Parish Priests and Their People in the Middle Ages in England Part 32

In borough towns the community of burgesses, it is probable, usually made provision for the religious wants of that part of the population which was not in any of the peculiar jurisdictions above mentioned, or within the walls of the residences of the n.o.bles; and we find groups of burgesses, and individual burgesses, possessing a church, in the sense of having the rights and responsibilities of patrons. The result of this origin of town parishes was that many of the older towns had a number of parish churches which seems to us out of all proportion to the number of their population; it was never a question of how many churches were needed for a town of such-and-such a population; the question was how many lords there were who felt bound, in their own opinion and that of the time, to provide for Divine wors.h.i.+p and pastoral care for their own people.[573]

A few actual examples will ill.u.s.trate these general observations.

NORWICH, at the end of the Saxon period, was one of the greatest towns in the kingdom, containing 1320 burgesses. The king, Archbishop Stigand in private property, and Earl Harold were the princ.i.p.al lords. The king's burgesses had two churches in the burgh and one-sixth of a third church; the earl's tenants had the Church of All Saints; and Stigand had two churches, St. Michael's and St. Martin's. The burgesses held fifteen churches; and twelve burgesses held Holy Trinity Church (the Conqueror afterwards gave it to the Bishop of the Diocese); the Abbot of St. Edmund had a house and the mediety of the Church of St. Lawrence. The Church of SS. Simon and Jude was held successively by Aylmer, the last Saxon bishop, and by Herbert, the first Norman bishop, and by Bishop William, who came after him, and must therefore have belonged to the see. The Domesday Survey also enters forty-three chapels as belonging to the burgesses at the time of the Survey, of the existence of which, in King Edward's time, there is no mention; and yet Norwich had suffered much in the political changes of the time, the number of its burgesses being reduced to half their number in the time of King Edward.

It seems clear that each owner of a separate jurisdiction or soke, king, earl, Stigand, bishop, and abbot, had a church for his own people; that the burgesses as a community had provided fifteen other churches in the town, that another church was held by a group of twelve burgesses, a.s.sociated, perhaps, in a gild, and making provision for their own spiritual needs. There were, thus, at least twenty-five churches in Saxon times; in the Conqueror's time Domesday Book enumerates fifty-four churches and chapels; at the end of the thirteenth century, the "Taxatio"

records forty-five; and just before the Reformation, the "Valor" names the cathedral, the collegiate church of St. Mary in the Fields, the two hospitals of St. Giles, Tombland, the rectory of SS. Edward, Julian, and Clement, thirty-seven vicarages, and one free chapel of St.

Katharine.[574]

Of the parochial history of LONDON very little is known. At the end of the Saxon period the Church of St. Paul seems to have been surrounded by a few chapels under the jurisdiction of the Cathedral body, and served by Chaplains. St. Peter, Cornhill, seems to have been the church of the bishop's soke. A number of churches seem to have been built in the twelfth century by owners of property, of whom several were priests:--"There can be little doubt that St. Martin Orgars, and St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, were built by Orgar, a wealthy alderman; and that St. John Zachary, St. Andrew Hubbard, St. Katharine Colman, St. Benet Fink, St. Lawrence Pountney, and other names affixed to churches, commemorate founders, builders, or restorers, chiefly of the early part of the twelfth century.

In the time of Henry I., the chapter a.s.signed a parish to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, Milk Street, of which one Geoffrey, a priest, was the owner, and his son Bartholomew his successor."

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORWICH, FROM G. BRAUN'S URBIUM PRAECIPUARUM TOTIUS MUNDI, LIB. III, pl. 1. A.D. 1573.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Environs of London, reproduced from a fragmentary tapestry map executed at Weston, Warwicks.h.i.+re, circ. 1570.]

"Many of those parish churches were of very modest dimensions, some of them only chapels to the great house by whose lord they were built. The steeple and chancel of All Hallows the Less stood over the gateway of Cold Harbour, the parish being, in fact, the estate of the Pountney family, and divided by them from All Hallows the Great. St. Mary Cole Church was over the gateway of the hospital of St. Thomas of Acon in Cheap. St. Mildred Poultry, and St. John, were both built on arches over the Wallbrook."[575]

Of several other churches the founders are known: the canons of St. Martin built St. Leonard and St. Vedast; the Grey Friars of Newgate Street built St. Ewen and St. Nicholas; Robert the son of Ralph the son of Herluin built St. Michael le Querne; Alfune, the friend of Rahere, founder of St.

Bartholomew's, built St. Giles, and Aelmund the priest, with his son Hugh, gave it to St. Paul's.

