Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 11

We shall pray for all those that duly pay their tendes [t.i.thes] and their offerings to G.o.d and to the holy Church, that G.o.d do them meed in the bliss of heaven that ever shall last, and they that do not so that G.o.d of His mercy bring them soon to amendment.

We shall pray for all true pilgrims and palmers wheresoever they be, on water or on land, that G.o.d of His goodness grant them part of our good prayers and us part of their good pilgrimages.

We shall also pray for all land tylland [under cultivation], that G.o.d for His goodness and for His grace and through our good prayers maintain them that they may be saved from all evil winds and wethers and from all dreadful storms, that G.o.d send us corn and cattle for to live upon to G.o.d's pleasure and the welfare of our souls.

We shall pray also for all women that be with child in this parish or any other, that G.o.d comfort them, and send the child Christendom, and the mother Purification of holy Church, and releasing of pain in her travailing.

We shall pray specially for them that this day gave bread to this Church for to be made holy bread of; for them that it begun and longest uphold, for them and for us and for all them that need hath of good prayers.

In wors.h.i.+p of our lady Saint Mary and her v joys, every man and woman say in the honor of her v times _Ave Maria_.

_Antiphona._--Ave, regina caelorum, Mater regis angelorum; O Maria flos virginum, Velut rosa vel lilium, Funde preces ad Filium Pro salute fidelium.

V. Post partum virgo inviolata.

Gratiam tuam, etc.

Oremus.--We beseech thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts, that we who have known Thy Incarnation by the message of an angel, by His Cross and Pa.s.sion may come to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ye shall make a special prayer for your fathers' souls and for your mothers' souls, G.o.dfathers' souls and G.o.dmothers' souls, brothers'

souls and sisters' souls, and for all your elders' souls, and for all the souls that you and I be bound to pray for, and specially for all the souls whose bones are buried in this church or in this churchyard or in any other holy place; and in especial for all the souls that bide the great mercy of Almighty G.o.d in the bitter pains of Purgatory, that G.o.d for His great mercy release them of their pain if it be His blessed will. And that our prayers may somewhat stand them in stead, every man and woman of your church help them with a _Pater noster_ and an _Ave Maria_.

Psalmus: De profundis.

Kyrie Eleyson, etc.

Pater noster ... et ne nos ...

Requiem eternam.

Credo vivere.

A porta inferi.

Dominus vobisc.u.m. Et c.u.m spiritu tuo.

Oremus.

Fidelium Deus omnium Conditor, etc.

Fidelium animae per misericordiam Dei in pace requiescant. Amen.

One of the features connected with this part of the service, which must have had a striking effect, was the Bede Roll, the reading out the names of those who had recently died in the parish, and the commendation of them to the prayers of the congregation. There are examples of the payment of a fee for placing a name on the list, and of people leaving money to the priest for naming them from year to year on their anniversary, and of endowments for the maintenance of the Bede Roll.[207]

The Procession, or Litany, was also a very popular service; its pet.i.tions and responses, though in Latin, were intelligible enough to the people; and the procession of priest and clerks round the church with cross and censer, while the pet.i.tions were chanted by a single voice, _Sancte Katherine_; etc., _ora pro n.o.bis_, and the responses sung in chorus, "_Ora, ora, ora pro n.o.bis!_" made up a very picturesque and solemn service. It was probably usually said in the afternoon. A painful, but no doubt very attractive, addition was sometimes made to it, when a miserable penitent condemned to the penance preceded the procession in white sheet, bearing a taper.

In churches in which there were one or more chantries the private ma.s.ses would be said at the convenience of the cantarists, with this one regulation: that they might not on Sundays and festivals begin till after the gospel of the princ.i.p.al service. People might attend these chantry services if they pleased, and perhaps the relatives of persons commemorated usually or frequently did so; and, if said at a different hour from the princ.i.p.al service, they would practically add to the number of services, and meet the convenience of some of the people.

We shall see hereafter that chantry and special services were often provided in towns by the corporation, or one of the gilds, or by some group of persons, expressly to add to the number of services, first for the greater honour of Almighty G.o.d, and secondly to meet the wishes and circ.u.mstances of different people.

In most great churches, with the normal services, and the chantry services besides, services must have been going on all the morning long; sometimes the great celebration at the high altar, and, at the same time, chantry celebrations at a dozen altars besides in the surrounding chapels.

CHAPTER XIV.

PREACHING AND TEACHING.

