RELIGIOUS LIFE 59

and shoes, and 1000 white loaves of bread, to be
made among the poor and needy. The bequests to
relatives and directions to the Executors occupy
a large part of the Will, which is that of a particularly
wealthy and important citizen. Charity, however,
was a marked characteristic of these men who had
become rich through trade. With a generous
spirit they put into practice the teachings about
giving to the poor and to prisoners. The amount
of money spent in founding chantries, in paying
priests for masses for the departed, testifies to their
faith.

It was part of the policy of the Church to keep
the instruction of the people, young and old, in its
own control. Practically all the educational work
in York during the century was the work of the
Church.

Through the monasteries and hospitals the
Church did valuable work in feeding the poor,
helping the needy, and in educating the poorer
citizens' boys. The royal Hospital of St. Leonard
did such work. It was a peculiar institution, being
under the authority of the King, and containing a
sisterhood as well as a brotherhood. It included
a grammar school and^ a song-school. As an
institution it was self-supporting; food was made
on the premises, and the carpenters' and similar work
was done by brethren in the Hospital's own work-
shops.

The large number of priests were variously
employed. There were priests who officiated in
the monastic churches, in the parish churches (as
rectors and chaplains, of whom there were 300 in
York in 1436), in the cathedral where the number
of chantry-chapels was very great and where services
were held simultaneously as well as frequently.