” 256.

CHAPTER XVII. THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY.

Object of the obligation, 258--Opposition to it, 259--Introduced late in the Saxon period, 260--Endeavour to enforce it in Norman and later times, 261--Evasion of the canons, 268--Legal complications, 270--Popular view, 271--Disabilities of sons of the clergy, 273--Dispensations for it, 275.

CHAPTER XVIII. VISITATION ARTICLES AND RETURNS.

Visitation of parishes, 279--Visitation questions, 280--Examples from returns to the questions, 285--Popular estimation of the clergy, 289.

CHAPTER XIX. PROVISION FOR OLD AGE.

Assistant chaplain, 290--Coadjutor assigned, 291--A leprous vicar, 294--Retirement on a pension, 295--A retiring vicar builds for himself a “reclusorium” in the churchyard, 295--Parish chaplain retires on a pension, 296--Death and burial, 296.

CHAPTER XX. THE PARISH CLERK.

Ancient office, 298--Its duties, 299--Stipend, 301--Sometimes students for orders, 302--Gilds of parish clerks, 303--Chaucer’s parish clerk, 304.

CHAPTER XXI. CUSTOMS.

Sanctuary for persons, 306; and property, 307--Belonged to some persons, 308--Pilgrimage, 308--Special ceremonies, 311--Lights, 311--Miracles and passion plays, 315--Fairs, markets, and sports in the churchyard, 316--Church ales, 317.

CHAPTER XXII. ABUSES.

Papal invasions of the rights of patronage, 319--The intrusion of foreigners into benefices, 320--Abuse of patronage by the Crown, 321--Pluralities, 323--Farming of benefices, 324--Holding of benefices by men in minor orders, 324--Absenteeism, 330--Serfdom, 332.

CHAPTER XXIII. THE CATHEDRAL.

Served by secular canons, 334--Organization of its clerical staff, 334--The dignitaries, 335--The dean and chapter, 335--Monastic cathedral, 336--Archdeacons, 337--Synods and visitations, 337--Lincoln Cathedral, 338--Bishop’s palace, 339--The close, 340--Residentiary houses, 341--Vicars’ court, 341--Chantries, 342--Chapter house, 342--Common room, 344--The first dean and canons, 343--Revenues of the bishop, 344; of the dean and dignitaries, 345; of the prebendaries, 350; of the archdeacons, 353; of the vicars choral, 354; of the chantry priests, 355; of the choristers, 356--Lay officers, 356--Chichester Cathedral, 359--Revenues of bishop, dean, dignitaries, prebendaries, archdeacons, and vicars choral, 360-362--Prince bishops, 363.

CHAPTER XXIV. MONKS AND FRIARS.

Character of the monks, 365--Place of the monasteries in social life, 366--Influence upon the parishes, 369--Friars, their origin; organization, 370--Work, 373--Rivalry with parish clergy, 374--Character, 377--Faults of the system, 378.

CHAPTER XXV. THE “TAXATIO” OF POPE NICHOLAS IV.

Origin of firstfruits and tenths, 380--Taxation of a specimen deanery, 381--Number of parishes, 384--Value of parochial benefices, 386--Number of clergy, 389.

CHAPTER XXVI. THE “VALOR ECCLESIASTICUS” OF HENRY VIII.

Number of parishes, 394--Income, 395--Sources of income, 397--Comparative value of money in 1292, 1534, and 1890, 404--Economical status of parochial clergy, 406.

CHAPTER XXVII. DOMESTIC CHAPELS.

Early existence, 408--Saxon, 409--Norman, 409--Edwardian, 410--Later, 411.

CHAPTER XXVIII. THE CHANTRY.

Characteristic work of the centuries, 438--Definition of a chantry, 438--“Brotherhood” of the religious houses, 439--A chantry a kind of monument, 441--Began in thirteenth century, 442--Their distribution over the country, 443--Foundation deed of Daundy’s chantry, 444--Chantry of the Black Prince, 446--Burghersh chantry, 447--Chantry of Richard III., 447; of Henry VII., 447--Parochial benefices appropriated to chantries, 449--Nomination to, 451--Chantry chapels within the church, 453; at Winchester, 453; Tewkesbury, 454--Additions to the fabric of the church, 454--Separate building in the churchyard, 455--Temporary chantries for a term of years, 457--Mortuary services, 458--Remuneration of chantry priests, 461--Number of cantarists, 464--Their character, 465--Hour of their services, 466--Some chantries were chapels-of-ease, 467--Some were grammar schools, 469.