There is a chain of evidences that the rulers of the Church not only enjoined the diligent teaching of the people by their parish priests in sermon[208] and otherwise, but also gave the clergy the a.s.sistance of manuals of teaching and sermon helps; and, further, took pains at their visitations to ascertain that the duty was efficiently performed.

So early as the beginning of the eighth century, Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, published a poem in four hundred and fifty-eight Latin hexameters, "De Octo[209] Princ.i.p.alibus Vitiis."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PREACHING. FROM THE XIII. CENT. MS., EGERTON, p. 745, f.

46.]

aelfric's address to the clergy (c. 1030) at the distribution of the chrism seems to have been written for his Bishop Wulfsine to deliver to a synodical a.s.sembly of the clergy of the Diocese of Sherborne. It is an instruction to the clergy on the duties of their office; dealing first minutely with their duty in baptism, unction, the eucharist, etc.; then it bids them to know by heart and explain to the people the Ten Commandments, and gives a brief explanation of each; then it goes on to explain the eight[210] capital vices. It is the first which has been preserved to us of a long series of synodal instructions.

The Synod of Oxford, in 1223, enjoins the clergy "not to be dumb dogs, but with salutary bark to drive away the disease of spiritual wolves from the flock." A canon of Alexander of Stavenby, Bishop of Coventry (1224-1240), requires all clergy to address to their people a.s.sembled on the Lord's Day or other festival the following words:--the words const.i.tute a rhetorical sermon on the seven deadly sins. Another canon gives directions as to the mode of receiving penitents, and dealing with souls. Grostete (1235-1254) gave directions to his clergy to preach on Sundays, and gave them the heads of their teaching. In Exeter, Bishop Quivil (1280-1292) drew up a similar book for the clergy, of which he required every parish to have a copy under penalty of a fine. Bishop Brentingham, of Exeter (1370-1395), issued a mandate against intruding priests who would say low ma.s.ses in parish churches on Sundays and holy days, which paris.h.i.+oners attended instead of the _Magna Missa_, and so lost the benefit of the sermon: this a.s.sumes that a sermon is preached in all parish churches on Sundays and holy days. Other diocesan bishops adopted similar methods.

Archbishop Peckham, in the Const.i.tutions of 1281, put forth a manual of teaching on the Articles of Faith, the Ten Commandments, the Seven[211]

Deadly Sins, the Seven Princ.i.p.al Virtues, and the Seven Sacraments, so fully and ably done that it continued to form a standard of teaching, and is constantly referred to in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It seems worth while to give it _in extenso_ as an authentic record of the teaching of the Mediaeval Church. It appears as Canon X. of the Provincial Synod of Lambeth, 1281, and begins with this preamble--

The ignorance of priests precipitates the people into the pit of error, and the foolishness or rudeness of clerks, who ought to instruct the minds of the faithful in the Catholic faith, sometimes tends rather to error than to doctrine. Also some blind preachers[212]

do not always visit the places which most need the light of truth, as the prophet witnesses, who says, "The children seek for bread, and there is no one to break it to them;" and another prophet cries, "The poor and needy ask for water, and their tongue is parched." For the remedy of such mischiefs we ordain that every priest who presides over a people do four times a year, that is, once in each quarter of the year, on one or more festival days, either by himself or by another, expound to the people in popular language without any fanciful subtlety, the 14 Articles of Faith, the 10 Commandments of the Lord, the 2 Evangelical Precepts of Charity, the 7 Works of Mercy, the 7 Deadly Sins with their progeny, the 7 Princ.i.p.al Virtues, and the 7 Sacraments of Grace. And in order that no one may excuse himself from this on account of ignorance, though all ministers of the Church ought to know them, we have here with great brevity summed them up.

_Of the Articles of Faith._--Seven of them concern the mystery of the Trinity; four of these belong to the essence of the G.o.dhead, and the other three relate to His works. The first is the unity of the Divine Essence in three Persons of the Indivisible Trinity agreeably to this part of the Creed, "_I believe in one G.o.d._" The second is to believe G.o.d the Father, begotten of none. The third is to believe the Son the only begotten, and G.o.d. The fourth is to believe the Holy Ghost to be G.o.d, neither begotten nor unbegotten, but proceeding both from the Father and the Son. The fifth article is to believe in the creation of Heaven and Earth (that is, of every visible and invisible creature) by the whole and undivided Trinity.

