328 THE CHURCH
by the Dean of Sarum, in 1222, of the clergy of Sonning and the
neighbourhood, in which he found that five of the clergy serving
some seventeen parishes were unable to construe the central
portion of the service of the Mass. The curate of Sonning, who
had been a priest for four years, was unable to understand the
gospel for the First Sunday in Lent, and could not construe the
fkst words of the Canon of the Mass, nor could he tell the dif-
ference between one antiphon and another. Another curate, who
had been priested four years previously, was reported as knowing
nothing of reading or singing. Another could give no answer to
simple questions; and the next examined is reported as knowing
nothing.1
It was to men such as these that the peasant turned, perforce,
in his time of need. Sometimes he was lucky, and found a man
as humane and clear as to his pastoral duties as was Chaucer's
parson; sometimes he was unlucky, and had a man as weak and
idle as those pilloried in the visitations, or in Langland or Gower.
But, good or bad, their help was limited, for they had had no
systematic training in theology or pastoral duties, and could offer
little more than sympathy and an imperfect exposition of the
mysteries of the Faith. Even the simple eloquence of many a
latter-day preacher in his weekly sermon was not theirs, for ser-
mons were far from frequent, and the ordinary priest but little
skilled in preaching. He was, indeed, ordered to deliver fooir
sermons a year by Archbishop Peckham, and in the thirteenth
century we find frequent sermons advocated. But sermon
making was an art beyond the ordinary priest: he left that to
those trained rhetoricians—the friars; and, for his own part,
endeavoured to explain the tenets of the Faith, and to give
elementary instruction to his parishioners. This was, however,
all very elementary, and his own limited intelligence and reading
were reflected in his teaching. The best he could do was to
administer the sacraments and to conduct the services in an
orderly and decent manner.
The fact that he, himself, was frequently of peasant stock
made him the more capable of understanding his parishioner's
point of view. What would have been sheer heresy or gross
superstition to a better informed man was frequently part of his
1 Reg. S. Osmund (R.S.), I,