CHAPTER XXIX. GILDS.

Definition, 473--Trade gilds, 475--Religious gilds, 476--For the augmentation of Divine service, 478--For the maintenance of bridges, roads, chantries, 478--Services, 479--Social gilds, 482--Methods of obtaining better services and pastoral care, 483.

CHAPTER XXX. THE MEDIAEVAL TOWNS.

Description of, 486--Parochial history of the towns, 489--Peculiar jurisdictions, the origin of town parishes, 490--Norwich, 490--London, 492--Exeter, 497--Bristol, 499--York, 503--Ipswich, 506--Burton, 508--St. Edmund’s Bury, 510--St. Albans, 513--Manchester, 514--Rotherham, 516--Sheffield, 519--Newark, 523--Recluses, 526--Bridge-chapels, 527--London Bridge, 529.

CHAPTER XXXI. DISCIPLINE.

Definition, 531--Exercise of, in Saxon times, 532--Norman and subsequent times, 533--Examples of, among the clergy, 533, 537--Laity, 535--Resistance to, pictorial illustrations, 543--General sentences of excommunication, 544.

CHAPTER XXXII. RELIGIOUS OPINIONS.

Schools of thought: progressive, 546; and conservative, 547--Religious character of the centuries: twelfth, 547; thirteenth, 548; fourteenth, 549; Chaucer’s “Poore parson;” fifteenth, 552.

APPENDIX I.

The history of the parish of Whalley, 557.

APPENDIX II.

Comparative view of the returns of the “Taxatio,” the “Valor,” and the modern “Clergy List” in the two rural deaneries of Barstaple, Essex, 562; and Brigg, Canterbury, 564.

APPENDIX III.

References to pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum, 567.

DESCRIPTION OF PLATES.

The illustration taken from a French MS. of the middle of the fifteenth century [Egerton 2019, f. 142, British Museum] will reward a careful study. Begin with the two pictures introduced into the broad ornamental border at the bottom of the page. On the left are a pope, an emperor, a king, and queen; on the right Death, on a black horse, hurling his dart at them.

Go on to the initial D of the Psalm _Dilexi quoniam exaudiet Dominus vocem_: “I am well pleased that the Lord hath heard the voice of my complaint.” It represents a canon in surplice and canon’s fur hood, giving absolution to a penitent who has been confessing to him (note the pattern of the hanging at the back of the canon’s seat). Next consider the picture in the middle of the border on the right. It represents the priest in surplice and stole, with his clerk in albe kneeling behind him and making the responses, administering the last Sacrament to the dying person lying on the bed. Next turn to the picture in the left-hand top corner of a woman in mourning, with an apron tied about her, arranging the grave-clothes about the corpse, and about to envelope it in its shroud. In the opposite corner, three clerks in surplice and cope stand at a lectern singing the Psalms for the departed; the pall which covers the coffin may be indistinctly made out, and the great candlesticks with lighted candles on each side of it. All these scenes lead us up to the principal subject, which is the burial. The scene is a graveyard (note the grave crosses) surrounded by a cloister, entered by a gate tower; the gables, chimneys, and towers of a town are seen over the cloister roof; note the skulls over the cloister arches, as though the space between the groining and the timber roof were used as a charnel house. The priest is asperging the corpse with holy water as the rude sextons lower the body into the grave. Note that it is not enclosed in a coffin--that was not used until comparatively recent times. He is assisted by two other priests, all three vested in surplices and black copes with a red-and-gold border; the clerk holds the holy-water vessel. Three mourners in black cloak and hood stand behind. The story is not yet finished. Above is seen our Lord in an opening through a radiant cloud which sheds its beams of light over the scene; the departed soul [de--parted = separated from the body] is mounting towards its Lord with an attitude and look of rapture; Michael the Archangel is driving back with the spear of the cross the evil angel disappointed of his prey. Lastly, study the beautiful border. Is it fanciful to think that the artist intended the vase of flowers standing upon the green earth as a symbol of resurrection, and the exquisite scrolls and twining foliage and many-coloured blossoms which surround the sad scenes of death, to symbolize the beauty and glory which surround those whom angels shall wait upon in death, and carry them to Paradise?

