THE VILLAGE PRIEST 33
the Mass.1 So the services, the symbolism, the paintings and the
rest were but dim imperfectly apprehended things which years of
use had made part of their being, but which demanded some *
living touch to make their meaning clear to such simple folk.
This touch should have come from the priest, but there can be
no doubt that the medieval priesthood was not fully prepared for
such an undertaking. The cry of Archbishop Peckham, that heads
his constitutions of 1281, "The ignorance of the priests casteth
the people into the ditch of error", is re-echoed centuries later
by Wolsey. Clerical ignorance was widespread throughout the
parishes, and the villager oftentimes could not hope to learn very
much from his priest. Langland's portrait of Sloth the parson,
who knew neither Beatus vir nor Beati omnes, but who rejoiced in
rhymes of Randolph of Chester and Robin Hood, would seem
impossible but for the strictest evidence of the Bishop's Registers
which confirm its main lines in a striking fashion. In many
parishes the priest only stumbled through some homily or sermon
(his own or another's) on the statutory four times a year, and
''left his shepe encombred in the mire" for the rest. In a good
many other instances the evidence suggests neglect even of these
statutory four. With so feeble a guide the villager could not get
far on his quest for Truth, and there is little wonder that his
religion was frequently a thing of "use and wont"—part sincere,
part convention, part pure magic.
Not only this, but, as we have seen, the priest was far from
being the kindly cultured patron of the village such as he has
often shown himself in the past two hundred years. He was
more likely to be a hard-hearted man of business, and frequently
was a stranger brought into the parish, by influence or by his
ecclesiastical superiors, with little in common with his parishioners
except his determination to overcome the difficulties incident
upon medieval agriculture, and his eye for a bargain. As modern
observers in France and Italy have pointed out, the coming of
the priest into a house was often so rare an event that at his
arrival the village at once feared the worst! "E venuto ilprete
sounds like a death-knell to the family."2
1 Myrc, op. cit. 11. 60, 82, 152, etc.
2 L. D. Gordon, Home Life in Italy, 231; cf. N. Sabord, Le Buisson d'fipines,
237, for modern examples, and the stories of J. de Vitry (ed. T. Wright),
77, no, for medieval feeling on this matter.