THE PEASANT-PRIEST 329
own intellectual make-up, and he therefore kept a closer contact
with his flock than a more erudite but less sympathetic mind
would have done. It is of the greatest importance that we should
emphasise this identity of interests: indeed, it has remained a
strength (despite its many drawbacks) of the Catholic Church
until to-day. The ample priest, with his soiled soutane and
heavy boots, who clambers into the local French autobus, and after
greeting most of the passengers settles down in happy converse
with them en route to their village, is the modern descendant of
most medieval parish priests. No one can view such a group
without realising that there is some close relation between such
people which the parson of the average English country parish,
drawn as he is from a different social status and educated at the
university and clergy school, will not easily achieve.
Were there no more to be said, we might be inclined to feel
that on balance the peasant-priest was the right man in the right
place. But, unfortunately, there is more in it than this; the priest
must live, and, as we have seen, his stipend was not a princely
one. Certainly it put him on a level with the largest holders in the
fields, but often no more than this, and it must be remembered
that his salary had to support not only himself, but sometimes one
or more clerics who assisted him, as well as a "hearth-mate"—a
frequent inhabitant of clerical homes, even though Canon Law
ar±£l Church discipline refused her the title of wife. In conse-
quence, many incumbents found it impossible to exist solely on
their ecclesiastical income, and were therefore forced to partici-
pate in worldly matters, which in general meant agriculture.
Indeed, practically all had a certain amount of land, called
glebe, assigned to them in the manor by virtue of their office.
This glebe land was at times scattered over the common fields,
and at other times was consolidated in blocks or closes, and the
parson cultivated it himself, or let it out to others. These
"Church furlongs" or "parson's closes" forced the clerics to
take part in the agricultural life of the village, and many, for
economic reasons, were obliged to go further than this, and to
engage in the common agricultural routine and organisation of
the open-field system. In stepping down in this way into the
area of everyday affairs they lost something by way of prestige,
and were drawn into economic and petty quarrels of a most