There are indications of the subdivision of parishes, probably as a consequence of the subdivision of properties by inheritance or sale. Thus St. Mary Aldermary seems to have been the original church of a parish which was afterwards subdivided, the original dedication being retained in the new churches, but with some distinctive affix, as St. Mary le Bow, St.

Mary Abchurch, St. Mary Woolnoth, St. Mary Woolchurch, St. Mary Bothaw, St. Mary Colechurch, St. Mary Aldermanbury, and St. Mary Staining; All Hallows the Great and the Less already mentioned; St. Nicholas Olave, and St. Nicholas Cole Abbey; St. Katharine Colman, and St. Katharine Cree.

There is a church dedicated to St. Botolph at each of four of the city gates: Aldersgate, Bishopsgate, Aldgate, and Billingsgate.

Wm. FitzStephen, in his biography of Becket, states that, in his time, London possessed 13 conventual, and 126 parish churches.

Fabyan's "Chronicle," A.D. 1516, gives the sum of the parish churches within London as 113; houses of religion and others being not parish churches, 27; in Westminster and other places around the city, including Southwark, without the walls, 28; the sum of all the Divine houses within the city and without, 168.

Lastly, we get valuable suggestions as to the source of the incomes of the town clergy. In London, the parochial clergy had no t.i.the and glebe land; their incomes were derived from customary payments, called donations, which had been paid time out of mind from the houses and shops in proportion to their rent. In consequence of some disputes, they were inquired into and confirmed by Bishop Roger, about A.D. 1230, and amounted to about 3_s._ 6_d._ in the pound of the rent. The clergy received, besides, fees for services on many occasions; what these were we learn from some proceedings in the Star Chamber in 1534--

For _Weddings_: Laid on the book, 8_d._; three tapers, 3_d._; and the whole offering at ma.s.s. If married before high ma.s.s, 20_d._, or 40_d._, or 60_d._, or more. For a certificate when the man dwelt in another parish, 12_d._, or 20_d._, or 40_d._, according to ability.

For _Burials_: 12_d._ or more, and every priest in the church, 8_d._ or more, or they do not sing him to his burial. At every month's mind, year's mind, or obit, the curate has 8_d._ or 12_d._, all the wax tapers and wax branches used at the funeral; for privy t.i.thes, 20_d._, or 40_d._, or 5_s._, or 20_s._, or 40_s._, or more. To the high altar as much for personal t.i.the. If buried out of his parish, the corpse must first be presented in his own church with dirge and ma.s.s. For burial in the chancel or high quire, 10_s._ to 40_s._, or more.

For _Churchings_: For every Sunday when the woman lieth in for saying a gospel, 1_d._ or 2_d._; at purification the taper, 1_d._, with the chrisome, and the whole offering by all the women at ma.s.s, 2_d._

_Beadroll_: If any will have his friends prayed for in the beadroll, the curate hath by year 4_d._, or 8_d._, or more.

_At Easter_: Of men's wives, children, and apprentices, for their communion at Easter, for every head, 2_d._

_t.i.thes of Servants' Wages_: The tenth part and for their housel at Easter, 1_d._ At all princ.i.p.al feasts divers offer, some wax, some money, which comes to the parson's use.

Where a Saint's image stands without the quire to which a Brotherhood belongeth, the wardens of the brotherhood compound some for 3_s._ 4_d._, 5_s._, 6_s._ 8_d._, or more, per annum, to have the Brotherhood kept in the Church (see p. 482).

The lords reduced the t.i.thes on houses to 2_s._ 9_d._ in the pound, but confirmed the above customary fees and payments.[576]

The ancient city of EXETER became the see of the Devons.h.i.+re Bishopric in 1049-50, when Bishop Leofric moved thither from Crediton; and seems at the time of the Norman Conquest to have had its cathedral church and a number of chapels. A religious foundation of Gytha was granted by the Conqueror to Battle Abbey; it received additional endowments, and grew into a considerable priory, still receiving its priors from the parent house, and paying a pension to it. A second small alien Priory of St. James was founded without the walls. The Castle Chapel was a detached building with nave and aisle, and was served by three prebends with no dean or head, and the patronage was attached to the Barony of Okehampton. The bishops had an almshouse perhaps from the days of Leofric; in 1170 a citizen founded a hospital of St. Alexius; and the two were in 1225 merged in the hospital of St. John by the East Gate. A leper hospital was founded outside the South Gate, and its inmates were forbidden to enter the city. A convent of Franciscans was founded between 1220 and 1240, and a convent of Dominicans about the same time.