The sixth is the Sanctification of the Church by the Holy Ghost, and by the Sacraments of Grace, and by all those things in which the Christian Church communicates. By which is understood that the Church, with its Sacraments and discipline, is, through the Holy Ghost, sufficient for the salvation of every sinner; and that outside the Church there is no salvation. The seventh article is the consummation of the Church in eternal glory by a true resurrection of body and soul; and on the contrary is understood the eternal d.a.m.nation of the lost.

_Of the Seven Articles relating to the Humanity of Christ._--The first is His Incarnation, or His true a.s.sumption of human flesh of the Blessed Virgin, by the Holy Ghost. The second is the real birth of G.o.d Incarnate from the immaculate Virgin. The third is the true pa.s.sion of Christ and His death upon the Cross under Pontius Pilate.

The fourth is the descent of Christ in the Spirit into h.e.l.l, while His body remained in the grave, for the despoiling of Tartarus. The fifth is the true Resurrection of Christ. The sixth is His Ascension to heaven. And the seventh is the most confident expectation of His coming to judgment.

_Of the Ten Commandments._--Of the ten commandments of the Old Testament three relate to G.o.d, and const.i.tute the first table; the remaining seven concern our neighbour, and are called the Commandments of the Second Table. The First Commandment is,[213] _Thou shalt have no other G.o.ds before Me_; by which all idolatrous wors.h.i.+p is forbidden; and by inference all lots and incantations and superst.i.tions[214] of letters, and such-like figments are forbidden.

In the Second, where it is said, _Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy G.o.d in vain_, all heresy is princ.i.p.ally condemned; and, in a secondary sense, all blasphemy, irreverent mention of the Name of G.o.d, and especially perjury. The Third Commandment, where it is said, _Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day_, commands Christian wors.h.i.+p, to which clergy and laity are alike bound. But we are to understand that the obligation of rest upon the Jewish Sabbath came to an end together with the other legal ceremonies; and that under the New Testament came in the practice of Divine wors.h.i.+p on the Lord's day and other holy days appointed by the authority of the Church, and the manner of keeping those days is to be governed by the laws of the Church, and not by any Jewish usage.

The First Commandment of the Second Table is, _Honour thy Father and Mother_, in which we are explicitly commanded to honour our parents, both in temporal and in spiritual matters; but implicitly, and in a secondary sense, every man is by this commandment to be honoured according to his proper degree; not only our natural father and mother are intended, but our spiritual parents, the Bishop of the Diocese and the Priest of the Parish, may be said to be our fathers; and the Church is our Mother, who is the Mother of all the faithful. The Second precept in this division is, _Thou shalt not kill_; by which the unauthorized taking away any person's life, either by consent, act, word, or encouragement, is explicitly forbidden, and implicitly every unrighteous injury to the person. They likewise who do not support the poor, they who murder a man's reputation, are guilty of the breach of this Commandment; and so are all such as hara.s.s and distress the innocent. The Third Commandment says, _Thou shalt not commit adultery_. Adultery is explicitly condemned, and implicitly fornication, which is likewise explicitly forbidden in Deuteronomy xxiii., where it is said, "There shall be no wh.o.r.e of the daughters of Israel." But, further, the command extends by way of reduction to all instances of impurity. The Fourth Commandment declares _Thou shall not steal_, which explicitly condemns the clandestine conveying away another man's property without his consent, implicitly it forbids taking what belongs to our neighbour either by fraud or violence. The Fifth Commandment is, _Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour_. This precept explicitly forbids false testimony to the damage of our neighbour; and in a secondary sense it disallows undue commendation in order to the promotion of an unworthy person. Lastly, under this command, all sort of lies, but especially those which are injurious, are condemned. The Sixth Commandment is, _Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house_--i.e. to his injury. By this command we are implicitly forbidden to desire the _real_ estate of our neighbour, and especially if he is a Catholic. The Seventh and last Commandment of the Table is, _Thou shalt not covet his wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his a.s.s, nor anything that is his_, where the coveting of our neighbour's stock or _personal_ estate is forbidden.

But to these Ten Commandments the Gospel superadds two, viz. _The Love of G.o.d and of our neighbour_. He loves G.o.d who obeys the aforesaid Commandments more out of love than out of fear of punishment; and every one ought to love his neighbour as himself; where the particle "_as_" does not signify equality but similarity. So that, for example, you may love your neighbour to the same extent as you love yourself, that is for good and not for evil; and in the same way that is spiritually and not carnally; and as much as yourself, in regard to time, that is in prosperity and adversity, in health and sickness; as also as much as yourself in respect of degree, insomuch as you love each and every man more than riches; also insomuch as you love the soul of your neighbour, or his eternal salvation, more than your own earthly life, as you ought to put the life of your soul before the life of your body; also in the same kind as yourself, so that you succour all others in need as you wish to be helped in like necessity.