_To face page_

Gives the Eucharistic vestments of bishop and priest, a priest in cope and others in albes, the altar and its coverings, and two forms of chalice.

Gives the vestments of that period. The man in the group behind the bishop, who is in surplice and hood and “biretta,” is probably the archdeacon. Note the one candle on the altar, the bishop’s chair, the piscina with its cruet, and the triptych.

He is habited in a red tunic and cap, the clergy in blue tunic and red hose and red tunic and blue hose.

The illustration is taken from a French Pontifical of the 14th century in the British Museum [Tiberius, B. viii.], and represents part of the ceremonial of the anointing and crowning of a king of France. We choose it because it gives in one view several varieties of clerical costume. There was very little difference between French and English vestments, _e.g._ the only French characteristic here is that the bishop’s cope is embroidered with fleur-de-lys. On the left of the picture is the king, and behind him officers of state and courtiers. An ecclesiastical procession has met him at the door of the Cathedral of Rheims, and the archbishop, in albe, cope, and mitre, is sprinkling him with holy water; the clerk bearing the holy-water pot, and the cross-bearer, and the thurifer swinging his censer, are immediately behind him. Then come a group of canons. One is clearly shown, and easily recognized by the peculiar horned hood with its fringe of “clocks.” Lastly are a group of bishops, the most conspicuous bearing in his hands the ampulla, which contains the holy oil for the anointing.

The photograph fails here as in other cases to give the colours which define the costumes clearly and give brilliancy to the picture. The king’s tunic is crimson, and that of the nobleman behind him blue. The archbishop has a cope of blue _semée_ with gold fleur-de-lys; the water-bearer, a surplice so transparent that the red tunic beneath gives it a pink tinge; the cross-bearer, a blue dalmatic lined with red over a surplice; the canon a pink cope over a white surplice, and black hood. The first bishop wears a cope of blue, the second of red, the third of pink. The background is diapered blue and red with a gold pattern. The wall of the building is blue with a gold pattern; the altar-cloth, red and blue with gold embroidery.

The bishop in blue chasuble and white mitre, people in red and blue tunics, two knights in chain armour, late 13th century.

The male sponsor holds the child over the font, while the priest pours water over its head from a shallow vessel. He wears a long full surplice, his stole is yellow _semée_ with small crosses and fringed. The parish clerk stands behind him, 15th century.

Here the priest wears an albe apparelled and girded, and an amice, but no stole; the sitting posture of the child occurs in other representations, 14th century.

CONFIRMATION. (From a printed Pontifical, A.D. 1520) 238

The bishop wears albe, dalmatic, cope, and mitre, the other clergy surplice and “biretta.”

The ciborium, partly covered with a cloth, as in the illustration, which the priest carries, is silvered in the original illustration, and consequently comes out very imperfectly in the photograph.

BISHOP AND DEACON IN ALBE AND TUNIC, ADMINISTERING HOLY

Two clerics in surplice hold the housel cloth to catch any of the sacred elements which might accidentally fall.

The priest in furred cope, the rood veiled; the altar has a red frontal. The two men are in blue habit. The woman on the right is all in black; the other, kneeling at a bench on the left, is in red gown and blue hood.

It represents the marriage of the Count Waleran de St. Pol with the sister of Richard, King of England. The count is in a blue robe, the princess in cloth of gold embroidered with green; the groomsman in red, the man behind him in blue, the prince in the background in an ermine cape. The ladies attending the princess wear cloth of gold, blue, green, etc.; the bishop is vested in a light green cope over an apparelled rochet, and a white mitre. The bishop (and in other representations of marriage) takes hold of the wrists of the parties in joining their hands.

The mourners in black cloaks are at the east end of the stalls; the pall over the coffin is red with a gold cross; the hearse has about eighteen lighted tapers; the ecclesiastics seem to be friars in dark brown habit (Franciscans).

MEDIAEVAL NORWICH. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 492

MEDIAEVAL EXETER. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 498

MEDIAEVAL BRISTOL. (From Braun’s “Theatrum”) 500

The abbot is vested in a gorgeous cope and mitre; one of the monks behind him also wears a cope over his monk’s habit.