In the early part of the thirteenth century there seems to have been some arrangement of the parochial organization of the city. For in the reign of King John, we learn from the will of Peter de Paterna and Isabel his wife, who bequeathed 1_d._ to each of them, that there were twenty-eight chapels in the city of Exeter. In the year 1222 there was a settlement of the parish churches which were fixed at the number of 19.[577] The names of all these parish churches are found in the list of chapels previously existing, and some of the chapels are not included among the parish churches.[578]

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXETER, FROM G. BRAUN'S URBIUM PRAECIPUARUM MUNDI THEATRUM, LIB. 5, pl. 1. A.D. 1573.]

BRISTOL affords us an example of a town whose ecclesiastical organization grew with the gradual increase of the town, in a way which can be more or less clearly made out. Bristol was a member of the Royal Manor of Barton.

At an early date, probably in Heptarchic times, a town grew up on the peninsula between the river Avon and its tributary the Frome; the existence of silver pennies of Ethelred the Unready, which were coined here, shows that it was at that time a burgh with the usual privilege of a mint. The reader will remember that it was the princ.i.p.al seaport of the western coast, and the princ.i.p.al emporium of the slave-trade in Saxon men, women, and children until Bishop Wulstan succeeded with difficulty in suppressing the nefarious traffic.

The Church of St. Peter is said by tradition to have been the earliest church in Bristol; and there are reasons for thinking that it actually was the church provided by the Crown as lord of the manor for the use of its tenants there. The dedication of St. Werburg indicates that this church was also of Saxon date. The burgh was divided by two main streets, crossing at right angles in the middle of the town; the churches of St.

Ewan, All Saints, and Holy Trinity (or Christ Church), stand in the angles made by the Carfax, and their parishes meet at this point, as though there had been a considerable addition to the population of the burgh, and the cross roads had been made, the parishes marked out, and the three churches built simultaneously.

The Conquest was followed by an age of church-building in Bristol; the Bishop of Coutances built a castle with a chapel, outside the town on the east; new Norman lords rebuilt some of the parish churches. The new church of St. Mary le Port was built by William, Earl of Gloucester, before 1176.

Robert, Earl of Gloucester, founded a Benedictine Priory outside the town, on the north. A little later Robert Fitz-Harding founded a Convent of Augustinian Canons on the other side of the River Frome, west of the town.

A small nunnery was founded in 1173 by Eva, wife of W. Fitz-Harding, who became the first abbess. The first part of the thirteenth century was a time of great religious activity, and now and henceforth the work was done not by royal and n.o.ble founders, but by the zeal of the people themselves.

A Dominican Friary[579] was founded in 1230, just outside the suburb east of the castle; the Carmelites were planted in "the fairest of the houses of the friars" (Leland), where Colston's Hall now stands; the Franciscans in the suburb beyond the Frome on the north-west; and there was a hospital of Bonhommes, now the mayor's chapel.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRISTOL, FROM G. BRAUN'S URBIUM PRAECIPUARUM TOTIUS MUNDI, LIB. III, pl. 2. A.D. 1573.]

In course of time some of these foundations attracted groups of people about them, whose houses grew into suburbs of the town. One suburb grew up around the castle on the south-east, and the spiritual wants of its people were supplied by the building among them of the new church of SS.

Philip and James.[580] Another group of people settled about the priory, on the north, and attended service in the nave of the priory church, until at length the monks separated off the nave from the choir, and abandoned it to the people as their parish church, which still exists. The Austin Canons attracted still another group who formed a suburb on the south-west; and after a while the canons built the Church of St. Augustine the Less for their tenants.[581]

In the reign of Henry III. the townspeople enlarged their limits by enclosing a tract on the south within a new wall. The new s.p.a.ce was gradually filled with streets of houses, and St. Stephen's Church seems to have been built for the use of this new quarter.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bristol Cathedral.]

Bristol grew not only by the enlargement of its own borders, but by the annexation of adjoining districts, which already had their own civil jurisdictions and ecclesiastical organizations. On the other side of the Avon were two districts which had been growing in population and commercial importance. One of these was the estate which Robert, Earl of Gloucester, had given in 1145 to the Knights of the Temple; its parish church was dedicated to the Holy Cross; and there was a house of Austin Friars within the parish. Adjoining the Temple Fee lay the Manor of Redcliff, in Bedminster, belonging to the Fitz-Hardings, with its chapel of St. Thomas, first mentioned in 1232. By the end of the twelfth century Bristol had, after a sort, spread itself over both Temple and Redcliffe, and a charter of 1188 included them in the privileges granted to Bristol.