All these things are meant when it is said "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."

_Of the Seven Works of Mercy._--Six of the Seven Works of Mercy may be learned from St. Matthew's Gospel: _To feed the hungry; to give drink to the thirsty; to entertain the stranger; to clothe the naked; to visit the sick; to comfort those in prison_; the seventh is gathered from Tobit--_to bury the dead_.

The Seven Deadly or Capital Sins are Pride, Envy, Anger or Hatred, Sloth, Avarice or Covetousness, Gluttony, Intemperance. Pride is the love of one's own superiority (_amor propriae excellentiae_), from whence spring boasting, ostentation, hypocrisy, schism (_sasinata_), and such like. Envy is hatred of another's good: whence come detraction, strife, complainings, dissension, perverse judgements, and such like. Anger is the desire of revenge, of doing hurt to any person, when it continues upon the mind it settles into hatred; whence proceed outrage in words and acts, quarrels, murders, and such like.

Sloth (_accidia_)[215] is a strong indisposition for spiritual good, so that a man has no delight in G.o.d or in His praises; out of it come idleness, cowardice, despair, and the like. Avarice is an immoderate love of riches, either by unlawful gathering or unlawful h.o.a.rding; out of it spring fraud, theft, sacrilege, simony, and every sort of base gain. Gluttony is an immoderate love of gratifying the palate in food and drink, and it sins in many ways; first, in regard to time, when a man eats too early or too late or too often; second, in respect to quality, when he is too nice in the choice of his diet; third, in respect of quant.i.ty, when he eats and drinks too much, which is the most degrading form of gluttony; also in respect of avidity and voracity, and lastly, in too nice a preparation of food so as to excite the appet.i.te; all which are contained in this verse--

"_Prae, propere, laute, nimis, ardenter, studiose_."

Lastly, as for Luxuria, it is not needful to explain it, for its infamy poisons the whole atmosphere.

The Seven Princ.i.p.al Virtues are Faith, Hope, and Charity, which, having G.o.d for their object, are called the Theological Virtues; and the others, Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Fort.i.tude, which relate to ourselves and our neighbours. The action of Prudence is to make a proper choice; of Justice to do what is good and right; of Temperance not to be hampered by pleasures; Fort.i.tude is not to desert our duty for any pain or hards.h.i.+p. These are called the seven cardinal or princ.i.p.al virtues, because from these seven many others are deduced; concerning which, since we work chiefly for the benefit of the plainer sort of people, we shall at present add no more.

There are Seven Sacraments of the Church, the power of administering which is committed to the clergy. Five of these Sacraments ought to be received by all Christians in general; that is, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, the Holy Eucharist, and Extreme Unction, which last is only for one who seems to be in danger of death; it should be given, if it may be, before a man is so far spent as to lose the use of his reason; but if he happens to be seized by a frenzy, or suffer from any alienation of mind, this Sacrament ought nevertheless to be administered to him, provided he gave signs of a religious disposition before his mind was disturbed. Under such qualifications Extreme Unction is believed to be beneficial to the sick person provided he is predestinated (_predestinationis filius_), and either procures him a lucid interval or some spiritual advantage. The other two Sacraments are Order and Matrimony. The first belongs to the perfect, but the second in the time of the New Testament belongs to the imperfect only, and yet we believe that, by the virtue of the sacrament, it conveys grace, if it is contracted with a sincere mind.

Th.o.r.esby, Archbishop of York in 1357, commissioned John Graytrigg, a monk of York, to write in English verse an exposition of these six things: The Fourteen Points of the Creed, the Ten Commandments, the Seven Sacraments, the Seven Works of Mercy, the Seven Virtues, the Seven Deadly Sins; and this he sent to all his priests, and bade them teach them often to their people, and urge them to teach their children; and to examine them as to their knowledge when they come to confession in Lent. At a synod held at Ely in 1364, priests were enjoined frequently to preach, to expound the Ten Commandments, etc., to study the sacred Scriptures, to see that children are taught prayers, and to examine adults when they come to confession as to their religious knowledge. When Arundel, in 1408, forbade preaching without a licence, he expressly excepted the parish priests, who were bound to instruct their people in simple language.

A provincial synod at York, under Archbishop Nevil, in 1465, orders systematic teaching quarterly in simple language on points which the canon elaborately sets forth.