References to other pictorial illustrations in MSS. in the British Museum are given in Appendix III., p. 567.

PARISH PRIESTS AND THEIR PEOPLE.

CHAPTER I.

OUR HEATHEN FOREFATHERS.

When we have the pleasure of taking our Colonial visitors on railway journeys across the length and breadth of England, and they see cornfields, meadows, pastures, copses, succeed one another for mile after mile, with frequent villages and country houses, what seems especially to strike and delight them is the thoroughness and finish of the cultivation; England seems to them, they say, like a succession of gardens, or, rather, like one great garden. This is the result, we tell them, of two thousand years of cultivation by an ever-increasing population.

On the other hand, we are helped to understand what the land was like at the time of the settlement in it of our Saxon forefathers, by the descriptions which our Colonial friends give us of their surroundings in Australia or Africa, where the general face of the country is still in its primeval state, the settlements of men are dotted sparsely here and there, the flocks and herds roam over “bush” or “veldt,” and only just so much of the land about the settlements is roughly cultivated as suffices the wants of the settlers.

For in England, in those remote times of which we have first to speak, the land was, for the most part, unreclaimed. If we call to mind that the English population about the end of the sixth century could only have been about a million souls--200,000 families--we shall realize how small a portion of the land they could possibly have occupied. A large proportion of the country was still primeval forest, there were extensive tracts of moorland, the low-lying districts were mere and marsh, the mountainous districts wild and desolate. The country harboured wolf and bear, wild cattle and swine, beaver and badger, wild cat, fox, and marten, eagle, hawk, and heron, and other creatures, most of which have entirely disappeared, though some linger on, interesting survivals, in remote corners of the land.

Their possession of the country by the English was the result of recent, slow and desultory conquest. Independent parties of adventurers from the country round about the mouth of the Elbe had crossed the German Ocean in their keels, landed on the coast, or rowed up the rivers, and pushed their way slowly against a tenacious resistance. Then, when a party of the invaders had made good their conquest, came its division among the conquerors.

Our own history tells us so little of the details of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, that we have to call in what we know of the manners of their Teutonic neighbours and Scandinavian relatives to help us to understand it. The late Sir W. Dasent, in his “Burnt Njal,” says that the Norse Viking, making an invasion with a view not to a mere raid, but to a permanent settlement, would lay claim to the whole valley drained by the river up which he had rowed his victorious keels; or, landing on the coast, would climb some neighbouring height, point out the headlands which he arbitrarily assigned as his boundaries on the coast, and claim all the hinterland which he should be able to subdue. The chief would allot extensive tracts to the subordinate leaders; and the freemen would be settled, after their native custom of village communities, upon the most fertile portions of the soil which their swords had helped to win. In the broad alluvial lands of the river valleys there would be ample space for several neighbouring townships; in forest clearings or fertile dales the townships would be scattered at more or less wide intervals. The unallotted lands belonged to the general community; it was Folk land, and its allotment from time to time, probably, in theory needed confirmation by a Folk-mote, but was practically made by the supreme chief.

Every township possessed a tract of arable land, which was divided by lot yearly among the families of the freemen; a tract of meadow, which was reserved for hay, cultivated and harvested by the common labour; a wide expanse of pasture, into which each family had the right to turn a fixed number of cattle and sheep; and into the forest, a fixed number of swine to feed on the acorns, mast, and roots. The people were rude agriculturists, not manufacturers, not traders, not civilized enough to profit by the civilization which the Romans had established in the country; they stormed and sacked the towns, and left them deserted, and selected only the most fertile spots for occupation.

It is a subject of dispute among our most learned historians to what extent the native Britons were slain or retired before the invaders, or to what extent they were taken as captives, or reappeared from their fastnesses after the slaughter was over, to be the slaves of the conquerors. When we first get glimpses of the situation of things after the conquest, we find that the British language and religion have disappeared from the Saxon half of the country; and this implies the disappearance of the great body of the people. The fact of the continuance of some ancient place-names, chiefly of great natural features, as hills and rivers, and of a few British words for things for which the Teutons had no names, would be sufficiently accounted for by the survival of a very small remnant.