In 1240 a stone bridge was built which connected the two sides of the river; and a new wall and ditch from one angle of the river to the other (see the plan) enclosed the two districts on the southern side, and bound them by a series of fortifications, continuous with those of the northern side, into one great town. The necessary legal measures incorporated the groups into one borough.

The Bristol merchants were wealthy and magnificent. The great merchant Canynges rebuilt the greater part of the n.o.ble Church of St. Mary Redcliffe; others adorned the town, and added to its religious opportunities by founding chapels for special services; others built hospitals and almshouses; others founded chantries in various churches.

Thus the vill of the Saxon kings, with its one church, grew at last into the great city which at the time of the Reformation possessed the list of ecclesiastical foundations named below with references to the plan.[582]

YORK may well be taken as a typical cathedral town. The high altar of the great Minster Church stood directly over the well in which Edwin the first Christian King of the Northumbrians and his thanes were baptized. The first Norman archbishop rebuilt the church and reorganized its chapter with a dean, precentor, chancellor, and treasurer, 36 prebendaries, and 36 vicars choral. By the end of the fifteenth century the chantries numbered about 60; and 36 chantry priests were incorporated into a community, and lived in St. William's College, which was originally the prebendal house of the Prior of Hexham.

The Benedictine Abbey of St. Mary was founded near the cathedral between 1080 and 1090, and there were two other Benedictine foundations in the city early in the twelfth century, the Priory of Holy Trinity in Micklegate, and the little nunnery of Clementhorpe, and also the Premonstratensian House of St. Andrew.

[Ill.u.s.tration: York Minster--south-west view.]

St. Leonard's Hospital was a grand foundation by Athelstan, after his great northern victory in 936, to enable the cathedral clergy to relieve the needy and maintain hospitality. In 1280 it had an income of nearly 11,000 (perhaps equal to 200,000 of modern money), and had in its infirmary 229 men and women, and in its orphanage 23 boys. In 1293 it gave away every week at the gate 232 loaves and 256 herrings; it distributed every Sunday 33 dinners and 14 gallons of beer, and 8 dinners for lepers, and to every prisoner in the castle (at that time 310) a small loaf. It maintained 26 obits in commemoration of benefactors.

Another hospital, St. Mary Magdalene, was founded by the Dean of York, 1330, for a master, two chaplains, and six infirm or aged priests. There was a hospital for lepers at St. Nicholas, on the Hull Road. All the guilds had small almshouses attached. At the gate of every religious house a daily distribution of gifts to the poor was made. There were many beggars, who were put under charge of four headmen.

It was the princ.i.p.al and most populous city of the north, and in 1377 its population was about 11,000. In the reign of Henry V. there were forty-one parish churches, none of any considerable size, and a large number of chapels. The number of its clergy, regular and secular, was not less than 500.[583]

At the end of the mediaeval period we learn from the "Valor" that few of the inc.u.mbents of the parishes of the city of York had any income besides personal t.i.thes (_i.e._ the Easter dues), and the oblations of the "three days" then customary, and casual oblations; out of which some of them had to pay pensions to the Convent of St. Mary.

_E.g._ the Rector of St. Michael by Ouse Bridge had personal t.i.the 10, and casual oblations 20_s._ = 11; out of which he had to pay a pension to St. Mary's Abbey of 36_s._, for synodals to the archbishop 5_s._ 4_d._, to the archdeacon for procuration 6_s._ 8_d._, leaving him net 8 12_s._ The Rector of St. Cross, Fossgate, had personal t.i.the in Lent time 7 8_s._, casual oblations 6_s._ 8_d._, oblations on the two days customary there, 22_s._--total 8 16_s._ 8_d._, out of which he had to pay 20_s._ to St. Mary's Abbey, 3_s._ 6_d._ synodals, and 6_s._ 8_d._ procuration, leaving clear income of 7 6_s._ 6_d._

IPSWICH in King Edward's time had 538 burgesses; the Church of Holy Trinity, two dedicated to St. Mary, and the Churches of St. Michael, St.

Botolph, St. Lawrence, St. Peter, and St. Stephen are mentioned in Domesday; three of these belonged to priests, and others were in lay patronage; Culling, a burgess, had one of the St. Maries; Lefflet, a freewoman, had St. Lawrence; Roger de Ramis held a church dedicated to St.

George, with four burgesses and six wasted mansions; Aluric, the son of Rolf, a burgess (and also a vavasor, holding lands in Suffolk), had the Church of St. Julian; five burgesses belonged to the Church of St. Peter; Walter the Deacon held five houses and three waste mansions.[584]